Jayman450 said:
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