Advice on Spellcaster Necro build

[Ajax]

A friend of mine is building a spellcaster necro. He's interested specifically in the Bone Spear skill, balanced with a golem and merc to tank.

My questions are thus: 1) Is it possible to solo a hell difficulty game with such a build? 2) What is the propor distribution of stat points for such a build, and what equipment is needed? 3) What are some good skills (aside from Bone Spear) which should be used, esp. in golem choice? Should he try to get some Bone Mages as well? 4) What equipment would be ideal for this setup?

Thanks Lurkers.

[Little Faith]

Bonecasters are exceptionally easy to build.

Try to look at the right and middle hand of the Poison and Bone tree. You will discover that all of the skills except Bone Armor and Corpse Explosion seem to synergize each other. Especially Bone Wall and Bone Prison seems to affect almost the entire bone tree.

The usual choice is to max Bone Spear, Bone Spirit, Bone Wall and Bone Prison. This will give you two very powerful magical attacks and two very powerful crowd control skills and you Bone Armor will still be cool even though it only gets it's power from synergies.

The finishing touch is to whack some points into the last synergy: Teeth. It is even semiuseful as an attack in it's own right when it got all those synergies.

But besides bone spells you probably want a few utility spells. You mentioned the Golem already. I would suggest a Clay Golem. It does next to no damage, but it is tough, cheap to recast and slows the enemies it hits, making it perfect for tying up bothersome bosses. You really only need 1 point in it and 1 point in Golem Mastery.

And you want curses. Both to aid any comrades as well as to protect yourself. The neat thing with curses is that they very often require very few points. For many curses the only thing determined by the points value is the duration and radius.

The curse that will help you most is Decrepify that will greatly reduce the enemies offensive capabilities as well as making them easier to manage with the slow effect. Attract can also be nifty by forming large dense packs for easy spearing. Dim Vision could also be useful, but it requires a few more points to be worth anything. Besides, you got Bone Walls to stop any incoming missile fire.

Both Teeth, Bone Spirit and Bone Spear are "spammable" which means they got no "timer" and can be cast in quick succession. Thus Faster Cast Rate does wonders for a Bonecaster. It is along with +skills some of your most important skills. Things that gives you mana are also useful, especially if they increase your mana by a percentage.

Regarding your energy stat I am a bit ambivalent. At one point Energy is a rather sad stat. The only thing it gives you are mana points and it doesn't really protect you in any way, neither does it aid your skills. Therefore you should not go overboard here, but unless you got tons of good +mana equipment you'll probably want a little investment here. I think 50-70 is a good value to shoot for.

Strength is of course only used for item requirements.
Dexterity is a matter of whether you want to have a high block rating with your shield or not.
And Life should take all the rest. In 1.10 things can kill you pretty fast in the later parts of the game.

[Brasslock]

Thanks, that was rather informative.

One quick question though: how does this build deal with Magic Immune monsters, like the Act II Greater Mummy variants?

[Wyrm]

Have a merc or other ally make a kill and then ACE 'em (Amp and Corpse Explosion). Even if one CE doesn't kill the group it'll cut them down quite a bit and make the next kill all the more easy for your merc.

You may want more than just the base point in Dim Vision, unless you have a lot of +all skills items, to make the ranged attackers in Hell a bit easier to manage.

[Hulk]

1) Yes it's quite easy. 2) 35 str/No Energy/No Dex/All Vita - Breast/Mage Enigma/Hoto/2x Caster Rings(Storm Loops)/Marrowwalks/Arachnid Mesh/Magefist or Trang Gloves/Ghoul Heart Amulet/Shako with Shael or a 2nec/20%Fcr helm with Shael or Um rune/Perf Boneflame with Um/ +5-6 Bo Cta with Lidless/6+ PoisonBone Gcs/30+ Life Small Charms - Max Teeth/Spear/Spirit/Wall/Bone Armor/+1 Skeles/+1 Clay-Fire Golem/+1 Revives 3-4) Read Above.

Thats mainly a pk set up my nec has but it works well for me in Hell, I clear act 4 Diablo quick with just teeth alone. Other items like:

Shako
Que Hegans/Magi Armor
Maras
2x Soj or Bk Rings
Boneshade or White Wand Runeword
Mage Fist/Trang Gloves/Frostburns
Silkweaves
Trang Belt
Homunculus/Good Rare-Magical Head

Hope this helps at all, goodday.

sGhulK@UsWest Non-Lad
-Hulk

[neod]

A mixture of what both of these guys say i would say is ideal. Both make very good points. I would follow what Hulk lists out and instead of maxing bone armor put about 2-3 points in curses. Try to find a wand like umes that has decrepify on it already so you dont' have to waste points in the pre curses. even if you put umes on switch weapon it will help save some points. also i have recently used attract on a cowin nec i made and i have fell in love with it. It is by far better than bone spells for crowd control. it isn't over casted so you can cast attract on a couple monsters and then amp or dec and let them kill each other. I love that. Also, attract won't "lag" the game like a bone prison will. (that is if you are casting many in a crowded zone) so i find it especially useful if you are hc to use attract. Oh and the best thing about attract is that it takes care of the mummies in Act 2 because the other monsters should kill them for you. SWEET DEAL! Over all i think your friend will have a lot of fun with this build and you probably will make one once you see the power of it. Oh, and also, don't break your bank trading for the uber nec gear for him. this build should allow you to have moderate nice gear in hell even. So don't worry if you can't afford an enigma or cta's just yet. He should be fine with necro gear you can find or eaisly trade for. Just look for items with +skills, faster cast rate is very helpfull, mana, res, and vit. Faster run/walk never hurts while crowd controling. When you make it to hell is when you will know if your gear needs an uprgade to better gear. Untill then you should have no problem at all.

The main thing is just to make sure you have enough life to tank a couple hits while crowd controlling. Even though you shouldn't ever get hit with him.

Good Luck,
-NeoD

[neod]

Here i typed this up quick on a different forum and copied and pasted it here


Here is what i think is the best way to use a bone Nec.

Synergies synergies and a couple more synergies.
The bone tree is one of my favorite. All the bones give to the others. Using this is crutial to stay alive and kill in nm and hell.

First off the bone nec is nice because the build can be used for pvm or pvp. The differences are slim but I will only cover PvM.


Bone Skills-
You will want to max teeth, bone spear, bone wall, bone prison, bone spirit. This will be your main attack. I usually max teeth last because it is the least useful skill I find. If you are not goin to power rush and just play through then max bwall last. You will also want 1 point in bone armor. any more I find is a waste because the synergies from bone wall and prison are better than each skill point in it.
Summoning Skills-
I find for a bone nec you really dont' need any summons. The benefits in hell from summons are not worth the skill points. I would if you insist put a point in clay golem and golem mast and golem res if you think you could use a decoy. Remember this is just a decoy to escape and use prison or wall. Summons have only a little part, i believe, on a bone nec.
Curse Skills-
Here is where you invest the rest of your skills to meet your needs in pvm. there are a couple skills that i am partial to. I love attract, decrepify, and iron maiden. these i think are the best of the bunch. Some ppl find that dim vision is helpful but i have never used DV so i can't comment on it. If someone could reply with there experience with DV that would be great. All 3 of these curses only need one point each. You will/should have enough +skills gear on that 1 point is sufficient.

Using the skills takes only a couple minutes to get good at them. Setting them to hotkeys makes it really unfair to the monsters. Here is a typical way that i will use the skills. Set bspear or bspirit to left click and have the others on right click. As you approach monsters cast golem out in front. this is to attract the monsters to it. The golem can die after a couple hits because he is just used to gather monsters in one area. Then casting attract on 2-3 monsters will keep them in a small group attacking each other. This is why you dont' need minions. They kill themselves. on top of the attract you can cast amp or decrepify to help. Attract can't be over cast which is why it is my favorite. While the monsters are wackin' away on each other you can cast up a wall or two between them and you just to make sure they don' start to wander too close to you. Or you can prison them making sure they can still wack away on each other. Once you are sure they aren't goin anywhere you can open up on them with spear or spirit. I find that it is really hard to die using this method. The main thing to keep in mind is that you won't have a ton of life being a nec so you have to rely on crowd control to survive. If you come upon a large group just keep casting Attract so that every monster is attacking another monster. This shall keep even the largest of the crowds at bay while you spear or spirit them. Also, NEVER and I mean NEVER forget the power of Corpse Explosion. I will leavea game if a nec doesn't use CE. No nec should be without the spell. And since you are a bone nec you will get anyway. Even with 1 point CE is a mighty Powerful skill. So use it and love it's power. Just remember that it takes some mana and to always watch your mana lvl. FCR will drain your mana fast.

Speakin of mana....
Stats:
Str- Whatever your armor requires. <100 is ideal.
Dex - none
Vit - All the rest
Energy - I usually go about 200 tops. Your gear should add mana also so this is plenty. Remember, if you run outta mana you can tp and get more if need be. If you run outta life you can't tp and get more. If you are hardcore then i would say 150 tops in Energy.

Gear-
I am not going to sit here and list all the best possible items that you should strive to equip on him because it is insulting to someone that just starts out to think they have to have all the ubers right away. I like this build because you don't have to have the best gear to be good. Almost any gear will work to get you all the way to hell. Once in hell you might have to get at least semi decent gear. If you want to look up the best of the best gear go ahead and check out The Arreat Summit or Diabloii.net. In looking for gear you should look for +skills, Faster Cast Rate, Mana, Life, Res, and Faster Run Walk. Try to get as much FCR as you can. This will help launch godly amounts of spears and spirits in no time at all. I am not sure if there are FCR break points but most likely there are. I will have to look them up later.

Armor -- Your defense is going to be weak with this build but a nice armor will help a little just don't pump in too much str for it. Since you shouldn't be taking any hits def is not a big concern. A nice cheap armor for starting out is the rune word Stealth. It has FCR, FHR,FRW and some other pretty good mods. But you can find the runes for it in norm so that helps a ton. You can alway upgrade to another armor later on in the game if you need/want to.

Helm-- A helm is a good way to get some +skills among other mods. A helm i suggest for low lvls is a lore. with low lvl req and low runes it works well for having a +1 and +10 energy and some res on it. Another option is a Wormskull which is not to hard to find/trade cheap.

Wand-- Your wand should have many mods that I have previously stated. There are many wands that you can Purchase from NPCs or find. Many rare wands are great. Finding one that you like is half the fun. A good rune word wand is white. Gives pretty good +skills, FCR, and has some other mods too. Also can be made in early nm I believe. Also, a Gravenspine is great for low lvl. +2 skills and a couple other mods. And CHEAP! Ume's is another good wand to have for the +skills and decrepify.

Shield-- Your shield will mostly be helping with resistances and FCR. A good blocking % is great but not the most important thing. A good res shield is the Rune word Ancient's Pledge. +40 or more to all res and 10% damage to mana. Rhyme is another Rune Word shield that is pretty good. It can be a very helpful shield at times with res and increased blockin mods. The unique shield Lidless would be a great shield for FCR but it is pricey startin out.

Boots-- Any pair that has FRW and Res will do. If they have any other mods great!

Rings/Ammy-- For rings i preffer any 10% FRC rings with life, mana, and res mods. The more the merrier. Other wise any +skill rings are great. For ammy look for +skills, frc, res, life, mana (the usuall lol)

Belt-- I like a good belt that has many slots. I usually go for a 3x4 or 4x4 slot belt for potions. Mods on belt should be? yep, the same as all other gear; life, res, rep life, and damage reduction.

Gloves-- There are a couple gloves that pop to mind that are fairly cheap. Frost Burns and Mage Fists. These are two I like. Very cheap and work well. Frosties give a ton of mana +40% increased mana and Magefists give 20% FCR, regen mana, and +1 to fire skills. +1 to fire skills? Why would a nec need that? Good question. Corpse Explosion is considered a Fire skill so the +1 will actually give a +1 to CE. Magefists are my favorite pair of gloves for a low lvl bone nec.

Now keep in mind I didn't list any gear for super high lvl necs. You may find that you can make it to hell and even do hell with this gear but it will be harder than if you had some better gear like say trangs set. There is much better gear out there than what I have listed. This is just to get you started. Look at the sites and check out what other high lvl necs use or just use what you can find which is great too.

Hopefully this has helped with any questions you had involving a bone nec. Necs are one of my favorite chars and I think they can hold their own against almost any build. Good luck with yours and if you have any q's or comments please post. For I am always looking to improve my self too lol.


-NeoD

EDIT: I will be adding more later. Like mercs, Better items, Lvling strategies, charms, and what-not. Just to let ya know.