Thinking about taking the dive...

[Munkay]

I'm off here, as said, Munkay may till this field. Have fun. That's main purpose of any game.

Hurray, I've become a farmer!

Now, who'll by these radishes off me? Twenty cents a pound :whistling:

[Munkay]

Skeletons are pretty much the strongest build in the game. And Iron Maiden wont even beat regen any more no matter what level you pump it to. Just hire a thorns merc or get a rogue with an Edge bow to provide thorns aura, then amp.

Yes, there are monsters that will heal faster than the damage they take from iron maiden. A pack of frenzied moon lords for example, heal even faster while frenzied. Iron maiden wont even make them pause for a second. And considering they can have life in the tens of thousands, they won't be going down any time soon. Iron maiden is pretty much worthless.

Skeletons, backed by dim vision, decrep, amp, a bit of confuse, attract, and mages backed with lower resist can safely solo any area in the game. Add a little corpse explosion here and there to keep from snoozing at the keyboard.

Seriously though. All of the worst hitters in the game are ranged... Iron Maiden is a total and complete waste of skill points. Raising it beyond one point will drastically decrease your future potential killing power.

Here's something to consider... A hell Fallen has over 2000 life. And will regen about 200 hit points a second. Iron Maiden is a mere tickle. A single skeleton can whack said Fallen and kill it in a hit or two. Amp and CE. Or lower resist and CE. All monsters now gone. Yes, there are times when lower resist is the better curse for ce.

Have fun.

Doc, do you have any experience with which you are talking about? Because I've had both a high level zoo keepers and a CE/IM/IG/AMP necromancer, and my experience has defied everything you've said in this post.

Zoo keepers are strong, relatively speaking. Especially with top end items granted you the ability to teleport :wacko: And they certainly are a very viable build. But they are very slow killers later on, and in my opinion a bore to play. And it seems I'm not alone in this sentiment, for as Pakman has stated a number of times, the zoo keeper kind of play isn't what he is interested in.

Like I've suggested before in the post, I think experience is a huge help in deciding what works for you, and urge you to try an editor to test out builds like the Zoo Keeper.

As far as UDIE II working for 1.11, I wish I could tell you. Since my HD is kaputz, there is no way of me loading up the ol' DII. I'm uncertain if the desktop I was playing on was upgraded to 1.11, or if it was still in 1.10. I feel like it was 1.11, but booting up UDIE II won't do any harm, provided you make a backup (literally as simple as copy and pasting the entire save/maps folder, and reloading the files if needed).

Cheers,

Munk

[librarian]

Heiho,

I didn't want to post further here, but since Doc has joined and gets basically the same ignorance than me it's maybe time to write some really serious things down.

First, don't patronize other people by repeatedly doubting their experience just because they criticize your build. I don't know about Doc, but I've played Necromancers to great variety from DiabloII release on. With and without CE focus, and with all the mistakes you can make with that char. Including going for Skeletons in 1.00 and going for IM/Thorns from D2C to LoD.

Secondly I never ever needed a 3rd party modding tool, which is in the way you repeatedly suggest it in fact a cheating tool. _My_ experience comes with playing my chars from the very first Quill Rat in Act1/Normal Blood Moor up to BigD/Hell, respectively Baal/Hell. Maybe this is the reason why my experience is worse than both of you, pakman and Munkay, and I didn't ever get it work to revive unrevivable monsters, as an example.

And thirdly you, Munkay, especially talk rubbish when it comes to compare different builds even of one class. I have a still active Overlord which managed to boost his Skeletons to sLvl35 about. They tear everything apart to pieces in their way, still in 8ppl. Maybe you should follow your own advice and get some experience with it. And there is nothing expensive about that build, at least nothing more expensive than pushing any two other given skills into the sLvl40s.
And there is simply no other build with less need in items to start a char with than the Overlord. Combine it with CE and you have a char able to solo naked through the game.

And now, I promise, I'm really off this tavern thread. Feel free to visit the Armory if you want to seriously discuss build strategies, or the Workshop, if you want to learn something about skills and mechanisms.
Note that I'll report any advertising on cheating there.

[Hammerskjold]

>Secondly I never ever needed a 3rd party modding tool, which is in the way you repeatedly suggest it in fact a cheating tool. _My_ experience comes with playing my chars from the very first Quill Rat in Act1/Normal Blood Moor up to BigD/Hell, respectively Baal/Hell. Maybe this is the reason why my experience is worse than both of you, pakman and Munkay, and I didn't ever get it work to revive unrevivable monsters, as an example.

Before anyone throws down the 'c' word, I'll throw down another 'c' word to counter. Context. Unless I severely misread it, Munkay seems to be mentioning those editors in the context of SP, for the purpose of test driving a build. No one has suggested that firing up an instant high level char with instant high end items is now a legitimate way of 'winning' the standard game. I personally don't however, see any problem using those methods for testing builds or whatever else.

The real question is what experiences are relevant and applicable. Every 'real' D2\LoD character I've had were all started from scratch, no trade and mostly solo 8 throughout. Some made it to Hell Baal, some are pretty much in limbo in lower acts. I've also tried out various char builds and gear combos via the cube mod (SP and separate from real chars obviously).

I did have a test necro that was a skeleton summoner ( using the 20 SWarrior and 20 SMastery as the core build) and he did experience a bit of a slowdown when he hit Hell mode. Looking at various strategy guides the majority seems to advocate making and using a 'Beast' rword weapon. I did try that route out, and it worked out quite well. However making a 'Beast' is fairly expensive in the standard game, so even though the actual result was valid, the relevance to my real question wasn't. Which was, is there another affordable alternative. Thankfully there was, which was just assembling an 'Insight' stick, putting a point into Decrepify and casting it like it was on sale.

And just for the sake of completeness (and risking everyone's boredom) my gear on that test char was actually 'poor- barely ok' by most of the leet standards. I could've loaded him up with riches to the gill very easily, but that wasn't what I was trying to find out. I just used items which I could expect to make \ find in the standard game situation. (Insight, White, Rhyme, Smoke, Stealth, Lore, was pretty much the limit of his gear that I could rely on making.) Apart from the 'Beast' weapon that I tried (and then chucked out for an Insight staff instead) of course.

Basically I think we're talking about two different experiences here, we're just trying to find what's applicable. An editor\mod tools for testing methods can be great on saving time, does anyone really need to fire up a new lvl 1 char to see if their idea that involves a maxed out clvl 30 skill will pan out? Especially if they already know how to play the early level modes. Strictly for the purpose of testing that kind of idea, it's a waste of time. (To me it's like reading a book. I've read LotR from page 1-finish more than once. If I wanted to quickly look up who did what at what mountain near the last chapters, should I fast forward to the relevant pages, or should I be starting at the very first pages again to avoid 'cheating' myself from the experience of reading it from start to finish, the way it was 'meant' to be read?)

It's also a waste of time to whip up a high level char\build with very expensive items, and declaring that kind of very specialized and most likely expensive build is easy to do in a standard game, especially if the tester never experienced the standard game from scratch. Skewed experience is usually to blame.

I don't however, get the impression that's the case here. Munkay didn't say anything ridicilous like 'fire up an editor, give your necro a gajillion HP and MP and bam game set, match.'

Having said all that, I do think the opinion that a skelemancer type is weak or needing expensive gear is a bit exaggerated. Especially in 1.10+. Builds that heavily focuses on reflected damage might be 'good' (which is a loaded term to begin with, I'd rather go with efficient) with loads of +skills gear, but imo it definitely falls in the 'very specialized' category nowadays. If we're comparing that kind of efficiency and reduced gear dependance, then a skelemancer build ranks pretty high up there.

High level CE that requires lots of +skills gear is nice, but 20 maxed hard points from what I've seen, is adequate for most players. If a player has that kind of gear and is comfortable with that kind of style that's great. But that kind of approach almost always have a severe trade off. Personally I'm more comfortable with having more Resist and + life or high\fast mana regen to spam spells, at the cost of having less skill adder. I understand that 1.10+ favours the 'defense through a strong offense' mentality, but for me it's not worth the cost of sacrificing everything else for offensive power. Theoretically I don't need to worry about any danger if I kill every monster so fast they don't have any chance of even touching me. In practice crap happens while I play, there's a phone call, my ice cream fell on the carpet.

To really wrap it up like a tortilla, while I disagree with many things Doc said lately, on this subject his post is pretty accurate and applicable. High level Dim Vision with Decrepify (1+ with adders) can be great help for a summoner, and many of the deadliest threats are ranged (and ranged elemental) attackers. IM or any reflected damage means nothing to those critters. IM\thorn attacks can potentially shine in Cow level, since there's no ranged attackers there. But there's quite a few on the road to the moo moo farm.

Of course if we're talking about personal favourite builds that personally works for you, there is no way that can be debated objectively. (Since we all know Dentists pwnz all!!!!!!11111111)

[Doc]

Hey now, the Dentist is a Hell Viable build. :P

No really, it is. Just apply the right curse support, add a dash of CE, and make proper use of bone walls. Not bone prisons, walls. You want monsters in a broad line to face the firing squad of deadly teeth. Until you have seen it in action, words do not describe sight of a Necro burpgunning out dozens and dozens of teeth in a shot, and suddenly almost everything on the screen is nearly dead.

It is a finesse build though and takes a lot of careful aim and skill on how you fire your teeth. Some times you want a focused spread, and some times you want a wide volley.

[Fragbait]

if we can explode it, no-one will find a proof against us ;-)

Hi,

And here I was thinking that those animal corpses in tristram where cows.
Oh well... :lol:


Greetings, Fragbait

[Munkay]

First, don't patronize other people by repeatedly doubting their experience just because they criticize your build. I don't know about Doc, but I've played Necromancers to great variety from DiabloII release on. With and without CE focus, and with all the mistakes you can make with that char. Including going for Skeletons in 1.00 and going for IM/Thorns from D2C to LoD.

Patronize? I'll tell you sir, I'm terribly Patriotic :whistling:

No no, but seriously. I did not intend to patronize you in my posts. Please feel free to send me a PM with the specific quotes, I'll be sure to be more wary about it next time:).

I don't doubt you've played a lot of Necromancers and have experience. I too have a lot of experience in that department. From the way you posted, it seemed that you were dismissing the build as "unusable since 1.04" - a comment that typically indicates you haven't tried it in a long time. I had recent experience with it, and had great success so I defended it. And you defended your point. And the spirit of a true forum shown through, a nice debate happened and I thought it was fair and a bit of fun for both of us.

What I was advocating is actually trying out the specific build I was talking about before you called "Bunk!". A similar thing happened with a Charged Boltress back in the days of 1.08. Most people threw out the idea until they saw me playing it or checked it out themselves. I think the same will show through on this build, but it definitely involves getting your hands dirty and trying it out.

Which brings us to this,

Secondly I never ever needed a 3rd party modding tool, which is in the way you repeatedly suggest it in fact a cheating tool.

The usage of editing tools in Single Player has been discussed in a few threads on this lounge. The general consensus is if its for your own use in Single Player, it isn't really cheating. Since even if you do decide to give your character a billion HP and MP (which certainly is cheating), the only person you're cheating is yourself. But rather than this, as Hammerskjold was very keen to point out (thanks!) this is far from what I'm advocating.

What I am advocating is making a backup of your saved characters. Then with an editor trying out a new build by redistrobuting skill points. Like test driving a car before you invest your money in one. Once you figure things out, you can reload your old characters, and you are back to where you were - no "cheating" leg ahead - but with more experience and knowledge.

There's no reason everyone needs to try this method. But for Pakman I think its a worthy idea, seeing that he's been away for a rather long time, and is unfamiliar with what builds work now.

_My_ experience comes with playing my chars from the very first Quill Rat in Act1/Normal Blood Moor up to BigD/Hell, respectively Baal/Hell. Maybe this is the reason why my experience is worse than both of you, pakman and Munkay, and I didn't ever get it work to revive unrevivable monsters, as an example.

My experience comes from start to finish as well. The dominant amount of my Diablo years have been spent on Battle.net play. In single player I level characters from start to finish as well. See what I said above about how I use the editor.

And thirdly you, Munkay, especially talk rubbish when it comes to compare different builds even of one class...

I think I just heard the pot calling the kettle... ;)

And now, I promise, I'm really off this tavern thread. Feel free to visit the Armory if you want to seriously discuss build strategies, or the Workshop, if you want to learn something about skills and mechanisms.Note that I'll report any advertising on cheating there.

I thought we were having a serious discussion here! I do hope you always report any advertising of cheating, regardless of the forum. Though I still defend that everything I've said in this post is within the lines of not cheating. Of course, Mods please PM me if my understanding of single player character editors is way off base:)

Finally, as for the comments with Doc, I think he knows I respect him and his opinion on the lounge. But when he says something fishy, out of respect I call Bunk! I didn't make you teary eyed did I Doc?:)

Doc, as for the Teeth build, that sounds hilarious! I never thought to use teeth in a supporting role, it might be worth trying since if nothing more it'll give me some good laughs at baddies dieing to the overwhelming power of, TEETH!

Cheers,

Munk

Edit: I am in dire need of a cup of coffee this morning, I misspelled Doc :wacko:

[Doc]

Teeth in wide open spaces, bone spear in narrow halls, and bone spirit around corners.

It is especially funny destroying entire camps of fallen with teeth.

You just have to synergise it for it to be effective.

Oh, and to touch on something that was said about zookeepers being slow... How is that?

Provided you are good driver of your toon, have all of the right curses hot keyed, and use CE at all of the right moments, zookeepers are a very speedy build, especially if you use a Harmony bow on your Rogue for the vigor aura. But even with out. Just make sure you keep your bag of dirty tricks full. Crushing blow on merc for example.

And make sure you have teleport charges.

Skeleton based necros can solo Uber Tristram from what I hear in 1.11.

[Doc]

Oh, and to clear the air about cheating...

I have "cheated" exactly once playing D2 in single player.

It was when I created my alchemist.

I took a pot throwing Barbarian, in hardcore mode, all the way through normal and killed Baal.

I cheated by giving him an unlimited supply of fire damage pots in one hand, and unlimited poison damage pots in the other. Yes, he used double throw.

And he did it with his faithful Rogue merc, Hannah. Who was also hardcore, and never died once the whole trip.

It should be noted that this char could probably clear a good bit of nightmare, but I have never tried.

[Munkay]

Oh, and to clear the air about cheating...

I have "cheated" exactly once playing D2 in single player.

It was when I created my alchemist.

I took a pot throwing Barbarian, in hardcore mode, all the way through normal and killed Baal.

I cheated by giving him an unlimited supply of fire damage pots in one hand, and unlimited poison damage pots in the other. Yes, he used double throw.

And he did it with his faithful Rogue merc, Hannah. Who was also hardcore, and never died once the whole trip.

It should be noted that this char could probably clear a good bit of nightmare, but I have never tried.

:o

You dirty rotten cheater!

I'm surprised you were able to keep a rogue merc alive for that long. Congrats!

Cheers,

Munk

[Doc]

Howl and Grim Ward.

Rogues are very strong... Must apply tactics. Paper tigers they are.

[Zingydex]

They're certainly better at staying alive than any melee merc. Nothing gets stomped into the ground faster then a Town Guard who's not being constantly babysitted or (in the case of a zookeeper) constantly surrounded by additional targets for the monsters to beat on.

[pakman]

UPDATE:

Yesterday (July 4th), I got up around 8:00am, fired up my computer, and loaded D2. I played until about noon when I decided to go and finish the 4th book in the Dune series.

Lord_Ungar is doing quite well now that I have activated /players8. I have been lucky in finding a few nice rare and magic item with which to make IGs. I also found a nice magic zombie head and yew wand with some +1 to some curses and it gives me two skellie mages which provide more bodies for things to swing at. I have really been liking terror for crowd control and keeping mummies from reviving skeletons. I like to cast confuse mixed in with a little AD on large groups of monsters so they kill each other a little bit first as my merc wades through and I get rid of the bodies with AD/CE. We'll have to see how my tactics are going to change in A3 when I get all those midgets running at me. I may switch to IM as my main curse with smatterings of AD and Confuse.

I have been doing full clears of all areas and haven't died once, even when taking chances and getting swarmed like I do in the false tombs. The summoner provided no problem at all, not even the firewall or iceblast, and even luckier I found him the first direction I went. The sactuary itself was hard, but the harem and cellars were really tough for some reason. The pathfining AI still sucks, but oh well, I fixed that with town portals so I could get the merc in the right spot. It wasn't that much of a problem in the maggot lair, but the AS was horrible with all the MC Escher stairs, etc.

I should hit level 30 when I get home from work today (July 5th) and I plan on killing Duriel. Is his load lag still killer? He's going to be the perfect candidate for IM/IG.

As far as skill point distribution goes, things are still fairly open. Bone Spear has one skill point along with IG, IM, AD, and everything else leading up to Lower Resist. Golem mastery also has one point but is boosted to three with my wand. Killing speed is fair, but that's not what I'm going for, just enjoying the experience. But I do think it's quite conceited to say that I'm inexperienced with the game and various builds. I always play a char from start to finish and have solo'd the entire game with "weak" characters. Weak characters are more interesting anyways. But this is the internet and you can hide behind the anonymity of a handle and call another player "inexperienced."

As for items and gear, I have NEVER used a character mod tool or muling program or any other third party software except for a no-cd crack when I forgot my LoD disk at home once, so that must instantly make me a dirty cheater. I have never had high end gear seeing as I never have made a MF sorc; sure I had a FO sorc at one time that tore through the game at an incredible speed, but she didn't have any MF gear. The only MF chars I had were a necro that would run NM Meph, and a trapsin that would also run NM meph and be throwing down 10 traps because shadow warrior was better than the master for the reason that it used whatever skills you were using at the time. So I was throwing down 10 lightning traps or 10 fire traps, or 5 of each depending on the situation. I got bored with that character really really fast. The same can be said about my Bloodletter WW barb back in 1.07 who could tear through the foothills in about 12 minutes if I cleared the entire area. I have never had any of the high end runes to make the high end words; hell, I don't even know if I've ever actually used a rune, but I may look into it now.

[Fragbait]

IM works better with a Merc than Amp damage because every monster that attacks becomes injured, rather than every monster that the Merc attacks. By the time the first corpse drops, most of the group are at about half life or less.

Hi,

Figured since my fire golem / bone spirit necro is lvl 78, I'd throw my 2 cents in. This is meant for singleplayer only.

First, I'd like to support your above statement. Iron maiden is indeed a blast to play with - it just depends against which monsters...
Let's have us a look (hell difficulty):

Undead Stygian Doll damage: 61-98 (79.5 avg) hit points: 2901-6249 (4575 avg)
=> hit points / damage: 57.55

Demon Steed damage: 134-211 (172.5 avg) hit points: 16693-25964 (21328.5 avg)
=> hit points / damage: 123.64

Hell Cat damage: 40-72 (56 avg) hit points: 2471-5492 (3981.5 avg)
=> hit points / damage: 71.10

Moon Lord damage: 74-139 (106.5 avg) hit points: 10507-17511 (14009 avg)
=> hit points / damage: 131.54

Grotesque Wyrm damage: 38-67 (52.5 avg) hit points: 2318-4327 (3322.5 avg)
=> hit points / damage: 63.29

Grotesque damage: 76-124 (100 avg) hit points: 9274-15455 (12364.5 avg)
=> hit points / damage: 123.65

I think we're getting it by now. Enemies that have a hit points / damage ratio that is noticeably < 100 are ideal victims for Iron Maiden, while it gets long-winded against such with a ratio > 100.
Of course, we're speaking of melee attackers here.

Also there's the 'occasional' (rather frequent) situation, when I don't agree with above statement:
Whenever the monsters are ranged and/or magical attackers, IM has to be changed to amplify damage asap.

The number of enemies plays a role, too: When my dear golem and my hireling are being swarmed by a dozen fast attacking enemies, I always pull out IM. Then I support them by hitting one enemy with Bone Spirit, and when he's dead, I cast Corpse Explosion to quickly deal with the remaining monsters that have 50%- 75% of their hit points left. Of course my golem needs an occasional recast, and my merc needs potions during the process.
When we encounter only a few pitiful foes, however, I pull out AD. My merc deals a good portion of damage as every good merc should, and that takes care of most enemies quite quickly. If he doesn't want to take on our enemies, and has gotten stuck somewhere (happens quite often :angry:), I have to rely on my golem and my bone spirit to kill the enemies off (combined with some skeleton mages for cannon fodder. And no, I don't have the runes for an Enigma). That's the time when Lower Resist shines. I cast it and suddenly my golem can deal damage! It's not as much as my hireling, but if he doesn't want to.... Pfft.
Generally, physical immune enemies are dealt with AD. That's enough to let my merc take care of.

One more thing: The perfect necro (without decrepify) deals with groups of fast attackers in the following way in my opinion:

o stand back and let your golem, hireling, skeletons or what else is available tank
o cast Iron Maiden on the group of fast attackers
o help kill the first enemy
o switch to Amplify Damage and curse the group (it helps the CE)
o start to cast Corpse Explosion to quickly get a chain reaction
o heal / recast minions, and collect items :w00t:

So a quick guide when to use which skill would be:

AD:
o single monsters
o small groups of fast monsters (2-3)
o small to quite large groups of slow monsters (2-8)
o shortly before CE
o ranged and or magic enemies
o physical immune monsters

IM:
o medium to large groups of fast monsters (4+)
o rather large groups of slow monsters (9+)
o at first sight of the group of foes
o when the merc is somehow unable to really hit the enemy (such as duriel sometimes:unsure:)

Each of them has it's eligibility.

Sadly my necro is having major problems in hell difficulty. Maybe the merc needs a new armor, but times are tough for my necro, and leveling is slow. I knew that, of course, when I chose fire golem as one of my main spells, but it's nevertheless a bit - annoying. I'd never give up on my little hot-headed friend, though;).

Greetings, Fragbait

[Doc]

High level fire golem backed by a high level lower resist is actually pretty good damage IMHO. Sure, it's not kill everything on the screen in a single click damage, but it is constant steady damage. Which is important too.

And don't forget fire golem bombing in emergencies.

Fire Golem actually makes a pretty impressive attacker when backed with a maxed iron golem and blood golem synergy. Also becomes very difficult to kill. Specialisation has a cost though.

[Fragbait]

High level fire golem backed by a high level lower resist is actually pretty good damage IMHO. Sure, it's not kill everything on the screen in a single click damage, but it is constant steady damage. Which is important too.

And don't forget fire golem bombing in emergencies.

Fire Golem actually makes a pretty impressive attacker when backed with a maxed iron golem and blood golem synergy. Also becomes very difficult to kill. Specialisation has a cost though.

Hi,

You know, I wouldn't call him an 'impressive attacker', not even when fully synergized, which I didn't do. My skill points went into the curses and poison and bone tree, too.

Fire Golem, slvl 30, fully synergized, Golem Mastery slvl30:
<blockquote>Life (hell): 8104</blockquote>
<blockquote>Attack: 1270</blockquote>
<blockquote>Defense: 1250</blockquote>
<blockquote>Absorbs 93% fire damage</blockquote>
<blockquote>Damage (hell): 18-47</blockquote>
<blockquote>Fire Damage: 725-783</blockquote>
<blockquote>Holy Fire: 68-70</blockquote>

Sure the life is high, but the damage is rather pathetic, and he doesn't hit very fast. Even with a (hypothetic) slvl 30 lower resist (-65% enemy resistence), he only deals 1196-1291 Fire Damage. And this isn't even considering that many monsters are fire immune in hell, and many resistant. I would go as far as to say that the pure fire-golomancer is a quite hard variant in hell.
That's why I'm helping him out with a partly synergized bonespirit (doing about 900 dam. at the moment), and the very important act 2 hireling. Still, especially poison keeps me recasting him more often than I'd like to.

Greetings, Fragbait

[Doc]

Hi,

You know, I wouldn't call him an 'impressive attacker', not even when fully synergized, which I didn't do. My skill points went into the curses and poison and bone tree, too.

Fire Golem, slvl 30, fully synergized, Golem Mastery slvl30:
<blockquote>Life (hell): 8104</blockquote>
<blockquote>Attack: 1270</blockquote>
<blockquote>Defense: 1250</blockquote>
<blockquote>Absorbs 93% fire damage</blockquote>
<blockquote>Damage (hell): 18-47</blockquote>
<blockquote>Fire Damage: 725-783</blockquote>
<blockquote>Holy Fire: 68-70</blockquote>

Sure the life is high, but the damage is rather pathetic, and he doesn't hit very fast. Even with a (hypothetic) slvl 30 lower resist (-65% enemy resistence), he only deals 1196-1291 Fire Damage. And this isn't even considering that many monsters are fire immune in hell, and many resistant. I would go as far as to say that the pure fire-golomancer is a quite hard variant in hell.
That's why I'm helping him out with a partly synergized bonespirit (doing about 900 dam. at the moment), and the very important act 2 hireling. Still, especially poison keeps me recasting him more often than I'd like to.

Greetings, Fragbait

That is why you use the other golems situationally. Iron and Blood golems as the situation demands. I am not saying it is teh besto sort of build, no denying that it is entirely variant. But I have taken a golemancer through hell with a minor in curses.

Fire golly is nice when the blood lords and what not start raining down fiery death and destruction, or when facing Andy. Or when facing stacks of spectres, because his fire punches damage all of the spectres in a stack.

Like I said, slow steady damage.

[Zingydex]

Emphasis on slow. Even at high levels, Sparky doesn't stay very far ahead of monster regen.

[pakman]

Well, I beat Duriel last night, load lag wasn't a problem.

Not much to say this time, though. It took me forever to find the stick room, and on the way I hit lvl29. I kept the game on /players8 and decided to give Duriel a try this way since he's not that bad of a boss, just slows you down. As soon as I stepped into the chamber I IM'ed him and let my merc take care of the rest pretty much. There were a few trips back to town to buy healing potions for the merc and get some items I had saved for my golem since Duriel liked to chew the golem into scrap metal and then go to work on the merc. I learned the hard way not to waste decent IG items on an act boss, but oh well, I thought it might'e had a chance. Duriel basically killed himself as IM was taking of some nice chunks of life everytime he hit my merc. It was pretty much a boring fight.

[Doc]

A word about fire golem and how damage is applied.

Fire golly's damage can be more than you think, situationally.

An example. Those stacked spectres I mentioned. For general out of the air numbers lets say fire golly is doing exactly 1000 fire damage to a single spectre. Not much eh?

Now, lets say there are 20 spectres in a stack. Which is entirely possible. One punch is 1000 to each spectre in that pack. That is quite a damage spread. After a couple of punches, the whole stack is worn down a good bit, and as soon as you get one body, the CE chain starts, and the battle is over.

Fire golly is also very very good when facing Silly Nilly. The Corpse explosion heals him, and the fire pulse keeps monsters around golly and away from you. And you don't want a monster dying next to you.

Also, fire pulse tends to piss off casters and cause them to meleee. Or ranged things, like gloams. They run right up to golly and use their pathetic melee attack.