1) Assume monster has 0 poison resists. Poison dagger does 1000 damage over 6 seconds. Lower resist does -20% resists. If i cast lower resists, followed by poison dagger, but 3 seconds later i cast decrepify. Will I end up doing:
a) 1200 damage over 6 seconds
b) 600 damage over 3 seconds + 500 damage over 3 seconds

2) Regarding summons to support. I notice that spirit blades will pretty much get one shotted by bosses and their increase in HP per skill point is pretty minimal. (Like 50 hp/skill point?). Seems like they are meant to be spammed for bosses to one shot while letting poison damage do its work. So why do people recommend maxing spirit blades?

3) How long does the slow effect from the clay golem's initial hit last? Need to know when to resummon it.

4) How do multiple sources of poison stack in terms of duration? I know it takes the source with highest dps, but what about poison duration? I notice that my 7 second poison dagger seems to last 3 seconds on bosses? I'm not sure if its because bosses have poison duration reduction, or because my merc has a passive xx poison damage over 3 seconds.

5) does +poison damage increase poison dagger's damage? or is the LCS lying?

1: if you lower resist, poison, then switch curses, the damage is dealt asif lower res is still in effect, so 1200 damage over 6 secs.

2 I don't know personally, I prefer maxing golem mastery to give clay a better chance to hit before it dies.

3: Not sure exactly, It looks like 20-25 secs to me.

4: Poison Duration it an average of all your poison damage durations. So if you have a 7 sec strike and a small charm with xx over 3 secs then your poison duration will be 5 secs, Its best to only use items with a high poison duration to increase the duration things are poisoned for.

5: yeh + poison% increases all poison nec skills damage.

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thanks. in regards to my second question, i'm already intending to max golem mastery. I'm just wondering what to spend the last 20 points on. Because maxing spirit blades doesnt seem that great..

I pick a golem usualy. I prefer IG for the returned damage to bosses and decent life. With the 8x damage to summond from bosses the returned damage is pretty decent

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Oh, two more questions. Ha.

1)How long does the poison damage from iron golem last?

2) Does my poison strike actually have to hit the boss for the poison cloud to appear? Sometimes I'm not sure whether its my iron golem that has poisoned the boss or whether it was my poison strike.

1: not sure, you would have to check on something with alot of life. best bet would be the smith in norm or something (depending on IG's damage).
2: no the cloud will appear as you swing regardless if you hit or not. We were gonna try a poison necro as another form of dps in our naked party for that very reason (since we have no ar)
best way to check if its iron golems poison is to just watch the boss. If its the golems poison then the boss will lose the green tint every few secs. as soon as the boss changes back to regular colour, go in for another swing. I usualy swing 3 or 4 times just to be sure anyway.

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to me and most of my friends i believe... spirit blades are the best for bosses
they keep him 100% inmobilized and wont let him heal also....

blades have 0 AR unless im mistaken. Ignore targets def dont work on bosses too, again unless im mistaken.

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I've been struggling with the same thing. I'm yet to go past clay with my golems for the slow, so I've put one point in mastery and one in clay. I have one in spirit blade and it's been pretty handy for certain situations.

My play style though is more of a sorc where I don't like hiding behind things during the fights so I don't think I'll be putting points in golem's as much as going for max dmg possible.

The quick cast of spirit blade is what I think I'm going to go with, however I don't understand how the points in the skill work exactly for survivability of them. I still only have 1 point in it and they last long enough for me so far in a1 nightmare while I kill things.

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iz a secret

well we have tested me and few friends... and maxed swords definelly works better than 1pt swords... but if u are enough skilled 1pt swords works perfectly and almost like the same too. dunno the mechanic of swords when we talk about hit rate but they wont let bosses heal... ive proved that many many times.

in my case i always max blades and CE for handy boss tanking and fun trashing. so my perfect psn nec would be:

20 psn dagger
20 nova
20 psn explosion
20 blades
1 LR
rest in CE

and a epic kickass 8-spawned-baal-soloer a5 merc ( lul '-' ) with 25k life and warcry.

Now I'm still bouncing around with the merc. Why would you bother with blades if you're just gonna get an a5 tank?

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iz a secret

an a5 tank may still die, loses to IM and on your first play through, it won't be stacked enough to do much vs bosses.

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“Education has failed in a very serious way to convey the most important lesson science can teach: skepticism”

meh, each to his own. On the stuff that matters though 1 point blades last just as well as maxed blades. Its the low cooldown that makes them useful. I dont see why people dont just spam clay golem to slow the boss to a crawl and curse swap between lr and decrep to pretty much render bosses helpless. with all that slow you dont need any summons to be safe really. Having a sturdy iron golem reflecting back the 8x damage being done is alot better IMO.

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Well problem I would have with that is I spam blades for my tank if I spam clay my blade cooldown gets ass fukt and I might have to run around for a bit till it's done.

As for a merc, it has huge impact on your build as a psn nec.

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iz a secret

yeh, once the boss is slowed by clay and decrep they dont pose any threat. you can easily get 60% total slow from just clay and iron golem. Get an act 5 merc with medusas shield and horazons tornado and you can slow them to the very maximum (15% base animation speed) chances of taking any hit at that much slow are slim to none. also means you can wander up to poison strike them without any danger.

slow is extremely under rated

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Hi

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'-'

sometimes i like to believe that people just dont understand me because of my bad english... (if not then some serious brain issues xD [no offense])

A5 merc is for mobs (duh!!) since blades are the only summon (in my case) and they are not that good crowd controllers.... blades are mainly for bosses... and if u have doubts about blades just test on sp with a fully geared necro -.- ive tested on realm and feel the difference betwen maxed and non-maxed.

PD#1: the best way to spam blades is not directly on the boss... around 3-4 yards far from him and they not always get 1-hitted

PD#2: fu mraw!!

Hmmm.. You feel the difference between max and non-maxed blades? what do you mean? Tank two hits vs one hit or? I suspect it could be due to resistances. IIRC, summons gain +15% innate resistance per first 5 hard points.

Also, what do most people use together with poison merc's? I'm using an A1 physical merc. A5 is better?

A1 if you want super wtf easy mode instead of just super easy mode.

A5 for style.

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a well tanked out A5 merc can probably make for easy boss tank as you can toss dracs on him to proc lifetap all the time. Since you only need to momentarily override with LR it doesn't really get in your way.

A little overkill as you already can boss tank with golems/blades - but it does make for even more convenience.

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People who live in cinder block houses can throw whatever they want.

better off using different gloves since you can cast tap whenever you want but I have always found decrep to be good for safety.

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“Education has failed in a very serious way to convey the most important lesson science can teach: skepticism”

Depends on the player. For some people the ease of having lifetap go off so frequently without them having to bother casting it can be a valuable thing.

I figure the more "optimizer" players will use A1 mercs to crush everything in sight, while the more casual players might enjoy using the A5 merc with tap which is why I mentioned it.

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People who live in cinder block houses can throw whatever they want.

why not just switch to tap after lr?

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I am starting to find blades and clay lacking for trash but it may just be because my nec is not well geared right now and can't take a hit. Thinking I might give A5 merc a try and not dump anything into golem beyond clay and use the points for CE and LR.

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iz a secret

For some reason, my golems and spirit blades get wiped by bosses. My poison nec is level 60 in Norm, with +15 skills, 1 pt in golem mastery, golems and spirit blades. They get totally wiped by bosses.

I don't have time to even run in for a poison strike, because my spirit blades get one shotted, so the moment i stop spamming them, the boss targets me. -.-

Thats why i was wondering if I shud switch to A5 merc for a boss tank. Or once i start maxing golem mastery and spirit blades, it should be less of a problem?

yep, clay and blades lack for trash... since clay is a weakass and so are blades, thats why i suggest a5-wc merc, for some nice crowd control



yes, each time the blades survive more than 1 or 2 seconds, u gain a great advantage for the fight.

people use a1 merc... they like the game boring, easy and fast (just teleport and she rapes all screen)... but the merc is your choice... like my bud said, a5 merc got some style and moves ;p

An A5 merc with lawbringer isn't bad for the exact same reason as the Dracs. Gives players one less thing to worry about as they are getting used to toggling hotkeys to get their LR/psn strike hits in effectively (and keeping bone armor up). Its a good crutch to get players through things a bit easier.

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People who live in cinder block houses can throw whatever they want.

A5 uses war cry?

Anyway.... huh.... nn ty. Go a3 merc, cold or lightning. GG vs trash, and mixes great with psn necros.

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"I am who I am. Your approval isn't needed"

Only if you buy them in NM or Hell.

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People who live in cinder block houses can throw whatever they want.

...



Yeh good idea, have something that can cast over your lr just as you go to strike.

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Act3 cold merc like Tony suggest sounds like a good idea too. Holy freeze + ice blast ftw.

The Act5 wc-merc with lawbringer/exe-justice its pretty awesome, but like Dod says it could be a pain in the ass vs bosses... perhaps switch to ubber leech wep vs bosses fix that.
anyway merc's are not meant to survive much vs big bosses (andy, dury, meph, D, and ballz), but the Barb for sure tank pretty well the mid ones like white-dragon, shenk, hatestorm etc.

Remember that the merc is mainly for trash and crowd control.

Think I'm going with a5 merc, it's becoming increasingly hard to handle trash with one point in blades and one point in clay while not having the proper gear to survive at this point. Maybe switch back later when I get the gear.

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iz a secret