5. TacticsHotkeysNecromancers are hotkey dependant, so you need to be able to swap keys on the fly
Standard Necromancer Keys
- A - Tele
- S - Spirit
- D - Spear
- F - Prison
- W - Bone Armor
- E - Golem
- R - Bone Wall
- V - Amp
- T - Battle Command
- G - Battle Orders
- Left Click - Teeth
HotKeys Setup #2
- F1 - Battle Command
- F2 - Battle Orders
- F3 - Amplify Damage
- ` - Golem
- 1 - Spirit
- 2 - Spear
- 3 - Bone Armor
- 4 - Tele
- 5 - Bone Prison
- F4 - Bone Wall
- R - Teeth (left click)
Notes- Use the space bar to stand still so you can spam teeth with the left mouse button whenever you want and be back on the run instantly
- The second hotkey setup may be better for laptops so the thumb can rest on space bar and the 1234's are next to the F1s/F2s etc.
- Use what makes you feel comfortable and don't decide to not use a hotkey because you can't deal with that many hotkeys. Just practice, it'll come.
General TacticsInvisible Bone Spirit - This is a handy trick that can allow you to do serious damage to your opponent if they aren't careful. It is possible for your bone spirits to become invisible. To do this, fire a spirit while your opponent is on your map. Then teleport away until they are off your map. To them, your spirit will no longer be visible. This works very well when you fire spirits into an area where you think your opponent will be going, and can be very dangerous.
Namelocking -This is a nice skill to acquire so you can follow your enemy anywhere and keep the pressure on. This is done by clicking on his name with spear or any attack, and while still holding down the mouse button, switching to teleport. You will teleport directly on top of the target. This only works if they are within a certain range (they have to be on your map).
Chainlocking - Chainlocking is just what the name implies: it’s the chaining of your namelock after you teleport. This is achieved by moving your cursor back to the center of your screen, allowing you to reclick on your target the moment after you teleport. Because you will have had a namelock, the teleport will bring you right on top of the target, so the cursor at the center of your screen will be ready to re-acquire the target
Teleport Tactics - Make your teleports difficult to predict. This will make it hard for your enemy to have spam waiting for you when you land. Don't be afraid to go on the offensive and take control of the duel. With practise, offensive play can be nerve-wracking to your opponent, making it difficult for them organize a counter-attack.
Use your skills - Don't just stand in a corner firing spirits willy-nilly and hoping your opponent will run into them. Spirits are excellent long-range missiles that are great for leading and directing your opponent. They move slowly, so you can fire off a few in one direction and teleport into them for protection and the possibility of doing serious damage to a careless foe. When you fire a spirit without a target, it will go to the place you clicked, and if when it arrives there is a target in range, it will lock on track it down. This means you can control when your spirits should start locking. If you suspect your opponent will tele in close to you, you can shoot spirits by clicking very near your feet. This way, when your opponent lands, the spirits will all lock on to them, which can be very dangerous.
Spears are the staple of your arsenal. They are fast-moving and accurate. Use them when you really want to do some damage. Try to predict your opponent's moves and fire spears where you think they will be. This is especially effective when they are nearby. Spears can also be very deadly when combined with namelocking or chainlocking.
Teeth are excellent for harassment and annoyance. They can slowly chip away at your opponent's life and supplement spears and spirits very well. Since they fan out and are hard to avoid, use them when your opponent gets too close. The damage they inflict can quickly add up. They are also great when you are low on life and on the run to provide cover and damage. When your opponent is low on life, a few rounds of teeth can be all that's needed to finish them off.
Recast your protection! - Whenever you're facing physically based characters, you'll want your armor up at all times. If it gets damaged, recast it. Don't wait for it to fail completely before you do.
Your golem is a tank. It will absorb hits and draw homing attacks like Guided Arrow and Bone Spirit to it. Whenever it dies, recast it so that you don't lose this valuable shield.
Telestomp - This is exactly what it sounds like: stomping on your foe with a teleport. It can be done in two ways. One is a short distance attack - spam a couple of spears on the target and then, as a spear is hitting them, tele directly on to them and shoot more spears (instant kill). The second is a long ranged technique. When you have a namelock, teleport. The instant you land, spam some spears (they may get away, but you may be able to get a few hits).
Weapon Switch Glitch (WSG)When you have a stun swirly above your head (as comes from skills such as mind blast) and are struck, any hit you take will put you into a FHR animation. When you are taking multiple hits in rapid succession, you may find yourself unable to move. This is known as FHR lock. A technique to improve your chances of escaping is to quickly spam your weapon switch key. If you are in a FHR animation, switching weapons will cancel and reset it.
Weapon Switch Glitch Spear (WSG Spear)Quote (Tails chao @ Sun, Oct 11 2009, 06:39pm)
you can use wsg to cancel out the animation of a spell as well as just using it to cancel out the fhr animation. put bone spear as your hotkey on both weapon swaps and just press w and quickly right click after, if you do it right it'll make the bone spear casting animation but you won't see a spear come out (it's client side, they'll see it come out and you can see if you're doing it right by hitting someone with it). you can do it while running to hit a trapper while moving out of the way from a light sentry hit.
if there's 3 or so traps hitting you in mb spam and the trapper is 1-2 spears away from death, you can wsg spear to hit them even under all that stun. it's also really abusable if a level 1 fireblast sin stomps you without traps up, just wsg spear them over and over until they realise it won't work and they stop, couple it with decrep+golem slow if it makes a difference to their ias.
I just fraps'd a vid of it on d2pk, i have a really bad fps rate with fraps but I do it consistently in the vid so it definitely shows how you can tell when a wsg spear fires off.
/e one important thing to remember is that sometimes it'll look like your wsg spear fired off but nothing actually comes out (it does the spear animation cancel but it won't hit anything), its more common to see this when you run and wsg spear at the same time. just something to watch out for if you're timing it wrong and you actually end up doing nothing at all. >_>
/e2 it's uploaded, just not processed yet, but I need to go to bed so I'll post the link now.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6zRg8vvIIF0