GhazzyTV - Beginner's Build: Lich Queen Skeleton Summoner [AWAKENER FARMABLE]

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Chridian wrote:

I'm about to do merc lab, Should I not use Animate guardian in lab, I'm concerned about the traps and all that annoying stuff that could kill it.

Your guardian is going to be a bit squishy in traps. Mine got down to half health in either merciless or uber lab due to spike trap / saw combination. I would keep him unsummoned while running the rooms if you want to be on the safe side. Skeletons + spectres should wreck izaro pretty fast.

Ghazzy, cheers mate, thanks for the guidelines. Thoroughly enjoying it!

Got a question for you or any other experienced summoners around relating towards the higher end gearing. I've knocked Red-Elder into the dirt so now the sight is set on Shaper, Uber-Atziri and Uber-Elder.

A day or so ago I got my hands on a Elder Bone Helmet with 18 Minion Damage and 18 Immolate(probably should have been Burning Damage for Tuko's & bossing but I currently run Solars). With that I swapped from a 6-link rare chest into a 5-link Vis Mortis for skellies(currently trying to 6-link another one to get my skellies 6-link back). The Spectre helmet is more the conundrum.

What would you recommend to run in terms of gems for my Solar Guards in the Helmet? First instinct was Raise Spectre w/ GMP, Controlled Destruction and Spell Echo. Add onto that 18 Minion Damage and 18 Immolate from the actual helmet. Thoughts?

Also, since the Spectre's now inhabit a Pseudo-6-link. Is it worth considering Anger or Haste to give benefit to both Skeletons or Spectres? Spectres seem to make PoB'ing it very obscure.

Hello @Ghazzy I had a few questions on why I am having troubles with your build.

- I am feeling super squishy. Someone suggested I try grace (even though you don't use it in your guide). Especially those guys critters that throw the spines, got one shot by one yesterday in uber lab. Which hasn't happened on a character in ... I don't even remember lol.

- I can't seem to keep my zombies / animated guardian and even my spectres at times engaged in boss fights. The skeletons, np. Everything else always wants to follow me as soon I take one step away from the boss. Like I feel I need to be standing on top of the boss to get my minions to do their job ya know?

- Should I be using the baron? I don't have 1000 str and with the way the zombies AI works (or rather doesn't) I'm not sure trying to get 1000str for 2% leech is worth it.

- I feel like mage skeletons might not be worth it, should I just be using melee skeles so I can stack as many as I can?

Cheers

"

Hello @Ghazzy I had a few questions on why I am having troubles with your build.

- I am feeling super squishy. Someone suggested I try grace (even though you don't use it in your guide). Especially those guys critters that throw the spines, got one shot by one yesterday in uber lab. Which hasn't happened on a character in ... I don't even remember lol.

- I can't seem to keep my zombies / animated guardian and even my spectres at times engaged in boss fights. The skeletons, np. Everything else always wants to follow me as soon I take one step away from the boss. Like I feel I need to be standing on top of the boss to get my minions to do their job ya know?

- Should I be using the baron? I don't have 1000 str and with the way the zombies AI works (or rather doesn't) I'm not sure trying to get 1000str for 2% leech is worth it.

- I feel like mage skeletons might not be worth it, should I just be using melee skeles so I can stack as many as I can?

Cheers

Hey man, not Ghazzy but might be able to atleast answer some of your questions.

1. You're running Necromantic Aegis, the clearspeed provided by this node coupled with Victario's Charity is marginal at best and i personally felt like my beefiness skyrocketed after unspeccing the node.

2. Zombies are, at some point or another, no more than meatshields. I personally don't even summon Zombies anymore most of the time because they don't do much for me but the AI for both Zombies and Spectres is historically..lackluster.

3. The Baron is just a different approach you COULD take with this build but it is honestly sort of irrelevant for this particular build imho, getting a good Elder-Helmet with +2 minion gems and lvl 20 minion damage will probably do alot more for you if you socket your spectres into it.

4. I'd personally advise against running mages tbh, the melee skeletons are so insanely strong that it just doesn't seem worth it. As Ghazzy says in the guide, melee skellies are better at bosskilling than tuko's and solars are better at clearing than mage skellies.

Ghazzy, great guide! I'm not really following it with my character, but I've read through all the pages and got some great inspirations from you and some of the other posters for my own skeleton build.

I decided to go Blood Magic and pure physical skeletons in a Femur of the Saints with zombies and spectres only providing support. 1 Carnage Chieftain and 1 Host Chieftain for Frenzy and Power charges, 10 Zombies (8 currently) as a meatshield and Maim provider and 12 skeletons providing all the damage. Easiest time I've ever had leveling to maps. Each Kitava phase was down in less than half a second after the animations ended on only a 4 link Femur.

It's not as fast of a mapper as your build since I don't have shield charge or clearing oriented spectres, but it goes at a fast enough pace for me. I like to take my time and pick things up on the go.

Currently level 72 and working on my finalized gear. By level 80 I should be at about 2.7mil Shaper DPS and 5K life with only level 19/0 gems in POB. Final level 90 tree with 20/20 gems would be about 3.5mil Shaper DPS and 6.5k life.

I've changed enough from your guide that I could probably write my own guide if I had the time. Any further changes or tips you can see that would be beneficial for the idea I'm going with?

https://pastebin.com/m5EcbEzm

Hey Ghazzy,

Thanks for this build guide as well, this is your 3rd guide from you I follow this league and I managed to obtain a quite decent gear.

Spectres I'm using are solar guards.

Could you please help me decide if it is worth to get 4B colours on my helmet?

According to vorici calc it will take 1.3k chrome using the 3B craft that is why I'm asking.
Current setup: RS+Echo+GMP+contrdestr

Would this setup be much better? RS+Echo+Elefocus+contrdestr

Thanks so much,
Dave

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slooock wrote:

Hey,
thank you for this build I'm just here to show my attemp for this build with skeleton mages for clearing and TVs for boss killing. Doing very nice so for. Charakter name Lilhly. What should I upgrade next?

Hey,

Everything is looking super solid.
Only thing you could upgrade except higher lvl & more jewels is to get a Stygian Vise for an additional jewel :P

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Chridian wrote:

Okay, I really appologize but I watched the video and I've been reading the guide through and through but I wanted to see if I got this right, Melee skeletons, are better boss dmg, worse clearing, mages are opposite, however, melee are better at clearing, than mages are at boss damage?
I've never been one to worry about clearspeed, its not my style to speed through I like to take my time to pick stuff up, so I am leveling the melee skellies way currently.
Also, I should wait til after merc lab before I start using skeletons, isnt that kinda... boring? To level all that time with srs or is it ok?

Hey,

Never apologize for asking questions in my threads/discord/stream/youtube. I do my best to answer each and everyone to the best of my ability, and if I need to elaborate something, let me know!

So, to elaborate:

Clear speed minions:
Solar Guards and Mage Skellies. (Solar Guards are better)
Boss kill minions:
TV's and Melee Skellies. (Melee skellies are better)

This makes me say that the most efficient version of this build is to run Melee Skellies with Solar Guards :)

SRS is alright but I kind of like rushing Soul Weaver to get spectres are they are more fun and faster.

"

SnatchAdams wrote:

Thanks for the response but I feel as if I am missing something. It also made me think of a couple more questions. I know you suggest brightbeak but that isn't an option for me since I play on xbox. Faster shield charge = more desync and a signed death warrant.

When I put your high budget build into PoB and compared a scourge to a severed in sleep, scourge still came out as more dps. Am I doing something wrong? Is PoB accounting for the poison damage from severed or the 70% minion damage from scourge? Is the poison damage from severed beat 40% more minion damage and 15% att spd from scourge?


I thought about getting united in dream, dropping aspect of the avian, and running the envy buff instead with hatred. Would this be a significant damage increase? I could pick up some reduced mana reserved and have enough mana.

Thanks again, I appreciate the responses.

Anytime bro!

It depends on your setup. Scourge claw would most likely be more ideal as it's also a bit faster for smoother mobility. Not sure how it'll affect you desync wise on Xbox though :/

I would personally not run Envy with this build, no.

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MaGxxGaM wrote:

Alright, what would be the perfect helmet for a SG set-up, really been liking it alot, that i sold my full RF to learn the summoners way :P

no budget for real, summoners are dirt cheap and efficient !


also, are those the BIS joolz with 3 mods ? sniped them pretty cheap last night

45+ life / 20% increased damamge minion / 7 attack speed when a kill happen or whatever


Helmet idea:

for SG ofc, 20 minion damage / 20 conc effect on a bone helmet ? would that be the best helmet possible ?

Hey,

Awesome! :)

BiS SG helmet:
Minion dmg, Conc effect + the socketed gems deal more elemental dmg (essence crafted). (In order of efficiency)

BiS mods from abyssal jewels:
Flat Life > %min dmg when youve used a min skill recenetly > attack speed for minions.

"

aggrophobik wrote:

Loving the build thus far, but I'm finding the guide to be somewhat confusing. I think I'm doing a fair enough job sorting it out as I go tho. I was wondering if anyone w/ experience might take a look at my current setup and let me know if I'm headed in the right direction?

I just picked up my second ascendancy (Bone Sculptor) and find that I'm not even needing SRS anymore. Is it time to switch to Spectres, or is that only viable after picking up Soul Weaver? Any input or advice would be greatly appreciated, and thanks for taking the time to share the build and guide. (Sorry for any horribly noobish questions, fairly new player)

Only switch to spectres when you've specced Soul Weaver (Ascendancy node). You can go bone Sculptor as your second and ignore using SRS if you prefer :)

And I'll repeat myself:
Never apologize for asking questions in my threads/stream/discord/youtube, I do my best to answer each and everyone to the best of my ability!

Remove your Violent Dead Jewel on the far left side. Get an Unending Hunger instead.
Since you are not wearing the Baron helmet you don't need to worry about strength stacking, so remove the Brawn Jewel (north of the witch starter area) and get either a rare abyssal jewel as the guide describes preferably with Flat Life & %minion dmg when you've used a minion skill recently (flesh offering works for this).

I'd recommend switching your amulet for a rare one with life & res maybe dexterity to help dex needs.
See if you can change your sockets around to get "Generosity" linked with Hatred to augment that aura for the skellies.

I also recommend getting a Quicksilver flask for faster moving & shield charging :)

Since you no longer are using SRS, you can remove the 3 duration nodes in the middle of the tree.

Besides this the life looks rather low on some of your gear pieces, belt can be improved by getting a rare stygian vise with life & res as well as giving you another abyssal jewel slot.

"

Chridian wrote:

I'm about to do merc lab, Should I not use Animate guardian in lab, I'm concerned about the traps and all that annoying stuff that could kill it.

Basically, if he's not lvl 18+ he's always in a risk of dying.
If you're doing content you don't feel confident that he will manage, "desummon" him (just unequip the gem and requip it but dont resummon him) for those maps/bosses.

"

Ghazzy, cheers mate, thanks for the guidelines. Thoroughly enjoying it!

Got a question for you or any other experienced summoners around relating towards the higher end gearing. I've knocked Red-Elder into the dirt so now the sight is set on Shaper, Uber-Atziri and Uber-Elder.

A day or so ago I got my hands on a Elder Bone Helmet with 18 Minion Damage and 18 Immolate(probably should have been Burning Damage for Tuko's & bossing but I currently run Solars). With that I swapped from a 6-link rare chest into a 5-link Vis Mortis for skellies(currently trying to 6-link another one to get my skellies 6-link back). The Spectre helmet is more the conundrum.

What would you recommend to run in terms of gems for my Solar Guards in the Helmet? First instinct was Raise Spectre w/ GMP, Controlled Destruction and Spell Echo. Add onto that 18 Minion Damage and 18 Immolate from the actual helmet. Thoughts?

Also, since the Spectre's now inhabit a Pseudo-6-link. Is it worth considering Anger or Haste to give benefit to both Skeletons or Spectres? Spectres seem to make PoB'ing it very obscure.

Hey,

My pleasure bro, glad you're enjoying it!

Hatred is still your to-go-to choice for auras when using melee skellies. It's too strong to give up on.

Regarding the helmet I'd just remove Ele focus like you stated and run with the Cont destru instead.

"

DoomHammer_Zozobra wrote:

"

Hello @Ghazzy I had a few questions on why I am having troubles with your build.

- I am feeling super squishy. Someone suggested I try grace (even though you don't use it in your guide). Especially those guys critters that throw the spines, got one shot by one yesterday in uber lab. Which hasn't happened on a character in ... I don't even remember lol.

- I can't seem to keep my zombies / animated guardian and even my spectres at times engaged in boss fights. The skeletons, np. Everything else always wants to follow me as soon I take one step away from the boss. Like I feel I need to be standing on top of the boss to get my minions to do their job ya know?

- Should I be using the baron? I don't have 1000 str and with the way the zombies AI works (or rather doesn't) I'm not sure trying to get 1000str for 2% leech is worth it.

- I feel like mage skeletons might not be worth it, should I just be using melee skeles so I can stack as many as I can?

Cheers

Hey man, not Ghazzy but might be able to atleast answer some of your questions.

1. You're running Necromantic Aegis, the clearspeed provided by this node coupled with Victario's Charity is marginal at best and i personally felt like my beefiness skyrocketed after unspeccing the node.

2. Zombies are, at some point or another, no more than meatshields. I personally don't even summon Zombies anymore most of the time because they don't do much for me but the AI for both Zombies and Spectres is historically..lackluster.

3. The Baron is just a different approach you COULD take with this build but it is honestly sort of irrelevant for this particular build imho, getting a good Elder-Helmet with +2 minion gems and lvl 20 minion damage will probably do alot more for you if you socket your spectres into it.

4. I'd personally advise against running mages tbh, the melee skeletons are so insanely strong that it just doesn't seem worth it. As Ghazzy says in the guide, melee skellies are better at bosskilling than tuko's and solars are better at clearing than mage skellies.

Pretty much what was said here.

Regarding mages vs melee:

Mages are a nice & niche approach whilst melees are simply stronger & more efficient.

"

stoudtlr wrote:

Ghazzy, great guide! I'm not really following it with my character, but I've read through all the pages and got some great inspirations from you and some of the other posters for my own skeleton build.

I decided to go Blood Magic and pure physical skeletons in a Femur of the Saints with zombies and spectres only providing support. 1 Carnage Chieftain and 1 Host Chieftain for Frenzy and Power charges, 10 Zombies (8 currently) as a meatshield and Maim provider and 12 skeletons providing all the damage. Easiest time I've ever had leveling to maps. Each Kitava phase was down in less than half a second after the animations ended on only a 4 link Femur.

It's not as fast of a mapper as your build since I don't have shield charge or clearing oriented spectres, but it goes at a fast enough pace for me. I like to take my time and pick things up on the go.

Currently level 72 and working on my finalized gear. By level 80 I should be at about 2.7mil Shaper DPS and 5K life with only level 19/0 gems in POB. Final level 90 tree with 20/20 gems would be about 3.5mil Shaper DPS and 6.5k life.

I've changed enough from your guide that I could probably write my own guide if I had the time. Any further changes or tips you can see that would be beneficial for the idea I'm going with?

https://pastebin.com/m5EcbEzm

Hey,

Cheers! Glad to hear you found use of it! :)

I personally don't find Zombies very appealing more than that I want them to get better (PLES GGG BUFF!). The use of a 2h weapon for this build shouldn't be needed, but hey, if it fits your playstyle better then go for it!

"

DaveNotDave wrote:

Hey Ghazzy,

Thanks for this build guide as well, this is your 3rd guide from you I follow this league and I managed to obtain a quite decent gear.

Spectres I'm using are solar guards.

Could you please help me decide if it is worth to get 4B colours on my helmet?

According to vorici calc it will take 1.3k chrome using the 3B craft that is why I'm asking.
Current setup: RS+Echo+GMP+contrdestr

Would this setup be much better? RS+Echo+Elefocus+contrdestr

Thanks so much,
Dave

Hey,

My pleasure bro :)

GMP is a matter of taste, I opted out of it for higher tier clearing eventually but the difference is very small once you get higher lvl spectres tbh.

Your current setup is what I would use. Also, if Vorici calc says it costs that much to chrome I'd suggest you watch this video which I believe is in the guide as well: https://youtu.be/NE-DX_5uIe0

"

DaveNotDave wrote:

Hey Ghazzy,

Thanks for this build guide as well, this is your 3rd guide from you I follow this league and I managed to obtain a quite decent gear.

Spectres I'm using are solar guards.

Could you please help me decide if it is worth to get 4B colours on my helmet?

According to vorici calc it will take 1.3k chrome using the 3B craft that is why I'm asking.
Current setup: RS+Echo+GMP+contrdestr

Would this setup be much better? RS+Echo+Elefocus+contrdestr

Thanks so much,
Dave

Quick word of advice.... If you are going to craft some crazy off color gear, use Vorici jeweller's method instead to get your sockets. I have been running off color builds for three leagues now because of how much currency it saves me in rolling the sockets. Here is a quick guide on using jewellers for off color sockets: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0kXPc8IomRI

I just finished this beauty up for a build I have in development:


Without Vorici sockets, there is no way I could have made it work without spending unreasonable amounts of currency. (White sockets aside, I would have crafted it with Vorici sockets any way because the build is 6 off color.) If it works out, the character for this piece of gear will actually be my first build I publish. If not, at least I can reuse the QoTF for something else.

"

SnatchAdams wrote:

Thanks for the response but I feel as if I am missing something. It also made me think of a couple more questions. I know you suggest brightbeak but that isn't an option for me since I play on xbox. Faster shield charge = more desync and a signed death warrant.

When I put your high budget build into PoB and compared a scourge to a severed in sleep, scourge still came out as more dps. Am I doing something wrong? Is PoB accounting for the poison damage from severed or the 70% minion damage from scourge? Is the poison damage from severed beat 40% more minion damage and 15% att spd from scourge?


I thought about getting united in dream, dropping aspect of the avian, and running the envy buff instead with hatred. Would this be a significant damage increase? I could pick up some reduced mana reserved and have enough mana.

Thanks again, I appreciate the responses.

Out of curiosity, how have you managed to find jewels for this build? I'm also playing on Xbox. I *love* the build... absolutely having a blast, but I'm definitely no where near optimal due to playing on Xbox barely differing from SSF. I've had some minimal luck on the trading board there to at least get a brightbeak and a Baron early, which moved the game along a lot faster, but otherwise, I've had to luck into finding all my own gear at this point.



On a quasi-related note, I'm having a hard time getting a 6L endgame armor on Xbox right now as well, what few are out there are either outrageously priced or no one responds. I have managed to find a Tabula, but I'm super squishy right now... part of that is because I've prioritized pretty much every node other than the numerous 5%hp, so I know that will get better over the next few levels (84 right now), but for now at least, just trying to maximize my viability.

Would I be better off to run a 5L better chestpiece (I had a Kingsguard drop which I've 5L'd and was able to quickly chrome to 2B3R - no real advantage to it other than high armor and ES with decent life... still going to be stuck using some jewel slots on resistances for a bit) or stick with the Tabula?


Also, I'm super pleased with the melee skellies... they pretty much melt faces even with my suboptimal build progress. I would +1 what one of the other posters mentioned around zombies and spectres having atrocious AI... When my SG's decide to target things, they melt hard... but they do often just wander around aimlessly while my skellies do all the work. I've managed to summon them up to level 74 from one of my most recent maps. One question though and this may have been answered in a video, but for summoning purposes (they're not dying now that I have the ascendancy, but I'm upgrading them as I move up map tiers), do you guys pull the spell echo gem out or am I missing something? On Xbox, targeting of corpses is janky anyways, but if I run spell echo, I inevitably get *maybe* my solar guard + something I don't want... logically I just pulled the gem out until I've got them, but just wanted to make sure I'm not just totally missing something obvious.


Last question, how do you guys manage to complete most of Vorici's quests with this build? He's only at level 3 for me and when I try to accept his missions, inevitably, my minions kill all when they're supposed to leave one... quite often, it's the first kill they even make. Not a huge deal as I'll probably just look to level him up with a different character, but again, just wondering if I'm missing something or if this may just not be the optimal character to try and do most of his quests?

Thanks Ghazzy and everyone for all the info, I only started mid-March, but really enjoying this. I was an avid D2 fan, but these days really only play games on console. PoE has been a welcome relief from FPS games with friends and really enjoying this build!

"

hashfr4gd wrote:

Out of curiosity, how have you managed to find jewels for this build? I'm also playing on Xbox. I *love* the build... absolutely having a blast, but I'm definitely no where near optimal due to playing on Xbox barely differing from SSF. I've had some minimal luck on the trading board there to at least get a brightbeak and a Baron early, which moved the game along a lot faster, but otherwise, I've had to luck into finding all my own gear at this point.

I have crafted all of my jewels for this build. Usually I spam alterations until I get double T1 of stats I would not mind having and then I regal to try and get a 3rd stat that is nice to have. Look up the T1 reqs for the affixes you want and then look to just buy any appropriate ilvl ghastly jewel that can roll those tiers and use it as a crafting base.

"

hashfr4gd wrote:

On a quasi-related note, I'm having a hard time getting a 6L endgame armor on Xbox right now as well, what few are out there are either outrageously priced or no one responds. I have managed to find a Tabula, but I'm super squishy right now... part of that is because I've prioritized pretty much every node other than the numerous 5%hp, so I know that will get better over the next few levels (84 right now), but for now at least, just trying to maximize my viability.

Would I be better off to run a 5L better chestpiece (I had a Kingsguard drop which I've 5L'd and was able to quickly chrome to 2B3R - no real advantage to it other than high armor and ES with decent life... still going to be stuck using some jewel slots on resistances for a bit) or stick with the Tabula?

I leveled on a Tabula and early maps started to feel really squishy when I was under leveled. You might consider a rare 5L (how are rare 6Ls on xbox?) and take out Multistrike. You will take a big hit to your Skeleton DPS but 10 melee skeletons and 3 Solar Guards should still do over 1mill DPS even with 5L. I was lucky and had a beast craft4ed 6L that I could use while I am waiting to 6L my Vis Mortis. Simple thing to do is run a map or two with a 5L setup and see if the damage is acceptable to you.

Ultimately, the biggest challenge with this build is you get hit a lot. Damage reduction with an armor base and properly rolled flasks will help but eventually you just need the eHP pool to tank damage. Also, I used Seething flasks for the instant heal when my eHP was under 6k and I was still learning the build.

"

hashfr4gd wrote:

Also, I'm super pleased with the melee skellies... they pretty much melt faces even with my suboptimal build progress. I would +1 what one of the other posters mentioned around zombies and spectres having atrocious AI... When my SG's decide to target things, they melt hard... but they do often just wander around aimlessly while my skellies do all the work. I've managed to summon them up to level 74 from one of my most recent maps. One question though and this may have been answered in a video, but for summoning purposes (they're not dying now that I have the ascendancy, but I'm upgrading them as I move up map tiers), do you guys pull the spell echo gem out or am I missing something? On Xbox, targeting of corpses is janky anyways, but if I run spell echo, I inevitably get *maybe* my solar guard + something I don't want... logically I just pulled the gem out until I've got them, but just wanted to make sure I'm not just totally missing something obvious.

Spectre and zombie AI is poor. I find they tend to focus on areas I cast or move to so I will summon skeletons to the area I want them to attack. Always pull the spell echo out when resummoning your spectres to a higher level. Put the gem back in once you get your higher level spectres raised.

"

hashfr4gd wrote:

Last question, how do you guys manage to complete most of Vorici's quests with this build? He's only at level 3 for me and when I try to accept his missions, inevitably, my minions kill all when they're supposed to leave one... quite often, it's the first kill they even make. Not a huge deal as I'll probably just look to level him up with a different character, but again, just wondering if I'm missing something or if this may just not be the optimal character to try and do most of his quests?

Good luck doing Vorici as a summoner. Your best option is to try and snag free Vorici dailies from global 820 chat to level up and then do rotas around Vorici 5/6 (I assume you can do this on xbox). Summoners just nuke everything and you have no control. So the only way to do Vorici is get a party that can control their damage and you hang way back so your minions don't aggro unless it is a simple kill mission.