Pitmancer Guide

[Vollstrecker]

Ok, at the idea from `Insolence`, I have finally semi-completed a Poison Necro for Pit Runs. The thing is, this guy kicks some serious ass. My average time for clearing the ENTIRE Pit is ~3:00. That includes teleporting there and identifying a few items. This is a guide as to what you would want to look at. Here goes:

Stat Points

STR Enough for your armor.
DEX Keep your block % up, ~50% or higher is good.
VIT Leftover points go here
ENE Base


Skill Points

20 Poison Dagger
20 Poison Explosion
20 Poison Nova
20 Bone Wall
1 Bone Armor
1 Teeth
1 Corpse Explosion
1 Amplify Damage
1 Iron Maiden
1 Life Tap
1 Weaken
1 Terror
1 Decrepify
1-5 Lower Resist

That is 90-94 skill points in total, so this build would be complete at prior to level 78-82 using all skill quests.


Equipment

Helm: +2 Necro/20% FCR/+All Resists Circlet (Harlequin Crest will likely be what people use)

Armor: 'Enigma'/'Bramble' (Enigma preferably, as teleporting speeds up runs)

Weapon: Death's Web/'Heart of the Oak' (Blackbog's Sharp if you're pretty poor)

Shield: Trang Oul's Wing

Gloves: Trang Oul's Claw

Belt: Trang Oul's Girth

Boots: Marrowwalk

Rings: 2x Stone of Jordan

Amulet: Storm Circlet or other rare/crafted ammy (Mara's would work too)


I know most people will ask "Why Trang Oul's Shield and Belt instead of Homonculus + Arachnid's Mesh?". The reason is, that with the 3 set pieces, the shield will give -25% Enemy Poison Resistance. That is a HUGE help vs. the skeletons in the Pit, as they are a bit resistant to poison.

If you have any gear you could socket, try to procure some Poison Rainbow Facets. Those would help immensely.

Of course, a few +1 Poison and Bone charms would help this build, so if you have some, don't be afraid to use them. :p

That's pretty much about it. Feel free to post questions/comments in here.

[Maleficus]

why bone wall

[Vollstrecker]

why bone wall

Synergy for Bone Armor. I am also taking advantage of Marrowwalk Bug to get the benefits of Bone Prison synergies for Bone Armor.

[BlackKnight]

its a good build and you can use it for pvp,teleport to the enemy , get his life on 1 with posion-nova and kill him with fireball(skill from trang-ouls)
its nice because trang-ouls gloves gives you 25%more posion dmg
:tup:

[tidus2005]

what is your damage on your psn nova and psn explosion?

[`Insolence`]

Eh, you better get block (dex) if you want to be really good :(

[Vollstrecker]

what is your damage on your psn nova and psn explosion?

Poison Nova: 6.6k
Poison Exlposion: 58.3k


Eh, you better get block (dex) if you want to be really good :(

Yeah, a little dex is good. I've got a decent amount of Block% from my gear. When you get 70+, a few points into dex would be worthwhile, since you'll likely be ~1000 hp.

[Vollstrecker]

its a good build and you can use it for pvp,teleport to the enemy , get his life on 1 with posion-nova and kill him with fireball(skill from trang-ouls)
its nice because trang-ouls gloves gives you 25%more posion dmg
:tup:

Actually, once they're at 1 hp, you should be able to kill with another Poison Nova. I read that somewhere. I'll try to test that in a minute.

Edit: Yes, another Poison Nova at 1 hp WILL kill another player.

[kockblocker1]

I have a newb question.
So you tele around the pit and do posion novas? Do you use any of the other skills? You must have an insane mana pool because teleing around and spamming nova costs alot. I also noticed you aren't wearing frosties so I figure you have alot of mana charms in addition to your 2x sojs.

[Vollstrecker]

Nope. The mana regen granted by Trang's Partial set helps out a bit, plus my Pickit keeps me stocked with rejuvs.

I use some other skills occasionally, like when I hit a large group of the skeletons. I'll usually amp and Corpse Explode a bit to speed things up, or if I hit a Mana-Burn group, I'll keep them off me with a Bone Wall or two.

Edit: Damage update. I now have 2x Poison Facet (both are +5% dmg) and my Poison Nova now does 7.4k, and my Poison Explosion is over 63k.

[kockblocker1]

Shit.. now I wanna build one. Thanks for the guide dude.

[Vollstrecker]

~Update~

I just got Lower Resist for my necro. You really only need 1 point in it. That drops the completion level a bit.

I only use it against Unique Skellies and large groups in full games.

I'll likely be increasing my Bone Armor now that I have nothing to do with a lot of skill points.

[D3V]

Thanks for the GREAT build dude, Talk to ya on the realms.

[Vollstrecker]

Doesn't seem to work very well for PvP however, I just spent 1/2 hour getting nk'd.

I didn't manage to nail anyone either, but then, a lot of them ran back to town. I might just be a little out of practice for a Public Duel.

[BlackKnight]

my old necro were build so had 8k posion-nova dmg and i killed good with him in publik games

[Vollstrecker]

I'm just likely rusty as far as PvP goes.

My necro is only running 4 PnB Charms. :(

I need more, then my damage would be much better. :D

[slaynish]

its a good build and you can use it for pvp,teleport to the enemy , get his life on 1 with posion-nova and kill him with fireball(skill from trang-ouls)
its nice because trang-ouls gloves gives you 25%more posion dmg
:tup:


Thats the EXACT thing i do in dueling with my skelemancer, when vollstrecker lets me use his enigma anways :) Except, one thing, i dont use fireball, i "amp damage(lvl 15)" "psn nova 5 times w/ blackboag (it gives the + FCR)" "Switch weps to my king leoric" " Tele over" "skeles kill " "dead" "gold take" " Laugh" "say wtf mate a few times, and press zero (HELP ME)" "leave game"

[`Insolence`]

Amp Damage does not work with poison.. you mean lower res?

Slaynish, please don't bm duel :D

[BlackKnight]

Amp Damage does not work with poison.. you mean lower res?

Slaynish, please don't bm duel :D

he use amp for his skeletons...;)

[Maleficus]

what merc if any?

[HandOfHeaven]

I'd use a holy freeze...

[Vollstrecker]

what merc if any?

I don't use a merc. If I did, I'd go with either Holy Freeze or Defiance for Pallys, or a Barb merc to tank.

[Maleficus]

bumping this, and reporting

made this...lvl 81 currently
useast sc ladder
gear:
um shako
trang shield p diamond
trang belt
trang glove
marrowwalk
2 soj
28 maras
+1 43% death web
5/5 cta with sig shield offhand
enigma archon
20/19 anni
1 pb charm

currently do
5859-6074 damage with nova
44-48k damage with explosion
1 pt in lower resist, will be getting 1 more for -61% (sorta cap)

doesnt really seem like much damage at first, but with all the gear mentioned i have decent resists in hell (lightning is low but positive) and i kill everything that isnt champion/unique in the pit in 1 nova

i was using hoto before, but death web, even +1 40% will kill everything 1 hit so i feel it is a must, whereas hoto wont let you kill skellies 1 shot using the rest of the stuff mentioned. for champion and uniques just cast nova twice or lower resist once then nova once (lower resist hits a bigger radius than the screen in the higher resolution)

cta helps but isnt necessary, enigma is a must though, because you can (if using pickit with custom ini to get good drops) keep holding down right click and use left hand to alternate between nova and teleport so you never have to stop

i have maxed bone wall and using marrow bug and i turn on bone armor at start of run, but i really dont feel it is necessary for the build,you can place those points you put into bone wall in revive if you so desire for extra defense

a MAJOR flaw i have discovered is that you cannot kill some enemies, one in particular being the venom lords of baal's minions, which sucks bad, and also the annoying ass maggots. this is because they have over 160 poison resist so lower resist doesnt affect them with poison

all in all the best pit runner iv used, though i wish it could baal run, and rushing is easy, except for the maggots which suck.

i recommend it to everyone who wants to do pit

[Vollstrecker]

a MAJOR flaw i have discovered is that you cannot kill some enemies, one in particular being the venom lords of baal's minions, which sucks bad, and also the annoying ass maggots. this is because they have over 160 poison resist so lower resist doesnt affect them with poison


Well, obviously. You can't kill Poison Immunes. This character was designed ENTIRELY and SOLELY for running The Pit. :)

I have not tried it on Ladder, but on NL I can kill anything BUT a unique Skeleton in 1 hit. My Poison Nova, is at 7.7k however. If you plan on running in large (5+ people) games, you might want to waste the extra second to cast Lower Resist.

Beyond that, I personally have to say the Poisonmancer makes an excellent Pit runner.

[BlackKnight]

he isn´t only good for pit runs

[HandOfHeaven]

What else then?

[Vollstrecker]

No, but that's his primary purpose. He can PvP and quest a bit too, just Poison Immunes will own him if you don't drop Bone Walls to keep them off your nuts.

[badboy]

Would a bone spear necro not be good for pit runs ?

[HandOfHeaven]

That could work out great, as it is magic damage. But it is not that widely ranged as poison nova. Test it and see...

[Vollstrecker]

It's more mana-intensive, and does not attack multiple monsters as well as Poison Nova.

Teeth would be the spell for clearing Fallen, but 1 Nova almost clears the entire screen on 800x600 in 1-2 seconds tops.

You can try it, and post your Pit Run times vs. the ones I can post. My fastest run has been 1:37. Average is around 3:00...(Time is time IN GAME, not in Pit.)

If it works well, feel free to post a guide here.

[kockblocker1]

I made your build on USWest Ladder. Right now I am lvl80 with a lvl79 Holy Freeze Merc. I don’t have any P&B charms but with this gear I do almost 7k per nova:

Helm: Shako, I have a +2 Necro skill 20% faster cast Circlet but I still don’t hit the next FCR break point so I went back to the shako.

Weapon: 2/2/40 Death’s Web

Armor: Enigma

Amulet: Rare +2 P&B 10% FCR and some Light and Cold resists

Rings: 2x SoJ

Gloves: Trangs

Belt: Trangs

Shield: Trangs

Boots: Marrowwalk

Charms: Gheeds, Anni, and a bunch of 17-20 life and mana small charms

One thing is this build is VERY item dependent. More so than any other build I have tried. The most important parts are probably Death’s Web, Trangs partial set, and Enigma. Without those things you won’t be able to kill crap in hell, or maybe even NM. It is a very decent pit runner build. I usually only run in a 1 person game. I have tried with more people but when I get in a game with 5-8 people it takes way too long to kill those pit monsters. You were right about the mana consumption. I get a lot of mana back when I kill monsters, that helps out a lot. I may consume 1 mana pot per run max. Great job on the build. It’s a nice break from running with my Multishot Zon. Right now the Poison build is more fun but my Zon runs the pit a little faster. I’ll stick with the Poison necro pit runs for now. Thanks Volls

[Vollstrecker]

This build was designed Non-Ladder, so it didn't take into account the more resilient nature of Ladder monsters.

Yes, it IS very item dependant, but if you can pull it off, it does great!