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

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Odif wrote:

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Oxtov wrote:

Hi Odif,
your build is very fun and enjoyable. In maps in 2 days. By the way i was very over levelled because of this crazy rituals..so much XP and loots. Got 4 triad grips... I hope +1 spell skill will drop from here.
I am sitting at 77 now and i just switch GMP to Pierce..relaxing for the eyes !!
i have very average gear, a 4R triad grip, no skitterbots, 5L chest only.

I dropped

I was wondering if the corpse fire explosion could be useful for rituals ?

If you can't afford a +1 all skill gems weapon, then that is ok.

But + gem levels is the best way to scale minion damage.

Sorry, just a bunch of rambling thoughts:

I know this is beyond the scope of your build guide as it's for league starter/newer players, but if you can get your skelly mages to level 31, it's only one press of a button for summoning 10 mages (due to spell echo), makes mapping/clearing a lot easier.

To get to level 31, need summon skeleton/vaal summon skeleton 21 + level 4 empower on a crafted 2h weapon (suggest maelstrom warstaff for the +25% block) with +1 socketed gems (Forgot what this was called), crafted +2 to support gems. Then you need a hunter amulet with +1 to all intelligence skill gem.

Also from having run a skelly mage build for a few days now I don't see the need for pierce, just takes away from the damage.

I know you don't put cluster jewels in your build but you can easily run elemental reflect without issue if you incorporate one medium minion cluster jewel with blessed rebirth on it (I also highly recommend bodyguards, it's a pretty good defense mechanism pushing monsters away or a boss into the wall).

Ok
BIG CHANGES TO THE GUIDE

After reading so many of you question why we were using Triad Gloves...

I have made the build guide all in on Skeleton Mages.
I have reduced the role of zombies to just being meat shields.
I have reduced the number of golems to 1 (Stone Golem)
I have changed the dps aura to Zealotry
I have managed to fit in both Skitterbots AND Vitality.
I have gotten rid of Triad Grip unique gloves.
I have changed the movement skill to Flame Dash
I have added a Cast When Damage Taken linked to Immortal Call and Convocation

Here is a snapshot pastebin with the new build, at level 87.

https://pastebin.com/UWZDK2w8

I just spent over an hour rewriting the guide.

Let me know if you spot any omissions.

P.S.
Special thanks to loczek123 for many of the ideas behind these changes.

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GamerNerdRage81 wrote:

okay so doing this solo self found and chance orbs are hard to come by..what is the vender recipie for chance orbs so i can chance the gloves?

It will be very hard to chance Dead Reckoning.
So you will be doing Melee Skeletons, which have terrible clear.

I just dropped support for melee skeletons as a variant of this build.

It's pure Skel Mages now, so not SSF friendly.

Sorry about that.

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Pruney wrote:

Been playing it Tier 5 maps and cutting through like cheese. Hopefully try 8+ tomorrow.

One thing I'd like to ask about the 'Spell Echo' on Skeleton Summon.

Do we really need this? Does it affect the Skeleton Mages spellcasts?

If not, wouldn't a cast speed or even summon phantasm be preferrable?

I've also switched out Predator Support for Meat Shield Support as I never really used it, always too busy hiding while skeletons destroy

SKel Mages get the "More cast speed" buff from Spell Echo.
HUGE dps increase.

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shumi82 wrote:

i'm wondering,you use anger and elemental equilibrium ,and with storm brand you apply a debuff only for increased cold dmg ,and they get increased resist for cold and fire.
i tested it on drox,and he gets vulna to cold,and resist to fire and light
is it still worth then to do elemental equilibrium just for the cold? and whould avatar of fire not bad then,since you convert all dmg to fire,and they will only be resist to fire,and get vulna to light and cold

It is important to NOT have "adds x cold damage to spell" or "adds x fire damage to spells" on your wands.

If you are only doing lightning damage with your storm brand, you will be lowering monsters fire AND cold resistance by 50%.

Sorry if this hast been mentioned before, but I'm not sure about triad grip.
WILL they work as intended as I thought the skele mages deal basic elemental damage, not 100% phys converted to elemental?
If so the gloves would not work.

And why are you using storm brand for EE?
Wouldn't it be better to do fire dmg and proc shock and chill instead of ignite which has low dps on minions?

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Odif wrote:

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GamerNerdRage81 wrote:

okay so doing this solo self found and chance orbs are hard to come by..what is the vender recipie for chance orbs so i can chance the gloves?

It will be very hard to chance Dead Reckoning.
So you will be doing Melee Skeletons, which have terrible clear.

I just dropped support for melee skeletons as a variant of this build.

It's pure Skel Mages now, so not SSF friendly.

Sorry about that.

so i need the jewel as quickly as i can get it?

When we get rid of gloves, i must really recommend these

You can have another anoint, and in a small limited space (such as ritual encounters) it acts like headhunter, i have like 3k+ ES shield all the time there...

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Odif wrote:

Ok
BIG CHANGES TO THE GUIDE

After reading so many of you question why we were using Triad Gloves...

I have made the build guide all in on Skeleton Mages.
I have reduced the role of zombies to just being meat shields.
I have reduced the number of golems to 1 (Stone Golem)
I have changed the dps aura to Zealotry
I have managed to fit in both Skitterbots AND Vitality.
I have gotten rid of Triad Grip unique gloves.
I have changed the movement skill to Flame Dash
I have added a Cast When Damage Taken linked to Immortal Call and Convocation

Here is a snapshot pastebin with the new build, at level 87.

https://pastebin.com/UWZDK2w8

I just spent over an hour rewriting the guide.

Let me know if you spot any omissions.

P.S.
Special thanks to loczek123 for many of the ideas behind these changes.

I've switched to this. Flame dash without cast speed feels so bad. Too bad there's no "Increase and reduction to Minion CAST SPEED also affect you" passive doesn't exist.

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And why are you using storm brand for EE?
Wouldn't it be better to do fire dmg and proc shock and chill instead of ignite which has low dps on minions?

Mage does very little damage per bolt, the amount does the job here. So any ailment imposed by skeletons is worth nothing, especially shock and ignite. I recommend trying to use Winter Orb (supported by Cast when channeling + Desecrate + Offering), it really does the job, gives chill to mobs, beats for 6 seconds after stop casting and applies EE, importantly, cold bolt has much lower damage than Light and Fire bolt So I consider it a much big dps boost when we use cold to proc EE. Additionally, we have constant chill and can use the Hypothermia gem as a LMG or GMP swap.

I also stopped using GMP, mainly because of my computer, FPS drops to 25 and it heats up incredibly and the clear drop is not big. And I died a few times because I couldn't see anything. That's why I'm thinking about the 5b 1g solution (Skeleton + Minion Damage + Pierce + Spell Echo + Controlled Destruction + Elemental Focus) this is the best possible setup for DPS.

I also analyzed Zombie, which I will play in the second 6link and it will be Zombie + Physical to lightning (i doby use gloves and it is the most powerful gem for dps) + Feeding Frenzy + Multustrike + Melee Physical Damage + Minion Damage / Meat Shield.

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P.S.
Special thanks to loczek123 for many of the ideas behind these changes.

PoE community is one of the best I have ever see so its always worth sharing thoughts to make it better for everyone. Greetings.