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

Done..I think.

Ok, I looked at your character.

You have no life on your helm, ring, ring, ammulet, belt.

That is INSANE.
You should have high life on all those items.

Use a +1 int gems ammy with lots of life, instead of the unique.

Use a rare helm with +2 minion gems, life and resists. (or better, +3) Benchcraft +1 max skeletons on it.

Your shield is NOT good, -10% to max block chance is deadly.
Use a rare with +spel block/life on block, or some other unique shield.

The gloves you use are not good for this build.
For THIS league, Breathstealer is incredible.
Or use a rare glove with life and resists, and craft 15% minion damage.

Annoint Death Attunement on your amulet.
Regret out of the 7 skill points leading to that.
Use those point to get more life (scion life wheel)

For more offense, buy a 21/23 vaal summon skeleton.
Get quallity on the support gems.
Either buy 20/20 support gems, or vendor a 20/0 gem with a GCP to get a 1/20 gem back, then level em up.

Getting a 21/23 skel gem, and 20% quality on the supports, and a +1 int gems ammy will nearly double your dps.

Get the benchcraft "trigger a socketed spell when you use a skill" on the wand. Put the bone offering and desecrate in the wand. (this is quality of life)

A LOT of what I just wrote is in the guide.
I know its VERY LONG, and peeps dont want to read that much, but there is good info there.

First of all thank you for taking the time to look at my character.
I'll work on your points now and see if I can get some better gear...

Thanks again.

I've been really enjoying this build, its ease of play and the fact that I've been able to play almost entirely ssf until I had to buy a +1 spell skill wand.

I'm now level 93, making this my highest level character ever and most maps up to t15 are very comfortable. Only thing that really slows me down is no regen mods.

I'm not sure if I've followed to gearing guide quite fully, but this build is great!

I'm gonna drop in my variant, I went with Promaore for MOM/Agnostic variant and we collabed on the build together. He's the main engineer, very smart!

My character's MostlyPeacefulRitual, much less currency value in the gear but still with excellent results. The Feared, 36 challenges, lv97 (could have pushed further but that's not for me), 80% Deli, all maps mods are easy.

A couple tricks I wanted to add here:

Rotting Legion


With 10 active Zombies that's 10% reduced elemental damage taken, a very noticeable improvement. I prefer over Fleshcrafter for the defense and since we can get enemy resists under 0%.

Blade Blast with any amount of added ele damage will apply EE and Unnerve, it has zero cd and quick cast time. I add only Cold since it's the lowest damage of the Skele Mages.

Archdemon Crown:

It's like a free Elemental Army for your Skeletons! We don't know yet what crafting is going to look like for 3.14 but let's hope something like this is still in reach.

To keep my AG alive, I put a Mask of the Stitched Demon with an ES chest with "% of life gained as Energy Shield" crafted on it, gives him incredible regen at a significant cost of currency.

I started with a 6L Lioney's Vision then upgraded to a nice helmet, a very affordable progression. Skele Mages has got to be one of the top league starters for 3.14!

EDIT: Also +10,000 to Sniper's Mark! It's by far best for single-target dps and the projectile splits wipe out everything else nearby. Combined with Signal Prey from Predator Support turns any tough target into a short-lived Disco Ball. I call this build Disco Skeles

Ok, over the next week I will be updating this build to 3.14.

Final changes will be up once patch notes are out, and poeplanner.com is updated to 3.14.

After watching the Ultimatum reveal video, I think this build will be AMAZING in 3.14, as it's another "stay in one place and fight waves of monsters" league, which is PERFECT for Vaal Summon Skeletons.

We will see for sure, when the patch notes are out.

Fantastic guide mate, looking to League start this with the release of Ultimatum. Looking forward to any update posted.

Hey Odif,

Thanks for this excellent guide. I was able to go a long way on “budget”. As I accumulated currency, I spent more on it because I enjoyed playing it, reaching lev 97. There are lots of options in this build.

Thrilled to know you’ll be updating it again; I’ll choose it as a league starter.

Thanks again for taking the time and sharing your knowledge.

I just came here to say that this was actually the 1st build i had that reached end game, and by end game, i mean killing sirius . First time in 3 years since i started that i actually killed the last guy from atlas. I hate spectres and zombies, always looking for a prue skellies build or at least something that looked like that, not too many minions. This build was what i searched all the time and i cant wait for the update to 3.14 because im definetely doing again, thank you for this excelent guide author!

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Hoya63 wrote:

Hey Odif,

Thanks for this excellent guide. I was able to go a long way on “budget”. As I accumulated currency, I spent more on it because I enjoyed playing it, reaching lev 97. There are lots of options in this build.

Thrilled to know you’ll be updating it again; I’ll choose it as a league starter.

Thanks again for taking the time and sharing your knowledge.

Thanks for the feedback.