[3.9] Sayf's Safe And Lazy Skellymancer | 10M+ DPS | All Bosses + AL8 Content Easy

I have about 3000 hours in poe now and by far most of it was spent with some kind of minion build. The last few years of leagues i kept on coming back to a variation of this summoner build. Now that i decided to stay in standard for a change i took the time to refine the build as well as i could while having some more resources at my disposal. Not that it's a big budget build or anything; picking the low budget options can still get you pretty far.
Also, i dislike the current meta of stat-stacking, baron-boosting and/or CWC spirit offering ("-abuse") but i do want an easy playstyle. That along with the fact that i'm an old man that doesn't have the fastest reflexes anymore makes this build and it's playstyle fit perfectly. I only hope it does so for you aswell!

The playstyle is very similar to totems: for offence point your mouse to where you want mobs to die and press your Summon Skeletons button. For prolonged damage press at least two more times, preferably with a few seconds in between.
For defence there is alot more choice if you follow my exact setup. There's Bone Armour which you cast as soon as it's off cooldown or right before you expect to get some incoming damage. There's a movement skill to get out of the way (i prefer Phase Run). You'll have Vaal Discipline and Vaal Grace along with the flasks you choose to run (i consider these all utilities). Lastly there's convocation for when you run into that Cells map room and your meat shields decide to stay behind.


Pro's
-No super expensive (meta) items required while still scalable to 10M+ shaper DPS with a little investment.
-Can take on all content.
-Very easy and laidback playstyle.
-Very respectable clearspeed
-Many layers of defence for the more gaming-impaired like myself. A more skilled and less casual player than me can easily take this to level 100.
-5k+ Life | 4k+ ES | 50%+ phys res | 70%+ attack block | 40%+ spell block | 40%+ evade | 20%+ attack dodge | 1k HP elemental shield from shield | periodic proximity shield from spectres | 2.2k shield from Bone Armour (for 6 out of every 9 seconds) | zombie/spectre meatshields

Con's
-Clearspeed isn't as high as the zoomzoom and meta builds.
-Because you're regularly casting skeletons gameplay might feel "interrupted".
-It's a minion build with all of its' inherent flaws. Some people just don't like that but i guess you're not one of them.
-Some map mods can get you on edge a little. You can run em all but be careful with ele/phys reflect, ele weakness and no regen. Like temp chains they can be annoying.

Path of Building:
https://pastebin.com/sBzeUC3J

POE Planner Tree

The pob and tree are for a level 100 character. If you need to lose some points go for the 3 from Utmost Intellect first (~20% increased ES). For more you might be able to lose 1 or 2 for mana reservation left of Sovereignty. Next you could scrap the 3 armour/ES points from the templar start. For even more scrap any points leading up to Constitution, including the increased duration points. That should get you to the low 80's level and able to work everything out.


Bandits: Kill all for 2 points

Pantheon:
Major: Soul of Lunaris
Minor: Soul of Shakari (Soul of Abberath is also good, otherwise at your own discretion)

When collecting your gear be sure to cap your elemental resists to at least 75% as usual. Chaos res is a bonus but not high priority. Also keep in mind you'll need 159 strength for the shield and 159 dexterity for a level 21 Grace gem. If you can't get that at first remember you can take a +30 strength and a +30 dexterity node in your passives, right of the witch starting point. Jewels and crafts can also help you with stat requirements.

*Any of the gems listed here can be replaced with an awakened version if it exists for an upgrade.


Weapon

You'll need to socket your weapon with Desecrate, an Offering and a Curse so they'll be cast automatically by the trigger craft.

-Desecrate can be lvl 1 and doesn't need quality.

-For offerings i prefer Bone Offering which is your pure defensive option with +27% spell and attack block and some life on block. You could also go with Spirit Offering which gives some defense in the form of ~1500 extra ES, +23% all resist and offence in the form of ~15% more skelly DPS. Flesh Offering is also an option but that only gives you 15% movement speed and ~13% more skelly DPS. Remember that these bonusses will be on you pretty much permanently as long as you regularly cast something (with me the buff lasts about 18 seconds which means casting 3 skills within 18 seconds for 100% offering uptime).

-For curses Punishment gives you the most extra DPS but only after the cursed mob hits your minions. As thats mostly out of your influence you're better off with Frostbite as an offensive curse. Frostbite gives a little more DPS than Vulnerability with the added bonus of some freeze chance and duration.
Your best defensive option will be Enfeeble reducing overal damage done by enemies. Temporal Chains is also an option if you prefer its' slowing effect.


Helmet

Raise Spectre + Blood Magic + Animate Guardian + Meat Shield

The Meat Shield will keep your spectres and (eventually) valuable animated guardian safe while Blood Magic allows your spectres to regularly buff your minions. More on spectres and the animated guardian further on.


Shield

Raise Zombie + Vaal Grace + Empower

With a level 4 Empower and level 21 Raise Zombie and Vaal Grace gems the Magna Eclipsis will boost your zombies to level 31 and your grace to level 28. That's 3795 evasion rating for free with Aul's Uprising and 12 meat shields with 51k health.
You can use a normal (non-Vaal) Grace but that would mean you don't have a very strong defensive cooldown skill that can save your (and friends') life.


Body Armour

Summon Skeletons + Minion Damage + Melee Physical Damage + Hypothermia + Ruthless + Maim

When still on a 5-link drop the Maim gem. While mapping (non-single target) you're better off swapping Ruthless with Melee Splash. In standard i do all my mapping with an Item Quantity gem swapped in for Maim aswell which effectively makes it a 4-link and still it's no sweat.
You can go for Vaal Summon Skeletons but for stable DPS it's better to have a level 21/20q gem and a level 21 Vaal gem is generally quite expensive.


Gloves / Boots

Next are your aura's in a 4-link. If you have either gloves or boots corrupted with +2 aura's or +2 AoE put these in there.

Summon Skitterbots + Hatred + Generosity + Enlighten

The Skitterbots are there to make sure everything that needs to gets shocked and/or chilled. Hatred with Generosity is a big damage boost for all your minions. The enlighten is needed to be able to run Discipline aswell.

Your other 4-link will be your preferred golem and movement skill:

Summon Chaos Golem + Feeding Frenzy + Elemental Army | Phase Run

For my golem i prefer Chaos Golem for the extra Physical damage mitigation and it's own survivability (it's agressive because of Feeding Frenzy). A Carrion Golem buffs your skeletons with a little extra damage (~20k DPS per skelly) but tends to die sometimes.
Feeding Frenzy is there to buff all your minions with damage, attack- and movement speed. The Elemental Army gem makes your golem apply a little cold penetration on enemies while buffing his resists so he can survive his agressive fits.

The 4th socket is for your movement skill. I use Phase Run myself (your dex can support it) but you can use whichever you prefer.


Rings

You'll need two unset rings for the last two gems:

Vaal Discipline | Convocation

If you have a +x to gem level ring put the Discipline in there. Convocation is not mandatory but definately good to have. Use it to pull your meat shields to you instantly when they're stuck or you need them to avoid a boss mechanic or something. The small (~8%) heal it does is an added bonus.

With a +1 wand, a +3 helmet and a level 21 gem your Raise Spectres gem will be level 27. For your 4th Spectre you'll only need level 25 so you have some room there. Either way, your first two spectres should be a Carnage Chieftain and a Host Chieftain (both can be found in Act 7 - The Ashen Fields).
Your 3rd spectre can be anything basically but remember your spectres aren't setup to do any meaningful damage. I recommend getting an Undying Evangelist (Act 3 - The Sceptre of God) who'll periodically cast a big yellow bubble that 'll make you immune from any damage coming from outside that bubble. It's not something to work your gameplay around but i'm confident it saved my life more than once without me knowing.
Your 4th spectre should be another Carnage Chieftain. The Frenzy Charges it provides grant alot of extra damage and since you're regularly summoning new skeletons they tend to miss out on more than 1 or 2 charges with just one Chieftain.


Animate Guardian is a very unique and interesting skill that opens up many options for boosting a party. Many people more clever than me have come up with all kinds of combinations of gear to give him but i'll stick to just a few suggestions that have worked for me (and still do).

First, in case a newer player reads this: Animate Guardian is a skill that lets you build your own minion to spec by casting the skill on (identified) gear laying on the ground. You can equip him with a weapon (1x 2h or 2x 1h) and full set of armour that way and he'll gain all the mods that are on the gear you give him. When he dies though all the items you gave him will be lost! Therefore make sure you only equip him with the more expensive items when you're sure he won't die. Don't come crying to me when you lose 15ex in gear to him dying ;)

With that said, i think it's been several leagues ago that my AG last died and that was in a time where we didn't have the layers of protection we have today. I have to admit though that i still don't dare take him when killing Sirus (even though he'd probably survive).

So, for some low-budget/try-out suggestions:

Weapon: Dying Breath (small damage and curse effect aura)
Helmet: Leer Cast (small damage aura)
Body Armour: Belly of the Beast (decent life and resists)
Gloves: Southbound (decent life)
Boots: Victario's Flight (movement speed aura)


For high-budget suggestions:

Weapon: Kingmaker (aura for: culling strike, crit multi, fortify and rarity)
Helmet: Crown of the Tyrant (ele penetration and added ele damage aura)
Body Armour: Gruthkul's Pelt (high life regen)
Gloves: Southbound (decent life)
Boots: Victario's Flight (movement speed aura)