life charms vs defense charms for a summoner

[jamesL]

life charms vs defense charms for a summoner

I'm playing a fishymnacer; normal build, maxing raise skeleton, mastery and corpse explosion; which means I do zero killing myself

I never melee and the only time I get hit is by lightning from gloams and such; darts by flayers; poision, cold and fire from catapults; ranged atacks from harpes and so on

so generally, is it better to have +30 life charm or a +30 defense charm ?
I'm thinking resistence charms are better than either, am I correct ?

currently level 84, hell difficulty, just about to face the ancients;
Nihalik wasn't difficult;
Travincal is still a pain because of so many ranged attacks and they fire from the ledges so my skeletons can't get to them; I get hit a lot;
the marsh next to the flayer jungle is also still a pain due to all monsters casting lightning from off screen

 

[TopHatCat64]

Re: life charms vs defense charms for a summoner

so generally, is it better to have +30 life charm or a +30 defense charm ?
I'm thinking resistence charms are better than either, am I correct ?

Travincal is still a pain because of so many ranged attacks and they fire from the ledges so my skeletons can't get to them; I get hit a lot;
the marsh next to the flayer jungle is also still a pain due to all monsters casting lightning from off screen

For your needs, it sounds like resistance charms would be your best bet if they aren't already maxed. If they are, then life charms would be much more useful then defense charms. You need a LOT of defense before it starts being worthwhile, and even then there are attacks (like elemental spells) which ignore defense.

Also, quick tip: use attract or dim visions to deal with tons of ranged attackers. Attract will give your skellies time to advance on their position while Dim Vision totally stops (non-champion/unique) ranged attackers from firing.

 

[jamesL]

Re: life charms vs defense charms for a summoner

thank you
my resistances are far from maxed
even after rescuing anya I'm only at about +5

 

[SnickerSnack]

Re: life charms vs defense charms for a summoner

Consider using an item with teleport charges. It will help a lot to position your skellies.

 

[Hrus]

Re: life charms vs defense charms for a summoner

Most characters don't use defense charms at all. Defense is kind of redundant stat in Diablo2, you don't need it for your survival. Especially casters and summoners shouldn't be hit so much and they have no use for high defense, and blocking is much more efficient way of defending than defense for melee characters...

Getting your resistance up is your first priority... especially if they are around 0.