Yupp minion phys damage and/or minion spell dmg. Our mages do most of the dmg, so spell preferably but I think you can roll both on some weapon types. Then just take chill/slow on hit for suffixes, or even armor shred/fraility. The suffixes don’t matter too much as you will be only attacking periodically.
So is the crit chance on the idols base crit chance for your skellies and mages? Otherwise just getting 8% more crit would kinda suck.
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Yes, it’s base chance.
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Hey, new player here. I’m wondering about your choice of weapon, because armor shred is about enhancing physical damage, right? Isn’t our damage largely fire based? I found the weapon you are using, but before that I found ‘Reach of the Grave’ and it seems perfect for the build.
Also, I found 2x Hollow Finger, are they worth using?
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It’s interesting for the +1 Skeleton and the chill chance. Otherwise, the stats are relatively low.
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Armor shred works for all hits, but is half effective for Non-Physical Dmg. So we get a more dmg multiplier for any phys dmg at 100%, which Skeleton Archers do by default and then half of that value as more dmg for the remainder of out dmg (fire arrow and Pyromancers). Reach of the Grave is not that great now that minions get free dmg reduction and so much flat regen, also the atk/cast speed is negligible as we get so much from other sources. +1 max skellie rings would be nice if there were other benefits, but the remaining affixes on those rings don’t warrant running them in the end game, far better to use the affix slots on a good pair of rare rings. Both items would be ideal to use as placeholders, but ultimately you’d want to swap them eventually.
This looks really neat, will definitely give it a try! Just picked up the game recently and am derping around with a Marksman without a plan, but I was planning on taking a look at acolyte next.
I’m concerned about the AI issues I’ve heard about, but hopefully the focus on ranged minions makes that less of a pain. And I managed to put up with what PoE’s minion AI was like 8 years ago, so I’ve built up some tolerance for moronic minions.
How critical are the uniques you have listed in the build planner? And do you have recommendations for earlier idol options?
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Minion AI issues are a pain, but I’ve never found it so bad that it kills the playstyle for me, but that’s me. For others, it does ruin the idea of a minion build for them, but hey it can only get better, right?
As far as the uniques go, they are not necessary, but do take the build to the next level. the Death Rattle is an insane dmg boost and same with Arek’s Bones, but the build could be played fine with rares/other suitable uniques. The only thing necessary would be idols/good rolled chest/helm affixes for crit chance, so minions are always dealing 200%+ more dmg. Earlier idols could be % increased shared crit, shared fire dmg, or shared phys dmg idols, and then maybe fill in any resists you might be missing. When you find base crit, wear it no matter what. All in all minions do fine on their own especially with recent changes, but they just are slower in comparison to most other builds. If you have any other questions or need help, just let me know. 
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Great, thanks!
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Hey
is this a good build to " start " the game again? Played the last time in like ALpha
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Yeah this build would be a good starter build, not much is needed at all to get minions in a viable state and the build only gets better as you progress
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Now I’m torn between this build and Boardman’s ice crit one (Ranged Ice Minions 100% Crit Endgame Destroying Necromancer 0.8.1c). It’s a bit hard for me to figure out pros and cons of each while being so new to the game/having no endgame experience.
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Fire is alot of fun! id give it a shot!
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Lots of variations, really comes down to preference Love me some Boardman builds!
Nice build! I have a couple questions about items.
first, how do you feel about Reach of the Grave vs Arek’s Bones? Reach seems a little more appetizing for this build?
Also, besides the ammy and weapon, are there any other target uniques we should be searching for? thank you
edit: disregard the first question I didn’t see the reply above.
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How do you properly buff your minions with Blood Infusion? Rip Blood is clunky as **** auto targeting enemies.
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I personally went with Marrow Drinker. It seems a lot easier to buff your minions directly, and the extra life back is nice too.
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So you remove the Bone Curse on hit nodes too (Cursed Limbs) since we can now only hit minions? I guess makes sense, Bone Curse on hit seems useless anyways.
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The main usage of Rip Blood is to apply bone curse to enemies. With the node that applies kill threshold we are able to kill things a lot faster with minions as you negate that portion of an enemy’s HP. The minion buffs are not priority and they aren’t very useful unless in higher arenas. You could respec for more utility but rip blood doesn’t offer too much outside of the minions buffs.
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There are no other uniques necessary or that would be ideal other than Death Rattle and Areks Bones
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