FOR THOSE WHO CRAVE HORDES OF SKELETONS (SUMMON LIMIT RAISED TO 14):
This build is strong, (hardcore ultimate, gladiator crucible, & high level [don’t remember] shattered realms completed) but it’s not the strongest. That was not my focus, I wanted a HORDE of skeletons, THAT was my focus…and to remain hardcore ultimate viable. Everything else came after. With this build I was able to summon 14 very tanky skeletons (and 2x hell hounds, skeletal servant, blight fiend, etc) and was able to complete all quests. I did a lot of digging but not exhaustive. If anyone wants to chime in with ideas to up summon limit I welcome it.
THE BUILD: https://www.grimtools.com/calc/mN4aO8m2
SUMMON LIMIT BREAKDOWN:
With the Necro skeleton line maxed you get 8 skeletons. With undead legion at ultimate level 20 or above you get 10 skeletons.
The completed lost souls set nets you another +3 skeletons given the recent update (ty crate).
The dual wield is important in order to increase the summon by +1 with the Mythical Vielpiercer. This can also be done using the warden’s judgement (green mace dropped by the warden). You’ll need to equip something that enables dual wielding, a relic or medal (in my case) for example.
Note: I tried dual wielding lost souls scepters for 5 pieces… does nothing spectacular. Also you can’t reach the 4th tier by doing this, it has to be the named pieces in the set to achieve full set bonuses.
GEAR BREAKDOWN:
The trick however is getting undead legion to stay at rank 20 or higher while adding +summon equipment on. Otherwise you start losing skeletons if it drops below ultimate level 20. And if you want to max your skeleton’s ultimate level in addition to their numbers, it gets even more narrow as to what you can do.
You’ll see in the grimtools I had to use blue pants [Mythical Rifthound Legwraps] to do it (and perhaps that’s the only way) but if anyone else juggles equipment another way and can pull it off let me know. I also hate giving up my medal slot for a near useless for pet builds medal but it appears this is the least impactful way to enable dual wield for a pet build. Perhaps a Reaper build (necro + nb) with a point in dual wield later may make an interesting skele build. Then I could make use of the Raise the Dead devotion skill.
There’s a two-handed weapon called the [Mythical Guardian of Death’s Gate] which is a down and dirty way to add 3 additional summons but as far as I can tell you max out at 13 skeletons and not 14 using this, plus you don’t get all the neato buffs the lost souls set gets you. Just look at how tough these buggers are even though I put quantity before quality:
PET STATS:
Now skeletons were my priority. However this build does have other perks besides a motley crew of skeletons. Here’s the entire horde I ran with:
Note: With raise the dead at max ult level 26 you get better summons but it’s still random and occasionally you get neked skele’s. Don’t worry, at higher level battles…when and IF they die, these neked skele’s die off first and eventually you weed all of them out.
Having 2x hell hounds is nice, they hit hard, they fit the overall necromancer feel of the build (as does blightfiend and skeletal servant). The hellhounds however, with the dual wielded Mythical Veilpiercer, will reduce target’s resistances and combined with Curse of Frailty (CF) makes enemies drop fast. CF also slows mobs way down which for a pet build is nice. The bird, blood, and tree (devotion) keep your pets health topped off (and yours). Pet build toons don’t need to be too tanky since the pets take a lot of the beating (did I mention these skele’s have 56% phys resist?), that said I play hardcore so my toon’s health is over 20k, armor over 2k, DA at 2400, Max primary/secondary resistances, so it’s a semi-tanky pet build anyways.
THE STRATEGY:
Just kidding, these things are actually pretty stout (see pet stats above). Have fun and enjoy!
