06-05-2005, 03:18 AM
V. PvP STRATEGIES
General: Poison Nova is one of the most damaging spells in the game. When linked with lower resist. It’s practically insane damage. Its advantages are that it spreads in a circle around you so it’s very easy to use/spam, and it encircles you meaning no one can get close without turning green. Its disadvantages are that its range is rather limited and you’ll be hard pressed by real range attackers (bowazons, fballers, etc..)
This means that poison nova will be used for close range attack. Mainly versus melee or anyone who wants to get close. For those range attackers. You will use ur bone spells…. (poison is still viable as a ranged attack, see advanced section)
The main reason why a Poison/Bone Hybrid is viable is because it only takes 60 points to finish the poison tree and that Marrowwalks makes up for the points used in the poison tree otherwise used in the bone tree.
Granted, ur Bone spells will not be as powerful as pure Bone Necros, but ur bone spells will still do around 2k-3k dmg. Enough to kill.
Here are various strategies versus other character classes with a little sub section regarding honour duelling at the end.
PUB DUELING:
It is essential you get enigma for pub duelling. Without teleport, you’re as good as dead. O_o
Barbarians:
WW Barbs: The only ww barbs what are of concern to you are the ones that use BOTD weapons. In general, with your max block and marrowwalk boosted Bone Armour, you can tank them. Just stand there and spam nova. BOTD users are a bit more dangerous due to the damage they inflict. But all you have to do is move around and spam nova, not much work needed. Hint: Just because you can tank doesn’t mean you should. Tele around. Don’t be lazy.
Frenzy Barbs: Same as above. Just lower resist them and spam your nova.
Berserk Barbs: A bit more dangerous due to the fact that berserk does insane magic damage that’s unblockable and it’s usually one-hit kill. Just stay out of range and spam nova.
Singing Barbs: These guys are annoying, they don’t really hurt you much but they keep you stunned. Make sure you have enough fast hit recovery and spam nova =)
Throwing Barbs: Complete joke.
Assassins:
Martial Art Chaos ww: There are 2 types of these. The ones who use chaos and SS, and the ones who use Chaos and Fury. It’s the duel claw one that’s dangerous. The open wounds will drain you dry even if they barely damage you with actually physical damage. Keep your head up and keep teleing and novaing.
Martial Art Kickers: Like above, but easier, make sure you have enough fhr
Trapsins: Man are these dudes annoying and deadly. Make sure you keep out of trap range. Spear snipe them or spirit them. Eventually, an ibs will get them (haha). They will get annoyed with ur bone spells and attempt to get close enough to mindblast and trap you. That’s when you nova and tele away. To tank these, you’ll need around 275 lightning res in hell and have decent fast hit recovery. A 4 socketed shield filled with p-topazes will help a lot. A total of 160 light res right there.
Hybrids: These assassins do both martial and traps. Not as difficulty as it sounds since melee doesn’t really hurt you and their traps are a lot weaker than pure trapsins.
Druids:
Werewolf/WereBear: Lower Resist, Nova, Win.
Rabies: This is like a fight to see who hits who first. Although your nova is range and rabies is melee. Rabies can kill yet nova only brings them down to one. But advantage is still yours since you’re ranged. If they try to circle you and attempt to catch you off guard, use spear/spirit.
Wind Druids: Make sure to stay out of hurricane range. Spam spear and spirit. They will attempt to run/tele on top of you. That’s when you nova them and run/tele away. Your nova has further reach then their hurricane. Elemental druids tend to be weak versus poison but don’t attempt to just stand there and tank their tornados. Bone armour can absorb massive damage, but tornado is insane massive damage. You won’t be able to take many. Max three.
Paladins:
Zeal: Same as barb strategy, although most pallys have better resists than barbs. Just make sure to keep teleporting around and spamming nova and bone spells.
Chargdins: These guys can hurt. Make sure you have max block. Fast hit recovery is extremely important here. When the pally is charging you, make a bone wall to intercept it and spam nova. Repeat if necessary. Usually, It will take more than 1 hit to bring you down, so you might be able to tank them if you have enough fast hit recovery, but fear the BOTD war pike chargdins. Insta-death if they connect.
Fist of Heaven: OMG these mofos are dangerous. Very dangerous. You will need to stack a lot of lightning resist to survive their hits. Make sure you stay out of range and summon your clay golem to take a few FoH hits. Spam ur bone spells to keep them away. Use nova if they attempt to get close, then run backwards, to lure the pally into your nova. Never chase them unless you can survive their hits. Try to fight in a area crowed with monsters so the FoH will be hitting them instead. To tank these guys get at least 325 stacked lightning resist.
Hammedins: Hammers hurt. So still out of the range of it. The overall radius of the hammers are less than your nova but hammers tend to linger around and can become invisible. This is where ur bone spells come in handle. With spirits chasing him, he won’t be able to stop to cast hammer. If he does, spirits > pally. If ur spirits don’t finish him off, quickly jump in while he is stunned by the bs and nova him and get out quick. Never chase a hammerdin from behind, unless you want to die. Stay on the edge of his screen and use bone spells and nova.
Vindi/Templars: Dangerous mofos. Their FoH can still hurt, while their smite will also hurt. Make sure you stay far away and use bone spells. Try to lure them into your nova.
Amazons:
Bowazons: Unless they are wearing completely godly items such as 160/60 armour plus crazy ias on other stuff, you shouldn’t have problems. Since they have to stand still to shoot, tele beside them and nova them. If they use guided arrows, spirit them. You can take more arrows then they can take spirits. Multi-shot can mostly be blocked by bone walls. Use the walls to get closer without getting shot.
Javazons: Lighting resist is a must. Without resist, they will own you. With resist, you will own them
Sorceress:
Cold: Frozen Orb- Use ur bone spells to keep them away and damage them. Since orb is not a long ranged spell they will have to get sorta close. Spam a few novas while you do ur bone thing. One will hit them eventually. Important: Orb range is slightly greater than your nova so make sure you get out of the way of the orb and don’t get into a pure nova vs orb contest. If you really want to, then circle around the sorc while casting nova. They will get hit eventually. Even though they have the slight range advantage, we have the damage advantage. We can take a few orbs. They can’t even take one nova. Get a lot of cold resist and slap on 2 Ravenfrosts.
Blizzard- This one hurts. I’ve heard some rumour about the first hit of blizzard is bugged and resist doesn’t work for it. Someone plz confirm. Make them chase you while you continually cast bs and nova. This is going to be primary a cat and mouse game. Get A LOT of cold resist. A 4 P-sapphire shield won’t hurt.
Fire: Fireball does massive damage, has long range, and can be shot like a machine-gun. Fortunately, you have a machine gun of ur own in bone spear/spirit. Most fire sorcs tend to stay still for long whiles to spam their fballs. This is where you go straight at her, teleporting in zig-zag right behind her and nova. Make sure you don’t get hit at close-range because it can stun you. Use hotspurs + Rising Sun to negate them.
Lighting: Although lightning does a lot of damage, it has a low minimum damage and slow casting rate. If you are able to survive a hit, then most likely, you’ll win. Use Thundergod’s Vigor, and 2 Wisp Projectors to completely tank them.
Necromancers: (ahh here comes the fun part)
Bone Necros: Your nemesis. The Bone necro is all range attacks. What’s hurting is that he has the same long-range bone spells you do and his hurts twice as much. It is extremely hard to get in close and cast your nova when there are 5-6 bone spirits trailing you with each one able to kill you on its own. Making it harder still is that they are casting spear and teeth while the spirit is chasing you, thus keeping you on the run, unable to stop and cast. More on this in advanced section.
Commando Necros: If your poison nova damage is decent, you can wipe out his army and him in no time. Skellies can’t really hurt you. They’re more of an annoyance. Those who say skellies can stun and blocklock making you ineffective. I say stun and blocklock all you want and hack away. By the time ur skellies can hack thru half my bone armour, I’ll be able to at least cast it again or nova, and there goes ur army. Go back to cold plains and get more skellies now.![[Image: tongue.gif]](http://www.rpgforums.net/images/smilies/tongue.gif)
Poison Necros: These only utilize pnova so they lack the range you have with bone spells.
Poison/Bone Necros: wooo.. same build fights are always interesting. More on this in advanced section.
HONOUR DUELING:
Note: Enigma can still be used to my knowledge, just not the teleport skill. Bramble is a viable option, though some people might complain about the thorns aura. (Seriously…. Its thorns. You die to this, maybe you should reconsider your build?). Also, the marrowwalk bug will not be allowed so, use either a Sandstorm for the fhr or Silkweaves for the mana. Up to you.
The general rules apply here also.
Special consideration must be given the Bone Prison. Some games allow it, some games don’t. Important thing is, don’t get stuck in one… >_<
VI. ADVANCED PvP STRATEGIES
Despite what other people claim, there are skills needed to use a poison necro effectively. And more so with a hybrid. There are so many keys to press. It’s not just spam spam spam… though that works sometimes too. =)
Important notes:
1) Most people are familiar with Bone necros in duelling. Poison necros are becoming more popular now, hopefully thanks to my first guide. What’s really rare now are Poison/Bone hybrids. What this means is that we have the element of surprise on our side. They won’t know what we’ll use!! Bone or Poison?!? Since most are unfamiliar with our skills or tactics. Most melee characters tend to run straight at you, thinking you’re easy picking only to end up lying dead after eating a nova and a spirit in Blood Moor saying “ OMFG!1! what the $#@$ just happened1! OMG OMG OMG u haXor111!!”
2) With marrowwalk boosted bone armour + max block, you are teh tank.
3) Lower resist everything.
4) Teleport is your main skill. Half the skill needed to be a good dueller is to know when and where to tele. Positioning is really important.
5) If you’re fighting 5k health duellers where ur bone spells don’t hurt them enough to actually scare them then you’ll have to use the “drive-by nova”. What you do is, you meander around your opponent looking for a opening. Once you see an opportunity, you teleport in a straight line, not at him, but to the sides of him. Cast nova, and continue teleporting in the same direction. THIS WILL BE YOUR MAIN STYLE OF ATTACK VS SKILLED OPPENENTS
5) Teeth is your secret weapon. Although you do not have the synergies to make this dangerous, teeth is damn annoying. It stuns them momentarily for each teeth hit. With marrowwalk bug and bone wall/armour synergies, this thing actually does decent damage within the range of 200-300. Use this to keep them away from you. What really shines about this is it’s radius.
6) When chasing someone, keep teleing until you tele in front of them and then nova, so they’ll walk into it.
7) Get a Call to Arms.
Melee Opponents: These are the easiest to kill. Unless they are using BOTD stuff or anything with crazy damage, you can just still there unmoving spamming nova. With BOTD/high damage weapon users, move around. (WALK, don’t run) Don’t get used to being lazy. They can surprise you sometimes. After all, it’s 75% block, not 100%. (Overall, these are easy pickings for you.)
WW users and zealers: Another strategy to use on these characters is the iron maiden method. What you do is surround urself with bone walls. If they want to hit you, they will also hit the wall. If they hit wall while IMed, it’s game over. This actually works surprisingly well though it takes a lot of practice to pull of. They might whine afterwards saying ur cheap for using IM, but if they only knew the skill needed to time everything perfectly.
Trapsins: Without stacked lightning resist, you don’t really stand much of a chance. Circle around her traps and be casting nova and bs the whole time. One will hit eventually. Make sure to never get within mindblast range. If you do get mindblasted, run away in opposite direction of the trapsin. Assassins with duel claws and weapon block can actually block your nova, so cast 2-3 novas for every 1 that you would normally cast to make sure they turn green. (Hard to kill one, yet satisfying when you do.)
Wind Druids: Can not be frozen is a must. They will teleport on top of you and spam tornado. Since they have to be close to you in order to use their hurricane and tornado, it means they also have to get close to your nova. (Not really a hard duel, unless you make stupid mistakes.)
FoHers: Without insane stacked lightning resist, don’t even bother fighting these, unless you’re also a good bone necro. Refer to Souless’s great guide on PvP boner. However, if you must fight one, there are possible ways to win. Keep summoning clay golem to take the foh for you. When it dies, make another one. FoH has a casting delay, so you should be able to judge when the pally’s gonna use it. If you survive the FoH, jump in, nova, jump out. Easier said than done. (Really really hard duel.)
Hammerdins: NEVER NEVER EVER follow them from behind for the obvious reasons. Do not let them get under you(south), because BH comes up north. The place right above the pally is the only sure spot that a hammer will be there so they will try to get you there. If you are chasing them, run/teleport parallel to them inching closer and closer until he gets to nova range. BS them to discourage them from spamming BH. Since the range of BH and Nova is about the same, it might be risky to sneak along the edges. Plus, sometimes, the hammer gets *** and decides to go invisible. That’s when you go *** also and spam ur IBS. (Challenging, but you’ll come out on top due to their lack of range. But most duels between hammerdins and p/b necros are boring.)
Vindi/Templars: Smite is dangerous. But if your fcr and fhr is good enough, you should be able to tank them. Remember, bone armour pwns all melee. If they use FoH, run away and let them come to you. Spam that BS. Their FoH is not as strong as pure FoHer’s so you should be able to a few hits of them. Don’t let them name lock you. If they do, tele far far away to make them lose it or go back to town. (It’s either going to real easy, or real hard.)
Amazons: This includes both Javazons and Bowazons or the hybrid. All you really need is a T-God. The melee damage they do will barely tickle your bone armour. However, if the bowazon somehow is able to get one of those godly 160/60 armours along with other IAS items, it may be more difficult, but not much. Important note is that, amazons can dodge your Nova, so spam a few more than you usually do to ensure they get poisoned. You’ll be casting bone armour a lot.(Easy kills, but you’ll have to work for it.)
Orb Sorc: You guys are going to be tele-circling each other like non-stop. It’s a pretty even fight, for the speed of the nova and orb is about equal. The addition of bone spells tip the advantage in ur favour. Now, he has to dodge ur nova and ur teeth/spear/spirit. Also, we have an major advantage. There are such a thing known as cold absorb. There’s no such thing as poison or magic absorb… well…. there is that Crescent Moon runeword that absorbs magic. But come on, 9-11 magic absorb on a 3k BS? (Very fun to fight against, most of the time, you’ll come out on top)
Blizz Sorc: Nova, tele away, repeat. Hope that they get hit when they chase you. Blizz is an extremely overpowering spell. Bs away and stay defensive. However, if it’s a weak Blizz, just hunt them down.(Quite hard to fight against because you are forced to be defensive.)
F-Ball Sorc: Fire Absorb helps greatly. As long as you can take 3-4 fballs, you should win. If the sorc is spamming fballs at you from screens away, summon a fire golem right in between and use the golem as a shield and walk behind it. Most sorcs are stupid and start fballing the golem. Quite amusing sometimes.
Lightning Sorc: As with all sorcs, stack those resists! Lightning is a lot harder to spam and it’s slow. Most sorcs will tele on your screen and lightning you. Make sure you survive the hit. If you do, they’re dead.
Poison/Bone Necros: This is where the skill matters. The winner is usually the one who teles the best and positions himself better. Don’t get close and avoid the novas. Tele constantly to avoid the bone spells.
Bone Necros: These are your biggest challenges. With the build I suggested, you can tank melee and resist elemental, but magic damage?? There are 2 types of Bone necros. One are the stupid ones. The other are the smart ones.(haha, guess u could say that for all classes.) Stupid ones will use spirit and depend on it’s homing ability. They tend to get so focused spamming spirits that they forget to move, thus setting himself up for a drive-by nova. What makes the smart necros, smart, is the usage of teeth. You will have a slim chance to beat teeth-using bone necros. Since teeth stuns, you can not do the drive-by. One thing to remember is that their bone spells pwn urs. So theoritically, you have to do twice the work to bring him down. Your best bet is to get him to get close to you and be hit by ur nova. Use the walls of the map to ur advantage. In ACT1, the corners of the walls criss-cross. This is a good hiding place for all that bone spammage. (THE fight of your life)
And now the section everyone’s been waiting for…..
How to finish off that last health point, (if u novaed them) !!!:
1) Another nova will finish the job. This will be most used for melee characters who are stubborn and continue fighting with their one health.
2) Teeth is weak, but it’s one friggin health point. This is extremely useful because of teeth’s wide radius and RANGE. Most people think teeth has short range, but on the contrary, it goes quite far. Just because the teeth gets skinnier and turns into a flying white dot doesn’t mean it’s not there.
3) Fire Golem: This is my favourite. The holy fire aura on this baby will get the most elusive opponents. The damage is only 20-30 maybe, but like I said, it’s one friggin health point to get rid of. This surprises people to most, plus it’s quite humiliating.
4) Bone Spear/Spirit will work also for those who want to diversify though teeth outshines them both.
5) Most duels take place in Act 1, Blood Moor. There’s a very interesting monster in the area, known as a quill rat. Lure them to fight in an area with a few of these buggers. Possibly to most hilarious pk you’ve ever done. I spilled my coke all over my keyboard the first time I did this to someone.
6) Now, for those really really stubborn melee characters, I beat that last hit point out of them with my wand.
VII. MISCELLANEOUS
This is more or less a FAQ to answer common questions.
Q: Can this build survive in PvM?
A: Yes, it does quite well and now with the magic damage from bone spells, it can take on anything in the game.
Q: Can this build MF?
A: Yes, go to the Pit, or pindle. Meph works too though it takes longer.
Q: What’s better? 3 piece trangs, or individual uniques?
A: 3 Piece Trangs gives u extra -25% poison res which is good. But I think it’s overkill. However, I keep it in my stash in case someone decides to bust out their death’s gloves and venom ward. But generally, individual pieces are better.
Q: Can this build pwn everyone?
A: Yes it can, but not like those trappers or fohers where anybody can build the cookie-cutter and spam their gayness skills and win. This build is aimed at being the most efficient at every situation with damage that can not be negated and with high survival probability.
Q: OMG, with this build there are so many hotkeys to use!! I cant change from F1 to F12 fast enough!!!
A: Go change ur keys then… use QWER , it might take some time to get use to.
ASDF
ZXCV
Q: Where’s the levelling guide for this build?
A: Just leech, it’s faster. This IS a PvP guide.
General: Poison Nova is one of the most damaging spells in the game. When linked with lower resist. It’s practically insane damage. Its advantages are that it spreads in a circle around you so it’s very easy to use/spam, and it encircles you meaning no one can get close without turning green. Its disadvantages are that its range is rather limited and you’ll be hard pressed by real range attackers (bowazons, fballers, etc..)
This means that poison nova will be used for close range attack. Mainly versus melee or anyone who wants to get close. For those range attackers. You will use ur bone spells…. (poison is still viable as a ranged attack, see advanced section)
The main reason why a Poison/Bone Hybrid is viable is because it only takes 60 points to finish the poison tree and that Marrowwalks makes up for the points used in the poison tree otherwise used in the bone tree.
Granted, ur Bone spells will not be as powerful as pure Bone Necros, but ur bone spells will still do around 2k-3k dmg. Enough to kill.
Here are various strategies versus other character classes with a little sub section regarding honour duelling at the end.
PUB DUELING:
It is essential you get enigma for pub duelling. Without teleport, you’re as good as dead. O_o
Barbarians:
WW Barbs: The only ww barbs what are of concern to you are the ones that use BOTD weapons. In general, with your max block and marrowwalk boosted Bone Armour, you can tank them. Just stand there and spam nova. BOTD users are a bit more dangerous due to the damage they inflict. But all you have to do is move around and spam nova, not much work needed. Hint: Just because you can tank doesn’t mean you should. Tele around. Don’t be lazy.
Frenzy Barbs: Same as above. Just lower resist them and spam your nova.
Berserk Barbs: A bit more dangerous due to the fact that berserk does insane magic damage that’s unblockable and it’s usually one-hit kill. Just stay out of range and spam nova.
Singing Barbs: These guys are annoying, they don’t really hurt you much but they keep you stunned. Make sure you have enough fast hit recovery and spam nova =)
Throwing Barbs: Complete joke.
Assassins:
Martial Art Chaos ww: There are 2 types of these. The ones who use chaos and SS, and the ones who use Chaos and Fury. It’s the duel claw one that’s dangerous. The open wounds will drain you dry even if they barely damage you with actually physical damage. Keep your head up and keep teleing and novaing.
Martial Art Kickers: Like above, but easier, make sure you have enough fhr
Trapsins: Man are these dudes annoying and deadly. Make sure you keep out of trap range. Spear snipe them or spirit them. Eventually, an ibs will get them (haha). They will get annoyed with ur bone spells and attempt to get close enough to mindblast and trap you. That’s when you nova and tele away. To tank these, you’ll need around 275 lightning res in hell and have decent fast hit recovery. A 4 socketed shield filled with p-topazes will help a lot. A total of 160 light res right there.
Hybrids: These assassins do both martial and traps. Not as difficulty as it sounds since melee doesn’t really hurt you and their traps are a lot weaker than pure trapsins.
Druids:
Werewolf/WereBear: Lower Resist, Nova, Win.
Rabies: This is like a fight to see who hits who first. Although your nova is range and rabies is melee. Rabies can kill yet nova only brings them down to one. But advantage is still yours since you’re ranged. If they try to circle you and attempt to catch you off guard, use spear/spirit.
Wind Druids: Make sure to stay out of hurricane range. Spam spear and spirit. They will attempt to run/tele on top of you. That’s when you nova them and run/tele away. Your nova has further reach then their hurricane. Elemental druids tend to be weak versus poison but don’t attempt to just stand there and tank their tornados. Bone armour can absorb massive damage, but tornado is insane massive damage. You won’t be able to take many. Max three.
Paladins:
Zeal: Same as barb strategy, although most pallys have better resists than barbs. Just make sure to keep teleporting around and spamming nova and bone spells.
Chargdins: These guys can hurt. Make sure you have max block. Fast hit recovery is extremely important here. When the pally is charging you, make a bone wall to intercept it and spam nova. Repeat if necessary. Usually, It will take more than 1 hit to bring you down, so you might be able to tank them if you have enough fast hit recovery, but fear the BOTD war pike chargdins. Insta-death if they connect.
Fist of Heaven: OMG these mofos are dangerous. Very dangerous. You will need to stack a lot of lightning resist to survive their hits. Make sure you stay out of range and summon your clay golem to take a few FoH hits. Spam ur bone spells to keep them away. Use nova if they attempt to get close, then run backwards, to lure the pally into your nova. Never chase them unless you can survive their hits. Try to fight in a area crowed with monsters so the FoH will be hitting them instead. To tank these guys get at least 325 stacked lightning resist.
Hammedins: Hammers hurt. So still out of the range of it. The overall radius of the hammers are less than your nova but hammers tend to linger around and can become invisible. This is where ur bone spells come in handle. With spirits chasing him, he won’t be able to stop to cast hammer. If he does, spirits > pally. If ur spirits don’t finish him off, quickly jump in while he is stunned by the bs and nova him and get out quick. Never chase a hammerdin from behind, unless you want to die. Stay on the edge of his screen and use bone spells and nova.
Vindi/Templars: Dangerous mofos. Their FoH can still hurt, while their smite will also hurt. Make sure you stay far away and use bone spells. Try to lure them into your nova.
Amazons:
Bowazons: Unless they are wearing completely godly items such as 160/60 armour plus crazy ias on other stuff, you shouldn’t have problems. Since they have to stand still to shoot, tele beside them and nova them. If they use guided arrows, spirit them. You can take more arrows then they can take spirits. Multi-shot can mostly be blocked by bone walls. Use the walls to get closer without getting shot.
Javazons: Lighting resist is a must. Without resist, they will own you. With resist, you will own them
Sorceress:
Cold: Frozen Orb- Use ur bone spells to keep them away and damage them. Since orb is not a long ranged spell they will have to get sorta close. Spam a few novas while you do ur bone thing. One will hit them eventually. Important: Orb range is slightly greater than your nova so make sure you get out of the way of the orb and don’t get into a pure nova vs orb contest. If you really want to, then circle around the sorc while casting nova. They will get hit eventually. Even though they have the slight range advantage, we have the damage advantage. We can take a few orbs. They can’t even take one nova. Get a lot of cold resist and slap on 2 Ravenfrosts.
Blizzard- This one hurts. I’ve heard some rumour about the first hit of blizzard is bugged and resist doesn’t work for it. Someone plz confirm. Make them chase you while you continually cast bs and nova. This is going to be primary a cat and mouse game. Get A LOT of cold resist. A 4 P-sapphire shield won’t hurt.
Fire: Fireball does massive damage, has long range, and can be shot like a machine-gun. Fortunately, you have a machine gun of ur own in bone spear/spirit. Most fire sorcs tend to stay still for long whiles to spam their fballs. This is where you go straight at her, teleporting in zig-zag right behind her and nova. Make sure you don’t get hit at close-range because it can stun you. Use hotspurs + Rising Sun to negate them.
Lighting: Although lightning does a lot of damage, it has a low minimum damage and slow casting rate. If you are able to survive a hit, then most likely, you’ll win. Use Thundergod’s Vigor, and 2 Wisp Projectors to completely tank them.
Necromancers: (ahh here comes the fun part)
Bone Necros: Your nemesis. The Bone necro is all range attacks. What’s hurting is that he has the same long-range bone spells you do and his hurts twice as much. It is extremely hard to get in close and cast your nova when there are 5-6 bone spirits trailing you with each one able to kill you on its own. Making it harder still is that they are casting spear and teeth while the spirit is chasing you, thus keeping you on the run, unable to stop and cast. More on this in advanced section.
Commando Necros: If your poison nova damage is decent, you can wipe out his army and him in no time. Skellies can’t really hurt you. They’re more of an annoyance. Those who say skellies can stun and blocklock making you ineffective. I say stun and blocklock all you want and hack away. By the time ur skellies can hack thru half my bone armour, I’ll be able to at least cast it again or nova, and there goes ur army. Go back to cold plains and get more skellies now.
Poison Necros: These only utilize pnova so they lack the range you have with bone spells.
Poison/Bone Necros: wooo.. same build fights are always interesting. More on this in advanced section.
HONOUR DUELING:
Note: Enigma can still be used to my knowledge, just not the teleport skill. Bramble is a viable option, though some people might complain about the thorns aura. (Seriously…. Its thorns. You die to this, maybe you should reconsider your build?). Also, the marrowwalk bug will not be allowed so, use either a Sandstorm for the fhr or Silkweaves for the mana. Up to you.
The general rules apply here also.
Special consideration must be given the Bone Prison. Some games allow it, some games don’t. Important thing is, don’t get stuck in one… >_<
VI. ADVANCED PvP STRATEGIES
Despite what other people claim, there are skills needed to use a poison necro effectively. And more so with a hybrid. There are so many keys to press. It’s not just spam spam spam… though that works sometimes too. =)
Important notes:
1) Most people are familiar with Bone necros in duelling. Poison necros are becoming more popular now, hopefully thanks to my first guide. What’s really rare now are Poison/Bone hybrids. What this means is that we have the element of surprise on our side. They won’t know what we’ll use!! Bone or Poison?!? Since most are unfamiliar with our skills or tactics. Most melee characters tend to run straight at you, thinking you’re easy picking only to end up lying dead after eating a nova and a spirit in Blood Moor saying “ OMFG!1! what the $#@$ just happened1! OMG OMG OMG u haXor111!!”
2) With marrowwalk boosted bone armour + max block, you are teh tank.
3) Lower resist everything.
4) Teleport is your main skill. Half the skill needed to be a good dueller is to know when and where to tele. Positioning is really important.
5) If you’re fighting 5k health duellers where ur bone spells don’t hurt them enough to actually scare them then you’ll have to use the “drive-by nova”. What you do is, you meander around your opponent looking for a opening. Once you see an opportunity, you teleport in a straight line, not at him, but to the sides of him. Cast nova, and continue teleporting in the same direction. THIS WILL BE YOUR MAIN STYLE OF ATTACK VS SKILLED OPPENENTS
5) Teeth is your secret weapon. Although you do not have the synergies to make this dangerous, teeth is damn annoying. It stuns them momentarily for each teeth hit. With marrowwalk bug and bone wall/armour synergies, this thing actually does decent damage within the range of 200-300. Use this to keep them away from you. What really shines about this is it’s radius.
6) When chasing someone, keep teleing until you tele in front of them and then nova, so they’ll walk into it.
7) Get a Call to Arms.
Melee Opponents: These are the easiest to kill. Unless they are using BOTD stuff or anything with crazy damage, you can just still there unmoving spamming nova. With BOTD/high damage weapon users, move around. (WALK, don’t run) Don’t get used to being lazy. They can surprise you sometimes. After all, it’s 75% block, not 100%. (Overall, these are easy pickings for you.)
WW users and zealers: Another strategy to use on these characters is the iron maiden method. What you do is surround urself with bone walls. If they want to hit you, they will also hit the wall. If they hit wall while IMed, it’s game over. This actually works surprisingly well though it takes a lot of practice to pull of. They might whine afterwards saying ur cheap for using IM, but if they only knew the skill needed to time everything perfectly.
Trapsins: Without stacked lightning resist, you don’t really stand much of a chance. Circle around her traps and be casting nova and bs the whole time. One will hit eventually. Make sure to never get within mindblast range. If you do get mindblasted, run away in opposite direction of the trapsin. Assassins with duel claws and weapon block can actually block your nova, so cast 2-3 novas for every 1 that you would normally cast to make sure they turn green. (Hard to kill one, yet satisfying when you do.)
Wind Druids: Can not be frozen is a must. They will teleport on top of you and spam tornado. Since they have to be close to you in order to use their hurricane and tornado, it means they also have to get close to your nova. (Not really a hard duel, unless you make stupid mistakes.)
FoHers: Without insane stacked lightning resist, don’t even bother fighting these, unless you’re also a good bone necro. Refer to Souless’s great guide on PvP boner. However, if you must fight one, there are possible ways to win. Keep summoning clay golem to take the foh for you. When it dies, make another one. FoH has a casting delay, so you should be able to judge when the pally’s gonna use it. If you survive the FoH, jump in, nova, jump out. Easier said than done. (Really really hard duel.)
Hammerdins: NEVER NEVER EVER follow them from behind for the obvious reasons. Do not let them get under you(south), because BH comes up north. The place right above the pally is the only sure spot that a hammer will be there so they will try to get you there. If you are chasing them, run/teleport parallel to them inching closer and closer until he gets to nova range. BS them to discourage them from spamming BH. Since the range of BH and Nova is about the same, it might be risky to sneak along the edges. Plus, sometimes, the hammer gets *** and decides to go invisible. That’s when you go *** also and spam ur IBS. (Challenging, but you’ll come out on top due to their lack of range. But most duels between hammerdins and p/b necros are boring.)
Vindi/Templars: Smite is dangerous. But if your fcr and fhr is good enough, you should be able to tank them. Remember, bone armour pwns all melee. If they use FoH, run away and let them come to you. Spam that BS. Their FoH is not as strong as pure FoHer’s so you should be able to a few hits of them. Don’t let them name lock you. If they do, tele far far away to make them lose it or go back to town. (It’s either going to real easy, or real hard.)
Amazons: This includes both Javazons and Bowazons or the hybrid. All you really need is a T-God. The melee damage they do will barely tickle your bone armour. However, if the bowazon somehow is able to get one of those godly 160/60 armours along with other IAS items, it may be more difficult, but not much. Important note is that, amazons can dodge your Nova, so spam a few more than you usually do to ensure they get poisoned. You’ll be casting bone armour a lot.(Easy kills, but you’ll have to work for it.)
Orb Sorc: You guys are going to be tele-circling each other like non-stop. It’s a pretty even fight, for the speed of the nova and orb is about equal. The addition of bone spells tip the advantage in ur favour. Now, he has to dodge ur nova and ur teeth/spear/spirit. Also, we have an major advantage. There are such a thing known as cold absorb. There’s no such thing as poison or magic absorb… well…. there is that Crescent Moon runeword that absorbs magic. But come on, 9-11 magic absorb on a 3k BS? (Very fun to fight against, most of the time, you’ll come out on top)
Blizz Sorc: Nova, tele away, repeat. Hope that they get hit when they chase you. Blizz is an extremely overpowering spell. Bs away and stay defensive. However, if it’s a weak Blizz, just hunt them down.(Quite hard to fight against because you are forced to be defensive.)
F-Ball Sorc: Fire Absorb helps greatly. As long as you can take 3-4 fballs, you should win. If the sorc is spamming fballs at you from screens away, summon a fire golem right in between and use the golem as a shield and walk behind it. Most sorcs are stupid and start fballing the golem. Quite amusing sometimes.
Lightning Sorc: As with all sorcs, stack those resists! Lightning is a lot harder to spam and it’s slow. Most sorcs will tele on your screen and lightning you. Make sure you survive the hit. If you do, they’re dead.
Poison/Bone Necros: This is where the skill matters. The winner is usually the one who teles the best and positions himself better. Don’t get close and avoid the novas. Tele constantly to avoid the bone spells.
Bone Necros: These are your biggest challenges. With the build I suggested, you can tank melee and resist elemental, but magic damage?? There are 2 types of Bone necros. One are the stupid ones. The other are the smart ones.(haha, guess u could say that for all classes.) Stupid ones will use spirit and depend on it’s homing ability. They tend to get so focused spamming spirits that they forget to move, thus setting himself up for a drive-by nova. What makes the smart necros, smart, is the usage of teeth. You will have a slim chance to beat teeth-using bone necros. Since teeth stuns, you can not do the drive-by. One thing to remember is that their bone spells pwn urs. So theoritically, you have to do twice the work to bring him down. Your best bet is to get him to get close to you and be hit by ur nova. Use the walls of the map to ur advantage. In ACT1, the corners of the walls criss-cross. This is a good hiding place for all that bone spammage. (THE fight of your life)
And now the section everyone’s been waiting for…..
How to finish off that last health point, (if u novaed them) !!!:
1) Another nova will finish the job. This will be most used for melee characters who are stubborn and continue fighting with their one health.
2) Teeth is weak, but it’s one friggin health point. This is extremely useful because of teeth’s wide radius and RANGE. Most people think teeth has short range, but on the contrary, it goes quite far. Just because the teeth gets skinnier and turns into a flying white dot doesn’t mean it’s not there.
3) Fire Golem: This is my favourite. The holy fire aura on this baby will get the most elusive opponents. The damage is only 20-30 maybe, but like I said, it’s one friggin health point to get rid of. This surprises people to most, plus it’s quite humiliating.
4) Bone Spear/Spirit will work also for those who want to diversify though teeth outshines them both.
5) Most duels take place in Act 1, Blood Moor. There’s a very interesting monster in the area, known as a quill rat. Lure them to fight in an area with a few of these buggers. Possibly to most hilarious pk you’ve ever done. I spilled my coke all over my keyboard the first time I did this to someone.
6) Now, for those really really stubborn melee characters, I beat that last hit point out of them with my wand.
VII. MISCELLANEOUS
This is more or less a FAQ to answer common questions.
Q: Can this build survive in PvM?
A: Yes, it does quite well and now with the magic damage from bone spells, it can take on anything in the game.
Q: Can this build MF?
A: Yes, go to the Pit, or pindle. Meph works too though it takes longer.
Q: What’s better? 3 piece trangs, or individual uniques?
A: 3 Piece Trangs gives u extra -25% poison res which is good. But I think it’s overkill. However, I keep it in my stash in case someone decides to bust out their death’s gloves and venom ward. But generally, individual pieces are better.
Q: Can this build pwn everyone?
A: Yes it can, but not like those trappers or fohers where anybody can build the cookie-cutter and spam their gayness skills and win. This build is aimed at being the most efficient at every situation with damage that can not be negated and with high survival probability.
Q: OMG, with this build there are so many hotkeys to use!! I cant change from F1 to F12 fast enough!!!
A: Go change ur keys then… use QWER , it might take some time to get use to.
ASDF
ZXCV
Q: Where’s the levelling guide for this build?
A: Just leech, it’s faster. This IS a PvP guide.