Some questions...

[LaZeR]

Since this is irrelevant to my last thread I figured I'd make another one, so:

1. Is a Poisonmancer viable for untiwnked HC? It seems like a sterch skill point wise (curses, psn and minor army), but the tactical aspects of a Necro just looks awesome.

2. Is melee even possible for untwink? With so many uniques and super uniques with FE/LE and major lags in bnet it seems like melee=death for untwinked.

3. Is HC a tactic game, or is it "spam your skill" like PvM (which looks like it from looking at a light trapper Assa)? Or better yet, are there special build that are more tactical than others? (like, from what I've been reading' that necro, as mentioned above)

Thanks:jig:

[Krazeyivan]

A Poisonmancer is viable on HC yes, you can go the meat shield route with some skellies or if you fancy a challenge you can do a daggermancer or some fun variation around a golem.

Melee is totally possible, you do have to engage your brain unlike SC, pay attention to enemies, your health and stock up on phat purples, char position, Iron Maiden etc

HC allows a team to make up for each others weaknesses, if your on your own you have to go slower and never be afraid to retreat if getting battered. There will be occasions you need to spam a skill, other times you will have to careful select enemies to gain maximum effect.

If your new to poisonmancers I suggest a hybrid combining fishy and poison, it will take some of the heat off you adding melee damage and you can CE, nova, poison nova occasional dagger and curse your way to victory. If your on your own (golem maybe) you have to be ready to get swamped. But slower play will still gain results.

[MrBill]

I had a hybrid Poison Nova / Summoner Necro two seasons ago and yes, I'd say that it's a viable build for Hell, provided that you understand these things:

(1.) Skill point allocation between minions and poison tree synergies is likely to be tight, particularly because there are a lot of pre-requisite skills for Lower Resist on the curse tree (these are basically wasted points). You may want to just shop for a blue Necro wand with "+(x) to Lower Resist" rather than spend the points; this will mean a bit less effectiveness with that curse, but you will save a LOT of points that could for example be used for poison synergies or extra minion capabilities.

(2.) Poison Nova is a relatively close-range skill. Therefore I went for an Act 2 Prayer Merc with an Insight stick so that I would get the healing synergy (if you get close to cast a PNova and you therefore get hit, it is nice to be instantly healed back up).

This Merc setup also has an interesting side-effect on your weaker minions (e.g. Skeleton Mages), in that because of the lack of the Might aura, they kill quite slowly in Hell; but on the other hand, they very rarely die, since they get healed by the Merc at an amazing rate (of course, if the Merc goes down, you got problems... time to retreat and regroup...). :whistling:

I would also recommend that your Poisonmancer have at least some blocking, for the same general reason -- you are getting very close to those Frenzytaurs and dolls, etc., in order to cast your big attack.

(3.) Remember that Corpse Explosion works just fine with Lower Resist on your enemies, thank you. 50% of that damage is Fire which gets boosted by LR. It's maybe not quite as effective as Amp, but it still does the trick, and it is a very effective curse if you play in a party with a few ranged elemental attackers like LF Javazons or Fire / Lightening Sorceresses. You can always change back to Amp on those odd occasions when you have a Poison Immune, Physical Immune boss with something stupid like "Stone Skin" on top of those two.

YMMV...

Cheers

Mr. Bill

[Tai.]

http://diablo.incgamers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=649641&highlight=death%27s

That thread has the basics of my hybrid from last season. Was able to max Skeletons as well as all necessary poison skills and curses so no issues with poison immunities.

[LaZeR]

This is a way high end gear guide. I'm talking about untwinked Necro, and it's not likely I'll find Arachs, Shako and Death Web... Anyway:

1. I will NOT be soloing. A Sorc would most likely back my up all the times.

2. I thought that all the curses are really helpfull.. Dim Vision for Souls, Dece for bosses, Amp for CE. Or is getting +LR stick is really better?

3. Again, untwinked, so skills are more of a problem. Viable?

4. I thought about using Bone Prison/Wall alot to maneuver the battlefield so I don't get swamped and wouldn't have to go MB. Does that work?

5. And thanks, but for an untwinked HC first timer with a laggy computer I think I'll skip melee for now...Just sounds too impossible..

[sahlakh]

I think it's doable but not really viable. Poison/summon hybrid is one of the funniest char's to play in d2 (the only problem is that you don't have enough hotkeys for skills you need :P), but it pretty much requires high-end gear; if not high-end, lots of +skills to boost the one point wonders (curses, CE, golem, revive).

Building a standard summer with high dim vision would be much easier choice. Getting a good wand untwinked is really easy. It may not be as fun as the other build, but at least you won't feel frustrated because you can't kill anything.

[Tai.]

All curses are viable, just some people don't use them correctly.

For Poison/Hybrid untwinked you'll want to do Skeleton first and make sure you get Lower Resist right at level 30. Once you get above a certain point the sorc will carry you and you can start kicking up the poison skills.

Yeah, sorry that wasn't intended as a guide by any means just a listing of the viability of it in the endgame.

Cheers
-Tai

[LaZeR]

Well, Ive done some calculations and came up with big numbers- It seems that to be a decent Poison/Summon Necro I'll need alot of points. So I decided what I want to keep and made the following:
20 PDagger
20 PExlopsion
20PNova
10 All Curses
1: Bone Armor, Bone Wall, Bone Prison, Clay Golem, Golem Mastery, synergies.
1+ Lower Resist (rest go here)

With my basic idea of gear (3 P. Ruby helm, "Smoke", 3 P.Diamond shield and "White" wand) I think it's good. Do you?