Are Fishymancers Supposed to be S L O W ?

[daudi81]

Well I've followed that DeathWalker PVM Summoner guide here on the forums, and I've gotten my necro up to level 73, however I'm finding him severely boring at the moment. Reason is, it takes SO long to kill ANYTHING. Sometimes I find myself falling asleep at the desk waiting for things to drop. Nightmare level isn't bad, but Hell level is amazingly slow.

I have max RS, and SM and my skellies are only doing 185dmg (at least that's what it says when I scroll over RS).

Reading DarkPrinceLoki's guide, his skellies are doing 3.5-4.5k dmg per swing (twice per second), and I'm just not seeing how that is feasible. My gear isn't great, but it's not absolutely horrible either (I have roughly +5 to skills). I know he has aura's, but do they really make that big of a difference? Or am I pretty much stuck to exteremely slow killing with this class?

I was grouped with an equal level hammerdin in hell, and he was clearing entire rooms in the amount of time it took me to kill a couple monsters. It's depressing.

Do things get better?

[theOG22093]

Well I've followed that DeathWalker PVM Summoner guide here on the forums, and I've gotten my necro up to level 73, however I'm finding him severely boring at the moment. Reason is, it takes SO long to kill ANYTHING. Sometimes I find myself falling asleep at the desk waiting for things to drop. Nightmare level isn't bad, but Hell level is amazingly slow.

I have max RS, and SM and my skellies are only doing 185dmg (at least that's what it says when I scroll over RS).

Reading DarkPrinceLoki's guide, his skellies are doing 3.5-4.5k dmg per swing (twice per second), and I'm just not seeing how that is feasible. My gear isn't great, but it's not absolutely horrible either (I have roughly +5 to skills). I know he has aura's, but do they really make that big of a difference? Or am I pretty much stuck to exteremely slow killing with this class?

I was grouped with an equal level hammerdin in hell, and he was clearing entire rooms in the amount of time it took me to kill a couple monsters. It's depressing.

Do things get better?


Fishymancers aren't exactly the fastest killers with no gear, but twinked they can be fairly fast. A twink'd hammerdin will always be a better pvm character IMO, but an untwinked Fishy> untwinked hammerdin. The point is that they got the job done, not that they get it done quick. Don't forget to use Corpse Exsplosion to seriously increase killing speed.

[Sedhrw]

A major help is to use amplify damage. It will double the damage of your melee skeletons, and double the physical damage portion of corpse explosion (because CE is physical and fire damage)

[Skullcaptain]

You can try read the original fishymancer guide. ;)

He can be slow, or fast, depending on the gear he equipped.

[saracen85]

do you use corpse explosion. with high level CE, area clearing is pretty fast.

here's my take on the fishy..

1. it's slow due to the need for collecting armies and possibly getting that initial kill for the CE chain. this can be eased by having a sturdy and strong merc capable of killing stuff.

2. it's very passive. this is the only snag that deters me from playing a pure fishymancer. your playstyle may differ. this is also why people perceive the build to be slow.

3. boss killing is a pain in normal. after getting a good merc, decrep, golem, it'll be better.

to sum it up, a fishy may be slow, but it's also very safe.

as for your problem, i'm assuming your poor skelllie damage is due to lack of plus skills, possibly not using a might merc and also having average gear (unlike the beasts/prides etc etc as suggested in the guide).

so, my recommendation to you is to gamble/mf for more +skills gear. beast/pride may be too extravagant for you, so play using the fishy's bare essential skills. pump more points in CE for a larger radius. summon skellies. cast amp on monsters. once a monster goes down, CE. rinse and repeat.

[Skullcaptain]

Remember, slowly and steady ;)

[LethalBarb]

i have a question...do skellies have 95 percent chance to hit monsters or like whats their general attack rating??

[Omnicide]

I find my kill speed being pretty well...and this is with all sorts of MF gear that doesn't really add anything.

The gear that matters:

Spirit crystal sword
Sig's shield

A whopping +3 skills.

Max skeletons
Max skele mastery
Max CE
a point into each non-AI curse
A point into every golem down to fire
A point into mages/revives

I have a might A2 merc with nothing special.

I cast Amp and with the might activated they kill ok, then I CE the hell out of the survivors.

I really don't see a problem with the kill speed and I'm sitting about where you are with items and skills.

[daudi81]

Well I have to say after maxing CE, I see a very noticeable difference of killing speed.

I also got lucky on some drops and acquired a humonculous (spelling?) and a shako which have increased my killing speed.

With the new gear, I'm actually beginning to like this guy.

Now I just need a beast runeword and I"ll be set!

[mistabeo]

i have a lvl 79 necro right now.. he's weak as hell (no gear). anyways, i wanted to make him an MF necro, so i don't think CE would be a good idea since there aren't really corpses to explode around mephisto..

where should i put the rest of my points? can you stack curses?

[Rhd999]

Very few curses stack, and not curses like IM and Amp. I'd say get some beastly revives to MF without CE, put a point in it still to help get to Meph.

[Omnicide]

i have a lvl 79 necro right now.. he's weak as hell (no gear). anyways, i wanted to make him an MF necro, so i don't think CE would be a good idea since there aren't really corpses to explode around mephisto..

where should i put the rest of my points? can you stack curses?Using summoners to MF bosses is a bad idea. They see the most use out in the high area levels.

[itzzjason]

do you use CE? also, DarkPrinceLoki probably stacked auras

[kwittstruck]

a suggestion for gear though and i realise you want mf but just take a look, runeword beast, bramble, maybe a might merc with pride for concentration.. your skellies will be returning 3-400% damage as well as dealing a HUGE amount of damage, and you can realistically use the rest of your gear options for mf, rings amy belt boots gloves and such. Just a suggestion...