3.2 ZoomZoomSkeletons Necromancer

In this Guide i'll try to show you Exiles my new found love to the new Skeleton Necromancer-Nodes.

With Content Update 3.2.0 all Ascendancies got reworked.
Necromancer got a change so all different types of Minions got their own Node.
The new Skeleton Node grants you:
40% inc Skelli Damage
2 Additional Skellis summoned per use of Summon Skelli
100% inc Movespeed for your Skellis
2 Additional maximum Skellis
and 100% Chance to hit for your Skellis.

This Node allows you to summon 3 Skellis at once, without having the +1sec Cooldown from the "From Dust" Jewel (which grants the same effect) and buffs your Bony Boys extremely. Especially the Attack(Melee) version of them. Additionaly the Melee version is much easier to support with Auras (Hatred/Wrath) because they do Base Physical Attack Damage.

Now to the Details of the Build:

Pros/Cons

Pros:
-fast clearing because of insanely fast Skellis
-extremely safe Mappig and Bossing. Totally HC viable too.
-We are the perfect buddy to play with in a group.(we're technically a Low End Auramancer) We grant our Mates insane amounts of Damage and Elemental Resistances so they like to have us near them. Sectretly though they are just another Minion in our Army ;).
-Runs on a 4-Link with ~1Million DPS on Shaper/Guardians
-Can still be Upgraded by a 6Link or even decent Elder-Helmet
-Can run every Map mod more or less comfortable


Cons:
-Not everyone likes Minions.
-The damage is far from Controllable, things like Netting are a Pain and you cant really refocus your Skellis without resummoning them
-Your Mana will be nearly fully reserved, so summoning or casting stuff will definitely need Mana Flasks
-You're Gemslot-hungry af and its kinda hard to get the right Sockets/Links on your Gear


But how does it Work? I'll explain it to you and even show you Video Footage of my own Progress in High Tier Mapping and End-Game Bossing.
Explanation

Our Main Damage Source are our Skeletons, so we will be constantly resummon them, to keep our "used a Minion Skill recently" Bonuses and keep them next to our Way. They got incredibly high Movespeed so they will run off really fast and may run off they way we want to walk. To correct this we just resummon them in front of us.

For End-Game Content, keep in mind that we're relying on our Minions to block Damage and don't run face first into Enemies. Summon your Minions and look at them laughing while your Skeletons tear them apart.

To maximise the Clearspeed we keep casting Flesh Offering once in a while to grant our Skellis even more Speed.

If our Skeletons ran way ahead of us in the Map we can just utilise the mess they made by using Body Swap to easily keep up with their Movespeed.

When Fighting Bosses, we keep on buffing our Skeletons or resummoning them to keep up all the "used a Minion Skill recently" mods and keep the maximum Number of Skeletons alive to maximize our DPS. But we keep focusing on Dodging most of the Damage or avoid it by using our Zombie/Spectre Meatshields. We resummon our army in safe Moments(Bosses casting Skills we dodged already, adphase, etc.) if they get wiped out by Atziri Pizza's, Shaper Beams or other stuff, because we are kinda immobile while doing so. Even with a 0.2s casttime on our Skeleton Skill.



Things I (or Players following this Guide) achieved with it.
Spoiler

Progressed up to T15 Maps
Killed Uber Atziri (Damn me i forgot to press "record" in OBS
Killed Yellow and White Tier Elder
Killed Red Tier Elder
Killed Spider and Avian Bestiary Encounters
Reached Lvl90
Killed myself by accidentally Bodyswapping into big Atziri Pizza instead of summoning Skellis.....



If you still want to build around the new Skeletons this Build might be the right one for you. I wont talk much about the Levelling process, its more like a default Minion-Build Leveling thing.

So let's start with the Buildtree
Passive Tree
You'll need all Minion Clusters and Aura Clusters you can get on your tree, starting with the It's really not that difficult to build, just path your way to all the Minion and Aura Clusters in the Tree and pick up every Life Clusters that are adjacent to your Tree.
This build doesn't use Necro Aegis because we use a 2H Weapon so we just skip that.
Here are the Trees for some Leveling Milestones.
L68
https://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/3.2.0/AAAABAMDABzccLsWbyL00_vDOiSwBkn-SX0YakNakUZxfln7Cck999cXL5Az4Ygvb4CkhWBVxhNsv5csnLiTqsSExeyKDeIZirzqgwmhL8pKaqySwfGzFSd8g0iOm7VMszbpbAtmuvqAtAzK0-wYiEDZE76Kjxoaj6yYf8bTj46-42rMvEQEOlhtGaasLOLA4ySqKpgRLfba7IOofTLR37BLV4LHVdYQl4Pb2QtNuR2q-tIEB2Tn8h5vnmvbjLFFR1-wKPrBxRps6-6TJw==

L76
https://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/3.2.0/AAAABAMDABzccLsWbyL00_vDOiSwBkn-SX0Y-ehqQ6IAWpFGcX5Z-wnJPffXFy-QM-GIwGYvb4CkhWBVxhNstz6_lyycuJOqxITF7IoN4hmKvOqDCaEvykpqrJLBBLPxsxUnfINIjti9m7VMszbpbAtmuvqAtAzK0-wYiEDZE_4KvoqPGhqPrJh_xtOPjr7jasy8RAQ6WG0Zpqws4sDjJKoqmBEt9trsg6h9MtHfsEtXgsdV1hCXg9vZC025Har60gQHZOfyHm-ea9uMsUVHX7Ao-sHFGmxBh-vukyc=

L92
https://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/3.2.0/AAAABAMDABzcJ6lwuxZvIvTT-8M6JLAGSf5JmuB9GPnoakOiAFqRRnEI9H5Z-wn-j8k999cXL03j8B-QM-GIwGYvb4CkhWAD7lXGE2y3Pr-XLJy4k6rEhMXsig3iGYq86oMJoS_KSmqsksEEs_GzFSd8g0iO2L1TUpu1TLM26WwLZrr6gGjytAzK00Wd7BiIQNkT_gq-io8aGo-smH_G04-OvuNqzLxEBDpYbRmmrCziwOMkqiqYES322uyDqH0y0d-wS1eCx1XWEJeD29kLTbkdqvrSBAdk5_Ieb541kjrha9uMsR2-RUdfsKZXKPrBxRpsQYfyRTOH6-6TJw==

If you want to Go Higher than L92 just go for Jewel Sockets in the Tree.

Inside of the 3 Jewelsockets we will have 2 Unique Jewels and one decent rare Minion Jewel.
To get the most of our Mana we will use Conqueror's Efficiency to lower our Mana Reservation. Place this one in any Slot you want except the Slot between Templar and Witch Area.

This Area gives us 90 Int with a Large Radius Jewel. So we will use Anatomical Knowledge, which will grant us 30 Flat and 8% increased Maximum Life at this Location.

For the Rare Jewel, it's best to get one Minion-Type Abyss Jewel (Ghastly Eye) These can roll #% chance for our Minions to Taunt on hit. This Way our Enemies will be guaranteed to focus on our Minions so we will have free time to resummon/buff them. This is just a QoL thing though.


Gear
This Build is really Cheap and Easy to gear. We will only need 2 Unique Items and some mediocre Rares to start with.
This two will be



We will need Victario's Influence to get the most of our Aura's and of course use more of them. Queen's Escape will give our BoneBros even more Movespeed and grants us up to 200% of Skeleton Duration so we won't need to resummon our Skeletons in Bossfight unless they get killed or need to be relocated.

Your Elder Helmet just needs to have the Minion Damage Support of any Level in it to top your 4-Link but the Perfect rolls would be Minion Damage Support. +3 to Minion Gems and either Life or Minion Life Support.

All of the Remaining Gear just fills up our Resistances and Lifepool, because we are using Purity of Elements outside our Generosity Setup, capping our Resistances wont be hard so the Rare Gear will be pretty cheap.

If you want to tune your Damage up you can use these two Uniques in addition to this build

This will grant yourself an Intimidating Aura, so all Enemies nearby will take 10% MORE damage from Attacks, this affects your Minions Attacks AND your Party Members.

The Second item would be the Grip of the Council Unique Gloves.
This will grant your Minions 20% of their Physical Damage as Extra Cold damage. So basically an additional (weaker) Hatred effect. The slow won't even be recognisable your Skellis are way to fast anyway.


Now that we got our Skilltree and Gear done. Let's talk about our Gem Setups
Links

First of all our Auras inside of the Generosity Setup. We will use all availabe Damage-Buffing Auras in the Game(except for Envy) These are
Hatred -- Haste -- Anger -- Wrath
We can put an Enlighten into this Setup too, if we can afford it.
This Setup will leave us enough Mana to use Purity of Elements outside of our Body Armour to help us out with our Resistances.

We can use a low Level Clarity too, if we got an Enlighten in our Body Armour Setup this will grant an additional Stack of our Aura Ascendancy-Node and may cut the need of Mana Flasks.

In our Helmet we want to have our Skeleton Setup which is

Summon Skeleton - - Elemental Damage with Attacks -- Melee Physical Damage and either Multistrike for Single-Target or Melee Splash for Clearspeed

The reasoning behind the Gems is easy. They just are the ones, granting us the most Damage we can get. If u want to use a 6L Queen's Escape instead, add a Physical to Lightning and a Minion Damage Support to the Setup but keep in mind that this is 3-off colour Slots and so kinda hard to roll.

In our Sword Setup (or Helmet if you want the 6L Sword Version) we will use our Desecrate supported by Spell Cascade to maximise our Corpse Output with only one cast.
The remaining Sockets in this Item can be used for our Clarity/Purity Auras.

In either our Boots or Gloves we will use our Flesh Offering this will be supported by increased Duration and Faster Casting. Use the remaining slot to socket either Flame Dash or Body Swap. Every other Movement Skill is obsolete for us and we already got a Faster Casting in this Setup so we wont use even more Sockets.

The remaining Item will hold our Spectre/Zombie Setup. These Guys only need to tank for us. Link them to Fortify and Minion Life Support so they will be able to tank tons of Damage.
For Spectres I prefer to either have Kitava's Heralds or Undying Evangelists.
The first one being a strong frontline the latter casting Proximty Shields you can use to avoid Damage.

You can use an Arc and/or Convocation too if you want to, but neither do the Skeletons actually switch their target to your targeted enemy nor do they teleport with Convocation.
Convocation teleports your army of meatshields right above you whatsoever so they can actually Shield you. Literally if you use the Evangelist Spectres ;).
TL;DR

Body Armour: Enlighten,Hatred,Wrath,Anger,Haste

Helmet/5/(6)L: Summon Skeleton, Melee Physical Attack Damage, Elemental Damage with Attacks, Multistrike/Melee Splash, Physical to Lightning,(Minion Damage Support)

2L+ Additional Sockets: Desecrate - Spell Cascade, Purity of Elements, Clarity, Arc, Convocation.


4L: Flesh Offering, Faster Casting, Increased Duration, Body Swap/Flame Dash

4l: Raise Zombie, Raise Spectre, Minion Life, Fortify



Thank you for reding this Guide. Ludiquus

P.S.: If any of you guys using this one really liked it and succeeded to some Milestones i'd be glad if you let me know :)
P.P.S.: I'll keep Updating this Guide as i keep progressing in the League and will keep polishing it too i guess.
Last edited by ludiquus on Mar 14, 2018, 8:50:38 PM
Last bumped on Mar 13, 2018, 10:02:09 AM
when the time is there to go on the right side in the skilltree, refund points and put it on witch start side rigt so you have 25%mana regen and 14 energyshield and refund points left start side.
Why are you taking Wrath ? It adds lightning damage to attacks and skeletons mages are casters.
Or i miss something.
"
ShuToyzi wrote:
Why are you taking Wrath ? It adds lightning damage to attacks and skeletons mages are casters.
Or i miss something.


Thats one reason i mentioned why i don't take the Skeleton Mages.
This build is entirely around the Melee Version of the Skeletons, mainly because you can buff their damage easier with Auras such as Wrath.

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