3.8 New Queens Escape + Baron - super fast physical skeletons + zombies

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grimlock9999 wrote:

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interesting, I don't understand the mechanics of the other items. I assume soulwrest works with just 6 sockets no need to be linked? Do you have a forum thread for that one? If I have time I could re-spec my current necro and try it w/ cheap gear before next league starts.

Soulwrest just needs 6 unlinked sockets - very cheap item that can get you very far!

No forum thread, I haven't tested the scolds bridle necro version past playing in PoB.

There are a heap of soulwrest builds on the forums, and since the item is so versatile, it can be made to work with anything from a jugg endurance tank to a raider max dodge/spell dodge. I used it with a tri curse occultist which absolutely stomped until delve 250 where it hit a wall.

For necro, I suggest stags tanky soulwrest. That should be cheap to respec if you have a life based necro lying around, and you can give up kaoms heart for shroud of the lightless if you want to try the skelly mages (or put the mages in the helmet).

Let me know how you go if you try it :)

I have 80 ex sitting in my invt this league ;) cheap re-spec isn't an issue. I made a ton off selling my gear off from this build and boss killing with my jugg. If I have time tonight/this weekend ill see what I can put together.

started buying stuff last night, got half way. Takes forever to buy gems. Jewels will too.

Been looking into it a little bit (just on browser, not PoB research).

Command of the pit is BIS for the +1000 accuracy to minions? Before accuracy wasn't a big issue because we had skeletons/zombies only which benefited from skeleton acendency point and zombie jewel.

The boots are BIS because death walk counts as consuming a corpse, so phantasms are auto summoned then when they kill they summon the other 10-11 we can have from the skill gem.

Shroud of lightness is BIS, or just a preference? Is there something exclusive about this item that I'm missing, or is it just solid for the build?

Astramentis is just necessary for equipping items, maybe to swapped out if we can get dex elsewhere?

The belt just adds extra minion damage stats vs a normal belt


Is there a way to add zombies to the skeleton in chest if we have a 6l, or do to skele mage gems not really synergize with the skele mages? If not I'm wondering if just using vaal skele/zombie in a 6l belly all phys like this thread build and then running soulwrest for the phantasms still would be a good move. Then go similar gem links in helm for spectre/AG?

I might not get on tonight if I get home late, if I do I'll try to finish buying stuff and hopefully test. If not it will be sat night. Any ideas throw em out there and I can test before next league.

The original idea was to have a build that gets all its damage, utility spells and movements in one button push. I forgot to post the link originally:

https://pastebin.com/Sntt0znE

It uses scolds bridle, doedres malevolence and CWDT interactions.
I haven't tested it outside of hideout at all, so expect there may fine tuning needed to make sure you get damaged enough, and have enough mana to cast the one spell

The other version of the build is one that has manual casting of your desecrate and offering, and phase run instead of bodyswap for movement, and assumes you have enough cash to buy the required good jewels:
https://pastebin.com/MnaqZGBg

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Command of the pit is BIS for the +1000 accuracy to minions? Before accuracy wasn't a big issue because we had skeletons/zombies only which benefited from skeleton acendency point and zombie jewel.

Command of the pit is not necessarily Bis, I just used it in the DPS version because it gives us 2 more abyssal sockets, and a bit of life. The accuracy buff will not help any spell caster, nor the melee skellies which already have cannot miss ascendency buff.

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The boots are BIS because death walk counts as consuming a corpse, so phantasms are auto summoned then when they kill they summon the other 10-11 we can have from the skill gem.

The boots are great quality of life for keeping phantasms at 20, but are not mandatory, especially if you are using spell cascade and faster casting, then the manual spellcasting is not too painful.

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Shroud of lightness is BIS, or just a preference? Is there something exclusive about this item that I'm missing, or is it just solid for the build?

Shroud is not necessarily BiS, I just like that it is a nice cheap pseudo 6 link for skelly mages that does not need to be 6 linked. If using skelly mages, it would be too hard to colour a 6 linked belly or 6 linked lioneyes vision.

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Astramentis is just necessary for equipping items, maybe to swapped out if we can get dex elsewhere?

Yes. An aul's with haste would maybe be BIS here I reckon. Careful planning will get you the Dex you need, which would mean any amulet is fine.

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The belt just adds extra minion damage stats vs a normal belt

Yeah a darkness enthroned is Bis belt for damage, as long as you have the right jewels in it.

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Is there a way to add zombies to the skeleton in chest if we have a 6l, or do to skele mage gems not really synergize with the skele mages? If not I'm wondering if just using vaal skele/zombie in a 6l belly all phys like this thread build and then running soulwrest for the phantasms still would be a good move. Then go similar gem links in helm for spectre/AG?

Yeah, brutality melee minions would get more damage than the skelly mages, and would be better in a 6L belly. The only reason we use skelly mages is because of the spell echo, which lets us do the whole 'one button' thing in the scolds version. Skelly mage gems do not synergise at all with zombies.

Melee skellies in the shroud body?



It definitely seems like some viable synergies are there somewhere, we just have to find them!

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It definitely seems like some viable synergies are there somewhere, we just have to find them!

I'm thinking the acrobatics nodes are better to aim for

https://pastebin.com/HJpATT9m

First of all thank you for the nice guide.

I'm a little bit confused by this statement and the build trees you offer

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grimlock9999 wrote:

Lord of the dead > Spiritual Command > Death Attunement > Shaper > Grave Pact
From here, I like to rush to Barbarism which means you have collected all the resists and most of the passive strength/dex from the tree really early.

It seems that you skip Spritual Command (and Sacrifice) up until the 117 points tree. However in the text aboth I got the impressions that you recommend targeting Spiritual Command after getting Lord of the dead. What is the rational behind this? For me it seems that Spiritual Command and Sacrifice would be quite nice early on.

Best regards

Benox

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It seems that you skip Spritual Command (and Sacrifice) up until the 117 points tree. However in the text aboth I got the impressions that you recommend targeting Spiritual Command after getting Lord of the dead. What is the rational behind this? For me it seems that Spiritual Command and Sacrifice would be quite nice early on.

Best regards

Benox

Hey Benox, I wrote the guide before the tree got revamped, so had to redo the levelling tree afterwards, maybe I went a different path the second time.

It's really just personal preference as to which you get first. I find that getting the stats for myself first is more enjoyable than getting the damage for the minions because I like to play lazy. Sometimes I just can't be bothered dodging or taking my finger off the move forward key. I also try to collect loot with screens full of enemies, and rarely bother IDing found items. As such, I need my strength, dex and life from the tree early, until I eventually find some resists on gear.

So I built the soulwrest one you linked. 7k life.

Map clear speed is great. I cleared t16 maps with ease. It ran in to issues with the bosses, died 5x to mino. Died 3x to phoenix. Overall I think I prefer the phys skele/zombie build. I really do love the phantasms w/ bubonic plague though.

Is there a viable option to combine soulwrest / bubonic plague with this phys skele/zombie build? I think having the phys minions and zombies close to you is a very good meat shield, but I also loved having the projectile/range damage of the phantasms.

It can probably be done while keeping the baron, but would require brute force jewels to account for the missing str from warpath boots. Is removing the baron a huge issue when running zombies?

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So I built the soulwrest one you linked. 7k life.

I ran it with what I could afford: 5K life. The mapping speed is indeed spectacular, and I didn't even equip a bubonic trail. I never felt in danger up to tier 10, but there is not much physical protection for lab traps.

I also got frustrated with the scold bridle and decided to go self cast for desecrate and offering. I put in a Hale negator for the helmet to check that item out, but couldn't tell what effect it had. I did notice a huge quality of life buff from the dodge nodes. I think it has a lot of potential as a viable, but expensive

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Map clear speed is great. I cleared t16 maps with ease. It ran in to issues with the bosses, died 5x to mino. Died 3x to phoenix. Overall I think I prefer the phys skele/zombie build. I really do love the phantasms w/ bubonic plague though.

I don't think phantasms are good for minotaur: no phys reduction for you and minions have too little life so they'd die faster than you can resummon them

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Is there a viable option to combine soulwrest / bubonic plague with this phys skele/zombie build? I think having the phys minions and zombies close to you is a very good meat shield, but I also loved having the projectile/range damage of the phantasms.

https://pastebin.com/yLgeRRzK

It seems legit. You get a nice buff to cast speed and life regen from the soulwrest. I don't think you gain much from having ranged phantasms, but giving up minion movespeed. (My queens escape SRS build has the SRS move faster than skelly mages bullets with faster projectiles!).

Not much would need to change with the tree. You'd need to fit a flesh offering and desecrate in there somewhere. The phantasms get negligible benefit from the baron beyond a small amount of life. There would be a few options:

Zombies and Phantasms for about 2 mill dps, but zombies would lack a bit of life without level 4 empower, and they would lack that sweet movespeed. Nice passive playstyle though. Should be easy to get over 1K strength with the right jewels, and still using bubonic.

Phantasms and skellies for about 3 mill dps, plus vaal skellies. Would need more casting, and the skellies would lack some movespeed. You lose the physical mitigation from zombies, but gain a bit of move speed and minion duration from puppet master.

Phantasms in weapon and Zombies + skellies in body: 2.4 mill DPS. You get more life on the skellies, but less damage on the zombies for leech.

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It can probably be done while keeping the baron, but would require brute force jewels to account for the missing str from warpath boots. Is removing the baron a huge issue when running zombies?

Baron is pretty hard to top for zombie builds.
The zombie expert I chat with runs a whole range of different zombie builds, a few without the baron. He generally uses it, and goes for strength stacking plus geoffreys. This league he got 18.5K EHP using the core items, and could swap in queens escape for mapping, or an item rarity body armour for MF. That sort of synergy is hard to beat.

I can't use paste bin. Can you put your skill trees on another website plz.

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I can't use paste bin. Can you put your skill trees on another website plz.

It was in the levelling section, just a bit hard to notice. Here it is:

https://www.pathofexile.com/build/qz3Ouz