My first necro in 5 years, need advice

[wwyvern]

Yeah, necro was my first char when D2 came out and now I wanna build the second. As you can imagine, I need some advice...

First of all, I read the guides but I'm a bit confused on the bone spells mainly.

I wanna build a revive necro with some golem, possibly skeles if they are worth. I would use normally bone spirit and amplify and lower resist mainly. I would try to get TO set 'cause its cheaper and gives fire tricks that the uniques equivalent and use leo's arm as weapon.

The way I thought the skills:
1 amplify
1 skele
max skele mastery
max one golem
maybe 5 revives
1 golem mastery
max bone spirit
maybe max bone armor but this is one of my questions

Now, the questions:

- is any golem worth using? if yes, which one? maxed, right?
- is it worth getting confusion, iron maiden and lower resists or amplify would suffice?
- bone armor, any good to max or could i go without?
- corpse explosion, still good? 1 point, right?
- bone wall/bone prison: damn if I know if these are useful:)
- merc: offensive, right?

As you can see, there are basic questions, hope someone will take the time to help me.

Thanks,
WW

[Just-Trade]

a side note,
LR+BS longer adds more dmg to BS.


- is any golem worth using? if yes, which one? maxed, right?
golems are just additional tanks, i would suggest 1pt.

- is it worth getting confusion, iron maiden and lower resists or amplify would suffice?
i reckon ur building a pvm nec. imo, IM+LR+AMP+DIM would suffice.


- bone armor, any good to max or could i go without?
max it whenever possible, with the marrowalks bug it makes u virtually immortal.

- corpse explosion, still good? 1 point, right?
1 pt into CE, with +skills it works like a charm.

- bone wall/bone prison: damn if I know if these are useful:)
they are synergies for BS, actually they work well keeping mobs afar.

- merc: offensive, right?
yea i agree.

[wwyvern]

> LR+BS longer adds more dmg to BS.

Point taken, thanks.

> golems are just additional tanks, i would suggest 1pt.

All righties, damn'em.

> i reckon ur building a pvm nec. imo, IM+LR+AMP+DIM would suffice.

Yeah, pvm it is. What's DIM good for anyway?

> max it whenever possible, with the marrowalks bug it makes u virtually immortal.

Heh, would it be useful is the bug disappears?

- bone wall/bone prison: damn if I know if these are useful:)
> they are synergies for BS, actually they work well keeping mobs afar.

So, how many points in each of them?

Gonna check the marrowalk thing now:)

Thx,
WW

[Myrakh-2]

Check out the stickies at the top of this forum; on of them has guides in it.

In general, skeletons are better than revives if you are going the summoning route (which I'm assuming you are).

- is any golem worth using? if yes, which one? maxed, right?

With the possible exception of special builds, no golem is worth maxing. Clay golem is "the best" for most people, although some still use iron or fire.

- is it worth getting confusion, iron maiden and lower resists or amplify would suffice?

Iron maiden isn't useful. Some people like confuse, so that's an option. Most important curses are amp damage and decrepify, and possibly lower resist if you deal elemental damage (or want to get those cute sorc or lf-zon chicks to move in with you...)

- bone armor, any good to max or could i go without?

Depends. You don't want more than 1 point in it; if you think you need it, add points to the synergies (1 pt in BA = 10 hp; 1 pt in synergy = 15 hp).

Myself (http://diablo.cable.nu), I do without it. I'm not getting hit enough to warrant it (although I could use the synergy bug by just spending one measly point in BA).

- corpse explosion, still good? 1 point, right?

Debate everlasting. I like to max it, if possible.

- bone wall/bone prison: damn if I know if these are useful:)

Not much use for a summoner-style necro.

- merc: offensive, right?

Yes.

[wwyvern]

I looked at your necro and I got most of the questions answered, its pretty much the build I had in mind. Only question I have is how you get the first corpse since you dont have bone spirit?

[Mad Mantis]

Only question I have is how you get the first corpse since you dont have bone spirit?

Merc + Curses can take down a Fallen in Hell.

[EuroJamie]

Howdy wwyvern :howdy:

A few things that might help with your new build:

Golems are pretty nerfed in 1.10. In Hell, they can't kill *****, with the possible exception of an Iron Golem with Crushing Blow mods. However, this invariably means sacrificing expensive items, and a couple of hits when he is Iron Maidened is enough to put your IG (and your item) out of commision. At best they are only useful as support. The most common use of Golems is to use the Clay Golem for his slow mod. 1 point in Clay Golem, 1 in Golem Mastery and 1 in Summon Resist makes an effective Golem that is cheap to recast, can take a lot of punishment and slows attackers down. Particularly useful in conjunction with Decrepify, especially when up against a boss.

Lower Resist will not help your Bone Skills in 1.10. It only lowers elemental resistance, not magic (despite what it says in the ingame description). I'd only reccomend it if you're relying on elemental-damage minions or poison skills. Iron Maiden isn't that useful, due to the insane life that a lot of monsters now have. You're better going all out offensive, with Decrepify or Amp Damage if you go for Physical damage-based minions. Attract is better than confusion for most. The AI-curses (Dim Vision, Attract and Confuse) depend greatly on play-style. My preference is for Dim Vision, but you might want to mess about with them to find out what you prefer. Only thing I'd say is that their range/duration is nerfed in Hell, so be prepared to pump a few points into them if you want them to remain effective there.

I like to stick a point in Bone Armour for a bit of extra defense. If you want more than this, don't put any more in BA however, put points in Bone Wall. The synergy bonus you gain for Bone Armour is actually better than hard points into Bone Armour itself.

CE is darn useful. I like to max it out, so that 1 explosion can damage an entire screen of monsters, but even at 1pt it is still very effective.

An A2 offensive merc (migth aura) is the best for phys damage based minions. If you are relying more on your bone skills, then Holy Freeze merc might be a better option though.

The Trangs set is very buggy. One of the major problems is that the Cast rate is painfully slow, meaning that it is a very bad choice for casters (except poison, as it takes a long time for the poison to effect). I'd say if you're gonna be a bonemancer variant opf sorts then it is best not to use the set.

Revives have their uses, but their AI is crap, they frequently get lost, and of course they disappear, meaning you have to recast. Skeleton Warriors are now the most effective minions - a build that has 20 Raise Skellie and 20 Skellie Warrior is pretty much a safe bet - however many people put 1 point in Revive as it can be a handy backup.

An unsynergised Bone Spirit will not kill in Hell. You would need to put some points in Spear, teeth, etc in order to make this an effective move.

Re your question on 1st kills - your merc and a golem will do the job nicely :D

[Herald of Doom]

I looked at your necro and I got most of the questions answered, its pretty much the build I had in mind. Only question I have is how you get the first corpse since you dont have bone spirit?
Or if you've acces to Pindle, go to his garden and start spamming raise skeleton. Until then, the obvious merc+curse and some wand-wacking :lol:

HoD

[EuroJamie]

wand-wacking

Is that what you guys are calling it these days? :uhhuh:

[Herald of Doom]

Is that what you guys are calling it these days? :uhhuh:
:hanky:

I should have known someone would take it the wrong way :lol: It's just a literal translation of what my friend used to call it: "stafmeppen". I was playing with him early 1.10 and his skelliemancer and my frenzybarb were doing some co-op Pitruns. Ofcourse, I killed the first enemies for him, but once I was whisping and he starts hitting stuff with his rare wand ( a lich wand with +1nec and quite some ele dmg). I asked him "what the hell are doing" and he responded with "Ik ben ant stafmeppen" (=I'm wandwacking). Since then I've been using that very colourful expression :>

HoD

[Mad Mantis]

Say HoD are you Dutch?

[EuroJamie]

Heh-heh, works for me :lol:

[Herald of Doom]

Say HoD are you Dutch?
No, i'm flemish. If you meant "do you speak dutch" then, yes, very much so :teeth:

HoD

[wwyvern]

Ok guys,

I think I made up my mind pretty much; it will go this way:
20 skele
20 skele mastery
1 revive
1 clay golem
1 golem mastery
1 summon resists
1 bone armor
1 corpse explosion (possibly adding points here at higher levels)
1 amplify
1 dim vision
1 confuse (still thinking about it)
1 attract (still thinking about it)
1 decripfy
1 lower resists

Seems to me that I'll have a lot of skills left after I do this; I guess they will go into skele mages and maybe in attract or so.

I would hope everybody agrees with this:)

My necro is lvl 20 I think, I will probably rebuild him since I invester a point in blood golem (still not wasted for the synergy that gives to clay golem) but I put a stupid point in bone spear which looks totally wasted.

Thanks all for help,
WW

[EuroJamie]

That looks like a really solid build. The only point I'd say that isn't perhaps very necessary is the 1pt into Lower Resist, as your minions are now predominantly Physical Damage based, so you would more likely favour AD/Decrep.

Having said that, it is still a very party-friendly curse to have up your sleeve and, as you rightly say, you have plenty of spare points to mess around with.

Good luck with the build :thumbsup:

[wwyvern]

Well, lower resist seems a pity not to have; it's too powerful to just ommit even is it doesnt go well with this build. And one day some sorc or ama will thank me:) I also think its useful for the fire tricks from trang set and for the mages to take down phys immunes.

@all: big thanks!

[Mad Mantis]

My necro is lvl 20 I think, I will probably rebuild him since I invester a point in blood golem (still not wasted for the synergy that gives to clay golem) but I put a stupid point in bone spear which looks totally wasted.

The point in BG isn't wasted since you need a point in BG in order to get Revives. The synergy it gives is not worth mentioning.




No, i'm flemish. If you meant "do you speak dutch" then, yes, very much so :teeth:

Flemish is not exactly Dutch, you guys have some very odd words. :D

[Death on Dark Wings]

*information not to be disclosed*

Accidental post. Sorry.

[Peacrusher]

Death your variant may suit you and your style of play, but i wouldn't recommend it to a new necro player.

His basic idea is solid. Don't worry about your 1 pt in spear. You won't miss it too much.

Lower resist is ok curse for assisting party members and such but you won't use it too much for your own killing speed. Cold mages are good for slowing enemies, psn mages are good for preventing regeneration. But I wouldn't worry too much about their killing speed.

Skellies kill much faster, and contrary to some opinion, best way to get a corpse is through your merc UNLESS you are using a holy freeze merc. Even with crappy gear He'll kill act 1 monsters quick enough for you to raise some skellies to assist him in the process.

Hell magic resistances and elemenatal res. are set high even if they don't show as immune. physical resists are managable with amp curse.

[Death on Dark Wings]

Well, guess so for you. Personally, I still prefer my build. I disclosed some things which I shouldn't have said, so I had to edit the post.

[wwyvern]

I think I'll equip the reaper toll or buri on the switch to assist the merc and golem in the first kills. Talking about spirit of adventure... :)

[skygoneblue]

BTW, nice Shivan wwyvern. ;)

[wwyvern]

BTW, nice Shivan wwyvern. ;)

Thx, but what's a Shivan?:)