How many active skills should one use?

I have one character in early Merciless and six others in mid Cruel. Though not strictly identical, they largely follow the same pattern of skills:

* 1 x 4L single-target attack (LMB)
* 1 x 1L movement skill (MMB)
* 1 x 4L AoE attack (RMB)
* 1 x 1L Curse (Q)
* 1 x 1L Aura (T)

Some characters have an extra skill (eg a second mana reservation), and I plan to get 5L attacks in Merciless, but I do not foresee much change from this going forward. There are two issues I see:

* There are very few other types of active skills worth using. It is attacks, a movement skill, a curse, auras/permabuffs. Things like Totems, Traps and Minions seem like they need to be the focus of your build, rather than being a simple support to a build focused on something else. You may run a temporary buff, but most players seem to put these into CwDT anyway.
* There seem to be very few Support Gems available to non-attacks. Reduced Mana with Auras (if you have the Str to use it) seems the main option. As such, I cannot see much value in having links on items housing non-attack skills.

Are there some obvious things I am completely failing to notice? Alternatively, as my characters follow the same kind of pattern everyone follows and the other skill slots are largely useless? In other games, I usually fill out all my keyslots, so I am surprised to not be doing so in PoE.

Generally, all you want is:

1. A six-link, AOE skill that deals no less than 10k DPS.

2. Mobility. Either Leap Slam or Lightning Warp. Whirling Blades is acceptable but not if you want to traverse gaps.

3. Curse. Curses if you run with specific gear or passives.

4. A minimum of two auras. No build has a reason to run with fewer than two auras.

5. Utility. Things like Arctic Armor.

So generally a minimum of six, to the upper part of 12 depending on your setup.

A super generic setup would be something like this:

6L: damage skill + 5 supports
4L: 3 auras + reduced mana
4L: cast when damage taken + whatever
4L: more utility (e.g. culling strike + IIR skill, charge generation, etc)
3L: curse + increased AOE + increased duration
3L: movement skill (e.g. lightning warp + faster casting + reduced duration, leap slam + faster attacks + blood magic)

But of course it depends a lot on your build. Some builds need a secondary 4L damage skill for some reason (e.g. reflect dodging), or a very specific utility skill. Some use two-handed weapons and thus have two potential 6Ls, and can run a dedicated single-target skill. Some use lots of auras. Some certainly don't need all the sockets available to them, but you might as well use them for something, if only for more cwdt shenanigans or luxury support gems on utility skills.

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viperesque wrote:

A super generic setup would be something like this:

6L: damage skill + 5 supports
4L: 3 auras + reduced mana
4L: cast when damage taken + whatever
4L: more utility (e.g. culling strike + IIR skill, charge generation, etc)
3L: curse + increased AOE + increased duration
3L: movement skill (e.g. lightning warp + faster casting + reduced duration, leap slam + faster attacks + blood magic)

But of course it depends a lot on your build. Some builds need a secondary 4L damage skill for some reason (e.g. reflect dodging), or a very specific utility skill. Some use two-handed weapons and thus have two potential 6Ls, and can run a dedicated single-target skill. Some use lots of auras. Some certainly don't need all the sockets available to them, but you might as well use them for something, if only for more cwdt shenanigans or luxury support gems on utility skills.

Increased Duration is useless for curses and IAoE is arguably useless. A Spell Totem takes up one slot and offers more than those two supports alone. Faster Casting and Spell Totem would be a better setup.

Also I'd rather put three curses in there in case I needed different effects. Enfeeble and the new Warlord's Mark would be must-haves.

A more generalized checklist that i make for almost all of my builds:

1. Main Skill: your main source of damage and your characters signature skill. should always be either aoe or at least 'semi-aoe' (like LMP non-aoe projectiles, Arc, Multistrike Flicker, Proliferation etc. ). Usually a 4-6L
2. Secondary Skill: skill you use whenever you cannot use your main skill for reasons like safety, culling etc. By its nature it is often opposite in nature to your main skill*[examples below]. On many characters i have multiple secondary skills for either style or utility reasons. Usually only requires 2-4L
3. Mobility Skill: your way of getting around, fast. Classics are Leap Slam/ Whirling Blades + Faster Attacks or Lightning Warp + Reduced Duration. Usually requires only a 2-4L
4. Aura Setup: aura_1 + aura_2 + X + Reduced Mana. One or Two setups with each 2-4L depending on what auras/heralds etc you use.
5. Curses: usually 1-2 curses, sometimes with additional supports. It's often a good idea, to have both an offensive and a defensife curse ready like for example Elemental Weakness and Enfeeble.
6. CWDT Setup: usually 1-2 setups with 2-4L each depending on your build. Classic would be CWDT + Enduring Cry + Immortal Call + Increased Duration
(7. Utility:) Vaal skills, Totem, Frostwall or whatever you want/need to round up your build or divert a boss' attention from you etc.


*[regarding the choice of secondary skills]: the most obvious reasons are reflect on one and CB/Lightning Thorns on the other hand. If you have a main skill that relies on big crits then you want to have a secondary skill that deals many small hits instead and vice versa. If your main skill is doing elemental damage, you may want to have a secondary skill that deals mostly physical damage and vice versa. The secondary skill doesn't have to be that powerful since its main reason is to avoid getting into 'i can't do that with my build'-situations.

2 attacks preferably, 1 for single target and 1 for aoe
1 for mobility
1 curse for most builds
1-2 utility skills

I don't have a middle mouse button and I like to leave the left mouse button as walk only. So that leaves with only 6 active skills to choose from :(

Yeah because everybody has a 6 link. Get off your high horses.