Need some general sin build advice

[Thock]

new to diablo. been playing for about a month and got a sin through normal and then got ***** in nm. i tried some other charecters and just didnt have as much fun playing them as i did a sin. so i started over and decided to do some research and found the trapasin the most interesting. but i hate cookie cutter builds in any game so i thought id try a bit of tweaking and here is what i came up with. i know about ma sins and they just seem so annoying to play. ill be compleatley PvM single player.

Stats
vit: pumped (life is good, retrieving bodies bad)
dex: as needed for equip and ar (i know trapasins dont normally attack but mine will)?
str: as needed for equip

Skills
max lighning sentry
max wake of inferno
max shadow master
max weopon block?

Merc
now here is where i dont know a hole lot. i know i want a melee merc but should i go with the act V barb merc or the act II merc with thorns?

Strat
ok so what i do is allow my merc and sm go after the croud while i sit back casting traps and plinking off the leftovers with a bow on the switch.

Questions

should i use c/c or c/s?
i know having two claws with bonuses to traps is nice and all but im worried about resists which is easily fixed with a nice four socketed shield and pdiamonds.

if i set a trap into effect with a plus to traps claw and switch to my bow while the trap is still in effect will it effect the trap?

ok i know this is proboly the most newb question ever asked on the net about diablo but i heard something about changing the number of players in a game to create more drops but how is it done? can i do it single player or do i need a group? at what point will i be able to do this and not get my arse shoved down my throat?

is this build viable to get through nm and hell and if not what needs fixin?

thanx in advance for any help or comments

EDIT: im running 1.10 btw

[kasurain]

:buddies: choose c/c, WB can block many elemental attacks that are unblockable with shield, for resists. you can get 2 +40 all resists claws(easy to find on battle net).and give some points to fade. that's enough

answer to 2nd question:
i didn't test it, but as a programmer , i think when trap is working.whatever you change will not effect it. :scratch:

[GenXCub]

First, I don't know if trappers really need weapon block, unless you're duelling other people. Cloak of Shadows will keep you from taking ranged fire.

Also, don't do LS and WoI for your traps. You really need to work the synergies to get decent damage for the late game. If you really really want both lightning and fire, do Wake of Inferno with Death Sentry, or Lightning Sentry, Death Sentry and Fire Blast. Go to the strategy compendium for a decent trapper guide.

to change players in single player for version 1.10, you hit the enter key like you're going to chat, then you type

/players 8

that simulates 8 players in the game. You can do any number from 1 to 8. All monsters will now have 8X the hit points and give about 6.5X more experience. They also have a lower chance to roll the "no drop" which means more stuff... though you usually see the difference more when you open chests and urns.

should i use c/c or c/s?
i know having two claws with bonuses to traps is nice and all but im worried about resists which is easily fixed with a nice four socketed shield and pdiamonds.

I prefer claw/shield, but I play hardcore, so when I die... it's game over. I think Claw Claw is more fun, but you really lack with resists (unless you get the jade talon). I wouldn't go for a 4 socket shield... the lowest strength requirement for a 4 socketed shield is a Monarch, and that's 156 str. Way too much STR for a trapper. 3 PD shields are good, and you can get +63 resist all with a 2 PD Mosers Blessed Circle.

if i set a trap into effect with a plus to traps claw and switch to my bow while the trap is still in effect will it effect the trap?

No, traps are whatever level you were when you laid them. The same goes with Shadow Master/Warrior.

[jantia]

dual bartucs vrs. bartucs/jade or bartucs/nats

Ts/dtail/ps and a little bit of CoT vrs. ts/dtail/venom/ a little in talon maybe?

[tydon]

I have a level 8x dual claw trapper hybred on HC, and she does fine. Course, her gear cost a fair amount...6 normal trap gcs, 1 with 40 life, resist jewels in the bartucs I use, stuff like that :). Overall, if your a pure trapsin, go with 1 +3 traps claw and maybe one jaded for the resists, or 2 +3 traps if you dont need the res.

[Thock]

kasurain: i wont be going on battle net this is only PvM single player so ill have to find the claws. even if i did go onto battle net ive only been playing d2 for a month or so and have only been through normal once so i really dont have anything to trade. i did manage to find a brimstone thirst wrist spike with +2 to traps.

GenXCub: ok how do the synergies work? do i have to cast the syn trap or just put points in it?

jantia: i want a pure trapper so i wont be putting points in the MA tree

tydon: im a very poor man as far as diablo currency goes. i have like 5 pgems
and the highest rune ive found is Amn and only one of those.

[GenXCub]

You just have to put points in it. Go to the Arreat Summit's skills page at http://www.battle.net/diablo2exp/skills/ and read the trap synergies. +skills don't add to the synergy bonus, just the actual points.

For instance, a regular level 20 Wake of Inferno blast does 250-291 damage. We'll say you have +10 skills for traps.

A level 30 Wake of Inferno with no Synergies does 446-500 per blast.

A level 30 Wake of Inferno with 20 points put into Death Sentry does 1210 - 1355 damage per blast.

Death Sentry doesn't get a bonus from Wake of Inferno, but most people use DS for its corpse explosion, not its lightning damage.

Fire Blast is also a synergy for both of these.

I have a level 75 Hardcore Blade Fury Fire Trapper that's max DS, WoI and Fire Blast. It's a lot of fun, but I'd rather re-make her as a lightning trapper since that fits my style more. But she's still definitely a tough cookie.

[Thock]

btw why is body explosion so important?

[GenXCub]

Thock, Death Sentry does a modified version of the Necromancer's Corpse Explosion skill. Let's say you kill a monster with 8000 hit points (very common in Hell difficulty) and you have a death sentry trap out. Every monster within its radius (which can be the whole screen if you max the skill out and have enough +skills gear) will take between 3200 and 6400 damage when it explodes. If that kills one of those other monsters on the screen, then IT will explode doing another 40%-80% of its HP in damage. This is known to necromancers as a CE Chain. One explosion usually kills at least one other monster, which can then be used to kill even more. The damage that Corpse Explosion does is half physical and half fire damage.

[Tanatus]

Assasin arent fast killers let face it. Assasion kill most things with safety its true (cloak of shadow, shadow master, mind blast ... you name it) but speed of killing .... *sign*. Most deadly AE attack in this game is copse explosion altouth assasin version of CE (DS) arent as powefull as necro CE (40-80% vs. 60-100%) once you have few enemy bodies on a ground setting 1-2 DS sentries will do a lot more damage then any other traps combinied toss here here damage scaled up with multiplayer game. Look you WOI might do 1500+ fire damage but if you have 8 players in game it wont do 8X more damage ... DS will since damage based on HP of monsters....
Last but not least .... then you will do baal runs setting DS traps allow you get lion share of exp may be not very nice but extremely fast ...

[Thock]

oh sweet looks like im going to be running a lightning trapasin. thanx for all the help.

[GenXCub]

Tanatus, Corpse Explosion doesn't scale with monster HP in multiplayer games. Necros can just get more out of it since Amp damage increases the CE Damage.

[Tanatus]

In goes up in sence that in 8players game copses have more HP assosiate with copse compare to single player game. So to speak if you need say 3 copses on ground to blow out group of 8 monsters in single player game you will need same 3 copses in blow up same 8 monster in 8 player game... not a cases if you are using any other traps - say you need 3 LS to kill group of monsters in single player game so in 8 players game you will need 24LS of same power to do kill same group...

[GenXCub]

Tanatus, Corpse Explosion will only do the damage based on how many HP the monster has in a 1 player game. If an 8000 HP monster has 64000 HP in an 8 player game, corpse explosion treats it like an 8000 HP monster for damage. Ask anyone in the Necromancer Forum.