This PoE 3.13 Witch Necromancer Skeleton Mages is a beginner friendly, super low cost, league starter build. Skeleton Mages got a big buff in 3.13. With just the currency you accumulate as you progress through red maps you will be strong enough to kill all single end game bosses.

Quick Jump

Pros & Cons

  • + Very good for "stay in place" encounters like, Breach, Blight and RITUAL!
  • + Very Low currency to go deep into red maps.
  • + Scales with currency.
  • + Can focus on clear or single target, by changing support gems of Skels.
  • + Relaxed minion play style.
  • + Does not need empower.
  • + No cluster jewels needed.
  • + OK defenses with minions to absorb hits, high block chance (attack and spell), good life pool, high life regen, good life gained on block, cannot be stunned.
  • - Cannot do elemental reflect maps, unless you get expensive rings.
  • - Minion play style is not for everybody
  • - At very high wealth investment, other minion builds do significantly better

 

Skill Tree

Ascendancy: Mindless Aggression -> Unnatural Strength -> Mistress of Sacrifice -> Bone Barrier 

Pantheon: Lunaris and Ryslatha

Bandit: Kill All

Passive Tree & PoB

When you have a worthy amulet, anoint DEATH ATTUNEMENT on the amulet

15 point - 33 point - 47 point - 71 point - 97 point - 114 point

Path of Building Link: https://pastebin.com/swwAT1sn

 

 

 

 

Gems Setup

Skeleton Mages

You have two options here.

You can fill the screen with projectiles, making it difficult to see what is going on. This is better clearing, worse single target. Or you can not fill the screen with projectiles, see what your are doing, clear slower, better single target.

Don't fill the screen with projectiles. (Recommended)

Vaal Summon Skeleton - Pierce - Spell Echo - Minion Damage - Elemental Army - Elemental Focus. (Supports are listed in order of importance, in case you do not yet have a 6l chest.)

Fill the screen with projectiles

Vaal Summon Skeleton - Greater Multiple Projectiles - Pierce - Spell Echo - Minion Damage - Elemental Army.

Helmet (Zombies and Stone Golem)

Raise Zombies - Stone Golem - Feeding Frenzy - Meat Shield.

Gloves

CWDT (keep lv7) - Immortal Call (keep lv9) - Convocation (keep lv10), Flame Dash

(The higher level CWDT is, the more damage you must take for it to proc. Level 7 has a 1k damage threshold. At level 7, CWDT can only trigger spells usable at level 50 and below, hence Immortal Call at level 9, and Convocation at lvel 10.)

Weapon

Storm Brand - Hextouch - Elemental Weakness.

Second Weapon 

Bone Offering (HUGE defensive boost), Vitality (Life Regeneration), Desecrate (To make corpses to use Bone Offering)

Keep Desecrate at level 1 to save mana.

Aura

Zealotry and Summon SKitterbots both linked to Generosity and Enlighten.

Enlighten is not needed, but mana is a bit tight without it.

You only need Enlighten to be level 2 to get enough free mana.

You can buy a corrupted level 2 Enlighten quite cheaply

 

Gear Setup

Required Unique: Dead Reckoning

Minions have +8% to all Elemental Resistances
With at least 40 Intelligence in Radius, Summon Skeletons can Summon up to 15 Skeleton Mages

That is the only unique item needed for this build.

Helmet with +2 to minion gems

Even with life and resists, these are crazy cheap, 2-3 chaos early league.

Armour

A corrupted 6l chest will cost 10-30 chaos early league.

Or you can buy a corrupted Tabula with +2 to socketed duration gems. (Recommended)

You should get enough chaos for a chest pretty quick, maybe before you hit maps.

You can do white and yellow maps easy with a 4l, which you can find/craft as you go. So don't worry if you dont have a 6l when you start mapping.

Weapons

After you get your chest, buy 2 weapons that have "+1 all spell skill gems". These run 5-30 chaos early league. It seems to vary a lot each league. Save up to buy these, 2 of them make a huge difference. They must both be melee weapons, or both wands. You cant mix the two.

If you can afford it, get some minion damage/minion attack speed mods also, this will up the cost, so it's optional. (only avalable on wands)

Do NOT get + fire or cold damage to spells on your wands, it will mess up EE.

Optional benchcraft for one wand, that is a HUGE quality of life increas

Craft "Trigger socketed spells when you use a skill" onto the wand with Desecrate and Bone Offering.

This will (mostly) automate the casting of Bone Offering, which is a quality of life bonus.

This is one of the crafts unlocked by Jun.

Rare Jewels

Mods include, Life, Minions hinder on spell hit, % increased minion damage, minion cast speed, added damage to minions (fire and cold are best)

Other Rare

Everything else is rares with life and resists.

You will need dex on at least one item.

Chaos resist is very nice, but not necessary. Try and get as much as possible, but its a lower priority than elemental resist capping and life.

It's preferable to get a stygian vice belt, it's a great place to socket in the jewel with "minions taunt on attack"

If possible, get gear with armor, the more the better.

Flasks

Flasks are for defense!

  • Life with anti bleed
  • Quicksilver for movement
  • Quartz for dodge
  • Basalt for phys damage reduction
  • Granite for more armor (If you want, you can use a Rumi's Concoction to gave more block. Swap out Granite.)

Get anti freeze and anti curse on two of the above, your choice of what other mods on the other 2 flasks.