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

hello are you going to update the build to 3.15?

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dmoniak wrote:

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GrunkleBob wrote:

Thank you for the awesome league Odif!
I decided to add awakened hextouch so I could add Temp Chains and I have died once since, and that was preventable and my fault!
I am half way to 98 and am considering going for it, would be my first.
I have 4 shaper kills, 1 deathless and a bunch of other accomplishments.
I even got an Achievement this league, with almost having them all that is rare indeed. I wish I would have started with this, I only got into it about a month ago. It really has an amazing feel to it and I have enjoyed every second!

Thanks again!

Is femur really good in wand and shield right should i swap?

Sorry, I haven't been around much.
The key for me was awakened hextouch with temp chains.
Since I added it, I died one time on my way to 98 (totally my fault and the reason I don't play hardcore).
I never had a problem using Femur, and I had the perfect life to take 1 shots with style, strolling away with 100-200 life until my regen kicked in!
Hit 98 and am just amazed with this character!

I wonder if Reaper will be able to coexist with skelemages, as we can recast them realy fast... :-)

Was wondering the same but I don't think he will: he's a phys hit minion (we don't scale it don't expect good damage without tweaks)


No spectres : not a Big deal in this build
No AG: this is a Big one good QoL damage & défensive layer
On the top, skele are 20% weakened



So he'll have to be busted to even consider.
Seemed a bit slow to me in reveal on top of all

Hope i'm mistaken because he looks badass as hell

Well, we use minion damage, not any specific ones, so unless his damage scales with a physical damage weapon... Plus he should get dmg/speed boost for every consumed summon.

What do you mean with "skele are 20% weakened"?

Let me explain this:
He hits physical damage
We scale minion damage and minion speed... Right!

But all buff/debuff emphasis are about elem : elemental equilibrium, elemental weakness, etc and does not contribute to any phys
Others minions deals 20% less damage, is litteraly written on gem

Oh, my bad, i only saw it on the stream, didnt know the gem itself is on website already... Well, its bleeding too, i dont think there is anything that supports minion bleeding? Except support gem in reaper link.

Anyway, i think main problem might be that the consume minion animation looked really slow on video, which means zero DPS while he is doing it. But i still wanna use it! :-)

Guess i'll just start regular skelemage build, and i'll get to the Reaper for second char.

Post-Ultimatum Discussion concerning Odif's build as played by a former(?) newbie

Odif made this build for newbies (raises hand) to play a league starter through to the end game. To say Odif succeeded at this would be, IMHO, quite the understatement. Many fledgling necromancers would agree with me, I'm sure.

As Ritual league was winding down (less than three weeks left) I created an SSF Witch named OldKateBatts (I didn't yet realize how difficult it would be to acquire the Dead Reckoning jewel in SSF). As this was eventually going to be only the third or so time I'd ever finished the campaign, going way back to when the campaign was much shorter, I judged that getting through some of the white maps (first time doing that), playing melee skeletons, to be an unqualified success. After Ritual was over and Old Kate was pushed to standard I bought a Dead Reckoning jewel and picked up a pair of the Breathstealer gloves ... and couldn't believe what I'd been missing.

At Ultimatum league start (notwithstanding the dumpster fire we enjoyed that Friday night), I created another SSF character, this time ED Contagion. As we started the league, however, I happened to still be logged into the /798 global channel, which was packed full of chatty necros. Including Odif himself, as well as several other experienced players, answering all kinds of questions. I played and read those messages for about two days before I gave up on the ED Cont build and started a trade league Witch. My attempt at Odif's build, Mark II, YoungKateBatts, was born.

Young Kate wasn't the only character I played in Ultimatum; in addition to the SSF Shadow/Trickster ED Cont (Zizeran's build), I started and played a trade Duelist/Champion Bonk Delver (Darkee's build) for a while, as well as a trade Shadow/Saboteur Ball Lightning Miner Delve start build (Beerleague's build) ... but Odif's Skeleton Mages build was where the bulk of my time in Ultimatum, by far, went. This build is so much fun you don't realize how quickly time flies.

To shorten this already long post, let me share with you all some firsts for me (I may have forgotten/missed a few things) ... from a fairly green PoE player at Ultimatum league start ... until now:

* Prior to Ultimatum I'd never made it past white maps, but this time I made it to tier 16 maps and did probably five dozen or more red maps, even with fragments and scarabs and watchstones on max, mostly without any problems (although there were some red maps that gave me plenty of trouble).

* YoungKateBatts, my highest-leveled character to date, made it to Level 95 (and then hit a wall on XP; she kept dying to one-shots, or nearly one-shots; if I'd pulled back to easier content I could have slowly leveled her higher, but the farthest I ever got was 95 1/2 ... before dying again)

I defeated Maven's invitations many times and chose multiple ascendancies for each atlas node/area; I earned many watchstones and set favorite maps on over half of the areas. I defeated the conquerors multiple times, and defeated the Constrictor and the Purifier

* Got tore completely up one side and down the other by the T16 Vaal Temple bosses before finally reading about them, and then I was able to win (it just took three maps to do it)

* Was utterly torched by Sirus 3x; I never scratched the dude until I watched a video on the fight (kicking myself; how am I supposed to know all this stuff? I'm not ... why don't I watch videos sooner? Playing blind is one thing ... but lol), and then he only got a little easier; I still lost to him and never won

* Defeated the Elder in his map

* Did a ton of Ultimatums, especially once I got a good shield; once I went back to Wand/Wand I quit doing them as the defense wasn't quite where it needed to be; sadly I never faced the Ultimatum Boss

* Delved (my favorite content) to level 189, stopping there only because I ran out of time. The only Delve recipe I wasn't able to unlock was for 6L; defeated Ahuatoli, the Blind (Delve Boss) ...

* Played through Syndicate multiple times and defeated Catarina (once)

* Went through Alva's temple multiple times; defeated Atziri once; went and fought Uber Atziri and was abruptly destroyed. In the temple I double-corrupted a Summon Skel gem (got Vaal Skels level 21, quality 20% out of it), and double-corrupted a 6L Cloak of Defiance which turned every socket white (put it on my Shadow intended for Delving)

* Did a lot of Bestiary crafting (nothing crazy, mostly flasks)

* Played Metamorph and Heist content (lightly), as well as Breach, Blight, Harvest, and Legion as they came up in maps

* Anointed several items

* Captured several minor bosses for Pantheon

* Upgraded a half-dozen or so uniques via Prophecies, and completed the four Prophecies chains to get all four Pale Court Keys. I fought and defeated the Pale Council with surprising ease (I thought they were going to be far more difficult than that)

More meaningful than any in-game accomplishment, however, was learning so much. I learned more about this game in a single league than I would have believed possible.

So in summary, I had an absolute blast this league, and 90% of the reason why it was so awesome ... is because I was playing Odif's build.

I like to thank all the other necros for helping out during the league, but especially Odif for taking so much time and care to craft (and update!) a truly wonderful guide for new players, and for answering so many questions in the global channel.

In 3.15 I'm going to try to do something different (maybe SSF again ... which might not last given the 3.15 nerfs; I've considered Odif's Fire Burst Elementalist Autobomber, but haven't checked to see if it's still going to be viable in 3.15 ... I'm also still thinking about ED Contagion ... what I'd really like to do is make a dedicated Delver - that can still do all content, only easily switching one or two things to go back and forth), but who knows, you might end up seeing EvenYoungerKateBatts running around this league. :D There's still that Skeleton Mages MOM variation (by therealtoothman) to try out ...

Cheers!

Endgame equipment

I used a Tabula from fairly early in the game until nearly the end, when I switched over to The Restless Ward.

I had a bit of trouble deciding upon a gem for that extra socket on my main wand, where you see Phase Run, once I changed to Wand/Wand and no longer needed Tempest Shield; I must've tried 20+ different gems there, of all three colors, and none of them appeared to help much with defense or offense):

So looks like from the gem nerfs we loose 16% cast speed and 35% more damage from gem nerfs at lvl 20