Poison-Summon-mancer Deadend

[Akemi]

Poison-Summon-mancer Deadend

Okies... Right now I have a Necro with 10 pts in Skeletal Mastery, almost 20 in RS... and about the last ten divided among "branch" skills I needed to get Summon Resist and the poison spells.

Problem: I thought my minions could coast me through the whole game and I could work on the Poison/Bone tree later. I was wrong. I'm stuck against Baal, and my idiot skeletons get distracted by his tentacles (boy that sounds "wrong") leaving me to face Baal alone. I only have a couple of points in both Poison Dagger and Poison Nova. I'm deadended. Should I stubbornly keep levelling until I can get some more points (and look for some decent items to hit him with) or should I start over? If I shouldn't start over, what's some good anti-Baal strategies? I'm playing a poisonous melee-mancer (120 in STR, 80 in DEX, so I have heavy armor and a poisononous dagger). I'm about Level 41, if that's about good for Baal.

 

[rickcarson]

One of the things you could do is do it with a group.

Another is to strap on a bunch of +Bone Spear gears. Buy a bunch of blue pots, and stand just outside his mana drain range and pound him with your boney spear (oh er). It'll take a while (a couple of minutes), and cost some gold (5-10k tops), but it works.

One multiplayer game I played we all had trashed everything up till Baal, but then he wasted us. Eventually I was able to persevere and get him, using mainly an Iron Golem. The trick was to get the Iron Golem next to Baal, not the tentacles. I don't recall making it out of anything particular either (maybe an armour with some cold resists? Maybe a weapon with +1 cold damage???)

The shame is, I've never really been able to figure out how that worked. Maybe TirEl had something to do with it (50% chance open wounds)??

 

[prion]

get some help if you can.
if not, definitely try to hit him with cold damage. Load up on any charms you can find. Get CBF or cold length reduction if you can. rush right up to him as fast as you can, cast your golem on top of him. the idea being to keep him busy so he doesn't summon tentacles or clone himself.

What dagger are you using?

 

[Akemi]

Just a small Dirk. I'm also playing Single Player, I've long since stopped Realm play.

Is the Poison Explosion synergies needed for PN and PD to be useful in Hell?

And thank you all for the help.

 

[prion]

Can you kill his minions quickly? Maybe you can try reviving the Venom Lord minions. They work well against Baal.

 

[Akemi]

I think I'm going to start over. My build this time is going to be...

20 in Raise Skeleton
20 in Skeletal Mastery
1 in Summon Resist
1 in everything I need to get to SR
1 in Revive (with + skills and all that)
20 in Poison Dagger
20 in Poison Nova
Rest in Poison Explosion


The three Poison Synergies together should be enough to handle just about anything, right?

 

[Akemi]

Oh, and definitely a point towards Amplify Damage. That curse should go without saying.

 

[Mad Mantis]

Problem: I thought my minions could coast me through the whole game and I could work on the Poison/Bone tree later. I was wrong. I'm stuck against Baal, and my idiot skeletons get distracted by his tentacles (boy that sounds "wrong").

What curse are you using against Baal? When he is cursed with Decrep and a Clay near his side, I find that he almost never uses his tentacles.

 

[Necrochild313]

In my experience the way you make your build for this hybrid depends entirely on the items you use, more specifically your wand.

If you don't have a deaths web, I suggest maxing raise skeleton first, skeleton mastery second, then pnova/dagger at the same time, then rest into explosion, much like you've decided to do already (good show :thumbsup: )

If you DO have a deaths web (i've labeled this the "rich" variant of a P/S from time to time) I say raise skeleton first, then your poison skills, then rest into skeleton mastery, as with that bad boy you'll be doing more killing than your skeletons could hope to.

 

[Akemi]

I appreciate everyone's help and I thank you.

 

[jgreg7]

I'm stuck against Baal, and my idiot skeletons get distracted by his tentacles (boy that sounds "wrong") leaving me to face Baal alone.

Regardless of your skill point distribution, once you get close enough to Baal the tentacles shouldn't be a problem. Try using a town portal near Baal to go to town & return with all your minions at your side. (A teleport staff on weapon switch works, too.) Then gumby + decrep will keep him tied up while you and your minions whittle him down.

 

[Peacrusher]

I currently have a poison necro clawing his way up to lvl 50. I maxed RS and 5 in SM... the rest of the time I've been getting nova, and puting pts into synergies.

I'm using this gear and it serves well
Wormskull
trang armor
trang gloves,
splendor head with +3 nova
Arm of Leoric (recent find)
ume's lament
+2 necro ammy

I have been able to kill norm baal fairly easily but I lose my skellies fast... they are merely distractions for baal...

Lower resist is crucial curse make sure you use it wisely

CB on merc helps also

 

[Myrakh-2]

trang armor
trang gloves,
splendor head with +3 nova

Hm... you did notice that you are already wearing two trang pieces? Wear the shield and your poison damage will go through the roof...

 

[Dazuni]

em.. regroup your skelly right next to baal with teleport, curse with decap and see what happen.

give your merc some gear for Crushing blow, dont need to have too high % in CB coz he use jab.

next thing you know is clay and decap slow baal and your merc is poking him.

things that makes you go mmmmm......

 

[Pilsbane]

Okies... Right now I have a Necro with 10 pts in Skeletal Mastery, almost 20 in RS... and about the last ten divided among "branch" skills I needed to get Summon Resist and the poison spells.

Problem: I thought my minions could coast me through the whole game and I could work on the Poison/Bone tree later. I was wrong. I'm stuck against Baal, and my idiot skeletons get distracted by his tentacles (boy that sounds "wrong") leaving me to face Baal alone. I only have a couple of points in both Poison Dagger and Poison Nova. I'm deadended. Should I stubbornly keep levelling until I can get some more points (and look for some decent items to hit him with) or should I start over? If I shouldn't start over, what's some good anti-Baal strategies? I'm playing a poisonous melee-mancer (120 in STR, 80 in DEX, so I have heavy armor and a poisononous dagger). I'm about Level 41, if that's about good for Baal.

Your problem isn't your build it's your positioning. 20 Raise Skeleton/10 Skeleton Mastery is plenty to kill Normal Baal. Its probably even good enough to kill Nightmare Baal!

You need to find ways to quickly surround Baal with your skeletons. One person suggested quickly casting your Clay Golem on top of Baal to give your skeletons time to move to him. That is a good idea.

Another way that I do is to immediately run near him and cast decrepify on him. If you moved to just the right spot it should have your skeletons warp right on top of you and Baal and the beating ensues.

If neither one of those work for you, you can run up near Baal and Town Portal out. When you return your skeletons will be right next to you and therefore right next to Baal.

20 in Raise Skeleton
20 in Skeletal Mastery
1 in Summon Resist
1 in everything I need to get to SR
1 in Revive (with + skills and all that)
20 in Poison Dagger
20 in Poison Nova
Rest in Poison Explosion

If this is only for killing monsters and not dueling I strongly recommend adding:

1 in Clay Golem
1 in Golem Mastery
1 in Decrepify (+prereqs)

This adds up to 6 points but it adds a tremendous amount of flexibility to your build. Trust me, when I fight Baal I have him so slowed he doesn't do anything but stand there and wait to die!

Edit: Actually Clay Golem and Golem Mastery are on the way to Summon Resist, so you'd have those in your build. But definately get a few curses. At the bare minimum get Amplify Damage. It really brings up the damage of your Skeletons.