Where are all the bonemancers?

[wrugoin]

Hey Fellow Necros!

I've just about finished my Bone Spear bonemancer build and find it amazing how powerfull this toon can be. Lvl 40 bonespear, with synergies, I'm getting ~3650 magic damage per spear and I still have about potential 8 skills though upgrades. My merc has Insight so I can spam BSpear without mana worries. My +Skills gear makes 1 point in CE more then enough.

Now granted, I don't PvP so I can't say this character is God Like in that arena, however it's such a powerful build in the PvM arena that I'm surprised that I don't see more chatter about it on these Necro Forums.

What's the deal? Why isn't this as popular as I'm expecting? This thread wasn't to brag about how great my toon is or anything. It's just after having such a positive experience with a bone spear bonemancer, why do I only hear chatter about Summoners on these boards?

Thanks for any and all input.

[Wizdomm]

My favorite PvM character is my lvl 96 boner. I maxed the bone skills (100 pts), and then pointed Amp Damage, Dim Vision, Bone Armor, Corpse Explosion, Clay Golem, Golem Mastery, and Summon Resist. I use a 7-Spear, 6 Spirit, 1 Revive White wand (for some Revive meatshields when needed) and 2 Necro skills, 1 Revive on switch to be able to BO without the Revives dying. The Revives are not able to really kill anything but they don't die either. So they are effective in keeping monsters occupied while me and my merc take them out.

I found a Prayer/Insight Merc to work very well since the prayer and meditation auras feed off of each other to keep both your red and blue filled.

One of the reasons you don't hear alot about PvM boners on this forum is that it takes some pretty dang good gear to do good damage. Summoners (especially) and poison necros can get by with much less than boners.

[Ed from Russia]

I've never really liked Bonemancers for PvM (you mention a merc so I expect that you're writing about PvM). I agree that the damage of BSpear is huge and unresistable, but both BSpear and BSpirit aren't great to take out large groups of monsters. This only works with BSpear if you ask all of them to line up nicely. Compare that with skills such as Frozen Orb, Chain Lightning and Poison Nova, and you see my point. With these skills a single cast is often enough, with poison skills it isn't (I am ignoring Teeth here, which has too low damage).

[Wizdomm]

I've never really liked Bonemancers for PvM (you mention a merc so I expect that you're writing about PvM). I agree that the damage of BSpear is huge and unresistable, but both BSpear and BSpirit aren't great to take out large groups of monsters. This only works with BSpear if you ask all of them to line up nicely. Compare that with skills such as Frozen Orb, Chain Lightning and Poison Nova, and you see my point. With these skills a single cast is often enough, with poison skills it isn't (I am ignoring Teeth here, which has too low damage).

My boner does fine against big groups of monsters...after all, as a bone necro I have a huge CE lvl with just the one hard point in it. It's really not much different than a summoner taking out a room full of baddies. The only really noticeable slow down is running bosses. Andy and Meph die very quickly. Baal takes about a minute or so to take down since our Prayer/Insight merc isn't doing a great deal of damage and bone spear doesn't exactly rape the game. But I can live with that. And the boner gets around alot quicker teleing (125 fcr) than most summoners...and tends to be a bit tougher (the huge bone armor help).

[NitecryXI]

question... at higher lvl, spear dmg > spirit dmg, correct?

aside from auto-aim, spear should be better than spirit?

[Wizdomm]

question... at higher lvl, spear dmg > spirit dmg, correct?

aside from auto-aim, spear should be better than spirit?

Yes, spear will out-perform spirit but not by much. Essentially, they will do about the same (somewhere between 5-6K). But you will have to use both of them, so it's not like you will be choosing one over the other.

For groups of monsters in a tight space and for single monsters that don't move (bosses) you will use spear mostly. For monsters spread apart or for monsters that constantly move (cave leapers, souls) you will use spirit. You will get use to constantly switching between the two depending on the situation. Trying to play the game with just spear or spirit is really making things difficult. Learn to switch between the two skills.

Also, the spears/spirits will mostly be used to quickly drop corpses for CE. You don't want to try to take out an entire room full of baddies with just your bone skills and your Insight merc. Not unless you aren't in a hurry that is.

[Tarantella]

Hey Fellow Necros!

I've just about finished my Bone Spear bonemancer build and find it amazing how powerfull this toon can be. Lvl 40 bonespear, with synergies, I'm getting ~3650 magic damage per spear and I still have about potential 8 skills though upgrades. My merc has Insight so I can spam BSpear without mana worries. My +Skills gear makes 1 point in CE more then enough.

Now granted, I don't PvP so I can't say this character is God Like in that arena, however it's such a powerful build in the PvM arena that I'm surprised that I don't see more chatter about it on these Necro Forums.

What's the deal? Why isn't this as popular as I'm expecting? This thread wasn't to brag about how great my toon is or anything. It's just after having such a positive experience with a bone spear bonemancer, why do I only hear chatter about Summoners on these boards?

Thanks for any and all input.


In softcore they're great I imagine, but Hardcore lag courtesy of Telia or similar "non gaming friendly" networks is "detrimental to the longevity of non summoning builds." :coffee:

[wrugoin]

Great to see others who've given Bonemancer a proper run. Few question to those who have completed their build...

1. How much Faster Cast Rate do you use? Do you aim for the 75% Breakpoint? The 125%?
2. Is it worth using Enigma if it drops you down a FCR breakpoint?
3. Gear alone (without GC skillers) how many skillpoints you end up with in BoneSpear?
4. What curses best complement a Bonespear Bonemancer?

[Wizdomm]

Great to see others who've given Bonemancer a proper run. Few question to those who have completed their build...

1. How much Faster Cast Rate do you use? Do you aim for the 75% Breakpoint? The 125%?
2. Is it worth using Enigma if it drops you down a FCR breakpoint?
3. Gear alone (without GC skillers) how many skillpoints you end up with in BoneSpear?
4. What curses best complement a Bonespear Bonemancer?

1. No sense in not going 125 on a boner.
2. Definitely use Enigma. The ability to tele (quickly) is a big plus on PvMing with a boner.
3. Id have to log on to BNET and check this. Will edit post later and tell ya. :thumbup:
4. Amp is best (merc/CE). Dim Vision is a must too (for souls/dolls/etc). Decrep is needed on bosses but I wouldn't want to waste points in Weaken and Terror just to get it. So keep a wand or head with Decrep in stash or on switch for those few times it's needed.