Does Thorns and Iron Maiden stack?

[ogot]

My act 2 nightmare merc has thorns, so when I curse a bunch of melee monsters with Iron Maiden, and they hit one of my skeletons, do both apply? They get damaged by both?

[adeyke]

Yes. They'd be affected by both. However, thorns + amplify damage will almost always do more than thorns + iron maiden (and amplify damage will help other physical damage, as well).

[arrunique]

The problem with thorns/IM even stacked is by the time you get to Hell the damage the monster do in relation to their hitpoints is insignificant. They also heal too fast in compared to their attack rate. And that doesn't count that half of the scariest monsters are archers which aren't harmed by throns. You are better off taking an offensive merc.

[ogot]

I'm thinking of creating a necromancer with maxed out Skeleton, Mage, and Mastery, a Golem (help here) and a curse (help here also)... Then I don't know if I'll still get Revive....

[Wyrm]

I'm thinking of creating a necromancer with maxed out Skeleton, Mage, and Mastery, a Golem (help here) and a curse (help here also)...  Then I don't know if I'll still get Revive....

Clay Golem (don't need to max), Dim Vision (don't need to max, but it's good to). Revive is good with one point if you have enough +skills to have 5 or so. Having high council members and death lords fight for you is worth the point, but you don't really need more than one point. You don't need to max skeleton magi either, I've got a level 82 skelmancer that does solo hell baal runs just fine without it.

Get a blessed aim merc at as low a level as you can for the added benefits of building him up to high levels from a low level.

[adeyke]

Get a blessed aim merc at as low a level as you can for the added benefits of building him up to high levels from a low level.

The only thing that matters is the difficulty the merc's hired in. Those hired in normal are better than those hired in hell. The actual level it's hired at is irrelevant.

[ogot]

So now, I'll put 5, 8 or 10 lvls in Clay Golem, 20 in Skel and, 20 in Skel Mastery, 3 in Magi, 3/5 in Revive... 5, 8 or 10 in Summon Resist, 3, 5 or 8 in Golem Mastery...

Now, if I'm gonna use a Blessed Aim Merc, I'm gonna need a curse (Iron Maiden? Amplify Damage? Decrepify?)?

[Obi2Kenobi]

If your going to go with Clay Golem, I suggest you only put one point into it and into Golem mastery. (Definately leave clay golem at one points, but golem mastery might help him take a few more hits, but probably not worth the effort since you can recast)

Depending on how many +skills you can get, you don't want to have summon resist too high, because it gets to only be about 1% per point, which, IMHO, isn't worth it.

On curses, most like Amplify Damage, I like Decrepify. Either one works wonders.

[ogot]

Okay thanks!

Now, anyone have Arm of King Leoric wand, ladder? Hehe...

[DroopingCactus]

Here's a little something kind of related to this, except it is combining Spirit of Barbs with Thorns instead. Someone may want to try this, so here's the quote by AK404 over at the Basin:

I was of the opinion that they did, but combining SoB with Thorns for higher returned damage was sort of like pissing into the ocean with the intent of increasing the water-to-land ratio of the planet.

:lol: I was laughing at that one FOREVER... :P