is my gear good enough to make me a summoner/bone hybrid? <

[gordongraydon]

is my gear good enough to make me a summoner/bone hybrid?

my necro is lvl 55 and has this gear lined up

enigma
shako
humunculus
arm of king lhetoric
frostburns
goldwrap belt
marrowalks
necro torch
(ammy and rings are up in the air)

skills i have maxed are

skeleton mastery
raise skeleton
rest are in prereqs

my act 2 might merc wears:

durials shell
high dmg spear
resist helm

myquestion is that if i should go on and max mages to round out my summoner build or should i keep my skills where they are and start working on the bone skills? do i have enuff +skills to make this happen?

i realize i have a post a few places down about mages but this is my more "complete question" regarding my situation :scratch:

any and all posts are appreciated

 

[Waldodanto]

my necro is lvl 55 and has this gear lined up

enigma
shako
humunculus
arm of king lhetoric
frostburns
goldwrap belt
marrowalks
necro torch
(ammy and rings are up in the air)

skills i have maxed are

skeleton mastery
raise skeleton
rest are in prereqs

my act 2 might merc wears:

durials shell
high dmg spear
resist helm

myquestion is that if i should go on and max mages to round out my summoner build or should i keep my skills where they are and start working on the bone skills? do i have enuff +skills to make this happen?

i realize i have a post a few places down about mages but this is my more "complete question" regarding my situation :scratch:

any and all posts are appreciated

I personally always had the same problem with my necro last season. I love summoners, but once you max skellies and mastery, there isnt a lot to do with skills, especially if you have enough +skills so your curses only need 1 point. Ive tried both routes before, maxing a bone spell and investing in more minions, and I found minions to be way more fun. ya, mages suck in hell, but a few points is fun, and getting a bunch of revives makes the killing go much faster I find than having one crappy bone spell. Even fully synergized bone spells dont do great damage in hell, and a half synergized one is useless compared to corpse explosion for a PvM build.
I vote minions.

 

[gordongraydon]

I personally always had the same problem with my necro last season. I love summoners, but once you max skellies and mastery, there isnt a lot to do with skills, especially if you have enough +skills so your curses only need 1 point. Ive tried both routes before, maxing a bone spell and investing in more minions, and I found minions to be way more fun. ya, mages suck in hell, but a few points is fun, and getting a bunch of revives makes the killing go much faster I find than having one crappy bone spell. Even fully synergized bone spells dont do great damage in hell, and a half synergized one is useless compared to corpse explosion for a PvM build.
I vote minions.

what skills would i place my points in IF i went the bone route?

 

[Waldodanto]

what skills would i place my points in IF i went the bone route?

For mine, i just dumped it all into bone spear. THis was back with the marrowalks bug, so I put none in that side of the tree and used marrows for the synergy, then threw extra points in another spear synergy. Even this did not do great damage, but at least it is something and in defense of the bone side it is useful for getting the first couple corpses and helping out your army if you have some mana to spare. But you can check the damage on a skills calc.... it isnt spectacular.

 

[gorf]

I have a summon/boner that I'm very happy with. The only notable gear differences being Hoto and arach. Certainly more +skills = more power. I suggest mara's, hoto, arach, soj, if you can, just to increase your skeles' potency, as well as that of your bone skills. If not, don't fret, just be sure to rock the right amount of fast cast rate to hit the breakpoint you want.

I would suggest building a nice insight for your merc, since the cost is negligible, and you'll be able to spam as much as your heart desires. This will allow you to use Chance guards or magefists, for magic find or for fast cast rate.

In terms of skills, for the bone skills to have any potency at all, they need a big investment. I have 20 spear, 20 spirit, and my remaining points as I level are going into wall. That doesn't leave much room after 20 skele and 20 mastery, and the curses, golems and corpse explosion that make the summoner what he is.

Personally, with your gear, I would go with pure summon. Even with my very "tuned" gear, the increase in power from the bone variant is negligible, if it even is an increase, and it requires a big investment.

If you're just looking to break out of the confines of the really cookie cutter summoner, then hey, go for it. The slightly less cookie cutter summon/boner is totally fun. Any questions, just let me know.

Gorf

 

[gordongraydon]

I have a summon/boner that I'm very happy with. The only notable gear differences being Hoto and arach. Certainly more +skills = more power. I suggest mara's, hoto, arach, soj, if you can, just to increase your skeles' potency, as well as that of your bone skills. If not, don't fret, just be sure to rock the right amount of fast cast rate to hit the breakpoint you want.

I would suggest building a nice insight for your merc, since the cost is negligible, and you'll be able to spam as much as your heart desires. This will allow you to use Chance guards or magefists, for magic find or for fast cast rate.

In terms of skills, for the bone skills to have any potency at all, they need a big investment. I have 20 spear, 20 spirit, and my remaining points as I level are going into wall. That doesn't leave much room after 20 skele and 20 mastery, and the curses, golems and corpse explosion that make the summoner what he is.

Personally, with your gear, I would go with pure summon. Even with my very "tuned" gear, the increase in power from the bone variant is negligible, if it even is an increase, and it requires a big investment.

If you're just looking to break out of the confines of the really cookie cutter summoner, then hey, go for it. The slightly less cookie cutter summon/boner is totally fun. Any questions, just let me know.

Gorf

great reply dude! thanx a ton

this actually works out well because i could build an insight for merc and then pop on my magefists instead of frostburns! im loving it

the only reason i wanna go slightly less cookie cutter is purely for the fun factor as ive spent so long collecting this guys gear and wanna have fun

 

[gordongraydon]

one more question

i remember reading that +skills increase synergies but that the +skilled synergies dont help ur main skill, is this true?

 

[gorf]

If what you mean is that you only get synergy bonuses from hard points invested in the synergy skill, then yes.

 

[KavikKang]

my necro is lvl 55 and has this gear lined up

enigma
shako
humunculus
arm of king lhetoric
frostburns
goldwrap belt
marrowalks
necro torch
(ammy and rings are up in the air)

skills i have maxed are

skeleton mastery
raise skeleton
rest are in prereqs

my act 2 might merc wears:

durials shell
high dmg spear
resist helm

myquestion is that if i should go on and max mages to round out my summoner build or should i keep my skills where they are and start working on the bone skills? do i have enuff +skills to make this happen?

i realize i have a post a few places down about mages but this is my more "complete question" regarding my situation :scratch:

any and all posts are appreciated

If you find the "Pure Summoner" thread there is a guide in that thread for building an MF Summon Nec with a usefully powerful Bone Spear. Lately I've been thinking Poison Nova would probably be better, though.

 

[DaemonAkuma]

Poisonmancer + mages + LR = Possibility? I'm not experienced with poison AT all...but just a thought anyway. The only real advantage here is that you'll be using LR anyway, so the mages would profit off of that. Again, ill concocted but *shrugs*

 

[zarniwoop]

20 point mages dont suck. They are a tad fragile, but they survive a lot better than the 1 point wonders in my experience.

If you're using mages, you want to have skeletal warriors. They get in the way and live forever. Skelly mages tanking is not pretty.