Non-ladder PvM Poisonmancer Problems

[Tom123]

Hi, The problem is that poison immunes just refuse to die easily and I get slaughtered by souls etc. My item setup is:

Shako
Bramble
Trangs Gloves/Belt/Shield
Marrowalks
Maras
Miscellaneous rings
Deaths Web

I have gone for a bone spear hybrid which went a bit wrong, but worth a try i guess! (I switch between Decrepify and Lower Resist)

Level 83 now, with a holy freeze merc with shaftstop shell, hone sundan and gaze/tals (I forgot).

My res's are poor and so I was going to socket Shako and Tals wing with Um's. However, I want to be able to kill poison immunes with poison - is this a realistic hope? I may go for poison facets in the items and leave res's to charms...but, how about 4 socket poison facets in the mercs armour?! Would that be that beneficial, how about facets in my stuff?

[Hypnectic]

Hi, The problem is that poison immunes just refuse to die easily and I get slaughtered by souls etc. My item setup is:
....blah blah blah...
in the mercs armour?! Would that be that beneficial, how about facets in my stuff?


dude, if you've maxed LR and all poison skills, you should be murdering monsters in hell. I use a similar setup with wizspike for resists and cast, and never die in hell unless its on baal, or diablo. wasting 4 facets in a merc armor is a bit overboard. My main suggestion is ditching your Web wand for a wiz spike. Will help you deal with Souls, especially since your hurting in the resistance department. Also if you want to kill poison immunes... your merc is going to be doing that for you. I usually decrepify the monsters, my holy freeze merc starts smacking them around, once they are slowed by the freeze re-cast Lower resists to remove their immunity and then start casting nova, remember to corpse xplode posion/regular both work wonders in norm/NM/Hell ... especially with the immunes. good luck.

~HYP~
:stoned:

[Hypnectic]

was just thinking...
If your on east ill message you and show you how i run around with my Poison Nec. Ill send you a private message here on the forums with account name.

hyp.

heh srry bout dbl posty.

[Tom123]

was just thinking...
If your on east ill message you and show you how i run around with my Poison Nec. Ill send you a private message here on the forums with account name.

hyp.

heh srry bout dbl posty.

On Europe unfortunately. I haven't maxxed LR, just 1 point and so 7 or something with skills. I have to admit, the merc does the job on them eventually, I do the decrepify, wizspike and go nuts with the bonespear and the firewall on trangs. Spose I should just face facts that some poison immunes are just a tough fight and I need to stick it out! :D

Thanks, if anyone else wants to give some tactics for the non summoner, let me know!

The thorns on bramble and clay golem are pretty nifty. Oh i forgot to mention, merc helm is Guilhames face, so 80% CB! The special gloams are the major problem, thats for sure. Maybe a wisp protector, then decrep, firewall and bonespear....also, any tactics related to bonewall that would help?

[Mad Mantis]

On Europe unfortunately. I haven't maxxed LR, just 1 point and so 7 or something with skills. I have to admit, the merc does the job on them eventually, I do the decrepify, wizspike and go nuts with the bonespear and the firewall on trangs.

First check if LR doesn't break the immunity. If it doesn't you can use Amp if there are only a few monsters around. If the crowd is too large use Decrep.
Then lay down a few Fire Walls. If there are bodies nearby use CE to deal with the immunes. If there are no bodies nearby go nuts with BSpear.

[Necrochild313]

Never max lower resistance, it is far too diminishing, a real waste of points. IMO those points are far better spent into bone wall to give yourself a stronger armor.


how about 4 socket poison facets in the mercs armour?! Would that be that beneficial


-%res/+%dmg on mercs do not effect your damage. Only something that directly effects the monster (like the conviction aura on infinity) would, however infinity doesn't effect poison so it's not quite as useful for a venomancer.


I want to be able to kill poison immunes with poison - is this a realistic hope?

Deaths web is what you should use, especially if you want to deal with immunes, lower resistance has a 1/5 effect on immunes, however, -res in gear does not. So say you break an immunity on a monster that has 100% poison immunity with a level 10 lower resistance that lowers resistance by 55%. Well, since that 55% is at 1/5 efficiency (the monster is immune) the monster will be left with 89% resistance. Lets say you've gotton the shaft and got a 40% deaths web with a -3% facet. That would leave the monster with 46% resistance to your poison, then -25% more from your 3 piece trang. The monster now has 21% poison resistance, which would mean you'd deal almost 9x the amount of damage to that immune if you did not have any -res in gear.

-res in gear also has another great property, in that either by bug or design it increase the length your enemy will remained poisoned, as well as increasing the damage per second. See this thread for details (http://www.rpgforums.net/showthread.php?t=277202)

which means, say, you deal 5k listed nova damage over 2 seconds, and say you have, -75% in gear (for easy numbers)

You will actually be doing 15,313 damage over 3.5 seconds against a monster with 0% immunity (for easy numbers)


My res's are poor and so I was going to socket Shako and Tals wing with Um's.

I suggest using some all resist grandcharms, I use a few in the place of pnbs on my necro and I can tell you that I'm the better for it.

Max resists > 1k more dmg

[Tom123]

Thanks a lot guys, very helpful and prompt replies as always :D