My MF Summonmancer lacks a punch? [Archive] - Diablo 3 & Diablo 2 Forums

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phatphoeater

14-10-2007, 02:59

I thought I'd put together a basic skelliemancer for a different mfer. He's decked out with the usual gear:

Nigma
Shako
Beast/wizzy
Homu/Spirit
goldwrap
travs
frosties
+1 skill/All res ammy
ravenfrost/dwarfstar
anni/ntorch
couple summon gc
gheeds

might merc with pride
clay golem

My problem is that he takes quite a long time to take down baal/diablo with an army of 13 skellies and however many revives that manage not to expire.

Maybe i expected too much after coming from my hdin mfer? Or am i missing something in my gear?

any thoughts?

JuniorHigh

14-10-2007, 03:09

1. How many points do you have in Summon Resist?

2. Beast SHOULD give you more killing power than Arm of King Leoric, but if you are Magic Finding, you should have, on the switch, Blade of Ali Baba and a Rhyme Shield or an Isted Milabrega's Orb (which I could sell :P)

3. Skellemancers are not the totally ultimate best BOSS killers, but they do much better if you were trying to do, say, Cows or a level 85 area.

4. If you want to take diablo faster, with YOUR equipment, use Amp Damage over Decrepify, if you think your Skellies can take it?

5. Seriously, you have the best gear I could imagine... well, you could change the rings for Nagelrings or Magic Rings with a ton of magic find, really, but its a pretty crazy set up.

yetidiah

14-10-2007, 03:15

revive urdars or maulers before the showdown with bosses then tele on them and walk away

phatphoeater

14-10-2007, 03:16

1. i've got summon resist at something like 18 with all my +skills.

2. i'm not so concerned about the actual mf value as the runs are taking longer than i thought. i'm of the thought that faster runs equal more chances even if you sacrifice some mf.

3. everything i've read raved about how quickly skellie mobs take down bosses if tele'd on. maybe i misunderstood? or maybe these other people havent used other classes much? i dont know.

4. i've done some experimenting with both and i'd say amp gets the job done quicker. unfortunately, not by much.

5. thank you. :) again, i'm not so concerned about how much mf i'm wearing. i'm more bugged by the lack of killing speed.

edit: urdars from act2?

DeathSpawn

14-10-2007, 03:19

trade pride for infinity in merc to give him CB, and maybe a guiliam helm on him to incresea CB more

phatphoeater

14-10-2007, 03:31

does conviction also make the enemy take more damage? i know it drops elemental resists, but does it affect physical resist (if that is what its called)?

Malrenn

14-10-2007, 03:59

I drop Meph fast, Diablo also goes fairly quickly, but Baal takes a while.
I have put enough points in clay golem so that his slow is usually sufficient on bosses. using Amp Damage is the best thing you can do to speed things up, as mentioned before. My golem is slowing mobs it hits by 52% I believe. I have thrown maybe 7 points in him w/o skill items.

JuniorHigh

14-10-2007, 04:03

RE: Conviction

It DOES lower enemy Defense.

phatphoeater

14-10-2007, 05:06

i knew that conviction drops defense, but does it drop physical resistance as well?

@malrenn-what is your setup? diablo is just as slow as baal for me.

yetidiah

14-10-2007, 05:25

urdars are from the river of flame and maulers are from the durance of hate, i think there are blunderbores in the palace cellar also, they are great because they have crushing blow which makes them the best revives for bosses

Lyrs

14-10-2007, 05:57

The best way to quickly handle bosses is to
a) revive monsters with Crushing blow (urdars / blunders)
b) equip merc with Crushing blow (infinity / guil's / obedience)
c) attack bosses with a Crushing blow weapon (beast)
a combination of all three will kill any boss in seconds.

Blizzatch

14-10-2007, 07:00

I don't revive anything. Just have a merc with crushing blow. Takes about a minute for Baal to go down. Is that too long for you? It's not for me.

MYK

14-10-2007, 10:29

If you can afford all of that stuff, then you can afford a Hone Sundan. Load that baby up with shael runes and give it to Gulzar. He'll gladly kill Baal faster than your skeletons.

Clay Golem, Decrepify...poke poke poke, etc... Big squished baal!

Since Baal won't be doing much, feel free to give Gulzar even more CB. Rattlecage, and Guillaume's face will tear him apart even faster! Or take off Rattle and give him Treachery for some evil speed-poking!

Malrenn

14-10-2007, 16:46

My Merc :
Tomb Reaver
Crown of Thieves
Black Hades
My Necro:
Shako
rare Ammy with +2 to all and MF
Skullders
Chance Guards
Leoric
Goldwrap
Rare MF rings with resists
Homonculus
Rare MF(25% woot) boots with resists and frw

I have 14 points in clay golem,giving hin a 57% slow effect, which I believe is the key to my speed. Amp is now the preferred curse on bosses. If you are willing to sacrifice MF for crushing blow it will speed things up, but personally I am not.
The rest of my point are what you would ecpect from a typical summon build.
Typically, i will run in and hit the boss with decrep and make sure the merc and golem are in position before using Amp.

phatphoeater

14-10-2007, 18:41

ok, i see the light now. cb on the merc. i thought triple aura stacking was the way but i'll look in my stash to see if i've got a cb weapon for him.

treachery is also an interesting idea. does fade trigger on a merc?

thx for the responses.

MYK

14-10-2007, 19:34

treachery is also an interesting idea. does fade trigger on a merc?

Yup. If you want to run that as his primary armor it will work just fine. He'll get the Fade and Venom procs and his attack will be pretty fast as well. Fade will also help kill the duration of whatever he's cursed with!

sgriffin

14-10-2007, 19:36

put stealskul (up to 50% mf + life leach)/infinity or obedience (for cb) on merc, use a clay golum, tele next to baal, cast decriptify until your golum gets a chance to hit him then switch to amp...Baal goes down quick.

Malrenn

14-10-2007, 21:44

Sorry to derail the thread...but Lyrs yer avatar is sexxxah!!

HarbingersOfSkulls

15-10-2007, 18:25

bruticus

15-10-2007, 19:32

i have to concur with the others above - need CB on the merc to take Baal quickly. Obedience is a very cheap RW, plus Guillaume's Face, makes for high % CB for Pgems. put the obedience in a nicer elite eth polearm and you have some damage to go with it.

if you've got the riches, i've heard that Infinity isn't bad either. ;-)

1 pt in Gumby, and your +skills from your equipment should be fine. he'll be able to tank with a fair amount of life with those +skills.

tele over to platform, cast decrep, then tele ON TOP OF baal. done in about a minute.

phatphoeater

15-10-2007, 21:02

I just got the guillaume's and treachery for him and i'm going to save up for the infinity. i'll give him another go and see what the speed is like without the infinity for now. i just cant let go of the triple aura stack :). its just so damn cool.

edit: i guess quad stacked if you count amp.

Cast_Raider

18-10-2007, 01:14

I thought mercs were limited to 2 auras in 1.11?

i knew that conviction drops defense, but does it drop physical resistance as well?

No, but amp damage does do that. The skill may say "doubles damage" or whatever, but that's not accurate. It lowers physical resistance by -100%. Decrep is -50% iirc. So with amp, you are effectively seeing triple what your normal physical damage would have otherwise been, in hell anyways (50% physical resist or higher for all monsters).

ie,

1000 listed physical damage in your char screen
500 actual damage in hell

but with amp: 1500 actual damage in hell

500-->1500 = 3x damage

avm

20-10-2007, 05:16

50% physical resist or higher for all monsters.

Not true since 1.10... Plenty of monsters in hell with physical resist < 50...