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

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shadowdudez2 wrote:

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snowmittens wrote:

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shadowdudez2 wrote:

So what's the best and fastest way to get Dead Reckoning? Especially in SSF? Thanks.

I had 2 drop on my SSF run- one at act 5 which enabled the build, the other when I hit level 97/98...

You can do a melee skeleton build which is also pretty strong and if/when you get the jewel you can switch. I might try this myself as my Blade blast build I was thinking of running has been nerfed

Would you mind linking said build? I'd like to try it and transition once i get the jewel.

You can use this build as a base with the following changes:

In the chest: 3b/3r
VSS, minion damage, Multistrike, elemental damage with weapons, melee physical damage, elemental focus

Triad Grip Gloves
Now, the colors are tricky
Highest dps is 4G and use hatred, BUT that means you run out of sockets and have to get rid of some stuff, use 2 unset rings, etc

Or 4B, and wrath. Put armagedden brand, hexbrand , conductivity, and flame dash in the gloves.

Your choice.

P.S.
triad grip gloves are easy to get in SSF, as there is only ONE unique mesh glove, triad grips, so you get one, scour/chance until you have it.
(or just chance every white one you find, to save scours)

Odif!

What ya think of the patch notes? Just vitality affected....and what else? Oh yeah renewal from 6% to 5%

I think skeleton mages still on menu!

What did 3.14 do to this build?

A few small nerfs, otwo small buffs and a nerf that will up the cost of a key upgrade item.

(Small Nerf) Vitality has about 20% less life regen at level 20.
No big deal, we have other sources of regen.

(Small Nerf) Trigger socketed spells craft now has an 8 second cooldown.
(It was 4)
When you get this optional craft, you will have to be more careful, watching to see the Bone Offering buff is up at all times. WIth 5 corpses, it has a 9 second duration, and we have duration bonuses, so we should be ok.

(Small Buff) Vaal Summon Skeleton will now gain souls twice as fast when fighting bosses.

(Small Buff) Abyss Jewels that grant flat damage to minions now grant more of it.

(Big cost nerf, tiny dps nerf)
Vaal summon skeleton gem can no longer be 21/23, but can only be 21/20, and can only be obtained in the temple from a double corrupt gem altar, with a very lucky roll on a 20/20 skeleton gem. This means 21/20 VSS gems will be much more expensive.
This does not kill the build, as you can do fine with a 20/20 VSS gem, but does up the cost.
We will see just how expensive they will become.

I am basing this on the following from the patch notes.
Vaal Skill Gems can now only be obtained from a set of specific methods such as Corrupting Gems, Vaal Side Areas, Divination Cards (that specifically grant Vaal Skill Gems) and the Lapidary Lens in the Temple of Atzoatl.

It used to be 21/23 VSS gems could just drop from some league mechanics. My reading of this text says, that is no longer the case.

CONCLUSION on 3.14:
The build is fine, the nerfs are trivial other than costing more for a optional gem upgrade.

I'm wondering if a 20/20 VSS is really an upgrade over a 21/23 regular Skellies gem if you just save your Souls for Vaal Haste instead (regular Aura turned off), about a 20% DPS increase. Spell Echo doesn't affect VSS and most of its Skeles don't deal anywhere near as much as Mages.

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therealtoothman wrote:

I'm wondering if a 20/20 VSS is really an upgrade over a 21/23 regular Skellies gem if you just save your Souls for Vaal Haste instead (regular Aura turned off), about a 20% DPS increase. Spell Echo doesn't affect VSS and most of its Skeles don't deal anywhere near as much as Mages.

Just eyeballing it, I think a 20/20 VSS would be more dps than a 21/23 skel gem.

When I was playing aroun in PoB a 2 months ago, vaal skels did less than 1/2 the damage of regular skels BUT, there are more of them.

My build had 11 regular skels, and about 18 vaal skel mages.
(Not sure how many skel mages VSS makes on its own, but dead reckoning adds 15 to that number)

As such, VSS was a HUGE dps boost. (don't forget the fire general and his fire aura!)

Add in the HUGE defensive bonus from having 50+ skeletons absorbing hits and I personally would prefer 20/20 VSS over 21/20 regular skels.

Obviously 21/20 VSS is best, but I suspect VERY expensive.


P.S.
Vaal Haste has a base duration of 4 seconds.
VSS base is 20 seconds!

Ok, Just updated the poeplanner.com skill trees to 3.14

I will update the PoB to 3.14 later, when PoB has been updated. (The 3.13 should work just fine, no changes to the tree)

GGG confirned that - You'll still be able to get Vaal Gems from corrupting gems.

Plus there were other sources of various 21/23 gems, like legion/ritual rewards, wonder if these are actually gone...

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evilmindcz wrote:

GGG confirned that - You'll still be able to get Vaal Gems from corrupting gems.

Plus there were other sources of various 21/23 gems, like legion/ritual rewards, wonder if these are actually gone...

Quote from patch notes:
Vaal Skill Gems can now only be obtained from a set of specific methods such as Corrupting Gems, Vaal Side Areas, Divination Cards (that specifically grant Vaal Skill Gems) and the Lapidary Lens in the Temple of Atzoatl.

Assuming they really mean what they say, ya, no more legion/ritual 21/23 vaal gems :(

Im hesitant to league start a new skill so thinking of doing this for my first char, i havent played skellies in a while and this version sounds fun

thx man i will try this one at this league.