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View Full Version : Some Advice plz on Summon/Poison hybrid


NorrYtt
21-02-2007, 20:44
I'm nearing level 80 or so with my Summon/Poison hybrid necromancer and I hit kind of problem. Namely, a Immune to Physical, Immune to Poison, Stone Skin Griswold on /players8 that took about 20 minutes to kill using mostly my merc's Open Wounds mod. I've read MongoJerry's awesome reports where he puts a book on his mouse to kill bosses with stupid high HPs, but this is the first time I've encountered the scenario.

I normally play casters exclusively and about 90% of the time Necromancers. This necro, ZaztheCorrupted, is a reroll of an experimental hybrid build where I messed up.

I have some choices I need to make soon, such as a 112 Str req to equip my only Marrowwalk (+2). I am not a rich, the very best item I have is a Delirium tiara and a perfect Kira's Guardian that my only Guardian character, a Lightning Trapsin, got from her Hell Baal quest drop. My char does use some hand-me-downs and I use ATMA in single player.

This is all from memory, I can get more exact if someone truly needs it.

ZazTheCorrupted
Level 77
Strength - Was ~80, now approaching 106 to try to equip Marrowwalk (+2)
Dex - ~170, whatever gives max block (64%) for a Sigon's tower shield
Life - Rest
Energy: Base

Skills

Curses
1 in each except Confuse and Attract

Summoning
20 Raise Skeleton
20 Skeleton Mastery
1 Clay Golem
1 Golem Mastery
1 Summon Resist

Poison and Bone
1 Teeth
1 Corpse Explosion (best Necro skill?)
~14 Poison Dagger (currently maxing)
1 Poison Explosion (to be maxed after Dagger)
20 Poison Nova

Gear

Head - 'Lore' circlet (was Wormskull)
Body - Skin of the Vipermagi (this is likely my endgame armor, it needs a socket...)
Weapon - Ume's Lament
Shield - Sigon's tower shield socketed with pdiamond (my 3 highest level characters use one!)
Weapon Switch - Gnarled Staff of Teleportation (each charge costs me about 800 gold so I have to keep some cash flow)
Belt - +life, +lightning res
Gloves - Trang-Oul's Claws (awesome!)
Boots - Sander's (going for Marrowalk now)
Ring - rare +mana +res all
Ring - rare +life +res all
Amulet - rare +1 skills, +res all

Charms
No skillers, just some res and run/walk. Using only 6 small charms ATM, I hope to find plenty of good ones. I'm probably due for a mass pgem reroll, last time I got 2 skillers (though not for my chars).

Merc
Weapon - rare +295% damage, life leech (by far the biggest source of damage in my repertoire)
Head - Tal Rasha's mask
Armor - Boneflesh (life leech, Open Wounds - keeps poison immunes from regening I think)

Buffed Stats:
Life - ~660
Mana - ~400
Resistance - ~53 Lightning/~0/~0/~0 (I still need to finish both NM and Hell Mala)

Gameplay

Amp the pack
Minions engage
Cast Poison Nova every 2 seconds
Spam Corpse Explosion
Use Dim Vision on ranged/casters
Use Teleport sparingly for positioning purposes
For extremely dangerous boss-like mobs, Terror everything, Dim Vision everything, then Decrep the boss


I think I did the math right, but if I have an extra skill point I'd get Mages just for chill and just for more bodies to soak up damage. Another skill point after that is for Bone Armor.

If there's anything obvious or something I should shoot for equipment-wise, do tell. I believe the best I'll be able to afford is a White wand sometime in the future but I don't have the runes yet.

If I play long enough, I should be able to get some workable gear for a melee character. Probably a Druid, but maybe a Zon or Barb, Pallys just feel lame.

One thing I've noticed is that I have the best crowd control of any of my characters. It doesn't seem to matter how many mobs are on the screen, I can always curse, Teleport, and fight to effectively kill them all everytime because of my meat shield.

I don't mind killing slowly, but I do mind not killing things. Griswold was the first mob in what scares me as a long line of nigh impossible-to-kill mobs.

Just for reference, once I beat the game, I normally only play zones I like such as the Flayer Jungle on /players8. I found the Halls of Pain to be amazing for my Trapsin, she just drops 5 sentries in the crossroads and everything dies. I don't run bosses for Magic Finding runs (my characters are too weak to gimp themselves with MF gear and I don't have the high-end stuff) but I'll clear out the Chaos Sanctuary or the Throne of Destruction for the challenge. I've found Act Boss fights to be kind of a joke, they get slowed so badly. One time me and my merc both had slowing weapons (Woestaff and the General Tai-Do-Lan I think) and Diablo took literally 3 secs to advance a frame of animation.

Mad Mantis
21-02-2007, 22:51
Getting Three part Trang would be ideal to speed up killing, but you are limited by the SP muling. All in all you are doing well.

AnimeCraze
22-02-2007, 04:54
I don't mind killing slowly, but I do mind not killing things. Griswold was the first mob in what scares me as a long line of nigh impossible-to-kill mobs.Once in a while you will see something like this (usually like once every 20+ games). I would suggest a S&E and reroll him.

NorrYtt
22-02-2007, 19:02
Forgive me, but what is an S&E?

AnimeCraze
23-02-2007, 04:50
Save and exit. Either that, or just park him somewhere since he is not a quest monster anyways. Discretion is the better part of valour

rachil0
23-02-2007, 05:39
I would ramp back your expectations. I think expecting to kill every monster on 8 players, untwinked, is pretty extreme.

If you ever find it, 3 pc trang can give you access to firewall in addition to your strong physical / poison attacks. It is too slow to kill normally, but when something is PI/PoisI it starts to look pretty appealing.

A crescent moon polearm could also give you some extra damage... an um is actually not that bad to find in single player (especially if you permit yourself to mule from other characters). A lucky forge or a cubing a pair of puls can get you there. Static field and corpse explode are great.

NorrYtt
23-02-2007, 06:00
I mule with my other chars because they are all questing together. :D

garion
23-02-2007, 23:15
hrm...

1 pt into revives might be pretty valuable (its can add another 5-16 minions to your army...)

also i find this is better for my summon/psn char...

lower res
nova
amp (since the nova is still working at the lowered res rate)
tele on or near them....
disperse my army
nova again if needed
CE
loot

and three piece trangs would be great if you can get you hands on it (gloves, belt, shield...) and if you're really lucky...deaths webb.....but beyond that AOKL would be great too...for your minions along with a homunculus....