Greetings all. Finally got a hold of new CD keys two weeks ago and already rocking US East Ladder with my lvl 85 Fishy, Nechromancer (the best one of all time, get it?) Killing in Hell is slow, but possible. I wanted some input on how to improve things with my very very limited resources.
Spirit Crystal Sword
Harlequin Crest w/ P. Topaz
Skulder's w/ P. Topaz
28% Magic Find amulet
+1 Necro skills rare trophy
Sander's Riprap
M'Avina's belt
Ravenfrost
Angelic's Ring
Chancies
Might merc with Tal's Helm, Rattlecage and Hone Sudan w/ 3x Amn runes for leech.
Merc dies around act 4 hell often, but everywhere else is doable.
I know where my gear can improve, the advice I am looking for is how to best improve it with only an Um rune to trade.
Also, I checked on here that a hunter's bow can have 4 sockets but the socketing quest only put in 3. What's up with that?|||Pit runs should be pretty doable and friendly for your merc. CE is great in there. Quick runs of Eldritch/Shenk/Pindle in act 5 are also good spots to find useful gear. Those 4 are all places where you don't really need to teleport to get to, which is helpful for you to keep your runs efficient. Try to get stuff for your merc first to make him able to survive CS. That place is great (lvl85), you don't need teleport to get to it, and there is a boss at the end. Or maybe try using the lifetap curse if you have it to keep the merc alive, and then switch to amp once a few baddies drop to CE the rest. Might take a little longer, but you could possible survive some areas where you (or your merc) couldn't before.|||Where are your skill points distributed?
The obvious improvements will be to your mercs gear. A bigger, badder weapon, as well as some better armor will work wonders. I'd recommend one or more of the following for cheap:
Insight polearm-the highest damage stick you can get, a few nightmare countess runs should get you the runes you need.
Bonehew-should be able to get for a few Pgems
Duriels shell-more pgems
I prefer either crown of thieves or guillames face as the helm. Depends on how much LL you need. You'll see big improvements in killing speed if you upgrade to Guillames face. Once again, you can probably get it for a few pgems.
Obviously, if you can afford it, upgrading to infinity or obedience will be a hugh improvement, as wells as fortitude or CoH.
You can get rid of the angelics ring and replace it with almost anything and it will be an improvement. Your gear is not sufficient to be meleeing, in which case angelics is completely USELESS. I would also get rid of Ravenfrost. The AR adds nothing to your build and the cannot be frozen doesn't help a fishy very much. Better choices for rings would be ones that add resists, MF or FCR (preferably all three). Later on you can upgrade to BKs or SOJs if necessary.
Good luck.|||Obedience in an eth cryptic axe would be my first choice, followed by Treachery in any elite armor. Eth is always better but don't sweat it if you can't find/trade for eth items; normal ones should be easy enough to get. Guillame's face is nice but I think the high damage and ias given by obedience/treachery together with tal's mask makes for a much sturdier merc.
You'll hopefully soon find better jewelry to replace those... Then a +2/3 all/summon skills amulet, and lastly Homunculus.
The socket quest always give you the maximum number of sockets the item can have, but that depends not only on which item it is but also on the item level. The item level depends on the area level, i.e. in which area of the game it dropped.
Sockets
Area levels|||Cool cool. All sounds like good advice. Skills are standard fishy with my own preferences:
20 in RS, SM, CE
5 in Clay Golem, Golem Mastery
1 in everything else, remaining points going to Mages, currently ~9 hard points in.|||Insight in elite ethereal polearm is nr 1 thing to get for your merc.|||be sure to get a few points into revives as well
now, for gear:
drop the spirit sword, shop for a wand with +2/3 to summoning skills and +2/3 to raise skeletons, this will do better then the spirit.
For shield, try to trade a homunculus, It's worth pul or less iirc.
the belt's pretty ****ty, get anything else
Quote:
Insight in elite ethereal polearm is nr 1 thing to get for your merc.
it's really not that important to put your insight in an elite polearm, the runes can be found by yourself (just run nightmare countess a bit) and somewhere along the ride you'll find some polearm with 4 sockets, just use that one for now. You can swap to hone sundan when you're fighting a boss, because IIRC, it has a slow targets buff, so you could cast amp damage in stead of decrep, for some added damage.|||Quote:
Cool cool. All sounds like good advice. Skills are standard fishy with my own preferences:
20 in RS, SM, CE
5 in Clay Golem, Golem Mastery
1 in everything else, remaining points going to Mages, currently ~9 hard points in.
I would take those points out of the golem skills and put more into either mages or Dim vision. Your plus skills should make your clay golem nearly invulnerable at this point and his slow % should be WAY more than enough when combined with decrep. Pumping more hard points into him adds very little but costs a lot in the other skills.
I find mages to be the most useful (more damage, more meatshields, more variety of damage) but if you prefer, you can go with those points in some utility skills.
Make sure you post an update with results.|||Well guys, I am experienced having played for over three years before now, so I already knew Insight would be my next big upgrade (Mana is not much of an issue, I would probably have just up'd my Hone Sudan had I been in possession of the right runes.)
HOWEVER, I made a crucial noob error along the way. I knew that it didn't matter much the kind of stick from which the 'word was made, however since mana wasn't a huge issue and my 21% LL 45% CB Hone was doing so VERY well at keeping my merc alive and doing decent damage in Hell, I wanted to make it in NO LESS than an exceptional. So, I came onto this trusty site, as I lovways do
and checked which sticks have a maximum of eight sockets, figuring the easiest way would be to find any decent white stick and use the quest on it myself.
I found out that BILLS and all versions of them have 4 sockets, and sure enough I found a colossus voulge in a Baal run and got all excited, socketing it and making the Insight and then...
... realizing the required strength for a colossus voulge.
I was quite disappointed.
So I decided that now, since I am alternating between a Skulders and Rattlecage for him anyway, I go and make him a Lionheart as well. At lvl 85, the Might merc has 186 strength, and the 25 strength on Lionheart will put him one point over. It also has decent resist, a minor damage boost and LOTS of lufe of course, and Lionheart will be very useful in my collection.
Since my last post, I have come across Trang Oul's Scales and a Naj's Puzzler, both of which help IMMENSELY.
Will you all give me your opinions on what is the best merc base weapon for runewords? Number of available sockets aside, based on speed and sdamage, which is best out of the spears and polearms?
Oh, and yes I put one point in Revive as well as Lower Resist, with NONE in Fire Golem don't worry : P
I find that LR is awesome for the very rare physical immune who can't break and for party play. Oh man I was in a game with a lightning sorc and amazon. I Immediately swapped up to LR and I couldn't run fast enough to keep up with Sander's and Trang's on.|||When it comes to merc weapons, I prefer an eth. Cryptic Axe. Highest average damage of all poles and up to 5 sockets. Strength requirements are fairly low as well.
|||Pretty much. They were basically standing at the entrance. By the time I DVd the archers, most of my skellies were gone. Ah well, Vipermagi and Tal Mask dropped in the next couple of runs so I'm on my way at last.|||Stair traps are scary. You really shouldn't go into the pit until you complete hell. I know it's an A1 area, but the Pit level 2 has probably caused more level 85+ deeds than Hell Baal has.