💀3.15💀 iLL3aT’s Cold Skeleton Warriors/Archers/Mages ❆ League Starter ❆ All Content ❆

Figured I'd update you on how I decided to go with my spectres.

Swapped hatred and generosity to my wand and dropped frostbite. Linked spectres to increased duration/ clarity/ minion life support. The 4 spectres I'm using are Arena Master/ Carnage Chieftain/ Death Bishop/ Undying Evangelist.

For regular clearing maps etc, the damage is fine without having frostbite on every mob. Once you get to the boss the death bishop 90% of the time gets frostbite on the boss, the other 10% I deal enough damage to kill it before it gets the chance to. This build has plenty of damage to not have to run frostbite as a curse.

Now to the real positive of this change.

My survivability has gone through the ROOF! Why you might ask? Running clarity even with it max level I have plenty of mana unreserved and can spam my skeletons as much as I want, meaning I can speed run through maps and constantly move my skeletons pack to pack with no worries of mana. This keeps me alive more than I ever thought it would, and its such a huge quality of life to the build.

With clarity my ape has no issues keeping frenzy charges up, and they last longer with increased duration. Death bishop keeps frostbite up 100% of the time on single target with increased duration as well.

I've done 2 Sirus at A8 since the change and with minion life now not even my ape dies during the fight anymore. Not to mention with running clarity it gives more attack speed to the minions because of Commander of Darkness.

The Undying Evangelist is hit or miss imo. It keeps the buff up almost 90% of the time because of increased duration, and yea it helps keep my minions alive from outside of the bubble but.. If I'm at the point where my minions need the bubble to stay alive then I'm already in too much trouble, which doesn't even happen with this build tbh.
I think I'll replace the Evangelist with another Carnage Chieftain to get skeletons frenzy charges faster.

If you feel like mana is annoying to deal with I can 100% recommend this change. The build already has so much damage to be able to drop frostbite for regular mob clearing, and you still get it on single target with this set up. And its a cheap set up as it just requires a little recoloring and buying some gems from Lilly.

"

shaob wrote:

right on didnt notice the cold damage from my wand. i paid 400c for this like 2 weeks ago... so when i replace it i want it to be with a BIG upgrade. For now i'll path into avatar of fire and use frostbomb> that is correct, right?


*edit


also followup question - are syndicate spectres x4 a good choice? I'm not sure i really like the skeletons having the charges from the chieftan monkies.

Hey check out my previous post right above, you might be interested in that kind of set up.

"

shaob wrote:

right on didnt notice the cold damage from my wand. i paid 400c for this like 2 weeks ago... so when i replace it i want it to be with a BIG upgrade. For now i'll path into avatar of fire and use frostbomb> that is correct, right?


*edit


also followup question - are syndicate spectres x4 a good choice? I'm not sure i really like the skeletons having the charges from the chieftan monkies.

Frost bomb only activates when it explodes...then it triggers the EE..

If you path to avatar of fire with that wand just use armagedon brand...


Frost bomb applies exposure until it explodes and deals the cold damage which will be converted to fire...

I think it's a matter of taste.


I kind of hate Armagedon brand, but it's easier to trigger EE on bosses with it.

"

Vendetta wrote:

"

shaob wrote:

right on didnt notice the cold damage from my wand. i paid 400c for this like 2 weeks ago... so when i replace it i want it to be with a BIG upgrade. For now i'll path into avatar of fire and use frostbomb> that is correct, right?


*edit


also followup question - are syndicate spectres x4 a good choice? I'm not sure i really like the skeletons having the charges from the chieftan monkies.

Frost bomb only activates when it explodes...then it triggers the EE..

If you path to avatar of fire with that wand just use armagedon brand...


Frost bomb applies exposure until it explodes and deals the cold damage which will be converted to fire...

I think it's a matter of taste.


I kind of hate Armagedon brand, but it's easier to trigger EE on bosses with it.

You'll have to excuse me for being so bad at PoE even with 1050ish hours into the game since breach league. Played since 2013 - but really really played hardcore since breach.

Thanks for the tips.

does anyone else feel like glorious vanity doesn't do much in comparison to replica soul tether?

i actually have a lower effective HP now

Hi all. Wanted to know.. which body is better.. planning to upgrade body. im not aiming for +duration gem/+skeleton as that is hard to get in heist atm.

For those with mana problems, you may want to run a few labs to try to get the 70% mana regen if you cast a spell enchant - it should solve all mana problems.

@Cronggz - Pick up one of these redeemer rings. Free frostbite when you cast your EE spell. Might have to rebalance res though since they typically don't come with any:

@Vendetta - To be fair, the character is still level 68, but having to attack instead of a near instant cast spell feels...bad. Almost like an attack build haha. It's been fun to theorycraft since it focuses on completely different stats for scaling skeletons.

Frost bomb also saves a socket, which can used for something like minion life on spectres, zombies, etc. Armageddon brand is more beginner friendly, which is why I recommend it. Once players are more comfortable with the build and playstyle, then swapping to frost bomb is still left as an option as it is definitely a DPS upgrade. On a side note, phantasmal frost bomb looks superb.

@Lazer_Death - Not sure why that's the case to be honest. I felt damage was pretty similar when I switched (I played phys for the first two weeks when I was poor) - I did not have a +2 chest or +1 wands even, but those should affect both the same way. Logically thinking, they should scale pretty similarly (phys gets half it's dmg from impale, cold from hatred). I'll play with the PoBs when I update them this weekend.

@SpookyDucks - Sounds like a good change if you don't like the reserved mana for sure. I've been meaning to add the boot enchant as the main source of mana regen - forgot I had that last league.

I personally found evangelist a little unreliable.

You can also get level 5 or 8 frostbite on a ring - best of both worlds, except for balancing resists.

@shaob - You can run whatever you want really. I have no experience with the new meta spectre, the operatives, but I suspect they may be okay for extra clear speed (I used to use redemption sentries for that).

@copsinyourcomputer - It's less due to not giving 4-7% of max life as extra ES, however, you do get a belt slot which can get up to 139 life (abyss belt + jewel), 140 (darkness enthroned), or a lot of utility (torrent's reclamation). I'm running a replica on my meme iron mass character and am having horrible resistance problems (still using a goldrim). It's a very viable end game belt though, and I am glad they added it, especially with GV being 2 ex+!

@sedeat01 - Either of the three would be fine really - you may have to plug them all into PoB to know exactly which one gives the most life. Armor does not do much for us since we have so little, so I'd focus more on the life/res that you need.

@iLL3aT

Rare body - 5,196/1,517
Artizi Body - 4,965/1,801
Belly - 5,534/1,563 --(if belly my ress will be 70/75/75)


Im thinking of going into artizi body due for hte hp mana gain per kill utility.

How does "Curse on hit" mod work?
If i use holy flame totem, will it apply the curse if i have that mod on my ring?

"

sedeat01 wrote:

Hi all. Wanted to know.. which body is better.. planning to upgrade body. im not aiming for +duration gem/+skeleton as that is hard to get in heist atm.

The rare one overall.


Atziri's splendor is pretty much useless as you ain't killing anything