My claymancer build

[bratley]

My claymancer build

This is my first attempt(note the word attempt) at writing a guide. Bear with me please, and feel free to add advice, or more likely, corrections.



STATS

Str - A few points so that you can wear some armor. Not alot though.

Dex - None

Vit - Most of your points should be here

Energy - I wouldn't recommend putting many points into this stat. Once you get your summons up and going you really don't need energy. The curses and bone spells you will be using usually don't cost enough to suck your mana pool down. If you feel that your mana pool isn't large enough, go ahead and pump some points into this.



SKILLS

20 Raise Skeleton - Your primary damage dealers.

20 Raise Skeletal Mage - While not huge damage dealers, these help in bottlenecked areas as well as help keeping that sneaky monster from eating you from behind since they usually hang behind the group with you.

20 Skeleton Mastery - Hopefully no explanation needed.

15 Clay golem - Your primary tank for the bosses. Although you could probably get by putting less points here, I like to have a very strong clay golem.

15 Golem Mastery - Again, hopefully no explanation needed.

1 Summon resist - Skeletons need resists too!

1 Amplify Damage - Extra damage = good

1 Weaken - Hardly use it, but is a prerequisite for decrepify

1 Terror - Same

1 Decrepify - This + clay golem = non-moving non-damaging boss

This leaves you with 10+ skill points to put in whatever you would like. I recommend at least one into corpse explosion(and teeth) and revive.



MERC

Use prayer(act 2 combat) until you get to act 2 in nm, then switch to a might(offensive) merc.


GENERAL STRAT

As should be pretty obvious, this build relies mainly on the physical damage of the skeletons. If my calculations are correct(which could possibly be a big if) my skeletons do ~250 damage. With my merc's aura that damage goes to ~500. Add in amplify damage and that goes to ~1000. That, plus amplify damage removes physical immunities from bad guys.

Keep in mind, sometimes amplify will not remove the physical immunity. This is where your mages, revives, and, if you decide to use it, corpse explosion come into play.

The main focus of this build(for bosses at least), besides the physical damage from the skeletons, is the clay golem. My clay golem currently has about 14,000 life, and slows mobs by over 60%. So when you meet that big bad boss, cast your clay golem beside it and hit him with decrepify. He will be so slow that he can hardly move. After your minions finish off his little buddies, they'll be happy to smack around the boss while he's whacking(or trying to) the golem.

So far I'm about halfway through act 4 hell and I'm really satisfied with this build. You will be slow in Arcane Sanctuary and Maggot Lair is a pain in the ***, but otherwise you should easily be able to take anything that comes your way.




I understand that this build or one very similar may have already been posted. I looked, but didn't see one. If there is one, feel free to get out the hickory stick. Otherwise, let me know what you think!

 

[distancepieman]

As I see it, this is a basic skellimancer build, just dumping extra points in gumby, golem mastery, and mages. The general concession is 1 point in golem/mastery/summon resist, and let +skills take care of any more than that. On the later two of those three, dimishing returns sets in very quickly, and really is more of a waste than anything. Also a little confused about your recommended strength/dexterity. There is a pretty standard recommendation for most builds that says...Enough strength to wear your gear, enough dex to either wear what you need, or to max block. Since you won't be in the middle of the fray too often, you prolly won't go for max block, but still, early on, you will be slapping things yourself, and you will need an attack rating. I think this is a bit unusual, but if it's working so far, so be it.
I would also recommend a little more curse diversity, as amp and decrep aren't the only useful things there. But since the build leaves 10 or so points left, you can do as you wish with those. That's the nice thing about summoners, always plently of points to go around.
One last thing, I think you're confused about how amp damage works. The description listed is "Amplify Damage lowers monster Physical Resistances by 100%" So, the way I see it, the only way it's going to double your damage is if the enemy in question has zero resist to start with. Either way, it's a very necessary curse to have, so I guess it doesn't really matter.

Hopefully that was taken as constructive criticism, as that is how it was intended. Good luck to you and your build.

~Bails

 

[HarbingersOfSkulls]

This is my first attempt(note the word attempt) at writing a guide. Bear with me please, and feel free to add advice, or more likely, corrections.



STATS

Str - A few points so that you can wear some armor. Not alot though.

Dex - None

Vit - Most of your points should be here

Energy - I wouldn't recommend putting many points into this stat. Once you get your summons up and going you really don't need energy. The curses and bone spells you will be using usually don't cost enough to suck your mana pool down. If you feel that your mana pool isn't large enough, go ahead and pump some points into this.



SKILLS

20 Raise Skeleton - Your primary damage dealers.

20 Raise Skeletal Mage - While not huge damage dealers, these help in bottlenecked areas as well as help keeping that sneaky monster from eating you from behind since they usually hang behind the group with you.

20 Skeleton Mastery - Hopefully no explanation needed.

15 Clay golem - Your primary tank for the bosses. Although you could probably get by putting less points here, I like to have a very strong clay golem.

15 Golem Mastery - Again, hopefully no explanation needed.

1 Summon resist - Skeletons need resists too!

1 Amplify Damage - Extra damage = good

1 Weaken - Hardly use it, but is a prerequisite for decrepify

1 Terror - Same

1 Decrepify - This + clay golem = non-moving non-damaging boss

This leaves you with 10+ skill points to put in whatever you would like. I recommend at least one into corpse explosion(and teeth) and revive.



MERC

Use prayer(act 2 combat) until you get to act 2 in nm, then switch to a might(offensive) merc.


GENERAL STRAT

As should be pretty obvious, this build relies mainly on the physical damage of the skeletons. If my calculations are correct(which could possibly be a big if) my skeletons do ~250 damage. With my merc's aura that damage goes to ~500. Add in amplify damage and that goes to ~1000. That, plus amplify damage removes physical immunities from bad guys.

Keep in mind, sometimes amplify will not remove the physical immunity. This is where your mages, revives, and, if you decide to use it, corpse explosion come into play.

The main focus of this build(for bosses at least), besides the physical damage from the skeletons, is the clay golem. My clay golem currently has about 14,000 life, and slows mobs by over 60%. So when you meet that big bad boss, cast your clay golem beside it and hit him with decrepify. He will be so slow that he can hardly move. After your minions finish off his little buddies, they'll be happy to smack around the boss while he's whacking(or trying to) the golem.

So far I'm about halfway through act 4 hell and I'm really satisfied with this build. You will be slow in Arcane Sanctuary and Maggot Lair is a pain in the ***, but otherwise you should easily be able to take anything that comes your way.




I understand that this build or one very similar may have already been posted. I looked, but didn't see one. If there is one, feel free to get out the hickory stick. Otherwise, let me know what you think!

First off...more than 1 point in gumby is a waste...since gumby is your only golem...more than 1 point in mastery is a waste also...those could/should have been used else where.

You either forgot about about dim vision...or thought so little of it that you don't think it's important...but when your in act 4 trying to get izzy or act 5 getting anya and baalruns...you will think otherwise. Mages and skeletons can't handle all the gloams alone and if you happen to die from those lightning attacks...then you will see the importance of it.

Also...those points could have gone into ce or even in decrepify for a bigger radius to work with.

Basically...this is a pure summoner of sorts that instead of IG or Fire as the main golem...you went with a gumby instead.

Lately there's been alot of people that never made a necromancer before online that Necrochild313...Peacrusher...and myself have ran across during our games that have asked us about what golem is best and how to make a summoner in general...becuase they was told be someone else to max out gumby and golem mastery more less as a joke.

Anyway...if your happy with your build...then thats all that really matters...but this really isn't as effective as the other summoners already stickied...because of the points into gumby and mastery.

HoS

 

[Starcrunch]

Also...those points could have gone into ce or even in decrepify for a bigger radius to work with.

You meant to say bigger radius for CE and a longer duration for Decrepify.

In general the lack of AI curses will hurt you in some situations, at least DV can really help with Gloams/Heirophants/Blood Lords (Meteor dropping Vampire)/Shamman/Unravellers and others like them.

-Starcrunch

 

[rickcarson]

The general concession is 1 point in golem/mastery/summon resist, and let +skills take care of any more than that.

Well then, the general thinking is wrong.
The guy who wrote this guide up is *also* wrong.
To maximise the Golems hit points you need to keep Mastery within 3-5 levels of Clay Golem.

On the later two of those three, dimishing returns sets in very quickly,

You are wrong. Golem Mastery does not have diminishing returns, quite the opposite in fact!

and really is more of a waste than anything.

And gets you more hp on the Clay Golem than just Clay Golem alone.

I recommend you play around with a good skill calculator for a bit.

Also a little confused about your recommended strength/dexterity. There is a pretty standard recommendation for most builds that says...Enough strength to wear your gear, enough dex to either wear what you need, or to max block.

Well why bother putting it in then??? Stats = enough to wear my items? I'm so glad someone told me that!! Won't someone think of the children??

I would also recommend a little more curse diversity, as amp and decrep aren't the only useful things there.

Eh, the standard Skellimancer doesn't really need much else.
A more practical recommendation would be to bump up the Amp level, and also to add some Corpse Explosion.

 

[darnocpdx]

I myself am a big fan of pumped up clay golems, however some of my more recent research into Golem mastery makes me woner if it is really that big of a help. The added % to the HP is a % of the base 100hp, thus a level 5 clay with 1 mastery only recieves 20 hp from mastery(20% of the level one base of 100 hp).

At least that is how its described on Arreat's summit.

Which means that the only real benifit of it would be + running speed, but with clay being so cheap to cast who cares if it can keep up with you.

So I'm putting my points strickly into CG from now on, 1 mastery and my usual 4 in resist for them.

 

[rickcarson]

First off...more than 1 point in gumby is a waste...since gumby is your only golem...more than 1 point in mastery is a waste also...those could/should have been used else where.

*points at the name of the build*

He's making a claymancer... and you're telling him not to bother putting points into Clay Golem ???

NB: if he wants the big tank, he's going to have to put some points into Golem mastery to get optimal hit points.

You either forgot about about dim vision...or thought so little of it that you don't think it's important...

I have a Summoner Patriarch that uses Dim Vision as his main curse. It's a waste of time.

but when your in act 4 trying to get izzy or act 5 getting anya and baalruns...you will think otherwise. Mages and skeletons can't handle all the gloams alone and if you happen to die from those lightning attacks...then you will see the importance of it.

Dim Vision doesn't help against gloams if you are using Skeletons. They run around, activate the Gloams and then run back towards you.

Even with a double digit Dim Vision, stopping every couple of yards and spamming DV in the corner of the screen in the direction I was travelling... Gloams were *still* activating and hurling Lightning my way.

I call BS on the whole DV ownzors Gloams theory. I've tried it, and it doesn't work.

Also...those points could have gone into ce or even in decrepify for a bigger radius to work with.

Basically...this is a pure summoner of sorts that instead of IG or Fire as the main golem...you went with a gumby instead.

*points at the name again*

Lately there's been alot of people that never made a necromancer before online that Necrochild313...Peacrusher...and myself have ran across during our games that have asked us about what golem is best and how to make a summoner in general...becuase they was told be someone else to max out gumby and golem mastery more less as a joke.

Anyway...if your happy with your build...then thats all that really matters...but this really isn't as effective as the other summoners already stickied...because of the points into gumby and mastery.

HoS

What, he's supposed to post something thats going to compete with some guide that says 'okay, load up on +skillers and Beast runeword' (dang, where was my six-pack of those) or loads up on Crushing Blow?

You may not have noticed it, but this is about as original as it gets these days when it comes to skills.

And heck, Nightfish's build is good not because he was original or anything (good grief *everyone* was doing Skellimancers from day one of the 1.10 patch *beta*) but because:

• He had a nice write up. Turns out its hard to polish a guide (who knew?)
• He took things to their logical extreme, and systematized them.
• He added a new equipment variation

Same with Gvandale's guide, nice write up, good tactics on how to use your skeletons, etc.

I'd thought about the modular nature of the 1.10 Necromancer months before Gvandale posted his guide, but he did such a good job writing it up that I have little if anything to add.

Its this very modularity that is the problem with coming up with a guide without people going off at you for not being 'original'.

Standard operating procedure for coming up with an 'original' guide:

Module 1: Skellies + Mastery (+ Amp + Might Merc)

Module 2: 20 points in a skill, 20+ in synergies... But really, who cares? Module 1 will carry you the distance. Everything else is window dressing.

In the case of 'Beast' thats some durn expensive window dressing... but hey, if ya got it, might as well use it.

 

[ChimpFarmer]

Yeah, this doesn't seem like much other than a basic skelliemancer with some extra Gumby hit points.

See, the problem with putting extra points into the Clay Golem is that it's very uncommon for him to kill ANYTHING (including carvers in act 1 ) , and unless you dump a lot of points into the other golems, he wont have enough hit points to survive much of an onslaught, no matter what, plus, his casting cost goes up.

You'll still be recasting him the same amount of times. Just for more mana.

Rickcarson, you said that the build was a claymancer, true, but the problem is that a claymancer is just a reduced version of a skelliemancer... going with a pure skelliemancer would be a better bet all around.

Aaaaaand, as far as Dim Vision goes... It can save a weak Necromancer and his merc a lot of pain by stopping those archers. Plus, in Normal difficulty, a Skellie Mage Necromancer can Dim the Vision of enemies, and let the mages chip away at them while they stand still.

And a Bonemancer can use this skill VERY effectively.

And yes, Dim Vision DOES own gloams.

And to the original poster, I'm glad to see that you are participating in writing guides, and being creative in the builds that you are trying... But I just think that a Claymancer is basically a Skelliemancer variant.

-ChimpFarmer

 

[bratley]

Hmm ... I thought I had listed DV. Will edit soon(edit: or would, if I had an edit button up there).

I choose the clay golem because IMHO he has distinct advantages.

Blood golem: I get scared using this thing. :lol:

Iron golem: Long lasting, but I don't care for going through the trouble of using an item everytime I want to make one.

Fire golem: Cost a lot of mana to summon. Would be rough recasting this at will.

The way I see it, golems in hell are nothing more than meatshields. So why not use a low mana cost, high hp golem that, as a bonus, slows your enemies?

 

[HarbingersOfSkulls]

*points at the name of the build*

He's making a claymancer... and you're telling him not to bother putting points into Clay Golem ???

NB: if he wants the big tank, he's going to have to put some points into Golem mastery to get optimal hit points.



I have a Summoner Patriarch that uses Dim Vision as his main curse. It's a waste of time.



Dim Vision doesn't help against gloams if you are using Skeletons. They run around, activate the Gloams and then run back towards you.

Even with a double digit Dim Vision, stopping every couple of yards and spamming DV in the corner of the screen in the direction I was travelling... Gloams were *still* activating and hurling Lightning my way.

I call BS on the whole DV ownzors Gloams theory. I've tried it, and it doesn't work.



*points at the name again*



What, he's supposed to post something thats going to compete with some guide that says 'okay, load up on +skillers and Beast runeword' (dang, where was my six-pack of those) or loads up on Crushing Blow?

You may not have noticed it, but this is about as original as it gets these days when it comes to skills.

And heck, Nightfish's build is good not because he was original or anything (good grief *everyone* was doing Skellimancers from day one of the 1.10 patch *beta*) but because:

• He had a nice write up. Turns out its hard to polish a guide (who knew?)
• He took things to their logical extreme, and systematized them.
• He added a new equipment variation

Same with Gvandale's guide, nice write up, good tactics on how to use your skeletons, etc.

I'd thought about the modular nature of the 1.10 Necromancer months before Gvandale posted his guide, but he did such a good job writing it up that I have little if anything to add.

Its this very modularity that is the problem with coming up with a guide without people going off at you for not being 'original'.

Standard operating procedure for coming up with an 'original' guide:

Module 1: Skellies + Mastery (+ Amp + Might Merc)

Module 2: 20 points in a skill, 20+ in synergies... But really, who cares? Module 1 will carry you the distance. Everything else is window dressing.

In the case of 'Beast' thats some durn expensive window dressing... but hey, if ya got it, might as well use it.

I saw the name of the build...and realized what it was he was trying to do...and pointed out what has been proven by the 1.10 patch and by others like MM...NC...and Beat to name a few about gumby and golems in general.

I didn't say that having a "beast" is the most important thing to any summoner build...in fact never even said anything about it at all.

As for my comment in the graveyard...it wasn't pointed at the original thread poster in this thread...but in general...take either way you want.

I don't believe that I went off at him...but if it came out that way then I'm man enough to say that I'm sorry to him.

I mentioned dim vision...because skeletons...mages...and waheed (my merc) don't always kill them off...and I along with others in the group have died with out it...though having 15 skeletons and mages does make it alot easier.

HoS

 

[HarbingersOfSkulls]

Hmm ... I thought I had listed DV. Will edit soon(edit: or would, if I had an edit button up there).

I choose the clay golem because IMHO he has distinct advantages.

Blood golem: I get scared using this thing. :lol:

Iron golem: Long lasting, but I don't care for going through the trouble of using an item everytime I want to make one.

Fire golem: Cost a lot of mana to summon. Would be rough recasting this at will.

The way I see it, golems in hell are nothing more than meatshields. So why not use a low mana cost, high hp golem that, as a bonus, slows your enemies?

Gumby has alot of advantages...and is my favorite golem for those reasons.

HoS

 

[prion]

DV absolutely ownzors any ranged attackers if you are a Bonemancer.

 

[rickcarson]

DV absolutely ownzors any ranged attackers if you are a Bonemancer.

Apples and Oranges.

It might be good for the Bonemancer, but then there is no curse which boosts the damage done by Bone Spear or Bone Spirit, so you lose nothing by using it.

For a Skelimancer, two things:
#1 Firstly, you lose Amp, which is a huge price to pay.
#2 All your skeletons zooming around will wake up the Gloams before you could Dim Vision them anyway.

I don't know if Gloams have a longer detection radius, or their attacks just move faster or go a longer distance, but occassionally you'll get zotted by three or four bolts from off screen, and its game over man, game over.

 

[HarbingersOfSkulls]

Apples and Oranges.

It might be good for the Bonemancer, but then there is no curse which boosts the damage done by Bone Spear or Bone Spirit, so you lose nothing by using it.

For a Skelimancer, two things:
#1 Firstly, you lose Amp, which is a huge price to pay.
#2 All your skeletons zooming around will wake up the Gloams before you could Dim Vision them anyway.

I don't know if Gloams have a longer detection radius, or their attacks just move faster or go a longer distance, but occassionally you'll get zotted by three or four bolts from off screen, and its game over man, game over.

I find it to be worth losing amp for until the gloams are dead to use dim vision...though a might merc helps some also...I find my 15 mages can help kill gloams good enough until I get to a big pack of gloams where dv is important.

HoS

 

[rickcarson]

I find it to be worth losing amp for until the gloams are dead to use dim vision...though a might merc helps some also...I find my 15 mages can help kill gloams good enough until I get to a big pack of gloams where dv is important.

HoS

Sure, but the problem is... sometimes they're shooting to kill.

Its a bit of a lottery thing. Most of the time its like *zot* 'holy carp! Gloams!' *begins dodging and DVing with extreme prejudice*.

Sometimes though its like this: *zotzotzotzotzot* "your deeds of valour will be remembered" and you're like 'like ******** they will be'.

Maybe if you have a level 30+ DV it will get them early enough. I found that even having a screens diameter of DV wasn't enough, even casting it very proactively.

One of the good thigs about mages is that if they spot the Gloam, they will stop and open fire themselves, so you get half a second of extra warning, whereas the skeleton will head back to you - giving new meaning to the phrase 'walking the fire'.

 

[lextalionis]

I think that basically this is barely different than a Skellimancer. They all use Gumby now anyway. And Gumby is cheap to recast so he's cheap to "reposition".

If I were making a "Gumby Mancer". I would be thinking more along the lines of a going for as much slow as possible. Because even if you invest points only in Golems (and the Curses you need) you won't have a very strong golem. Golems have the suck: damage, AR, and AI.

So you get Holy Freeze somehow, either a Merc with HF or a Doom Weapon somewhere. Maybe you get a BEAST runeword so you and your troops move faster. Kelpie Snare for its slow. Maybe some other slow weapons.

Then maybe your Gumby could do something, if everything around him was moving slowly. That would be using the "Gumby" power to the max. Then maybe it would be worth points, in Fire Golem for added damage. Maybe you'd look for equipment that gave you charges of Golems so you could add synergies to your Gumby.

 

[bratley]

The damage isn't what I use gumby for. Basically I just want a meatshield that I can cast without sucking my mana down. Also, bosses HATE him. He gets their attention pretty quick, add in decrepify, and that boss is harmless.

 

[Invictus_Dominus]

1 Decrepify - This + clay golem = non-moving non-damaging boss
....

MERC

Use prayer(act 2 combat) until you get to act 2 in nm, then switch to a might(offensive) merc.

clay + decrep isn't generally enough %slow to make the boss non-moving or non-damaging.

To get the necessary amount of slow, try a Doom'ed merc, Kelpie'd merc, a Holy Freeze merc, or switching off to a woestave/blackbog's/kelpie/Genreral's TanDoLiGa. The HF merc may not be good for raising skellies..

clay( 60% ) + decrep puts you at: 85% slow
for immobilizing you will need to be at about: 90-92% slow

 

[bratley]

I wasn't being entirely serious there. I understand they still move and still damage, but it's so minimal it doesn't matter, especially when they are beating on a clay golem with thousands of hitpoints.