Skill suggestions needed for 1.09 Lord of Mages

[Thorham]

Skill suggestions needed for 1.09 Lord of Mages

Hello people, cool forum this one :smiley: and big, too!

Currently I'm busy with a mage summoning necro. He's at level 59 in hell act two, has 50 stat points and 16 skill points remaining. The current skill distribution is limited to the summoning tree:

Skeleton mastery:16
Golem mastery:6
Summon resist:1
Fire golem:4
Skeleton:1
Skeleton mage:20
Revived:1

The summon tree gets an additional +6 to all it's skills and I have Lower resist:4 from a wand and +skills.

I haven't really had any problems in hell so far, except for silly screw-ups by not paying attention to what I'm doing. Otherwise everything is fine.

At this point, I haven't gotten a single clue what so ever on where to put the remaining skill points without wasting them. Since I haven't needed them yet, I'd like some input on the matter.

Any suggestions are greatly appreciated!

 

[maiku]

Do you plan on keeping the Lower Resist wand? I mean, does it have really good stats so that you'll use it until end game? If not, consider investing into Lower Resist with at least 1 hard point, so that you can upgrade to a better wand later.

And couple your Lower Resist with Corpse Explosion, which also benefits from enemies having Lower Resist cast on them (remember that CE is 50% physical, 50% fire damage). If you want, dump more points into it (or max it) so that it has a large explosion radius. It's a great skill to clear the screen with in Hell. Also, contrary to what some believe, if you use one of the Necro Summons/Pet calculators floating about, you'll see that magi do pretty good damage.

Don't add any more points into Fire Golem. A high-level Fire Golem still does pretty pitiful physical and fire damage. Old Sparky is at best a 1-point wonder for tanking and attracting enemies to your swarm with his Holy Fire aura. (I like the Fire Golem for that reason, so he pulls enemies toward your mob of skellies, diverts attention away from your Necro, etc.)

Consider getting an Act 2 Merc with a "Rift" Thresher (ethereal or normal) so that you can also add Twisters and Frozen Orbs spamming across the screen. Don't worry about the occasional body shattering. The majority of bodies won't, unless you use something like a "Voice of Reason," which casts Ice Blast (that freezes and shatters most enemies). All you need are a few bodies to keep reviving, summoning, and exploding. Gotta keep the Necro machine running. Load up your Merc with a lot of IAS. These also benefit from your Lower Resist and make your army even more powerful and fearsome.

 

[AceAZA]

finish maxing skele mastery, then either put the rest of your pts into skellies for more pets, or put 1pt into bone armor and then pump bone wall for a strong bone armor that will protect you later on.

 

[Ed from Russia]

finish maxing skele mastery, then either put the rest of your pts into skellies for more pets, or put 1pt into bone armor and then pump bone wall for a strong bone armor that will protect you later on.

I agree it's a good approach but it misses the point of a mage lord; to me that means working without normal skellies, otherwise it would just be a fishymancer with mages.

Here's my idea:

SUMMONING
- 20 Mages
- 20 Skeleton Mastery
- 1 Clay Golem
- 1 Golem Mastery
- 1 Summon Resist
- 1 revive
- 3 (I think) prerequisites
Total 47

CURSES
- 15 Dim Vision
- 10 Lower Resist
- 5 prerequisites
Total 30

POISON & BONE
- 20 Corpse Explosion
- 1 prerequisite
Total 21

Total 98
Invest the rest in Dim Vision and/or Lower Resist

Use Dim Vision to stop monsters in their tracks and give mages a chance to from range. Use Lower Resist as soon as there is no danger. Finish monsters off with CE.

Wear Trang-Oul's set for optimum effect, and spam fireballs yourself.

 

[Thorham]

First of all I'd like to say these are some good suggestions. Thank you all for making them :thumbsup:

Do you plan on keeping the Lower Resist wand? I mean, does it have really good stats so that you'll use it until end game? If not, consider investing into Lower Resist with at least 1 hard point, so that you can upgrade to a better wand later.

No, I don't. The wand is just one I bought. The stats are +2 Necro skills. +1 Lower res and +2 Poison explosion. I've been thinking about about this, but seeing how Lower res has six pre reqs and I haven't needed other curses yet, I've put it off. I'm seriously considering doing it though, as +3 Summon skill wands can be bought easily and would boost all the summons, and you're no longer dependent on wands which have lower res.

And couple your Lower Resist with Corpse Explosion, which also benefits from enemies having Lower Resist cast on them (remember that CE is 50% physical, 50% fire damage). If you want, dump more points into it (or max it) so that it has a large explosion radius. It's a great skill to clear the screen with in Hell.

Hadn't thought of that one, to be honest. After having read how badly corpse explosion was nerfed down, I didn't consider it. Seems only the radius was decreased, which doesn't really surprise me, actually. Yes, this could be very effective.

Also, contrary to what some believe, if you use one of the Necro Summons/Pet calculators floating about, you'll see that magi do pretty good damage.

Oh yeah, 26 magi rip through most of nightmare as if the enemies aren't even there. They're ace!

finish maxing skele mastery, then either put the rest of your pts into skellies for more pets, or put 1pt into bone armor and then pump bone wall for a strong bone armor that will protect you later on.

I totally agree on maxing skeleton mastery. The problem with bone wall is that the magi can't fire their missiles through the walls, which is a great pity... If they could, bone wall would be great.

I agree it's a good approach but it misses the point of a mage lord; to me that means working without normal skellies, otherwise it would just be a fishymancer with mages.

It's basically a theme build, where the focus is on getting as many magi as possible, while still being able to beat hell difficulty. That's one of the reasons I use 1.09 next to 1.11, since 1.11 screws this build up.

SUMMONING
- 20 Mages
- 20 Skeleton Mastery
- 1 Clay Golem
- 1 Golem Mastery
- 1 Summon Resist
- 1 revive
- 3 (I think) prerequisites
Total 47

CURSES
- 15 Dim Vision
- 10 Lower Resist
- 5 prerequisites
Total 30

POISON & BONE
- 20 Corpse Explosion
- 1 prerequisite
Total 21

Total 98
Invest the rest in Dim Vision and/or Lower Resist

Here the problem is that I've already spent points on fire golem. Also, fire golem seems to have more life at lower levels than clay golem, plus the extra damage is a nice bonus.

Use Dim Vision to stop monsters in their tracks and give mages a chance to from range. Use Lower Resist as soon as there is no danger. Finish monsters off with CE.

That's a good idea. Dim vision would certainly give any ranged attacker time to get extra shots in, hadn't thought of that. Maybe terror could be used to a similar effect, as this is a pre req for lower res? And as said before, corpse explosion does indeed seems to be a good idea. It's only downside is it's small radius at low levels, making it less than useful in some builds, but it can fit into my build easily.

Great, I have plenty to experiment with now, and there are some good ones I hadn't thought of, thanks again!

 

[maiku]

First of all I'd like to say these are some good suggestions. Thank you all for making them :thumbsup:

No, I don't. The wand is just one I bought. The stats are +2 Necro skills. +1 Lower res and +2 Poison explosion. I've been thinking about about this, but seeing how Lower res has six pre reqs and I haven't needed other curses yet, I've put it off. I'm seriously considering doing it though, as +3 Summon skill wands can be bought easily and would boost all the summons, and you're no longer dependent on wands which have lower res.

Yes, and you may find one which has +2 or +3 skills and +skelly mages. That'd probably be tops for this build. I don't know if Arm of King Leoric is present in v1.09 but it is nice for summoning and prebuffing your minions.

Hadn't thought of that one, to be honest. After having read how badly corpse explosion was nerfed down, I didn't consider it. Seems only the radius was decreased, which doesn't really surprise me, actually. Yes, this could be very effective.

I remember the days in Classic when it was the only skill you ever needed to use as a Necro. Then came the days of IM, Blood Golem, and Revives: the slow but safe Necro. Anyway, in v1.10 & 1.11, thanks to increased monster life (which means CE does a lot more damage), it shines again. If nothing else for you in v1.09, adding some spammable fiery and physical damage to your minions can't hurt and the radius is still quite large when maxed, so that you can get multiple overlapping explosions. This is especially cool if you have a lot of mana and faster cast. The screen gets messy fast.

Oh yeah, 26 magi rip through most of nightmare as if the enemies aren't even there. They're ace!

Normal and Nightmare are always pretty easy. Hell is where the challenge is at. :wink3:

 

[Baranor]

Bone wall to boost Bone Shield would be a bad idea, because it will not work... its 1.09, no synergies remember ^_^.

Anyways, err, max SM, max Smagi, max lower res, that's pretty much the damage part of the build. Hell Diablo will kill your skeletons, so have a backup plan! If only 1 revive +skills... Ventar and his buddies will last longer. Also, I'd suggest as many +skills as you can get.


friend of mine ran with +20 or so skills (LOD), had 50 magi, 50 warriors... quite the spectacle to behold.

 

[Thorham]

Re: Skill suggestions needed for 1.09 Lord of Mages

Yes, and you may find one which has +2 or +3 skills and +skelly mages. That'd probably be tops for this build. I don't know if Arm of King Leoric is present in v1.09 but it is nice for summoning and prebuffing your minions.

That would be ideal, yes. It's basically just a matter of resetting the shop by leaving town and being patient. Don't know about Arm of King Leoric, but I'll look into it.

I remember the days in Classic when it was the only skill you ever needed to use as a Necro. Then came the days of IM, Blood Golem, and Revives: the slow but safe Necro. Anyway, in v1.10 & 1.11, thanks to increased monster life (which means CE does a lot more damage), it shines again. If nothing else for you in v1.09, adding some spammable fiery and physical damage to your minions can't hurt and the radius is still quite large when maxed, so that you can get multiple overlapping explosions. This is especially cool if you have a lot of mana and faster cast. The screen gets messy fast.

Would be handy, yes. And mana is no problem with my build, as most of the stat points go into this. I'll probably wait a little and spend points on it when I really need to, since I'm at a half way point in hell act 2, that shouldn't be too long now.

Normal and Nightmare are always pretty easy. Hell is where the challenge is at.

Yeah, they are rather simple. Hell is the coolest part of the game, imho. That's why I use a hero editor to set up a character so that I can skip normal. Of course, I don't cheat; I always just make characters which are realistic for the level I choose, mostly about 36 for nightmare.

Anyways, err, max SM, max Smagi, max lower res, that's pretty much the damage part of the build. Hell Diablo will kill your skeletons, so have a backup plan! If only 1 revive +skills... Ventar and his buddies will last longer. Also, I'd suggest as many +skills as you can get.

Sounds good. Actually, nightmare Diablo will kill all the summons, too! Same for Baal, those skeleton magi just aren't very tough at all. Best thing you can do to solve it, is to cast a town portal as close to the boss as possible, jump through it, and recruit a new army. In classic this was not possible due to the fact your army could not travel between acts (same for hireling), but in Lod, this is no longer a problem. The only back draw this method has, is that it can easily take 15 minutes to kill a boss like Diablo.

friend of mine ran with +20 or so skills (LOD), had 50 magi, 50 warriors... quite the spectacle to behold.

Wow, I already have 40 summons with +6 to summon skills... Having a hundred summons is just wild, man. Well, I would already be happy with something like +10!

 

[maiku]

Re: Skill suggestions needed for 1.09 Lord of Mages

Sounds like things are coming along. Yeah, Hell is my favorite place to romp. The real proving ground of character builds, strategies, and style.

 

[Thorham]

Re: Skill suggestions needed for 1.09 Lord of Mages

Sounds like things are coming along. Yeah, Hell is my favorite place to romp. The real proving ground of character builds, strategies, and style.

Yes, they are, thanks :thumbsup: Hell is indeed the place to be, the other difficulty levels are just too simple :grin:

Thanks to all who have come up with ideas for my build, great :thumbsup: