In general, summon necromancers are in love with their auras. Might, Fanatacism, Conviction, even Concentration are commonly seen. But what is really the ultimate merc/aura combination for a summon necromancer? That's what I intend to determine.
The methodology? Mathematics and logic. Experience is a good teacher, but with it all too often comes bias. We build a necromancer telling ourselves we are testing a new build, we are claiming objectivity at first, but we fall in love with it and when it underperforms we turn a blind eye. It's time to look at the situation by the numbers.
Finally, when we reference the ultimate merc/aura combination, what exactly do we want our necromancer to be the "ultimate" at? I'm going to assume solo Uber Tristram runs. Given the difficulty of Uber Tristram, a summoner who is ideally equipped for that situation should have little to no difficulty with any other task.
How A Summoner Deals Damage to the Uber Three
Before we begin evaluating the different mercenaries and auras, it's important to look at the tools the necromancer is actually using in Uber Tristram: specifically, Skeletons and Revives. When we determine what these skills do "naked," we can then determine what auras and skills are the most beneficial.
By "naked" I don't mean without equipment, I just mean without auras or other non-summon skills. In terms of +skills equipment, I'm going to assume slvl 40 Raise Skeleton and Skeletal Mastery; that's about +10 from charms and +10 from equipment. Of course, you could get much more if you wanted, upwards of +30 if you were really dedicated, but +20 is a less extreme number and allows room for extra survivability if your gear is good enough.
So let's look at Raise Skeleton. These should deal an average of 601 damage, with 259% enhanced damage already applied. That enhaned damage is a drawback; although it might appear you're getting 601 base damage from your skeletons when you mouse-over the Raise Skeleton skill, the actual base damage averages at 167, which means that a +200% ED Might aura is adding just over 300 damage instead of the 1200 damage some people would expect. Their base Attack Rating is 4804 for a level 90 necromancer.
Now let's look at Revives. The traditional Revives, and rightly so, are Urdars, for their 25% chance of Crushing Blow. In terms of non-Crushing damage, they have two different attacks, one weaker but more accurate, dealing 110 base average damage, the other stronger but more likely to miss, dealing 131.5 base average damage. Skeletal Mastery grants these Revived Urdars 400% ED, which brings their damage to about 604 (averaged between their two attacks). Since they're currently tied on damage before even factoring in Crushing Blow, it's pretty clear that Urdars are going to be the primary damage-dealers. However, Urdars aren't as good as Skeletons in the Attack Rating department, having only 3578 averaged between their two attacks.
The common factor here is that both Skeletons and Urdars have relatively low base damage, and most of their damage at this point is already enhanced damage. Therefore Enhanced Damage boosts are only going to operate at about 30% effectiveness, perhaps even less.
Remember, Skeleton and Urdar attacks aren't against nameless monsters; our specific targets are the Uber Three. Each of these guys posts an average of 655000 hit points. What does that mean in terms of our attacks? Attacking with only Skeletons (and assuming no regeneration, which doesn't really happen, we're just demonstrating a point), you'd have to score 1092 Skeleton hits on average to slay an Uber. On the other hand, you'd only have to score 112 Urdar hits (on average) to get your 655000 damage in. Since Urdars and Skeletons are so close in terms of pure damage (both around 600), what this basically means is Crushing Blow is about 9/11, which is about 80%, of your damage output.
So how do you increase your Crushing Blow damage? There isn't an aura that increases the chance of Crushing Blow per hit (wouldn't that be nice?), so the only way to increase your Crushing Blow damage is to increase your minion's chance to hit and/or attack rate. As an added benefit, increasing chance to hit and/or attack rate also increases your non-Crushing Blow damage too. Therefore, when you increase your Enhanced Damage you're only improving 20% of your damage, but when you increase your chance to hit and/or attack rate you're improving on 100% of your damage.
Conclusions
+ Enhanced Damage effects operate at 30% effectiveness due to the inherent Enhanced Damage Skeletons and Revives already have.
+ About 80% of your damage is in the form of Crushing Blow, which can only be increased by improving your minion's chance to hit and/or attack rate.
+ Enhanced Damage effects only increase 20% of your damage, while increasing chance to hit and/or attack rate increases 100% of your damage.
+ Therefore, Enhanced Damage effects matter 30% x 20% = 6% as much as they appear to matter. That's 94% less. This leaves plenty of room for Attack Rating and Defense Reduction skills to shine.
NOTE: It turns out increasing skill levels above slvl40 further decreases the effect Enhanced Damage effects have (very slightly), but it also reduces the extent to which the build relies on Crushing Blow (very slightly). The reverse happens for lower skill levels. I figure as long as we aren't too far from slvl40 the net effect will be rather minor.
Edit: The remainder of this guide has been discredited by an astute poster (the Langolier). The error will be corrected in a later revision of this guide. The incorrect material is still included in Spoiler form if you're interested.
Spoiler
Evaluating Auras and Skills
Now that we know what is important, we can properly evaluate the various auras and skills available to us.
Teleport
Source: Enigma runeword armor; numerous charge sources
Evaluation: Simply put, you can't run Uber Tristram without some access to Teleport. It's not really about getting Urdars rounded up and into Tristram quickly, although that's certainly nice... the reason is that you need to teleport directly onto your target so all 30-or-so are attacking it simultaneously. Enigma is clearly preferred, but if you have to use charges because you're poor, then you have to use charges because you're poor.
Grade: A+ (absolutely necessary, you can't run Ubers without this)
Conviction
Source: Infinity runeword polearm on necromancer or Act 2 mercenary or Iron Golem
Evaluation: Conviction is an aura that you can't help but love. Sorceresses love it for reducing enemy resistances, and even stripping immunities. You love it because it gives you an insane -83% defense. Now all you need is some way to get rid of the remaining 17%...
Grade: A (part of the ideal setup)
Battle Cry
Source: Call to Arms weapon on necromancer
Evaluation: Call to Arms is another runeword you can't help but love. Who doesn't love casting Battle Orders and gaining lots of mana and life? However, the juicy part for a summon necromancer is the ability to cast Battle Cry. By itself, it gives -66% to -76% Defense with virtually any setup, which is huge. Combined with Conviction, it strips away ALL Defense from ANYTHING, Ubers included. So if you have had Call to Arms for a while and you haven't been casting Battle Cry... start now.
Grade: A (part of the ideal setup)
Fanatacism
Sources: Faith bow on necromancer or Act 1 mercenary; Beast weapon on necromancer or Iron Golem
Evaluation: Fanatacism does a little bit of everything. It has some Enhanced Damage (meh) and some Attack Rating (if you have ideal setup, worthless, otherwise handy) and, most importantly, is the only way to get your Urdars to swing faster. As such, it's going to be part of any ideal setup. However, it doesn't do as much as the -100% Defense combo.
Grade: A- (part of the ideal setup)
Might
Sources: Act 2 mercenary; Last Wish weapon on necromancer or Act 5 mercenary or Iron Golem
Evaluation: This is another Enhanced Damage effect, so it's pretty unexciting in terms of the bonus it confers. As far as Last Wish goes, that's only for those who are both very rich and very eccentric; although it might not be that effective, an Act 5 mercenary with Last Wish running Uber Trist is worth some style points. Although it doesn't offer much, its only competition on Act 2 mecenaries is Blessed Aim, which doesn't do anything after you've reduced opposing Defense to zero... so it makes the cut for the ideal setup if you go for the Act 2 merc.
Grade: B+ (a nice addition to an ideal setup, but doesn't add much)
Cloak of Shadows
Sources: Nadir runeword helm or Darksight Helm unique Basinet, on necromancer
Evaluation: Since you can only get access to Cloak of Shadows through charges, and charges are annoying, and you have to give up your Shako or circlet to get the charges in the first place, Cloak of Shadows is not the ideal choice. However, it is skill-based Defense reduction, so if you're too poor for either Call to Arms or Infinity, this is the cheapest Defense reduction available, and if you already have one of the Big Two you can probably get to -100% Defense with this until you can afford the upgrade.
Grade: C+ (budget option)
Blessed Aim
Source: Act 2 mercenary
Evaluation: Undervalued and unappreciated, Blessed Aim is actually a very good choice. It's not as good as some of the other choices when it comes to improving chance-to-hit, but it is free, which is something beginning players should take notice of. It's not part of the ideal setup, but if you can't afford any runewords and you want an Act 2 mercenary, Blessed Aim is better than Might.
Grade: C (budget option)
Inner Sight
Source: Act 1 mercenary
Evaluation: This is the Rogue's secret weapon. On a Normal difficulty mercenary, Inner Sight can get up to slvl 29 (-1515 Defense) and if you use +skills items on your mercenary you get an additional -100 Defense per skill point. Too bad Inner Sight isn't factored in after -X% defense skills, or it would be first-rate. As it is, it's irrelevant if you have the -100% Defense combo, and it's not technically as strong as Blessed Aim, but if you're poor and like Rogue mercs at least you can rest easy knowing that they have a good anti-Uber skill. (Note that the Inner Sight charges on magic/rare items never get past slvl6, which is only -165 defense and not enough to trouble with.)
Grade: C- (budget option)
Thorns
Sources: Bramble runeword armor on mercenary; Edge runeword bow on necromancer or Act 1 mercenary; or Act 2 mercenary; or Iron Golem
Evaluation: The returned damage from Thorns basically suffers from the same pitfalls as Might, except that it's also a negative combo with Clay Golem and Decrepify, which you probably intend to use. That makes Might better as a merc aura. Edge bows only make sense if you can't afford a Faith bow. Bramble can technically add something, but what it subtracts from your mercenary's survivability is something you'll have to deal with, probably not successfully.
Grade: D+ (a very weak and awkward choice)
Heart of Wolverine
Source: Oath or Passion runeword weapon on necromancer; Wisp Projector unique ring on necromancer
Evaluation: It might add some free Enhanced Damage, but it has charges, the Spirit is easily killed, the AR bonus is wasted if you go for the -100% Defense combo, and unless you go Oath it's not that much ED in the first place. If you're a perfectionist who needs to have his ideal setup have the absolute maximum damage, then Heart of Wolverine is for you. However, those of us who don't have obsessive-compulsive disorder will pass. (The Spirit of Barbs from the Wisp Projector doesn't fare any better.)
Grade: D (a very weak and awkward choice)
Concentration
Source: Pride polearm on necromancer or Act 2 mercenary or Iron Golem
Evaluation: All it does is add Enhanced Damage, which is basically worthless, and it uses up a weapon slot. As an Iron Golem it's just asking to die and be a waste of high runes. No thanks.
Grade: F (not justifiable under any condition)
The Recommended Setup For People With Moderate Wealth
Your goals are basically as follows:
- Enigma (obviously).
- Infinity somewhere.
- Fanatacism somewhere.
- Call to Arms as one of the necromancer's weapon switches.
- Don't die, and don't have your merc die. No other equipment is going to significantly increase your kill speed, it's mostly Urdar-based, so focus on keeping you and your merc alive to keep the auras up.
What this translates to is: If you have Faith on your merc, you have Infinity on you. If you have Infinity on your merc, you have Fanatacism aura on you.
As far as whether you pick a Act 1 or Act 2 Might mercenary, that's up to you. Just know that both are viable... and Act 1 mercenary is a completely viable choice, the Might from the Act 2 mercenary doesn't matter too much. However, going Act 1 merc basically means your necro is going to be holding Infinity; going Act 2 merc means your necro is holding Faith or Beast.
I'm also not telling you whether to be a vitamancer (no dex) or a max block necromancer. If you're holding Infinity, you can still go max block on the Call to Arms switch if you want to. However, if you're going with a max block necromancer & the Act 2 merc, you'll have the Dexterity for a decent elite bow for Faith on weapon switch... so you can switch to Call to Arms, teleport on top of an uber to stack, take a couple steps back, Battle Cry, switch to Faith, and start shooting arrows into the boss.
And if you're not going max block? Then why bother holding a shield on your Fanatacism switch? You might as well still hold Faith, except this time you're going for a low-requirement one. I guess if you have Crushing Blow gear you could still shoot some arrows, but it's not required.
Therefore, the only reason to go Beast would be if you're going max block and you want your Call to Arms switch to have some special +skills shield, like Spirit (for better Battle Orders) or a Boneflame (for better summons). The additional bonus you'd get to summons would be negative for damage (the ED from increase Fanatacism aura would surpass it) and very slight for their life, so you can rule that out. As far as a Spirit to go with your CTA goes, the life bonus would be relatively minor, and additional points in Battle Cry are overkill. If you're a survival junkie, then I guess that's your choice, but I couldn't recommend it. That's why I recommend Faith for all summoners. I do not recommend Beast in any softcore situation.
If you do go Iron Golem, keep the item cheap and have the skills to support it (max Golem Mastery at minimum). If you're on ladder, an Insight golem is cheap enough, and if you're nonladder... why are you going Iron Golem again?
The Recommended Setup for Very, Very Poor People
- Some form of Teleport, using charges if necessary.
- Nadir runeword helm. It's not pretty, it detracts from your summons, but it's cheap -% Defense and you need the kill speed because you're not going to be able to withstand sustained punishment.
- Either Act 1 merc or Blessed Aim Act 2 Merc. You're in too much chance-to-hit trouble to think about Enhanced Damage.
- Edge runeword bow somewhere. As a weapon switch for your necro is fine, but you'll probably want to avoid Arm of King Leoric on your other switch if you do that with a max block necro, getting hit and triggering Bone Prison can be immensely frustrating. If you want to skip this that's fine, but you probably want one anyway if you gamble as much as I do (-15% to vendor prices).
- Everything else dedicated to survivability and +summoning. You'll need the survivability on your merc especially. Look up nice cheap runewords like Smoke.
Even a lowly level 18 Blessed Aim aura raises your Urdar's chance to hit from under 50% to about 80%. That's a huge increase in effectiveness. I've personally haven't tried this yet, but I'd be willing to bet that summoners can run the ubers with far worse equipment than you think, as long as they have enough sense to avoid the Might mercenary. It's going to be rough though... good luck.
The End
Thanks in advance for any & all constructive replies. If I got something wrong in terms of math, please correct me! I'll happily edit the original post and give you credit.|||Quote:
Finally, when we reference the ultimate merc/aura combination, what exactly do we want our necromancer to be the "ultimate" at? I'm going to assume solo Uber Tristram runs. Given the difficulty of Uber Tristram, a summoner who is ideally equipped for that situation should have little to no difficulty with any other task.
It may be the ultimate PvU setup, but it really doesn't apply to PvM. You may have little difficulty with any other task, but everything that works well on the ubers(namely single beefy targets) is poorly suited to normal mobs. Namely, increasing your chance to hit and crushing blow effectiveness has very little benefit when your minions already hit well enough and damage outperforms crushing blow.
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The returned damage from Thorns basically suffers from the same pitfalls as Might, except that it's also a negative combo with Clay Golem and Decrepify, which you probably intend to use.
Grade: D+ (a very weak and awkward choice)
Battle Cry (acts as curse like cloak of shadows) and Decrepify overwrite each other, so you won't be using decrepify. FWIW thorns (especially level 30 thorns on an Act 1 merc) is very effective in PvM which makes your grade of D+ a bit misleading and highlights another big difference between normal mobs v. tough single targets.
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And if you're not going max block? Then why bother holding a shield on your Fanatacism switch?
...
I recommend Faith for all summoners. I do not recommend Beast in any softcore situation.
The question isn't why bother, but why not? Faith has no benefit over beast except for a higher level of fanaticism, but the fastest breakpoints for your minions are reached at a level 11 fanaticism which is easily achievable using beast, and you've already pointed out that the extra bonus to ED% and AR has very little benefit. This gives you the benefit of a shield slot for resists/skills/whatever and you lose nothing. It is for this reason that I would never recommend Faith in any situation.
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The Recommended Setup for Very, Very Poor People
Very, very poor and Uber Trist running are not compatible states of being so I don't see the point of this section. It can even lead some astray as they'll be choosing auras like blessed aim which has a similar analysis in PvM as might does to PvU.
In all, a very interesting and informative look at aura affects for Uber Tristram.|||Quote:
It may be the ultimate PvU setup, but it really doesn't apply to PvM. You may have little difficulty with any other task, but everything that works well on the ubers(namely single beefy targets) is poorly suited to normal mobs. Namely, increasing your chance to hit and crushing blow effectiveness has very little benefit when your minions already hit well enough and damage outperforms crushing blow.
I was about to asked performance of Blessing Aim for normal PvM. Thanks for clearing out that part.|||Quote:
It may be the ultimate PvU setup, but it really doesn't apply to PvM. You may have little difficulty with any other task, but everything that works well on the ubers(namely single beefy targets) is poorly suited to normal mobs. Namely, increasing your chance to hit and crushing blow effectiveness has very little benefit when your minions already hit well enough and damage outperforms crushing blow.
In normal PvM situations, with halfway decent gear, skeletons will not do significant damage, merely distract monsters, the merc will quickly dispatch a single monster, and then Corpse Explosion will be spammed. I imagine you could worry yourself about how quickly the merc accomplishes that task, but you're not going to significantly improve your run-times worrying about those things. Is Blessed Aim better than Might at increasing merc damage output? No, unlike undead minions your mercenaries don't have any skill-based ED to start, so Might hits your merc with full power, making it hard for Blessed Aim to compete.
I'm going to redo some math (see below for why) and get back to you on how important Blessed Aim really is for Uber running. I'll say right now that normal monsters are easier to dispatch with Might. However, if the Ubers are not easier to dispatch with Might, and Blessed Aim makes a difference in Tristram, it remains viable, because some people would be willing to make the sacrifice in order to have Blessed Aim when it really counts. Do not dismiss it yet...
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Battle Cry (acts as curse like cloak of shadows) and Decrepify overwrite each other, so you won't be using decrepify.
Well, that makes me feel like a noob. Basically the entire guide above is trash, because the -100% Defense thing is a nonbo. (A non-combo combo; Decrepify by itself doubles Crushing Blow effectiveness, it's needed.) I'm going to redo the math then release a newer, better version.
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FWIW thorns (especially level 30 thorns on an Act 1 merc) is very effective in PvM which makes your grade of D+ a bit misleading and highlights another big difference between normal mobs v. tough single targets.
You could get slvl35 Thorns on an Act 1 merc by combining Edge and Bramble. That's 1610% damage returned... I might have to look into that.
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The question isn't why bother, but why not? Faith has no benefit over beast except for a higher level of fanaticism, but the fastest breakpoints for your minions are reached at a level 11 fanaticism which is easily achievable using beast, and you've already pointed out that the extra bonus to ED% and AR has very little benefit. This gives you the benefit of a shield slot for resists/skills/whatever and you lose nothing. It is for this reason that I would never recommend Faith in any situation.
Firstly, your discrediting of the Battle Cry and Cloak of Shadows work-arounds mean that there isn't a -100% Defense combo, so the AR actually might be pretty important, I'm going to have to redo the math and find my old notes. Second, you can't get slvl 11 Fanatacism from Beast; +skills do not increase the aura's level. Third, I'm guessing you mean Skeleton breakpoints, and it's known that Skeletons might swing faster with IAS but no amount of it can make them swing more often, so the IAS is wasted on Skeletons. I am guessing you mean Skeleton breakpoints because, as far as I know, no one has ever done breakpoint research on Urdars.
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In all, a very interesting and informative look at aura affects for Uber Tristram.
Actually, I'm pretty disappointed that I didn't catch the Battle Cry thing myself. For that reason alone I've shut down the latter 2/3s of this guide, pending revision. The first third, on how Skeletons and Revives compare, is still accurate and informative, so I've left that up for now.|||Quote:
Firstly, your discrediting of the Battle Cry and Cloak of Shadows work-arounds mean that there isn't a -100% Defense combo, so the AR actually might be pretty important, I'm going to have to redo the math and find my old notes. Second, you can't get slvl 11 Fanatacism from Beast; +skills do not increase the aura's level. Third, I'm guessing you mean Skeleton breakpoints, and it's known that Skeletons might swing faster with IAS but no amount of it can make them swing more often, so the IAS is wasted on Skeletons. I am guessing you mean Skeleton breakpoints because, as far as I know, no one has ever done breakpoint research on Urdars.
Pretty sure you're right on +skills not increasing aura's level. I'd still wear a shield for resists/max block and use beast, but that's just me.
I thought IAS did work on skellies? Pet calculator sure makes it seem so. Adding in Fanat makes skeleton dps skyrocket in the calc. Can you provide a source for this? I've wondered about it for some time.|||^ Minions have a 15 (16? 17 perhaps? --> can't remember what the exact number is) frame delay between their attacks. Even if their attack speed increases, you cannot lower the delay between each attack.|||Quote:
^ Minions have a 15 (16? 17 perhaps? --> can't remember what the exact number is) frame delay between their attacks. Even if their attack speed increases, you cannot lower the delay between each attack.
So fanat is only useful for the +damage and +ar bonuses on minions then? It would still help the merc reach higher IAS bp's too, right?|||^ Yup. Also, it's a 15 frame delay. Refer to note 3 of the pet calculator. Also, regardless of the frame delay, you are lowering the amount of time it takes for the Skeletons to make an attack, so I guess it counts for something, even if very little.
|||I've got another couple of questions, then. Say you use an act1 merc with edge+bramble for slvl 35 thorns (1610% dmg returned). Your skeletons get attacked by a Hell Lord (axe-wielding dudes in WSK), who does 100 damage (74-139).Thorns acts on damage received after damage reduction effects. So, my first question is, do skeletons have any dr? I didn't think they did, but I wasn't sure if they picked some up in higher difficulties.
So, your skeleton gets hit, and receives 100 damage. Thorns kicks in, and returns 100 * (16.1) = 1610 damage. Hell monsters have 50% physical dr, so the Hell Lord receives 805 damage back. Pretty solid number.
However, you're a necro! You have amp damage! So, with amp damage on the Hell Lord, the 805 damage received ends up back at 1610 damage. Hell lords have 15 - 20k life, so each hit takes off about 1/10 of their life in this scenario.
However, you only get damage returned from melee hits which actually land, so this won't be kicking in as often as, say, might from an act2 merc would.
Anyone have any experience using a jacked up thorns with skellies? Is it very effective? Do you notice a difference when it's on? If Might is really as little of an increase in damage as the OP indicates, would thorns really be a better alternative?
Of course, this all seems pointless when you consider that Conviction is just better in all cases anyway.|||Quote:
So fanat is only useful for the +damage and +ar bonuses on minions then? It would still help the merc reach higher IAS bp's too, right?
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^ Yup.
That's technically wrong. When it comes to Skeletons, your information is accurate: IAS is worthless on them, on magi, and on golems. However, I believe Fanatacism increases the attack speed of Revived Urdars (I know regular Urdars get faster when enchanted by Fanatacism from an Aura Enchanted unique, so why wouldn't they?). Since Urdars are 90% of your damage, I don't think the IAS should be discounted.
You guys need to stop with the "Skeletons Matter" mentality. They're only 10% of your damage. They could all die off in the first 10 seconds of a Trist run and you probably wouldn't care at all. You're really about revived Urdars.
I am going to do some tests to discover the actual fpa attack rate of revived Urdars under various levels of Fanatacism. I'll post the results here.
edit: regarding Thorns and physical resistance
Skeletons do not have any damage (physical) resistance. I don't know where you got the information that all Hell monsters have 50% physical resistance. I'm 95% sure that's inaccurate. Physical resistance varies by monster. In the case of Hell Lords, they have 66% physical resistance before curses. Amplify Damage and Decrepify modify physical resistance directly. Amp'd Hell Lords have -33% physical resistance. Decrep'd Hell Lord have 16% physical resistance. I still don't think high-level Thorns is a good idea, but it works better than you think.
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