[Sub-guide] MOM for Skele Mages
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Heads up: This is NOT a comprehensive build guide! Refer to Odif's thorough and educational guide for the primary build:
https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/3008831 My page here is only supplementary for a particular spin that's pulled enough interest to warrant its own documentation. Boss videos and POB link at the bottom. This is a new build component that will greatly increase your Effective Max HP (eHP) and regen to such points that you can tank some of the heaviest hits in the game and immediately recover back to full, ontop of maintaining Block cap. You use Mana to take some of your damage for you and expend it to regenerate. As a result, you'll have to drop a DPS aura such as Zealotry or Skitterbots, trading damage for a lot of safety. First, you take the keystones Mind Over Matter and The Agnostic:
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  Now you have a new formula for how your character takes damage from Hits. If 100 damage is incoming, your Life takes 70 and your Mana takes 30. 30 divided by 70 is ~0.43, meaning your eHP has risen by 43% if you have enough mana: you will need your Unreserved Mana equal to at least 43% of your total Life. If you have 4500 HP, you need at least 1935 Mana unreserved to optimize, totaling 6,435 eHP. Your Mana will also rapidly drain itself to restore missing HP, so going over a little is fine. Keep in mind that DOTs do not Hit, so the damage will not be split, but you will see Mana drain to keep you full. For this it helps to have Bleed and Ignite Removal among your Flasks. The Agnostic also removes all Energy Shield but you won't miss it. That's the basics, now there are additional Passive Notables you can easily take and other choices to compliment. Additional Notable Passives:
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 Mystic Bulwark, Dynamo, Battle Rouse, and Deep Thoughts: These four Notables are very nearby and grant a lot of +Mana and other benefits. Forethought is only worth taking if you skip to it with a Thread of Hope, not mandatory to take early. That's it for changes to the passive tree, Ascendancy is the same. You can get the rest of the Mana you need from Gear. Flasks:
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Now that Mana = Life, you can benefit from the much more efficient Mana Flasks. Here's my general carry:
Notice the first two are "emergency" flasks, press one or both when getting low. The Bleed/Ignite removals are on these two. Quicksilver is whatever you like, I like Curse Immunity. Fourth is just strong Physical and Cold mitigation since we don't need Rumi's. Last, you'll see the "Flask Effect is not removed at Full Mana" prefix. This lets your Mana Recovery go for the full duration AND the suffix, too! I go with Shock Immunity, but it's whatever you need. Here's another Flask you may want to craft: That prefix keeps the suffix UP for the full 7-second duration. This holds many more uses than a Quicksilver, something you may want for an extended boss fight like Sirus or Maven. Gem Changes:
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As stated above, the first big change will be that you no longer Reserve a significant portion of your mana. You can still run:
Clarity: Provides huge Mana regen reserving a flat amount instead of a percentage, up to 438 at most. You can downlevel this if needed. Essence Wurm: Zealotry -> Skitterbots: Essence Wurm unique Ring allows you to run one Aura for free. Zealotry is best for Skele Mages, switch to Skitterbots if you get a Hypothermia helmet (more on that below). The good news is you're not giving up much, Zealotry is the only good Aura for Skele Mages. Vitality at lv1 is worth running if you invest in a Watcher's Eye for it, which will be expensive. You'll want a Watcher's Eye with two of the following useful mods: * (15-20)% of Damage taken gained as Mana over 4 seconds when Hit while affected by Clarity - top priority * (10-15)% increased Mana Recovery Rate while affected by Clarity * (10-15)% increased Life Recovery Rate while affected by Vitality - best Vitality mod * Regenerate (1-1.5)% of Life per second while while affected by Vitality "Increased Life Recovery Rate" affects all sources of Life Recovery, including The Agnostic's mana drain! Budget is always a limiter so get what you can, it'll be worth it. Mana on Gear:
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Since Mana = eHP, it's always helpful to get a good chunk of Mana on any item.
Damage Recouped as Mana craft: On Rings & Amulets you can bench craft the Prefix "+# to Max Mana and % of Damage from Hits Recouped as Mana". This is exactly as helpful as it sounds, example: Note that this craft conflicts with other +Mana mods, so when you buy a Ring ensure it has an open Prefix and no natural Mana. Here's a sample trade search filter: https://www.pathofexile.com/trade/search/Ultimatum/zW4zmgaS4 You may need to change the League if you're in The Future. Be sure to look through the filters I've set if you're still learning. Recovery-on-Block Shield:
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A Shaper-Influenced Shield can have the suffixes "Recover (3–5)% of Life when you Block" and "Recover (3–5)% of your maximum Mana when you Block". If you get a shield with both, you'll feel almost immortal by comparison. This is what makes Glancing Blows worth, making most Hits not even damage you. Here's my shield for example, worth about 5 Exalts:Try to get one with both mods, any percent, and one or two other good mods. Then use either Divine Orbs or the Lucky Divine Harvest crafts to get both at 5%.
Other Synergies:
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A few more tips:
* Femurs of the Saints: Femurs goes very well with MOM, is a fantastically cost-effective stepping stone for getting everything built up to a good point before you save up for a Helmet. The Mana Regen per living Spectre is very strong. * Pledge of Hands: Another good staff, granting Greater Spell Echo and 100% inc Mana, but usually too expensive for the purpose of a stepping stone. * Look for +Life and +Mana on your Ghastly jewels * Cloak of Defiance ain't bad, but don't forget that +10% changes your Life/Mana ratio. You'll need unreserved Mana to equal at least 67% of Life, not an insignificant tweak. My recommendation for high-end build is to use a Helmet for Skeles, Rotting Legion for chest, and a Wand/Shield combo. See my POB link below for full build, worn equipment worth about 25ex at current prices. Don't worry, if you get to A9 Sirus/Maven/t16 Delirious levels, you'll accumulate that much or beyond. Videos and POB:
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Here's a deathless A9 Sirus
And a 2-death The Feared The Feared deaths could have totally been avoided but that's the fight, realistically. I also forgot to swap in Ele Focus over Pierce! My own POB (use Fork!): https://pastebin.com/ZtqfrhYb At this level, any content is doable besides that absurd 2000-Depth Niko shit. I've cleared everything and even know someone you've probably talked to in the primary thread who's hit lv100 with this spec! Odif's thread is the place for general discussion of the Skele Mages build, but feel free to drop any questions here! Last edited by therealtoothman#2453 on May 17, 2021, 1:30:04 PM Last bumped on Aug 23, 2021, 7:54:39 AM
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Hi, thank you for this extension to Odif's guide as I was hoping to take this build further. This is my first ever league so I just wanted to ask a few things before I go out and buy some of the more expensive items. Also as a quick note I play on PS4 and item prices are much more expensive there than on PC and I also do not know how to directly link items and I am sorry for that. My biggest concern is with the helmet. I can currently buy a +3 lvl minion gem, supported by minion life and minion damage. This means I cannot get the +1 to max raised zombs/skeles (no open prefix). I also miss out on hypothermia and assume I would run zealotry instead of Skitterbots. This helmet costs 25ex. There is a helmet with +3 lvl minion, supported by minion life, minion damage, and hypothermia. Again I could not get the +1 max number of zombs/skeles. This helmet is 45 ex which would take me a while to farm up probably. I could always try to craft my own but being my first league I have never crafted anything before. I am sorry for the long comment but I was just wondering on what you might recommend I do. Thanks!
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Definitely don't blow your savings on a helmet without an open prefix! The helmet needed to reach this build's peak must have:
+3 minion gems At least two of the following: Minion Damage Support Hypothermia Support Socketed Gems deal 30% more elemental damage And an open prefix to craft +1 Skeles. Otherwise it just isn't enough of an upgrade to be worth the cost. If you can't find one for an affordable price, you should be able to craft one yourself for much less. It'll be expensive and maybe risky, so highly recommend you watch some crafting guides on youtube like this one if you wanna give it a go: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TQ4OMl3tjok&t=649s Last edited by therealtoothman#2453 on May 17, 2021, 9:34:25 PM
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What would you recommend for the spectres and anime guardian? Odif excluded those since they are not very new player friendly, which after watching some videos makes sense. So I was wondering on what you recommend for which spectres and the gear for the anime guardian?
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I don't understand the gem setup, do i not use Zealotry now since it reserves 43% of my mana?
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" Did they remove this from the game or did they change the wording? It is not listed in any way I can find on the trade search tool. |
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"Carnage Chieftans for Frenzy Charges, with Clarity Aura they have the mana to keep casting and give good DPS boost This video tells the exact build I recommend for AG: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r5r01XQOfUA Except I haven't bothered with Curse gloves Also recommend linking it with Spectres & Zombies supported by Minion Life, Meat Shield (free in Rotting Legion), Empower lv3 (no need for lv4 except luxury), and Feeding Frenzy. I don't recommend even trying AG until you can pick up all the right items, use a Chaos Golem until then. Also a lv1 cwdt Convocation helps keep him close since the Fortify aura is pretty small. "You use Zealotry in Essence Wurm, then swap Skitterbots if you put on a Hypothermia helmet "You can find any Watcher's Eye mods for any aura by typing in "by [name of aura]" |
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Here's one very specific "budget" duper helmet that is still an upgrade from Femurs/Lioneye's, but not quite as good:
Helmet mods: +3 minion gems minion damage support immolate support open prefix for +1 Skeles Immolate only works when the target is Burning, so you'll need the Notable "Raze and Pillage" in a Large Cluster so they can Ignite, then swap Ele Focus with Controlled Destruction. A helmet like that will be much cheaper than a Hypothermia helmet, perhaps a solid stepping stone. That will also allow you to keep Zealotry instead of Skitterbots. Of course, don't use Fire to trigger Elemental Equilibrium. Last edited by therealtoothman#2453 on Jun 7, 2021, 10:53:52 AM
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If I dont have a Hypothermia helmet...Do I even go for Elemental Equilibrium?
I dont get how we proc Elemental Equilibrium and why we arent allowed to use Fire to trigger it. Arent Skeleton Mages all kinds of elemental damage? |
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"Pretty simple: if you trigger EE with one element, it will overall boost the damage of your Skeles even though a third of them will be reduced. Generally, the Cold Skeles deal the least damage by a small margin, so that's the optimal choice. Hypothermia boosts all damage under the condition that the target is Chilled, which Skitterbots will do for you on bosses (weaker enemies die fast anyway). The note about not using Fire only applies if you're using that specific Helmet setup in my last comment. You can use Fleshcrafter Body Armour if you don't want to bother with EE or Exposure at all, at the cost of some survivability. The damage is similar. |
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