Update 4/6/2019
A lot has changed with FG and 1.1.x.x. This build is no longer what it used to be. I recommend this Ghol Witching Hour build instead.
Update 12/5/2018
A lot of time has passed since the original version of this build, and I’ve learned a few things in the meantime. Of particular relevance, I’ve learned that Blizzard is amazing, and that having Familiar at 26/16 isn’t critically important on builds that have other major sources of damage. After bouncing some ideas around with Ceveth, I’ve made a few improvements.
MI-Enhanced Build
Gladiator 151-170 - 4:42 with 4 buffs + Banner
No-MI Build
Gladiator 151-170 - 5:23 with 4 buffs + Banner
What’s Changed
Items
Replaced the Wendigo Conjuring Seal with a second Mythical Voidwhisper Band for more reliable Chaos conversion and bonus to Hellfire.
Replaced the Mantle of Lost Souls with Mythical Fiendflesh Mantle for the extra Fiend’s Flesh proc and additional pet resistances.
[MI-Enhanced] Replaced the Mythical Wildshorn Legguards with Taskmaster’s Reaper Leggings of Kings
[MI-Enhanced] Replaced the Mythical Rotdrinker Crest with Cabalist’s Wendigo Gaze of Caged Souls
[MI-Enhanced] Replaced Mogdrogen’s Ardor with Bysmiel’s Domination.
Skills
Dropped Ravenous Earth in favor of Dreeg’s Evil Eye. It saves 7 skill points and draws much less agro.
Dropped the single point from Will of the Crypt. The slight damage bonus isn’t worth eating the conversion.
Reduced investment in Call of the Grave and Undead Legion.
Maxed Blight Burst. This skill is great for clearing trash.
Devotions
The devotion setup was revamped to include both Blizzard and Rumor while still using Flame Torrent, Eldritch Fire, Hungering Void, and Time Dilation. Credits to Ceveth for coming up with this combination.
Customization Options
Item Options
If you don’t have access to those unrealistic MIs, here is the order of preference.
Pants
- Taskmaster’s Reaper Leggings of Kings
- Taskmaster’s Reaper Leggings with any other suffix
- Taskmaster’s any other pants of Kings
- Taskmaster’s any other pants with any other suffix
- Reaper Leggings of Kings with any prefix
- Mythical Wildshorn Legguards
As long as you have Taskmaster’s pants, you have the option to use Bysmiel’s Domination of Mogdrogen’s Ardor. Bysmiel is better offensively, Mogdrogen’s is better defensively and gives you a lot more flexibility in terms of resistances for both you and your pets.Both are good regardless, but if your goal is maximum speed/power then Bysmiel’s is the better of the two. The relic change dropped 15 seconds from my Gladiator clear time.
Medals
- Cabalist’s (+Familiar, +Skeleton) Wendigo Gaze of Caged Souls
- Cabalist’s (+Familiar, +Skeleton) Kymon’s Crest of Caged Souls
- Cabalist’s (+Familiar, +Skeleton) any other medal of Caged Souls
- Cabalist’s (+Familiar, +Skeleton) Wendigo Gaze with any other suffix
- Cabalist’s (+Familiar, +Skeleton) Kymon’s Crest with any other suffix
- Cabalist’s (+Familiar, +Skeleton) any other medal with any other suffix
- Mythical Rotdrinker Crest OR Mythical Mark of Forgotten Spirits
Shoulders
I prefer Fiendflesh Mantle but there are some options.
You can also choose to use Mantle of Lost Souls to be able to hit 20/12 Undead Legion and be able to summon a 10th Skeleton.
If you’re using Taskmaster’s Leggings and Mogdrogen’s Ardor, you can choose to use Mythical Mantle of the Patron to max Familiar.
Body
You can choose to use Mythical Fiendmaster Raiment, and as long as you’re using either Mogdrogen’s Ardor or Mantle of Lost Souls so that you can still get the 9th Skeleton.
Skill Options
There is a fair bit of room for skill customization with the current setup, particularly if you use the MIs and Mogdrogen’s Ardor.
This is the base setup, everything else is optional. There are 29 skill points for less-essential things. I prefer to use Blight Burst, but it’s not necessary. Call of the Grave provides a nice bonus for one point, but is not even remotely critical if you don’t want to use it.
I tested out a bunch of configurations and found very similar levels off effectiveness from all of the following.
- GrimTools: Invest in Blight Fiend (4:59 Gladiator)
- GrimTools: Invest in Will of the Crypt (5:02 Gladiator)
- GrimTools: Invest in Storm Spirit and use Ravenous Earth (I don’t remember the clear time, but it was similar)
Devotion Options
There are numerous viable devotion options. I like the one Ceveth provided, but here are a few others I can also recommend:
- GrimTools: Swap Rumor for Giant’s Blood - This is a bit better defensively for the player if you have trouble staying alive.
- GrimTools: Swap Murmor and Ulo for Stag, Jackel, Hawk, and the speed node in Bysmiel’s Bonds.
- GrimTools: Similar to the above but taking Guardian’s Gaze.
Crucible Piloting
Due to the fragile nature of skeletons, a lot of active pet moving is required in order to be successful in the crucible. You don’t have to be terribly precise, but need to generally do the right thing or high damage enemies will be able to deal too much to your pets.
Generally, when fighting any boss enemy, you want to use the Pet Attack command to move your pets right next to it, and then (possibly) tell them to attack it once they have moved so that they don’t immediately run away to other targets (which happens sometimes). This ensures that the Familiars hit with as many projectiles as possible, and that the Skeleton’s Flame Torrents will hit the target.
I also generally move my pets into the middle of most hordes of enemies to maximize the damage from Familiars, Blight Burst, and Flame Torrent. Aside from specific dangerous waves, the skeletons do just fine completely surrounded at point-blank range.
Here are a few specifics: (most of the time I say “move” I am refering to moving your pets)
- Wave 154: You don’t want to fight both Kubacabra and Gabal’Thunn at the same time. Both have AoE damage, Kubacabra has bleed which your skeletons have little resistance to, and Gabal’Thunn has RR. Try to position your self close to Kubacabras spawn point before the wave begins and take him out first. If you are not close to him at the beginning of the wave go for Gabal’Thunn first. If Kubacabra has engaged by the time you kill him, move away a little to get off any existing blood pools before you do fight him. If you do fight Kubacabra first, move off the blood pools after you kill him before fighting anything else.
- Wave 160: Start at the spawn location of one of the AoM nemesis, and kill it before engaging anything else.
- Wave 161: I prefer to rush Aleksander and kill him before the healers can get there. You can choose to go for the healers first, but you end up fighting more things at the same time as Aleksander and that increases the risk of losing skeletons.
- Wave 165: Start at the spawn location of the AoM nemesis, and kill it before engaging anything else.
- Wave 169: Try to kill Theodin early enough that you can kill his second form before starting wave 170. If you have things sufficiently under control you can kill him between the waves to save a few seconds. Also watch out for Anasteria’s Debuff.
- Wave 170: Start at the spawn location of one of the AoM nemesis, and kill it before engaging anything else.
Skill binding/usage
Everyone has their own perferences, and I am definitely not the most skilled/precise pilot, but I thought I’d share how I do things in case anyone finds it useful.
My personal keybindings are as follows:
Bind “Move To” to LMB
Bind “Pet Attack” RMB
Bind Dreeg’s Evil Eye to 1
Bind Call of the Beast to 2
Bind Witching Hour to 3
Bind Curse of Frailty to 4
Bind Call of the Grave to 5
Bind “Use Potion” to Q
Bind Blood of Dreeg to 7 with a secondary binding of ~
I literally just spam 1 through 4 on my keyboard and occasionally press the adjacent keys ~ and Q for Blood of Dreeg and Potion respectively, and hit 5 for Call of the Grave when I remember to. The only thing that is important for ordering skill usage is that if you’re going to take my “spam all skills” approach, put the zero cooldown skills (Curse of Frailty) in the last spot(4) so that the casting animation doesn’t stop you from using the other skills. I also have W bound to Energy Potion in case I need it.
Original Build
GrimTools
Gladiator 151-170 - 5:32 with 4 buffs, banner, and Wrath of the Beast tinctures
Gladiator 151-170 - 6:20 with 4 buffs
Equipment
Mythical Witching Hour
Mythical Will of Bysmiel
Mythical Voidwisper Band
Wendigo Conjurer Seal
Mythical Beastcaller’s Cowl
Mythical Necrolord’s Shroud
Mantle of Lost Souls
Mythical Overlord’s Iron Grip
Mythical Wildshorn Legguards
Mythical Fiendflesh Greaves
Mythical Shadowfiend’s Cord
Mythical Rotdrinker Crest
Mogdrogen’s Ardor
It shouldn’t be surprising that combining the two most powerful pets with the most powerful pet weapon yields some pretty good results, but the fact that the other general items allow you to basically max both at once is pretty ridiculous.
After I managed a 7:06 clear with my initial version that used 2 x Voidwisper Band and Mantle of the Patron, I tried pushing the limits by adding a banner and consumables. Then, while trying to prove how the Ravens were more important than the Skeletons I found with the extra resistance from the Mantle of Lost Souls the Skeletons could survive, keep their crucible buffs, and the clear times dropped by 30+ seconds. The result is a build that is pretty absurdly overpowered and hugely consistent, so thanks to SuperFluff for that.
For reference, my fastest clear with a Raven build without Skeletons is ~8 minutes, with Skeletons without Ravens is 7:30.
Until recently all of my crucible pet builds use Ishtak, the Spring Maiden and not Dying God, but on my two recent Witching Hour builds the pets kill things sufficiently fast, and Flame Torrent/Guardian’s Gaze also generate a decent amount of threat, keeping most of the focus on the pets. I’m working on another build that is so tanky that it doesn’t need Ishtak, but it’s a bit slow even with Dying God.
Attachment: Capturea.jpg
