MF toxomancer

[Korrupted]

greetings fellow wielders of the necromantic arts. i'm currently building my first real attempt at a mf toxomancer, taking inspiration from beudmaster's guide:
max poison skills
max bone armor and wall
1pw curses

how item dependent would this build be, for those who have attempted something similar? currently his gear looks like this:
shako (PT)
crappy rare ammy with some mf, bit of res all
alibaba
skullders (PT)
trang sheild
trang gloves
2xnagel
goldwrap
war travellers

i spose ideally i'd like to swap alibaba for deathweb, trang sheild for homun and skullders for bramble, which i'm sure to do when everything falls into place and i find all the uber gear and runes :uhhuh:

also what merc would work best? HF or Def?

[Myrakh-2]

i spose ideally i'd like to swap alibaba for deathweb, trang sheild for homun and skullders for bramble,

Actually, the first thing you want to swap is goldwrap for trangs belt --- 3 trang pieces give another poison damage bonus.

[Kyo]

If your going to put 1 point in all curses and max all the skills you mentioned your going to need a total of 112 points :(

[Korrupted]

If your going to put 1 point in all curses and max all the skills you mentioned your going to need a total of 112 points :(

oops. obviously i wouldn't be maxing bone wall then.

Actually, the first thing you want to swap is goldwrap for trangs belt --- 3 trang pieces give another poison damage bonus.

point taken, but what kind of mf/poison damage ratio should i be aiming for?

[Myrakh-2]

but what kind of mf/poison damage ratio should i be aiming for?

MF doesn't do squat if you can't kill. That's the most important thing.

Also, speed matters. More killing power = more dead monsters = more items = more good items.

So, *I* generally recommend to go for killing power, and use MF items only if it doesn't hurt too much.

200% mf -> 111% better chance for unique
200% mf -> 142% better chance for set

300% mf -> 136% better chance for unique
300% mf -> 187% better chance for set

400% mf -> 153% better chance for unique
400% mf -> 222% better chance for set

As you can see, the ACTUAL increase is much less than the "mf" values suggest, especially if you are looking for uniques. If in doubt, consult the numbers to help you decide whether "more killing power" or "more mf" feels better.

IIRC, things like +%damage and -%resist are attached to the spell itself, not the character owning it. The implication of this is that you can apply your poison with Death's Web/3-piece-trangs, and then weaponswitch to MF weapon/shield --- MAYBE not practical for the bread-and-butter monsters, but it's a free MF boost for act bosses.

[Mad Mantis]

also what merc would work best? HF or Def?

HF Merc would give you a lot of crowd control, allowing you to use LR as a main curse. Your BW's will also stay up longer.

To benefit from the Defiance Merc you will need some good high defense armor. The crowd control offered by this Merc will be significantly less.

[Necrochild313]

Use a deaths web, screw the ali baba. Trust me on this, I use mainly venomancers for mf.

Use charms if you feel 200-300% range is too low, although the speed you kill monsters with deaths web + 3 piece trang will vastly make up for it.

IMO those points into bone armor would be better spent into raise skeleton.

[Alex Kerensky]

By the way, Don't max Bone Armor. You only get +10 absorb per point in BArmor, but +15 absorb per point into BArmor's synergies (BWall or BPrison). Keep that in mind.

[Korrupted]

right thanks for the advice, seems i might have to slightly rethink this build before going ahead.

[Salo]

right thanks for the advice, seems i might have to slightly rethink this build before going ahead.


here's some thought: if you get 3 pieces of trang, the gloves belt and head, plus you use something like a Blackbog's or a hefty poison nova White runeword, you dont need a defense. Things melt like liquid wax. LR plus trang's -% res and the +% damage from gloves is sick to behold. I do however agree with a HF merc if you are going ladder and have limited resources as well. however, on NL, I have 5 poison gc's, I use Baba, trangs 3 pieces, Enigma, Shako, +2 poison mf rare ammy, Wtravs, and some mfsc's to fill, i clear the pit as I run, pumped LR, huge radius and long hang time on it, not to mention strong -%, no defense needed. HF doesnt go off before the monsters die!

[DarkKnghtZ]

I have a question for you all. Does anyone know exactly how -% to enemy resistances works? I ask because I took off my trangs shield (left my deaths web on) and started watching how the enemy life plummets. It doesnt change any noticeable amount. I ask because I could swap out my trang belt and shield for homo and arach for another plus to PnB and curses/summons would get +3 from that. I use LR and still I see no noticeable increase in damage. For what its worth, here is my current setup:

Enigma
shako
maras
trangs belt,gloves,shield
soj
kick *** res/mf rare ring
rare mf/res boots
deaths web with psn fac

Any input on this swap out, or any info on the way -% works would be fantastic. Thanks.

[Mad Mantis]

I have a question for you all. Does anyone know exactly how -% to enemy resistances works?

Welcome Newcomer to The Darkness. Grab a brew :drink: and feel free to raise some corpses.

It does exactly as what its name implies. All sources of -% Enemy Resistance will lower the enemies resistance by that amount to a maximum of -100%. Different sources of -% Enemy Resistance will combine in a linear fashion so -25% + -50% gives a total of -75% Enemy Resistance.

With this in mind if you use LR, Death's and Three part TO it is easy to go past the -100% marker. A perf Death's with a level 7 LR gives you -101% Enemy Resistance. Adding an additional piece of -%Enemy Resistance will not have an effect.

So the reason why you didn't see a difference between your test with and without Three part TO is because you already crossed the -100% Enemy Resistance barrier.

[LorveN]

@Mad Mantis

Do I understand right now? Is Lower resist (from skills/items/whatsoever) capped at -100%? :xeek:
So this means if i reach -100% to enemy poison resist with items only (trang-combo, deaths, facets), the lower resist spell would be of no use, no matter what resists the monster i cast it on has?
This is the same for PvP too i suppose?

If so, I need to think twice before finishing my novaspamming necro. :xsmile4:

btw, just for being totally sure. there is no cap on +to psn skill damage, right? :xgrin:

[HarbingersOfSkulls]

oops. obviously i wouldn't be maxing bone wall then.



point taken, but what kind of mf/poison damage ratio should i be aiming for?

You don't want to max bone armor...and want to max bone wall instead.

As for a good mf #...300 mf is a good enough and won't really cut into your posion damage if your using a death's web...with skullder's giving you more mf as you level...shako...war travelers/rare mf boots and some mf charms...you will be fine.

Also...you might want to think about using trang's gloves/belt/head as your 3 pieces for the poison bonus that the do...and not being frozen as well.

And like MM said about your merc...a HF merc is your best option.

Venomancer makes running pits too easy.

HoS

[Mad Mantis]

So this means if i reach -100% to enemy poison resist with items only (trang-combo, deaths, facets), the lower resist spell would be of no use, no matter what resists the monster i cast it on has?

The inherent resists of the target do matter. What I said was that you can only lower the enemies resistances to -100%. So if an enemy has 0% resistance then it takes just -100% Enemy Resistances to reach the -100% marker (duh :xrollseye ), but if the monster has 75% resistance then you will need a combined total of -175% Enemy Resistances to reach the same -100% marker.

So LR is not useless, it just depends on the amount of resistances a target has. And keep in mind that LR and Conviction are the only things that can break immunities. The other pieces of gear do not affect immune creatures unless their resistances are broken.




If so, I need to think twice before finishing my novaspamming necro. :xsmile4:

Don't spam it, just wait the 2 seconds. Unless you like lagging things. :xgrin:




btw, just for being totally sure. there is no cap on +to psn skill damage, right? :xgrin:

Not that I know of.