💀3.15💀 iLL3aT’s Cold Skeleton Warriors/Archers/Mages ❆ League Starter ❆ All Content ❆

You should add a new unique sword to this build. It's so powerful

Answers to all questions and discussion about the new potentially build defining sword after I get home from work in a few hours. I’m excited for sure!

New sword seems pretty disappointment to me.
It provides:
+0.25~ attack speed
+1 to weapon range
free withering and +30% extra chaos damage from unholy might

sounds really great, but base tripled pdps will be only around 900 when base pdps of pure skeleton is close to 2k (at lvl 27 gem) so we are losing around 55% pdps with this sword at this point (less depends of how "minions gain 50% more Added Damage" from skeleton gem is stacking on base or tripled sword damage).

Maybe by using flat pdps jewels and triad grips it will be possible to achieve some high dps numbers but for now i dont see any point of using it instead of duo wands.
Unless this sword pdps gonna be summed with base dps of skellies, then its insanetly op item.

Hi,
this is a nice build. I have a question though: How that is perform on HC?
I dont see much recovery in the build by itself and relying only on one life flask doesnt sounds right.

Do you play build on HC? What is your experience / recommendation?
I would like to take it for a ride on HC Heist.

Cheers

Not sure how well this is going to work but I was thinking of taking your Cold Skeleton idea and use the Elementalist instead.

The idea being that I would have the following active at all times along with Cold Skeletons.

Herald of Ice
Herald of Purity
Hatred - Once I can get an amulet w/ Hatred Reserves no Mana

Max Minions
1 or 2 ice Golem
2 or 3 Carrion Golem
10 Skeletons
4 Sentinels from Purity

With this build I would self cast Frostbite which will apply the new doom mechanic. Once any of them die they would trigger doom and if they are frozen then they would also explode from HOI

For defense I would have Arcane Mantle, and Frost Shield.

With my Ascendancy I would be immune to reflected elemental damage and immune to all elemental ailments as long as I have at least 3 active golems.

"

anomander82 wrote:

"

Silksmith wrote:

Hello, I am planning to start Heist with this one. I did some test runs and it feels good through leveling (did only till Act 7/8). How is the experience during T1 to T5 maps? Can it be done on a 4L or 5L with decent clear speed?

I did a test run of it on SSF through ~T6 maps and it was working fine on a corrupted 5L from Vaal side areas. However, I was using only physical skeletons/zombies (on SSF, can't go cold until I get Triad gloves.) Decent clear speed, good bossing.

Used Skeletons / Impale / Minion Damage / Brutality / Melee Splash.

The balance manifesto just announced that a lot of the cluster jewel notables this build uses are getting nerfed, so I'm curious to see how much of an impact that will have.

Thanks for the response - I am thinking of the same links as well. I am open to run melee phys instead of minion damage depending on what colors I get. I am a little too worried about clusters as well.

"

Silksmith wrote:

"

anomander82 wrote:

"

Silksmith wrote:

Hello, I am planning to start Heist with this one. I did some test runs and it feels good through leveling (did only till Act 7/8). How is the experience during T1 to T5 maps? Can it be done on a 4L or 5L with decent clear speed?

I did a test run of it on SSF through ~T6 maps and it was working fine on a corrupted 5L from Vaal side areas. However, I was using only physical skeletons/zombies (on SSF, can't go cold until I get Triad gloves.) Decent clear speed, good bossing.

Used Skeletons / Impale / Minion Damage / Brutality / Melee Splash.

The balance manifesto just announced that a lot of the cluster jewel notables this build uses are getting nerfed, so I'm curious to see how much of an impact that will have.

Thanks for the response - I am thinking of the same links as well. I am open to run melee phys instead of minion damage depending on what colors I get. I am a little too worried about clusters as well.

Do not worry about not having cluster jewels. I league started this last league. Never used them because I was selling them for profit instead. Still hit 800k sDPS without them per skellie. It was my A8 sirus killer

new gem list updated on poe main page. any comments on elemental pen support?

also: https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/2936122 Alternate quality

Replies to people in this post - thoughts on patch notes/the new weapon in the next.

@Silksmith - It does low tier maps well on no budget - my recommendation for a first "major" purchase is a cheap six link (5-10c) though since each additional link is ~50% more damage.

@anomander82 - The clusters are mostly for min maxing only. With no harvest I think they're going to be near impossible to roll anyways.

@SparkleMotion - Glad to hear you did well this league! The minion life medium jewel is pretty cheap compared to the other clusters.

@thomzon - I'm just gambling that they're not terrible haha.

@azamantes - You can still have a assassin's mark on a ring (warlord doesn't help us). League start skellies will be unchanged from the last two leagues.

@BuggyPie - I like the new assassin's mark for sure - makes up for the cluster jewel nerfs for the endgame crit versions. It's weakness was always that the base crit against bosses was low.

@anomander82 - Agreed

@Vetrinus - Thanks for pointing that out - to be fixed next update. Need to think of a new non-joke con.

@Sazzbot - The one on BowLeagueBois is Harvest crafted (but not by me - I bought it).

@De_xter - Summoner is fun. I'm playing summoner for the fifth league in a row, and the QoL is hard to beat. It's still fast paced, but it's different than melee for example.

@dholly - Seems more like a new way to build non-necro skeletons than anything else, unless it's added to the base skelly damage of course...

@degard66 - A different user took skeletons to 89+. This guide is more tailored for softcore since my goal was to min-max damage while providing decent survivability. You would want more life, bone offering, possibly divine flesh (if you could even get that much chaos res). No experience - I only play J U G G s in the limited hardcore I play.

@askjosh - I believe the cold scaling works for any physical minion. The issue I would have iwth it would be that your cold damamge will proc EE, which means you can't use EE. With no EE, enemy bosses have +50% ele res by default so the minions might not be doing too much damage.

@Sklksmith - Yep, those five plus melee phys for phys skellies. Then swap spash for multistrike for bosses. Phys skellies are in a good place this league as well.

@SparkleMotion - Think it's going to be a near cluster jewelless league unfortunately unless they ninja buff the rates on them.

@Sazzbot - Ele pen is not too interesting since we do 100% cold, and cold pen already exists. Bit more on gems below.

Thoughts on Patch Notes, the New Weapon, and Alternate Quality Gems

Post Patch notes updates (very minor) to come tomorrow or Friday morning.

In point form (it's late here):

Patch Notes:
-I thought Frost Shield would help by adding base crit - unfortunately it only adds spell crit (non-mage skeletons only attack)
-Reduced Visibility (from phase run for us) changed. Not quite sure how this will actually play out in game.
-Curses - Assassin's mark seems great for crit builds, and poacher's for phys skellies (see 14(2))
-Deathmark Support - now called Predator...Sure.
-Glancing blows nerf - I almost wrote a defensive skeletons variant. Quite glad I didn't waste my time.
-Divine flesh max chaos res nerf...probably a bit heavy handed, but it was very strong from my experiences playing divine flesh in 3.10. Now you will need a few "Born of Chaos" small clusters for full effect.
-Mistress of Sacrifice Nerf - Damage done by minions will still be the same. But you'll run slower/have less block.
-Cluster Jewel nerfs: Really, the only three cluster jewels are the ones that we use? Pretty lame but this only affects the extreme endgame versions of the build.
-Redemption sentry/knight nerf - sentries are still a top five spectre and I still like them as a support spectre for skeletons.
-Dreadwheel monsters are now faster - means I die more in act 6 :)
-Zana mods - Delirium will probably print money for those who invest in it.

Alternate Quality Support Gems:
-Largely uninteresting (I read the whole thing), especially after skeleton archers were teased early. It was still the most interesting active gem change.
-Melee splash support - 40% more damage to surrounding enemies. Makes for better clearing until it gets replaced by awakened melee splash.
-A few other somewhat interesting ones but nothing too game changing for us (unless the spectre one comes in bugged and skeletons are summoned with full frenzy charges - we can hope right?)



Reddit Thread here with a lot of discussion: https://www.reddit.com/r/pathofexile/comments/iu4b8m/heres_a_new_unique_item_available_in_the_heist/

-My take on this: Likely a different, non-necro way to play skeletons, specifically for heist league only.
-Looks really cool, and we know there is 3D art of it.
-Opportunity cost: +1/+1 wand, and potentially the ability to trigger an offering if a unique or shield is used in the offhand.
-We are not sure if this weapon's damage is added fully to the skeleton's base stats, partially added, or replaces the base stats all together.
-If it's the first (probably unlikely), then this is a game changer, since min maxing is all about getting 10% here and 10% there - being offered a 3x multiplier is pretty insane...on top of some extra physical damage, increased range, and increasing the skeleton's base attack speed from 1.25 to 1.5+
-If it's a mix, numbers will have to be looked at: waiting for the PoB update with it.

-If it replaces the sword, then gem levels become irrelevant (since that scales skeleton damage and health...and the damage gets replaced). This opens up a whole new build style - the helm should be shaper/elder with minion damage/hypothermia. The body would be the replica abyss chest, with abyss jewels all giving flat physical damage which gets tripled.
-Hatred might still outscale chaos conversion due to it's high multiplier - if it's a cold version, something like fire damage to attacks on a ring, and then reave/cyclone/leap slam could be good attacks.
-For chaos...honestly I'm not sure I'm convinced. Wither can come from withering touch support on zombies, leaving the benefits of chaos conversion to be unholy might, spirit offering, and immunity to reflect.

Up for debate, but I think we'll have to wait for PoB for the math. I doubt they release anything too broken for minions at this point.

Skellie stats for reference (to be added to guide in the next update too). Skeletons have a base attack time of 1.25 attacks/second.