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MF Necromancer
reliminary
Okay, please don't be too harsh on my grammar, I'm not a writer.
I. Introduction
Most people think that a Summonmancer with MF gear works. While it may work, it isn't practical. The point of MFing is to be able to efficiently and kill the good MF monsters in a timely manner. The latter part is why it's not good. You need to be TIMELY. Having to run around and kill fallens to raise and army just to start is not timely. Bonemancers may be timely but they can't handle groups unless they're relatively close. Since there is no such thing as a Cursemancer (though after this I will try to make one and see how it works), the only matter left to deal with is a Poisonmancer. But in this case, it's more of a Poison/Bonemancer. This guide assumes a Lvl. 99 character having completed all 27 quests in each of the 3 difficulties.
II. Why the particular type?
I choose a Poison because they can easily the life of everything around it to almost nothing, while the Necromancer, along with his mercenary, can finish the job. In addition, once a monster dies, the Necromancer can then explode it's corpse into a crap load of poisonous damage. But the main thing is the equipment. The easiest weapon to obtain with a high MF is the Gull. However, the gull is a dagger. Yes, dagger. Much like the ones you can buy in Act I in normal. However, Poison Dagger takes care of this, it has a sweet Attack Rating bonus and adds alot of poison damage. Along with these facts is the Poisonmancer's ability to handle large groups with ease; in fact, a high level Act III Iron Wolf with decent equipment makes this even easier, because while your Poison Nova reduces you enemies' life to 1 a Lightning Mercenary can use Lightning and Charged Bolt to finish the job while you use Poison Explosion on the corpses and attack the main target.
III. So how is this any different from your normal Poisonmancer?
Well, really, this Necromancer is built more for going straight into a herd of monsters to take them out because all of the big MF monsters (Andariel, Mephisto, Diablo, Pindle and Baal) require you to run into groups of monsters first. And so, his skills are a bit...different...then a normal Poisonmancer.
IV. The Actual Build
Please note that any variation in stats is caused by variation in equipment. Such as the Runeword Sancturary [KoKoMal] giving +30-50 All resistances or Steelrend Ogre Gauntlets giving +10-20 to Strength. All given statistics will include bonuses from the "Serious Gear" as listed in section V.
Here is a chart depicting your final stats (not skills) with BO active.
Form-Stat: Start / Base / Pts. Added / Final Numbers
Strength: 15 / 101 / 86 / 118-128
Dexterity: 25 / 232 / 207 / 271
Vitality: 15 / 227 / 212 / 234
Energy: 25 / 25 / 0 / 32
Life: 45 / 646 / --- / 1445-1581
Stamina: 79 / 291 / --- / 589-645
Mana: 25 / 221 / 808-924
These are the resistances you will have in the end *NOTE: Due to the quests being done your natural resistances will be 30 in normal, -10 in nightmare, and -70 in hell.
Form- Resist: N/M/H
Fire: 75/75/75
Cold: 80/80/57-80
Poison: 75/75/75
And now for the skills.
Summoning Skills
None
Poison and Bone Spells
1 Teeth
20 Bone Armor
20 Poison Dagger
1 Corpse Explosion
20 Bone Wall
20 Poison Explosion
20 Poison Nova
Curses
1 Amplify Damage
1 Weaken
1 Iron Maiden
1 Terror
1 Life Tap
1 Decrepify
2 Lower Resist
As if you couldn't tell, you're not that heavy on curses like your average Necromancer of anykind, let alone Poison. Poisonmancers usually would have maximum Lower Resist but you only need 2. Another thing, as I mentioned before, you are set to rush into a hoard of monsters with your Bone Armor. It will protect you from alot of melee damage. For non-melee monsters, use Poison Nova to knock out some of their life while your mercenary does his job, then get in their and either use Corpse Explosion, Poison Explosion or just plain fight the weakened monsters. And in case you haven't already guessed, the reason for not maxing Bone Prison has nothing to do with not enough skill points (well it does, but that's not the reason), some may not know this but there is a bug in a special pair of boots. The Boneweave Boots are known as "Marrowwalk" in their unique form and have 13 Charges of Lvl 33 Bone Prison. So what? The bug is that as long as you have no points into Bone Prison, it will count as having 33 levels of it for synergies. Meaning it will add synergetic bonusses to Bone Armor and Bone Wall as if you had actually put 33 points into it.
V. The Stuff
Here I will list not only the MF equipment, but "Serious Equipment" for actual fightning and not goofing off. I'll do the MF first.
Gull (Dagger) 'Ist'
Dragon Shield 'IstIstIst'
Skullder's Ire (Russet Armor) 'Ist'
Harlequin Crest (Shako) 'Ist'
Goldwrap (Heavy Belt)
Venomous Amulet of Luck
Fortuitous Ring of Fortune
Fortuitous Ring of Fortune
War Traveler (Battle Boots)
Chance Guards (Chain Gloves)
Using this equipment you will have 573-663% Better Chance of Getting Magic Items (Magic Find).
Now for the "Serious Equipment" for kicking various ***es.
Weapon I:
Blackbog's Sharp (Cinquedeas) 'Shael'
Weapon II:
Call to Arms (Flail) 'AmnRalMalIstOhm'
Shield I:
Trang-Oul's Wing (Cantor Trophy) 'Um'
Shield II:
Lidless Wall (Grim Shield)
Armor:
Bramble (Archon Plate) 'RalOhmSurEth'
Helm:
Harlequin Crest (Shako) 'Um'
Belt:
Trang-Oul's Girth (Troll Belt)
Gloves:
Trang-Oul's Claws (Heavy Bracers)
Boots:
Marrowwalk (Boneweave Boots)
Amulet:
Mara's Kaleidascope (Amulet)
Ring I:
The Stone of Jordan (Ring)
Ring II:
Bul-Kathos' Wedding Band (Ring)
Obviously this is a VERY expensive build. For just the "Serious Equipment" it requires 3 set pieces (one of which has a socket), a 4 socket elite armor*, a 5 socket flail*, expensive boots and really expensive everything, down to 2 Um Runes and the use of 2/3 of your Quest Sockets.
*=If you can find a normal version (not superior, not low-quality), you can use a Horadric Cube formula. For more information check out the Arreat Summit.
I would like to suggest for all equipment, if you can upgrade it using a Horadric Cube formula, DO IT! For more information check out the Arreat Summit.
VI. General Leveling
Okay for general leveling, just quest in Act I until you can start doing trist runs, then do those until Level 15. Then from Level 15 until Level 20, do Arcane runs. For 20-24, do Cow Games. For 25 do Ancients then do Baal Runs until 40 and then go into nightmare. Once in nightmare, get an immediate rush and do Ancients and then do Baal Runs until Level 70. Then just get a rush. Mf or whatever you want and start finalizing your skills and stuff. Baal runs and Cow Games will become your best friends for experience. Use your own descretion as to when you put into what skills and stats. However in the future I do plan on adding such a guide, possibly level by level. But for right now, this will have to do.
VII. That's the end. Please make any comments now. Just like I said, please be light on the grammar; I'm not a writer. I know this will work out because using Zonfire99's Hero Editor I have used this character with said equipment on Single Player.
reliminaryOkay, please don't be too harsh on my grammar, I'm not a writer.
I. Introduction
Most people think that a Summonmancer with MF gear works. While it may work, it isn't practical. The point of MFing is to be able to efficiently and kill the good MF monsters in a timely manner. The latter part is why it's not good. You need to be TIMELY. Having to run around and kill fallens to raise and army just to start is not timely. Bonemancers may be timely but they can't handle groups unless they're relatively close. Since there is no such thing as a Cursemancer (though after this I will try to make one and see how it works), the only matter left to deal with is a Poisonmancer. But in this case, it's more of a Poison/Bonemancer. This guide assumes a Lvl. 99 character having completed all 27 quests in each of the 3 difficulties.
II. Why the particular type?
I choose a Poison because they can easily the life of everything around it to almost nothing, while the Necromancer, along with his mercenary, can finish the job. In addition, once a monster dies, the Necromancer can then explode it's corpse into a crap load of poisonous damage. But the main thing is the equipment. The easiest weapon to obtain with a high MF is the Gull. However, the gull is a dagger. Yes, dagger. Much like the ones you can buy in Act I in normal. However, Poison Dagger takes care of this, it has a sweet Attack Rating bonus and adds alot of poison damage. Along with these facts is the Poisonmancer's ability to handle large groups with ease; in fact, a high level Act III Iron Wolf with decent equipment makes this even easier, because while your Poison Nova reduces you enemies' life to 1 a Lightning Mercenary can use Lightning and Charged Bolt to finish the job while you use Poison Explosion on the corpses and attack the main target.
III. So how is this any different from your normal Poisonmancer?
Well, really, this Necromancer is built more for going straight into a herd of monsters to take them out because all of the big MF monsters (Andariel, Mephisto, Diablo, Pindle and Baal) require you to run into groups of monsters first. And so, his skills are a bit...different...then a normal Poisonmancer.
IV. The Actual Build
Please note that any variation in stats is caused by variation in equipment. Such as the Runeword Sancturary [KoKoMal] giving +30-50 All resistances or Steelrend Ogre Gauntlets giving +10-20 to Strength. All given statistics will include bonuses from the "Serious Gear" as listed in section V.
Here is a chart depicting your final stats (not skills) with BO active.
Form-Stat: Start / Base / Pts. Added / Final Numbers
Strength: 15 / 101 / 86 / 118-128
Dexterity: 25 / 232 / 207 / 271
Vitality: 15 / 227 / 212 / 234
Energy: 25 / 25 / 0 / 32
Life: 45 / 646 / --- / 1445-1581
Stamina: 79 / 291 / --- / 589-645
Mana: 25 / 221 / 808-924
These are the resistances you will have in the end *NOTE: Due to the quests being done your natural resistances will be 30 in normal, -10 in nightmare, and -70 in hell.
Form- Resist: N/M/H
Fire: 75/75/75
Cold: 80/80/57-80
Poison: 75/75/75
And now for the skills.
Summoning Skills
None
Poison and Bone Spells
1 Teeth
20 Bone Armor
20 Poison Dagger
1 Corpse Explosion
20 Bone Wall
20 Poison Explosion
20 Poison Nova
Curses
1 Amplify Damage
1 Weaken
1 Iron Maiden
1 Terror
1 Life Tap
1 Decrepify
2 Lower Resist
As if you couldn't tell, you're not that heavy on curses like your average Necromancer of anykind, let alone Poison. Poisonmancers usually would have maximum Lower Resist but you only need 2. Another thing, as I mentioned before, you are set to rush into a hoard of monsters with your Bone Armor. It will protect you from alot of melee damage. For non-melee monsters, use Poison Nova to knock out some of their life while your mercenary does his job, then get in their and either use Corpse Explosion, Poison Explosion or just plain fight the weakened monsters. And in case you haven't already guessed, the reason for not maxing Bone Prison has nothing to do with not enough skill points (well it does, but that's not the reason), some may not know this but there is a bug in a special pair of boots. The Boneweave Boots are known as "Marrowwalk" in their unique form and have 13 Charges of Lvl 33 Bone Prison. So what? The bug is that as long as you have no points into Bone Prison, it will count as having 33 levels of it for synergies. Meaning it will add synergetic bonusses to Bone Armor and Bone Wall as if you had actually put 33 points into it.
V. The Stuff
Here I will list not only the MF equipment, but "Serious Equipment" for actual fightning and not goofing off. I'll do the MF first.
Gull (Dagger) 'Ist'
Dragon Shield 'IstIstIst'
Skullder's Ire (Russet Armor) 'Ist'
Harlequin Crest (Shako) 'Ist'
Goldwrap (Heavy Belt)
Venomous Amulet of Luck
Fortuitous Ring of Fortune
Fortuitous Ring of Fortune
War Traveler (Battle Boots)
Chance Guards (Chain Gloves)
Using this equipment you will have 573-663% Better Chance of Getting Magic Items (Magic Find).
Now for the "Serious Equipment" for kicking various ***es.
Weapon I:
Blackbog's Sharp (Cinquedeas) 'Shael'
Weapon II:
Call to Arms (Flail) 'AmnRalMalIstOhm'
Shield I:
Trang-Oul's Wing (Cantor Trophy) 'Um'
Shield II:
Lidless Wall (Grim Shield)
Armor:
Bramble (Archon Plate) 'RalOhmSurEth'
Helm:
Harlequin Crest (Shako) 'Um'
Belt:
Trang-Oul's Girth (Troll Belt)
Gloves:
Trang-Oul's Claws (Heavy Bracers)
Boots:
Marrowwalk (Boneweave Boots)
Amulet:
Mara's Kaleidascope (Amulet)
Ring I:
The Stone of Jordan (Ring)
Ring II:
Bul-Kathos' Wedding Band (Ring)
Obviously this is a VERY expensive build. For just the "Serious Equipment" it requires 3 set pieces (one of which has a socket), a 4 socket elite armor*, a 5 socket flail*, expensive boots and really expensive everything, down to 2 Um Runes and the use of 2/3 of your Quest Sockets.
*=If you can find a normal version (not superior, not low-quality), you can use a Horadric Cube formula. For more information check out the Arreat Summit.
I would like to suggest for all equipment, if you can upgrade it using a Horadric Cube formula, DO IT! For more information check out the Arreat Summit.
VI. General Leveling
Okay for general leveling, just quest in Act I until you can start doing trist runs, then do those until Level 15. Then from Level 15 until Level 20, do Arcane runs. For 20-24, do Cow Games. For 25 do Ancients then do Baal Runs until 40 and then go into nightmare. Once in nightmare, get an immediate rush and do Ancients and then do Baal Runs until Level 70. Then just get a rush. Mf or whatever you want and start finalizing your skills and stuff. Baal runs and Cow Games will become your best friends for experience. Use your own descretion as to when you put into what skills and stats. However in the future I do plan on adding such a guide, possibly level by level. But for right now, this will have to do.
VII. That's the end. Please make any comments now. Just like I said, please be light on the grammar; I'm not a writer. I know this will work out because using Zonfire99's Hero Editor I have used this character with said equipment on Single Player.