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

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Voopvoop wrote:

Thoughts on using Zealotry rather than Anger? Shows a big DPS boost in path of building. Blue gem, so might need to swap glove and boot gems so keep the EE. Not sure the gloves are worth using if going skelly mages - mages aren't impacted and it seems they do 99% of the work.

I don't trust PoB for skel mages, it thinks they have base phys damage.

Anger helps zombies, zealotry does not.
SKels get 50% more flat damage.

Ok
Finally posting a PoB
https://pastebin.com/Q7mXcqHc

It's a snapshot of my league starter at level 80, highest map completed is tier 3.


P.S.

DONT TRUST PoB for skel mage damage. It appears to think that they have base phys damage, as it likes hatred aura for them.

PoB is DEMON SPAWN.

P.P.S.
I did some tweaking, its now properly showing EE, and it is showing Spell Echo as helping dps.


Zombies doing 33k each, 8 of them. 262k dps.
SKel mages, depends on what ratio of mages you get, perhaps averaging 35k each.
Thats 9 skels normally, 16-18 with vaal summon, so total dps is over 1/2 a million.

Lots of room for improvement in the gear, and the gem levels are 18.

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Odif wrote:

PoB is DEMON SPAWN.

Another reason to distrust POB when it comes to minions: spell echo has no effect on skeleton mage dps or cast speed.

Edit: I'm using POB wrong, as Odif *just* said he got spell echo working. Doh.

Will this, as written, take me to red maps you think? If not, is there something I can look at for the next level of mages? I'm really liking the playstyle, just hit act 9.

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tpendragon wrote:

Will this, as written, take me to red maps you think? If not, is there something I can look at for the next level of mages? I'm really liking the playstyle, just hit act 9.

It will take you past red maps.
I just did a tier 10 map, (somebody elses hideout), with my basic gear, with level 18 gems, and I was dominating it.

The only problem I see with the build, is that the skeleton mages put out so many projectiles that it is hard to see what is happening. I occasionally die to what would otherwise be avoidable damage. I can't manually dodge it, if i cant see what is happening.

If it gets too annoying, I can always go back to melee skels....SLOW clear, but safer.

Looking at poe.ninja skelly mages builds, I see quite a few combinations of Femur of the Saints to have both 5-6 links skellys for clear, 5-6 links zombies for single target. What do you think about that ? Looks like a pretty good option.

spell echo doesn't work because it doesn't support vaal skills T_T
Should i remove vaal skeletons hmm?
nvm it's bugged aijaj.

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exilekami wrote:

spell echo doesn't work because it doesn't support vaal skills T_T
Should i remove vaal skeletons hmm?

One could argue the benefit of having the extra skellies on bosses outweight the damage bonus of spell echo (considering we have enough damage to easily kill packs).

I would think the vaal skellies is worth more than the extra cast. My questions still remain, because i'm unable to properly test this right now:
do we get at least the "more cast speed" portion of the spell echo gem?
and if so, is it more worth than any other pure "more damage" gems? (about this, i could argue the spell echo would only work [if it does] on spellcasts, not benefitting any other vaal skelletons we summon, while any elemental %more damage would help every summon)

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Odif wrote:

It will take you past red maps.

Yup. 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.

The only nasty thing I've run into so far is Sirus map mobs. However, if you check reddit, those mobs are one-shotting tanky max block builds with phys reduction, boosted max resists, fortify effect, and full endurance charges. They feel a little over-tuned :)

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.

EDIT: It's primordial emminence that boots golem buffs, not harmony.

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eliahmello wrote:

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exilekami wrote:

spell echo doesn't work because it doesn't support vaal skills T_T
Should i remove vaal skeletons hmm?

One could argue the benefit of having the extra skellies on bosses outweight the damage bonus of spell echo (considering we have enough damage to easily kill packs).

I would think the vaal skellies is worth more than the extra cast. My questions still remain, because i'm unable to properly test this right now:
do we get at least the "more cast speed" portion of the spell echo gem?
and if so, is it more worth than any other pure "more damage" gems? (about this, i could argue the spell echo would only work [if it does] on spellcasts, not benefitting any other vaal skelletons we summon, while any elemental %more damage would help every summon)

I guess it works with vaal skeletons after all, it's just a bit slow on the repeat, thought it would be faster on repeat skill, i notice shoot shoot, wait a bit and shoot shoot hmm