After reading the update to The Covenant body armour (Skills are supported by Level ~~15~~ 29 Added Chaos Damage), I thought it might be a shoe-in for builds that scale HARD on flat damage. The Iron Mass immediately came to mind:

https://preview.redd.it/vi4qjsphesh91.png?width=751&format=png&auto=webp&s=b0af4d69cbdf4f3558aa1ef850c86271c3140f7b

This sword has been long forgotten after its introduction during the Heist league, as its damage potential didn't even come close to scaling Skeleton gem levels. Level 29 Added Chaos Damage gives an insane amount of flat chaos that we can "triple" through this sword. Alongside United in Dream, and the potential of having skeletons be permanent through the Alberon's Warpath update (I'm less sold on this), this sword might be able to keep up now. Don't forget that minion poison damage is doubling this patch too!

I stole one of Kay's generic skeleton warrior PoBs and tweaked a few things here and there, and ended up with this PoB. I'm still trying to figure out the best way to not feel uber squishy to physical damage, but the damage potential is pretty solid if you add a few minion clusters into the mix. This PoB is certainly not finished with a few artifacts left from Kay's original build.

A few concerns with the archetype:

• Dropping United in Dream for a shield for more defenses loses a TON of DPS, so incorporating block is pretty difficult. Maybe get Mistress of Sacrifice through Forbidden Flame / Flesh and use Bone Offering?
• The playstyle used to involve casting skeletons, cycloning into stuff, and repeat. I was hoping I could just hold down cyclone if I made skellies permanent through Alberon's, but the skeletons might be too squishy in some scenarios
• Using Devouring Diadem for mana management feels like a good option (especially with Divine Flesh making ES obsolete), but I'm losing 1.4k ES overall, which feelsbad
• Thought about using Guardian instead of Occultist, but the build might feel terrible mapping without Profane Bloom

Is this build just a meme, or do you think I could patch some of its weaknesses up somehow? Thanks for your input!