[3.14] Odif's Old Obsolete Skel Mage Guide, New one is in a new thread
I am sorry to jump on the 'you die a lot' bandwagon but I have found the same.
I also don't get why Femurs is a massive defense gain.
With the flask, bone offering I get to 75% Spell and Attack Block, so what actual difference will Femur's make?
Appreciate there is extra regen but I am skeptical that will help much due to the damage being taken even on full block.
I am running 1 Convo want and a shield with 5% life on Block and I still get killed very often.
I can run two wands but it's even worse.
https://pastebin.com/GJRYcNti
Don't get me wrong for a cheap mapping build to Tier 13/14 it's great but after that I am not sure what else to do to stop being so squishy, appreciate I can respec, but was hoping for a way to move the build forward.
Suggestions if possible pls?
Last edited by Rackiera on May 20, 2021, 9:54:13 PM
I am sorry to jump on the 'you die a lot' bandwagon but I have found the same.
I also don't get why Femurs is a massive defense gain.
With the flask, bone offering I get to 75% Spell and Attack Block, so what actual difference will Femur's make?
Appreciate there is extra regen but I am skeptical that will help much due to the damage being taken even on full block.
I am running 1 Convo want and a shield with 5% life on Block and I still get killed very often.
I can run two wands but it's even worse.
https://pastebin.com/GJRYcNti
Don't get me wrong for a cheap mapping build to Tier 13/14 it's great but after that I am not sure what else to do to stop being so squishy, appreciate I can respec, but was hoping for a way to move the build forward.
Suggestions if possible pls?
Ive taken this build to a pretty 'high-end' with some decent investment into gear. If you're looking to take the build further in terms of being tanky, stack up max life and cap chaos resistance and then do Divine Flesh conversion and look into a chest with phys to chaos conversion and +2 max res shield. Im at 85% max chaos res right now and with conversion it makes you VERY tanky.
Also having 3 permanent endurance charges from rings and amulet enchants is huge.
With my current set up, im pretty unkillable and can even tank A9 Sirius Die Beam.
Last edited by Durahal on May 20, 2021, 10:21:34 PM
How's the dps? I was considered the Divine Flesh route too, but fear that it would take away much of my damage and armour, given you have to swap out Lioneye for it.
Right now I noticed some of the bosses in this game can do absurb damage with crazy mod, like Hydra with 2 extra phys mod can do up to 6k damage pass my mitigations (69% phys reduction, 79% max res). Minotaurs's diving is certain death with 1 extra phys plus increase crit chance and crit multiplier. And nothing is good enough to counter Phoenix's discharge. 100% increase AoE become very dangerous on him, I got one shot even standing far away.
So my conclusion has been reaching a balance in offense and defense, where I can still hold my ground comfortably and finish the boss fast enough. The longer the fight the harder it will be.
Last edited by camapngu133 on May 21, 2021, 5:19:49 AM
Just like the guy above....
Buy a 6l femurs of the saints.
Put the skels in the staff.
You are already self casting bone offering.
Spec out of glancing blows and the shield block nodes.
Spec into whirling barrier for staff block.
This will be a MASSIVE defensive gain.
(Femurs provides insane defense)
Since you are not already using a +2 duration chest, this will actually increase your dps.
Buy a defensive body armor cheap, as it does not need to be 6 linked.
Get a +2 minion helm, put bone offering in it.
(You can move stone golem elsewhere.)
Each level of bone offering is more life on block!
Thank you so much for the help Odif!
I have to admit im VERY new to POE still and really don't understand the technical side of things.
If I were to get the staff/chest/helmet upgrades mentioned above and move my gems around. What would my gems/links look like with the new staff/chest/helmet layout if you don't mind breaking it down for me in order of how they should be placed?
How's the dps? I was considered the Divine Flesh route too, but fear that it would take away much of my damage and armour, given you have to swap out Lioneye for it.
Right now I noticed some of the bosses in this game can do absurb damage with crazy mod, like Hydra with 2 extra phys mod can do up to 6k damage pass my mitigations (69% phys reduction, 79% max res). Minotaurs's diving is certain death with 1 extra phys plus increase crit chance and crit multiplier. And nothing is good enough to counter Phoenix's discharge. 100% increase AoE become very dangerous on him, I got one shot even standing far away.
So my conclusion has been reaching a balance in offense and defense, where I can still hold my ground comfortably and finish the boss fast enough. The longer the fight the harder it will be.
DPS I find is still more than enough to pretty much insta-kill/phase every boss.
The cost of going divine flesh was pretty much giving up 2 abyss jewels, 1 passive point and dropping Lionseye - but without having to use Lioneyes, it opens up getting +2 or +3 skeles on your chest which is massive for scaling damage.
I've noticed a huge defensive boost when I did the following things.
First thing: Animate Guardian with the following gear
Weapon - Kingmaker
Helmet - Mask of the Stitched Demon
Chest - Any chest with and increased life and crafted "Gain 10% of Maximum Life as Extra Maximum Energy Shield"
Gloves: Southbound
Boots: Victarios Flight
The chest and gloves gives your AG a big boost in maximum life. The chest takes 10% of the max life into energy shield. The mask gives your AG 1% life regen per 500 energy shield.
Example: My 20/20 AG slotted in my +3 helm, has 72,997 life x 1.26 (gloves and body armor) = 91,951 total life.
91,951 x .1 (from chest) = 9195 energy shield.
9195 ES gives 18% life regen from mask (rounding down)
91,951 x .18 = 16,910/s life regen for the AG, not including the default regen, which is around 2,800/s and your auras.
This all helps make your AG unkillable. If you can get 21/20, helps even more.
The biggest reason is Kingmaker. It gives you and all your minions permanent fortify, which is 20% less damage taken from hits. Huge defensive boost. Oh, also it gives your minions permanent culling strike...
Second thing: Raise Spectre
Ruins hellion - Casts "Rallying Cry" which taunts all nearby enemies, it also increases your minion damage. The reason why this taunt is more powerful than your zombie taunt (from meatshield) is that it is 100% chance to taunt (unless you run a map with can't be taunted), it is AOE and it doesn't rely on "hitting" the enemy, where a zombie must hit the enemy to have a chance to taunt it. Taunted enemies do 30% less damage to you.
And it spams this ALL the time.
So, when I got AG with that gear and got a ruins hellion spectre, I've been doing juiced t16 ultimatums of any type. I just make sure the map mod doesn't have "can't be taunted".
My other spectres are dps buffs.
2xCarnage chieftens for permanent frenzy and Arena Master who bangs his drums to give 20% cast speed and damage buff. The only irritating thing about Arena Master is his non-stop banging on his drums.
Hope this helps.
Last edited by stormbad1 on May 21, 2021, 5:08:19 PM
Hello Exiles!
Have you always wanted to try minions, but did not know where to begin?
Are you relatively new to the game?
Have you struggled in red maps with your previous builds?
Have you not even gotten to maps because you were so confused, or you did not know how to build a character?
Do you just want a league starter that will get you dominating red maps and killing endgame bosses with minimal investment?
If you answered yes to any of the above questions, then this build is for YOU!
Why did I make this build?
Spoiler
Over the years, with new league content continually added to the game, it has gotten harder and harder for newbies to get deep into endgame, it's all just too overwhelming.
So, I made this build, a simple and cheap build, with lots of details for newbies, that will allow newbies to get deep into endgame.
All my focus is to make this build the best possible build for newbies in the game.
I just came here to say that this was actually the 1st build i had that reached end game, and by end game, i mean killing sirius . First time in 3 years since i started that i actually killed the last guy from atlas. I hate spectres and zombies, always looking for a prue skellies build or at least something that looked like that, not too many minions. This build was what i searched all the time and i cant wait for the update to 3.14 because im definetely doing again, thank you for this excelent guide author!
Current state of my version of the build, lvl 99. Lightning skeleton has over 2.5M Sirus damage now, with average 4/4/4 summoned mages its about 21M damage total (i dont count zombies, as they do pretty much zero damage). To get this number on perspective, thats enought damage for Cortex to do nothing, because every phase of his is instakilled! :-) The goal was to have enough damage for Maven, to be able to kill her after she does just one memory game in a last phase, which now works. Too bad i suck at that damn memory thing so i keep failing it, but we'll get there...
7k HP, resist are maxed for red version of ele weakness, immune to frozen, chill, 68/54 block. I'm currently testing Glorious Vanity for converting half of ele damage taken to chaos, because i have 80% max chaos resist. For some reason it looks worse in POB eHP pool, but i actually feel more tanky in juiced tier 19 delirium maps, needs more testing if its really worth the lose of that 3k ES shield you might get from spore. Anyway, I can do T16 100% delirium without any trouble, in T19 i must stay at 80% delirium, as its not worth to risk losing all that precious loot. Rampage really helps there, and its fun to watch! :-)
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I bought these 2 wands for 80ex total, everything else i crafted/corrupted myself from scratch, all harvest craft farmed by me aswell. However i recrafted suffixes on them for my purpuse, still need to replace that last fire one.
Beat A9 Sirus deathless, Maven, most of Mavens challenges, decent delve depth, and level 94 approaching 95. Always enjoyed minion builds and when I saw this with Dead Reckoning I knew what I had to do. 10/10 would build again.
Maybe at one point the build will start falling short, but so far I'm having the strongest SSF run yet with these skelli mages. Only on AW5 but all T16 guardians/conquerors/Bosses go down fast enough for me. They are also very good on blight, breaches, heists and rituals. The build is also very tanky, so far Sirus is the only thing that give me a hard time with his death beam.
Also, it's should be fairly easy to switch to warrior skellis or zombies but so far I see no problems yet, especially when considering further upgrades to my current setup
Best FRICKIN build ever. Ive been playing for several years and have never gotten this far into after campaign content ever. So far its been nearly effortless. It took me a while to get reckoning but man after that this build really took off. I want to thank you soooo much for your work. I am finally have a good time playing and not sitting frustrated getting killed at every corner I turn.
so far, i am absolutely loving this build, i never had such a smooth league start! and ive got quite some leagues behind me, played lots of minion builds, tried lots of other builds but this, the sheer smooth leveling experience, easy mapping early game, its amazing!
...
thats again for this great build!, this is amazing and i hope to see more builds comming from you!, honestly, BEST MINION BUILD EVER TO START A LEAGUE WITH
If anyone's on the fence about this build,just go and look at my character.
This build is an absolute breeze,going thru yellow maps and some reds with abyssmal gear,my resists are not even capped only cause im lazy...
...I just waltzed through a T15 corrupted unidentified zana mission. None of the maven fights have been even remotely challenging yet. I've never had a build move so smoothly into red maps before.
...
I'm using basically the same gear I was using at T7, and aside from a level 21 vaal summon skeletons, most of my gems are only level 17-18 because I've recently flipped them for quality. Otherwise I'm running the basic skeleton mages build. No changes aside from adding a Primordial Harmony for 5 chaos that makes the defensive golem buffs more effective.
What did 3.14 do to this build?
Spoiler
A few small nerfs, two small buffs and a nerf that will up the cost of a key upgrade item.
(Small Nerf) Vitality has about 20% less life regen at level 20.
No big deal, we have other sources of regen.
(Small Nerf) Trigger socketed spells craft now has an 8 second cooldown.
(It was 4)
When you get this optional craft, you will have to be more careful, watching to see the Bone Offering buff is up at all times. WIth 5 corpses, it has a 9 second base duration, and we have duration bonuses, so we should be ok.
(Small Buff) Vaal Summon Skeleton will now gain souls twice as fast when fighting bosses.
(Small Buff) Abyss Jewels that grant flat damage to minions now grant more of it.
(Big cost nerf, tiny dps nerf)
Vaal summon skeleton gem can no longer be 21/23, but can only be 21/20, and can only be obtained in the temple from a double corrupt gem altar, with a very lucky roll on a 20/20 skeleton gem. This means 21/20 VSS gems will be much more expensive.
This does not kill the build, as you can do fine with a 20/20 VSS gem, but does up the cost.
We will see just how expensive they will become.
I am basing this on the following from the patch notes. Vaal Skill Gems can now only be obtained from a set of specific methods such as Corrupting Gems, Vaal Side Areas, Divination Cards (that specifically grant Vaal Skill Gems) and the Lapidary Lens in the Temple of Atzoatl.
It used to be 21/23 VSS gems could just drop from some league mechanics. My reading of this text says, that is no longer the case.
CONCLUSION on 3.14:
The build is fine, the nerfs are trivial other than costing more for a optional gem upgrade.
Will this build be good for Ultimatum League?
Spoiler
YES!
It uses Vaal Summon Skeleton, which is VERY VERY powerful in any non moving enclosed situation, which is exactly what Ultimatums are.
This build will SHINE in Ultimatums!
Warning!
Ultimatums are VERY dangerous.
Use a SHIELD.
What about experienced players?
Spoiler
Experienced players should take this guide as a starting point.
I have left several strong mechanics out of the guide, in order to make it more newbie friendly.
Experienced players with currency can modify their builds using cluster jewels, support spectres, anmiate guardian, and such.
Due to the huge labor of maintaining a guide for newbies, I will not be ALSO maintaining an expert player version.
BUT...
There are many people who have posted in this thread, their "experienced" versions of this build, more expensive, more complicated, more damage and/or defense.
Overview
Spoiler
This build is a newbie friendly, super low cost, league starter build.
It will get you deep into red maps with minimal investment. (Less than 10c to start mapping, 40-80 c for red maps.)
It scales with currency.
With just the currency you accumulate as you progress through red maps you will be strong enough to kill all single end game bosses. (Except deep delve)
This build uses Skeleton Mages to do massive dps on a low budget.
It's a minion build, so if you don't like minion builds this is not for you.
Our main damage dealer are Skeleton Mages
We use Zombies as meat shields.
We use Vaal Summon Skeletons for Bosses and non moving events like Ritual, Blight, and Breach.
Vaal Summon Skeleton is one of the best "I WIN" buttons in the game. It is absurdly strong.
Skeleton Mages inherently do elemental damage. See the section below for more details on them.
We use Elemental Equilibrium to lower enemy cold and fire resists by 50%.
We use Elemental Weakness curse to lower it even more. (Has a lesser effect on bosses, and has no effect on hex proof monsters and maps with hex proof mod.)
We use Skitterbots to auto shock enemies, so they take even MORE damage.
It's crazy how fast bosses melt with this set up, as it will take most bosses deep into negative resists.
We use Vitality Aura to buff our life regen.
We use a Stone Golem to buff our life regen.
For defense we use Bone Offering with Mistress of Sacrifice, Glancing Blows, and Unwavering Stance to gain unlimited 66% attack block, and around 52% spell block. We also have good life gained on block, good life pool, high life regen, and are immune to stun.
How do Skeleton Mages work?
Spoiler
Skeleton mages require a unique jewel, Dead Reckoning. Before you acquire it, you will be using melee skeletons.
When you socket the jewel, Dead Reckoning, into your passive skill tree, instead of summoning melee skeletons, you summon skeleton mages, up to 15.
(This limit only matters on Vaal Summon Skeleton, which at high level summons more than 15 melee skeletons, so only 15 of those get converted to skeleton mages. Vaal Summon Skeleton naturally summons a few skeleton mages, so you will get these plus the 15 converted ones.)
There are 3 types of skeleton mages.
Cold, Fire, and Lightning.
They each do a dart like spell, that hits a single target with the respective type of damage.
It counts as a spell projectile, and can be supported as such.
It is random which of the 3 types are summoned, so usually you get a mix.
Since we are using Elemental Equilibruim triggered by Storm Brand, we are buffing the damage of the fire and cold skeleton mages, and lowering the damage of the lightning skeleton mages.
In theory skeleton mages can walk around, but they rarely move very far. If they are aware of an enemy, they cast at an enemy.
Can I do this build in SSF
Spoiler
SSF (Solo Self Found)
You can do this buld SSF, if you ALREADY HAVE THE DEAD RECKONING JEWEL.
In 3.13 a player in SSF found a Dead Reckoning jewel, rerolled and followed this guide and had a great time, did all content.
But the Dead Reckoning jewel has too low a drop rate to try this build in SSF without already having it.
Pros and Cons
Spoiler
Pros:
Very newbie friendly, lots of details for first time players.
Very good for "stay in place" encounters like, Breach, Blight, Rituals and Ultimatum!
Very Low currency to go deep into red maps.
Scales with currency.
Relaxed minion play style.
Does not need empower.
No cluster jewels needed.
OK defenses with minions to absorb hits, high block chance (attack and spell), good life pool, high life regen, good life gained on block, cannot be stunned.
Cons:
Struggles with elemental reflect maps, unless you get expensive rings. (I did some elemental reflect maps with this build to test it out, you can do them, but its slow, recasting skeletons constantly.)
Minion play style is not for everybody.
At very high wealth investment, other minion builds may do significantly better, like Kay's Necro build. https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/2181275
(You can always transition, use this build until you are absurdly wealthy, then transition to another build.)
Passive Skill Tree
Spoiler
Kill All Bandits
Ascendancy Order:
Mindless Aggression
Unnatural Strength
Mistress of Sacrifice
Bone Barrier
When you have a worthy amulet, ANOINT DEATH ATTUNEMENT on the amulet, and regret out of that part of the tree.
I don't know what annointing means!
Spoiler
In Blight league they added the mechanic to "annoint" your amulet.
Casia the npc lets you do this, you can invite her to your hideout after you do her quest. She randomly appears and gives it to you.
Take 3 oils and an amulet and put it in the annoint window.
It is completely deterministic.
Annointed amulets give you ONE "free" notable from the passive tree.
We annoint Death Attunement, which saves us points from having to path over there.
The 3 oils to get Death Attunement are: Clear, Crimson, Silver.
Wait until you have a valuable ammulet to do this.
No point in putting 30c worth of oils on a 3 c ammulet.
Against my better judgement, here is a PoB link.
It is a snapshot of my Ritual League starter, at level 89.
This is the "base gear" as outlined later in this guide WITH an amulet upgrade, so I could justify annointing it.
https://pastebin.com/kJhi0r6R
I don't trust the dps numbers, but the gear and skill tree should help.
I think PoB is DEMON SPAWN.
I am in the tiny minority of experienced PoE players, but I think people are overly reliant on PoB. It gives unrealistic damage numbers. It simulates things as if they were perfect, with minions having 100% uptime on enemies. I am not even sure it correctly calculates minions accuracy rating.
In short, I am deliberately boycotting it for this build.
After all, this build is for newbies, let them find PoB later, when they do some attack build, for which PoB is a more accurate representation of what actually happens in game.
P.S.
If you are a newbie...
PoB is Path of Building, a 3rd party bit of software that can simulate a character, telling you exact dps numbers, life, ES, er...everything......If only you could trust it to be accurate.
Skills
Spoiler
Chest (Skeleton Mages)
Colors: 5B/G Vaal Summon Skeleton linked to Pierce, Spell Echo, Minion Damage, Elemental Army, Elemental Focus.
(Supports are listed in order of importance, in case you do not yet have a 6l chest.)
Helmet (Zombies and Stone Golem)
Colors: 3B/R Raise Zombies and Stone Golem linked to Feeding Frenzy, Meat Shield.
Gloves
Colors: 2R/2B (2R/B linked, B unlinked) Cast When Damage Taken linked to Immortal Call and Convocation. Flame Dash NOT linked.
Keep CWDT at level 7
Keep Immortal Call at level 9
Keep Convocation at level 10
(The higher level CWDT is, the more damage you must take for it to proc. Level 7 has a 1k damage threshold. At level 7, CWDT can only trigger spells usable at level 50 and below, hence Immortal Call at level 9, and Convocation at level 10.)
First Weapon
Colors: G/B/R Bone Offering (HUGE defensive boost) Vitality (Life Regeneration) Desecrate (To make corpses to use Bone Offering)
Keep Desecrate at level 1 to save mana.
Second Weapon (or Shield)
Colors: 3B Storm Brand linked to Hextouch and Elemental Weakness.
Boots (Auras)
Colors: 3B/R Zealotry and Summon SKitterbots both linked to Generosity and Enlighten.
Enlighten is not needed, but mana is a bit tight without it.
You only need Enlighten to be level 2 to get enough free mana.
Until you get a level 2 Enlighten, drop zealotry and run Skitterbots linked to Infernal Legion, Burning Damage, and Minion Damage. (Same colors!)
Base Gear
Spoiler
Required Unique Dead Reckoning
Unavailable
That is the only unique item needed for this build.
OMG Dead Reckoning is SO expensive this league.
What do I do?
Spoiler
Use Melee Skeletons until you can afford the Dead Reckoning
Skel links in order of importance
Skel/Multistrike/Minion Damage/Impale/Melee Physical/Ruthless
If you use impale, you need to use Dread Banner, a 10% aura.
You dont need Stormbrand and Hextouch, so you save a gem link.
Use self cast Vulnerability aura.
Do not use Zealotry with melee skels, stick with skitterbots linked to infernal legion/minion damage/burning damage.
Helmet with +2 to minion gems
Even with life and resists, these are crazy cheap, 2-3 chaos early league.
6l chest
Buy a Tabula . (HIGHLY RECOMMENDED) If they are not too expensive, get one with +2 duration gems corruption.
If they are expensive (like they are in Ultimatum League, its best to invest your currency elsewhere.
You should get enough chaos for a chest pretty quick, maybe before you hit maps.
You can do white and yellow maps easy with a 4l, which you can find/craft as you go. So don't worry if you dont have a 6l when you start mapping.
Weapons
After you get your chest, buy 2 weapons that have "+1 all spell skill gems"
These run 5-30 chaos early league. It seems to vary a lot each league.
Save up to buy these, 2 of them make a huge difference. They must both be melee weapons, or both wands. You cant mix the two.
If you can afford it, get some minion damage/minion attack speed mods also, this will up the cost, so it's optional. (only avalable on wands)
Do NOT get + fire or cold damage to spells on your wands, it will mess up EE.
Optional benchcraft for one weapon, that is a HUGE quality of life increase
Spoiler
Craft "Trigger socketed spells when you use a skill" onto the weapon with Desecrate and Bone Offering.
This will (mostly) automate the casting of Bone Offering, which is a quality of life bonus.
This is one of the crafts unlocked by Jun.
Rare Jewels: Mods include, Life, Minions hinder on spell hit, % increased minion damage, minion cast speed, added damage to minions (fire and cold are best)
Everything else is rares with life and resists.
You will need dex on at least one item.
Chaos resist is very nice, but not necessary. Try and get as much as possible, but its a lower priority than elemental resist capping and life.
It's preferable to get a stygian vice belt, it's a great place to socket in a jewel with minion damage mods on it.
If possible, get gear with armor, the more the better.
What order should I prioritize for getting the above gear?
Spoiler
1) Dead Reckoning unique Jewel (enables Skeleton Mages)
2) +2 minion gems helm with life and resists
Get when you start mapping
3) 6 link chest
(A Tabula with +2 duration gems corruption is highly recommended.)
4) +1 all spell skill gems weapons (x2)
Get as soon as you can afford it, after you get above items.
Remember, in the last few acts and definitely for mapping, you need your elemental resists capped, so buying yellows to do that takes priority over the above list.
The above items, along with yellows that have life and resists is all you need to easily do t15 maps.
There is a section below for what upgrades to this base gear to buy as you gain wealth.
ULTIMATUM ONLY LEAGUE SUGGESTIONS
Spoiler
Defense is SO important in Ultimatum league. When you can afford it, buy a 6l Femurs of the Saint staff.
Spec out of Glancing Blows, and any shield nodes you might have.
Spec into the Staff Block nodes Whirling Barrier
Put your Skeletons in the Staff
Put what was in the wand and shield into the body armor.
This means you dont need to 6l the body armor, and can buy a high defense body armor.
You will need to hand cast Bone Offering.
Defenses
Spoiler
This build uses block, both attack and spell, good life gain on block, a good life pool, high life regen and whatever armor you can get on your gear, and defensive flasks.
Bone Barrier ascendency gives us 10% physical damage reduction, which is additive to flasks and armor.
76% max ele resists.
Block Explained:
Note:
Bone Offering effects you at 50% effectiveness only AFTER you get Mistress of Sacrifice. (Merciless Lab)
Bone offering benefits both from ascendancy +2 minion gem levels, and from +1 gem levels on wands.
A level 19 gem, thus goes to level 23, which is enough to get 36% attack and spell block on minions, and 18% attack and spell block on us with Mistress of Sacrifice.
You get 15% Attack block from dual wielding wands.
You get around 18% attack block from Bone Offering.
This 33% attack block gets DOUBLED by Glancing Blows Keystone on the skill tree. This gives you 66% chance to block attacks.
Glancing Blows doubles block chance, but makes it so you only block 35% of the damage.
Similarly, you get 8% Spell Block from the skill tree.
You get around 18% spell block from Bone Offering.
This 26% spell block is doubled to 52% Spell Block by Glancing Blows.
Unwavering Stance makes us immune to stuns. While immune to stuns, there is NO COOLDOWN on blocking, no block animation, we can block infinitely fast.
It's VERY POWERFUL.
We also gain 371 life every time we block (gem level 23), which we can do infinitely many times a second! This 371 life per block goes up to 445 with Bone Barrier once you complete Uber Lab, and goes even higher as you level Bone Offering past level 19, or buy expensive wands with +1 all gem levels and +1 all minion gem levels.
Minions will absorb a lot of hits, so the defenses are fine, unless you are doing something crazy dangerous like Sirius. But you can do Sirius if you are good at manually dodging.
Keep Bone Offering up at all times, it's crucial to your defense.
We have Cast When Damage Taken linked to Immortal Call and Convocation.
After taking 1k damage, Immortal Call absorbs damage for a short time, and Convocation brings the Zombies and Golem to use to body block.
Keep moving. Movement is a key defense
Pantheon
Spoiler
Really you can choose what ever you like.
I usually run...
Major: Soul of Lunaris for damage reduction and move speed in a crowd.
Minor: Soul of Ryslatha for the life flask charges.
I often change them for situational reasons.
Flasks
Spoiler
Flasks are for defense!
Life with anti bleed
Quicksilver for movement
Quartz for dodge
Basalt for phys damage reduction
Granite for more armor
(If you want, you can use a Rumi's Concoction to gave more block. Swap out Granite.)
Get anti freeze and anti curse on two of the above, your choice of what other mods on the other 2 flasks.
Gameplay
Spoiler
Cast skeletons on each monster pack.
Cast storm brand on each pack.
Quicksilver flask is your friend.
Use Vaal Summon Skeleton on Bosses and other encounters that stay in one place, Ultimatums, Rituals, Breaches, Blights, etc.
Keep Bone Offering up at all times, it's key to defense.
Keep moving. Flame Dash to avoid danger. Defensive flasks as needed.
If you want more DEFENSE, use a Shield HIGHLY RECOMMENDED FOR ULTIMATUMS!
Spoiler
Get a shield, give up one of the weapons.
Less offense, more defense. It's a choice.
Two ways to go with a shield, a higher armor shield, or a spirit shield with spell block.
Either way, get LOTS of life, life gained on block and/or % life gained on block.
You can also take shield nodes in the tree, like the sanctuary cluster.
If you go with a high armor shield, put the CWDT set up in the shield, and the Brand/curse/hextouch in the gloves.
General Information for Newbies
Spoiler
But wait, I am so confused I don't even understand stuff in this guide!
Spoiler
PoE has an EXTENSIVE in game help system.
There is a little yellowish icon just to the left of your left click skill button.
Press it, read everything.
More stuff unlocks in the help as you progress, so keep referring back to it.
It has video explanations and is amazing.
You can click "follow" to one of his filters, then it will show up in your list of possible filters in game.
Where in game is that, you ask?
Options-UI-near the bottom.
Start with NeverSink-1regular-softcore
As you get more wealthy and want to filter more stuff out, you can go to level 2, 3, 4, etc.
Attacks vs Spells
Spoiler
In PoE almost all damage dealing abilities are either SPELLS or ATTACKS.
These are distinct.
Increased Spell damage will NOT help attacks.
Faster Attack Speed will NOT help spells.
Know what your main damage dealer is, ATTACK or SPELL, and buff it accordingly, with gear bonuses, passive skill tree bonuses, and support gems.
Currency
Spoiler
There is no gold in this game.
There is a barter system, both when selling to NPC vendors, and for trading with other players.
Chaos orbs are the main trading currency in the game for most purchases.
You will likely find several as you level up.
Save them to buy gear when you are about to start mapping.
Exaulted Orbs are the trading currency for high end expensive gear. In league, exaulted orb prices vary, but are often worth over 100 chaos.
You will be lucky if you find one while leveling, but if you do, jackpot.
Save your currency when leveling.
Seriously, save it for mapping and/or gearing up for mappping.
Some exceptions:
Spoiler
Essences are level capped, the ones you find leveling are near useless at high level, so USE them. Best use is to use them on a white item with good linked sockets, or to use on rings and amulets with a good implicit.
Essences come from those frozen statue like mobs you see on occasion. Click 3 times on them to unlock them, then fight them and their guards. An essence will ALWAYS drop, sometimes more than one.
Chromatic Orbs
If you find a really nice rare, with great mods and linked sockets, you MAY want to use chromatic orbs on it.
BE WARNED:
The colors that a chromatic gives are not fully random, they are weighted by the stat requirement of the item.
Energy Shield items are more likely to roll blue sockets.
Evasion items are more likely to roll green sockets.
Armor items are more likely to roll red sockets.
If you try to put blue sockets on a Armor item, you will use up all your chromatics and not get what you want.
In general, it is better to save your chromatics for end game, and just use the items that already have the colors you want. See the essence paragraph above.
Vendor Recipies
Spoiler
The game has certain vendor recipies, things you sell to a vendor, that give you back something valuable.
These are hidden, but luckily, there is a handy list of all known vendor recipies in the Wiki https://pathofexile.gamepedia.com/Vendor_recipe_system
The two most useful beginning recipies are:
Sell 3 flasks of the same type, and get back 1 of a higher type.
I.E. sell 3 small life flasks, and get back 1 medium life flask.
Sell an item that has a blue, red, and green socket linked together and get back a chromatic orb.
Your loot filter will highlight RGB linked items.
Bench Crafting
Spoiler
In Act 2 you will be given a quest to get a Hideout.
This is player housing.
Inside your hideout, you will be given a quest to install and use a CRAFTING BENCH!
Using the crafting bench will GREATLY help you leveling.
You can add an affix to a rare item with the crafting bench.
(As long as it does not have 6 affixes already.)
(A rare item can have at most 3 prefixes and 3 suffixes.)
The most common use of this while leveling is to add life or a resist to an item.
This is how you can cheaply and easily cap your elemental resists.
Be careful
Don't use expensive crafts on leveling items, I.E. if it costs a chaos orb.
Best use crafts that cost transmutes or chance orbs on low level items.
Note the level requirements.
Don't put a craft that has a level 24 requirement on an item when you are level 23. It will make the item unusable for you until you level up.
You will find more recipes as you progress through the campaign.
In later acts and in mapping you will meet Jun, who will send on you Syndicate missions. These yield "veiled items"
When you unveil an item, you gain progress to getting more recipes.
Beast Crafting
Spoiler
In Act 2 you will meet Einhar, who will give you a quest.
After doing that quest, he will give you a quest to go to the beast area, and do one beast craft.
After that, he will randomly pop up in zones, helping you, and capturing beasts.
Do these quests, capture as many beasts as you can while leveling.
Why?
At some point in the campaign, and opinions differ as to when, but certainly by mapping, you will NEED a flask with anti bleed, and a flask with anti freeze.
You can easily beast craft such flasks, assuming you have enough beasts captured.
Any non unique flask with a free suffix can be beast crafted to have anti bleed or anti freeze. (Also you can get anti poison, anti curse, and anti ignite.)
Anti bleed is called "of Staunching"
Anti freeze is called "of Heat"
There are many other very nice beast crafting recipes, but getting anti bleed and anti freeze flasks is HUGE for late campaign. And in mapping you will want anti curse too.
Unlike some games, like Diablo 3, the player's dps has NO effect on minions dps.
The only things that effect minions, are things that SPECIFICALLY say minions. (or Allies, minions count as allies, but NOT party members.)
Most minions scale REALLY well off of gem levels.
Most minions have a point of diminishing returns on gem levels. They will still get better, but only by a little.
Spectres get diminishing returns after gem level 25.
Skeletons, Zombies, and Golems get diminishing returns after gem level 30.
The monster level of Spectres, Zombies, Skeletons, and Golems is ONLY based on the gem level of the summoning gem.
Minions get much of their dps off of support gems.
Minions can be supported by Minion Damage Support AND any support gem that would work for the ability that they use.
Examples: Zombies do melee physical damage, so zombies can be supported by Melee Physical Damage Support or Multistrike Support. Slave Drivers use a lightning spell ability, so they can be supported by Spell Echo Support or Elemental Focus Support
Minions have a base resistance of 40% elemental resistance and 20% Chaos resistance. This is NOT effected by the killing Kitava resistance penalty that players get.
Minions are NOT effected by map mods that say "player". Such as "-12% to maximum player resistances" or "players are cursed with enfeeble" or "players have elemental equilibrium"
Minions that use attacks have a chance to miss. You need to get enough accuracy bonus for them, usually from the skill tree or jewels socketed into the skill tree. Zombie slam attack cannot miss.
Players gain no benefit from on kill or on hit effects from minions kills or hits. There are some uniques that grant minions on kill or on hit effects, and these effects will only be granted to the minion that made the hit or kill.
Minions can get charges, frenzy, endurance, and power.
They get additional bonuses, more than what players get.
Each individual minion gets it's own charges. Endurance charges:
+15% to all Elemental Resistances per Endurance Charge
15% additional Physical Damage Reduction per Endurance Charge
Frenzy charges:
15% increased Attack Speed per Frenzy Charge
15% increased Cast Speed per Frenzy Charge
4% more Damage per Frenzy Charge
5% increased Movement Speed per Frenzy Charge
Power charges:
200% increased Critical Strike Chance per Power Charge
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When i try the link below, nothing happens. Poeplanner removes /b/6PF from the url - so and empty plan is showing up! Very good and cool guide, but i can't go on before i have the passive tree again; - damn. :-(
When i try the link below, nothing happens. Poeplanner removes /b/6PF from the url - so and empty plan is showing up! Very good and cool guide, but i can't go on before i have the passive tree again; - damn. :-(
