Alright, I've thought it up: the Melee/Bone Necromancer

[Naja]

I've been wanting to create a Bone Necro, but I'd like one that I can actually take the Ubers. I've also been toying with the idea of a Meleemancer. So logically, the Bone/Melee hybrid! I know, this probably sounds very illogical, but help me out with this. Here is how I plan this character:

Stats:

Strength: Meleemancer requirement; as much as good weapons/armor demand, a little extra for damage increase.
Dex: Enough for minimum weapon requirements.
Vitality: The rest.
Energy: None.

Skills:

Curses: One point in Dim Vision, one in Decrepify, one in Life Tap, and the rest in pre-reqs.

Summons: One point in Revive, the rest in pre-reqs.

Poison & Bone: 15 in Teeth, 1 in Bone Armor, 1 in Corpse Explosion, 20 in Bone Wall, 20 in Bone Prison, 20 in Bone Spear, 20 in Bone Spirit.

Equipment:

- +3 Necromancer Circlet
- Mara's Kaleidoscope
- Chains of Honor
- Malice (for the Open Wounds, Prevent Monster Heal, and -100 defense per hit) on switch with either The Reaper's Toll, or some rare scythe
- Blood Boots
- Blood Gloves
- Blood Belt
- Bull Kathos' Wedding Band (x2)
- Annihilus
- Hellfire Torch
- Several Noxious Grand Charms

[Mad Mantis]

The skill points are no problem, the difficulty lies in combining good casting equipment with good meleeing equipment. A Meleemancer is very dependant on his equipment to get his AR up to spec and get decent damage via mods such as CB and DS. This doesn't leave room for spell casting equipment. This leads to Meleemancers without damage or Bonemancers without FCR.

How are you planning on playing? More as a Meleemancer or more as a Bonemancer?

[twisturwhig]

sounds like a silly build to me. if your gonna whack em mellee use poison dagger.

[Naja]

The skill points are no problem, the difficulty lies in combining good casting equipment with good meleeing equipment. A Meleemancer is very dependant on his equipment to get his AR up to spec and get decent damage via mods such as CB and DS. This doesn't leave room for spell casting equipment. This leads to Meleemancers without damage or Bonemancers without FCR.

How are you planning on playing? More as a Meleemancer or more as a Bonemancer?


Well, considering my equipment, probably more as a Meleemancer. I've got 3 Blood items, after all. I just saw Bone as a natural choice because 2 skills that are maxed out would give about 800 points to my Bone Armor. My strategy for the build is to melee things, Revive a few monsters every now and then for difficult game areas so that I can attack things at my leisure (no need for Skeletal Mastery since they're damn-near invincible anyway), cast Clay Golem to slow down and distract bosses and to just help in a fight, and use Bone skills for monsters that are either physically immune w. stone skin, or just for any monster that's inconvenient to melee (like Undead Flayers). Once I made a kill, I would probably resort to Corpse Explosion if meleeing everything else would be too much of a problem.

If I'm not mistaken, my current setup allows for a CE that's near a radius of 10. My Bone Spear is about 3.5k and my Bone Spirit is over 4k.

For my build, does faster cast rate really matter? Does my build leave any room for melee-friendly items and charms? Does my build seem palatable at all, considering what I'm setting out to do?

[Naja]

Considering my purpose for my build, do you think it would work out, Mantis? What would you suggest?

[Omikron8]

by the time your open wounds wears them down you will be long dead or running for your life after hitting them once

[Naja]

Well, could you be more specific? I know that Meleemancers can and do kick *** when they're sufficiently equipped. I was just asking (preferably Mantis) if my current setup would meet the goals that I articulated a couple posts up. Namely an effective Meleemancer that also has decent enough Bone damage and Corpse Explosion radius to take care of monsters that are too costly to melee. And - given godly equipment - effective enough to have a chance at the Ubers. Someone here did say that Meleemancers have a chance against them.

[JettJagwar]

- Several Noxious Grand Charms

noxious = + poison dmg, fungal = + pnb skillz

regardless... I think you will last longer if you skip the offensive bone spells other than corpse explosion and just pump the armor synergies. amp breaks physical immunites with a single point expendature so theres really no need for magic damage. you may want to go with angelic bling instead of maras / bul kathos and concentrate on physical damage instead of + skills. ignore target defense mod is far better than the -100 defense on malice. increased attack speed blood gloves and anything with fast hit recovery would help a lot. a meleemancer build is challenging by itself. :thumbsup:

good luck with that...