Curses for BoneMancers

[xtrashcrapx]

I'm making a PvM BoneMancer and I would like to know if anyone has found any curses valuable as a bonemancer. i was thinking that decrepify would work well with a cg but would confuse be better for PvM in dealing with mobs? wat do u guys think?

[PerfectEnigma]

Put 1 Pt in Decrepfy and Amplify and let your plus skill pts on your gear up them.

[Myrakh-2]

I use Amplify Damage and Decrepify to help my merc/CEs.

I'm thinking about putting points into the left branch, but I don't have experience with those curses yet... my Skelemancer never uses them.

[corax]

generally speaking cg + decrep can hold up everything until you get the CE chain happening. when either decrep or CE are a big help. they are also handy for breaking the rare PI/MI so your merc can take them on.

There are however a few cases when both Attract and Dim vision are very handy. gloams are one of them. and very nasty mobs. say a cursed pack of fanaticism xtra strong minotaurs :eek:

I'd heartily recomend both just for the safety of having them their.

[Mahric]

Confuse is by far my favourite curse, especially against large groups of creatures. I use it probably 90% of the time.

Strengths:
i) Creatures attack the nearest target, which is usually not you;
ii) Also keeps them them together nicely for Bone Spear to pierce multiple targets and for CE to clean up the remaining few.

Great fun against cows - you can take out a massive group of cows without getting hit once, just refresh the confuse every few seconds (depends on the level) or when a new cow joins the fray.

Weaknesses:

i) It doesn't work on bosses and champions ... but if they're grouped together with normal creatures, the creatures attack the boss and the boss, if hit, appears to hit back ... haven't properly tested this, but it appears to be the case ... if not, the they're usually surrounded anyway and not a threat.

You can also Decrepify and then Confuse - leaving the boss slowed and the rest attacking each other.

Against tough bosses, use Decrepify - together with Clay Golem, it slows them almost to a standstill. But Bone Necros (especially with Marrowalk) have high damage and are good enough against single targets to get by without Decrepify. I only ever use it against Lister, Diablo and Baal.

ii) Confuse is not as good against ranged creatures - instead of pulling them together, it pushes them apart, making it more difficult to hit multiple targets with your Spear. Dim Vision is sometimes better, particularly against Gloams, but Confuse works well enough and I rarely bother to change.


Merc :

Use the Act1 Merc because confused mobs will still attack an Act2 Merc. Act1 Mercs with a good bow do good damage, and the aura isn't much of a loss because they don't benefit Bone Necros nearly as much as they do Skellimancers ... but if you like Auras, there are some nice new runewords for bows (on the ladder) to give your Act1 merc an aura :

Edge (Tir + Tal + Amn) : easy to make and gives level 15 thorns aura to your Golem.

Ice (Amn + Shael + Jah + Lo) : level 18 Holy Freeze. Combine with Clay Golem .... and Decrepify.

Faith (Ohm + Jah + Lem + Eld) : Level 12-15 Fanaticism ... not as useful (in my opinion) for a Bone Necro, but great for Skellies.

[Myrakh-2]

Confuse is by far my favourite curse, especially against large groups of creatures. I use it probably 90% of the time.

Strengths:
i) Creatures attack the nearest target, which is usually not you;

That's exactly the issue: as a ranged char I'm never the primary target anyway, since there's always Gumby and the merc going melee range. It's rather obvious that my Skelemancer doesn't use the AI curses (it's amp, decrep or lower resist for him...), but for the bonemancer I haven't decided yet...

I'll probably put a wand or head on switch when I get to hell, to try them out...

[corax]

Attract > Confuse in all situations.

it's un-overridable so you can use it then use your primary curse. the monsters won't attack you(or your minions) until the curse wears off and they often do enough damage to each other for a highly successful ce chain.