Meleemancer Guide - Preliminary version

[gvandale]

I'd suggest against the value portion of items. From what I know, values differ greatly from realm to realm, and ladder to non-ladder.

I'd just suggest useful items, and item mods. Say something like "xx item is quite expensive afaik, but rightfully so. Check the mods on this baddasz and you'll see why".

That way you kinda cover your butt, and give good help at the same time.

g

[Pensam]

Most guides have the setup as:

End Game: Enigma

High End: Trang's Armor
Mid Range: Sigon's
Low: Sigon's

fyi

[Mad Mantis]

I'd suggest against the value portion of items. From what I know, values differ greatly from realm to realm, and ladder to non-ladder.

I'd just suggest useful items, and item mods. Say something like "xx item is quite expensive afaik, but rightfully so. Check the mods on this baddasz and you'll see why".

Maybe using the word value was wrong. Civerb's Cudgel is easy to find, BoTD is not so easy to find. Look at it that way. Maybe scarcity would be a better term. Since scarcity almost always equals value.

You pretty much nailed it there with the way items should be described. It is no good if I just list a piece of armor. You should know why it is a good armor.

[gvandale]

p.s.
Civerb's Cudgel is a sick low level weapon. One of my fav's!

g

[Mad Mantis]

It is a good low level weapon. At character level one it does more damage than a War Sword.

[ArcticSpectre]

Excellent guide Mantis! I tried to find something wrong with it and could only find one error

The rest of your points go here. Each one gives 2 points in life.

A Meleemancer only gains 1,5 life with every point spend in vitality.

A minor inconsistancy. Otherwise, an excellent guide. I'm looking forward to seeing the equipment section. Possibly do a twinked and untwinked section?

Great job!

[Mad Mantis]

A minor inconsistancy. Otherwise, an excellent guide.

Must have missed that one while correcting.

I'm looking forward to seeing the equipment section. Possibly do a twinked and untwinked section?

For untwinked you can see what mods to look for in your equip. But I will see if I can make a list of items that you are bound to run in to. It is nice to know what you can expect.
A twinked section will definitely be included.

[CEG]

Nice guide overall, but so much to read ><. There are a few things though that I have found different to some things you have said.

Attract hardly ever seems to drag in monsters from off screen and the mobs it creates are no bigger than they would be anyways. I have done a lot of testing recently with all the AI curses. Also I would use attract also on archers and gloams (assuming you woul use attract a lot, unlike yours) since it occupies them just as well. In fact better wsince they always stop attacking you in favor of their former comrade and if you attract 2 or 3 you can have a few softer targets when you go to attack them.

I find Iron Golem to actually be able to kill things in Nightmare and Normal (providing he is fairly high like 10+ points). In hell he is not as useful for damage but it is VERY cheap to make an ancients pledge runeword in a pally shield with res for an ele immune golem. You did mention it, but stated it as expensive which it really isnt (the runes are given to you in a quest).

But overall, its a nice guide.

[Mad Mantis]

Attract hardly ever seems to drag in monsters from off screen and the mobs it creates are no bigger than they would be anyways.

This means that I will do more testing on the use of Attract.
The first build I used incorporated a lot of Attract and the crowds got bigger whenever I used it. Even not yet awakened monster packs came walking in.
I'll see if I can verify this. It will probably mean that a few new strategies can be added. Attract will probably be better than Dim Vision, save for a few instances.

I find Iron Golem to actually be able to kill things in Nightmare and Normal (providing he is fairly high like 10+ points). In hell he is not as useful for damage but it is VERY cheap to make an ancients pledge runeword in a pally shield with res for an ele immune golem. You did mention it, but stated it as expensive which it really isnt (the runes are given to you in a quest).

How often was your IG unable to follow you and how many points did you put into it and GM?
Depending on your answers, it could be wise to advice people to make a choice between a cheap strong recastable Golem or a tank more suited to tanking elemental damage. Untwinked probably means going for the Clay, while twinked could mean that IG might become superior.
The sentence with the Golem being expensive was not meant for elemental immune, but more the useful procing mods.

Thanks CEG, although it depends a bit on your answer, you might have just given me a use for the Weaken curse.

[CEG]

I did some more testing in single player and it does seem that attract does draw in monsters. However it does not draw in so many that they are unmanageable. Especially if you cast attract on 3 (attract one of the close ones, one of the mid-mob ones, and attract one of the monsters in the back of the mob) monsters. They are so busy fighting each other that you can focus on the few closest to you safely and use CE to take the group down to a smaller size. I just find attract to be very useful and have never had problems in all my testing with it bringing in to many monsters.

As far as Iron golem, In various places in hell a maxed out Iron Golem with Maxed out Mastery has 5600 or so life (assuming base with no +skills) and he is able to follow me about and be an excellent tank in various places. He is invaluabl (if immune to ele) for tanking gloams. He rarely dies. This is with a maxed out mastery though. His thorns is not all that useful once you get past nightmare. Possibly 5-10 points should be plenty and with a larger focus on mastery he will be a great tank. Also gaining resists (esp going 2 hand) is hard and having a golem immune to ele and taking all that damage can be a real life saver. Plus even if he dies (or you die) a few points in summon resist will you to use a lower res all item and still achieve high res if not immunity.

Those are just 2 great ways to manage the mobs. Partitioning them off into smaller, more manageable sub-mobs with bone wall and prison is also useful.