First necro in a long time...

[MoUsE_WiZ]

First necro in a long time...

I'm building a necro for the following purposes, in order:
1) Completing every skill quest in hell while my level 1 leeches credit >.>
2) Soloing CS hell 2-3 player games, though I might bring my sorc in for D if the necro takes too long
3) Soloing ancients hell ditto
4) maybe trav too, but my sorc can handle that pretty well

So far I've got 20/20 in skels and mastery (or will soon) 1 in most curses, and plan to finish off the rest, 1 in CE, and 1 in revives (9 after skills)

For gear I want to keep it as cheap as possible.

The only other necro I've played since 1.10 was a bonecro, and I'm not going that route this time... it was fun, but without the marrow bug, and without gear, it's also slowish.

I'm trying to decide between PN+synergies, ~10 points in CE and the rest into more summons, and...uh... well any other options someone might suggest. So, suggest away ^^

 

[oOmpie]

You did not mention clay golem, golem mastery and summon resists, which are mandatory imho. Those will build you an exceptional tank for a minor investment. Very nice to keep your merc alive when dealing with bosses.
And if you like to be defensive and got a lot of +plus skills, 1 point in bone armor and synergies is pretty nice too. Not mandatory though.

Boss killing speed is all about IAS and crushing blow on your merc. For everything else there's Corpse Explosion ^_^
I'm just a sucker for CE. Max it, imho

 

[MoUsE_WiZ]

You did not mention clay golem

Prereq for revive =p

And yeah, I just forgot to mention the other two... silly to not put single points in them ^^

 

[AgentMarth]

You got a few options:

Max Amp
Max Dim Vision
Max CE
Max Mages
Max Golem Mastery
Max Bone Armor Synergies
Max Poison Nova and as much as synergies as possible

The last 2 take alot, but the others you can mix and match. Personally, I maxed/maxing CE and then Mages. CE because I want as much range as possible, and Mages because the extra damage and shields are nice, and I never really put more than one in each curse. Poison Nova will help, but you'll never max all 3, if even get onto the third one. Armor is nice, but I'd rather have ~8 more shields rather would can damage, rather than a higher Bone Armor that shouldn't be touched. Golem Mastery is more for fancy Iron Golems.

That should cover all your options, it just a matter of taste.

 

[MoUsE_WiZ]

it just a matter of taste.

Well not exactly.

You see, if my goal was just CS, then CE all the way because it tears the place up. On the other hand CE is useless on ancs, there more damage from yourself or more damage from your minions is the way to go. It's a question of what I'm doing more so than taste... if taste were involved I'd be going summonless except the golem because I love playing bone ^^

Perhaps I should rephrase the question slightly... Is 20/20/1/1 for the summons still enough to make the ancients cake if I go the CE route? With ~8-12 +skills say.

 

[AgentMarth]

It may be a bit slow, but as long as you got Gumby and Decrp, the Ancients shouldn't be too much of a problem. Just maybe don't try to fight them if they roll bad mods. I did them with ~28 Skel ~26 Mastery and I was fine. If you think your Skels are dieing, maybe cast Life Tap to help them out. Its your Merc you have to really watch.

I believe I even did it at players 2, because my 60 something Sin was leeching every quest in town while he plowed through. It was a bit tricky in the Keep though, with the Frenzytuars Boss pack tearing my minions up.

You make it sound like you'll be doing Ancients over and over, when once is all you really can. Or do you plan on having someone else parked off hand while you do the quest for them? Because thats a bit different, but still doable, as long as noone wonders off. Either way, the best thing I could see to help with the Ancients is CB. Either from Merc (Guill, Rattlecage or Obedience maybe) or a Rusty out of something like Bonesnap. You're Mages won't make to big of a difference, and Poison Nova will help but not make it as fast as CB items IMO.

I'd end up doing more summons, but thats my taste, since I can have more power/shields, and a maxed CE too if I want. And Poison Nova will suck your mana if you have to keep spamming it, unless you want an Insight Merc.

 

[MoUsE_WiZ]

You make it sound like you'll be doing Ancients over and over, when once is all you really can. Or do you plan on having someone else parked off hand while you do the quest for them?

I need something to do them with for rushes. Eventually I'll get around to making a smiter who will take over that job, but I need a short term solution too... my sorc can handle them, but it can get a bit messy, only having 1 merc to hold things in place with and all.

I realize that a necro might not be the optimal ancients/cs character, but the top reason I'm building it is to play through while my level 1 soon to be dueler leeches stat/skill quests in town, and the necro is the easiest for that, I'd just like to not retire him immediately following >.>

 

[McCain123]

My 2 cents to this :

max Mages
max CE

Equip your merc with gear that gives you mana, keeps him alive and takes bosses down fast.

A solid cheap equipment for him would be
Tals mask
Insight Volge
Duress in eth bugged armor

If you have more skill points put them in DV.

That way you will clean CS fast ( CE with unlimeted mana ) keep ancients and bosses in position ( freeze from mages / gumby / Decryptify ) and take them down decent fast ( CB on merc ).

 

[STINGER]

I would do what I always do.........Max Bone Spear then Wall then Prison, or split it up in Wall/Prison. Get 1 in all curses and use them!

Attract and Confusion can be very effective and a hell of alot of fun.

Walls and Prison are nice in places, especially doing the "Baelrog" seal, forget the dudes name, extra fast flame throwing, kill you in no time if you lag muther f'ers!!!

Walls, Prisons, Attract, and Confusion are all great at pulling together bigger packs from bigger devistation.

Why do I go Bone Spear.....

Well, its the synergys and the Bone Armor........when are you most likely to die? (2) times, either leading your army to a spot too fast and getting hit by something off screen, or when you have no minions and that is where you will love having Bone Armor and a very strong one. Bone Armor IMO is LIFE...

http://strategy.diabloii.net/news.php?id=543

That is the closest I have seen anyone build to the way I built from the very beginning in Classic HC. Remember in Classic you cant carry minions from Act to Act and you get no Henchmen in Act 4 either and you can consider it at best to have say +3-5 skills there also......Need a way to make minions, and get kills faster. If you add Spear to your skelly damage you get kills sooner to CE thus less chance of skellys dieing. Spear Penetrates so play it like you would a Javazon and look for good angles when you have time, or pin point bosses as needed or something near the boss to start the CE chain

Forgot, there is (1) other way a Necro dies, a Minion build that is, and that is when that Extra Fast Multi LE Archer pack shows up and picks up Frenzy or Might from some other pack and they start 3-4 shot killing your skellys and you Merc died so fast you didnt know it! Lets not forget the other baddies in the game, Frenzytaurs...etc, any of them picking up extra buffs (rare but it happens) In this situation.....may only happen 5 times in 90+ levels (playing 1-3 man games), hell might hit 99 and only see it 2-3 times, but as we all know it only takes ONE time!


Never lost a Necro with Skellys in 1.10......

Max skelly 20/20
Max Spear
1 in all of the summon tree (add to resists if you want, but if you are +9 already you are probably set) I personally like Fire Golem, he draws attention and I can put that attention where I want it.

CE 1+ (add as you like but I will argue forever that max CE is a waste of points, very few places that damn big especially in the areas you want to go most, CS, Baal, Pits, other 84 areas, and CE is worthless vs Ancients.

1 all curse might boost Dim if you like


Poison is slow, even a maxed out Poison Necro is not really faster than skellys with Amp + Conc, and Poison at a middle level wont kill a boss it wont do a whole lot more than stop his regen IIRC...Spear will make an impact faster at a mid level.

Lower Resist.....you can skip this if you want, but its nice vs PIs, your CE is 50/50 Phys/Fire and there are cases where CEing under LR is better than Amp.



Minions to the max work......no diversity

Minions with Max CE work.......no diversity

Minions + Spear + Walls + Prisons + Armor + every curse + several golem choices = Diversity and survivability under the most extreme situations.



PS

i tried to look up the synergys and I dont recall them 100%, you may also consider more into Bone Spirit and less into Wall/Prison. Something tells me Spirit may help Armor and Spear but not sure its been a while. I still suggest either way to have nice Walls/Prisons for CS running.

 

[MoUsE_WiZ]

when are you most likely to die? (2) times, either leading your army to a spot too fast and getting hit by something off screen, or when you have no minions

Or when you start falling asleep while doing NM baal walks because it's the sort of build where you can almost get away with resting your eyes for a minute while playing, and it's also the sort of build that induces said eye resting...

><

Ah well, not like he was wearing nice gear, totally lost griz plate with ortralthul... gotta figure out what I want to play next ^^

 

[AgentMarth]

Ok, so I hate to say it after that long and detailed post, but Bone Spear = bad idea. Its damage just won't cut it.

Considering all the skill points already used, I believe you're left with 51 points. So I consider that about 40 points to spend, seeing as how you won't be making it to 99 anytime soon. So that Spear and 1 Synergy. Factoring in 10 plus skill, thats to P&B which is not likely to happen since most will be Summon, prebuffing at that, and your Spear damage is 1k Max. Not to mention most likely having very low FCR.

A one point Wall or Prison still seems to work fine for me if I ever even use.

I would still go Mages and CE.

But, it looks like he just died as I am typing this up, so I guess none of this matters anymore. What was the Deed cause?

Oh, and if at anytime my minions are getting chewed up and start dropping like fly's, I take that as a sign to RUN!

 

[STINGER]

Do as you wish but Spear makes a difference and its a spammer it really doesnt need alot of FCR and it also pierces everything in its path.


Sorry for the loss Mouse.....