Vaal Summon Skeletons

Faster casting would only buff a couple of the minions (the mages) so as far as I'm concerned that would be a waste of a link (especially if you already have Haste).

I'm surprised I didn't think of using Weapon Elemental Damage though, it would benefit all the non-mages (the majority of the army) and would scale Wrath and Anger very very well.

As far as I'm concerned go-to 4-link for damage (assuming you have Wrath and Anger) should be Vaal Summon Skeletons + Remote Mine + Weapon Elemental Damage + Increased Duration.

The remote mine is a nice idea.

QUESTION: I'm playing with a 2L setup in my helm: VSS + CwDT. My helm gives +2 to minion gems. VSS is a 'minion' gem, CWDT is obviously not.

Does the +2 in the helm (and the buff it gives to the VSS gem) affect it's trigger relationship with CWDT?

I can't ever get this skill to trigger on damage taken, even though I have the stated gem level requirements in order. I know it takes 64 souls to charge on merciless but still, this should trigger at least occasionally...but it's not. any help is appreciated.

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F1ghtClub wrote:

QUESTION: I'm playing with a 2L setup in my helm: VSS + CwDT. My helm gives +2 to minion gems. VSS is a 'minion' gem, CWDT is obviously not.

Does the +2 in the helm (and the buff it gives to the VSS gem) affect it's trigger relationship with CWDT?

I can't ever get this skill to trigger on damage taken, even though I have the stated gem level requirements in order. I know it takes 64 souls to charge on merciless but still, this should trigger at least occasionally...but it's not. any help is appreciated.

DO NOT auto-cast it.

a) leveling this gem helps this A LOT. lvl 16 vss are several times better than lvl 5 vss
b) these are for tough bosses/frantic engagements, not for being wasted on lone skeleton that happened to trigger cwdt. if you insist on auto-casting: animate weapon or skeletons are better candidates (cannon fodder extraoridinaire)

if you can juggle the links and want to stay with 2L - experiment with Minion Speed/Life/Damage. each of these helps a lot in a different way

i used this gem on my Dominating Blow character to remove inherent weakness of said build (no minions on TP) and as a failsafe. worked wonders in 1L and 3 minion passives total (lvl 15 or 16 iirc)

This is a very good Vaal skill. Good Vaal skills do one of two things: either help deal with powerful threats by killing them quickly, or help deal with them by providing some form of defense or utility. This skill provides the whole package; you have the utility of a large load of extra meatshields, and there's so many of them that they actually start contributing decent damage as well.

It's possible this skill is OP, but if so it's not by a whole lot. It probably doesn't need a nerf, but it definitely doesn't need a buff.

This skill is FAR from OP. Its just a good all around spell. Its not spammable, and you sure as hell won't really do a shit ton of damage single target wise...

Since I'm not taking any Minion Node as a Fire Trapper, I'd like to use those guys as a Bone Shield only:

VSS + Minion Life + Minion & Totem Elemental Resistances + Increased Duration

On an offensive setup I'd try:

VSS + Multistrike + Added Chaos Damage + Faster Attacks ( you have a ton of melee warriors )

Very powerful spell. If you are a highly offensive char, this is probably the best overall vaal gem, since all the skeletons together can tank so much damage for you. And they do quite some damage too. I remember soloing Vaal Oversoul in cruel and/or merciless in something like 20 seconds with my skeleton army.

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Catchafire2000 wrote:

This skill is FAR from OP. Its just a good all around spell. Its not spammable, and you sure as hell won't really do a shit ton of damage single target wise...

You can definitely do a shit ton of ST damage with it, especially if you link it to offensive boosts like increased minion dmg / added chaos dmg. Bosses melt under the pressure of your skeleton army...

I would not immediately call it OP as it's a vaal gem, and vaal gems are supposed to be very powerful. But it definitely is that: very powerful :)

Haven't seen it mentioned, but my favorite use of VSS are those strongboxes that freeze me. If I know I'm headed into a boss or other major battle, I'll save it for that of course. Otherwise, I save it for those boxes. Launch the army, pop the box, and usually live long enough to get out of the middle of it all. I'm talking about with a squishy witch who, from a distance fries even unique monsters with ease, but can't tank 30 beasties and a rogue exile, all at once, while frozen. The VSS skeletons do the tanking for me, long enough to unfreeze and get to a safe distance from where I can rain hell on whatever manages to survive my army.

And if there are no such boxes in an area? Then I'm left with a fully charged useless VSS. So I launch it anyway - still cool to watch them all pop out at once. Besides, it's hard to see them all in the heat of a battle.

Oh - they're also quite handy towards the end of those corrupted areas, too, where the main bad-ass is usually quite capable of slaughtering little ol' me without my army.

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