My Summoner - Ready To Uber?

[Vitrael]

Hey folks,

I haven't played much at all since 1.10 and so I've never done an uber Tristram. I made a Summon mancer this week for MF and realized consequently that I might be able to do ubers. Character looks something like this:

20 CE
20 RS
20 Mastery
5 summon resist
5 golem mastery
1 each golem
1 Revive
1 every curse
some stuff spread around... (didn't max another skill with spares)

Gear:
Harlequin Shako (P Topaz)
Enigma MP
Homunculus (P Diamond)
Tal Belt (for max block- maybe I should use Ravenfrost)
Trang gloves
Spirit Runeword sword (like the FCR, FHR)
15 res all +life rings
Mara's Kaleidoscope (24 res)
Infernostride/Sandstorms
Necro Torch
Some res charms

85/75/75/70 resists, or 75/75/75/70 with Treks

Merc is using:
Guillaume's Face
Duress Runeword
Tomb Reaver (100 ias'd and 7 LL)

So merc is getting really fast hits, has 50 CB and 33 OW. He owns Baal.

I have used three key sets (in three separate games because I am a noob) and got Izual all three times, not knowing anything about what to expect. The first time he was hard. Second time I used Urdars and he was pretty easy. The third time, I had the 50cb and 33 OW merc and I didn't even use Urdars, he dropped like a rock.

My questions:
1. If I summon a bunch of Urdars (7-10) should I be able to drop on Ubers in Trist and kill them before they get my merc?
2. Am I going to have any trouble with Lilith? What item should I toss into this build for PR?
3. Any obvious problems with my merc? What weapon do you recommend? (Not Insight, I don't have Mana problems really.)

And finally... I <3 this Necro. It's the most fun I've had playing D2 ever, and I have played since release.

[Chairnick]

Sorry to disappoint you but, no. Mephisto will just eat you with his conviction. I'm not saying it's impossible, but you'll stop having fun when you'll (or your minions) die over and over again. If you want to do ubers to get torches to sell for profit then I recommend you make a cheap 1 pt smiter /guide in paladin section) and you'll have a char, that can make ubers with little to no problems. If you just want to do it for fun, or to "take the ultimate challenge in the game for your character" then go ahead, by all means. Just don't be too surprised when you fail. ;)
Don't understand me wrong, I'm a huge fan of necros too, but some characters just can't do everything. :)

[Vitrael]

I've seen a lot of videos of summon mancers using Urdars to take down Uber Trist in under 3 minutes without any trouble. If I stack resists a lot will mephy really be that bad?

How much -% resists does he actually apply?

I'm not interested in getting rich, and more importantly I'm not interested in playing Paladins (I think they're bogus- way too powerful in every respect).

[shuy]

lvl 20 conviction -125 resist. You do not have to care about block, because elemental damage kill you faster then block animation diplays ;). Pump your resistances as much as it possible - phisical damage is not as dangerous in Tristram as elemental.

IMO you cannot do it if you had problem with Izual.
Miniubers are much weaker then Meph, Diablo and Baal. I'm able to kill Izual with bone necro using revieves found next to him, but I'm not able even touch Meph. Lilith is most dangerous, but if you have few antidote potions for you and your merc you needn't worry about skeles and revieves - cast life tap for a 1 or 2 swings.

You can replace Tal belt with Credendum, Ptopaz in Shako with Um or 15@ jewel. Spirit sword with AoKL or HotO, some people use Beast to increase skeletons damage. Your merc will de fast anyway use Might aura merc. You have no mages - they are not great warriors but it is few K less elemental damage per second - your choice. Anyway Tristram with Necro is quite safe but IMO is extremely slow:
http://diablo.incgamers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=596802 here you have professional guide
"amateur" experience below
http://diablo.incgamers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=709742 here you have positive experience
http://diablo.incgamers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=706832 here you have my painful Tristrun ;)

[Vitrael]

-125 is pretty steep. I have a high Kiara's I could Um and that would put me up to almost 90 stacked.

I can raise a lot of mages. I hear selectively cold and poison is best for keeping the uber constantly cold and not healing.

[peytron]

1. Merc may still die, make sure you have enough gold to revive him twice. You may be able to do the whole thing without a merc if you have urdars (although I wouldn't recommend it).
2. Shuy is right, if you're minions are getting killed by lilith, lifetap will help
3. As long as the merc has crushing blow, and some ias, you should be set.

I found the mages were helpful just for the increase in bodies to protect you. Cold and poison are the best mages, although they do die pretty quick.

[Vitrael]

So I've done some more reading on the topic. First thing I learned is that an enemy conviction aura will cancel the conviction aura on Infinity if it is higher level (and Meph's is higher than Infinity's). That makes infinity a pretty bad investment at 2hr++ when I'm not uber rich and I don't have any problems with any other areas.

So that begs the question, what merc weapon should I get? I was leaning towards Obedience. I wonder if my current setup (which reaches the 89 ias breakpoint with 50 CB and 33 OW) might just be alright.

Raising up a half a million gold for countless merc resurrections is not a problem, I gamble to get rid of that crap constantly.

Meh, rather than all this deliberation I will just finish my organ set and give it a go. Once I get a Beast axe I will give it a try and tweak whatever goes wrong. Thanks for the advice all.

[peytron]

Good luck, that is probably the best way to find out what you need to change. If you have a friend with an uber killer I would have him stand by in the event that things go wrong, you wouldn't want to lose the organ set after all.

[shuy]

One more tip ref. mages. Number of the mages is not only stats affecting theirs damage. On Arreat Summit you can find huge table refering mages damage. They survive quite well vs Meph and Baal. Diablo kill them immediatelly and there is no reason to summon new. Anyway Mages are not crucial vs Ubers. Poison from mages is veeeery long but veeeery low. In areas where you are searching udars you can find monsters with better poison damage (arach, horadrims, undead knights etc) revieve few of them instead poison mages.

Merc aura is much more important then mages. Skelies have no weapon then "might" increase theirs damage very much. Prepare a lot of potion to keep your merc alive - you will finish bosses much faster. It is worth to tele on bosses few times. Ubers usually start fight against merc but from time to time some revieved udar attract them before they notice merc. Then you are a winner.

Great help is slowing enemies. Decrep, clay golem and cold make Ubers less dangerous. Their single hit/shot damage is the same but they hit/shot not so often. Maybe consider Klepie Snare for merc - Udars CB should be sufficient. I never tried it in UTristram but vs Hell Baal works great - often completly stoped him - not even single attack.

[Chairnick]

In any case (if you are on EuScL), if you try and you fail and need help finishing them off, PM or whisper me and I'll help you if I'll be online :)

[FreshMeat]

So I've done some more reading on the topic. First thing I learned is that an enemy conviction aura will cancel the conviction aura on Infinity if it is higher level (and Meph's is higher than Infinity's). That makes infinity a pretty bad investment at 2hr++ when I'm not uber rich and I don't have any problems with any other areas.

So that begs the question, what merc weapon should I get? I was leaning towards Obedience. I wonder if my current setup (which reaches the 89 ias breakpoint with 50 CB and 33 OW) might just be alright.

Raising up a half a million gold for countless merc resurrections is not a problem, I gamble to get rid of that crap constantly.

Meh, rather than all this deliberation I will just finish my organ set and give it a go. Once I get a Beast axe I will give it a try and tweak whatever goes wrong. Thanks for the advice all.

lol, yes, this is true and why you are the only person to realize this or talk about it on this forum, I do not know why.

Yes, it is inherently a useless stick. It also does less total damage and varies widely vs. 370% solid from Obedience. it also has no huge resist all. It also has no armour bonus, it also has no -% target defense, uh well, oh and Obedience only costs a Fal rune which most people have 1-3 of.

Hm. yeah. get your BOTD OMGOSHZZZ HAXXX MOAR HORZ POWR! INFINITY BUILD@@##~~~~~~~~~~~~!!!!!!!!!! PWN n00BZ

yeah. I have come to the conclusion that you only need one thing to do ubers: res all, crushing blow, some way to teleport a few times.

zzz

[Mikey Two Guns]

Yes, it is inherently a useless stick. It also does less total damage and varies widely vs. 370% solid from Obedience. it also has no huge resist all. It also has no armour bonus, it also has no -% target defense, uh well, oh and Obedience only costs a Fal rune which most people have 1-3 of.

I think it has been established pretty well by this forum that Infinity is the top choice for a skellimancer who has access to ladder runewords. Indeed, Obedience is a fantastic option that provides fantastic performance for its price. However, ignoring availability as a factor, Infinity is the best for your act 2 merc. The reasons for this have already been beaten to death by a few forum members, namely lumpor, so his previous posts may be worth rereading. In the case of Uber Meph, Infinity would indeed be a poor choice; by all means, use Obedience against him. In any case, your dialogue of "it[Infinity] is an inherently useless stick" is mind-boggling; perhaps you were implying this only in the case of Uber Meph and any other conviction boss?

There is something that I want to point out quickly, though. You claim that Infinity has no -% target defense. That is a misleading statement. Read the bottom of the wiki page here:


http://diablo2.diablowiki.net/Paladin_Offensive_Auras (http://diablo2.diablowiki.net/Paladin_Offensive_Auras)

With the level 12 Conviction Aura on Infinity, enemies within a 13.3 yard radius of the merc will have their defense lowered by 83%. That means that your merc AND your skeleton warriors will be able to swing with drastically greater chances of hitting against those enemies. Of course, this along with the other aura benefits are useless against Uber Meph and Conviction bosses, but on the most part, the -% defense achieved through Infinity is more grand than the -% target defense on Obediance. But then again, does -% defense on Conviction apply to bosses? I am not so sure about that, so I could be wrong.


yeah. I have come to the conclusion that you only need one thing to do ubers: res all, crushing blow, some way to teleport a few times.

That is three things, not one ;)

[Chairnick]

Why on earth would you need teleport for ubers (I'm assuming you're speaking in general, tele makes sense only on skelemancers)?

[Mikey Two Guns]

He was talking about fighting the ubers with a skellimancer. He was not speaking in general in his last line, I believe.

[peytron]

I've never tried it without teleport, but I would imagine it would be extremely difficult due the large amount of minions the uber three spawn. You're minions would be tied up forever trying to get through all of them.

Teleport is also useful for other uber characters (Paladin, Assassin, Druid) in regards to luring them out one by one. Many times I have tried to lure them out by running, only to find the exit blocked by a swarm of minions.

[tetracycloide]

There really are only three points you need to satisfy to uber as a summoner:

1. Summoner and merc @ >=90
2. Have at least 20 casts of teleport per run
3. Merc with 70-75 res all in hell after conviction while maintaning some amount of CB

If your summoner meets these three requirements you should do fine with a mid sized (7-15) pack of urdar on any uber, provided your build doesn't suck. Pull them away from one another and take them on one at a time, spam terror and dim vision on the minions to keep them out of the way, keep the clay golem up, and spam decrp on the boss.

Possible merc gear for uber meph:
Kira
Duress, Chains of Honor
Obedience, Infinity

Things you really don't need:
Resistances on the summoner.
Max block on the summoner.
Open wounds or PMH.
A 1 point uber smiter.
Hell you don't even need to be level 90, i've done it in the low 80s, it just makes stacking merc resistances and life in general much easier.

Yes, it is inherently a useless stick.
Uber meph is not the only foe in the game. Infinity can be the difference between making two trips for urdar because the killspeed on uber diablo and baal is too slow and making one trip because everything hits much more often. Not to mention the absurd killspeed improvement when spaming CE.