Some Necro Questions

[somebody]

Archived from groups: alt.games.diablo2 (More info?)

There are two questions I have, actually, and both are about
Necromancer spells.

The first: how does the Iron Golem work, exactly? What attributes
carry over from an item that you use to create one, and what
attributes don't? What attributes does the Golem have (if any) that
it has by default, regardless of whether they are on the item or not?

Looking over the different types of Golems, I'd have to say my
favorite so far is the Clay! My Necro (Softcore) is only level 26
now, so I've had an opportunity to try out the Blood and Iron Golems a
little bit... but my Clay Golem is dying the least, even though I
would have thought he might not be as good, since he's the
lowest-level Golem.

If one is looking to build a Necromancer with really good Golems
(since I like the Golems), is it better to invest in a few backup
Skeletons, or to just put that much more points into the Golems
themselves? I would try only putting points into the Golems, and work
on a Skellemancer build on a separate Necro, but it just seems like
the guy doesn't have enough of a shield between him and the bad guys
without a few Skellies in the way while the Golem's giving it to them
good.


And now my second question:
If a monster is poisoned (let's assume the poison has a long enough
duration to cover the timespan of these events I describe), and then I
cast Amplify Damage *after* the poison has been inflicted... does the
poison begin to do doublefold damage, or still just keep doing the
rate of damage that was first inflicted unless poisoned again while
the curse is in place? I would think that the poison would begin to
do doublefold...but I have to ask.

Also, I just thought of one more question:
If I have a wand with a +# to Raise Skeleton, and then unequip it, if
I have Skeletons raised from that bonus, the Skeletons go pop.
But...there are certain levels to spells such as Raise Skeleton, which
don't add to the number of Skeletons, but instead add just to the
damage and such. There are intervals there at 3 and 5 Skellies I
think... I don't remember exactly... but let's just say we're at one
of those intervals. I have X number of points into Raise Skeleton...
and, therefore, X number of Skeletons. Unequipping a +1 to Raise
Skeleton wand *doesn't* make any of my Skellies go pop because the
point that was added by the wand only increased the damage and
durability of my Skellies...
So do the damage and durability of the Skellies go down then? Or just
stay at the levels they were when the Skellies were raised?
If the former is true, do they go back up if I re-equip the wand, or
do I have to actually *re-raise* the Skeletons to get the bonus again?

That's all.
Whew!

--*Dividedbyzero on USEast

 

[somebody]

Archived from groups: alt.games.diablo2 (More info?)

I apologize for replying to my own post like this... but I just want
to say I realize that was a *lot* more than two, or even three
questions. Sorry about that.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.games.diablo2 (More info?)

Somebody wrote:
> There are two questions I have, actually, and both are about
> Necromancer spells.
>
> The first: how does the Iron Golem work, exactly? What attributes
> carry over from an item that you use to create one, and what
> attributes don't? What attributes does the Golem have (if any) that
> it has by default, regardless of whether they are on the item or not?
>
The only thing the Iron Golem starts with is his 7-19 attack and the
Thorns aura. If made from a weapon, the weapon damage is added to his
normal attack, and he gets most of the weapon modifiers (poison,
crushing blow, etc.). If made from a shield or armor, he gets the
defensive bonuses of the item. Hwanin's armor is a favorite "golem
seed", as are 4-socket paladin shields with perfect skulls. Note that
item level is irrelevant, so your high-level characters can feed elite
items to your lvl 24 necros (Immortal King mauls, for example).

> Looking over the different types of Golems, I'd have to say my
> favorite so far is the Clay! My Necro (Softcore) is only level 26
> now, so I've had an opportunity to try out the Blood and Iron Golems
a
> little bit... but my Clay Golem is dying the least, even though I
> would have thought he might not be as good, since he's the
> lowest-level Golem.
>
I actually prefer the Fire Golem once I get to 30. His main advantage
is that monsters concentrate their attacks on the golem in response to
his Holy Fire aura, ignoring the more-fragile merc with the big stick.

> If one is looking to build a Necromancer with really good Golems
> (since I like the Golems), is it better to invest in a few backup
> Skeletons, or to just put that much more points into the Golems
> themselves? I would try only putting points into the Golems, and
work
> on a Skellemancer build on a separate Necro, but it just seems like
> the guy doesn't have enough of a shield between him and the bad guys
> without a few Skellies in the way while the Golem's giving it to them
> good.
>
In 1.09, golem life was boosted by the number of players in the game,
so high-level golems (mostly Iron) were pretty tough. In 1.10, golems
stay the same size, so they are at an extreme disadvantage as the
number of players increases and the monsters get bigger. Other nerfs
include the removal of the Blood Golem \ Iron Maiden synergy, and Fire
Golems no longer regenerate from fire. A 20-point golem isn't that much
more effective than a 1-point golem, whereas skeletons benefit immensly
from an extra 20 points. (You'll also have +10 or so skill boosts, so
the 1-point golems are actually at level 11 and are fairly durable.)

> And now my second question:
> If a monster is poisoned (let's assume the poison has a long enough
> duration to cover the timespan of these events I describe), and then
I
> cast Amplify Damage *after* the poison has been inflicted... does the
> poison begin to do doublefold damage, or still just keep doing the
> rate of damage that was first inflicted unless poisoned again while
> the curse is in place? I would think that the poison would begin to
> do doublefold...but I have to ask.

Amplify Damage only affects physical damage, not poison damage. You'll
need Lower Resist to increase poison damage.

--
Zamboni

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.games.diablo2 (More info?)

On 12 Apr 2005 16:24:02 -0700, "Zamboni" <thezambonis@gmail.com>
wrote:

>The only thing the Iron Golem starts with is his 7-19 attack and the
>Thorns aura. If made from a weapon, the weapon damage is added to his
>normal attack, and he gets most of the weapon modifiers (poison,
>crushing blow, etc.). If made from a shield or armor, he gets the
>defensive bonuses of the item. Hwanin's armor is a favorite "golem
>seed", as are 4-socket paladin shields with perfect skulls. Note that
>item level is irrelevant, so your high-level characters can feed elite
>items to your lvl 24 necros (Immortal King mauls, for example).

OK. Nice to know about the shield/armor defense bonus.

>I actually prefer the Fire Golem once I get to 30. His main advantage
>is that monsters concentrate their attacks on the golem in response to
>his Holy Fire aura, ignoring the more-fragile merc with the big stick.

I haven't gotten the chance to try out a Fire Golem yet. I haven't
gotten a Necromancer high enough in the past... here's to hoping I
will get PracticeSummon up to a healthy level 40 or so so that I can
experiment a little with the Fire Golem. I've been curious about it,
it's actually the one I know the least about (since I'm a little bit
more educated about the Iron Golem now).

>In 1.09, golem life was boosted by the number of players in the game,
>so high-level golems (mostly Iron) were pretty tough. In 1.10, golems
>stay the same size, so they are at an extreme disadvantage as the
>number of players increases and the monsters get bigger. Other nerfs
>include the removal of the Blood Golem \ Iron Maiden synergy, and Fire
>Golems no longer regenerate from fire. A 20-point golem isn't that much
>more effective than a 1-point golem, whereas skeletons benefit immensly
>from an extra 20 points. (You'll also have +10 or so skill boosts, so
>the 1-point golems are actually at level 11 and are fairly durable.)

I see. Well, I've already put 5 or 6 points into Clay Golem... no
more than 1 into Blood and Iron though. But the extra points into
Clay should be useful for added durability.

>Amplify Damage only affects physical damage, not poison damage. You'll
>need Lower Resist to increase poison damage.

OK, got it now. I just wasn't thinking about the poison not being
physical damage...for some reason I was inclined to assume that it
was, but I understand now that it's not, and isn't included in the Amp
Damage.

PS: I changed aliases; instead of "Somebody" I'm now "*Dividedbyzero"
so that I don't have to put that at the end of my posts. Just
mentioned that in a previous thread except now, by having to explain
myself, I'm counteracting the effort made to save the typing at the
end of the posts! And, I'll still have to make sure to let potential
gamers-with that I'm on the USEast server at the end of my posts, so I
wonder if I should've just stayed with my "Somebody" thing...

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.games.diablo2 (More info?)

In article <9b5o5197m9vjf0sh28lnak15s405sqho2f@4ax.com>,
Somebody <thisis@fake.ihope> wrote:
>There are two questions I have, actually, and both are about
>Necromancer spells.
>
>The first: how does the Iron Golem work, exactly? What attributes
>carry over from an item that you use to create one, and what
>attributes don't? What attributes does the Golem have (if any) that
>it has by default, regardless of whether they are on the item or not?

Quite a lot of attributes carry over, including any resists the item has,
auras (I read here recently) are also carried over. Also, Crushing Blow
does.

Other people can answer this better, though.

>Looking over the different types of Golems, I'd have to say my
>favorite so far is the Clay! My Necro (Softcore) is only level 26
>now, so I've had an opportunity to try out the Blood and Iron Golems a
>little bit... but my Clay Golem is dying the least, even though I
>would have thought he might not be as good, since he's the
>lowest-level Golem.

It's also the Golem I use most. The Clay Golem has a lot of life, slows
down the enemy it hits and is also quite durable.

>If one is looking to build a Necromancer with really good Golems
>(since I like the Golems), is it better to invest in a few backup
>Skeletons, or to just put that much more points into the Golems
>themselves? I would try only putting points into the Golems, and work
>on a Skellemancer build on a separate Necro, but it just seems like
>the guy doesn't have enough of a shield between him and the bad guys
>without a few Skellies in the way while the Golem's giving it to them
>good.

Actually, if you want to build a golem-mancer, you're in for quite a
ride. Rumour has it, it's a tough character to play, especially once you
progress to Hell.

>And now my second question:
>If a monster is poisoned (let's assume the poison has a long enough
>duration to cover the timespan of these events I describe), and then I
>cast Amplify Damage *after* the poison has been inflicted... does the
>poison begin to do doublefold damage, or still just keep doing the
>rate of damage that was first inflicted unless poisoned again while
>the curse is in place? I would think that the poison would begin to
>do doublefold...but I have to ask.

Since Amplify Damage only lowers a monsters _physical_ resistance, I
would expect it to have no effect at all on a running poison-attack.

Now, if you asked this question about the curse 'Lower Resists', I
wouldn't know for sure, but it's quite possible poison damage is
increased.

>Also, I just thought of one more question:
>If I have a wand with a +# to Raise Skeleton, and then unequip it, if
>I have Skeletons raised from that bonus, the Skeletons go pop.
>But...there are certain levels to spells such as Raise Skeleton, which
>don't add to the number of Skeletons, but instead add just to the
>damage and such. There are intervals there at 3 and 5 Skellies I
>think... I don't remember exactly... but let's just say we're at one
>of those intervals. I have X number of points into Raise Skeleton...
>and, therefore, X number of Skeletons. Unequipping a +1 to Raise
>Skeleton wand *doesn't* make any of my Skellies go pop because the
>point that was added by the wand only increased the damage and
>durability of my Skellies...
>So do the damage and durability of the Skellies go down then? Or just
>stay at the levels they were when the Skellies were raised?
>If the former is true, do they go back up if I re-equip the wand, or
>do I have to actually *re-raise* the Skeletons to get the bonus again?

It's been my impression the skeletons keep the stats they had when
raised. So they don't go back.

The same goes for skeletons you raised with a lower amount of +skills:
when you equip the +skills equipment, you have to re-raise the skeletons
for them to get the better stats.

If I'm wrong, somebody will surely correct me. Hope this helped.

Regards,

Patrick.

 

[Guest]

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On Wed, 13 Apr 2005 00:00:48 +0200, Patrick Vervoorn
<patrick.vervoorn@NOSPAM.perihelion.demon.nl> wrote:

>In article <9b5o5197m9vjf0sh28lnak15s405sqho2f@4ax.com>,
>Somebody <thisis@fake.ihope> wrote:
*snip*
>>how does the Iron Golem work, exactly? What attributes
>>carry over from an item that you use to create one, and what
>>attributes don't? What attributes does the Golem have (if any) that
>>it has by default, regardless of whether they are on the item or not?
>
>Quite a lot of attributes carry over, including any resists the item has,
>auras (I read here recently) are also carried over. Also, Crushing Blow
>does.
>
>Other people can answer this better, though.

Thanks, because that's more than I knew before. Crushing Blow sounds
like a good example. Open Wounds and things like that (not sure how
many others there are) are in the same category as Crushing Blow I
think, so I guess those would cross over too... I haven't tried out
any items with auras, but I'll have to pay attention to resistances.

>>Looking over the different types of Golems, I'd have to say my
>>favorite so far is the Clay!
*snip*
>It's also the Golem I use most. The Clay Golem has a lot of life, slows
>down the enemy it hits and is also quite durable.

The Clay Golem has been pretty durable for me, what with dying less
than the others and all. Currently I don't have many points into it,
but I do have more points into Clay than Blood or Iron, so before
judging them maybe I should give them more points too...

>Actually, if you want to build a golem-mancer, you're in for quite a
>ride. Rumour has it, it's a tough character to play, especially once you
>progress to Hell.

I don't know much about the Hell difficulty! I haven't actually been
in it yet... well, I think I might've gotten to it once... but just
looked around a bit... didn't actually try to kill anything... I'm not
sure I even went out of the Rogue Encampment once I got into Hell. I
really don't remember, it was a long time ago...

>Since Amplify Damage only lowers a monsters _physical_ resistance, I
>would expect it to have no effect at all on a running poison-attack.

Oh, OK, so poison doesn't count as physical damage. I didn't actually
know that. It might have made sense if I had thought about it, but I
assumed it counted as physical damage... since poison doesn't seem
like a "magical" thing... but OK. That makes sense.

>Now, if you asked this question about the curse 'Lower Resists', I
>wouldn't know for sure, but it's quite possible poison damage is
>increased.

Hmm...

>It's been my impression the skeletons keep the stats they had when
>raised. So they don't go back.
>
>The same goes for skeletons you raised with a lower amount of +skills:
>when you equip the +skills equipment, you have to re-raise the skeletons
>for them to get the better stats.
>
>If I'm wrong, somebody will surely correct me. Hope this helped.
>
>Regards,
>
>Patrick.

Thank you. That's what I would assume too, but since I didn't know
for sure... and was curious... I wanted to ask. Not sure it's even
that important to know this, since one point of bonuses in Skeletons
doesn't make *that* much of a difference anyway... but it still might
come in handy sometime, and gives me a better understanding of the way
the game works in these ways and how I'll be dealing with things. So
thanks for the reply and giving me the information that you could.

 

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Archived from groups: alt.games.diablo2 (More info?)

On 12 Apr 2005 16:24:02 -0700, "Zamboni" <thezambonis@gmail.com>
wrote:



>>
>I actually prefer the Fire Golem once I get to 30. His main advantage
>is that monsters concentrate their attacks on the golem in response to
>his Holy Fire aura, ignoring the more-fragile merc with the big stick.
>

Me too. the ability to cast the fire golem to turn monsters away
from.. whatever... is a good trick to learn.

However, if i stumble upon a nice rare or unique weapon, usually i'll
make an iron golem out of it for fun. My fire golem is hot keyed and
as soon as the iron golem dies, i replace him with the fire golem.

 

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On Wed, 13 Apr 2005 11:57:54 -0400, PeeVee_Herman
<edwardapplejacksmith@yahoo.com> wrote:

>I must be the only Necro player that almost never uses corpse
>explosion. When i do use it, it's usually trying to kill a big bad
>boss or unique. More often than not, i'd rather have the bodies left
>intact to raise more skeletons. But, the idea is, use corpse explosion
>to kill the monsters so they dont kill your skellies and then you wont
>have to raise them anyway.

Actually, I hardly ever use corpse explosion myself. I found a wand
that some monster dropped which had a +1 to corpse explosion, and I
was just beginning Act 2... so I decided to hang onto it, in case it
came in handy in the Maggot Lair. Sometimes it is inconvenient if
Corpse Explosion doesn't turn out to be as effective as you planned,
and you end up with exploded corpses that didn't actually kill the
monsters, and dead Skeletons which need to be raised again but can't
due to the exploded corpses.

>I'm in Nightmare now, about 8 revives, 25 skellies and 10 mages,
>skelly mastery maxed, and a fire golem and a merc with thorns aura.
>Cast fire golem to attract if needed, slow the bastards with Decrep
>until I get the attack odds in my favor, then cast amp damage. Seems
>to be working great for me. Apply bone spirit or bone spear if needed.

Right now I'm in Act 5 Normal with my now level 35 Summoner. He has 6
skeletons, 3 mages, and I believe a couple points into Skeleton and
Golem Mastery now... I also have a level 21 Act 2 Combat Mercenary
with him, (yes, the mercenary got way behind! I need to either catch
him up or get a new one when I get to Nightmare Act 2... any
suggestions for which would be best?) and I use either the Clay or
Fire Golem. The Fire Golem has been pretty good for me so far... I
think now that my favorite Golem is a toss-up between Clay and Fire.
The Fire Golem looks all nice and firey too, as opposed to the sort of
plain... Clay-ish look... of the Clay Golem. But then, Clay should
look like Clay, and Fire should look like Fire...
I have one point (at least) into each of the Curses now, but for the
most part I only use Decrepify and Amplify Damage, in Act 5 currently
anyway.

>I know theres ten million ways to play this character. thats why I
>like him. the Necro seems to be more about strategy than some of the
>other characters. I cant let any of the really strong monsters get
>near me or i'm toast.

Yep, that's why I've acquired a newfound appreciation for the
Necromancer. I'm looking forward to experimenting with many different
kinds of builds and seeing what I can do.

 

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Archived from groups: alt.games.diablo2 (More info?)

*Dividedbyzero <thisis@fake.ihope> writes:

> I need to either catch him up or get a new one when I get to
> Nightmare Act 2... any suggestions for which would be best?)

Conventional wisdom is to go with a "Might" aura mercenary, to help
everyone in your army kill faster. That's what I used for my
Skellimancer and it has worked very well indeed.

Nick

--
# sigmask (lambda deprecation version) 20041028 || feed this to a python
print ''.join([chr(ord(x)-1) for x in 'Ojdl!Wbshjti!=ojdlAwbshjti/psh?'])

 

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On 13 Apr 2005 14:54:47 -0400, Nick Vargish
<nav+posts@bandersnatch.org> wrote:

>*Dividedbyzero <thisis@fake.ihope> writes:
>
>> I need to either catch him up or get a new one when I get to
>> Nightmare Act 2... any suggestions for which would be best?)
>
>Conventional wisdom is to go with a "Might" aura mercenary, to help
>everyone in your army kill faster. That's what I used for my
>Skellimancer and it has worked very well indeed.
>
>Nick

I shall try it! I actually dumped my Act 2 Combat at level 21 since I
was getting impatient with leveling him up. After that I bought an
Act 5 Barbarian Mercenary, because I haven't really tried one before
and wanted to see what they're like... I figure I'll hang onto him
until Nightmare Act 2 and get me a new Mercenary then.

I've been playing Diablo II for very much too long today... my wrist
is getting sore... aaagghh.

--USEast

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.games.diablo2 (More info?)

> I must be the only Necro player that almost never uses corpse
> explosion. When i do use it, it's usually trying to kill a big bad
> boss or unique. More often than not, i'd rather have the bodies left
> intact to raise more skeletons. But, the idea is, use corpse explosion
> to kill the monsters so they dont kill your skellies and then you wont
> have to raise them anyway.

Basically, you have to be aware that CE doesn't scale. While in a one player
game, you can easily kill _a lot_ with CE, without running out of bodies for
skellies, an 8 player game will require a lot more CE's to do the job, thus
leaving a lot less bodies. Personally, I use CE heavily while playing alone,
and for boss packs and baal-runs, but in a "normal" multiplayer game, I tone
it down a bit.

> I'm in Nightmare now, about 8 revives, 25 skellies and 10 mages,
> skelly mastery maxed, and a fire golem and a merc with thorns aura.
> Cast fire golem to attract if needed, slow the bastards with Decrep
> until I get the attack odds in my favor, then cast amp damage. Seems
> to be working great for me. Apply bone spirit or bone spear if needed.

25 skellies? how many +skills do you need for that??

Mvh. Otto

 

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On Wed, 13 Apr 2005 19:45:16 +0200, "Otto J." <hifiotto@hotmail.com>
wrote:

>> I must be the only Necro player that almost never uses corpse
>> explosion. When i do use it, it's usually trying to kill a big bad
>> boss or unique. More often than not, i'd rather have the bodies left
>> intact to raise more skeletons. But, the idea is, use corpse explosion
>> to kill the monsters so they dont kill your skellies and then you wont
>> have to raise them anyway.
>
>Basically, you have to be aware that CE doesn't scale. While in a one player
>game, you can easily kill _a lot_ with CE, without running out of bodies for
>skellies, an 8 player game will require a lot more CE's to do the job, thus
>leaving a lot less bodies. Personally, I use CE heavily while playing alone,
>and for boss packs and baal-runs, but in a "normal" multiplayer game, I tone
>it down a bit.

i play single player 1.09 with a mod i made for myself. I dont know if
what you are telling me, makes any difference for the versions...
i might hot key up corpse explosion and use it instead of amp damage
tonight and see. Might not work for me but will probly be lots of fun
anyway



>
>> I'm in Nightmare now, about 8 revives, 25 skellies and 10 mages,
>> skelly mastery maxed, and a fire golem and a merc with thorns aura.
>> Cast fire golem to attract if needed, slow the bastards with Decrep
>> until I get the attack odds in my favor, then cast amp damage. Seems
>> to be working great for me. Apply bone spirit or bone spear if needed.
>
>25 skellies? how many +skills do you need for that??


i got a few. probly six or seven, maybe eight. My mod is written in
that the bosses are all harder to kill, hell, everything is much
harder, uniques and champions spawning constantly, but when you kill a
big boss, he drops GREAT stuff. It all started with the frustration I
got once when i killed Baal in normal and he dropped two blue items
and a single gold piece. Diablo in normal drops stone of jordan,
nightmare drops bullcathos wedding band, baal drops eye of edlitch,
etc... in hell, baal drops a zod rune. I guess I got tired of playing
single player for years and not ever seeing ANY Of these kewl things.

still, 25 skellies, thats nothing compared to the screenshots i saw
once from this other necro person here, who looked to have an army of
about 80 skellies. Pics of them all marching onto the steps of the
temple at zacharum. I aksed him too, how in the heck did you get all
those skeletons? but he never answered.

 

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"PeeVee_Herman" <edwardapplejacksmith@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:1113406283.cb835e9c278c476635a878305a21fffe@bubbanews...
> On 12 Apr 2005 16:24:02 -0700, "Zamboni" <thezambonis@gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
>
>
>>>
>>I actually prefer the Fire Golem once I get to 30. His main advantage
>>is that monsters concentrate their attacks on the golem in response to
>>his Holy Fire aura, ignoring the more-fragile merc with the big stick.
>>
>
> Me too. the ability to cast the fire golem to turn monsters away
> from.. whatever... is a good trick to learn.
>
> However, if i stumble upon a nice rare or unique weapon, usually i'll
> make an iron golem out of it for fun. My fire golem is hot keyed and
> as soon as the iron golem dies, i replace him with the fire golem.
>
>
Any time I find something ethereal, it becomes an Iron Golem for a few
minutes of coolness. (Then it dies horribly and it's back to Fire.)
--
Zamboni

 

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"*Dividedbyzero" <thisis@fake.ihope> wrote in message
news:urpq51db0bfit4mrbf313va91h56nvsjdq@4ax.com...
> On Wed, 13 Apr 2005 11:57:54 -0400, PeeVee_Herman
> <edwardapplejacksmith@yahoo.com> wrote:
>
>>I must be the only Necro player that almost never uses corpse
>>explosion. When i do use it, it's usually trying to kill a big bad
>>boss or unique. More often than not, i'd rather have the bodies left
>>intact to raise more skeletons. But, the idea is, use corpse explosion
>>to kill the monsters so they dont kill your skellies and then you wont
>>have to raise them anyway.
>
> Actually, I hardly ever use corpse explosion myself. I found a wand
> that some monster dropped which had a +1 to corpse explosion, and I
> was just beginning Act 2... so I decided to hang onto it, in case it
> came in handy in the Maggot Lair. Sometimes it is inconvenient if
> Corpse Explosion doesn't turn out to be as effective as you planned,
> and you end up with exploded corpses that didn't actually kill the
> monsters, and dead Skeletons which need to be raised again but can't
> due to the exploded corpses.
>
Level 1 Corpse Explosion has a disappointing blast radius and is almost a
waste of mana. The Maggot Lair limits the blast even further, so it would be
a really lucky shot to hit the next monster in line.

Level 30 Corpse Explosion, on the other hand, clears out the entire tunnel.

--
Zamboni

 

[Watchman]

Archived from groups: alt.games.diablo2 (More info?)

*Dividedbyzero wrote:

>
> Actually, I hardly ever use corpse explosion myself. I found a wand
> that some monster dropped which had a +1 to corpse explosion, and I
> was just beginning Act 2... so I decided to hang onto it, in case it
> came in handy in the Maggot Lair. Sometimes it is inconvenient if
> Corpse Explosion doesn't turn out to be as effective as you planned,
> and you end up with exploded corpses that didn't actually kill the
> monsters, and dead Skeletons which need to be raised again but can't
> due to the exploded corpses.

I've never used Corpse Explosion much either. But then I have a sort-of
addiction to Bone Spear. In narrow quarters it's really cool,
especially in the Maggot Lair.
Of course, the problem with Corpse Explosion is you need corpses. Not
too many of them around with Duriel, Diablo or Baal.

>
> >I'm in Nightmare now, about 8 revives, 25 skellies and 10 mages,
> >skelly mastery maxed, and a fire golem and a merc with thorns aura.
> >Cast fire golem to attract if needed, slow the bastards with Decrep
> >until I get the attack odds in my favor, then cast amp damage. Seems
> >to be working great for me. Apply bone spirit or bone spear if needed.
>
> Right now I'm in Act 5 Normal with my now level 35 Summoner. He has 6
> skeletons, 3 mages, and I believe a couple points into Skeleton and
> Golem Mastery now... I also have a level 21 Act 2 Combat Mercenary
> with him, (yes, the mercenary got way behind! I need to either catch
> him up or get a new one when I get to Nightmare Act 2... any
> suggestions for which would be best?) and I use either the Clay or
> Fire Golem. The Fire Golem has been pretty good for me so far... I
> think now that my favorite Golem is a toss-up between Clay and Fire.
> The Fire Golem looks all nice and firey too, as opposed to the sort of
> plain... Clay-ish look... of the Clay Golem. But then, Clay should
> look like Clay, and Fire should look like Fire...

They could make the clay golem glow green or pale blue, like
luminescence.

Watchman
--
'Anyone who isn't confused doesn't really know what's going on'

 

[Watchman]

Archived from groups: alt.games.diablo2 (More info?)

*Dividedbyzero wrote:
>
> On 13 Apr 2005 14:54:47 -0400, Nick Vargish
> <nav+posts@bandersnatch.org> wrote:
>
> >*Dividedbyzero <thisis@fake.ihope> writes:
> >
> >> I need to either catch him up or get a new one when I get to
> >> Nightmare Act 2... any suggestions for which would be best?)
> >
> >Conventional wisdom is to go with a "Might" aura mercenary, to help
> >everyone in your army kill faster. That's what I used for my
> >Skellimancer and it has worked very well indeed.
> >
> >Nick
>
> I shall try it! I actually dumped my Act 2 Combat at level 21 since I
> was getting impatient with leveling him up. After that I bought an
> Act 5 Barbarian Mercenary, because I haven't really tried one before
> and wanted to see what they're like... I figure I'll hang onto him
> until Nightmare Act 2 and get me a new Mercenary then.
>

Barbarians tend to be better for a Sorceress. The offensive Might Merc
is probably your best bet. Still, for something different, there's
always the combat Thorns Merc.

Watchman
--
'Anyone who isn't confused doesn't really know what's going on'

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.games.diablo2 (More info?)

On Thu, 14 Apr 2005 11:49:38 +0930, Watchman
<stryder@SPAMPHOBICwhyalla.net.au> wrote:

>Barbarians tend to be better for a Sorceress. The offensive Might Merc
>is probably your best bet. Still, for something different, there's
>always the combat Thorns Merc.

Don't often play Sorceresses.

I might try my luck with both Might and Thorns. At any rate, now I'm
stuck with the Barbarian whether I like it or not until Nightmare Act
2! Well, I guess if I get sick of him I could purchase a Rogue along
the way... but I'll probably keep the Barbarian.

I'm starting to feel guilty about having replaced my Normal Combat
Mercenary from Act 2 with this Barbarian, though. I had gotten him up
to almost level 22, and had I continued leveling him, he might have
grown very strong and useful... but that is in the past now! I need
to try my luck with Nightmare Mercenaries anyway, since I haven't ever
done so before.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.games.diablo2 (More info?)

On Thu, 14 Apr 2005 11:42:32 +0930, Watchman
<stryder@SPAMPHOBICwhyalla.net.au> wrote:

>I've never used Corpse Explosion much either. But then I have a sort-of
>addiction to Bone Spear. In narrow quarters it's really cool,
>especially in the Maggot Lair.
>Of course, the problem with Corpse Explosion is you need corpses. Not
>too many of them around with Duriel, Diablo or Baal.

Yeah; that's why I don't like to come to rely on Corpse Explosion
either... sometimes, there just aren't corpses! And if you need
corpses to raise skeletons, you can always go to the Cold Plains or
somewhere else to kill things just for the sake of raising skeletons
from their corpses. But on the other hand, if you're battling Duriel,
going to Cold Plains and killing things, then exploding their corpses
doesn't do much good. So it doesn't go the other way around...

>They could make the clay golem glow green or pale blue, like
>luminescence.

Yes... that might look nice...

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.games.diablo2 (More info?)

On Wed, 13 Apr 2005 21:52:45 -0700, "Zamboni" <zamboni@nospam.com>
wrote:

>Level 1 Corpse Explosion has a disappointing blast radius and is almost a
>waste of mana. The Maggot Lair limits the blast even further, so it would be
>a really lucky shot to hit the next monster in line.
>
>Level 30 Corpse Explosion, on the other hand, clears out the entire tunnel.
>

Yeah... my level 1 Corpse Explosion didn't make too much of a
difference... to be honest, I'm not sure how much it helped. I didn't
have as much trouble in the Maggot Lair as I thought I might. But it
did seem to help a little in some of the larger groups of monsters,
especially one time in a little "room" area where some had been
killed, but some were still alive... that was mostly those charged
bolt-emitting Beetles, I think.

I'm looking forward to the Nightmare/Hell Maggot Lairs with my
Summoner. Those might be a bit more challenging...

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.games.diablo2 (More info?)

In article <465t51t39rm6f4qpllvvd9at63ful6lqks@4ax.com>,
*Dividedbyzero <thisis@fake.ihope> wrote:

>I'm looking forward to the Nightmare/Hell Maggot Lairs with my
>Summoner. Those might be a bit more challenging...

In Nightmare it is (still) easy. In Hell however, without a _good_ merc,
and possibly a nice attack of your own (Marrowwalks-synergized Bone
Spear/Spirit) _and_ CE, you're in trouble.

I'll repeat again: CE is a necro's most devastating spell, and maxing it
is something you cannot do without. In any case, if you don't max it, you
will greatly reduce his killing speed.

And if you need to CE all the corpses there are, you're doing something
wrong (probably casting a level 1 CE). If you have 20+ in CE, you only
need a few to clear an entire region.

Regards,

Patrick.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.games.diablo2 (More info?)

On Thu, 14 Apr 2005 19:04:26 +0200, Patrick Vervoorn
<patrick.vervoorn@NOSPAM.perihelion.demon.nl> wrote:

>In article <465t51t39rm6f4qpllvvd9at63ful6lqks@4ax.com>,
>*Dividedbyzero <thisis@fake.ihope> wrote:
>
>>I'm looking forward to the Nightmare/Hell Maggot Lairs with my
>>Summoner. Those might be a bit more challenging...
>
>In Nightmare it is (still) easy. In Hell however, without a _good_ merc,
>and possibly a nice attack of your own (Marrowwalks-synergized Bone
>Spear/Spirit) _and_ CE, you're in trouble.
>
>I'll repeat again: CE is a necro's most devastating spell, and maxing it
>is something you cannot do without. In any case, if you don't max it, you
>will greatly reduce his killing speed.
>
>And if you need to CE all the corpses there are, you're doing something
>wrong (probably casting a level 1 CE). If you have 20+ in CE, you only
>need a few to clear an entire region.
>
>Regards,


good info, thanks

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.games.diablo2 (More info?)

On Thu, 14 Apr 2005 19:04:26 +0200, Patrick Vervoorn
<patrick.vervoorn@NOSPAM.perihelion.demon.nl> wrote:

>In Nightmare it is (still) easy. In Hell however, without a _good_ merc,
>and possibly a nice attack of your own (Marrowwalks-synergized Bone
>Spear/Spirit) _and_ CE, you're in trouble.
>
>I'll repeat again: CE is a necro's most devastating spell, and maxing it
>is something you cannot do without. In any case, if you don't max it, you
>will greatly reduce his killing speed.
>
>And if you need to CE all the corpses there are, you're doing something
>wrong (probably casting a level 1 CE). If you have 20+ in CE, you only
>need a few to clear an entire region.

Ah, OK. In the past I haven't had a Necromancer at a high enough
level to go into Hell (not even Nightmare, actually). I've only been
in Nightmare very briefly with a Lightning Trap Assassin.

I'll consider putting some points into Corpse Explosion; right now I
only have a couple, I think, and haven't been using it for the most
part, but if it's going to come in handy to max it... then I'll have
to try it out. If high-level Corpse Explosion does significant
damage, and is effective enough without many explosions... then that
will be something to consider. Thanks for the info.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.games.diablo2 (More info?)

In article <bjet51dmrb5c7919dbbtp4a8sheljj4si5@4ax.com>,
*Dividedbyzero <thisis@fake.ihope> wrote:
>On Thu, 14 Apr 2005 19:04:26 +0200, Patrick Vervoorn
><patrick.vervoorn@NOSPAM.perihelion.demon.nl> wrote:
>
>>In Nightmare it is (still) easy. In Hell however, without a _good_ merc,
>>and possibly a nice attack of your own (Marrowwalks-synergized Bone
>>Spear/Spirit) _and_ CE, you're in trouble.
>>
>>I'll repeat again: CE is a necro's most devastating spell, and maxing it
>>is something you cannot do without. In any case, if you don't max it, you
>>will greatly reduce his killing speed.
>>
>>And if you need to CE all the corpses there are, you're doing something
>>wrong (probably casting a level 1 CE). If you have 20+ in CE, you only
>>need a few to clear an entire region.
>
>Ah, OK. In the past I haven't had a Necromancer at a high enough
>level to go into Hell (not even Nightmare, actually). I've only been
>in Nightmare very briefly with a Lightning Trap Assassin.
>
>I'll consider putting some points into Corpse Explosion; right now I
>only have a couple, I think, and haven't been using it for the most
>part, but if it's going to come in handy to max it... then I'll have
>to try it out. If high-level Corpse Explosion does significant
>damage, and is effective enough without many explosions... then that
>will be something to consider. Thanks for the info.

The damage does not increase, but the radius increases, so you hit more
monsters with the same CE. It really is a devastating spell. Also, it's
damage is 50/50 fire/physical damage, so there not many monsters which are
immune to all of it's damage.

If every character had CE, Hell would be much more doable for all classes.


Regards,

Patrick.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.games.diablo2 (More info?)

On Thu, 14 Apr 2005 21:50:36 +0200, Patrick Vervoorn
<patrick.vervoorn@NOSPAM.perihelion.demon.nl> wrote:

>The damage does not increase, but the radius increases, so you hit more
>monsters with the same CE. It really is a devastating spell. Also, it's
>damage is 50/50 fire/physical damage, so there not many monsters which are
>immune to all of it's damage.
>
>If every character had CE, Hell would be much more doable for all classes.
>

Cool. Which reminds me I need to put some more points into my Amplify
Damage curse, since I'm not getting good luck with the meager starting
radius that it has. It'll probably be easier on me if I can spare a
few extra points into it so that it'll cover more area and I won't
have to cast it over and over again to get whole groups.

I'm looking forward to experimenting with Corpse Explosion too, but
that's still down the road... I have a few other areas to put skill
points now, but my Summoner is already at level 42. He's been coming
along pretty well and I think overall, my skill points have been
satisfactory... he can actually get Baal's minions all by himself now,
though it does involve a lot of re-casting my Fire Golem and
re-raising Skeletons. I'm almost ready for Nightmare, I think...

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.games.diablo2 (More info?)

In article <uijt51d6dsjcu538mc9iv8l7hem175kocv@4ax.com>,
*Dividedbyzero <thisis@fake.ihope> wrote:
>On Thu, 14 Apr 2005 21:50:36 +0200, Patrick Vervoorn
><patrick.vervoorn@NOSPAM.perihelion.demon.nl> wrote:
>
>>The damage does not increase, but the radius increases, so you hit more
>>monsters with the same CE. It really is a devastating spell. Also, it's
>>damage is 50/50 fire/physical damage, so there not many monsters which are
>>immune to all of it's damage.
>>
>>If every character had CE, Hell would be much more doable for all classes.
>>
>
>Cool. Which reminds me I need to put some more points into my Amplify
>Damage curse, since I'm not getting good luck with the meager starting
>radius that it has. It'll probably be easier on me if I can spare a
>few extra points into it so that it'll cover more area and I won't
>have to cast it over and over again to get whole groups.

Actually, once you get more +skills items, there's no need to put more in
AD. It's also a quite cheap spell, so you can spam it to your heart's
content, and can put those points in skills that need it...

>I'm looking forward to experimenting with Corpse Explosion too, but
>that's still down the road... I have a few other areas to put skill
>points now, but my Summoner is already at level 42. He's been coming
>along pretty well and I think overall, my skill points have been
>satisfactory... he can actually get Baal's minions all by himself now,
>though it does involve a lot of re-casting my Fire Golem and
>re-raising Skeletons. I'm almost ready for Nightmare, I think...

What skills are you putting points into then, and what do you have where
now?

Patrick.