New and need advice

[Masamune]

Hiyas I'm fairly new to the game and I need abit of advice. I've read over some faqs and guides as well as the forums so I have some basic knowledge of what I'm doing but I'm running into some trouble.

I've created a summoner necro and I'm currently lvl 82. Ive maxed skeleton mastery, skele/mages and I've currently got 12 into raise monster and 10 into summoner resist. and one point into amp damage and one into corpse explosion.

Now I'm having some extreme problems trying to find some good gear cause I just can't handle meph/diablo/baal in hell. I can raise 9 skele/mages and 18 monsters with what little +skill gear I have ( I'll list later ), What other Monsters/boss's should I be hunting to get better gear?

My gear set up is this.

Head: Undead crown
Body: Duriels Shell ( Working on getting 4 socket topaz )
Hand: Trang ( Someone nice gave these to me )
Belt: Goldwrap
Shield: Blue magical demon head with +3 to skeleton mastery
Amulet: Rare +1 to necro skills and other mods
Ring: Manald
Ring: Nagel
Boots: Rare with +22 magic finding and other mods
wand: Umes lament ( Found bartucs claws and traded it for this )

My Merc is an act 2 thorns merc mainly cause I haven't been able to figure out which one is the might merc as of yet but my merc is using a rare helm and spear and rattlecage armor cause I read crushing blow is important.

Any Advice on where I should hunt to upgrade my gear would be much appreciated. Specially which monsters like to drop trang stuff.. And which merc has might? I've tried like 7 different mercs now.

Thanks in advance.

[anoeil]

The might merc is nightmare offensive. :wink3:

[Stompwampa]

stop putting points into Revive and SUmmone Resist. I point in each is plenty with all the +skills you'll get. Put as many more points as possible into Corpse Explosion. And for curses, stick 1 point into Amp, Decrep, Dim Vision and Life Tap for sure....yuo can do one in each though if you want.

[HarbingersOfSkulls]

Instead of trying to do hell meph and baal with your crappy gear...you should try to focus on doing NM meph and baal to get you that better gear. Also...you could try to do hell andy as well...she drop's alot of rings and ammy's and is able to drop other good equipment as well. And I would pimp the hell out of her as often as you can.

HoS

[PuppMaster]

stop putting points into Revive and SUmmone Resist. I point in each is plenty with all the +skills you'll get. Put as many more points as possible into Corpse Explosion. And for curses, stick 1 point into Amp, Decrep, Dim Vision and Life Tap for sure....yuo can do one in each though if you want.


i disagree
yes you shouldnt be putting points in SR. but only because you should have maxed that a long time ago. also, you need better gear.
try wormskull for helm trang-oul's armor, ect. also AoKL is a must.

But as far as MFing goes, any gear w/ MF on it is fine, if u have gear w/ sockets, obviously put a PTopaz. but Dont try to go MFing in places that r way too difficult 4 u.
Remember actually playing the game and MF runs are differnt. i have 2 sets of armor. all my actual gear with MF in it stays on, but i change my gloves, boots and rings when i go on an MF run. so dont b afraid of changing your gear

[AnimeCraze]

More than 1 in summon resist and revive is a waste. No more than 5 if you are absolutely broke. The limit approaches 67%, not 100%, so that's why it's not worth more points.

[Zarniwoop]

The key to the summoner is not just having pets, but having a good crowd control ability.

Dim vision is the one I went with, others love attract. But stop touching revives and resist and start pounding one of those quickly.

Honestly, I'd be tempted to reroll if you also haven't maxed corpse explosion.

[mooney]

curses are your friend: dim vision for ranged attackers, attract to distract monsters & get that first kill (remember amp dmg does not override AI curses), then let your CE rip. maxing CE does not increase dmg but does increase radius, which increases your number of potential kills per cast. i maxed it in my summoner, mainly 'cos there's a lot of spare points with summoners.
i personally don't see much benefit in maxing summon resist, & let +skills do the work.
see how u go with that

[garion]

shoot for trangs armor..a few pgems i believe in the trade forums =P

[Starcrunch]

Many will advocate maxed CE, but frankly I find it's increased mana drain annoying with summoners using base energy, it's fine with a few points +skill items (it's too late to max anyway).

1.) Might is the only way to fly if you want to kill quickly and are poor. Skeletons with and without might are like apples and oranges.

2.) Use Dim Vision, Confuse, or Attract to manage the battle. Your principal job as a summoner is battle management. Don't be affraid to use Terror to clear a doorway (or get an amulet with charges of teleport) to move your army through it. You need your army to flood the room and engage your enemy. Likewise if a skeleton mage blocks your armies path through a narrow doorway destroy it.

3.) Use Amplify Damage when you are in control of the situation and your minions are not seriosly threatened. Use Attract in conjunction with Amp to take the heat off your boys when they get into a tight spot. When facing powerful bosses Decrepify is your friend.

4.) Use a clay golem against really strong enemies (like act bosses). Just respawn him in the position he should appear, he cost's almost nothing. His slow ability stacks beautifully with Decrepfy and the cold modifier.

5.) You have revives galore, when facing a tough boss (say Baal), travel to Act III, Durance of Hate and revive Blunderbores in mass, these guys have crushing blow which tears up bosses in a hurry. Alternatively you can try for Gorebellies in Act II, Palace Cellar, though they sometimes don't appear. Other memebrs of the Gorebelly family work too, but Bluderbores and the Durance are your shurest bet. Likewise be on the lookout for crushing blow gear such as Guillane's Face (sp) for your mercenary.

-Starcrunch

[Stompwampa]

i disagree
yes you shouldnt be putting points in SR. but only because you should have maxed that a long time ago. also, you need better gear.
try wormskull for helm trang-oul's armor, ect. also AoKL is a must.


There is no point in maxing SR since it's resist bonus maxes out at around 67%, and you can get to that a +skill gear. Sure, the typical summoner has enough points leftover that they could be allocated to SR, but they'd be better spent on mages, or maxing CE.

There is no such thing as a summoner who "needs better gear" Any summoner that's built half decenty can solo hell naked...which is true. I took my naked necro against baal to see if it would work, and oh it did ;-)

[AnimeCraze]

Many will advocate maxed CE, but frankly I find it's increased mana drain annoying with summoners using base energy, it's fine with a few points +skill items (it's too late to max anyway).

1.) Might is the only way to fly if you want to kill quickly and are poor. Skeletons with and without might are like apples and oranges.

2.) Use Dim Vision, Confuse, or Attract to manage the battle. Your principal job as a summoner is battle management. Don't be affraid to use Terror to clear a doorway (or get an amulet with charges of teleport) to move your army through it. You need your army to flood the room and engage your enemy. Likewise if a skeleton mage blocks your armies path through a narrow doorway destroy it.

3.) Use Amplify Damage when you are in control of the situation and your minions are not seriosly threatened. Use Attract in conjunction with Amp to take the heat off your boys when they get into a tight spot. When facing powerful bosses Decrepify is your friend.

4.) Use a clay golem against really strong enemies (like act bosses). Just respawn him in the position he should appear, he cost's almost nothing. His slow ability stacks beautifully with Decrepfy and the cold modifier.

5.) You have revives galore, when facing a tough boss (say Baal), travel to Act III, Durance of Hate and revive Blunderbores in mass, these guys have crushing blow which tears up bosses in a hurry. Alternatively you can try for Gorebellies in Act II, Palace Cellar, though they sometimes don't appear. Other memebrs of the Gorebelly family work too, but Bluderbores and the Durance are your shurest bet. Likewise be on the lookout for crushing blow gear such as Guillane's Face (sp) for your mercenary.

-StarcrunchI second that, except for the not maxing CE part. If mana is an issue, get an insight (unless you are using obedience or better) or sink a few points into energy. It's PvM so a few points there won't kill you.