fishy vs all...?

[WNxZerker]

Hi guys, I'm back, I had a thread up last ladder about my attempts to kill Dclone with my fishymancer, this ladder I would like to build a better fishy and kill clone and the Ubers on a regular basis.

I won't start building him till I have the gear I want which I am currently MF'ing for with my sorc :P

so I want to make sure I'm keeping an eye out for everything I will need.

Merc:
nm act 2 might
eth superior thresher obedience
eth high defense elite body armor duress (or treachery, anyone got reasons for one over the other?
G'face or other helm you would suggest?

Gear for me, focus on survival with +skills to avoid pre-buffing (though I will to a small degree, amulet, rings, switch weapon and shield)
Switch:
Arm of King Leoric (+5 RS,+5RSM)
dark force spawn (+3) or highest achievable rare/blue necro head (whats the max? +3necro skills,+3summons,+3rs,+3RSM?)

main:
Oath zerk axe (or a sword) prevent monster heal, HoW decent damage
highblock shield
enigma (+2 all skills)
+3 summons amulet
arachnid mesh belt (+1)
shako(+2)
marrow walks (+2RSM)
2xsoj (+2)
necro torch
anni
as many summons charms as I can fit after res charms
rings and amulet I will switch after summoning army for more res and some absorb, posibly boots for hotspurs too.

that puts me at +18-+20 unless there is a better available wand/shield combo for switch
so including skill shrine and +skill shout from barb looking at slvl 42-43 RS and 44-45 RSM before skiller charms

too much?
I know I will need to use Udar revives, clay golem, decripify and I will aim for character lvl 95 and merc lvl 95 to increase merc's survival versus clone and ubers, a dead merc = dead army = dead necro is one of the things I found out quick last ladder.


so apart from gear questions, any other advice on taking them down?
P.S. my old thread is over :http://diablo.incgamers.com/forums/s...d.php?t=777359
and no I didn't manage to solo clone once last ladder :( I've seen others do it but I've always had bad luck, no udars in the game I spawned him in, too slow potting merc, connection problems....... excuses excuses I will get him this ladder.

Zerker

[Scoobydoo]

Merc:
nm act 2 might
eth superior thresher obedience
eth high defense elite body armor duress (or treachery, anyone got reasons for one over the other?
G'face or other helm you would suggest?

1. Act 2 Might merc is a good choice or the only choice for maximizing skeles dmg.

2. Ethereal polearm for an act 2 merc is a fine choice, but I'd always figured infinity or pride being the two viable choices for a summoner. Infinity's conviction works great with your Corpse Explosion skill as the dmg dealt is half physical and half fire dmg, not to mention lowering the defense on your enemies which inturn enhances your minion's ability to land 95% of their hits aka maximizing your dmg potential. Pride offers substantial amount of enhancement to your skele's raw dmg which works great together with your merc's might aura and possibly your amp dmg curse (Pow Pow POW!!!). However, do be aware that some players have noted that pride's freeze mod may sometimes be annoying when trying to get your army together but yet turning your "victims" into icecubes and not leaving enough bodies behind for your to raise skeletons.

3. The choice of armor comes down either offensive or defensive capabilities. Fort is you wish to go offensive and in making your merc playing a much bigger role as a general of sorts in your "army", or Treachery if you can get the fade proc often enough which will allow your merc to achieve max resist under the right conditions (I used andy's visage which has -fire res on my merc, but once fade procs, he has max resist even with the disadvantage andy's visage gave him).

4. Life Leeching is an important aspect of keeping your merc alive if and when you do not use lifetap curse liberally. A Ral'ed andy visage, vamp gaze, stealskill or even crown of thief works here and you can socket them with a jewel/gem/rune of your choice (P-Ruby for life, Um for resist, Ral for andy's visage, etc). If your merc setup lacks a source of crushing blow, Guil Face definitely helps, but do keep in mind that if you do not keep your merc alive, you will have to make multiple trips back to town to revive him to benefit from the aura he provides.

Overall, I personally prefer going with a balance of dmg vs survivability. Ethereal Fort to make him a major dmg dealer in my army, Ral'ed Andy visage for IAS, +2 skills, and high life leech, and E-Infinity polearm simply because I had one laying around and the conviction aura helps with my CE skills.

Gear for me, focus on survival with +skills to avoid pre-buffing (though I will to a small degree, amulet, rings, switch weapon and shield)
Switch:
Arm of King Leoric (+5 RS,+5RSM)
dark force spawn (+3) or highest achievable rare/blue necro head (whats the max? +3necro skills,+3summons,+3rs,+3RSM?)

main:
Oath zerk axe (or a sword) prevent monster heal, HoW decent damage
highblock shield
enigma (+2 all skills)
+3 summons amulet
arachnid mesh belt (+1)
shako(+2)
marrow walks (+2RSM)
2xsoj (+2)
necro torch
anni

I would prefer using either a spirit monarch if you have CTA as a part of your prebuff gear. Homuculus seems a great choice if you are lacking in the resist department especially if you socket it with a Pdiamond or Um rune.

I guess my question here is why Oath runeword, and not Hoto, Arm of King Leoric, or even a Beast runeword which provides fanaticism aura?

[WNxZerker]

I think you may misunderstand my intentions here.
this char once complete will only be for Ubers and Dclone, hence shooting for as high +skills as possible.

merc treachery for fade and venom, or duress for crushingblow.
obedience for crushing blow again, and a decent amount of damage.

Oath for +125% damage and attack rating for summons.
the more they hit and the more they hit for the better they kill.

[bodry]

My personal choices:
Merc needs stacked resists to survive so Treachery prebuff for him (and you) would be great against Mephisto. Helm: Um'd Guillame's Face.
Highblock shield: Um'd/Pdiamond Homunculus.
I'd change the Oath for a Beast.

With this setup you will lack fcr, you should consider Hoto for teleporting. Also Cta+spirit switch helps a lot.

[Black Lotus]

I used this setup for uber running:
Infy thresher/Duress/Andy face for merc.

Because of conviction doesnt work on Meph, I switched it with obedience thresher (a little less -def but +res and the same cb) when killing Meph. I think you could do all Three with obedience, too, or eth upped Hope Sundan socketed with something (Eth/Shaels/allres-ias jewels or whatever).
Duress has open wounds, which should prevent monster from healing. I'm not sure if it works, but once I switched forty->duress, I've never had problems with regenerating hp again so probably it does. It also has crushing blow and other nice mods. Treachery is nice for prebuffing only (venom/allres&pdr), dont use it while in UT. CB from duress>>ias from treachery with my setup.
Why andy face? No sure, this could also be CB helm, but I love life leech on it and ias too, of course. If you lack resists, switch with kira's for meph but with obedience and treachery's prebuff, you shouldnt have any problems with that (you have some resists from duress too!).

edit: for normal area cleaning/bosses killing, I use infy thresher, fortitude and Andy face.

This setup doesnt include necro's gear, but the only req there is enigma or teleport charges from circlet/amulet. CTA on switch will help A LOT and reviving Urdars speeds up things a little, too. So speaking of my setup, it was

2sk/20fcr necro circlet with life and allres
2sk/10fcr necro amulet with life and allres
beast+spirit as main and cta+spirit on switch (35fcr)
enigma
magefist gloves (20 fcr)
arach belt (20 fcr)
marrowwalk boots (not sure why i use them, can be replaced with anything)
2* 10fcr rings with life and res

+ insight iron golem

You dont need that 125fcr in UT (actually, you dont need fcr there at all), but I run areas with this setup and dont change anything when go UT. I understand my gear list might seem too expensive for some people, but you can replace every slot with anything (you dont HAVE to use enigma, beast and CTA for UT, although they help a lot, also amulet/circlet can be easily replaced with maras and 1s crown of ages, even shako will do).

edit2: diablo clone is much easier than UT, I dont mention any special setup for DC running here.

Hope this helps.

[WNxZerker]

I plan on next to no FCR it will all be incidental.
insight golem means no clay golem for slow, means dead army and dead merc.
beast is a maybe, oath is cheap and provides a similar benefit.