Skeleton damage is lousy?

[njaal]

I'm an 80 summoner with RS/SM/CE maxed. Have 1 point in each curse and summoning skill. Maxing mages now, then putting whatever is left in amplify.

Gear:
PTopaz Tarnhelm
Skin of the vipermagi
Spirit in a sword
PDiamond homunculus
Frostburn gauntlets (mana)
War traveler boots
4-slot nightsmoke belt (+10 resist all)
neck & rings with some resist all or MF
decent torch & some resist charms

Merc:
NM act 2 offensive (might aura)
Insight polearm (cheap, gives mana for CE)
1k def from mostly plain armor/helmet

We both need better resists for hell.


This is my "best geared" char ever, and imo not cutting it..
Corpse explosion is neat when i can use it, but my 29/29 skeletons suck at dealing damage.

Do I have to depend on revives for dps against bosses, or am I missing something essential, e.g. an aura, that would push the skellies to a whole new level..?

I've killed baal solo, but it took ages.. Amplify may have been a better curse than decrepify (didn't lose a single skellie), but even with 2x damage it would have taken way too long..

Cheap (EU ladder) suggestions for improving my character would be very welcome.

[AnimeCraze]

What kind of insight are you using? If you are using a crappy one, get a better one as merc damage is 1 of the most important things influences your kill speed.

As for killing Baal, get Guillaume's face on your merc and he will drop in seconds.

[Tarantella]

Crushing blow, attack speed and the ability to hit is more important on a summoners merc than outright damage when killing bosses.

So I would suggest levelling up a bit more before baal running.

For the merc there are several gear options. The very cheapest of which would be ratttlecage and 'strength' in an elite polearm or spear.

Better still, as mentioned above, is guillames,'obedience' in a fast elite polearm and 'teachery' or 'duress' and popping potions or momentarily swapping to life tap when the merc needs recovery.


Long term gear improvements for the necro would be shako(topazed), skullders(topazed), hoto,maras, chanceguards, upped goldwrap, (but thundergods for the lazy summoner running WSK) but in the mean time keep gambling.

At a certain level you can get +2 skills/resists amulets and headgear but even now you can gamble for +3 headgear/amulets to make for tougher initial summons.

[thepandafactor]

You need more +skills, summon damage rises exponentially with skill level. Around +25 skills should be good. For bosses, you will never kill them fast with normal damage, so you pretty much need to resort to crushing blow. You can revive urdars for cheap CB.

[Sszark]

Summon damage never rises exponentially, ever.

You need crushing blow. Make the cheap runeword Black and give it to your mercenary. Then either teleport on top of Baal and watch him die or run next to him, TP to town and come back so all your guys hit him at once. Then cast decrepify on him and sit back.

Your skeletons are high enough to do this.

[AnimeCraze]

Summon damage never rises exponentially, ever.Agreed. People seems to have difficulty differentiating linear, quadratic, and exponential growth.

[Mandler]

Make the cheap runeword Black and give it to your mercenary.

Just to avoid confusion, Black can only be performed on clubs, hammers, or maces. I don't think an Act 2 mercenary, or any mercenary for that matter, can use any of those. Strength is always a viable option though. Then again, if I'm mistaken on anything, allow me to learn through such mistakes. :prop:

[Sszark]

Right, then give him the Hone Sundan. Probably goes for a few pgems now that there are more Enigmas than there are atoms in the universe.

[AnimeCraze]

I personally like obedience better than Hone Sundan. The enchant and the sick, sick damage says everything there is to say.

[davel]

as everyone else said, more +skills andCrushing Blow -- lots of it on your merc. Once you get to a point where you think you can trade off all your gear and get enough for enigma, do it. That'll solve alot of your problems.