[3.9] Pure Phys Skeletons & Friends Necromancer — Beginner/SSF/Budget Build

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Last edited by ConsPark on Jan 3, 2019, 1:44:28 PM
I wanted to say thanks for the build, especially because after some 5,000+ hours in PoE since closed beta I finally felt comfortable enough with a build (this one) to push endgame and kill Chimera twice deathless and Phoenix once with one death both for the first time ever. I plan to take on Minotaur and Hydra sometime this week and maybe even score my first Shaper kill soon, but I think my gear needs a final polishing first:



I'm thinking the belt needs an upgrade, at which point I can forgo some resistances on the chest to find a new one with a mod slot for +1 skelly. I could stand to get better gloves as well. Frankly everything could stand to be a little better. I know the CWDT for Stone Golem is screwed up. Right now I'm at 4.9k life and 1800 unreserved mana (I run Clarity) at level 89.

Speaking of that, where the hell do you get the +1 skelly recipe? I keep googling this to no avail. I guessed maybe it's still literally a Catarina mod and it's from the mastermind fight but that doesn't make sense long-term past this league.
Last edited by ConsPark on Jan 3, 2019, 2:07:59 AM
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ConsPark wrote:


Speaking of that, where the hell do you get the +1 skelly recipe? I keep googling this to no avail. I guessed maybe it's still literally a Catarina mod and it's from the mastermind fight but that doesn't make sense long-term past this league.


I got mine from a random syndicate encounter that dropped a veiled item. I guess its rng on finding them on veiled body armour or helmets.
I used this guide to make my first character of 3.x, and I have to say that it's is absolutely fantastic and quite likely the strongest build I've yet played. It's an excellent league starter and it scales well too - the only gear I bought while levelling was the Violent Dead jewels plus a cheap minion taunt ghastly eye, and I was able to get to T11-12 maps with an investment of about 60c.

The character is now almost done; I can speed through rippy T16 maps without too many issues and the only boss that's given me serious problems is Uber Elder, and that's more my unfamiliarity with the fight than anything else. I've an in-depth rundown of my gear in the spoiler below, but mostly I'd like to say thanks to Viperesque for a really great guide!

E: Uber Elder finally down, dropped the CoH in the boots for Kaom's Roots which helped a lot. Magna Eclipsis wasn't that useful, the extra 1.5k+ life made less difference than you'd think and the loss of damage from Victario's made the phase transitions too slow to cope with all the crap on the ground.

Spoiler

Belly gives ~2% more effective life than Cloak of Defiance, although this is so close that it will depend on the rest of the gear you're wearing as Belly needs a lot of life to scale well. Loreweave and Vis Mortis are well behind and not really worth considering for this build.


The 90-95% minion damage prefix is expensive but it's mandatory for good lategame clearspeed, also the crafted minion attack speed mod helps a lot.


I'll likely replace this with a Magna Eclipsis and spec out of Necromantic Aegis for Uber Elder to give myself a bit more tankiness. I've chosen to keep Faster Attacks at 15 to lower the dex requirement for the build to 98.


The open prefix to craft +1 zombies & skellies plus the extra life and resist are IMO more valuable than the ~20% extra minion damage and super-powered zombies that an Elder bone helm would offer. Also, this was a fraction of the price.


Minion damage enchant helps here, and Commandment of the Grave adds ~29kdps per raging spirit which is a nice boost to clearspeed.


I switched out of Alberon's for T12+, the extra skelly just isn't worth the lack of life and resists. I also run a level 3 Clarity as it gives the best return for the mana invested and store my Ruthless/Melee Splash support in the spare red slot as I'm lazy.


Standard stuff here, the minion speed rings seem to be a lot cheaper and more available than the amulets. I may upgrade the belt to a Stygian Vise if I can get one for a good price, not worth it otherwise.


I haven't been able to find a good minion speed amulet for any reasonable price so I'm using one without. It doesn't seem to make a huge amount of difference as the zombies are generally speedy enough with Flesh Offering and gem quality, and the skellies are cast directly beside any mobs and immediately attack.


Expensive but very worthwhile as it gives a load of life and mana plus it frees up the skillpoints that allow you to spec into Devotion and Sanctity for a load of extra life, armour and life regen.


You need two of these for the clearspeed that the zombies' slam provides, they can detonate T16 blue packs in a second or two on their own.


The last major upgrade I'll make is switch this out for another ghastly eye with minion physical damage on it instead of dex for around 3% dps.
Last edited by surferrosa0 on Jan 6, 2019, 11:42:12 AM
Seems like the Dread Banner might be a decent addition to this build as it's all physical damage.
Could someone take a look and let me know what to upgrade struggling with tier 10 right now

+immortal syndicate 1 shot me ? what can i do
5.5k life 2.2k mana 120+ all res but chaos

not sure what im doing wrong
Why are you getting one shot by syndicate? Partly because they are overpowered for the levels they are at. I can kill shaper deathless but they still get me if they are on a map with bad mods.

As far as your set-up your CWDT and phase run are leveled way too high. You want them going off if almost ANY damage hits you. Then you have time to act. I run CWDT at 2 and phase run at 4. You probably are not getting one shot as much as dying to two medium/large hits back to back.

Gear wise, go buy a 20-23% quality vaal skelly. The rest of your skelly and zombie support gems really benefit from higher quality also. That helmet is also not good. A bone helmet corrupted out of the minion damage is worthless. Get a bone helmet with plus 2-3 minion gems and minion damage or an elder with minion life and minion damage.

I would also not use To Dust until you are ready to push content. Go with plus life and mana instead. You do no dps if you are dead.

I'm sure other might have additional suggestions but that is what stood out to me.
Been following this build and really enjoying it! I am just wondering if it would be beneficial to switch to a staff for extra damage? Then use flame dash or lightning warp for mobility? Anyone tried this?
Yes I am wondering about this too

What would be better? Pledge of hands or a 135% increase minion damage 2H?
I was just wondering your opinion on using this build with Grip of the Council and Elemental Equilibrium? Obviously, this would alter it from pure phys, but using the identical build with this one alteration seems like it would boost total damage output immensely for a small cost and one skill point. Any thoughts?

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