[3.12] Protector's Iron Mass Fleshcrafter Guardian, 25mil+ Dps | All Content | League Start Viable
 *Updated To include Cluster and Unique Jewels 11-10-2020 *Updated Divergent Vitality Links to Use Enhance 11-11-2020 Greetings Exile! I want to share with you a unique Skeleton build using two lesser known/used uniques that I created in Heist league. This build revolves around the use of The Iron Mass and Fleshcrafter and a lot of added elemental damage from auras to create an extremely strong army of Skelly Bros who pack a mighty punch without breaking the bank at the start of the league, but you can invest money into it make it an endgame shredding machine! The build is well-rounded and features multiple layers of defence, including: - High HP Pool (~8K total life as hybrid at league start, ~9k ES in endgame) - Rapid life regeneration - High Damage Output ===> Less Damage Taken - Army of Minions Between You and the Enemy We reach extremely high damage numbers with this build for a non-spectre setup, capping out at around 25-30 million shaper dps. The build is made to take on all content, with an emphasis on high boss dps and decent map clear. We are able to defeat all bosses with this build, up to and including Sirus and Uber Elder/Atziri Deathless! Video Guide https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hy5ubrIyzLE *Note that parts of this are not the same as the information in the current PoB, this video will be replaced once I get everything corrected and documented. Mapping Gameplay https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZkvCbjzHvwE Bossing Videos Uber Elder/Atziri https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OKMHj_1i4KE A8 Sirus and Friends https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A_r17u69kRY Path of Building Fork Links League Start Setup https://pastebin.com/MpSQRznS High Budget/Low budget Endgame Gear Setup https://pastebin.com/sfDBfzZQ Required Uniques
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Fleshcrafter, The Iron Mass, and Triad Grip are the three mandatory uniques for this build, as they all synergize together to create the high dps elemental skeleton damage we deal in the build. Fleshcrafter allows our minions to do any elemental damage without worrying about penetration or elemental debuffing. The Iron mass allows our skeletons to do triple damage when we've attacked recently, and gives them a new base physical damage and attack speed. Triad Grip gloves convert The Iron Mass base physical damage to elemental damage so it is not wasted, additionally +2 aura corruption gloves on these gloves are very cheap to buy and give a nice buff to beef up our auras. Recommended Uniques
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The Darkness Enthroned is pretty much the only unique I can recommend, as it gives a decent damage boost for our minions. Ghastly eye jewels with ES, added elemental damage, and %increased minion damage are the mods you want to look for, the nice thing about this build is that because we don't rely on any one element we can shop around for good deals on low interest elemental damage mods. Rare Items
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For the Hybrid League Starter setup, you are looking to get Life/ES and resists on all missing pieces of gear along with a stygian vise with similar stats. For ES setup, here is an example of the kind of gear you want to shoot for in the high budget version, you can make it work with much cheaper items, this is just what you want to shoot for. Jewels/Cluster Jewels
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This build in the endgame version uses 6 jewels and 6 cluster jewels, 2 large and 4 medium. The large cluster jewels should be 8-9 Minion cluster jewels with Call to the Slaughter and Rotten Claws, the reason being is that with both of those notables active on the jewel the Call to the Slaughter notable is moved to the nodes in front of the sockets, which allows you to save up to 6 passive points or more in the final tree, WE DO NOT WANT TO ALLOCATE ROTTEN CLAWS IT IS MERLY THERE TO MAKE IT EASIER TO ALLOCATE CALL TO THE SLAUGHTER! :) Additionally you can get minion attack speed on the travel nodes for a little extra damage but that is by no means a necessary stat. The medium cluster jewels need to be 4-5 Passive Aura jewels that have Self control on at least 3 of the 4 of them, allowing us to allocate Discipline without mana reservation, the rest of the mods can be either Stalwart Commander/Vengeful Commander, or First Among Equals to improve either damage or ES pool, this is where the endgame version can get expensive. As far as regular jewels are concerned, we use 3 To Dust Jewels Corrupted with 1% Reduced Mana Reservation because its great for our aura sustain and they are extremely cheap. We use both a Fortress and a Quickening Covenant jewels in our medium cluster jewel sockets to avoid the downsides of these jewels. And finally we use an Energy From within jewel for extra energy shield with the Melding Hybrid wheel. Gem Links
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This build is pretty socket starved but you have some flexibility in the league start version as you wont be using Divergent Vitality and could use regular vitality without generosity for some extra defense.
These are the links for my current endgame setup, Update: For a slight increase in dps replace Generosity with Enhance Support in the Divergent Vitality Aura Spectres and Animate Guardian
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The spectres for this build are either for defensive buffs or damage boosts to our minions: They of Thul: Super tanky, free dodge/damage mitigation Arena Master: Super tanky, attack speed/movement speed buff for our minions Diabolist: Free auto cursing of enfeeble since we dont have open links and its a nice automation of cursing for us. Animate Guardian: The gear for this Animate guardian are not your standard fair, due to the fact that fleshcrafter conversions 2% of minion life to energy shield per 1% of chaos resistance, therefore we need to build around that mechanic to make him tanky enough for endgame Crown of the Tyrant, Blue or Red Socket Colored You could also use Leer Cast until you can afford Crown of the Tyrant The Oak Sign of the Sin Eater (Makes us immune to elemental ailments) Victario's Flight Geofri's Sanctuary (Makes AGs life regen apply to his ES pool instead of life) Rare gloves with life and EXACTLY 29% chaos res (this is because we want our AG to have almost entirely ES to benefit as much as possible from Geofri's Sanctuary, anything higher than 49% chaos res on any minion will cause them to die instantly because of Fleshcrafter!) Leveling For leveling this build I recommend playing as a standard summoner, using skeletons/srs until you get an anomalous summon skeleton gem, once you get to maps and can afford the uniques you can start transitioning to the build fully For Ascendancy points go for Radiant Crusade and Unwavering Crusade first, then Time of Need and finally Radiant Faith. Pantheon Use Soul of the Brine King for stuns and Soul of Abberath for burning ground immunity. "Playing jank off-meta minion builds since 2012" Last edited by ProtectorOfFaith#3643 on Nov 11, 2020, 1:08:22 PM Last bumped on Mar 1, 2021, 11:47:32 AM
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Hey, I just wanted to say I really appreciate the format of your guide. It's really easy on the eyes. I'll probably give this build a go during the Flashback event or next league.
Last edited by pirate_yar#4253 on Nov 10, 2020, 9:55:07 PM
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nice guide. i might try that build next.
and one little thing to improve i noticed, replace that generosity support linked to divergent vitality with a level 3/4 enhance support for more damage |
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" Ah I didn't even think of that! Yeah I'll make that change in the gem links section with a note, good find! "Playing jank off-meta minion builds since 2012"
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Hi
I'm interest in your build but kinda poor around 3ex is it viable whithout the expensive medium cluster jewel who are at 2ex each? or i can go the hybrid life/ES stater version as the build look nice and i would like to play it. Thanks and fly safe. |
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" You can definitely make the build work with that amount of currency, but i would recommend starting with the hybrid version and use the currency you gain from running that build to then buy into the endgame build. Which Jewel Are you referring to? Stalwart commander? If that's the case you dont NEED them, its just that you wont be as tanky, (from 9k es to like 8.3k). So its by no means required, the only stat on your medium jewels that you need to have is Self-control, but only 3 out of the 4 need to have that. So you could go with cheaper 5 passive aura medium cluster jewels with generic aura effect (First Among Equals) and stuff like that as the other passive. They're merely there for defensive purposes. My suggestion would be tinker around with the pob and make a cheaper more affordable cluster jewel for the various ones that are too expensive and see the tradeoffs and see if that is worth it for you if you dont want to test in game :) "Playing jank off-meta minion builds since 2012" Last edited by ProtectorOfFaith#3643 on Nov 12, 2020, 7:00:26 PM
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" Thanks for the info, a medium 6 passive with self-control today are at 2ex so if i go in i will buy them one by one by saving ^^. Anyway thanks again. Fly safe EDIT: My bad was using trade site wrong the medium cluster are not that expensive =) Last edited by Tagmatar#1004 on Nov 13, 2020, 5:16:09 AM
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" Which league are you searching in? I can find 4 passive medium jewels with self control for only 15c in heist sc... Edit: okay haha glad to hear it let me know how it goes! :D "Playing jank off-meta minion builds since 2012" Last edited by ProtectorOfFaith#3643 on Nov 14, 2020, 4:37:21 PM
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Nevermind, figured it out. Trying out the build!
Last edited by thedukey#0223 on Nov 19, 2020, 10:40:14 PM
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Thanks for making this!
I love builds that are cheaper to start up. This looks like a good one to try out for a league starter and invest in better gear or work on transition to aura stacker of some sort since it uses a few similar items. Minion resistances: I read Minions start with 40% resist base (20% chaos) So basically like you say in AG section we cant give them more then 29% chaos resist or they will all die via converted life. 1) Do you think the benefits for getting Grave Intentions Node are worth it ? 2) It would give skeletons ~48% chaos resist aswell as AG. Due to fleshcrafter I think we would want skeles to have energy shield up all the time or they loose damage. Or do you just roll with ~20% chaos rest on skeles since they cant be damaged for ~2 sec and recasting them. 3) Elemental focus vs another support gem ( ruthless or dmg on full life?) since you loose out on the shock / freeze from triad grip with ele focus? 4) How reliable is Sign of the Sin Eater + AG setup with meat shield and minion movement speed? I assume it does not transfer ailments if the AG comes back in range - only when they are initially applied. 5) If its pretty reliable do you think Bastian of Hope for Stun + block might be better then Time of Need ? since all you would really get is life regen every 5 sec assuming you use curse flask. 6) The only downside IMO for this build is the fact you need to hit mobs recently - I see you use smite / vigilant strike. Can you talk more about options for triggering The Iron Mass ? Vigilant strike has been clunky for me and seems to get interrupted easily. I think you spoke about Leap slam - wondering if LS + faster + fortify or a corrupt might be good options. Maybe a holy relic + blind setup thrown in there too to get added benefits for hitting constantly. or i guess blind could just come from a abyss jewel and taunt. 7) Reading up on cluster jewel options. I am curious to test out a Medium jewel with Blessed rebirth (opens up vaal skele) and Life from Death (ES regen + minion life on minion death via constant recast of skeles) seems this change might be a decent QoL for minion upkeep and only 3 aura medium jewels are really needed. 8) Wicked ward for 3 passive point investment. Is this not worth it to grab ? sorry for the spam :D Last edited by Milk103#0516 on Dec 28, 2020, 2:51:00 PM
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