What now?

[Jayman450]

What now?

First Nerco. I'm very impressed so far! I just maxed Raise Skeleton and and Skeleton Mastery. I have 1 point in all curses, 1 in bone armour, teeth and CE. Now i'm starting to save up some skill points. So i take it I have 3 options:

1. Poison Nova and as much of Poison dagger as I can.
2. Sletetal mage + more CE and some curses
3. Revive + more CE and some curses

Can anyone give the Pluses or problems with each.

Also i can get my hand on Trangs set which looks ok. But I could be stronger with more plus skills AND MF using other gear. So not really that good, Correct?

 

[Mad Mantis]

1) Only really useful for stopping monster regen, but you need to cast it every two seconds. Takes up valuable mana and time.

2) You need to like Mages and a large army. Personally I love them. I find them extremely useful. But some people don't. It is up to you.

3) Revives are dumb. Relly dim. They have no AI whatsoever. So not only are you recasting them every three minutes, you are also recasting them every time you walk around a corner. Put only one point here and let +skills do the rest.

If you have Marrowwalk there is another option. As long as you put no points into Bone Prison you can then pump Bone Spirit and Bone Spear and gain a reasonable effective Bone Spear to help out your minions.

But pumping CE and your Curses is always a good idea.

 

[Jayman450]

Only prob I have with mages is getting warriors stuck behind them. Nova is out then and so is Revives. I plan on taking to about lvl 90. I figure i have 40 skill points to spare. I'd like another 5 in CE so that's down to 35. What kind of damage could i expect from Bone Spear with 35 points cause i do have some +2 Marrowwalks?

It's between Bone Spear and Mages + other stuff now. I have +8 atm +12 Curses. I will prob only increase that another 1-2, unless i can find some skill charms then more.

I also have 100+ stat points build up. How much dex needed for max block with Homo and does anyone do it?

 

[WNxBeeky]

Remarkably similar situation to me.

I don't have access to any Marrowwalks - i assume that they are expensive to trade for.

My choices are either, Max PN & synergy, or put points in BS & Bone wall. The only advantage of choosing bonewall being, that it will make my Bone armor much much stronger (and since this is hc for me) that could be a life safer. Can't help but think i could do more though.

Maxing golem mastery a good idea?

 

[gvandale]

1. PN is mana intensive, and a spammer. Use at your own risk. Like MM said.
2. I personally don't like mages. See MM's post
3. Revives? EHHH..

I'd say max CE. 1 point into mages / revives. Play around with mages / revives some as you progress through hell, and if you like one more then the other, go with those after CE. Note on revives, while being good meat shields, they are dumb!

g

:yep:

 

[TPMdm]

Even if it turns out you like revive don't max it. The only thing you get out of it is more revives and it is difficult keeping a lot of revives alive.

 

[kasten]

At level ** Im in the same boat. I have 46 unused points.

CURSES:
1 in all curses up to decrep and attract no lower resist or IM

SUMMON:
20 RS
20 SM
1 Mage
1 Clay
1 GolemMast
1 SummonResist
0 iron golem
0 blood golem
0 Revive (i hate them)

POISON/BONE:
1 Teeth
1 CE

With ~+14 to all skills I have more than enough CE and curses. So every day I log in and have no trouble killing anything, but have 46 points just sitting there. I do have marrowwalks, but dont want to exploit a bug.

I am thinking about a putting 1 point into bone armor, then maxing PDagger, PNova, and 5+ pts in PExplosion. With the +skills it will still be over 2500dmg every 2 secs and over 3400 if i make it up to level 99. However, with having to amp, attract, and CE: I have little time to spend casting Nova. Maybe Ill just leave the points unused and looking pretty.

 

[Lothos]

with +14 to all, is the 1 point in SR plenty for your skels survival?

 

[Mad Mantis]

Yes it is.

 

[Krollin]

1. PN is mana intensive, and a spammer. Use at your own risk. Like MM said.
2. I personally don't like mages. See MM's post
3. Revives? EHHH..

I'd say max CE. 1 point into mages / revives. Play around with mages / revives some as you progress through hell, and if you like one more then the other, go with those after CE. Note on revives, while being good meat shields, they are dumb!

g

:yep:

Yeah, max CE. Pump curses, Attract being a very powerful crowd control curse as it cannot be overwritten by other curses. I use it to get ranged attackers to take it out on each other rather than me. With some luck a corpse may appear in that group so you can then Attract/Amp/CE for even more havoc:xsmile:

 

[Loquis]

Only prob I have with mages is getting warriors stuck behind them.

Get something with teleport charges on it. No problem anymore. I've been running around with 16 skeles, 16 mages and around 10 revive. Would be horrible without teleport charges. Even if you have to make do with it being on weapon switch, its worth it.

Staff on weapon switch, amulet, or enigma runeword

 

[JoJeck]

First Nerco. I'm very impressed so far! I just maxed Raise Skeleton and and Skeleton Mastery. I have 1 point in all curses, 1 in bone armour, teeth and CE. Now i'm starting to save up some skill points. So i take it I have 3 options:

1. Poison Nova and as much of Poison dagger as I can.
2. Sletetal mage + more CE and some curses
3. Revive + more CE and some curses

Can anyone give the Pluses or problems with each.

Also i can get my hand on Trangs set which looks ok. But I could be stronger with more plus skills AND MF using other gear. So not really that good, Correct?

Welcome to being a Necro. It is a fun and interesting build

As to your questions I disagree with several of the other respondants :scared:


1) Poison Nova is a viable option to help your skeletons and merc kill in Hell if you have the right equipment, and it is perhaps more equipment dependent than other options. Having plenty of plus skills will help a lot, but there will always be a conflict tactically in which curse you want to use, Amp Dam for your skellies and Merc or Lower Resist for your poison nova. Three items from the Trang-Ouls set are particularly good for this poison option - Gloves for +25% poison damage, belt for Cannot be Frozen, and Cantor Trophy for the -25% poison resist. There is a wand, Death's Web and the Bramble Armour that make poison very viable ... especially with the help of skellies and Merc.

2) Skeletal Mages are weak compared with the Warriors and have a death wish especially when you want to retreat. Also they suffer from the same tactical conflict over curses as using poison. They get in the way of the warriors and Merc in tight situations... and I don't like them :flip: Heheheh. Putting more points into CE is recommended by many here but I find that 1 point plus the +9 skills I have is enough. More points just increase the radius and not the damage. CE damage does not scale with the number of players in the game, while target monster hit points do, so although devastating in single player it runs out of steam in 8 player games. Most other curses don't beneifit much from extra points although Dim Vision can be a life saver against the dreaded Black Souls :scared:

3) Revives are an essential part of the Necro playing experience in my opinion. Although they are dumb and they dissappear when you run too far and too fast, unless you use teleport, they are very tough (with maxed SM) and you can compensate for many limitations of your skellies and Merc by selecting the right type of dead monster to revive, like missile firers, flyers or physical immunes depending on what you are facing and the terrain. So as a new Necro I would strongly recommend you put 1 point into them and let plus skills do the rest, they are well worth that limited investment.


Have fun with your Necro

 

[Jayman450]

I'm pumping mages and CE and probably a few curses. The extra range on CE is great in hell as it is your main killer and the more range the better. I'm confused why CE doen't scale with 8 player games. Isn't CE basted on monster hit points? And don't monster hit points increase in 8 player games?

 

[prion]

I think some of you guys are using the wrong revives
You want black souls, corrupted rogues, council members, balrogs, frenzytaurs, demon imps, and maybe rat men--things that move fast, hit hard, and/or have elemental damage.

 

[prion]

I'm pumping mages and CE and probably a few curses. The extra range on CE is great in hell as it is your main killer and the more range the better.

yeh but be careful with this. if the range ends up off the screen you won't see what your killing.

I'm confused why CE doen't scale with 8 player games. Isn't CE basted on monster hit points? And don't monster hit points increase in 8 player games?

yes you are right, but it just doesn't scale.

 

[HarbingersOfSkulls]

First Nerco. I'm very impressed so far! I just maxed Raise Skeleton and and Skeleton Mastery. I have 1 point in all curses, 1 in bone armour, teeth and CE. Now i'm starting to save up some skill points. So i take it I have 3 options:

1. Poison Nova and as much of Poison dagger as I can.
2. Sletetal mage + more CE and some curses
3. Revive + more CE and some curses

Can anyone give the Pluses or problems with each.

Also i can get my hand on Trangs set which looks ok. But I could be stronger with more plus skills AND MF using other gear. So not really that good, Correct?

Here's mine (have had little difficulty in hell with it)

PD-20
PE-20
PN-20
Teeth-1
CE-1
SM-1
RS-20
Gumby-1
GM-1
SR-1
AD-1
DV-1
IM-1
Terror-1
LT-1
Decrepify-1
LR-1 *might add a few more to get 60%

As of now, I'm 83 and if I wear full trang's have 71/75/75/75 resists in hell.

Only real problems are the gloams that are in hell ... period (though DV helps with that)

I'm going to finish with SM with remaining points, if any is left then LR.

Started off with a HF merc, but after getting last rune for Bramble...have switched to a Might merc. (bye bye 83 Razan)

I found this to be my favorite build so far, and has been alot of fun.

I found no need to use revives, because my Skeletons hold their own good enough, and have lasted longer than Revives.

HoS

 

[TPMdm]

I'm pumping mages and CE and probably a few curses. The extra range on CE is great in hell as it is your main killer and the more range the better. I'm confused why CE doen't scale with 8 player games. Isn't CE basted on monster hit points? And don't monster hit points increase in 8 player games?

I forgot the exact patch when they killed the life scaling of CE. I played necro's when CE did scale and let me tell you making it so CE doesn't scale was the best thing they did to raise the average IQ points of necroplayers.

You know the rep barbs have now? That was practically necros in those days.
Mac fire golem, max AD, and Max CE... add to that the IM revive cookie cutters.... bleh!

/notices himself getting all nostalgic
Hey, how about them Marrowalks?
/slinks back to the old necrohome