New Ladder - Fishymancer Questions Answered

[tetracycloide]

Re: New Ladder - Fishymancer Questions Answered

If you're min/maxing for survivability defense is meaningless on a caster, go with mage plate. Personally, however, I chose my enigma base armors on looks alone. So dusk shroud for me. 38 vitality is only 76 life and I'm not going to run around looking less than my best for a couple points of life.

 

[BlasphemousMusic]

Re: New Ladder - Fishymancer Questions Answered

With the new changes, does this have any effect on this build? I know it said BG now has no life taken, CE is now stronger, and Poison is also.

 

[zarniwoop]

Re: New Ladder - Fishymancer Questions Answered

With the new changes, does this have any effect on this build? I know it said BG now has no life taken, CE is now stronger, and Poison is also.

I may go to 20 in CE this ladder just because I like to fiddle with things a bit, and I might take dim vision down to about 8 so that its 20 something fully geared.

But, clay golem is the best golem by such a vast margin that its not even worth discussing.

 

[VirtueVsVice]

Re: New Ladder - Fishymancer Questions Answered

Think I'd rather call this build a Woopamancer =3

 

[minuses]

Re: New Ladder - Fishymancer Questions Answered

I preferring maxing out CE for as much radius as possible. Maxing out your skeletons, mages, and skele mastery is a good idea for all around purposes. I cant think of where to put the rest into but im thinking rest into clay golem.

 

[zarniwoop]

Re: New Ladder - Fishymancer Questions Answered

Minuses, never put more than one point in a golem.

If you're out of places after RS, SM,RSM and CE, you choose either dim vision, or 1 point in bone armor and the rest in a bone armor synergy.

 

[minuses]

Re: New Ladder - Fishymancer Questions Answered

Minuses, never put more than one point in a golem.

If you're out of places after RS, SM,RSM and CE, you choose either dim vision, or 1 point in bone armor and the rest in a bone armor synergy.

Ok thanks then maybe I should work the rest into bone wall. I can respec it anyways so no big deal.

 

[zarniwoop]

Re: New Ladder - Fishymancer Questions Answered

If you're new to necromancer, I highly suggest at least 10 points in dim vision to give it a test run when you have at least +10 all skills.

 

[minuses]

Re: New Ladder - Fishymancer Questions Answered

If you're new to necromancer, I highly suggest at least 10 points in dim vision to give it a test run when you have at least +10 all skills.

Nah im not new to necros but I do not like dim vision. Decrep covers everything for me. Like I said I can reset stats and go rest into bone wall for more physical protection.

 

[Gillsing]

Killing normal Diablo

If it doesn't have an effect in melee range, I wasn't aware of it. That would be info for me. It seems to fry my merc and skellies in melee range something awful.

I've read that you have to be at melee range 1 in order to enjoy some protection from the lightning hose, and while that may apply to the skeletons (who take 500% damage from act bosses?), the merc is probably at melee range 2-5 depending on what his weapon would allow for. Not that I know for sure that standing really close lessens the damage.

But there's no real need to worry, because I've found out that any necro with enough dexterity to get max block can tank normal Diablo himself, at least at level 34 or so. All it requires is a weapon with decent damage, such as a Vicious Blade of Slaughter (Damage: 5-41), and maxed resistances to fire and lightning. It's slow going without Crushing Blow, but with Life Tap the necromancer can easily leech back life faster than Diablo can take away. The clay golem was at level 9 after +4 from items, and the necromancer was wearing Hawkmail, but not using any cold charms of his own. So I think it evens out in the end. Strength 76 might be higher than any fishymancer would have at that point, but daggers get half their damage bonus from Dexterity, so it should still work with a lot lower Strength.

I was originally going to see if the Inner Sight from the rogue mercenary would make it much easier to hit Diablo, since she'd take his 200 defense down to 0. But she must've done something wrong, because he ran straight for her and hosed her down. So I decided to have a go without that kind of assistance. Apparently a 65% chance to hit was enough, and what little damage he did was quickly leeched back. And thankfully he completely ignored the clay golem, so I didn't have to worry about summoning that one over and over.

I suppose that using a Strength weapon or any of the normal uniques with Crushing Blow would work as well, but the damage may be too low to work well with Life Tap, so maybe then Decrepify would be a better option. Or maybe it's just not worth the hassle, and retreating to resummon the skeletons would be preferable to changing tactics for this one battle?

 

[zarniwoop]

Re: New Ladder - Fishymancer Questions Answered

I find decrepify is almost always the best option outside of UT for main bosses.

 

[Batang]

Re: New Ladder - Fishymancer Questions Answered

I keep reading how good fishymancers are for pvm and I finally decided to started leveling one a few days ago and I have some questions. My necromancer just turned lvl 70, and I decided to start hell difficulty. The problem I'm having is that it takes forever for me to kill anything. My skills are still low (RS 27, SM 25, RSM 14), but I was under the impression that this build should be relatively effective even with crappy gear (which is the main reason I decided to make one).

Now that I started hell difficulty, it takes ages to kill anything. I mean with 11 skeletons, 6 skeleton mages and a clay golems it takes like 15 seconds to kill one zombie with amplify damage on it in the den of evil. Ofcourse I can use CE versus groups, but after spending roughly 60 points (so far) into summoning skills, I was really expecting my summons to deal decent damage also. I don't have a merc yet (because I don't have the gear for him and I don't want to ress him every 5 minutes), so I suppose the lack of an aura does make a noticable difference, but something still seems a bit off. Am I doing something wrong?

 

[nurman]

Re: New Ladder - Fishymancer Questions Answered

@ Batang, you are not doing anything wrong. Fishymancer needs enigma to kick arse ^_^.

 

[XCodes]

Re: New Ladder - Fishymancer Questions Answered

@ Batang, you are not doing anything wrong. Fishymancer needs enigma to kick arse ^_^.

No, it doesn't. Something tells me the guy is actually doing something wrong.

RS and SM should be maxed. If you're going mages, then that should be maxed, too. You're level 70, that's more than enough skill points at your level. Do you have a Might merc yet? What weapon is he using? An Insight polearm is cheap and does a lot of damage, and there are also plenty of uniques that are usable as well. I'm at 28/28 with no mages and I'm breezing through Hell at the moment, and that's just with an A1 cold merc with an Edge bow.

 

[Batang]

Re: New Ladder - Fishymancer Questions Answered

No, it doesn't. Something tells me the guy is actually doing something wrong.

RS and SM should be maxed. If you're going mages, then that should be maxed, too. You're level 70, that's more than enough skill points at your level. Do you have a Might merc yet? What weapon is he using? An Insight polearm is cheap and does a lot of damage, and there are also plenty of uniques that are usable as well. I'm at 28/28 with no mages and I'm breezing through Hell at the moment, and that's just with an A1 cold merc with an Edge bow.

First of all I'm following the skill plan in the op, which means that I put 10 points into CE before I started spending points in mages and I've also put 1 point into all curses, which is why RSM is only lvl 14. I also stated in my last post that I don't have a merc yet.

Maybe it's just that we have different definitions of breezing through? I mean it's not like I have difficulties getting forward in the game, it's just that it takes a long time to kill mobs that are not in group (where I can't use CE).

 

[XCodes]

Re: New Ladder - Fishymancer Questions Answered

First of all I'm following the skill plan in the op, which means that I put 10 points into CE before I started spending points in mages and I've also put 1 point into all curses, which is why RSM is only lvl 14. I also stated in my last post that I don't have a merc yet.

Maybe it's just that we have different definitions of breezing through? I mean it's not like I have difficulties getting forward in the game, it's just that it takes a long time to kill mobs that are not in group (where I can't use CE).

Doh, missed that.

In Hell, the Merc does a *lot* of the killing. It shouldn't be hard to gear an A2 Might merc to survive in Hell, you can probably get a Hone Sundan, Kelpie Snare, or elite Insight polearm cheaply enough, and combine it with a Tal Mask and Duriel Shell or Iron Pelt to get a reasonably durable and highly effective merc.

Also, by breezing I mean slaughtering stuff left and right. No problems with killspeed at all.

 

[Aldeth the Foppish Idiot]

Re: New Ladder - Fishymancer Questions Answered

Yeah, you absolutely need an Act 2 offensive merc. Not only does the merc greatly assist in killing stuff, he provides a might aura to your skeletons, giving them a 200% boost in damage. Even with not so great gear, the performance of your troops will increase dramatically when you add a merc due to his aura.

 

[zrk]

Re: New Ladder - Fishymancer Questions Answered

Yeah and be sure to get him a good stick for a real bad boy. Obedience, treachery, andy would be a great cheap setup to go for

 

[XCodes]

Re: New Ladder - Fishymancer Questions Answered

Yeah, you absolutely need an Act 2 offensive merc. Not only does the merc greatly assist in killing stuff, he provides a might aura to your skeletons, giving them a 200% boost in damage. Even with not so great gear, the performance of your troops will increase dramatically when you add a merc due to his aura.

Not quite, it's actually more like a net 50% boost since the aura only affects base skeleton damage. That's still a big, important boost, however.

 

[Gillsing]

Re: New Ladder - Fishymancer Questions Answered

I don't have a merc yet (because I don't have the gear for him and I don't want to ress him every 5 minutes), so I suppose the lack of an aura does make a noticable difference, but something still seems a bit off. Am I doing something wrong?

In 5 minutes you could easily find enough loot to pay for that resurrection. And the merc doesn't even need any of those cheap runewords that people recommend. Mine did all right with just a ferocious lance (damage 60-256), a gambled rare tiara with resistances, and Haemosu's Adamant (AC 688, +75 life). Now the merc is using the unique lance Spire of Honor, which I could upgrade to an elite weapon. But I don't feel like spending the runes on a weapon that's not fit for the end game.

The merc can easily stay alive as long as he's late for the party and the skeletons have already made a ring of bones around the opposition. And he won't have any trouble with single monsters. Sometimes he gets surrounded by a bosspack though, and I try to feed him purples by shift-clicking, but sometimes I simply don't notice that he's gone until it's too late, and I'm waiting for a corpse to blow up, and none are appearing. And you should find plenty of purples to feed that merc, because as a fishymancer you certainly shouldn't be using them on a regular basis. (Unlike mana potions, when you try to create corpse explosion chains.)

When I notice that the merc is trying to tank dangerous enemies without support from the skeletons, I generally run away to attempt to get him to retreat. Otherwise I might either run out of purples, or be forced to resurrect him again. Without teleport I sometimes also make use of town portal to regroup the entire army to a single spot, which is definitely preferable to having the merc die bravely against a tough monster. Generally the skeletons move much faster than the merc, so they usually reach the enemy before the merc does.