Fishymancer: Finishing the build

[WebDragon]

I've recently (about a week ago) started playing from scratch again, and, as I'd decided long ago if I ever wanted to start again, I built a fishymancer.

This is the first necro I've ever made on bnet, so let me throw in some more praise about this build. Aside from the obvious fact that you don't need any gear to progress through the game, one thing that has really shined about this build is the fact that your summons keep you (and anyone else around you) alive during the nastiest of lag. I've often seen 10, 15, or even 20 second lag spikes that would've spelled sure death for even my most durable builds back in the day, and yet the skellies, being run server-side, are not affected and just keep tanking without complaint for as long as you need it. In fact, for every time I had someone complain about skellie lag, I've had 7 people begrudgingly acknowledge that my skellies saved their lives during lag.

Currently I'm at level 78. I've maxed RS, SM, and CE. I have 1 point each in the rest of the summoning tree except FG. I have 4 hard points in Amp, and 1 point in all curses except Tap and LR.

I've built this guy to MF in the pits. I've managed to get some decent equipment in the week that I've been playing. I summon my army at level 26/27 and then I switch to mf. I'm now wearing over 400 mf and killing just fine in the pits.

But.. I have a problem....

Stat Points Remaining: 232Skill Points Remaining: 11

I don't like looking at that. I want to use them up, but I'm stumped.

Skill Points:

Amp: 4 hard points in Amp is plenty enough with the +skills. It gets the job done.
Revive: I've got 4 revives with only 1 point, and it seems plenty.
Gumby: I only use gumby against bosses obviously, and with just 1 point, he survives against hell baal... no sense putting anything here.
Offensive Stuff: I won't have enough points to synergize them to a decent level of damage, and besides, I don't need it. My merc is strong enough.

So, what's left? I don't like wasting points, but I can't find a place where I can justify putting the points...

Stat Points:

I have Str ~100, Vit ~100, Base Dex & Nrg.

I'd originally thought of going for max block, but frankly, I'm not getting hit. As for Vit, I have about 550 life right now. Even with negative resists, its enough for me to not die from 1 hit if I get careless or a monster jumps me. Besides, I shouldn't be getting hit.

I'm stumped.. any input would be greatly appreciated.

[Das Adin]

The only thing summoners get hit from often are ranged piercing attacks like from black souls. If you have enough str to wear all the eqp you will ever want to have on then you should dump the stat points into Vit.

As for the skill points you dont have enough to put together a strong synergy with anything. I suggest Magi. At levels like yours points into magi will increase your total damage by about 45-50%. If you get to level 87 and max it your magi will do about 90% that of your warriors. This will also increase the number of skeletons around you still decreasing the likelyhood of you getting hit by melee.

[WebDragon]

I tried out the magi a few times. I assume they would get much tougher when I pour points into them, but as things stand with max SM and about level 6 or so magi from + skills, they've died several times in nightmare! Overall, I'd prefer magi to revives because the revive timer is very annoying to me. I usually prefer to just summon and forget.

How about bone armor? Would that be viable? I doubt I'll level the guy past ~85, so I'll be able to max one more skill, but no synergys.. or was the synergy better to max for BA? Either way it'll be just one skill. :confused:

[McCain123]

If you tend towards Bone Armor, put only 1 point in it and put the rest in one of the synergies, as every point in Bone Armor gives 10 absorb and every point in a synergy gives 15 absorb.

I personally like mages and if you have enough +skills in the summon tree, they rarely die and add a small but noticeable amount of damage. And they are even more meatshields. If you however plan to do lots of runs with other ppl, I would go the Bone Armor way, as lots of summons won´t make you popular.

[Yokomohoyo]

well you might want to invest in some points in magi since they will distract the rangers and attack places that your warriors cant reach (like in arcane sanctuary or the river of flame) or you might want to place some points into iron golem for the back up since he is a hard hitter that can take a licking and keep on ticking (as long as you life tap him every so offten) also if you place some points in IG place atleast 1 point in summon resist and from what Im guessing you have from +4 to +7 in skills so Im basing on a +4 for my thoughts... at +4 your IG with 8 points invested would have 2009hp (hell mode) 225 attack (hell mode) 560 def (hell mode) 12-33 damage (hell mode) +420 defence mod and 315% thorns (hell mode) in additon to whatever mod given from the item you make him from

[waflob]

If you've got a decent blocking shield (Homonculus or similar), then it's definately worth going for max block. What I really hate is those spear throwing cats that heave tons of piercing spears from way off the screen. Pesky moggies !

Hearing the 'ding ding' as they get blocked is nice :-) Actually, it's not really a 'ding' - more a 'tink' sort of noise. Hearing that, I know that it was worth it.

Believe me, you'll kick yourself if your char dies and you've got a load of spare points that you know could have kept him alive, if only you'd used them.

[Thynqikan]

I personally bumped my Dex to 200 for an excellent 75% block chance using my Homoncleus.
My way of thinking:
If I had put all those points into Vitality for the life it wouldnt be enough to survive anyways since those non blocked shots would be getting through and taking off that life and more at the end game. The most dangerous stuff is the archers, spear cats and Black souls. Since I play in 3-4 player games the monsters do more damage.
Get the dexterity up, it is worth it.

Patriarch Kavorkian lvl 88 USWest
*thynqikan

[WebDragon]

So far I've been holding off the dex pumping until I get my end-game shield, but I've noticed that my current shield, rhyme bone shield, has 60% block, which isn't bad.

I began carefully increasing dex. I'm at 130 now, with 45% block. I've began to see the effects and its quite nice. I'll hold off going for max block until I actually get my end-game shield, which would be either a homonculus or a rhyme tower shield.

As for the skills, I'm thinking of just mixing and matching. I think I'll bring revives up to 4 hard points, bringing it up to about 10 with +skills, which is more than I'll ever need. I'll then drop the rest into magi. I should end up with level ~15 magi with 26 SM, hopefully reaching 20 magi with +skills eventually.

Is that enough to make durable magi?

[Das Adin]

I wouldnt call magi at any level durable. Due to the timer on revives I dont suggest you should put any more in there if you dont have enigma. They can get mighty unruley and require a close eye. Try and use the pet damage calculator to try and work out how much your magi will do if you put your points into them and work out how much good revives will do.

[Day]

Magi have other uses beyond pure damage

Cold damage for extra sloooooow

Poison damage to prevent monster heal

Help out with the odd stone skin/physical immune

More meat shields - they tend to clump around you

[Das Adin]

Actualy I have found that skeletons when left alone clump about 10 yards away from you including magi. But, in a fight Magi always hang back in your area.

[McCain123]

I wouldnt call magi at any level durable.
I rarely use them, but when I need them ( for corpse rescue of a team member f.e. ) I don´t want to miss them. And it is hell lot of fun to stand in the middle of 50+ minions beeing untachable to everything but souls.

[Das Adin]

I just love the sound all those magi make when they shoot at once after you teleport. Kinda like ":OIEUASGPOISGH" only more harsh sounding. A guy once complained about how I might be damaging his speakers with that noise!