View Full Version : mhl12's first d2 forum guide: pvp classic bone necro!!!
Alright, first things first. This is a guide for a classic pvp bone necromancer. Classic and expansion necros are a lot different. IMO classic is a lot harder even though there are no enigmas, hotos, homos, etc. Those are all very common on bnet and can be traded easily. However, a classic necro not only relies on uniques, he also needs very good rares and multiple different equipment changes for different opponents. Anyway, we’ll discuss about that later.
Also a warning, in order for classic bone necro to survive against other chars, he may have to use different techniques which may be considered bm (bad manners) to extreme legit players. For example, he will have to stack a lot of resists which some people don’t like. So if you are one of those players, theres nothing I can say for you. This guide was created by me, you can follow it if you want.
Another thing, this guide may seem quite complicated to some ppl, so I would advise to read it from start to finish instead of jumping around.
These are the end stats that you want for your necro:
Skills:
20 bone spirit
20 bone spear
20 bone prison
20 bone wall
1 bone armor
1 corpse explosion
all the rest in teeth (you will need one pt in teeth as a prerequisite.)
note: you also may want to put some point in curses or clay golem. I would suggest you receive those points from item bonuses from your wand. The ideal curses for bone necro would be iron maiden and decrepify and one pt in clay golem. Again, I would recommend that you get those skills from your wand.
Stats:
Strength- 30-45 depending on your gear (45 is max but you will have to rely on gear mods for more strength)
Dexterity- none
Vitality- all (by the end around lvl 80, you should have around 400 pts in this)
Energy- none (this is tricky, b/c you need all the life you can get so you should not put any pts in energy. Therefore, you will have to drink a lot of pots, which is easier now since you can buy them from npcs)
Early stages: levels 1-30
The beginning of a necro’s career is always tough. So that’s why I suggest people to play twinked although untwinked is possible. You will have to go melee a lot. Hopefully, you can join a party and get some extra help from other people while you level. Put one point in teeth, bone armor, and corpse explosion. When you get to level 24, start stacking points into bone spear. Now, you’ll start kicking butt for a bit. At lvl 30, switch over to bone spirit. That’s when the real fun begins.
End stages: levels 30 and beyond
There really are no other stages for a necro after lvl 30. Just lvl as fast as you can. First put one point in bone wall and bone prison. Then go on and max bone spirit. Third, max bone spear. Then bone prison, and bone wall. After that if you have any points left, but the rest in teeth. Or, if you really want to and cant find a wand that gives you these skill bonus mods, put a point in clay golem, iron maiden and decrepify. Note that you will be wasting a lot of skill point for the prerequisites.
Gear:
Wand- hopefully, you can find or trade for a really nice rare wand. Try to get one with +2 necro skills, 20% fcr, and +1 to clay golem and decrepify.
For poorer players, go for ume’s lamant.
Helm- the only choice here is worm skull unless you have a really good rare helm with awesome stats
Gloves- magefists, no question here
Ok from here on, the gear list splits in half. One is for pvm you will have to lvl. Joining parties will not keep you alive all the time b/c a lot enemies can kill you without resist gear in one hit in hell difficulty. We’ll start with pvm gear first:
Pvm:
Shield- 3 socket shield (kite is the best) w/ 3 perfect diamonds
Armor- a good rare light/mage plate with useful stats (resists, life, strength mods, etc.)
Boots- rare boots with faster run/walk along with resists
Belt- rare belt with useful stats (resists, life, strength mods, etc.)
Amulet- rare amulet with +2 necro skills along with resists
Rings- 2 rare faster cast rings
Ok, this is for pvp now. You will have to change different sets of gear for different opponents. Hey no one said that a classic bone necro was gonna be easy!
Necro vs. barbs:
Get a good fast block shield along with twitchthroe. Use bone wall, NOT bone prison. Then use the deadly iron maiden when he tries to get through you wall. Of course, this is bm to some ppl, so if they ask you to stop, be nice and use bone spirit instead. If they call you a newb or something else, do whatever you want. lol
Necro vs Hammerdins:
Make sure you have fast running boots on. Run around and make sure you’ll not in his hammer field. Use bone prison this time along with bone spirit.
Necro vs Cold sorcs:
Switch your armor for Hawkmail and put on a 3 socket p sapphire shield. Put on as much cold resist as you can. You should be able to tank the orbs. Blizz is harder though. Teleporting sorcs can be annoying. So use bone spear which is faster. Hopefully, one of them will hit and stop the sorc from teleporting.
Necro vs Fire sorcs:
This is tough especially if you don’t have the right gear. You have to have these gear if you want to tank them. Put on hotspurs and the whole Iritha’s set. Same attack strategy for cold sorc.
Necro vs Light sorcs and FOHers
Same as the others. Stack light resists. Put on a 3 socket p topaz shield and they are gone. Same attack strategy for cold sorc.
Necro vs Necro:
Theres really not much I can give you help on for this. It’s either pure luck or a test of skill. Luck by meaning the other player has a poorly built necro. Skill meaning that both are really good and it’s the question of who outmaneuvers who.
There really aren’t that many other builds on bnet for classic. You don’t really see many melee pallys, or amazons.
By level 80, your bone necro should be practically done and you will have one of the best dueling chars on bnet! Remember, the beginning of this build will be tough but it will be all worth it in the end.
Well, this is the end of my guide. Hoped you enjoyed reading and not confusing you too much. lol
Acknowledgements:
Special thanks to my good friend Xuan for giving me the advice and expertise for this great build on classic!
You're going to start playing again. I just know it...
You're going to start playing again. I just know it...
nah, too busy with school and grades.. maybe after i graduate in that summer before college when i can relax. lol
anyway, any questions, comments, advice, criticism and other stuff is welcome.
Nice...
I sent Elly a PM with the link to the stickied guides section
BigBearCat
19-04-2005, 11:49
1. As for the wand, 2skills/20fcr/3spear is the 1st choice. 20 fcr is not necessary if u have good cast rings and amy to obtain 48+% fcr. It is godlike if such wand also add CG and Decrepify. I prefer to spend 1 pt in CG since it only need 1 pt-no extra passing pt. For decrepify to agianst speederbar/chargedin, ume or a rare one is good enough. For those crazy on extra high fcr, use uniq bone shield to reach 75+%, use uniq blade to reach 105+%.
2. Why not mention the very important issue of fhr in PvP? 56+% fhr is necessary and not difficult to reach. If u have good rare belt24/helm10/boots10/shield17 with the uniq leather armor, 86+% is not dream anymore.
TheCerberus
23-04-2005, 03:55
Where'd my writeup of NvN go?
Where'd my writeup of NvN go?
Looks like some posts were eaten. Hopefully they can find the right back-up to reload. Otherwise, you'll have to re-write it. Did you keep a copy?
TheCerberus
23-04-2005, 04:11
No, it was just an example of a strategy section the original poster could use improvement on. I might write it up again.
Nice short guide btw.
What about Blinkbats? I think that is much better because it makes hitting the fhr breakpoints a lot easier, and frw is essential for a bone nec. Fhr saves your butt very often vs fb sorcs and in nvn. I would also reccomend going base str, as it is fairly easy to get enough +str to wear all your items. Your heaviest piece of equipment should be magefists, but even if you choose to use a rare grim helm/shield it shouldn't be a problem, since:
rings, can give 15 str each
belt can give 20 str.
Also, bone prison can be very useful if you dont decide to be BM and cover yourself in walls. It forces barbs to ww, which is slower than running. And as a necro you shouldnt have to resort to 3topaz/saph shields because once you practise a little sorcs at least will be a pushover.
although blinkbat has twice as much fhr as twitch, i still think twitch is a more viable armor than blink b/c of the increase chance of block along with the strenght and dex bonus. But if you wanna use blink, go ahead with it.
and yes, i mentioned that bone prison is the alternative for bone wall if you dont want to be bm.
Finally, you actually do need 3 socket topaz/saph shields b/c you dont really have any resists without those. And without resists, you're pretty much dead against sorcs.
sardoniclysane
27-05-2005, 01:19
As far as FCR is concerned, I'd rather hit the 75% bp than just hit the 48% Bp
So I'd got Shard, Mfists, and then have fcr on my ammy. 2 Soj's plus the skill bonus on your ammy should be enough, if you want more, then go ahead and get a wormskull or a tarn.
With a High b/a, you can get away with having 50% block or so, and anyways, being a caster, you shouldn't be trying to tank in the first place.
Still-Xey-Lover
27-05-2005, 02:24
As far as FCR is concerned, I'd rather hit the 75% bp than just hit the 48% Bp
So I'd got Shard, Mfists, and then have fcr on my ammy. 2 Soj's plus the skill bonus on your ammy should be enough, if you want more, then go ahead and get a wormskull or a tarn.
With a High b/a, you can get away with having 50% block or so, and anyways, being a caster, you shouldn't be trying to tank in the first place.
Hi, i'm making a PvM bone nec (and i want to dabble in some PvP) and i was wondering whether it is worth it to try to get the 75 fcr bp using a + skill/fcr wand, or would it just be better to use a shard. I can't afford sojs, atleast for the moment, so fcr rings would be my top choice either way. If circlets can't get fcr in classic (can they?) then it would be impossible to achieve this goal even with 10 fcr on all jewelery.
there are no circulets in classic i think. I would say go for wand with fcr and +skill. Remember that its very hard to solo hell with a bone necro. There are too many enemies and you dont have a massive skill such as orb or fireball. I would recommend to party up with ppl online.
Still-Xey-Lover
27-05-2005, 02:58
Alright thanks. I found a +1 nec wand with 20 fcr, and am using twitch, vulpine bone shield of deflection, skull-sapphire helm, eye of etlich, some crummy gloves (mages are a pain!), 32 mana fcr ring, 10 mf 10 fcr ring, and gorefoot. I've found lots of this in norm cows and hopefully i'll find mages in nightmare, i'm level 33 and i already can beat people that are level 50. Once i get decrep i'll be great :D. I put 10 or 20 pts in energy because i was having a horrible time with mana and i wasn't expecting any nice gear, this is the first time i have ever done this with a char. Do you think this character will be able to successfully PvP later on if i upgrade some of his gear? I have 30 str and base dex btw. Thanks in advance. And i'm on east ladder if that helps...
twitch is unnessessary IMO, if you cast walls on top of yourself you can tank ww's
the only switch gear i usually use is wand/shard and +maxres gear
3sock shields are neccessary only if you don't have godly gear.
for cold u could have
69cr shield, 30cr helm, 15 armor (hawkmail), 30 belt, 40 boots, 40 wand,
60 both rings,50 amulet.
__________
304cr w/90 max resist
fire is obvious choose from noko or hspurs or both.. i would choose hspurs cuz boots cant have very many attributes anymore.
Lightning same as cold except hawkmail could be replaced with a rare if you wanted.. but fohers are so ez that even if you have low resist with convic you should be able to beat them.
changing gear is fine for 1v1 but if you are in games with alot of ppl host with you having gear more diverse is important.
dueling strategy,
I think IM is cheap so I never use. against slower barbs and short ranged weapons I can usually just dodge. against speeders i put bone walls next to myself so their dmg is divided among all the walls and me.
sorcs would use a +2 20fcr with +3spear and possibly +3teeth and stack resists. I use all 3 bone skills against sorcs you will be able to tank fairly well.
the only sorcs that will be hard are the ones that are extremely good at avoiding your attacks.
against hammeradins shard is very important. so you can keep casting prisons and spirits. you can use eyeless but like i said i like to have 1 size fits all gear.
also try to keep moving to avoid the desynching charge.
im not going to go through all dueling types.
I dont use any curses but decrep is a good 1.
necros are fun.
fredsta54
27-05-2005, 04:26
Alright thanks. I found a +1 nec wand with 20 fcr, and am using twitch, vulpine bone shield of deflection, skull-sapphire helm, eye of etlich, some crummy gloves (mages are a pain!), 32 mana fcr ring, 10 mf 10 fcr ring, and gorefoot. I've found lots of this in norm cows and hopefully i'll find mages in nightmare, i'm level 33 and i already can beat people that are level 50. Once i get decrep i'll be great :D. I put 10 or 20 pts in energy because i was having a horrible time with mana and i wasn't expecting any nice gear, this is the first time i have ever done this with a char. Do you think this character will be able to successfully PvP later on if i upgrade some of his gear? I have 30 str and base dex btw. Thanks in advance. And i'm on east ladder if that helps...
if ur on east ladder i can help you out a lil, with items and help with classic
Fred
Still-Xey-Lover
28-05-2005, 01:23
Oh yeah, and as a side note, ume's has +2 nec skills, 20 fcr and 2-3 to decrep, and 40 mana. It doesn't get too much better unless you need another curse (iron maiden), in which case you can alternate wands and find a rare with iron maiden. Umes appears to be rather expensive though.
fredsta54
28-05-2005, 01:40
Oh yeah, and as a side note, ume's has +2 nec skills, 20 fcr and 2-3 to decrep, and 40 mana. It doesn't get too much better unless you need another curse (iron maiden), in which case you can alternate wands and find a rare with iron maiden. Umes appears to be rather expensive though.
umes? expensive? any unique items that are not sojs apart from POSSIBLY high defence silk or goldskin or perfect tarn, are worth nada.
Still-Xey-Lover
28-05-2005, 01:57
umes? expensive? any unique items that are not sojs apart from POSSIBLY high defence silk or goldskin or perfect tarn, are worth nada.
Hmmph..then maybe some guy was being a jerk. He had a collection of "godly" wands so to say, SargentXommando, and he liked my iron maiden wand (uses mh too i'm guessing), he told me to add items, then he looked on a mule and found an iron maiden wand with skills + fcr. Everyone says uniques aren't worth anything but when i try to trade for one i end up not having anything to offer the person because they want something specific and not too common.
umes is very cheap on classic. There are many wands out there that are far better. Those are rare wands with +skills to bone spells, fcr, and curses.
Hmmph..then maybe some guy was being a jerk. He had a collection of "godly" wands so to say, SargentXommando, and he liked my iron maiden wand (uses mh too i'm guessing), he told me to add items, then he looked on a mule and found an iron maiden wand with skills + fcr. Everyone says uniques aren't worth anything but when i try to trade for one i end up not having anything to offer the person because they want something specific and not too common.
umes is a decent wand to get you by until you can find something nicer.
but, the problem trying to trade for low uniques is the riff-raff that you have to deal with. these are usually players who have never really advanced beyond trading low uniques in nightmare trading games, and have attached some sort of value to these items that is unrealistic.
your best bet for this sorta thing would be to get some gold together. about 500k will be able to get you about any low unique in the game with a few exceptions [gskins/silks/bbats/p nagels and tarns]. just make your own game [in hell] with a clear title saying what you're paying and what you want. [ie--"500k ur umes] someone will be along shortly......theres lots of us out there with serious gambling problems :D
if you still have trouble, pskulls are another way to go. 1-3 perfect skulls will get you just about any low unique you're after.
Still-Xey-Lover
28-05-2005, 13:20
Awesome, thank you! I tend to lose a lot of gold dueling (i have been dueling a LOT as i go along). I can't wait to get to hell, to meet some more experienced players.
Standard Legal Tender
28-05-2005, 23:45
ill sell you a umes for 500k anyday :P
Still-Xey-Lover
29-05-2005, 00:20
ill sell you a umes for 500k anyday :P
Heh, give me a while to collect the gold >.< I lost most in duels.
Zodijackyl
29-05-2005, 06:33
Not a bad guide, but a few things...
I've never met a decent dueler on classic who used 3soc shields. These are one of the items that clearly defines "newbie".
As for armor, breast plates look excellent and if you can find one with 24fhrm life, and some resists, this would be excellent armor.
As for weapons, umes is excellent because of the decrepify curse and mana. IMO shard is bad for necs because the lowered damage. In fact, because of damage I wouldnt duel with a nec below 80.
For the helm, wormskull is a poor choice. On non ladder there are plenty of cheap dupes available to satisfy your needs (on East NL look for storm circlet or cruel visage). Of course, I prefer prepatch legits for the show :)
For gloves, if you use an fcr ammy, 2 rings, and either a 20fcr wand or shard, frostburn are useful for saving mana.
And to the person who said a wand doesnt need fcr... NvN or NvS me East Classic NL, and I'll show you what works best...
fredsta54
30-05-2005, 18:46
NvN 's are pimp. I know ladders #1 NvN lvl 90 necro.
I might make 1
He would use blinkbats, 30/r/w fhr low strength boots, +2 nec 20 fcr +3 bspear wand, magefist, eyeless, +2 nec fcr ammy with life, fcr ring with mana/// life. soj. wormskull probably as helm. 24 fhr belt with stats// life.
40 r/w +6 skill, +9 bspear, 80 fcr, base strength, nice mana, hmm. was hoping for 86 fhr. 74 fhr is probably enough.
meh its probably not worth it
Fred
Not a bad guide, but a few things...
I've never met a decent dueler on classic who used 3soc shields. These are one of the items that clearly defines "newbie".
As for armor, breast plates look excellent and if you can find one with 24fhrm life, and some resists, this would be excellent armor.
As for weapons, umes is excellent because of the decrepify curse and mana. IMO shard is bad for necs because the lowered damage. In fact, because of damage I wouldnt duel with a nec below 80.
For the helm, wormskull is a poor choice. On non ladder there are plenty of cheap dupes available to satisfy your needs (on East NL look for storm circlet or cruel visage). Of course, I prefer prepatch legits for the show :)
For gloves, if you use an fcr ammy, 2 rings, and either a 20fcr wand or shard, frostburn are useful for saving mana.
And to the person who said a wand doesnt need fcr... NvN or NvS me East Classic NL, and I'll show you what works best...
If not a 3 os shield then what what else? There are many choices for necro shield for classic. As for the helm, Wormskull is the best choice because dupes are for cheaters and this forum is legit.
fredsta54
30-05-2005, 19:38
imo a helm with fhr 78 life and 30 lr 30 cr 30 fr would be better than wormskull.
30/20 pris perf diamonded shields with stacked cold or lightning resist are better. On my necro it was frustrating to have on a 3 perfect sapphire shield, only to be wwed by a barb. The truth is, you really cant afford to switch out your gear like that in pubby duels where its every man for himself. The only switch you should ever do is change your rare armour to twitch when dueling barbs. This is just imo, but take it from me, its no fun to switch your gear around, or to be caught with the wrong setup on.
Fred
well its up to you. I just see that the classic bone necro isnt the most "rounded" character in pvp and therefore needs different item sets for different opponents. If you can win a lot of duels with just one or two set, go ahead. :thumbsup:
well its up to you. I just see that the classic bone necro isnt the most "rounded" character in pvp and therefore needs different item sets for different opponents. If you can win a lot of duels with just one or two set, go ahead. :thumbsup:
I disagree completly... I would say that the bone nec is THE most rounded char. possibly the hammeradin is more rounded but that is up for debate.
and a helm with 10fhr 30+life +38from ruby 25+ of at least 2 resists is alot better than wormskull.
ideal would be 10fhr 78life 30cr 30fr 30lr 10energy.
Standard Legal Tender
31-05-2005, 20:16
I disagree completly... I would say that the bone nec is THE most rounded char. possibly the hammeradin is more rounded but that is up for debate.
and a helm with 10fhr 30+life +38from ruby 25+ of at least 2 resists is alot better than wormskull.
ideal would be 10fhr 78life 30cr 30fr 30lr 10energy.
Yes that I agree that is a better choice than wormskull, although for the less rich a 3 soc ruby helm would also be better,+1skill doesn't really do anything, You would still kill in about the same number of Bs/Spears you would without it...
sardoniclysane
31-05-2005, 20:20
Hmmph..then maybe some guy was being a jerk. He had a collection of "godly" wands so to say, SargentXommando, and he liked my iron maiden wand (uses mh too i'm guessing), he told me to add items, then he looked on a mule and found an iron maiden wand with skills + fcr. Everyone says uniques aren't worth anything but when i try to trade for one i end up not having anything to offer the person because they want something specific and not too common.
I know him. He's a newb, don't let it bother you. Offered me like utter crap for a silks.
I ended up just giving away 3 sets of them, seeing as how they weren't doing me any good.
Don't forget that you guys are welcometo set up FT and ISO lists in the appropriate forums here at D2.net. Just link your list from that forum to this one in the sticky at the top of the forum.
You may get better offers from people who hang here rather than on Bnet in general.
sardoniclysane
31-05-2005, 20:59
Don't forget that you guys are welcometo set up FT and ISO lists in the appropriate forums here at D2.net. Just link your list from that forum to this one in the sticky at the top of the forum.
You may get better offers from people who hang here rather than on Bnet in general.
That reminds me, I DO have a shield I need to post and get offers on.
and a helm with 10fhr 30+life +38from ruby 25+ of at least 2 resists is alot better than wormskull.
ideal would be 10fhr 78life 30cr 30fr 30lr 10energy.
notice I never said that wormskull was the only choice:
Helm- the only choice here is worm skull unless you have a really good rare helm with awesome stats
Standard Legal Tender
01-06-2005, 01:13
notice I never said that wormskull was the only choice:
Exactly....but who reads the entire post....plus I love joining in arguements. :D
notice I never said that wormskull was the only choice:
I would rather use a 3pruby or even a 3pskull mask too. and that's not a really good rare. so I still have to disagree with what you said.
but overall for starting necros this is a good guide.
Use iron maiden against barbs? well your guide doesn't say to get iron maiden and what if your wand don;t have a iron maiden skill. Should you still get it as a skill
FireMarshal
19-04-2007, 05:14
Holy thread revival batman!!!!
The last post was almost 2 years ago.......I wonder how many of those guys still post.
Fifty Squirrels
19-04-2007, 07:37
Nec vs Nec
Bone wall is very important, unlike Prison it attracts the bone spirits.
So is golem, is will attract a few and make them fly off course. Bone spear can also be used, it travels through bone wall to hit them. Decrepify the other necro when you get the chance, put up a few bone walls and spam spirits, when they're about to hit him bone prison him. He's dead if he doesn't have a bunch of walls. Try never to stop casting, it means sure death.
My gear is like this
Worm
Rare Breast Plate (p ruby sock)
+1 Nec Priz
Cthons
Magefist
FCR Rings
Eyeless
Ume's wand
Decrep everyone you duel, it makes it easy to get them when they try to run.
Anathema
02-10-2008, 23:19
Nice guide. I dueled Necro exclusively before xpac- its nice to see little has changed.
Except for one thing apparently-
no zons? what the hell...?
Anyway, before I get all pumped to start classic necro dueling, whats the classic environment right now? I notice even the replies to this thread are quite old..
Anyone interested in my former alias PM me, and possibly prepare for the 11th incarnation.. (in about 4 months)
And, yes, I was a somewhat notorious poster in the days of Draeger and Lord Snowy.
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