[3.18] Skeleton Mages Necromancer Leaguestarter + cheatsheet + leveling guide

---------------------------------------- LEVELING TIPS ---------------------------------------- Lv 4 Holy Flame Totem: Can skip Phantasm if you don't have currency Lv 4 Flame Wall: Use it in front of the Hole Flame Totem to boost his dmg, useful for rares and bosses. You can also use magma roll instead of freezing pulse and boost the dmg with flame wall. Lv 8 SRS: you can drop freezing pulse/margma roll Lv 18 Minion Switch: Drop everything else. Keep Precision and Vitality low level accoarding to your mana pool, spam skeletons for big packs or bosses. Try to get a Vaal Summon Skeletons ASAP Lv 24 Check Vendors for 4 Links! Lv 34 Raise Spectre: We wait till the Normal Lab to get spectres or they will die too easly. Remember to go in the act 2 to get the Carnage Chieftain which gives frenzy charges to allies. Act 6: do the Lilly Roth quest to unlock all the remaining gems. -Pick feeding frenzy and replace multistrike or minion damage on your Zombie Setup. -Pick meat shield and use it in your Raise Spectre/ Carrion Golem Setup. -In Riverways and Southern Forest there is the Host Chieftain (power charges to allies). As soon as you get the 3rd and 4th spectre get the Host Chieftain. You can level till maps with this setup Random Tips: -Always check essences for the Essence of Fear (minion damage on 1h weap) -Do Vaal Side areas for vaal gems and sacrifice fragments. Useful Recipe: -Blue gem + Iron Ring = Sapphire Ring -Bone Spirit Shield + Life Flask + Transmutation Orb = Life Flask of Animation (heal minions) -Life flask of Animation + Helmet + Alteration Orb = +1 Minion Helmet -7 Vaal Skill Gems + Sacrifice Fragment = Vaal Orb Cheatsheet: https://imgur.com/e68uqIy --------------------------------------- SPECTERS --------------------------------------- 2 Carnage Chieftain for Frenzy Charges. To get them you go to "The Old Fields (ACT2)" and start spamming desecrate. 2 Host Chieftain for Power Charges. To get then you go to "The Riverways (ACT6)" and start spamming desecrate. You can target bodies by keeping "A" pressed (if you didn't change the key bindings) Your fouth specter is unlocked with the gem level 25 (21 from gem + 2 from ascendancy + 2 from helmet) (you can also get +1 from wand or amulet eventually) --------------------------------------- GEMS --------------------------------------- 6L Summon Skeleton Melee: You can swap out melee phys for predator if you want. Predator gives you a skill that let your skeletons focus on the target of the skill. You'll lose some dmg but you can set a target. 2L+2S Auras (Melee version): If you want you can drop skitterbots for determination (dmg for phys dmg reduction). Remember do not link determination to generosity! 3L Offering Trigger: Triggers goes in order from top to bottom, you want Desecrate always on top. You can use flesh offering instead of bone offering to get more dmg and mov speed at cost of block and spell block. 3L CWDT: If you don't want immortal call you can use molten shell. If you don't want a CWDT setup you can use self cast molten shell, enduring cry, convocation or other utility skills. 6L Summon Skeleton Mage: You are using Hypotermia + Slower projectile for Bossing and Pierce + Volley for Mapping. If you don't want to switch you can go with Hypotermia + Pierce If you don't have an unset ring you have several solutions to fit Convocation: -If you have enogh unreserved mana (150-200) you can remove lifetap from the curse + flame dash setup and socket convocation there. -If you are short on mana you can remove vitality or defiance banner. -If you are happy with your mana you can sacrifice some damage removing generosity to socket convocation. --------------------------------------------- ENDGAME GEAR --------------------------------------------- We are socketing the convenant jewels on the cluster jewel because they don't give downsides there. Very important. You should try to get a medium cluster jewel with Blessed Rebirth before any other cluster jewels. If you want more damage you can sacrifice some survivability by dropping a few life and block nodes and get a 12 passive large cluster jewel. Every small passives give 10% minion dmg and it's a big boost to the dps. Endgame 2: The big difference between the "Endgame" and "Endgame 2" sets is the shield and the helmet. The other differences are just small improvements, look at the item description to know how to get that uprade. In the first we are using a crafted shaper influenced shield with the mod 5% life on block. The shield used in the second set is "The Surrender" which has 250 life on block. To reach that with the shaper shield we should have 5k life whick is hard to achieve without sacrificing too much dmg. The other mods are bery good aswell and it is cheaper than a very good crafted shaper shield. Regarding the Helmet, in the first set we are using a Bone Helmet for its implicit. In the second example we are replacing that implicit with a couple of eldrich mods, specifically mana reservation. The Endgame 2 set was ment to farm Simulacrums and we need the mana reservation to fit the Purity of Elements aura. By having a max roll "Ashes of the Stars" and mana reservation on helmet we are able to drop vitality and fit Purity of elements. You don't have to use a bone helmet, you should use a high armor base helmet. Wand: +1 with high minion damage is better than +2 without minion damage --------------------------------------------- SIMULACRUM FARMING? --------------------------------------------- Totally possible, it will be expensive if you want to consistently clear wave 30. If you are ok with wave 27-28 you can do it with 6-7m dps which will not be that expensive. However there are a few things you can't skip. Simulacrum Checklist: -Purity of Elements: Alim immunity is mandatory, this is the easiest way to achieve that. Also it gives you room to cap your chaos res with the gear. -Chaos res cap: Most of the dmg from Deli bosses is chaos. -Endurance charges: The more the better. You can benchcraft +1 min charge on rings. +1 min warlord mod on shield. You can get charges on small cluster. etc.. -Crit Avoidance: Very important because last few waves have insane crit mods. You can get crit avoidance with a watcher's eye determination mod -Block & Spell Block Cap: You need as many def mechanics as possible. We rely on block and armor. -Armour: Aim for at least 65-70% phys dmg reduction. Ideally 90%. -Divine Shield: It's a passive keystone in the tree. You don't need it for mapping or bossing. --------------------------------------------- ANIMATE GUARDIAN --------------------------------------------- Disclaimer: We are using the Fleshcrafter Body Armor which converts 2% max life to ES every 1% chaos res for our minions. That means if your AG has 50% chaos res, he instantly dies. AG has 20% base chaos res. To solve this problem we can either avoid using chaos res gear and let the Fleshcrafter convert 40% of max AG life to ES and use the Mask of the Stitched Demon combo or reduce the chaos res with oskarm and use the doppelganger guise (which was buffed a lot for our situation). High Budget 1: (pick one helmet) -Weapon: Kingmaker (crit multi, culling strike, fortification) -Helmet: Shaper base Helmet with "Nearby enemies take % inc ele dmg" -Helmet: Crown of the Tyrant (Nearby enemies have -10% all res, flat dmg) -Body Armor: Doppelganger Guise (the guardian is always sane, that means 30-40% less phys and chaos dmg and regen 10% live over 1 sec when hit) -Boots: Windscream (+1 curse) -Gloves: Any glove with a useful curse (temporal chain or enfeeble for survivability) aim for Life + Res (not chaos!) (you can swap the gloves for Oskarm. In this way your AG will have reduced chaos res, therfore less ES and more max Life. Since Oskarm apply assassin's mark, we have to switch our curse to something else.) Mid Budget: -Weapon: Kingmaker (crit multi, culling strike, fortification) -Helmet: Mask of the Stitched Demon (Regen Life based on how much ES he have) -Body: Get a Life + Res (not chaos!) and 1 empty prefix to bench craft % life as energy shield. The redeemer mod "Nearby emenies are blinded" is also good but expensive. -Boots: Windscream (+1 curse) -Gloves: Any glove with a useful curse (temporal chain or enfeeble for survivability) aim for Life + Res (not chaos!) (you can swap out boots and gloves for the equip in the budget version if they cost too much) Budget: -Weapon: Dying Breath (18% increase dmg) -Helmet: Leer Cast (15% inc dmg) -Body: Ambu's Charge (not very tanky but cheap) -Boots: Victario's Flight (mov speed bonus) -Gloves: Any glove with a useful curse (ele weakness for dmg, temporal chain or enfeeble for survivability) aim for Life + Res (not chaos!) If you are unsure about AG, you can drop the gem and use meat shield or elemental army instead. Alternatives: -Gloves: Southbound (inc max life) -Weapon: Sign of the Sin Eater (aliment immunity) -Body: Grab of the Ephemeral ( immunity to crit, Ally mov speed can'r be reduced below base) -Weapon: Singularity (hinder) -Boots: Wake of Destruction (create shocked grounds) -Boots: Legacy of Fury (create scorched ground) -Shield: Victario's Charity (power and frenzy charge generation) -Helmet: Fairgraves Tricorne (Shock Immunity)