wilderhund
01-11-2008, 06:49 AM
This is my first guide: wish me luck. Also, if you disagree with something, tell me and explain, I'm still in the process of making this character myself.
I'm still in the process of making it (sorry for the lame title, I personally think it's better than fishymancer anyway) but here's what so far looks to be a well-rounded build.
This build is based on the use of some of the smaller synergy groups in order to enhance a person's ability to deal with all of the freak immunes out there as well as burn (perhaps literally) through everything else at a relatively high speed.
[an aside - i once laughed greatly when my avenger/zealer paladin COULD NOT kill a fallen (the act 5 guest variety). It spawned with MR, Stoneskin, spectarl hit giving it immunity to physical and all three elements of zeal... needless to say, i walked away]
SKILLS:
I'm going to talk about each of the three trees and my opinions about them.
Summoning:
some necros swear by summoning.
Others (and all of the people complaining about the lags that fire sorcs are making) curse summons as weak and crappy.
for the purposes of this build we want to get as much damage out of as few points as we can so the following setup is probably optimal:
Skeleton: 1
1 point is all you should need for act 1 normal, and by act 2, you'll have more options for damage... skill points are vital.
if you want to be a fishymancer mod of this build, drop revives, iron golem, and blood golem and put up to 15 points (more will hinder your poison damage but hell, why not if you like skells)
Skeleton Mastery: 20
here is where all of your revives damage comes from, and their increased HP for tanking... Mastery is your best friend, it carries you with 1 point in skeleton warrior through act 1 normal and will serve you well in act 5 hell. MAX IT
skeletal mage: 1
if i told you to only put 1 point into skells, do you really think i'm going to tell you to put more than that into magi? if you want to do it, be my guest, YMWV.
clay golem: 1
This guy is your tank if something goes wrong, maiden doesn't touch him and he slows things down. however, with only 1 point here, and midlevel EQP for this build, he'll have 900/1.5K/2.5K hp... more than enough (2K/3.7K/5.8K with godly gear for the build)
golem mastery: 1
you aren't a golemancer (I've never seen one, myself), 1 point is enough for +skills to work with and enough of a prereq to get summon resist.
summon resist: 1
great 1 point skill, and it's a good thing... we need all the skill points we can get.
other golems:
1 point to iron and blood (some people will use iron as their tank instead of the clay one... i like not spending money on something that can poof if I lag out, screw up, or accidentally cast another golem.
Skip fire, unless you really, really like it.
revives:1-13
definitely 1 point. When your other skills are done, i suggest dumping the rest of your points here.
Poison and Bone:
I'll make this one faster: you're looking for poison damage to go along with all of the loverly %PSD and -EPR items you'll be wearing.
MAX poison skills. put 1 into prereqs and bone armor
Curses:
1 into all of them except: attract (I think it's value is dubious, but you can put the point in if you want. This is definitely your call) and lower resist (it won't break immunities (as conviction will) so i'm not sure how worthwhile it is. This one is also YOUR CHOICE!)
Equipment:
As you may have guessed by the build name, my mention of poison helpful equipment, the ability to deal with poison/physical immunes, and my choice of color for the equipment title:
*drumroll*
We will use (as soon as it becomes affordable and/or usable) the Necromancer Set:Trang-Oul's Avatar
Helmet:
Trang (for the set boni, otherwise I hate the thing)
Body:
Trang (for damage reduction, +summoning skills, and set boni)
until you get it, I HIGHLY recommend the necromancer set runeword "Bone" (SolUmUm)
Weapon:
Your choice (godly options are: blackbog's sharp, Arm of King Leoric, Death's Web, Runeword White in a good wand)
even a +2 necro wand is dandy (and not so entirely rare)
Gloves:
Trang (poison damage, FCR, + curses, and set boni)
Shield:
Trang (decent blocking, -EPR, and set boni)
Belt:
Trang (set boni)
Rings:
Your choice (2*SoJ being the ready-made optima)
for rares/crafted look for these boni:
prefixes: (mana, resists, mana per kill, MF)
suffixes: (FCR, attributes, life, life regen, MF)
GODLIEST RARE POSSIBLE IMO (90 mana, 11% all resists, 10% FCR, 40 life, 25% MF)
Amulet:
your choice (Mara's Kaleidoscope being the ready-made optimum)
for rares/crafted look for these boni:
prefixes: (mana, resists, necro skills, necro skill tabs, damage goes to mana, MF)
suffixes: (attributes, life, life regen, MF, FCR)
GODLIEST RARE POSSIBLE (not actually sure IF this one's possible) IMO (+2 necro skills, +2 PnB, +2 summons, 10%FCR, 60 life, 25% MF)
charms:
necro torch obviously
annihilus obviously
go for poison-bone skillers or summon skillers based on preference
scs: get life, fhr, resists, or MF as affordable/desired
Strategy: make a golem in town, then go out and use confuse and poison nova to kill a group and begin making all your skells... once you have them, make your revives and start running (remember to make new revives every so often... aim for powerful/aggressive/fast/ranged enemy types).
The general idea with curses is decrep on most things, amp damage on physical immunes, life tap every now and then to keep summons alive and confuse on heavy hitters that you don't want to lose too many skells/revives to.
with PnB skills, your primary is nova, use it. Poison explosion on the first body to fall in an enemy group, then cast corpse explosion till most of them have fallen, then resurrect any thing you need as skells, mages, or revives. Fire skills (I like firewall most of the three) for poison/physical immunes
Good Luck
I'm still in the process of making it (sorry for the lame title, I personally think it's better than fishymancer anyway) but here's what so far looks to be a well-rounded build.
This build is based on the use of some of the smaller synergy groups in order to enhance a person's ability to deal with all of the freak immunes out there as well as burn (perhaps literally) through everything else at a relatively high speed.
[an aside - i once laughed greatly when my avenger/zealer paladin COULD NOT kill a fallen (the act 5 guest variety). It spawned with MR, Stoneskin, spectarl hit giving it immunity to physical and all three elements of zeal... needless to say, i walked away]
SKILLS:
I'm going to talk about each of the three trees and my opinions about them.
Summoning:
some necros swear by summoning.
Others (and all of the people complaining about the lags that fire sorcs are making) curse summons as weak and crappy.
for the purposes of this build we want to get as much damage out of as few points as we can so the following setup is probably optimal:
Skeleton: 1
1 point is all you should need for act 1 normal, and by act 2, you'll have more options for damage... skill points are vital.
if you want to be a fishymancer mod of this build, drop revives, iron golem, and blood golem and put up to 15 points (more will hinder your poison damage but hell, why not if you like skells)
Skeleton Mastery: 20
here is where all of your revives damage comes from, and their increased HP for tanking... Mastery is your best friend, it carries you with 1 point in skeleton warrior through act 1 normal and will serve you well in act 5 hell. MAX IT
skeletal mage: 1
if i told you to only put 1 point into skells, do you really think i'm going to tell you to put more than that into magi? if you want to do it, be my guest, YMWV.
clay golem: 1
This guy is your tank if something goes wrong, maiden doesn't touch him and he slows things down. however, with only 1 point here, and midlevel EQP for this build, he'll have 900/1.5K/2.5K hp... more than enough (2K/3.7K/5.8K with godly gear for the build)
golem mastery: 1
you aren't a golemancer (I've never seen one, myself), 1 point is enough for +skills to work with and enough of a prereq to get summon resist.
summon resist: 1
great 1 point skill, and it's a good thing... we need all the skill points we can get.
other golems:
1 point to iron and blood (some people will use iron as their tank instead of the clay one... i like not spending money on something that can poof if I lag out, screw up, or accidentally cast another golem.
Skip fire, unless you really, really like it.
revives:1-13
definitely 1 point. When your other skills are done, i suggest dumping the rest of your points here.
Poison and Bone:
I'll make this one faster: you're looking for poison damage to go along with all of the loverly %PSD and -EPR items you'll be wearing.
MAX poison skills. put 1 into prereqs and bone armor
Curses:
1 into all of them except: attract (I think it's value is dubious, but you can put the point in if you want. This is definitely your call) and lower resist (it won't break immunities (as conviction will) so i'm not sure how worthwhile it is. This one is also YOUR CHOICE!)
Equipment:
As you may have guessed by the build name, my mention of poison helpful equipment, the ability to deal with poison/physical immunes, and my choice of color for the equipment title:
*drumroll*
We will use (as soon as it becomes affordable and/or usable) the Necromancer Set:Trang-Oul's Avatar
Helmet:
Trang (for the set boni, otherwise I hate the thing)
Body:
Trang (for damage reduction, +summoning skills, and set boni)
until you get it, I HIGHLY recommend the necromancer set runeword "Bone" (SolUmUm)
Weapon:
Your choice (godly options are: blackbog's sharp, Arm of King Leoric, Death's Web, Runeword White in a good wand)
even a +2 necro wand is dandy (and not so entirely rare)
Gloves:
Trang (poison damage, FCR, + curses, and set boni)
Shield:
Trang (decent blocking, -EPR, and set boni)
Belt:
Trang (set boni)
Rings:
Your choice (2*SoJ being the ready-made optima)
for rares/crafted look for these boni:
prefixes: (mana, resists, mana per kill, MF)
suffixes: (FCR, attributes, life, life regen, MF)
GODLIEST RARE POSSIBLE IMO (90 mana, 11% all resists, 10% FCR, 40 life, 25% MF)
Amulet:
your choice (Mara's Kaleidoscope being the ready-made optimum)
for rares/crafted look for these boni:
prefixes: (mana, resists, necro skills, necro skill tabs, damage goes to mana, MF)
suffixes: (attributes, life, life regen, MF, FCR)
GODLIEST RARE POSSIBLE (not actually sure IF this one's possible) IMO (+2 necro skills, +2 PnB, +2 summons, 10%FCR, 60 life, 25% MF)
charms:
necro torch obviously
annihilus obviously
go for poison-bone skillers or summon skillers based on preference
scs: get life, fhr, resists, or MF as affordable/desired
Strategy: make a golem in town, then go out and use confuse and poison nova to kill a group and begin making all your skells... once you have them, make your revives and start running (remember to make new revives every so often... aim for powerful/aggressive/fast/ranged enemy types).
The general idea with curses is decrep on most things, amp damage on physical immunes, life tap every now and then to keep summons alive and confuse on heavy hitters that you don't want to lose too many skells/revives to.
with PnB skills, your primary is nova, use it. Poison explosion on the first body to fall in an enemy group, then cast corpse explosion till most of them have fallen, then resurrect any thing you need as skells, mages, or revives. Fire skills (I like firewall most of the three) for poison/physical immunes
Good Luck