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

Ok, end of day 4.

I am level 86, and still slogging through the atlas, VERY slowly, tier 4 maps!

Current gear


I bought the +2 duration gems tabula for only 20c!
The taunt jewel was 7c

I am really liking the new support gems for the skeletons.
I am happy to lose some clear, to double my single target, and MOST IMPORTANTLY, see what I am doing.
(GMP on the skellies made it impossible to see stuff)

I unlocked the helm craft, +1 zombies, +1 skels.

I now have 10 zombies and 11 skeletons
(not counting the army that is Vaal Summon SKeleton)

Here is PoB pastebin snapshot of where I am at now.
https://pastebin.com/fMNJ4eKj

Skels average just under 100k dps each. (vs normal boss)
Zombies average just under 40k
SO thats a combined 1.5 mill dps, not counting Vaal Summon Skeletons.
(not that you can trust PoB, it is DEMON SPAWN)

Not too shabby, considering its about 50-60 chaos total that I spent on the gear, and my gems are still level 19.

How are you all doing?

If anybody else decides to stop using GMP on the skellies, let me know if you like it.

My league starter and has been breezing through content (only act 8).

If you are going Skele Mages why bother with Triad Gloves though? It will only affect zombies/spectres which aren't our main dps?

"

craptastic16 wrote:

My league starter and has been breezing through content (only act 8).

If you are going Skele Mages why bother with Triad Gloves though? It will only affect zombies/spectres which aren't our main dps?

According the latest snapshot of my PoB numbers
Zombies do about 400k dps and skels do about 1.1 million dps.

So the Zombies are VERY significant.

(Not that you can trust PoB, because it's DEMON SPAWN)

And...
And...

It allows seamless transition from melee skels to skel mages.

And...
And...

It allows us to run physical reflect maps.

hello i really like your biuld and i'm playing it, i hope you could suggest me more items for the endgame biuld i see it starting to lack damage when i start hitting sirius or the final boss . Thanks for viewing my comment

hey mate, either im totally blind or there isnt 1 but thought id ask anyway... is there a PoB link please? thanks

Edit: i found it haha, i see why it was semi hidden but rest assured i never look at the calcs.. simply just follow the line of skill point distribution. thanks

The switch from GMP to Ele Focus feels really good. Mapping is still fast and bosses feel completely reasonable to me. Nice catch.

Really enjoying this build, thank you for the guide!

I started out as a generic, self cobbled together skelly / zombie witch. I didn't like the direction I was heading and then got the Dead Reckoning jewel from a Ritual (or two, I think I had it on layaway for a few zones).
Popped that into the tree and loved the character again. A quick google and I stumbled onto this thread and the guidance has been fantastic!

After a bunch of regrets and sorting out the tree, I have been slowly and cheaply grabbing the gear necessary. Just hit 86 and into maps finally (tier 6 currently).

Gear as it stands is below;

Also got a From Dust jewel from a Ritual, so all my skellie mages are summoned in one cast.
Sitting at 9 zombies and 10 skellies atm, but plenty of places I can increase their numbers still.

Main purchases have been the wands for 4-8c each, chest for 7c, helm for 8c, 21/8 skellie gem for ~10c and various other pieces for a chaos or two. Prices are guesstimates, as my memory is bad, but Skellie jewel has been the highest buy to date.
Will look out for a cheap 5B/1G corrupted 6 link chest to try out dropping GMP as well.

Feels great so far!

Hello Odif thanks for the guide, I love how you took time to explain each step of the leveling process for new/returning players, I appreciate it greatly.
I haven't played since Legion and I am going with this build for this league, and as such I am wondering what anointing death attunement to my end game amulet means?
Is that a mechanic I have maybe missed in past few leagues?
Thanks.

"

Odif wrote:

If anybody else decides to stop using GMP on the skellies, let me know if you like it.

Because of my game crashing with too may projectiles I swamped out GMP for LMP which was a big help. It was a great balance between clearing and boss killing.

I have now tried 'Elemental Focus' and I still seem to get good clearing but now more boss damage.

Bottom line my vote is to switch out GMP for 'Elemental Focus'

I chose this build just before Ritual went live, i was looking for a minion build which left out Spectres because theyre a pain.

Anyway, i just finished Act10 and did my first map, here are my thoughts.

I dominated all content in every act, it was almost comical how fast things died, once i maps i swapped out to Skeleton Mages and the difference in clear speed is astonishing!

I spent about 30c on gear once i reached maps, double +1 daggers as recomended by Odif a decent 5L chest for now, a +2 helmet and a stygian vise with a gem i got while leveling, as mentioned above the clear speed is great there are a lot of projectiles so il give it some time to see if i want to change out from GMP to Elemental Focus, my only gripe is that i feel incredibly squishy at the moment, hopeffully as i level some more and pick up some more Life nodes as well as better gear things will pick up.

I would recommend this build though, its great fun.