Gear, skills, stats for an elite poisonmancer.

[semisonic9]

OK, so here's the questions:

1) Block or no? From my own personal experience, Barbs never get close. WW-Sins seem to kill me then die...not much I can do about that, they WoF me and go.

2) Triple-trangs or something else? With Darkforce, Arach's, Trangs and a Death Web I get -47 res (my death's), +25% poison damage, +3 all skills, an additional +3-6 to curses, +3-6 to pnb, and 1-3 to summoning skills, and a +70% total fcr. Tough to plot in all the modifiers...but looks like


With trangs, u get:
Cannot Be Frozen
Replenish Life +5
+25-50 To Mana (varies)
+30 Maximum Stamina
+66 To Life
20% Faster Cast Rate
Cold Resist +70%, poison resist +40%, fire +38-45,
+30 Defense
+25% Poison Skill Damage
+2 To Curses (Necromancer Only
+125 Defense
+15 To Dexterity
+25 To Strength
+2 To Poison And Bone Skills (Necromancer Only)
-25% To Enemy Poison Resistance (3 Items)
+18 To Fire Ball (2 Items)*
Regenerate Mana 15% (2 Items)
+13 To Fire Wall (3 Items)
Additional Regenerate Mana 15% (3 Items)

The trang's do have a good %block, and helpfull resists in the three-piece setup, but overall I'm losing lots of fcr and skills with this setup, mainly for an extra -25% poison resist.

So, in short, it looks like a 3 piece trangs with a CoA or shako maxes out resistances in trade for fcr and damage from +skills. So I guess it comes down to if u have a double-umed CoA then got for darkforce, web, and arachs. However, I was also thinking of skipping the fire golem and using a dream circlet I have, so maybe 3xtrangs is the best setup for me right now.

Opinions, help here would be great. What, btw, does a darkforce go for?


3) Skills:

Maxed all poison,
1 in clay
2-3 in golem mastery
7 in the curse pre-reqs...

I'll probably dump a few more in LR to boost effect and duration, it's very handy for pubby/team duels.

Question is, with Dream, fire golem seems worthless and clay will gold them in the area of poison/dream better anyway. Dream does only have a 13.5 yard radius at that level, though, so kinda close range...


Anyway, these have been plaguing me, post ur opinions and thoughts promptly please and lemme know.

[Phyrexial]

I'd recommend getting 125% fcr somehow and getting max block. Also, Dream helms are a complete waste for this build. You lose out on so many possibilities you could get from other helms like good 20% fcr necro circlets or shako for example. They have the fire aura, that's it. You can get the same effect with a fire golem.

Also, why CoA? The str req is very high for a caster, even with Enigma. Ideally, you'd want to use as few stats on str as possible to get the most life. There are many better choices.

[semisonic9]

Well, I'm just not sure 120% fcr is gonna be possible with Death's Web. I can probably get the next bp down easily, and frankly I won't mind being "caught" too much becuse that will bring them within nova/clay golem/HolyShock range. The only question is whether to block or not...if I keep the triple-trang setup, I think I might go for it, if not, then I'd go max life. The problem is the dex for block is gonna cost me lots of life, and won't help me any against casters...of which there are a few. Also, with the advent of the dual-dream pally's and dream-sorcs, res and life just seem more needed these days. I pwn barbs and rabies druids as it is.

Why dream/CoA? Resists...a dream can have up to 20 all, my light res is laggin in this char, making dueling trappers and light sorcs a joke. CoA I could double-um for hella resists, even a little stackage going on.

Dreams aura, a lvl 15, does 1-108 a tic, versus 20-22 for the fire golem I have...I went ahead and put a point in fire so I an switch up if needed, but i am kinda regretting it. Really, the higher damage of dream+the massive slow of clay is uber. The added res is nice too, no doubt about it, and also an extra 5% life, similar to enigma.

[Phyrexial]

If you are that desperate for res, use a Kira's Guardian. A perfect one is 70 all res, unsocketed. Throw in an Um for another 15 for a total 85 res. It has CBF which is nice if you really do intend to do much running and has some nice fhr. It's also alot cheaper and has lower str reqs than CoA. CoA is 174 str, that's alot. Way more than any other piece of gear you should be wearing thus wasting stats. Perhaps if you were going to use a Stormshield then your str might be high enough to consider using CoA. Even then you'd want some -req jewels in that. A 15% res, -15% req being ideal.

Dream is infact a waste. 20 res is minimal, you could get 15 in a shako simply by Um'ing it and loads more with a Kira's. The shako more than making up for that 5 less res with other great mods like +life, +mana, +skills, and DR. Did I mention cheaper as well?

Comparing the FG's aura to Dream's? 1-108 on a dream and 20-22 for FG:

Dream:
1-108 damage, 54.5 average.
54.5/6 = 9 damage after pvp penalty.
Then consider 75 standard res and you do a whopping 2 damage.

Fire Golem:
20-22 damage, 21 average.
21/6 = 3.5 damage after pvp penalty.
Then consider 75 standard res and you do a whopping 1 damage.

Is sacrificing all the great mods to be had on a good circlet, shako, or even a Kira's worth that 1 measly damage to you? You only need 1 damage to kill, hence it should be a non-issue.

Why is the golem slow so important to you anyway? You seem to think melee won't be a problem which is why you don't think you need block. Slow is only useful against melee for the most part, so you seem to be contradicting yourself. Is melee a problem or not? If it is, get block and go ahead and use Decrep/Clay. If it isn't, get that FG and ignore block. Mind you, a good zon probably will make short work of you without block.

In closing, if you want to go non-block then go ahead. I'd suggest you duel Luis's BvC barb though before you say you "pwn" barbs. If you manage to get 1 kill, I'll be impressed. Going into pubbies and killing single handed botd WW barbs doesn't mean anything here, you might as well duel IK barbs.

[Dutchgrass]

Although poison is commonly the most ignored resistance, if you come across a decent dueler which stacks resist and is using something like Death’s Gloves, you’re in pretty big trouble with just Nova.
I personally recommend you spend your remaining points on a Bone skill, whether or not that is Spirit or Spear is up to personal preference. Combined with Marrowwalk and lots of +skill items you still get somewhat adequate BS damage. I’d rather spend points on that than something like golem mastery, lower res with it’s horrible diminishing returns or other semi-useless skill increases.
Also, a (spammable) spell with a much larger range than Nova can be helpful with getting people to move, like for instance a defensive trapper that just sits in a field. But I had the habit of playing hybrids and trying to cover as much bases as possible, mostly because I didn’t like being a one-trick pony.

I used Homonculus as my preferred shield, and went with max block. I always liked having max block, just in case you run into good melee. But that’s somewhat connected to the fact that I didn’t go for the 125% cast bp, due to my lack of good +cast items on ladder. Not to mention that this also helped out nicely with my resists.

Fire Golem along with strategic Teeth placement always did a pretty nice job at getting the final hit. I would regard Dream in order to use Clay Golem a far too small advantage to warrant sacrificing Shako or a good circlet. Not to mention the much smaller aura radius compared to that of the Fire Golem.

I’m not an expert here, my experiences are based on pub dueling, but it seems that’s what you’re aiming for anyway. I always enjoyed playing the Novamancer, partially because it’s a relatively uncommon build in pubs (but so was my v/t, which says enough about pubs anyway).

Yes I’m posting in the past tense, as WoW has kept me away from D2 since the European release. It almost feels like blasphemy.

[G0su_Hellbolt]

Okie, I'm not that good on psn necs but I'll see how my input goes...

Firstly, what is your full set of eq? You never said anything about your armor, rings, amu or charms.
-Go Enigma BP. It needs 30str req and can be easily achieved wit Anni.
-2+nec/20%fcr/2*s/resall circ. Stick either 2*Um or 2*Psn facets in for extra res/dmg.
-Maras or a 2+nec/20%fcr/allres crafted amu.
-2*SoJ/2*FCR rings with dex/str/allres
-Trang Gloves for FCR and dmg
-Marrowwalks, for bone synergy. Put a point into teeth for a nice 400~600 dmg finisher.
-Hoto 40% or Deaths, whatever your preference is- res/fcr or skills/dmg.
-Darkforce for dmg, Homonc for block+res, Boneflame for walk/run + res
-You can make up any loss in dmg compared to a pure psn dmg nec with p&b skillers.

With this set you get (at lvl 80~)
+About 60str, allows you to get on other stuff relatively quickly.
+120%FCR or 140%FCR, depending on what you choose.
+25% psn dmg, 35%psn dmg, or upto 50% with Deaths(I think...)
+Easy to hit finisher in teeth. Teeth is a one point number for psn necs.
+Nice skills and dmgs.

My $0.02.

*Gosu-Hellbolt

[semisonic9]

K, thanks. Yes, this build is mainly for pubby's, that is why it doesn't have to be to "uber", although I am surprised by some of the guys flooding the pubby duels these days. When a guy walks in with a perfect fathow, wing, facets, perf maras, etc, I pay attention. Hardly "ignorant newbs"...but there are a lot of those too.

If I want to duel in nice, GM duels, I wont be using this guy. FB sorc, boner (shudders) windy, or trapassin will get the job done. This is my pubby brawler.... but Phyrexial, I did see one good point about the fcr, I need a good FCR to just KO people with my nova.

For kicks and giggle, I am going with block figuring I'll use the trangs. I have other fish to fry right now in trading, don't wanna hunt down those items. If I don't like it, I will come back and talk crap to u guys.... :-D. J/k, it's late here.

Thanks for all the help, I'll bump if I have any other issues.

[semisonic9]

For kicks and giggle, I am going with block figuring I'll use the trangs. I have other fish to fry right now in trading, don't wanna hunt down those items. If I don't like it, I will come back and talk crap to u guys.... :-D. J/k, it's late here.

Thanks for all the help, I'll bump if I have any other issues.

OK, actually skipped block and went FCR after someone showed me the benefits. I am using FCR gear, going for speed and mobility over resilence. Seems to work better, let me know if anyone else has thoughts.

[TippSoulja]

IMO, I waited to go max block on my NovaMancer and now I wish I would have done it earlier. Now, less one hit kills by melee when combined with bone armour. This gives more time for casting LR and plenty of Novas for higher life chars.

True, my life is alot lower than vitamancer but I would rather try to block high damage melee than try to tank it.

[semisonic9]

IMO, I waited to go max block on my NovaMancer and now I wish I would have done it earlier. Now, less one hit kills by melee when combined with bone armour. This gives more time for casting LR and plenty of Novas for higher life chars.

True, my life is alot lower than vitamancer but I would rather try to block high damage melee than try to tank it.


IMO, melee is not a threat to caster types...sure, nova is short range, but with enough fcr u can cast, tele, cast tele, and all they can do is run after u or try to catch u in a tele, with their slow cast rate that's not gonna be happening. With LR on, I haven't seen anybody take more than two novas.

I guess a BvC could BM and do ok...or there was this one guy who did nothing but run from me, wait for me to tele wrong or not cast nova fast enough...boring duels, he still only won 2-5.

[Phyrexial]

IMO, melee is not a threat to caster types...sure, nova is short range, but with enough fcr u can cast, tele, cast tele, and all they can do is run after u or try to catch u in a tele, with their slow cast rate that's not gonna be happening. With LR on, I haven't seen anybody take more than two novas.

I guess a BvC could BM and do ok...or there was this one guy who did nothing but run from me, wait for me to tele wrong or not cast nova fast enough...boring duels, he still only won 2-5.
Duel a BvC barb or Ghost sin, I'd recommend Luis or Koda respectively. I think a charger wouldn't do too bad either.

[luis19]

any half decent ww barb/wwsin with enigma on will tear apart any psn necro.

for example, ive dueled psn necros with maxblock/42+dr and 125%fcr or high dmg paired with perfect gear (rich ppl screwing around to see if a psn necro would actually do well). To sum it up, it was an easy duel, for my barb and alot of time my zon.

Melee can't catch casters? ww barbs > most caster or at least go 50/50.

If you need someone to show you, I have a barb USeast nl. *dirtydozen131

If you play ladder, i think koda has a bvc barb there, ill hit him up if needed.

[semisonic9]

Sounds interesting. Message *JoeReid or *SadisticChaos whenever, but my friend Chou Balloon Fighter from gamefaqs.com is playing those accts right now. Just ask him if it's him, he'll let you know. My name is Joe (clever account name, huh?)

Also, I've been talking in the necro forum and they recomended using spirit, the marrows, and the fcr setup to get a 2k spirit, decent nova, and a weak golem. I may play around with that build, I've had only mediocre success from this one. Maybe a bone/poison hybrid is in order...

[TippSoulja]

Semisonic9, barbs can cast as fast as sorcs, even though they won't probably have as much fcr gear, they will probably have enough if they are BvC.

[semisonic9]

Hmmm...well, I guess I would still like to see that. I can honestly say I've never seen a good BvC build on bnet, and I've been doing nothing but dueling with my diablo time for the last 2 weeks. I've been all over the pubby's.

I'll check the BvC guides, see what i'm up against.

[TippSoulja]

The reason there aren't many good BvC's on Bnet is because the guides could be better. Also I am on USEast NL SC, so that might have something to do with it, considering every BvC is decked out with eBoTD Zerk, Beast, Ningma, and Arach.

[semisonic9]

Actually, I did see one online today. He won 70/30...but I was a little suspicious of how he always managed to tele on top of me, past my traps, from off screen. Being able to ww through my MB is annoying...

[luis19]

Just msg me when im online by adding me to ur f list since i play off and on when i have free time and in the mood for some ownage.

I'll duel u with a ww barb and my zon.
*dirtydozen131