[3.3] Popcorn Skeleton bomber (Minion instability Earendel's Embrace)

Part I - Skeletons

by stacking minion HP and minion damage, the skeletons reach around 10-15k hp, possibly more with better gear. (use an elder helm for a cheap 6l)

Earendel's sceptre degen is fire damage, which means it is affected by the minion fire resist.

You will want to either use Maligaro's Lens with Necromantic aegis (this will cause your minions to have -10% all resist)

or

use 2 Earendel's Embrace with very high % degen.
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There are pros and cons to using either setup. Maligaro setup provides a decent close range heal and allows you to use shield charge, but you spend 4 points to get necro aegis, and the heal also causes the minions to explode slightly slower. You also lose the block% from the shield (base block of 0% can be RIPPY).

Dual wielding Earendel's Embrace has a slightly better degen than Maligaro's. You also gain 15% base block chance. You also have 4 more skill tree points to spend. This setup will net higher DPS simply because you can spam skeletons faster.


Part II: Damage


Aside from minion damage and minon hp, Earendel's Embrace causes your skeletons to cover enemies in ASH - this means enemies are slower and take 20% increased fire damage.

Elemental Equilibrium is applied using orb of storms, which is further linked with curse on hit and either flammability or Ele Weakness.

**Lastly, we want the skeletons to ignite using Combustion, which reduces ignited enemy resistance by a further -19%.**

When you get to a boss, simply use vaal Popcorn (Vaal skeleton) and the boss will be erased.

additionally, you can use a spell totem with dark pact and chain to kill your skeletons even faster! This is great if you miss your ultimate.


**note that you can use combustion support on your flame golems, and they will apply the -fire resist. This would allow you to replace combustion on your skeletons with elemental focus for more damage.**



Part III Other minions

flame golem with phantasm on kill augments the build perfectly. You need the Anima Stone for this to work best.

Zombies were okay, however it was quite a pain to resummon them when they die because of their huge mana cost. I found they work best in a 3L.

SRS might be possible using Mark of the Red covenant, though I have not tried.

Spectres are also another option. Some people have suggested Solar Guards. In this case you would want to get the ascendancy node for spectres.

This Gear is on my Standard character. I also have my League character posted under "leveling"






Look for Abyss jewels with: Minion life \\\\ Minion damage if you have used a minion skill recently||||| flat # maximum life

If using flame golem, you will need The Anima Stone.



Gear Explanation and gem links

Maligaro's Lens Setup:
www.poeurl.com/b3IG

If you dual wield (No maligaro), then drop necromantic aegis.

Dual Wield Setup:
www.poeurl.com/b3Iz


PATHOFBUILDING:
https://pastebin.com/uZUhzLsX




Bone sculptor and Mistress of Sacrifice are the core of the build.

normal lab - Mistress of Sacrifice

Cruel Lab - bone sculptor

Merc lab - Mistress of sacrifice

Uber lab - has several options:
1) Puppet master - the 20% minion speed is quite useful (zombies respond faster, flame golems keep up with you, skeletons run to a target quickly). it also buffs their damage and attack speed which is great for mapping.

2) Fleshbinder - get this if zombies are your secondary minion

3) Soul Weaver - Get this if spectres are your secondary minion

4) Spend both points on the two small nodes which provide 10% minon hp/ 15% minion damage each.


Do not get Commander of Darkness - this will increase your minions resist which is reduces their degen (this is bad).


Bandits - help Allira to gain resists and mana regen.

This section I will update as I level. It may not be the most efficient way, but this is what I did:
edit: Highly recommend using this for low levels:

1-40



40-55


55 and up



Level 89 character incursion league:

Minions have base 40% to all resists. if you used 2 perfect sceptres, the skeletons would lose 36%hp per second after factoring their resists.

Maligaro's lens lowers their resists to -10%, which works out to just slightly slower degen, but can give some nice little heals.


One downside of the build is that it wont function well when a party member is using purity of fire, purity of elements, or Commander of darkness (these increase minion fire resist).


Changelog

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6mlsQVCgC58 build of the week highlight

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p_sO-jdYF60 - Just a regular ordinary instructional video about making popcorn. Definitely not a video containing exploding skeletons.

https://youtu.be/6xZwpTPdStY Shaper

https://youtu.be/lfroKKxfERI - quick shaped plateau

https://youtu.be/Rv3Z5luASH0 - flame golem setup instead of zombies


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2YQ2_tzeqAc&feature=youtu.be