[3.14] Odif's Old Obsolete Skel Mage Guide, New one is in a new thread

So far this build has been a pretty smooth experience for me as a new player and I just like it overall.
I started running T10 and T11 Maps today and was wondering what would be best to upgrade next. My gear is pretty basic so there are propably plenty of options. Any tips what would provide the biggest benefit? Currently have around 200 chaos in bank. Or should I just continue running maps until I have a few exalts?

I want to thank Odif and everyone that commented on ways to improve defenses and survivability and i must say they ALL worked really well. Heck, i even managed to kill Sirus for the first time since i started playing the game.

I'll make a short list below of what i did in the order i tried them. I hope it helps anyone that may have the same trobules as i did.



1 - Change to Staff Setup and change to body armour with high health and chaos res (in my case i had capped my elemental resistances without the bodyarmour and the shield, so i decided to improve my health pool, especiality since i was losing a shield slot)

---It improved my survivability rate, but i continued to die once every 3 or 4 maps---

2 - Bought a better wand and helmet. (+2 wand with trigger on cast and a helemt with minion life and a slot for +1 skeletons. The Helmet wasn't that good, but i didn't had enought left to buy a better helmet).

2.1 - Equipped my Spectres with meatshield and lifetap on the helmet. Used two carnage chieftans and one Ruins Hellion

2.2 - Made a cheap Animate Guardian Setup and equipped it on the helmet as well.

2.3 - Bought some cards with the ones i had in stock and made a 6 link and essence crafted one with high life and basic resistances.


--- i managed to kill A1 Sirus with two deaths right at this point. ---

--- This was by far the most significant change i've done. The autocast was realy sweet, and with a life helmet my meatshiled minions just stoped dying. ---


3 - Upgraded my helmet, but it still not nearly perfect

4 - Somehow managed to craft a good bodyarmour (luck).

5 - Changed to a rare boot with life and a bunch of resistances.

-- killed a t16 eradicator and enslaver without dying. ----


Clearly there's stil a lot to do, but now i can play T16 maps without dying and sometimes even do a few hard bosses and guardians fights.

All of that wouldn't be possible without this Build Guide and the help of everyone that made suggestions.

"

_frazzle wrote:

So far this build has been a pretty smooth experience for me as a new player and I just like it overall.
I started running T10 and T11 Maps today and was wondering what would be best to upgrade next. My gear is pretty basic so there are propably plenty of options. Any tips what would provide the biggest benefit? Currently have around 200 chaos in bank. Or should I just continue running maps until I have a few exalts?

Because Ults are so dangerous, I am recommending that the first upgrade for people is to buy a 6 link femur's of the saints staff.
Put the skells in the staff
Spec out of shield block, spec out of glancing blows, spec into some staff block nodes.
Buy a non 6l body armor with good defenses.

Next, get an ammulet with +1 all intelligence skill gems.

Those two are good starts for upgrades.

"

_frazzle wrote:

So far this build has been a pretty smooth experience for me as a new player and I just like it overall.
I started running T10 and T11 Maps today and was wondering what would be best to upgrade next. My gear is pretty basic so there are propably plenty of options. Any tips what would provide the biggest benefit? Currently have around 200 chaos in bank. Or should I just continue running maps until I have a few exalts?

There re many cheap uniques that would provide huge offensive and defensive buff.

Jinxed juju: chaos resist, curse effect, aura effect, and literally 10% less damage taken.

Devouring Diadem: The Feast of Flesh is a very strong defensive ability. It's also provide a huge 20% reduced reservation, if paired with reduced reservation skill node or enlighten will allow you to fit in additional auras like Wrath, Anger or Aspect of Avian/ Spider, further boosting your skelly offense. The Eldritch battery keystone provided also give you the ability to run non regen map. Also a little of dexterity which is also very important for the build.

For chest piece, there's some option. Rotting Legion and Fleshcrafter are dirt cheap. Rotting legion give decent flat life, 10% less ele damage taken and meat shield link for your AG and zombie, spectre. Fleshcrafter allow your skeletons to always treat enemies' resistant as zero, a straight forward damage boots.

Also if you can afford, Breathstealer is a big one. Not only it make Ultimatum much less of a pain, having an extra anoinment can give you extra advantage.

There're also jewels like Fortress Covenant, Quickening Covenant, Anatomical Knowledge that will do very well for this build on a tight budget.

"

paulo756 wrote:

...

I found that the Anointed Flesh cluster is very strong. 4 skill points is rather a big investment, but 1% max res and 50% reduced effect of shock is very, very good. If you can scale your max res higher, like using 2% max res shield, Glorious Vanity etc... you will be near immortal in T16 Ulti. Hell my build is not as effective as the Glorious Vanity version in defense but I can just stand still in juiced T16 Ultimatum.

I'm thinking of anointing Golem commander in my build so I can run a stone & carrion golem. Has anyone run something like this or are there better anoints to run?

"

DarkNommer wrote:

I'm thinking of anointing Golem commander in my build so I can run a stone & carrion golem. Has anyone run something like this or are there better anoints to run?

Its not worth using annointment slow on - your better off annointing death attunement (and ravenous horde if using Breathstealers) because those passive points you save from not having to path there are really valuable.

"

Durahal wrote:

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DarkNommer wrote:

I'm thinking of anointing Golem commander in my build so I can run a stone & carrion golem. Has anyone run something like this or are there better anoints to run?

Its not worth using annointment slow on - your better off annointing death attunement (and ravenous horde if using Breathstealers) because those passive points you save from not having to path there are really valuable.

That's fair, with those 7 points from ravenous horde I can get close to another 300 life, chaos resists, and a jewel socket.

Found a new staff option: Cane of Kulemak

This staff drops with 3 veiled mods, which could include either 2 prefixes or 2 suffixes and one of the other. You want THREE specific unveils:

+2 support gems (prefix)
Minion Damage / Minion Life (prefix)
Minion Attack Speed / Minion Cast Speed (suffix)

You end up with some pretty incredible stats that are comparable to an expensive helmet. The +2 supports becomes +3, meaning a lv4 Empower would become lv7 and give almost twice as much damage as Ele Focus.

Looking for one already unveiled for sale, the price is pretty damn steep. If you want to try your luck, you can buy one still Veiled and roll the dice. Remember, "veiled" is a prefix, "of the veil" is a suffix, and "Catarina's veiled" is a prefix on every one.

When shopping, look at the veiled mods and ensure only one is "of the veil". You can fix this in the filter by typing in "veiled" and selecting that exact mod tag.

Veiled Canes are about 2ex each. If you don't get Minion unveils, you might still be able to make something sellable to get anywhere from a little to much more money back.

Did you guys read the Developer Q/A from last week?
https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/3123794

This looks really relevant, i'd say he is wrong, but he is supposed to be developer of the game, so...

Q: Is there an interaction between Awakened Spell Echo and Summon Skeletons with the Dead Reckoning jewel?
A: A skeleton is not a repeat of a skill, and damage dealt by the skeletons' melee attacks or spells is dealt by that skill, not by the summon skeletons skill. The final repeat of summon skeletons technically has a chance to deal double damage, but since the summon skeletons skill cannot ever deal damage, this doesn't do anything.