CEG
18-06-2004, 22:49
Hello everyone, this guide is will present a type of necromancer rarely seen in many games and often overlooked in the 1.10 patch. Most people choose the route of maxing all synergies and maxing out the damage of a certain spell or spell type (poison necros/bone necros, one tree sorceresses, etc). However, this necromancer will split points between both poison and bone spells.
Why go hybrid?
Many people overlook going hybrid due to low damage. Despite the inability to achieve the highest damage, going hybrid gains the player a degree of flexibility and versatility in both pvm and pvp aspects of the game. This versatility is the heart of this build.
Skills:
This necromancer's skills will be almost entirely focused in the poison and bone tree and minimal curse investment. Summons are ignored.
Poison and Bone Tree:
Teeth - 1 point
Bone Armor - 1 point
Corpse Explosion - 1 point
Poison Dagger - 10 points*
Bone Wall - 20 points
Spear - 20 points**
Poison Explosion - 1 point
Bone Prison - 0 or 20 points***
Bone Spirit - 5 points****
Poison Nova - 20 points
*10 points is all that will be spent into synergies for Poison Nova. With the gear selections I will explain later Poison Nova will not be in great need of more synergies. Poison Dagger is chosen due to its usefulness at low levels.
**Spear is going to be the bone spell of choice and needs to be maxed to reach signifigant damage.
***I dislike abusing a bug so I prefer to max prison. However if you do use the bug then you can max bone spirit or put more points into poison synergies
****With all the other bone synergies 5 points is all that is needed to raise the damage of spirit to a decent number with the gear selection.
Curse Tree:
1 point in all curses except the left hand AI curses. The reason is that every point is needed and I find that getting a wand with dim vision on switch works just fine.
Summoning Tree:
None, points are already in high demand and bone wall/prison works to hold off enemies.
Stat Points:
Strength - 100 is enough to allow you to wear most of the gear anyone would want. Strength also will be raised higher by the gear selection.
Dexterity - Either none or enough for max block with Homunculus (or 75 if you want to use a wizardspike)
Vitality - Everything else
Energy - None if your pvp or as much as you see fit.
Equipment Selection:
Now, it is undeniable that this build requires a generous ammount of plus to skills to really be able to work, but it isn't as expensive as you might think.
Rich Setup:
Helm: Shako/Godly rare circlet (cham if you need cbf here)
Armor: Enigma (preferably in Breastplate to lower need for str)
Weapon/Shield: HotO/Perfect Darkforce(or homunculus if you choose block)
Switch: CTA/Lidless
Belt: Arachnids Mesh
Gloves: Trangs
Boots: Sandstorm Treks or Marrowwalks
Amulet: Crafted +2 nec/20% fcr/life/mana/resists
Rings: soj/bk ring or soj/raven or bk ring/raven (matter of preference and where you choose to get cbf)
Charms:Anni, 10x pnb (preferably with good 2nd mod),9x life/mana sc's
This setup grants you the 125% fcr breakpoint if you choose darkforce. It is excellent for a vita setup and especially in pvp. It also gives a whopping +26 to the poison and bone tree (+16 all and +10 to poison and bone). With this setup you will have the following:
Poison Nova - 3723-3813 damage
Bone Spear - 3190-3350 damage
Bone Spirit - 2563-2749 damage
Bone Armor - absorbs 880
Also those numbers are without use of the marowwalk bug and assuming that the necro is finished at level 94. So potentially this build has a lot power. I myself do not even have all the gear since I am not rich so on to the easier to attain gear.
Not so Rich Equipment Selections:
Helm: Shako (it is fairly easy to get these days)
Armor: Vipermagi
Weapon: A nice white wand/Suicide Branch/Boneshade/Wizradspike/Blackhand Key/any 2 to nec skills wand
Shield: Homunculus/boneflame/lidless/rare +2 necro head
switch: Ummm, no useful items to switch to
Belt: Verdungo's/nightsmoke/glooms
Gloves: Trangs (just cant beat em for this build)
Boots: Waterwalks/silkweaves/aldurs
Amulet: +3 pnb/any +2 necro
Rings: ravenfrost and dwarf/decent rare/10% fcr/anything usefu
Charms: Whatever gives decent benefits
This setup will grant you a decent ammount of fcr and +skills. With a setup along these lines you will have more or less:
Poison Nova - 2001-2091 damage
Bone Spear - 1671-1768 damage
Bone Spirit - 1248-1365 damage
Bone Armor - abosrbs 730
Again this is assuming level 94 and no marrowwalk bug. Now these numbers look low, but I am currently level 82 (gear in between rich/not so rich) and my nova is about 500 higher than that and my bone spells are about the same. I have done well in pvp and pvm so it is not bad to make this char with not so rich gear.
Honorable mentions:
Death's Web - great wand, expensive though.
PvM:
This build was initially to be a pure pvp build, but while playing him I found that he actually could play the game.
Normal:
Normal with any necro (aside from summoner) is annoying due to lack of main spells. Basically just get a wep (bow socketed with gems works well) and go meleemancer style. Its normal so it is pretty easy to go melee style until you start getting your main spells. Even once you get your spells they are prety weak for a while. You will be able to max dagger first easily then work on spear, but once you can get nova, put most of your points in it and occasionally throw some into the bone spells. I suggest not leaving normal till level 42 (then you can use homunculus).
Nightmare:
Now nightmare surprised me. Lower resist + Poison Nova was able to really destroy them and even my bone spear was mozing the enemies down. Throughout the entirety of nightmare (except for nm baal runs) I found myself the main killer of the party I was questing with. For skills, continue the focus on nova, and occasionally tossing points into bone spear. Nova should get maxed in nm and then focus on bone spear. If you finish spear, then put 5 points into spirit and then focus on maxing bone wall. I suggest not moving onto hell until level 65-70.
Hell:
Now I was again surprised by my characters ability to kill with both nova and spear in act1 hell. Even through Act3 I was able to kill things at a decent pace (soloing). Act4 was possible to do, just a challenge. However When I hit act5, I moved on to baal runs so I do not know how well pvming act5 would go. But since the monsters are generally weaker than in act4 I am fairly confident that it should be possible. Continue maxing bone wall and once that is finished move on to prison unless you chose to use marrowwalk bug. In which case you would then max spirit or more poison synergies. If going for pvp level 85 is the immediate goal since that is fairly easily atained and gives you most of your synergies. Again level 94 is the level he is finished at (assuming you got all the skill quests).
A few notes about pvm. If you want to jsut do pvm then I suggest you put points into dim vision and confuse insteadof using a wand, they are invaluable. Also, remember that the best strategy is using bone wall to occupy the monsters, lower resist and cast nova, while poisoned shoot off spears and repeat till the first one dies. Then use Corpse Explosion to finish off the group. A godo mercenary is act2 holy freeze since slow monsters givesyou the time you need to kill the groups of monsters.
PvP:
This build was originally intended for pvp. My general dueling strategy is to cast lower resist and fight them long range with spears/spirits and when they get close use poison nova. I find that characters with low poison resist often die from a few novas before I even get a chance to use my bone spells. Also a benefit of not using marowwalks is the "giant horde of spirits/ trap with prison" tactic. Some find it cheap but since most use enigma anyways, it isnt as useful as it used to be. Also since I do not use enigma (I find teleport to be cheap) I make strong use of running patterns and use terrain (puddles/houses/etc) to avoid my enemies and their attacks.
Thanks for reading my first attempt at writing a guide. This character is very fun to play with and hopefully others will find that out.
I know that I need to flesh out both pvm and pvp strategies and include dueling strategies versus seperate classes/subclasses. I also plan on organizing the guide better. And I plan on adding more descriptions and alternate gear choices. I am just unable to do so at this time. So future versions will be more complete/better organized.
I welcome all thoughts/comments/concerns/flames/experiences that can help the build/guide.
Why go hybrid?
Many people overlook going hybrid due to low damage. Despite the inability to achieve the highest damage, going hybrid gains the player a degree of flexibility and versatility in both pvm and pvp aspects of the game. This versatility is the heart of this build.
Skills:
This necromancer's skills will be almost entirely focused in the poison and bone tree and minimal curse investment. Summons are ignored.
Poison and Bone Tree:
Teeth - 1 point
Bone Armor - 1 point
Corpse Explosion - 1 point
Poison Dagger - 10 points*
Bone Wall - 20 points
Spear - 20 points**
Poison Explosion - 1 point
Bone Prison - 0 or 20 points***
Bone Spirit - 5 points****
Poison Nova - 20 points
*10 points is all that will be spent into synergies for Poison Nova. With the gear selections I will explain later Poison Nova will not be in great need of more synergies. Poison Dagger is chosen due to its usefulness at low levels.
**Spear is going to be the bone spell of choice and needs to be maxed to reach signifigant damage.
***I dislike abusing a bug so I prefer to max prison. However if you do use the bug then you can max bone spirit or put more points into poison synergies
****With all the other bone synergies 5 points is all that is needed to raise the damage of spirit to a decent number with the gear selection.
Curse Tree:
1 point in all curses except the left hand AI curses. The reason is that every point is needed and I find that getting a wand with dim vision on switch works just fine.
Summoning Tree:
None, points are already in high demand and bone wall/prison works to hold off enemies.
Stat Points:
Strength - 100 is enough to allow you to wear most of the gear anyone would want. Strength also will be raised higher by the gear selection.
Dexterity - Either none or enough for max block with Homunculus (or 75 if you want to use a wizardspike)
Vitality - Everything else
Energy - None if your pvp or as much as you see fit.
Equipment Selection:
Now, it is undeniable that this build requires a generous ammount of plus to skills to really be able to work, but it isn't as expensive as you might think.
Rich Setup:
Helm: Shako/Godly rare circlet (cham if you need cbf here)
Armor: Enigma (preferably in Breastplate to lower need for str)
Weapon/Shield: HotO/Perfect Darkforce(or homunculus if you choose block)
Switch: CTA/Lidless
Belt: Arachnids Mesh
Gloves: Trangs
Boots: Sandstorm Treks or Marrowwalks
Amulet: Crafted +2 nec/20% fcr/life/mana/resists
Rings: soj/bk ring or soj/raven or bk ring/raven (matter of preference and where you choose to get cbf)
Charms:Anni, 10x pnb (preferably with good 2nd mod),9x life/mana sc's
This setup grants you the 125% fcr breakpoint if you choose darkforce. It is excellent for a vita setup and especially in pvp. It also gives a whopping +26 to the poison and bone tree (+16 all and +10 to poison and bone). With this setup you will have the following:
Poison Nova - 3723-3813 damage
Bone Spear - 3190-3350 damage
Bone Spirit - 2563-2749 damage
Bone Armor - absorbs 880
Also those numbers are without use of the marowwalk bug and assuming that the necro is finished at level 94. So potentially this build has a lot power. I myself do not even have all the gear since I am not rich so on to the easier to attain gear.
Not so Rich Equipment Selections:
Helm: Shako (it is fairly easy to get these days)
Armor: Vipermagi
Weapon: A nice white wand/Suicide Branch/Boneshade/Wizradspike/Blackhand Key/any 2 to nec skills wand
Shield: Homunculus/boneflame/lidless/rare +2 necro head
switch: Ummm, no useful items to switch to
Belt: Verdungo's/nightsmoke/glooms
Gloves: Trangs (just cant beat em for this build)
Boots: Waterwalks/silkweaves/aldurs
Amulet: +3 pnb/any +2 necro
Rings: ravenfrost and dwarf/decent rare/10% fcr/anything usefu
Charms: Whatever gives decent benefits
This setup will grant you a decent ammount of fcr and +skills. With a setup along these lines you will have more or less:
Poison Nova - 2001-2091 damage
Bone Spear - 1671-1768 damage
Bone Spirit - 1248-1365 damage
Bone Armor - abosrbs 730
Again this is assuming level 94 and no marrowwalk bug. Now these numbers look low, but I am currently level 82 (gear in between rich/not so rich) and my nova is about 500 higher than that and my bone spells are about the same. I have done well in pvp and pvm so it is not bad to make this char with not so rich gear.
Honorable mentions:
Death's Web - great wand, expensive though.
PvM:
This build was initially to be a pure pvp build, but while playing him I found that he actually could play the game.
Normal:
Normal with any necro (aside from summoner) is annoying due to lack of main spells. Basically just get a wep (bow socketed with gems works well) and go meleemancer style. Its normal so it is pretty easy to go melee style until you start getting your main spells. Even once you get your spells they are prety weak for a while. You will be able to max dagger first easily then work on spear, but once you can get nova, put most of your points in it and occasionally throw some into the bone spells. I suggest not leaving normal till level 42 (then you can use homunculus).
Nightmare:
Now nightmare surprised me. Lower resist + Poison Nova was able to really destroy them and even my bone spear was mozing the enemies down. Throughout the entirety of nightmare (except for nm baal runs) I found myself the main killer of the party I was questing with. For skills, continue the focus on nova, and occasionally tossing points into bone spear. Nova should get maxed in nm and then focus on bone spear. If you finish spear, then put 5 points into spirit and then focus on maxing bone wall. I suggest not moving onto hell until level 65-70.
Hell:
Now I was again surprised by my characters ability to kill with both nova and spear in act1 hell. Even through Act3 I was able to kill things at a decent pace (soloing). Act4 was possible to do, just a challenge. However When I hit act5, I moved on to baal runs so I do not know how well pvming act5 would go. But since the monsters are generally weaker than in act4 I am fairly confident that it should be possible. Continue maxing bone wall and once that is finished move on to prison unless you chose to use marrowwalk bug. In which case you would then max spirit or more poison synergies. If going for pvp level 85 is the immediate goal since that is fairly easily atained and gives you most of your synergies. Again level 94 is the level he is finished at (assuming you got all the skill quests).
A few notes about pvm. If you want to jsut do pvm then I suggest you put points into dim vision and confuse insteadof using a wand, they are invaluable. Also, remember that the best strategy is using bone wall to occupy the monsters, lower resist and cast nova, while poisoned shoot off spears and repeat till the first one dies. Then use Corpse Explosion to finish off the group. A godo mercenary is act2 holy freeze since slow monsters givesyou the time you need to kill the groups of monsters.
PvP:
This build was originally intended for pvp. My general dueling strategy is to cast lower resist and fight them long range with spears/spirits and when they get close use poison nova. I find that characters with low poison resist often die from a few novas before I even get a chance to use my bone spells. Also a benefit of not using marowwalks is the "giant horde of spirits/ trap with prison" tactic. Some find it cheap but since most use enigma anyways, it isnt as useful as it used to be. Also since I do not use enigma (I find teleport to be cheap) I make strong use of running patterns and use terrain (puddles/houses/etc) to avoid my enemies and their attacks.
Thanks for reading my first attempt at writing a guide. This character is very fun to play with and hopefully others will find that out.
I know that I need to flesh out both pvm and pvp strategies and include dueling strategies versus seperate classes/subclasses. I also plan on organizing the guide better. And I plan on adding more descriptions and alternate gear choices. I am just unable to do so at this time. So future versions will be more complete/better organized.
I welcome all thoughts/comments/concerns/flames/experiences that can help the build/guide.