Hey everyone - just returning to D2R after a break, trying to warm up for ladder.
I’m really interested in optimizing my L86 Skellymancer, based on some of the interesting changes in patch 2.4. Since, I’ll probably start the ladder with this build, I was wondering if anyone can point me to an updated build guide that fully exploits the 2.4 changes? Basically looking for the raise skelly/CE design.
Have googled a lot, but can’t seem to find anything useful. Really appreciate the help!
there isnt really anything new for this build. skelly mages got a bit more damage, but they still arent viable. i guess you could max them instead of golem at the beginning of ladder (they do the same damage as melee skellies, but just without the huge aura buffs) for some additional damage at the beginning. i have made a dmg comparison chart here:
other than that the golems got some changes, but nothing worth picking anything else than iron or clay.
As Milox said, there is nothing really new going on here. I would build it the same as you always do. That said there are so many ‘different’ builds with a summoner, the only constants are max skellys, mastery and CE. What you do with your remaining 20 pts is up to you.
If you liked mages before they are slightly better, but I can tell you I don’t notice the difference. Fire golem is supposed to be better, but again I don’t notice any difference.
Thanks for the link - it and the following discussion was very illuminating!
I guess what confused me was I saw a couple of videos where the poster was suggesting dropping the clay golem for the fire golem and use lower resists instead of amplify damage. This was such a change for me, I wasn’t sure if they were simply smoking crack or if something in 2.4 fundamentally changed the Skellymancer approach.
Thanks for that - this was one of the issues that made me wonder if I was missing something.
I’m fairly casual with D2R, but played the heck out of Skellymancers through many a ladder. Was hoping to do so again next week, but wanted to get some practice in with my 2.4 build if it changed any.
Thanks!
i havent done the math for firegolem, though i heavily doubt that would be worth it. amplify dmg doubles all your skelly dmg, including your other buffs. your 10x factor becomes a 20x. thats just too powerful to switch with lower res, just to give mages and golem a 2x factor.
Thanks for the link - it and the following discussion was very illuminating!
youre welcome 
The devs clearly never played Summoner.
The changes were completely useless.
Golem changes were funny as hell.
„Here you go. Clay golem still the only option. But hey we have new strong sorc and paladin builds“
Even if the mages were “equal” to the regular skellies, it would still be easier to spec fully into one or the other. Amp Damage does jack with the mages, and same with Lower Res and regular skeletons. Might aura is also easier to get than Infinity, so I’d still go with the regular ones. Corpse Explosion still claps cheek.
I would love to use the Blood Golem, just love the look of it. Clay + Decrepify is still the best, both one point wonders as well.
I just don’t get the argument that you need to do one or the other.
A summoner can max Skelly’s, Mages, Mastery and CE while putting 1 pt in all curses and summon skills by lvl 88. If you want to cut back on curses it’s an even lower level. There is no need to ‘chose’ one over the other. Most builds max everything but mages then just drop those extra 20 pts into whatever they feel like.
Base Skellies and Base Mages do roughly the same damage. The difference we see is because of the curses and aura’s. Physical damage has far more options to increase the damage than elemental does. That’s just a fact and that’s why warriors will always be better than mages.
It would be good to see Blood Golem worth something. On the trivia side, he has the most life at this point so if you want to IM something to death like you do to normal bosses he is actually the best golem. Too bad that doesn’t work past normal and you don’t want to bother putting pts into him in normal.
Its not that you can’t max both skellies, and mages, it’s that you’d have to choose which ones get to do more damage. Mages are really the better choise only in Arcane Sanctuary and Maggot Lair.
I personally prefer to max out Amplify Damage, the larger radius goes well with CE.
I haven’t played Skellymancer in a while but last I checked, all you really want/need is Amp Damage (and 1 in Decrep for bosses, if you want), Corpse Explosion, Skeletons, and Skeleton Mastery (and 1 into Golem/resists/revive). Basically the gameplay is, Amp the whole screen with 1 cast, skeletons kill something, corpse explode the whole screen with a couple casts, rinse, repeat. Of course, there are different ways you can take it, but this is the tried and true method for lazy and OP summon necro gameplay.
Pretty much this. I also play with a controller, without the more precise targeting of the mouse, more radius in Amp Damage is a lot more convenient to use.
Im going to play hardcore ladder and will either go with bone or skellymancer as a starter. I dont know if im going to enjoy the afk playstyle, maybe bone is more fun once you get a White wand.