Ptfan's Pro PVP Summoner Necro Guide For 1.11b

Introduction:

I have been playing PVP summon necros since 1.10 came out. I have always enjoyed playing them and think they are one of the more fun PVP and PVM characters. Summoners can beat any part of the game, even ancients and baal. I’ve heard rumors that summoners can do ubers, but this is untrue in my testing. I hope you enjoy my guide.

Stats:

Strength: 15

Dexterity: 25

Vitality: ALL

Energy: 25

Put all stat points into vita. You will have enough strength to wear everything in this build. There is no reason to put any stat points into dexterity for max block because none of the melee characters will be able to hit you while you’re dueling because of summon stack…(unless they use auto target programs).

Skills:

Summoning Spells:

Skeleton Mastery: 20
Raise Skeleton: 20
Skeletal Mage: 20
Clay Golem: 1
Golem Mastery: 1
Blood Golem: 1
Summon Resist: 1
Iron Golem: 1
Fire Golem: 1
Revive: 1

Poison And Bone Spells:

Bone Prison: 20
Bone Wall: (Put the rest of your points here after you max bone prison)
Teeth: 1
Bone Armor: 1
Corpse Explosion: 1
Bone Spear: 1
Bone Spirit: 1

Curses:

Amplify Damage: 1
Weaken: 1
Iron Maiden: 1
Terror: 1
Life Tap: 1
Decrepify: 1
Lower Resist: 1

Breakpoints:

Frame - FHR

13 - 0%
12 - 5%
11 - 10%
10 - 16%
9 - 26%
8 - 39%
7 - 56%
6 - 86% (my build hits this breakpoint)
5 - 152%
4 - 377%


Frame - FCR

15 - 0%
14 - 9%
13 - 18%
12 - 30%
11 - 48%
10 - 75% (my build hits this breakpoint)
9 - 125%

Gear:

Helm: Shako (socketed with um or resist jewel, 15res/7fhr jewel would be best)

Amulet: Maras (high % would be nice)

Weapon: Beast (in a low req axe (I use a double axe) with high strength to use spirit)

Armor: Enigma (Mage Plate if you have high enough strength without beast)

Shield: Spirit Monarch with 35% FCR (35% FCR is a must to hit BP, high mana and magic absorb are also nice)

Gloves: Trang-Oul's Claws (20 FCR / 30 cold resist / +2 Curses)

Rings: Bul-Kathos' Wedding Ring X 2 (+1 All Skills and Life)

Belt: Arachnids (+1 All Skills and FCR)

Boots: (I would recommend FHR + Tri Resist Boots (I use 10 Fhr/dex/Tri-Resist), Sandstorm Treks will also work)

On Switch:

Weapon: Call To Arms (6 BO would be nice)

Shield: Lidless (you will not even have enough strength to use Eth Spirit Monarch, as 25 to 40 of the str for spirit comes from beast, and Um the lidless if possible)

Inventory:

Necro Torch: (high stat and resist is nice)

Annihilus: (high stat and resist is nice here too)

GCS: Necro Summon Lifers and FHR (I use 8 x Lifers and 1 x FHR)

Scs: 10 x Life/resist scs and FHR/resist scs (I would recommend 20 life / 5 resist and 5 FHR / 5 resist scs)

I would highly recommend hitting both the 86 FHR breakpoint and the 75% FCR breakpoint. My testing has shown that the 125% FCR breakpoint is not worth it.

Merc Setup:

I always will duel with a merc using the might aura (offensive act 2 nightmare); Pride adds too much damage to pass up.

Eth Pride Cryptic Axe (level 20 concentration aura if possible)

Eth Bugged Fortitude (30 resist is nice; you could also use Chains of Honor or Eth Shaftstop). In all my testing I've found bramble to be sub-par.

Eth Kiras (70 resist is nice (I use a 15ias/15resist P Kiras), you can also us a two open socket Crown of Ages)

I like to have a lot of stacked resist on my merc to avoid casters killing him.

How To Get Summons In A Duel Game:

One of the key aspects of dueling with a summoner is getting summons quickly.

- Summon your Clay Golem and Bone Armor yourself.

- Enter the Cold Plains or Stony Field and kill creatures. The freeze target on pride can be annoying; try to find cold resistant creatures. Bone Spirit works well here, especially with bone prison when you’re getting going. Summon skeletons first and mages second.

- Enter the Frigid Highlands and fight Shenk’s minions. You should get 20+ revives here no problem.

-After getting all these revives, run back to act one to duel. Remember, revives only last 3 minutes.


Dueling Strategies:

Assassins:


Trap Assassin: Hard

Trap Assassins kill your mages very quickly. The outcome of this duel depends on if they have mind blast or not; if they have it you might lose, if they do have it you will probably win. If they use stormshield with max block and mind blast you are done for.

Whirlwind Assassin and Hybrid: Medium

The key to this match up is also mind blast; if they have mind blast you might loose, if they don’t have it, you will probably win.


Amazons:


Bowazon: Easy

Just teleport on top on this character and they are dead. This is one of the easiest duels.

CS Zon: Easy

This is the javazon with the mod. Just teleport on top of them and they are dead. Be Careful when entering the blood more because you have no protection; they might kill you before you can cast teleport.


Necromancers:


Poison And Bone Necro: Easy

Just teleport on top of these guys and they are dead. Most can’t even hurt you.

Poison Nova Necro: Easy

I’ve dueled a few of these poison nova necros and have never lost to one.

Summon Necro: Fun

This match will just be interesting. Have fun with this one.


Barbarians:


BVC Barb: Easy

BVC barbs don’t use shields and take a lot of damage. Teleport away from this barb and Iron Maiden them. Teleport on them and they will kill themselves.

Other Barbs: Easy

Most Barbarians will have a hard time killing revives. Just Iron Maiden them and they will die. I’ve never lost to a warcry barb.


Sorceresses:


Orb Sorc: Easy

Just teleport on the sorc and they will take damage. Mages usually die very easy from frozen orb.

Blizzard Sorc: Medium

Blizzard sorcs do massive damage to summons. Try to teleport on them as quickly as possible. Your revives will be doing the majority of the damage in this duel.

Fireball Sorc: Medium

Fireball does splash damage so be careful. I would recommend getting flying summons for this match up. The fireballs will do damage to they flying summons instead of you. Teleport on the fireball sorc and she will die quickly.

Lightning Sorc: Easy

Teleport on a lightning sorc and they will probably die. Mages work very well in this matchup for slowing this sorc down.


Druids:


Elemental Druid: Medium – Hard

Do Not Teleport On Them!!! They will tornado you to death. I would recommend circling the druid first and killing all the druid’s summons. Try to avoid tornados and do damage to them. This can be a hard match up at times.

Shapeshift Druid: Easy

There isn’t a way a shapeshift druid can win. Golem + Revives + Iron Maiden = GG


Paladins:


Hammerdin: Medium

Hammerdins kill your mages very easily, but they will have a hard time killing your revives. Just stay just south of the hammerdin and peck away.

Foh Paladin: Easy

There is really no way they can target you. Just keep teleporting next to they and they will die eventually.

Smiters: Medium

Keep teleporting next to the smiter. They usually die quickly after a well placed Iron Maiden.

Auradin: Medium – Hard

Auradins are one of the worst match ups for a summoner. All your mages will die quickly, skeletons following shortly after. Revives are key in this match. Teleport on him early on.



Thanks for reading my guide. Comments or questions would be appreciated.

nice guide, i vote this gets stickied

Very nice guide, though in my experience, for dueling other casters (especially 200 FCR FB sorcs), having 125 fcr can be very helpful so you can tele faster and let mages hit them from afar.

I did try this out and didnt find it necessary. Yes mages pwn them. As in the guide, I would recommend flying revives.

Iunno where u duel, but where I duel, Mercs r BM...if u were 2 use one, everyone would attack it...and repeat, if u rez'd it.

Like the rest, though

They are bm, but so are revives. There's no way your going to win very many duels with just skelies and mages.

also, you merc is sometimes protected by the other summons, but yes he does die often.

This post was edited by Ptfan on Mar 30 2007 06:18am

Good guide ^^
I might respec my pvm summoner to pvp, looks fun to me.
And if you typ "Necro uber" at youtube you will find a lot of movies where necro's do uber trist

This post was edited by Shinobi-tlo on Mar 30 2007 08:34am

nice guide

but i prefer going with nova (2.3k dmg at lvl 91) instead of prision
the drawback is I only absorb 200dmg with bone armor

but teleing gets funnier

Thx,

I never liked poison nova, it doesnt do much damage and it is easy to get away from it.

My bone armor is 540, which is only about 340 more than you.

This post was edited by Ptfan on Mar 30 2007 10:45am

you do realize that it is hard to "pk" people as people can just wait for revives to die..?