[3.9] Pure Phys Skeletons & Friends Necromancer — Beginner/SSF/Budget Build

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aerial wrote:

So as I progressed to corrupted T16, found that it is better to drop melee splash for another dps gem.. Stuff has so much hp. especially bosses, such as beasts, build seems much safer is enemies die really fast. Skeletons deal enough area damage by their own swings, clear seems smoother this way. You need the damage. Not to mention you don't need swap gems for bosses then.

Using that unique jewel that summons 4 extra skeletons is pretty nice, one cast makes bomb of 8 skeletons, feels moother than stopping and channeling spawn of more of them.
With all +skeleton items you will get around 14 skeletons total (and 44 more from vaal skill).
There is some issue with them surviving some of the bosses, some spawn like stack of vaal stormcall, and that kills everything including zombies and spectres.. :D Adding fortify support to skeletons seems to be helping a bit.
Could be that going straight up bone offering with enchant will be good, because skeletons have really low hp, and adding damage reduction to that low base (via fortify) will be significantly worse than giving them 40ish % block/spell block. Even most damage on skeletons isnt going to work if they die super fast vs some of the bosses. Sure you can recast, but you'd rather have your vaal army to stick around couple of more seconds.

Also looking at pob, I wouldn't focus on giving damage links to both zombies and golem. Even if you go 2x 6l, they are much weaker than skeleton dps. Let alone in 4l. I'd give golem maim, use another golem for your own survivability like stone or chaos, and then zombies make them pure tank, meat shied/inc life/life leech. 1 Zombie not only wont engage most of the time because its in defensive mode, but deals only fraction of dps of a single skeleton.

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taegummy wrote:

Am I supposed to run around the boss so that the zombies are in range to attack? I realise that if I do keep my distance, the zombies follow me and do nothing in particular.

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aefoa wrote:

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taegummy wrote:

Am I supposed to run around the boss so that the zombies are in range to attack? I realise that if I do keep my distance, the zombies follow me and do nothing in particular.

!THIS! Have the same problem while encountering Metamorphs. Zombies/spectres having meat shield are worthless as they have so small agro range and don't hit to taunt. If i get closer to boss, i always get a lot of aggro on myself before metamorph is taunted by minions and even in this case, i risk being damaged by huge super fast aoes/projectiles castcades which lead to 1-shot KO.

I'm looking for the best minions build for HC Metamorph farming but can't really find any reliable one :/
The best i did so far was having 8k eHP with CwC-Spirit offering spectres/skellies/zombies all with damage setup since spirit offering heals them super efficiently. And still got 1-shot at tier 5 map by x5 huge AOE projectiles.

In short: what's the best and most reliable way to utilize Meat shield support while engaging Metamorphs with long range evasive combat tactics?

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KbearForLife wrote:

Okay this build is insane. Are you here as a new player looking for something reliable in the mix? This is absolutely 100% the build for you. Big shout out to the creator and to the work you put in.

Couple things.
Get Vaal Skeles asap. Vaal Skeles (you can use both normal Skeletons and Vaal skeletons, look in your hotbar) feels entirely satisfying, raising an army of 30 minions with the click of a button is nuts.

Get shield charge + Faster Attacks. I don't know if it is because I am used to Flame Dash and Leap Slam, but Shield Charge makes me skim across maps faster than I thought possible with a movement skill. I think it is because we get % of Minion buffs applied to our character? At least that's what I think.

Lastly, if you look at my gear my gear is absolute trash. I haven't spent more than 1c this entire league and just hit A10.

There is so much room for improvement, I can see why some folks are reluctant to clear top maps. PoE got huge boss buffs recently. I encourage you to tweak this build to your liking. Looking forward to maps today.

Thanks Exile!

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KbearForLife wrote:

Okay this build is insane. Are you here as a new player looking for something reliable in the mix? This is absolutely 100% the build for you. Big shout out to the creator and to the work you put in.

Couple things.
Get Vaal Skeles asap. Vaal Skeles (you can use both normal Skeletons and Vaal skeletons, look in your hotbar) feels entirely satisfying, raising an army of 30 minions with the click of a button is nuts.

Get shield charge + Faster Attacks. I don't know if it is because I am used to Flame Dash and Leap Slam, but Shield Charge makes me skim across maps faster than I thought possible with a movement skill. I think it is because we get % of Minion buffs applied to our character? At least that's what I think.

Lastly, if you look at my gear my gear is absolute trash. I haven't spent more than 1c this entire league and just hit A10.

There is so much room for improvement, I can see why some folks are reluctant to clear top maps. PoE got huge boss buffs recently. I encourage you to tweak this build to your liking. Looking forward to maps today.

Thanks Exile!

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Gvaul wrote:

Hello from Russia!
First of all, thanks 4 your build, playing it on ssf and it's awesome!
Why not take Impale support (+dread banner) 4 bosses?
In updated PoB that can calculate impale effect this setup is much stronger than Ruthless.

In PoB with my ssf gear i can reach 450k dps per skeleton with my current gear, and 600k with 2 wands +1 minion skill gems and crafted minion damage, and 650k with 21/20 skeleton gem and 13 skeletons, so it's about 8kk dps.
It is very huge for ssf setup!

https://pastebin.com/j6wj12Br - just take a look

Thank you, and sry 4 my english.