Puppetmaster build

[enkephalin07]

Giving the Bladewitch a rest until I can see how it plays in 1.57. Until then, I'm amusing myself with a summoning necro, and wondered how to get charm and possibly dire charm oskills, and play a completely passive puppetmaster. Has anyone tried anything like this?

[aerial]

Its not possible to get dire charm for necromancer. Only sorceress can have it as oskill.
Possess works like charm+dire charm, but duration 4s, timer 8.

Imo using charm/possess with necro is uneffective, because charmed mobs need instant buff, totem tactic is too slow for them, dark power too weak.
Barbarian with wolf stance would be better. But still possess duration is too short.

Best conventional summoning necro builds are:
- darklings + 100% CB + blood tide totem
- mass lamias + unholy prayer
- rampagor recaster + arcane torrent oskill

Both without mana tide totem, just +% mana items and necromantic trance.
Summoner is quite challenging for hardest uberquests.

[enkephalin07]

Haven't yet finished Hatred, and I don't realistically expect this build to make it through 90% of the uberlevels or most the challenges, but the strategic challenge is fun, seeing how much you can handle without directly engaging anything. I'll probably lose interest long before Destruction because the guy moves sooooo slow.

EDIT: Looks like this works just fine. You don't need buffs for charmed creatures, what you need is for them to create dissent in their own ranks. If they make kills, good. If they die trying, good. It's a win-win. The purpose isn't to have powerful allies so much as to create chaos that works in your favor. But if you do feel like you need buffs for them, Dark Power is nothing to scoff at, even without the synergies.

Relying on darklings with blood tide makes as much sense and getting a warranty on a stack of styrofoam cups. No matter what you do with them, they're disposable. Get them in volume, and when you're out of them, get more. I just use them as homing missiles; chances are good they'll get their crushing blows in, but if they don't, they at least die with a lot of damage reflected back.

I'm concentrating on Lamias, and maxing Dark Power and Liche Totem.

[rickcarson]

[quote=aerial";p="367063"]
- darklings + 100% CB + blood tide totem
[/quote]

Is that possible? I only count 40% from items. And 40% from Bloody Mary synergy on Dark Power.

[aerial]

maxed dark power+synergy - 55% CB
items - xbow and amulet - 40%
= 95%

It seems its 95%, i though there is one more item wich gives missing 5%, but i guess i was wrong.

[xMeox]

there are some recipes for crushing blow jewels...

[aerial]

to darklings? ;]

[xMeox]

sry

[enkephalin07]

Felblood Amulet gives darklings 15% crushing blow; you could spend on the Unholy Armor synergy to Dark Power for higher %, but with 18 of them scurrying around at such a cheap mana cost to resummon, it doesn't seem necessary. They'll hit hard or die trying, and deal pretty good damage just by dying. Buy if you actually specialized in them, they'd still be so fragile you'd spend so much time resummoning you wouldn't be able to cast any other support spells. Best to let 'em go kamikaze while the sturdier fighters hold the field.

[Doabli]

Bloodtide doesn't make your Darklings tougher it makes their thorns deadlier.

[arem]

[quote=enkephalin07";p="367434"]
Buy if you actually specialized in them, they'd still be so fragile you'd spend so much time resummoning you wouldn't be able to cast any other support spells.
[/quote]

This is true. I have heard that people have success with a darkling build, but they die so fast you are pretty much going to find yourself constantly summoning darklings to stay at the summoning cap.

[Doabli]

If you don't resummon them, what would you do? Summoners don't have much exercise.

[enkephalin07]

If you weren't too busy re-deploying your minions, you might be able to cast Dark Power, fling around Nightmares, or plant a useful totem.

[quote=Doabli";p="367439"]Bloodtide doesn't make your Darklings tougher it makes their thorns deadlier.[/quote]

You might be thinking of a different totem. If you haven't actually put them into practice, then you should probably at least read the docs before you speak.

[quigonjinn]

Thorns only reflects damage actually done, so if your darkling has 25 life and you have 1000% damage reflected, then the damage reflected back is 250, even if the monster swung for 1000 damage. If darkling has 300 life and 1000% damage reflected then damage is 3000. So bloodtide would indeed boost thorns damage.

[enkephalin07]

This is true, but contrary to claim, Blood Tide wouldn't be able to 'make their thorns deadlier' if it didn't significantly 'make your Darklings tougher'.

There are less convoluted claims one could make about the Blood Tide Totem, Darklings, and the utility of raising minion life, but those weren't even implied in the statement.

Nice try with the save, quigonjinn;]

[Doabli]

It doesn't make them tougher because they still die quickly . A jump from 1 HP to 2 HP doesn't make things tougher. If Darklings still die in one hit, they aren't tougher. But the reflected damage is a lot higher.

Placing a totem on the ground costs your nearly nothing. And it gives you a lot of damage. Why not?

[enkephalin07]

[quote=Doabli";p="367679"]It doesn't make them tougher because they still die quickly . A jump from 1 HP to 2 HP doesn't make things tougher. If Darklings still die in one hit, they aren't tougher. But the reflected damage is a lot higher.

Placing a totem on the ground costs your nearly nothing. And it gives you a lot of damage. Why not?[/quote]It doesn't cost much in mana, but it still has a cost in time that you could be doing something else, casting support spells, conjuring support totems, or even jumping into the combat yourself.

That 2HP may give your darklings a split-second more survivability or give them another 100% more damage before they die. But either way your own survivability will be improved so marginally that you might as well throw yourself in the path of the grenade. Better to spend those points in more useful creatures or buffs.

[Zanzu]

You're missing the point...They still are going to be dying in one hit even with the blood totem out, its not going to give you a split second more, its not going to make them last longer...its going to massively increase the amount of damage monsters take from hitting them, early game it might make them a little tougher but in the end you're getting it for the boost into potential damage so that things kill themselves on them faster, not so that the minions stick around longer.

That half a second casting time is more then enough reason to give their thorns a few hundred percent more damage when the 300 life minions are getting slapped down like flies.

[enkephalin07]

With just 1 point, I'm up to 21 darklings, and I'm getting a little fed up with resummoning them. I have some skill points to play around with, so I may pump them a little in the future.

But I still haven't fit Blood Tide into my battlefield. Seems like Liche and Shadows would be a better investment. The life bonus may be less, but they have more all-around utility.

[oneillz808]

no suggested you use this enkephy, but staves have a higher fast cast rate for the druid, sorceress, and necromancer.

i meant no one suggested, lol ^.^

[enkephalin07]

Wow, that's so true. 7fps still seems pretty slow, but I'm just used to assassins. And some of those wand/shield combos are tough to pass up for it.

[oneillz808]

im assuming your specializing in darklings [mostly] then i would definitely recommend the staff... solely for its speed.

i mean when you walk/run into another area, im pretty sure most of the summons have already disappeared and you would be up for another fight. casting them quickly in front of you would be slighty dangerous but very fun.

[enkephalin07]

I'm actually specializing in lamias, spending some in shadows, but I try to keep as many minions in my army as possible. Darklings proliferate like crazy with +skill gear, and with the fellblood and their thorns, they can get some useful damage in, when they're not being wiped out by elemental AoE's.

Right now using Rathma's Charm and jewelword Bandit, looking to upgrade to Sewer. But I don't really need a shield since I'm hardly in the line of fire, so a nice staff would be worthwhile if I could find one with enough +skills. Or one with the charm oskill so I can play with monsters heads.

[oneillz808]

hmm, then if youre patient; which sounds like you are, then stick with the wand and shield.

the staff - dol ohm io. its possess, but its basically like charm.

[enkephalin07]

Most the time I don't have to be that patient, I can get by without the full army, and I haven't really been exploiting the Nightmare synergy to Unholy Armor yet. I just go in with DP/Nightmare, sometimes drop Liche/Death's Fury to get through quicker. Having the Abjurer helps, when he's not standing around picking his nose.

[quote=enkephalin07";p="367076"]...I don't realistically expect this build to make it through 90% of the uberlevels or most the challenges[/quote]I'm going to have to take that back; I finished the Trial of Fear. The hardest part was getting the killing blow, because the whole buffed horde ripped the Butcher apart so quick I couldn't target him for Nightmare. I had to cut back to lamias to wear him down to a sliver, then keep swinging with my whimpy wand until dead. Or until my Unholy Armor unexpectedly ran out; it'd be a hell of a lot easier to use if the shield effect stayed visible for the duration;/

But I'm pretty sure this build could handle most of Fautz Terror. Any suggestions for dealing with Gamma?