Henry's Poison/CE Necromancer

Hello people!
Since I am slightly bored and mostly done with this season, I thought I would share my build for the next one. I assume that you guys understand the basic game mechnics, so I won't be explaining that ^^
Work in Progress!
Theory time!

Necro frames tables

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• For FCR you want to hit at least 10 frames BP (75% FCR). To be honest teleporting with 11 or more frames feels slow as hell.
• For FHR the most reachable BPs are 56% and 86%. Use charms if needed.
• There is only so much you can do with FBR. Also only useful if you are going for max block.

Notes on CB

• CB effectiveness vs normal monster = 1/4 (25%), vs Super Unique or Boss = 1/8 (12,5%) of remaining health
• CB effectivness is decreasing in games where P > 1 => (Normal effectivess) / ((Number of players + 1)/2)
• This means on P8 vs Boss CB effectiveness = 12,5/4,5 = 2,778% of remaining health
• CB is affected by Physical Resistance but only in positive numbers => lowering PR into negative numbers makes no difference for CB
• PI are unaffected by CB (obviously)

Merc's Jab attack

How often does merc use "Jab"?
According to "Best Darn Act 2 Merc IAS Table Period" (look it up on google) the formula is following:

• Chance of normal attack: 30
• Chance to activate aura: 10
• Chance of Jab: 77+clvl

So a clvl 93 mercenary has chances of 30, 10, and 170; total is 210.

• Chance of normal attack = 30/210 = 14.3%.
• Chance of activating aura = 10/210 = 4.8%
• Chance of jab = 170/210 = 80.9%.

If you exclude aura activations:

• Normal attack = 30/200 = 15%
• Jab = 170/200 = 85%

Therefore Jab breakpoints should be prioritized over normal attack breakpoints.

Merc's Jab IAS table

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The Build

Stats and skills

STATS

• Strength: 0
• Dexterity: 0 or max block (with homu ~ 200)
• Vitality: Everything
• Energy: 0

SKILLS
Poison and bone spells:

• Poison Dagger: 20
• Poison Explosion: 20
• Poison Nova: 20
• Corpse Explosion: 15ish - with some PnB skillers you dont really need 20, it's up to you though!
• Teeth: 1
• Bone Armor: 1, Bone Wall: 1 - if you prefer herding with Bone Wall over Attract

Curses:

• Amplify Damage: 5ish
• Dim Vision: 1, Confuse: 1 and Attract: 1 - if you prefer herding with Attract over Bone Wall
• The rest: 1

Summoning spells:

• Clay Golem: 1 - that slow, very difficult to pass on
• Blood Golem: 1
• Iron Golem: 1 - for high-end players or Insight junkies
• Summon Resist: 1 - one is enough due to diminishing returns
  
• Golem Mastery: Rest of the points - so that the Iron Golem is basically immortal and you can make him out of a BEAST weapon, beware of resetting skills via Akara or Tokens tho, he melts when you do so

Poor man's choice:

Poor man's stuff

Nuff said.

• Helm: Shako
• Armor: Viper
• Belt: really anything you can get
• Boots: Sanders’s, or anything with FRW - at this point we will be running a lot!
• Gloves: Magefist
• Rings: raven, str, rez rings..
• Amulet: Maras
• Weapon: Wizard spike, Spirit sword
• Shield: Spirit (any fcr)
• Switch: Najs puzzler, Spellsteal - teleporting without enigma, yay! Recharge in cube with ORT rune.

Poor man's merc

We will be using 2nd act NM offensive merc named "Chalan" when using OBEDIENCE for it is the most badass name or 2nd act HELL combat merc when using INSIGHT.
The most important item to get here is OBEDIENCE, which is the most cost-effective runeword in the game. With this equipment we are getting considerable amount of CB (~ 70%), some IAS, DS, DR and leech. It is a good idea to get an ETH bugged armor so that your merc doesn't die too often.

• Helm: Kira, Andy, Vampiregaze
• Armor: TREACHERY ETH bugged armor
• Belt: Nosferatu's coil, String
• Boots: Goblin's toe
• Amulet: Highlords
• Ring: Dwarf Star
• Gloves: Venomgrip (5% CB)
• Weapon: Obedience

Rich man's choice:

Rich man's stuff

Possible combinations:
125% cheap - TOs 20, Arach 20, HOTO 40, SPIRIT 35, 10 ring, shako
125% expensive - TOs 20, Arach 20, ring 10, Amul 20, CIRC 20, Spirit 35
125% balanced - TOs 20, Arach 20, Darkspawn (eth zod) 30, hoto 40, amulet 15+
75% expensive def - TOs 20, Arach 20, Dual FCR rings 20, amulet 15+, 2BER CoA, ETH Homu bug zod
75% psn overkill - TOs 20, Arach 20, Dual FCR rings 20 or CIRC 20, amulet 15+, 20/20 psn Monarch or TO combo

• Helm: 2 necro sk, 20% FCR, 2 soc magic circ or 2 necro sk, 20% FCR, @rez, str, dex ++ rare, 2berred CoA
• Armor: ENIGMA
• Belt: Arach (20% FCR)
• Boots: ETH SS, Aldur boots, Perf WW
• Gloves: TO gloves (20% FCR, PSN dmg, CR)
• Rings: BK or SoJ, 10% FCR ring, str, @rez ++
• Amulet: 2 necro sk, 15%+ FCR , @rez, stats ++
• Shield: SPIRIT (35% FCR), perf ETH bugged ZODDED Homunuculus, Darkspawn (30% FCR)
• Switch: CtA + SPIRIT
• P1-4 Weapon: HOTO
• P5-8 Weapon: DW

• Golem: BEAST - if you like to live dangerously ^^

Rich man's merc

We will be using 2nd act NM offensive merc named "Chalan" - for it is the most badass name.
Provided that you are using BEAST RW, this setup probably gives you the best possible infinity merc dmg output. With 100% CB, ~ 50% DS, 300% ED, 300% ED vs demons, CBF (it is imperative to have it somewhere), conviction aura (-85% monster def) and 55% IAS to reach the last Jab and normal attack breakpoints (with Threshers) this merc becomes the absolute beast.
If you don't want to be using Threshers, the best option is probably GP. Since you only need 35% IAS for the pre-last Jab BP and 44% IAS for last normal attack BP - you can save the helm socket for CHAM, equip Nosferatu's for the total of 50% IAS and then use ring of your choice instead of Raven (yay!)
If you are not using BEAST, with 55% IAS (or 50% with Nosf, without IAS jewel) the best weapon is probably either of the Threshers. With added Nosferatu you can reach 65% IAS - the best weapon would then be GP as it has more damage compared to Threshers and reaches the same BP on Jab while only 1 frame slower on normal attacks - but then again - you will have to settle with Raven for CBF.
As I thoroughly dislike shattering corpses and won't be using BEAST, I will go with CHAMED Guillaume's 50% IAS Thresher setup. If I were to use BEAST, then I would use a 50% IAS GP setup.

• Helm: Guillaume's (SETS cannot be ETH ^^) (35% CB, 15% DS) socket 15% IAS (40% ED), cham for CBF
• Armor: ETH bugged Fortitude (300% ED)
• Belt: ETH String of ears (LL, PD), ETH Nosferatu (LL, slow, IAS), TO belt (CBF)
• Boots: ETH upped Goblin toe (25% CB)
• Amulet: Highlord's wrath (+1sk, 20% IAS, 35% DS)
• Ring: Ravenfrost (CBF, cold absorb, shatters corpses ~ 15% of time), Dwarf Star (fire absorb), Wisp Projector (light absorb), godly rare ring
• Gloves: Lays on Hands (20% IAS, 300% ED vs demons)
• Weapon: INFINITY in superior ETH Elite Polearm of your choice (40%CB)

 

That's a cool looking build right there, might even make me a budget version to test it out. I strongly suggest investing 3 points to get Attract, it's really useful for herding/distracting monsters and it doesn't override your Amplify. Another thing I would probably try doing is to avoid using items that will shatter corpses, like Pride, Forti and Raven, because while it's a poison necro - CE will still be used alot. I also never bothered about CBF on my mercs, but I usually use Treachery. Btw Guillame can't be ETH, but that's not so important.

Cheers, good job.

 

Thanks for the feedback! Now that I think about it, I don't really recall ever seeing ETH set items, my bad! Will fix it right away! It's funny tho that even after some 8 years of playing I'm still learning something new ^^. I agree with you on that shattering part, Pride I have not tried yet but Raven is definitely annoying af. Forti, on the other hand, can only shatter when there are ranged monsters around so that doesn't bother me that much. Not using it though would indeed open up some other interesting options. About the herding, I though Attract was no better then a Bone Wall and since in only takes 2 point to get BW as opposed to 3 point for Attract I made that choice. In fact I never tried using Attract so I wouldn't know, I guess I will have to test it now ^^.

 

The good thing about necromancers is that they are very versatile and you can build them up to your personal preference while still being effective farmers/duelers, I just love that. Me personally I prefer Attract instead of Bone wall, but you may like the other one better. Keep in mind I'm not really that familiar with poison necromancers so I'm just throwing ideas in here, some of the stuff I mentioned might sound good in theory, but not work out or cripple the build damage/kill speed wise. About merc armor, most people prefer Forti on their mercs, it's personal choice again.

Anyway, in general your build guide looks solid. I like it.