Poison Nova Necro - spare points?

Aconite

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Jan 6, 2007
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Poison Nova Necro - spare points?

Hi,

I'm looking for some advice on what to do with my remaining skill points...

I've got a lvl 80 nova necro, he's running The Pit on /p8 at the moment, and has been there since level 67. Not yet Patted.

Current skills are:
- 20/34 in the three poison skills (hoping to get this to 38 at least once I get my paws on some more skillers)
- 1/15 corpse explosion
- 1/17 all curses
- 1/13 clay golem, golem mastery, summon resist

I've got 13 spare points, plus 3 remaining from quest reward I've yet to do.

He's a max block nova necro using Death's Web, Homunculus, 2xSoJ+Mara's, Trang's Gloves, Shako, Arachnid Mesh and a Vipermaji. I swap in Skullders and Goldwrap for Pit running.

He is using a holy freeze merc with Fortitude, Reapers and Gaze (will switch to Andy's in a few levels).

At this stage I'm not sure what to do with the extra skill points. Options I've considered:

- max corpse explosion (I'm using this as a secondary attack to speed things up on occasion)
- max lower resist (not sure it's worth it, minimal drop in resists really)
- max bone wall for bone armour (bit more defence)
- strengthen the gumby (he's seems strong enough already though)

I'm currently just levelling / MFing and letting the points collect, but at some stage I'll move on from The Pit and start thinking about running Baal. So, any skill choice would need to support that. I expect him to hit level 90 at least, which means I'll have 26 points available.

Thanks for your thoughts.
 
Re: Poison Nova Necro - spare points?

I'm currently re-building my pitrunner with almost the exact items you listed.

First, my current pitmancer decided to max corpse explosion, and I can say that speeds up runs significantly. He uses a defiance merc with Fort, Insight, and Gaze, just for easier spamming... the Insight isn't really necessary. The only problem is nasty archer spawns, especially because I don't have CtA.

My new pitmancer is going to max raise skeleton and put one point into skeleton mastery and all other points into CE. He'll use a prayer merc with insight for some gg life regen on the skeles. He'll be carrying Naj's staff on switch to move the skeles when needed.

My new pitmancer will probably run slower than maxed CE, but I figure the added safety will be nice. That said, I might end up rebuilding him again :D. This is a build with a ton of variability and I'm sure I'll try at least a few options out in due time.
 
Re: Poison Nova Necro - spare points?

Definately don't max lower resist. At lvl10 (edit: or maybe 11, can't remember) it already breaks every immunity that it can break.

Corpse explosion is always a good choice, people like using skeletons too. For my poison necro, I was first going for maxing bone wall, but abandoned it because I never used it (Dim Vision) and very high bone armor isn't all that necessary for me either, over 200 or so absorb is enough I think. Instead I went with revives and a golem, first the fire-type and now an iron one.

Golem mastery is great for IG:s so you don't have to make new ones all the time, but maybe not that useful for the other types because you can just cast them as many times as you like. Revives have huge amounts of life, but they don't do any damage and disappear all the time without teleport.

Also, here are all the unbreakable poison immunes in the Throne room:

Burning souls
Serpent magus'
Achmel
Ventar and his pack.
 
Re: Poison Nova Necro - spare points?

First of all, a question of mine :D Why homunculus + Arachnids instead of the 2 Trang parts? (EDIT: sorry, missed the part about max block)

For skills: Mine has 10 pts in CE and 20 in Bone Wall as a synergy for BA (clvl 91). Don't go for extra points in LR of pumping CG or his mastery, imo those aren't worth it. You could do it the other way around too: 20 CE and pump BW. A bigger CE is probably better if you intend to keep playing on /p8. I play mostly on /p3, and I find myself using CE more in /p8.

Another option would be pumping IG/Mastery (don't know which, I should check out the pet calculator), and make an Insight IG, as CE does drain your mana pretty quickly. Haven't tried that before though, so I can't give you feedback on that.

Have fun with this Necro, they are amazingly fun to play.
 
Re: Poison Nova Necro - spare points?

I've built 5-6 of these. I think that if you are trying to make a pit-runner, the best option is maxing out CE. It is just devastating, particularly at /p1 (best if you are just MF'ing). I've done it with skellies too, and they add a bit of safety, but its really not necessary with PN/CE, because everything is pretty much dead before the skellies can do anything relevant. I've also done them with max DV, which is great for safety, particularly with sub-optimal gear. Again, its pretty much not necessary with the gear you've got.

For a pitrunner, I'd max CE and then buff golem a bit. Ideally, I'd go with a 1-point IG with the rest in golem mastery. Then make an insight IG. Merc can then go with obedience, crescent moon, or some other cool stick.

Now, I've never run Baal much with a poisonmancer. If I were, I'd probably go with revives, a decent radius DV, and some in CE. Not sure though, not enough experience to go on...
 
Re: Poison Nova Necro - spare points?

For a pitrunner, I'd max CE and then buff golem a bit. Ideally, I'd go with a 1-point IG with the rest in golem mastery. Then make an insight IG.
Agreed, if I were to remake mine, I'd do this too.

Keep in mind that PN kills everything with just one cast on /p1 (I'm talking DWeb and 3 part Trang, no LR). So I don't use CE that much on /p1.


 
Re: Poison Nova Necro - spare points?

Keep in mind that PN kills everything with just one cast on /p1 (I'm talking DWeb and 3 part Trang, no LR). So I don't use CE that much on /p1.

True - but a max-CE expands your killing range very significantly. Your PN will kill ~2/3 of a screen. Then pop a few corpses at that periphery and you'll have another 1.5 screens (or so) cleared in just a few seconds. I find with my enigma/DWeb pitrunner that spamming a max CE between PN's makes a big difference.



 
Re: Poison Nova Necro - spare points?

Thanks all, for posting.

Seems like CE is the obvious choice, then.

I'm only running on /p8 at the moment to level up. Once I start hitting The Pit for straight MF it'll be dropped back to /p1. At this stage it seems to me that CE isn't a necessity for running at /p1 but I can see it speeding things up when it has a better range. However, it'll be useful whilst I level from 80 to 90 on /p8.

I much prefer this character to a strafer for running The Pit. Feels a lot safer, and quicker.

I think I'll max CE, and maybe drop a single point into Bone Armour for a little more safety.

I'm currently getting 14 mana per kill, and have had no issues with mana even without Insight. So not sure about an Insight IG. I will have to give it some more thought. I can always drop a point into IG later and put the remaining points into GM, once CE has been maxed.

I also like the slow from the CG... that coupled with the Holy Freeze aura makes things safer, and a few shattered corpses don't really bother me as I'm not relying on CE for damage. That may change when I start running Baal.

The skeleton route just doesn't feel right on this guy, so I'll skip that.

Hmm.. I'd forgotten about Ventar and co being PI (and didn't realise they were unbreakable). Baal running with this guy will need some testing, and a bit of research. Level 17 DV will hopefully be adequate. And a maxed CE will help out with the PIs in the Throne Room.

Right then... back to levelling. Just found another grailer in The Pit - Naj's Light Plate ;-)
 
Re: Poison Nova Necro - spare points?

I'm currently getting 14 mana per kill, and have had no issues with mana even without Insight. So not sure about an Insight IG. I will have to give it some more thought. I can always drop a point into IG later and put the remaining points into GM, once CE has been maxed.

I also like the slow from the CG... that coupled with the Holy Freeze aura makes things safer, and a few shattered corpses don't really bother me as I'm not relying on CE for damage. That may change when I start running Baal.
CE's mana cost goes up with every point you put into it. You might want to reconsider Insight when it's maxed.

The slow from the CG doesn't matter if you kill everything right away in the Pits. For Baal runs, it might help you more, but I can't comment on that. I tried mine out for Baalrunning, but I didn't quite like it.


 
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