Kretschmer
04-10-2005, 02:51
Diablo2 seems like a decent "rehab" game after ditching WoW, and I thought I'd get back into it with an oddball build. Specifically, a Lord of Mages. LoMs focus on raising skeletal mages (hence the name) and augmenting their damage with lower resist.
This character will be completely untwinked/no trading, so 40 RSM/SM isn't really feasible. I played one to nightmare before, and I'm guessing that mages will cut it in hell. But how slow are they? Hydra slow or venomancer slow?
Planned build
Raise Skeletal Mage: 20. Pretty Self-explanitory.
Skeleton Mastery: 20. See above.
Revive: 6 (20). Revives are excellent meatshields and ok damage-dealers. Besides, they're too damn cool not to use. The utility of huge number of revives is tempting, but they're sort of unwieldly and it would be pretty tough to keep a ton up at any given time. If 6+Item Skills doesn't cut it, I can certainly pump Revive up.
Raise Skeleton: 1. This isn't a melee-focused summoner. I've gone down the skeleton + revive + amp + CE route before, and I find mages to be more appealing (if slower).
Summon Resist: 1. I'd feel silly putting points into a skill with such diminishing returns. Even meagre Item Skills can handle this one.
Golems: 1 (20): I have no idea what to do here. I was toying with dumping 20 points into the fire golem, but his aura does piddling damage and his AR seems too low to hit anything.
Corpse Explosion: 5 (20): 5 seems a good place to start out. I'll pump this if it seems appropriate.
Lower Resist: 5 (20): This skill is the only way to boost mage damage after 20/20 RSM/SM, but the diminishing returns are steep.
Dim Vision: 1 (20): This skill is very useful against pesky ranged attackers. I might max this for utility.
Questions:
-At what point do additional revives become useless? I'm not sure how many to put there.
-Are any of the golems worth pumping? Clay is good for bosses, but in my experience mages fare poorly against bosses anyways, and one point is good enough to slow. The low AR of fire golems (the only golem source of sustainable damage; iron die too much) makes me wonder if one would hit anything.
-15 skill points for -15% res all seems like a poor trade. Then again, the duration and radius become noticeably better. Am I wrong in leaving LR at 5?
-Would level 20 dim vision be as awesome as I think it would be?
-The base build above requires 74 points, giving me a solid 15 or 20 more to play around with before I hit the megagrind. Where would YOU put them? Remember, I'm not playing with +15 all skills or -100% enemy poison resist. The direct-damage spells seem to be too weak without gear or synergies and raise skeleton is blocked thematically, leaving me with utility options.
Stat points:
STR: ~80? Caster equipment is pretty light.
Dex: Base. Blocking doesn't seem to be needed or feasible, untwinked.
Vit: A lot. Hey, why not?
Ene: 50-75. An insight polearm negates the need for a large mana pool, but I need something to keep me going while I go rune hunting.
Items:
+Summoning>+Skills>+mana>+hp>resists>FCR>Other Junk. I think.
Style Points:
Freaking awesome, man.
This character will be completely untwinked/no trading, so 40 RSM/SM isn't really feasible. I played one to nightmare before, and I'm guessing that mages will cut it in hell. But how slow are they? Hydra slow or venomancer slow?
Planned build
Raise Skeletal Mage: 20. Pretty Self-explanitory.
Skeleton Mastery: 20. See above.
Revive: 6 (20). Revives are excellent meatshields and ok damage-dealers. Besides, they're too damn cool not to use. The utility of huge number of revives is tempting, but they're sort of unwieldly and it would be pretty tough to keep a ton up at any given time. If 6+Item Skills doesn't cut it, I can certainly pump Revive up.
Raise Skeleton: 1. This isn't a melee-focused summoner. I've gone down the skeleton + revive + amp + CE route before, and I find mages to be more appealing (if slower).
Summon Resist: 1. I'd feel silly putting points into a skill with such diminishing returns. Even meagre Item Skills can handle this one.
Golems: 1 (20): I have no idea what to do here. I was toying with dumping 20 points into the fire golem, but his aura does piddling damage and his AR seems too low to hit anything.
Corpse Explosion: 5 (20): 5 seems a good place to start out. I'll pump this if it seems appropriate.
Lower Resist: 5 (20): This skill is the only way to boost mage damage after 20/20 RSM/SM, but the diminishing returns are steep.
Dim Vision: 1 (20): This skill is very useful against pesky ranged attackers. I might max this for utility.
Questions:
-At what point do additional revives become useless? I'm not sure how many to put there.
-Are any of the golems worth pumping? Clay is good for bosses, but in my experience mages fare poorly against bosses anyways, and one point is good enough to slow. The low AR of fire golems (the only golem source of sustainable damage; iron die too much) makes me wonder if one would hit anything.
-15 skill points for -15% res all seems like a poor trade. Then again, the duration and radius become noticeably better. Am I wrong in leaving LR at 5?
-Would level 20 dim vision be as awesome as I think it would be?
-The base build above requires 74 points, giving me a solid 15 or 20 more to play around with before I hit the megagrind. Where would YOU put them? Remember, I'm not playing with +15 all skills or -100% enemy poison resist. The direct-damage spells seem to be too weak without gear or synergies and raise skeleton is blocked thematically, leaving me with utility options.
Stat points:
STR: ~80? Caster equipment is pretty light.
Dex: Base. Blocking doesn't seem to be needed or feasible, untwinked.
Vit: A lot. Hey, why not?
Ene: 50-75. An insight polearm negates the need for a large mana pool, but I need something to keep me going while I go rune hunting.
Items:
+Summoning>+Skills>+mana>+hp>resists>FCR>Other Junk. I think.
Style Points:
Freaking awesome, man.