Necromancer Skills - by LemmingofGlory

Quick List
IMO, these are the skills to get... and those that you don't need to get.

Unnecessary
Dim Vision, Weaken, Terror, Life Tap, Confuse, Attract, Decrepify, Lower Resist, Bone Armor, Poison Dagger, Bone Wall, Poison Explosion, Bone Prison, Poison Nova, Fire Golem, Skeleton Mastery

Necessary to non-cripples
-Slvl 1: Amp, Clay Golem, Blood Golem, Teeth, Raise Skeleton, Bone Spear
-YMMVary (at least slvl 1): Iron Maiden, Corpse Explosion, Bone Spirit, Golem Mastery, Summon Resist, Iron Golm, Skeleton Mage, Revive

Stats
Strength: Pump to wear heavier stuff
Dex: Pump only if you'll be using daggers
Energy: Focus attention here
Vit: Good place for stats once you reach a mana orb that tends not to run dry

As to why I chose these skills, that's what's below. Comments are geared toward a mostly-useful character (for all difficulties), not a crippled variant (such as GreenCloud).

Curses
Clvl 1...
- Amplify Damage: Doubles phsyical damage. Helpful on Stone Skin enemies, to double minion/melee /bow/java partner damage, 2x thorns damage, possibly works on BHammer, and doubles half of CE's damage. IMO, a 1 point skill but a rather useful one. (Works on all enemies/players.)

Clvl 6...
- Dim Vision: Makes monsters lose their sight for a time. Downside is that if you walk too close to a monster it can still see you. Also, a monster does not suddenly stop when it's DV'd, so it can still chase you for a little bit. IMO, not essential, but it could be fun. (Works on non-bosses/non-OKs only.)

- Weaken (Amp req'd): Weakens monster damage by 33%. IMO, not extremely useful. Amp is much nicer. 1 point skill if you choose to get Terror, Decrepify, or Lower Resist. (Works on all enemies/players.)

Clvl 12...
- Iron Maiden (Amp req'd): Absurdly powerful spell that does damage back to attacker. Great with minions, melee partners, and converted enemies. IMO, YMMVary but this is a must-get. (Works on all enemies/players.)

- Terror (Amp & Weaken req'd): Sends monster fleeing. IMO, a 1 pointer useful for saving your party if you want to go that route. To a much lesser extent, yourself (lag makes saving self difficult). (Works on non-bosses/non-OKs only.)

Clvl 18...
- Confuse (DV req'd): Makes monsters randomly attack targets. Useful to stop a mob, but not always. IMO, not essential, and it's kinda hard to use. My experience with it is rather limited, however. (Works on non-bosses/non-OKs only.)

- Life Tap (Amp & IM req'd): Phys melee damage gets +50% life steal when used on a cursed enemy. IMO, a good 1 pointer if you're going to be gaming with lots of melee characters. Not so great, IMO, for helping minions stay healthy- they kill faster with IM. (Works on all enemies/players, I believe.)

Clvl 24...
- Attract (DV & Confuse req'd): Makes monsters attack a particular monster, and that monster attacks them in kind. Downside is the monster can still attack YOU, if you're close enough. Also kinda expensive. IMO, not essential, but it could be helpful. IMO, to make best use of this you need a few points here. (I don't think this can be cast on non-bosses/OKs but they can attack and be attacked by Attracted enemies.)

- Decrepify (Amp, IM, LT, Weaken, Terror req'd): Slows enemy and Amps them. Downside is it has an extremely short duration and, IMO, needs a LOT of points it you ever hope for it to have any semblance of usefulness. IMO, not great. Amp's better for getting 2x dmg, and Terror or Attract is better if you want to get a monster off your case. (Works on all enemies/players.)

Clvl 30...
- Lower Resist (Amp, IM, LT, Wken, Trr, Dec): Lowers an enemy's resistance; can lower it below 0. Good duration, and a parting Sorceress would like. IIRC, it won't increase damage done by something like Bone Spirit. IMO, useful to Poison Necs and Necs that play coop with Sorcies. (Works on all enemies/players.)

Poison & Bone
Clvl 1...
- Teeth: 1 magic missile +1 per lvl. A half-decent early spell; better than punching things. Downside is that, like multishot, only 1 tooth per cast can hit a single target. IMO, 1 pointer.

- Bone Armor: You gain 3 bone satellites that absorb (IIRC) physical damage. 10 hps +10 per slvl. Good news is that damage absorbed does not make you do hit recovery. Bad news is that it only absorbs physical damage. IMO, not a great skill. When I use it I always forget it's on and it often falls off. A 1 pointer if you want BWall/Prison.

Clvl 6...
- Poison Dagger: Adds AR% and Poison damage to your attack if you use a dagger. IMO, a dangerous skill. Charis could provide more commentary.

- Corpse Explosion (Teeth req'd): Blows up a corpse doing half phys and half fire damage in a radius around it. Downside is that it has small radius to start with and will most likely *need* more points to be useful, and phys/fire dmg can be resisted. (Itchies are nasty! Amp helps CE a lot vs them.) Upside is that since it does phys dmg it can stun things, and it can be upped by Amp or Lower Res. IMO, my sp nec loves it and I'd heartily recommend it for certain play styles (one where you have a surplus of skills to allocate to CE). But in mutli they stopped it from scaling with monster hps so CE's dmg (I think) should be that of the monster hps in single player. My experience with it in multi is that you'll need a bunch of corpses, amp, and a good radius for it to make a difference in game play - otherwise it's just like wasting bodies.

Clvl 12...
- Bone Wall (Bone Armor req'd): A wall of bone that can be summoned anywhere. Upside is that it scales up in hps heavily in higher difficulties and that monsters that are IM'd and attack it will take IM damage. Friends can also steal mana/life from them, but you can't curse them so you can't LT a bone wall section for your friends to drink heartily from. Downside is that I'm told monsters killed by IM/BWall don't give you exp. Also, too many BWalls can lower FPS terribly- as bad as a fire sorcie! BWall can clog up areas. Strafezons will attack BWall pieces, thus making possible strafelock. Finally, hps in normal don't last long- nor does duration, IIRC. IMO, it's a style, but I haven't tried it myself.

Clvl 18...
- Poison Explosion (PDagger, Teeth, CE req'd): Blows up a corpse and emits a poison cloud much like that of a throwing potion. Dmg sucks. IMO, this skill isn't great. It's mostly for looks. It could stop regen if something happened to be over a body, but duration is very short at slvl 1 and I would not recommend more points. IMO, only reason to get this is to get Poison Nova.

- Bone Spear (Teeth, CE req'd): A piercing missle attack. , a fun skill but made obselete by Bone Spirit.

Clvl 24...
- Bone Prison (Teeth, CE, BSpear, BArmor, BWall req'd): Creates a wall of bone around an enemy (or another BPrison/Wall piece). The upsides are the same as Bwall, but one more is that it can entrap an enemy. The downsides are also the same but Bprison has a few more... You can entrap melee partners if they're near a monster you imprison. Bprison cannot be cast except on an enemy or another prison/wall piece. IMO, it's a style that can annoy others... a lot.

Clvl 30...
- Bone Spirit (Teeth, CE, BSpear req'd): A missile that seeks a particular target, ignoring all else in its path. If no target is given, it finds one on its own. Upsides, lot of dmg, dmg goes up well with pts, and it's worth maxing. Downsides is that it's steep in cost (23 mana at slvl 20, IIRC). IMO, a great spell to get.

- Poison Nova (PDagger, PE, Teeth, CE req'd): A circle of poison expands from the necromancer. Upsides is that it stops regen (but not healing) and has twice the duration as PE. Doesn't go up in cost. Downside is that dmg isn't great for a lvl 30 skill, especially since lots of things resist poison- unlike BSpirit. Lower Res could compliment it nicely, however. Dmg per lvl remains very much static as both dmg and duration go up so that avg dmg is pretty much the same (varies no more than +-1 dmg per second, I believe- and that's a high estimate). IMO, if you want to stop monster regen buy throwing potions. They're cheaper and don't require 5 skill points. If you want to kill stuff with this... talk to Charis.

Summoning
First, IIRC Jarulf or someone said minions take like 10x dmg from Act Bosses. Seems right from what I've seen.

Clvl 1...
- Raise Skeleton: Turn a body into a companion. Skeletons melee for you. Skeletons die quickly. I find that later on you're raising skeletons as fast as they're dying. IMO, don't invest heavily. 1 point will do you. If you're absolutely desperate, get a +skeleton wand; it's better than wasting skills.

- Skeleton Mastery (Raise Skeleton req'd): Skeletons get hps and dmg, Magi get dmg, Revives get hps and dmg. IMO (investing for Skeletons) heavy investment here is like heavy investment into Raise Skeleton. IMO (investing for Magi) heavy investment here may be fun, at least in Normal. IMO (revives) talk to someone else, sorry. I've never used revives, although I hear they usually run out because of the time duration before they run out because of lack of hps and the +dmg% is laughable unless you're not using IM.

Clvl 6...
- Clay Golem: Summon a cheap, beefy minion. Clay Golem is great early on. He even has some uses later, like "feeding" en masse to IM'd act bosses (Mephy). Another use is for taking out shamans quickly. Clay/Blood/Fire Golems can recast anywhere, so just cast them next to a Shaman and IM him. Soon he'll be dead, and his minions won't be res'd anymore. IMO, 1 point will do you fine. Clay Golem + Amp will last you until you get IM.

Clvl 12...
- Golem Mastery (Clay Golem req'd): Makes Golem faster (slvl 20+ can keep up with a Nec in fastest run boots) and beefier. Upside is a beefier golem, which can take more dmg. Downside is that too many points may be a heavy opportunity cost. IMO, my Nec used golem as his only summoning spell, and it worked out fine. Without having to invest into Revive, he had plenty of points to dump into CE,

- BSpirit, and Golem Mastery. As for other Necs, pts in Golem Mastery YMMVary. Remember, however, that Golem's hps scale up in multiplayer.

- Skeleton Magi (Raise Skeleton req'd): Summons puny hp, but decent dmg skeleton mages. IMO, they're fun, but hps are terrible. Dunno how viable a Mage Mob is in multiplayer or in higher difficulties.

Clvl 18...
- Blood Golem (Clay Golem req'd): Golem has a hp link with the Nec. If it steals life, you and it gain life. If it dies, you take damage. IMO, recently nerfed makes this not-so-useful. I loved it vs Dury- made him less painful- but apparently Blood Golem is now just a beefier guy to replace Clay Golem.

Clvl 24...
- Summon Resist (Clay Golem & Golem Mastery req'd): Gives resistance to your minions. (I wonder if it helps Mercs, too.) Upside is that your minions will resist stuff. Downside is that Fire Golem steals life for itself if it takes fire damage. Summon Resist makes it take less dmg so thus less hps are stolen. IMO, a few points isn't bad, but it has severe diminishing returns. Others say it's a 1 point skill, but maybe I just has some points to blow when my Nec got this. I don't know how big a deal the Fire Golem thing is, but I don't remember ever thinking "Damn, Golem's low on hps! I gotta find him some fire wall enemies so he can go heal!"

- Iron Golem (Clay/Blood Golems req'd): A golem that has built-in thorns (starting at slvl 2). This is probably the nicest golem now that BG's nerfed. It's got built-in thorns, so couple that with IM for uberthorns. Also, it doesn't go up in cost. A downside is that it isn't targetable, meaning you can't suddenly recast it in a mob if you need to. It *must* be made from an item, and it must be a metal item. (Can't make him out of quilted armor, for example. Hmm, I wonder if you could make him out of a Great Maul...) IMO, Fire Golem looks cooler, but Iron is probably more useful. :o]

Clvl 30...
- Fire Golem (Clay/Blood/Iron Golems req'd): Spiffy-lookin' Golem with Holy Fire aura and death explosion. Upside is that it looks cool and Amp + death = 50% more dmg. It's also targetable. :o] Downside is that it's real expensive, the summon resist thing, and the death explosion doesn't increase in dmg. IMO, it's my favorite Golem. :o]

- Revive (Raise Skeleton/Mage & Clay/Blood/Iron Golems req'd): Bring enemies back from the dead. IMO, I have no comment. I haven't used Revive. :o] Looks nice tho, except for the steep mana cost per revive (45), 3 minute life span, micromanagement, and parading the group of obnoxious revives around town and in dungeons.

[o: *LEMMING* :o] December 25 2000