Totem Hybrid Necromancer

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Crash
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Grasshopper wrote:Update. I could not get 90% but I tried with resist 88, 86, 86, 88 and damage reduction at 151. Also absorb charm. It is almost impossible for this character. It would take years and more gold than I can store to buy portals and health potions.
It is very annoying because this charm is very good for this build so making the monster destroy minions instantly like this is not very good game design in my opinion.


This build is one of the best for judgment day. It's a bit different in current patch than what the guide has right now, but you only need the base
Crystalline Flame Medallion
Crystalline Flame Medallion
Required Level: 90
Keep in Inventory to Gain Bonus
+1 to Summon Edyrem
Fire Absorb 5%
Lightning Absorb 5%
Cold Absorb 5%
Cube after Killing Imperius and Malthael
(Max: 1 minute from each other)
for the absorb. Don't need to upgrade it yet if you don't want.

Edit: maybe I was confused. This build is good for Judgment Day, but just needs a tweak for Quov Tsin. You'll just get the appropriate stats and then just nuke him slowly (or quickly if you have good pierce) with Funeral Pyre. Avoid the bone spears too.
Grasshopper
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Ah no problem, it is not always easy reading what people write on here :)

I found Quov Tsin very difficult to how it was before the patch, I tried to see the new layout as being the same - although there are no walls, he still cannot shoot over the angles so there may as well be walls. So it is similar in a sense.

But his behaviour seems different. He blinks frequently to a 'joining place' very often. Where two corridors intersect. And that means he is shooting at you for a very long time before you can get in range whatever direction you come at him.

Also he sometimes teleports to the area where you come in, where there is no hiding place. Just have to make a new game when that happens because he will kill me so many times before I can make him blink to another place.
aguni
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I'm trying this guy out in the latest patch and having a good time. A couple items I haven't seen mentioned that I'm using:

Wizard's Path

Talon of Trang-Oul


The acid fiends from Talon give an aura with ~50% spell damage, and while they won't stick around long with your Creep staff out since they're from the O-skill, I've found they will give me the aura at least long enough to apply it to my summoned totems. With Tainted Blood being just OK now I've got this as my main prebuff weapon. I think it could also be a decent option paired with Sentinel's Sorrow because totems will get the double benefit from the aura while the fiends are around, and more meatshields is always nice.

The boots have some nice caster stats and the Elemental Totem they summon is giving 170% elemental spell damage to me and my totems and merc while out. This is with a +8 roll, without full gear/charms so more +skills yet to go. This means another double totem benefit, getting that spell damage on summon and apparently the spell damage again from the aura. They do count as a totem against the max limit, so I will probably wait until I get triune charm to have one around full time. Good option to consider on the expensive end (SSSU).
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sticking with a crafted marrow staff is far more beneficial prior to creep staff.

the boots are inaccurate. The actual spell damage is roughly half of what the skill icon says according to d2stats. skill icon is not accurate with the nerf to the skill in a recent patch
aguni
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Yeah crafts are certainly better for main weps before creep. Still, fiend aura adds 46% spell damage making it a viable endgame prebuff option.

I still love Wizard's Path. 90% spell damage applying to merc, pyre and twice to totems? Fearsome stuff.
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I just never found it necessary. That's just my opinion. Plus, don't acid fiends die nearly instantly upon using a skill after switching back to main weapon set after summoning them? That's been another issue I've had with that in the past.
aguni
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For me it's been burning veil in particular that kills them off. Otherwise they stick around for a little while. Still, I think firequeen beats them out by giving your merc the extra bloodlust dmg and applying it twice on totems.
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Followed the build, was impressed as it does have strengths. but I had to make changes later on. I was able to do Dest Cow king quite easily but then doing fauntz and k3k on dest was not possible with honorific. Still grinding to get shrines yet. So I skipped jhin for Death ward, insane defence and avoid far too Glassy with jhins. put points into boneyard to cover all spectrum of damage. Then max howling totem so minions are now at 450% bonus damage. "this should effect lightning merc too?" I think my lightning merc could solo dcow. Pumping out lamia for pet fodder. Swapping to bloodlust and using wall buff too. My pets have ok hp but my survive ability just isn't anywhere near comfortable.

Should i be filling gear with topaz for huge energy factor? could lose minion bonus hp for resists, have all annya and about half the charms.
Also been using skeleton reanimate for fauntz seemed to help.

With full fire bonus damage i should be using funeral of course, but im doing boneyard to cover more damage areas. funeral much better right?

totem mechanics seem quite delayed and might opt out fire totem to do lightning for more reactive totems?
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Neontribe wrote:...


1. Howling totem bonus damage is for physical, weapon damage only. There is a totem that buffs elemental and/or spell damage, Elemental totem, found on a few items namely Wizard's Path boots. The spell damage boost you see mostly comes from flayer demon blood aura.
2. Funeral pyre is the best skill against bosses/less mobile targets. For big packs boneyard is superior. But no need to put more points into it, totem necro doesn't have too many points to spare.
3. Don't use the lightning totem, it has worse aoe coverage and much lower damage. Fireheart + Frostclaw totems are all you need, Frost against single targets + fire immunes and Fire against everything else.
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thanks for the reply yea didn't know about howling totem as it says just damage. I hope wizard path is a cheap su. yay post 600