08-07-2004, 02:41 PM
Here i typed this up quick on a different forum and copied and pasted it here
Here is what i think is the best way to use a bone Nec.
Synergies synergies and a couple more synergies.
The bone tree is one of my favorite. All the bones give to the others. Using this is crutial to stay alive and kill in nm and hell.
First off the bone nec is nice because the build can be used for pvm or pvp. The differences are slim but I will only cover PvM.
Bone Skills-
You will want to max teeth, bone spear, bone wall, bone prison, bone spirit. This will be your main attack. I usually max teeth last because it is the least useful skill I find. If you are not goin to power rush and just play through then max bwall last. You will also want 1 point in bone armor. any more I find is a waste because the synergies from bone wall and prison are better than each skill point in it.
Summoning Skills-
I find for a bone nec you really dont' need any summons. The benefits in hell from summons are not worth the skill points. I would if you insist put a point in clay golem and golem mast and golem res if you think you could use a decoy. Remember this is just a decoy to escape and use prison or wall. Summons have only a little part, i believe, on a bone nec.
Curse Skills-
Here is where you invest the rest of your skills to meet your needs in pvm. there are a couple skills that i am partial to. I love attract, decrepify, and iron maiden. these i think are the best of the bunch. Some ppl find that dim vision is helpful but i have never used DV so i can't comment on it. If someone could reply with there experience with DV that would be great. All 3 of these curses only need one point each. You will/should have enough +skills gear on that 1 point is sufficient.
Using the skills takes only a couple minutes to get good at them. Setting them to hotkeys makes it really unfair to the monsters. Here is a typical way that i will use the skills. Set bspear or bspirit to left click and have the others on right click. As you approach monsters cast golem out in front. this is to attract the monsters to it. The golem can die after a couple hits because he is just used to gather monsters in one area. Then casting attract on 2-3 monsters will keep them in a small group attacking each other. This is why you dont' need minions. They kill themselves. on top of the attract you can cast amp or decrepify to help. Attract can't be over cast which is why it is my favorite. While the monsters are wackin' away on each other you can cast up a wall or two between them and you just to make sure they don' start to wander too close to you. Or you can prison them making sure they can still wack away on each other. Once you are sure they aren't goin anywhere you can open up on them with spear or spirit. I find that it is really hard to die using this method. The main thing to keep in mind is that you won't have a ton of life being a nec so you have to rely on crowd control to survive. If you come upon a large group just keep casting Attract so that every monster is attacking another monster. This shall keep even the largest of the crowds at bay while you spear or spirit them. Also, NEVER and I mean NEVER forget the power of Corpse Explosion. I will leavea game if a nec doesn't use CE. No nec should be without the spell. And since you are a bone nec you will get anyway. Even with 1 point CE is a mighty Powerful skill. So use it and love it's power. Just remember that it takes some mana and to always watch your mana lvl. FCR will drain your mana fast.
Speakin of mana....
Stats:
Str- Whatever your armor requires. <100 is ideal.
Dex - none
Vit - All the rest
Energy - I usually go about 200 tops. Your gear should add mana also so this is plenty. Remember, if you run outta mana you can tp and get more if need be. If you run outta life you can't tp and get more. If you are hardcore then i would say 150 tops in Energy.
Gear-
I am not going to sit here and list all the best possible items that you should strive to equip on him because it is insulting to someone that just starts out to think they have to have all the ubers right away. I like this build because you don't have to have the best gear to be good. Almost any gear will work to get you all the way to hell. Once in hell you might have to get at least semi decent gear. If you want to look up the best of the best gear go ahead and check out The Arreat Summit or Diabloii.net. In looking for gear you should look for +skills, Faster Cast Rate, Mana, Life, Res, and Faster Run Walk. Try to get as much FCR as you can. This will help launch godly amounts of spears and spirits in no time at all. I am not sure if there are FCR break points but most likely there are. I will have to look them up later.
Armor -- Your defense is going to be weak with this build but a nice armor will help a little just don't pump in too much str for it. Since you shouldn't be taking any hits def is not a big concern. A nice cheap armor for starting out is the rune word Stealth. It has FCR, FHR,FRW and some other pretty good mods. But you can find the runes for it in norm so that helps a ton. You can alway upgrade to another armor later on in the game if you need/want to.
Helm-- A helm is a good way to get some +skills among other mods. A helm i suggest for low lvls is a lore. with low lvl req and low runes it works well for having a +1 and +10 energy and some res on it. Another option is a Wormskull which is not to hard to find/trade cheap.
Wand-- Your wand should have many mods that I have previously stated. There are many wands that you can Purchase from NPCs or find. Many rare wands are great. Finding one that you like is half the fun. A good rune word wand is white. Gives pretty good +skills, FCR, and has some other mods too. Also can be made in early nm I believe. Also, a Gravenspine is great for low lvl. +2 skills and a couple other mods. And CHEAP! Ume's is another good wand to have for the +skills and decrepify.
Shield-- Your shield will mostly be helping with resistances and FCR. A good blocking % is great but not the most important thing. A good res shield is the Rune word Ancient's Pledge. +40 or more to all res and 10% damage to mana. Rhyme is another Rune Word shield that is pretty good. It can be a very helpful shield at times with res and increased blockin mods. The unique shield Lidless would be a great shield for FCR but it is pricey startin out.
Boots-- Any pair that has FRW and Res will do. If they have any other mods great!
Rings/Ammy-- For rings i preffer any 10% FRC rings with life, mana, and res mods. The more the merrier. Other wise any +skill rings are great. For ammy look for +skills, frc, res, life, mana (the usuall lol)
Belt-- I like a good belt that has many slots. I usually go for a 3x4 or 4x4 slot belt for potions. Mods on belt should be? yep, the same as all other gear; life, res, rep life, and damage reduction.
Gloves-- There are a couple gloves that pop to mind that are fairly cheap. Frost Burns and Mage Fists. These are two I like. Very cheap and work well. Frosties give a ton of mana +40% increased mana and Magefists give 20% FCR, regen mana, and +1 to fire skills. +1 to fire skills? Why would a nec need that? Good question. Corpse Explosion is considered a Fire skill so the +1 will actually give a +1 to CE. Magefists are my favorite pair of gloves for a low lvl bone nec.
Now keep in mind I didn't list any gear for super high lvl necs. You may find that you can make it to hell and even do hell with this gear but it will be harder than if you had some better gear like say trangs set. There is much better gear out there than what I have listed. This is just to get you started. Look at the sites and check out what other high lvl necs use or just use what you can find which is great too.
Hopefully this has helped with any questions you had involving a bone nec. Necs are one of my favorite chars and I think they can hold their own against almost any build. Good luck with yours and if you have any q's or comments please post. For I am always looking to improve my self too lol.
-NeoD
EDIT: I will be adding more later. Like mercs, Better items, Lvling strategies, charms, and what-not. Just to let ya know.
Here is what i think is the best way to use a bone Nec.
Synergies synergies and a couple more synergies.
The bone tree is one of my favorite. All the bones give to the others. Using this is crutial to stay alive and kill in nm and hell.
First off the bone nec is nice because the build can be used for pvm or pvp. The differences are slim but I will only cover PvM.
Bone Skills-
You will want to max teeth, bone spear, bone wall, bone prison, bone spirit. This will be your main attack. I usually max teeth last because it is the least useful skill I find. If you are not goin to power rush and just play through then max bwall last. You will also want 1 point in bone armor. any more I find is a waste because the synergies from bone wall and prison are better than each skill point in it.
Summoning Skills-
I find for a bone nec you really dont' need any summons. The benefits in hell from summons are not worth the skill points. I would if you insist put a point in clay golem and golem mast and golem res if you think you could use a decoy. Remember this is just a decoy to escape and use prison or wall. Summons have only a little part, i believe, on a bone nec.
Curse Skills-
Here is where you invest the rest of your skills to meet your needs in pvm. there are a couple skills that i am partial to. I love attract, decrepify, and iron maiden. these i think are the best of the bunch. Some ppl find that dim vision is helpful but i have never used DV so i can't comment on it. If someone could reply with there experience with DV that would be great. All 3 of these curses only need one point each. You will/should have enough +skills gear on that 1 point is sufficient.
Using the skills takes only a couple minutes to get good at them. Setting them to hotkeys makes it really unfair to the monsters. Here is a typical way that i will use the skills. Set bspear or bspirit to left click and have the others on right click. As you approach monsters cast golem out in front. this is to attract the monsters to it. The golem can die after a couple hits because he is just used to gather monsters in one area. Then casting attract on 2-3 monsters will keep them in a small group attacking each other. This is why you dont' need minions. They kill themselves. on top of the attract you can cast amp or decrepify to help. Attract can't be over cast which is why it is my favorite. While the monsters are wackin' away on each other you can cast up a wall or two between them and you just to make sure they don' start to wander too close to you. Or you can prison them making sure they can still wack away on each other. Once you are sure they aren't goin anywhere you can open up on them with spear or spirit. I find that it is really hard to die using this method. The main thing to keep in mind is that you won't have a ton of life being a nec so you have to rely on crowd control to survive. If you come upon a large group just keep casting Attract so that every monster is attacking another monster. This shall keep even the largest of the crowds at bay while you spear or spirit them. Also, NEVER and I mean NEVER forget the power of Corpse Explosion. I will leavea game if a nec doesn't use CE. No nec should be without the spell. And since you are a bone nec you will get anyway. Even with 1 point CE is a mighty Powerful skill. So use it and love it's power. Just remember that it takes some mana and to always watch your mana lvl. FCR will drain your mana fast.
Speakin of mana....
Stats:
Str- Whatever your armor requires. <100 is ideal.
Dex - none
Vit - All the rest
Energy - I usually go about 200 tops. Your gear should add mana also so this is plenty. Remember, if you run outta mana you can tp and get more if need be. If you run outta life you can't tp and get more. If you are hardcore then i would say 150 tops in Energy.
Gear-
I am not going to sit here and list all the best possible items that you should strive to equip on him because it is insulting to someone that just starts out to think they have to have all the ubers right away. I like this build because you don't have to have the best gear to be good. Almost any gear will work to get you all the way to hell. Once in hell you might have to get at least semi decent gear. If you want to look up the best of the best gear go ahead and check out The Arreat Summit or Diabloii.net. In looking for gear you should look for +skills, Faster Cast Rate, Mana, Life, Res, and Faster Run Walk. Try to get as much FCR as you can. This will help launch godly amounts of spears and spirits in no time at all. I am not sure if there are FCR break points but most likely there are. I will have to look them up later.
Armor -- Your defense is going to be weak with this build but a nice armor will help a little just don't pump in too much str for it. Since you shouldn't be taking any hits def is not a big concern. A nice cheap armor for starting out is the rune word Stealth. It has FCR, FHR,FRW and some other pretty good mods. But you can find the runes for it in norm so that helps a ton. You can alway upgrade to another armor later on in the game if you need/want to.
Helm-- A helm is a good way to get some +skills among other mods. A helm i suggest for low lvls is a lore. with low lvl req and low runes it works well for having a +1 and +10 energy and some res on it. Another option is a Wormskull which is not to hard to find/trade cheap.
Wand-- Your wand should have many mods that I have previously stated. There are many wands that you can Purchase from NPCs or find. Many rare wands are great. Finding one that you like is half the fun. A good rune word wand is white. Gives pretty good +skills, FCR, and has some other mods too. Also can be made in early nm I believe. Also, a Gravenspine is great for low lvl. +2 skills and a couple other mods. And CHEAP! Ume's is another good wand to have for the +skills and decrepify.
Shield-- Your shield will mostly be helping with resistances and FCR. A good blocking % is great but not the most important thing. A good res shield is the Rune word Ancient's Pledge. +40 or more to all res and 10% damage to mana. Rhyme is another Rune Word shield that is pretty good. It can be a very helpful shield at times with res and increased blockin mods. The unique shield Lidless would be a great shield for FCR but it is pricey startin out.
Boots-- Any pair that has FRW and Res will do. If they have any other mods great!
Rings/Ammy-- For rings i preffer any 10% FRC rings with life, mana, and res mods. The more the merrier. Other wise any +skill rings are great. For ammy look for +skills, frc, res, life, mana (the usuall lol)
Belt-- I like a good belt that has many slots. I usually go for a 3x4 or 4x4 slot belt for potions. Mods on belt should be? yep, the same as all other gear; life, res, rep life, and damage reduction.
Gloves-- There are a couple gloves that pop to mind that are fairly cheap. Frost Burns and Mage Fists. These are two I like. Very cheap and work well. Frosties give a ton of mana +40% increased mana and Magefists give 20% FCR, regen mana, and +1 to fire skills. +1 to fire skills? Why would a nec need that? Good question. Corpse Explosion is considered a Fire skill so the +1 will actually give a +1 to CE. Magefists are my favorite pair of gloves for a low lvl bone nec.
Now keep in mind I didn't list any gear for super high lvl necs. You may find that you can make it to hell and even do hell with this gear but it will be harder than if you had some better gear like say trangs set. There is much better gear out there than what I have listed. This is just to get you started. Look at the sites and check out what other high lvl necs use or just use what you can find which is great too.
Hopefully this has helped with any questions you had involving a bone nec. Necs are one of my favorite chars and I think they can hold their own against almost any build. Good luck with yours and if you have any q's or comments please post. For I am always looking to improve my self too lol.
-NeoD
EDIT: I will be adding more later. Like mercs, Better items, Lvling strategies, charms, and what-not. Just to let ya know.