Captaincatharsis
New member
Help with a PvM PoisonDreammancer
Hello hello, This is going to be my first post on these forums, of which I have been perusing since the release of information regarding diablo3, and the subsequent reset.
I was having a hard time deciding where to begin my postings, but I decided that this would be a good place to start, seeing as the character I am most focused on right now is my necromancer.
(My other characters are a lvl 82 Wind Druid, a lvl 82 purefire sorc, a lvl 74 chargedbolt sorc with FO support, then various low levels)
The reason I'm posting this is because I've been designing, and building a new type of necromancer (or at least it was new to me) and after going around on here, I found some similar information and wanted to get opinions.
My necromancer started off with the intent of being a poisonmancer. It's something that you never see a huge abundance of, and I have always loved lower resist, so it fits very well. The thing is, I wanted to utilize LR more. It's a very powerful spell, being one of only two ways to break immunities (as everyone probably knows)
So I started to think of more ways to abuse this. As most of you are probably guessing, I'm thining about the Dream runeword, along with Dragon and Hand of Justice. (Infinity as well, but to a lesser degree).
To start this off, I'll show you where my necromancer is right now, and tell you where I plan on taking him. there are places for improvement, and areas where suggestions need to be made as well. So bear with me.
Character-BusterRantCasey (acct cheshirebat on USEAST ladder)
level 54
(numbers in parenthesis are after equipment)
Strength-85
Dexterity-25(40)
Vitality-60
Energy-25(61)
Skill Points
Curses
Amplifly damage-1(10)
Weaken-1(10)
Iron Maiden-1(10)
Terror-1(13)
Lifetap-1(10)
Decrepify-1(12)
Lower Resist-2(11)
Poison and Bone
Teeth-1(10)
Poison Dagger-15(24)
Corpse Explosion-1(10)
Poison Explosion-14(23)
Poison Nova-20(29)
Gear
Helm-Wormskull (I have Trangs Guise, just waiting for 65)
Weapon-Ume's Lament
Shield-Homunculus
Armor-Trangs Scales
Belt-Upped Lenymo (for the slots. I have an arachnid's mesh for once I hit 80)
Gloves-Trangs Bracers
Boots-Waterwalk
Amulet- Venomous amulet (+3 PnB)
Rings-
(I know this is 3 rings, I'm using 1 and 2, and need help deciding whic for the time being)
[1]
+10% FCR
+1 max Damage
+11 energy
8% MF
[2]
+50 Poison damage over 5 seconds
+5 Energy
+40 Mana
+3 resist all
additional +11 cold resist
32% extra gold
[3]
+10% Fcr
+15 Dex
Replenish life +3
+7 mana
+28 Cold resist
+12 Fire resist
(I also have 1 fungal charm at the moment)
I have an Act II holy freeze merc with nothing of great notice itemwise, but still decent.
Okay, so that's done. As you can see, He's a pretty simple poisonmancer, using nova as main damaging move, and LR as a helper. So far I'm in act 5 nightmare, but was helped along most of it to get to baal runs (which I have barely done, go figure).
Here however comes the interesting part. I've made plenty of casters to know that they diminish greatly in hell. Even my druid, who has quite respectable items and is a great dueler, takes longer then my grandma to grind through later sections of hell, and I know I didn't want this to happen to my mancer. So completely without these forums, or the knowledge of auradins from before etc (I used to play, but I never really got to a level where runewords meant anything to me)
So I started looking around, and got the Idea for dual lvl 30 holy auras (lightning and Fire). For those of you who don't know, it's achieved by having a Hand of Justice weapon, a Dragon armor, and dream as both your shield and your helm. I started toying with numbers in my head and seemed to enjoy it, what's more, I felt it helped circumvent the immunity problem. I know LR can bring it down, but they still won't be taking much damage. Having 3 types of damage seemed like a good plan in general.
I then researched what would these words be going in, and was sad to discover that Hand of Justice does not in fact fit in a dagger (it ALMOST does... sigh) The idea of doing MASSIVE elemental damage in 3 types with each quick strike, was very appealing but quickly dashed. I moved to the idea of just having the auras as support, and MAYBE using an attack.
So his endgame gear will hopefully look something like this:
Helm- Dream [Bone Visage]
Armor-Dragon [Archon Plate]
Weapon- Hand of Justice [Phase Blade]
Shield- Dream [Troll Nest]
Swap would be Death's Web (wand) and Homunculus or Trangs Wing (that -25 to enemy poison is so tempting, but I would have to ditch either the Mesh, or the dream or dragon for it.)
Gloves- Trang's Bracer
Belt- arachnid's mesh
Boots- Marrowwalks( or war travelers, I have heard that the prison bug still works, and that it doesn't... clarification?)
Amulet- crafter necro ammy
Ring- really good rare ring or Soj
Ring- really good rare ring or Soj
I need help though. I know what I'd be putting these items in, and would probably try for an infinity for my merc as well.Here is a list of questions that I'd like to talk through, to see what others think.
Skill points- When I am done maxing Pnovas synergies,I realized I didn't know what to use the points on. I will use 68 total for pre reqs and what I have already put in the curse tree. I really have no idea what to use them one, but here are most of my options.
-Skeleton mages, and synergies for them, to further take advantage of elemental damage with lower resist.
-Fire golem and synergies. This will creat both a tank, and as someone else mentioned in the auramancer thread, create a mini bomb when summoned and when killed.
-Clay Golem and synergies. Really just to tank.
-Bone armor with synergies.
-Bone spear/spirit (will be quite weak though, with only 39 remaining points if I ever get to 99)
I know there are a couple other small options, but I'm not really considering them.
My next big question is how to utilize all my skill points. By the time I hit ~80, I will have a huge amount to use, and no idea what to do with them. Obviously Str is the normal 'enough to carry your items' and Energy won't really be needed, but what do I do after that?
In relation to that I have two inquiries.
-First off, how effective is attacking when when your dexterity is very low, but you have ignore target defense? (ie I'm level 80, with 40 dex, and am attacking a lvl 75 monster with my hand of justice(ignore target defense) how would this pan out?)
-I just had a thought with this, if I go max block route, I could also use an impressive dagger instead of HoJ, while this would lower my Holy fire alot, it could give me a viable poison attack (especially if I use an ignore target's def dagger) it would cut down on the impossibility of the build, maybe even cutting out dragon to make room for more of Trangs, or some other incredible armor.
-Secondly, I realize that the max block/vit argument seems almost personal preference, but to me it also depends on unit type. For my druid, max block is needed, since I don't worry about elemental damage, as well as wanting to be surrounded so my hurricane does the most damage.
How effective will I be at breaking resistances? with the conviction aura on my merc, and then my own lower resist, would this get through most of them, and actually make it easy to hurt them? Unless they have triple immunity to Fire Poison and Lightning, I should be relatively fine, but even double could drastically lower killing power. Thoughts on this?
In the end game, I will end up losing alot of my +skills due to the four key items,as well as low resistances, unless I get very lucky dreams. Obviously I can make up for this relatively easily by stacking charms, and getting an awesome necro torch and an anni, but I'm still a bit worried. Should I be learning towards prismatic casters stuff for my jewelry?
Now It sounds like this build could would definitely be viable in hell. Since the other auramancer guide discusses this and it sounds like it works well, even without the added poison. I'm curious though, would this work without such a good tank? would using prison or bonewall (ie bone armor as well) help distract monsters letting me live? or should I just pump mages and go on a huge offense, using lower resist and decrepify when needed.There are many methods I could use to try to fight in hell, and right now, I'm not really sure where I should be going with it.
And lastly, I'm interested in how I should go about getting these items, and the other needed things (both in terms of the order to get them, and how to get them). It's a kind of small matter, but it still is there (btw I have a pretty good mule team, with some good stuff)
That's it for now I guess, hope my wall of text is legible. Thanks in Advance.
Hello hello, This is going to be my first post on these forums, of which I have been perusing since the release of information regarding diablo3, and the subsequent reset.
I was having a hard time deciding where to begin my postings, but I decided that this would be a good place to start, seeing as the character I am most focused on right now is my necromancer.
(My other characters are a lvl 82 Wind Druid, a lvl 82 purefire sorc, a lvl 74 chargedbolt sorc with FO support, then various low levels)
The reason I'm posting this is because I've been designing, and building a new type of necromancer (or at least it was new to me) and after going around on here, I found some similar information and wanted to get opinions.
My necromancer started off with the intent of being a poisonmancer. It's something that you never see a huge abundance of, and I have always loved lower resist, so it fits very well. The thing is, I wanted to utilize LR more. It's a very powerful spell, being one of only two ways to break immunities (as everyone probably knows)
So I started to think of more ways to abuse this. As most of you are probably guessing, I'm thining about the Dream runeword, along with Dragon and Hand of Justice. (Infinity as well, but to a lesser degree).
To start this off, I'll show you where my necromancer is right now, and tell you where I plan on taking him. there are places for improvement, and areas where suggestions need to be made as well. So bear with me.
Character-BusterRantCasey (acct cheshirebat on USEAST ladder)
level 54
(numbers in parenthesis are after equipment)
Strength-85
Dexterity-25(40)
Vitality-60
Energy-25(61)
Skill Points
Curses
Amplifly damage-1(10)
Weaken-1(10)
Iron Maiden-1(10)
Terror-1(13)
Lifetap-1(10)
Decrepify-1(12)
Lower Resist-2(11)
Poison and Bone
Teeth-1(10)
Poison Dagger-15(24)
Corpse Explosion-1(10)
Poison Explosion-14(23)
Poison Nova-20(29)
Gear
Helm-Wormskull (I have Trangs Guise, just waiting for 65)
Weapon-Ume's Lament
Shield-Homunculus
Armor-Trangs Scales
Belt-Upped Lenymo (for the slots. I have an arachnid's mesh for once I hit 80)
Gloves-Trangs Bracers
Boots-Waterwalk
Amulet- Venomous amulet (+3 PnB)
Rings-
(I know this is 3 rings, I'm using 1 and 2, and need help deciding whic for the time being)
[1]
+10% FCR
+1 max Damage
+11 energy
8% MF
[2]
+50 Poison damage over 5 seconds
+5 Energy
+40 Mana
+3 resist all
additional +11 cold resist
32% extra gold
[3]
+10% Fcr
+15 Dex
Replenish life +3
+7 mana
+28 Cold resist
+12 Fire resist
(I also have 1 fungal charm at the moment)
I have an Act II holy freeze merc with nothing of great notice itemwise, but still decent.
Okay, so that's done. As you can see, He's a pretty simple poisonmancer, using nova as main damaging move, and LR as a helper. So far I'm in act 5 nightmare, but was helped along most of it to get to baal runs (which I have barely done, go figure).
Here however comes the interesting part. I've made plenty of casters to know that they diminish greatly in hell. Even my druid, who has quite respectable items and is a great dueler, takes longer then my grandma to grind through later sections of hell, and I know I didn't want this to happen to my mancer. So completely without these forums, or the knowledge of auradins from before etc (I used to play, but I never really got to a level where runewords meant anything to me)
So I started looking around, and got the Idea for dual lvl 30 holy auras (lightning and Fire). For those of you who don't know, it's achieved by having a Hand of Justice weapon, a Dragon armor, and dream as both your shield and your helm. I started toying with numbers in my head and seemed to enjoy it, what's more, I felt it helped circumvent the immunity problem. I know LR can bring it down, but they still won't be taking much damage. Having 3 types of damage seemed like a good plan in general.
I then researched what would these words be going in, and was sad to discover that Hand of Justice does not in fact fit in a dagger (it ALMOST does... sigh) The idea of doing MASSIVE elemental damage in 3 types with each quick strike, was very appealing but quickly dashed. I moved to the idea of just having the auras as support, and MAYBE using an attack.
So his endgame gear will hopefully look something like this:
Helm- Dream [Bone Visage]
Armor-Dragon [Archon Plate]
Weapon- Hand of Justice [Phase Blade]
Shield- Dream [Troll Nest]
Swap would be Death's Web (wand) and Homunculus or Trangs Wing (that -25 to enemy poison is so tempting, but I would have to ditch either the Mesh, or the dream or dragon for it.)
Gloves- Trang's Bracer
Belt- arachnid's mesh
Boots- Marrowwalks( or war travelers, I have heard that the prison bug still works, and that it doesn't... clarification?)
Amulet- crafter necro ammy
Ring- really good rare ring or Soj
Ring- really good rare ring or Soj
I need help though. I know what I'd be putting these items in, and would probably try for an infinity for my merc as well.Here is a list of questions that I'd like to talk through, to see what others think.
Skill points- When I am done maxing Pnovas synergies,I realized I didn't know what to use the points on. I will use 68 total for pre reqs and what I have already put in the curse tree. I really have no idea what to use them one, but here are most of my options.
-Skeleton mages, and synergies for them, to further take advantage of elemental damage with lower resist.
-Fire golem and synergies. This will creat both a tank, and as someone else mentioned in the auramancer thread, create a mini bomb when summoned and when killed.
-Clay Golem and synergies. Really just to tank.
-Bone armor with synergies.
-Bone spear/spirit (will be quite weak though, with only 39 remaining points if I ever get to 99)
I know there are a couple other small options, but I'm not really considering them.
My next big question is how to utilize all my skill points. By the time I hit ~80, I will have a huge amount to use, and no idea what to do with them. Obviously Str is the normal 'enough to carry your items' and Energy won't really be needed, but what do I do after that?
In relation to that I have two inquiries.
-First off, how effective is attacking when when your dexterity is very low, but you have ignore target defense? (ie I'm level 80, with 40 dex, and am attacking a lvl 75 monster with my hand of justice(ignore target defense) how would this pan out?)
-I just had a thought with this, if I go max block route, I could also use an impressive dagger instead of HoJ, while this would lower my Holy fire alot, it could give me a viable poison attack (especially if I use an ignore target's def dagger) it would cut down on the impossibility of the build, maybe even cutting out dragon to make room for more of Trangs, or some other incredible armor.
-Secondly, I realize that the max block/vit argument seems almost personal preference, but to me it also depends on unit type. For my druid, max block is needed, since I don't worry about elemental damage, as well as wanting to be surrounded so my hurricane does the most damage.
How effective will I be at breaking resistances? with the conviction aura on my merc, and then my own lower resist, would this get through most of them, and actually make it easy to hurt them? Unless they have triple immunity to Fire Poison and Lightning, I should be relatively fine, but even double could drastically lower killing power. Thoughts on this?
In the end game, I will end up losing alot of my +skills due to the four key items,as well as low resistances, unless I get very lucky dreams. Obviously I can make up for this relatively easily by stacking charms, and getting an awesome necro torch and an anni, but I'm still a bit worried. Should I be learning towards prismatic casters stuff for my jewelry?
Now It sounds like this build could would definitely be viable in hell. Since the other auramancer guide discusses this and it sounds like it works well, even without the added poison. I'm curious though, would this work without such a good tank? would using prison or bonewall (ie bone armor as well) help distract monsters letting me live? or should I just pump mages and go on a huge offense, using lower resist and decrepify when needed.There are many methods I could use to try to fight in hell, and right now, I'm not really sure where I should be going with it.
And lastly, I'm interested in how I should go about getting these items, and the other needed things (both in terms of the order to get them, and how to get them). It's a kind of small matter, but it still is there (btw I have a pretty good mule team, with some good stuff)
That's it for now I guess, hope my wall of text is legible. Thanks in Advance.
glad to know now at least!