Help killing Andariel

[IrishDutchman]

Wow, that is more or less the clich'e noob question round here right? :p
'I can't kil andariel! :cry:'

Well, I can't with my Necro. I have killed her with many others, but it just won't work. He's a basic skelliemancer with a couple extra spells like amp dmg, iron maiden and CE.

I'm lvl 14 right now, with 7 in Raise Skeleton and 4 in Mastery. I've also got a 1. pt in golem.
Here's what happens when I face Andie:

Minions charge in,
Andie casts that poision cloud, kills all my skellies in one go.
Melees my golem once, he's dead too.
Then I run.

:(

[Neo]

you should really have focused on only skellies first, until level 20, then skelly mastery, using bonus points to get at least amp damage, you don't really need anything else.

=p

I'd help, but I haven't even started a new char yet :/

-Neo

[IrishDutchman]

Not even CE or golem 1 point?

And what raise/mastery ratio is good?

[Neo]

Raise Skeleton first. One into mastery. AFter Raise is maxed, then start maxing Mastery.

c/e is based on your own preference, I prefer stronger skellies and possibly amp and then get C/E later (since c/e is more useful later on when the skellies end up more tanks then killers, but early on they are great at killing to :p

meh, stoppit you're making me want to play.

-Neo

[IrishDutchman]

Goddamn it, now I have to start over! >.<

I had a unique. :( Greyform

[Aqo]

Why do everyone waste their necromancers on skeletons, pffft. Make a bone/summon hybrid, max bone spear with 60% of its synergies and get 20 points into Revive and some golem. Best, build, ever (for necro).

[Neo]

Because boners use up a lot of mana, and require about 25-30 levels and specific equipment to actually be useful.

You can beat hell on a naked summon-mancer.

-Neo

[IrishDutchman]

Problem solved.

How?

Install all the patches :P

I was playing 1.7, did some searchin and found out skellymancers were buffed in 1.10. I got the patch, and my skellies kick ass now. :D
They have about 200% of the life they had before, although I have less skellies now.
Necromancer was one of the easiest andie fights actually, together with bowazon.

[Aqo]

Because boners use up a lot of mana, and require about 25-30 levels and specific equipment to actually be useful.
Bogus. Boner works starting from level 2, with teeth. You'll never have mana problems if you heard of mana potions, and the only real equipment you need is +skill to bone spear.

http://img529.imageshack.us/img529/7315/bonerhybrided4.jpg
Black cows = my beloved minions.

[Neo]

Cows in hell will never fall that fast, and CB is a much better teeth spell then teeth.

Point being that starting a boner as your first character is just a bad idea =p

And mana potions don't cure all mana problems. If you're using one after every 2 or 3 spears ;/

As I said, they just don't kick in until 25-30 after you've got some skills into spear.

Technically the best caster to start with would probably be a Fissure Druid. Does the most damage at the lowest of level of any character really. Works well up through nightmare as well.

-Neo

[Aqo]

What the hell are you talking about Neo? It was extremely easy to make my necro able to use about 40 spears between each potion. Even in the low levels, make that 15-20.

NastyApe already stated that this is not his first time playing, so he shouldn't have problems getting to level 30 in just a few hours. Your "don't do boners they're hard" argument is really imaginary.

[Neo]

As a starting character for ladder, Boners aren't the best choice.

They don't work well with mfing, and pardon me, but relying on mana potions constantly is not really worth it.

Yes they are powerful characters, but they are also weak, and rely on items. I mean, sure, sorceress are similar, but they have access to more powerful spells (not to mention teleport).

Dude Aqo, why is it impossible for you to ever, like, I don't know, entertain the very notion you might be mistaken?

The damage output of an untwinked Boner at the start of ladder is not worth it, in my opinion, and it will end up more of hindurance. You max out at what, 2k a spear maybe? Thats pitiful when compared to even a lowly synergized Fireball. Pardon me if, sitting there and wasting 20 mana potions to kill a boss trying to mf me some better items doesn't appeal to me.

-Neo

[Giantfish]

I thought that you were suppose to put 3 points into raise skeleton and then max mastery before going back to max skeletons.

[BrotherGreen]

Fire druid is teh pwn.

Fissure and molten boulder own masses of enemies.

Once you hit lv30, carry around a tank of a bear with you (barely needs any levels on it until hell), and start pumping meteor shower and whirlwind (they'll both work at once, and work very well).

[Aqo]

The damage output of an untwinked Boner at the start of ladder is not worth it, in my opinion, and it will end up more of hindurance. You max out at what, 2k a spear maybe? Thats pitiful when compared to even a lowly synergized Fireball. Pardon me if, sitting there and wasting 20 mana potions to kill a boss trying to mf me some better items doesn't appeal to me.
While a necro deals less damage, necro's damage hits -everything-, regardless of resistance, and as soon as 1 creature of a pack is dead the rest can all die in 2 seconds with corpse explosion. The addition of a golem and bone wall only make it better.

It may not appeal to you, but that's hardly a weak character.

...and make that 10 potions.

[Neo]

By that logic though, you should play a hammerdin -- at least they won't be stopped by anything thats magic immune.

... =P!

-Neo

[Aqo]

I don't want to play a faggoty char that requires no skill and has no cool glowing flash effects -_-

Not that you really need any skill in Diablo... emphasis on the glowing effects part.

[Neo]

To be fair hammerdins require skill when aiming correctly, such a stupid spell.

They used to be the class of the d2 nerd, alas, no longer.

D2 requires some skill, it's not liek you can just jump in and be the best automatically :p Dueling at least. It's crazy duelers like have everything down from desynching, to how much poison might actually do, to when exactly you should whirlwind >.>;;;;;;

-Neo

[Dayoh]

IMO, Summoner Necro's are incredibly boring standing in one spot doesent appeal to me :confused:.

The funnest necro iv played is a poisonmancer.
A good first character IMO, is prolly the barb (although i really hate the class) they are pretty much a tank on legs.

[Magician777]

i always had someone kill andariel for me lol!

[Neo]

If you play a summoner by just standing around, you're doing it wrong :p

-Neo

[CrazyTom]

I've found maxed skeletal mastery and 20 points in Revive is a good deal. I'm also maxing my skeletons (but not the mages). The way I use it, my char goes out into a low level area and raises his minions with the help of a fire golem and Act 2 Merc with Prayer, who's levelled very high now. Then I use the skeletons in the high level areas to kill a few of the weaker beasties before reviving them. They're so much more powerful than anything else - they do three times the damage and have twice the life of the original corpse I cast them on - that all I need to do is herd and blast the others with CE, picking the stronger monsters as I progress. Tanks are good, like the Moon Lords in Act V, and also any type of ranged attacker is a bonus - those spitty little Fetishes in Act 3 finally have a use. ;) If ever I'm struggling, a quick trip to Travincal brings me a brace of council members to make things fun. I curse with Amplify damage and generally sit there cursing and blasting until they die. Baal is pretty easy, to be honest. All I have to do is surround him with the minions he's just given me and run around avoiding that cold spell he fires. And if my minions are struggling just run and lay in with my Malice-runeworded Ancient sword.

[IrishDutchman]

Well, killed diablo at lvl 26. Wasn't easy though. At that time I had maxed raise skeleton and 6 points or something in mastery. Little bastard kept on killing all my skellies in one hit of his pink lightning. I basically ended up spamming raise golem (I got 1 pt in it) with iron maiden.
Ripping through act 5 now. :P
I've found necromancer gameplay kinda boring though, not very active. =/

[Aqo]

I've found summonmancer <- fixed gameplay kinda boring though, not very active. =/
No shit.

GET A BONE NECRO. IT'S PWN AND FUN.
Seriously.

[King_Critter]

No shit.

GET A BONE NECRO. IT'S PWN AND FUN.
Seriously.

I just recently started a bone necro, and I have to say that you're right. It is harder, though, especially in single player when the only person you have backing you up is you merc. <_<

But on the plus side, that was the fastest I've ever cleared out the maggot den or whatever it's called. :P (Bone spear is awesome in tight coridors. ^_^)

[Kamikaze_Chicken]

Bone Spirit is a great asset when you begin taking on Diablo, just fire in his general direction and eventually you win...

[Aqo]

Yay! :D

When you're making a bone necro, remember that you can get a wand or zombie head that gives you +skill to a golem. That way, you get to have two meatshields *and* a powerful AoE spell :D

[IrishDutchman]

Baal's a goner!

The items he dropped sucked though. =/

[Neo]

Oh please, boners aren't that great.

A good summoner build should rely on C/E and Amp both, with you're skeletons there only to get the first 1 or 2 corpses so you can then unleash a chain.

Granted Maggot is difficult with a summoner.

For a boner, I'd suggest getting a Clay Golem btw, after you've finished with the bone synergies.

EDIT: I don't like boners really since many don't even utilize curses to any effect, thinking they are useless. Any necro that doesn't use curses isn't worth it IMO. If you don't know how to use Dim Vision, or even Confusion then really ;/

-Neo

[IrishDutchman]

Should I get up summon resist and revive? I have 11 or so in Mastery, IIRC.
Or do I get those only after I've maxed mastery?

[GenocideAlive]

I think it's cool NastyApe is having fun while you all hate on him.

[IrishDutchman]

Lol, summonmancer works for me...:P

[Neo]

Summoner's skills are boring for the first 40 levels... just get mastery and raise skeleton maxed first before worrying about anything else.

I know it's strange, but you can dump bonus skill points into getting Amplify Damage (this is what I get from the den of evil skill point bonus) and then I get teeth --> corpse explosion from izual's quest. Raddy's quest bonus can be either teeth, or dump it into raise skeleton/mastery.

I actually want to play another summoner now :E darnit all.

-Neo

[IrishDutchman]

Right, I've maxed both now, with 1 pt in summon resist. Some people say you can max CE, others go for revive. What do you guys think?

[Kamikaze_Chicken]

A golem and golem mastery perhaps

[Giantfish]

Max CE. It will help you clear areas with lots of monsters quickly especially the tough ones. Make sure you cast amplify damage first to maximize the hurt.

As for revive, I personally found just a few points to be enough. Maxing it doesn't make them stronger, it just allows you to have more. With the high mana cost and time limit, I find you generally kill faster with corpse explosion. Though reviving burning souls from act 5 is very fun, especially if they've ever fried you before.

[PrestonBurke]

Useless Fact of the Day: Andariel is weak towards fire!

[Neo]

Max C/E. Amplify Damage will become your main curse. Revives are unneeded, however at least 1-5 points can be useful in some areas. Remember that more points in Revives simply increase the amount you can revive by 1 -- nothing else. Which means it's pretty much a waste after you have enough +skills.

-Neo