lextalionis
Diabloii.Net Member
Bone Wall Tactics
I was soloing in SP, with my Bone Necro and I was realizing that I couldn't do it without my Bonewalls since I had chosen to put no points in the Summon Tree and never hired a merc. I did it partially for the challenge, but also to see how well BoneWall could do as my "Tank".
I was pleasantly surprised, but had some interesting revelations that I thought that I would pass on.
Bonewalls seem to be pretty darn strong. I'm still only in Act 2 Hell, but nothing is beating them quickly yet. Even so in prolonged fights they will go down, because your own Bone Spears are damaging them.
1. Bonewalls seem to attract monsters from a very far radius. Its amazing that casting a Bonewall seems to get monsters interested in you. Its in the AI somehow. So remember that if you think you are using this for protection from just a couple creatures, it can very quickly turn into protection from a swarm, especially in a very open place. Now this can be used to your advantage as well. You can clean out large areas quickly, by bring a mob to your bone walls since monsters are so attracted to them and then have free rain to walk around.
2. Don't let creatures get behind your bonewalls. Many times even in the open creatures will bang right into your bonewall. Sometimes you need a bonewall that grants more AI protection since many creatures will try to go around obstacles. In this case create bone walls in this shape \_/. Most of the time this will keep them from coming around your bonewalls. As the AI can't get around them.
3. Boxing yourself in can be very bad when a huge mob comes. Note above the enormous range of attract that Bonewalls create. If you aren't careful. you will summon too large a croud for you to take out before your bonewall comes crashing down. Know the area you are in before you box yourself in. Don't do it in areas where tons of creatures can be attracted.
4. Cascade casting your bonewalls. Bonewalls die from damage or time. But often you will feel the desire to cast multiple bonewalls on top of themselves. When creating boxes this is good. But when you are reenforcing a wall, delay your casting of the wall by at least a few seconds. This way, the second wall will last on time longer than the first wall. Because all too often you'll double cast Bonewall and think you are safe, then your first wall will go down, you think you've got just as long with the second wall and bamm, the monsters are through. So stagger your casting of Bone Wall when you reenforce walls.
5. Sometimes you can trap monsters in bonewalls. Why would you want to do that? For one, if they are Magic Immune and you can't kill them you can suspend them this way and move on. Bone Prison would work for this if you aren't using the Marrowalk bugg, but if you are. Then you can make decent prisons my making this shap = and #. This also allows you to create very thick walls and keep monsters from ganging up on any one layer of your wall.
6. Bonewalls block a lot of attacks, but don't stand directly behind them. Often you can still get splash effects from things like Fireballs, if you are too near the bonewall.
7. Bonewall also will not block many of the Corpse Explosion and Nova effects upon dying often seen on Unique monsters so be wary of the range that those effects may take.
8. Spirits and GLoams can pass right thru your bonewalls. So they work less well on these monsters.
9. Bonewall can create a coffin for you against skills like FireWall, Meteor, and the like since they can target the other side of the bonewall, if you don't have room to move in your bonewall created home, then you can get burned to death. So also know your oppenents.
10. Enigma can be a little cheesy, but having Teleport and not having to pay for charges is very nice with this build. Since you can cast your bonewalls without reservation and still not have to wait for the Bonewalls to die or spend mana trying to kill the walls. I'm pretty sure you can't unsummon a bonewall.
I'm sure smarter people know more than me about using Bonewall, but I thought I would throw some pointers out there for people to read and maybe see if other people could amass more pointers or correct/add to pointers that I have dropped in this thread.
I was soloing in SP, with my Bone Necro and I was realizing that I couldn't do it without my Bonewalls since I had chosen to put no points in the Summon Tree and never hired a merc. I did it partially for the challenge, but also to see how well BoneWall could do as my "Tank".
I was pleasantly surprised, but had some interesting revelations that I thought that I would pass on.
Bonewalls seem to be pretty darn strong. I'm still only in Act 2 Hell, but nothing is beating them quickly yet. Even so in prolonged fights they will go down, because your own Bone Spears are damaging them.
1. Bonewalls seem to attract monsters from a very far radius. Its amazing that casting a Bonewall seems to get monsters interested in you. Its in the AI somehow. So remember that if you think you are using this for protection from just a couple creatures, it can very quickly turn into protection from a swarm, especially in a very open place. Now this can be used to your advantage as well. You can clean out large areas quickly, by bring a mob to your bone walls since monsters are so attracted to them and then have free rain to walk around.
2. Don't let creatures get behind your bonewalls. Many times even in the open creatures will bang right into your bonewall. Sometimes you need a bonewall that grants more AI protection since many creatures will try to go around obstacles. In this case create bone walls in this shape \_/. Most of the time this will keep them from coming around your bonewalls. As the AI can't get around them.
3. Boxing yourself in can be very bad when a huge mob comes. Note above the enormous range of attract that Bonewalls create. If you aren't careful. you will summon too large a croud for you to take out before your bonewall comes crashing down. Know the area you are in before you box yourself in. Don't do it in areas where tons of creatures can be attracted.
4. Cascade casting your bonewalls. Bonewalls die from damage or time. But often you will feel the desire to cast multiple bonewalls on top of themselves. When creating boxes this is good. But when you are reenforcing a wall, delay your casting of the wall by at least a few seconds. This way, the second wall will last on time longer than the first wall. Because all too often you'll double cast Bonewall and think you are safe, then your first wall will go down, you think you've got just as long with the second wall and bamm, the monsters are through. So stagger your casting of Bone Wall when you reenforce walls.
5. Sometimes you can trap monsters in bonewalls. Why would you want to do that? For one, if they are Magic Immune and you can't kill them you can suspend them this way and move on. Bone Prison would work for this if you aren't using the Marrowalk bugg, but if you are. Then you can make decent prisons my making this shap = and #. This also allows you to create very thick walls and keep monsters from ganging up on any one layer of your wall.
6. Bonewalls block a lot of attacks, but don't stand directly behind them. Often you can still get splash effects from things like Fireballs, if you are too near the bonewall.
7. Bonewall also will not block many of the Corpse Explosion and Nova effects upon dying often seen on Unique monsters so be wary of the range that those effects may take.
8. Spirits and GLoams can pass right thru your bonewalls. So they work less well on these monsters.
9. Bonewall can create a coffin for you against skills like FireWall, Meteor, and the like since they can target the other side of the bonewall, if you don't have room to move in your bonewall created home, then you can get burned to death. So also know your oppenents.
10. Enigma can be a little cheesy, but having Teleport and not having to pay for charges is very nice with this build. Since you can cast your bonewalls without reservation and still not have to wait for the Bonewalls to die or spend mana trying to kill the walls. I'm pretty sure you can't unsummon a bonewall.
I'm sure smarter people know more than me about using Bonewall, but I thought I would throw some pointers out there for people to read and maybe see if other people could amass more pointers or correct/add to pointers that I have dropped in this thread.
