SP Patriarch 1: Patriarch Geppetto

[Evasive]

SP Patriarch 1: Patriarch Geppetto

I just finished my first SP Patriarch, a pretty safe fishymancer. I said in my introduction that I like to name my Diablo characters after real-life/fictional characters that relate to the type of build that they will end up being so it will be no surprise when I introduce:

Patriarch Geppetto
Level 85

Skills:
Raise Skeleton 20/27
Skeleton Mastery 20/27
Clay Golem 1/5
Summon Resist 5/9
Revive 6/10
Skeletal Mage 1/7
plus prereqs

Bone Armour 1/5
Corpse explosion 20/24
plus prereqs

Amplify Damage 1/5
Decrepify 1/5
Dim Vision 1/5
Life Tap 1/5
plus prereqs

Skill points unused 10

Strength enough for gear
Vitality rest

Resists in Hell:
Fire 43
Cold 31
Lightning 48
Poison 27

Gear:
Helm: Lore Crown
Chest: Goldskin
Weapon: Arm of King Leoric (thanks Ohomemgrande!)
Shield: 3 socket shield with 3 perfect diamonds for the resists
Gloves: Trang's Claws
Belt: Goldwrap
Boots: Tearhaunch
Rings: Nagelring and +4 resist all ring (with other less useful mods)
Amulet: +1 Necro skills + 17mf

Pack:
126/39 Gheeds (self found!)
Various resist charms and mf charms
Tome of identify and town portal
Cube

A2 Might Merc with Reapers Toll (DS + LL, thanks Ohomemgrande!)

The experience:

Normal was pretty uneventful, bash things with a wand until I could get enough in RS. Build my army by putting points into RS and SM. As usual, each of the act bosses proved tough but I managed to get through in the end. Stacked up with resists for Andy and Duriel and then patience for the rest! Some baal runs meant that I finished off normal at lvl 42.

Nightmare was a little more smooth as my army grew as RS and SM were maxed, added points in Corpse Explosion so I could start killing things on my own and then moved onto summon resist and revives to allow my skeleton army to survive. Nightmare was very enjoyable and completed rather quickly. I did plenty of baal runs to level him up to 75 for hell.

Hell was slow, but relatively safe. As usual I went through quite a few mana pots and town portal scrolls casting the golem ahead in the maggots lair and the arcane sanctuary, then running up behind him and popping a TP to regroup the army. The ancients weren't particularly dangerous at all actually and I was pretty happy with the roll on the mods. 11 skeletons, 4 mages, 10 revives, and the clay golem was enough was to keep them occupied while I decrepified them and the Merc went round and finished them off. Worldstone Keep was brilliant, no gloams, no frenzytaurs, a couple of oblivion knights but no Iron Maiden. The Throne of Destruction had assailants and and only a smattering of hell witches and venom lords (or whatever the fire immune versions of them are called). Baal took a long time and I had to TP out to top up on the revives but I managed to whittle him down slowly (or rather my army did) while I kept him decrepified (watched).

Hellforge drops:
Normal: ? (probably El or Eld..)
Nightmare: Ko
Hell: Mal

Notable finds:
Ist rune, Dusk Adherent, Gore Rider, Natalya's Totem

Overall?

I love fishymancers, and I enjoy playing them through the game all the way to Patriarch. My most successful characters on Bnet were always fishys so it was no surprise that I would look to Pat one when I started on SP about 4 months ago.

The game was relatively safe, although could be slow in Hell even on Players 1. I was suprised at how Nightmare flashed past at Players 8 but I am not complaining of course. I also think I have used up my Hellforge luck on this character as I have had nothing particularly good since on any of my other characters. I suppose that is one of those things that Diablo throws at you and ultimately keeps you playing.

Retirement plan

I love playing fishys, so as long as I don't start another one I should be taking Geppetto for a spin quite often far into the future!

My WSK2 and WSK3 spawned with a good run down to Baal so I may use him to run baal occasionally. The only problem is the speed of killing the big man himself...

Other

I would like to finish this off by saying thanks to Ohomemgrande for the Arm of King Leoric and the Reapers Toll that I used on this character. It was very generous of him to give them away to me.

 

[potter]

Re: SP Patriarch 1: Patriarch Geppetto

Grats on the Patted Fishy!
And yes, Baal can take a long time. What you can try to do is keep a Hone Sundan(if you have one obviously) in your cube or stash and put that on your merc when it is time. Hone Sundan + GFace = 70% Crushing Blow

IAS	attack speed [ticks]	attacks per second
 0	       7	              3.12
 9	       6.5	              3.33
 20	       6	              3.57
 37	       5.5	              3.84
 63	       5	              4.16
 105	       4.5	              4.54

Two shaels in the weapon hits a decent breakpoint. Amn in the last slot makes it an all-around useful stick for any character/a2merc.
But for Baalin' with a fishy, you probably don't even need life leech, as Baal's only act is to stand there and do nothing.
A good combo would be a 3 shael'd hone with treachery(45 IAS) and GFace. 105 IAS and 70% CB should speed it up.

 

[QED]

Re: SP Patriarch 1: Patriarch Geppetto

Like Potter said, load up the merc with crushing blow and watch him go to work. I had a similar necro and would cast Decripify on Baal immediately upon entering. He won't teleport or create a clone when decripified. I would then swap a Kelpie Snare on my merc for the 75% slow target and cast a clay golem directly on Baal for further slowness. Baal is nearly stationary at that point. Then swap the shael,shael,ed rune Hone Sundan on the merc and eat a sandwich while Baal is slaughtered. Rinse and repeat the process every 20 seconds or so when the slow and Decripify wear off. Enjoy!

 

[Anri]

Re: SP Patriarch 1: Patriarch Geppetto

Good job and summoners are indeed a lot of fun to play; who doesn't love characters who are so gear independant like him!

Makes me want to play mine... he's set up as my gold finder/MFer atm.

 

[Juicy Cheese1]

Re: SP Patriarch 1: Patriarch Geppetto

Congratulations on your Patriach, the first is always satisfying. My first character to complete the game was also a Fishymancer. As others have commented, Guillame's Face along side Hone Sundan, is an excellent combination, I opted for Treachery as the armour, not just because of the IAS, but the DR and Resists that come from Fade, when it triggers, are really valuable when running Baal. Again, good job. :thumbup:

Just out of interest, what is your Fishymancers Gold Find/Magic Find setup Hector, sorry to deter from the topic at hand, but I'm quite curious.

 

[Rhone]

Re: SP Patriarch 1: Patriarch Geppetto

Congrats on your first SP Patriarch! And grats on finding that Gheed's charm with your first pat, too. I've found lots of goodies with my first mat, especially now that she has a couple hundred Meph runs under her belt, but haven't seen a Gheed's drop yet.

The above advice about crushing blow is excellent; CB is really the key to faster boss-killing with a fishymancer. Along with using some CB gear on your merc, you could even put some CB gear on yourself to speed things up further! (Nightfish gave some good recommendations for this in his guide. If you haven't read it, or if it's been a while since the last time you read it, now might be a good time to take another look at the MFing discussion in the appendices.)

 

[potter]

Re: SP Patriarch 1: Patriarch Geppetto

I have to say on the topic of putting CB on yourself, since i tried it already(phaseblade on switch, switch in a gface and gore/goblin), it is an okay option... There's just one thing, you have to sacrifice your mf switch for it, or swap a whole lot of gear during the fight. It was too much of a bother for me at least and it didn't improve the time by a lot either since you're not a fast hitter in the first place.

I opted for more/easier mfing.

 

[Johnnymc]

Re: SP Patriarch 1: Patriarch Geppetto

Don't use CB on your own gear, just use it on your merc's gear. Your necro swings slow and has crappy attack rating. Your merc hits frequently and doesn't miss nearly as often.

Loading up your merc with CB gear shouldn't cost you much (or any) mf.

 

[nepeta]

Re: SP Patriarch 1: Patriarch Geppetto

Summoners will be summoners, but that is one hell of a name: GG ^^

 

[Rhone]

Re: SP Patriarch 1: Patriarch Geppetto

Don't use CB on your own gear, just use it on your merc's gear. Your necro swings slow and has crappy attack rating. Your merc hits frequently and doesn't miss nearly as often.

That's why you put Eth runes (and maybe a Shael or two) in a 6os phase blade. I guess I should have mentioned that instead of just linking to Nightfish.

But the point about losing MF gear to use the PB and CB stuff is well-taken; I hadn't considered that.

 

[potter]

Re: SP Patriarch 1: Patriarch Geppetto

My setup when i tried it :
Shako ptopaz
AoKL
Homo pdiamond
Tal's plate ptopaz
Chancies
Goldwrap
Rare 30frw 25mf boots
Nagel x2
+3 summon ammy

Switch was a 2x Shael 4x Eth'd phaseblade and a fervor'd homo.
In my inventory i had a fervor'd gface and goblins (70% IAS hits the last breakpoint). After the waves i would switch out the boots and the helm, go inn and decreep him and start hitting away. When he had a sliver of life left, i'd switch back.

And as i said, too much of a bother unless you don't have access to cb on your merc and/or if you're really, really impatient.

 

[nepeta]

Re: SP Patriarch 1: Patriarch Geppetto

a fervor'd homo.

Better than straights?

 

[potter]

Re: SP Patriarch 1: Patriarch Geppetto

I'd bet the chance to block is higher on a straight

 

[nirolo]

Re: SP Patriarch 1: Patriarch Geppetto

Congrats!

It's the best build so far I've tries for WS K running.

I lost my fishy so it's just a matter of time when I make another one. too bad I lost Leoric's and Marrowalk with him also.


I'm not sure about using Reaper's on Fishy's merc. Insight seems better just for the CE spamming ( especially for higher player settings), while Amp does its thing better than Decrep most of the time. Obedience looks nice too, for the insane dmg.

edit: OMG!!!! Just remebered I sent my characters via e-mail to my brother to take a look, almost two years ago, from the e-mail I rarely use. I just logged in, checked the outbox folder, and I find wooot!!!! My long lost fishymancer, DClaw assassin and the unfinished frenzier, with all the items I thought lost!!

Thanks for reminding me of my old necro!!!!

 

[Shagsbeard]

Re: SP Patriarch 1: Patriarch Geppetto

Only bit of advice is to pump up your clay golem some... not for damage, but for the extra slow effect.

 

[Gimli]

Re: SP Patriarch 1: Patriarch Geppetto

Congrats for the pat!
My first pat was a fishymancer too.
This remembers me I have another one parked in NM to finish...

 

[Evasive]

Re: SP Patriarch 1: Patriarch Geppetto

Summoners will be summoners, but that is one hell of a name: GG ^^

I am pleased to see that you like it nepata. I aim to please.

Thanks for reminding me of my old necro!!!!

Glad to be of service.

@Most of the above: Thanks for all the advice, I will look to load up my mercenary with some more Crushing Blow and hopefully that should speed up Baal's demise. I've got a Guillaume's Face but I have just got to find that Hone Sundan!