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My take on poor man's summoner:
"doodles" <tomfulton53nospammer@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:M2qMd.281$hU7.23@newssvr33.news.prodigy.com...
> For 50 Pgems, you can trade for some decent stuff. For starters:
>
> 1. Get rid of Tancred's armor, you can do better than that easily. Put it
on
> a mule or merc or something.
> 2. Keep 7 of the PTopaz for mf in helm and armor.
Can't disagree with that.
> 3. You should be able to get Griswold's armor for use at level 45...it
> requires 103 strength, but has 3 sockets for PTopaz.
> 4. Alternatively you can trade for a 4-socket Dusk Shroud and put PTopaz
in
> that. I would be surprised if you paid more than 10-12 pgems for either
of
> these, and you might get them for 8 from the right buyer.
For cheap MF, I would find or trade for a 4 socket gothic armor. It is the
lightest 4 socket armor you can get for your topazes. Heck, get one for
your merc too while you are at it. It is a waste to spend more points in
strength with a necro as the added defense won't benefit you as much as more
life, especially in HC. A dusk shroud is ok too, but more expensive and a
little heavier. If I had one of each, I would put the elite armor on the
merc. If you are not going for MF, Spirit Shroud and Vipermagi are nice
inexpensive options.
> 5. A 3 socket helm of some kind can be bought at a merchant in town, but
you
> might be able to do better with a set or unique. Optimal is a Shako, of
> course, but no one is going to trade one of those for pgems. But you can
> easily get Tal's mask for 10 pgems, and put a pTopaz in it. A
"mini-Shako"
> is the unique Tarnhelm, which gives 25-50% mf and +1 to all skills...put
in
> a PTopaz and you have 50-75 mf roughly, and skills to boot. Tarn might
cost
> you another 10-15 Pgems.
Tarn is a nice choice for MF. Peasant crown is also cheap and good. Even
easier is a Lore helm if you are really poor and need more resists.
> 6. The only parts of Tancred's I use are the boots and amulet to get the
big
> boost in mf.
> 7. You should still have 20 pgems left, and you could trade for resist
> charms...figure a SC with high resist (10-11%) in any single resistance
> might cost you 2-5 pgems each. You could pick up a big boost in
resistances
> that way, and free up other equipment for inexpensive mf (Goldwrap belt,
> Chance Guard gloves, etc).
Other items I think are crucial and cheap, are a good necro head and wand.
You can shop a nice wand with +3 RS and +3SM early. At level 45, you can
use +3 summon wands with hopefully other nice mods. RS is much more
important than SM for skellys, so if you are impatient, at least get one
with +3 RS. Remember that the available mods are tied to your clvl, so RS
wont be available to a high level character. My favorite unique is Carrin
Shard, which you can probably get for gems. If you can also get an Arm of
King Leoric, raise your skeletons with that on switch. Your skeleton level
with stay when you switch back for the juicy other mods on Carrin. Lastly,
a White rune word wand can be pretty good, but it is harder to get one with
good mods and two sockets.
For your shield, spend some time in act 1 from Dark Wood on and check all
the heads that drop. Or, you can repair any damaged head you find
(anywhere) until you get a non-magic one with 2 sockets and +3 RS. If you
are lucky it will have SM also. Make Rhyme and you will have a very nice
cheap head. I prefer that to Homonculus, but that is good also.
Lastly, try to get an amy with all skills or summon or teleport. Fill in
the rest of your needs with your gloves, belt, rings and boots. They are
less important so don't blow your tradables to get them. As for
Marrowwalks, I have a pair but don't use them as they are heavy and the +2
SM is not as valuable as some speed, resists, and MF on a good pair of
rares. They are expensive too, so not a very good choice for the budget HC
summoner.
GL,
-Steve