36k+ damage possible for a Goldfind Necro?

[Ryu_Khan]

36k+ damage possible for a Goldfind Necro?

I have a lvl88 skelemancer with a lvl88 Might Merc that I use primarily for goldfinding/mfing, and while I'm happy with his killing power and general play, I want to take him to the next level. I've planned out the following gear and damage totals - I would appreciate it if anyone could look it over and point out any errors and/or give me your thoughts on the build. Note that while some of the gear sacrifices +skills for mf or gf, for the sake of completion I've indicated in [brackets] what would be THE optimal +skills, if one were willing and able to go for full damage.

Standard skelemancer 20 SM 20 RS, and with +skills 41 SM 39 RS [54 SM 52 RS :scared: ]:
Weapon: +5 Arm of King Leoric (better for prebuffing than even a +7 SM +3 RS White Wand)
Shield: +2 Homunculus [+5 Rare Necro Skull: +2 Necro, +3 SM, +3 RS]
Helm: +2 Shako [+3 Necro Summon Circlet]
Armor: +2 Enigma (God I love teleporting with my summoner)
Ammy: +3 Necro Summon
Ring 1: Dwarfstar, since I like the extra gold. [+1 SoJ/Bul]
Ring 2: Dwarfstar [+1 SoJ/Bul]
Belt: Goldwrap [+1 Arachnid Mesh]
Boots: +2 SM Marrowalks
Gloves: Chance Guards
Charms: +5 (+4 Summon, +1 Anni) [+11 to Summon]

My lvl88 Might Merc would wear a +4 Ariocs Needle, +2 Andy's Visage, and +2 Arkaine's Valour, bringing his might aura to slvl26 and 290% ED, with the chance to get a couple of slvls higher if any additional levelling is done.

After summoning 13 skeles with my Arm of Leoric, I would switch to my Beast Runeword (+93% ED for party) and 2nd Homunculus. I could summon 15 with slvl39 RS, but two would disintegrate upon switching to Beast. Here's the damage breakdown for those thirteen skeles @ slvl41 SM / slvl39 RS :
580-584 Damage
* 383% ED Auras
--------------------
2801 - 2820 Damage
* 13 Skeletons
--------------------
36,413-36,600 Damage when teleporting next to a sole enemy, delivered at warp speed thanks to Fanaticism. And oh yeah, don't forget the Merc doing 3-4k as well as any Revives or Golems you happen to drag along.

And of course the damage has a chance to be doubled with amplify damage - although increased by 50% is a better bet given the physical resistance in Hell.

Does this seem a little crazy to anyone else? Am I missing something here? Does Might and Fanaticism not apply to the listed figure of 580-584, but instead to some lower figure? What do you think?

 

[rickcarson]

Yes, you got it wrong.

You need to take a closer look at how ED works.

Eg if your skellie skill does say 100-102 damage... that *already* includes
a bunch of ED from the Raise Skeleton skill (7% per level past level 4 I think). (yes, I know *your* listed skellie damage is much higher, thats okay, this is just an example). So if the skellie skill includes 100% ED already, at a listed damage of 100-102, then the *base* damage is actually a mere 50-51.

You need to
(1) factor out that ED,
(2) add (NOT multiply!!!) all the different EDs together,
(3) and only then multiply the skeleton base damage by the total ED.

You will get a *much* lower number. But it will still be impressive!!!!

 

[Ryu_Khan]

Yes, you got it wrong.

You need to take a closer look at how ED works.

Eg if your skellie skill does say 100-102 damage... that *already* includes
a bunch of ED from the Raise Skeleton skill (7% per level past level 4 I think). (yes, I know *your* listed skellie damage is much higher, thats okay, this is just an example). So if the skellie skill includes 100% ED already, at a listed damage of 100-102, then the *base* damage is actually a mere 50-51.

You need to
(1) factor out that ED,
(2) add (NOT multiply!!!) all the different EDs together,
(3) and only then multiply the skeleton base damage by the total ED.

You will get a *much* lower number. But it will still be impressive!!!!

Yeah, I thought it was too good to be true. I did some more calculations:

-A skeleton's base damage is 1-2. slvl1-3 RS adds no damage, and slvl4+ adds 7% Damage per slvl. Each Point in Skeleton Mastery adds +2 to min and +2 to max damage. With slvl41 SM and slvl1-3 RS, that equates to 83-84 base damage.

-slvl39 RS gives +252% Damage, and therefore each skeleton should do (83-84*3.52) 292-295 Damage. However, in game the damage is listed as 580-584 at slvl39.

-With slvl0 SM and slvl39 RS, the damage is 292-295, which means that the base skeleton damage is 83-84. Very strange coincidence there.

-With slvl0 SM and slvl20 RS, the damage is 135-138. Divided by the 119%ED bonus, the base damage is 17-18.

-With slvl0 SM and slvl50 RS, the damage is 544-549. Divided by 329% ED, the base damage is 126-128.

Perhaps someone who is better at math than I am can figure out how much +base damage each slvl of raise skeleton gives

 

[JoJeck]

My skeleton damage calculator by Serra Angel shows that.

SM = 41
RS = 39
Aura = 383 % (Might 290 + Fanaticism 93)
In Hell

Damage = 1212 - 1220
Life Calculated = 7030
Life Displayed = 1126
No. Of Skels = 15

So 15 skellies will do 1216 (average per hit) = 18240... although this assumes they all hit once.

 

[rickcarson]

Perhaps someone who is better at math than I am can figure out how much +base damage each slvl of raise skeleton gives

I *already* told you how to do that dude!

Figure out what the ED from Raise Skeleton is, and then divide your listed damage by that amount.

That gives you the base damage.

Now you can then further break that down, into the base damage from Raise Skeleton, by subtracting out the Skeleton Mastery (which is a constant +2 per level) if you really want to, *but* you don't need to!!

Just use JoJecks numbers. As I said before its lower than what you wanted, but still impressive.

 

[wilypueo]

Interesting discussion. A question: What is the level progression for the Might Merc's Aura? Mine is at level 96, so I am interested in this. I am currently using an ETH Bonehew on him, but if the skills from a +4 Arioc's would increase the killing speed overall of my minions, would consider switching.

BTW, I am a drooling over your rare 5 Rare Necro Skull: +2 Necro, +3 SM, +3 RS!

 

[Ryu_Khan]

I *already* told you how to do that dude!

You misunderstood what I was asking rick. I didn't want to know what the base damage was for each slvl, I wanted to know what the formula is for deciding how much base damage is added with each point of Raise Skeleton.

Jojeck, I'll try to get ahold of this calculator, thanks for your numbers!

Wily, I wish I had a rare Necro Skull like that too! I just listed in brackets what I thought would be the optimal skills setup for a skelemancer.

I'm not sure on the level progression, but I know that my clvl88 Merc has a base slvl20 Might Aura. It takes quite a few clvls to gain 1 slvl in Might.

As for using +skills instead of a high damage eth bonehew/reapers/doom etc, it really depends on your style of play. In the figures that Jojeck gave, slvl41 SM / slvl39 RS skeles would do 250-252 base damage. So the extra +4 from Ariocs would give each of them 100 extra damage per swing, as well as giving your merc an extra 40% ED as well.

 

[Mad Mantis]

Interesting discussion. A question: What is the level progression for the Might Merc's Aura?

At level 19 the Might Merc gains a level 1 aura. For every 4 levels the Might Merc gains, the aura gains 1 level. So he reaches aura level 2 at level 23 and aura level 3 at level 27.

 

[rickcarson]

You misunderstood what I was asking rick. I didn't want to know what the base damage was for each slvl, I wanted to know what the formula is for deciding how much base damage is added with each point of Raise Skeleton.

You *could* use the formula I tried to explain to you to figure it out.

I know I did. Its in a spreadsheet somewhere... (goes and pokes around) ...umm, sorry, guess you have to do the 'hard work' yourself.

From memory, it was something like +1 at each level from 8 onwards, and then +2 at each level from 16 onwards.

So at the upper end of the skill points spent, each one spent on Raise Skeleton is *always better* than a point spent on Skeleton Mastery, which is why you often see people advising others to spend all their points on Raise Skeleton first (once you get the second 'free' skill point, of course you can put that into SM).

Ultimately of course you max both, and it doesn't really matter what you do at low levels anyway, since you spend such a small fraction of the 'lifetime' of the character at low levels.

I think my best speed record at low levels was to beat normal solo in eight hours (so I could get to Hardcore on a fresh install after my crappy IBM laptop spat the dummy and I lost everything).