having some trouble

[Skai]

so i have a lvl 75 fishymancer with 30 to sm and 25 to rs and 25 to ce
and of course the curses (decrep/amp/dim)
and clay golem, golem mastery, and summon resist, and points in revives and mages

im having a lot of trouble in hell though =/
i cant do andy runs cuz my skellies and revives die within a min and hardly do any damage to her and i die almost instantly whenever i get hit by anything >.<
i have like 210pts in dex and a shield with 64% block and pretty low life obv (482)
and my gear is nothing awesome, just mf gear

so what do i need to do? =/
and if you need more info about stats/skills/gear lmk
id like to get through hell without much probs =/

[AnimeCraze]

What is your merc, and what gear does he have? How are you playing him.

[Marahumm]

For bosses, clay golem + decrep is key. The combo will slow them down immensly, and decrep will let Andy take more damage from skeles. If you've got CE maxed, the general strategy would be have skele's kill someone -> explode -> explode -> explode -> explode -> explode -> explode -> explode until out of mana or all monsters are dead :D.

[Skai]

my merc also dies alot haha i dont have any amazing gear on him, havent found any in nm >.<

and i do golem+decrep and ce everything =p

[Gillsing]

Sounds a lot like my level 70 magelord with his 20 SM and 20 RSM. I had to quit him when he reached Act 1 Hell, because lightning-enchanted bosses would be enough to kill every minion. And sometimes himself, because all those magical bolts from the mages trigger a lot of charged lightning! He could only dream of defeating Andariel in Hell difficulty. And I keep experimenting with new necromancers, and they all have problems that other people don't seem to have, so I guess I'm just playing them wrong. Or maybe it's just too much to expect that every build should be able to get through the entire game without assistance from other players.

It's really too bad about those act bosses, especially Diablo. They really ruin everything minionbased for me. And the bosspacks ruin everything that's not based on minions. Except for my werewolf, who got ruined by physical immune monsters becoming too common. What happened to just making a game where I get to kill demons, huh? Why must everything be so difficult, and more importantly, why must the new horrible difficulties be sprung upon my characters so late in the game?

Andariel uses a lot of poison attacks, and the iron golem is immune to poison. Could that work? Or is Andariel's poison damage multiplied by 10 due to the golem being a minion, and then the golem's resistance reduces that to only 9 times the regular damage, the way it apparently works for act boss damage vs minions with physical damage resistance?

Not that the iron golem would last long against Andariel's regular melee attacks. I already tried that in normal difficulty, and it didn't work at all. Though if the poison immunity only worked against a tenth of the poison damage, I guess that would also explain things. Would also explain why Diablo's fire kills my fire golem, though that fire apparently contains a physical part as well, because Diablo is a huge cheater. Yeah, yeah, sure Cain. I only need to be brave and not give in to his terror. Last time he killed my necro with some kind of invisible attack - I read that he's got a firewall. Maybe it was an invisible firewall. Yeah, if I can't stand toe to toe with big D, why am I even playing?

I think my biggest problem is that I'm not comfortable playing piano on my keyboard. I simply can't keep track of 1-4 for mana potions, while pressing two different F-keys for resummoning Clay Golem and casting the short-duration curse. It's easier if I can just have the inventory open and right-click on the potions to drink them, but then I have to resummon the golem between me and the boss, instead of behind the boss, which means that all those nasty elemental attacks will head my way instead of the opposite way. Oh, you should've seen my recent daggermancer running away from Duriel. That thing about the Clay Golem always being target number one? That's a lie! A lie, I tell you! Ahhh!

Ok, I may be done ranting now. But... I too have some trouble.

[AnimeCraze]

You can remap your hotkeys from the Options menu. Anyways, don't compare skele survivability to mage survivability. They are totally different. Skeles are much, much tougher. My suspicion, as stated about, is poor merc gear and poor playing style. There shouldn't be much of any problem killing Andy with lvl 30 skeles. I have done it untwinked several times.

Also, don't complain D2 is difficult. I have seen games much worse.

[Skai]

well would you elaborate on 'poor playing style'? what should i be doing that im not already? haha golem+decrep+ce's and andy still drops my skellies before i get her half life, i dont understand what else i could be doing to help my skellies play style wise, i mean its a fishymancer you dont have to do alot in the first place haha

[AnimeCraze]

There's a trick I sometimes use. TP right next to Andy. Travel back to town and to her again. That basically brings all your skeles right next to her, and not distracted by the fallens. Normally I only use this on Baal, though, since 1/2 my skeles stuck behind the ledge, Baal killing is a lot slower.

Also, you never answered me on what merc and what merc gear. A might merc helps kill speed a lot, and don't forget to feed him a few antidotes if his poision resist suck.

[Skai]

There's a trick I sometimes use. TP right next to Andy. Travel back to town and to her again. That basically brings all your skeles right next to her, and not distracted by the fallens. Normally I only use this on Baal, though, since 1/2 my skeles stuck behind the ledge, Baal killing is a lot slower.

Also, you never answered me on what merc and what merc gear. A might merc helps kill speed a lot, and don't forget to feed him a few antidotes if his poision resist suck.

alrighty i'll try that thanks =)

oh my bad haha
he has some random magic shako (210 def)
goldskin plate
kelpie snare fuscina
i havent found anything else better to put on him v.v
and hes a might merc

[Mad Mantis]

You should be able to get some CB on your Merc. Try making a Strength for your Merc. That should give him CB and ll, the two things he really needs when taking on Bosses.

Cast Clay on the other side of the boss (the side the Skellies and Merc are not on) and hit the boss with Decrep. Continue doing this for the duration of the fight. Bosses will focus on a Golem because it has a higher threat rating.

Keep feeding your Merc antidote pots and make sure that his Clvl is the same or close to yours.

[Skai]

You should be able to get some CB on your Merc. Try making a Strength for your Merc. That should give him CB and ll, the two things he really needs when taking on Bosses.

Cast Clay on the other side of the boss (the side the Skellies and Merc are not on) and hit the boss with Decrep. Continue doing this for the duration of the fight. Bosses will focus on a Golem because it has a higher threat rating.

Keep feeding your Merc antidote pots and make sure that his Clvl is the same or close to yours.

ok i'll throw a strength on him

and i already do that =p

ive noticed like half of my skellies are spread out though when i get to andy, like 4 or 5 will be on andy, and some others are focused over here at one little fallen, and some more over there on a zombie or something =/
i havent tried that tele trick though animecraze suggested

[AnimeCraze]

ive noticed like half of my skellies are spread out though when i get to andy, like 4 or 5 will be on andy, and some others are focused over here at one little fallen, and some more over there on a zombie or something =/
i havent tried that tele trick though animecraze suggestedYes, that's exactly why I suggested the town portal trick, seeing that you probably don't have enigma, and likely not even a tele charge ammy.

[Skai]

Yes, that's exactly why I suggested the town portal trick, seeing that you probably don't have enigma, and likely not even a tele charge ammy.

i said i would try it
no need to be rude =/
thanks for the help

[AnimeCraze]

I wasn't trying to be rule, but I would have figure that this would be the first thing to try, seeing how it's the cheapest and probably most effective method.

[Skai]

just came off rude, my bad
and i havent got around to trying anything mentioned here yet

[stillman]

It sounds like you have the same annoyances that I don't like. Immunes? Bosses giving your low AI minions a hard time? Wtf? We don't have to put up with this insubordination!

It sounds like a bonemancer is right up your alley. You get to hell mode and nothing stands in your way. You laugh in the face of physical and elemental immunes. Bone prison takes incredible punishment--the perfect tank! There are some magic immunes like in the Tombs but I hear you can remake games until they don't spawn, or you can do it the hard way like I did and just skip them for that one hard part. Baal's 2nd wave is immune to magic, but you can do chaos runs instead.

I think you'd have more fun switching over, because that poor skelly AI problem is not going to go away. Just a thought.

[Skai]

haha thats an idea =)
i'll do that when i get some decent bone gear =)

[RealmOftheWolf]

Unless you have really good gear i find boner less effective for anyone poor. You have less protection,mana depletes very fast and you also need high FCR.

anyways enigma will solve the bad AI and would cost way less than developing a boner :D