Patriarch Poy_Zen, Poison/Skeleton Necromaner (Exceptional Sept)

[maareek]

I really like poisonmancers, so I never had any question about what I was going to do here, especially since this gave me a chance to try one without Death's Web, which I had never done before. Obviously the lack of that wand makes an enormous difference, in oh so many ways, but I expected to have a blast playing this guy regardless.

As a reminder: the rules for the sept are cookie cutters with gear "easily" obtainable from NM Mephisto. Easily in this case being arbitrarily set at 1:3000 odds at 0MF which translates to a little over 1:1000 at 250 MF. Low-level runewords are allowed, and I reserved the right to allow exceptions if I so chose.

[highlight]The Character[/highlight]

Name:  Poy_Zen
Class: Necromancer
Level: 86


Strength:   65/67
Dexterity:  25
Vitality:   405/447
Energy:     25/65
HP:         1173
Mana:       546

Fire:        96 (85)
Cold:       101 (75)
Lightning:   78 (75)
Poison:      46

MF:     0 
FR/W:  55
FHR:   87 (6 frames)
FCR:   82 (10 frames)

Poison Nova damage: 3945-4199

The trip from start to Patriarch took 22 hours, 53 minutes, 15 seconds.

Skills:

Raise Skeleton, Poison Dagger, Poison Explosion, Poison Nova: 20 (26)
Skeleton Mastery: 4 (10)
Summon Resist, Corpse Explosion: 1 (7)
All Curses except Attract and Confuse: 1 (11)

Skeletons gave him a strong early strategy as well as a way of dealing with immunes later on. I've used the style before, and I like it a good bit for questing. Full on CE + Iron Golem is clearly better for Pit running, though.

Gear

Spirit
Broad Sword
TalThulOrtAmn
One Hand Damage: 7 - 14
Durability: 32 of 32
Required Level: 25
Required Strength: 48
Fingerprint: 0xb2c78034
Item Level: 80
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+2 to All Skills
+32% Faster Cast Rate
+55% Faster Hit Recovery
Adds 1 - 50 Lightning Damage
Adds 3 - 14 Cold Damage Over 3 Secs (75 Frames)
Adds 75 Poison Damage Over 5 Secs (125 Frames)
7% Life stolen per hit
+250 Defense vs. Missile
+22 to Vitality
+93 to Mana
+8 Magic Absorb
4 Sockets (4 used)

Homunculus
Hierophant Trophy
Defense: 190
Chance to Block: 52
Durability: 20 of 20
Required Level: 42
Required Strength: 58
Fingerprint: 0x86345ec2
Item Level: 88
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+2 to Curses (Necromancer only)
+2 to Necromancer Skill Levels
+30% Faster Block Rate
40% Increased Chance of Blocking
+168% Enhanced Defense
+20 to Energy
Regenerate Mana 33%
All Resistances +59
+5 to Mana after each Kill
1 Sockets (1 used)
Socketed: Perfect Diamond

Manald Heal
Ring
Required Level: 15
Fingerprint: 0x4efb6b3d
Item Level: 88
Version: Expansion 1.10+
6% Mana stolen per hit
+20 to Life
Replenish Life +8
Regenerate Mana 20%

Manald Heal
Ring
Required Level: 15
Fingerprint: 0x107d7b1e
Item Level: 88
Version: Expansion 1.10+
6% Mana stolen per hit
+20 to Life
Replenish Life +7
Regenerate Mana 20%

Peasant Crown
War Hat
Defense: 108
Durability: 12 of 12
Required Level: 28
Required Strength: 20
Fingerprint: 0x7182eb83
Item Level: 88
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+1 to All Skills
+15% Faster Run/Walk
+100% Enhanced Defense
+20 to Vitality
+20 to Energy
Replenish Life +8

Nightsmoke
Mesh Belt
Defense: 67
Durability: 16 of 16
Required Level: 30
Required Strength: 58
Fingerprint: 0x54327df5
Item Level: 60
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+45% Enhanced Defense
+15 Defense
+20 to Mana
All Resistances +10
Damage Reduced by 2
50% Damage Taken Goes To Mana
Required Level +5

Trang-Oul's Claws
Heavy Bracers
Defense: 74
Durability: 16 of 16
Required Level: 45
Required Strength: 58
Fingerprint: 0x2167c4ed
Item Level: 88
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+2 to Curses (Necromancer only)
+20% Faster Cast Rate
+25% to Poison Skill Damage
+30 Defense
Cold Resist +30%

Natalya's Soul
Mesh Boots
Defense: 134
Durability: 66 of 116
Required Level: 25
Required Strength: 65
Fingerprint: 0x39b36fcb
Item Level: 88
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+40% Faster Run/Walk
+97 Defense
Heal Stamina Plus (Based on Character Level) +21%
Cold Resist +25%
Lightning Resist +21%
+50 Maximum Durability

Nokozan Relic
Amulet
Required Level: 10
Fingerprint: 0x960aa295
Item Level: 88
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+20% Faster Hit Recovery
Adds 3 - 6 Fire Damage
+10% to Maximum Fire Resist
Fire Resist +50%
+3 to Light Radius

Skin of the Vipermagi
Serpentskin Armor
Defense: 279
Durability: 23 of 24
Required Level: 29
Required Strength: 43
Fingerprint: 0xe31b431c
Item Level: 85
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+1 to All Skills
+30% Faster Cast Rate
+120% Enhanced Defense
All Resistances +33
Magic Damage Reduced by 10
+2 to Mana after each Kill
1 Sockets (1 used)
Socketed: Tir Rune

Spellsteel (on switch)
Bearded Axe
Two Hand Damage: 55 - 129
Durability: 35 of 35
Required Level: 39
Required Strength: 37
Fingerprint: 0xa468f75e
Item Level: 88
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+10% Faster Cast Rate
165% Enhanced Damage
+100 to Mana
Regenerate Mana 25%
Magic Damage Reduced by 13
Level 12 Firestorm (60/60 Charges)
Level 10 Holy Bolt (100/100 Charges)
Level 3 Decrepify (30/30 Charges)
Level 1 Teleport (13/20 Charges)
Requirements -60%

My original planning started with using Arm of King Leoric, but it exceeded my rarity criterion and Spirit just worked better in the build.

Charms

Serpent's Grand Charm of Life
Grand Charm
Required Level: 41
Fingerprint: 0xa8bf8778
Item Level: 85
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+12 to Life
+55 to Mana

Serpent's Small Charm of Burning
Small Charm
Required Level: 40
Fingerprint: 0x606c1fe4
Item Level: 85
Version: Expansion 1.10+
Adds 3 - 6 Fire Damage
+17 to Mana

Snake's Small Charm of Sustenance
Small Charm
Required Level: 24
Fingerprint: 0xa4311463
Item Level: 85
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+12 to Life
+12 to Mana

Serpent's Grand Charm of Balance
Grand Charm
Required Level: 41
Fingerprint: 0xddf9f0bb
Item Level: 88
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+12% Faster Hit Recovery
+58 to Mana

Shimmering Grand Charm
Grand Charm
Required Level: 27
Fingerprint: 0xd229a880
Item Level: 88
Version: Expansion 1.10+
All Resistances +14

Serpent's Small Charm of Sustenance
Small Charm
Required Level: 40
Fingerprint: 0x7c225f73
Item Level: 82
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+13 to Life
+16 to Mana

Amber Small Charm of Strength
Small Charm
Required Level: 32
Fingerprint: 0xda370647
Item Level: 84
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+2 to Strength
Lightning Resist +11%

Neeraj, Might Mercenary

Hone Sundan
Yari
Two Hand Damage: 106 - 215
Durability: 28 of 28
Required Level: 37
Required Strength: 101
Fingerprint: 0xd5fbe4da
Item Level: 85
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+40% Increased Attack Speed
197% Enhanced Damage
Adds 20 - 40 Damage
7% Life stolen per hit
45% Chance of Crushing Blow
Repairs 1 Durability in 10 Seconds
3 Sockets (3 used)
Socketed: Shael Rune
Socketed: Shael Rune
Socketed: Amn Rune

Duriel's Shell
Cuirass
Defense: 663
Durability: 38 of 150
Required Level: 41
Required Strength: 65
Fingerprint: 0x5d039965
Item Level: 86
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+174% Enhanced Defense
+107 Defense (Based on Character Level)
+15 to Strength
+86 to Life (Based on Character Level)
Cold Resist +30%
All Resistances +20
Cannot Be Frozen
+100 Maximum Durability

Guillaume's Face
Winged Helm
Defense: 217
Durability: 40 of 40
Required Level: 34
Required Strength: 115
Fingerprint: 0xb5fa83ca
Item Level: 87
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+30% Faster Hit Recovery
35% Chance of Crushing Blow
15% Deadly Strike
+120% Enhanced Defense
+15 to Strength

[highlight]Playthrough[/highlight][highlight][/highlight]
As I said he started out mostly like a fishymancer, so it took awhile for poison nova to take center stage. That said, by the end of Nightmare it had taken over as the primary damage dealer. I leveled up to 85 in the Pits, partially because that would let Radament's quest reward complete the build so I could do the rest of the game at full strength, but mostly I was just having fun. I did most of the runs on p5, but I tried some at p7, as well, with times of 7-8 minutes for p5 and ~12 for p7. The p7 runs felt really rough, and most of them I ended up having to TP out to ress the merc and pick up more skeletons at some point.

As far as notable points, there weren't many as I quested through Hell at p1, p3 for Act bosses, and he's pretty damn strong for that. I did see a set of champ wasp nests, which is always nice. The only difficult area I ran into was Hell Frozen River, which spawned with witches, gloams (poison immune) and ghosts (poison immune.) A bosspack of ghosts spawned near the stairs and tore through my minions. After a quick trip back to town to resurrect the merc and regroup, I decided to try to tele-run through the area, but ended up S&Eing after emptying the belt of rejuvs. The new roll included no poison immunes and proved no problem. Beyond that, WSK level 3 had a pair of Frenzytaur bosspacks waiting in the room next to the stairs. Amp and Fanaticism were present, and again the whole crew of minions were struck down, but a TP out and a second attempt won the day. Fanatic Ventar was handled by the merc + CE, with no huge issues.

Finds
Forges: Hel/Hel
-Biggin’s Bonnet in Normal Flayer Jungle
-The 16mana/13life SC he’s using.
-14ED 4os Great Bow in the Den of Evil
-+3/-4 cold/level facet in the Pits
-A horribly rolled (25/8) Andariel’s in the Pits
-An eth 0os Berserker Axe in the Pits
-The Amber of Strength SC he’s using.

Deaths
Nope. To be fair, though, he most likely would have died in the Frozen River if I hadn't S&Eed, if you want to count that as a death. A few other close calls, such as taking a prowling dead charge to the face while amped in the Glacial Trail or an arrow from a CE/cursed archer in the Pits, but he never went belly up. I didn't teleport all that much but I'm still quite surprised that when I did (such as in the Maggot Lair, Arcane Sanctuary, Durance, and Frozen River) I didn't end up in hairier situations.

Thanks for reading! I had written an awful and awkward sign-off involving the puns of "skill a ton" and "poise in" but decided to spare you. Allow me to speak my apology by way of kpop.

 

[SunsetVista]

Congrats! This is so encouraging to see a perfectly viable poisonmancer without Death's Web. I really like the Spellsteel switch for tele!

and the puns at the end. ouch. =)

 

[Zubans]

Congratulations on another Pat. I really like this build. Are your skeletons strong enough with so few points in mastery? If so I should definitely try it out, I always sacrifice poison damage for skeleton power.
Spellsteel is always good although I prefer to simply shop a teleport staff as soon as possible.

 

[maareek]

@SunsetVista: Spellsteel was the first piece of gear I settled on. Bosses are not fun with poisonmancers, but teleport makes them worlds better. And yes, completely viable, in spite of clearly being much weaker than the Death's Web toting versions I've done in the past. Also just a lot of fun.

@Zubans: That's actually kind of tough to answer. Depends on how you'd describe "strong enough" and how you plan to play the char out. If you want to play more like a fishymancer and sort of follow around behind your army of skeletons, then you're probably better off making them beefier at the cost of poison damage. For my part, I'm running ahead to poison casters/archers and draw melee enemies in, just in general being as active with the necromancer as I can, so I value the poison damage much higher. Once I'm in Hell I really just see the skeletons as something I can run the necromancer behind to change what the AI is targeting before I dart back in and let off another nova, or as meatshields for the merc in the case of immunes.

They die to strong physical damage (apm + might/fana or just amp + a lot of damage [witches, lots of archers, etc.]) as well as to gloams and balrogs, though they stand up to balrogs better than I expected. They don't do much damage, but that wasn't part of their job requirement when I hired them, either. So, if your question is "how are they as meatshields?" the answer is fine, not great. If your question is "do they do much damage?" the answer is no, not really.

 

[Zubans]

Hmmm. Interesting. Are they in your opinion the best meatshield then? I mean compared to say 20 points into one of the golems, or revive?
Also how much do you use lower resist on this character (if at all)?

 

[maareek]

Hmmm. Interesting. Are they in your opinion the best meatshield then? I mean compared to say 20 points into one of the golems, or revive?

I've never considered revives, and I'm not really particularly interested in having them if I'm honest, but I imagine they're fine as long as you keep tabs on the timer. It's alot of extra points to get to, but you shouldn't have to spend as many when you get there so it's probably something of a wash. My issues would be: I probably run through too fast and would lose a good portion of them while questing which is obviously not great when coming to a fresh area where you need them, a lot of monsters just aren't that great to revive and I don't want to have to worry about the timer.

Golems are good, and you have to get Clay Golem for Summon Resist, anyway, so I used him on this char and he was fine. If I were going to pump a golem for a meatshield, I'd go with Clay or Iron, leaning towards Clay. Fire is cute and all, but I don't think the pulse is as reliable in drawing monsters as you'd hope. My favorite, and what I consider best, poisonmancer build is maxed Poison Nova + synergies, 20 CE and then extra points in Golem Mastery for an Iron Golem, and that certainly makes for a strong Golem, but in that style I use teleport, making meatshields much less important.

The main draw for skeletons to my mind is sheer numbers, as even the sturdiest merc or golem can get dropped by some mobs, and sometimes they just get surrounded and extra monsters come after the necro. Revives can give you the same/a larger number of bodies, if you're okay with the timer issue, so that may be the route you'd rather go. As for what's best, I haven't a clue, but skeletons were what made the most sense to me for this style.

Also how much do you use lower resist on this character (if at all)?

Basically all the time. Bosses get decrepified, poison immunes get amped or decreped as necessary, sometimes I'll amp fire immunes before setting off a CE chain, and of course it was all amp before ~act 5 NM, but for the most part if something is on the screen it's under the effects of lower resist, the skill is just way too strong to not be using it pretty much all the time.

 

[Zubans]

Thanks for sharing your thoughts. This was very informative. I think I will have to try out this setup sometime

 

[maareek]

@Zubans: Glad to help.

Since I was talking about it I decided I could just show a video of the character, so I recorded a p5 Pit run (what he was doing for leveling.) Also went ahead and did one with the best gear I could give him for comparison's sake. I haven't found a Death's Web since my restart, or I'd have done one with that, but I figured I'd go ahead and include a vid from someone else using one. Not a scientific comparison, clearly, but still interesting.

Same gear as listed above. I teleport more in this than I ever did while leveling, but still. Normally there would be a bosspack in the room(s) with the devilkin shamen, which is why I hit them.

I swapped gear around to: Harley (PTopaz), Mara's, HoTO, Enigma, Homunculus (PDiamond), Trang's gloves, Arachnid Mesh, SoJ, BKWB (only have 1 SoJ), and War Trav's with CtA and Lidless Wall on switch. No skillers, I only have 1 anyway, since I wasn't using them before. Had changed my lower resist hotkey from before to teleport here, which caused a couple of bad teleports.

Not me, in fact someone significantly better than me. Mind you this video is almost 6 years old now, and Corr doubtless can do better now, but still shows how powerful the poisonmancer can be.