Dueling Poison and Bone Necromancer Guide
The Cheap Way!
Started on: August 8th, 2006
Completed on: August 15th, 2006
Introduction:
Mostly all duelers think that good characters require good gear. This is not true. Especially on a Necromancer, good gear is not necessary; skill is key. Any good Necromancer you see in a public game will probably be wearing an 1.08 Valkyrie Wing helm (which is a helm that gives 30 Faster Cast Rate, 30 Faster Hit Recovery, 30 Faster Run Walk, and 30 Increased Attack Speed). This helm is expensive (if it is perm or legit which can cost near 2,000 Forum Gold), but is not even necessary! It is for looks and to get some unnecessary Hit Recovery break points.
My solution to this is the Harlequin Shako. With this build, you dont need expensive gear. This is casually called, the Shako NecEbuild, or character. Reaching Cast Rate and Recovery Break points will definitely not be a problem (I will explain this in section III). Anyway, I will explain in detail for every section why I did something.
This build can be both good manners and bad manners. You wont have to wear certain gear to use absorb gear and a Spirit Monarch (156 Strength required) at the same time.
This guide will be thorough, full of explanations, so no need to worry. Now, to start it.
Index:
I. Stat Allocation On a Necromancer
II. Skill Allocation On a Necromancer.
III. Gear Used On a Necromancer
IV. Gear Used On a Necromancers Mercenary
V. Hotkeys
VI. Dueling Strategies Against All Classes
VII. My Necromancer Status
VIII. Credits
I. Stat Allocation On a Necromancer
Base Stats On a Necromancer:
15 Strength
25 Dexterity
15 Vitality
25 Energy
Base Stats Necessary to Wear This Gear:
50 Strength*
25 Dexterity
XXX Vitality
25 Energy
This build is not max block! In the gear section, you will reach 41% Physical Damage Reduced, so you wont need Max Block.
*Most builds think that all vitality is good. It is certainly not. If you dont add Strength to this build, you cant wear the Spirit Monarch. Some might argue that you can simply wear a caster ring with strength to balance this problem (10 Faster Cast Rate, 10-20 Strength, and other modifications). If so, how do you plan to absorb certain elements with the rings (Dwarfstar, Ravenfrost, and Wisp Projector)? Ive calculated that adding 35 Strength is necessary to wear the Spirit Monarch with decent unique charms.
II. Skill Allocation On a Necromancer
Poison and Bone Spells:
Teeth: 20
Bone Spear: 20
Bone Spirit: 20
Bone Prison: 20
Bone Wall: As many as possible (Last priority)
Bone Armor: 1
Corpse Explosion: 1
Summoning Spells:
Clay Golem: 1
Golem Mastery: 1
Curses:
Amplify Damage: 1
Iron Maiden: 1
Obviously, you have to max the Bone spells, being you are a Bone Necromancer. Bone Armor and Corpse Explosion are prerequisite skills of the ones needed to be maxed.
Clay golem is simply a must. It tanks for you when you teleport on certain characters while dueling. Just, a must. Golem Mastery is also a must. You may not have heard this one before, but the Golem life jumps from 2,000 to 12,000 with Battle Orders when a point is allocated to Golem Mastery. This means more absorbing damage that could be on your Necromancer instead.
Amplify Damage is necessary in all team duels when you are teamed with physically damaging characters. Iron maiden is not 100% necessary, but useful. I regret not having it on my level 94 Necromancer. For bad manner duels, Bone Prison and Iron Maiden against a Whirlwind Barbarian forces them to use Berserk (a magic damage attack) which means they must actually teleport on you and target you to hit you. If they still Whirlwind with Iron Maiden, all there damage will simply hit them back and kill them instantaneously.
III. Gear Used On a Necromancer
There is Stash gear, and Normal Gear. I will explain them as two different parts.
Normal Gear:
Helm: BerEHarlequin Shako
Armor: Enigma (Any type under 50 Strength)
Amulet: Storm Circlet (duped 20 Faster Cast Rate amulet)
Shield: Spirit Monarch (35% Faster Cast Rate only)
Rings: 2x Stones of Jordan
Gloves: Trang-Ouls Claws (20% Faster Cast Rate Gloves)
Weapon: HelEWizardspike Bone Knife (a -15% stat requirement jewel with an all resistance modification is even more ideal)
Boots: Sandstorm Trek Scarabshell Boots
Belt: Verdungos Hearty Mythril Coil (15% Damage Reduced)
Charms:
8x Poison and Bone Skill Grand Charms (with modifications of life are better).
1x Poison and Bone Skill Grand Charm with a 12% Faster Hit Recovery modification.
17+ Stat Necromancer Hellfire Torch. 17+ Stat Annihilus Small Charm.
10x 18-20 Life Small Charms (or you can throw a few 5 All Resistance Small Charms in there instead).
On Switch:
4-6 Battle Orders Call To Arms and a Spirit Monarch (any Cast Rate allowed)
To begin, with this base gear, you get 41% Physical Damage Reduced. 15% comes from the Verdungos Mythril Coil, 18% (Ber + Base Harlequin Shako Damage Reduced) from the BerEHarlequin Shako, and 8% from the Enigma. This is why max block isnt necessary for this build (and also because the golem and bone armor can absorb a lot of physical damage).
The highest Cast Rate breakpoint for a Necromancer is 125%. With the 35% Spirit, 20% Storm Circlet Amulet, 20% Trang-Ouls Claws, and 50% Wizardspike, that is easily met without the need of rings or a helm with a Faster Cast Rate modification.
A good Hit Recovery breakpoint for a Necromancer is 86%. With 10% from the Verdungos Mythril Coil, 55% from the Spirit Monarch, 20% from the Sandstorm Trek boots, and 12% from the Poison and Bone Skill Grand Charm, 87% Hit Recovery is reached.
With all these break points met, the rings, helm, boots, and belt can be changed without losing any Cast Rate frames (although Damage Reduced will be lost, and the Hit Recovery break point may also depending on what gear is switched, however Cast Rate is the most important and paramount).
Stash Gear:
Helm: ThulEKiras Guardian Tiara
Boots: Hotspur
Belts: Thundergods War Belt, Snowclash Battle Belt, and Arachnid Mesh Spiderweb Sash
Weapons: Ondals Wisdom Elder Staff (for leveling)
Rings:
2x Dwarfstar Rings
2x Wisp Projector Rings
2x Ravenfrost Rings
1x 10 Faster Cast Rate Ring (no specific modifications necessary)
Armor: Treachery (Any type under 50 Strength)
3x White Wands with Specific Modifications:
+1 To Decrepify
+1 To Revive
+1 To Lower Resist
Kiras Guardian Tiara gives a lot of extra resistance to all when stackingEis necessary. It should be Thuld because Cold Sorceresses have the most removal of cold resistance (due to Cold Mastery). Treachery is simply there for more stacked resistance (60 to all). Thundergods War Belt and Snowclash Battlebelt should be used when absorbing a specific element with rings. They should rarely be used alone unless in good mannered duel games.
The rings are self-explanatory, simply an element absorbing item.
Hotspurs are absolutely needed because Necromancers simply get demolished by Fire Sorceresses without them (and the 2x Dwarfstar Rings arent always needed with these).
Now for the White Wands. The Arachnid Mesh is there as a belt to give 20% Faster Cast Rate. Since you would be removing the Wizardspike, and a White wand gives 20% Faster Cast Rate, you will need to make up for 30%. This is where you use one 10% Faster Cast Rate Ring and the Arachnid Mesh together. Just remember your resistance will be down the drain, so sometimes against the elements, its necessary to use the Kiras Guardian Tiara with this combination.
IV. Gear Used On a Necromancers Mercenary
Remember that a Mercenary doesnt absorb damage well. A 12,000 damage Blessed Hammer does 2,000 damage to another player, yet 12,000 damage to the mercenary (treated as a monster). Only use him with characters that cant kill him quickly, or characters with a lot of life and that can be Amplifed in Damage. If you dont buy a mercenary, strip your Necromancer and sell the gear to Nihlathak.
Helm: Giant Skull Bone Visage with 2x 40 Enhanced Damage%/15 Increased Attack Speed Jewels (duped)
Armor: Etheral Fortitude
Weapon: Etheral Breath of the Dying War Pike (380+% Enhanced Damage)
V. Hotkeys
Please remember, these are only the Hotkeys that I use. You can use your own. If you do use mine, they do not come automatically. It takes a day to three days to learn them. You will need to edit your usual hotkey configurations by pressing Escape -> Options -> Configure Controls -> Clicking a Hotkey and typing in your new one.
Left Click: Bone Spirit (always)
Right Click:
A ETeeth
S EBone Spear
D EBone Spirit
F EBone Prison
G EBone Wall
E ETeleport
Z EDecrepify (only with the Decrepify White Wand; null otherwise)
X EAmplify Damage
V ELower Resist (only with the Lower Resist White Wand; null otherwise)
F1 EBone Armor (first because it is always recasted)
F2 EClay Golem (near always recasted)
F3 EBattle Commands
F4 EBattle Orders
F5 ERevive (only with the Revive White Wand; null otherwise)
VI. Dueling Strategies Against All Classes
This section will be a long read. So, I suggest you simply find what youre dueling or what is hardest.
Also, I will rate the difficulty of each character type in each duel.
Necromancer Against Amazon:
Amazon with a Bow: Easy - Moderate
Strategy 1) First, make sure you always have your golem up and with Battle Orders so he can take a few extra shots. Then, if you see the Amazon approaching and shooting a few arrows, you cast Bone Wall. Several walls, about 6 will do it, and just keep recasting. Amazons will be confused wondering how you can take so many arrows (being youre not on their map), and will approach. By now, you start shooting a few Bone Spirits in their direction. Normally, they stop, confused. The moment they stop attacking, you can either bolt (by teleporting) at them, or behind them and cast about two bone prisons on them. By doing this, some of there arrows hit the bone prison, and they cant run out of the cage. Spamming Bone Spirits will dispose of them.
Strategy 2) Simply charge onto their map and behind them, cast bone prison, and spam bone spirits at them. This is the bold way, but you should be able to tell what Amazons suck and what dont simply by looking at their showing gear.
Amazon using Charged Strike: Easy
Teleport onto their screen, cast about two bone prisons and spam bone spirits their way. They cant Charge Strike you from a distance, so stay back and keep shooting. If they throw Lightning Fury at you, you may have to slap on a Thundergods War Belt, but no problem there anyway.
Amazon using Charge Strike Farcast: Easy
This duel is simple. Slap on your Kiras Guardian Tiara, 2x Wisp Projector Rings, and a Thundergods War Belt and youre all set. You can even fade if necessary (which is if they use an Infinity Mercenary).
However, if its a 2v1, you have to remember that with all your absorbing gear, you can simply disregard the Farcasting Charge Strike Amazon. Focus on the other character.
Necromancer Against Assassin:
Trap Assassin: Easy
In public duel games, normally a Thundergods War Belt and a Wisp Projector Ring can do the trick, but using full lightning absorb can be necessary. Nevertheless, theyre not a problem, 1v1 at least.
Whirlwind Assassin: Easy EVery Difficult
In public duel games, you can find a lot of poorly geared Whirlwind Assassins. They dont Mindblast much, so you can simply teleport away when they teleport on you, and spam some Bone Spirits there way. Using Bone Prison on them while hooking a lot of Bone Spirits (only when they are Whirlwinding) works best because they cant simply run away from them and not let the Bone Spirits hit.
Now, there are good Whirlwind Assassins. When you see one, you run. Dont mind if they comment how you run and spam Bone Spirits like a noob too much, do it. If you get trapped inside their Mindblast and get stunned by their Shadow Master, theyll be on you already Whirlwinding you to death. If they do catch you in a Mindblast, hold down teleport and go as far away as you can. This is a very hard duel. All I can say is run and spam Bone Spirits in their general direction.
Necromancer Against Necromancer:
Bone Necromancer: Moderate - Difficult
Well, if you both used my guide, youre screwed because youre both going to be so good that neither of you will die. Just kidding ^_______^. Ok, now really.
Always make sure you use Battle Orders on your Clay Golem, and whenever he dies, respawn him as soon as possible. The key is to teleport onto the other Necromancer and bone spear him. If they are spamming Bone Spirits, just stay away and cast a few Bone Walls so no invisible Bone Spirits hit you (a glitch). Eventually, they will approach and you can teleport on them and namelock them with Bone Spear. When they know that theyre getting hit a lot, theyll start teleporting away. This is when you press EE(the teleport hotkey) while youre still namelocking them with Bone Spear, and teleport on them when they are off your map. Repeat the Bone Spearing process.
Basically this is skill of namelocking and avoiding strays. Just practice.
Poison Necromancer: Moderate - Difficult
In this duel, Poison Necromancers are going to run like the wind from you. However, if they hit you, youre pretty screwed. Either fade, or spam Bone Spirits in all directions. They normally die fast. They wont try and outtank you, but will hit you once and run to the Catacombs.
Now, a Poison Necromancer with summons, wait 3 minutes and make them resummon. Repeat.
Necromancer Against Barbarian:
Whirlwind Barbarians: Easy EDifficult
Depending on the Barbarian and his skill will measure the difficulty of this duel. The casual strategy is where Barbarians will teleport on you and Whirlwind. For this, right when they teleport on you, you teleport a little bit away, but near them. While they are Whirlwinding, you hook 3-4 Bone Spirits on them and Bone Prison them so they cant simply run them off. Sometimes, theyll teleport on you directly after the previous Whirlwind, in which case you do the same thing. Normally, your Damage Reduced Percentage, Bone Armor, and Battle Ordered Golem can take this, but not with good geared Barbarians.
Barbarians with leap or a Grief and 36x 32020s (3 to maximum damage, 20 to attack rating, 20 to life small charms) can sometimes pierce all that in 1-2 Whirlwinds. This is where you teleport and spam Bone Spirits in good manners, or whip out the bad manners. Yes, bad manners. Get revives (10-15), your mercenary, and use Amplify Damage on the Barbarian. This will force him to keep Whirlwinding in which case you keep bone prisoning, spamming bone spirits, and threaten to teleport on him with your mercenary who does extraordinary damage on the target when the target is Amplified in Damage.
EDIT: I decided not to delete the portion above, however, I did forget that my regret of not having Iron Maiden comes into play. THIS IS WHERE YOU NEED IT. Simply, cast Iron Maiden on the Whirlwind Barbarian, and make sure you cover him with Bone Prisons. This will force him to use Berserk (if he even has it), in which case, you should read below.
Berserk Barbarians: Moderate EDifficult
Basically, all Berserk Barbarians are skilled with namelock, otherwise they wouldnt be Berserk in the first place. They play to teleport on you and berserk you as fast as they can. Since they dont Whirlwind (much if at all, you dont need to worry about Damage Reduced, but be defensive in case they do), you can put on your Decrepify White Wand. This will absolutely kill their Attack Speed, making them, when they teleport on you, take 1-2 seconds to actually hit you with the attack. With this time, you can teleport close by, shoot a few Spirits, and repeat when they teleport on you. If they do Whirlwind and Berserk, be defensive, but duel along the same lines.
Now, this is only if you dont want to waste any time. If you dont mind, you can revive some summons, get your mercenary, and use Amplify Damage on the Barbarian. Basically, if he teleports on you, hell die in 2-3 shots from the mercenary WHILE being knocked back so he cant even use berserk on you. He will try and leap, however, if he does this, it is even easier. Just force teleporting on him with you and your mercenary and, basically, hes cooked.
Necromancer Against Paladin:
Paladins using Blessed Hammer (Hammerdins): Easy EModerate
Hammerdins, I think, are terrible dueling characters. Basically, they have to teleport on you to kill you. When they do, youre screwed, but as a Necromancer of Arifas, you know how to not get hit.
Hammerdins will ALWAYS try to teleport on you, its simply a Hammerdin strategy. When they do, you run (not teleport). Just run a little distance and shoot about 1 Bone Spirit or you can shoot them with several Bone Spears. If youre running, they can never hit you. Right after they teleport on you, run down a bit, and shoot at them. These are teleporting Hammerdins, the easiest breed of Hammerdins.
There are also Charge Hammerdins. They desynch (a glitch where they charge and are actually further than they seem to be, an effect of lag) around you a shoot some Blessed Hammers near you planning for you to walk into them. You wont see this, so if you arent smart, theyll be successful. Fortunately, on USEast Non-Ladder at least, Bone Prison is considered good manners. This can spot them through the lag, and is similar to Fist of Heavens. You only have to click near the target to actually Bone Prison it. So, when the Hammerdin is desynching by you with Charge, you put a couple of Bone Spirits after them, and out of no where Bone Prison them. Surprised, all the Bone Spirits will hit them. If they are still in the Bone Prison and havent teleported away, you can quickly kill them with Bone Spear.
If they autoaim or are really quick and skilled, Decrepify will slow them down sufficiently in desynching and in their Hit Recovery from being hit by one attack.
Smiters: Easy
Smiters almost always use charge to get around/attack. They rarely, but sometimes, use smite against a Necromancer. When you see a Smiter approaching, you cast about 4 Bone Walls in front of you. This will make sure they cant directly charge you (being that Charge will always target a Bone Wall automatically if its in the way), and will have to teleport on you and try and smite you. By casting several Bone Walls around you, this eliminates any chance that you will die by being charged (which is the main way that Necromancers die from Smiters).
Smiters will then resort to teleporting on you and smiting you only, unless you leaving your bone wall creation. When they are teleporting around, being they have poor Cast Rate, you can spam a lot of Bone Spirits around, and random ones will hit them no matter what.
Paladins using Fist of Heavens (FoHers): Easy
These guys will damage you with full absorb gear on, however, you just kill them too quickly. Unless you use Fade, you wont need to use Thundergods, because their Conviction will pierce all that stacked resistance making you not maxed. No worries, they will do some damage. Use the Kiras Guardian Tiara, 2x Wisp Projector Rings, and youre all set (fade if necessary). Simply charge at them, bone prison them once, and shoot them with bone spear.
Necromancer Against Sorceress:
Cold Sorceress: Easy
Blizzard:
Cold Sorceresses have the advantage of piercing your resistance. Be happy that you Thuld that Kiras Guardian Tiara. These characters can manage up to -275 cold resistance (which doesnt show in the character screen). For this, you have to first Fade using the Treachery, put on the Kiras Guardian Tiara, 2x Ravenfrost Rings, a Snowclash, and use thawing pots. Thawing pots will give you 50+ cold resistance. So, before the duel, drink about 6-9 thawing pots (the more you drink, the longer the duration). Once you have all this set up, which takes about 30 seconds, you can duel the Sorceress. She will do absolutely no damage (like to the point where it will heal you if you somehow got hurt) and will get discouraged; she will then either go to town or exit the game, either way she will be bitching the whole time.
Cold Orb:
Just use the same absorb gear as above and you will be fine. No cold damage can pierce such stack/absorb.
Fire Sorceress: Easy EModerate
Stacking doesnt work here since Fire Sorceresses have very little fire resistance with their gear. Normally, Hotspurs do the trick, but will drop you down a Hit Recovery break point. Remember, fireball will always do damage (like 200-300). Since Sorceresses can shoot so fast due to their fast Cast Rate, their Cast Rate will be superior to your Hit Recovery, and she will be dominant. If this is a problem, put on 2x Dwarfstar Rings and that will normally solve the problem. You still have to dodge fireballs, you cant simply absorb them.
Whenever you see a Fire Sorceress in the game, you immediately put on Hotspurs. Even Fire Sorceress in Tal Rashas set can kill you without them.
Lightning Sorceress: Easy
Simply use the full lightning absorb gear (Kiras Guardian, 2x Wisp Projector Rings, Thundergods War Belt) and youll be all set. They may do some damage when they shoot a 40k Lightning, but it will only do about 200-400 damage to you.
Necromancer Against Druid:
Wind Druid: Easy - Difficult
The first thing you do when you see a Druid in the game is you replace a Stone of Jordan with a Ravenfrost Ring. By doing this, the Hurricane is cold damage, and will stun you when it hits you. When you wear a Ravenfrost Ring, you wont get frozen, and youre Hit Recovery wont be slowed a breakpoint down. This is where you use Run/Walk correctly. Druids with dogs will try and teleport on you. You use teeth to kill there dogs, and if youre lucky enough for them to teleport on you again, you simply walk south again and shoot them with Bone Spear. If they resummon, you do the same thing. If they make a bear instead, you simply use bone spear instead of teeth to kill the bear, or you can hook a few Bone Spirits on it to kill it faster.
Now, the difficult part is when experienced Druids teleport a little bit passed you so you walk into them shooting Tornados. If you can, try and see this coming and teleport away and restart so you can get them to teleport directly on you.
Always use full Damage Reduced gear against Druids.
Melee Druid: Easy
Bone Prison -> Bone Spirits -> Melee Druid Ear
VII. My Necromancer Status
I put this in here because I know what its like when youre reading someone elses guide. You try and follow it, and cant somehow reach the same life/damage etc. So, here are the stats.
pM-Spawn
Level 94 Necromancer
- Maxed all Bone synergies and 1 point into the prerequisites
- Put 1 point into Golem Mastery
- Put 1 point into Golem
With Wizardspike equipped, pM-Spawn does around 5,000 damage on Bone Spear/Spirit
With a White Wand equipped, he does near 6,000 damage on Bone Spear.
Reaches 3,000 life, and when absorbing the elements full, drops to ~2600 life.
Never leaves 125 Faster Cast Rate, sometimes leaves the other break points.
Uses 8x Small Charms, about 5 being 20 life Small Charms, 3 being 5 All Resistance Small Charms.
Uses the Poison and Bone Grand Charms: 7/18/19/20/22/22/23/28/FHR
Torch: 18/20
Annihilus: 19/17
All gear well off imperfect
No Im not poor. I will describe why this character is so welfareElike in the Credits.
Remember on your Necromancer, make sure you put 1 point into the important stuff. Max Bone Wall last; it shouldnt even be maxed unless you are level 95.
VIII. Credits
PIB-Apoc whose guide I went to for some strategies when I duel
All the people who privately GM dueled me to help me learn how to type the strategies up
My brother for making the necromancer: I was MoB-HorroR (smiter) and Arifas (barbarian), both characters having sick, expensive gear. My brother made this Necromancer because I hardly ever funded him, and he turned out to destroy dueling games (private and public) better than my characters. Thats why I believe this welfare character, so cheap, can potentially be so good. He's also the one that taught me that making a character all vitality isn't always the best way to go.
On a final note, I would like to see more Shako Necs on East and not just Unperm Valk using Necromancers trying to fit in.
Questions or comments? Feel free to ask/comment below.
This post was edited by Arifas on Aug 15 2006 12:30am