Untwinked SP HC fishydaggermancer advice?

[kryft]

Untwinked SP HC fishydaggermancer advice?

Hi,

I've been playing D2 on and off ever since it came out, but I've never really taken a necromancer very far. I've been reading the excellent guides in the sticky thread, and I've decided that I'd like to try gvandale's poison/summon hybrid, with the difference that I'd actually want to use poison dagger instead of just maxing it as a poison nova synergy. The main reason for that is fun: I love the minions and the cursing, but I really miss having a decent attack against a single monster of my choosing. I understand that it's hard to get good bone spirit damage untwinked with just one synergy (correct me if I'm wrong), so I decided to try the poison route instead. I realize that spamming CE can be very effective, but again that seems a bit boring to me, so I don't want that to be a staple of my build.

In other words I would be aiming for a skill distribution like

raise skeleton 20
skeleton mastery 20 (not entirely sure about this, input appreciated)
poison nova 20
poison dagger 20
the usual one point wonders

gvandale's guide suggests maxing RS first, but would I make Normal much harder for myself if I diverted some of those points into poison dagger to give me a useful melee attack?

Should I max block or save all those dex points for more vit? I don't intend to try to tank anything, but rather rely on my minions and dim vision for diversion and use poison dagger for some guerrilla style action when I can do so without taking a beating. If the situation seems too dangerous, I'll just stay back and use nova or whatever.

Any other suggestions before I venture into the fray?

 

[handofnaz]

Re: Untwinked SP HC fishydaggermancer advice?

Kudos on making your gaming experience more interesting! Daggermancers are pretty challenging, and I'd personally be terrified to play one on HC, but I'm a wuss, so that's that.

skeleton mastery 20 (not entirely sure about this, input appreciated)

It seems that you're more interested in using PD, so I'd recommend using those points to synergise it through PN instead. You'll have about 15 or so points left over to put into SM... assuming you hit 99 anytime this century, that is. Low-mastery skellies aren't that bad, really. Just be prepared to re-summon them more often than you would in a standard Fishy build.

gvandale's guide suggests maxing RS first, but would I make Normal much harder for myself if I diverted some of those points into poison dagger to give me a useful melee attack?

I'd go with gvandale's suggestion there. A full army makes levelling that much faster. I've tried going the poison route, and it's really fun to solo things with your poker, but also far more challenging. A lower players setting can make things a bit easier though.

Should I max block or save all those dex points for more vit? I don't intend to try to tank anything, but rather rely on my minions and dim vision for diversion and use poison dagger for some guerrilla style action when I can do so without taking a beating. If the situation seems too dangerous, I'll just stay back and use nova or whatever.

I found max block to be useful on my own poison/summoner. You won't have as many minions around you, and you'll be going into melee a lot with PD, so I'd highly recommend going with block. Though getting max block on Trang's Wing can be a bit of a pain points-wise, assuming you're using three pieces for the boosted poison damage.

Good luck on your character! This actually makes feel like slogging through the game with just the poison skills for once. But gods, the levelling. Hmm.

 

[kryft]

Re: Untwinked SP HC fishydaggermancer advice?

It seems that you're more interested in using PD, so I'd recommend using those points to synergise it through PN instead.

I assume you mean synergizing through poison explosion, as I was planning on maxing nova regardless of how much I invest in SM.

As for being more interested in PD, well, I don't know. I don't really see this character as a daggermancer, but rather a fishymancer who likes to run around poking things when life gets too boring. Maxing poison explosion for maximum synergy is certainly a valid option for me, but if my dagger and nova can be useful to me even without that, stronger summons would also be interesting.

You'll have about 15 or so points left over to put into SM... assuming you hit 99 anytime this century, that is. Low-mastery skellies aren't that bad, really. Just be prepared to re-summon them more often than you would in a standard Fishy build.

Hmm. I guess I'll start with only one point in SM, and see whether I want more poison damage or more skellie damage and durability once I have my core skills maxed. And I suppose it's even possible to go 10 SM 10 poison explosion, although such thoughts rarely cross my one-track, all-or-nothing mind.

I found max block to be useful on my own poison/summoner. You won't have as many minions around you, and you'll be going into melee a lot with PD, so I'd highly recommend going with block. Though getting max block on Trang's Wing can be a bit of a pain points-wise, assuming you're using three pieces for the boosted poison damage.

Block it is, then. As for Trang's --- notice that I'm playing untwinked, so unless I happen to find some Trang's, I'm not getting any.

Good luck on your character! This actually makes feel like slogging through the game with just the poison skills for once. But gods, the levelling. Hmm.

Thanks!

 

[handofnaz]

Re: Untwinked SP HC fishydaggermancer advice?

Block it is, then. As for Trang's --- notice that I'm playing untwinked, so unless I happen to find some Trang's, I'm not getting any.

Ah, hehe, whoops. Good point. I know what you mean about skill points... it's all or nothing. I'm sure you'll figure how much you'd like to dump between PE and SM as you play.

 

[NumtyDoo]

Re: Untwinked SP HC fishydaggermancer advice?

I would avoid playing a melee mancer in HC untwinked. With the infamous "lagnet" lag spikes you can end up dead real fast.

 

[kryft]

Re: Untwinked SP HC fishydaggermancer advice?

I would avoid playing a melee mancer in HC untwinked. With the infamous "lagnet" lag spikes you can end up dead real fast.

I'm playing single player.

 

[NumtyDoo]

Re: Untwinked SP HC fishydaggermancer advice?

My bad, just noticed the SP.