my first necro

[WackenOpenAir]

my first necro

I am just starting my first necro on HCL.

i am planning to make a summon necro just for the fun and low risk of dying. Maybe i will try to do some pit runs with him when he reaches hell, but i don't expect much from him on that matter (will probably make a wind druid for that or something)

I want to complement my summons by corpse explosion and either aplify damage or confuse. Which of these curses would be most efficient to speed up the killing?

I see people going for very few revives, i see some others go for many skelletons and mages. arent skelletons and mages very useless in hell ? and how about golems, should i invest anything in them?

Also do i see people combining summon with poison or bone spells. I wont have expensive items for this necro. He will basically have to do with stuff he finds himself. Is a combined build good without many + to all skills? I kinda have the feeling it will make the summons weak and the spells do little damage, am i right?

The skeleton mastery will enhance my revives damage by 200%, a might merc does so as well. will these enhancements be added or multiplied ? so will it be +400% (*5) or +200% (*3) +200%(*3) = *9 ?

The order for taking hits is:
defence - shield blocking - physical damage reduction
Where in this order is bone armor placed?

My initial plans so far are:

20 revive
20 skeleton mastery
10 amplify damage
10 corpse explosion
20 bone armor
6 prerequested

I appreciate any and all advise you have to share

 

[ender11782]

You ought to check the sticky threads at the top of the forum (like http://forums.rpgforums.net/showthread.php?t=144988) for more details, but in brief, the typical summoner necro build is max skeleton master, max raise skeleton, one point + eq in each curse, clay golem and summon resist and whatever else you want. Revives are slow killers, and more than a few points are likely to make you unable to keep max # of revives before the oldest ones time out anyway. Clay Golem + Decrepify will slow bosses to a halt, AI curses will take the heat off your minions if needed (especially attract, which works better with amp). Amplify + your skeleton warriors for practically every foe in the game.

 

[WackenOpenAir]

You ought to check the sticky threads at the top of the forum (like http://forums.rpgforums.net/showthread.php?t=144988) for more details, but in brief, the typical summoner necro build is max skeleton master, max raise skeleton, one point + eq in each curse, clay golem and summon resist and whatever else you want. Revives are slow killers, and more than a few points are likely to make you unable to keep max # of revives before the oldest ones time out anyway. Clay Golem + Decrepify will slow bosses to a halt, AI curses will take the heat off your minions if needed (especially attract, which works better with amp). Amplify + your skeleton warriors for practically every foe in the game.

yes, i saw that build, but i simply cant imagine skellies doing anything in hell, do they ?
I mean, 37-39 damage and 199 life, how can they be better than revives ?

and 1 in each curse is nice if you have many + skills, but i wont have those. Also, since you can only have one curse on a monster at a time, why get them all?

and the clay golem, why clay and not one of the other golems? and should he be maxed, and what about golem mastery? I see he can be a decent tank, but he doesnt deal any damage (the other golems dont do either though)

 

[WackenOpenAir]

hmm just only level 12 now, and i really love him already.

Corpse explosion is just insane. Seems this is gonna be my primary way to kill the masses

 

[gvandale]

yes, i saw that build, but i simply cant imagine skellies doing anything in hell, do they ?
I mean, 37-39 damage and 199 life, how can they be better than revives ?

LOOK HERE

To play it safe, since you'll be HCL, I'd definately go with this:

SUMMON TREE (43 TOTAL POINTS USED)
20 SKELE WARRIOR
20 SKELE MASTERY
1 CLAY GOLEM
1 GOLEM MASTERY
1 SUMMON RESIST

CURSE TREE (7 POINTS USED)
1 AMP DMG (MAIN SKILL)
1 DIM VISION (HELPFUL W/ ARCHERS + GLOAMS)
1 CONFUSE
1 ATTRACT
1 WEAKEN / TERROR (JUNKY PRE-REQS)
1 DECREPIFY (THE BOSS KILLING CURSE)

POISON / BONE TREE (33 or 34 POINTS USED)
1 TEETH (PRE-REQ)
10 CORPSE EXPLOSION
1 BONE ARMOR
1 BONE SPEAR
20 *either* BONE WALL or BONE PRISON (more on this later)

Now I'll break it down for you:

1. Max Warriors and Mastery:
Self Explanatory. This should be priority #1, along with 1 ce. They are killer, literally! See dmg breakdown:
This is taken directly from my thread (linked above):

Skeleton Warriors (Number shown is for slvl of rs and sm, assuming same lvl in both):
20 – 8 Warriors / DMG: 124-127 / Life: 559(h)
21 – 9 Warriors / DMG: 137-140 / Life: 588(h)
24 – 10 Warriors / DMG: 185-187 / Life: 675(h)
27 – 11 Warriors / DMG: 241-243 / Life: 762 (h)
30 – 12 Warriors / DMG: 309-312 / Life: 849 (h)
33 – 13 Warriors / DMG: 387-390 / Life: 936(h)
36 – 14 Warriors / DMG: 473-476 / Life: 1023 (h)
39 – 15 Warriors / DMG: 566-570 / Life: 1110(h)
42 – 16 Warriors / DMG: 667-671 / Life: 1197(h)

2. Curses
Amp damage is going to not only raise the damage your skeleton's will deal, it will also break physical immunities (found in hell), and raise your Merc Damage as well (helping him leech more, thus staying alive more.

Decrepify is the curse to use against bosses. This + your clay golem will definately keep bosses at a crawl.

Dim Vision, as mentioned above will keep pesky ranged monsters from messing with you while your team goes melee style upside someones head.

Confuse / Attract, a very helpful 1-2 punch to help knockout packs if you get too busy somewhere else

3. Corpse Explosion
Now while maxing this is great and all, the radius is quite impressive, it is way mana intensive. Since your HCL I'm sure that all the vit would rock for ya right? So 10 gives you decent mana cost, and a decent radius. Damage doesn't scale, so there ya have it.

4. Bone Armor / Wall / Prison
1 Point into Bone Armor is good, and you'll gain life to the armor from either your wall or prison. Being HCL I do not know if you have Marrowalks available, so not to mention the bug. So if not, then you'll want to max either wall or prison. They raise armor life +15 per level invested, and will give you another safety net to rely on.

Get a might merc (a2 nm offensive) and level him with you. His aura will GREATLY affect your killing speed. Give him leech, dmg and defense.

To level, go melee style through 90% of a1-2 normal. You start with a wand that gives +1 skele, so use that to bash crap with.

1 into mastery
1 into teeth
pump up warrior
1 into CE as soon as you hit lvl 6

From there, you'll get the idea, that it's all about warriors, then mastery. Since they are 1 point wonders, fill in your curses and golem stuff at the appropriate levels when they become available.

I hope this helps you out some. Take care and good luck.

g

out :thumbsup:

 

[WackenOpenAir]

LOOK HERE

To play it safe, since you'll be HCL, I'd definately go with this:

SUMMON TREE (43 TOTAL POINTS USED)
20 SKELE WARRIOR
20 SKELE MASTERY
1 CLAY GOLEM
1 GOLEM MASTERY
1 SUMMON RESIST

CURSE TREE (7 POINTS USED)
1 AMP DMG (MAIN SKILL)
1 DIM VISION (HELPFUL W/ ARCHERS + GLOAMS)
1 CONFUSE
1 ATTRACT
1 WEAKEN / TERROR (JUNKY PRE-REQS)
1 DECREPIFY (THE BOSS KILLING CURSE)

POISON / BONE TREE (33 or 34 POINTS USED)
1 TEETH (PRE-REQ)
10 CORPSE EXPLOSION
1 BONE ARMOR
1 BONE SPEAR
20 *either* BONE WALL or BONE PRISON (more on this later)

Now I'll break it down for you:

1. Max Warriors and Mastery:
Self Explanatory. This should be priority #1, along with 1 ce. They are killer, literally! See dmg breakdown:
This is taken directly from my thread (linked above):


2. Curses
Amp damage is going to not only raise the damage your skeleton's will deal, it will also break physical immunities (found in hell), and raise your Merc Damage as well (helping him leech more, thus staying alive more.

Decrepify is the curse to use against bosses. This + your clay golem will definately keep bosses at a crawl.

Dim Vision, as mentioned above will keep pesky ranged monsters from messing with you while your team goes melee style upside someones head.

Confuse / Attract, a very helpful 1-2 punch to help knockout packs if you get too busy somewhere else

3. Corpse Explosion
Now while maxing this is great and all, the radius is quite impressive, it is way mana intensive. Since your HCL I'm sure that all the vit would rock for ya right? So 10 gives you decent mana cost, and a decent radius. Damage doesn't scale, so there ya have it.

4. Bone Armor / Wall / Prison
1 Point into Bone Armor is good, and you'll gain life to the armor from either your wall or prison. Being HCL I do not know if you have Marrowalks available, so not to mention the bug. So if not, then you'll want to max either wall or prison. They raise armor life +15 per level invested, and will give you another safety net to rely on.

Get a might merc (a2 nm offensive) and level him with you. His aura will GREATLY affect your killing speed. Give him leech, dmg and defense.

To level, go melee style through 90% of a1-2 normal. You start with a wand that gives +1 skele, so use that to bash crap with.

1 into mastery
1 into teeth
pump up warrior
1 into CE as soon as you hit lvl 6

From there, you'll get the idea, that it's all about warriors, then mastery. Since they are 1 point wonders, fill in your curses and golem stuff at the appropriate levels when they become available.

I hope this helps you out some. Take care and good luck.

g

out :thumbsup:

thanx, i see the warriors can indeed rock, in my dreams i already see an army of skelletons dealing 2 or 3k damage with my might merc against all those amplified monsters. It looks like a groop of dark templars slashing trough marines...
unfortunately i dont expect them to get higher than like lvl 26 or so with my crap equip, so they wont rock that much Guess i will have to do with a little less rocking skellies

I have by now learned why the clay golem is used. So that i now do understand. Either i didnt read well, or the arreat summit is very incomplete.

The marrow walks i know about, i will not put any point in bone prison just in case i might someday get them.

yes i will go base energy like every hardcore build is supposed to.
i suppose i will need some mana per kill to keep the CE going.

finally, could someone answer my quistions about bone armor and the might merc.
The armor i need to know to make up my mind about bone armor, max block and damage reduction.

by the way, the first 12 levels, his killing speed already was insane.
With every other char i build, i did as you said mellee. most sorces, i mellee until level 18 or so (use a scepter to mellee with casters) With this guy however, i bought a 3 skeleton wand and invested in skellie mastery and CE. He rocked all the way from the moment he got that +3 wand.

 

[gvandale]

IIRC: Bone armor is calculated AFTER defense / shield blocking / pdr

If you are playing untwinked, I would not go with max block, rather EXTREME vitality. Finding a good shield (necro head especially) with decent blocking may be tough, thusly making you waste TONS of dex.

It may not be HCL, but my guy on SCL used crap gear up until level 60'ish.

60 str / 70 dex (wizzy was in mind) / REST VIT / 50 energy

He can take a few whackings from some real nasties in hell, with no bone armor. His mf gear was this:

3 ptopaz helm
4 ptopaz armor
chancies
rare mf boots
magic mf ammy / 2x rings
rhyme necro head
ali baba (1st find in d2 1.10)

As you can see no really great modifiers (+skills / pdr / etc...) but could do good based on his HUGE VIT.

If you get a good army going, a strong bone armor, and use your curses well along with bone wall, you'll be good.

g