[3.5] Ghoulish Overkill! Zombie+Skeleton Baron build

Thank you for fast answers.

Hi again !

I was checking numbers on PoB to choose between two chest when I find something.





The first one is with Smite available while the second one with Smite off.
The difference in damage seems "a bit" low to me.

Also, I was wondering what chest would be the best ? PoB give me a better damage roll with the rare but bloodbond can provide a helpful regen.




The fact is, I will have an hard time to have the good color on the Bloodbond.
I would run Purity - Clarity - War Banner - Avian Might with the rare Chest and run Purity - War Banner - Hatred with Bloodbond

"

Leverdatre wrote:

Hi again !

I was checking numbers on PoB to choose between two chest when I find something.





The first one is with Smite available while the second one with Smite off.
The difference in damage seems "a bit" low to me.

Also, I was wondering what chest would be the best ? PoB give me a better damage roll with the rare but bloodbond can provide a helpful regen.

The fact is, I will have an hard time to have the good color on the Bloodbond.
I would run Purity - Clarity - War Banner - Avian Might with the rare Chest and run Purity - War Banner - Hatred with Bloodbond

Spoiler

Here's my PoB if you wanna check
https://pastebin.com/YdauWSdg

Quick answer:
Brutality makes it so your minions can't deal any elemental damage at all -- including Smite.

Also, run a rare chest. Resistances, Strength, and Life are all super important to you on this build. Which also means that, while that rare chest has a ton of life, and one good resistance, it's still a bad chest for this build. Aspect of the Avian, while not horrible, requires quite a bit of setup in order to be a reasonable damage buff to the build. As before, you're looking for Resitances you need to hit cap> Strength> Life. In that order.

For the long answer, read Toke's response below.

"

Leverdatre wrote:

Hi again !

I was checking numbers on PoB to choose between two chest when I find something.





The first one is with Smite available while the second one with Smite off.
The difference in damage seems "a bit" low to me.

Also, I was wondering what chest would be the best ? PoB give me a better damage roll with the rare but bloodbond can provide a helpful regen.

The fact is, I will have an hard time to have the good color on the Bloodbond.
I would run Purity - Clarity - War Banner - Avian Might with the rare Chest and run Purity - War Banner - Hatred with Bloodbond

Spoiler

Here's my PoB if you wanna check
https://pastebin.com/YdauWSdg

So your damage not going up with smite is because both your skeletons and your zombies are being supported by Brutality and Brutality clearly states you can't deal elemental or chaos damage. If you swap out Brutality for Minion Damage the change is much more visible.

You should also have your zombies in your helmet if you don't have a 5+ link on your chest for them. They will benefit more from the +2 level than any other minion you have. Once you have a 5-6 link chest then put zombies in there and Skeletons in your helmet.

Also missing Increased Duration on your specters is huge since both the Evangelist and Diabolist both benefit massively from duration. I highly recommend War Banner in either setup as it's 10%, or more, More physical damage taken by enemies and that is the majority of your damage.

Also I really don't recommend pathing north of the templar like you have for the chaos res/life nodes. You're going 6 points out of your way for less life than you can get at the scion life wheel and by duelist start for those same 6 points.

Currently your 6 points would yield
12% maximum life
12% chaos res
10 strength
30 intelligence

Instead for those same 6 points you could get
34% maximum life

do this by filling out the 3 life nodes beside Master of the Arena, the 2 nodes in the scion Life Wheel and the 1 node left of Devotion.

** I also took the time to quickly fix what your gems/links and passives should be in PoB. Keep in mind this is the ideal final setup based on the skills you are running and what you're doing.

IF you plan on taking Mind Over Matter soon, you'll want to continue to level the Clarity gem beyond level 1 and you'll want to swap the gloves out for Shaper's Touch to gain the benefit of flat mana from strength it gives. Otherwise keep the clarity at level 1 so it reserves as little mana.

Here is the PoB link to reflect it
https://pastebin.com/FFVyTbfb
****

Wow, I didn't expected such a complete answer !

First, I'm capped in res without a chest, that's why I was considering a unique one. But since they can have really good lines (like %increase strength or +1 zombie), I guess it's way better. It's just the both "good" chest I have in my hand for the moment.

Thanks for the Brutality. I know how it works but somehow i did not make the link in my mind.. I will get rid of it quickly.

I put my guardian in my helmet cause he died twice on a yellow map. But I could give it another try since my zombies are a bit higher lvl now.
Also, I see you didn't the CWDT-Immortal Call setup. I guess it's a problem of "too many gems". But it's kinda save my ass multiples times so I will see if I can keep it. (I can bet that I won't be able to)

For my passiv tree, I did go to this node for the chaos res & life, but with your answer, it seems it's not such a good idea.

I didn't planned to go on Mom this league, nor think about it. But now you mention it, it may be an option; if I find a way to keep the gloves' strength and stay at 1.2k.



Anyway, many thanks for both of your answers !

No problem, I love to be thorough with my information.

The chest can be run however you see fit, as long as your strength stays over 1200 and you get some kind of life, resistance, damage or whatever from it. If you want to use the unique you can give it a try and see how you like it. Keep in mind the final build is mainly tuned around supporting my use of Headhunter and if you are able to swing res onto your belt you can get away with just about any chest.

Brutality is a great option, if you only ever play solo and don't use smite or spirit offering(use the attack speed offering instead)

If the guardian is dying don't worry about summoning it with unique items until he is around level 18-19. It will save you money from stray deaths and the buff shouldn't be needed until that late anyways.


So this is what I would do right now with your current items and gear. All you need to change to MoM mode is this tree

https://pastebin.com/32L8SGbA lvl 89 - MoM one gear change- Shaper's Touch it's the only mandatory change to make MoM work.

ideally you don't want the two +30 strength nodes above the witch if you don't need them, but you need 15-45 more strength to compensate, if you can get either of those amounts more on your current gear you can cut those nodes as you get it. That will give you another 20% max life.

Here is the level 100 I'd go with if you can get that strength, I added it to the chest in place of the avian skill just for the demo here. Also by that point(if you take MoM) to swap to Alira if you aren't already. It gives you a large amount of mana regen and enough res to cover removing the jewel in the scion socket. It is more efficient with MoM than the life regen+%life+Res from your current jewel/pathing.

https://pastebin.com/NKFQNfux

with cast when cast you can get free near 100% uptime for offerings. It has 5 sec cooldown which lines up neatly. Shield charge / summon skleletons proc it.

edit: you could socket Convocation into this also, but i think it procs too often for that. The zombies get pulled away from the frontlines to often for my liking.

edit2: its a craftable suffix you can learn from any One Hand Melee, One Hand Ranged, Two Hand Melee, Two Hand Ranged unveil. Crafting price is 3 chaos. I got it from It

Haha, I will not complain if you prefere the long to the short one ! :D

And just for a thought, what would be better on a rare chest between the "8% increased life/mana" and the "+1 zombie" craft lines ?

Life is more safe but since one zombie add some much damage, it could be the same ?

Also, is the "%increased minions dmg" from Alva' temple still available ?
I only dropped the +2 lvl one

"

Leverdatre wrote:

Haha, I will not complain if you prefere the long to the short one ! :D

And just for a thought, what would be better on a rare chest between the "8% increased life/mana" and the "+1 zombie" craft lines ?

Life is more safe but since one zombie add some much damage, it could be the same ?

Also, is the "%increased minions dmg" from Alva' temple still available ?
I only dropped the +2 lvl one

I'd recommend the +1 zombie craft personally, though if using MoM version the life%/mana% is really strong for surviving.

The increased minion damage mod is no longer available from Alva on 1 handed weapons. You must Fossil Craft it onto weapons using the Bound Fossils Think it rolls 80% max now.

"

endeffect wrote:

with cast when cast you can get free near 100% uptime for offerings. It has 5 sec cooldown which lines up neatly. Shield charge / summon skleletons proc it.

edit: you could socket Convocation into this also, but i think it procs too often for that. The zombies get pulled away from the frontlines to often for my liking.

edit2: its a craftable suffix you can learn from any One Hand Melee, One Hand Ranged, Two Hand Melee, Two Hand Ranged unveil. Crafting price is 3 chaos. I got it from It

Ideally with that weapon craft you'd want Spell Cascade linked to Desecrate so it always creates the max corpses a spirit offering can consume. However I fear this may make fossil crafting difficult, but not impossible. If I am not mistaken that mod is a suffix so you'd need to hit Minion Damage(suffix) and Strength (another suffix) while having a third suffix slot open for the craft which may raise the average cost of making the weapon by quite a bit.