Optimal Skeleton Mage Helm Crafting Guide

not bad

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Lol "low tier"... It's not even that expensive to make either; think it cost me around 15ex total with below average luck on Orbs of Conflict and prefix annuls. To buy something similar would be easily in the 30-50ex ballpark.

Ye, and those 15ex could have already gotten you a quarter way to a stronger variant, that was my point. You only profit from the aura, as the helm doesn´t do anything for your dps - it just buffs the survivability of support-minions, while the elder/shaper-variant pushes your dps a lot further, thats why I don´t see any reason to invest in it if you cannot really build upon it.

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Do you have a PoB for it? Are you still able to run 6 auras? Have you compared it to putting skeletons in a +2 duration body?

I´m at work now, can do some testing later on if you want, playing through it with different pob-setups.

And if you start arguing +2 chest we can simply throw a 3rd mod on the helmet like essence-crafted more ele dmg, or base-crit. Starts to get redundant if you work on other gear parts to make up for the weaknesses of the one you´ve presented. The fact remains that you can get a lot higher gem-levels with a elder/shaper helmet, as u get +3 gems, empower 4 and still having minion damage and hypo, making it a +3 base gem 7-link while your helmet only buffs support-minions. Another aura will not make up for it, I´ll guarantee you that, but I´ll prove it later in pob.

"

Vennto wrote:

I´m at work now, can do some testing later on if you want, playing through it with different pob-setups.

And if you start arguing +2 chest we can simply throw a 3rd mod on the helmet like essence-crafted more ele dmg, or base-crit. Starts to get redundant if you work on other gear parts to make up for the weaknesses of the one you´ve presented. The fact remains that you can get a lot higher gem-levels with a elder/shaper helmet, as u get +3 gems, empower 4 and still having minion damage and hypo, making it a +3 base gem 7-link while your helmet only buffs support-minions. Another aura will not make up for it, I´ll guarantee you that, but I´ll prove it later in pob.

Looking forward to it

Step 1: be a rich flipper. This crap just makes me lose motivation. Probably all the currency I make all league... on a helm.

I think this thread is a perfect example of how terrible crafting is in this game.

Not that the instructions given by the OP are bad... I'm sure following them will net you the result as explained.

But that those are the steps one has to go through to "craft" interesting gear in this game... Hoo boy that's horrible.

Just my subjective opinion, of course.

Aight, did as I promised, here are my results and my approach:

As I cannot objectively just grab a random PoB of some niche-stuff I went with the most obvious and well-known variant, which is the tree and item-setup of Ghazzy´s Skele Mage build.

As we are in the transition from budget to upgraded gear I started his baseline budget variant. With 2 frenzy and powercharges for skeletons while running determination, zealotry-generosity and skitterbots this resulted in a DPS of
5.2mio ~

1st alternate setup
I started importing the given helmet into the build, using custom mods to reflect the mana reservation efficiency of the given mods on the helmet and the shield and started swapping around gems. Obviously, the overall-gemsetup changes like this a bit, so I tested 2 variants.

In this case I stayed as close as possible to OP´s setup, running determination, defiance banner, tempest shield, zealotry, aspect of the spider and a level 8 precision (this was the highest available while leaving enough mana to run the build).
I had to drop for that the skitterbot-setup that Ghazzy is running. Here is where it gets a bit confusing: Skitterbots deliever a roughly 11% more damage, but I am not really sure about the source of it. If it is due to the interaction of chill+hypothermia, one could argue that due to the amount of crit-chance the skeletons have and that roughly 1/3 of them are indeed cold-casters, we would have enough sources of chill by ourselves, rendering the chill of skitterbots somewhat negligable. I for one was not 100% sure if thats the case here. Nontheless, in this setup without skitterbots the reached damage is roughly the same, but with way more tankiness due to defiance banner + tempest shield. So, again
5.2mio ~

Keep in mind though, this is only if Skitterbot is necessary to reach its effect, else it is a wasted slot in the former original build as well and could be replaced.

2nd alternate setup
In this one I tried to reflect the squishyness of the original setup of Ghazzy a bit more with skipping the defensive setup with defiance-banner + tempest shield and using the opened mana reservation to run hatred+generosity, arguably one of the strongest damage-buffs for the minions. Determination stayed, everything else is as described above. This would be a more damage-oriented setup now while still keeping defensive layers at a point where basic t16 mapping and endgame bosses are possible. Damage now:
7.3mio ~

3rd alternate setup
In this setup I stayed on the full budget variant and went ahead to produce a basic first endgame helmet, so this is the variant I was arguing for. The basic setup stayed on it's very first iteration, as this reflects the least swaps and is therefore the best way to compare things properly. With the new helmet I therefore only swapped in the skele mages into the helmet, swapped out minion damage and hypothermia for empower 4. I did not account for open gem spaces in the chest piece or other variants of getting further auras in in terms of using enlighten 4 as I have described in my initial post. That being said, I also did not account for the difficulties of gem-swapping now as there is no volley/GMP available, so one would have to generate at least one white socket on the helmet and bother to gem-swap for mapping vs. bossing. This test was only considering max boss dps.
I was able to reach:
9.1mio ~

Finishing thoughts
I was able to prove through objective measurements and comparisons that my initial statement, the helmet is only a means to an end where better variants like the elder/shaper-bone helmets are used, is correct. Especially taking into consideration that the helmet I suggested is by no means top-tier endgame, rather than a endgame-friendly stepping stone to the real endgame power where u would add another mod as described, like essence-ele damage, crit, or something like that.
That being said, I underestimated the options and aura-effects the given suggested helmet from OP offers: Defensive capabilities should not be ignored, as they make it easier to keep leveling up and skillpoints are a lot of power, especially when it comes to summoners. So while I think in the essence of it being correct when it comes to the preferred choice of helmet I definately have to dial back on the judgement of the given alternative, as it delivers more advantages than I expected - keep in mind though, this ALSO requires a more expensive shield with incr. reservation efficiency T1, we shall not forget about that!
If someone would have the option to get a shield like that though, this helmet offers a somewhat cheap alternative to improve the build further with a more flexible approach to auras and gems in general.

"

Vennto wrote:

Aight, did as I promised, here are my results and my approach:

As I cannot objectively just grab a random PoB of some niche-stuff I went with the most obvious and well-known variant, which is the tree and item-setup of Ghazzy´s Skele Mage build.

As we are in the transition from budget to upgraded gear I started his baseline budget variant. With 2 frenzy and powercharges for skeletons while running determination, zealotry-generosity and skitterbots this resulted in a DPS of
5.2mio ~

1st alternate setup
I started importing the given helmet into the build, using custom mods to reflect the mana reservation efficiency of the given mods on the helmet and the shield and started swapping around gems. Obviously, the overall-gemsetup changes like this a bit, so I tested 2 variants.

In this case I stayed as close as possible to OP´s setup, running determination, defiance banner, tempest shield, zealotry, aspect of the spider and a level 8 precision (this was the highest available while leaving enough mana to run the build).
I had to drop for that the skitterbot-setup that Ghazzy is running. Here is where it gets a bit confusing: Skitterbots deliever a roughly 11% more damage, but I am not really sure about the source of it. If it is due to the interaction of chill+hypothermia, one could argue that due to the amount of crit-chance the skeletons have and that roughly 1/3 of them are indeed cold-casters, we would have enough sources of chill by ourselves, rendering the chill of skitterbots somewhat negligable. I for one was not 100% sure if thats the case here. Nontheless, in this setup without skitterbots the reached damage is roughly the same, but with way more tankiness due to defiance banner + tempest shield. So, again
5.2mio ~

Keep in mind though, this is only if Skitterbot is necessary to reach its effect, else it is a wasted slot in the former original build as well and could be replaced.

2nd alternate setup
In this one I tried to reflect the squishyness of the original setup of Ghazzy a bit more with skipping the defensive setup with defiance-banner + tempest shield and using the opened mana reservation to run hatred+generosity, arguably one of the strongest damage-buffs for the minions. Determination stayed, everything else is as described above. This would be a more damage-oriented setup now while still keeping defensive layers at a point where basic t16 mapping and endgame bosses are possible. Damage now:
7.3mio ~

3rd alternate setup
In this setup I stayed on the full budget variant and went ahead to produce a basic first endgame helmet, so this is the variant I was arguing for. The basic setup stayed on it's very first iteration, as this reflects the least swaps and is therefore the best way to compare things properly. With the new helmet I therefore only swapped in the skele mages into the helmet, swapped out minion damage and hypothermia for empower 4. I did not account for open gem spaces in the chest piece or other variants of getting further auras in in terms of using enlighten 4 as I have described in my initial post. That being said, I also did not account for the difficulties of gem-swapping now as there is no volley/GMP available, so one would have to generate at least one white socket on the helmet and bother to gem-swap for mapping vs. bossing. This test was only considering max boss dps.
I was able to reach:
9.1mio ~

Here's my current build with my exact gear (minus level 5 awakened support gems and a rolled Hubris which I'll have in the next couple days)

https://pastebin.com/xNCVnYLj

I run level 21 Precision and will be at 12 million dps. Getting a +2 duration fleshcrafter with Skeles in it would be 3 million dps increase. Can you show me how you'd move my gems to a helmet for more dps than that and link back?

Ugh all those steps and RNG.

This is why I don't bother with the "crafting" in this game.

The "optimal" skellie mage helmet is the one vento described. Even without elevated hypo and 4% spell crit, it outclasses a a 6-link chest.

"

AcrylicHercules wrote:

I think this thread is a perfect example of how terrible crafting is in this game.

Not that the instructions given by the OP are bad... I'm sure following them will net you the result as explained.

But that those are the steps one has to go through to "craft" interesting gear in this game... Hoo boy that's horrible.

Just my subjective opinion, of course.

Couldnt agree more.