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

Hi,

here the result of the awakerners orbed Amulet:



Thats 2 prefixes and 2 suffixes.
So crafting "Prefixes Cannot Be Changed" and scouring?
Because i dont't see a reason for anull this Amulet.

@Solanales: Thank you for your detailed information on crafting this

Also see people mentioning doriyani here, what is that ?

just pegged 97 with my tank version, died once to Maraketh archer (avoidable) so it's REAL REAL solid now, prolly ride this to 100 but the push now is just last 100m XP for my level 5 woke gem challenge

Been running ~100 quant T16's for 96>97, stupid map mods, no real issues, by the way T16 Promenade is my fave map this league

EDIT: just killed sirus AL8 dethless for 4th time with this build :-)

"

d3viant6 wrote:

just pegged 97 with my tank version, died once to Maraketh archer (avoidable) so it's REAL REAL solid now, prolly ride this to 100 but the push now is just last 100m XP for my level 5 woke gem challenge

Been running ~100 quant T16's for 96>97, stupid map mods, no real issues, by the way T16 Promenade is my fave map this league

EDIT: just killed sirus AL8 dethless for 4th time with this build :-)

I've reached my planned 36 challenges today and probably stop for this league. But it sure is an amazing build. Extremely flexible too. Thanks everyone for the fruitful discussions.

btw. if you unlink Ravenous Horde and direct path to Indomitable army and annoint RH instead (which is cheaper than IA, too) you'll free up 2 more skill points. Also you already have a superfluous int point going on two paths to RH.

-

Reaching a bit the late stage of this build.


I'm above 2m dps per skeleton in a single wand + shield setup.
11.4k eHP (6k life, 3k ES with Doryani+perma Spirit Offering, 2k mana).
78% all resist (including chaos), 33% phys dmg reduc from Armour (47% when flasked), so many defensive layers:
- Bone Armour
- my Forbidden Tast Quartz Flask for full instant life + phasing + dodge atk/spell
- basalt flask as mentioned
- the AG gives me the juggernaut's immunity to chill/frozen/temporal chains
- the AG makes nearby enemies cannot crit
- the AG gives me Fortify

Great mobility between movement flask, Flame Dash and Shield Charge.

I don't include Vulnerability from Merveil's Retainer in my PoB as I prefer the defensive option of Enfeeble and have 2 Carnage/2 Host chieftains for better uptime of the Frenzy & Power charges. Can't be bothered with Whispers of Doom.

In terms of gem setup I actually leave in Multistrike all the time and swap Melee Splash for Ruthless on bosses. Both Multistrike and Ruthless have a logic dealing more dps on the 3rd hit, but (a) Multistrike raises attack speed which is great for all the taunt/blind on hit, impale and other synergies, and (b) even if Multistrike wasn't giving crazy dps from the attack speed, in 2 hits Multistrike would already be better than Ruthless that only starts to add on 3rd hit.

The few upgrades I can still see for my build would be:
- Awakened Multistrike
- great corrupt like +2 socketed duration gem on chest
- trigger wand as I want to try even more uptime of Spirit Offering than with CWDT. Manual casting for me is not an option, tested it, discarded it. Way less reactive. Even with cyclone CwC setup.
- belt with +10% max life (hunter)
and that's about it. I don't even care anymore about +1 skelly on amulet, why go to 14? Might even consider swapping the +1 skelly & zombie on chest for +8% max life/ES.
- if I ever get to lvl 100 I could drop the +5% life passives from life wheel to go fetch the passives around Devotion and the socket on the way. I would lose 5% max life, but would gain a bit of intel, strength and another jewel with life/minion dmg/minion atk speed.

I'm at a point where even on Shaper/Sirus/whatever the only thing preventing the boss to die in seconds are phase transitions and other animations.
Still die a couple of times per level but that's often carelessness/fatigue.
AG hasn't gone down in health since I made a new one after my Hall of the Grandmaster whoopsie. So Ephemeral robe seems much better to me than a Belly or other defensive options.

Overall spending way more time researching ways to improve even more the defensive layers or QoL of this build since dps is now completely irrelevant (2m per skeleton x13 = 26m dps, Uber Elder has 48m health per mob, so if there weren't animations to make bosses immune they would die in 3.7seconds, maybe 4.5seconds with the Awakening 8 bonuses).

Starting to spend time thinking what's going to be my character for next league. Even if this doesn't get nerfed I might try something different. Maybe a super defensive version of Cospri CoC Ice Nova cyclone. Might still play necro as a league starter given how cheap it is to gear for T16 (I was doing T16 on this char as soon as I did my Uber lab for last Ascendency, which was before even lvl 72, with total budget about 1ex), even if it scales nicely in endgame.

"

venk2011 wrote:

Hi,

here the result of the awakerners orbed Amulet:

Thats 2 prefixes and 2 suffixes.
So crafting "Prefixes Cannot Be Changed" and scouring?
Because i dont't see a reason for anull this Amulet.

@Solanales: Thank you for your detailed information on crafting this

You can now either craft tier 3 life in it or slam it (i'd recommend the former unless rich :P)

Just killed Sirus today for the first time thanks to this build (Awakened lvl 5).
Thanks to everyone who has contributed to the thread/guide.

Currently lvl 94, I'm cutting through juiced t16 maps as if it was butter and my pets almost never die.
I think the few times where I have been in trouble were when facing some ridiculous metamorphs or/and when fighting beyond spawns.

For eveyone having trouble dying in a flash sometimes, I can confirm that stacking chaos res makes a HUGE difference. I'm sitting at 71% but as said a few times here already by others, I felt a lot better when I reached ~40-50%.

I don't know if it's the right time to go for AG now, or if there are better upgrades to consider first. I'm working on getting 21/20 golems and spectres, and lvl 21 vaal skeletons. I have some 20/20 skeletons ready to slam at the temple but Alva doesn't seem to be willing to give me a T3 gem room for now, so i'm working with a 21/20 skeletons (a bit painful without vaal for the legions).

Anyway, hf everyone.

"

venk2011 wrote:

Hi,

here the result of the awakerners orbed Amulet:

Thats 2 prefixes and 2 suffixes.
So crafting "Prefixes Cannot Be Changed" and scouring?
Because i dont't see a reason for anull this Amulet.

@Solanales: Thank you for your detailed information on crafting this

Yep no reason to annul. I just did it because I had a prefix I didn't want. Looking at your profile, it seems you already went through with it and got it all set.

Nice work. Yeah the 66 life is from a max crafted life roll and 20 fertile catalysts to qual it up.

Greetings,

For those interested in the spectre conversation I did some testing.

First of all, I run my spectres in The baron linked with meat shield - concentrated effect and spell echo (reason following)

- I used to run 4 slave drivers and, FOR ME, it was great because faster map clearing and good boss dmg (Better boss dmg than Flame sentinels).

- I did the test with the frency and power generations with blood magic and 1)I was almost never max charges, 2) did not really feel that I needed the extra dmg to the cost of slower mapping.

- I tried 2x Undying evangelist no blood magic ( meat shield - concentrated effect and spell echo ) and 2x Slave drivers and I ended up with almost all the time max frenzy, power and endurance. It was better than the hosts.

- I tried 3x slave driver and 1x ruins hellion ( meat shield - concentrated effect and spell echo) and I had an as good clear speed than 4 Slave driver + the Rallying cry 95% uptime. I noticed that my T16 awakening 8 Metamorphs killing was twice as fast. :)

- Finally I tried 2x slave drivers, 1 Ruins hellion and 1x undying evangelist ( meat shield - concentrated effect and spell echo). T16 awakening 8 Metamorphs killing was as good as the aforementioned point but my charges were so-so: 1 power here, 2 frenzy there 2 endurance here, etc...almost never at max BUT 90% of the time I had at least a total of 5 diverse charges.

- I experimented with Merveils and 3x slave drivers. Merveils is great! I am seriously thinking to go 2 curses and use enfeeble or temporal chain.

QUESTION: I am keeping looking for a spectre or many spectres that would boost my defense, making me more impervious to dying. I have my AG with kingmaker, but I would like more. I am experimenting with inexorable on the tree (cost only 3 points for me) but I want more. Any suggestion?

Thank you