Necro Build -- Poison Nova

Hello all!

Playing SSF Offline and built a

Poison Nova necromancer leveraging maxroll.gg guidance. To note, I do not yet have the gg end-game items available, such as

Death's Web or Enigma. My DPS is sufficient with the items I'm currently using, such as Heart of the Oak,

Harlequin Crest, and

Skin of the Vipermagi to achieve max BP & full resistances. The issue, and this is where I'm wondering if I really do need Enigma or something else is that I'm incredibly squishy (P1 Hell). This is my first playthrough on necromancer so perhaps I just need to get used to it but curious if I just need to get used to throwing a meat shield out front like the

Clay Golem. Any help appreciated as I'm struggling to get past Hell!

In simplest terms, noone really "needs" Enigma but for many builds (probably most if we're being honest), it does change the game entirely. Primarily however, that is due to the ridiculous boost in overall clear speed via minimizing travel time, optimizing positioning capabilities (esp. for hdins/

Shout barbs/psn necs) and telestomping with your merc (and even more so with summons if applicable).

Obviously, the ability to

Teleport out of

Dodge does add a defensive boost as well but realistically, that's more of an "oh sh!t!" button than something you should need on a regular basis (even if otherwise still in lower gear).

For a poison necro specifically, if you're having trouble staying alive, I for one would suggest some run speed (not like 100+ but at least 30+ on

Boots and such) and anti-freeze if you can get it. The reason being that most of your time is "non-cast-time" anyways. As in:
You go in, you lower res, you

Nova, you...wait for

Nova to do its thing before novaing again to refresh (if one isn't enough yet to kill stuff outright). That waiting time is time you can simply spend running in order to optimize your positioning for the next

Nova to come and in order to

Dodge stuff along the way. Getting frozen or having 0 run speed obviously makes that quite a bit harder/less reliable. Obviously, Enigma does make that easier as well as you can just tele to wherever instead of running but that's generally more of a (very) convenient alternative than a requirement.

If you do want to flat-out face tank everything instead,

Clay Golem is indeed pretty baller, even with only 1 pt in golem/mast/res (assuming some +skill gear). Additionally, you've got

Bone Wall/prison to add more tanking at basically no cost. And if all else fails (and your merc isn't geared enough yet to just solo everything anyways), you can always opt for a freezing aura merc.

Or you could go for CC curses though that would cost you LR and hence slow down your killing so I wouldn't really suggest that.

There's plenty of options - especially as a necro - without relying on Enigma.

Enigma is mainly for quick mobility (and with Necro, to get your arm together)
Try a

Teleport staff on swap a little to see the difference in mobility.
Depending on you play style and the places you farm, make a lot of difference in quality of life.
(personally I try to always use Enigma)

But for "raw power" Chains of Honor (2 skill and 65@) or

Skin of the Vipermagi (1 skill and 30 fcr) may be better.

fredkid wrote: 2 days ago

[..]
But for "raw power" Chains of Honor (2 skill and 65@) or

Skin of the Vipermagi (1 skill and 30 fcr) may be better.

For raw power, Bramble would be the armor of choice for a psn necro.

(Though personally, I'd likely still stick to Enigma just for the convenience)

Thanks for the advise gents. I think simply having a tele staff on my off-hand will protect me enough in super annoying zones (ex.

Maggot Lair Level 1).

ghostpos wrote: 2 days ago

Thanks for the advise gents. I think simply having a tele staff on my off-hand will protect me enough in super annoying zones (ex.

Maggot Lair Level 1).

naj's staff plus trang gloves = 50fcr, (almost) fast enough to tele around safely

but any tele charges super convenient

edit:
Insight merc +

Clay Golem ftw !