New002's Quick and Dirty Psnmancer Guide (PvM)IntroI have been playing D2 EHCL on and off for several years now and my favorite character is a Poison + Summoning Necro, sometimes referred to as a Psnmancer/Poisonmancer. In my time playing I haven't run across too many others, at least on EHCL, which is unfortunate because it's an excellent and devastating build.
Over the past ladder I received several PMs enquiring about my build. I tend to get teased on JSP about my so called obsession with these characters, and that typically means that when someone has a poison necro related question they get sent to me. I just wanted to make a quick guide that lays out how I do things. Hopefully people find it helpful
What is a Psnmancer?A Psnmancer is pretty straight forward really as its all in the name. A Psnmancer relies on Poison Nova as the primary attack, with some hearty minions as support, and additional spells to keep things under control.
The StatsStrength - Enough for gear
Dexterity - Max block
Mana - None
Vitality - The rest
Simple stuff.
The BuildSummoning Spells (28)1 point: Every skill except Fire Golem and Raise Skeleton
20 points: Raise Skeleton
A 20/1 split between Raise Skeleton and Skeleton Mastery will give you a nice hearty group of skeletons. My build(s) makes use of Iron Golem for Insight so it's important to have a point in there.
Poison and Bone Spells (63+)1 point: Teeth, Bone Armor, Corpse Explosion (I dump my spare points here)
20 points: Poison Dagger, Poison Explosion, Poison Nova
You want to max Poison Nova and its synergies of course. When all the main skills are set I drop the rest of my points into Corpse Explosion.
Curses (8 points)1 point: Every skill (except confuse and attract)
Lower Resist and Decrepify are going to be the big two here, but I'd also like to say that Dim Visions is damn useful for crowd control :). I never found a need for confuse and attract.
The GearWhat do I want to accomplish with my gear…
Having a Hardcore environment in mind I want this character to have Max Resists, Max Block, 75% FCR, and as much - enemy poison resistance (EPR) that I can fit in while maintaining the prior.
Having high - EPR is extremely important because it dramatically increases your damage output. Also the more -EPR you have the longer the duration of your Poison Nova. Fun fact to keep in mind.
75% FCR while not needed for all is crucial for me. I am doing a lot of teleporting/Spell casting when I play and it makes a big difference for me.
Now I just wanna give a quick run down of gear choices here and then link to some more detailed lists.
My preferred Items will be in Green. I will list alternates on some of these. Some alternate options will drop the FCR down so you will miss the 75% FCR bp.
Helms3 PnB 20fcr 2os Helm w/ 2 x 5/5 Psn Facets2 Necro 20fcr 2os Helm w/ 2 x 5/5 Psn Facets
Shako with 5/5 Psn Facet
I like the 3pnb helm. I think it's stylish and it's much, much, much easier to come by than a godly 2os 2/20 mods helm. Depending on the rare you could certainly use that over the first. Personal preference. Shako is great, but you'll lose out on the FCR of course and the extra facet.Amulet30 MarasDelicious resists and skills.WeaponDeaths Web w/ 5/5 Psn FacetTry and get this as close to perfect as possible of course. The higher the -enemy psn resists the better.
This makes the build.ArmorEnigma Bramble
I prefer the mobility of Enigma over the damage increase of Bramble personally. ShieldHomunculus w/ 5/5 Psn FacetTrang Oul's Shield
Magic, 3 PnB/3 Poison Nova/ 2os w/ 5/5 Psn Facets
Trang Oul's Shield if you want to go 3 piece Trangs for an additional -25EPR. I rely on Arachs for the FCR and I like my resists off the Homunculus so I personally do not go this route. Lots of people swear by 3 piece Trangs but I don't find it to be critical. The magic shield is if you really want to max out your damage, but you lose nice block and mods.GlovesTrang Oul's GlovesIncreased Poison DamageBeltArachnid's MeshTrang Oul's
FCR and skills. Again Trangs is an option if you want to go three piece.BootsWar Travs / WaterwalksMarrowalks
War Travs if you want the MF and Waterwalks if you want the life basically. Rings10fcr/Resists (after that look for life, dex)Bul - Kathos Rings
I use a BK ring coupled with an FCR ring if I go for a max damage Bramble 3 piece Trang's build.SwitchCTA/LidlessThe following link will take you to my Poison Necro that I sold this past ladder, which details my gear and inventory for two different builds, along with more in depth stats on damage/life/etc.http://forums.d2jsp.org/topic.php?t=50449047&f=98Another variant to the two builds shown in the link above, and a solid option and excellent budget build, is the
full trang's set up. This revolves around using full trang's which gives nice bonuses including poison buffs, and fire spells that get a nice boost thanks to lower resists. It's speedy, tough, and gives good bonuses. I roll with this and a spirit sword early on in ladder. One thing to take note of is the FCR bug that causes the vampire to cast slooooow
InventoryYou can be pretty flexible on this depending on what you want/need (resists/life/magic find/skills)
A basic outline would be:
7 PnB Lifers
Gheeds
6 Resist Sc's w/ life
Anni
Torch
ID Tome (I keep tp scrolls in my belt)
Cube
Screenies!The following are just some screenies of the different types of builds in various levels of completion. They should give a good idea though.
1. Full Trang's
2. Enigma
3. Bramble
4. Magic Necro Head/Bramble
The MercenaryAct 2: NM: Offensive Might MercWeaponObedience or Infinity in a Thresher or Giant Thresher
I like Obedience. It's an amazing merc weapon with tremendous mods and the runes are nothing spectacular. Infinity is another option but it's pricier and while the conviction aura does not lower enemy poison resists it does lower fire and thus increases CE damage. I prefer the Obedience because it helps more with big bosses and for everything else my nova and CE already wipe things out. For higher player count games it might be better to use Infinity for the CE boost.ArmorEth Treachery
IAS is the biggie here and fade is always nice.HelmGuillaume's Face w/ ED/IAS Jewel
More ias and huge CB. I don't brother with any life leech on my merc because this is a necro and thus we have life tap. Use it!Your Golem!Just a quick note about Golems. I like to roll with an
insight iron golem. Between my teleports, cursing, novaing, and ce spam I enjoy not having to worry about mana. Even with Death Web's mana after kill I still like to have my insight iron golem. I hate taking pots but you can go with a clay golem if you prefer though I have never really needed one.
How do I play this thing?It's pretty straight forward I think. You want to get your insight golem ready and then gather all your summons. I prefer the teleport build with 75% fcr. In typical situations it's just a matter of teleporting and getting good with your hot keys. Teleport, see enemies, cast LR, cast poison nova (I spam it a bit to make sure it covers all the enemies but take note that they overwrite each other and novas do, not stack, spam CE. I personally just see my summons as glorified meat shields so I tend to just keep teleporting while casting novas, LR, and then stop to CE a bit. For example in chaos instead of just standing there and dealing with one mob as my skellies fan out I will simply go through the above steps without using CE and then move to another mob or two before I start to CE. Everything drops like flies and things go smoother/quicker that way I think.
For bosses it's simply a matter of casting decertify, tele stomping them, and then stepping back while you keep up decrep and the novas. I don't bother with LR because the major killing force here is my merc and skellies so I just stick with decrep and offer support with my nova.
The end!?Yep yep. That's basically it! Again, this character is my favorite and I think if anyone is looking for something new to do they should certainly give it a shot