View Full Version : Maxed bone skills - now what? (PvM)
I maxed teeths and all its synergies now with my PvM necro (not bone prison though - using marrowwalk) doing 680-882 magic damage with 24 teeth or 2793-2958 bonespear damage. I'm lvl 77 and got 4 skill points to spare already.
I have considered a few things but can't make up my mind. I'm btw mainly playing solo or in a party with one of my brothers melee characters at the moment (a lightning javazon, a tesladin or a strike-tailing-kicker):
1 - Lower resist. As far as I know LR does NOT lower magic resists in 1.10 so I'm pretty sure it would be a bad idea to choose this skill.
2 - 1 point in Life Tap (and prereqs). At the moment i use a wand with life tap on my 2nd switch. Really helps my defiance merc and my brothers chars a lot.
3 - 1 point in Decrepify (and prereqs). If I slow them they will be easier to kill without getting hit and my CE would do more damage.
4 - Clay Golem + Golem Mastery + Summon resist. My biggest problem is really that I don't know how many points is needed to make the clay golem a useful tank (and help keeping my merc alive). If I use 3 skill points on life tap, would that make it too difficult to keep the golem alive?
Hope someone can give me some help.
1) Lower Resist will not help you but might help others that have elemental or poison attacks. Probably a bad choice for you.
2) I don't use Life Tap to help my merc, I normally use Attract to divert the monsters attacks (assuming there is more than one of course :lol: ). It is a possibility for you, but probably not much use.
3) Decrepify can be very useful to slow and weaken monsters hitting you, your merc or your brother. It does increase the damage done by CE under most circumstances but AD is always better for increasing damage.
4) Clay Golem is a cheap re-castable mini-tank. He only costs 3 skill points (C Golem, Golem Mastery and Summon Resist) and survives fairly well in Hell as long as you have a few plus skills and if not just re-cast. His slow effect is useful for increasing your Merc's surviveability.
Other ideas you might consider are the AI curses such as Dim Vision, Confuse and Attract. I don't use Confuse but the other two are firm favourites for my Skelliemancer and Poison Summon Hybrids. Some Necros say Confuse can be useful to hold monsters attention while they Bone Spear a few corpses before the Big Bang.
ToxicFlame
27-08-2004, 20:42
I have a bonemancer but don't really know what merc i should use.
What merc do you advice me to take
Mad Mantis
27-08-2004, 20:56
An Act II HF Merc is a popular choice. An Act I Frozen Arrow Merc also does very well.
rickcarson
28-08-2004, 03:52
An Act II HF Merc is a popular choice. An Act I Frozen Arrow Merc also does very well.
Or an Act 3 cold merc.
Get gumby to tank, the Act 3 will freeze (act 2 only chills)... tadah! Major ownage. Act 3 also doesn't just charge in and get killed (unless you have godly equipment or a way high player level). Act 1 might be better if you have lots of uber bows lying around.
Mad Mantis
28-08-2004, 14:31
Act 3 also doesn't just charge in and get killed (unless you have godly equipment or a way high player level).
But if you use your curses and the HF aura he will not get killed often. There are always situations where your Merc gets killed.
iron maiden doesn't hurt after the above suggestions.
sure it wont help you a lot in PvM, but what if someone tries to PK you with their ebotd? then you have a nice surprise for them when they target your mercenary first...
Relive The Stupidty
29-08-2004, 03:22
An Act II HF Merc is a popular choice.
I like to use a Act II Defensive merc because of the extra defense so monsters have a harder time hitting you. My friends merc is a defensive has a BoTd WarPike Bramble and Crown of Theives and monsters have a hard time hitting him.
I like to use a Act II Defensive merc because of the extra defense so monsters have a harder time hitting you.
I also use a defiance merc. Remember that Holy Freeze does not help against Act end bosses. Also if choosing an act 1 cold arrow merc or an act 3 cold merc some monsters will not leave corpses - not a good solution in hell difficulty because of corpse explosion.
Mad Mantis
29-08-2004, 12:54
I like to use a Act II Defensive merc because of the extra defense so monsters have a harder time hitting you.
Defiance can be nice if you can get your Defense up.
not a good solution in hell difficulty because of corpse explosion.
As a full Bonemancer, how often do you intend to use CE?
As a full Bonemancer, how often do you intend to use CE?
Seriously? CE is faster than bone spells versus large groups of monsters in games with several players - in solo games teeth/bone spear is probably faster most of the time. 1 skill is all I would ever consider using, but CE really helps.
Mad Mantis
30-08-2004, 12:53
Seriously? CE is faster than bone spells versus large groups of monsters in games with several players - in solo games teeth/bone spear is probably faster most of the time. 1 skill is all I would ever consider using, but CE really helps.
You are just using it against really large packs, so how much does it matter if 30% of the corpses shatter? All I see is the added safety.
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