Fishymancer PvM against Diablo

[Mandler]

I followed the sticky'd Fishy/Skillimaster build and am still having trouble with Diablo in normal. I eventually had to get a group to help me take him down, but I wanted to solo all the way through. I had 20 into RS, 3 into SM, and one into Decrep, Amp, CE, and Summon Resist. Still, every fire attack would destroy over half my team within seconds, Even when he was decrep'd, leaving me to die. I was... level 25 I think... I just wanted to know if there was a particular way I should have gone about doing this other than taking 8 skellis, a clay golem, and a def. merc and trying to take D down.

Thanks for any help!

[WrongdayJ]

It'll be interesting to see how people respond to this question, as I have wondered the same thing myself. How do young summon-mancer types handle the big boys solo?

[thepandafactor]

Use clay golem and a merc, it shouldnt be that hard since you're already a really high level apparently.

[Jek]

Clay + Decrepify to slow him massively down and then let your skellies go to town, lifetap is useful for keeping the dorks alive.

Another solution is Iron Maiden + Clay Golem, takes a little time, but it's super easy.

[GotFriana]

Imo the answer here is more about gear, yours and the merc, you both need resists and a couple of levels more would not hurt either of you. In normal you need the best gear possible, by the time you reach Nm and Hell you dont need too much equip anymore, yes I know it sounds strange. 1 point summon resist is good for a finished Summoner with lots of +skills but if you plan to play through with him solo untwinked then you will need more than that to feel comfortable imo, 2 - 5 points at least until the diminishing return feels too high.

[Josiphos]

Your merc needs some crushing blow...and a bunch of raises from the dead.

You also need some patience.

Diablo in SP HC (players 8) has killed 2 of my necros...so he is tough.

Its still the ultimate challenge for me to kill him that way...

[Mandler]

Thanks for all the advice, guys. My merc is usually the last to die, he's about 25 as well... I don't have a terribly good selection of gear, as i'm trying to go with very few points into anything but vit. My clay golem dies really fast, and does the 11% slow from a level 1 CG really help too terribly much in comparison to 50% from decrep?

I like the Iron Maiden idea, I could give it a shot. I usually level up in act 4 alone with 7 other people in the room.

But still, the biggest problem is the initial approach, where he'll attack with the dmg per second fire attacks that wipe out my skellis fast. I guess if I can keep the golem and the merc alive, i'll be okay? I dunno, i'll give it a shot after a few levels I suppose. Thanks to all who helped!

[DeathSpawn]

it's really easy as long has you have life tap and a merc, took me 2 minutes to kill it in HC ladder with a summoner... bothe me and merc had crappy items... life tap is better then decrep because decrep only slows a bit diablo and makes it take more dmg but merc will still die a couple of times and you have to go to town a couple of times meanwhile with life tap merc stays alive and u dont need to go to town so it will probably be even faster then always run to town and/or revive merc. killed diablo on my first time on HC

[MYK]

If I can cast Clay Golem and Decrepify on him relatively fast I'm good to go. He kills a few skeletons and it's no problem to hope back to Cold Plains or wherever you're comfortable with getting more minions from. It's just a matter of time and patience.

[DeathSpawn]

He kills a few skeletons and it's no problem to hope back to Cold Plains or wherever you're comfortable with getting more minions from. It's just a matter of time and patience.

waste of time to get more skellies, they'll die with 1 hit, just use merc and concentrate on keeping it alive

[MYK]

waste of time to get more skellies, they'll die with 1 hit, just use merc and concentrate on keeping it alive

Heh. Might have been a waste of time, but with my merc long gone it was my only choice, and it worked.

[Mandler]

Well, I finally did it. I ended up having to re-raise my golem and a few skels multiple times so I could get iron maiden to kill him. My merc stayed alive until he used that long, bright inferno-esque attack. So I gave up on that and just whittled him down with his own attacks. Tedious, but effective. I even got frostburn gauntlets out of him :laugh:

Thanks for the help guys.

[xxnothing]

Hehehe... It took me well over an hour to kill norm Diablo with my fishy. My skellies, CG and merc kept getting fried almost instantly, so I grabbed a wand/head combo that gave me a lvl 3 bone spear and proceeded to run in circles, cast bone spear and frequently tp back to town to restock on blue pots. Took FOREVER, but it eventually worked. Nothing else in the game has come close to being as hard as that fight was! Ball in norm was hard, but not as bad as Diablo was. NM was pretty much a breeze all the way through. Just reached hell difficulty the other night, so we'll see how that goes...

[Tarantella]

Proper technique is a steady nerve and to be standing right next to the spawn point when he appears and be ready to pot/make tight circles around him. Standing off or approaching from a range will provoke a ranged response be if flame/lightning, charge or cage. Never portal out anywhere near him.

Have max fire/lightning resists yourself. Shop for headgear/armour with fire/lightning for merc. Cold damage or sapphires on the mercs weapon will help a bit.

If youve had trouble finding a good weapon for your merc dont neglect the cube recipe [1 Diamond (any quality) + 1 Staff (any type and quality) + 1 Kris (any quality) + 1 Belt (any type and quality) = Savage Polearm Class Weapon] . You could generate a usable savage lochaber axe.


Also, if you find a skill shrine near a waypoint on your approach to Big D save it for the showdown.