Need some advice please...

[Sterling_Ag]

Need some advice please...

Hello,

I have a poison necro that wears the Trang-Oul's set. He's at level 77 so far and I'm quite happy with him. But now that I've got the poison skills maxed I'm not 100% sure were to go with him from here.

The other skills he currently has are one point each in all the summons except Skel Mastery which has two or three and Golem Mastery that has two...he has no points in fire golem...I tend to use an iron golem to help tank for me. I also have one point in each of the curses except the AI ones...though I am thinking of putting a point in those as well.

As far as bone skills go I just have one in teeth, armor wall, and spear...I have none in prison since I have a pair of marrow-walks.

My other equipment besides the trang set consists of a HOTO flail, a rare +1 to necro ammy, two SOJ's and the aforementioned marrow-walks....I'm not bragging or anything...I just wanted to give you all an idea of what I'm using...unfortunately I don't have any GC's of any kind at the moment.

Now my main question is should I use my remaining skill points to buff up my summons with Masteries or should I take advantage of the Marrow-walk bug and pump up bonespear for a secondary attack to use against Poison immunes. Both seem like a good idea, but hey, you only get so many skill points right

So some advice from seasoned necro players would be appreciated. I mainly play Barbs, Pallys and Sorcs. This is my first serious necro build and I am enjoying it quite a bit but some informed advice would be very helpful to me.

Thanks,
Brian
"Sterling_Ag"

 

[JoJeck]

Welcome to the forum, I'm sure Mad Mantis will be along soon for the official welcome speech

You have some nice gear there and I would definitely continue with adding points to summons since you already have an investment there. I am a bit worried in giving that advice that you are already level 77 and hence will only get another 10 skill points or so. That will make for fairly weak skellies unfortunately but the skellies (plus revives) will probably be a lot more useful than a weak bonespear (even if synergised by Marrowwalks) in most situations.

If you do put the future points into summons then add to Raise Skeleton as that will give you stronger skellies and more of them. You didn't mention how many points you have in Corpse Explosion or which act you are playing in.

 

[Sterling_Ag]

Hi...I only have one point In CE...However since I have quite a bit of + to skills items I have a level 12 CE. While not earthshattering it has a decent enough radius to be effective it seems.

I was thinking that if I put more points in my summons it should be Skeleton Mastery to up my revives life as well as my mages....what would be the advantage over just concentrating on skeletons?

Also, thanks for your reply

 

[Peacrusher]

IMO since you are using Trang set You should be using nova quite a bit. There for, Put pts into Raise skellies(max), and mastery as you lvl. I personally love CG, but that's me. I use CE for extra Killing if I hit Immunes, A might merc will help improve skelli killing ability, and the rest is icing. Use LR for your main curse unless it doesn't remove immunity to poison. then amp and CE as needed.

Don't remember what you said your weapon was but I recommend finding a 2/2 death's web (additional psn damage and -enemy resist to psn.) Even socket it with a 5/5 psn die facet... At least that was where I was headed when last ladder ended for my poison mancer.

Skellies and revives are more meatshield that hit back than your offense... keep that in mind.

 

[JoJeck]

Adding points to SM will increase the damage and life of your skeleton mages and revives. But I feel that what a poison summon hybrid needs is reliable tanks that can move with you easilly. Skeletons can provide that tanking and some useful amounts of physical damage to deal with poison immunes. The skellies will usually provide you with a line of warriors that lets you move up safely to deliver PN and then finish off with CE. Skeleton Mages will stand back and snipe as soon as they are in range making it harder for you to use PN.


Revives are definitely useful in tough situations and you will often see me advocating them to support skeletons but they are harder to maintain and use.

Let's look at some numbers in a skeleton damage calculator. Assuming you currently have 14 SM and 12 RS with plus skills now you will have (All numbers without Might Merc ... not sure if you have one)

6 skeletons doing 53 - 55 damage per hit and with 847 life.

If you add 10 further skill points to RS you'll be 14 SM and 22 RS and that gives

9 skeletons doing 114 - 116 per hit and 1617 life

If you add the 10 further points to SM you'd have 24 SM and 12 RS

6 skeletons doing 86 - ** and 1287 life.
And your revives would have 240% ED instead of 140%ED.

So it is not a clear cut decision between SM and RS since your revives will indeed be doing quite a bit more damage. But generally your skeletons will be there all the time and the basis of your army. The 9 stronger skeletons with 14 SM/22 RS would significantly outperform the 6 with 24SM/12RS until you managed to raise some of the stronger revives.... Definitely a case of swings and roundabouts and you have to decide what would suit you best

 

[Mad Mantis]

@Sterling_Ag: Welcome Newcomer to The Darkness. Grab a brew :drink: and feel free to raise some corpses.

 

[Myrakh-2]

Even socket it with a 5/5 psn die facet.

Is there a specific reason to use a DIE facet? I always considered the two variants to be the same...

 

[SorsScriba]

A die facet in pvm with synergized nova seems to do well clearing you body if the monsters had lower resist on them

 

[Sterling_Ag]

Hey,

Thanks for the advice currently I have 16SM and 12RS....I'm probably going to level this necro to 89 or 90 so that will leave me 12 or thirteen points to spend. As far as a merc goes I went with a thorns merc...I figured since the skeletons don't do much damage in any case thorns would help more by reflecting monster damage back onto them. If this isnt the case let me know my merc isn't such a high of a level that I couldn't level up another one if need be.

P.S. Thanks for the welcome Mad Mantis

 

[Peacrusher]

Is there a specific reason to use a DIE facet? I always considered the two variants to be the same...

Well the other varient is lvling facet where spell is cast when you lvl... as you go higher it happens less frequently as lvling becomed more difficult. Finally lvling is capped at 99 so after you reach 99 (theoretically) lvling facet is useless for that particular mod.

Die however will cast every time you die. on HC this is a problem b/c you die=you done.... but in soft core... it often will clear the area around your body when you die thereby making body recovery/exp loss less of a hassel.
Unlike lvling facet, there is always a chance to die and there by that mod will always be active.