This thread is for discussion of the Necromancer in Diablo II. [/HR]
The most recent character that I have played on the normal servers and have fallen in love with, is the Summoning Necromancer. PTR Patch 1.13 brought about some buffs which really helps define the damage done from the Necromancer himself, and also helped solve some problems as far as what skills to choose aside from summons.
Official Blizzard Quote:
Necromancer
-Blood Golem - Removed negative shared life effect (player no longer loses life when golem takes damage).
-Corpse Explosion - Increased base damage dealt from 60% - 100% to 70% - 120% of corpses health.
-Poison Nova - Increased base damage by 15%.
I have personally always stuck with Blood Golem, it always kept me alive in times of need, others may want to use Clay Golem for it's slow skills. Anyway, prior to 1.13, there was a lot of debate about what skill to use, some said max Corpse Explosion, some said go with Poison Nova or Poison Dagger, other said go with Bone Spear/ Bone Spirit. Though now, I can go with a Psn Nova and CE combination for maximum effect.
Strength: This depends on how rich you are in-game. However, as of now, you can respec your character if you overfill your Strength. Basically, you only need enough Strength to use all of your items.
Dexterity: This also depends on how rich you are in-game. However, as of now, you can respec your character if you overfill your Dex. Basically, you only need enough Dexterity to use all of your items. Max block isn't a big deal here, you won't be tanking at all. If you happen to take damage, you'll have Bone Armor on.
This leaves us with 3 skill points wherever you want. We don't have Bone Wall or Bone Prison, but we receive the Bone Wall charges from our boots. You could put them in Bone Spirit or Bone Spear, but our damage will be coming from Poison Nova and Corpse Explosion, with Teeth for psn immunes. With that in mind, you could either put the last three into CE, Bone Armor, or you could complete the Curse tree by getting Dim Vision, Confuse, and Attract. If you are looking to save points you can take a few out of CE, though with 10 points in CE, it should clear a room out due to it's large radius.
Mercenary:
"I want to say something but I'll keep it to myself I guess and leave this useless post behind to make you aware that there WAS something... "
-Equinox
"We're like the downtown of the Diablo related internet lol"
-Winged
I'm glad it's going to help, ;). I really enjoyed playing this character, it's my current main. I like the whole Summoning concept; i'm considering making a Summoning Druid next, which I think would be a lot of fun. From there, I was thinking about making builds with other classes built around summoners: Amazon's Valkyrie, Assassin's Shadow Master, and the Barbarian's Grim Ward, ;). As far as the Paladin goes, you could use Conversion... Sorceress is out of luck.
Thats right. They buffed the two bests offensive skills for PvM (Ce and PN) instead of buff underpowered ones like Mages and the other poisons. I didn't like the necro changes...
About the build:
I would not use Mages. They damage are very low even if you're using Lower Resist.
Those 19 points will increase the damage of each skeletons by something like 40(avg.)...
Instead i would put those points in Poison Explosion/Dagger to synergize with nova, increasing it damage by alot more, expecially because PN hit everything in the screen at once.
And I suggest the last 3 points could be spent in Din Vision, Confuse and Attract (some times they are very usefull).
And since you're using Nova i would stick with Mara's...
I agree with everything else, specially the items (people usually overlook the fanatism aura from runewords wich works amazeling well with skeletons). I will only suggest a variant, that i dunno if it will work or not, but just for testing:
Instead of Nigma you use brambles (because it greatly improves nova's damage) and use a Act I merc with faith bow (stronger fanatism). Then, instead of Beast weapon, get a hoto.
I'm going to take him to 99, check out how well he does with gear that I would be able to acquire by myself and make a decision on if I should give hardcore a shot.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
"I want to say something but I'll keep it to myself I guess and leave this useless post behind to make you aware that there WAS something... "
-Equinox
"We're like the downtown of the Diablo related internet lol"
-Winged
I'm glad it's going to help, ;). I really enjoyed playing this character, it's my current main. I like the whole Summoning concept; i'm considering making a Summoning Druid next, which I think would be a lot of fun. From there, I was thinking about making builds with other classes built around summoners: Amazon's Valkyrie, Assassin's Shadow Master, and the Barbarian's Grim Ward, ;). As far as the Paladin goes, you could use Conversion... Sorceress is out of luck.
Grim Ward is, essentially, crap; don't bother with that one.
Summoners are fun for the first while, then you just get bored watching everyone doing the work for you. It's kinda the same with Bonemancers, but Bonemancers still give you the feel of power. Many would disagree, I'm sure.
Why are you putting that much in the Mages? Synergies are a way better place to dump all those points in, honestly. I also wouldn't use an Enigma since realistically speaking, no one will even get to you when you get powerful and capable enough.
I'm gonna take my Bonemancer all the way through level 99, and remove all the tweaks that I did on him using my Hero Editor.
Grim Ward is, essentially, crap; don't bother with that one.
Summoners are fun for the first while, then you just get bored watching everyone doing the work for you. It's kinda the same with Bonemancers, but Bonemancers still give you the feel of power. Many would disagree, I'm sure.
Why are you putting that much in the Mages? Synergies are a way better place to dump all those points in, honestly. I also wouldn't use an Enigma since realistically speaking, no one will even get to you when you get powerful and capable enough.
I'm gonna take my Bonemancer all the way through level 99, and remove all the tweaks that I did on him using my Hero Editor.
Yeah, but then again, the other classes would be pointless as well. The only really viable classes for summoners would be the Necro and Druid.
I didn't see any point in adding to Summon Resist, as my Summons can easily be resummoned, there's no need to up their resists. A 1 point wonder, if I may say so myself. With that in mind, I was able to beef up my Skele Mages (damage for the most part), by maxing them out.
Trangs adds 25% to poison damage. If you're using Poison Nova it's invaluable.
The synergies are not maxed. Its already useless as it is in this build. Magefist would be far better...tho the cold resist on trangs is nice the psn damage will not make psn nova that much better
Quote from "bes" »
I might try this build
but being a more casual D2 player, where can I find all that gear? if I might ask
is their some special way you guys aquire all that gear?
You wont be getting gear like that on single player(assuming thats what you mean by casual) All that gear is very easy to get by trading on bnet but virtually impossible in SP w/o mods or hacks/editors
The synergies are not maxed. Its already useless as it is in this build. Magefist would be far better...tho the cold resist on trangs is nice the psn damage will not make psn nova that much better
The only thing Magefist has that Trangs doesn't is mana regeneration and +1 to fire skills, which is essentially useless with this build. You don't need much mana and the Necro doesn't use fire skills. The poison skill damage and cold resist of Trangs are much more useful in my opinion.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
"There's no doughnuts in Diablo. Oohhhh, I just threw it down. BlizzCon exclusive: no doughnuts. -Jay Wilson
You wont be getting gear like that on single player(assuming thats what you mean by casual) All that gear is very easy to get by trading on bnet but virtually impossible in SP w/o mods or hacks/editors
Unfortunately, that's correct, =/.
However, this build is not really dependent on the gear, but more so on your skills. Simply having your large army with some curses should be enough. Don't get me wrong, having the gear helps tremendously, but it is most definitely not required, especially if you're just looking to play SP.
I didn't see any point in adding to Summon Resist, as my Summons can easily be resummoned, there's no need to up their resists. A 1 point wonder, if I may say so myself. With that in mind, I was able to beef up my Skele Mages (damage for the most part), by maxing them out.
Against bosses the summon resist is very usefull because you can't resummon your minion that easilly and bosses do massive elemental damage.
With really godly gear you'll be able to clean up bosses even w/o SR but i recommend it for times were you don't have CTA, Beast, Mercs, etc...
Something like 10 points is good enough. Anyway, skelly mages are allways to weak. Their damage are not buffed by AD, auras and other buffs. Their damage are also fairly low, specially because of enemies high resistance. Unffortunely skelly mages are underpowered =/ Lets hope for a fair buff in future patchs !
I never put more than 1 point into summon resist. That skill has a diminishing return on investment. You should have enough +skills to bring it to a nice level
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
On Strike and supporting Fallout 4 Mod Makers
Some fallout 4 mod makers have had their mods stolen and uploaded and downloaded on Bethesda's site for the Xbox One.
How do skelemancers handle bosses? I have always wanted play one but always got frustrated with bosses and loosing all of my skeleys in a few secs and then having to leave just to get more corpses.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Find any Diablo news? Contact me or anyone else on the News team
How do skelemancers handle bosses? I have always wanted play one but always got frustrated with bosses and loosing all of my skeleys in a few secs and then having to leave just to get more corpses.
thats exactly what happened to me. it got so bad that when i was on nightmare baal, i picked up a crossbow and used a clay golem cuz my skellys couldnt survive long enough
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
[/HR]
The most recent character that I have played on the normal servers and have fallen in love with, is the Summoning Necromancer. PTR Patch 1.13 brought about some buffs which really helps define the damage done from the Necromancer himself, and also helped solve some problems as far as what skills to choose aside from summons.
Official Blizzard Quote:
Necromancer
-Blood Golem - Removed negative shared life effect (player no longer loses life when golem takes damage).
-Corpse Explosion - Increased base damage dealt from 60% - 100% to 70% - 120% of corpses health.
-Poison Nova - Increased base damage by 15%.
I have personally always stuck with Blood Golem, it always kept me alive in times of need, others may want to use Clay Golem for it's slow skills. Anyway, prior to 1.13, there was a lot of debate about what skill to use, some said max Corpse Explosion, some said go with Poison Nova or Poison Dagger, other said go with Bone Spear/ Bone Spirit. Though now, I can go with a Psn Nova and CE combination for maximum effect.
Mercenary:
Diablo III Analyst
SC2Mapster
-Equinox
"We're like the downtown of the Diablo related internet lol"
-Winged
Diablo III Analyst
SC2Mapster
About the build:
I would not use Mages. They damage are very low even if you're using Lower Resist.
Those 19 points will increase the damage of each skeletons by something like 40(avg.)...
Instead i would put those points in Poison Explosion/Dagger to synergize with nova, increasing it damage by alot more, expecially because PN hit everything in the screen at once.
And I suggest the last 3 points could be spent in Din Vision, Confuse and Attract (some times they are very usefull).
And since you're using Nova i would stick with Mara's...
I agree with everything else, specially the items (people usually overlook the fanatism aura from runewords wich works amazeling well with skeletons). I will only suggest a variant, that i dunno if it will work or not, but just for testing:
Instead of Nigma you use brambles (because it greatly improves nova's damage) and use a Act I merc with faith bow (stronger fanatism). Then, instead of Beast weapon, get a hoto.
-Equinox
"We're like the downtown of the Diablo related internet lol"
-Winged
Why?
Trangs adds 25% to poison damage. If you're using Poison Nova it's invaluable.
Thanks for all the info!
Grim Ward is, essentially, crap; don't bother with that one.
Summoners are fun for the first while, then you just get bored watching everyone doing the work for you. It's kinda the same with Bonemancers, but Bonemancers still give you the feel of power. Many would disagree, I'm sure.
Why are you putting that much in the Mages? Synergies are a way better place to dump all those points in, honestly. I also wouldn't use an Enigma since realistically speaking, no one will even get to you when you get powerful and capable enough.
I'm gonna take my Bonemancer all the way through level 99, and remove all the tweaks that I did on him using my Hero Editor.
Rise and rise again, until lambs become lions
Yeah, but then again, the other classes would be pointless as well. The only really viable classes for summoners would be the Necro and Druid.
I didn't see any point in adding to Summon Resist, as my Summons can easily be resummoned, there's no need to up their resists. A 1 point wonder, if I may say so myself. With that in mind, I was able to beef up my Skele Mages (damage for the most part), by maxing them out.
Diablo III Analyst
SC2Mapster
The synergies are not maxed. Its already useless as it is in this build. Magefist would be far better...tho the cold resist on trangs is nice the psn damage will not make psn nova that much better
You wont be getting gear like that on single player(assuming thats what you mean by casual) All that gear is very easy to get by trading on bnet but virtually impossible in SP w/o mods or hacks/editors
The only thing Magefist has that Trangs doesn't is mana regeneration and +1 to fire skills, which is essentially useless with this build. You don't need much mana and the Necro doesn't use fire skills. The poison skill damage and cold resist of Trangs are much more useful in my opinion.
However, this build is not really dependent on the gear, but more so on your skills. Simply having your large army with some curses should be enough. Don't get me wrong, having the gear helps tremendously, but it is most definitely not required, especially if you're just looking to play SP.
Diablo III Analyst
SC2Mapster
Against bosses the summon resist is very usefull because you can't resummon your minion that easilly and bosses do massive elemental damage.
With really godly gear you'll be able to clean up bosses even w/o SR but i recommend it for times were you don't have CTA, Beast, Mercs, etc...
Something like 10 points is good enough. Anyway, skelly mages are allways to weak. Their damage are not buffed by AD, auras and other buffs. Their damage are also fairly low, specially because of enemies high resistance. Unffortunely skelly mages are underpowered =/ Lets hope for a fair buff in future patchs !
on a separate note, does anyone know when the patch will be released? i know they just released .13b, so it should be pretty soon im guessing.
Bashiok stated that an anouncement will be made when ladder be reset and during this reset the patch will go live.
Find any Diablo news? Contact me or anyone else on the News team
The key is to have a lot of plus skills and if possible as many auras that increase damage.
The issue is to keep Skeles alive if needed you can use life tap to help.
Conviction Aura is very good for Skelemancer due to the lowering of enemy defence.
The toughest bosses are in normal due to not having too many skills on items and not fully skilled skeles.
Picking a good revive will also help. I only place one point.
thats exactly what happened to me. it got so bad that when i was on nightmare baal, i picked up a crossbow and used a clay golem cuz my skellys couldnt survive long enough