Poison Necro gear question.

I am building a Poison Necro and have most of the gear needed for him. aiming for the 75 FCR breakpoint but have a few questions about gearing. My main question is, should I fork out and buy a 2 to all necro skill 20 fcr

Helm or go with the 2 Poison and Bone 20 fcr

Helm? I'm not sure how much of a difference the to all skills would make. Also, should I facet the PNB

Helm or wait for a 2 all skills one? outside the obvious SOJ, what would be a good 2nd ring to use since I don't need any more FCR? I want to put something in that slot until I can get a SOJ? What should be put in my Homunculous,

Um, PDiamond, or Facet? I assume P

Diamond since he'll need resis and not much difference between that and

Um.

Enigma
Trang Gloves
Marrowwalks/Travs
Arach's
10fcr/34 life/4 mana/ 25 psn res/30 Attack Rating and the best stat in the entire game 3 light radius (GG ring because of this alone) ring
(not sure what to run on 2nd ring)
2 necro skill/8fcr/16 mana/6 mana regen/6 fire res/ poison length reduced by 50/7 dmg taken goes to mana.
2 PNB/20FCR/37 Life/31 Cold Res

Circlet

Homunculus

Death's Web 2 skill -44 psn res

Side Note: I still need to get Torch, and 2-3 Facet's. Also some skillers as I don't have any of those either. All on Non-Ladder

Thanks in advance.

For a poison necro, the difference between +All Skills and +PNB is fairly insignificant once you hit a certain amount of total +skills. Your main sources of damage,

Poison Nova and

Corpse Explosion are both in the PNB tree, after all.

The extra value of +all skills goes to your curses and summoning trees. Due to the diminishing returns on

Lower Resist, if you have enough +to skills elsewhere, chances are +2 skills will not even shift your damage by 1%. Depends on where you are of course, but getting SOJ and Torch would mean more and you need those anyway.

Depending on your build, you may not be using summoning tree much anyway, but even if you are, 2 skill points won't make or break anything there. And, again, getting SOJ and Torch will help more.

So, inasmuch as you don't have SOJ or Torch, or anni?, I'd say getting those is a much better use of Wealth than changing your 2/20 PNB

Circlet for a 2/20 all.

As far as faceting and socketing your

Homunculus, it depends on your total minus res and survivability with your setup. I run Ptopaz in my head for the MF, with facets in my shield and

Wand, but I also got lucky and found a -50%

Death's Web. I also have CTA, a 20/20 Anni, and run 20 hard points into

Raise Skeleton, so I'm very tanky and don't need to factor the res in the shield either.

So, for your situation, I'd #1 get a torch. Then, #2, evaluate your playing experience after getting the torch. Are you feeling squishy, so much so that the risk of dying or actual dying is slowing your efficiency? Go for the

Perfect Diamond. You can always remove it later, and it's a lot easier to replace than a facet. Or, are you feeling fine survivability wise? Then, go for the Facet. Do you have good clear times, so much so that a bit more poison damage wouldn't make a big difference? Go for a

Perfect Topaz in the head. Are you struggling to get things down in

Terror Zones? Facet that

Circlet.

Not very precise advise, I know, but I think it all goes back to getting a torch and feeling it out from there.

You should also note, that another gearing option is

Trang-Oul's Wing instead of the

Homunculus and

Trang-Oul's Girth instead of the

Arachnid Mesh. The 3 Set pieces give -25% Enemy Poison Resistance on the TO Shrunken Head, which is quiet significant. This also gives you the cannot be frozen stat, which is necessary for this build imo. According to my experience, the thing i miss most is the 40% increased chance of blocking on the

Homunculus, making this option a little bit more squishy. Lack of resistances may also be compensated by using rare Tri-Res

Boots, Cold/Lightning/Fire being the best option

Winterkill wrote: 1 year ago

For a poison necro, the difference between +All Skills and +PNB is fairly insignificant once you hit a certain amount of total +skills. Your main sources of damage,

Poison Nova and

Corpse Explosion are both in the PNB tree, after all.

The extra value of +all skills goes to your curses and summoning trees. Due to the diminishing returns on

Lower Resist, if you have enough +to skills elsewhere, chances are +2 skills will not even shift your damage by 1%. Depends on where you are of course, but getting SOJ and Torch would mean more and you need those anyway.

Depending on your build, you may not be using summoning tree much anyway, but even if you are, 2 skill points won't make or break anything there. And, again, getting SOJ and Torch will help more.

So, inasmuch as you don't have SOJ or Torch, or anni?, I'd say getting those is a much better use of Wealth than changing your 2/20 PNB

Circlet for a 2/20 all.

As far as faceting and socketing your

Homunculus, it depends on your total minus res and survivability with your setup. I run Ptopaz in my head for the MF, with facets in my shield and

Wand, but I also got lucky and found a -50%

Death's Web. I also have CTA, a 20/20 Anni, and run 20 hard points into

Raise Skeleton, so I'm very tanky and don't need to factor the res in the shield either.

So, for your situation, I'd #1 get a torch. Then, #2, evaluate your playing experience after getting the torch. Are you feeling squishy, so much so that the risk of dying or actual dying is slowing your efficiency? Go for the

Perfect Diamond. You can always remove it later, and it's a lot easier to replace than a facet. Or, are you feeling fine survivability wise? Then, go for the Facet. Do you have good clear times, so much so that a bit more poison damage wouldn't make a big difference? Go for a

Perfect Topaz in the head. Are you struggling to get things down in

Terror Zones? Facet that

Circlet.

Not very precise advise, I know, but I think it all goes back to getting a torch and feeling it out from there.

I plan on getting Torch for sure (and definitely can get one easily). I was trying to figure ouy if I should spend a little more and get a good Torch or get a cheap one and spend the runes on a

Helm. I have an annie already also. As for soj, I can maybe get one (probly but not sure prices on NL) but not sure if I want to get one yet.

thanks for the advice, this gives me a good direction to go in.

Blubbalutsch wrote: 1 year ago

You should also note, that another gearing option is

Trang-Oul's Wing instead of the

Homunculus and

Trang-Oul's Girth instead of the

Arachnid Mesh. The 3 Set pieces give -25% Enemy Poison Resistance on the TO Shrunken Head, which is quiet significant. This also gives you the cannot be frozen stat, which is necessary for this build imo. According to my experience, the thing i miss most is the 40% increased chance of blocking on the

Homunculus, making this option a little bit more squishy. Resistances may also be compensated by using rare Tri-Res

Boots, Cold/Lightning/Fire being the best option

Thanks, I'll test both setups once he is built up and see which I like better.

Using 3 set items from Trang-Oul's Avatar you don't have much choice to reach 75FCR. You must use 2 10FCR rings + 15 FCR amulet.
Another option is to

Teleport using your swap gear. Spirit

Monarch gives 35FCR.

mockingbirdreal wrote: 1 year ago

Using 3 set items from Trang-Oul's Avatar you don't have much choice to reach 75FCR. You must use 2 10FCR rings + 15 FCR amulet.
Another option is to

Teleport using your swap gear. Spirit

Monarch gives 35FCR.

Didn't consider this. Unfortunately I only have a 2/8fcr ammy. If I manage to craft one then maybe I'll try this out but I'm not sure how much a 2/15fcr ammy would go for and I still need to get a fair amount of gear (Torch, 2 Facets, several skillers, SOJ) so i'll probably try that set up once I have everything else out of the way or manage to craft an ammy.

Thanks as always Mokingbird.

Blindfire187 wrote: 1 year ago

I was trying to figure ouy if I should spend a little more and get a good Torch or get a cheap one and spend the runes on a

Helm

Everyone has a different opinion on torch quality. For me, it's not very important, because my necro is so tanky already, and with me running 3-piece trangs, I ignore block chance. Thus, +all to stats really only means a bit of health via VIT and savings on STR. It's not that big of a deal.

However! You're running

Homunculus, meaning that blocking is an actually relevant way to boost your survivability. What that means is that all to stats buffs health via VIT, saves on STR, AND gives DEX towards block chance. You're actually getting quite a big bang per buck there. So, a better torch means quite a bit more for your build than it does mine. How much that's worth in terms of runes, good question. IDK what torches are going for these days.

Also, are you playing ladder or non-ladder?

Winterkill wrote: 1 year ago

Blindfire187 wrote: 1 year ago

I was trying to figure ouy if I should spend a little more and get a good Torch or get a cheap one and spend the runes on a

Helm

Everyone has a different opinion on torch quality. For me, it's not very important, because my necro is so tanky already, and with me running 3-piece trangs, I ignore block chance. Thus, +all to stats really only means a bit of health via VIT and savings on STR. It's not that big of a deal.

However! You're running

Homunculus, meaning that blocking is an actually relevant way to boost your survivability. What that means is that all to stats buffs health via VIT, saves on STR, AND gives DEX towards block chance. You're actually getting quite a big bang per buck there. So, a better torch means quite a bit more for your build than it does mine. How much that's worth in terms of runes, good question. IDK what torches are going for these days.

Also, are you playing ladder or non-ladder?

Non Ladder, I would try running 3 piece Trangs but that kills my FCR. Does it give more damage than running arachs and

Homunculus? Also, why does Block not matter when running 3 piece trangs?

Blindfire187 wrote: 1 year ago

Non Ladder, I would try running 3 piece Trangs but that kills my FCR. Does it give more damage than running arachs and

Homunculus? Also, why does Block not matter when running 3 piece trangs?

On the damage, I *think* it depends on the enemy you are fighting, but someone better with the math please correct me!

Homunculus and

Arachnid Mesh gives +1 all skills, +2 all necro skills, and +2 curses, for a total of +3 to

Poison Nova and +5 to

Lower Resist. If you've got level 15

Lower Resist, that +5 gets you to 20, and goes from -60 enemy res to -62 enemy res. So, +3

Poison Nova and an extra -2% enemy poison resist.

Trang-Oul's Wing with 3 set bonus gives +2 to PNB skills and -25% enemy resistance. for a total of +2 to

Poison Nova and +0 to

Lower Resist. If you've got level 15

Lower Resist, that keeps you at -60% on your curse itself, but you get an extra -25% from the set bonus.

Comparatively, 3Trangs gives an extra -23% enemy resistance at the cost of 1 level of

Poison Nova and some FCR. Now, on poison necromancer, FCR doesn't translate directly to damage quite as cleanly as other caster builds in the game, especially since you can run Spirit on swap for teleporting, but it is something to consider.

In terms of raw damage, if an enemy has a baseline 0% poison resist, then the -60% from

Lower Resist and the -50% from

Death's Web will already

Cap them at -100%. This means that the extra -25% from 3Trangs does nothing for you and the extra +1 skill from

Homunculus and Arach is better. However, if an enemy has 90% base resist, then

Lower Resist and

Death's Web will only get them down to -20%. Thus, with

Homunculus build, you're getting them to -22% before facets. At this point, the 3Trangs bonus brings them down to -45%. Comparatively, going from level 40

Poison Nova to 41 goes from about 4,519 base DPS to 4,688 base DPS, a gain of 169 base DPS per target. With an enemy at -22% res, 4,688 base DPS deals 5,719 actual DPS. At -45% res, the lower 4,519 base DPS is dealing 6,553 actual DPS. So, as you can see, the damage comparison depends on the target's base resist. Facets can help level this playing field a bit, but even running 3 perfect facets in both builds, the extra +to skills from

Homunculus variant only does more damage when enemy base resistance is 27 or lower.

TL;DR - Versus lower base poison resist targets, the

Homunculus version of the build deals potentially more damage due to a higher level

Poison Nova overall. Versus higher base poison resist targets, the 3Trangs deals more damage.

Winterkill wrote: 1 year ago

Blindfire187 wrote: 1 year ago

Non Ladder, I would try running 3 piece Trangs but that kills my FCR. Does it give more damage than running arachs and

Homunculus? Also, why does Block not matter when running 3 piece trangs?

On the damage, I *think* it depends on the enemy you are fighting, but someone better with the math please correct me!

Homunculus and

Arachnid Mesh gives +1 all skills, +2 all necro skills, and +2 curses, for a total of +3 to

Poison Nova and +5 to

Lower Resist. If you've got level 15

Lower Resist, that +5 gets you to 20, and goes from -60 enemy res to -62 enemy res. So, +3

Poison Nova and an extra -2% enemy poison resist.

Trang-Oul's Wing with 3 set bonus gives +2 to PNB skills and -25% enemy resistance. for a total of +2 to

Poison Nova and +0 to

Lower Resist. If you've got level 15

Lower Resist, that keeps you at -60% on your curse itself, but you get an extra -25% from the set bonus.

Comparatively, 3Trangs gives an extra -23% enemy resistance at the cost of 1 level of

Poison Nova and some FCR. Now, on poison necromancer, FCR doesn't translate directly to damage quite as cleanly as other caster builds in the game, especially since you can run Spirit on swap for teleporting, but it is something to consider.

In terms of raw damage, if an enemy has a baseline 0% poison resist, then the -60% from

Lower Resist and the -50% from

Death's Web will already

Cap them at -100%. This means that the extra -25% from 3Trangs does nothing for you and the extra +1 skill from

Homunculus and Arach is better. However, if an enemy has 90% base resist, then

Lower Resist and

Death's Web will only get them down to -20%. Thus, with

Homunculus build, you're getting them to -22% before facets. At this point, the 3Trangs bonus brings them down to -45%. Comparatively, going from level 40

Poison Nova to 41 goes from about 4,519 base DPS to 4,688 base DPS, a gain of 169 base DPS per target. With an enemy at -22% res, 4,688 base DPS deals 5,719 actual DPS. At -45% res, the lower 4,519 base DPS is dealing 6,553 actual DPS. So, as you can see, the damage comparison depends on the target's base resist. Facets can help level this playing field a bit, but even running 3 perfect facets in both builds, the extra +to skills from

Homunculus variant only does more damage when enemy base resistance is 27 or lower.

TL;DR - Versus lower base poison resist targets, the

Homunculus version of the build deals potentially more damage due to a higher level

Poison Nova overall. Versus higher base poison resist targets, the 3Trangs deals more damage.

What do you do about resistances?

If you play ladder, a

Rotting Fissure sunder is a great addition.

If you're NL only, build a mule in L and try to buy one.

In addition to that, your - res comes from

Death's Web (if you can afford it), Lower Res (one hard point at least) and 3 Trang Pieces (95% of people using Wing /

Claws /

Belt, some prefer Head to

Belt... never seen Scales as everyone wants an Enigma). To help wear the Sunder without suffering too much against Poison,

Sandstorm Trek

Boots with a high poison res roll help a lot.

Necrarch wrote: 1 year ago

If you're NL only, build a mule in L and try to buy one.

I'm seconding this because it is good advice!

You might be able to grab one from someones upcoming dump to get ready for next season even if you only play here and there.

Blindfire187 wrote: 1 year ago

What do you do about resistances?

I don't worry about them too much. I put small charms with res on them under my skillers, torch, anni, baseline gear, and I end up with ok resistances. Nothing too special, but between

Teleport, CTA, and my skellies, I never die. I do run 20 hard points into

Raise Skeleton and have 1 point into

Revive, though, so I have a pretty substantial meat shield. If I'm running a zone with Souls, I'll swap some charms around to get max Lightning Resist. Depending how your skill points are allotted, resistances may be a higher priority for you.

"If you're NL only, build a mule in L and try to buy one."

i did exactly this, decent ones are very cheap, bad ones are free

Same for myself, hence the idea. My level 1 sorc on ladder has not put a foot off the

Rogue Encampment but does have a surprising amount of stuff