Good CLVL and Skill Layout to begin NM PvM?

[AceAZA]

Good CLVL and Skill Layout to begin NM PvM?

Hi all,
I am going to make a PvM Fishymancer that I plan to eventually use for MF and I was wondering what level and skill layout I want to have to begin nightmare. I have heard that LvL 30 is good, is this correct? If someone could give me a proper stat layout level by level until then that would be very helpful.

Thanks,
Ace

 

[Lizardking]

1-50 (can lower too 45) for normal
45/50-70/75 nightmare
75+ hell

 

[AceAZA]

Thanks, so If i reach level 40-45 by the end of normal I should be ok?
Also, how should I place my skills for those first 40 or so levels?

 

[NumtyDoo]

When I made mine, I kept skellie mastery and skellie warrior at same lvl. Tryed to set it up so I had 1 point in revives before I went to NM. I think that I maxed CE next and then mages last.

You might try the guide section, not sure if NightFish's guide has a recomended lvl plan.

As far as when to go to next difficulty, if it takes more than 4 runs per lvl go to the next difficulty. The guy's numbers that posted before me look pretty close to where I normally jump over.

 

[tigercan]

Whatever you end up doing, try to make sure you get Decrepify & summon resist before you fight Diablo otherwise we can expect to see another post here asking why your skellies can't survive against him

 

[maiku]

1-50 (can lower too 45) for normal
45/50-70/75 nightmare
75+ hell

This is what I follow. 45-50 by end of Normal, 75 by end of NM, and 75+ for Hell.

You can fudge with levels quite a bit if you have better gear or certain builds (like the Fishymancer, who has an easy time wherever he goes). Sometimes advancing to higher difficulties or areas without being the right level can yield less experience as well. You'll get a feel for it.

Max Raise Skeleton, max Skeleton Mastery, max CE, and then figure out what you want to do with the rest of your points. Mages are a good option. Not necessary, but a good option. Up through NM, your skeletons will be doing most of the killing with you occasionally speeding things up with a well-timed CE. By Hell, your skeletons will likely start to lose some of their offensive power (unless you've twinked them good and they're at high levels for nice damage), but you use your Merc + skeletons to get bodies and start CE chains on packs while they're Amped. In solo or small games, everything will die really fast once CE gets going. I suggest loading up your Merc with a good polearm in NM or Hell, so you can get bodies fast for explosions.

 

[AnimeCraze]

I would say even lower lvl is fine. I personally would have left norm at lvl 35~40, and leave NM at ~lvl 70. It's not like you can't kill everything in NM quickly anyways.

 

[Friiser]

Some people say put a point into SM for every 5 into RS (until RS is maxed, then max SM).

 

[MasterMynd]

Not to be contrary, but I just tend to let the strength of the character govern when I move into the next difficulty. I've moved into Hell at lvl 62 and done very well with a hugely twinked Fishy. But with my very first HC character (a Fishy) I leveled to 78 before tacking Hell. (Although I'll admit that, in that particular case, the biggest reason was to get enough gems to make a 3PDiamond shield.)

Edit: Re Skill progression

Personally, I put 1 in SM early and then max out RS before adding any more to SM. As long as I've got CG and Decrepify, anything and everything (in Norm) goes down fairly easily with that skill distribution.

 

[AceAZA]

ok, so ill max RS first and put a few pts in SM along the way. Thatnks for all the advice, I think ill start makin my summoner!