Anyone here running with this and have a reference point of what kind of DPS to expect from the Blizzards cast by your mages?
I just found one on an Amulet. Mine says the blizzard deals [1,800 Damage] over 6s.
Is it worth keeping it for the +50% Amulet damage slot?
Will the Blizzard damage scale up with my character level?
It scales Have one extracted at 4k+ dmg. Dunno why I’m hanging on to it, haven’t used skeles since like lvl 35. Lol
The highest one I ever saw was 2200 damage for the blizzard. But as I level up, I do find better one once in a while.
Yeah, I think it maxes at like 5500? I’ve started getting them really frequently over the last couple days and the rolls have a pretty large varience on top of the scaling.
My experience is that you use it mostly for the chill/freeze, which it seems to work great for, but the damage is mostly just a little bonus.
I always have +2 Mages in the Amulet slot to get +3 Mages. I think that extra Mage is stronger than anything else you could put there.
1 extra mage or warrior is a waste. Much better aspects can go there and give you much higher returns.
What do you suggest?
Depends on what abilities your using. Something that helps buff your damage or improves a damage ability is better than the extra minions.
Currently, I got a max rolled grasping tendrils on my neck for the 50% to crit chance and crit damage.
I am not doing much damage, the minions are. I’ve switched to Shadow so I am casting Blight and proccing Shadowblight with Mages on Shadow and all in minion attack speed.
You would better off picking up blighted and decayed aspects if you’re using Shadowblight. Given how poorly minions scale at higher levels, I’m not sure the attack speed is worth it. Maybe the unyielding commander is good if you use army of dead (more for the damage reduction than than IAS). Anything that buffs minion damage is doomed to fail by virtue of their scaling % being so low. If they ever increase that, maybe those aspects will become more valued, but at the moment, you’ll get better returns by speccing for your own damage than theirs.
I experimented last night swapping Mages on Amulet for a Shadowblight Decay. I was using both already just swapped things around a bit. So down to 5 Mages. It felt a DPS loss, and I struggled a bit at ~NM55’s which I can normally steamroller. Shrug.
I tried a few so it wasn’t down to bad map mods or tough elites. Unless something else changed recently that could explain, I felt was weaker. I’ve swapped back. The way I see it. My Mages are doing the bulk of the damage, so one more going from 5 to 6 is 20% flat damage increase.
i use the minion attack speed one on amulet. thats also very nice.
because your minions get 30% from most of the stats. except attack speed and vulnerable damage, that scales 100% for your minions.
Last I checked, those Aspects grant +2 Skeleton Warriors or +2 Mage Skeletons. So overall you can have up to 11 skels combined.
Or 3 if you use it on an amulet.
If you’re running +3 mages for your ammy slot, which slot do you use for the +blizzard aspect, out of curiosity?
Edit: do you mind sharing your full aspect setup actually?
You mentioned
? frenzied dead for the attack speed
? unyielding commanders (maybe more speed + instant re-raise)
I don’t use the Minion blizzard. I used to use Army of the Dead, but it’s me who dies when things go wrong, not the Minions so I swapped for Bonestorm, which works MUCH better. I also swap around a lot between the Bone Version, the Shadow Version and the double Curse Version. I’ve been talking mostly about the Shadow version…
2-hander: Minion Attack Speed
Hat: Disobedience
Chest: Minions Damage Reduction
Gloves: Decay
Legs: Bonestorm Hits give Barrier
Feet: +2 Warriors
Amulet: +3 Mages
Ring: Increased Skeleton Damage
Ring: Crit chance after Tendrils
Book: Reapers (on corpses), Shadow Mages (on extra bolt), Iron Golem (on Vulnerable)
Build: Skellies, Golem, Tendrils (on Vulnerable), Decrepify (on CDR), Bonestorm, Blight (on increased Shadow Damage for all)
Stat focus on gear: Minion Life = Minion Attack Speed > Vulnerable Damage >> Crit Chance + Damage
This is probably the strongest Aspect to boost, especially with the new Heart. Highly recommend sticking that on Amulet or 2h Weapon.
Cheers, that’s a cool combo Max AS + 6 Shadow mages, glad it’s working well up to NM55s!
Here’s I’m still on the Cold/Freeze plan with this +2 mages +mage Blizzard +Bloodless Scream that dropped recently, and it’s been working alright. But I might give your shadow mages a go as I get higher level.
I am using magi-blizzard for somewhat odd reason … they serve as a early recon and CC instrument