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#11
Apr 1 2026 11:09am
You're going in the wrong direction.

On a CE nec, you really want infinity on merc.
You amp + telestomp and he can kill your target before any summons even landed a hit.
Your summons are just there as a meatshield, and your IG is only there to hold insight.
No need to overthink it, you'll only make the build more expensive and worse.

Now... you need to forget everything you know about Psn nova nec.
Everybody is playing it wrong, and all you can read online will just send you in the wrong direction.
Online, any dmg will stop your psn dmg for 8 frames.
It makes it impossible to use summons, and casting CE is only slowing you down.
It also makes it impossible to play in team.
What you want is to play solo, at a player count that allows you to 1-hit kill mobs (nova will last 4s with the standard build that has -100 flat psn pen).
You can reach ~54k dmg per nova, which is enough to 1-hit kill hell cows on p5 for example.

The best merc for a psn nova nec is this:
thorn + insight + cure + CoH
or
prayer + insight + cure + bramble
(the first one will sustain from leech, the 2nd one will sustain from prayer+cure, they don't need much cuz you don't really fight/stomp anything on this build)

Why?
You only need him for 2 reasons.
Mana sustain.
And to kill bosses.
But mercs suck really hard at killing bosses.
You use thorn/bramble here because just before fighting a boss, you'll summon your fire golem.
Fire golem has the highest priotity aggro. The boss will instantly auto attack him, and they deal 4x dmg vs summons.
The returned dmg will be your main dmg source vs bosses, more than your psn nova and merc combined.
Unsummon the golem if you keep on farming after, cuz his holy fire aura is ticking every 50 frames, and it stops your psn dmg for 8 frames (that's 16% dps loss).
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Posts: 8,692
Joined: Mar 30 2007
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#12
Apr 1 2026 11:47am
Quote (SinsOfTheSun @ Apr 1 2026 01:09pm)
You're going in the wrong direction.

On a CE nec, you really want infinity on merc.
You amp + telestomp and he can kill your target before any summons even landed a hit.
Your summons are just there as a meatshield, and your IG is only there to hold insight.
No need to overthink it, you'll only make the build more expensive and worse.

Now... you need to forget everything you know about Psn nova nec.
Everybody is playing it wrong, and all you can read online will just send you in the wrong direction.
Online, any dmg will stop your psn dmg for 8 frames.
It makes it impossible to use summons, and casting CE is only slowing you down.
It also makes it impossible to play in team.
What you want is to play solo, at a player count that allows you to 1-hit kill mobs (nova will last 4s with the standard build that has -100 flat psn pen).
You can reach ~54k dmg per nova, which is enough to 1-hit kill hell cows on p5 for example.

The best merc for a psn nova nec is this:
thorn + insight + cure + CoH
or
prayer + insight + cure + bramble
(the first one will sustain from leech, the 2nd one will sustain from prayer+cure, they don't need much cuz you don't really fight/stomp anything on this build)

Why?
You only need him for 2 reasons.
Mana sustain.
And to kill bosses.
But mercs suck really hard at killing bosses.
You use thorn/bramble here because just before fighting a boss, you'll summon your fire golem.
Fire golem has the highest priotity aggro. The boss will instantly auto attack him, and they deal 4x dmg vs summons.
The returned dmg will be your main dmg source vs bosses, more than your psn nova and merc combined.
Unsummon the golem if you keep on farming after, cuz his holy fire aura is ticking every 50 frames, and it stops your psn dmg for 8 frames (that's 16% dps loss).


Good shit, thanks. Was actually considering putting together a minion hybrid build and this was a full stop on that.


Any recommendation on where the right direction is for good information on poison necros?
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#13
Apr 1 2026 11:51am
Quote (SinsOfTheSun @ Apr 1 2026 10:09am)
You're going in the wrong direction.

On a CE nec, you really want infinity on merc.
You amp + telestomp and he can kill your target before any summons even landed a hit.
Your summons are just there as a meatshield, and your IG is only there to hold insight.
No need to overthink it, you'll only make the build more expensive and worse.

Now... you need to forget everything you know about Psn nova nec.
Everybody is playing it wrong, and all you can read online will just send you in the wrong direction.
Online, any dmg will stop your psn dmg for 8 frames.
It makes it impossible to use summons, and casting CE is only slowing you down.
It also makes it impossible to play in team.
What you want is to play solo, at a player count that allows you to 1-hit kill mobs (nova will last 4s with the standard build that has -100 flat psn pen).
You can reach ~54k dmg per nova, which is enough to 1-hit kill hell cows on p5 for example.

The best merc for a psn nova nec is this:
thorn + insight + cure + CoH
or
prayer + insight + cure + bramble
(the first one will sustain from leech, the 2nd one will sustain from prayer+cure, they don't need much cuz you don't really fight/stomp anything on this build)

Why?
You only need him for 2 reasons.
Mana sustain.
And to kill bosses.
But mercs suck really hard at killing bosses.
You use thorn/bramble here because just before fighting a boss, you'll summon your fire golem.
Fire golem has the highest priotity aggro. The boss will instantly auto attack him, and they deal 4x dmg vs summons.
The returned dmg will be your main dmg source vs bosses, more than your psn nova and merc combined.
Unsummon the golem if you keep on farming after, cuz his holy fire aura is ticking every 50 frames, and it stops your psn dmg for 8 frames (that's 16% dps loss).


Didn't read but I agree
Member
Posts: 1,849
Joined: Dec 13 2007
Gold: 5,319.06
#14
Apr 1 2026 03:46pm
Quote (SinsOfTheSun @ Apr 1 2026 01:09pm)
You're going in the wrong direction.

On a CE nec, you really want infinity on merc.
You amp + telestomp and he can kill your target before any summons even landed a hit.
Your summons are just there as a meatshield, and your IG is only there to hold insight.
No need to overthink it, you'll only make the build more expensive and worse.

Now... you need to forget everything you know about Psn nova nec.
Everybody is playing it wrong, and all you can read online will just send you in the wrong direction.
Online, any dmg will stop your psn dmg for 8 frames.
It makes it impossible to use summons, and casting CE is only slowing you down.
It also makes it impossible to play in team.
What you want is to play solo, at a player count that allows you to 1-hit kill mobs (nova will last 4s with the standard build that has -100 flat psn pen).
You can reach ~54k dmg per nova, which is enough to 1-hit kill hell cows on p5 for example.

The best merc for a psn nova nec is this:
thorn + insight + cure + CoH
or
prayer + insight + cure + bramble
(the first one will sustain from leech, the 2nd one will sustain from prayer+cure, they don't need much cuz you don't really fight/stomp anything on this build)

Why?
You only need him for 2 reasons.
Mana sustain.
And to kill bosses.
But mercs suck really hard at killing bosses.
You use thorn/bramble here because just before fighting a boss, you'll summon your fire golem.
Fire golem has the highest priotity aggro. The boss will instantly auto attack him, and they deal 4x dmg vs summons.
The returned dmg will be your main dmg source vs bosses, more than your psn nova and merc combined.
Unsummon the golem if you keep on farming after, cuz his holy fire aura is ticking every 50 frames, and it stops your psn dmg for 8 frames (that's 16% dps loss).


dude

nice

thanks

I had read about the poison damage bug but didnt quite understand it, thanks very much for the run down on all that. I do enjoy my psn necro while the nova is enough, but I also love CE :( its so fun and satisfying, especially when you can run and just continue the chain, it almost feels like Zerg gameplay where youre creating more lethal terrain

I have a spare sur, maybe Ill go for the bramlble. Does the roll on aura matter much? I would imagine it does quite a bit
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