Got to Act IV...

[TwoFacedJanus]

And I know I'm facing diablo in a few hours (have to do 1st and 2nd quest first still), and I know what he does, but I don't know what to do in return.

I play a skelliemancer, his RS is maxed, well basically i simply followed nightfish' guide so far. (He's level 27 now, hopefully 28-30 when I get to diablo)

Anyway, I'm expecting diablo to kill the skellies with one of his attacks, which leaves me with the question.... what the hell am I supposed to do then? I've got nothing, and no corpses to asplode on his spiky behind either. :cry:

Any help here would be much much appreciated.

Thanks in advance,

Edit: Any help on other foes, I might encounter would be hot as well

[Evrae Altana]

Welcome to the forums. :wave:

*steals pants and wallet*

Normal Diablo can be a pain for summon necros, since your skellies are relatively weak at this point in the game. Since you're level 27, use Decrepify to slow down the guy. Also, be sure to summon Clay Golem for his slow effects. :thumbsup:

[Gorny]

I decided to move this to the Necromancer Forum, the Deadheads here should be able to help you with some advice from beyond the grave and such ...

[TwoFacedJanus]

Aah sorry I made it in the wrong forum, anyway thanks, but I still have the feeling I'll just die instantly :P I'll see if I can post later what happened, going off now to get the first and second quest done...

[maareek]

Get the skeletons to surround him, cast decrepfiy and cast the clay golem on the other side of Diablo from your skellies. Keep the Golem cast and on the other side of your skellies as much as possible. If Diablo kills your golem and merc, TP out and revive them, heal up and come back. If he takes out several of your skellies, break off and go revive them (don't let him kill all of your skellies if you can help it.)

I hope that helps you out. My fishymancer didn't have much of a problem with Diablo even at players 8, but then he was at a bit higher level than you at the time.

[TwoFacedJanus]

Just tried him at lvl 28... didn't go so well >.> luckily I could teleport myself out.... but yeah he's a pain in the behind allright... and as i suspected, he rips my skellies apart even when holding a wand with +1 to all summon skills (including summon resist) and a skull that gives +1 to SR.... guess I'll just go level, get to level 45... that's what nightfish did according to his skill progression... well time to hit bnet for the first time I guess, help out some people, level myself and try to get a hold of those topazes...

What was nice however is that izzy, who supposedly has the most health in the game, went down within... 15 secs or so... *loves amplify damage, an offense merc + skellies*

[maareek]

I think I was around 32-35 when I faced him in Normal, but I had a wand of +3 RS and +2 CG and a skull of +2 SM. I found the 1 point in SR to be plenty since he kept targeting the Clay Golem and CG is cheap to recast. Not sure why he wouldn't focus on your Golem, he did on mine and I believe Nightfish said the same thing. You were casting it on the other side of Diablo from your skellies, right?

Oh well, hopefully things will go better for you if you level up a bit more. Remember to pump SM hardcore.

[TwoFacedJanus]

I figured out what went wrong the first time I think.... he cast that death ray of him, within a second after my golem died so when i recast it, it was allready too late. Diablo wedged himself on the stairs though which was nasty so all my skellies went poof, well except one, he died quickly afterwards though.

[Kirah]

Hey Janus,

Yeah the big D is a total pain in normal. I'm doing the hardcore, untwinked thing. I managed to find a +3 skellie, +1 CE, +2 teeth wand from normal Drodgen (or however you spell his name) and a head with +2 gumby, +1 Raise mages. My only rune word was the lore helm (yeah it's sad, did I mention that I'm untwinked). The key to beating the big D is patience. After losing over 50% or more of your skellies, you should retreat to resummon the army. Constantly resummoning the gumby (clay golem) in front of the big D and hitting him with the decrepify (cast liberally!). The big D focuses on the clay golem and ignores your skellie warriors. You'll probably have to quaff a few blue ones to keep enough mana handy to resummon the gumby and keep up the decrepifies, but that's just the way it goes. By my third army of skellies and skelly mages, I very safely wacked the big D.

I tended to edge close to the big D's pentogram then slap a decrep on him and then summon the gumby right in front of him. Then my warriors would charge him as I edged closer. I used the Act 1 merc and she pelted him with arrows (I had a silly 3 socket bow - skull, topaz (lightning damage), & sapphire (cold & slow). With the gumby and decrep, the big D would be slower. However, I'd lose everything when he did either the lightning hose of death or that explosive fire circle thingy. I'd use the merc as my last line of defense and retreated to resummon the army. I did notice that if I got lucky and perfectly slammed the big D with decrep then a fast golem summon, he didn't do the lightning hose of death or explosive circle thing much. Plus I had three mages up and one of which was a poison mage who slowed healing a bit. It just takes a bit of patience.

good luck and good hunting!
Kirah

[FrankWest]

One of my favorite things to do: Lure a bunch of monsters onto the star and kill them there. It makes a small difference, having some corpses around to CE when Diablo spawns. He's got a ton of HP, so it's not a major solution, but Amp'ed and held in place with skellies whacking at him, those 4-5 corpses take away a decent enough chunk of life.

[bmathew]

Normal Diablo is known to be one of the hardest monsters for a summoners. That being said. The key things I think a summoner should have here is
1. Decrepify - Always keep him slowed
2. Clay Golem - Keep him casted on the OPPOSITE side of your army and recast him there again before he dies. They just hate those golems and go after them usually.
3. Summon Resist = 1 pt. I think this helsp a bit but I never tried Diablo without it so not sure.
4. If you get Cleglaws Gloves use it carefully for the additional slow. Dont get yourself killed by walking into his lightning or fire spell though
5. If you have Revive ( What level was that skill again?) The bring a few Venom Lords

Hope this helps.

[TwoFacedJanus]

Thanks for all the advice, it will help alot when I next try him, I guess I just had the bad luck of him doing his ray of death before i even had a chance to recast gumby.

I do wonder though, what makes diablo harder in normal than in other difficulty settings for a summoner (I've seen it in the fishymancer guide as well that the normal difficulty is more difficult than nightmare and hell, I'm just wondering why.)

[Mad Mantis]

I do wonder though, what makes diablo harder in normal than in other difficulty settings for a summoner (I've seen it in the fishymancer guide as well that the normal difficulty is more difficult than nightmare and hell, I'm just wondering why.)

Your Skellies aren't as tough as they will be in the coming difficulties. You haven't maxed RS/SM, have almost no +skills and do not get the difficulty boost to their HP's. It really adds up.

[TwoFacedJanus]

well lvl 29 now, just keep pumping the SM, alot of players appreciated me helping them out in act II & III, yeah might not get much xp out of it, but I'm fine with that.

What I did notice in some other games though is that you have to be really fast in getting the items that drop, since it's free for all... not exactly something I like. I mostly limit myself to gems though, but i just hated it when that flawless topaz got snagged away (topazes are what I really want, I find plenty of other gems, just no topazes... have 1 flawless topaz now, made from chipped to flawed, to topaz.... long way... ruby's and diamonds on the other hand are plentiful.... Am i just having bad luck, or is the game just that way :P

[kykle]

One of my favorite things to do: Lure a bunch of monsters onto the star and kill them there. It makes a small difference, having some corpses around to CE when Diablo spawns. He's got a ton of HP, so it's not a major solution, but Amp'ed and held in place with skellies whacking at him, those 4-5 corpses take away a decent enough chunk of life.

do this, but instead of CE, use the bodoes to reaise skeles as they die