Skeletorr

[gekko]

First of all, a confession -- the planned solo cold sorceress I wrote about a week or so ago has not materialized. Why not? Well, lag, believe it or not. When I first downloaded and played the patch, the lag was so brutal, it rendered the game completely un-playable. 100% un-playable. That sorceress hit clvl 3, IIRC. Simply couldn’t do anything past that.

Now, I found a fix to that problem, but, in the meantime, a new solo, single player character has replaced her as my focus. Anyone remember Skeletorr? I’m sure many of you do. For those who do not... http://sirian.warpcore.org/diablo2/skeletorr.html

Now, I do not have the patience, the skill, or the guts to do what Sirian did with some of his hardcore characters. My hardcore characters tend to die very early in normal act 1 due to acts of stupidity of a criminally negligent magnitude (I almost expect the estates of my late HC characters to band together in some sort of court case).

Skeletorr was a HC necromancer who full cleared all three difficulties way back in, what, version 1.06? Something like that. He specialized in skeleton armies. No revives, no poison and bone skills, minimal golem use. Such a task required immense levels of skill and patience. Several things have changed since then. You can walk through your own minions now, for one. Skeletorr frequently had to unsummon minions in act 3 just to get down the narrow walkways! Minions are rarely lost now -- just about every skeleton that gets trapped too far away from your main character now teleports to your location, just like mercs. And of course, skeletons are much, much stronger in the 1.10 patch. As in, there’s no comparison. In terms of life, damage, AR -- Skeletorr would have wet himself, having minions this strong.

So, obviously, such a character is much, much easier in the current beta patch. And that got me thinking: just how easy would it be, single player, no twink, full clear, with as little repetition as possible? Every account of a skeleton necromancer in the patch keeps talking about a might merc and 20+ skeletons marching around the game.

So the bar is set much lower than it was for the original skeletorr, but it’s set nonetheless. No poison and bone skills, ever. No revives, ever. One point in clay golem, one point in golem mastery. Everything else into skeletons, mages, mastery, summon resist, and the curse tree (*note: after seeing just how strong the skeletons really are, I made the decision to keep my investments into the curse tree as minimal as possible. Through normal, I will not touch the AI branch of the tree, nor will I put more than a single point in any curse. *).

Originally, I intended to write up my experiences as they came, post them online, etc etc. Two things happened to change my mind. First, I became very immersed in the character (despite my second reason) and didn’t want to use up my spare time writing rather than playing :).

Second of all... well, I’ll get into that in the next post. I’d like to keep this post relatively short, mostly simply with info on what the plan is and what I expect out of the character.

Backing out of that mild digression -- I expected normal, particularly the early acts, to be a joke. The main interest would most likely be what kind of equipment I found, discovering how exactly the skills work, and noting the differences between 1.09 and the beta patch.

All of that I will get into soon enough. For now, the rest of the minor details: while this character is softcore, I am playing him as if he is hardcore. If I do die, well, I’ll make my decision then. For now, however, I am playing as if death is the end of the character’s life. I don’t expect this to be much of a problem, at least until Duriel, more likely until the Chaos Sanctuary. I decided not to worry about blocking -- maybe a mistake, but I’m saving myself many, many points. I’ll be collecting diamonds, trying to make a 3 diamond shield (for hell, mostly, and possibly NM, assuming I make it that far). On my wand, I’ll be looking for the greatest combination of plus to skeleton mastery, raise skeleton and raise mage. Summon resist would also be nice, but a slight back-seat to the first three. Obviously, a nice +summoning tree wand would be just great, but we’ll see.

Coming next: reason number 2 for the lack of detailed early reports, an overview of what’s really happened and where the new skeletorr is now sitting.

gekko

[narcisco]

Well I am making a skeleton maxed no mages with bone spear and corpse as the killer blow. No curses past amp.
have used blessed aim merc up till nm act 1. No probs really. Died once.

Curious as if the aim merc is any way comparable to might merc. Does the aim merc really make any diffrence past act2 nm.

[Jorath]

You will probably have no problem doing normal on /players 8. I have a lvl80 skellimancer that is soloing hell with no troubles now. I do, however, use CE, which makes things a lot easier.

I think you may end up ditching the shield in favor of a nice shrunken head. I got lucky and found the hormunculus (sp) which I socketed with a diamond. But any head with +skills on it is going to be more desireable than a shield with resists. +3 to summoning gives you another skellie as well as more damagefe for all of them. You'll rarely get hit with any elemental attack, since your merc and skels will be tanking for you. Watch out for the cold nova from a CE boss though- that can be a nasty surprise.

I think you'll find normal plays at the pace as it did in 1.09, NM a little slower, since you'll only be killing with your merc and army, and hell will be a bit of a challenge, esp if you go in without skells and mastery maxed. Since your army will be the only source of damage, you'll want to get a might merc ASAP.

Good luck- let us know how it goes.

[gekko]

Normal Difficulty

So, what happened? Why did I completely abandon my original plan to document the early parts of the new Skeletorr’s journey?

I tried out the new /players X command for the first time with Skel. And frankly, it made the game so laughably easy, I was almost bored to tears. Why?

Three things increase with points invested in the skelleton skills: offence, defence, and numbers. Obviously, the three are interconected, and it gets more complicted than that, but essentially, that’s all you need to figure out the basic math.

http://sirian.warpcore.org/d2x/subpoena-2.html

I won’t re-write what Sirian so eloquently explained in the above link (begining of Subpoena’s story -- the summons ONLY necromancer Sirian started in the expansion). But basically, he sums up what is intuitively obvious: the more, stronger minions you control, the easier it is to “cruise” through. When you’re outnumbered or faced by stronger enemies, it becomes harder and harder to stay ahead of the curve.

Well, I decided to try the game out at players 8, right out of the gate. I didn’t lose my whole army to anything in all of act 1, including andariel! When the end boss for the act dropped, I had a full army and had barely tapped into the corpses scattered around the 4th level of the catacombs!

There were a few interesting things learned, but nothing truly worthy of writting down. I took some screenshots, deleted just about all of them, and really only kept the others to remind myself of a few important numbers -- basically, the life, defence, AR, and damage of my minions.

Skel is currently at clvl 31, and has full cleared the game up through act 3, inclusively. He has invested a single point in every curse except the three AI curses (dim vision, confuse, attract). Currently, skeleton mastery is at level 13, +skills included. That grants his mages and warriors +104 life and +26 damage. Both raise skeleton and raise mage are at level 9, also with +skills. That gives 5 of each warrior. I am currently using an act 1 merc -- I have yet to decide whether or not I will stick with her, or switch to an act 3 merc. I will not use an act 2 merc unless the game forces me to. I know my minions would benefit greatly from thorns or might, however, they are so strong on their own, I really can’t stand helping them out any more.

Thus far, the only interesting fights I’ve had were with Mephisto and the council members. The council was only difficult until I succeded seperating them from any Blood Lords or minions. Meph would chop my golem in one blow, and iron maiden didn’t seem all that effective. Once I switched to lower resist and simply recast golem every time he took a hit, the battle was over. I lost many golems, but my mages chewed up Meph in perfect safety.

Some fights I’ve enjoyed. I can’t wait for the added difficulty of NM and hell. Already, I can see what WILL be a real challenge -- constantly repositioning a very weak golem to keep unravellers busy, protecting my mages and allowing them to chew through whatever opposition presents itself.

On an equipment note, I’ve been fairly lucky thus far. My current wand has +1 summoning skills, +2 raise skeleton and +2 raise mage. That’s about as good as I can hope for, at least until late NM/hell difficulty. My fire/coldghtning resists are all well over maximum, even without the Anya quest reward. I’ve managed to cube one full diamond and one flawless, and I’ve still got a few flawed in my stash. Unless I find a very nice rare head, I will definately be switching to a 3 D shield for hell difficulty (probably not for NM, however). I occasionally find myself using my character himself to tank for the mages, when the golem is preocupied elsewhere. I would not want to try that with negative resists once I reach hell.

But all of that is pure speculation at this point. Up next is act 4 -- I’m looking forward to the Chaos Sanctuary. Should be interesting.

gekko

[gekko]

Act 4 Normal

Ah, act 4 -- I've always liked act 4. Even if some of my characters can barely squeak through the chaos sanctuary on their own, it's always been one of my favorite challenges. And, for the first time in Skel's short life, he was challenged.

Right out of the gate, things started relatively easy. Once my rogue merc slew a few venom lords and provided me with a few mages, we were on our way, marching through a sea of leapers, casters, and the same venom lords. Thankfully, skeleton mages chew right through those annoying leapers, and my skeletons held the line against everything else that came their way. Izual was literally the third enemy I fought in the plains of despair. And, of course, Izzy was just Izzy -- I think I recast golly once, and never lost a warrior or mage, but the fight lasted about 10 minutes.

By the way, if no one has used clay golem in the patch, the "slows target" effect really becomes noticeable every once in a while. Any enemy that strikes my golem is slowed by about 30% -- Izzy took that blow and was also being hit by 2 cold shooting mages. Yeah, he was REALLY slow. And if it's slow, it's not a threat. J

The river was routine -- Heph is a piece of cake to a necromancer with lots of minions. He did require me to recast a few warriors, but the bodies were more than plentiful. What I really wanted from the hellforge was a diamond -- any diamond. Hell, I'd have been happy with a chipped or flawed. I got a nef rune, a perfect saph, some other junk, and no diamonds. Oh well. Already have 1 perfect and 1 flawless. Should easily have my 3D shield for hell (assuming I get there).

 Right at the gate of the CS was a lightning enchanted boss that finally gave my skels fits -- leaving me short of replacements for the first time I can remember. However, my mages and golem were more than sufficient to peg the bastard back to hell.

I decided to tackle de Seis first, since I expected him to give me the most trouble. Well, I did go through a lot of mana (he killed golly in one hit while I used the poor little clay lump to distract) but the threat level just wasn't there.

I save the Infector for last, and he DID give me trouble. He was FAST, much faster than I remember him, and his attacks stung hard. Also, he was the one of the three seal bosses who seemed to spawn with enough minions -- both the vizier and de seis had only 4 minions each.

Anyways, the infector chewed my golem and set on my mages very quickly. I ported to town and came back through the WP, but he chewed through my replacement army AGAIN, forcing me to run back almost out of the CS. That, however, was his undoing. His minions got strung out and separated (although that did cost me my two remaining mages, and me with no bodies left to raise more). Even with no mage support, fighting his minions, and then the infector himself, one on one was no trouble. I had 5 mages (my max), 1 warrior, a level 1 clay golem, 1 level 32 rogue merc, and slvl 1 iron maiden when I tackled the big guy.

A couple mages survived for a few minutes, even through a fire nova or two (have I mentioned how glad I put a second point into summon resist, and how glad I am that my wand has +1 summoning tree?). Before Diablo had lost even a quarter of his life, however, the skeletons were all gone. My merc lasted longer -- past the half way point (according to D's life bar). However, eventually she took the brunt of one of D's lightning breath attacks, and that put her down. And then, the unthinkable happened:

Diablo caught me in a bone prison! Me, with my sad little 4-6 damage on my wand, to-hit probably lower than 25%, no merc, no teleport, nothing but my sad little golem:)

And a town portal. The TP appeared outside the bone prison, but somehow, when I clicked on it, I appeared in town. Phew.

I took the WP to act one and rounded up a few mages before running up the river to continue the fight. Hey, it felt good, letting my boys get in a shot or two before D toasted them. After they were dead, it was down to just me and golly. Diablo ate a lot of golems. A lot. And, of course, only the ones he slapped into oblivion were useful to the cause. The others perished in a flame river or lightning attack, not reflecting any damage back.

Eventually, however, the big one dropped. He dropped a few rares (no keepers, mostly weapons) and spineripper. Hmm... Nice little dagger, but +1 skills just ain't enough. The other mods are all oriented to a poison dagger necromancer, really. Maybe I'll try that next :)

4 acts cleared end to end. Up next -- act 5. Hopefully I don't get bored to tears before the ancients and baal's minions (I hope those aren't the only interesting bits in the whole act!). All in all, I'm starting to enjoy this character more and more. Golly's starting to be so weak, I have to almost constantly reposition him. My mages are definitely becoming the focus, already. I'm saving up a few skill points -- probably add to my artillery count ASAP.

Skeletorr will see you in act 5.

gekko

[Crystalion]

Diablo caught me in a bone prison! Me, with my sad little 4-6 damage on my wand, to-hit probably lower than 25%, no merc, no teleport, nothing but my sad little golem:)

Hmm, what if, on a weapon switch, you had a...

Eventually, however, the big one dropped. He dropped a few rares (no keepers, mostly weapons) and spineripper. Hmm... Nice little dagger, but +1 skills just ain't enough. The other mods are all oriented to a poison dagger necromancer, really.

Seems to me big D was just feeling bad about imprisoning you and offered you a less embarrassing (though effective) solution than hightailing it to town.

However, in v1.10s, I'd have to say that Spineripper is clearly a with-shield switch weapon for Assassins that focus on Blade Fury or kicks. Every characteristic is sweet. The weapon can even be upgraded to elite around clvl 50 greatly boosting the damage. Indeed my v1.10 has been using one (that she found, of course). Spineripper (AS data):

One-Hand Damage: (36-38.8) To (84-91.6) (60-65.2 Avg)
Required Level: 32
Required Strength: 25
Durability: 16
Base Weapon Speed: [-20]
+200-240% Enhanced Damage(varies)
Adds 15-27 Damage
15% Increased Attack Speed
+1 To Necromancer Skill Levels
Prevent Monster Heal
Ignore Target's Defense
8% Life Stolen Per Hit
+10 To Dexterity
(Only Spawns In Patch 1.09 or later)

[Occhidiangela]

Boss and Minions approach. IM the whole lot of them, then cast a fairly high level Attract at the Boss, or one of the Minions. Clean up with either CE or other attack du jour.

Do they kill themselves pretty quickly doing this?

Are there any holes in this idea?

[gekko]

Last time I checked, attract doesn't work on bosses/champs. However, it can be used on minions, to great effect.

In 1.09, this is of course hampered the same way the revive/IM combo is: damage is halved when the minion is attacked thanks to global physical resist, then halved again as the IM returned damage hits another 50% physical resist. High level IM can, of course, partly make up for that.

In 1.10, I've found iron maiden has lost quite a bit of its punch. I haven't used it past normal yet, however, and only at slvl 1, so I'm not prepared to pass judgement on it in the new beta patch. If anyone has more experience with the skill in 1.10, feel free to correct my (very early, very unscientific) observations.

gekko