When I made my BoTD a few months ago I knew I was going to do this build, sometime or the other. So anyway, just completed this pat, was great fun! In order to make it more of a challenge, and more of a true meleemancer, I put additional constraints on myself..
-no skeletons
-no revives
-no CE
-titan ( all points in str )
-p5 hell as far as possible
Nathaniel was able to accomplish all these, and became a patriarch at lvl 87.
Good stuff
LCS
Skills
20 Bone wall
20 Bone prison
1 Bone armor
20 Poison dagger
20 Poison explosion
1 clay golem, golem mastery, summon resist
5(10) Amplify damage
1(6) Decrepify, life tap, dim vision
1 in all prereqs
Gear
Ethereal 'Breath of the Dying' War pike
'Bone' Sacred armor
Crown of Ages
Metalgrid
Verdungo's heart cord
Trang oul's claws
Ravenfrost
Nature's peace
Rare boot ( resists fhr frw )
Switch: call to arms, spirit monarch
Charms: A collection of AR and life charms mostly.
Readouts
Charms
Merc: Act 1 Fire rogue
Gear
Thoughts
Melee necromancers are teh sh!t1!1
Well not really. But to be honest, I thought it would be a lot harder than it actually was. Melee necromancers have decent damage thanks to amp and good survival through bone armor/bone wall, which was the beginning of the build, add some good items to that and it becomes fairly decent.
The armor slot was the one I had the most problems deciding. Fortitude seems straightforward, but has two problems. The big one being that chilling armor procs overwrite the bone armor and that's just a no no. The other being that my forti was in a wire fleece and just looked ugly on the necromancer. It did push the LCS into some scary numbers though.
I played through all of act 1 with 'Bramble' armor to increase poison nova damage. The poison nova procs have an interesting property: the chance to cast triggers when the monster is killed by a poison nova, not necessarily by a melee attack. In other words, it was possible to get a chain of poison novas going, but this didn't happen much because low level poison nova doesn't do enough damage at high psettings and monster hps and resist climb throughout the game making it less and less relevant. It did do some decent background area damage but not a deal breaker.
For Act 2, I decided to try my 'Prudence' sacred armor. That is one of the runewords that seem pretty cool defensively- huge defense, resists, fhr, mdr, but in practice it's not really the best choice for any build. This one was an exception though it's a fairly good defensive armor. I played through all of A2 with this, but in A3 I took my old 'bone' armor for a trial run to see how effective the self procs of bone armor were. It proved pretty good and became my final armor choice. In keeping with the titan theme, I made a new 'Bone' in a SACRED armor!
Prudence roll was quite good
As for the others, I used a boring old shako till level 82 ( which I hit around the end of A2 ) when I could equip my Crown of Ages. I would have preferred a 2os one with nice jewels of fervor to hit 14 fpa instead of 15 but didn't have one so whatever. For the early parts of A1 and A2 I used a highlord's wrath. Had a lot of problems hitting stuff until I decided to go all out on AR, with a metalgrid amulet, my best RF and steel charms, and enchant from demon limb. Having to go back to town to re-enchant was a nuisance but it definitely made a difference. Nature's peace ring was equipped mid way through A1 when I got really tired of carver shamans resurrecting crap when I had my hands full with two or three boss packs. In fact, generator/reviver units ( maggots, flesh spawners, horadrims, sarcophagi ) were the bane of this character, because he only has a single target attack and tends to get swarmed by packs of these.
The A1 mercenary was selected for the following reasons
>To provide fanaticism aura for IAS and some dmg/AR
>She can shoot over bone walls. Even though enemy ranged units behind the bone wall cannot shoot over it. Don't ask me how that works, but its really useful.
>She has a built in PI killer with fire arrow, for those things that were unbreakable with amp.
She performed excellently and almost never died. I'm kind of a fan of A1 mercs now.
The archer merc killed a lot of stuff and created reanimates. So now, instead of having a summoner necro with a merc with a big stick, we have a necro with a big stick and a merc that reanimates. Ahh, how times change. The reanimates were tanky and very helpful.
Speaking of which. Ah, Bone wall. This thing is incredible when put to the right use. With a 5 range weapon one can easily poke through the bone wall and keep the monsters away. I used it through all of hell- it was integral to this character. Bone wall is an interesting skill because it cannot simply be spammed without thinking. You need it to be in the right place to block monsters and still hit them. On occasion, natural walls proved useful too ( 5 range ftw )
A war pike has highly variable damage. Along with the double damage chance on highlords ( which I was still using in A1 ), I often one hitted things with a high damage roll and that was cool. The countess and Pitspawn fouldog, iirc were killed in one hit.
I guess the most interesting thing abut this build was how easy it was. Don't misunderstand- it doesn't kill anywhere as fast as any cookie cutter, and there were plenty of hair-raising moments involving multiple boss packs. But it wasn't glacially slow or anything ( even on p5 throughout almost all of hell ), and survival is way better than you might think. About 90% of the game was just smooth sailing. I took a couple of screens to illustrate this
Your typical triple boss pack pounces, hoping to make a tasty snack of a necromancer foolish enough to go without summons. No sweat.
The triple boss pack a short while later. They weren't too happy.
I enjoyed this character a lot more than my two handed phoenix striker. He did not need mass town trips, and was actually a net saver on full rejuvs ( I muled rejuvs off the character, not on ). A little slow at killing but bearable. On occasion when I lowered it to p1 he almost felt like a superman.
The journey
Normal and nightmare were demolished with skeletons, poison nova and CE. Nuff said.
Nathaniel started hell mode at level 74. Act 1 was easy enough. I began to start practising bonewalling. My first death came which was silly- to a cold enchanted spike fiend boss in the dark wood ( I had -20 CR at the time ), and a fanaticism skeleton archer pack in Tristram gave me some trouble, but otherwise nothing major. Most monsters died in one or two hits. There was an unbreakable PI who was quickly killed by the fire arrows of the rogue.
Act 2 had two huge nuisances- Maggot's lair and Arcane sanctuary. For different reasons than a normal summonmancer. Maggots lair had PI itches, and maggots which kept spawning crap faster than I could kill them ( and they were often PoI, PI or both ). Arcane sanctuary had PI ghost which can fly over bone walls and stack on top of each other and attack you. Oh man. I lowered it to p1 to complete these areas. Otherwise not much problem. Sarcophagi constantly spawning mummies were trouble, and horadrim resurrectors but not too much as I had RIP. Radamant spawned stone skin and took ages to kill for some reason.
Act 3 was where I had equipped all my final gear including the Bone armor which helped a lot. Flayers were easily dispatched, barring a few infernos from multiple shamans that was sometimes a threat. More bonewalling. This git was trouble- unbreakable PI and supplied the might aura to two nearby boss packs of thrashers ( you can't see them because I lured this guy away somehow ).
Battlemaid Sabrina in Kurast temple was an unexpectedly powerful foe and I took three tries to beat her. The first two times I rushed in like an idiot, got surrounded and had to S&E. The third time I bonewalled the entrance after clearing the two side rooms. Those gals are crazy fast and you can't really survive them when surrounded.
The Kurast causeway had a big sign up, which said 'Welcome to Travincal. Please bonewall here'. Councils were easily dealt with, and proceeded to durance. I've said before that with range 5 weapon you can kill bone dolls while being out of detonation range. Which is true, hard to achieve in practise, but doable. Anyway bone armor helped in absorbing doll explosions as well. With impeccable timing, I hit my last needed level- 85 in Durance 3, to put my final point into life tap ( additional points were put into amp after this for bigger radius ). Meph was easily killed by alternating amp and tap on him though I had forgotten to lower it to p1 so it took a while. Life tap was sometimes used on unleechables for free heals, but not much otherwise.
Act 4 had three irritants. Corpse spitters, flesh spawners and maggots. These are frustrating on many melee characters but especially on this one- they seem to have an insane amount of life and DR. Say what you will about gloams, they atleast die quickly when amped. Dim vision was spammed on offscreen gloams ( overriden by amp or tap when I got close ), about the only use for the skill. Annoying PI unbreakable gloam. River of flame spawned maggots and flesh spawners and I just couldn't cope with them, so I rerolled to get abyss knights, venom lords and urdars. Ahh, much better. Hephasto spawned PI and FI and took forever to kill. Chaos was fairly easy, and Diablo was easily killed by lowering to p1 and alternating amp and tap on him.
Act 5 wasn't too hard as I got lucky with easy monsters spawning in most areas. Demon imps and quillrats in foothills, no slingers anywhere, no PI death lords, no gloams in river of flame. Still it was quite action packed. Serpent's bone spears was not reduced by bone armor or resists so it did a lot of damage to a fragile character. Frozen river spawned witches and snow things.
The Nihlathak levels were all done on p1 because I wasn't getting the waypoint and didn't want to reroll in case of flesh spawners/moon lords/horadrim/maggots. Luckily none of them spawned so Nihl was a real breeze ( p1 ). However, halls of vaught spawned two types of PIs and tomb vipers. Ah, gotta love how the game throws you a curveball at times. Nihlathak was quickly dispatched, as befitting a traitor to all necromancers.
My second ( and last ) death came in the ancients way- very embarassing, I died to a plain white Dark lancer. No amp, no boss packs, no other monsters around even. The only thing I guess could have happened is that she managed to hit a number of crits when my bone armor and cta was down.
Ancients were decrep'ed and killed on the first try (p1). The WSK and throne were done on p1. Floor 2 spawned gloams and horadrims which were pain but still Dim vision and RIP helped. The minions didn't give much trouble, though Baal took a really long time to kill without crushing blow. He managed to clone himself and teleport around even with decrep and clay golem slowing. But he was finally defeated and The End!
Finds
A random Mal
plain chilling skiller
Hell forge was a Lem
Sept completion
Patriarch Ralf, untwinked single pass co op concentrate barb
Matriarch Traxex, everything enchantress ranger
Patriarch Asmodean, holy bolting zealot
Matriarch Arianne, Infinity wielding phoenix striker
Matriarch Purba, poison amazon
Patriarch Nathaniel, BoTD wielding titan meleemancer
Thanks for reading!
-no skeletons
-no revives
-no CE
-titan ( all points in str )
-p5 hell as far as possible
Nathaniel was able to accomplish all these, and became a patriarch at lvl 87.
Good stuff
LCS
Skills
20 Bone wall
20 Bone prison
1 Bone armor
20 Poison dagger
20 Poison explosion
1 clay golem, golem mastery, summon resist
5(10) Amplify damage
1(6) Decrepify, life tap, dim vision
1 in all prereqs
Gear
Ethereal 'Breath of the Dying' War pike
'Bone' Sacred armor
Crown of Ages
Metalgrid
Verdungo's heart cord
Trang oul's claws
Ravenfrost
Nature's peace
Rare boot ( resists fhr frw )
Switch: call to arms, spirit monarch
Charms: A collection of AR and life charms mostly.
Readouts
Code:
Breath of the Dying
War Pike
'VexHelElEldZodEth'
Two-Hand Damage: 240 to 1308
Required Dexterity: 75
Required Strength: 122
Required Level: 69
Spear Class - Very Fast Attack Speed
Indestructible
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 85
Fingerprint: 0xd4897d05
+30 to Strength
+30 to Energy
+30 to Dexterity
+30 to Vitality
+390% Enhanced Damage
+50 to Attack Rating
15% Life stolen per hit
7% Mana stolen per hit
+1 to Light Radius
Requirements -20%
60% Increased Attack Speed
-25% Target Defense
Prevent Monster Heal
200% Damage to Undead
+50 to Attack Rating against Undead
Indestructible
50% Chance to cast Level 20 Poison Nova When You Kill an Enemy
Ethereal (Cannot be Repaired), Socketed (6: 6 used)
Bone
Sacred Armor
'SolUmUm'
Defense: 576
Durability: 48 of 60
Required Strength: 232
Required Level: 66
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 85
Fingerprint: 0x897a611c
+142 to Mana
Damage Reduced by 7
All Resistances +30
+2 to Necromancer Skill Levels
15% Chance to cast Level 10 Bone Spear on striking
15% Chance to cast Level 10 Bone Armor when struck
Socketed (3: 3 used)
Nathaniel's Crown of Ages
Corona
'Ort'
Defense: 393
Required Strength: 174
Required Level: 82
Indestructible
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 88
Fingerprint: 0x842a9670
+50% Enhanced Defense
+144 Defense
Damage Reduced by 14%
Fire Resist +23%
Lightning Resist +53%
Cold Resist +23%
Poison Resist +23%
30% Faster Hit Recovery
+1 to All Skill Levels
Indestructible
Socketed (1: 1 used)
Trang-Oul's Claws
Heavy Bracers
Defense: 69
Durability: 10 of 16
Required Strength: 58
Required Level: 45
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 52
Fingerprint: 0x1ecc2b2c
+30 Defense
Cold Resist +30%
20% Faster Cast Rate
+2 to Curses (Necromancer Only)
+25% to Poison Skill Damage
Grim Greaves
Heavy Boots
Defense: 5
Durability: 4 of 14
Required Strength: 18
Required Level: 18
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 85
Fingerprint: 0xc74bed4d
+2 to Dexterity
Fire Resist +40%
Lightning Resist +36%
20% Faster Run/Walk
10% Faster Hit Recovery
Verdungo's Hearty Cord
Mithril Coil
Defense: 127
Durability: 10 of 16
Required Strength: 106
Required Level: 63
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 87
Fingerprint: 0x84eb9552
+37 to Vitality
+105 to Maximum Stamina
+93% Enhanced Defense
Damage Reduced by 13%
Replenish Life +12
10% Faster Hit Recovery
Nature's Peace
Ring
Required Level: 69
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 85
Fingerprint: 0xcd8de9be
Damage Reduced by 9
Poison Resist +30%
Slain Monsters Rest In Peace
Prevent Monster Heal
Level 5 Oak Sage (27/27 Charges)
Raven Frost
Ring
Required Level: 45
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 99
Fingerprint: 0xd752f8f5
+20 to Dexterity
+40 to Mana
+244 to Attack Rating
Adds 15-45 cold damage over 4 seconds
20% Cold Absorb
Cannot Be Frozen
Metalgrid
Amulet
Required Level: 81
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 99
Fingerprint: 0xd6b7090b
+403 to Attack Rating
+347 Defense
All Resistances +27
Level 22 Iron Golem (11/11 Charges)
Level 12 Iron Maiden (20/20 Charges)
Call to Arms
Crystal Sword
'AmnRalMalIstOhm'
One-Hand Damage: 17 to 52
Durability: 20 of 20
Required Strength: 43
Required Level: 57
Sword Class - Very Fast Attack Speed
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 81
Fingerprint: 0x708d6b82
+252% Enhanced Damage
Adds 5-30 fire damage
7% Life stolen per hit
Replenish Life +12
30% Better Chance of Getting Magic Items
40% Increased Attack Speed
+3 to Battle Orders
+3 to Battle Cry
+2 to Battle Command
Prevent Monster Heal
+1 to All Skill Levels
Socketed (5: 5 used)
Spirit
Monarch
'TalThulOrtAmn'
Defense: 142
Chance to Block: 42%
Durability: 86 of 86
Required Strength: 156
Required Level: 54
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 80
Fingerprint: 0x1265eeb9
+22 to Vitality
+97 to Mana
+250 Defense vs. Missile
Lightning Resist +35%
Cold Resist +35%
Poison Resist +35%
Attacker Takes Damage of 14
55% Faster Hit Recovery
34% Faster Cast Rate
+2 to All Skill Levels
+4 Magic Absorb
Socketed (4: 4 used)Charms
Code:
1: Shimmering Small Charm of Vita
Keep in Inventory to Gain Bonus
Required Level: 39
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 85
Fingerprint: 0x9504b178
+18 to Life
All Resistances +4
2: Beryl Small Charm of Sustenance
Keep in Inventory to Gain Bonus
Required Level: 17
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 85
Fingerprint: 0x20b01baf
+14 to Life
Poison Resist +5%
3: Sapphire Small Charm of Balance
Keep in Inventory to Gain Bonus
Required Level: 32
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 85
Fingerprint: 0x570440ec
Cold Resist +10%
5% Faster Hit Recovery
4: Small Charm of Vita
Keep in Inventory to Gain Bonus
Required Level: 39
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 85
Fingerprint: 0xeff8fcea
+18 to Life
5: Small Charm of Vita
Keep in Inventory to Gain Bonus
Required Level: 39
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 83
Fingerprint: 0x8549a897
+19 to Life
6: Small Charm of Vita
Keep in Inventory to Gain Bonus
Required Level: 39
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 85
Fingerprint: 0xe73dc92a
+19 to Life
7: Steel Grand Charm of Vita
Keep in Inventory to Gain Bonus
Required Level: 69
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 85
Fingerprint: 0x9019f836
+37 to Life
+114 to Attack Rating
8: Steel Grand Charm of Sustenance
Keep in Inventory to Gain Bonus
Required Level: 35
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 85
Fingerprint: 0x86e504e5
+25 to Life
+105 to Attack Rating
10: Steel Grand Charm of Sustenance
Keep in Inventory to Gain Bonus
Required Level: 41
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 85
Fingerprint: 0xaddd56dd
+22 to Life
+131 to Attack Rating
13: Steel Small Charm of Vita
Keep in Inventory to Gain Bonus
Required Level: 49
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 85
Fingerprint: 0x1095c6
+20 to Life
+27 to Attack Rating
14: Steel Grand Charm of Sustenance
Keep in Inventory to Gain Bonus
Required Level: 41
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 94
Fingerprint: 0x2a29a38e
+29 to Life
+121 to Attack Rating
15: Steel Large Charm of Vita
Keep in Inventory to Gain Bonus
Required Level: 66
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 82
Fingerprint: 0xb394b879
+31 to Life
+63 to Attack Rating
16: Steel Small Charm of Sustenance
Keep in Inventory to Gain Bonus
Required Level: 49
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 85
Fingerprint: 0xb0a28cd9
+15 to Life
+33 to Attack Rating
17: Ruby Grand Charm of Sustenance
Keep in Inventory to Gain Bonus
Required Level: 37
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 75
Fingerprint: 0x550ad3f9
+29 to Life
Fire Resist +29%
18: Steel Grand Charm of Vita
Keep in Inventory to Gain Bonus
Required Level: 83
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 94
Fingerprint: 0xf4f6164
+42 to Life
+116 to Attack RatingMerc: Act 1 Fire rogue
Gear
Code:
1: Tal Rasha's Horadric Crest
Death Mask
Defense: 108
Durability: 15 of 20
Required Strength: 55
Required Level: 66
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 85
Fingerprint: 0x69f7ca3b
+60 to Life
+30 to Mana
+45 Defense
All Resistances +15
10% Life stolen per hit
10% Mana stolen per hit
2: Fortitude
Wire Fleece
'ElSolDolLo'
Defense: 1455
Durability: 28 of 32
Required Strength: 111
Required Level: 59
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 84
Fingerprint: 0x8dd50047
+200% Enhanced Defense
+300% Enhanced Damage
+15 Defense
Damage Reduced by 7
Fire Resist +25%
Lightning Resist +25%
+5% to Maximum Lightning Resist
Cold Resist +25%
Poison Resist +25%
Replenish Life +7
+1 to Light Radius
25% Faster Cast Rate
12% Damage Taken Goes to Mana
20% Chance to cast Level 15 Chilling Armor when struck
+87 to Life (Based on Character Level)
Socketed (4: 4 used)
3: Faith
Superior Great Bow
'OhmJahLemEld'
Two-Hand Damage: 53 to 231
Required Dexterity: 107
Required Strength: 121
Required Level: 65
Bow Class - Fast Attack Speed
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 88
Fingerprint: 0x76b75d99
+280% Enhanced Damage
+65% Enhanced Damage
All Resistances +15
+120 fire damage
75% Extra Gold from Monsters
Ignore Target Defense
300% Bonus to Attack Rating
75% Damage to Undead
+50 to Attack Rating against Undead
+2 to All Skill Levels
Level 12 Fanaticism Aura When Equipped
10% Reanimate As: Returned
Socketed (4: 4 used)Thoughts
Melee necromancers are teh sh!t1!1
Well not really. But to be honest, I thought it would be a lot harder than it actually was. Melee necromancers have decent damage thanks to amp and good survival through bone armor/bone wall, which was the beginning of the build, add some good items to that and it becomes fairly decent.
The armor slot was the one I had the most problems deciding. Fortitude seems straightforward, but has two problems. The big one being that chilling armor procs overwrite the bone armor and that's just a no no. The other being that my forti was in a wire fleece and just looked ugly on the necromancer. It did push the LCS into some scary numbers though.
I played through all of act 1 with 'Bramble' armor to increase poison nova damage. The poison nova procs have an interesting property: the chance to cast triggers when the monster is killed by a poison nova, not necessarily by a melee attack. In other words, it was possible to get a chain of poison novas going, but this didn't happen much because low level poison nova doesn't do enough damage at high psettings and monster hps and resist climb throughout the game making it less and less relevant. It did do some decent background area damage but not a deal breaker.
For Act 2, I decided to try my 'Prudence' sacred armor. That is one of the runewords that seem pretty cool defensively- huge defense, resists, fhr, mdr, but in practice it's not really the best choice for any build. This one was an exception though it's a fairly good defensive armor. I played through all of A2 with this, but in A3 I took my old 'bone' armor for a trial run to see how effective the self procs of bone armor were. It proved pretty good and became my final armor choice. In keeping with the titan theme, I made a new 'Bone' in a SACRED armor!
Prudence roll was quite good
Code:
Prudence
Sacred Armor
'MalTir'
Defense: 3585
Durability: 31 of 31
Required Strength: 222
Required Level: 66
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 86
Fingerprint: 0xbb0946d9
+169% Enhanced Defense
Damage Reduced by 3
Magic Damage Reduced by 17
All Resistances +34
+1 to Light Radius
25% Faster Hit Recovery
+2 to Mana After Each Kill
Repairs 1 durability in 4 seconds
Ethereal (Cannot be Repaired), Socketed (2: 2 used)As for the others, I used a boring old shako till level 82 ( which I hit around the end of A2 ) when I could equip my Crown of Ages. I would have preferred a 2os one with nice jewels of fervor to hit 14 fpa instead of 15 but didn't have one so whatever. For the early parts of A1 and A2 I used a highlord's wrath. Had a lot of problems hitting stuff until I decided to go all out on AR, with a metalgrid amulet, my best RF and steel charms, and enchant from demon limb. Having to go back to town to re-enchant was a nuisance but it definitely made a difference. Nature's peace ring was equipped mid way through A1 when I got really tired of carver shamans resurrecting crap when I had my hands full with two or three boss packs. In fact, generator/reviver units ( maggots, flesh spawners, horadrims, sarcophagi ) were the bane of this character, because he only has a single target attack and tends to get swarmed by packs of these.
The A1 mercenary was selected for the following reasons
>To provide fanaticism aura for IAS and some dmg/AR
>She can shoot over bone walls. Even though enemy ranged units behind the bone wall cannot shoot over it. Don't ask me how that works, but its really useful.
>She has a built in PI killer with fire arrow, for those things that were unbreakable with amp.
She performed excellently and almost never died. I'm kind of a fan of A1 mercs now.
The archer merc killed a lot of stuff and created reanimates. So now, instead of having a summoner necro with a merc with a big stick, we have a necro with a big stick and a merc that reanimates. Ahh, how times change. The reanimates were tanky and very helpful.
Speaking of which. Ah, Bone wall. This thing is incredible when put to the right use. With a 5 range weapon one can easily poke through the bone wall and keep the monsters away. I used it through all of hell- it was integral to this character. Bone wall is an interesting skill because it cannot simply be spammed without thinking. You need it to be in the right place to block monsters and still hit them. On occasion, natural walls proved useful too ( 5 range ftw )
A war pike has highly variable damage. Along with the double damage chance on highlords ( which I was still using in A1 ), I often one hitted things with a high damage roll and that was cool. The countess and Pitspawn fouldog, iirc were killed in one hit.
I guess the most interesting thing abut this build was how easy it was. Don't misunderstand- it doesn't kill anywhere as fast as any cookie cutter, and there were plenty of hair-raising moments involving multiple boss packs. But it wasn't glacially slow or anything ( even on p5 throughout almost all of hell ), and survival is way better than you might think. About 90% of the game was just smooth sailing. I took a couple of screens to illustrate this
Your typical triple boss pack pounces, hoping to make a tasty snack of a necromancer foolish enough to go without summons. No sweat.
The triple boss pack a short while later. They weren't too happy.
I enjoyed this character a lot more than my two handed phoenix striker. He did not need mass town trips, and was actually a net saver on full rejuvs ( I muled rejuvs off the character, not on ). A little slow at killing but bearable. On occasion when I lowered it to p1 he almost felt like a superman.
The journey
Normal and nightmare were demolished with skeletons, poison nova and CE. Nuff said.
Nathaniel started hell mode at level 74. Act 1 was easy enough. I began to start practising bonewalling. My first death came which was silly- to a cold enchanted spike fiend boss in the dark wood ( I had -20 CR at the time ), and a fanaticism skeleton archer pack in Tristram gave me some trouble, but otherwise nothing major. Most monsters died in one or two hits. There was an unbreakable PI who was quickly killed by the fire arrows of the rogue.
Act 2 had two huge nuisances- Maggot's lair and Arcane sanctuary. For different reasons than a normal summonmancer. Maggots lair had PI itches, and maggots which kept spawning crap faster than I could kill them ( and they were often PoI, PI or both ). Arcane sanctuary had PI ghost which can fly over bone walls and stack on top of each other and attack you. Oh man. I lowered it to p1 to complete these areas. Otherwise not much problem. Sarcophagi constantly spawning mummies were trouble, and horadrim resurrectors but not too much as I had RIP. Radamant spawned stone skin and took ages to kill for some reason.
Act 3 was where I had equipped all my final gear including the Bone armor which helped a lot. Flayers were easily dispatched, barring a few infernos from multiple shamans that was sometimes a threat. More bonewalling. This git was trouble- unbreakable PI and supplied the might aura to two nearby boss packs of thrashers ( you can't see them because I lured this guy away somehow ).
Battlemaid Sabrina in Kurast temple was an unexpectedly powerful foe and I took three tries to beat her. The first two times I rushed in like an idiot, got surrounded and had to S&E. The third time I bonewalled the entrance after clearing the two side rooms. Those gals are crazy fast and you can't really survive them when surrounded.
The Kurast causeway had a big sign up, which said 'Welcome to Travincal. Please bonewall here'. Councils were easily dealt with, and proceeded to durance. I've said before that with range 5 weapon you can kill bone dolls while being out of detonation range. Which is true, hard to achieve in practise, but doable. Anyway bone armor helped in absorbing doll explosions as well. With impeccable timing, I hit my last needed level- 85 in Durance 3, to put my final point into life tap ( additional points were put into amp after this for bigger radius ). Meph was easily killed by alternating amp and tap on him though I had forgotten to lower it to p1 so it took a while. Life tap was sometimes used on unleechables for free heals, but not much otherwise.
Act 4 had three irritants. Corpse spitters, flesh spawners and maggots. These are frustrating on many melee characters but especially on this one- they seem to have an insane amount of life and DR. Say what you will about gloams, they atleast die quickly when amped. Dim vision was spammed on offscreen gloams ( overriden by amp or tap when I got close ), about the only use for the skill. Annoying PI unbreakable gloam. River of flame spawned maggots and flesh spawners and I just couldn't cope with them, so I rerolled to get abyss knights, venom lords and urdars. Ahh, much better. Hephasto spawned PI and FI and took forever to kill. Chaos was fairly easy, and Diablo was easily killed by lowering to p1 and alternating amp and tap on him.
Act 5 wasn't too hard as I got lucky with easy monsters spawning in most areas. Demon imps and quillrats in foothills, no slingers anywhere, no PI death lords, no gloams in river of flame. Still it was quite action packed. Serpent's bone spears was not reduced by bone armor or resists so it did a lot of damage to a fragile character. Frozen river spawned witches and snow things.
The Nihlathak levels were all done on p1 because I wasn't getting the waypoint and didn't want to reroll in case of flesh spawners/moon lords/horadrim/maggots. Luckily none of them spawned so Nihl was a real breeze ( p1 ). However, halls of vaught spawned two types of PIs and tomb vipers. Ah, gotta love how the game throws you a curveball at times. Nihlathak was quickly dispatched, as befitting a traitor to all necromancers.
My second ( and last ) death came in the ancients way- very embarassing, I died to a plain white Dark lancer. No amp, no boss packs, no other monsters around even. The only thing I guess could have happened is that she managed to hit a number of crits when my bone armor and cta was down.
Ancients were decrep'ed and killed on the first try (p1). The WSK and throne were done on p1. Floor 2 spawned gloams and horadrims which were pain but still Dim vision and RIP helped. The minions didn't give much trouble, though Baal took a really long time to kill without crushing blow. He managed to clone himself and teleport around even with decrep and clay golem slowing. But he was finally defeated and The End!
Finds
A random Mal
plain chilling skiller
Hell forge was a Lem
Sept completion
Patriarch Ralf, untwinked single pass co op concentrate barb
Matriarch Traxex, everything enchantress ranger
Patriarch Asmodean, holy bolting zealot
Matriarch Arianne, Infinity wielding phoenix striker
Matriarch Purba, poison amazon
Patriarch Nathaniel, BoTD wielding titan meleemancer
Thanks for reading!
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druid next then?