[3.9] Discomancer - Skeleton Mages | SSF HC viable | All Content | Budget

Hello there,

welcome to my Skeleton Mages + Spectres Necromancer Build.



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Until last patch this guide didn't need any updates as it still was ready to go but with the new changes I thought it is time to fully rework.

Pros:
- Dead Ass Cheap (Currently ~80 to 90c for your own full setup + 5-20c for animated guardian gear)
- Totally SSF viable
- Even HC Viable
- Skele Mages = Disco on your screen
- Too much DPS for little investment

Cons:
- For Endgamebosses we need to switch GMP for Slower Projectiles
- Need to cast Arc to keep Elemental Equilibrium active

Path of Building: https://pastebin.com/X8fKhFrs
Warnings:
1. The rings are Vermillion Rings, NOT Cerrulean. They are not yet implemented, so I had to rewrite the Cerrulean ones!
2. The rare gear is just a reference to show you how easy you can achieve numbers. You do NOT need to purchase the gear 1:1 as shown.
3. Rewrote the Dead Reckoning as it hasn't been updated yet
4. Rewrote the Femurs of the Saints as it hasn't been updated yet

Videos:
Dark Forest: https://youtu.be/w-vK6RTo58Y

Gear:

Needed:
* Dead Reckoning (Build enabler - If SSF just farm it, you can play with Melee skellies until you get it)
* 4x To Dust
* Femurs or the Saints
* Any amulet with 67+ dex (can be put anywhere else too but this is cheapest)
* Any Bone Helmet with at least +2 to socketed minion gems

Rest is just gear to cap your resists and to get life.



This will get you roughly 4 Million DPS just from the skellies alone on simple 20/20 gems.

Gem Setups:

Bossing Weapon Setup: Vaal Summon Skeletons - Minion Damage - Elemental Army - Elemental Focus - Spell Echo - GMP/Slower Projectiles

If you are only on a 5L keep Elemental Focus out. 4L keep Elemental Army away.

Normal Gameplay Setup: Vaal Summon Skeletons - Minion Damage - Elemental Army - Pierce - Spell Echo - GMP/Slower Projectiles

If you are only on a 5L keep Minion Damage out. 4L keep Elemental Army away.




Helmet: Raise Spectre - Animate Guardian - Minion Life - Blood Magic

Gloves: Arc - Skitterbots - Faster Casting - Culling Strike

Boots: Summon Lightning Golem - Summon Stone Golem - Minion Life - Feeding Frenzy

Chest: Zealotry - Vaal Haste - XXX / Leap Slam - Faster Attacks / Desecrate
(It does not matter if you link Desecrate to any of the 2 setups or not so 4/2, 3/2/1 and 3/3 are all totally fine)
We do not use the Haste normal Aura
XXX is currently a placeholder while I try to find something worth.
Currently I suggest Flesh Offering for more DPS or Portal for them lazy folks.

Spectres:

For this build the Spectres are just buff and support slaves.

1. Carnage Chieftain (Act 7 - Ashen Fields)
He gives us and all allies Frenzy Charges
2. Host Chieftain (Act 7 - Ashen Fields)
He gives us and our slaves Power Charges
3. Defiler (Act 2 - The Crypt Level 2)
He curses our enemies with Elemental Weakness
4. Tukohama Vanguard (Act 6 - The Coast / The Mud Flats / The Karui Fortress)
He puts out Scorching Ray Totems that give the enemy a nice fire debuff which boosts our fire skeleton mages a lot.

Screenshot with Pierce and GMP:

Keep in mind that the DPS is PER projectile and PER Skeleton and it can hit 5 enemies. So the maximum possible dps if every projectile would hit the maximum amount of enemies (which will only rarely happen) would be ~58 Million but as said, that is barely ever to happen but should give you a good idea why pierce is a very good option.

Screenshot for pure bossing (no pierce and slower projectiles instead of GMP):

Since projectiles can not shotgun, we try to maximize the projectile damage of a single projectile. With this we get a clean DPS of 5 Million (3,1 Million Shaper DPS)

The damage numbers are roughly averaged keeping in mind we do not only get fire skeletons which are our biggest damage boost and not taking the shock from skitterbots into account which raises the damage values.
And all of this with the gear in mind that has not been enchanted or crafted in any way.

Bandits: Kill all

Annointment:
There are some things you can go for.
If you are rich Soul of Steel is really great.

Disciple of the Unyielding is a nice option too. As our Arc culls, we do kills and can get Endurance Charges this way. They are not that reliable but we would have at least one always up.

Aspect of Stone is an awesome Annointment for HC players

Death Attunement is a good option to save some skillpoints to go for more life nodes.

Leveling this Character

There is seriously no magic at all with this. Until Level 10 you just use Raise Zombies with any damage increasing support you can get. While getting to level 10 you will create this SKILL TREE and put in Dead Reckoning into the Jewel Slot, after that it really does not matter on how you skill. Just have a 3 Link and at Act 4+ a 4 Link for your Skelies and use Spectres as soon as you can. If you are on HC go for Life Nodes and Minion Life Stuff first, so your spectres are always up and you life enough. Else just go for Death Attunement -> Elemental Equilibrium -> Gravepact and then finish.
I didn't even go to the lab until I was 70 and did all 4 in a row.
In terms of gear a tabula and some boots with 20%+ Movement Speed is everything you need. You can go for the standard leveling stuff if you want to. On HC go for Resistances and Life.

FAQ:

Thank you, do you have an ingame video of this ?
I'll definitely try your build next league.

"

Hikara wrote:

Thank you, do you have an ingame video of this ?
I'll definitely try your build next league.

Not yet as my gear is not completed yet, as you can see on my profile my gear is still sub par and I don't even have any links, except skeletons and spectres and still run on a tabula.
But would show how powerful it is. Might do one tomorrow.

Hi,
i'm currently trying your build in flashback and i'm having lots of fun.
Thank you for that!
The last Acsension, are you going for Puppet Master oder Commander, because in the Final Tree you skilled Commander.
Ty!

"

Vebren wrote:

Hi,
i'm currently trying your build in flashback and i'm having lots of fun.
Thank you for that!
The last Acsension, are you going for Puppet Master oder Commander, because in the Final Tree you skilled Commander.
Ty!

Hi,

glad you like it.
Definitely Puppet Master. Fixed the final tree.

So there's one thing I'm curious about. Is this build meant to just be a farm build that you then use to acquire currency for another / true build? Because I saw it said a few times in the OP that it's not meant to farm end game bosses.

Now I'm assuming that means the higher tier stuff, or what exactly? I'm going to be getting back into PoE after a very long hiatus so I'm just taking a look at a bunch of different specs that are budget friendly and not overcomplicated. Was interested in this one.

Thanks!

"

Meowington707 wrote:

Is this build meant to just be a farm build that you then use to acquire currency for another / true build? Because I saw it said a few times in the OP that it's not meant to farm end game bosses.

Perhaps I can comment about this for OP.

the build pastebin for Path of Building shows that he has 5364 hp with 2655 mana for MoM. That means he could tank a hit of approximately 6973, with 1046 mana to spare. That is quite reasonable for most large 'spike' hits, so you could in theory expect to survive through a lot of the harder content in the game...

however, as OP stated, the difficulty in playing a summoner/spectre build isn't so much the caster's survivability, but the minions. He said that you can swap out a movement skill to include a convocation, which is a small duration heal for the minions, but mor importantly is used for their positioning.

At that point, it's really about knowing boss fight encounters and when to use it in order to prevent your minions from melting. It could be tricky, but I can definitely see guardians and uber done consistently with a build like this. Uber/UE not so much. . . But what summoner can do those.

Cheers

p.s. Added the build guide to the listings.

"

Meowington707 wrote:

So there's one thing I'm curious about. Is this build meant to just be a farm build that you then use to acquire currency for another / true build? Because I saw it said a few times in the OP that it's not meant to farm end game bosses.

Now I'm assuming that means the higher tier stuff, or what exactly? I'm going to be getting back into PoE after a very long hiatus so I'm just taking a look at a bunch of different specs that are budget friendly and not overcomplicated. Was interested in this one.

Thanks!

Hello,

what Kwitch already said is valid.
Mostly this build is just for farming purposes as it really needs nothing, as you can see, but still does damage from hell (yup pun in terms of necro undead etc).
Depending on your own skill and bossknowledge you definitely CAN do at least Red Elder and Shaper. But you need to use convocation for positioning to get spectres out of the shaper slam or other bad things. If you manage to time that it's quite easy. But don't expect a bosskiller killspeed.

Playstyle is ultra easy. Spectres on max possible level summoned are almost unkillable.
Summon your whole skeleton army with one click, walk 1-2 screens, resummon. Map clear.

"

Kwitch wrote:

p.s. Added the build guide to the listings.

thanks

Hey,

Played last season with spectres but solar guards.

Don't you think solar guards are better than flame sentinels? If no say why pls

"

wujekposyp wrote:

Hey,

Played last season with spectres but solar guards.

Don't you think solar guards are better than flame sentinels? If no say why pls

This guide plays with Vanguards, not Flame Sentinels or Solar Guards.
Those are for map cleraing and we have our Skeleton Mages for that, so no need for Solar Guards or Sentinels.