bassen
29-12-2008, 11:09
Voodoo-Vampire guide for Single Player
Note: This is not a guide how to create a character who kills everything directly. I’m well aware that the necromancer in Vampire form has many disadvantages but the purpose of this guide is to have fun and have a challenge on the way. The biggest trouble playing the Voodoo-Vampire is that he has to have a lot of +skills to gain power since he only uses one of his skill trees.
The Voodoo-Vampire
The Voodoo-Vampire is a necromancer transformed into a vampire. He doesn’t use any of the former necromancer’s spells but the curses in his quest for killing the three prime evils. He uses fire spells instead to inflict damage to his enemies, gained from Trang-Oul’s Avatar.
Why make a pure Voodoo-Vampire?
- The full Trang-Oul’s set transforms you into a cool looking vampire
- You don’t use the normal necromancer’s spells to inflict damage, just ease it up.
- You’ll have a great time hovering around like a ghost (at least I think it looks quite funny)
- You can act as a sorceress without actually being one.
Sections:
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
I - Breakpoints
II - Bugs
III - Stats
IV - Skills
V - Skill placement:
VI - Equipment
VII - Equipment summary table
VIII - FCR
IX - Mercenary
X - Strategy (early game)
XI - Final words from me as a writer
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
I - Breakpoints
Faster Hit Recovery (how fast you can recover from getting a hit)
0 - 15
2 - 14
6 - 13
10 - 12
16 - 11
24 - 10
34 - 9
48 - 8
72 - 7
117 - 6
208 – 5
Even this is a character who deals damage through spells the FHR-breakpoints are necessary to mention since you sometimes will get hit. The Voodoo-Vampire doesn’t always deal damage fast enough to kill enemies before they can hit you. (These are the Breakpoints for Necromancers in Vampire form)
Faster Cast Rate (how fast you manage to cast spells)
0 - 23
6 - 22
11 - 21
18 - 20
24 - 19
35 - 18
48 - 17
65 - 16
86 - 15
120 - 14
180 - 13
The faster you can cast spells, the faster you can kill. To become a Vampire you need to equip all Trang-Oul’s set items which means you’ll have very little space for extra FCR.
(These are the Breakpoints for Necromancers in Vampire form)
II - Bugs
Playing in Vampire form has some advantages and disadvantages.
The disadvantage is that when being in Vampire form your FCR lowers and the breakpoints (as mentioned in the Breakpoint section) rise which means you need to add more FCR to reach a descent spell casting speed.
The advantage is when being in Vampire form your move speed is always the same, no matter if you run or walk. So by walking your move speed will be as high as if you had run. The advantage comes from when blocking. When running monsters always have a high chance to hit you. Your block effect is 1/3 when running which lowers the maximum to 25% but when walkning you can have 75% block. Since you won't lose any speed by walkning there's a big advantage being in Vampire form.
Still this still requires a lot of dex to be placed. At lvl 85 you need 228 Dex to have 75% block when using Trang-Oul's Wing, using this calc (http://www.baronsbazaar.invisionzone.com/ppr/block_calc.html).
III - Stats:
I suggest you put Strength enough for the gear, Dexterity for either max block or non-block and rest in Vitality. No stats in Energy, at all. The highest level of Strength you need to reach 106 Strength (include the stats you get from gear)
IV - Skills
Since the Voodoo-Vampire has it focus on curses this will be the only tree you’ll use (remember this is a guide for fun playing). You can use the other trees as well but then you don’t have to read much more since using curses and being in vampire form is (as mentioned before) the core of this guide so I won’t even suggest any of the other trees.
1 Amplify Damage – doubles the physical damage the enemies take. This curse is useful the whole game, more or less. The area of effect and duration will raise with more points but with the suggested gear (see Equipment section) you’ll have enough so 1 point is enough here.
1 Weaken – lowering the physical damage enemies deals. Worthless curse so 1 point only.
20 Dim Vision – makes enemies blind and unable to see you. This curse is very useful against ranged enemies. I suggest you invest at least a few points here. The more points the bigger area if effect and duration.
1 Iron Maiden – Enemies who attacks with melee attacks takes a certain % damage of the damage the dealt. Worthless curse for you so no points more than 1 point placed here.
1 Terror – scares enemies away from you. This curse can be very good when you are cornered or want to escape a monster. Thou this is a good cruse the area of effect won’t rise with more points so 1 point here is enough. Let the +skills deal with the rest.
20 Confuse – Confuses the enemies to attack random targets. Can be useful as a crowd control spell.
1 Life Tap – A life saver for your mercenary. 50% of the physical damage the cursed enemies takes are given back by one who dealt it. Still one point with enough +skills will do the trick.
1 Attract – Makes one enemy monster become the target of all surrounding monsters.
20 Decrepify – slows down enemies and let them take more damage. This is another good spell for crowd control. The more points spent the more duration but the area of effect will always be the same.
20 Lower Resist – This curse will let you lower enemies’ elemental resistances and you can even break some immunity with this one. The curse will work at 20% against those who are immune to a certain element.
Total points spent = 86
From here you can add to those curses you want improved.
V - Skill placement:
Skill placement:
(2) Amplify Damage
(6) Weaken, Dim Vison
(12) Terror, Iron Maiden
(18) Life Tap, Confuse
(24) Decrepify, Attract
(30) Lower Resist
Max Lower resist
Max Dim Vision
Max Decrepify
Max Confuse
By questing you'll also recieve:
+ 3 Skill points – Akara N/NM/H
+ 3 Skill points – Radament N/NM/H
+ 6 Skill points – Tyrael N/NM/H
VI - Equipment:
Helm:
Trang-Oul’s Guise – One of the core items of this guide. Required to become a Vampire so I won’t suggest any other helms.
Armor:
Trang-Oul’s Scales – One of the core items of this guide. Required to become a Vampire so I won’t suggest any other armors. By wearing the full set you’ll also get a 25% DR which is a great bonus for this type of necromancer.
Weapon1:
Since there’s no weapon in the Trang-Oul’s set we can use any weapon we like here. Suggested weapons are a 35” Spirit Crystal Sword or a Heart of the Oak. The Heart of the Oak provides resists, 40 FCR and 3 to all skills. The Spirit Crystal Sword provides 2 to all skills and 55 to FHR. So you can either choose to get higher FHR or get an extra to all skills. I suggest you go for the Heart of the Oak. Resists are very important for this character. Both the rune words Phoenix and Hand of Justice provides a good -% to enemy fire resistance but the Battle. netters are the only ones who can actually use these without losing valuable runes.
Shield:
Trang-Oul’s Wing – One of the core items of this build. Required to become a Vampire so I won’t suggest any other shields. The Trang-Oul’s Wing give you a boost of Strength which give you the opportunity to put more points into Vitality.
Boots:
You can aim for several things here. Either FRW and/or resists. For both there's a dual resist boots with high resists, Natalyas Soul which has FRW and resists in Cold and Lightning. If you gave mana trouble silkweave is a good choice with increase maximum mana by 10% and FRW. You can also use a pair of rare boots with FRW, stats and resists. Sandstorm Trek is a good choice with 40-70% poison resist, 10-15 strenght, 10-15 vitality and 20% FRW. I suggest you focus on the resistances of Fire and Lightning first which means you prior Natalya’s Soul and if you have enough resists you go for the Sandstorm Trek instead.
Gloves:
Trang-Oul's Claws - One of the core items of this build. Required to become a Vampire so I won’t suggest any other gloves. These gloves are very good too. They provide good resists in Cold and have 2 to curses and 20 FCR.
Belt:
Trang-Oul’s Girth - One of the core items of this build. Required to become a Vampire so I won’t suggest any other belts. This belt has a good ability, cannot be frozen, which is very useful.
Ring1:
The Stone of Jordan (1 to all skills, 25% maximum mana). You can also use a Bul-Kathos' Wedding Band for the added life. You can also use a ring with high resists and 10 FCR but then you’ll lose 1 to all skills which might not is so good since the Voodoo-Vampire rely much on +skills.
Ring2:
The Stone of Jordan (1 to all skills, 25% maximum mana). You can also use a Bul-Kathos' Wedding Band for the added life. You can also use a ring with high resists and 10 FCR but then you’ll lose 1 to all skills which might not is so good since the Voodoo-Vampire rely much on +skills. But by adding the 10 FCR along with other good mods on the ring you can override the 1 skill from The Stone of Jordan.
Amulet:
Here we only have one good choice. Mara's Kaleidoscope which gives 2 to all skills, stats and resistances.
Weapon and Shield 2:
To be more viable in Hell you can use Call To Arms rune word as a 2nd weapon for boosting your life and Lidless Wall/Splendor rune word to get another + to all skills.
Inventory:
Hexing Grand Charms of (good 2nd mods or plain). To get Hexing Grand Charms with good mods shouldn't be to hard since Hexing Charms are not very sought after.
Trang-Oul’s Avatar
Trang-Oul’s Avatar is the set designed for the necromancer in Diablo II. The full set gives the character abilities which can’t be compared to other sets for other types of characters. The most astonishing with Trang-Oul’s Avatar is when you have all items equpied. Then you’ll turn into a Vampire which looks much more cooler than the necromancer himself. In my opinion that rise the joy of playing a bit and that’s also why I choose to write this. These are the bonuses you’ll get from Trang-Oul’s Avatar (those who are not mentioned above in the item section). Wearing the full set will give you:
+3 To Fire Mastery
+10 To Meteor
+13 To Fire Wall
+18 To Fire Ball
This is the reason why +skills is important to this type of Necromancer. He won’t get any bigger benefits from necromancers skills or to curses since none of these will add damage to his fire spells that he gets from wearing Trang-Oul’s Avatar
VII - Equipment summary table
This table below is calculated from worst rolls which means this is at least what you get by choosing all my suggested gear.
Equipment: FCR To all/Necromancer/Curses Resistances STR/DEX
Trang-Oul's Guise 0 0 0/0/0/0 0/0
Trang-Oul's Scales 0 0 0/0/50/40 0/0
Heart of the Oak 40 3 to all 30/30/30/30 0/10
Trang-Oul's Wing 0 0 30/0/0/40 25/15
Natalya's Soul 0 0 0/15/15/0 0/0
Trang-Oul's Claws 20 2 curses 0/30/0/0 0/0
Trang-Oul's Girth 0 0 0/40/0/0 0/0
The Stone of Jordan 0 1 to all 0/0/0/0 0/0
The Stone of Jordan 0 1 to all 0/0/0/0 0/0
Mara's Kaleidoscope 0 2 to all 20/20/20/20 5/5
8x Hexing Grand Charm 0 8 curses 0/0/0/0 0/0
Trang-Oul's Full set 0 3 necromancer 50/50/50/50 0/0
Total: 60 7 to all, 3 necromancer, 10 curses 130/185/165/180 30/30
VIII - FCR
Helm - NO FCR
Armor - NO FCR
Weapon - 40% FCR
Shield - NO FCR
Boots - NO FCR
Gloves - 20% FCR
Belt - NO FCR
Ring 1 - NO FCR
Ring 2 NO FCR
Amulet - NO FCR
Here is were things get troublesome. With my suggested gear you’ll only reach the 17 Frame BP. By adding a 10 FCR ring you’ll reach the 16 Frame BP instead. But then you might lose to much damage so you have to choose for yourself here what to do. Remember that the Voodoo-Vampire is never going to be a fast spell caster (unless you act-travel bug him). By travelling through acts as a Vampire you can actually change his form back to the normal necromancer. With that you’ll reach higher BP’s but then there’s no point of doing this since being a Vampire is what this entire guide is about.
IX - Mercenary:
As weapon we have two choices. You can go for either Insight which is a very good rune word for spell casters or if you can afford it Infinity (mostly for Battle. netters). Insight recover you mana very fast and with the bonuses you get from Trang-Oul’s Avatar you’ll get a very high mana regeneration. If you can afford Infinity (I have it myself in SP) use it. Your damage will be much higher cause both Conviction and Lower Resist can break immunities which means all enemies immunities can be broken unless they are very high.
Best choice: Infinity for the rich people, Insight for the poor (still Insight is a very good alternative to Infinity so using this is not bad at all)
The Conviction Aura (from Infinity) lowers enemy resists with 85% and your Lower Resist curse will lower them with additional 67%. This means that all monsters with less than 129% resist to a immunity will have their immunity broken. If you don’t use Infinity you’ll still be able to break immunities to those monsters that has 112% to a immunity but then you might need a little backup from the mercenary.
As helm you can use a bunch of diffrent helms: Crown of Thieves, Stealskull, Vampires Gaze, Andariels Visage, any helm with Life Leech.
Best choice: Vampires Gaze
As armor you can use either Shaftstop/Duress/Dureiels Shell/Treachery-elite armor/Fortitude/Chains of Honor.
Best choice: Fortitude/Chains of Honor
X - Strategy (early game)
Until you reach a level 24 you won't be able to use any of your main attack skills. From level 1-24 you'll have to do with other temporary gear.
Weapon:
Dimoak's Hew - Unique polearm lvl req 8 (can be used all the way up to lvl 24)
Gull - Unique dagger lvl 4 req (fast and descent high damage)
Bardiche 3os - (socket with Jewels/Gems for higher damage)
RW - Steel Tir+El req lvl 13
RW - Malice Ith+El+Eth req lvl 15
Best choice: Dimoak's Hew
Helm:
Cathan's Visage - Set mask lvl 12 req (very useful combined with 2x Cathans Seal)
Helm 2os - (socket with Jewels/Gems for higher damage)
Best choice: Cathan's Visage combined with 2x Cathan's Sigil
Ring:
Cathan's Sigil 2x - Set ring lvl 12 req (very useful combined with Cathan's Visage)
Ring - (rare or magical ring with maximum damage and/or strenght which raises damage)
Best choice: 2x Cathan's Sigil combined with Cathan's Visage
Belt:
Death's Guard - Set belt lvl 6 req (useful if combined with Death's Hand)
Belt - (normal, magical or rare with strenght for higher damage)
Best choice: Death's Guard combined with Death's Hand
Glove:
Death's Hand - Set leather gloves lvl 6 req (useful if combined with Death's Guard)
Sigon's Gage - Set gauntlet lvl 6 req (30% IAS combined with Sigon's Sabot)
Arctic Mitts - Set light gauntlet lvl req 2 (10% IAS)
Best choice: Death's Hand (combined with Death's Guard 30% IAS)
Boot:
Sigon's Sabot req lvl 6 (combined with Sigon's Gage)
Boots - (rare, magical with str for higher damage)
Cow King's Hooves - Set req lvl 13 (high fire damage within these boots, rare and only found in Cow level)
Best choice: Cow King's Hooves
With my best choices so far you will have a weapon dealing
2-54 damage - from weapon
15-20 fire damage from 2 set items of Cathan's
25-35 fire damage - from Cow King's Hooves
30% IAS from Death's Guard/Hand
42-109 damage (at least) - if you have placed strenght and have found charms with elemental damage or str you probably have higher damage.
XI - Final words from me as a writer
Thank you for reading this guide. If you have any suggestions how I shall improve it I would be very happy to hear from you either there in this thread or in my PM-box. Before you give negative criticism please try to give a better example, then I’ll learn to.
When I wrote this guide I used a lot of influences from my former guide, Bassen's Wind-Druid guide for Single Player (http://diablo.incgamers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=656582), which is also a guide for those who mainly play Single Player. Some things were just copied (those pieces that I had not changed my mind about)
Good luck with you Vampire ^^
/Bassen
Edit1:
- added CTA as a 2nd weapon and Lidless Wall/Splendor as shift weapon/shield
Edit2:
- added the info Damric have provided with FRW and being in Vampire form.
Note: This is not a guide how to create a character who kills everything directly. I’m well aware that the necromancer in Vampire form has many disadvantages but the purpose of this guide is to have fun and have a challenge on the way. The biggest trouble playing the Voodoo-Vampire is that he has to have a lot of +skills to gain power since he only uses one of his skill trees.
The Voodoo-Vampire
The Voodoo-Vampire is a necromancer transformed into a vampire. He doesn’t use any of the former necromancer’s spells but the curses in his quest for killing the three prime evils. He uses fire spells instead to inflict damage to his enemies, gained from Trang-Oul’s Avatar.
Why make a pure Voodoo-Vampire?
- The full Trang-Oul’s set transforms you into a cool looking vampire
- You don’t use the normal necromancer’s spells to inflict damage, just ease it up.
- You’ll have a great time hovering around like a ghost (at least I think it looks quite funny)
- You can act as a sorceress without actually being one.
Sections:
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
I - Breakpoints
II - Bugs
III - Stats
IV - Skills
V - Skill placement:
VI - Equipment
VII - Equipment summary table
VIII - FCR
IX - Mercenary
X - Strategy (early game)
XI - Final words from me as a writer
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
I - Breakpoints
Faster Hit Recovery (how fast you can recover from getting a hit)
0 - 15
2 - 14
6 - 13
10 - 12
16 - 11
24 - 10
34 - 9
48 - 8
72 - 7
117 - 6
208 – 5
Even this is a character who deals damage through spells the FHR-breakpoints are necessary to mention since you sometimes will get hit. The Voodoo-Vampire doesn’t always deal damage fast enough to kill enemies before they can hit you. (These are the Breakpoints for Necromancers in Vampire form)
Faster Cast Rate (how fast you manage to cast spells)
0 - 23
6 - 22
11 - 21
18 - 20
24 - 19
35 - 18
48 - 17
65 - 16
86 - 15
120 - 14
180 - 13
The faster you can cast spells, the faster you can kill. To become a Vampire you need to equip all Trang-Oul’s set items which means you’ll have very little space for extra FCR.
(These are the Breakpoints for Necromancers in Vampire form)
II - Bugs
Playing in Vampire form has some advantages and disadvantages.
The disadvantage is that when being in Vampire form your FCR lowers and the breakpoints (as mentioned in the Breakpoint section) rise which means you need to add more FCR to reach a descent spell casting speed.
The advantage is when being in Vampire form your move speed is always the same, no matter if you run or walk. So by walking your move speed will be as high as if you had run. The advantage comes from when blocking. When running monsters always have a high chance to hit you. Your block effect is 1/3 when running which lowers the maximum to 25% but when walkning you can have 75% block. Since you won't lose any speed by walkning there's a big advantage being in Vampire form.
Still this still requires a lot of dex to be placed. At lvl 85 you need 228 Dex to have 75% block when using Trang-Oul's Wing, using this calc (http://www.baronsbazaar.invisionzone.com/ppr/block_calc.html).
III - Stats:
I suggest you put Strength enough for the gear, Dexterity for either max block or non-block and rest in Vitality. No stats in Energy, at all. The highest level of Strength you need to reach 106 Strength (include the stats you get from gear)
IV - Skills
Since the Voodoo-Vampire has it focus on curses this will be the only tree you’ll use (remember this is a guide for fun playing). You can use the other trees as well but then you don’t have to read much more since using curses and being in vampire form is (as mentioned before) the core of this guide so I won’t even suggest any of the other trees.
1 Amplify Damage – doubles the physical damage the enemies take. This curse is useful the whole game, more or less. The area of effect and duration will raise with more points but with the suggested gear (see Equipment section) you’ll have enough so 1 point is enough here.
1 Weaken – lowering the physical damage enemies deals. Worthless curse so 1 point only.
20 Dim Vision – makes enemies blind and unable to see you. This curse is very useful against ranged enemies. I suggest you invest at least a few points here. The more points the bigger area if effect and duration.
1 Iron Maiden – Enemies who attacks with melee attacks takes a certain % damage of the damage the dealt. Worthless curse for you so no points more than 1 point placed here.
1 Terror – scares enemies away from you. This curse can be very good when you are cornered or want to escape a monster. Thou this is a good cruse the area of effect won’t rise with more points so 1 point here is enough. Let the +skills deal with the rest.
20 Confuse – Confuses the enemies to attack random targets. Can be useful as a crowd control spell.
1 Life Tap – A life saver for your mercenary. 50% of the physical damage the cursed enemies takes are given back by one who dealt it. Still one point with enough +skills will do the trick.
1 Attract – Makes one enemy monster become the target of all surrounding monsters.
20 Decrepify – slows down enemies and let them take more damage. This is another good spell for crowd control. The more points spent the more duration but the area of effect will always be the same.
20 Lower Resist – This curse will let you lower enemies’ elemental resistances and you can even break some immunity with this one. The curse will work at 20% against those who are immune to a certain element.
Total points spent = 86
From here you can add to those curses you want improved.
V - Skill placement:
Skill placement:
(2) Amplify Damage
(6) Weaken, Dim Vison
(12) Terror, Iron Maiden
(18) Life Tap, Confuse
(24) Decrepify, Attract
(30) Lower Resist
Max Lower resist
Max Dim Vision
Max Decrepify
Max Confuse
By questing you'll also recieve:
+ 3 Skill points – Akara N/NM/H
+ 3 Skill points – Radament N/NM/H
+ 6 Skill points – Tyrael N/NM/H
VI - Equipment:
Helm:
Trang-Oul’s Guise – One of the core items of this guide. Required to become a Vampire so I won’t suggest any other helms.
Armor:
Trang-Oul’s Scales – One of the core items of this guide. Required to become a Vampire so I won’t suggest any other armors. By wearing the full set you’ll also get a 25% DR which is a great bonus for this type of necromancer.
Weapon1:
Since there’s no weapon in the Trang-Oul’s set we can use any weapon we like here. Suggested weapons are a 35” Spirit Crystal Sword or a Heart of the Oak. The Heart of the Oak provides resists, 40 FCR and 3 to all skills. The Spirit Crystal Sword provides 2 to all skills and 55 to FHR. So you can either choose to get higher FHR or get an extra to all skills. I suggest you go for the Heart of the Oak. Resists are very important for this character. Both the rune words Phoenix and Hand of Justice provides a good -% to enemy fire resistance but the Battle. netters are the only ones who can actually use these without losing valuable runes.
Shield:
Trang-Oul’s Wing – One of the core items of this build. Required to become a Vampire so I won’t suggest any other shields. The Trang-Oul’s Wing give you a boost of Strength which give you the opportunity to put more points into Vitality.
Boots:
You can aim for several things here. Either FRW and/or resists. For both there's a dual resist boots with high resists, Natalyas Soul which has FRW and resists in Cold and Lightning. If you gave mana trouble silkweave is a good choice with increase maximum mana by 10% and FRW. You can also use a pair of rare boots with FRW, stats and resists. Sandstorm Trek is a good choice with 40-70% poison resist, 10-15 strenght, 10-15 vitality and 20% FRW. I suggest you focus on the resistances of Fire and Lightning first which means you prior Natalya’s Soul and if you have enough resists you go for the Sandstorm Trek instead.
Gloves:
Trang-Oul's Claws - One of the core items of this build. Required to become a Vampire so I won’t suggest any other gloves. These gloves are very good too. They provide good resists in Cold and have 2 to curses and 20 FCR.
Belt:
Trang-Oul’s Girth - One of the core items of this build. Required to become a Vampire so I won’t suggest any other belts. This belt has a good ability, cannot be frozen, which is very useful.
Ring1:
The Stone of Jordan (1 to all skills, 25% maximum mana). You can also use a Bul-Kathos' Wedding Band for the added life. You can also use a ring with high resists and 10 FCR but then you’ll lose 1 to all skills which might not is so good since the Voodoo-Vampire rely much on +skills.
Ring2:
The Stone of Jordan (1 to all skills, 25% maximum mana). You can also use a Bul-Kathos' Wedding Band for the added life. You can also use a ring with high resists and 10 FCR but then you’ll lose 1 to all skills which might not is so good since the Voodoo-Vampire rely much on +skills. But by adding the 10 FCR along with other good mods on the ring you can override the 1 skill from The Stone of Jordan.
Amulet:
Here we only have one good choice. Mara's Kaleidoscope which gives 2 to all skills, stats and resistances.
Weapon and Shield 2:
To be more viable in Hell you can use Call To Arms rune word as a 2nd weapon for boosting your life and Lidless Wall/Splendor rune word to get another + to all skills.
Inventory:
Hexing Grand Charms of (good 2nd mods or plain). To get Hexing Grand Charms with good mods shouldn't be to hard since Hexing Charms are not very sought after.
Trang-Oul’s Avatar
Trang-Oul’s Avatar is the set designed for the necromancer in Diablo II. The full set gives the character abilities which can’t be compared to other sets for other types of characters. The most astonishing with Trang-Oul’s Avatar is when you have all items equpied. Then you’ll turn into a Vampire which looks much more cooler than the necromancer himself. In my opinion that rise the joy of playing a bit and that’s also why I choose to write this. These are the bonuses you’ll get from Trang-Oul’s Avatar (those who are not mentioned above in the item section). Wearing the full set will give you:
+3 To Fire Mastery
+10 To Meteor
+13 To Fire Wall
+18 To Fire Ball
This is the reason why +skills is important to this type of Necromancer. He won’t get any bigger benefits from necromancers skills or to curses since none of these will add damage to his fire spells that he gets from wearing Trang-Oul’s Avatar
VII - Equipment summary table
This table below is calculated from worst rolls which means this is at least what you get by choosing all my suggested gear.
Equipment: FCR To all/Necromancer/Curses Resistances STR/DEX
Trang-Oul's Guise 0 0 0/0/0/0 0/0
Trang-Oul's Scales 0 0 0/0/50/40 0/0
Heart of the Oak 40 3 to all 30/30/30/30 0/10
Trang-Oul's Wing 0 0 30/0/0/40 25/15
Natalya's Soul 0 0 0/15/15/0 0/0
Trang-Oul's Claws 20 2 curses 0/30/0/0 0/0
Trang-Oul's Girth 0 0 0/40/0/0 0/0
The Stone of Jordan 0 1 to all 0/0/0/0 0/0
The Stone of Jordan 0 1 to all 0/0/0/0 0/0
Mara's Kaleidoscope 0 2 to all 20/20/20/20 5/5
8x Hexing Grand Charm 0 8 curses 0/0/0/0 0/0
Trang-Oul's Full set 0 3 necromancer 50/50/50/50 0/0
Total: 60 7 to all, 3 necromancer, 10 curses 130/185/165/180 30/30
VIII - FCR
Helm - NO FCR
Armor - NO FCR
Weapon - 40% FCR
Shield - NO FCR
Boots - NO FCR
Gloves - 20% FCR
Belt - NO FCR
Ring 1 - NO FCR
Ring 2 NO FCR
Amulet - NO FCR
Here is were things get troublesome. With my suggested gear you’ll only reach the 17 Frame BP. By adding a 10 FCR ring you’ll reach the 16 Frame BP instead. But then you might lose to much damage so you have to choose for yourself here what to do. Remember that the Voodoo-Vampire is never going to be a fast spell caster (unless you act-travel bug him). By travelling through acts as a Vampire you can actually change his form back to the normal necromancer. With that you’ll reach higher BP’s but then there’s no point of doing this since being a Vampire is what this entire guide is about.
IX - Mercenary:
As weapon we have two choices. You can go for either Insight which is a very good rune word for spell casters or if you can afford it Infinity (mostly for Battle. netters). Insight recover you mana very fast and with the bonuses you get from Trang-Oul’s Avatar you’ll get a very high mana regeneration. If you can afford Infinity (I have it myself in SP) use it. Your damage will be much higher cause both Conviction and Lower Resist can break immunities which means all enemies immunities can be broken unless they are very high.
Best choice: Infinity for the rich people, Insight for the poor (still Insight is a very good alternative to Infinity so using this is not bad at all)
The Conviction Aura (from Infinity) lowers enemy resists with 85% and your Lower Resist curse will lower them with additional 67%. This means that all monsters with less than 129% resist to a immunity will have their immunity broken. If you don’t use Infinity you’ll still be able to break immunities to those monsters that has 112% to a immunity but then you might need a little backup from the mercenary.
As helm you can use a bunch of diffrent helms: Crown of Thieves, Stealskull, Vampires Gaze, Andariels Visage, any helm with Life Leech.
Best choice: Vampires Gaze
As armor you can use either Shaftstop/Duress/Dureiels Shell/Treachery-elite armor/Fortitude/Chains of Honor.
Best choice: Fortitude/Chains of Honor
X - Strategy (early game)
Until you reach a level 24 you won't be able to use any of your main attack skills. From level 1-24 you'll have to do with other temporary gear.
Weapon:
Dimoak's Hew - Unique polearm lvl req 8 (can be used all the way up to lvl 24)
Gull - Unique dagger lvl 4 req (fast and descent high damage)
Bardiche 3os - (socket with Jewels/Gems for higher damage)
RW - Steel Tir+El req lvl 13
RW - Malice Ith+El+Eth req lvl 15
Best choice: Dimoak's Hew
Helm:
Cathan's Visage - Set mask lvl 12 req (very useful combined with 2x Cathans Seal)
Helm 2os - (socket with Jewels/Gems for higher damage)
Best choice: Cathan's Visage combined with 2x Cathan's Sigil
Ring:
Cathan's Sigil 2x - Set ring lvl 12 req (very useful combined with Cathan's Visage)
Ring - (rare or magical ring with maximum damage and/or strenght which raises damage)
Best choice: 2x Cathan's Sigil combined with Cathan's Visage
Belt:
Death's Guard - Set belt lvl 6 req (useful if combined with Death's Hand)
Belt - (normal, magical or rare with strenght for higher damage)
Best choice: Death's Guard combined with Death's Hand
Glove:
Death's Hand - Set leather gloves lvl 6 req (useful if combined with Death's Guard)
Sigon's Gage - Set gauntlet lvl 6 req (30% IAS combined with Sigon's Sabot)
Arctic Mitts - Set light gauntlet lvl req 2 (10% IAS)
Best choice: Death's Hand (combined with Death's Guard 30% IAS)
Boot:
Sigon's Sabot req lvl 6 (combined with Sigon's Gage)
Boots - (rare, magical with str for higher damage)
Cow King's Hooves - Set req lvl 13 (high fire damage within these boots, rare and only found in Cow level)
Best choice: Cow King's Hooves
With my best choices so far you will have a weapon dealing
2-54 damage - from weapon
15-20 fire damage from 2 set items of Cathan's
25-35 fire damage - from Cow King's Hooves
30% IAS from Death's Guard/Hand
42-109 damage (at least) - if you have placed strenght and have found charms with elemental damage or str you probably have higher damage.
XI - Final words from me as a writer
Thank you for reading this guide. If you have any suggestions how I shall improve it I would be very happy to hear from you either there in this thread or in my PM-box. Before you give negative criticism please try to give a better example, then I’ll learn to.
When I wrote this guide I used a lot of influences from my former guide, Bassen's Wind-Druid guide for Single Player (http://diablo.incgamers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=656582), which is also a guide for those who mainly play Single Player. Some things were just copied (those pieces that I had not changed my mind about)
Good luck with you Vampire ^^
/Bassen
Edit1:
- added CTA as a 2nd weapon and Lidless Wall/Splendor as shift weapon/shield
Edit2:
- added the info Damric have provided with FRW and being in Vampire form.