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

I am using this build playing HC and love it!

One note on leveling:

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- Level 1 through 8 is fire trap freeze pulse

Fire Trap is a lvl 12 gem, with freeze pulse available upon reaching town.

So I went with the Twilight Strand two gems fireball/arcane w/ Raise Zombie and Freezing Pulse for a witch.

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Reanmachine wrote:

Hi, you mention From dust is used to summon 3 skeletons, but i can't find it in the PoB link, i only see 3 To Dust and 2 Violent Dead.

It's only used while levelling (if you want to use Skeletons at early levels). Once you finish cruel Labyrinth it's not needed.

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SlayerMandrake wrote:

I am using this build playing HC and love it!

One note on leveling:

"

- Level 1 through 8 is fire trap freeze pulse

Fire Trap is a lvl 12 gem, with freeze pulse available upon reaching town.

So I went with the Twilight Strand two gems fireball/arcane w/ Raise Zombie and Freezing Pulse for a witch.

Whoops, forgot that changed. Fixed, thanks.

Hi, using this build, used it in flashback so this is my 2nd time through it.

in Flash back I followed it closely including the points down to warrior's blood and the regen nearby, using the Scourge once I could get it.

I had no problem with it, and I've had no problem with this league either, just to t1 maps now though.

I made a few changes this 2nd run through just to try some things. I'm not sure if I broke it entirely (it doesn't feel broken yet but that can happen), if there's something that could be breaking it a bit, or something else I should think of along these lines.

Where I am now.

https://pastebin.com/ymWnDtPT

I dont think this has any changes versus your build besides not being complete. MOM isn't picked up yet and the path to Warriors Blood. Oh I took the points I just put into MOM into Hired Killer, seemed like an obvious place to put the points for now at least.

My thought is to continue using a wand and have haste aura instead of clarity. Since haste uses 50% mana it's hard to justify MOM without giving up haste. I'm using Victario's Charity with necromantic aegis, that is great.

I had no problem with MOM during flashback I got a Lavianga's and it was perfectly fine. But the haste aura actually makes everything a lot more snappy, that's the part which I like about what I have now.

I think from here, instead of going to warrior's blood, I want to do something like,

* 1 - Combat Stamina looks pretty good to pick up some regen and another 5% life node, right there
* 2 - Devotion would be nice to get, it costs 5 points and gives 14% life, 20 str, and 3% more haste
* 3 - Blood Siphon would be ok, costs 5 points and gives 15% life, 20 str, or 6 points for 20% life.. Trickery seems like a dead node in this case but maybe not a huge problem
* 4 - Written in Blood, 6 points gets 20% life and 10 str, and 25% ES for what it's worth
* 4.b - back to scourge, this opens Claws of the Falcon for 3 points.

At 4.b I don't think Claws of the Falcon can bring this build back to the Scourge, that's where it could become a broken build if it hasn't already. But I dunno curious what you think.

Maybe worth pulling the 4 points out of Meld so that 2 of the above ideas can be done instead of only one.

Some things I doubt are going to be any good,

* Revenge of the Hunted - costs 9 points to get there, including picking up the jewel on the way, seems like too many points for too little life, even if the jewel is a plus
* Blood Drinker - 9 points to get the notable, 10 to also get the 2nd 6% life node there, this is juicy but a lot of dead traveling


Sorry this is not a really concise question but maybe you have some idea on how to get haste plus mom plus clarity, or some thoughts on what could work for survivability without mom.

Thanks for the build, good one to use imo, works well.

Is there any reason we don't take the Leadership wheel right above Necromantic Aegis? It seems like it would provide better bonuses than some of the lesser life nodes we take elsewhere.

Also, here's an idea: use an Intuitive Leap gem in the gem slot above Necromantic Aegis and take Dreamer, Melding, Conduit and Overcharged, which will leave me two passives to do whatever with compared to the current tree. Then use those extra points to take the Leadership wheel or maybe Whispers for a second curse. Any thoughts?

edit: apparently Conduit does not apply to minions, so don't grab those two. Which means you could get Dreamer, Melding and four extra passives in exchange for a jewel slot.

Awesome guide to my first character ever in this game! really appreciate the time you took to make this! Thank you!

Thanks for this build - I got tired of Poet's Pen in Abyss and Bestiary, and tried this in Flashback and loved it. Didn't get to Uber Lab before the end, so started Incursion as this and nearly to maps - it's even better now!

The only thing that I'm struggling with right now is replacing two +93% increase minion damage sceptres with the brightbeak/victario's charity for shield charge and necro aegis. Maybe I can find a sceptre with high attack speed and minion damage to make shield charge decent without sacrificing so much damage.

Or maybe I'll just use the sceptres in off-hand weapon and swap to on bosses, the damage these skeletons put out is ridiculous so it's overkill most times. I was fortunate enough to use a temple corruption on a 20/20 summon skeleton gem that turned it into a lvl 20 23% quality vaal summon skeleton, and that's even better.

I'm even following your added suggestions for which order to spend passive points, and the investment into health early on seems to pay off a lot better (last time I was adding those last, since I was fooled by trying to rush huge damage, that wasn't necessary). It's been a long time since I died.

I do use a stygian vise with max life and high resists with an abyss jewel (7% taunt, saving up for one that also has +attack speed if minions have killed recently) in the belt instead of using one the passive jewel slots.

Thanks!

Shaper kill with phy skele-zombie build not the same like you but still about minions.


https://www.twitch.tv/videos/271733943

Also there is a all guardians video

https://www.twitch.tv/videos/271633018

im using Animated guardian for more damage buffs and Chieftains for frenzy/power charges for even more damage boost.

Pro tip: buy a set of gloves with blind and put your ball lightning setup in them like so:



This will double tap mobs with vulnerability and blind, especially useful for bossing.

great build mate, the leveling nodes are just thicc and better than my last interaction running this. using solar guards also for the extra lulz and shoulder cannons. I've read some other post of a similar build that mentions the problems summoners has engaging packs because of the initial delay between you casting skeletons and they hitting the pack, the charged beam of the spectres seems to somewhat help on that if youre passing through stuff but i guess that falls off in harder maps. still to see another brightbeak drop so im running a cast speed and +2 minions wand and using flame dash as movement skill, pretty decent so far.

Hey why do you take the 7% Minion Life / 1% Minion Life Regen node in the Death Attunement wheel? Wouldn't one of the 10% Minion Life nodes be better?