Followup 9 - Toxic Necromancer - May/8/2000

The Necromancer is of course best known for his "pets", or minions - skeletons and golems. However, the class is much more versatile than this! In addition to summoners of various types, opportunities abound for the Melee Necro, the Demolitionist (Corpse Explosion and Poison Explo), the Architect (Bone structures), the Arty Necro (or Dental Necro... lots of Teeth), and not least, the Toxic Necro. Poison Dagger is a very nice spell, but one which does not truly shine until you make it way of life.With damage lasting about slvl seconds and damage increasing nicely each point, you can reach 40-50 pts of damage (over a ten second period) by the time you reach Andariel.

Charis-Dirk would take up a role of Toxic Necro with a strong emphasis on Melee. He started with Bone Armor - I like this spell, with a nice graphic and absorbing 20 pts of damage before disappearing, but I know realize that it becomes strong ineffective at later levels unless you continue to push it. Amplify Damage was the other key spell - highly useful early on and it stays useful, with Iron Maiden and Weaken joining the Curse Arsenal. All other points however went to Poison Dagger. The downside is that ONLY a dagger or dirk may be used, and the mana drain is noticeable if you take many swings to kill something. A single point in Clay Golem was taken give mobs a target to beat on besides Dirk himself.

Dirk did fine, but died a LOT. The Poison damage is not immediate, but the monster may receive a fatal wound, living for another 4-5 seconds. Damage and ability early on were pretty weak. Finding a Sharp Dagger of Vileness helped - as it stopped monsters from regenerating. But the sweet weapon he obtained from Gheed on a gamble was the rare "Sharp Skewer". It was vile, life steal, +88 Attack rating, and +dmg. EXACTLY what he needed, and later Charsi sold him the perfect complement - a Silver Dagger of Frost (great for slowing foes as they die of poison). Imbuing the Ring mail gave some much needed defense, and also a very nice 'Rib Cage' look to the character! (Fashion DOES count)

Eventually, it was time for the final battle with Andariel, and the only question - whose poison would win the day?! Dirk was doing about 40-50 points damage with Poison Dagger, and Amplify Damage doubled that. A Golem was used to keep Dirk from dying in the lag wake-up, and he had an antidote potion ready on his belt. Andy wishes she had one, for she soon turned a very bright shade of green, and took nasty cuts that would never heal. Just before her death she was fitted for an Iron Maiden, and Dirk earned the title of "Sir."

So, I've played three Necromancers so far, how do they compare?

Summoner - strongest, but after a while, least interesting to play (that's just for me, and I've not seen the lvl18+ spells yet) Arty Necro (Teeth specialist) - was a lot of fun, and the view of over a dozen teeth flying is quite impressive. But with only one hitting a given (boss) monster, he had some difficult times. This Necromancer was probably the most 'friendly' for coop, with some extra points in curses. Too bad he'll never get to see Bone Spear. Toxic Necro - Tied for second in overall strength, his nice Skewer dagger may have made him a little stronger. He didn't play much coop, but taking a role cursing things and 'tagging' the monsters one after the other with lethal injections would be sweet. Solo, you have to kill all yourself, not just tag. Experience is shared with the whole party, so it's not "cheap" to hit each once. Too bad Dirk will never see Poison Nova in the beta, that would have been fun. Melee Necro - as a style, with some assistance from Bone Armor, a little Poison Dagger, and something like Iron Maiden, this should be quite viable. AR and DR was good by the time Dirk finished Act I, and it would have been an option to take up a larger weapon, if a really good one had been found. As more of a Variant that stays away from spells, it's going to be _much_ harder, on par with the challenge of a Muscle Mage. If Dirk had that last battle with no golem, no Poison Dagger, no curse, he would have needed something like a Deadly Scimitar of Frost to even have a chance, and it would have been a very tough battle. Socketed gear would have made sense too, with cold dmg, steal/regen life, +life, and extra damage. (Hmmm... I wonder if Andariel is considered undead?!?! I may have to test this setup with a Diamond socketed Wirt leg! :)

In any case, the Necromancer is seen NOT to be a one-trick pony.

Charis