Need some advice for a summoner.

[zarfen]

Hi.
After some months of inactivity, i decided to start up d2 again, as all of my characters expired, i made a new account and had to start all over.
As I was untwinked i made a summoner to do some basic mf to start with.
Since i have little experience of summon necros i need some help.
1: It is a pvmbuild, so should i go for max block or all out vita? i got about 100 saved statpoints by now :P.
2: Should i use skelliemages? some say they suck, some say they're useable.. and also:
3: i'm thinking of making a summon/poison hybrid, and in the guides i've seen i noticed ppl dont put more than 1 in lower resist. why is that? i can understand if it is a summoner/psn to keep other curses, ie: amplify on monsters, to maintain high dmg output on skellies, but could you maybe give me a hint about this?

I appreciate some tips and please dont leave comments like "GRAAWWH max vITA!!11oneone MAges is teh suxxxxor", please tell me why i should do what you advice me to do.
thx in advance =)

zarfen / europe *chma

[garion]

1)Pvm...either way will be fine..though max vita never hurts =P....
2) mages a secondary line...or maybe 3rd line of defense (behind skeles/revives)
3) 1 into lower res is more than enough because with + skills you will have plenty of dmg....summon/psn is what i use....

so lower res...nova....then amp...then CE....tada dead packs =P

[Evrae Altana]

i'm thinking of making a summon/poison hybrid, and in the guides i've seen i noticed ppl dont put more than 1 in lower resist. why is that? i can understand if it is a summoner/psn to keep other curses, ie: amplify on monsters, to maintain high dmg output on skellies, but could you maybe give me a hint about this? Lower Resist, like many other skills, suffer from diminishing returns (ie. the gain from going from level 15 to 16 is much smaller than going from level 1 to 2). As such, one point, along with +skills, is more than enough to get Lower Resist to a decent level. If you're playing untwinked and don't have a lot of access to items, then ~5 points in Lower Resist is acceptable, but don't put any more than that.

[HaveMercy]

if u have nigma, then i would suggest max block.
and skelli mages are quite a useful way to spend ur points if u have nothing else. PMH from the poison mages are quite useful

[Evrae Altana]

if u have nigma, then i would suggest max block.The OP says he just restarted the game fresh. Where will he get this Enigma from? :rolleyes:

[Paradoxical Reasoning]

PMH from the poison mages are quite useful

What's "PMH"?

[Evrae Altana]

Prevent monster heal.

[zarfen]

thanks for the useful advices guys :D, I think im going for a psn/summoner with max vita =), seems easier than max block, but one thingy bout' the mages, are they dealinbg any ok dmg in later games? but since i gonna be summoner/poison i guess i gonna max synergies for nova and keep to my normal skellies.
and yes, i cant see how i'm supposed to get an eni for quite a while :P

garion: how is the psn/summoner doing in hell and is he any good for mf'ing? how about killingspeed and such? and is he more item-dependant? compared to the fishymancer?

[garion]

eh..i don't think they deal any reall substantial dmg..but they make great additional shields =P

for mfing you will want a pure summoner since he can wear chancies/gold wrap (for 70% more mf)

psn/summon would like to weap trangs combo (gloves/belt/shield for the -25% psn res & +25% psn dmg)

although you could still wear chancies/goldwrap as a psnancer anyways for the heck of it....it will lower youre overall dmg

[zarfen]

hmm.. i see, since im totally untwinked i think i'll go for mfing with this one.. but what to put skills in as a "pure" summoner? is it like the fishymancer or what?

[Evrae Altana]

hmm.. i see, since im totally untwinked i think i'll go for mfing with this one.. but what to put skills in as a "pure" summoner? is it like the fishymancer or what?Basically max Raise Skeleton, Skeletal Mage, Skeleton Mastery, Corpse Explosion, and 1 point in Clay Golem, Golem Mastery, Summon Resist, and curses.

[Adeathaday]

it will be slow to mf wit a untwinked summoner. but safest

[Muzzy Roberto]

I'd also like to recommend a point into revive. For meat sheilds, and some enemies are just flat out cool to revive.


The poison/Summoner is a good build to go down. Your poison Nova will eliminate the need for mages for PMH.
Poison explosion is nifty in small, tight areas. (Arcane sanctuary, for example). Getting a small mob of enemies hit for high poison damage isn't as good as CE, but the high maxed out poison damage makes for a good substitute.

[zarfen]

oki thanks alot. im currently lvl 45~48 with no really good gear yet but i'll manage since i dont need to attack/ get attacked, max vita gets me about 350 life anyway =)

Edit: Yea and also, really important question, i know if i use +skill stuff to summon, the skellies get better even though i might loose one or two when i change back gear, but how does this affect mf? if i summon with pure + skills for stronger skellies, and then swith to maybe a gulldagger and some shield for better mf'ing, will the skeletons get the additional mf from the gull, or do they stay with the mf i had while i summoned them. I came to wonder about this yesterday and I really need to know ^^'
thx in advance
zarfen /europe *chma

[Evrae Altana]

Your skellies will now have the "new" MF when you switch over to your Gull dagger.

[Growlor]

is that they don't get lost and disappear when you are moving fast like revives do.
I find revives a helpful addition if I am going to do solo Baal runs though.

Growlor

[zarfen]

ok thx, then i'll go for a summongear AND a mf gear ^^ this will be fun ^^

[harley98]

1. if you have at least 50% block then you should be ok.

2. the draw back to mages is they lack in defense and life compared to skel. therefore they tend to die easily in hell. a prayer merc will keep them alive longer which i have used but they are still kinda fragile. if you can get the polearm with conviction on it it will help your mages and skel out more than lower resistance will.

3. amp + skel will do more damage in the long run then lower resistance and mages or poisn skills. plus its nice to have a decent level gumby for them boss runs. a high level poisn dagger would be usefull for bosses to.