[2.6] Severed in Skeletons - your poison Skeleton build that delivers

3.03.2017 UPDATE:
Updated skill tree for 2.6

Hello there!

For a quite a while I was obsessed with making a successful Summon Skeleton build. It took few buffs to gem itself, and then of course double dipping abuse to make it happen, but finally I made it! :D
Bare in mind that I haven't managed to kill Shaper or Uber Atziri, but I'm pretty much sure it is me being bad (+ Shaper fight being unfriendly to melee, and since Summon Skeletons are melee... derp).

Other than that build can clear Uber Lab and guardians pretty easily. Clearing maps is a breeze.

Lets begin with the build concept. Build is based upon these items:



Quick explanation:
United in Dream is pretty self-explanatory - OP poison with minion damage double dipping, making it pretty scary at bosses. Good damage mods, chaos resist, all in all good item. Aura itself isn't all that useful, since it is only a small % of damage that Skeletons are doing.

Skin of the Loyal enables the use of level 26-28 Summon Skeletons, while still providing good defensive benefits. How? This build is hybrid, and so it uses ES and life. Because this build is hybrid, I cannot take as much ES from tree as pure ES one. This in turn means that 100% ES from chest is highly effective, because of how increased modifiers work.

Victario's Charity provides a massive DPS boost, that can be sustained on bosses. Minions get 15% attack speed per frenzy charge, which means 45% attack speed on bosses. They still get % more damage modifiers which increase both the initial damage and poison damage.













All in all, it is very satisfing build to play. I personally had a lot of fun playing it.
That is it for now, I'll expand it a little bit more if there is enough interest in it. :P

Ps. I'm not checking this thread that often. If you have any questions, feel free to PM me for faster answer - I'll post them here along with the answer (or just notify me that you posted here). :)

"

SnakeBasKet wrote:

Hey dude, your severed poison skelly build looks really fun. It appears to click pretty late game though. How do you recommend I level it?

Can I level with skellies/zombies effectively?

Yup, pretty much. They have their mana cost cut and damage increased. Shouldn't be too bad. :)
If you have currency (which I assume you won't at the start of the league :P) you can use Skin of the Loyal from lvl 1... :D If you have one, that is.

This was my second character in league and this is how I was doing it. Even without poison it was one of the smoothest rides ever. :P
It should be fine without the Skin, too. Just keep in mind that minions are pretty bad at the very first ~10-20 levels.

"

SnakeBasKet wrote:

[...] One last concern. a +1 Skin of the loyal is really expensive.. as is the United in Dream.

Will i be able to comfortably farm t5-10 without the +1 skin and only using Severed? I want to at least get to a comfortable farm level with the build so I can work up to those two uniques.
[...]

Sure. :) United it Dream makes little difference, to be honest. It gives you some extra damage and leech, but that isn't that important (but still good to have). I upgraded it because I had extra currency.

Without +1 corruption you get level 26 Skelies (with lvl 4 Empower). With level 3 Empower, that is level 25. That should be enough for even the crazy Breaches, and Tier 15 maps :) The lowered level impacts their ability to survive the most, damage is not concern when it comes to clearing maps, as they will most likely be 1-2 shotting everything anyways.

Gotta admit that at level 22 Skeletons (21 corrupted and +1 from Skin), I had trouble keeping them alive at Uul Netols Domain. They were killing very fast, but they also died easily. Didn't test it as level 25, but it feels like it should be enough.
At level 28 it is an absolute train wreck. :)

Ascendancy points:

"

Im guessing you get...

1. Spirit Eater

2. Mistress of Sacrifice

3. Beacon of Corruption

4. Commander of Darkness (uber)

in that order?

1. Mistress of Sacrifice

2. Commander of Darkness

3. Spirit Eater

4. Beacon of Corruption

:P

But honestly, whatever you feel like will do. Mistress of Sacrifice is pretty crucial tho, as it gives you the ES from your HP.

kind sir! what about the bandits? Shall we let them go? :D

"

Codeofconduct wrote:

kind sir! what about the bandits? Shall we let them go? :D

Of opsie, shit. D:

Life (Oak)
Cast speed (Alira)
Point

"

Hi!

Loved your build idea, I've played a skele Army of Bones build last league and loved it, I think you've got a great idea with the Necromantic Aegis shield etc. Reading your guide, I had a few questions.

Regarding gearing, the +2 body armor is awfully expensive and I can't find a damage number on the wiki for summon skeles to show me exactly how effective each additional level would be. What would be your second or third best choice? Right now I'm eyeballing Vis Mortis for the 10 sec. Unholy Might, not sure how to compare things without the Skele level specifics. I'll also be using Severed in Sleep until I can upgrade, maybe having a "budget" or transitional gear list in the guide would help?

Also, another question about something you say in the guide. "Because this build is hybrid, I cannot take as much ES from tree as pure ES one. This in turn means that 100% ES from chest is highly effective, because of how increased modifiers work." and
"Summon Zombies: Meatshields, summoned with Wither. "

Could you explain the Hybrid idea more? Is the 100% increased global defenses a MORE multiplier, is that what you mean? And also, I'm unfamiliar with wither, what do you mean when you say "summoned with wither", like cast at the same time, or one after the other?

Great work on your guide, well written and a nice non-meta/cookie cutter build, need more like this! I'm also a fan of lightning warp, very underrated and I also cringe at the mandatory inc dur nodes :P

GL & HF! Thanks!

+2 body is not required, but it will net you 2 levels (with Empower socketed). While the damage is not the biggest concern (because it is very good anyways) defenses can be. Skeletons aren't the toughest of summons, and without the extra levels they can be pretty squishy. :@ While it isn't a problem in most cases (since you can just spam them to eternity), it has proven to be a problem in Uul-netol breach domain, in which monsters have MASSIVE AoE, which manages to kill Empower-less Skelies very quickly. You will simply run out of time resummoning them :(at least I did).

Other options for gems: Melee damage on full life (skeletons will get ES from you, and most of the time they will be at full hp) or even Increased Duration (for both skeletons and poison). Without Empower skeletons will be a lot less capable to take damage, tho.

There are few problems with Vis Mortis:
- Your skeletons will be quite squishy anyways, having 20% reduced life modifier is not good
- Unholy Might is only granted on kill (which means it is almost useless on bosses) and it is very unlikely more than few skeletons will ever get it. Not to mention you are resummoning them all the time, which means they will rarely get its benefits. With skeletons, you need effects that are either on hit, or come from your character. :P

Well, yes, that might help. Altho, there is nothing special about the items:
- Skin of the Loyal is sufficient all game long, since it gives you 100% global defenses from level 1. This is quite literally 100% increase ES. At level 1. :P Just grab some items with ES and enjoy easy leveling. :) Just wear one, and buy more (if you can afford it) to Vaal. That is how I got mine. :P
- Severed in Sleep is good enough, since the major interest is Poison. You can transition into its upgrade at any point you want, since while it does increase your damage a bit, it isn't nowhere crucial
- Victario's Charity is... well, almost free. :P A rare shield before you can use it is a-ok

And rest of the items are rares, so it is pretty self explanatory.

About the 100% global defenses - the more of one increased modifier you have, the less effective each next is. This is because increased modifiers are cumulative.
If you already have 0% increased ES, another 100% increased ES will grant you 100% MORE ES.
If you already have 500% increase ES, another 100% increased ES will grant you 20% MORE ES (600/500=1,2).
This means that if you don't take as much ES nodes from tree as, for example, CI, wearing Skin of the Loyal will be quite effective for you. It might even out-perform Vis Mortis.

Wither is Channeled spell. I'm using Cast While Channeling to cast all spells in the setup. Raise Zombie is a spell. :) So now you can just drop corpses under boss' legs and then cast Wither on him (increasing the chaos damage taken by him, which includes poison), while resummoning Zombies he manages to kill. This takes a while to get used to, but it is quite effective for some boss fights, where Skeletons manage to not die... :P

Hope it helps. :)

cast on channelings is probably the only way to make zombies shaper viable at this point .. you need to able to recast them quickly because no matter what he kills them quickly and cwc ignores the mana issues of these otherwise expensive spells

why don't use the ENVY aura skill? is that useless?

I want to see your more video but your TWITCH channel have not enough video.

when are u coming back to TWITCH?

"

forign11 wrote:

why don't use the ENVY aura skill? is that useless?

I want to see your more video but your TWITCH channel have not enough video.

when are u coming back to TWITCH?

Super late answer that probably won't be seen. :P

Envy doesn't add much of flat damage and I mostly scale damage from physical base. Its cost is huge compared to how much damage it offers. Using anything else proves to be more beneficial. :)

About videos - I haven't played the character for a while, but I can try adding some more gameplay videos.

About the twitch thing... gotta admit that I grew tired of Twitch for time being. No promises when I will come back to it (if ever), but I will probably stream some beta and/or when the new league comes out.

Bumping because I will be updating the build in coming days (maybe today). Build remains pretty much the same, but I will have to update the description (mainly because poison no longer double dips). I will be also adding Guardian boss kills and/or Uber Izaro, Atziri.

If you are interested and have any questions - feel free. :)