  |
 |
Bow Necromancer:
Version: 1.03
Skill Level: Veteran
Game Type: Any
Author: Trails
Objective: To be Different with the Necromancer
|
Now I know what you're thinking, "What kind of moron puts a bow on a necro?" Well, me for one. I saw someone mention this in a forum a few months back so I decided to try it out. Now before we all get our panties in a bunch, I will say this, this is an alternative to the mainstream, proven and effective way of playing a necromancer. I make no comment about anyone who uses said mainstream techniques, or their mothers. I will also point out the cons of doing this:
- You gain valuable skill points from wands, which increase the potency of your skills.
- You have to add more points to dex to get decent damage with bows, and dex is fairly useless to a necro otherwise. Besides they already need good energy and strength (for armor).
- You can't use a shield.
- Arrows/bolts take up valuable inventory space.
If you found yourself screaming any of these when you read the title, go somewhere else, because it gets worse.
The advantage to this tactic is based on the real power of the necromancer: summoning. But what to summon? Well, skeletons are cool looking, but unless you dump A LOT of points into them they become useless in nightmare. Mages are basically same tale. Revives are ok, good health, decent damage, etc... But they're quite dumb. you will sometimes find yourself surrounded by enemies, and revives are just standing there. It's frustrating. That leaves us with golems.
Golems are useful because they take loads of damage. Clay golems are fairly basic. Blood Golems are great since they replenish your life and are probably the best in most occasions. Iron golems are good because of their thorns, and fire golems inflict fire damage on every monster on the screen.
Golems as damage givers suck though. They're punching bags for the baddies, so how do we take advantage of this? Yes class, iron maiden. So using this strategy, we cast a golem, which all the baddies go for, and then we cast iron maiden. The enemies kill themselves attacking your golem, nothing new here. However, where does all this leave you? Standing around for one, or charging into battle with some wand that sucks melee-wise (they all do, yes all, yes I'm sure). Also wands have very low durability, and you'll find yourself running back to Charsi for repairs a lot if you try to speed up our little golem/maiden tactic by attacking.
So then what? Bone spear? Useful, but can prove to be a mana drain, especially if it's at a higher slvl. Same for Bone Spirit. If you said Teeth, go smack yourself. Corpse Explosion is powerful against normal baddies, but kinda useless against bosses.
So it looks like our main options are standing there while powerful spells do the work(fun), or .... A ranged attack weapon. This way, you can increase damage, and stay out of harms way. Also, bows never need to be repaired, ammo drops plentifully from monsters, and is so very cheap. Bows are plentiful, and have lots of varying stats. As a necromancer, I recommend you look for these stats: Freeze/Cold Damage
Mana steal
Attack Rating bonus
Damage bonus
Elemental Resistances, especially in Nightmare or Hell
So, there you go, my two cents. Hope you enjoyed!
As a small note, make sure to always try to stack your ammo to free up space in your inventory. If you're walking around with more than three quivers (including one in hand) you've got too much. Also, always drop arrows to pick up items, cause items can be sold, and arrows can be bought for a lot less.
|
  |
