question about arty necros in 1.10

[waytofailself]

i assume it's still a viable build, right? as that was my favorite class EVER back in 1.08, which was how long ago i was playing the game.

the skill synergies are fun and everything, but after reading here i'm really beginning to wonder something: for the arty necro who's going to focus on bone spirit (or maybe spear) along with bone prison for skill synergy (though i find bonewall to be a more useful skill), what do you think would be the best golem to use? the lv 6 one or the fire one? i will be using attract, but i want something else to attract attention. the plus on the fire golem is the aura attack, but the earth golem has SO MUCH MORE LIFE.

i'd really like to know what you all think, especially for nightmare and hell.

thanks! :)

[Fearox]

Clay golem is the only choice as I see it, with the slow mod.
About the bone skills: there enough skill points to max bone spirit, bone spear, teeth, bone wall and bone prison. You will be level 93 or something when done if you go for clay golem and golem mastery as well.
If you want curses you can just "steal" some points from bone prison/wall or use Marrowwalks to take advantage of the bug. It will be expensive if you're planning on using bone prison though.

[waytofailself]

that's one vote for clay...i'm level 10 right now with some skill points sitting around, so it's really early on and i still have a time to choose.

question about the slow, is it from enemy to enemy? i know it works REALLY well with decrep, which i see some merit in, but do you think it's worth subbing out the fire golem, who'd attract a whole bunch of attention away from me?

[Mad Mantis]

The Clay Golem slows anything that he hits.
His insane amount of life means that he can take an awful lot of punishment. Since monsters put your minions very high up their list of targets, chances are that your Golem will attract the attention of all monsters that see him. Since you are using attract, that means that you will be able to make Clay take on enormous groups at a time and survive.

FG on the other hand attracts a lot of attention and then dies very rapidly, leaving you to deal with large groups of very angry enemies.

[waytofailself]

thanks for the help :) so far i have CG at lv 3 and GM at level 3 as well and that guy takes a beating. the only two things to consistantly kill him so far are scarabs (because of their lightning crap), and good ol' andariel. but you're right, as long as i run around a little bit, all of the monsters immediately herd around the golem. sometimes i cast IM from there, otherwise Amp, but always Amp before CE.

ah, to be an arty necro again, and one level away from Spear.

if i can remember correctly, here's my skill points so far:

Curses, 1 point in Amp, IM, Weak, dim vision
Summon, CG 3, CM 3
P&B: 1 in teeth and BA, 2 in CE, 3 in BW

i think i forgot where i put a skill point, or i'm level 16 instead of 17.

anyhow, opinions on Bone spear or bone spirit? i'll probably end up maxing both anyway, but which should i go for first, along with skill synergies? and when i hit 18, should i pump some points into BS, or just one and keep pumping BW?

thanks again!

[Mad Mantis]

Spear versus Spirit depends on personal preference. I like Spear better than Spirit because it is fast and pierces. With enough FCR you will be shooting faster than George "Machine Gun" Kelly and you will be dealing damage to anything in a straight line.

Spirit is very powerful. It does more damage. What it lacks is speed. But when they hit, things feel it.

When you reach 18 start pumping Spear. Work on the synergies later on.

[Fearox]

Spear is cheaper on mana too :thumbsup:

[waytofailself]

so the advantage of spirit is the much higher damage and the auto target...that'd be pretty good for making that first corpse for the CE, along with attract and the CG of course...

but since the patch, it's nice to see that spear is useful, but would anyone here dare to say it's better? especially if it's more mana efficient?

then again, i remember my old arty necro having few mana problems once i got my nrg up to 50 or 60 or so...woo...but i might be remembering it wrong.

[Mad Mantis]

Sure, I would dare to say that it is better, depending on your playstyle. As always it depends on your playstyle.