Variant idea

[Mournblade]

Would be tricky, but you could socket chipped skulls in a buckler for "thorns" effect until you got the decoy. Do decoys reflect Thorns? Also, I foresee one MAJOR problem right here. You're gonna have trouble casting the valk with base energy. Unless they toned the costs down a lot since the last time I checked. Would be nice if you had enough mana to recast the valk everytime she died, so that she could be the thorns dummy. Failing which, if decoy transmits Thorns damage, there's your answer.

Good idea. Haven't had a chipped skull drop yet, but plan to use it when it does. I think someone mentioned using chipped skulls in a shield earlier in this post.

Decoy does reflect thorns. I don't think I have tried it in 1.10, but it worked in 1.09 and I don't see why they would have changed it.

At level 50, I should be able to cast 2 level20 valkyries with base mana. Almost 3 at level 70, and with mana pots available, it shouldn't be a problem. From the sounds of things, a level 20 valkyrie doesn't die very often.