Aaagh! Vast hordes of em

[kandrathe]

It's worst against minion/champion packs who really have to be strung out.

I'm just starting Act 1 NM at lvl 41 (at players 8), and now I'm finding that things are as you say. My lvl (12+3) Bone Spear does 323-343, and lvl (12+1) Bone Spirit 477-525. Corpsefire and his 8 minions were all Stoneskin, and it took an entire belt of mana potions Amp Damage and Bone Spirits to drop one. Luckily they are slow. Into the cold plains we found a Fanatic dark rogue pack that killed my Merc and had me bolting for town 5 times. My experience is ramping up fast, though and the damage on my skills is also increasing quickly. I'm finding myself resorting to tactics, heaven forbid. Just as you do, we string them out. We use attract to get them to swarm at the edge of my range and then I cast confuse on the lot of them. Spam them with Bone Spear for 4-5 times, recast confuse. Once 1 or 2 have died switch to Corpse explosion until we are out of ammo, then back to confuse and Bone Spear.

Learning crowd control is key I have almost died 3 times in the cold plains by getting swarmed by Dark Rogues or Fallen. I'm not sorry that I've been investing skill points as if this were Hardcore. My adj stats are now at Str:66, Dex:51, Vit:98, Nrg:84. My focus on Vitality has saved me from at least 4-5 deaths so far. I made it through normal without dying and I'm hoping to make it through NM death free as well.