*head explode* umm.. what?Originally Posted by zrk
Looks like a google translator thing, related to saving stats question.
It gives me great joy to see people still finding this guide after all this time!
About enigma and teleporting with the merc. You would have to sacrifice the FCR in vipermagi and compensate that with something else. Try as you might, it's hard to get everything (offensive and defensive capabilities) in the same packet with enigma. It is, of course, a matter of preference. I prefer to be invincible and it is hard to do with other gear choices (getting max resists, max block, huge bone armor, double prayer and the rest in the same package).
About max block. I would definitely recommend it, because it's great against archer packs. Of course you can, and should, cast dim vision / attract to these packs, but max block is for the situation when you haven't cast the curse yet. It sounds dumb here, on the paper, but it happened to me lots of times when playing - an archer pack shoots you from the edge of the screen and you respond by casting a curse on them. Of course bone armor absorbs a lot, but max block definitely helps and is great against frenzytaurs and the likes! But, again, it is a matter of preference! I just absolutely love homonculus as a shield, with all the blocking and resists, and the fact is it is quite cheap - you can trade it with pgems or the hellforge drops if you go untwinked. It is the item that gives your character most safety, I'd say.
About insight. I actually have a cheap gear section in the guide where there is a lot items that help you with the mana situation. You can do it without insight, but you sacrifice some efficiency without it. What can I say, Insight is such a great merc weapon for casters. And it's quite cheap to make, if you make it to just regular polearms and leave the superior ethereal stuff alone until you have more wealth.
About CTA. Yes, you can play this build very, very safe without CTA. It is just icing on the cake to have that much more life as a buffer. If you follow the guide as I wrote it, you see that I focused really hard in NOT taking any damage instead of building up a massive hitpoints pool.
Lastly, about the guide. There is a lot discussion about gear and skill decisions here. It is not a bad thing to ask for opinions, but, I fear, some here may think that there is an absolute answer to every problem. But, in fact, it all comes down to preference in a lot of things. For example, it is very hard to answer in somebody else's stead if (s)he would like max block or not. I think it is a personal decision and one that the person probably needs to figure out by himself. I don't want to, in any way, discourage discussion here, but I just want to point out that part of the fun that Diablo II gives is finding what works for you personally by experimenting with different gear, skill selection and play styles.
I never thought about this guide as a definite way of playing necromancer. I just experimented and found it fun - so I decided to share my findings. I'm very flattered about the trust people put in my opinions, but the fact is the guide is just an idea, just a starting point. Each one need to make the journey by themselves. Some might stay closer to the original plans than others. You are all welcomed to share your journeys here, so to speak
I followed this guide but I'm still no managing to make my explosionmancer be able to run hell.
i'm level 80
I have 700 life and 360 mana.
My skills are as follows:
1 to Amplify Damage
1 to Bone Armor
1 to Teeth
1 to dim vision (on the way to attract but ran out of points)
20 to Bone Wall
20 to Bone Prison
20 to Bone Spear
20 to Corpse Explosion
My gear is:
Helm: shako
armor: skin of the vipermagi
weapon: deaths web wand
shield: homunculus
boots: (currently random crap pair)
gloves: magefist
belt: arachnid
rings: random crap
on switch I have umes lament wand (give me decrepify)
stats are 58 str for homonculus enough dex for 75% block and all the rest in vitality.
my merc is level 76 act 2 normal with prayer.
he has as a weapon bonehew ogre axe
his helm is guilliuames face (he needs the +str for weapon and armor)
his armor is corpsemourn
i have decent gear I'm high level followed the guide and for some reason i die really quickly and can't kill anything and my merc dies the whole time. ( yes I remember to use bone armor)
my bonspear does only 1400-1500 dmg
my merc does 475-1850 dmg
I simply never manage to kill the first body to let of a corpse explosion and even if i do it takes like 8 explosions for everyone to die and drains my mana really quickly..
I need help because i was really looking forward to this build and need to know what I'm doing wrong.
As i can see, your merc does not use the Insight runeword as weapon. This is main problem, because this build heavily depends on mana, as you already know, and exploits Meditation aura effect from Insight. It will give your Explomancer mana regeneration as if you'd play sorc with maxed Warmth. Note that this RW is Ladder only.
@dave: Get rings with mana and/or a Spirit sword to increase your mana. Rather use a Might merc (NM offensive) and get him a better weapon like Insight or Obedience in an ethereal elite polearm.
Alternatively, seeing as you've got Death's Web (one of the rarest items in D2), you can respec to a poison.
Dave
1) CE doesn't work that well in higher player games, that might be ur problem
2) insight on the merc!
3) swap death's for either a spirit sword or a white wand (or respec to poison as said above)
4) if mana is really that bad, swap magefirst for frostburns.
5) put a point in decrep, for boss killing.
My bone necro is currently lvl 78. Bone spear, bone prison, and bone spirit all maxed. Right now, I have 5 in bone wall, 3 in CE. I'll probably put the rest of my points in CE after reading this thread, as the CE range definitely will make a big difference. I just can't see myself dropping bone spirit. It's a fun spell to use, and does about 30% more damage than bone spear. It's nice to have some variety, and it makes a big difference when you're whittling away at an act boss.
Don't currently have Insight for my merc, but I have a pretty sweet setup to make mana not as much of an issue.
+ 50% mana (40%-frostburn gauntlets, 10%- silkweave boots)
+177 mana (40 ume's lament, 117 shako, 20 belt)
+31 energy (various)
+12 mana after kill (+2 ume's lament with TIR, +5 silkweave boots, +5 Homunculous)
+33 mana regen (homunculous)
and I did put about 20 extra points into energy (mostly before some of the newer gear was aquired).
Anyway, with all of that I find mana to not be much of an issue any more even without insight. Before, at certain points mana was an issue, slowing me down and requiring trips to town to stock up on mana pots when drops weren't coming. I'd like to eventually get an Insight weapon for my merc, and that will let me get some additional FCR and resists. Right now I'm using the Meat Scraper, but I have a Bone Hew sitting around. Gotta get some STR equipment for him before he can equip :(
Hello, I realize this is a very late input as i am just now working on planning out my necromancer skills for going into hell. I was wondering what you had in mind as far as using an iron golem made out of malice instead of spamming the usual clay golem?
Personally, I'd rather spend fewer points for clay golem. He's very handy and stays alive pretty well. Iron Golems in my experience die more frequently than Clay. If you were insisting on using an Iron Golem, an Insight Golem would be far better for the build imo.
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