Table of Contents:
1...Introduction
2...Used abbreviations
3...Stat point distribution
4...Skill point distribution
5...Playstyle
6...Equipment
7...Dealing with poison immunes
8...How to deal with bosses
9...Golem
10...Merc
11...How to level-up
12...Do I need MaxBlock?
13...Monsters that *CAN* kill you
14...BO-able life
15...Revives
16...Corpse explosion
17...Magic find
18...Variety
19...UberDiablo/UberTrist
20...My current HC "Switcher" Poison Necro
1) Introduction
What this guide is for:
I am an expericened player playing HC mode exclusively since the 1st ladder. Therefore taking any unnecessary risks (aka dying) or emphasising damage+speed over safety has no place in this this guide. I assume that +75 to all resistances and a high block level are paramount and active at all times.
Since there are several other (excellent) necro guides around that are describing a lot of things in detail I will restrict myself to the main playstyle and the important things to consider. I just want to outline a new exciting way of playing a Poison necro.
This build makes use of some higher runes (Ohm+Sur), that were just not in reach for any regular player in pre 1.13. Since the rune drops of 1.13 have increased considerably it is now possible to find these runes by yourself (yes I have found them myself in this ladder). These runes make it also possible to trade for Torch/Anni charms if you are not able to get them yourself. 1.13 also brought a nice increase to Poison nova damage which is the primary damage providing skill of this build.
What this guide is NOT for:
"Classic" players: Sorry, this build makes heavy use of the weapon switch ability introduced with LoD.
PvP players: I don't play it and cannot share any experiences about it. From reading other guides I believe this build to behave rather crappy in PvP.
2) Used Abbreviations:
PN...Poison nova skill
LR...Lower resist skill
CE...Corpse explosion skill
RS...Raise skeleton skill
SM...Skeleton mastery skill
PR...poison resistance
PI...poison immunity
PnB...poison/bone skill tree
ResAll...all Resistances (Fire/Cold/Light/Poison)
BO... Battle orders skill (from a friendly Barbarian)
CBF...Cannot be frozen
MaxBlock...(Highest possible) 75% chance to block physical attacks
MF...Magic find
3) Stat point distribution:
STR...anything needed, heaviest piece of equipment are Marrowwalk boots (118 STR)
DEX...you will need max block using 60-70% block equipment. At lv 90 this means 210-240 DEX
VITA...all the rest, you should easily exceed 300 VITA (including equipment) in later stages
MANA...nada, zero,nothing
4) Skill point distribution:
This build uses the 2nd weapon switch ("W" key) to provide the necessary curses (LR!). This allows to put more skill points in the summoning tree to get a stronger skeleton army (SM+RS are both nearly maxed!).
You will reach these skill levels at lv90 (including quests). Any further points go into SM.
Summoning tree (39 pts):
Raise skeleton: 20 (max) ... your main source of protection and physical damage dealer
Skeleton mastery: 12+ (at lv90), raise this skill going lv91+
Clay golem: 1
Golem mastery: 1
Skeletal mage: 1
Blood golem: 1 (prereq only, you will not use him)
Summon resist: 1
Iron golem: 1
Fire golem: 0 (no need for this guy)
Revive: 1
With +skills from items/charms you should get around +10 "summoning" skills in later stages
"Poison/bone" tree (62 pts):
Teeth: 1
Bone armor: 0
Poison dagger: 20 (max)...increases your PN damage
Corpse explosion: 1 ... since you have several +PnB items, 1 pt is enough
Poison explosion: 20 (max)...increases your PN damage
Bone spear: 0
Bone prison: 0
Poison nova: 20 (max)... main killer
Bone spirit: 0
With +skills from items/charms you should get around +15 "PnB" skills in later stages
"Curses" tree (0):
Yes, zero. To cast the needed curses you have to find/buy wands. It take a matter of 2 minutes to find a basic one.
With +skills from items/charms you should get around +12 "curse" skills in later stages
5) Playstyle (aka killing monsters):
This build uses the 2 weapon switches all the time ("W" key)
1st Weapon switch - "Curse mode": Magic wand + Homunculus
Your "curse wand" can be any wand providing at least +1 LR and will reduce enemy PR and/or breaks most PI.
Homunculus offers a higher block rate and resists while walking around (compared to the 2nd switch), providing additional safety.
2nd weapon switch -"Poison mode": Death's web + Trang-Oul skull
The best poison weapon choice is the unique Unearthed Wand Death's web. The shield must be the Trang-Oul Cantor trophy, since it offers -25% to enemy PR% as partial set bonus. Other weapon possibilities are described below.
How to fight:
1) Walk around in "curse mode" and LR anything that comes in sight
2) Weapon-switch to "poison mode" and PN anything until they drop loot. Feel free to speed up the process using CE.
3) Goto step 1
Your skeleton army will protect you from any harm and speed up the killing process inflicting physical damage on your enemies. If you encounter anything nasty/bosses you can use any other curse in "curse mode" your wand provides. I highly recommend "Decrepify" for bosses and "Attract" or "Dim vision" for super fast/ranged attackers.
6) Equipment:
To reach high levels of Poison damage and - enemy PR% some pieces of equipment are mandatory.
Weapons:
For "curse mode" the only option is a magic/rare wand providing at least +1 LR.
Easiest option to get a good one is Drognan (Act2/Hell) because you can easily "reset" his inventory by stepping in/out of town. This wand is your *only* source of (free chooseable) curses, so try to find a good one that offers 3 staffmods you need (always including LR of course). My current "curse mode" magic wand provides (found after 5 mins of shopping):
+2 to all necro skills
+1 LR
+2 Decrepify
+3 Attract
Socket with FAL to get +10/+20 STR to reach nearly the same STR level when using the Trang-Oul Cantor trophy
For "poison mode" you have several options:
Superior choice is the unique Unearthed Wand Death's web,providing 2-4 to PnB skills and minus 40-50 enemy PR%! Socketing it with a Poison facet is a must.
Since this item is rather hard to get, you can also use a "white" (Dol+Io) wand (based in +3PN wand with 2 sockets) providing +6 to PN and other nice mods. Unfortunately such a base item cannot be shopped it is rather hard to find.
You can always use the dirt cheap "Blackbogs sharp" dagger (+4 PN).
Shields:
Since the Trang-Oul Cantor trophy offers +25 STR you should put FAL runes in your "curse mode" gear to reach the same STR levels on both weapon switch options.
For "curse mode":
Go for a "Homunculus", providing high block% and +ResAll%. Socket with FAL to get +10 STR to reach nearly the same STR level when using the Trang-Oul Cantor trophy
For "poison mode":
You *must* use the Trang-Oul Cantor trophy, since it offers -25% to enemy PR% when carrying two other pieces of the Trang-Set (which you will do). Socket with PDiamond/UM for additional resistances.
Armor:
"Bramble" (Ral+Ohm+Sur+Eth) offers incredible +40-50% Poison Damage that will boost your poison damage to top levels. Other nice mods are +13 life after each kill (works like "mini- Redemption"), Thorns aura and resists.
Until you can afford "Bramble" you can use armors like "Vipermagi" or "Bone (Sol-Um-Um)"
Helmet:
A Shako is the obvious choice.
However, It could be topped by a rare circlet offering +2skills, +life and +ResAll%, since the +life/level on the Shako is not affected by BO.
Socket with UMs or poison facets (depending on your resistances)
Gloves:
There is only one option: Trang's Gloves, beacuse they offer +25% Poison damage and are needed for the -25%enemy PR from the Trang-Oul Cantor trophy.
Belt:
Also 1 option only: Trang's Belt (needed for the -25%enemy PR from the Trang-Oul Cantor trophy). It also offers +66 life (BO-able!) and CBF.
Boots:
Best option are "Marrowwalks" beacuse they offer STR (=more points for VITA), DEX (=higher block) and +2 SM skills (=stonger minions)
Rings:
The choice is completely yours. You should primarily aim for +Lightning resist, since your other (must-have) equipment offers nearly no Lighning resist at all. You should also go for +life (Bo-able) and +STR mods (=more points for VITA) to increase your life. No need for Ravenfrost, since CBF is provided by the Trang-Oul belt.
Amulet:
The choice is completely yours. The same points as said for Rings apply here also. Note that you can get additional +block% from crafted "safety" amulets, reducing your need for DEX (=more VITA). Just make sure to craft lv90 amulets which can get +2 to Necro skills. Amulets are also your (only) possibility to get teleport charges, if you are too lazy to walk into the town portal of your fellow sorceress.
Charms:
Torch + anni + gheed
PnB grand charms (+life if possible)
small charms with life and resists
General equipment thoughts:
The necessary items for this build are are:
Bramble, Homunculus, DeathsWeb, LRwand, Trang-Oul Skull+Gloves+Belt
Antything else is desirable/optional.
Since you switch your weapons slots all the time the goal is to bring Homunculus and Trang-Oul skull to similar levels of STR, block% and ResAll%. Since Trang-Oul Skull offers +25 STR, which Homunculus does not, I recommend to socket the "curse mode" equipment with FAL runes, to get additional 20-30 STR.
Since Homunculus has higher block% and resists than Trang Skull, you will need no PDiamond in it. Since you wear your Homunculus in "Curse mode" only, there is no need to put a PoisonFacet in it. To reach better ResAll% with Trang-Oul skull you should PDiamond/UM it.
If you get ResAll% from charms, you can use even more PoisonFacets.
Maximum is 5 facets: 1xDeathsWeb, 3x Helmet, 1xTrang Skull (you do not want to lose the SetBonus)
7) Dealing with poison immunes:
There are some PI monsters around, how to deal with them?
You have only one option to "break" the PI of monsters : The LR spell.
Therefore you *MUST* have any source of LR when in "curse mode".
Since LR only works at 1/5 effectiveness when dealing with immunes you cannot break the immunities of all monsters in the game.
The goal is to reach at least lv10 LR to break the immunities of 110%PR monsters:
lv10 LR: -55%PR -> 110-(55/5) = 99 -> immunity broken
It should be easily possible to reach lv10 LR even when using a +1 LR wand using medium/advanced equipment. Higher levels of LR are nice, but note that you wil *never* be able to break the immunity of a 115%PR (or better) monster, even when using a super-high level of LR:
lv50 LR: -69%PR -> 115-(69/5) = 101.2 still immune
If you break the immunity of a monster, -PR% from your equipment will kick in:
-(40-50)% from "Bramble" armor (I have -49%)
-25% from Trang-Set in "poison mode"
-X% from any Poison facettes you have equipped (I have -5%)
-X% from LR (I have lv18 LR = -61% all)
which results in:
95%PR (non-immune) monster ("Lister"): 95-61-49-25-5= -45%PR
50%PR (non-immune) monster ("Baal"): 50-61-49-25-5= -90% PR
A lot of regular monsters have 33% or 0% PR, that will be reduced to -100%PR, which is the lowest possible value and effectively doubles your poison damage
Any poison skill damage of yours is further boosted by Bramble (+40-50%), Trang-Set-Bonus (+25%) and Facets (3-5% each).
Note that even in UberTrist, the bosses only have 110% PR, so you can poison them
Which monsters have 115%PR or better?
There are some, but nothing that can't be dealt with - don't forget you still have a strong merc and your skeleton army+revives for tough spots.
Please take a look at the "Monster resistances.xls" file by onderduiker (excellent work!), which you can find under http://diablo.incgamers.com/forums/s...d.php?t=716009, here is a quick excerpt:
Achmel (Throne), Griswold (Tristram), Coldworm (Maggot boss), Undead stygian dolls(Throne), Serpent magus(Throne)
8) How to deal with bosses:
Bosses are no problem, they just need some time. If your skeleton army gets under pressure use Decrepify insted of LR.
9) Golem:
You can always use a "1 point wonder" clay golem for his "25% slow enemies" ability. He can easily be re-cast and is a very good choice.
I am currently using an iron golem (just because I have used clay golems for sooo long): His purpose is not to kill anything but to make him rather tough to provide additional protection. Therefore I prefer +ResAll% items or crappy uniques for creation (+45 ResAll% sacred rondaches anyone?).
If you feel super-rich you can even make a runeword golem but this feels too expensive for me. Fist choice would be an "Insight" golem but I my experience tells me that they will die rather often. Also, you should not be in need for "Insight", see below...
10) Merc:
Merc type: An Act2 merc with "Might" aura is the obvious choice since he will boost your skeletons physical damage which helps you against the few PI you will encounter.
Merc weapon: You will need no "Insight" runeword, because your mana regen rate should be sufficient anyway:
"Curse mode": (Marrowwalk+Homunculus+Bramble offer 10+33+15=58% mana regen
"Poison mode": Marrowwalk+Trang-Set Bonus+Bramble offer 10+15+15=40% mana regen
A lot of people use MaxDamage Colossus Voulges for Act2 mercs but I consider them too slow. I prefer a "Giant Thresher" which is faster and has better range. There are several rune words to choose from, I am currently using "Obedience" which is rather cheap. The base weapon can be traded or found in lv85 areas. (Don't forget you can Ral+Amn+PAmethyst to give sockets to a "normal" weapon.)
Another interesting option is a "Kelpie snare" that will reduce the agility level of any enemy/boss to "Izual's" level (=nothing at all).
Merc armor: Best option in my opinion is a "Treachery" (Shael-Thul-Lem), providing your merc
a) even more attack speed (+45%)
b) 5% of lv15 fade (= 15%PDR and 60%ResAll)
Merc helmet:
1st choice: Andariel's visage, offering +2 (Might) skills, +20% attack speed , Life steal and a rather cool poison nova (dual novae look great)
2nd choice: Tal Rasha helmet
General merc rule: Just give your merc nothing that will override your curses!
11) How to level-up:
When starting from scratch: Start like a regular Fishymancer (=boost your skellies). If you have the necessary equipment respec to my "Switcher" Poison Necro.
12) Do I need MaxBlock?
You have no bone armor and no bone wall -> You need MaxBlock! (remember I recommend HC only)
Homunculus has 72% block, so you need 203 DEX @lv90
Trang-oul Cantor trophy has 60% block, so you need 240 DEX @lv90
If you are lucky enough to get a +10% block "safety amulet" you need even lower DEX to reach MaxBlock:
Homunculus (82% block): 180 DEX @lv90
Trang-oul Cantor trophy (70% block): 210 DEX @lv90
13) Monsters that *CAN* kill you:
Anything with conviction/fanaticism/multishot/might especially if they are ranged attackers!
Archers, Urdars, Venom Lords, Blood Lords and any sub-types of these monsters
"Willow-wisp" monsters causing massive lightning damage. Since your "must have" equipment offers nearly no protection against lightning, you must search for rings/amulets with Lightning resist.
Nihlathak's vipers. Their invisible cloud is annoying since your skellies and merc drop dead instantly. Casting "dim vision/attract" on these guys really helps. I prefer to play this being in a party but it is doable solo if you are cautious (just don't move when into the cloud, CTRL-key!)
Nihlathak - our good old friend with his CE can kill you, but only if you are too lazy to deny him his ammunition. Just stay behind and CE anything before he does.
And of course: The "lag" monster...constant vigilance...
General rule: Move slowly, block% is only at 1/3 (= 25 MaxBlock%) when running. Your skeleton army will give you the time needed to make your poison do the job.
14) BO-able life:
...always remember the friendly Barbarian and/or Druid in your party.
+life from items is BO-able
+live/level from items is NOT BO-able
+VITA from items is NOT BO-able
VITA is BO-able
My Barb has currently lv52 BO, providing +188% life for 740 seconds.
15) Revives:
Some people hate them because they do such a bad job following you around. In fact they are very good for any boss fights and tough spots, where your poison works not or not fast enough.
With 1pt investment and +skills you reach easily lv10 or better. In HC you have not the luxury to ignore them.
16) Corpse explosion:
The "fun" skill. Use it anywhere where your poison+skellies need too much time. Against Nihlathak CE is your life saver - deny him his "food"
17) Magic find:
Your MF% will not reach any exciting levels. With good gear, you have a built-in 90% MF (shako+gheed), anything else has to come from rings/ammy/charms. I dont see a problem in this, because this necro is best suited for "area85" runs, where the main goal is to find good socketed and/or elite items. If you need uniques, nothing will beat a MF sorc.
18) Variety:
Don't forget that you are not forced to LR/PN all the time, you have a lot of other curses/spells in command to bring some variety to your play-style:
You can have any 2 curses of your choice if you can buy/find a wand providing them (LR is a must, although you should primarily aim for Decrepify, Attract and/or Dim Vision.
Your Trang-Oul set offers lv18 "Fire ball" (always) and lv13 "Fire wall" (poison mode only)
Marrowwalk boots offer "Life tap" and "Bone prison" charges.
A Hellfire torch offers "Hydra" charges
And you can always get an amulet with teleport charges...
19) UberDiablo/UberTrist
I have never tried these alone, since...
No need to risk my Necro when a Smiter/Kicksin/Fury Druid does a much better job there (and it its fun to play other chars, too)
Reading in the forums told me that it should be possible, but takes a looong time.
20) My current HC "Switcher" Poison Necro:
...is now currently lv92
...has 152 STR,244 DEX, 325 VITA and 1551 def in "poison mode"
...has 147 STR, 229 DEX, 325 VITA and 1571 def in "curse mode"
...has ~1300 life, ~3400 after BO (lv52), ~5400 with BO and Oak sage (lv30) from"Fury" druid in party
...has 75/80/75/75 resistances
...has lv27 SM, lv32 RS, lv13 Skelemages+golem+13 revives, 1 "might" merc
...has a 49% (yeah) Bramble Archon plate and a 49% Deaths Web (+1 PnB only) and one +4/-5 poison facet (49 is my lucky number, I guess).
...has PN lv36 with (+78% poison damage from items) providing 10.136 dam/2sek [avg]
...reduces enemy PR% by-140%, effectively dealing 20.272 dam/2sek [avg] against 0% PR monsters (Pit) and 19.259 dam/2sek [avg] against 50% PR monsters (Hell Baal)
...reduces the PR% of 110% PI monsters down to 18%, effectively dealing 8.231 dmg/2sek [avg]
...is fun to play!
Good gaming,
Blast Duke|||Nice idea with the switch but.. no enigma?
|||Quote:Nice idea with the switch but.. no enigma?
of course you can use Enigma instead of Bramble.
You will lose the +poisonDamage% (in my case +49%) but gain 2 skill levels of PN instead.
Calculating this into my current build:
"49er" Bramble: 19.259 dam/2sek [avg]
Enigma: 15.183 dam/2sek [avg]
...against 50% PR monsters (Hell Baal)
You lose a considerable amout of poison damage, but gain the Enigma benefits
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