Novamancer tips

[Xiamet]

Hey all..

Just started testing out my Novamancer in SP Hell, and I think I'm ready to make one 'for real' on ladder useast...need some advice regarding actual gameplay...

When firing Poison Nova, is it best to spam it, or fire, wait a sec, then fire again? Also, I heard someone say that PN does impact damage when it hits...is this true?

With +skills, figure on at least a slvl 5-7 Lower resist...is this enough for me to not bother with a trang shield in favor of one of the other nec shields? Mainly considering my resists options and for the +3 skills here.

If I don't go the summons route, what would be my best options for the Bone tree? using MarrowWalks of course...

thanks,

-X

[Korrupted]

Firstly, there is no point in spamming it. you have to wait at least a minimum of 2 seconds before you can poison enemies again, so rather than lagging things up, wait a little bit then cast again. I've not heard anything or seen anything to hint at 'impact damage' from PN tho.

the more skills in LR you have the better, although the returns rapidly diminish after about 9 i think. while the trang shield does give you the -25% psn res, using other shields like homunuclus or boneflame could work as well.

If you don't go summon, you'd want to invest in bone armor, its synergies and the marrow bug. also some points in CE might prove useful.

[Myrakh-2]

There is really no reason to abandon the +damage/-resist provided by the 3 piece Trangs setup.

[Necrochild313]

-resist increases your poison length and your damage/sec, so it is a worthwhile cause to use three piece trang.

The +% to damage will increase your damage/sec by 25% (duh), which the damage/sec increase after that is further increased by another 25% (from -res) while increase the length your pnova deals damage by 25%.

Not to mention that firewall that makes soloing hell a breeze.

Sell your soul for a deaths web if you can.

As far as "impact" damage goes, I can believe that there is a small amount, considering the pnova from BOTD doesn't spam like crazy when it kills a fallen group in act1 norm, and that "impact" damage would be what kills a player when their at 1 in pvp, however, if there is impact damage it definitely isn't much, as the BOTD pnova will spam like crazy in act2 norm, so if the "impact" damage cannot kill monsters in act2 norm then it is definitely not worth spamming pnova for.

[Xiamet]

Thanks for the advice guys...

Ditching the trang shield was for the possibility of better resists and +overall skills...but if the -25% resists on it is better than having +3 skills, I'll go for it...

Re: Firewall...too bad this skill isn't a left click option, as it would be great to have both Firewall and Nova at the ready...ah well...one more click isn't too much to deal with... :)

NC...I think the impact rumor I heard was from a PvP perspective, where PN gets the opponent to 1, and then the next one finishes them off...from a minor impact hit.

Tooled around with an AI Curse/Revives version of my Novamancer last night in SP...not as efficient as a PN/Summons hybrid...Revives timing out in the middle of a heated battle sucks...and getting them to battle in the first place was a bit of a headache...so I guess skeles all the way.

Now if I can only find a Death's Web for cheap on USEast....lol

thanks again,

-X