[3.13] MOM & POP Skeletons - Strong at Bosses & Heists

*No sign the new Expedition mechanic is as rough as Ultimatums were, will have to see
*Lowlife/pop threshold is 50% as of last patch, faster booms
*Minion Damage Support is now bad, so Fire Penetration or lv4 Empower
*We're not particularly Flask-dependent
*Not particularly hit by Gem nerfs
Time will tell but MOM & POP looks totally viable again!

Pros
*upwards of ~8500 eHP + massive regen
*core build is cheap
*fun playstyle
*big boss damage on a fair budget
*clears any map mods
*low attribute requirements
*Blight destroyer
*hardcore viable
*vaal skeles nuclear launch detected

Cons
*skelesplosions do not break barrels :(
*trade league only, SSF would have a hard time getting all the specifics
*better at bosses than clear speed
*won't get to streamer-level ridiculous damage, tops out around 8 million sdps

*2x Earendel's Embrace


*A 6-socket, 5-LINK Bloodbond

That's right, you don't technically need a 6-link. Your helmet will be your "6-link", more about that below.
You may eventually want to go 6-link, but it should not be your first big expense.

*Either a Replica Siegebreaker or a Darkness Enthroned with your two best jewels.
Even though the Burning Grounds do not stack, I believe Repl Siegebreaker is superior, but it's difficult to prove mathematically.

*Helmet, 4-link 4-blue:
Vaal Summon Skeletons, Anomalous Infernal Legion, Elemental Focus, and one of the following:
Concentrated Effect, Minion Damage, or Minion Life (depending on helmet)
The new alternate-quality "anomalous" Infernal Legion increases the self-burn from 40% to 50%, making skeles pop sooner. Buy one as soon as you can!
To get to t16, you'll need a helmet that supports socketed gems with the other two of the above three "or" gems. Here's one of mine for example:
A budget helmet would have just the two extra supports. You can clear ALL MAPS AND BOSSES ON A BUDGET HELMET so definitely buy a cheap one to get started.
When you finally pick up a +3 with 20/18 levels you'll notice a big difference and start crushing!
You may also want to try an Anomalous Predator if you don't mind managing an extra button. Signal Prey is instant-cast.
Feel free to run an Increased Area of Effect (Awakened is nice and not too expensive) for clearing maps if the bosses are easy (they will be).

*Body Armour, 5-link 4-blue 1-red, 1 blue unlinked:
Raise Zombie, Feeding Frenzy, Elemental Army, Combustion, and Melee Splash
Zombies are your faithful support boys. See below for how Cluster Jewels will affect them, they will greatly increase fire damage taken by bosses and clear weak enemies for you. They will also taunt and keep Feeding Frenzy up.
Faster Casting in the sixth unlinked socket will only affect Blood Offering, which you cast frequently mid-combat.
You're best off buying a Bloodbond with perfect life/minion life rolls, getting the quality up to 20% or higher (Hillock in Fortification can raise it to 28%), spamming Jewelers until it's 6-sockets, and then either recipe or fusings it to 5-link.
To get 5b 1r, with the red in the 5-link, spam around ~100 chromatics. Don't use the 1r recipe, it's much more expensive.

Alternative 6-link, 5b1r: Squeeze the Frenzy Ape Spectres in with the above. More clear speed, slower cast time on Ritual. Opens a link up with the Lightning Golem for AG or something else.

More Boss Damage, Tukohama's Vanguard Spectres: Found in Act 6, The Karui Fortress, these boys drop Scorching Ray totems that can apply -25% Fire Exposure after a wind-up, replacing Ele Army's -10%. Multiple Totems support is crucial here to apply Exposure quickly.
5-link would be Spectre, Multiple Totems, Combustion, Feeding Frenzy, and either Zombies or Minion Life (6-link for both).


*Gloves or Boots, 4-link 4-blue:
Hydrosphere, Hextouch, Flammability, and Faster Casting
This will apply Flammability and Elemental Equilibrium for great boss damage. Hydrosphere has a quick base cast time, no cooldown, great impact AOE, and even hits targets on the way.
Make sure you wear nothing that adds Fire damage to spells - mouse over the Hydrosphere tooltip to ensure it mentions no Fire damage. If it does, you're wearing something that needs replaced.
Another option ulraththeunclean's been enjoying is Cyclone, Cast while Channeling, Flammability, and Fortify with some cold or lightning added to attacks.
What's important is that you get your curse and EE out comfortably. Both can break barrels!

*Boots or Gloves, 4-link 4-blue:
Raise Spectre, Lightning Golem, Meat Shield, and Minion Life
My choice of Spectre is Frenzy Apes, like Stygian Silverback. Feel free to try out any Spectres you like, they're there for support.

Pure dex boots or gloves will be hard to get 4-blue and may have too high of Dex requirement.

*Weapon 1, 3-link 2-blue 1-green:
Desecrate, Faster Casting, and Clarity
It doesn't matter if Clarity is linked. You can buy a lv21 Clarity for cheap.
Only quality on Desecrate matters, feel free to leave it at lv1.

*Weapon 2, 3-link 2-blue 1-red:
Flame Dash, Faster Casting, and Blood Magic
Blood Magic on Flame Dash helps if you take enough damage to drain all your mana.
If you get your Mana higher than 43% of your Life, you can safely drop Blood Magic.

Here's my passives tree, but I recommend loading up POB Fork with the pastebin link for better detail: https://pastebin.com/mdi27Kma

Start on the right and work your way straight to Minion Instability as soon as possible. Grab all the minion nodes, feel free to take % damage and Regret them later when you get the Skeles blowing up quickly. Hold off on the mana nodes until you at least have Mind Over Matter. You don't need Elemental Equilibrium until you have at least one Earendal's Embrace equipped. You can just grab all the travel nodes for a while since Skeletons are so strong to level with. Grab life nodes whenever you start to feel vulnerable.

Here's a reddit with good information about building Mind Over Matter

"Minions deal % increased damage" is maybe half as good as "Minions have % increased maximum life". A 10/12% damage node is not worth spending points on if you can skip it. Minion Life is the best damage stat!

You'll notice Sacrifice and Indomitable Army are untaken despite granting minion life, this is because they also add fire resistance to Skeletons which slows down the boom.

Gravepact will be your Anoint, there's too many bad nodes on the way to it.

By lv91 you can have all four regular jewel sockets, the good mana notables Battle Rouse, Dynamo, Mystic Bulwark, Arcane Will, and Deep Thots. You want at least two Hulking Corpses and a Life From Death from Medium Clusters and two filled Small Life Clusters. The whole Life wheel with Constitution in the Scion area.

Ascendancy snapshot

Ascendancy order goes Mindless Aggression -> Bone Barrier -> Unnatural Strength -> Plaguebringer
The Bone Armour skill combined with Dynamo is a powerful defensive tool. Pop it anytime you anticipate damage.
Don't grab Commander of Darkness even temporarily because it adds fire resistance to Skeletons.

You want to start on your Cluster as soon as you can afford a Medium.

CLUSTER JEWELS

Gear I used for deathless Uber Elder:
See "Advanced Tips" below for why gems are different from above

Helmet


Body Armour


Weapons


Gloves


Boots


Belt


Rings


Amulet & Anoint


Jewels


Flasks

If you pick up gems and uniques as early as you can you'll have a grand time leveling. Prioritize links over stats while in Acts, you can get away with some pretty trash gear all the way to white maps.

By the end of Act 1 you can link Infernal Legion to Skeletons, the burning damage will actually be most of your damage. Pick up gems and level them as you go. Your first 4-link should be Skeletons, Infernal Legion, Minion Life, and Combustion. You can roll with Minion Damage for a while if you like. Don't forget to use your weapon swap to level more gems!

lv2 Raise Zombie, first quest reward
lv8 Melee Splash, Act 3 Siosa
lv8 Combustion and Infernal Legion, Act 1
lv10 Summon Skeletons, Clarity, and Flame Dash, Act 1
lv16 Desecrate and Cold Snap, Act 2
lv18 Faster Casting x4, Concentrated Effect, Elemental Focus, and Minion Life, Act 2
lv24 Flammability, Act 3
lv28 Raise Spectre, Act 3
lv31 Elemental Army, Meat Shield, and Feeding Frenzy, Act 3
lv31 Blood Magic, Act 3 Siosa
lv34 Lightning Golem, Act 4
lv35 Earendel's Embrace and Bloodbond, trade
lv38 Hextouch, Act 3
lv44 Replica Siegebreaker

Before finishing Acts you can already have the core build assembled. If you struggle with Izaru, try Spell Totem support on Skeletons so you can spend more time dodging.

The two mods "% of Damage taken while affected by Clarity Recouped as Mana" and "% increased Life Recovery Rate while affected by Vitality" are very powerful here. The Agnostic's regen is boosted by this. Jewel will probably cost at least 2 Exalts.
Keep Vitality at lv1, it reserves more mana and regens Skeles if you level it up.
Keep your unreserved Mana equal to at least 43% of your life total, so you may not level up Clarity all the way.

An Animate Guardian can bring a great defensive or offensive boon. If you haven't used AG before, read the wiki page and watch a Youtube or two on it. It's basically a separate equipment set that an invisible minion you summon wears. Anything you put on the AG can never be recovered. If AG dies, its equipped items are gone forever. If you replace one of its items, the old item's gone forever. Fortunately, this is a minion life build so, if you're careful, it will be virtually immortal.

AG starts at 45% elemental and 20% chaos resists, you'll want to cap at least the elementals with the gear you buy him. There's no way to check his current gear, so use POB and save an item set for him.
AG takes extra planning, so know that you'll probably waste a few items on the way.

For a defensive AG, just link it in with Meat Shield, usually alongside Lightning Golem and Minion Life. Even linked to Meat Shield, AG likes to wander off so it helps to keep a lv1 CWDT Convocation so his buffs stay on you.

For offensive, 6-link it into Feeding Frenzy with Tukohama's Vanguard Spectres, Multiple Totems, Cumbustin, and Minion Life (otherwise Spectres can die).

Offensive

Defensive options

Here's a quick demo of planning item sets for your AG in POB
Silly me thought that AG needed to meet Attribute requirements, so you don't have to shop for Str/Dex like I did at first.

An Elegant Hubris can potentially offer big upgrades at a cost that varies extremely. For the purposes of this build, here's the basics:

* When slotted on your passives tree, an Elegant Hubris will change the other nodes nearby in a large circle. The number of coins and name commemorated determines what they are changed to. If this seems opaque and confusing, that's because it is. There is no calculator/spreadsheet to easily optimize (not even POB), we can only experiment and share results. You slot one in and look at your passives. A Divine Orb will reroll the number of coins and you can look again.

* Small passives in radius will be made empty, whether they granted 5% life or 10 Intelligence. Notable passives will be transformed into a random alternative: the top two possibilities are Axiom Warden - 80% Increased Minion Life and Slum Lord - 80% Increased Minion Damage. There are several other good ones but Axiom Warden is by far the top priority.

* Keystones in radius will be transformed more predictably by the name commemorated, but none of them are useful to us. Cadiro, Caspiro, or Victario, doesn't matter. Coin number does the same regardless.

* The only decent location for an Elegant Hubris for us is the left-most slot between "Faith and Steal" and "Devotion". Reference:

Every other jewel slot will overwrite too many good/necessary passives.

All that said, here are some of the good numbers to land on (big thanks to Promaore for his notes):
152000: 2x Axiom Warden, 3x Slum Lord
76360: 3x Axiom Warden
17260: 2x Axiom Warden, 1x Slum Lord
36340: 3x Axion Warden, 1x Slum Lord

If you shop for these numbers, enter them for Cadiro, Caspiro, and Victario each. If you roll a good number, save that Jewel and post a reply with your results!

* Anomalous Infernal Legion, of course, for faster boom
* Anomalous Elemental Focus, increased AOE for skelesplosion
* Anomalous Clarity, boost to Mana Flasks
* Anomalous Minion Damage, % chance double damage, almost as good as lv5 Awakened
* Anomalous Lightning Golem, moar Cast Speed
* Lv5 Awakened Hextouch, get two Curses on that Hydrosphere

If +3 minion gems and two lv20 pseudo-supports isn't good enough for you, you can crank things up even more with a HH-level budget or crafting!

Dream helmet mods would look like

* +3 to minion gems (general prefix)
* lv20+ Concentrated Effect (Elder prefix)
* lv20+ Minion Damage (Elder prefix)
* Socketed Gems have 30% more Elemental Damage (Essence of Horror suffix)
* Minions have 31–35% increased maximum Life (Warlord suffix)
* Nearby Enemies have -12% to Fire Resistance, -12% to Fire Resistance (Warlord suffix)
* lv20+ Hypothermia (requires Skitterbots for chill, probably in an Essence Worm) - Shaper suffix

You could get crazy with Maven's Orbs and go for lv25 supports if you're really whack

TBH it's not necessary at all for any content

Burning Damage Support?

Getting close to lv100 requires the ability to clear tons of high-end content without dying. Work on your toughness and flask management. You should have a variety of optional flasks in your stash for various situations.

When pushing for the next level, avoid rolling more than one dangerous mod at a time. You're tough but it takes a lot of time to get in the high 90s.

t16 Blighted Summit maps with +45% experience anoint are great XP when you get practiced at Blight. Note these ring anoints:Scorch is like a second Exposure, this being the only time you can use it. Glacial cages are just good crowd control; Temporal and Stone Gaze towers are also strong.

You're safe enough to farm lv83 Heists for XP, they can get very dense. Breaches, Beachhead are great options as usual. Grind what you enjoy doing!

To get POB Fork to fully calculate your Skelesplosion damage, you can simply copy+paste mods it doesn't see onto one of your items. I copied the missing mods onto my Elegant Hubris, for example, from my AG items and the modified tree passives. Here's how my Elegant Hubris reads now: To simulate the second curse from AG's gloves, I simply added a lv22 Elemental Weakness to my Hextouch link (the gloves apply lv10-12 at 40-48%, lowballed that's roughly the same as lv22).

You also have to manually apply -25% fire resist to account for the Tukohama's Vanguards.

Damage went up by over 200k with the corrections. Here's my POB fully configured as such: https://pastebin.com/CNz2zdgK

Tukohama's Vanguard Spectres in 6L with Zombies, defensive AG with Kingmaker, Cospri's Will, Eye of Malice, and Victario's Flight. An Elegant Hubris with at least 3 good Notables. Watcher's Eye with both mods. Final Form gem links would look like:

Helm skeles
6L Spectr, Zombies, ffrenzy, cumbustin, multitot, minlif
4L Hydrosf, hext, Flamm, fcast
4L cwdt, Convoc ; Clarity ; Vitality
3L AG, Lgolem, meatsh
3L Flame dash, Desecrate, fcast