A CE guide?

[jackthelad]

Does anyone know of a guide for a CE necro?
Im thinking max CE, Bone armor + synergies, 1 point in amp dmg.
Thats a bit of defence & CE for killing but I need sumthin to create corpses first, in every difficulty, so wot would be good or that? Got about 20-30 skill points left I reckon, so go poison or bone spirit/spear?
Wot about curses, is amp dmg the only one I need, or shud I go for others? Im thinking maybe a curses GC will be enough, so no hard points, but are there any that definately need hard points?
As for equipment, Im thinking anything that gives +skills will do, unless I go with poison?
Is this viable? CE depends on the HP of the killed monster, so will I always be needing to kill 'better' monsters to get decent kill speed?
Lastly, PK-ing: I know a CE necro can be a powerfull PK-er, wot things do I need to keep in mind for this? I know this is a slightly controversial point, but Im mainly thinking it would be fun to go bot-hunting! :rolleyes:

[Evrae Altana]

Might as well make a Fishymancer then. Max Raise Skeleton, Skeleton Mastery, then Corpse Explosion. The skellies provide the corpses while you make bombs out of them.

[handofnaz]

Does anyone know of a guide for a CE necro?
Im thinking max CE, Bone armor + synergies, 1 point in amp dmg.
Thats a bit of defence & CE for killing but I need sumthin to create corpses first, in every difficulty, so wot would be good or that? Got about 20-30 skill points left I reckon, so go poison or bone spirit/spear?

Uh. I don't think such a build exists, because Corpse Explosion is such a versatile skill that it fits into all other builds... one can't be made around it specifically. So yeah, it plays second fiddle to poison, summons, or spears, but in very many cases, it's every necro's best source of mass killing power (with deep apologies to Nova enthusiasts. You guys rock.).

Since you're planning to go with maxed armor and such, might as well dump points into the bone spells and make a bonemancer. Speaking of which... do NOT max Bone Armor itself. That is silly. You get 10 points of life per point invested in Armor and the cost goes up by 1 mana point, as opposed to the mana cost staying static and the life bonus going up 15 instead by investing in Bone Wall and/or Prison. Max Wall, max Prison, max both, but NOT Armor. One point for prereq will suffice. Ps, don't bother with poison. Your Nova will be a bit disappointing since you won't have points left over for full synergies.

Are you quite sure that you want to max CE, though? It really looks like you'll be going the bone path here, which likely means that you'll be picking up items that boost Poison and Bone, if not all skills. Sufficient plusses will make for a good radius. Then again, I'm partial to maxed CE myself. Why not fully or partially (80 points as opposed to 100) synergize for bone, then increase radius with hard points? Assuming, of course, that you're amenable to going bone.

Wot about curses, is amp dmg the only one I need, or shud I go for others? Im thinking maybe a curses GC will be enough, so no hard points, but are there any that definately need hard points?

Maybe go for Decrepify to help slow speedy targets down a bit. Then again, you'll be pretty tight on skill points. I'd go for just Amp. Don't bother with the GC, you'll get enough +skills to make it workable, I'm sure.

Is this viable? CE depends on the HP of the killed monster, so will I always be needing to kill 'better' monsters to get decent kill speed?

If by better you mean monsters with more life, yes.

[jackthelad]

Might as well make a Fishymancer then. Max Raise Skeleton, Skeleton Mastery, then Corpse Explosion. The skellies provide the corpses while you make bombs out of them.

Hmmm I was thinking of that but already have a summmoner wiv max CE, so that would just be rebuilding him really whicn isnt wot I want to do. Also for bot-hunting (is talking about hack-hunting like this allowed? :undecided: Sorry if its not!) & PK-ing, dont want a herd of skellies alerting ppl Im about!
The idea of running around with just bone armour to protect me appeals to me too for some reason! Kinda like Nihlathak, standing around cursing & CE-ing!

I thought from looking that maxing bone armor might be a waste, but thx for confirming for me Handofnaz! Again, thought poison might be a bit weak/not kill the monsters fast enough so was leaning towards the bone spells, but will just magic dmg be enough to take down monsters in act 4/5 hell? Or is this sumthin Im just gonna have to run with & see how it goes?
Thx for the help so far btw!

[HarbingersOfSkulls]

I believe what he's trying to do is stay with the bone skills...not summons...which would not include the fishymancer build.

If the idea behind this is to max: bone armor/bone wall/bone prison/CE/and either bone spear or bone spirit...then no I don't think there is a guide for it. If you plan on using a merc with this idea/build...I'd suggest a act2 HF merc.

HoS

[jackthelad]

Yeah thats basically it... using CE as a main skill & bone spear/spirit or PE/PN/PD for first kill for my CE, & maybe bone prison/wall to place the monsters over the corpses before I blow 'em.
Assuming 100 skill points @ lvl88, sumthing like this:
20 CE
20 BP
20 BW
1/10 BA
a few in curses....
Leaving ~ 35 for use in first kill spells. Wasn't thinking of a merc for PK-ing (if I ever do any) but for PvM prob will. Can I use CE on my merc if he dies? Interesting question.... a 50k bomb! :smiley:
Btw, if someone wants to go the poison 1st kill route & I'll go bone & then see which way is more succesfull in later hell that wud be cool! Could even make a PvM/PK-ing guide? That would be nice!

[handofnaz]

Can I use CE on my merc if he dies? Interesting question.... a 50k bomb! :smiley:

Okay, that's just wrong. Wrong. No! Turn it off! Go home!

And even if you could, dude, mercs only go up to, what, 2,000-3,000 life? 50k?

[jackthelad]

Okay, that's just wrong. Wrong. No! Turn it off! Go home!

And even if you could, dude, mercs only go up to, what, 2,000-3,000 life? 50k?

Lol ok! But hey, every little helps, n if he sacrifices his life for me, why not his body too?!
Thinking about it, 3 or 4 -5/+5 RBF's might make poison viable... & poison RBF's are dirt cheap too. Could be a point in favour of the poison route.

[AnimeCraze]

Ehhhhh, if you do that, you won't be able to resurrect him again. There was this old bug about merc corpse being eaten, you see......

[handofnaz]

Ehhhhh, if you do that, you won't be able to resurrect him again. There was this old bug about merc corpse being eaten, you see......

Oh ew! You mean by those Corpse Spitter things? Wow. I never knew about this.