09-30-2003, 08:09 PM
You will probably have no problem doing normal on /players 8. I have a lvl80 skellimancer that is soloing hell with no troubles now. I do, however, use CE, which makes things a lot easier.
I think you may end up ditching the shield in favor of a nice shrunken head. I got lucky and found the hormunculus (sp) which I socketed with a diamond. But any head with +skills on it is going to be more desireable than a shield with resists. +3 to summoning gives you another skellie as well as more damagefe for all of them. You'll rarely get hit with any elemental attack, since your merc and skels will be tanking for you. Watch out for the cold nova from a CE boss though- that can be a nasty surprise.
I think you'll find normal plays at the pace as it did in 1.09, NM a little slower, since you'll only be killing with your merc and army, and hell will be a bit of a challenge, esp if you go in without skells and mastery maxed. Since your army will be the only source of damage, you'll want to get a might merc ASAP.
Good luck- let us know how it goes.
I think you may end up ditching the shield in favor of a nice shrunken head. I got lucky and found the hormunculus (sp) which I socketed with a diamond. But any head with +skills on it is going to be more desireable than a shield with resists. +3 to summoning gives you another skellie as well as more damagefe for all of them. You'll rarely get hit with any elemental attack, since your merc and skels will be tanking for you. Watch out for the cold nova from a CE boss though- that can be a nasty surprise.
I think you'll find normal plays at the pace as it did in 1.09, NM a little slower, since you'll only be killing with your merc and army, and hell will be a bit of a challenge, esp if you go in without skells and mastery maxed. Since your army will be the only source of damage, you'll want to get a might merc ASAP.
Good luck- let us know how it goes.