Hell time

[Samael]

Im pretty new to D2 and just reached Hell with my skelemancer (lvl 75)
he has some +skills gear but nothing to fancy
now, my problem is: he keeps getting owned in hell...
his skills are:
SM:24
RS:24
RSMage:5
Rev:5
5 in every other summoning skill
CE:23
Bone Armor:4
4 in every curse
and i have 3 free skillpoints
should I stick with doing Baal runs or head into hell, cause i dont know what im doing wrong

[Mad Mantis]

What kind of Merc do you have?

How do you use your curses (curse patern)?

What are your stats?

[Samael]

i have a lvl 70 might merc, for bosses or tough uniques i use clay golem+decrep
i dim archers, and i use amp or decrep as main curses
stats:
str: 80
dex: 25
vit: 305
nrg: 50

[Atompilz]

What's your gear look like? Even with relatively mediocre gear, you should be able to get your skellies above 24.

[Samael]

I have a wormskull helmet
+1 summoning skills amulet
mf rings
+2 necro skills wand
+2 RSM head
silkweave boots
+24% FHR, 300 def breast plate
and a 37 def +17% FHR belt

[Mad Mantis]

How are your resists?

Any specific problem areas, or is every area problematic?

The set up looks pretty good for an untwinked build. It should be doable to solo Hell with just MAX RS/SM and a curse.

[DMPI_Masher]

Seems to me your doing everything right. Are you rushing ahead of your minions? They should be powerfull enough to stop just about everything. Have you placed any points in Summon Resistance? NM...I see 5 "in every other summon skill". Seems you should own them not the other way around. Hell should be played slowly. You rush...you die :eek:

[Samael]

well it might be my personal resist...last night i died of 2 lightning bolts of rakanashu (unique at the cairn stones)
anyways, thanks for answering my questions and sorry for waisting your time with noobish questions :)

[wc3promet]

Im pretty new to D2 and just reached Hell with my skelemancer (lvl 75)
he has some +skills gear but nothing to fancy
now, my problem is: he keeps getting owned in hell...
his skills are:
SM:24
RS:24
RSMage:5
Rev:5
5 in every other summoning skill
CE:23
Bone Armor:4
4 in every curse
and i have 3 free skillpoints
should I stick with doing Baal runs or head into hell, cause i dont know what im doing wrong

This proves something:
1) Some Skellymancers are lousy.
2) Not all Skellymancers can make to Hell Baal alone.
3) You need U'ber gear or at least +10 All Skills Gear.
4) Skellymancers might find Lightning dmg to be a problem.

[Mad Mantis]

This proves something:
1) Some Skellymancers are lousy.
2) Not all Skellymancers can make to Hell Baal alone.
3) You need U'ber gear or at least +10 All Skills Gear.
4) Skellymancers might find Lightning dmg to be a problem.

This proves schait. Some Whirlers in 1.09 couldn't make it to Hell. That is not because the build sucks, but the players (not saying that the original poster is a bad player). He said that his resists suck. Sucky resists + carelesness = dead Necro. If he needs some better gear he can gamble it.

wc3promet you really must read other threads better. The fact that there are several posts made by untwinked Skelliemancers who are succesfull seems to be ignored by you. Are you making a sport out of selective reading?

[Samael]

as a reply to that, I recently tried to do some pit runs with my skelemancer, when i did that i nearly NEVER got near a monster, dimmed every ranging monster, and amp+CE'd nearly every time i could do it...when a devilkin got passed my skeles... i died in 2-3 hits (787hp 575 def+ bone armor lvl 4)
if my playing style is wrong, tell me how i should do it then
for my resist:
fire:-34
cold:-46
lightning:-52
poison:-2
i jus

[Mad Mantis]

Your Merc and Skellies are efficient in killing right? You help them by amping things right? Though things get Decrep. You DV things. The only thing you need to do is stay back and curse. If something gets near you Terror it. If there is a body just use Amp.

[xxx2112xxx]

Why do people think they can survive hell with negative resists? You need AT LEAST positive 30 or so to survive elemental attacks long enough to kill or run away. I haven't made it to hell with my summoner yet, but every other char I take there has maxed resists as a priority.

[JoJeck]

as a reply to that, I recently tried to do some pit runs with my skelemancer, when i did that i nearly NEVER got near a monster, dimmed every ranging monster, and amp+CE'd nearly every time i could do it...when a devilkin got passed my skeles... i died in 2-3 hits (787hp 575 def+ bone armor lvl 4)
if my playing style is wrong, tell me how i should do it then
for my resist:
fire:-34
cold:-46
lightning:-52
poison:-2
i jus
Your resists seem low, especially lightning ,which is the most important to get higher although fire and cold can both cause big problems at the low levels you have. Try to get fire and cold to at least + 30 and lightning close to + 70 if you want an easier life. I see you have Silkweave and 2 mf rings and these could be replaced with rare items giving good resists (at least until you make some progress further into Hell). Magical and rare belts and gloves can have good resists as well.

A lot of your problems are to do with levels. The Pit is level 85 and if you are still level 75 so are your skeletons and that is a big difference making it harder for your guys to hit the monsters. The early parts of Hell have a wide range of levels, ranging from 67 up to 85 in selected areas, and you need to pick carefully. So leveling up in late Nightmare or easier areas of hell will help a lot.

Adding to your + skills should not be too hard and will make a nice difference to your skellies improving their RS and SM. Getting a necro head with +1 or even +2 to skills or summoning (or even better +3 to summoning) will make your skellies tougher and better at killing. You should be able to get a + 1 all skills amulet or even a +2 or +3 summoning by gambling at your level. And level your Merc up to your level of course :) Finally, Wormskull is a nice helmet early in your necros life but I tend to replace it with a Lore helmet (runeword = Ort + Sol) once I get to level 27. Lore has lots of very nice mods for a poor skellimancer, + 1 skills, 7 damage reduction, 30% lightning resist and 10 energy are all good ...

Good Luck, I'm sure you'll get there and please tell us when you do.

[gvandale]

*snip* resists stats *snip*
whats your base vit? I ask this, because this may be your only problem, that and the fact that your not really playing your character to it's fullest potential.

With pretty much ALL vit (as most pvm s-mancers should be) you should be able to take a couple whackings.

The catchy part is that in Norm / NM, you can just run around care free wasting things, Hell is the same, but there is a little more strategy needed.

Curses. Amp is of course your best curse since your dealing phys dmg, but don't forget Decrep. One tactic I use, when a pack of baddies is coming up, is to Decrep them (shift + click, to send my army that way) then when the baddies are surrounded, switch to AMP.

Maybe list your gear / base stats.

IHMO, you shouldn't be having problems, so I'm curious to your complete build. When I MF, my resists are horrible and I can do the pit no prob.

p.s.
Almost forgot, with a slvl1 Clay Golem, don't be afraid to recast him next to you if a baddie comes to close. He will get to them so your army can regroup.

g

:yep:

[Ghist]

Why do people think they can survive hell with negative resists? You need AT LEAST positive 30 or so to survive elemental attacks long enough to kill or run away. I haven't made it to hell with my summoner yet, but every other char I take there has maxed resists as a priority.

Actually skelemancer can survive. I did it solo with players 8 on beta untwinked. The only positive resistance I had was lightning. I was playing very carefully. I might add that I did not die once.

I would suggest starting to use Attract curse a lot. It's a great curse and will help you a lot. The fact that other curses don't override it is a bonus.

[Atompilz]

This proves something:
1) Some Skellymancers are lousy.
2) Not all Skellymancers can make to Hell Baal alone.
3) You need U'ber gear or at least +10 All Skills Gear.
4) Skellymancers might find Lightning dmg to be a problem.


I'm gonna have to disagree, mainly with point #3. The original poster could add quite a few +summoning items at relatively little cost. (A +3 summoning head, magical with golemlords prefix, and a +3 summoning ammy, neither of which are remotely godly, would go a long way.) I've seen marrowwalks go for pgems on the trade forum, Leorics aren't all that expensive either. (Of course, if he's purposely playing untwinked, it's a different story. But still, finding a better amulet than +1 summoning should be easy with a little gambling.)

Samael, if you're on west ladder, I might have some stuff I can throw you, I'm pretty sure I have at least a +3 summon ammy.

[zaphette]

To add to what's already been said:

Resists are VERY important. Most of the monsters in hell have some sort of elemental attack added (even the little rakanishu's).

Don't rush. I made it all the way through hell without dying, until I got in a hurry within sight of the worldstone WP, BAM ...was slain by... (luckily not HC).

Attract is your friend. If monsters are fighting each other they aren't wacking you or your skellis, any damage they do to each other is a bonus. I usually attract 3 or 4 monsters in a pack, Amp the rest, and wait for the first corpse. If for some reason your minions are getting kicked around, switch to decrep.

Don't get flanked. If your minions are fighting on multiple fronts, retreat and reset. There are two reasons for this. First you want the monsters grouped tightly to concentrate both your minion damage, and your CE damage. Second, if you're spread all over the screen something is likely to slip through your ranks. Teleport helps here. I don't have it, but I see it would be really valueable. When I get really spread out I open a TP and come right back.

OK, hope that helps.

[Atompilz]

Why do people think they can survive hell with negative resists? You need AT LEAST positive 30 or so to survive elemental attacks long enough to kill or run away. I haven't made it to hell with my summoner yet, but every other char I take there has maxed resists as a priority.


My resists are pretty lousy, especially on mf weapon switch. To get at least +30 I'd need to sacrifice quite a bit of plus to skills, and I don't die that often. If I was playing HC, sure, I'd pay more attention to resists. I'm just hanging around act 5 hell, doing mf runs mostly, and resists are much less of an issue for me than with any other build I've played. I think I have about 1000 life, and didn't sink any points into dex which helps keep me alive too. If I come across some tougher monsters, I'll switch from my gull/rhyme shield back to my leoric/pdiamond homonculous for the extra resists it provides, but I don't find the need to do that often. My skellies and merc own pretty much everything. The only time I get into trouble is when I'm impatient, and teleport all over the place in a hurry, and a patiently and carefully played necro would have survived almost all of the encounters in which I died. Even then, I don't die too often.

[Necrochild313]

This proves something:
1) Some Skellymancers are lousy.
2) Not all Skellymancers can make to Hell Baal alone.
3) You need U'ber gear or at least +10 All Skills Gear.
4) Skellymancers might find Lightning dmg to be a problem.

You really do have too much time on your hands don't you?

We should dub you the "forum whiner"

comments on your proofs

1. It's not the gun that misses, it's the one firing it
2. See above
3. Lol...when I MF i don't have on uber +skills and I can obviously still kill, or I wouldn't be MFing.
4. What character class doesn't? I can't imagine anyone who has to worry about LE monsters less than a skelemancer. Skeletons make a nice little huddle around and absorb all the damage of our sparky little friend.

[Cerebron]

Resists ARE important, but only in those places where monsters do elemental dmg. I have almost the same build with the original post. All my resists are around negative 30. I can solo Baal with ease, but in trav I die quickly. My suggestion is to put 3 pts into summon resist, and keep MF'ing pit. I don't see a reason why the player has problems with Pit runs.

As for playing style, a skelemancer should be the quarterback. Keep you pocket and don't get sacked. I usually run to the front but as soon as I see my enemies come, I retreat back and my skellies form the defense line. Amp dmg curse and right after the first corpse falls, CE should give you a guaranteed victory. Drink health potion anytime your Life orb is 1/4 empty.

You can survive Hell, trust me.

[Samael]

Thanks for all of the great advise, i got my resists up till bout -20 (for the moment) and im noticing the diffrence :D
now its just worrying to keep my skellys grouped

[HarbingersOfSkulls]

This proves something:
1) Some Skellymancers are lousy.
2) Not all Skellymancers can make to Hell Baal alone.
3) You need U'ber gear or at least +10 All Skills Gear.
4) Skellymancers might find Lightning dmg to be a problem.


This proves something:
1) You are the king of all things idiot :king: :worship:
2) Must live in a plastic bubble.
3) Need to run back to the other forums and brag about your latest exploits here.
4) Have nothing useful to say.... period.
5) Really must go back to wc.
6) Must realize that you really are not liked in many forums as it is.
7) Have proven yourself to be a waste of time for most people here.
8) Make everyone here in the Necro forum want to go join Mad Mantis :drink:
9) Make it feel really stupid in here when you post.
10) Have made alot of people here more stupid for reading your stupid remarks/comments/advice.
11) Need to realize who the TRUE Vets here are, and see that THEY are more helpful than you have been.
12) Do this because you need to riase your post count, instead of raising Skeletons/Mages/and Revives.

HoS

[SnakeEye85]

as Ghist said, use attract ALOT!

i never use Dim vision even if it´s a great curse

when my minions start hiting on a group of monsters i just amp them all, and then make sure that 1 or 2 of them have attract

for ranged enemyes, like archer groups, i just get one of them attracted.

If you use attract every time there is a couple, or more, enemyes then your minions, and you, will almost never get hurt.

GL!

[Mad Mantis]

5) Really must go back to wc.

I like Warcraft 3. The Orcs are cool. Bloodlust is the best spell ever. And Cripple is just like Decrep!

Have a pint on me lads. :drink: :drink: :buddies:

[HarbingersOfSkulls]

I like Warcraft 3. The Orcs are cool. Bloodlust is the best spell ever. And Cripple is just like Decrep!

Have a pint on me lads. :drink: :drink: :buddies:

I only got into the first one personally, but you don't see me going around acting like I know everything about it. If I wanted to be a monkey*ss like some others, I could be. But I find trying to be helpful more important than that.

HoS

[KSechrist]

I'm in the exact same situation:
peasant crown (+1 sk)
Vipermagi (+1, 30 sv all)
+2 summon weapon
+3 summon amulet swaps with +1 all skills, 31mf after I have my horde
Ravenfrost (cold absorb)
24mf ring
Sigon shield (+1 sk)
40mf chance guards
blue boots 26mf, 20 sv cold.
caster crafted belt with +LR, +FR

With this, I was all red resists and
28RS /26RS (Allowing me 12 skeles)
28SM /26SM
6CG
6SResist

Running with an equal level might merc w/rare equipment and about 60 save all.

I got owned... HARD. I couldn't go 20 yards w/o dying. It was frustrating as all hell (har!) So I thought about it and what I was dying to was resist related. I swapped out the +summon wand for a wizardspike (my first elite unique), Swapped out the +1 skills with +30 res all amulet. Swapped out mf ring for 13 res all ring. My resists are now 65/75/75/65. I don't die NEAR as much.

Pit runs are trivial. equip all my +summon stuff, and summon golem in town, Outer cloister, advance slowly until I have 10 skeletons, then swap in MF gear. Rather than running willy-nilly to find the pit, play cat-n-mouse advancing along the path. Spam-amp damage (where I have a few extra points put in so my radius is large) and start the CE chain when I can.

Advancing is tough, though. I'm at the 3rd or 4th WP in Act 5. Diablo was done with only 1 death (forgot to decrep and he just worked too many skeles too quick). However, getting to shenk was rough with the archers shooting from off the screen before I could find them. I ate 3-4 deaths first trip through, but now it's easier in that I know to go slower, cast dim vision more. Really it's all about slow & steady.

That and always save a couple 35k wands in the stash in case death comes shortly after an amulet spree. You're crippled w/o your merc.


Oh, and for the record, in about 20 pit runs yesterday: Nord's tenderizer, Windforce (same run!), nature's peace, steel carapace, djinn slayer & eshthingy with (19f/20l/20e). go go MF! :)