PvP (1v1) Hybrid Nec draft

[joeyj]

PvP (1v1) Hybrid Nec draft

Hi, I'm a new member here and i'd like to post my necro build, just to share the ideas of my necs.

I've been playing d2 since around the end of 1.10 and necro was my first char and eventually the best char I've ever made. I'm currently playing ES Infi+Lightning sorcs n a windy, but still using my necs for gvg or pvp. As a note though, I dont play in bnet, I'm playing in priv serv. So, please forgive me if I'm stating such noobs theories or tactics whatsoever. Correction and suggestion are really appreciated.

Main Ideas: My Hyb nec is similar to the typical bone nec, but sacrificing damage in order to get more versatility in duels against various classes. The build makes it possible to duel with most classes and to get at least an even chance to beat the worst classes for the typical bone necro.

Eq:
Crown of Ages or Circlet with Fcr and + skills; I simply prefer CoA against HarLeq shako, as the additional str needed to use this really worths it. However, I still prefer rare circlet as it gives the versatility to switch belt or rings to use sorbing eqs.
Enigma; provides the most versatility.
Hoto; this build takes real benefit from the +3 all skills and the oak sage.
Stormshield; best defensive shield.
Sandstorm Trek or Waterwalk; ss for FHR or ww for life (n especially ES Fireball sorcs)
Trang Oul's or Magefist; Depends on the opponent. This build requires massive use of mana.
Arachnid mesh; for fcr n 1 to all skills.
2 Fcr rings and / or 1 Soj; depends on the set up.
Crafted Ammulet; with 15+ fcr.

Stats;
Str: add some strength so that you can wear stormshield without -req jewel.
Dex: enough for max block with SS.
Vit: the rest
Ene: none
Note: due to the eq n stats allocation, this builds will have less life compared to the typical bone nec, but the ability to use specific set up against specific classes.
Switch: Cta + spirit
Inven: Anni, hellfire, Skillers with Fhr, shimmering sc of balance, life sc.
Stash: sorbing eqs, homunculus, white wand or wiz spike.

Target; 86 Fhr n 125 or 75 Fcr. 75 is only acceptable for specific duels in which you should swap fcr rings n/or ammy for sorbing purposes.

Skills:

Summoning Trees;
1 Raise skel
1 Raise mage
1 skel mastery
1 Clay Golem
1 Golem mastery
1 blood golem (prereq)
1 iron golem (prereq)
1 fire golem (optional)
1 revive
1 summon resist (optional)

Bone Trees;
20 teeth
1 bone armor
~10 bone wall
~20 bone prison
1 corpse exp (prereqs)
1 poison exp (prereqs)
1 poison nova
20 bone spear
20 bone spirit

Curse trees;
1 amply
1 iron maiden
1 weaken (prereqs)
1 terror
1 Decrep

The use for the skills will be covered in the strategies section.

Strategies:
Some General tips;
-always keep golem n bone armor up.
-recast golem in order to close down attacks when your actual golem is out of position.
-cast oak sage before reviving the minions
-always have at least 1 Huge minion in your revived soldiers. Example: at least revive 1 gargantuan beast from den or stony field if you are duelling in blood moor. Huge minion will allow your other minions to stack right on top of you after teleport.
-If fighting without giant revives, be aware that if you namelock tele, your minions will still stack on you as they are not required to move to attack the target.
- Your minions will have enough attack rating to hit most of the classes with low defense, eventually casters. This is useful to trigger evade, claw block, shield block, fhr etc.
- Don't revive all of your minions at almost the same time, sometimes you will forget about the durations in defensive or heated battles and it will be a disadvantage to lose all of your minions in almost the same time.
-When you're running out of minions, play defensively with spirits n teeth (to keep the enemies away while also killing nearby creeps), reviving other minions while you teleport defesively
-Always Bo/prebuff after u've got your minions.
- If possible, use these types of mercs in duels;
act 1 with fana
act 2 blessed aim with pride

Specific tips;
I will list the strats for the general hard classes for nec.
- In specific duels with curse needed, always go with curse first and attack later.
- Make sure you've got at least 20 minions in touhg match.

1. Dual wield WW barb. (BvC)
Teleport defensively to see his pattern, an then spam a few spirit n teleport along with the spirit. Bypass the barb screen with your spirit, and while the barb is evading/ leaping, cast iron maiden (primary) and decrepify if possible (secondary). Retreat right after he gots an iron maiden. See if he's now playing defensively or offensively, n when you're ready tele right on top of him n bone prison him. The barb will not be able to attack you as 1) if he triangle whirl, he will die as he hits your minions and bone prison around him 2) houl n leap will not scatter your minions as they are all locked in your own prison. Spear him as soon as you got him prisoned. repeat until the barb is dead. Against berserker, use decrepify instead of iron maiden.

2. Blessed hammer paladin (Hammerdin)
Use minion stack carefully and bone wall to stop his charges. Stack bone wall in his direction so that he can't use a zigzag or straight charge. When he gots to your screen, quickly decrepify and teleport away, spamming spears n spirits. Let him chase you an use prison + spear as your main combo. If he decide to play defensively, use spirits to lure him out. Don't chase these guys.

3. ES Fireball Sorcs
Minion stack does not work against fireball. Use all of your sorbing eqs and instead of clay, use your fire golem for this fight. Approach the sorcs with half circle tele, and tele to them and run while circling the sorcs. As you start to run 1) the sorcs FB will miss if they are locking you 2) your minions will spread as soon as you move. This is useful so that they are not all taken out in a few FB, while they mob the sorcs to trigger fhr or block. Your fire golem will sorb these guys, making him a decent tank. As soon as you've run, spam poison nova to make them panic while it is also a good way to lure them to play more offensively. Spam spear n teeth if you have the edge. Always take the offence agains these guys. If you're really having problem going offensive with them, you could resort to revive some fire immune monsters in your soldiers, such as carver, lords etc.

4. WW / Trappers Assasin
Use your sorbing eqs, and get them with iron maiden. This is by all mean, a tough duel. You could also resort to revive lightning immune monsters if possible. Play defensively with spirits n decrep if possible. The rest is pretty much the same as WW barb, use minion stack to the full use and stay away from their traps. If you're going in for the kill, teleport on him n prison (assuming that she has iron maiden). Only goes offensive when you have a high lightning absorbs.

5. Wind Druids
Get your cham ss or raven frost, and as much minions as you can. Keep teleporting in his screen but not to close to avoid tornados. When he spams tornado, quickly sidestep it and cast terror to scatter his minions, when the minions scatter, tele on him an spear. Not much else. This is a tough one.

So far, wind druids and hybrid assasins give me the most trouble. But then again, what makes this build unique is that they do not relies on damage but mostly on tricks, giving them various tactics against different builds. With all the skills, this is also a very hard class to use.

I think thats all from me, hope you'd like it. Correction and suggestion are much appreciated.

 

[MysticDragon]

How do you fight against a life tap wand?

 

[joeyj]

Actually, I rarely find a decent dueler with life tap wand on switch. As mainly the dangerous physical dueler is Barb, WW *** and smiter(Life tap leaches 50% phys dmg), I assume that he will have to sacrifice either widow maker or hoto or cta switch for the wand. Well, although I haven't test this in actual match, in paper work, lvl 10 IM does 450% damage returned which is around 45% in pvp. This will make the life tap rather useless. The damage dealer will have to cast a few lifetap to get the necros, the minions, and the additional prisons to be cursed (as it only has ~ 3 yards radius). Which means that if the enemy is using lifetap, it basically returns to a duel without Iron maiden or life tap as the damage leached/returned are almost the same. Also, I'm not really sure that a dueler with Iron Maiden casted on him will choose to lifetap and ww the necro while the necro jumps on him with lots of minions and prison spammed around them, shooting some spear on their way.

 

[joeyj]

These are the additional tips for general, pvp and pvm which I forgot to mention in my draft;

General:
-Always keep at least one comfortable hotkey available for special circumstances, as you will have many skills to use to.
Example:
I use 'caps' and 'space' for decrep and poison nova in pvm
I switch space to amplify or iron maiden in gvg or pvp against barb or ww sin.

- For those who don't like to bring a lot of manapots, (even though the mana cost for bone skills are high) act 2 prayer merc with insight will give you almost infinite mana. This is especially useful for infinite spam of bone spirit. I'm currently using these merc for both pvm and pvp.

- This character is an 'enviromentalist', by all means, use anything that can be of use around you.

-Always keep at least 2 skeletons and 2 revives in order to prevent surprise attack, especially against the elemental dealer in baal run. Necro is one of the worst in terms of resistance.

-The skills as listed in the guide consist of many optional skills. Fire Golem, Summon resist and poison nova are completely optional. I preferably use these skills more for the stylish factors. However I still recommend to get at least summon resist from these three.

-Oak sage, BO, mercenaries, and + to all skills are very important to this build. Oak and BO gives extra protection for all your minions while the minions in return, stack the oak sage, which means that it will be less likely for your oak sage to be killed easily. Mercenaries are very useful for their auras, + to all skills works wonder as you use varieties of skills and trees.

Pvp tips;

-The main idea of this nec is, damage your opponent with your boneskills; use your minions for defence (stacking), distraction(spread) and sometimes to assist you in attacking(Fhr/block lock), with extra curse to cripple them heavily. As it has slightly less survivability and damage compared to regular bone nec, the order to play this is: 1) stack defense with minions and evade with teleports. 2) use curse if applicable to cripple your opponents 3)charge to get a kill with bone skills while your minions are still covering you.

-Most of you might have had some bad experience in pvm.

Barbs might have experienced being killed in chaos sanctuary, while WW ing through the mob, aiming for the uniques being unaware that he was cursed with IM by the doom knight on the edge of their screen.

Some ES sorcs might have experienced being killed while tanking in baal runs, after being mana burned by some burning soul and pierced by the viper's spear respectively.

All types of elementalist can't clear some of the areas by themselves due to the elemental immunity.

All types of characters might have experienced the sudden kill from a mob of vipers from the temple or bursts of lightning from gloam or burning soul.

For the conclusion, if you know what I mean... than by all means use them.

-Make a portal in town that leads to area with many decent monsters nearby.
This will enable you to gather decent revives in short time.

-For me, defense comes first. It would be better to play defensively and spamming bone spirit and teeth, rather than blindly charging if you haven't think of a decent strategy.

-Skillers are important, but as you use all of the skill trees in the nec build, it is not quite as important as it is in pure bone nec. I can't stress enough the importance of resistance, fhr and life. Make a good composition of skillers, resistances and life scs. I ussualy prefer 3-4 skillers with the rest consists of small charms for life and resistances. 50-80 more damage in your boneskills gives some difference, but an extra 50 resistance and 200 lifes makes a better bet.

PvM tips (for solo);

-Against magic immune monsters; against the ones in act 2 or 3, you can revive some minions and then amplify your enemies and let your mercs n minions do the rest. If you're having problem in ball runs due to the second wave of magic immunes mob, you can clear this easily by reviving some strong minions from the previous room or jusy by simply killing all of the casters they come up with. Revive these casters before those ancients revive them and you will clear this wave in no time. In short, against immunes monsters, use curse and minion mobs to get through them quickly.

-The use of prayer+insight merc is very important in pvm. Giving almost infinite mana, you can use revives and skeletons as much as you want. Against gloams or burning souls etc, you could simply spam spirits from distance. If you have the merc, it will be very unlikely that you will ever run out of mana.

 

[MysticDragon]

Life tap will override iron maiden.