Summoner Necro Question

[MoogerTheFooger]

Summoner Necro Question

For a pure summoner necro, would Amplify Damage or Decrepify be a better main curse?

Also, could you tell me why? Most just say "Amp" or Dec" then leave without explaining why such skill would be prefered.

 

[Planet_Smasher]

Due to the fact that you're playing a pure summoner; you should focus on amp to increase your skeletons killing speed. YOu want things to get to you and your skellies faster. Therefore decrep is a bad choice in most cases.

It is however useful for guys like Meph and Baal.

Enjoy

Planet_Smasher

 

[Myrakh-2]

Amp damage is THE main curse --- it does -100% phyiscal resist, vs. -50% from decrep.

Depending on your skeleton warriors, you may not ever need decrep against anything other than some act bosses. I hardly ever use decrep at all.

 

[EuroJamie]

It's down to personal taste. Most summoners I know use both. Amp damage increases the Physical damage done by 100%. Decrepify only increases Physical damage by 50%, but it also slows the target by 50% and decreases the damage that they do by 50%. Therefore Amp Damage is the faster killer and Decrepify is the safer killer.

In short, if you're kicking @ss with no major problems, use Amp Damage to speed up the rate you hack monsters to pieces at. If, however, you are getting your @ss handed to you, you maybe wanna think about using Decrepify in order dispatch the enemy a bit more safely. I use Amp Damage generally, and Decrepify for some bosses and aura enchanted superuniques.

A point in both is an inexpensive and very worthwhile investment

 

[Lunatic]

Decrep works wonders vs lister and his gang aswell. Same goes for the act bosses. Frenzytaurs are alot easier to beat with decrep aswell. But as been told , amp is your main curse , decrep your secundary curse.

 

[Pherdnut]

If I understand it correctly, decrep halves damage and attack speed, effectively quartering damage potential (probably more if you take attacks getting interrupted into account). Seems to me like amplify is the best choice against enemies that don't pose a major threat to your skellies whereas decrep will help them tough it out against nastier stuff. It's definitely worth taking the prereqs to get decrep regardless. Decrep plus the clay golem's slow ability turns act bosses into mud.

I just soloed the nightmare Durial with a Necro using decrep, my golem, and an act II merc with an ice gemmed polearm. I didn't have to town portal once and he never took out my paltry skill 4 golem. Also, amplify is probably better against certain physically immune enemies you come across in Hell. I think the speed reduction against act bosses is capped at 50% in Hell though, so the golem decrep combo might be redundant there.

 

[NorrYtt]

Since I'm a Summon/Poison Hybrid, I have to change gear to prebuff my skeles. So to me it's very important that all my skeles stay alive because it's a hassle to prebuff them again (finding Skill Shrine).

Use Amplify Damage when your skeletons are stronger than the monsters (most).
Use Decrepify when the monsters are stronger than your skeles (Bosses, aura/Cursed Uniques, Frenzytaurs).

I try not to lose a single prebuff skele or else my overall attack power drops because my army eventually becomes non-prebuff skeles. I can tell a huge difference between a prebuff army and nonprebuff army.

 

[Peacrusher]

The answer to your question is to use both... neither one needs excessive amounts of points. Here's why

additionall pts in amp ONLY increase the radius for the curse/maybe duration but it last long enough with 1 pt that's all youreally need.

Decrep additional pts ONLY increases Duration.

I advise you to look into other areas where to spend points once you have an amp radius large enough for your needs (me personally 8).

Dim vision will save your butt from gloams.

I Like 1 pt in attract for pindle running since attract can't be over ridden... I cast it then amp.. Pindle's minions whack their buddy and my skellies hack them in the back.

 

[Pilsbane]

For a pure summoner necro, would Amplify Damage or Decrepify be a better main curse?

Also, could you tell me why? Most just say "Amp" or Dec" then leave without explaining why such skill would be prefered.

If your skeletons are not being killed = use Amplify Damage
If your skeletons are being killed (or run the risk of being killed) = use Decrepify

Get both but use Amplify Damage in most situations. It gives you a higher boost to damage and costs less Mana. Decrepify is less of a damage boost but also slows. You really only need the slow on stuff like Minions of Destruction, Act Bosses, etc.

 

[Graily]

Use Both

Use both Amplify Damage and Decrepify where you need to. Decrepify is most useful for act Bosses, where you're going up against one particularly powerful monster.

As with previous posters, my advice is to make Amplify Damage be useful - 3 yards radius is no good for me because I'm on a high latency link (modem, in Australia), so I need the extra radius to counter my useless mousing skills.

Finally, don't always make it a "AD or Decrepify" choice. You have other curses such as Attract, so make sure you use them. Amp the crowd, Decrepify the unique, then attract on the guys in back. Failing all else, you'll attract monsters from offscreen and make the crowd big enough to warrant a CE or two :clap:

My necro seems to manage okay against everyone except Diablo and Baal, with natural skills only in Summoning. All other skills are given by items and boosted by +All Skills items. This build is workable in Normal, I haven't been to Nightmare yet, since I keep being PKed by punks in the Throne of Destruction. I do have to do the usual prebuffing of my skeleton army with a skill shrine and special gear, but that's just life as normal isn't it?

Eventually I'll have a write-up for the "lag resistant necro build" :thumbsup: But that will come after I defeat Baal in Hell.

 

[venuswaltz]

One other thing I use Decrepify for is large crowds of ranged enemies, especially Burning Dead Archers. I usually run into a pack of a dozen ranged enemies because I'm impatient and don't want to wait for my skellies to find enemies on their own; Decrep right away and I don't get owned. As soon as my skellies close I switch to Amp. It also helps my merc stay alive while I level him up.

 

[Graily]

Don't you wish...

Don't you wish (especially when coming against ranged attackers on the other side of a river) that your Act 1 merc could cast other spells, such as slow missile? :cheesy:

Don't you wish that your party members (eg: Amazons) would think about using helpful spells instead of trying to kill everything faster?

Don't you wish that you had learned about using the Weaken curse before you were overrun by three sets of flayers?

Don't you wish that you had learned to use Blindness while running up the rivers of Kurast or through the Plains of Despair?

Don't you wish that all the Necromancer curses were actually worth using?

Don't you wish you knew how to cast Confuse in real life? Cool colours, man! Like... totally tripping! :bonk:

 

[Myrakh-2]

Don't you wish (especially when coming against ranged attackers on the other side of a river) that your Act 1 merc could cast other spells, such as slow missile? :cheesy:

Clay golem.

Don't you wish that you had learned about using the Weaken curse before you were overrun by three sets of flayers?

Clay golem, skeletons

Really, clay is just the universal target: whenever you need something distracted, gumby is the man.

Being "overrun" by something SIMPLY DOES NOT HAPPEN to a summoner because of the massive amount of minions around you.

If it does, you should be using something else: you might be using a Summoner build, but you are really playing something else.

 

[Graily]

Flayer Overrun Error

Oh, it does happen - most often when I've been rushed, but haven't "power levelled", so I'm wandering through the forests of Kurast with three skeletons to my name, and no Golem 'cos I'm not L6 just yet

It's fun, very much fun. But it's frustrating to play HC that way!