[3.0] Skeleton Mage build. 7 aura necromancer can both solo endgame maps and support party play

Hello ! I tried your build out, char is lvl 89, finally attained a 6l today, though I did make some tweaks to the build.

I switched from queen's escape to pledge of hands :
.
While you do lose out on skeleton duration, It's still possible to run a fair bit of to dust jewels if they are well rolled. Minion speed is irrelevant for skeleton mages and the free link from pledge synergises really well with them. I tried it with path of building and total dps came out ahead with pledge of hands, even considering less to dust jewels and one less skeleton.

My friend group is really enjoying my presence and the dps increase linked with it, so I can confirm that works pretty well !

I'm also planning on taking elemental equilibrium (Which I'm surprised you didn't, it's free damage for a gem slot and one passive) probably with an unlinked arc or orb of storms. I might even forgo the zombies in favor of a curse on hit enfeeble/elemental weakness.

I still feel very squishy at 4.8k life and 800es, so my next target for improvement will definitely be around there. The 7l skeletons feel amazing with only one to dust jewel, and I'm planning around having 3-4 in the end.

Very fun build overall, thanks for making it !
Also running this build with a Pledge. Build isn't completely fleshed out, only level 69, but running haste/anger/wrath/purity with MoM and like 800 mana left is pretty damn nice when grouping with friends. They think they are pretty tough with all my auras, and still watching my skellies out deeps them pretty hard.

LOVE skelly builds in 3.0. My 3rd build this league, def my last and def the build I will use to push Shaper.
I'm having survival issues. Granted, I am still only 74 and my next 10 levels will contain mostly life passives, that will only take me from 3.4k to around 4.7k it seems.

Normally this is ok for builds, but I find it is way to easy to get bursted. I run t3s just as efficiently as t11s because I basically get one shot if I make a mistake regardless. I have res cap, the main issue seems to be melees (moreso, if a mob has leap slam, the harbingers with flame dash, etc).

Anyone else fairing better? Most of the time its just a death or two per map, but I tried out a Breachhead since my damage is decent, and in the last few waves I just got roflstomped 3 times in a row. I also noticed 6 of my zombies died on the last attempt, which is what lead to my misplay trying to resummon them for distraction.

The damage is great, I'm just looking for additional input on survival. The extra health will definitely be useful, but I feel there is still a pressing issue in this regard.


As for the EE talk above ^^^ wouldnt the skellys proc it for us since they use all elements? I'm new to minion mechanics in poe, so I'm guessing my minions won't proc it for me.
"
mebell333 wrote:
I'm having survival issues. Granted, I am still only 74 and my next 10 levels will contain mostly life passives, that will only take me from 3.4k to around 4.7k it seems.

Normally this is ok for builds, but I find it is way to easy to get bursted. I run t3s just as efficiently as t11s because I basically get one shot if I make a mistake regardless. I have res cap, the main issue seems to be melees (moreso, if a mob has leap slam, the harbingers with flame dash, etc).

Anyone else fairing better? Most of the time its just a death or two per map, but I tried out a Breachhead since my damage is decent, and in the last few waves I just got roflstomped 3 times in a row. I also noticed 6 of my zombies died on the last attempt, which is what lead to my misplay trying to resummon them for distraction.


i had troubles with survivability also, had a very hard time on Kitava, because I couldn't cap my res. I bought an Alpha Howl for 1 chaos to help me in the early currency farming, as I wont have enought to use the gardian right now anyway. I put on it the clarity and added purity of elements for myself just to cap the resist in a quick way. It helps a little with the dps since my skellies are affected by 8 auras, so overall I kinda bought myself a 30% all res helmet ;)

If you have all your res capped, you could try the same and replace purity with artic armor.

The only things I have a lot of trouble with for now are the breach. I tend to avoid them, but when I feel risky, I just pop a basalt flask right in the beginning of the fight. There is so many monsters that usually I can keep it up during the entire fight.
"
DrkStracker wrote:
Hello ! I tried your build out, char is lvl 89, finally attained a 6l today, though I did make some tweaks to the build.

I switched from queen's escape to pledge of hands :
.
While you do lose out on skeleton duration, It's still possible to run a fair bit of to dust jewels if they are well rolled. Minion speed is irrelevant for skeleton mages and the free link from pledge synergises really well with them. I tried it with path of building and total dps came out ahead with pledge of hands, even considering less to dust jewels and one less skeleton.

My friend group is really enjoying my presence and the dps increase linked with it, so I can confirm that works pretty well !

I'm also planning on taking elemental equilibrium (Which I'm surprised you didn't, it's free damage for a gem slot and one passive) probably with an unlinked arc or orb of storms. I might even forgo the zombies in favor of a curse on hit enfeeble/elemental weakness.

I still feel very squishy at 4.8k life and 800es, so my next target for improvement will definitely be around there. The 7l skeletons feel amazing with only one to dust jewel, and I'm planning around having 3-4 in the end.

Very fun build overall, thanks for making it !


EE doesn't work with skeleton mages.
IGN - Imgur
"
DrkStracker wrote:
Hello ! I tried your build out, char is lvl 89, finally attained a 6l today, though I did make some tweaks to the build.

I switched from queen's escape to pledge of hands :
.
While you do lose out on skeleton duration, It's still possible to run a fair bit of to dust jewels if they are well rolled. Minion speed is irrelevant for skeleton mages and the free link from pledge synergises really well with them. I tried it with path of building and total dps came out ahead with pledge of hands, even considering less to dust jewels and one less skeleton.

My friend group is really enjoying my presence and the dps increase linked with it, so I can confirm that works pretty well !

I'm also planning on taking elemental equilibrium (Which I'm surprised you didn't, it's free damage for a gem slot and one passive) probably with an unlinked arc or orb of storms. I might even forgo the zombies in favor of a curse on hit enfeeble/elemental weakness.

I still feel very squishy at 4.8k life and 800es, so my next target for improvement will definitely be around there. The 7l skeletons feel amazing with only one to dust jewel, and I'm planning around having 3-4 in the end.

Very fun build overall, thanks for making it !


I'm also running pledge 5link right now. And kind of agree about the zombies. What would be your animate guardian set up turns where are you getting curse on hit from ?

Maybe even an immortcall set up?
"
Madbeats wrote:
"
DrkStracker wrote:
Hello ! I tried your build out, char is lvl 89, finally attained a 6l today, though I did make some tweaks to the build.

I switched from queen's escape to pledge of hands :
.
While you do lose out on skeleton duration, It's still possible to run a fair bit of to dust jewels if they are well rolled. Minion speed is irrelevant for skeleton mages and the free link from pledge synergises really well with them. I tried it with path of building and total dps came out ahead with pledge of hands, even considering less to dust jewels and one less skeleton.

My friend group is really enjoying my presence and the dps increase linked with it, so I can confirm that works pretty well !

I'm also planning on taking elemental equilibrium (Which I'm surprised you didn't, it's free damage for a gem slot and one passive) probably with an unlinked arc or orb of storms. I might even forgo the zombies in favor of a curse on hit enfeeble/elemental weakness.

I still feel very squishy at 4.8k life and 800es, so my next target for improvement will definitely be around there. The 7l skeletons feel amazing with only one to dust jewel, and I'm planning around having 3-4 in the end.

Very fun build overall, thanks for making it !


EE doesn't work with skeleton mages.


ee works fine with skeleton mages in the case of this build you would use a cold spell boosting the fire lightning dmg (50% more light/fire 25% less cold is a substantial dmg increase). many aura bots/ aura necros dont take ee since it doesnt sync with parties that well.
Last edited by Fhark#5469 on Aug 23, 2017, 3:47:43 PM
Hi,i wanted to show you some changes that I made to know your opinion.
Change the golem for totem, because it gives me much more regeneration to me and to the minions.
I made this change because my zombies are lvl 23 and i saw them die too many times. And the guardian animate also died more times than I would like.
(I still have to exchange places the gems, vaal Haste and flesh offering)


To clean the maps is better the golem, but to face the stronger boss I think it is better option the totem.
I am also evaluating changing purity of fire for vitality in cases where fire damage is not a concern.

Last edited by ThaCousin#0348 on Aug 24, 2017, 12:59:24 AM
What is the Problem with Clearing uberlab? You wrote that on main page.
Just out of curiosity, why lesser projectiles instead of greater for the additional bolts?

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