Diablo 2 discussion!

[whacky]

Errr.... yes so here it is , a diablo 2 and lord of destruction discussion thread !
Dundee you wanted to tell that necro's werent useless. And so i'll exchange my tactics as well ........ all other diablo 2 players should post and view this as well.

[Dundee Slaytern]

Well, first of all. I am assuming that this will be discussing the finer points of PlayerVersusMonster( PvM), and not PlayerVersusPlayer( PvP). The Necromancer excels at both, but I am not an expert on the latter although I know several people who have been successful with the Necromancer in PvP.

I am also more of a passive debater. I prefer to counter-attack so to speak, so I want to know in which area of the game does the Necromancer 'suck' if that is your opinion.

My specialty area lies with the Golemancer:Iron_Golem, Bowmancer( both Poison and Crushing_Blow types), Overlord and hybrids of these. Any other types of Necromancer build I will have some rudimentary knowledge and information.

[TaSSaDaR]

I would say that versus monsters in later stages of the game (barraging River Of Flames on Hell difficulty to level) necromancer becomes the easiest class to play. You summon a Fire Golem, and it will kill a monster or 2. Immediately revive them. This will spawn some tanks having 2-3x hp of the normal monsters (depending on the skills). They you just cast Iron Maiden on the monsters and watch as your revives hack&smash through the crowd. Add more revivis if needed.

If a monster breaks through your line of revives, kill it quickly with a bone spirit. Do not let it attack and hit you, because their attack rating is decent enough to score every hit, and the damage will soon make you able to cast Corpse Explosion on yourself

A large crowd of summons is a barrier only bosses will be able to break, and still such of them as Duriel fall after 1-2 attacks of their own - thanks to the Iron Maiden!

Try it out yourself, Necromancer IS a class worth playing!

[Kaltia]

My mum who also plays (its embarrassing 'cos she's better than me [img]tongue.gif[/img] ) has a pet necro in cows-casting iron maiden all over the place while her barb or ama kills. I like my assn and ama, personally. I don't duel, I die (then sulk *cough*) and I've seen no real use for necros other than the corpse explosion (one of which killed my king. Son-of-a-) in hell cows, and iron maiden for other classes.

[Dundee Slaytern]

Eh? Not to sound mean, but that is soooo not how a Necromancer plays in a party. Iron Maiden is one of the weakest spell in the Necromancer's arsenal, and is usually only used by a Golemancer:Blood_Golem. It contributes little to a party.

For Paladins, Barbarians, Amazons( the physical ones), Druids and Assassins, the Necromancer should use Amplify Damage. This curse will also increase the damage of Corpse Explosion( 50% phy dmg, 50% fire dmg). Other players will literally kiss your Necromancer's bony little feet if you use this curse, because AD subtracts monster's physical resistance by 100%. Since there is a 50% global physical resistance on Hell difficulty, this means you essentially triple their effective damage, and you remove the physical immunity from Stoneskinned monsters and Ghosts( among others).

For magic-using Paladins, elemental-Amazons, elemental-Druids( BwerWahHAHAHAHA!), Sorceresses and fellow Necromancers, use Lower Resistance. This will improves their elemental attacks and your own as well( including the Bone spells and Corpse Explosion).

If you only play the Cow Level( which I think is boring, I go around hunting things like Baal, Mephisto and Diablo. My Iron Golem can tank them one on one...), consider building a Necromancer that specialises in the following skills, Corpse Explosion, Amplify Damage( 1-5 pts only), Revives( 1-5 pts only, +skills items will handle the rest), Blood Golem and Bone Spear.

Your Merc should be the Thorns Mercernary

[250]

For PvP

Amazon
Sorceress

For PvM
Sorcress
Amazon

neither of these two suckas are my favorite class, but admit it, they rock too much. Maybe a barb with 3 sockets CCBQ with 40/15 jews and a whole inventory of skill charm, and fast rec, fast w/r can own a few amazons (of 75% dmg red is a must). but the best amazon? hey no way. I've played the best amazon in Diablo II pre-expansion, keep in mind, pre-expansion, he had (drum)

570

dex. his muti-shot does 1500+, and can kill the best barbarian with 3 hits. now, convert this guy to expansion with these flashy charms, bam, no one can stop him

and now back to necromencor. my PvP neccy did fairly well before they reduced BS' range, which got owned by zons from that point on. I've never had any problems with barb, necros ALWAYS own barb/paladin/druid. if you play a necro that doesn't own barb, well, necromencor really aint for you.

a lil trickier is assasin, but get 75% dmg red and max fast cast, you will win 70% of the times. (and try to get max resis as well with small charms for traps, but dont wear guardian angel)

Now necro vs amazon

same equipment as vs assasin, but you dont need resis all sc this time. so you can get more fast rec and fast r/w, and fast cast. preferably with second mod, +dex)

basically this is my set up
Bonespirit max
Bonearmor max
Weaken 1 (you only need 1 point, it doesnt weak enemies any further)
Low Resis max
Golem Mastery max

get a storm shield, a good vamp-gaze (low leech is fine, so it is cheaper), shaft, and string (perf string). I had an ammy that does +2 to necro skill, and 7% fast cast and other nifty stats, get fast cast rings instead of soj, and the necro wand I forgot what it is called

stats wise, bump enough Int wise so you can have 1200 mana (it is definately enough) a lil str, like put 30 points into str, or alil more, depends on if you have enough. the rest go to dex and vit

now the last thing is to have a whole inventory of skill charm: Poison and Bone. I had 10 of those before, all with second mods, like fast cast and +life. so, I had lvl 33 Bonearmor, not a lot, since I dont use sojs. and I had 320 dmg red from the bone armor itself. it doesnt sound a lot, BUT, it is actually VERY helpful, when u have 75% dmg red, you only loose lil to nothing when you get hit by a ga, guided arrow

ok, finally, time to fight amazon
suppose, an amazon does 2000 dmg averagely with ga, this is pretty much above good. (keep in mind, these suckas come back n forth) so, cut by half vs player, thats 1000. and -75%, that only leaves 250 dmg against your necro. and minus your bone armor, you still have 70 dmg left in your bone armor.

the point is to get close, when u see the amazon moves, run to him. u can close in fast, and as soon as u see him stop moving, cast a golem in front of u, a lil bit to the side, to attract missle, and immediately cast Weaken or Lower Resis on the amazon. after that just keep bumping Bonespirit. it was very tempting to cast Amplify Dmg on the amazon, DON'T. that curse doesn't really do anything worth while. when you cast Weaken, it will take the amazon MUCH longer to kill you, and if you cast Lower Resis, you can kill him much faster.

smart zon will run away when he sees ur bs coming. there is really nothing u can do except hoping he bumps into one. and if u golem dies, or runs away due to stupidity, cast a new one. and cast a bonearmor every once a while. you will be very surprised how long does it take these piercing ga to kill you. if the amazon bumps into one bone spirit, he is likely to be stunned (since your bs does so much dmg), and likely a second will hit him. so now thats abt it. chances are, with this set up, you can defeat 70% amazons.

the ones that you cannot beat are the ones exceptionally good with running. or, the amazons that have

LOTS OF POISON CHARMS

if you meet this guy, kiss your own ass good bye. there is no way to beat a poison amazon of perfectly set up.

[ 09-25-2002, 10:41 PM: Message edited by: 250 ]

[Dundee Slaytern]

Just a minor correction. The PvP damage penalty is 1/4 of your damage dealt only.

[250]

last time I checked, it was half, did they do this to expansion?

[Grimslade]

I used a Necro once, and I didn't use the golems very much, because I didn't want to let somebody else do my fighting. So I beefed up spells like Corpse explosion, bone spear and a few others (can't remember exactly which), and by the end of the game, I was unbeatable. I think Necro is a great class to play, even if you don't want to employ the use of golems, like me.

[250]

hey, I just got a very weird idea, lol, Dundee, verify me alright?

you know, Iron golems can have the stats of whatever items that created them, right? so, if I have a necromencor that max everything concerning golems. like, Golem Mastery, Golem fast run walk, and Iron Golem, then I max Amplify Dmg

ok, now, the golem should have abt 5000 HP. and I create it from The Blackthorn (you know, the one increase 15% max lighting resis, and slows target by 20%) lol, so basically I have a golem with 5000 HP, and slows target, not to say it has nature Ironmaiden.... only if the golem's AR is sufficiently enough, can it kill amazons? lol. remember these lil guys run VERY fast after maxed, or I can cast Life Tab on enemy, so the golem leechs back after every hit. and the Blackthorn's Face is extremely easy to get

[ 09-26-2002, 01:00 AM: Message edited by: 250 ]