Skelliemancer struggling in Act 2

[AceAZA]

Skelliemancer struggling in Act 2

Hi all,
I have a Level 21 Skele Necro, and I am at the end of act 2.
My skill layout so far (with skill bonuses from my wand):
14 RS (7 Skeles)
4 SM
1 CG
1 GM
1 Mage
3 Amp

Level 20 Act 2 Offensive Merc (Blessed Aim)

I was doing pretty well until Duriel. Basically, I got owned. Duriel took out my skeletons, CG, and Mage out in a matter of seconds. My merc survived but Duriel went right for me and I didn't last long.

What should I do? Am I underleveled or something? I am trying to beat the game untwinked, so needless to say I am a bit worried about struggling so early on.

Thanks for your help,
Ace

 

[Summerfun]

Re: Skelliemancer struggling in Act 2

You should do fine. I would change that offensive merc for a deffensive, skellies have huge ar anyway. Make sure your merc has some cold dmg to slow duriel.

Vs. bosses its a good idea to cast CG ontop of them before the real fight starts, that way you can be allmost sure she is slowed when your skellies shows up.
If its still impossible try leveling until you get decrepify, that should do the trick

 

[Zodiacz]

Re: Skelliemancer struggling in Act 2

Get Decrepify. It makes a huge difference.

 

[maiku]

Re: Skelliemancer struggling in Act 2

Hi all,
I have a Level 21 Skele Necro, and I am at the end of act 2.
My skill layout so far (with skill bonuses from my wand):
14 RS (7 Skeles)
4 SM
1 CG
1 GM
1 Mage
3 Amp

Level 20 Act 2 Offensive Merc (Blessed Aim)

I was doing pretty well until Duriel. Basically, I got owned. Duriel took out my skeletons, CG, and Mage out in a matter of seconds. My merc survived but Duriel went right for me and I didn't last long.

What should I do? Am I underleveled or something? I am trying to beat the game untwinked, so needless to say I am a bit worried about struggling so early on.

Thanks for your help,
Ace

Get the Defiance Merc (Defensive, I think) so that he can tank a bit more than the Blessed Aim guy. Summon a cold skeleton mage who can shoot at Duriel and chill him. Also consider equipping your Merc with a gemmed spear with 1 normal/flawless sapphire and 2 normal/flawless topazes so that he can do high elemental damage or try to assemble a "Strength" (Amn + Tir) polearm for your guy. Give your Merc high defense and high life items.

General Strategy:

As soon as you enter, your summons will be attacked and give you a few seconds or half minute of life. Immediately cast Clay Golem next to or on top of Duriel, so that he is attacked and slowed. The Clay Golem will probably die. Make sure Duriel is Amped immediately. When the Clay Golem dies, immediately resummon and make sure Duriel is not attacking your Merc. You should try to keep Duriel preoccupied with your Clay Golem and off of your Merc and skeletons while they beat on him. Also, make a tp to town in case you need to retreat, resurrect your Merc, or get more skeletons.

If this does not work, consider cleaning out the tombs and Canyon area until you hit Level 24. This is achievable and normally what I do with most characters. (I tomb in either private or public games.) After you hit Level 24, get Decrepify, and use the time-honored Clay Golem + Decrepify trick. It'll make Duriel more sluggish than he already is and save your minions from much of his damage. After this, use Gumby + Decrepify on bosses as the standard kill tactic.

 

[MasterMynd]

Re: Skelliemancer struggling in Act 2

My advice:
First off, as Maiku recommends, if you're untwinked, don't try to tackle Duriel until you have Decrepify. This might take a little leveling, but is worth it. (If you're all twinked up, say +5 to both RS and SM, then the Amp+Skellys will be enough to handle him.)

Tactics: As soon as you go through the portal, cast your CG in front of Duriel as he's advancing toward you. He'll stop to swing at (and kill) your CG. While he's doing that, cast Decrep on him. Then CG again. And by that time all the skellys will have swarmed around him. From there, it's just a matter of keeping both the CG and Decrep active until he goes down. (Sometimes some Skellys will be wandering about not attacking. In that case, run around Duriel so they get close enough to be drawn to him.)

Just a note on twinking: A +2RS/+2SM wand is fairly easy to shop, is usable at lvl1, and will make life a lot easier. Unless your "untwinked" means "no shopping", I'd recommend shoping for a good wand. I shopped a +3RS/+3SM/+2BA clvl3 wand that I've used up to level 45 (when +3Summon wands can be used) on a half dozen or so up-and-coming Fishmancers.

 

[charlengu]

Re: Skelliemancer struggling in Act 2

You should look up Nightfish's Fishymancer guide. He talks a little about leveling up.

Anyway, as other people said, getting Decrepify would do the trick. Your skill build is kind of weird though. 3 Amp? 1 Mage? 4 SM? Even if you get past Duriel, you *might* run into trouble against Diablo.

 

[AceAZA]

Re: Skelliemancer struggling in Act 2

You should look up Nightfish's Fishymancer guide. He talks a little about leveling up.

Anyway, as other people said, getting Decrepify would do the trick. Your skill build is kind of weird though. 3 Amp? 1 Mage? 4 SM? Even if you get past Duriel, you *might* run into trouble against Diablo.

My actualy build only has 2 pt into amp and 2 into SM, I said in the post that i was including bonuses from my wand. my actual build at that point was:
12 RS
2 SM
2 Amp
1 CG
1 GM
1 Mage (a prereq to revives which i will put 1 pt in as well)
1 Teeth (prereq to CE)

So as you can see my build is quite normal. I plan to have these skills by level 72:
20 RS
20 SM
5 Amp
15 CE
1 Weaken
1 Terror
1 Decrep
1 Teeth
1 Mage
1 CG
1 GM
1 BG
1 IG
1 FG
1 Summon Resist
1 Revive

Anyways, thanks for all the advice, I was ale to take duriel down the second time i tried. I am now moving smoothly through act 3.

 

[ISawYouTry]

Re: Skelliemancer struggling in Act 2

Decrpify plus a clay golem will make it almost impossible for him to focus on something else but the golem for the first few seconds, now thats not long, but if everyone gets one swing in before he even knows whats going on you shuold be coolz.

=O