Difficulty getting decent items with skelemancer

[MammalCannibal]

Difficulty getting decent items with skelemancer

Lately I've been having difficulty getting necro equipment that is decent. I have a level 74 skele-necro that can barely play in hell, much less do runs on hell Meph/Diablo/Baal. I also play ladder. I have a might merc that helps a little but not much. My point distribution is:

20 RS
20 Skeletal Mastery
10 Revive
10 Corpse Explosion
1 Amplify Damage
1 Decrepify
Several on prerequisites with several points to spare (haven't decided where to put them)

This is my only character as I've recently started playing D2 again. I was under the impression he'd be good enough for magic find but I don't even have decent enough gear to get started on that. If I could get some good armor and a Beast I understand he could be powerful, but I hardly have the capability of getting those items at this point. My question is this - if I want to get good gear do I need to stick with this character and improve him? (and how?) Or do I need to put him on hold and start with a sorc/barb/whatever that can at least get through hell to get those good items?

 

[FrozenSolid]

Welcome to the forums :howdy:
All I can say is hang in there! Skelliemancer is one of the best build for starters since it doesnt require awesome gear to be good. Maybe you can try the Necro Fund (stickie on top). They give away stuff, although Im not sure how its working.

 

[cotton]

Well, I don't know what gear you are using, so the skill distribution is a little tough for me to value. With +skill gear, that build should work fine in hell (I have a very similar build, with max CE, 1 in revive, 1 in every curse, and about 20 pts in my pocket, that has soloed baal, but I have 13 +summons.) Trangs armor, alot of the necro wands, and even humonculus can be had for pgems, so my first advice would be to collect all of the flawless and perfects you can and trade for gear that gives +skills or +summons. I would also suggest putting a point in bone armor, as it can avoid that 1 hit kill in alot of situations. You really should be able to solo the game with some decent gear and the build you outlined, and after that you can figure out what you can give up for MF. +3 summon circlet or tarnhelm? Trangs armor or 4ptopaz? You can figure this out in relation to your other equipment and run the pit until you collect enough to make that etheral botd machine gun.

 

[skilledlord]

I think you should put a point into summon resist, It's very important for your skeletons to survive.

 

[bill_n_opus1]

It should not be that difficult. In fact, it's easy.

First you need some decent equip for your merc. He needs to stay alive and provide the all important might aura to really push your minions. Getting decent gear isn't that hard.

Farm NM Andariel etc for a Hone Sundan for your merc (Shael, Shael, Amn) and it will really help your boss running. Or get an Honor runeword or something like that. That's not hard.

Shop Drognan in Act2 Hell for some great wands. +2 to necro plus other skills, preferably to Summon Resist etc extra. Find a necro head shield with a +2 skill plus extra. Or use a Whitstan's Guard/Sigon's shield etc ... whatever you can. Or a nice Rhyme shield. With minions, it's all about skills since it most directly impacts their performance.

Run the Pits Hell for good XP and items. Something will drop for you there.

Gamble for amulets with +3 summoning plus extra or +2 all necro skills rares. You are ready to use them at level 74 anyways.

*important* shop anyone for a staff with teleport charges. Keep this on switch. Waypoint to Durance of Hate level 2 and do a quick search around to your left, right, up and down using your Teleport/or run and look for the stairs down to level 3. If you can't find it quickly or can't reach it easily (within one or two teleports) then quit the game, enter NM, quit and re-enter Hell.

This resets your map. Try again. Rinse and repeat. When you find a good map keep it and stay with it!

When you start, raise your army first using your merc and preferably clay golem anywhere that's easy (pindle's garden is a good place if you can get there) or anywhere in Act1.

Waypoint to Durance 2 and switch weapons and tele to stairs, go down, go left and tele to left-hand side. Immediately tele up one screen to clear the usual Bloodlords hanging around and then tele again over the moat. Right about there Meph will come down the mini stairs to meet you and the either decrep him or amp him and your merc and minions will swarm him. On players 1 he will go down quickly. Especially if you have crushing blow (Hone sundan) on your merc. Sit back and enjoy the ride.

Check for goodies/drops, obviously keep the stuff that's good or sells for 35k, don't forget to check the chest behind meph and the armor/weapon racks on either side. Quit and repeat.

My usual run(s) have been Eldritch (Act 5 Frigid Highlands) run up and kill/CE him, raise a bunch of skellies, run back to WP back to Harrogath, run to Pindle, blow him up and turn back and attract the mob of undead coming to greet you, amp and blow up, check for items as usual, raise max skellies/mages/revives, town portal, waypoint to durance 2 and kill meph. This takes me only 4 minutes and a bit more for players3.

Do that for awhile and you will get good items eventually. Meph has coughed up many items for me that will help you. Arachnid's, Marrowalks, all that stuff.

Funny enough, Pits Hell coughed up my only Homunculus though.

Lastly, take a gander over to the necro forum and read the stickies/strats.

Good luck.

BTW, I think that you've put a bit too many points into Revive at this point but that's just me. As long as you use them. Drink lots of blues while you're at it.

 

[Mad Mantis]

I have a level 74 skele-necro that can barely play in hell, much less do runs on hell Meph/Diablo/Baal.

Welcome Newcomer to The Darkness. Grab a brew :drink: and feel free to raise some corpses.

Level yourself and level your Might Merc. The reason you are not rolling through Hell like a swarm of locusts is because your are too low level. Your Skellies use your level in the chance-to-hit formula. With this level the Skellies will not stand a chance against most of the monsters in the Later acts.

You really need a properly levelled Might Merc. The higher his level, the higher his aura and thus the more damage your Skellies can do.

Also put a point or so in DV and learn to use it. You can really help your Skellies survive longer if you use proper crowd control.

Then you will have to do some of the item finding. Some of the posters in this thread already gave good advice on how to find good gear. One thing I can add to that is to search Cow Games. Most people leave the Shrunken Heads behind. Just pick them all up and see if one of them has some good +skills for your Skellies.

 

[cotton]

A couple of good points there, which I forgot to mention (sorry!) I would definitely agree with mantis and skelli lord--a decent might merc and a point in summon resist will help, as will a point in clay golem and golem mastery to slow down some of the monsters will all help the skeles do their job better. Also, having teleport on some item (I also use a tele staff on switch, but circlets and ammys can have it too) can help get your group back together to concentrate your strength, something that will be even more important since you use alot of revives. And don't neglect your AI curses. I have a point in all, but you could probably get by with one in dim for ranged attackers picking off your skeles as they fight melee monsters and one in terror to help get through small crowded areas.

 

[Myrakh-2]

Something that's often overlooked... trading. When the ladder started, I knew exactly what I was going to do: build up an "untwinked" Skelemancer, leave him in nightmare, collect pgems, do mephisto (seemed less of a problem without gear than diablo and baal, although as time passed I collected enough resist charms to be decent in nightmare, and even got a few +skills).

I bought almost all my gear (except for the charms, which are all selffound, and the gloves which I also found myself "in time") for pgems and a LUM rune here on the trade forums. That's europe, but I suppose prices won't be THAT different on other realms.

Just don't expect to get expensive stuff such as shakos for a few pgems. As rule of thumb: if sorcs or paladins can use the item, forget it. It will be insanely expensive due to high demand.

 

[MammalCannibal]

Thanks so much guys! All your replies have helped me so much. Greatly appreciated.