Question about my Skelliemancer build...

[BleedBlack]

hello...

Well I've decided to make a skelliemancer to help me gain a bit of wealth on UsEast ladder.

Heres my setup
----------------
helm-Peasent Crown
armor-Skin of the viper magi
sheild-homunculus
wand-Arm of King Leoric
boots-silkweaves
gloves-Trangs
belt-Gloomstrap
rings-whatever cruddy ones i find
ammy-+3 summoning

This will be the main killing setup...my questions lie in if I swap some of these out for mf items, will my kill ability go down? Is mf even worth it in 1.10 anyway?

Skill Setup
-----------
20 skellies
20 skellie mastery
1-10 revive
20 corpse explostion
1-10 amp dmg
1 clay golem
1 summon resist
1 golem master
pre-reqs

Now, my question lies in how well will my minions be able to kill in hell with this setup? Is corpse explosion really worth the investment?

any help or tips anyone can give me on anything would be greatly appreciated.

*also...where do necros tend to excel at mfing?

[malathion]

I just posted a Skellimancer guide that here (http://forums.rpgforums.net/showthread.php?t=153217) that will answer a lot of your questions. Anyway..

if I swap some of these out for mf items, will my kill ability go down?
Yes. Fewer skels=less damage. You're going to have to find the right balance. Personally I haven't found much difference between 200 and 250 or even 300 mf, so I go with +skill stuff. Unless you can hit 400 mf (which you can't really) you probably shouldn't bother trying to get great mf with a necro.

how well will my minions be able to kill in hell with this setup? Is corpse explosion really worth the investment?
You'll be okay if you can get a good merc. You're following solid procedure and if you can't get great gear then I probably agree you should add some extra points to revive.

Edit: However, I think it's wrong to put 10 points in amp damage. You only need 1 point in that, under any circumstances.

[zzLen_Mastazz]

hello...

Well I've decided to make a skelliemancer to help me gain a bit of wealth on UsEast ladder.

Heres my setup
----------------
helm-Peasent Crown
armor-Skin of the viper magi
sheild-homunculus
wand-Arm of King Leoric
boots-silkweaves
gloves-Trangs
belt-Gloomstrap
rings-whatever cruddy ones i find
ammy-+3 summoning

This will be the main killing setup...my questions lie in if I swap some of these out for mf items, will my kill ability go down? Is mf even worth it in 1.10 anyway?

Skill Setup
-----------
20 skellies
20 skellie mastery
1-10 revive
20 corpse explostion
1-10 amp dmg
1 clay golem
1 summon resist
1 golem master
pre-reqs

Now, my question lies in how well will my minions be able to kill in hell with this setup? Is corpse explosion really worth the investment?

any help or tips anyone can give me on anything would be greatly appreciated.

*also...where do necros tend to excel at mfing?

You will roll through hell with that setup. And you can add a bit of mf without alot of recourse. Just for giggles try switching out the peasant and viper for a 3 perfect topaz helm and a wealth or 4 perfect topaz armor, as well as the gloves for chances(or any mf gloves), for a summoner a little fcr hit won't kill you too bad except on ce. You should be pretty happy. Then as the guy said above tweek it from there. Add a little at a time till you find your balance, and maybe a skullders or shako will come along and ease your troubles :) :buddies:

[BleedBlack]

thanks for the replies everyone...they are duley noted..

And mala...nice guide and all...but I'm not THAT rich...;)

[Necro]

With 20 in CE you may have a hard time keeping your mana full without sojs and a shako. I go 1 point ce and let + skills bring it up, or maybe dump 5 points in it if you dont have enough + skills. Instead of dumping all those points in CE, I would consider maxing mages, having an army of mages casting from behind a wall of skels and revives is cute. Your probly need to worry more about your ristance rather than mf for now. Also I would only do 1 in revive, you will have enough + skills for that. My summoner can take down hell baal in no time with a might merc,skells,mages, and dec.

[Dausuul]

Unless you can hit 400 mf (which you can't really) you probably shouldn't bother trying to get great mf with a necro.
Not true at all. My Skelemancer does all of my MF-ing, and he's quite good at it despite having only medium-quality gear (and it was a lot less than medium when I began). Your gear is already better than mine. All you really need is a 4-socket armour, a 3-socket helm, and seven perfect topazes to get you started. You can bootstrap your way up from there.

It's also worth noting that you can put on your full +skills gear, raise all your minions, then swap out for MF gear and your minions will keep their superior damage, hit points, and attack/defense. The number of minions you have will go down, but the quality of each individual skeleton will remain the same.

Regarding point placement: More than 1 in Revive is a total waste IMO. I seldom bother with Revives at all except when fighting Lister and his pals; they take too much nursemaiding and don't do enough damage. Let the +skills boost your Revives and leave the heavy lifting (and the heavy point investment!) to your skeletons, which are better at it.

Likewise, I wouldn't put more than 1 into Amp Damage. You may have to cast it a couple more times to get everything cursed, but it's not worth blowing actual skill points just to get a little more area and duration. The only curse I'd really consider pumping beyond 5 "real" points would be Dim Vision.

I do think it's well worth maxing CE. CE does insane damage, but it is limited by the fact that you only get so many corpses to work with. The bigger the blast from each corpse, the more damage you can do with CE overall. It does eat up a lot of mana, but that's why you can buy blue potions now. Moreover, a larger blast radius means you may not need as many CEs to deal with a big group of enemies.

This does, of course, leave you with a bunch of points to spend. I'd advise choosing to max one or more of Skeleton Magi, Bone Wall, Bone Prison, or Dim Vision. Skeleton Magi add some solid firepower to your army (not as good as the warriors, but not bad either), plus the cold magi can chill enemies, the poison magi stop monster regeneration practically forever, and they can take down the rare Physical Immune whose immunity can't be broken by Amp Damage. Bone Wall and Prison are very useful for controlling big groups of monsters, plus they add a big synergy bonus to your Bone Armour. Dim Vision is incredibly handy for shutting down ranged attackers *cough*Black Souls*cough*.

Some Skelemancers like to go the hybrid route and pump a couple of direct-damage skills (either two of the poison skills, or Bone Spirit or Spear and one synergy). This puts a huge strain on your skill points and requires a very careful selection of gear. If all you want is a character who can kill steadily, MF efficiently, and survive in A5 Hell, I'd say a straight Skelemancer is a better choice. However, if you want a variant on the "cookie-cutter" necro, a hybrid could be a lot of fun.

[malathion]

Not true at all. My Skelemancer does all of my MF-ing, and he's quite good at it despite having only medium-quality gear (and it was a lot less than medium when I began). Your gear is already better than mine. All you really need is a 4-socket armour, a 3-socket helm, and seven perfect topazes to get you started. You can bootstrap your way up from there.
What's your setup? I'm trying to figure out a combination that will beat MF sorcs but I can't think of one without seriously sacrificing killing power.