My 1.10 Daggermancer

[Conte-Di-Montecristo]

mmmm..... I think this is a great thing, but how do you deal with immune to magic and immune to poison monsters?

[Conte-Di-Montecristo]

At the moment, I'm only level 30, but I figure I might as well shape a venomancer taking advatange of the new synergies.

(Note: I don't play on Battle net since I prefer to play on lan with my two sibblings. We simply swap the expansion disc around the comps.)

The goal is simple:
20 skill pts in Poison Dagger(PD). 20 skill pts in Poison Nova(PN).

15+ pts in dim vision, 1-5 pts in lower resist, one pt in all curses.

PD and PN synergy:
From the new 1.10 patch (as known so far), PD benefits 20% from each level in poison explosion and poison nova, so when you want even more damage in PD, you can boost poison explosion if you have spare skill pts.  The PN also benefits from synergy, although not nearly as much as PD (unless you take the area damage into account).

A level 20 PD does more than 500 poison damage while a PN alone does around 450 poison damage. By using the 20% synergy bonus to PD and 8% bonus to PN, you effectively get a very concentrated dagger attack and a better PN to weaken the masses. In numbers, this is around 2000 poison damage and around 720 nova damage.

Dim Vision:
The skill plan also concentrates heavily on Dim Vision into account. This is hands-down the best crowd control I've used.

Against lots and lots of monters, dim vision would more likely serve me better than decrepify or amplify damage. My second act merc simply picks at them slowly while the enemy is blinded. If I see he's hurt, I run away and the enemy won't chase after me.

Even against bosses, it would neatly isolate the boss from its minions. Simply cast it and run away. The boss chases you and now you're free to use lower resist (with PD) or lifetap (w/ merc) or amplify damage (w/ merc).

The reason why I would put 15+ pts into dim vision is merely for convenience. I have spare pts anyway. In hell, the duration is cut by 3/4 so the extra pts will come in VERY handy for the duration. A lvl 20 dim vision would last 15 seconds, which is quite good enough.

Merc Choice:
At the moment, I'm using a prayer merc temporarily. However, I think a holy freeze merc or a barbarian might be the best choice. Although dim vision + rogue merc seems to work well, it's a pain to keep her alive from bosses. Lifetap or Amplify damage (w/ life leech) come in very handy against bosses.

I invest now mostly in dexterity and vitality. At 50 energy, it's more than enough mana for me, although I keep like 3 mana pots against bosses to keep the PD going.

Edit: I'd like to add that I'm also trying to get 5+ necromancer skills. The poison synergy will be even better and the curses become more useful such as lower resist and amplify damage/decrepify.

mmmm..... I think this is a great thing, but how do you deal with immune to magic and immune to poison monsters?

[Ahvae'el]

Hullo.

This build is intended to maximize one type of damage. If you TRULY intend to solo, which I never, ever recommend, especially in v1.10, where partying is rather requisite, for poison immunes, I say throw up a few of your powerful bone walls/prisons, curse intelligently, and throw in confuse wherever is possible, so monsters fight amongst themselves.

A merc is a definite boon here, and lifetap can also keep him alive well.

If you wish, I suggest a point in clay golem, or even up to iron golem, for further distraction. That is not falling into summoning; you will still be a poison necro. Just with an extra mana-based hireling.

I truly think that, with such massive hitpoints on monsters, people should either synergize one type of damage, are attempt to spread themselves into two. Trying to maximize three skills will end in weakness; it is far better to have very specialized members IN A GROUP working together.

Buena Suerte!

[bonelessjoe]

I am only level 23 so far playing SC.
I found a blackbog's in 1.09 and waited till 1.10 to start my daggermancer so I didn't screw him up :)
Anyway's I'm having fairly decent success using a defiance merc, since I'm not planning on pushing my strength past 75 or so the defiance merc will definately help with my low defense.
Early on I found that terror worked wonders to help clear the room as DM seemed to wear off to quickly and I died a few times when I got stuck surrounded by a bunch of DM ranger critters when the DM wore off.
I cast terror a couple of times get most of the critters to run away and then use life tap on the ones that remain so my merc can survive. This worked rather nicely here in the early stages. I found a +3 to DM wand and with this larger radius and duration I now see it's use and plan on pushing it to at least 10 or so.
Even still when I'm getting swarmed I still use terror as it really helps clear the area.

Another strategy I've found that works nicely is to block a doorway with a bonewall, my merc, or myself so a limited number of critters can get through at a time and once I kill one of them with my dagger, just start casting poison explosion on the corpses in the doorway and watch them just start to fall.

[Phyloxerra]

Howdy,

Just a quick point. Trang's gloves in 1.1 add +25% to all poison skill dmg. I haven't had the chance yet to experiment to see if it truly does what it advertises, but if it does, you might want to consider tryin to get them. Even if you dont find them maybe one of your siblings has or will and would think about giving them up.


Scotty

[Caaroid]

give -25% enemy poison resist with some of the other items. Also worthy of note