Blood's Hybrid Poison/Summoner

[Bloodangel26]

My 3rd guide, 2nd char guide.


LEGAL JUNK: DON'T STEAL MY GUIDE, DON'T POST IT ON OTHER SITES WITHOUT MY PERMISSION, ETC ETC.

Table Of Contents:

1. Introduction.
2. Skill Points.
3. Stat Points.
4. Equipment.
5. Mercenary
6. FCR and FHR Discussion
7. PvP Strategies and Discussion
8. PvM Strategies and Discussion
9. Closing Remarks.

Section 1: Introduction.

Before we start, theres a few things that need to be said about this build. If you are looking for an "Uber Godly" character, keep looking. While this character should be able to hold its own in PvP, most good duelers will probably beat you. This character is not the greatest PvM either, but it can solo chaos or baal if you would like. There will be almost nothing immune to you. So if you are looking for a fun character to mess around with and solo hell etc., this is a build for you.

Section 2: Skill Points.

Use your skill points in this order(you may wish to put some points in skeleton first if you are not being grushed):

1 pt in teeth=prereq
1 pt in skeleton=your main minion
1 pt in skeleton mastery=multiplies the effectiveness of your skeletons several times
1 pt in corpse explosion=prereq and can be useful
1 pt in poison dagger=prereq
1 pt in clay golem=your main golem. it slows down targets, has the most life of any golem, and is easiest to get.
1 pt in poison explosion=prereq
MAX poision nova=your main attack
MAX poison explosion=synergy
MAX poison dagger=synergy
(At this point it should be said that the reason you are putting points in this order is because most of your damage will be coming from poison nova and not from your minions.)
MAX skeleton warrior=your main minion
MAX skeleton mastery=multiplies the effectiveness of your skeletons several times
At this point, your build is pretty much completed and you will be lvl 91 with all skill quests done. I will now list the best choices for your points up till lvl 99. Obviously these are optional:
1 pt golem mastery=make your golem faster and have more life
1 pt summon resists=keep your minions alive longer
1 pt blood golem=more life for your golem and prerep
1 pt iron golem=more defense for your golem and prereq
1 pt fire golem=a good alternative for clay golem in pvp
1 pt skeleton mage=prereq and meat shield
1 pt revive=if you get this far, these are excellent minions except for the fact that they only live for 3 mins
1 pt bone armor=will afford you slight protection from damage.

Section 3: Stat Points.

Easy enough, but important.

Strength: Enough to wear your gear. Necro's start with 15 base strength and the max you will need is 156 for spirit(you may opt to forgo spirit and just go lidless if you wish to lose 1 pt in BO but gain a bunch of stat points). You are going to get a max +67 strength from your gear, torch, and anni. So the rest will have to come from putting points in or charms.
Dexterity: Zero, we are not going for max block here because one of the main goals of this build is to have a great meatshield.
Vitality: All points go here.
Energy: None.

Section 4: Equipment.


At last, the fun part of the guide: the gear! Good gear makes a good build, and this build is no exception. If you cannot get this exact set up or close to it, this build will not work very well. The items do not have to be perfect, but there are very few things you can substitute. I will list things you can substitute where applicable.

Helm: 5/5 psn faceted shako of course. Shako is arguable the best all around helm in the game, and its not that expensive.
Ammy: Maras. Resists, an essential 5 stats, and +2 to skills. An alternative here would be a godly crafted or rare necro ammy with +2 skills. FCR is not an issue, but +strength would be awesome. A cheap alternative would be a +3 PnB ammy. This will afford you greater damage than either of the first two choices, but at the cost of resists, stats, etc.
Weapon: White runeword wand made from a wand with +3poison nova and at least +1 to lower resists curse. I cannot stress enough how essential this is to the build. You MUST have the lower resists curse, and you cannot afford to waste 7 skill points to get it. This wand will also give you +6 to your main attack skill, which is excellent.
Shield: 5/5 psn faceted 3/30 Boneflame. Decent resists and +3 is the most you are ever going to get out of a shield.
Switch: CTA/Spirit of course. If you want to save some stat points but lose a point in BO, go CTA/Lidless.
Armor: Bramble. Go ahead and go AP instead of DS if you are using spirit on switch, you will have enough strength for it. This armor is absolutely PERFECT for this build. +%50 poison damage is AMAZING, and thorns aura for your minions is sweet. The other mods aren't too shabby either.
Rings: SOJ+BK ring. SOJ for a little mana boost and BK for a little life boost. And you need the 2 skills.
Gloves: No contest, Trang's. +%25 more damage, and +2 to curses for your lower resists.
Belt: Arachs. For the +1 skill.
Boots: Marrowwalks. +20 strength, +2 skeleton mastery, and other neat stuff. A good alternative is treks, preferably eth.
Stash: 5 PnB gcs(9 if you are going to try strictly PvP) to boost your damage but still have room to pick stuff up, as high necro torch as you can get, and as high anni as you can get. If you can get the gcs with other mods, especially strength and life, that would be best.

All totalled: lvl 46 poison nova(7.2k base damage per 2 sec: 3.5k per sec), lvl 43 all other PnB skills, lvl 14 Lower Resists curse(-59 to enemy psn resists+10 from facets= -%69 to enemy poison resists), lvl 17 BO, lvl 35 skeleton(13 skeletons), lvl 41 skeleton mastery, and your poison nova will be %85 stronger(making it 13.3k damage per 2 sec: 6660 damage per sec).

Section 5: Mercenary.


You are going to want to use a might merc(act 2 nightmare offensive) to increase your minion's damage. You are going to also want to have him wear an eth glitch fort high defense armor to help keep him alive. If you can get it, a Pride runeword polearm would be great for concentration aura to boost all your minion's damage even more. For his helm you are going to want a dream. There are two reasons for this; one, to increase his damage even more, and two, the aura will finish off anyone that your nova brings down to 1 hp.


Section 6: FCR and FHR Discussion.


FCR(faster cast rate) is not an issue for this build. The only casting you will be doing is summoning/cursing, which you can take yoru time for, and poison nova, which only is effective every 2 seconds anyways. If you continuously cast poison nova all you will be doing is overriding the last one you cast over and over and therefore never actually doing damage.

FHR is also not an issue for this build since the whole point of this build is to have a huge meatshield and not get hit. Some of the gear listed does have some FHR, which should at least bump you over the first break point in case you do actually get hit.


Section 7: PvP Strategies and Discussion.


As I stated earlier, this build will not be the best PvP out there, but you should be able to "own pub newbs" if you play well.

Basically your strategy for any melee character will be: curse, nova, keep minions between you and your enemy, rinse, lather, repeat. If the melee character decides to try to fight through your army, so much the better. If the minion's damage doesnt get them, the thorns probably will. If he trys to run around to get you, you just keep running away.


You are going to have a hard time against pretty much any caster character. But if you keep moving you may stand a chance. Curse, nova, run for your life.


Section 8: PvM Strategies and Discussion.


If you like to be the "battlefield general", this is your build and what you want to do with it. Basically, direct your minions around, curse+nova when necessary, and just enjoy the show.


Section 9: Closing Remarks.


As always, thanks for reading my guide, I hope you enjoy it and build the character. And also as always I do not take credit for being the first person to think of this build, I just take credit for thinking of it myself and writing it out myself. Before building, or even criticizing, its important to note what the character is and isn't good at. Again, if you are looking for super godly uber pwnzorzrozz characters, keep looking. But if you want a fun character that can hold its own no matter what, give this one a try.

[L4E]

hm yep thats a fine-ass guide there
Everything seems to look alright, but people always enjoy a little "proof" so i dunno, try the character on single or if u already have one talk a little about ur own experiences
Quoting things from arreat summit also makes it look more genuine
Also, try to add some colours to differenciate things, use bold/italic/underline to emphasize things and dont forget legal stuff, otherwise people just steal ur guides all the time..

interesting although, like i said, its hard to read so put some colours on titles and stuff like that

[Arc]

awesome guide man, made me wanna actually build it

[Bloodangel26]

ty link, coming from another good guide writer that means a lot. colors huh? i guess i could add a few...legal junk? NO ONE STEAL MY GUIDE!!

well, as most of the people i play d2 with know, i did build this char, and it did ok. i actually didnt completely finish it and it was still pretty decent. if anyone good with hero editor feels like makin it on open and posting their experience, feel free.

[Arc]

lol well i jsut played around with editor and with the right gear and done the char actually does really good, owned melee chars, and most casters, used fire golem for the casters, nova them then fire golem finishes them off, really good char imo

[Loits]

In pvp poison necs without enis don't survive and in pvm it's also nice to be able to tele, bramble is mainly ment for assassins or mercs. If you don't tele then you could find yourself in a position where your opponent is using death's gloves and iratha ammy and then you are a sitting duck. Most people are not prepared to go agaist poison builds but then again most people have no idea about pvp.

Best would be to make a iron golem out of beast.

For bo use cta and eth spirit if you don't have enough str.

Since you are a summoner/poison hybrid dream isn't needed on your merc use a coa/shako or something like that.

To be honest this is a ok pvm build but doesn't do that well in pvp.

Note: in pvp you might wanna use carrion wind because of poison creep, when the creep hits it will kill low lifers with it's poison.

[FrogMan]

Great Work

[Bloodangel26]

first off, loits, you sure like to tear down guides, but i havent seen you write any...and i am so glad you restated what i said, that this wont be that great pvp. perhaps you should read the entire guide including the comments before you comment. and arc just said he made the build and it did well pvp.

as far as enigma goes, i thought about including it as an option for pvp, but you really need the extra %50 damage from bramble. also the thorns aura is a nice deterrent for melee chars.

the problem with your iron golem idea, as i stated, is that you really do not have enough skill points to get iron golem. and thats going to get awful expensive if you die or your golem dies...what a waste of runes...

and if dream isnt needed to kill stuff, why are you recommending poison creeper? and who would use a shako on a merc? coa i could understand using if you have already leveled high enough to get fire golem, but shako seems newby

[Loits]

Shako is good for adding life/dr+sox, it's definately a better option than dream.

What's wrong with poison creep?

Summoners in non ladder where runes are dirt cheap all use beasts for duelling ladders, cos winning with a summoner othervise is too hard/impossible.

In pvp thorns has been hit heavily, doesn't do almost any damage any more.