05-28-2003, 09:15 PM
Since revives are blocked by other minions, if you have hordes of skeletons, the revives will get stuck, and just disappear, skeletons will get stuck on each other as well, but they will still teleport around you on occasion.
I really don't think you will be able to do it with just summons. I think a thorns merc will be pretty much required, and then all the damage will be done by the reflected damage (thorns is flat out better than IM as well, not that you are using any curses). If you can use charges on items, you'll need them, especially if you run into a physical immune so you can lower resist from charges. Killing one with just mages will take forever since mages really don't do much damage, teleport charges would be a big blessing as well so that you can regroup your minions, it will also make revives a lot more viable as they won't wander off. I would also think you would need fire golem to get some elemental damage, the holy fire aura he has can also keep the heat off your mages and skells. You will need to max mastery, but I don't think you need to get it there until NM, you will want to get more minions early I think. Having a point in revive will help, as popping one up in the middle of a monster pack keeps stuff clustered, some of the mage and ranged types will also still be effective among the skeletal hordes as well.
Of course bodies will be a problem. I don't remember exactly what the deal is but the game only tracks so many objects, and your minions and corpses basically affect the same counter, so the more minions you have the faster the game removes corpses, making it that much harded to get minions when you need them.
Either way, good luck with a pure summons only, I wouldn't have the patience to play one myself. My zookeeper with other support skills was tough enough.
Now, if you can have a pally with you at all times, then it is different, you can have the pally max thorns, and you can both get prayer mercs, and keep the minions up and running for a really long time. Amp damage (through charges if you are staying pure) will make pretty much everything, even on Hell, that isn't physical immune kill itself in one or 2 hits in most cases.
I really don't think you will be able to do it with just summons. I think a thorns merc will be pretty much required, and then all the damage will be done by the reflected damage (thorns is flat out better than IM as well, not that you are using any curses). If you can use charges on items, you'll need them, especially if you run into a physical immune so you can lower resist from charges. Killing one with just mages will take forever since mages really don't do much damage, teleport charges would be a big blessing as well so that you can regroup your minions, it will also make revives a lot more viable as they won't wander off. I would also think you would need fire golem to get some elemental damage, the holy fire aura he has can also keep the heat off your mages and skells. You will need to max mastery, but I don't think you need to get it there until NM, you will want to get more minions early I think. Having a point in revive will help, as popping one up in the middle of a monster pack keeps stuff clustered, some of the mage and ranged types will also still be effective among the skeletal hordes as well.
Of course bodies will be a problem. I don't remember exactly what the deal is but the game only tracks so many objects, and your minions and corpses basically affect the same counter, so the more minions you have the faster the game removes corpses, making it that much harded to get minions when you need them.
Either way, good luck with a pure summons only, I wouldn't have the patience to play one myself. My zookeeper with other support skills was tough enough.
Now, if you can have a pally with you at all times, then it is different, you can have the pally max thorns, and you can both get prayer mercs, and keep the minions up and running for a really long time. Amp damage (through charges if you are staying pure) will make pretty much everything, even on Hell, that isn't physical immune kill itself in one or 2 hits in most cases.
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It's all just zeroes and ones and duct tape in the end.
It's all just zeroes and ones and duct tape in the end.