pure aura necro

[beemander]

can someone suggest the best gear for max skeleton dmg?
i thought a Faith bow then a might merc with Pride. but are there more things? (try to leave the armor out i'm going with engima)

[UltraNull]

Might, Fanat and Conc eh? I dont think you can beef them up more then that.
Just don't forget to get a Call to Arms and a +all skills shield on switch for good measure.
You will be the ultimate oskill exploiter ;)

[Gix]

A Merc with Bramble Armor (thorns aura) also just to give you a little defense.

[Mad Mantis]

Summon a HoW to further increase damage.

[beemander]

Summon a HoW to further increase damage.

from wisp projector?

[Gix]

from wisp projector?

Yes. I always wondered what the hell people do when they run out of charges cuz thats a pretty expensive ring.

[Pherdnut]

I think its the skill level/charge that determines cost. Apparently the best thing to do for prebuffing is to summon from an item with the highest level but then keep a whisp projector to keep it from disappearing when you switch it out with something better.

[Mad Mantis]

from wisp projector?

Nope. You follow the tactic described by Pherdnut. You wear the Wisp Projector and use an Oath to summon the HoW.

[Dportwrestling]

Ok if im making a Skele/Ce necro..
Im thinking might merc with: Pride, Bramble

what im wondering is if it would b better for me to use Alot of + skills items for skelies of if using like Beast would be better than say an extra +3 in skele skills.

About using pride.. I used use one on my old bowazons merc. alot of people acted like it was a big waste of runes. but the lvl 17 conc adds like 300ED why dont more people use them on their necros merc? is there some kind of reduction when used on melee attacks or somting?

[Mad Mantis]

what im wondering is if it would b better for me to use Alot of + skills items for skelies of if using like Beast would be better than say an extra +3 in skele skills.

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

Why not do both? Summon your Skellies with the highest number of +skills and then equip Beast. This is called pre-buffing. You may loose a Skellie, but the remaining number of Skellies will retain the higher level stats.




but the lvl 17 conc adds like 300ED why dont more people use them on their necros merc? is there some kind of reduction when used on melee attacks or somting?

The Hit Blinds Target and Freezes Target +3 can get annoying. HBT will override your curses and FT will shatter corpses. It is a trade-off between this and getting Concentration.

[Necrochild313]

I'd imagine that the conviction aura from Infinity would be more useful for a skellimancer, since the -def will make your skellies hit alot more frequently, which is in a sense a "multiplicative" bonus, however, the +% ed from Pride is additive to the ED your skellys already recieve. Not to mention that the 40% CB will make your merc a boss-beast when coupled with Gface, and that you don't have to worry about HBT or shattered corpses.

[beemander]

so i decided to use:
Helm: Shako
Weapon: Faith bow w/ leoric and homunculus on switch
Armor: dusk enigma
Belt: Arachnid
Boots: Marrowwalk
Ammy: mara's
Ring: Wisp and dunno
Gloves: no clue

Merc gear:
armor: Bramble
weapon: CV Pride or Infinity (i just saw that post before this one and that does sound useful)
Helm: no clue
someone want to suggest something?

[Mad Mantis]

Ring: Wisp and dunno
Gloves: no clue

Trang's and SoJ are good choices.




Helm: no clue

Andariel’s or Guillaume's.

[rickyson1]

the -def isnt really needed because they hit enough anyways.

[bluedragoon]

I'd imagine that the conviction aura from Infinity would be more useful for a skellimancer, since the -def will make your skellies hit alot more frequently, which is in a sense a "multiplicative" bonus, however, the +% ed from Pride is additive to the ED your skellys already recieve. Not to mention that the 40% CB will make your merc a boss-beast when coupled with Gface, and that you don't have to worry about HBT or shattered corpses.
Will conviction help ur mages a lot, i dont know if he uses them, but would it ?

[Necrochild313]

Will conviction help ur mages a lot, i dont know if he uses them, but would it ?

It would, but I was referring to the -defense portion of conviction.

the -def isnt really needed because they hit enough anyways.

Actually they miss quite frequently, it's just the fact that there are so many of them that it seems like they hit alot. Imagine how much more damage they'd deal if they hit at about every attack.



Chance to hit formula

100 * AR / (AR + DR) * 2 * alvl / (alvl + dlvl)
AR = Attack Rating; alvl = Level of Attacker; dlvl = Level of Defender; DR = Defense Rating

Note: Attacks will never have less than 5% chance to hit nor more than 95% chance to hit.


Let me use Hell Ladder Eldritch as an example, he has 1598 defense and is mlvl 84

Ok, lets say our necromantic hero "MR_SKELLYS" is level 85, and he has a level 35 raise skeleton with 35 skeleton mastery = 1070 Skeleton AR. Minions gain the caster's clvl in 1.10, so his minions are level 85 as well.

---

Ok, the equation would go like this

100 * 1070 / (1070 + 1598) * 2 * 85 / (85 + 84)

MR_SKELLYS skeletons have a 40-41% chance to hit. Pretty sad.

---

Now lets say MR_SKELLY has two Bers, a Mal, and an Ist, as well as a suitable 4 os Polarm, and makes Insight and pops it on his merc.

The aura from insight will decrease mean ol' Eldritch's defense by 85%, which leaves him with 240 defense.

---

Lets work the equation with those numbers.

100 * 1070 / (1070 + 240) * 2 * 85 / (85 + 84)

MR_SKELLYS skeletons have a 82-83% chance to hit.

MUCH better :)

[Damric]

In some experimenting this month I found that if you put an Edge bow and a Bramble armor on your rogue merc you get around lvl 35 thorns. I went around amping things and watching them kill themselves. WW barbs were the funniest.

[Gix]

In some experimenting this month I found that if you put an Edge bow and a Bramble armor on your rogue merc you get around lvl 35 thorns. I went around amping things and watching them kill themselves. WW barbs were the funniest.

IM + Thorns + Amp + Anything Melee = Sudden Death

[Pherdnut]

I think a combined Concentration, Might, Fanaticism group of skellies would make the inconvenience of your merc deamping enemies with blind occasionally seem pretty trivial in comparison.

Interesting analysis NC. Maybe a Blessed Aim merc instead of a might merc would be worth trying. Uh... Is there a blessed aim merc?

The Conviction approach might make a combined skelli/mage build worthwile since might and fanaticism was still considered extremely effective before Pride made an appearance. Those mages might not do a crapload of damage but they can't be completely worthless if all nonimmunes are only at 15% or less. Kind of like having a constant hydra spell following you around. And who doesn't like lagging the crap out of Baal runs with 24-30 minions? :)

My thought on the damage return auras is that they're worth it if equipping those items doesn't seriously detract from your other skills but in Hell they don't really kill fast enough on their own. Even with Edge and Bramble going simultaneously, enemies will still have to hit themselves up to ten time to kill themselves and they don't always hit either. Edge definitely doesn't trump Beast or Pride, and if I had a choice between Enigma, Chains of Honor, Fortitude and Bramble, Bramble would be last on my list for a skelli or commandomancer. Poison/skelli remains debatable, however.

[Necrochild313]

Interesting analysis NC. Maybe a Blessed Aim merc instead of a might merc would be worth trying. Uh... Is there a blessed aim merc?

Yes, though I doubt that the attack rating bonus would be as benefitial as the -def% bonus for skeletons.