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

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Skyl3lazer wrote:

I'm in reds myself now, I don't see any reason this build can't do Shaper at least. Not sure about Elder/Uber Atziri because I dont know those fights well enough anyway.

uber atziri is all down to your dodgeing skills. the zombie wont survive her and at 6.5 k ehp you are hilariously squishy in the alluring abyss

elder on the other hand is pretty doable
shaper too

those two boil down to crowd control and your ability to evade deadly frost testicles


i chose the pledge of hands route, and honestly i am kind of split between using lmp and gmp

skeletons cant really shotgun like tshot can or aoe overlap like fireball can. so that extra 10% less on the gmp really hurts (effectively it suppresses a 20% more multi which is huge)


I actually dont use any to dust jewels. the extra damage is good on them to be sure however the build is already squishy

so i use

this means i can still have good duration without queens, also queens is .. just awful for chromes... fuck that sword.


One thing that really hurts this build in my opinion is how slow the skeleton projectiles are. it makes using slow projectiles on anything other than static bosses next to impossible. when hey hit sure they do damage .. but even hindered mob with tempchains on it can dodge slow projectile attacks from the skeletons

it is so bad that i might switch to faster projectiles over slower projectiles.. yes i lose that more multi but faster projectiles means i atleast no longer have the less multi from gmp/lmp


i also fit in a EE setup as well. and while it has its bad moments .. like when all of your skeletons go ice for some reason. it is generally a helpful dps boost for your zombies consistently.

i just wish there were better ice skills with more aoe.

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MontaYuras wrote:

Hello OP, since it's possible to have "minion damage" lvl 16 on a helmet, I would like to know if I can put the weapon gems (spell echo, summon skeleton, pierce sup, less multiple projectile) on the helmet and replace the queen's decree by the scourge and a lycosidae shield for better survival. What do you think about this? Even without the Queen's decree with 5 to dust Jewel, the skellies last 22 sec wich is enough. Can The scourge's passif (70minion damage if you have hit recently) be activated by the minions attack or should I hit myself to activate it? And lst question, Are these doable with this build : Atziri, Uber, Shaper?

Edit : Or severed in sleep cutlass/lycosidae is good too

skele mages are spell casters. they cant miss .. and minion inaccuracy is basically why you would use lycosidae.

you could throw the skeletons in a helm if all you want out of them is a 5.5l at best (assuming you get +2 minions on that same helm with the minion damage)

thats a good trade off if you were to keep queens just because of how annoying it is to color queens.

but if you were trying to go for max skele damage potential.. its going to fall behind a 6l pledge of hands.. no doubt.

I might be wanting to switch to pledge of hands too. Is it worth getting 7l for the +1 zombie and skeleton, and the goodies that queen's escape gives? Also mentioning queen's escape is very hard to color too.

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minhogang wrote:

I might be wanting to switch to pledge of hands too. Is it worth getting 7l for the +1 zombie and skeleton, and the goodies that queen's escape gives? Also mentioning queen's escape is very hard to color too.

Yes it is certainly possible to use Pledge of Hands.

Also as someone mentioned slow proj is a no go besides maybe guardians where the extra dmg is needed. I did fine with lmp with plenty of coverage on breaches but some prefere gmp anyway. If you skip bosses use gmp else i'd use lmp.

I find myself not really using leap slam or flame dash as you are simply too fragile and if you happen to leap slam really close to a mob that's a death sentence for sure in t12+ maps. Leap slam is also pretty slow considering our tree. Quicksilver of adrenaline is great for mobility and because you can stay away from mobs with it easier it sorta satisfies the need for another defensive flask.

I'm thinking of doing CWDT+(immortal call, molten shell, arctic armor) +flesh offering+inc duration and with the other two free sockets we can use vaal summon skeletons+stone golem+clarity+vaalhaste/minion damage.

i have 4 jewel with 15% increased damage if i used a minion skill recently , will it cumulate and become 60% or it doesn't?

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minhogang wrote:

I find myself not really using leap slam or flame dash as you are simply too fragile and if you happen to leap slam really close to a mob that's a death sentence for sure in t12+ maps. Leap slam is also pretty slow considering our tree. Quicksilver of adrenaline is great for mobility and because you can stay away from mobs with it easier it sorta satisfies the need for another defensive flask.

I'm thinking of doing CWDT+(immortal call, molten shell, arctic armor) +flesh offering+inc duration and with the other two free sockets we can use vaal summon skeletons+stone golem+clarity+vaalhaste/minion damage.

i just use bright beak with leap slam and shield charge linkedto faster attacks on the off hand

you only really need to go super fast if you are back tracking or playing support for a real clear speed build ( fast clearers we are not... not even close)


not sure why everyone likes using vaal summon skeletons when this is an aura build and vaal grace exists

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Sjeg wrote:

My Aura setup was:
solo play: Wrath/Anger/Haste/Clarity/Arctic Armor in Victario and Discipline for myself.
Group play: Haste/Puriites/Clarity in Vicatrio and Discipline for myself.
As you can see i valued survivability highly, but I would just go the OP's aura setup for softcore.

So, why clarity in Victario, when solo play??

clarity is just so you get the resists from commander of darkness on the cheap cheap.

I use vaal summon skeletons because for me, it's a very good single target damage boost against bosses and sometimes you can trap them like the ghetto boss.

I'm hitting t13s and above on my level 91 char and I'm really starting to feel the rips, the above setup by saltychipmunk for solo play is probably the most optimal.

Also instead of the clarity in victarios you can replace that with a purity of elements. you still have enough mana to use it.

So my current defenses are: flesh binder, cwdt+molten shell, arctic armour, discipline and granite flask of warding, with 5k hp and 1.8k ES. It's holding up pretty well in t13s so far, as long as i don't roll rippy mods like less recovery rate. If I get +45 life on every ghastly jewel and t2 es on every piece of gear (and on es bases), it's possible to hit 5.5k life and 2.5k+ energy shield.

For shaper and guardians, swapping pierce and lmp for added cold and slower proj might be good.

flesh binder honestly is a noob trap. 8% on its own wont save you from anything you would not have already saved yourself from.

honestly the skeletons just dont put out the dps on their own for high tier maps. mostly because of how slow their projectiles are which causes them to miss all the bloody time.

so added cold or even faster projectile might be better .. tho i use ee cold on them.


But at the end of the day this is technically an aura bot . and i have multiple people in my guild with head hunters .. so i leeched my way all the way up to level 94 nearly deathless because of it.

elemental attack builds are broken as fuck with the new jewels