PoiSkello Gear

[Pherdnut]

I've got a poison-skellomancer to a level where I'm thinking of what good gear to try and find. Ultimately I want to equip him with the following:

Helmet: Shako (yeah, not very creative, but it's a hard helm to beat)
Weapon: Arm of Leoric w/ Death's Web as a switchoff (if I ever manage to find/trade for it)
Shield: Trang's Shield
Armor: Vipermagi f/now and then Bramble eventually
Gloves & Belt: Trangs

Amu: +2 All rare with the best addtional bennies I can find (preferably some serious lightning resists), or less likely, Mara's or Metalgrid

Rings: Will probably need good resist rings. The only uniques that excite me are the ones with +1 all or whisp projector for that spirit of Wolverine boost for the skellies and lightning absorb but I think I'm really going to need the rings to fill in some resistance gaps.

So the build basically puts forty into skeletons and skeleton Mastery and about 50 into Nova and its synergies with other points going to +1 in all curses, Corpse Explode, and getting one point in Revive, Golem Mastery, and Clay Golem. Any remaining points late in the build will go back to the Nova synergies. The plus skills should give me a decent complement of Skeleton Mages, a reasonably survivable clay golem and several Revives to bring into action.

Bramble grants additional poison damage while also providing decent defense and the pretty huge spirit of barbs and Thorns aura to help keep monsters doing some reasonable damage to themselves while smacking my skellies as I spam Novas at them regularly. The triple trangs with shield gives +2 to curses, +2 poison & bone, immunity to freeze, some decent resistances and good caster bonuses, as well as that lovely -25 to poison resistance to add to Death's Web's -40-50 to pile on to Lower Resists (really nice for PvP). Arm will be my primary PvM skeleton buffer with Death's Web acting as a secondary for when the heavy poison needs to come out and in PvP.

What I'm wondering is, should I maybe concentrate on getting a better rune word armor where auras are concerned to give my skellies a little more hitting power? I just like how bramble practically seems to have been made with this very build in mind, but I'm not sure if the minions will be able to handle themselves when all those undead poison immunes show up in Hell and they are no longer getting the Novas to help them out. There is always Amp damage and CE to even the odds if they manage to just kill one enemy, I guess. That and I just can't wait to see the inexperienced whirly barbs splatter themselves on my skellies.

[Necrochild313]

Argumentably if you can shop a good 4os armor 4 5/5 poison facets is better than a 50% bramble damage-wise, as -resistance on items has been proven to increase poison length as well. I'd imagine it's cheaper too, since you really only need one die facet, the rest can be lvl up.

I personally like enigma more than bramble for this build, since you can arrange your skeletons where you'd like them. If you'd like to save up for a high runeword this would be the one IMO.

What level have you gotton him too? I see a few problems with the setup, IMO dumping points into revive/mages is a waste of poison synergies, as your skellies really don't need TWO backups, since your nova makes up for it.

[Myrakh-2]

So the build basically puts forty into skeletons and skeleton Mastery and about 50 into Nova and its synergies with other points going to +1 in all curses, Corpse Explode, and getting one point in Revive, Golem Mastery, and Clay Golem.

You forgot a point in Summon Resist.

What I'm wondering is, should I maybe concentrate on getting a better rune word armor where auras are concerned to give my skellies a little more hitting power? I just like how bramble practically seems to have been made with this very build in mind, but I'm not sure if the minions will be able to handle themselves when all those undead poison immunes show up in Hell and they are no longer getting the Novas to help them out.

I don't have experience with "skellies only", since I just let them kill the first few monsters so I can CE. However, I don't see any major problems, provided you use a Might mercenary --- since none of the mercs supports your poison part, I don't see a reason why you wouldn't use Might to get support for your skellies.

[Pherdnut]

What level have you gotton him too? I see a few problems with the setup, IMO dumping points into revive/mages is a waste of poison synergies, as your skellies really don't need TWO backups, since your nova makes up for it.

Well, only one more point for the mages, but Revives do take more unfortunately. He's 44 and I haven't used those points yet. It's all in poison and the skellies. I think just one more for the mages isn't such a horrible plan.

Edit: Oh, and I didn't even know about those unique jewels until the other day when a mad MFer buddy showed me his. So I'm guessing they aren't incredibly common either, but he already started saving his poison ones for the daggermancer I started building.

[Necrochild313]

Your correct, the one in mages isn't horrible, but the problem is they really don't have a use :(

Their damage is relatively low without maxing mage itself. However, if your like me and like having specific mages (tip: keep unsummon hotkeyed) keeping cold mages around will be quite useful. They'll slow monsters along with your clay golem. Poison mages will be worthless, as their only good for pmh, and your poison will always override theirs, and their poison will never take effect (unless your not casting nova). Fire and lightning are the "punch" of the mage fleet, but without mage maxed they don't pack much of one at all. :(

Overall, if you decide to go for that extra point (I usually don't, as I usually don't have enough hotkeys ;) I use 3 piece trang and I replace my usual mage spot with firewall), I would say try to keep your fleet purely cold mage if possible, as the others have no utility for this build.