All Diablo2 Talk here.........

Cafe Society
801

You know, I’m up to 84th level in Hell and not having the slightest trouble with that character.* I’m not so sure that you need too many points in curses. I find myself switching between lower resist, amp damage, decrep and the ai curses–I’ve never needed more than the initial 1 point, plus the +skills from the rest of my gear (ca +5 or 6, I believe). The wand also has an enormous boost to mana which I find incredibly useful–about +100-200 at my level, I believe. As for offensive weapons…for a skelemancer, pumping bone spirit/spear is not a good idea–taking the pts to invest into synnergies would draw too many points away from mastery and skeletons. I certainly wouldn’t attempt to melee with this character. Corpse Explosion is all you need, and the wand gives +2 to that as well. I agree the Arm would be useless for most other necro builds, though. The chance of getting bone prisoned with a nasty alone should be enough to discourage most people from using it. :wink:

I’d offer to let you guys play around with mine, if I weren’t single player/open bnet only. No item with such a low level req should offer you +5 to all your character’s core skills…it really is rather excessive in effect. My skelemancer goes through most areas of the game like an M-1 Abrams…

  • In fact, that’s the only character I have now that can solo in Hell at higher than players 1 with little difficulty…
802

Damnit! I had a great response to Fenris’ shield problem, but it ate it!

You found Whitstan’s Guard. Good option. I wouldn’t worry about the rest of the set - the helm Guilloume’s Face is excellent for getting Crushing Blow, but that’s not necessary at all for a sorc (though it’s wonderful on a merc). Another option to try is a Rhyme Grim Shield. Good blocking, magic find, Cannot Be Frozen, resists. It uses the runes that what’shisface in Act V gives you for freeing the prisoners.

803

I hope y’all didn’t lose all that stuff last night. I lagged out and when I tried to get back in at first was not able to connect, then was told that the game didn’t exist.

Thanks for the rush last night, that was huge.

804

Hey Chronos,

I’m going to try to get on tonight; my computer isn’t crashing as much now, but my internet connection (or modem) is crashing at the 4 hour mark (connection time) if the cable internet is up at all. The cable company has been in dumbshit mode for the last 4 days in resolving the issue…so I have to live with it for now. Anybody had this type of problem before? (the modem / 4hr. issue, not the dumbshit issue – I know everyone has that issue…LOL)

But I am guessing that you’re not on much this week because of finals…good move on your part. My son has abandoned his druid on ladder and has a level 23 necro and if you have anything useful for him he’d be greatful. I’m trying to rush him to catch up with us, but he too has finals this week…

I like my Moser’s shield with the two sockets that contain my two perfect diamonds…very nice to have when in hell…

805

<sigh> My necro bounced hard off of Diablo in Normal last night. That damned fire-ring he has just kept wiping out my entire army in a single shot.

I think my skill allocation is letting me down. I haven’t put as much emphasis on buffing up my skeleton warriors as I perhaps should have. Tachor is level 25, and after +skills items, he’s running with Skeleton Mastery 8, Skeleton Warrior 7, and Skeleton Mage 6. I’ve got a lot of single points in various curses and golem skills for prereqs.

Am I screwed? Or is there some way I can keep my army alive against D?

806

this is what i did with my necro starting from scratch.

I got myself the act2 desert merc and leveled him up to be comparable to my level. I joined full games and stayed in act3 flayer till level30. yes you read that correctly level30. Get the fire golem to distract big D. Place Life Tap curse on D and let your merc hit away while you chug a few mana pots and throw bone spears or bone spirits at him. resurrect your Fire golem when needed and make damn sure that D is focused on the golem and not you and your merc. Gobble down the pots and recast life tap when needed. Add in an ampdmg curse or decrepify to help the merc’s dmg then recast the Life tap when you think he needs his life restored.

Skeles are ok to a point but they are FAR too weak to stand up against D. Just try and level to 30 and get some revives in there too. Revive the Venom Lord Minions on the Southeastern boss trigger. They do some good dmg and have decent life.

If you’re planning on going a bit more summoning over the poison bone skills, maxing out skele mastery is ideal, since it will help your mage/skeles and revives’ hitpoints and damage. Focus on adding some points in there. maybe a point in Summon Resists will aid a bit, but skeles and mages are WAY too weak to take D on as a team. revives and fire golem stand a better chance at withstanding hits. Try and level to 30 and get some of the best necro skills available and then hit D. There is no real rush to beat him, so might as well level to the ideal Clevel30 and give D an anal rush instead of being anally probed yourself.

807

oh damn, forgot to say which act2 merc…

the combat merc in act2, which has the prayer aura, which regenerates life. He’s good. Or if you want more def for your minions take the defense merc who does defiance aura.

Make sure to keep the merc’s level near yours. Level him up in act2 if he’s at levels 12-18. Act3 flayer jungle is good for levels 19 to 30. Lowerkurast, bazaar, upper kur and trav are decent places as well to fight. the racks/chests/bodies give good drops in full games too.

Mercs are great companions and can dish some good dmg. Avoid the Cold act3 merc like the plague. No corpses from his kills equals bad companion. Act2 mercs are best with Necros in my opinion. Since your curses can aid him the best, and his auras can aid your minions best. His hit points aint too shabby either. If you haven’t gotten urself a merc get one ASAP.

808

Yeah, I have the prayer merc. He’s great at making sure my army stays alive through most normal monsters. I’ll have to check what level he’s at. He was dying just as fast as the skeletons.

809

Hey all, haven’t been around lately due to family visits, Victoria: Empire under the Sun, a new computer, and work.

As a summoner necro I always had trouble taking on diablo. As near as I can tell you need to be level 30 to get the fire golem. I just had my fire golem and cursed D with Iron maiden and kept bring back the golem when he died. Slow, but effective.

D is the only one I ever had trouble beating with the summoner necro (up to but not including hell difficulty). The easiest was Duriel, my screen loaded just in time for me to see him die to my minions.

Is anyone else lagged tonight? I signed on and it was really jerky. Not crippling lag, but annoying enough that I didn’t feel like messing with it.

810

BIG lag. I logged on, got into a game, couldn’t even move and eventually got bumped off.

811

That would be Ancients’ Pledge. Ral Ort Tal. 43% Res to some stuff and 48 to something else. Rhyme is Shael Eth.

812

Well, mfing NM Baal worked out a bit. My necro is up to level 70 and I’m in the process of maxing skelly mages (I know I said I wouldn’t).

Fenris and I got through him fairly quickly several times. No major uniques, but we found a 250-something defense Blackhorn’s Face. Fen tried it and liked it a lot. I found a rare spear for my merc that does 104-356 damage and is dual leech. I don’t care about the mana leech yet, but I will if I ever decide to make a spear barb…

We also got some low level uniques that he may have kept, but I didn’t worry about them.

Now if I can just find a frigging War Travs or a Skullders…

813

I have 31% (1% from worst spawn possible) War Travs. I have promised them to Vol when he gives me good boots. Good boots would be good r/w, fire and psn res (since comd and ltg are already overmaxed), and something else … maybe replen life, maybe +str, I dunno. If you find such boots before he does, y’all can barter.

814

So I guess that’s one item I’ve found that I can’t surprise you with. Ah, well.

And I’ll be on soon tonight as well. 'Twasn’t finals keeping me away; it was a conference. But I’ll be leaving for vacation on Friday, and won’t return until mid-January, so no Diablo for a few weeks then

815

Chronos, I’m STILL doing payroll…:frowning:

816

Y’know, I don’t actually recall many of my skeletons dying when I took my zookeeper through that part of the game. Of course, I was level 33 or 34 at the time…and did, in fact, abuse life tap in that fight. I like to spend a LOT of time in Act 3 and 4 before I go after Diablo. :slight_smile: I also pump skeleton mastery as fast and early as possible. I’m pretty sure I was in the teen’s skillwise before I went in, with +skill items.

I like Act 2 mercs. My current zookeeper has a defiance merc, on the theory that 1.10 skellies have a lot more life and need the healing less. He’s served me well, but next time I try this, I think I’ll go with either a might merc or maybe thorns. Considering my warriors do a base of 600 pts of damage per swing, the might would probably make a nice difference. I’m not sure the added defense really makes that big a difference in Hell, considering the monster’s rather bloated AR ratings.

817

Thanks. I realized how stupid I was some time last night, and just came in here to make that correction. I’ve been looking for a 2-socket Grim Shield for several days now for my Naj’s sorc to level up with. Hell is proving difficult!

818

slotar, I went with a might merc with my summoner. And to agree with you, 1.10 skellies are not the same beasties from 1.09. With all my plus items on, each skeleton has over 700 life and about the same in defence. They also have 50% resists. I’ve been tempted to use life tap, but the skeletons and revives die so infrequently (not including the revives timing out of course) that I haven’t felt the need. When I decide to go all out in hell, that opinion will likely change.

819

Shoot, I hate posting from work… actual work gets in the way of my thoughts for posting… :wink:

punha, I’m not going to get in between Vol and War Travs. He needs them much worse than I do. Actually if I ever do find a pair I’d be willing to trade you for yours to give you (or Vol) the higher pair since you guys are doing the heavy duty “Hell” runs. I haven’t got anyone that can do those runs with enough mf gear to make them really worthwhile. My javazon could wear enough provided she had a total choice of equipment, but the likelyhood of her getting it is low, and even then she wouldn’t be able to wear nearly as much as a barb or a sorc…

Right now, the best mf run I can consistantly do is NM Baal with the necro. I still have to mule more mf over to him and if my calculations are correct he’ll be just over 300 mf. I could add a little more by socketing his wand and shield thingie with mf jewels, but I only have a 3%, 4%, and a 5% jewel, so it’s not close to worth it.

820

I don’t know that it’s even possible to “hijack” an 818-post thread, unless I wanted to talk about Warcraft, but just in case, my apologies up front.

I love my barbarian merc. I love feeding him Super Healing Potions and watching him level up. I love it when he evolves into a Ryachu… no, crap. I mean, I love it when he stun-locks an enemy and lets me settle into a nice fire wall click-lock.

I hate it when he doesn’t retreat. Those healing potions don’t heal him fast enough, and often he’ll sprint through two or three clouds of dead-zombie-gas right up to a MSLE cursed aura-enchanted boss and start swinging for the fences. I can type “Shift-1” all day long and it won’t save his ass. Full rejuvs are–for now–a more limited quantity than gold.

My girlfriend, who plays an amazon (yeah, a ranged-attack party with melee mercs) has a Thorns paladin. This is another reason I love my barbarian. Every hit he takes deals back lots of pain. Her merc is also pretty solid, until we get to a boss pack in Hell, at which point he’s got a snowball’s chance in, um… hell.

I’m starting to feel like boss monsters are just “toll booths.” We send our mercs in to die, kill the boss monster with some fancy footwork and well-balanced complementary skills, and then head to town to pay the “boss pack tax” of ~$45k to resurrect our mercs.

My merc is wearing Iron Skin (unique trellised armor), carrying a King’s Grace Zweihander, and wearing a +skills, hi defense helm.

Her merc is wearing a 2-perfect-skull Ornate Plate, carrying a rare polearm, and wearing a 3-perfect-skull helm.

I know we’ve got Blood Thief (unique brandistock) muled away somewhere, and we’re thinking of moving it over and upgrading it to a “war poker” or whatever the elite brandistock is called.

What else can we do, short of installing an IV drip of purple potion, to ensure that our fabulously stupid meat shields don’t keep dying on us?