View Full Version : Help a newbie with an MF necro?
I'm just going to start on a ladder char and want to make something that will be able to MF to start getting gear for future characters. I've always been interested in a summoning necro, and I hear they're pretty safe for MF, so I'm going to take a shot.
Any suggestions for a good build? I want something that can solo through hell and won't have trouble with physical immunes... oh, and doesn't rely on hard to come by MF gear :)
At first I was thinking about focusing on revives, but I'm starting to lean toward skeletal mages (to deal with PI's). Any thoughts/suggestions are appreciated!
HarbingersOfSkulls
11-05-2004, 00:49
I'm just going to start on a ladder char and want to make something that will be able to MF to start getting gear for future characters. I've always been interested in a summoning necro, and I hear they're pretty safe for MF, so I'm going to take a shot.
Any suggestions for a good build? I want something that can solo through hell and won't have trouble with physical immunes... oh, and doesn't rely on hard to come by MF gear :)
At first I was thinking about focusing on revives, but I'm starting to lean toward skeletal mages (to deal with PI's). Any thoughts/suggestions are appreciated!
Basically its max:
Skeletons
Mastery
Mages(optional)
Corpse Explosion
1 point into Revives
1 point into Gumby,Golem Mastery,and Summon Resists
1 point into each curse(some use all...others go up to Decrepify and/or Lower Resist)
Amp and Decrep are your main 2 curses(with Dim Vision for lightning monsters)
HoS
I have a level 87 MF summoner so Ill just give you his skill layout.
20 Raise Skeleton
20 Raise Mastery
20 Raise Skeletal Mage
5 Golem Mastery
1 in all other summoning skills
5 Corpse Explosion
1 Bone Armor
1 Bone Wall
1 Bone Prison
1 in all curses
Thats more or less what his skill layout, but its not exact. Anyways The only things you actually need are the maxed skeletons, maxed mastery, amp damage, and corpse explosion, anythign else is personal preference. Amp damage breaks phys immunes so you dont need mages at all.
As far as gear is concerned I have my summoner in full mf gear and his total mf (with a few charms) totals to 504%. I still kill fine everywhere in hell. Only real problem is staying alive in places where gloams can get you (- resists due to mf gear) and in Act 4 when the oblivion knights cast IM on your group.
A might mercenary is ESSENTIAL to the build. In full mf gear you can only hope for about +6 to summoning skills so your skellies wont be able to kill very fast even with amp cast. A high level might merc will boost your skellies by almost as much as amp will. Also dont give a merc mf gear, give him great gear so he can kill fast and stay alive. My might mercenary always gets my first bodies for the CE chain.
As far as strategy is concerned, just cast your golem and bone armor (if you get it) and head somewhere like pindleskin to raise your army. Now I STRONGLY suggest you get some means of teleport (I recomend a naj staff on wep switch, cheap and has many charges) so once you get your army tele to pindle to take him out quickly. Every time you kill packs you will rely mostly on your merc to get the first body them blow em up. For boss killing, tele to where you need to get to and make sure your merc is equipped with crushing blow (guillames face or rattlecage work good). Without crushing blow boss killing isnt effective due to the length of it takes. Remember its better to be very fast with low mf, than really slow with high mf. However it shouldnt be hard to kill at medium-high speeds with high mf.
For curses, you will almost always use amp damage, but decrep is good vs bosses and extremely tough monsters. Lifetap is great to make sure your minions dont die vs enhanced boss packs. Dim Vision takes care of ranged attackers.
Anyways, good luck with your necro. Also Im on USEast Ladder so if you want some moretips or anythign message me, account is *CEG.
My current thoughts are Fire golem (to deal elemental damage) and revive.
20 Fire Golem
20 Golem Mastery
20 Revive (possibly less if it's too crazy)
20 Skeleton Mastery
04 Summon Resist (returns suck after 4 points)
I'm not sure after that, probably a curse - any recomendations?
My current thoughts are Fire golem (to deal elemental damage) and revive.
20 Fire Golem
20 Golem Mastery
20 Revive (possibly less if it's too crazy)
20 Skeleton Mastery
04 Summon Resist (returns suck after 4 points)
I'm not sure after that, probably a curse - any recomendations?
Get clay golem, it can have more life and its ability to slow is very helpful, especially versus bosses. Also you dont need any more than 5 points (even only 1 can be enough) because the golem is only a minor distraction while you get your army. Now I strongly suggest you forget revives and go with skeletons. Even in full mf gear skeletons with 26 RS/SM (the levels mine are at) they can do about 1100 damage with amp and might combined. They also almost never die as is. Now revives die in 3 mins but usually die from getting lost before that. To keep all your revives for their short lifespan you need teleport, whereas you can fairly easily get by without teleport by using skellies. I have enough +skills to need only 1 point in Summon resist, but 4-5 points is a good idea. So all in all I find skeletons to be MUCH more effective than revives in every way.
Wow, I didn't realize amp damage took care of PI's, shows how little I know. In that case I'll change my build a bit, good thing I just started and put most of my points into skeleton Mastery.
So new build:
20 Skel Mastery
20 Skeletons
4 in summon resist
5 amp damage (give me some more range)
1 point in all other curses
5 clay golem
1 golem mastery
? corpse explosion
That's all I'm certain about at this point... What's so good about having a bunch of points in corpse explosion? Do you really use it that frequently? Also, then the question becomes "What do I do with all the rest of my points!" And why bother putting even 1 point into revive if it sucks so much?
Or after examing golem stats and such, how about skipping it completely. I've also decided I'm going to go all out with CE leaving my build looking like:
Max: Raise Skeleton, Skeleton Mastery, Corpse Explosion
4 points in summon resist
1 point in most of the curses (maybe a few more in amp damage and decrepify)
I'll rely on my Might Merc to get my first kill and should be good from there. Maybe I'll even do a poison/bone skill with the 20 or so points I'll have left to spend.
Sorry for my frequent revisions, I'm just trying to make this necro all he can be :)
Or after examing golem stats and such, how about skipping it completely. I've also decided I'm going to go all out with CE leaving my build looking like:
Max: Raise Skeleton, Skeleton Mastery, Corpse Explosion
4 points in summon resist
1 point in most of the curses (maybe a few more in amp damage and decrepify)
I'll rely on my Might Merc to get my first kill and should be good from there. Maybe I'll even do a poison/bone skill with the 20 or so points I'll have left to spend.
Dear cyrxi,
Anope, really, only one point into summon resist. Really! Only one point! You'll be able to find enough +skills items that putting more points into it will have deminished returns! Save yourself a few points and not put more than ONE (1) point into it! Take a looksie at the skill calculator to verify this by placing a point into it and then say +5 into Necromancer skills or skills in general. It'll verify what I and the rest have been saying.
Other than that.. eh, it's pretty much up to you as to whether being more active in the felling of your foes with an offensive bone spell (teeth/spear/spirit), or letting your minions do the work and add in with curses.
-Patsy
"As cunning as a fox who's just been appointed Professor of Cunning at Oxford University."
LOL, okay, but this is going to be an MF character, so I really won't have that much as far as +skills goes (at least until I'm lucky enough to come across some uber gear), but I'll stick with one for the time being :)
Oh, and another thing - damn corpse explosion eats my mana! I'm going to have to invest more into mana than I had planned if I actually want to use it at all.
Lvl 91 hcl mf/summoner
sm/rs max
b wall maxed
ce maxed
dv 17
1 in the rest (0 in lt/lr/poison skills/bspear/b spirit/b prison)
510%mf/maxed resists in hell
with mf gear on-10 skellys,5 mages, 8 revives, 1 gumby, 1 might merc
58% resists on summons
usually only need the skellys for the mf runs i do (a5/pit/ancient tunnels/swampy pit/andy...) although i do like to revive archers in the pit.
me-1075 life, merc 2k life, gumby 2.4k (all before casting oak from natures)
50% block as well for me
Lvl 91 hcl mf/summoner
sm/rs max
b wall maxed
ce maxed
dv 17
1 in the rest (0 in lt/lr/poison skills/bspear/b spirit/b prison)
510%mf/maxed resists in hell
with mf gear on-10 skellys,5 mages, 8 revives, 1 gumby, 1 might merc
58% resists on summons
usually only need the skellys for the mf runs i do (a5/pit/ancient tunnels/swampy pit/andy...) although i do like to revive archers in the pit.
me-1075 life, merc 2k life, gumby 2.4k (all before casting oak from natures)
50% block as well for me
What is your MF gear? My MF poisonmancer (use PN exclusively) did fine in the pits. Kill most baddies with 1-2 nova. I use full trang set with deathweb. Not too much MF but kill faster than my melee char.
Chien
PS: I max PD,PE and PN. 1 each in curse. and some in RS and SM. Skelly and clay and merc were just used for distraction.
[QUOTE=chien]What is your MF gear?
pt shako
pt tals arm.
dual isted baba
Rhymed head
+2 caster ammy/9%mf
18% rare gloves/with dual mod resists
40% travs
27% nagel
26% gheeds
7%smfc x4
Hey, cyrxi, I am in the exactly the same situation as you! A friend kept pestering me to make a ladder character, so I made one, and I made a Skellemancer because I had a lot of fun playing with my non-ladder one, because I knew it was the only character I could do the whole game on my own with (at least on my lag box), because it was my very first ladder character and I knew Skellemancers aren't very item-dependent, and finally because I was hoping to find some ladder-only items. I started him 2 or 3 days ago, and he's 24 right now. I'd like to play together with you, should be fun. Whisper me at *Idigyellows. Heh heh, CEG, if I run into trouble and absolutely need some gear, you'll be hearing from me...^^
Edit: I always forget to mention it...I'm East, Softcore.
2_fingers
21-05-2004, 17:19
wHCL lvl 90
Shako p t
Skulder p t
Arm
Hommy p d
T gods
Mara
13%res all ring
rare ring wit 20+ res to light and poison
Waterwalks
303mf
Full res
80/75/85/75
1.1k life
Merc Might lvl90
Black hades with 3 rare jewels giving ed, ed to demons and resistance to light, cold and fire.
Hone sudan amn shael shael
black horn face
Despite the low mf, this build has the 'safe' aspect at heart - u laugh ur toes off at teh gloams taking pot shots at u - and they are KILLERS when revived.
off the top of my head, the skill points
rs sm maxed
some points into bone armour, wall, prison, and a couple of points into ce.
1 to dv, amp and curses leading to decrep
golem, about 6 or so points into resists
something like 12 skele, 6 mages, 1 clay*dooh*, 14 revives
i believe i have around +7 - +10 to all skills...
the trick i found is to do baal runs consistantly from nm to hell
do nm till u got better gear and then go hell. in hell, especially, u can opt to clear the whole tomb - got tons of good stuff that way - or hope ur next turn leads to the throne.
revive 3rd, 4th waves of minions. Ce everyone else unless u need bodies for skeletons.
beware of death lords, the trang oul wanna be creatures, seperent magus and oblivion knights.
baal - run to the extreme left hand side of the screen - ignore him on the bridge and run to the extreme left. wait there for a few seconds for ur minions. go slowly to him and cast ur decrep first followed by immediately a clay golem. then run past him and camp to the north of him. just take a coffee break, casting decrep between sips and wait for the show to end :uhhuh:
telegeek
21-05-2004, 18:43
And again for the golem
If ur going to do mf runs u REALLY want to use 1 point in clay golem for the slow effect.
When engaging act bosses with Clay golem and decrepfy they cannot move and they can hardly at all cast any spells.
I got lvl 87 summoner:
20 sm
20 rs
20 mages
1 revieve
1 clay golem
1 summon resist
1 golem mastery
1 to all curses
1 to bonearmor
currently working my corpse explotion to lvl 20
With full equip and 2 summonskillers i got lvl 38 skellies.
I also got a retired mancer using all the same with only 1 point in ce and alot of points in bone spirit, but that was a total failure :)
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