PoE 2 Skeletal Storm Mage Build Guide [Patch 0.3.0] – The Third Edict

Ben Author

Created - 21.08.2025 Updated - 17.09.2025

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Are you looking for a competent minion build to play in Path of Exile 2: The Third Edict? If so, we encourage you to try the Skeletal Storm Mage Lich. Yes, this build uses the new ascendancy class for the Witch, and if you want to know the reason why, read further as we will explain everything you need to know about it.

If you’re exploring witch-type builds more broadly, it can also help to see 6 Best Witch Builds in POE 2, which showcases several strong Witch archetypes and lets you compare how Skeletal Storm Mage stacks up among them.

While this minion build can be put up using budget gear, having only the best items will make the Skeletal Storm Mage Lich feel better to use. Hence, if you are searching for a one-stop shop where you can buy all things Path of Exile 2, then visit our PoE 2 Store right now!

Why Play the Skeletal Storm Mage Lich in Patch 0.3.0?

GGG was quite heavy-handed with the nerfs in the previous PoE 2 expansion. Most of the minion skills have been gutted but there are some that have survived the onslaught—one of which is the Skeletal Storm Mage.

The Skeletal Storm Mage has actually been buffed in Path of Exile 2: The Third Edict. It now deals a bit more lightning damage per minion, so having at least 10 of them on the battlefield will leave enemies with no chance of survival.

What is interesting about minion builds in the Rise of the Abyssal League is that you have plenty of allies you can add to your party. For instance, you can use the new Bind Spectre to raise certain monsters from the dead, which can then aid your Skeletal Storm Mages in combat.

Anyway, you will use two different Skeletal Storm Mage setups on this build. The first one is your primary damage dealer with support gems like Elemental Focus and Muster. The second one is mainly to inflict Shock on your foes, making them more vulnerable to incoming damage by 20%.

Because support gems are crucial for amplifying minion damage, cast speed, and utility effects, it is useful to have a strong guide. For that purpose, see Complete Guide to Get More Support Gems in Path of Exile 2 [0.2.0], which explains how to acquire and optimize support gems for nearly any build, especially minion-based ones like this.

In our version of the build, here are the list of minions you will use:

• Skeletal Sniper = x 2
• Skeletal Cleric = x 2
• Skeletal Reaver = x 1
• Spectre: Terracotta Soldier = x 1
• Companion: Quadrilla = x 1
• Skeletal Warrior = x 2
• Skeletal Storm Mage (for Shock) = x 2
• Skeletal Storm Mage (Primary) = Rest of Spirit

So, why did we choose the Lich over the Infernalist for this PoE 2 Skeletal Storm Mage build? As you all know, the Infernalist is the beginner-friendly minion master because of her easy access to Spirit. However, we feel that the Lich is much better in terms of overall damage output due to Necromantic Conduit.

Necromantic Conduit basically grants Unholy Might to all of your minions. Unholy Might, for those who do not know, is a buff that grants 30% extra chaos damage at the cost of 5% mana loss.

The mana that you lose while Necromantic Conduit is active can easily be addressed by Soulless Form. This greatly improves your mana regeneration by stacking life. Take note that you can still take mana regeneration nodes on the passive tree if you want to. This is because Soulless Form only removes your “inherent” mana regeneration; not those that are bestowed by items or passive skills.

Another reason why we love the Lich for this particular minion build is that she is almost unkillable due to the aptly named “Eternal Life” ascendancy node. So long as you have one point of Energy Shield active, your HP will not be altered in any way.

Here is the ideal order of ascendancy nodes to take if you are going to play the Skeletal Storm Mage Lich in Path of Exile 2: The Third Edict:

1. Necromantic Conduit
2. Soulless Form
3. Eternal Life
4. Crystalline Phylactery

Apart from that, here are the ideal modifiers to look for on your pieces of gear:

• Increased Spirit
• Increased Spirit, + to Mana
• + to Spirit
• + to Level of All Minion Skills
• Allies in Your Presence Deal % Increased Damage
• Allies in Your Presence Have % Increased Cast Speed
• Increased Presence Area of Effect
• + to Maximum Energy Shield
• Increased Energy Shield
• + to Maximum Life
• + to Maximum Mana

The “Increased Presence Area of Effect” modifier is optional, though we highly recommend that you get it due to the lower presence AoE that you have now than prior to the launch of PoE 2 Patch 0.3.0 (from 6 meters to 4 meters). This means that any modifiers that have “Allies in Your Presence” only work if you are very close to your minions. By having the increased presence AoE modifier, you do not have to be quite near to your allies for any bonuses to take effect.

Playstyle

You don’t have to do anything special while you are mapping. Simply run towards a pack of monsters and your Skeletal Storm Mages should make quick work of them.

Things are a bit different when it comes to bossing, though. During boss fights, cast Sigil of Power, Conductivity, and Pain Offering. There is no need to manually aim the Pain Offering because it will always select your Skeletal Snipers (due to the Sacrificial Lamb support gem).

When you are mapping, you can unsummon the Storm Mages that apply Shock and replace them with the primary damage dealers if you want to destroy everything in a matter of seconds. This is optional but the difference in the time they need to kill a monster is noticeable between the two setups.

It is also helpful not to have any minions active on the second weapon set. This is so that whenever you need to summon your minions to your side, you can just switch to the second weapon set and then quickly swap back.

Refer to the previous section as to how many of the other minions you should activate. The rest of your Spirit should be spent on the Skeletal Storm Mages.

Skeletal Storm Mage Lich Gear Recommendations

Even though our version of the build does not require you to take the Chaos Inoculation keystone passive, you can still benefit a lot from having a high amount of energy shield due to Soulless Form and Eternal Life. For this reason, most of your pieces of gear must contain some energy shield (preferably a high roll).

Weapon

Despite the many sceptres you can find in Path of Exile 2: The Third Edict, nothing can compare to the Rattling Sceptre for minion builds. This particular weapon allows you to summon a couple of Skeletal Warriors for free, so why not include them in your army?

Buy a Rattling Sceptre that has “+4 to Level of All Minion Skills” and “Allies in Your Presence Deal % Increased Damage.” The modifiers that increase your Spirit capacity are also ideal as they enable you to summon more minions to your cause.

Use an Artificer’s Orb and insert an Owl Talisman to gain “Allies in Your Presence Have an 8% Increased Cast Speed.” If you can afford a Rattling Sceptre that has two sockets, then that is better!

Offhand

There are a couple of amazing options you can pick for your offhand item. Trenchtimbre is a one-handed mace that can roll up to +2 minion skills. If you have this equipped, you can also use Leap Slam to quickly traverse huge maps in Path of Exile 2: The Third Edict.

The best offhand item to use, however, is none other than the new Sunsplinter. The Sunsplinter is a new DEX-based shield in PoE 2 that grants “+3 to Level of All Lightning Skills.” Since the Skeletal Storm Mage has the “Lightning” tag, it can certainly benefit from the said modifier.

Now, if you are feeling lucky, you can even corrupt the shield for a chance to attain the incredible “+4 to Level of All Lightning Skills.” This is not mandatory, though. However, if you can pull it off, the damage of your Skeletal Storm Mages will surely skyrocket!

A well-rolled Sunsplinter is quite expensive on the market, especially the corrupted one. So, if you want to buy a Sunsplinter for a cheap price, you can visit our online shop.

Weapon 2

For your second weapon set, grab a Chiming Staff that has a high-level Sigil of Power. Better yet, you can get a Sire of Shards from the trade website that has a level 19 Sigil of Power. Such an item is quite cheap, so you shouldn’t have problems purchasing one.

Body Armor

If this is your first time playing a minion build in PoE 2 Patch 0.3.0, your main role is simply to position yourself out of harm’s way and provide support to your allies. Despite having a more defensive playstyle, there are times that you will still get hit, especially when you are going against bosses.

The Sacrosanctum is a viable body armor to use for the Skeletal Storm Mage Lich in Path of Exile 2: The Third Edict. This thing is known for its ability to recoup life and energy shield whenever you receive damage. You will have to satisfy its relatively high STR requirement, in addition to allocating life recoup effects on the passive tree. Be that as it may, it is a solid defensive body armor for this build.

Your endgame armor, however, is one that has at least 50 Spirit and tons of energy shield. We recommend that you choose the Sacramental Robe as the base because it has that useful “Faster Start of Energy Shield Recharge” implicit mod.

Do not forget to socket Greater Iron Runes into this thing for a hefty boost in energy shield as well.

Helmet

The Kamasan Tiara with “+2 to Level of All Minion Skills” is the preferred one to use on this PoE 2 Skeletal Storm Mage Lich build in Patch 0.3.0. For its prefixes, go for a couple of ES mods followed by an increase in maximum life. You can also have increased item rarity on here if you like.

Gloves

The Vaal Gloves have the highest amount of energy shield in Path of Exile 2: The Third Edict. That is why you get a pair that has energy shield, mana, and dexterity. DEX may seem out of place here but since you will utilize some green support gems on this build, it is pretty much mandatory. Fortunately, you don’t need much; just enough to satisfy certain attribute requirements.

Boots

The Sandsworn Sandals can roll 35% increased movement speed and “+ to Stun Threshold,” so we highly recommend that you get that. You don’t need to have a high amount of energy shield here, though it certainly won’t hurt if you can invest in a well-rolled one to improve your survivability.

Amulet

This is another item slot that can roll “+ to Level of All Minion Skills,” so that modifier becomes a top priority for the Skeletal Storm Mage Lich. Besides that, make sure that the amulet has 40 Spirit (much better if you can afford one that has 50 Spirit).

We recommend the Solar Amulet for its 10-15 Spirit implicit modifier. It may not seem much but can certainly boost the amount of Spirit you have when you factor in the explicit modifier.

The amulet can also have a flat increase and a percentage increase in life, which is something other items in the game do not possess. Because of this, you can forgo the life modifiers on your other pieces of gear, so that you can focus more on improving energy shield instead.

While it is not mandatory, the “Increased Cast Speed” modifier makes skills like Conductivity, Sigil of Power, and Pain Offering less clunky to use.

As to what notable passive skill to instill on the amulet, you have a couple of options. The cheaper one is Long Distance Relationship, which is a passive node that increases your presence area of effect by 30%. This requires Distilled Guilt, Distilled Envy, and Distilled Paranoia.

The best notable passive skill, however, is the Right Hand of Darkness. The Right Hand of Darkness enables your minions to inflict Wither on hit. Since they gain extra chaos damage from Necromantic Conduit, Wither can improve their DPS because it is a debuff that makes affected enemies take increased chaos damage (up to 50%). This is a very powerful notable passive skill without a doubt, which is why it is not surprising that it needs some expensive Distilled Emotions as well (Distilled Envy, Distilled Isolation, Distilled Suffering).

Rings

One of the things we like about the Skeletal Storm Mage Lich is that this build can wear several different rings to improve its capabilities.

The Levinstone is a great leveling unique ring that increases the level of your Skeletal Storm Mage by one. It also improves their chances of inflicting Shock on the enemy by up to 20%.

The Evergrasping Ring works really well on this build, especially because it grants up to 25% extra chaos damage to your allies. Although your enemies will also get a bit of a boost in damage when you’re wearing this ring, that is fine because your minions can eliminate them quickly anyway. You can head to our PoE 2 Store if you want to buy the Evergrasping Ring.

Since you are not the one who is dealing the damage here, you have the luxury of improving item rarity because of that. Hence, you can wear a rare Gold Ring that has a couple of IIR mods (both on the prefix and suffix).

On top of that, you can have life, mana, and attributes on this ring, making it a pretty good accessory to use in the endgame.

Do you want to know the best ring to wear for the Skeletal Storm Mage Lich in Path of Exile 2: The Third Edict? Well, it is the Ventor’s Gamble, of course! Get one that has as close to 20 Spirit as possible. It should also go without saying that it must not have any negative modifiers whatsoever. That is because this ring is so good for the build that you will use it until the end of the Rise of the Abyssal League.

Belt

Shavronne’s Satchel is a pretty nice belt for the PoE 2 Skeletal Storm Mage Lich in Patch 0.3.0. This is pretty much a free Eternal Youth keystone, where your Life Flask also recovers a portion of your energy shield. If you are going to wear this one, make sure that Eternal Youth is not allocated.

If there are still any resistance modifiers you have not capped yet, you can go for a rare Utility Belt that has three charm slots. Get one that has life, strength, a couple of resistance mods, and an increased flask life recovery rate.

Charms

When you are farming T15 maps or higher, you will be swarmed by groups of monsters, which makes you more susceptible to getting stunned. For this reason, one of your charm slots should be reserved for the Stone Charm with increased duration for better results.

Nascent Hope is so amazing that you would be a fool not to include it in your build. This is a unique Thawing Charm that forces your energy shield recharge to begin once you become frozen. This is quite similar to Convalescence, albeit you don’t have to press anything in order for it to work.

As mentioned earlier, our version of the Skeletal Storm Mage Lich in Path of Exile 2: The Third Edict does not have Chaos Inoculation allocated. That’s why you can benefit from Arakaali’s Gift. Every time you get poisoned, this thing recovers your life and mana equal to (15-20%) of your flasks’ recovery amount. This effect occurs twice since it only needs 20 charm charges to activate (and it has 40 total charges).

If you want a good alternative to Arakaali’s Gift, you can opt for the Sanguis Heroum instead. Sanguis Heroum creates a Consecrated Ground once you are affected by bleeding. Consecrated Ground recovers 5% of your maximum life per second, which is quite awesome when it comes to improving your chances of survival.

Jewels

Although you can populate all of your jewel sockets on this build with Sapphires, there is one unique jewel you can use and that is the Prism of Belief. Get one that specifically has “+3 to Level of All Skeletal Storm Mage Skills.”

For the rare jewels, you can choose any four of the following mods:

• Minions Deal Increased Damage
• Minions Have Increased Attack and Cast Speed
• Minions Have Increased Critical Damage Bonus
• Minions Have Increased Critical Hit Chance
• Minions Have +% to All Elemental Resistances
• Increased Maximum Energy Shield
• Gain Additional Stun Threshold Equal to % of Maximum Energy Shield
• Faster Start of Energy Shield Recharge
• % of Damage Taken Recouped as Life
• % of Damage is Taken from Mana Before Life

Skills

Skeletal Storm Mage (Primary)

• Feeding Frenzy
• Arcane Tempo
• Muster
• Elemental Focus
• Lightning Mastery
• Note: You can remove Elemental Focus and replace it with Conduction early on. When you have enough Spirit, go for Elemental Focus

Skeletal Storm Mage (Shock)

• Conduction
• Overcharge
• Lightning Exposure
• Strip Away

Conductivity

• Magnified Effect
• Cursed Ground
• Focused Curse
• Hex Bloom

Pain Offering

• Persistence
• Ablation
• Danse Macabre

Skeletal Cleric

• Ingenuity
• Last Gasp

Skeletal Sniper

• Death March
• Sacrificial Lamb
• Note: Sacrificial Lamb ensures that your Skeletal Sniper is always targeted when using Pain Offering. You can use these support gems on the Skeletal Warrior (from Rattling Sceptre) if you want

Companion: Quadrilla

• Meat Shield
• Enormity
• Note: This companion must have a Haste Aura and “All Damage Shocks” modifier. You may have to “fish” for this companion by repeatedly resetting the Jungle Ruins in Act 3 (Respawn at Checkpoint)

Skeletal Reaver

• None

Spectre: Terracotta Soldier

• None
• Note: If you are wondering why there are different types of minions here, that is because Muster grants 7% more damage for each type of persistent minion you have summoned on the battlefield

Passive Tree

To get the most out of the Skeletal Storm Mage Lich, you have to familiarize yourself with the weapon-swapping system. You can learn more about this mechanic by reading our PoE 2 Weapon Set Skill Points Guide.

Anyway, your first weapon set (denoted by the red lines) is for your minions, while the second weapon set (denoted by the green lines) is for increasing the radius and skill effect duration of Conductivity and Sigil of Power.

After creating your character, spend however many points necessary until you reach Relentless Fallen and Necrotised Flesh. The latter is necessary because it increases your Skeletal Storm Mages’ HP by a whopping 40%. With this allocated, you will notice that they won’t die as often.

The next thing you should do is bolster your minions by heading left and taking Restless Dead and Crystalline Flesh. Once these notable passive skills are allocated, go up and head left until you reach Lord of Horrors. Don’t forget to allocate these points specifically for Weapon Set 1.

If you're uncertain which nodes to prioritize early or want a broader look at summoner-type passive trees, check Best Summoner & Minion Builds in Path of Exile 2 [0.2.1], which often highlights passive node choices that accelerate minion builds’ power with limited gear.

At this point, you can choose between improving offense first or bolstering your defense. For offense, take Necrotic Touch and Grip of Evil at the top-middle portion of the tree. After that, go left to allocate the trifecta of minion nodes (Bringer of Order, Silent Guardian, and Holt Protector).

If you want more defense, you can go for Enhanced Barrier, Patient Barrier, and Calibration. Since you will more than likely have at least 4,000 energy shield by this time, you could go all the way to the right and take the Eternal Youth keystone.

Tips and Strategies

Wear Bones of Ullr

The Bones of Ullr is a pair of unique boots in Path of Exile 2 that reduces the Spirit reservation cost of your skeletal minions and spectres considerably. If all you want is plenty of minions on the screen, then the Bones of Ullr is an incredible option.

However, the reason why we didn’t originally include this in the gear section of this build guide is that it does not have a movement speed modifier at all. A build in PoE 2 Patch 0.3.0 that does not have any increased movement speed just feels bad. If you are okay with that, you can experiment with Bones of Ullr equipped and see how that works for you.

Best Spectres to Use

There are several amazing spectres in Path of Exile 2: The Third Edict, though you only really need to settle with just two.

If you want to improve your overall damage output, you can summon a few Vaal Guards and have them fight for you. The Vaal Guard is the best-performing Spectre right now in terms of sheer damage. It works similarly to the Skeletal Arsonist, albeit a lot better in our opinion.

The Vaal Guard can be found in Utzaal (Act 3). There are two types of this particular minion, but the one you are looking for requires 50 Spirit to summon.

For our version of the PoE 2 Skeletal Storm Mage Lich, we went for the Terracotta Soldier, which you can find in The Lost City (Act 2). What makes these soldiers useful is that they only need 10 Spirit to activate. You just summon one to get the most out of Muster and that’s it!

Is It Good to Take Chaos Inoculation?

There are versions of this build that take Chaos Inoculation. For the uninitiated, Chaos Inoculation (or CI) makes you immune to bleeding and chaos damage. The problem is that your HP will be reduced to one as a result.

Now, being immune to chaos damage is helpful because you will encounter a lot of monsters that deal the said damage type later in the game. However, we feel that Chaos Inoculation is not needed here since this build is almost unkillable with Eternal Life and Soulless Form allocated.

If there is an incentive to taking CI (besides immunity to chaos damage), it would be that you will have an easier time incorporating more “Increased Item Rarity” modifiers on gear since you do not need “Increased Maximum Life” anymore.

Of course, you can do whatever you like with your particular Skeletal Storm Mage Lich build. If you are going to try the CI version out, make sure to remove Soulless Form and Eternal Life and replace them with Rupture the Soul and Blackened Heart.

Blast Maps with Rupture the Soul

Most people who play the Skeletal Storm Mage Lich in Path of Exile 2: The Third Edict use it for farming the Trial of the Sekhemas and Trial of Chaos. However, if you want to develop it as a map blaster, you actually can! This is possible by taking the Rupture the Soul ascendancy node instead of Crystalline Phylactery.

What Rupture the Soul does is it makes enemies explode, dealing chaos damage to nearby enemies. To make this work, you just simply cast Conductivity on enemies and wait for your minions to kill them.

Make Sure to Deactivate Minions on Weapon Set 2

GGG has a lot to improve on when it comes to the minion AI in Path of Exile 2. There are cases where your minions get stuck as you move around the map. When this happens, you have to make sure that no minions are summoned when you switch to Weapon Set 2.

Once you swap to the Chiming Staff, immediately go back to the Rattling Sceptre. By doing this, your minions will be teleported to your location in an instant. Fortunately, this has become a lot smoother in the Rise of the Abyssal League.

The reason why you should know about this is that the Skeletal Storm Mages have a very limited range. If they attack an enemy from a considerable distance, their accuracy suffers greatly as a result. Repositioning them close to the target by doing this trick is key to maximizing this build’s true potential.

POB

Skeletal Storm Mage Lich

Final Thoughts

Who would have thought that the minion master (Infernalist) would be overthrown by the new Lich ascendancy class in Path of Exile 2: The Third Edict? The Lich is just better overall due to her Necromantic Conduit and Eternal Life ascendancy nodes.

The Skeletal Storm Mage Lich is both fun and powerful — but like any build, it benefits from efficient gearing, durable gear, and smart farming strategies. If you want to speed up your item / spirit / gem acquisition so you can afford the better gear faster, How to Farm Currency Efficiently in PoE 2 Early Access is a guide you'll find very helpful.

Grinding Gear Games still has a lot to improve upon when it comes to minions because their AI could be dumb at times. However, the Skeletal Storm Mage Lich is fun to play regardless of those shortcomings.

So, what can you say about the Skeletal Storm Mage Lich? Are you going to try it out anytime soon? Share your thoughts and opinions in the comments.

If you want to buy the Sunsplinter or any other item mentioned in this build guide, do not hesitate to come to our PoE 2 Store. We are open daily!

PROS

• Very easy to start with and does pretty well in the endgame
• Competitive Trial of the Sekhemas and Trial of Chaos farmer
• Quite durable for a minion build (especially when compared to the Infernalist)

CONS

• Has fewer options to scale damage further compared to non-minion builds
• Minion AI, in general, lacks aggressiveness (must be rectified by GGG)
• You are forced to use the Rattling Sceptre as there are no other viable endgame sceptres for minion builds right now