Skeletons always taking on the bosses

[SharQueDo]

I have a currently level 84 summonmancer on non-ladder. It uses:

- Hoto 30 (cta 642 on switch),
- Homu pd'd (sigon on switch),
- Shako clean,
- Enigma bp,
- Arach,
- Magefist (traded my trang gloves), although magefist gives +1 FG and CE,
- Eth sandstorm treks,
- 2 summon skillers (of greed -_-'),
- 17 16 necro t,
- 2 rare rings with random mods.

You can say I'm very rich, but I'm not. I just have a few good items (my rune collection sucks). To be honest I bought CTA, Eni, Even the HOTO (and 2 sojs at the time being) from a friend for IRL cash. :$ I'm still making good use of it, though.

I have a AoKL in my inventory in case that I need stronger skeletons (normally I raise without prebuf (items)). Using AoKL I have level 40 RS, SM.

Curses are around level 17 (base level 1 all).

Stats:
Str: Enough for gear, around 100 or so
Dex: 82 (for HOTO knout)
Vit: Rest
Eng: Base

Skills:
Curses: 1 in each
Summon: 20 RS SM, 1 rest
Other: 20 CE, 1 bonearmor, rest in bone spirit

I have a Might Merc and gave him Bonehew, Tal Mask (armor I forgot) and when he's level 85 I'm gonna give him Alkaine Valor.

I must say I pwn pretty much in hell. Using just 5 skeletons, my merc and a IK Maul iron golem I can take on Hell Andy in a 1player game without losing my skeletons/merc/ig.

In baalgames I usually make skellies in act 1 when I'm teleing, or I start reviving in the ToD when someone other teles. For fighting groups I teleport right before the group and let my minions kill some, I amp them and then CE like hell.

What I'm trying to say that Necromancers are far underrated. I might have some good gear but only Enigma is needed for some controlled killing. If you AMP a group and teleport in front of them, your minions will do some killing, and you can wipe the group with CE.

 

[Mongun]

As far as I'm concerned, Enigma is not "needed", neither for killing nor for controlled killing since a teleport ammy, or Naj's Puzzler will do the same job for a bucketload of cheaper... 22 charges on my ammy won't take me to Durance 3 in an unlucky map roll, but it will get me over the council, over the moat, on to the boss and then some. Enigma definitely is nice though:laugh:
I just imbued a nice circlet btw, a +1 necro, 18 res all, 23 str, and some uselessness, which should help out some more, Hell has been much less of a problem so far, and I'm now struggling with Maggot Lair, but what summoner doesn't...

And as far as the teleport grouping is concerned, I sometimes get the effect even when I just have skeletons and my merc, maybe it's a weird AI bug triggered by something random? I'll watch more closely from now on, but I've deffinitely experienced the same with Urdar revives.

Edit: Having just finished the Lair I hve to say an enigma toting, teleporting necro wouldn't have too many problems. Emphasis on teleporting of course :wink3:.

 

[kaervek]

The easiest way (and cheapest) to keep your merc alive with IM is to simply unequip his weapon when you enter the chaos sanc. A little trick someone mentioned on the barb forums is that if *you* go into melee range of OK's they will always cast decrep on you. This can be handy to know, although decrep does have a small radius regardless of level.

A might merc, with any decent elite weapon and lvl 33+ summoning is enough to go through hell difficulty. Summon random revives as you go to help spread the damage out. Gloams are deadly to you, but not your summons. Just stick to walls or hide around corners while the skeletons do the dirty work. Use teleport strategically to get past doorways etc.

In hell difficulty, monsters do ~100 damage, and have 3k - 18k HP. This is why IM loses its effectiveness. At lower levels use a holy freeze merc, and once skeletons are strong enough switch to a might merc.

Pride RW is a blessing and a curse. the skeletons are much stronger with it, but the merc shatters any corpse he gets near to since pride had +3 freeze. You may want to consider a different weapon for merc since he often lands the final blow on harder monsters.