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

Great build, Great league btw! Really loving ritual at the moment. Levelling was a breeze, it was super easy to get currency. Rituals are like a drug. I had to force myself to skip them all between act 8 to act 10 because I was overlevelled by 8 level at beginning of Act 8.

Bought Dead Reckoning beginning of Act 6 and played with a 4 links chest until Tier 1 map. At that point I decided to look at my currency and had 33 chaos lol :P. Ritual is a money making machine, it's so fluid. So I've capped my resist, bought a tabula, +2 minion helmet and now I will begin to conquer the atlas. Still I should really think about doing lab... I'm Level 74 unascended and don't feel that it is necessary at the moment... Lab is a chore...

Btw guys thanks for the comments, I'm really surprise to read we can manage red maps. I thought we would hit a DPS ceiling at some point and would need to switch to melee skellies.

In any case, I'll push the build for quite a while, probably unascended until I begin to die often.

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TitCriss wrote:

Btw guys thanks for the comments, I'm really surprise to read we can manage red maps. I thought we would hit a DPS ceiling at some point and would need to switch to melee skellies.

Odif did a fine job with this build, and it deserves some love.

I've found a few high-tier red maps and bosses are like brick walls with the wrong mods, but many of them melt like butter. One T16 guardian was impossible for me to damage, for example, while another melted slowly and safely.

My gear is unremarkable by endgame standards, too:

I've got a pair of +1 spell skill gem sceptres with minion damage crafted on just one of them (proper convoking wands are too fancy for my budget). I've got the +2 helm for zombies. Then there's the triad grip, and the rest are rares with resists and life. For gems, I'm running a 21/0 vaal summon skeletons in a corrupted 6L; all the support gems are nearly at 20/20 now, and nothing is alternate quality.

Not bad for a "league starter".

Right now I really want to see if this build can be pushed into deep endgame. There are plenty of ways to sink a hundred exalts here, too: cluster jewels, +2 convoking wands, alternate quality gems, awakened supports. Heck, I might even respec into a transcendance loreweave skelemancer.

So keep going, and watch for incremental upgrades. They definitely add up.

PS - my new favorite thing is running Niko missions in Lex Proxima with the atlas passive that gives you increased movement speed and damage for each sulphite deposit you find. Serious Zoomies.

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Odif wrote:

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.

I actually fixed it with replacing GMP with slower projectiles. It is still ok clear, at least with my playstyle, much better single target dps, and i can actually see whats going on. Well, most of time, as i replaced gloves with Breathstealer, so screen is now covered with spores... :-) But it really works great with this league mechanic, when you are locked in a very small arena every few minutes.

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evilmindcz wrote:

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Odif wrote:

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.

I actually fixed it with replacing GMP with slower projectiles. It is still ok clear, at least with my playstyle, much better single target dps, and i can actually see whats going on. Well, most of time, as i replaced gloves with Breathstealer, so screen is now covered with spores... :-) But it really works great with this league mechanic, when you are locked in a very small arena every few minutes.

This recommendation saved my build :)

It got to the point where during the Rituals I had so many projectiles flying that it crashed the game about 20% of the time. After I switched over to LMP, the problem went away plus it feels like a good balance between killing mobs and single target.

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Arkaon wrote:

Evening Odif!

So, I league started with this and am sitting at about 19 hours. So far its going really well! Might be my favorite league start.

I went with the Mages version, and man do I love the clearspeed. I can definitely feel the difference between single target and clear though.

I hope you continue supporting this build, as it might be my fav league start so far.

Any chance you could tell me what would be my best next upgrades? Also, am I missing anything gem wise? I feel like there is something missing.

Link: https://www.pathofexile.com/account/view-profile/Arkaon/characters

Looks fine.
Trigger socketed spells when you use a skill
That craft on the wand is a huge QoL upgrade.

So, I have been thinking about the single target problem that has been reported for some bosses in high tier maps.

1)For bosses: gem swap out GMP and pierce, and put in Slower projectiles, and hypothermia

2) Higher cost alternative
Get a chest with 2 white, 4 blue sockets

For bosses: swap out skel mage support gems with MELEE SKEL support gems.
Remove Dead Reckoning from the passive tree.

Melee skels will delete any boss.

hi! great guide!
im a new player and this guide suits me!
however, ive started playing n invested 15 skill passive points to Grave Intentions and Ravenous Horde. Also helped ALiya. What should i do? Respec?
Thanks!

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CrAzYSuPaMaN wrote:

hi! great guide!
im a new player and this guide suits me!
however, ive started playing n invested 15 skill passive points to Grave Intentions and Ravenous Horde. Also helped ALiya. What should i do? Respec?
Thanks!

If it was me I would respec out of 'Ravenous Horde' and not worry about respec into helping all bandits until later in the game (the extra resistance helps out). You be using Grave Intentions so just keep it.

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Skua99 wrote:

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CrAzYSuPaMaN wrote:

hi! great guide!
im a new player and this guide suits me!
however, ive started playing n invested 15 skill passive points to Grave Intentions and Ravenous Horde. Also helped ALiya. What should i do? Respec?
Thanks!

If it was me I would respec out of 'Ravenous Horde' and not worry about respec into helping all bandits until later in the game (the extra resistance helps out). You be using Grave Intentions so just keep it.

i see~. thats great! noted with thanks for the advice!

Ok, I did some experimenting with a Tabula

The best compromise I can find that I like (And opinions may vary on what YOU like)

Is...

Chest with 5B/G sockets
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.)

So this way, each skeleton fires a SINGLE projectile.
So, the screen full of projectiles is no more.
I can once again see what I am doing.

Clear is still good. Slower, but still fast enough for me.

Single target is MUCH MUCH better. We go from GMP with 26% less damage, to Elemental Focus 49% more, so doubling damage on single target!