Re: Fishymancer Question
Thank you so much Maiku!
I am not completely untwinked. I do have 57 uniques and store them using ATMA. I see that runewords do provide the best equipment after reading your suggestions. I do not have many good runes though so it looks like I'll be doing countess runs to change that situation.... It is just very tiring trying to find upper level runes.
I understand your position. Even on ladder, I usually work with what I find or trade for. The runes required for something like an "Obedience" won't be half as bad to find as a Pul or Um, and they should drop with some frequency from the Countess.
Nightfish indicates that you can run hell WSK and baal naked. I guess you could survive it but it would take you about 45 minutes to do one run...
That's true. It's one thing to survive, another thing to dominate. Most builds, if they stepped into WSK naked, would die from one Gloam blast. And they would never get their body back. A Fishymancer can survive by using Merc, Clay Golem, Dim Vision, minions, etc. to control the situation.
I have one last question.... over than P gems is there any Uniques/sets/runewords that could boost my MF and at the same time give me more +skills? The reason I ask is because I am basically wasting my head, armor, boots, and gloves on purely MF equipment and I think that is why my skellies are so weak and so easily die to Lister and crew.
Quite a few actually.
For helm, "Lore" immediately comes to mind. I keep a few of these for my young characters, and all it requires is an Ort + Sol. I like to make them in circlets. This grants +1 skills, ~30% lightning resist, some damage reduction, and damage per kill.
Uniques:
Peasant Crown: +1 skills, excellent mods, and resembles a mini-Shako
Stealskull: good MF, although the IAS and leech mods work better on a Merc. In fact, this is one of my favorite helms for a MF Merc. Socket it with a perfect topaz or IAS jewel depending on what you need.
Tarnhelm: old standby, +1 skills + MF
Wormskull: +1 skills, not much else to mention
Shako: +2 skills, DR, and lots of goodies, including MF. This is probably the best helm for a dedicated MFing Necro, unless you happen to be blessed with a godly circlet.
Rares
Imbue diadems (I'll explain the reason for this in a second) and try to gamble for normal circlets. You may be able to get one with +1 or +2 skills, sockets, and other nice mods. If it has sockets, you can put in two perfect topazes or nice jewels you find. There's a specific reason why I mention to imbue diadems. IIRC, somewhere on the board I read that diadems imbue at a fixed and high-item level, so no matter what level the character is, they have a chance to receive the best mods a circlet can get. Therefore, if you get a terrible imbue on a diadem, you can also
reroll it with perfect gems in your cube and it will roll at a high level, never diminishing in its item level. This allows you "infinite" rerolls/imbues to get a diadem with the stats you want. It's one of the few items in the entire game that does this. If you do not have any white diadems, they can be found in areas like Pit and Masoleum quite easily. To find more white items, reduce MF or wear no MF so that magics/rares/uniques drop less and more white items drop.
Armor:
Skullder's Ire: +1 skills, MF that scales with your level. Socket with perfect topaz and you're good to go.
"Wealth" rune word: no +skills, but lots of MF and lots of gold find, it does what it says. People who run and MF at Travincal like this one a lot, because it makes for insane gold drops.
Tal's stuff: armor + belt + mask should give you a hefty MF bonus from using partial set; in any case, I like the belt and use one on my Fishymancer
Vipermagi: +1 skills, great resists, 30% fcr, socket with a perfect topaz and then roll. This is one of the best caster armors, ever. Can be found somewhat regularly, although one with 34-35% all resists truly is a gem.
Goldwrap: up it and you have a nice belt. 30% MF, variable GF. Will make you rich, especially if you wear this and a "Wealth" armor and Chance Guards.
Gloves:
Magefists: +1 fire skills, more fcr, makes stuff go kaboom more when you use CE
Trang's gloves: more curse power, some cold resist, also has fcr
Chance Guards: premier MF and GF gloves. Good pair can have up to 40% MF. Gamble for these.
Rares: sometimes as you're gambling you'll get lucky and find rare gloves with good resists and MF.
Weapons:
Gull Dagger: I use one on my Necromancer. Instant 100% MF is awesome. It's part of my "adventure/MFing" gear setup, with my other "pre-buffing" gear on switch.
Ali Baba's: scaling MF that also has a lot of GF. It can also be socketed with jewels or Ists for even more MF. I'd recommend the MF jewels if you get some. I find that MF jewels drop with some regularity and I never use them...but here's a good use for them.
"Spirit" Crystal/Broad Sword: +2 skills, massive fcr, etc. this is an excellent adventure or pre-buffing weapon if you can make it. Likewise for a "Spirit" Monarch. Awesome shield, although it has high Str requirements.
Shields:
"Spirit" Monarch: hello to huge fcr, some resists, +Vita and +mana, other goodies. The big problem with a "Spirit" is the Str requirement. 156. Ouch. But a Fishymancer can afford such an investment.
Homunculus: allows for easy-to-get max block, huge resists (and socket with a perfect diamond for more), and boosts your skellies. I use one of these as part of my standard adventure gear. But I would change it if I got...
+2-3 Raise Skeleton, +Skel Mastery Necro Head: making one of these into a "Splendor" would be awesome. Imagine +3 Raise Skeleton, +3 Skeleton Mastery, +3 Corpse Explosion, and "Splendor"'d, would yield a +4 skill Necro head to your most powerful skills. Sick. I haven't found one, although I dream, but I did get a +3 Bone Spear, +2 Revive Necro head for my Bonemancer not long ago, so I know good Necro heads drop on occasion. One must just have hope and patience.
"Splendor"/"Rhyme": similar rune words, although "Splendor" provides +1 skills and some fcr and MF; "Rhyme" provides more resists, more block, and MF but no +skills--both are good depending on what you want.
Check magic/rare Necro heads. Technically, these can be more godly than what I listed above. +2 skills, sockets, increased block, +RS, etc. :smiley:
Boots:
War Traveler's: up to 50% MF on your boots and nice stat boosts as well. For pure MF, there is no better. However, they lack resists.
Marrowwalk boots: +1-2 to Skeleton Mastery, a few other interesting mods. Useful for the power-oriented Summoner but not for the MFer.
I use rares, though. I gambled some MF boots for myself that have resists and I use them on my Fishymancer. They have faster run, +dex (which helps with max block), fire and cold resist, and like 11 or 12% MF. I skimped on MF in favor of survival, but I hope to craft some nice caster boots someday or replace them with a better rare with around 20-30% MF.
Once again thank you Maiku, I see you put some effort into your response to me and I appreciate that. Thanks also to Handofnaz.
No problem. I'm glad to be of help. :smiley:
