Summon Skeletons

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I don't understand why everyone posting here is dis-sing skellies cuz mine rocks like ass kickers. I put my skellies on a spell totem linked with multi-strike, faster attacks & melee splash. Add in the unstable minion fire damage with passive fire damage skills and casting from totem as fast as they die its awesome. I don't have to run out of mana by spamming skellies to say the least.

If I have a spell totem casting skeletons, it will continue casting them even after the max number of skeletons is reached, thus replacing current skeletons with new ones.

If the totem is casting fast enough, it will actually replace the currently active/attacking skeletons with fresh ones, replacing the attack animation with the cast / disappear animation, making the attacking skeletons fail to connect the attack?

This logic must be flawed somewhere?

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Rory wrote:

Minion damage values can be temporarily found in this document.

Thank you!

Low level impressions here:

Skeletons are amazing if you have a spell totem on em. Skeletons without the spell totem are one of the most annoying skills in the game.

If I could summon them all at once (with appropriate mana cost of course) the short duration/life expectancy would be ok. But as it is without a spell totem you have to spend a large amount of time just repeatedly summoning the things.

This skill currently serves no purpose and I really, really wish it did. I theorycrafted a build I thought would be very fun until I took a look at the minion spreadsheets and realized how absolutely terrible the damage output is in comparison to anything else.

Raging Spirits do far more damage per hit, have a higher attack speed, have the Fire tag (allowing its gem to be linked to 5 supports in a +1 to Gems/+2 to Fire Gems staff), fly, THEY EVEN HAVE HIGHER MAXIMUM LIFE FOR SOME REASON, etc. There is absolutely no competition here.

Animated Weapons deal a ridiculous amount of damage with auras, have much longer duration, fly, benefit from Convocation, have higher attack speed on average (and an inherent attack speed bonus), have much higher base movement speed, etc. There is absolutely no competition here.

Raised Zombies are permanent, deal more damage per hit, have double the maximum life, have higher resistances, follow your character, benefit from Convocation, etc. There is absolutely no competition here.

I currently like the way the Summoned Skeletons are designed but I abhor the damage, life, and speed values. These things need to fill a niche in the endgame that isn't in the form of a distraction or blinding agent.

Here are a few generic suggestions I have to improve the skill:

• Change the name to Summon Skeleton Warriors. This isn't necessary but now that Vaal Summon Skeletons exists, the distinction should be made.
• Remove the elemental damage penalty. No one is gonna use these guys for elemental damage scaling over Raging Spirits or Animated Weapons anyways. This is so outdated it's still not funny.
• Give the skill the Melee tag. This is does nothing other than allow the gem to be put into a +1 to Gems/+2 to Melee Gems item. While you're at it, might as well give it to the other melee minions as well.
• Increase the attack speed slightly to 1.2 attacks per second from ~0.93 and the movement speed a little as well. It's a minor increase but would definitely help with the minions' clunkiness.
• Give them the same life as Raging Spirits but also the highest armor value of minion skills. Also consider giving them inherent block chance so they have shields for, you know, a reason. Let these things be tanky during their small duration.
• Increase the amount of skeletons summoned per cast from 2 to 3 at level 10 and to 4 at 18. One of the unique properties of the skill is being able to place skeletons right where you want them, so expanding on it gives this skill a clearer identity. You could also give a cast speed increase that raises per level.
• Increase the damage per hit for obvious reasons.

Here are some more unique ideas (each one is separate but can be combined as you see fit):

• Give the skill a variety of melee skeleton types pulled from the Vaal Summon Skeletons skill. The warrior type chosen would be chosen by chance. For example, summoning a single colossal skeleton rather than a couple skeleton warriors.
• Give the skeletons the unique property of Vis Mortis, in that they gain Unholy Might when they kill an enemy. Rather than giving the buff a duration, leave it to the minion duration.
• Attach a more multiplier for chaos damage to make the Unholy Might especially powerful and Added Chaos Damage, an obvious pairing with the skill, an added boost.
• Raise the base critical strike chance and base critical strike multiplier of the minions to create a new niche for summoners.
• Here's one I like a lot: scale the minions' damage based on how many other skeleton minions there are in proximity. The more skeletons, the higher the damage. I like it because when testing a full Summon Skeletons build I found that I need to resummon them all in one place to get them to target the sane enemies. So it makes the time to summon them all again more rewarding.

I'll write more later. I hope this post is considered. Please let me know what you think, GGG.

i personally believe that skeletons require some love from ggg. They aint bad they simply help you . I personally love them but i think they would benefit from some bonuses. Hope the 1.2 patch does something on them

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Rory wrote:

Minion damage values can be temporarily found in this document.

This doc still updated? (after 1.0.2)