Softcore Necromancer Gearing Up/MF questions

[KelThuzad]

Hey there, everyone, this is my first post on your forum!
I recently got back into D2 and have managed to get to A1 Hell on my Skelliemancer (level 68) where I feel I need to gear up before progressing. I sometimes play on players 8, but to really push through an act I'll drop back a bit.
I've read that WSK and The Pit are decent places to farm items, but I'm curious what any of you might suggest I do to start replacing my poor gear.
I'm only rocking about 50 MF right now, and I've killed NM Andy + Meph a few times only to find uniques for other classes.
I currently only have +4ish to all necro abilities from my wand and offhand fetish, so nearly all my items could stand to be replaced.

Would NM cows be a decent choice?
What Runewords should I be going for initially?
To clarify, my merc is an act 2 NM Might merc which seems to be optimal for my build.
I seemed to find charms more than usual in Nithalak's zone and in WSK; was that simply luck?

I've done a little research and have reviewed some of the Necromancer forum's information but I felt my question would be more appropriate here.
Thanks!

 

[deepfriedpizza]

Standard/cheap early MF gear is pretty easy as a summoner because the only stats you care about are MF, +skills, and enough resists so you don't get 1-shotted in Hell.

3 socket helm with 3 perfect topazes or Lore runeword helm
magic MF amulet or +necro skills amulet
magic +3 summoning skills or +2 necro skills wand (can be shopped, not sure which vendor is best) or spirit sword
4 socket armor with 4 perfect topazes or Smoke runeword armor
Rhyme runeword in a necro head with good +skills or Spirit runeword monarch
magic MF gloves, boots, rings
nice belt with resists/life

Any combination of the above should give you 200+ MF with enough +skills for good kill speed on /p1 and enough resists to keep you alive.

As for targets, you just need to find what you can clear easily and what you enjoy clearing. If you can handle the Pit then that's a great place to start (lvl 85 area, the unique monsters can drop any item in the game). I would advise staying on /p1 for best kill speed with corpse explosion. If you stayed in the Pit from lvl 68-75 you would probably find a pretty nice chunk of gear.

 

[Espr]

For the initial building of wealth you can't really beat act bosses, particularly meph. Especially true if you don't mind building a different character to specifically run him (such as a blizzsorc). However, with your current character, as long as you've got corpse explosion going on to you can farm nearly anywhere you like. Pits (in hell, of course) would likely be the easiest of the options, off the top of my head. Pits isn't really worth doing outside of hell. In order to feel safe enough progressing to that point, NM Meph, or NM WSK+baal is probably the best option. The former will likely get you more items more quickly, while the latter will also get you significant XP.

As to runeword options:

Spoiler

Lore (Ort, Sol) Helmet
+1 To All Skill Levels
+10 To Energy
+2 To Mana After Each Kill
Lightning Resist +30%
Damage Reduced By 7
+2 To Light Radius

Ryhme (Shael Eth) Shield (paricularly good if you went max block)
20% Increased Chance of Blocking
40% Faster Block Rate
All Resistances +25
Regenerate Mana 15%
Cannot Be Frozen
50% Extra Gold From Monsters
25% Better Chance Of Getting Magic Items

Ancient's Pledge (Ral Ort Tal) Shield (if you are worried about resists)
+50% Enhanced Defense
Cold Resist +43%
Fire Resist +48%
Lightning Resist +48%
Poison Resist +48%
10% Damage Goes To Mana

Smoke (Nef Lum) Armour (if you are worried about resists)
+75% Enhanced Defense
+280 Defense Vs. Missile
All Resistances +50
20% Faster Hit Recovery
Level 6 Weaken (18 Charges)
+10 To Energy
-1 To Light Radius

Wealth (Lem Ko Tir) Armor (super mf/gf source)
300% Extra Gold From Monsters
100% Better Chance Of Getting Magic Items
+2 To Mana After Each Kill
+10 To Dexterity

Something that's probably worth reading if you haven't already: Fishymancer guide

And as deepfriedpizza mentioned, fishymancers can get away with just socketing PTopazes for quite a while. It may or may not also be worth while for you to farm NM Travincal Council for some gambling money. To then gamble it in the rogue camp in hell to maybe find some upgrades.

 

[KelThuzad]

I truly appreciate both responses and I feel my question was thoroughly answered!

I remember reading that it doesn't matter what difficulty you gamble on, but instead your player level; is that information still correct?

*edit* Are NM cows a good source of items in my range of play, and if I was to accidentally kill my Cow King would I be unable to make the portal again or has that changed?

 

[Espr]

You are correct about gambling not caring about act/difficulty. I believe I brainfarted and crosswired with merchant caps.

As to NM cows.. if you kill the cow king you will be no longer able to open the portal with that character. Cows in 1.10+ are sad shadows of their former selves, but the sheer volume of enemies will help some. NM WSK+Baal and Hell Pits would be superior to NM Cows, but running cows for the sake of doing something different is viable enough. Cows is most noted these days for base-item farming, and a sub-par source of runes, jewels and charms. (Sub par in comparison to hell council / hell LK super chests)

 

[Darkthrone]

...and if I was to accidentally kill my Cow King would I be unable to make the portal again or has that changed?

No, this is still the same. If you kill the Cow King then you will be unable to create the portal for that difficulty.

There are a couple things you can do to prevent this from happening. The first is of course be careful. But the first time you enter the portal, don't bother killing anything. Instead run around and "map" out the entire level since the King will spawn in the same place every time and then you can plan out how you want to clear it.

The other method is to create a multiplayer game over the network and have another character create the portal for you. Then you can just clear it at will but you will rely on another character to create it for you.

Personally the first method has served me well, but I was using a sorceress.