07-16-2003, 02:14 AM
Drawbacks to the summoner build?
Well I guess one thing I haven't listed are my stat point distribution so I'll list that now.
Str: base - 100 / 108 with items
Dex: base - 25 / 30 with items
Vit: base - 115
Egy: base - 200 / 212 with items
I placed 100 into strength for future proofing, and to wear heavy armour and shields if they came up. Sigons luckily dropped yet only has 75 str req, and I wear ancient armour, mainly because it's classed as medium and looks badass all black with skulls in it :D
Dex base - no need for dex he doesn't block
Vit: I pumped last, after strength and energy, because he didn't need the health till late NM and Hell.
Energy: I chose 200 because a summoner is fairly trigger happy if you use CE ( I know i am :D ), and liberally throw around curses.
I augmented the mana and health with skulled armour. 4 pskulls gives 20 hp regen and 76% mana regen. My circlet which was scketed with the NM socket quest, got 2 sockets which has 2 p skulls, for an additional +10 and 38% regen for health and mana respectively. All told I gain +30 health regen and 114% mana regen with this settup which allows me 2 things. To spend less points in Energy and spend less time relying on pots. This means in hell I can save those potion slots just for full rejuvs, for when I really need them, and not have reds and blues filling up my belt slots.
Just a quick reminder here that I find resists to be a main issue here, you must keep them high, if you don't want to rebuild your army lots.
Now onto the down side of the build.
There isn't any :D
No just kidding, well there's not much. In actual play I haven't died much, maybe 8 times all up, if that. But when I have it's been due to being swamped, your necro here is the general and not even equiped to fight or last long, from hand to hand attacks, magic is ok if your resists are high, but get a balrog next to you and know hurt. So the only thing here is low defense so you may want to pump vit earlier though I found it wasn't needed.
I seriously haven't felt threatend with this build which I guess is what as summoner is all about, being behind the lines so to speak, where it's safe. I've never really been short of mana, and I can use most equipment I find, due to a high strength (this is also good for boots and belts you may find).
Bosses have been quite easy to kill as even ones like bloodraven are surrounded and can't run, this is particularly obvious with the ancients.
I would not at any time say this build is over powered. You just have to play smart and watch you skill allocation, build on it's strengths and don't diversify till SM, and RS are maxed, maxing RS first with about 5 points in SM till RS is at 20, then pump SM up to 20.
I feel that revives and magi have really been over looked here, golems seem ok but only as additional tanks, yet 1 skel is easily better than a golem. One thing I have noticed is that bosses ALWAYS go for the golem first in a fight, so if you spam summon your golem ( I use clay for bosses so my health doesn't drop ) then diablo or baal will just focus on the ever appearing golem and forget your skeletons. ( As a side not to this has anyone noticed summon COMPLETELY ignore izual? I had 10 skeletons hacking away at pillars right next to izzy, even my merc chose pillars over him, and I had to clear the area of pillars before they would even look at him..)
One thing I noticed is that summons get a huge boost past level 20. level 20 skels do about 80 damage with max SM. LEvel 29 do 280. I big difference. I guess bliz expect a few +skills items for hell and so scaled it this way, because 20 RS is possible with amp and CE and before level 25 clvl.
All up the only weakness here is you, being killed and losing the army, but with a moderate Run/Walk bonus ( I have 20% on tearhaunch ) and high resists, you should be able to either run out of the way or resist any missile attacks (though hell difficulty archers hurt alot, which is lucky I am pumping vit now).
Well I guess one thing I haven't listed are my stat point distribution so I'll list that now.
Str: base - 100 / 108 with items
Dex: base - 25 / 30 with items
Vit: base - 115
Egy: base - 200 / 212 with items
I placed 100 into strength for future proofing, and to wear heavy armour and shields if they came up. Sigons luckily dropped yet only has 75 str req, and I wear ancient armour, mainly because it's classed as medium and looks badass all black with skulls in it :D
Dex base - no need for dex he doesn't block
Vit: I pumped last, after strength and energy, because he didn't need the health till late NM and Hell.
Energy: I chose 200 because a summoner is fairly trigger happy if you use CE ( I know i am :D ), and liberally throw around curses.
I augmented the mana and health with skulled armour. 4 pskulls gives 20 hp regen and 76% mana regen. My circlet which was scketed with the NM socket quest, got 2 sockets which has 2 p skulls, for an additional +10 and 38% regen for health and mana respectively. All told I gain +30 health regen and 114% mana regen with this settup which allows me 2 things. To spend less points in Energy and spend less time relying on pots. This means in hell I can save those potion slots just for full rejuvs, for when I really need them, and not have reds and blues filling up my belt slots.
Just a quick reminder here that I find resists to be a main issue here, you must keep them high, if you don't want to rebuild your army lots.
Now onto the down side of the build.
There isn't any :D
No just kidding, well there's not much. In actual play I haven't died much, maybe 8 times all up, if that. But when I have it's been due to being swamped, your necro here is the general and not even equiped to fight or last long, from hand to hand attacks, magic is ok if your resists are high, but get a balrog next to you and know hurt. So the only thing here is low defense so you may want to pump vit earlier though I found it wasn't needed.
I seriously haven't felt threatend with this build which I guess is what as summoner is all about, being behind the lines so to speak, where it's safe. I've never really been short of mana, and I can use most equipment I find, due to a high strength (this is also good for boots and belts you may find).
Bosses have been quite easy to kill as even ones like bloodraven are surrounded and can't run, this is particularly obvious with the ancients.
I would not at any time say this build is over powered. You just have to play smart and watch you skill allocation, build on it's strengths and don't diversify till SM, and RS are maxed, maxing RS first with about 5 points in SM till RS is at 20, then pump SM up to 20.
I feel that revives and magi have really been over looked here, golems seem ok but only as additional tanks, yet 1 skel is easily better than a golem. One thing I have noticed is that bosses ALWAYS go for the golem first in a fight, so if you spam summon your golem ( I use clay for bosses so my health doesn't drop ) then diablo or baal will just focus on the ever appearing golem and forget your skeletons. ( As a side not to this has anyone noticed summon COMPLETELY ignore izual? I had 10 skeletons hacking away at pillars right next to izzy, even my merc chose pillars over him, and I had to clear the area of pillars before they would even look at him..)
One thing I noticed is that summons get a huge boost past level 20. level 20 skels do about 80 damage with max SM. LEvel 29 do 280. I big difference. I guess bliz expect a few +skills items for hell and so scaled it this way, because 20 RS is possible with amp and CE and before level 25 clvl.
All up the only weakness here is you, being killed and losing the army, but with a moderate Run/Walk bonus ( I have 20% on tearhaunch ) and high resists, you should be able to either run out of the way or resist any missile attacks (though hell difficulty archers hurt alot, which is lucky I am pumping vit now).