Summon or Summon/Poison?

[TheGameAh]

I know this question has popped up in other threads, but I wanted to dedicate one to it to possibly do some comparisons. I have a level 23 necro at the moment, working on raise skeleton, using a level 1 ce as well (boosted by a few items). Somewhere around level 40 I'll be maxing out raise skeleton with all my curses filled with a point as well. At that point I'll have to decide to either go pure summon or mix poison in.

I imagine it's a matter of preference, but is one build more effective then another? It will take a long time to max all three poison synergies, while pure summon only has skeleton mastery to worry about. I like dim vision, would I be able to put points into this if I went the massive point route of poison, or are skill adders enough to get Dim to a good level?

So basically I'm wondering which build is more effective (I imagine they're both effective). Also, which build you've enjoyed more, if you've done both. Or even how about which build has it easier in terms of getting the proper gear for it? (example: summoner=H. of King Leoric; poison=Death's Web).

[gjcraig]

You have to max poision and synergies and lots of plus skills for PN to be a big killer - but if you go full summon you'll be standing around watching the killing or casting curses - I don't like either solution thats why I am pumping up my marrowwalk boner .

[tremak]

I have a pure summoner, almost a "overlord" or "zoo-mancer" and its a little slow sometimes. Warriors do most of the killing, mages look pretty, and revives provide comic relief. If you can manage it, poison/summon is probably the stronger build of the two.

[JohnnyShotMe]

If your raise skel will be maxed around level 40 I can only assume you've dumped a lot of skill points somewhere else. It takes an investment of 60 points to max pn and its synergies....in your case until level 100. I hate to say it but if you really want to go poison/summon hybrid you are better off remaking and going 1 skel mastery/20 raise skels or 20 summon mastery/extra in revives and max the poison skills.

My personal preference is 1 mastery/20 raise purely because I'm lazy and I don't like to resummon expired revives.

If you choose to remake your guy and go for 20RS/max psn skills I would definately advocate maxing raise skels right out of the box and tossing your quest points for 1 amp, 1 summon mastery, 1 CE.

Are you on US East ladder? If so, PM me if you want a hand.


Also, you do have one really nice advantage if you remake. You can use your current guy yo raise some money and transfer 60k to your new guy. Shop Akara with the new guy until you find a +3 raise skel wand. :)

I invested a good amount of time when I remade my necro and got a +3RA/+3 skel mastery/+1 CE wand. Very nice.

With maxxed RS, it's simply a matter of following your skels around and letting them lay waste to the enemy while dropping an occassional amp. You will need help vs bosses though, but levelling should be no problem.

[TheGameAh]

Level 40 might have been a high estimate. But I haven't dumped any points into any other skills besides the normal stuff, or at least what I thought was normal. All the curses have one point, as well as every summon has a point as well. So a lot of points did go in to fill those prereqs.

[gvandale]

poison / summon beats out a pure summon. there are cheaper alternatives (trang's pieces) that will still give you a glorious outcome.

g

[UserMathias]

Pure summon: cheaper, slower, apparently effective in mf running the pit.

Poison/whatnot: fast, expensive - pvm pwnage.

[HarbingersOfSkulls]

poison / summon beats out a pure summon. there are cheaper alternatives (trang's pieces) that will still give you a glorious outcome.

g

I'll agree with that.

As much as I liked my Venomancer...I had to retire it. I was one of a few on ladder that had one at the time...and then it got to be where everyone and their momma had one...so I canned it.

Really bad when you go into a game..and 4-5 other Necro's are the same build..and it eventually became a cookie cutter build for the ages.

Though it's a good build with the right equipment.

HoS

[GenXCub]

You could do a cheesomancer with 20 points in Poison Dagger, a venom runeword fanged knife to get charges of level 15 pe and level 13 pn, then spend your other points on summins :)


edit: summins??? I'm such a redneck!

[Necrochild313]

Correction, you are a Rednecromancer

I don't run into too many competant venomancers. They all spam it and brag about how much damage they are doing.

...

I WANNA FRICKIN KICK'EM! That's almost as bad as the guy who kept using weaken...WEAKEN!

[Havoc One]

In 1.10 I have found skellie builds need to be NEARLY pure skellies. Dual tree poison\summons seem to slow me down quite a bit. I've tried it 3 times and have never been happy with the results.

Poison\Summon wont let you get enough killing power in either tree. And it limits the MF gear you can wear since you have to try and compensate for the lack of Poison Synergies and weak Skellies.

My personal favorite Necro of all times is a Summoner +CE. I dont know about you guys, but I can run hell Baal all night long and not get hit at all. The killing is quick if you have 1 point in CE and a ton of +skills.

My summoner has a level 16 CE with +skills and can do Baal runs in about 15 minutes. Just wait for the skellies to drop 1 body then CE away. I have dropped Lister in under 5 seconds while solo. Not too much longer with others in the game....

It's the fastest MF character I have ever built, and I have 3 accounts of well equiped and well built characters. Not even my totally buffed out IK barb can come close to the killing power of a maxed out Summoner +CE.

[gvandale]

In 1.10 I have found skellie builds need to be NEARLY pure skellies. Dual tree poison\summons seem to slow me down quite a bit. I've tried it 3 times and have never been happy with the results.

Poison\Summon wont let you get enough killing power in either tree. And it limits the MF gear you can wear since you have to try and compensate for the lack of Poison Synergies and weak Skellies.

My personal favorite Necro of all times is a Summoner +CE. I dont know about you guys, but I can run hell Baal all night long and not get hit at all. The killing is quick if you have 1 point in CE and a ton of +skills.

My summoner has a level 16 CE with +skills and can do Baal runs in about 15 minutes. Just wait for the skellies to drop 1 body then CE away. I have dropped Lister in under 5 seconds while solo. Not too much longer with others in the game....

It's the fastest MF character I have ever built, and I have 3 accounts of well equiped and well built characters. Not even my totally buffed out IK barb can come close to the killing power of a maxed out Summoner +CE.
havoc...

your about as wrong as it gets. poison / summon is insanely tough. i'd say if you take the 'perfect' setup for both, a poison / summon would fly through the game quicker then a pure summoner.

g