Poison Necro Armor Help, please

[Alex Kerensky]

Greetings, all. I'm working on a Poison Necro PvM, and I've got a question regarding the armor choice.

Should I use a Bramble of Chains of Honor? Is the 30-50% increase in poison damage worth the loss of 65 to all resistances and +2 to skills? Basically, which rune word should I choose?

Edit:

This is how my resists should look in Hell for sure. The empty item spaces are for items that I'm not sure what I'll be using.

Helm:
Uber +2 skills, FCR, Life, Resist all circlet
+19 resist all

Shield:
PDiamond-Homun
+59 resist all

Weapon:
Wizard Spike
+75 resist all

+30 resist all from Anya

Total: +183 resist all

With the Hell penalty, I'll have at least 83 resist all. (I can't remember if the penalty is -80 or -100).

Okay, so I guess my question is answered.

However, what do I do if I use a Death's Web? I'll lose 75 resists. Should, if I go with that weapon, switch from Bramble to CoH?

[LorveN]

deaths web is by far the best weapon. imo, that should be priority. If you still need resists after that, you might want to go for CoH, but the -% psn res on bramble does wonders on your novas etc.
I would try to get resists somewhere else, and go for bramble/deaths web, but thats just crazy me :D
remember, kiras guardian tiara has a whooping lot of resists if you start to panic :xsmile:
Rings might also help, and since you talk about using expensive runewords, i assume you can afford a Mara's amu, which also boosts resists quite good.

[Korrupted]

I think you should also take into consideration exactly what type of build you are using. If its a hybrid build, with a small skeleton army, you will spend more time behind the main ranks and avoid a large amount of physical as well as elemental damage. Therefore it would be acceptable to forfeit a degree of resistance to increase poison damage.

[Myrakh-2]

Since you can actually get a Bramble and CoH, I assume you can have pretty much anything.

So, *I* would start with Bramble, Deaths Web and Trangs gloves+belt+shield, and THEN try to fill up my resists with the remaining slots (rings, boots, amu, helmet, runes/jewels, charms). Don't know how far you can get with that, but it's something that should at least be looked into.

Don't know whether it works, but maybe trangs belt can be replaced with the helmet (check arreat summit for the 3 piece poison bonus), in case you need the belt slot for something else.

[Alex Kerensky]

Mmmm Never considered the Trang combo (belt/helm + shield). Perhaps I should use the TO shield instead of the Homun? I guess that's my next question.

As for getting a Death's Web, no, that's not happening any time soon unless I'm getting uberly lucky. :lol: And, for the Bramble, same thing; I'm just planning this out. I've got one CoH I'm muling around, so... lol

Anyways, I wasn't aware that Bramble gave a -X% to Poison Resist.

I may forfeit the Circlet because the thing is godly and I can trade it for nice stuff, and simply go with the Trang combo.

[Mad Mantis]

Perhaps I should use the TO shield instead of the Homun? I guess that's my next question.

Definitely use Trang’s. The three part Trang combo gives you a great boost in damage. Remember that getting -% Enemy Resist is the main priority of any Venomancer.

[Necrochild313]

Bramble doesn't give -% enemy resist ;)

You really don't need a bramble to kill efficiently in hell. CoH is a good runeword and I'd suggest that one. I personally use enigma on my venomancers.

[Alex Kerensky]

*grumbles* Now I've got to go find myself both the Trang Helm and Shield.... Blah.

Hmmm.... CoH or Bramble.... I've still got like 50 levels to decide, so all is well. :)

[Necrochild313]

I forgot to mention, deaths web > bramble ;)

[Wambat]

Necrochild313 is correct. Brambles does not provide a -% to enemy resistance, it provides a +% to poison damage. Whether or not this is better depends on a number of factors, not the least of which is play style. Studies demonstrate that -% to enemy resists’s primary function is to increase the length of the poison effect; if it increases damage/sec it does so only marginally. Meanwhile +% to poison damage; or +skills when referring to PN; will increase only the damage/sec, not the duration. For the poisonmancers, and I have seen many, that like to run around, constantly recasting PN, +% poison damage would probably be preferable. For the more refined poisonmancer, who likes to curse his victims into a stupor while watching them slowly die to his infectious halitosis, then -% to enemy resists will do nicely; reducing the frequency of PN casts, and allowing for more curses in between. -% enemy resists would also be preferable for the nec who uses PN as a supporting skill for his summons, as, in this case, it is the duration of the effect, and not its damage, that is of primary concern.

[Necrochild313]

I believe that it increases the damage per second too, because the monster has lower resistance to the damage as well.

[Mad Mantis]

Against targets with resistance to poison the -% Enemy Poison Resist will give you a greater increase in damage than the same amount of +% Poison Damage.

Say we take a Nova with 2000 damage. Then we use this Nova on a target without Poison Resistance. In the case of –25% Enemy Poison Resist this gives you a damage of 2500. In the case of +25% Poison Damage you will also do 2500 damage.

Now we use the same nova on a target with 50% Poison Resistance. In the case of –25% Enemy Poison Resist we will do 1500 damage. The +25% Poison Damage will allow you to do 1250 damage. This effect becomes greater with more poison damage and poison resistance.