Daggermancer tricks and tactics

[Sixstringer]

Daggermancer tricks and tactics

There are always a lot of helpful guides for bone, nova, summon, etc. necros out there, but only a few guides--some of them undoubtedly excellent--about my favorite class, the dagger necro. I'm in the process of collecting all the bits of various daggermancer lore, tips and tricks from years of of scouring forums into one comprehensive guide to the daggermancer, so I thought I'd make a call if anyone has played one and has some tips to share: on anything from play tactics to gear to specific strategies against bosses.

I'm especially interested to hear from PVP players, as I've not much experience with that aspect of the game.

To get things started, a few of my own personal tactics--nothing groundbreaking, just battle-tested tips:

-get a dagger with the wailing mod early. I used a perfect emerald in 100% chance to flee kris for a huge portion of my game. It's crowd control without cursing. Enemies run away to die.
-I usually put one point into all four golems so I can select one for the situation. Clay's my main choice (of course) but in Act IV, a fire golem is a better choice than clay because of those fire breathing venom lords and such.
-defiance merc + poison explosion = dungeon clearing heaven. He and gumby hold down the fort at a door while PE wastes enemies like crazy. Anywhere there are enemies at a door PE rules. The gas lingers for a while, meaning enemies charging your merc are quickly overcome. And it's so, so cheap you can have three or four gas clouds going are your mana orb barely feels it.
-basic stuff, but faster run/walk is more important for daggermancers than many classes. Against crowds, you've got to get in and get out quickly. Against bosses, the speed allows you to evade while your poison slowly whittles them away.

OK, enough from me for now.

 

[canudig]

Re: Daggermancer tricks and tactics

haven't played a daggermancer for a while.....but wouldn't vigor aura be nice? Maybe harmony bow on a1 merc.....

 

[Ax2Grind]

Re: Daggermancer tricks and tactics

From my experience using a Trinitar Paladin (missionary avenger is the closest description):

Poison and Terror = great;
Poison and Open Wounds = great;
Poison and Open Wounds and Terror = great;
Cold and Freeze Target = great;
Cold and Poison = great;
Cold and Open Wounds = great;
Cold and Slow Target = great;
Cold and Poison and Open Wounds = great;
Cold/Slow/Freeze Target and Terror and anything else = not so great.

The intention with Conversion is to give them a choice: work for me or run away poisoned, bleeding, and crushed. Since Conversion doesn't require a successful attack, sometimes I get both, which makes for faster killing. The point is, though, if they run away they should do so quickly to lighten the load on me. Rabies would be insane with that, but obviously only Venom is a possibility. By the time they come back, if at all, they're very low on life, another reason damage reflection works. It and crushing blow usually take them down to the point where the poison and open wounds kill them outright, but either way damage reflection is instant and isn't quite so useless as people think. The problem with a Necromancer is the ready access to both Lower Resist and Iron Maiden, though I suppose the latter would be usable on non-broken poison immunes and big monsters with a golem.

 

[Cdnexpat]

Re: Daggermancer tricks and tactics

Adding a little crushing blow and a dagger with fools mod makes poision dagger a fast baal, meph, diablo killer.

 

[Sixstringer]

Re: Daggermancer tricks and tactics

The problem with a Necromancer is the ready access to both Lower Resist and Iron Maiden, though I suppose the latter would be usable on non-broken poison immunes and big monsters with a golem.

I've never used Iron Maiden at all with any of my dagger necro builds--if only the IM/BG thing was still useful, it'd make for nice combo with a dagger nec. I've toyed with the idea of using it with a summonless daggermancer, which uses bone prison and the poison skills in conjunction with IM, but I've not gone down that road yet.

 

[Ax2Grind]

Re: Daggermancer tricks and tactics

Damage return/reflection is just a possibility that helps take a chunk out while you're waiting for the poison to kill them, so it doesn't need to do the whole job that way. It's best with minions, of course, but if you have a few and are going to be running around avoiding getting swatted, you should probably make best use of the life you're going to lose.

Another way of thinking of it is just like using all resources at your disposal (corpses, mana, etc.) use your life: if you take damage, so do they. Lower Resist wins between them, because that's what your build is based on, but if you can't break an immunity it's an option. Remember to have PMH, as your mercenary and IG can't use it.