Loxo
10-02-2005, 16:11
Hi guys, new poster to the forums allthough I have been reading them for some time now. Alot of great information here.
DISCLAIMER: I am not trying to make a guide per say here. I am planning a character looking for feedback. Allthough I have never seen one specifically I am sure a guide very very similar to this build exists somewhere. I am not trying to steal ideas etc. Mostly I am just trying to get some input from folks about some of the ideas I had for a new character I am building. And, to see if I can improve it before I actually finish my character. So no haters please. If you "don't want to read another poisonmancer guide" then hit the little Back key in your browser.
***What I want out of my Poisonmancer***
First of all, like all my builds, I like to create PVM characters that are a powerhouse in hell mode. Also, I solo alot. And, I like to kill large crowds FAST. I dont really PvP so I try to make my characters the best PvMers possible. I also want to be able to kill immunes (in this case poison). I can deal with a little less speed when I encouter immunes but I need to be able to kill them somehow, and not ridiculously slow. On this particular character I dont really care about Magic Find. I do my MFing with my Sorc. But, I do want to be able to effecively do solo Baal runs since if you can do these you can pretty much do anything. I am softcore so no need to be extra safe. I am also wealthy but not rich. I dont have access to the high high runewords but I can afford equipment valued in the pul - ist range.
***STATS*** Stats are easy. I am a fan of blocking so I will get dex high enough to get at least near max blocking (Prolly in the 160-180 range depending on shield, level, and equipment. I just monitor the % and keep it below 65% when I get lvl80+ in case I add dex equipment/charms). I will get Str high enough to wear equipment I think 93 with trang shield allows you to equip marrowalks), I will put no points in energy, rest in Vitality. Pretty standard stuff here. Alot of people would rather have the HPs vs. the blocking. If you come from that school of thought just leave dex alone and put it all in vitality. But since Poisonmancers need to get up close and personal to hit with their Nova I think blocking is especially nice with this build. Dex is also handy to equip certain daggers for poison dagger before you get nova.
***SKILLS*** I usually try to think in terms of 100 skill points when I plan out a character (12 from quests 88 from levels) since I dont usually go much higher than level 90 with my characters. I first laid out what I knew I wanted for this build then started looking at a few potential options. I would like feedback from you guys on the options
THE CORE BUILD
The only skills I felt 100% confident that I wanted my poisonmancer to have were of course 60 points to max all poison nova and synergies. I also knew that I needed minion distractions to aid in the survival of myself and my mercenary. I am not looking for my minions to be a major source of damage since I knew I wouldn't have the skill points available to get them up to snuff . I also know I will have to have the ability to curse (lower resists being most important) but I will cover that in options. I also am assuming that I will end up with 8 or more +skills resulting in the ability to cast many revives for the one point investment. I am not sure yet how low level skelly fodder will hold up in hell but it is also an option for fodder distraction with just one point and +skills. Dim Vision is one of my favorites since I like to solo baal run. It really shuts down the Black Souls and any other range attackers. Worth a point if you ask me.
-Poison & Bone-
Teeth 1 (pre-req)
Corpse Explosion 1
Poison Dagger 20
Poison Explosion 20
Poison Nova 20
-Summons-
Raise Skeleton 1 (pre-req to revive & potentially usefull)
Skeleton Mastery 1
Skeletal Mage 1 (pre-req to revive & potentially usefull)
Revive 1
Gumby 1
Golem Mastery 1
Summon Resist 1
Iron Golem 1 (pre-req to revive)
Blood Golem 1 (pre-req to revive)
Curses
Dim Vision 1
TOTAL SKILLS IN CORE BUILD = 72
That leaves me a whooping 28 skill points to figure out how to gain the most benifit from...I will outline two options I thought of from here
THE CONCEPT - THE CURSELESS
I know everyone saw the core build and was wondering where is his curses? I will explain. Given the fact that most of my damage will be from poison I figured that the primary curse I will be running will be Lower Resist. Because diminishing returns with this skill begin to get ridiculous in the teens, and because I knew I would have alot of + skills. I figured it would be pretty pointless to add more than one point to this skill even though it would be my primary curse. The only other curse that might be useful from the curse pre-reqs is decrepify. But I think with gumby + a HF merc you will be fine in terms of slowing bosses. Plus I want lower resist running for bosses anyhow. I looked at the skill tree and wanted to puke. I would have to spend 7! skill points to put that one lousy point in Lower resist. ABSURD! We must find a sneaky way around this dilema! A lightbulb went off. Would it be possible to make a white wand that had the +1 lower resists inherit as a non-magical property?! hrmmmmmm that would save me 7 skill points and just might be brilliant. Does anyone have an experience with this? Is it possible? The dream wand would be a non-magic wand with +3 P&B or Nova and +1-3 Lower resist that was made into a white runeword. The downside to this is you would not be using death's web. But, white with the right stats is probably the next best Poisonmancer wand (+6 P & B possibly) and 7 skill points saved from the curse tree is well...7 skill points. So what to do with the 27 skill points if I go this route? I think there are now two dark paths to take.
PATH #1 - CURSELESS/POISON/CE
This path would use revives, gumby, and merc alone for meatshielding. Skeletons would be puny. The big advantage would be maxed Corpse Explosion. I love corpse explosion and I love boosting the radius. Instead of diminishing returns CE actually gains more and more Square Footage per point spent. The ring around the corpse keeps expanding covering more and more area. Love it. I invision a scenario where I would open against a large pack of mobs with Lower resists then tap back and forth between Nova and CE holding my mouse button down. Since half of CE damage is Fire Lower Resist will still provide some benifit to this skill (probably not as much as amp). The other obvious benifit is a very viable way to tackle your poison immune mobs. I am thinking of getting attract for this path since I have less summons. Attract is a great way to help crowd controlling if you get HUGE mobs. Skill Point distribution for your 27 remaining points for this Path would look like this:
Corpse Explosion 19
Confuse 1
Attract 1
Bone Shield 1
Dim Vision 5 OR Revive 5
PATH #2 - CURSELESS/POISON/SUMMON
This path would utilize additional the additional 27 points towards making your skeletons a more worthy meatshield and more damaging. With a better skeleton army you could probably do fine without attract or a buffed up Dim Vision. Skeletons in this build would probably be able to survive fine in hell and do reasonable damage. You could still use Corpse Explosion with one point and + skill but it would be a pretty small radius. Skill distribution for my 27 remaining skill points would look like this:
Summon Skeleton 19
Skeleton Mastery 7
Bone Shield 1
**MERC- My mercenary would most likely be a holy freeze merc. Might isn't very important since minions aren't a major source of damage anyhow. If I go the Summon path I might consider might since I have more meatshielding and might would benifit my skelly damage. I would hate to loose some corpses but alot don't shatter with holy freeze as I recall. Just some. I also consider the act1 merc to be viable but I think the slowing aura and extra tank would be more benificial to the build. Especially since you have to do alot of up close weaving in and out of traffic while doing your nova. This is much easier and safer navigation when your enemies are slowed down.
**GEAR- would be similar to most other poisonmancer guides except the exception of the white wand with the +(1-3) Lower Resist as necessary. I think Trang glove, belt, shield are a given. SOJs or Bks as rings. Maras or rare/crafted ammy. Shako, Uber-rare helm, or trang if you go with full set. Armor would prolly be Bramble, Viper, or ( Trang + trang helm). Boots most likely Marrowwalks.
So what do you guys think of this build?
How difficult will it be to find this wand? Any tips?
Would this theory work?
Would you recommend CE or Summons?
Think the extra 7 skill points is worth using White instead of death's web?
Also, I have only recently started playing D2 again after a long long break. All my old friends have vanished so I am looking for folks to play with, Baal run with, help rush, trade etc. So hollar at *zorlaklives on USEast Ladder if you wanna play or need some help. I got a good sorc for rushing etc. By the way, I am an intelligent adult so I don't need teenage LOL U R A NEWB rejects on my friend list. Which is like 95% of bnet. And, yes I still have a sense of humor. It just doesn't include acting like a cyber badass to boost my poor self esteem.
Loxo the future poisonmancer is level 24 as of last night. He is just going around poking things with poison dagger right now. That is more fun and effective than I would have guessed at low levels.
Anyhoo, I got a date tonight so I will not be back around till Fri evening. Hollar!
Any positive input would be appreciated!
Peace,
Loxo
DISCLAIMER: I am not trying to make a guide per say here. I am planning a character looking for feedback. Allthough I have never seen one specifically I am sure a guide very very similar to this build exists somewhere. I am not trying to steal ideas etc. Mostly I am just trying to get some input from folks about some of the ideas I had for a new character I am building. And, to see if I can improve it before I actually finish my character. So no haters please. If you "don't want to read another poisonmancer guide" then hit the little Back key in your browser.
***What I want out of my Poisonmancer***
First of all, like all my builds, I like to create PVM characters that are a powerhouse in hell mode. Also, I solo alot. And, I like to kill large crowds FAST. I dont really PvP so I try to make my characters the best PvMers possible. I also want to be able to kill immunes (in this case poison). I can deal with a little less speed when I encouter immunes but I need to be able to kill them somehow, and not ridiculously slow. On this particular character I dont really care about Magic Find. I do my MFing with my Sorc. But, I do want to be able to effecively do solo Baal runs since if you can do these you can pretty much do anything. I am softcore so no need to be extra safe. I am also wealthy but not rich. I dont have access to the high high runewords but I can afford equipment valued in the pul - ist range.
***STATS*** Stats are easy. I am a fan of blocking so I will get dex high enough to get at least near max blocking (Prolly in the 160-180 range depending on shield, level, and equipment. I just monitor the % and keep it below 65% when I get lvl80+ in case I add dex equipment/charms). I will get Str high enough to wear equipment I think 93 with trang shield allows you to equip marrowalks), I will put no points in energy, rest in Vitality. Pretty standard stuff here. Alot of people would rather have the HPs vs. the blocking. If you come from that school of thought just leave dex alone and put it all in vitality. But since Poisonmancers need to get up close and personal to hit with their Nova I think blocking is especially nice with this build. Dex is also handy to equip certain daggers for poison dagger before you get nova.
***SKILLS*** I usually try to think in terms of 100 skill points when I plan out a character (12 from quests 88 from levels) since I dont usually go much higher than level 90 with my characters. I first laid out what I knew I wanted for this build then started looking at a few potential options. I would like feedback from you guys on the options
THE CORE BUILD
The only skills I felt 100% confident that I wanted my poisonmancer to have were of course 60 points to max all poison nova and synergies. I also knew that I needed minion distractions to aid in the survival of myself and my mercenary. I am not looking for my minions to be a major source of damage since I knew I wouldn't have the skill points available to get them up to snuff . I also know I will have to have the ability to curse (lower resists being most important) but I will cover that in options. I also am assuming that I will end up with 8 or more +skills resulting in the ability to cast many revives for the one point investment. I am not sure yet how low level skelly fodder will hold up in hell but it is also an option for fodder distraction with just one point and +skills. Dim Vision is one of my favorites since I like to solo baal run. It really shuts down the Black Souls and any other range attackers. Worth a point if you ask me.
-Poison & Bone-
Teeth 1 (pre-req)
Corpse Explosion 1
Poison Dagger 20
Poison Explosion 20
Poison Nova 20
-Summons-
Raise Skeleton 1 (pre-req to revive & potentially usefull)
Skeleton Mastery 1
Skeletal Mage 1 (pre-req to revive & potentially usefull)
Revive 1
Gumby 1
Golem Mastery 1
Summon Resist 1
Iron Golem 1 (pre-req to revive)
Blood Golem 1 (pre-req to revive)
Curses
Dim Vision 1
TOTAL SKILLS IN CORE BUILD = 72
That leaves me a whooping 28 skill points to figure out how to gain the most benifit from...I will outline two options I thought of from here
THE CONCEPT - THE CURSELESS
I know everyone saw the core build and was wondering where is his curses? I will explain. Given the fact that most of my damage will be from poison I figured that the primary curse I will be running will be Lower Resist. Because diminishing returns with this skill begin to get ridiculous in the teens, and because I knew I would have alot of + skills. I figured it would be pretty pointless to add more than one point to this skill even though it would be my primary curse. The only other curse that might be useful from the curse pre-reqs is decrepify. But I think with gumby + a HF merc you will be fine in terms of slowing bosses. Plus I want lower resist running for bosses anyhow. I looked at the skill tree and wanted to puke. I would have to spend 7! skill points to put that one lousy point in Lower resist. ABSURD! We must find a sneaky way around this dilema! A lightbulb went off. Would it be possible to make a white wand that had the +1 lower resists inherit as a non-magical property?! hrmmmmmm that would save me 7 skill points and just might be brilliant. Does anyone have an experience with this? Is it possible? The dream wand would be a non-magic wand with +3 P&B or Nova and +1-3 Lower resist that was made into a white runeword. The downside to this is you would not be using death's web. But, white with the right stats is probably the next best Poisonmancer wand (+6 P & B possibly) and 7 skill points saved from the curse tree is well...7 skill points. So what to do with the 27 skill points if I go this route? I think there are now two dark paths to take.
PATH #1 - CURSELESS/POISON/CE
This path would use revives, gumby, and merc alone for meatshielding. Skeletons would be puny. The big advantage would be maxed Corpse Explosion. I love corpse explosion and I love boosting the radius. Instead of diminishing returns CE actually gains more and more Square Footage per point spent. The ring around the corpse keeps expanding covering more and more area. Love it. I invision a scenario where I would open against a large pack of mobs with Lower resists then tap back and forth between Nova and CE holding my mouse button down. Since half of CE damage is Fire Lower Resist will still provide some benifit to this skill (probably not as much as amp). The other obvious benifit is a very viable way to tackle your poison immune mobs. I am thinking of getting attract for this path since I have less summons. Attract is a great way to help crowd controlling if you get HUGE mobs. Skill Point distribution for your 27 remaining points for this Path would look like this:
Corpse Explosion 19
Confuse 1
Attract 1
Bone Shield 1
Dim Vision 5 OR Revive 5
PATH #2 - CURSELESS/POISON/SUMMON
This path would utilize additional the additional 27 points towards making your skeletons a more worthy meatshield and more damaging. With a better skeleton army you could probably do fine without attract or a buffed up Dim Vision. Skeletons in this build would probably be able to survive fine in hell and do reasonable damage. You could still use Corpse Explosion with one point and + skill but it would be a pretty small radius. Skill distribution for my 27 remaining skill points would look like this:
Summon Skeleton 19
Skeleton Mastery 7
Bone Shield 1
**MERC- My mercenary would most likely be a holy freeze merc. Might isn't very important since minions aren't a major source of damage anyhow. If I go the Summon path I might consider might since I have more meatshielding and might would benifit my skelly damage. I would hate to loose some corpses but alot don't shatter with holy freeze as I recall. Just some. I also consider the act1 merc to be viable but I think the slowing aura and extra tank would be more benificial to the build. Especially since you have to do alot of up close weaving in and out of traffic while doing your nova. This is much easier and safer navigation when your enemies are slowed down.
**GEAR- would be similar to most other poisonmancer guides except the exception of the white wand with the +(1-3) Lower Resist as necessary. I think Trang glove, belt, shield are a given. SOJs or Bks as rings. Maras or rare/crafted ammy. Shako, Uber-rare helm, or trang if you go with full set. Armor would prolly be Bramble, Viper, or ( Trang + trang helm). Boots most likely Marrowwalks.
So what do you guys think of this build?
How difficult will it be to find this wand? Any tips?
Would this theory work?
Would you recommend CE or Summons?
Think the extra 7 skill points is worth using White instead of death's web?
Also, I have only recently started playing D2 again after a long long break. All my old friends have vanished so I am looking for folks to play with, Baal run with, help rush, trade etc. So hollar at *zorlaklives on USEast Ladder if you wanna play or need some help. I got a good sorc for rushing etc. By the way, I am an intelligent adult so I don't need teenage LOL U R A NEWB rejects on my friend list. Which is like 95% of bnet. And, yes I still have a sense of humor. It just doesn't include acting like a cyber badass to boost my poor self esteem.
Loxo the future poisonmancer is level 24 as of last night. He is just going around poking things with poison dagger right now. That is more fun and effective than I would have guessed at low levels.
Anyhoo, I got a date tonight so I will not be back around till Fri evening. Hollar!
Any positive input would be appreciated!
Peace,
Loxo