[3.12] Oxy's Skelemancer +10M sDPS - Max. Att+Spell Block - +70% Phys Red.

Last update: 30/10-2020, check change log at the bottom for more information

Intro

So i started this build, wanting to mess around with the new unique The Iron Mass and while it on paper seems cool, to 3x your skellies damage, it has some issues. It's conditional damage and it requires us to expose ourselves to proc the modifier, so i went another way with the build and ended up with a build that i decided to push to endgame.

Additionally, i've made the gems in the PoB 20/20 and without the use of awakened gems, so that the buidl is more representative of what most players should be able to achieve.

Gear section has subsections with crafting, if you wanna try your luck at self-crafting some of the things.
Completed Content
All Conquerors
All Guardians
Sirus A8
Shaper
Elder
Uber-Elder
Wave 20 Simulacrum

I've yet to try Atziri/Uber-Atziri due to fear of having my AG die, though i don't actually think he can die at the point im at gear-wise.

Path of Building
Please note that this uses the community fork and that the PoB has stuff written in the notes.
The PoB includes a leveling tree, which can be selected in the bottom left corner of the Tree window.

https://pastebin.com/KMXWiUP2

PoB notes
PoB doesn't currently support or consider the following
- The onslaught effect from Ravenous Horde, passive tree notable
- 10% of damage from hits is taken from your spectres life before you, The Jinxed Juju
- Minions have #% chance to taunt on hit with attacks, from abyss jewels, isn't taken into consideration in the eHP calculation.
- Minions have #% to blind on hit with attacks*, abyss jewel, we force it in configuration tab.
- Is the enemy intimated?, isn't ticked in configuration, due to only 10% chance to apply it with hits from our AG. It does apply every now and then, but it's more accurate to simulate without it.
- PoB assumes you have all the Pantheon souls, if you select it, so it might show your stats slightly better than they are, if you haven't gotten all the souls.
- Snow cloak buff can't be taken into account through PoB and it is way to conditional to consider into any calculation, but it does provide 10-15% reduced Damage taken, 10-20% chance to Dodge Attack Hits and 10-20% chance to Dodge Spell Hits for 10 seconds.
-Enrage has a fairly low 3-4 seconds uptime, with i believe 8 seconds cooldown. It is not considered in PoB.
- Frenzy and power charges set at 2 instead of 3, to better simulate us respawning our skellies to give them the increased damage from "recently created"
- Bone armour from the ascendancy Bone barrier is not supported, but if you'd like, the uptime is 5,4 seconds with a 2,5 seconds cooldown, giving us 68,3% uptime on it. 70% of damage is taken on the bone armour before it is applied to you. This essentially breaks it down from 70% 2209 "shielding" to 1546 100% shielding. This can be further be multiplied with the 68,3% uptime to give you an average of 1056 to add to your HP.

Pros
Max attack block
Max spell block
+70% Phys. Damage reduction
Perm. blind (50% less chance to hit)
Perm. Taunt (10% less damage taken*)
Reliable intimidate
Near perm. Fortify (20% less damage from hits, Animate Guardian range)
Conditional Culling strike (Animate Guardian range**)

*It doesn't technically work as less damage taken, but less damage given to targets that DIDN'T taunt.
**Meat shield make the AG stay near us, but Skeletons might not always be in range of the Kingmaker aura effect.

Cons
Not particularly fast in terms of movement
Cluttered screen, due to minions
A bit dexterity starved which we need items to compensate for
Can't do physical reflect
No regen. maps are doable but annoying

Main idea
Use skeletons as main source of damage and everything else acts as support to them, the player provides auras along with the Animate Guardian.

Zombies provide Phys. Damage reduction and feeding frenzy buff.

Spectres provide some conditional buffs such as frenzy, power charges, snow cloak buff and enrage

Carrion golem provides more minion damage

Chaos golem provides phys. damage reduction

Skitterbots provide a reliable chill and shock effect

Leveling
You can level with any skill you'd like for the first act, i suggest using freezing pulse.
Summon Skeletons is given as a quest reward upon completing the quest The Caged Brute, which is to kill Brutus, the boss to signify the end of act 1. After this you just fill pick up the gems as needed/given to you by leveling.
Due to the early access to Summon skeletons, i won\t be expanding on the leveling section.

Mechanics
There really isn't any mechanical shenanigans going on besides Feeding frenzy being proc'ed by zombies and golems, but it applies globally, so the source doesn't matter, it still applies to your skeletons.

We are doing some trigger wand setup, please note that a trigger wand will always trigger in order, so in a wand, it will trigger the top gem first -> middle second -> bottom third, this fact becomes important once we get to the trigger wand setup.

Gems
6L Skeletons

3R2B1G
(Vaal) Summon Skeletons - Brutality - Multistrike - Impale - Melee Physical Damage - Minion Damage
Note 1, you can swap the Melee physical damage for Melee splash for a far better clear.
Note 2, this is listed in order of damage increase.

4L Animate Guardian + Spectre

2R2B
Animate Guardian - Meat shield - Blood Magic - Raise Spectre
Blood magic is linked to the Spectre, so that Host chieftain and Carnage chieftain can keep spamming their Mass frenzy and Mass power
Meat shield support helps keeping our precious AG alive, especially important once you put some expensive gear on him.
I suggest not using Animate guardian untill he is 19/20 and socketed into the suggested helmet.
Carnage Chieftain can be found in Act 2, Old Fields.
Host Chieftain can be found in Act 6, The riwerways or The Southern Forest.
The of Tul, can be found in breaches or in Tul's Domain (Breachstone)
Arena Master appear in Warlord influenced maps.

4L Auras

3R1B
Pride - Dread Banner - Generosity - Enlighten
It is possible to run without enlighten, but it is definitely a huge quality of life, allowing us to have more mana to spawn skeletons.

4L Golems + Zombies

4B
Summon Carrion Golem - Summon Chaos Golem - Raise Zombie - Feeding Frenzy

Be aware that you need to anoint Golem commander to use both golems.
Silver, Golden and Azure oil.

3L Triggers

2B1G
Assassin's mark - Desecrate (level 1) - Bone offering
Please note that the spells are ordered in how to color and socket them into your trigger wand. first to last is top to bottom.
Explanation: The trigger wand will try to apply assassin's mark first once you've used a skill, then Desecrate on the next skill and lastly bone offering.
The order of this is important since bone offering can't be cast without there being any corpses on the ground, thus we need to trigger desecrate before bone offering.

3L Auras

3B
Clarity (X level) - Flame Dash - Summon Skitterbots
Note that Clarity says X level, X being the level that allows us to retain some 100-150 mana free to summon atleast 2 packs of skeletons reliably (45-60 mana cost)
My clarity is set at level 7.


For alternate qualities that improve the build, please check the PoB.

Gear

Any suggestions on gear upgrades is made with the assumption that you still manage to stay resistance capped.
My Gear
My gear isn't perfect, but it is pretty solid. Do not use this as chase items, but as suggestions.

Chest

Skin of the loyal gives +1 to all socketed gems, be sure to buy it with the correct colors, since the sockets can't be modified in any way.

Optionally, get a Skin of the Lords which grant a keystone from the passive tree, choose one of your liking, though i personally went with the keystone Phase acrobatics which gives us 30% spell dodge chance.

Helmet

Any elder helmet with +2 to level of socketed minion gems along with Socketed gems are supported by level 16/18/20 Minion life.
The iLvl requirement for +2 is +65, while the iLvl for 16/18/20 minion life is 68/75/80.

We need the +2 and minion life to ensure that our Animate Guardian doesn't die, since we will spend a considerable amount of currency to gear him up.
Crafting
If you wanna try your hand at self-crafting this, i suggest an elder bone helmet at ilvl 75.

I suggest using fossil-crafting with the following.

Bound + Corroded + Faceted + Sanctified + Prime resonators

4,5 + 8c + 13,5 + 4,5 + 44,8 = 75,3c per attempt

You need to hit the +2 minion gem and 18 minion life.

Though to be honest, if you are going for this craft, i really suggest atleast getting ilvl 80 elder bone helmet to be able to hit 20 minion life instead.

Lastly, but really expensive, would be the ilvl 86 elder bone helmet base for the chance of hitting +3 minions gems.

Using Craft of exile we should buy some 7 of each fossil, since thats the average to hit it


If you want something bigger, you'll get a ilvl +86 elder Bone helmet, with +3 minion gems and 20 minion life along with 20 minion damage.

Note that if we manage to get a lvl 21 spectre, we will get a level 25 raise spectre gem, thus granting us the 4th spectre (+2 from ascendancy, +2 from helmet).

Wand

Any with an open suffix to craft Trigger a socketed spell when you Use a Skill will do.

Though i recommend going a +1 to level of all spell skill gems OR +1 to level of all minion skill gems.
This is fairly easy, but expensive to craft.
+2 Wand crafting
You'll need a iLvl +60 Convoking wand as a base or a ilvl +84 if you wanna try your luck at also hitting T1 Minion damage.
12 of the following fossils, since the average to hit is 12 attempts.
Corroded + Jagged + Metallic + Shuddering + Prime Resonators.
8,7 + 1,3 + 0,5 + 3,8 + 48,7 = 63c per attempt as of writing.
Craft of exile simulation

If you wanna go real big, you go for a wand with the following:
Prefixes
+1 to level of all spell skill gems
+1 to level of all minion skill gems
Minions deal % increased damage
Suffixes
Minions have % increased attack speed, minions have % increased cast speed
Minions have % increased movement speed
Crafted - Trigger a socketed spell when you Use a Skill

Shield
Any shield with chance to block spell damage, resistance and HP.

Though as an upgrade you can go for a iLvl 85 shaper or hunter influenced archon kite shield with +2 to all maximum resistances + the spell block chance

Gloves
Any rare gloves with resistance, HP and open prefix to craft +1 to Level of Socketed AoE Gems

If you want something bigger than this add the following to the mix, +73 iLvl redeemer gloves with Minions deal % increased Damage

Boots
Any rare boots with resistance and HP will do.
Though you can opt for Alberon's Warpath which gives us +1 to our skeleton limit

Amulet
The Jinxed Juju is such a good and affordable option, not only does it scale our aura effect, it gives some much needed dexterity along with decent amount of chaos resistance.
Though the biggest part of jinxed juju has to be that 10% of damage is redirected to your spectre. Effectively give us 10% damage mitigation, always!

Anointment
Golem commander, it allows us to use both golems

Rings
Rare rings with HP and resistance, preferably with some dexterity there

Going big on rings would be to get redeemer influenced rings with Minions deal % increased Damage and a open suffix to craft Minions have #% increased Movement Speed

Belt
A solid stygian vise with HP and resistance
A considerable upgrade would be to get one with an open suffix to craft % increased Cooldown Recovery Rate as this affects our bone armour cooldown, allowing us to have more uptime and less downtime

Cluster
This build does utilize cluster jewels and i will list them in order of importance.

Large
2x 8 Passive Large cluster jewels with Renewal, Call to slaughter and Rotten Claws.
Not gonna lie, these jewels are likely to be the most expensive part of the build if we disregard some of the gear upgrades i suggested.

As a budget version get 2x 8 Passive large cluster jewels with Renewal and Rotten claws


Medium
4x 5 passive medium cluster jewels with Dread March and Renewal. There is no issue going for a 5 point here instead of the lowest 4 point. You spend the same amount passive points to use them, since you just path the other way around to get to the jewel socket.
Check the wiki for more information on this.

Now here is the fun part, you get to craft these yourself. Don't buy them if they are more than 20c, you can reliably craft them for what i estimate an average of 8c, 15c if you are unlucky.

Crafting proces is as follows.

1) Buy the base: Minion life, Medium cluster jewel, iLvl 50-67 (this block Blessed Rebirth, increasing our chance of success)

2) if rare, orb of scouring, if magic step 4., if normal step 3.

3) Transmute item to magic

4) Alteration spam until you hit either Renewal or Dread March.

4.1) When you hit either one of the desired modifiers AND there
is only one modifier on the jewel, use an orb of augmentation.

5) If item has two modifiers, one of them being one of the desired modifiers, regal orb and cross your finger that you hit the other one, if not, return to step 1 and repeat.


Jewels
You want at least one jewel with
Minions have % chance to Taunt on Hit with Attacks
And one with
Minions have #% chance to Blind on Hit with Attacks.

With just having one "set" of these two modifiers and the amount of minions we got hitting an enemy, we can safely assume that the target is always taunted and blinded.

Other than that you go shopping with the following prioritized list.
1. Minions deal #% increased Damage if you've used a Minion Skill Recently.
2. Minions deal # to # additional Physical Damage
3. Minions have #% increased Attack Speed, Minions have #% increased Cast Speed
4. Minions have #% increased Movement Speed


You'll also want 2x Thread of hope.
One of them being of medium size and as small reduction to ele. res. as you can afford.
The other one being a large ring.

Flasks
Blood of the Karui
A wonderfull life flask that has very pretty modifier, Recover Full Life at the end of the Flask Effect
Please don't make the same mistake as me and quality the flask, cause then you extend the duration, thus extending the amount of time for it to proc the wonderful modifier

Rumi's Concotion
A beast of a flask for block chance, get one with the highest spell block, since the attack block is easily capped.

Quartz flask
10% to dodge attack and spell hits. If combined with the Skin of the Lords with Phase acrobatics, you manage to get 40% spell dodge

Basalt flask
15% Physical damage reduction.

Quicksilver or flask of your choosing.
Increased movement speed or whatever else you'd like.

Be sure to roll the 3 basic flasks, to have ignite, bleed and freeze immunity

AG
Kingmaker
Gives us the near perm. fortify.
Now i say near perm, cause if you manage to go around a wall, sometimes the line of sight will break with the animated guardian, thus breaking the aura effect.
But with meat shield support, he is defensive and tries to stick to us, thus he should be within the aura range some 95% of the time.
Culling strike to the skeletons, if within range

Leer cast
15% increased damage to nearby allies
Or a rare elder influenced helmet with Nearby Enemies take 9% increased Physical Damage along with some resistance to resistance to help res. cap our AG.

Gruthkul's Pelt
5% Life regen. and a hefty amount of HP with a bit of resistance.

Rare gloves with hunter influence mod, #% chance to Intimidate Enemies for 4 seconds on Hit

Victario's Flight
10% Increased movement speed aura.

Pantheon
My suggestion would be Soul of Lunaris and Soul of Shakari

Ascendancy
In order, Mindless Aggresion, Bone Barrier, Unnatural Strength, Mistress of Sacrifice

Additionally
Use Bone armour as your left click, to ensure the best uptime. Its instant cast, so it won't interrupt your movement.

"Why don't we anoint Death attunement instead", Cause it far more power per point efficient to anoint Golem Commander. The power we gain from pathing to Death attunement is far greater than the pathing to golem commander.

Prioritize completing the "regular" passive tree, before moving into cluster jewels.

You should make a spectre-bank character for Arena master and They of Tul, if you fear losing them. To make a spectre bank i suggest watching Kays video on the topic

If there a need for it, i can make a tree without cluster jewels and thread of hope.

Changelog
29/10-2020 Posted build
30/10-2020 Added Simulacrum completion





Last edited by cervio93 on Oct 30, 2020, 11:57:26 AM
Last bumped on Oct 29, 2020, 4:17:28 PM
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