Some questions about not dying

[Baboon]

My current necro is my highest char in nightmare ever, he's level 77 now. It's a skelleton-warrior/poison nova hybrid. When I started hardcore ladder about two months I promised myself I wouldn't put all my valuable stuff on one char and end up poor again after dying. Of course, I failed miserably. My char has now full trang-oul, sandstorm boots and a dwarf star. My other chars have nothing worth anything.

So now I want to stay alive. I'm in act 1 hell and moving real slow. Not because I can't kill, I can kill very well, but I don't want to get killed by a fanatism cursed archer boss or whatever.

some numbers:

life: 920
res: 75/75/75/75
pdr: 25%
absorb: 15% fire
block: 63%

So, what kind of monster could get me killed? My guess is a FE boss or the above mentioned archer. And what about 920 life, is that enough? I'm having problems getting it higher, because I have to keep pumping dex for blocking. I'm even using crap amulets with life instead of a +3 bone/poison amulet I have.

Thanks..

[BaNiSeR]

FE is explosion is nothing to worry you about, thats why you have the skellys, they take the explosion, NOT you.

pretty much anything ranged, or anything that gets past your minions.

920 life IMHO is not enough for hell or even normal :D my 84 assasin has 1.4k life, 95% fire/90% res all else and ~23% PDR and still can take some hard hits. but, now that i typed this, i realize your not 84 yet, so at your level that amount of life is very good.

as far as block>life, well, thats personal opinion. you have minions to tank for you so i personally would not pump dex for block. but if you find that you do get in combat and nead the block then by all means do it! just remember that necro heads have VERY poor block rates in general and a common thing to try and reach is the % block rate displayed on the shield itself.

hope this helps somewhat :)

[Winona]

homonoculus has a block rate of 72%

[BaNiSeR]

yes, but hes using trangs wing shield which has a 60% block rate.

Minion Skull 23%
Hellspawn Skull 25%
Overseer Skull 28%
Succubus Skull 30%
Bloodlord Skull 32%

that is the base blocking of the elite shrunken heads. notice they are extremely low :P trangs and homunocolus hace +30 and +40% blocking respectively making them much better than their normal counterparts.

*note* the normal/exceptional versions of the elite shrunken heads have the same block rate as their elite counterpart.

[CoonerTheRed]

homonoculus has a block rate of 72%

true, but just cause you've got access to really high block doesn't mean you need to take advantage of it. I guess what I mean is that 50% block on a necro is pretty darn good, and 75% isn't that much better. On a melee character who's getting attacked regularly, yes, go go max block, but on a caster I don't think it's all that necessary (both high life and max block is best of course :D )

[Spero]

It might be worth it to you to craft an ammy for higher block %. I think it's the safety recipe that gives you blocking.. If you're lucky or patient, you can get other things on the ammy that you want. That should save you a ton of dex as you level.

[Mr.Bogohossian]

my 84 assasin has 1.4k life, 95% fire/90% res all else and ~23% PDR

He has a necro, he gest 2 points into life for every point into vitality, your sin gets 3 points into life for every 1 vitality. and he also has a pretty good blocking %. obviously your sin has higher life..... a summon necro around 1000 life is good enough.

[dubious]

id watch out for those black souls, they pierce through you're army so if you meet a pack of em or a unique one youre gonna be in alot of trouble

[Baboon]

thanks guys.

I'm going to find some extra life, try the safety recipe and before getting to somewhere near souls I probably need that wisp ring (can't use thundergods)

[HAMC8112]

thanks guys.

I'm going to find some extra life, try the safety recipe and before getting to somewhere near souls I probably need that wisp ring (can't use thundergods)
I dont understand, cant use T-gods, why? Practicly all my chars use T-gods exept for my Hammerdinn who uses arachnid's.
About death in HC, well it is what make's it HC and it's really unavoidable, even lvl99 chars die. Against gloams it seems the necro is more vulnerable then any other char, i advice all the items that have magic dmg reduce, like viper, dwarfstar and stuff like that. T-gods fit right in there, no dmg red. but light absorb is helpfull.

[MoUsE_WiZ]

He can't use t-gods because he's a trangs necro ^_^

Vipers have piercing attacks too (generally bonespear, but there's also the ones with the cool *** flame thrower attack, and the poison ones).

You could consider using a pair of 15 MDR dwarfs, that'd give almost the same reduction as a t-gods vs gloams, and it'd net you 30 less damage vs viper spears. It'd help with silly FE too, but then again if you're close enough to an FE monster to take the hit, maybe your skellymancer deserves to die?

Dolls can be a pain for skelemancers too, as they are fast enough to run past all your minions except for the one standing right beside you before popping, but unless you're playing amped they shouldn't be worth worrying about too much, just don't get in the habit of running ahead of your skels in places dolls can spawn too often O_O

[Winona]

He has a necro, he gest 2 points into life for every point into vitality, your sin gets 3 points into life for every 1 vitality. and he also has a pretty good blocking %. obviously your sin has higher life..... a summon necro around 1000 life is good enough.

wot? 1000 life is ok for summoner? I have 1300 life now, max block and am currently at level 70. My only problem right now is to get resists up, and yes some of that life WILL disapear as i add res charms.

[HAMC8112]

He can't use t-gods because he's a trangs necro ^_^

Silly me, i can only say dump the Trang set.

[Baboon]

I always wanted a necro with full trang and the perfect build for it is ofcourse a poison necro. The set gives great resistances, even PDR. I think my current build is very good, it only lacks a bit in life.

If you think about the fact that one point in vitality gives 2 life, it's easy to figure out why an assassin has more life. A necro with 1300 is possible too, yes. But what use is that if you don't have maxed resistance? My resistances are still maxed if some boss puts conviction on me.

So, thanks guys for the useful comments. However, some other should read a bit before starting to write...

[det]

Hm..how do you put all that gear on your necro? Self muling games?

The safest way for me would be to have a second PC running an a character that can loot in the game.

But I guess you have thought all those options thru already...like playing only with friends etc etc..

If all that is impossible...you might face death indeed and loose all

[HAMC8112]

However, some other should read a bit before starting to write...

Kk, i did the reading, now dump the Trang set.

[Baboon]

Hm..how do you put all that gear on your necro? Self muling games?

The safest way for me would be to have a second PC running an a character that can loot in the game.

But I guess you have thought all those options thru already...like playing only with friends etc etc..

If all that is impossible...you might face death indeed and loose all

I do self muling. I'm quite experienced with it so I hardly ever lost anything. I got every bit of my gear from trading for pgems, except the belt and the helmet. (both for an um, one from nm hellforge and one of a fallen in act1 hell. yes I was lucky ;)) I still mule away big amounts of gems so I can get new stuff when needed.

If I can get a second set of d2 and lod I can use my other pc for muling indeed. Still looking for a cheap deal on that ;)

[Baboon]

Kk, i did the reading, now dump the Trang set.

I think I will try my next necro with homu and thundergods, if I can afford those :)

[det]

If I can get a second set of d2 and lod I can use my other pc for muling indeed. Still looking for a cheap deal on that ;)

And it is great for enchanting/BO on the second PC as well as leeching quests, PAing yourself and stuff. I think here you get both CDs for 20 Euro now.

Personally I have a friend who is more into strategy games..he let me have his copy..soon I can run 3 LOD on my Router :lol:

[Winona]

I always wanted a necro with full trang and the perfect build for it is ofcourse a poison necro. The set gives great resistances, even PDR. I think my current build is very good, it only lacks a bit in life.

If you think about the fact that one point in vitality gives 2 life, it's easy to figure out why an assassin has more life. A necro with 1300 is possible too, yes. But what use is that if you don't have maxed resistance? My resistances are still maxed if some boss puts conviction on me.

So, thanks guys for the useful comments. However, some other should read a bit before starting to write...

Actually my end goal is more like 1500-1600 life, max block and max res. Granted, i have expensive items, so its a lot easier to do for me.

[Baboon]

Actually my end goal is more like 1500-1600 life, max block and max res. Granted, i have expensive items, so its a lot easier to do for me.

which items give you the most life? sc's of vita?

[xeyloderixed]

fyi, even with close to uber gear it is difficult to get past 1500.

not accounting for dOOped (or high probability of being dOOped), the best i can come up with is:

shako, tgods, waterwalks, hoto, maras
and a bazillion 20 lifers

of course, hoto is out of the question for most. as for the others, my old necro only had 1200 at lvl 96, i did have a 20 stat anni and like 6 20 vitas on him, no hoto

life isnt such a big deal for necros, remember that. most important by far are resists and absorb. this is coming from a gut who soloed untwinked, finished it with around 600 life/500 mana

[Winona]

well, after charming up to 75% all res i am at 1250 life. equipment:

UM shako
Vipermagi (will add P ruby to socket)
IO Arm of king leoric
ELD Homonoculus
Ravenfrost (change to whisp if i ever find one or possibly dwarf star)
98 Life Belt
+2 summon, +30 cold res +38 life + 18 fire res amu
stone of jordan
+17/10/7 anni
Then all life and res charms. and there is plenty of room to improve those.

i dont think hitting 1500 life will be impossible. My MF ama has 1800.

EDIT: Trang Ouls Gloves + water walk 51 life. i will hit 1500 no doubt. And all my stuff is found or cubed by me. Currently at clvl 77 act 5 (about to do ancients). My end goal in clvl 90.

[xeyloderixed]

well, after charming up to 75% all res i am at 1250 life. equipment:

UM shako
Vipermagi (will add P ruby to socket)
IO Arm of king leoric
ELD Homonoculus
Ravenfrost (change to whisp if i ever find one or possibly dwarf star)
98 Life Belt
+2 summon, +30 cold res +38 life + 18 fire res amu
stone of jordan
+17/10/7 anni
Then all life and res charms. and there is plenty of room to improve those.

i dont think hitting 1500 life will be impossible. My MF ama has 1800.

EDIT: Trang Ouls Gloves + water walk 51 life. i will hit 1500 no doubt. And all my stuff is found or cubed by me. Currently at clvl 77 act 5 (about to do ancients). My end goal in clvl 90.

of course it's not impossible, i'm just saying it's pointless.

seriously, after 1k life and max res, do you really need that extra 100 life? yada yada law of diminishing returns yada yada. your life orb should barely move (exception:gloams) at that point.

[aleph]

The trigger pk's are out in force now; i'd take a vacation for a while until the next server patch fixes it.

[kurg]

If I can get a second set of d2 and lod I can use my other pc for muling indeed. Still looking for a cheap deal on that ;)

If you can swing that, start making an enchant sorc, and a bo barb now.

Nothing like having 3500 life on your necro and 1000 mana, and then your skellies each doing 2000+ fire damage per hit. :)

I made two necros just for doing ancients for myself + my friend's characters. Summoning Necros rock with enchant and BO. :)