Will it Work? Help Me Help You :)

[cakepimp]

Hey there, first time really posting anything non-trade related and yet... it is in a way trade related. See for a while now I've been bouncing from character to character. It started with a trapsin, then a dragon talon martial artist, then a LF zon, then just recently a re-did (was my first too) fishymancer. Point being, I'm kinda bored of traditional (see: hammderdin, meteorb, etc) builds and I want to try something... fun. I'm not saying this is by any means original or non-cookie cutter but I gave it a spin in single-player (I know it's not comparable to MP but hey you do what you gotta do) and I liked it. Case in point:

Jailkeeper :D

Basic premise is, as the guide written by Leuchovius says, using bone prison and its very economical costs and monster magnetism as a shield, distraction, blockade, whatever while you use any one of a number of approaches (skeles, bone spirit/spear, poison, corpse explosion) to dispose of the creeps. Well I gotta hand it to him, that guide was pretty dope, got me pretty psyched and now I wanna try it out. Namely the PnB route that entails:

- 20 Bone Spirit, Bone Wall, Bone Spear, Bone Prison (80)
- 1 Dim Vision, Amp, Decrep, Weaken, Terror, Iron Maiden, Clay Golem, Golem Mastery, Summon Resist, Teeth, Bone Armor (11)
- 1+ in Corpse Explosion

92 Points means level 81 with all skill quests complete... not bad at all

Ok so here are my questions/concerns etc...

- Will it work?
Right off the bat, if anyone reading this has ever tried or done this kind of build (or one very similar to this) on multiplayer b.net I would love to hear from you, positive or negative whatever it may be. I know the bone prison is pretty unwanted in /p8 etc and that I'm ok with. I'm more concerned with whether or not this can solo right through hell (with the right gear, which I can and will obtain) and whether or not it can contribute significantly in /p8 and such games (without spamming bone prison).

- Mana?
Pretty intensive on the mana end of things, especially with the frenzied pace at which I tend to fire off bone spirit (its so fun!). However, I was wondering, especially after reading that very well constructed "Dentist" guide: would a cheap 4os polearm with a lvl 17 meditation aura on switch for my necro make sense and would it provide the mana regeneration that could see me through without too many blue pots? Or would it be more viable to just toss it on a merc (albeit it a stronger, eth 4os, plus extra gear)? I'm hesitant with the merc (act 2, most likely defiance seeing as might is useless and holy freeze even less due to decreased availability of corpses for CE) just because they tend to die a lot with me even when decently geared. Any thoughts would be very welcome :)

Equipment...
Here's my setup, and I know it isn't "cheap" by any means but again I'm no rich dclone hunter who has hrs coming out of his ears so bear in mind its kept in perspective:

Chains of Honor (in a dusk shroud) - General keeper-aliver
Heart of the Oak (in whatever) - Crappy polearm w/ insight on it on switch
Shako
Homunculus
x2 10 FCR Rings with w/e bonus mods
Frostburns (for mana regen)
Sandstorm Treks
Arachnid Mesh (getting cheaper and cheaper it seems :/ )
+2 Necro Skills amulet
and then the obvious Necro Torch

The total +skills is +15, 8 of which are general and 7 of which are necromancer +skills. This allows all those 1 pt skills (clay golem, dv, etc) to flourish (at least from where I stand, could be wrong). What do you think? It's not cheap, I know, but judging from what I've got willing to sell I can cover it nicely.

So yeah, that's basically it. I've told you what I'm looking to achieve, what I can afford item-wise and what kind of fun I'm aiming for (see: bone spirits galore lol). Here's hoping I can get some insight as to whether I've got something viable here or not. Any and all commentary is welcome and much appreciated.

Thank you very much; cakepimp :D

[Mad Mantis]

- Will it work?

Welcome Newcomer to The Darkness. Grab a brew :guiness: and feel free to raise some corpses.

Basically with the Bone path it is a Bonemancer with a different style of monster herding. It will work on Hell and you'll be able to do good damage.



- Mana?

Toss the polearm on the Merc. Learn how to use the BW and BP to keep him safe and you'll be fine.

[cakepimp]

Welcome Newcomer to The Darkness. Grab a brew :guiness: and feel free to raise some corpses.

Basically with the Bone path it is a Bonemancer with a different style of monster herding. It will work on Hell and you'll be able to do good damage.





Toss the polearm on the Merc. Learn how to use the BW and BP to keep him safe and you'll be fine.
Thank you for the warm welcome, and I will drink to the Darkness :yes: :guiness: thank you very much haha

Yeah I was a bit skeptical about having to switch and sit (more or less) every time my mana went low, plus I didn't really give much thought to the fact that my previous experiences with a2 mercs didn't involve bone prison and a necro :scratchchin:

Anyway, thanks a lot for the advice... the anticipation is killing me though :jig: can't wait to try this baby out

[hacksaw]

I'm playing a very similar build right now. The only major difference is that I put one point each into most of the summoning skills. I think the only one I left out was fire golem. I've got enough + skills on gear that even at 1 point the summons are useful. They serve as distractions if nothing else and the revives come in handy when going up against act bosses and magic immunes.

It's working phenominally well. I play through all the areas myself rather than get rushed although I do occasionally play in public games with groups. I hit level 82 last night and killed Diablo and entered act 5. Diablo didn't even touch me. I imprisoned him with a bunch of my summons, hit him with Decrepify (Decrepify + Clay Golem is a wonderful compination. Slows him down a LOT). And peppered him with Bone Spirits.

What's impressive is that I've done this while currently having something like 340 unspent stat points. I put enough into Str for gear and just haven't bothered to spend any others. I haven't died yet either. At this point I'm just curious to see if I can go all the way through killing Baal without spending the stat points. I expect that I will be able to.

This is a very "safe" build. The synergies raise your Bone Armor protection pretty high even with just one point in it. The minions and Bone Prisons provide lots of targets for the bad guys so they're not shooting at you. Bone Prison and Dim Vision give you excellent crowd control. Prison blocks most ranged attacks. Dim Vision keeps most monsters from launching ranged attacks. They both have things they can't handle but it's VERY rare to run into something that neither can handle. In those rare cases my minions provide the distraction I need to be safe while I'm blasting away with bone spear. Against the occasional Magic Immune I let my minions get the first kill or two in and then I fire off the Amp Damage / Corpse Explosion combo and everything drops. I don't mind using corpses like this at all since I'm really not at all dependent on them like a summoner is.

Mana is only a minor issue. I've got most of my inventory devoted to mana charms and keep one stack of mana potions in my belt for occasional use. Between Shako, Frostburns and other gear I'm not having any trouble at all keeping blasting. I do use Bone Spear a lot more than Bone Spirit. It costs less mana and pierces to more than one target so it's a lot more efficient in most cases. combined with gear with the Mana Per Kill mod and it's pretty economical. I do drink a mana potion every now and then but I'm drinking them at a much lower rate than they're dropping so I never have to actually buy them. Once I get around to spending my stat points I probably won't ever have to drink them at all unless a mana burn monster get's through somehow.

I enjoy this build more than a pure summoner as I get to have a lot more of an active role during fights.

[shuy]

Revieves work better then bone prison. Unfortunatelly revieves disapear when you do not tele. Here is my build:
http://diablo.incgamers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=729846
Anyway in /P8 bonemancer is not really great. 4K damage is too low. Although there is few magic immune monstes, a lot of them has magic resistance. Moreover CE does not work as good as in /p1.