PvM Ladder Necro: Bone Spirit vs Bone Spear?

[UNCONKABLE!!!!]

PvM Ladder Necro: Bone Spirit vs Bone Spear?

Hello everybody,
I have decided to try out a necromancer as they look really fun. My outline build will revolve around Angst's Bone/Summoner guide, but I had a few questions to the pros and vets out there regarding this character so I don't misallocate skill points along the way. I am all about magic finding and enjoy running the pits, cows, meph, andy, and all the other hotspots with my Sorc, Barb, Pally, and Javezon, but what do all of you suggest for a main weapon other than my summons when magic finding pits and baal?

My build will focus on skeletons with 20 in Skele Mastery, 20 in Raise Skeleton, 1 in Clay Golem, 1 in prereq curses up to Decrepify, 1 golem mastery, 1 summon resist, and either 20 in bone spirit or bone spear. I also plan to use the marrowalk bug and put nothing into bone prison.

My other question is which is better for mfing, bone spear or bone spirit? Also, the guide suggests putting 20 points into bone wall if using the marrowwalk bug, but would it not be a better idea to put 20 in both spirit and spear instead of having to choose only one of the attacks? Is bone wall any good? Also, could somebody list some top end damage from either a marrowwalk bugged bonemancer's bone spirit and/or bone spear?

Thanks for all of your help,
conk out,
not a noob, just...

A NOOBROMANCER!!!! :winner:

 

[Monarch]

Hello everybody,
I have decided to try out a necromancer as they look really fun. My outline build will revolve around Angst's Bone/Summoner guide, but I had a few questions to the pros and vets out there regarding this character so I don't misallocate skill points along the way. I am all about magic finding and enjoy running the pits, cows, meph, andy, and all the other hotspots with my Sorc, Barb, Pally, and Javezon, but what do all of you suggest for a main weapon other than my summons when magic finding pits and baal?

My build will focus on skeletons with 20 in Skele Mastery, 20 in Raise Skeleton, 1 in Clay Golem, 1 in prereq curses up to Decrepify, 1 golem mastery, 1 summon resist, and either 20 in bone spirit or bone spear. I also plan to use the marrowalk bug and put nothing into bone prison.

My other question is which is better for mfing, bone spear or bone spirit? Also, the guide suggests putting 20 points into bone wall if using the marrowwalk bug, but would it not be a better idea to put 20 in both spirit and spear instead of having to choose only one of the attacks? Is bone wall any good? Also, could somebody list some top end damage from either a marrowwalk bugged bonemancer's bone spirit and/or bone spear?

Thanks for all of your help,
conk out,
not a noob, just...

A NOOBROMANCER!!!! :winner:

i would suggest maxing out spear and spirit and the rest into bone wall
my friend has a build like this with 5 pnb gcs and 5 summoning gcs and an anni with SM,RS,BS,BS and BW all maxed out with marrows and does about 4k

-WalrusPK:king:

 

[Liliel]

You should have enough points there to max both Spirit and Spear, and I would recommend doing so. Neither are very good without synergies.

 

[kabal]

The reason, I think, that the guide advises maxing bone wall before spear/spirit is that bone wall gives the usual 7% to spear and 6% to spirit, but it also synergizes with bone armor, giving an extra 15 hp per point to your armor. That being said, if you have level 20 RS and SM, you should have plenty of tanks to safely stand behind, so the choice is up to you.

As for spirit vs. spear, at the same skill level, the do roughly the same amount of damage per mana, (spirit does around twice the damage and costs twice as much mana). If you can fully synergize, spear surpasses spirit at very high skill levels (~40) because it receives 7% increased damage instead of 6%, and spear also has the advantage of piercing and hitting multiple targets. I prefer spear for these reasons, but you'll probably do more damage with spirit if you can't get all the synergies, or if you're leaning more towards the summoner side.

For your weapon, ideally you'd have a HOTO, but more realistically, it again depends on whether you're leaning towards summoning or bone. For summoning, an Arm of King Leoric is good, although the CTC bone prison on that can be a death trap if you're not careful. For a bonemancer, making a 'White' runeword in a wand with +3 spear to begin with is always nice, as it'll give you a wand with +8 spear and +3 to p&b in general. Other than that, Ume's Lament is a good, balanced wand: +2 to all skills, 20 FCR, +40 mana, and it gives you decrep for free, so you don't have to spend those skill points.

 

[UNCONKABLE!!!!]

Thanks a lot for the quick replies everybody. I didn't even think about checking the synergies on bone armor. Well, I think that with 8 skeletons, a golem, and a merc, I will probably end up maxing bone spirit/spear and putting the rest into wall like suggested. Thanks again. Also, what merc would be better for a golem and skeleton warrior build? I am thinking might merc from act 2, but have heard tons of other options. So far, with my other characters the might merc has done me well with an upped duriel's, reaper's toll, and crown of thieves(all that very far from uber, but good enough for my casual play).

conk out,
not tristin, just...

READY FOR SOME TOMBS!!!!

 

[Mad Mantis]

Also, what merc would be better for a golem and skeleton warrior build?

If you maxed RS and SM then nothing beats a Might Merc.

 

[FrozenSolid]

Agree with Kabal. Ive always prefered spear over spirit since its faster, hits multiple enemies, cost less mana and at decent lvl the dmg is almost equal to spirit.
So spear is superior over spirit everytime (at least for boners).
However Id like for someone to make me eat my words

 

[Chinesef00d]

posion necros are better than bone

poison= high damage,death's web takes off a ton of resistance from enemies,has AoE

bone= high damage with lots of +skills,no immunes,no AoE,gets swarmed quickly and kills slowly

 

[FrozenSolid]

posion necros are better than bone

poison= high damage,death's web takes off a ton of resistance from enemies,has AoE

bone= high damage with lots of +skills,no immunes,no AoE,gets swarmed quickly and kills slowly

Kills slowly? What have you been huffin' :scratch:
You left out many other aspects in your arguments...