Raising an army in Hell mode as Fishymancer (non-expansion)

[Docano]

I'm lvl 64 in Act 2 of Hell mode now. My problem is that with my current build/gear/whatever, I can't kill anything in the act so that I can raise my first skeleton. I hire a combat merc, raise a clay golem, cast amp, and it still takes the three of us me an HOUR (using Teeth too) to kill 1 mob. I ran into similar problems killing a first mob in Act 4 in Normal and Nightmare because there are no mercs in Act 4; it took about 15 minutes of hacking at a single mob to finally kill it.

Can you please give me some tips on what I'm doing wrong--gear/tactics/build? I have 8 talent points and 71 stat points at my disposal right now. Here's my build:

Summoning:
20 Raise Skeleton (RS)
20 Skeleton Mastery (SM)
1 Clay Golem
2 Golem Mastery
2 Summon Resist (SR)

Poison & Bone:
1 Teeth
15 Corpse Explosion (CE)

Curses:
1 Amplify Damage (Amp)
1 Weaken
1 Terror
1 Decrepify (Decrep)

[khuzgan]

You need some skill that deals at least half-decent damage in order to kill the first monster. I'd suggest you sink 20 hard points in Bone Spear (or Bone Spirit if you prefer). As you have your points now, you have too much in CE relative to what you have in other skills. More points in CE is always nice, but you need to strike a balance between CE-radius and ability to get the first corpse. It is better to loose some 5s on every pack than to struggle for hours to no avail before you get the first skeleton up.

[Docano]

That helps a lot. Bone Spear is great for it. Thanks!

[Scoobydoo]

May I also suggest a stronger weapon for your merc. I do not know what you have equip him with, but if you are able to give him some additional help in the damage dealing department, perhaps a weapon or helm that adds crushing blow to bring the health of a mob/boss down faster; that may also help speed things up. Orphan's Call set helm or Rattlecage armor perhaps?

[Zarniwoop]

Don't sink points into bone spear. Just keep grinding normal worldstone keep until you get a decent merc weapon or go on the trading forums and trade for something with crushing blow.

Also, you have the wrong merc. As a summoner, you want to get a nightmare offensive merc for the might aura. If you disagree with that based on a study of that trade-off then never mind.

[Krupa]

Don't sink points into bone spear. Just keep grinding normal worldstone keep until you get a decent merc weapon or go on the trading forums and trade for something with crushing blow.

Also, you have the wrong merc. As a summoner, you want to get a nightmare offensive merc for the might aura. If you disagree with that based on a study of that trade-off then never mind.

May I also suggest a stronger weapon for your merc. I do not know what you have equip him with, but if you are able to give him some additional help in the damage dealing department, perhaps a weapon or helm that adds crushing blow to bring the health of a mob/boss down faster; that may also help speed things up. Orphan's Call set helm or Rattlecage armor perhaps?

there is no equipable merc in classic. also they donīt stay once you leave the act you hired them in. no wsk either

i would sink a few points into attract if i were you. gather two or three monsters and curse one with attract and either IM or AMP the others. they should kill each other fairly quickly (preferably no ranged ones)

or go the bone route, but with only 10-15 points to spend...never tried, but might work

[Noodle]

You're also underleveled for Hell. I don't enter Hell until I'm at least level 75. I'd go back and do some Nightmare Baal runs to level up. It won't help you directly, but it'll make it much easier for your merc to get that all-important first kill if he's closer to the monster's level.

[Volren]

You're also underleveled for Hell. I don't enter Hell until I'm at least level 75. I'd go back and do some Nightmare Baal runs to level up. It won't help you directly, but it'll make it much easier for your merc to get that all-important first kill if he's closer to the monster's level.

This is Classic.

[Docano]

Thanks for the additional feedback. I appreciate it. Yea, I've just got Classic D2 (as I guess I should have called it). Sorry for the confusion.

I sunk some points into Bone Spear, and that helped a lot with the first kill. Attract sounds like it might be fun, too. I'll try that out once I get my next few skill points.

[crawlingdeadman]

I've just got Classic D2 (as I guess I should have called it). Sorry for the confusion.

fourth time's a charm, heh.

psst, guys, it's even in the thread name