Seal of Might stacking seems gonna get fixed since no other aura in game can stack like that (except Seal of blades, another broken double stacking aura).
Been wondering have you tried Mystical wyrmclaw and abuse that you have 2 hell hounds, put fire aura on?
Edit: Can i ask why did you choose necrolord shroud instead of fiend master? I find that 20% chaos and aether resistance aura on pets extremely useful for the new nemesis, since Grava and Alex does aoe chaos/aether damage i believe. Skeletons cant survive the meteor but other pets sure can with the aura on. My pets still get instant wiped by Log no matter what though.
Also i find Grim Harvest boot abit better than fiendflesh boots since flat + ele resist on pets is permanent and up to 24% resist, which will likely max your pet’s ele resist. 5% more total speed as well. I tried fiendflesh but find it incredibly lackluster since the 10k shield seems shared among you and your pets, which makes all it takes is like 1 end game boss AOE to clear it and then you have to wait for 20 seconds recharge. Whats your opinion?
Look at the second stats tab under Pets you will see that pets have over 1100% damage and 75% attack/cast speed.
The only good thing about Typhos is the 120% vitality damage. A lot of the damage in this build is fire from Flame Torrent, Hellfire, and caster skeletons. I would estimate this devotion gives you 5% more DPS.
Howl of Mogdrogen has an uptime of less than 50% and gives maybe 35% more damage when it’s up, so it’s about 10-20% more damage.
Raise the Dead gives you up to 6 pets and slows. I have no idea how long they live, so it’s hard to estimate how good they are.
Dying God gives your pets stuns/slow and steroid at the cost of 6000 health. It gives maybe 10-15% more damage with a lot of CC. It scales better if you or your party are doing damage instead of just pets.
Hungering Void empowers you, your allies and your minions. On top of that you also have the Bonuses to All Pets. So everything from Hungering Void also effects your pets.
Unless I am incorrect, enchanted flint stacks it’s aura. Void Ward stacks. There’s actually several auras in the game that stack and have for a long time now. I certainly disagree with nerfing Seal of Might down to one active aura but even if they do, it’s primary value to the build is the resistances it covers on us and the summons, so we can always rebuild around that possible nerf as aggravating as it would be. Your reference to Seal of Blades is an apple to oranges comparison of aura stacking as the procs it can exploit are not exploitable by Seal of Might to begin with.
Yes, I tried that. I consider it a substantial downgrade for this particular build but it obviously works fantastically for other builds. I certainly encourage you to experiment and draw your own conclusions though.
Imho there’s no substitute for crit and health bonuses to skeles. If this build had any gameplay issues with chaos or aether I might feel differently about that but it just doesn’t so I see no need to sacrifice DPS. If you feel differently, by all means make the switch.
We simply disagree then. We have enough speed. Resists are already good enough. I find Fiendflesh the far superior choice in overall gameplay. I haven’t been able to verify if the absorb actually applies to pets but whether it does or doesn’t, it’s amazingly valuable either way so that’s a non-issue. If it’s keeping skele attrition down, it’s already a superior choice just for that. If it doesn’t, it’s still a much needed circuit breaker with a gigantic flat absorb and it’s still a superior choice.
The interesting thing about Raise the Dead for this build, is that as crappy as it is, and it’s mostly crappy, it’s putting lots of cannon-fodder on the map that serves one invaluable and irreplaceable purpose: Taking certain hits that might otherwise get taken by your REAL skeletons. This has the completely unintended (except in my case it was intended) consequence of giving your real skeletons better uptime in heavy fights, which means they are pumping out better overall damage instead of being dead and waiting on re-summon.
I didn’t assume that the vitality aura affected the pets. If this is the case it could be better than Mogdrogan. Here’s a parallel thread on the topic of comparing Hungering Void and Mogdrogan. It doesn’t seem like there’s a definitive answer between the two, but the thread leans towards Hungering Void. Mogdrogan’s Howl is a little better for procs and move speed while Hungering Void gives more damage. http://www.grimdawn.com/forums/showthread.php?t=56385
It’ important to consider what type of pet build you are working with when talking about summons and those two celestial devotions. For this particular build, Dying God is night and day the better choice imho. Not just the types of damage it synergizes with for this build, but massive CC and unsurpassed crit boosting for a build that has such strong pet OA.
I found the total pet speed boost of Mog worthwhile for flame torrent procs but in testing that seemed to have a point of diminishing returns in actual kill times that Dying God had little issue surpassing over and over again.
But… start changing up the gear, stats and devotions on this skelemancer and Mog might be a better choice. Maybe even vastly better. YMMV.
Myth Grim does boost Undead Legion by one point but that’s not enough to get to the next break point. You also lose out in overall necro skill, pet crit, pet OA on call the grave, and a rather crucial circuit breaker for when things go sideways in a fight. In my opinion reaper is clearly the better choice.
To put that in perspective: My level 55 Skelemancer actually found more than one Grimoire when running through SoT but I didn’t switch to it and am instead still using a Devil’s Grin shield I picked up along the way solely for the +1 to occult skills it provides. That may seem a strange choice but there is SO MUCH summon support coming from the occultist mastery that it’s just a clearly better choice to have all that support layered on top of 8 skeletons, a hellhound, a raven, and a blight fiend instead of picking up one extra summon.
EDIT: So much of item/skill/devotion consideration has to be placed in the context of “the big picture” when you are designing a build. Sometimes you have to make sacrifices or non-intuitive choices to make the whole thing come together and work well. A perfect example would be the medal selection: Combat Medic Medal. It doesn’t seem to do much at all for this build and there’s seemingly so many better choices, but what it does do is absolutely crucial and nothing else can replace it’s function in that slot.
No idea, but I seriously doubt it is Gladiator worthy. I might run it at some point and see how well it does but I am more focused on leveling my own Skelemancer currently (so I can enjoy it myself and also to finish any pertinent details in a forthcoming leveling guide update) and experimenting with another build entirely.
I dare say, this build when executed correctly can probably farm even ravagers, since the medal constantly heals your pet in a wide aoe, and Ravager is single target.
Not to mention nearly all resist is maxed. Would faceroll crucible quite nicely.
Spectral Wrath is an amazing skill but I feel the points are better spent elsewhere. If you do want to fit it in, I would suggest pulling a point out of manipulation for it.
Can’t wait to get the BP for that medal, or the seal of might, my pets gets recked by all that bleed and high damage :x
Dryad’s blessing isn’t enough to sustain them, sadly
First time posting because I got curious-what advantages does the Devotion setup there offer over going south of the Devotion tree? Constellations like the Veilwarden, Jailer, and the Wolf seem fairly powerful-are the bonuses the Skeletons get not enough to make up for loss of damage elsewhere?
Also: Am fairly new to the game (only gotten up to Act 3 Elite with my first character, a Cabalist, so far-level 71) so: Is it better to dump points into one skill and raise it as high as possible, assuming scaling is good, or to divert points into two or three skills for utility and make use of +skill item effects?
It’s best to max Raise Skeleton and get Undead Legion to the highest level you can if it achieves enough breakpoint to add skeletons. It’s also a great idea to have at least 1 point in prime occultist skils and seek out +1 occultist items. It’s a good idea to have at least 1 point in the prime Necro skills to get used to using them. Blood of Dreeg offers the most early game bang for the buck on overall DPS and sustain. Maxed Curse of Frailty is essential by act 5 if you don’t enjoy getting sacked like a child quarterbacking for a pro football game. Bonds of Bysmiel should be bumped occasionally to stay ahead of skeles getting plowed over. Reap Spirit and Master of Death shouldn’t be bothered with until you are close to Hungering Void. Manipulation comes last as it’s expensive and rather lackluster but still essential for endgame.
