------------------------------- Fighter Necro FAQ by neoginetic ------------------------------- version 1.00 neoginetic@hotmail.com -------- Contents -------- 1.Intro 2.The Skills 1.Curses 2.Poison+Bone 3.Summoning 3.Stats 4.Tips 5.Imbuing ------- 1.Intro ------- As soon as I got to grips with the necromancer, I decided to do a fighter necro. And I did. I know, necro's aren't meant for fighting. But I've never lost, ever to any character. I rarely die in the single player game, so he can't die too easily. Anyway, this FAQ will get you to grips with this style of necro. Remember, for a fighter necro skills have VERY different values. ------------ 2.The Skills ------------ Skills have very different values. I don't mean values like damage, durations etc. I mean values to you as the player. You'll see what I mean soon. I have NOT put in the values for the moves. Go to http://www.battle.net for that. I will say roughly how many points to invest into it and whether it is good/bad. ---------- 2.1.Curses ---------- Curses are almighty. They are always underestimated to a great extent, and for a fighter necro they are the most important tree. This might also be important to the normal necromancer. I have heard normal necros fighting curse-specialized characters. The curses are so powerful that the tactic works. For the fighter necro this tree is the most important. -------------- Amplify Damage -------------- It reduces the 'Resist Physical' attribute of the enemy. It does NOT increase your damage. Instead it increases the enemy's vulnerability to your attack. Not as useful as it sounds (although insects that 11x the damage :) Put 1 point in. This will serve you well early on, but later you'll want to use other curses instead. ---------- Dim Vision ---------- Reduces vision of enemies. Just the point here. I never used this. It can be good though, cos it makes ranged attackers useless. But I never had much of a problem with ranged attackers. If you want to put a few in here, go ahead. It'll help you against those Abyss and Oblivion (oh yes, it works against those) Knights. Like I said, I had Bone Spear quite high by then, but you could try if you want. ------ Weaken ------ Enemies do MUCH less damage to you. I put a point into this, because I used other curses. But this one is VERY powerful. Cast it on a unique, and watch him 'try' to kill you. You'll laugh. I used Decreptify, but if you don't want to wait that long, use this. ----------- Iron Maiden ----------- Attacker takes damage if he hits you. All necros love this. Although it isn't as useful as it sounds for a fighter necro, cos you won't have all those minions to take damage for you. One point is sufficient, even if you plan to go with this all the way. One point gives double damage back, which is nice :) ------ Terror ------ Enemies flee in terror. One point here, but assign it, ie F1 or F2 etc. This is the move to use if you are surrounded, or losing a fight. It ends the fight INSTANTLY. Enemies will jsut run away, and stop you getting killed. ------- Confuse ------- Enemies attack each other. When I say each other, I mean 'non-confused' characters. Again, not as good as it may sound. Put a point here, but only because attract is available that way, which is much better as a skill. One thing to say about this though, uniques, champions etc. can't get confused. Confused enemies attack non-confused monsters ... -------- Life Tap -------- You add 50% damage inflicted onto your health. VITAL MOVE. This one should have 2-3 points to pump up the radius. A fighter necro will be doing loads of damage with his weapon, and every time you hit it'll look like you drank a potion of rejuvination :) ------- Attract ------- Enemies focus attack on selected target. Does not affect super uniques or bosses. I think this affects champions and normal uniques though. I use this one A LOT. Saves me the trouble of killing my enemies. One point is enough to last the game. ---------- Decreptify ---------- Enemies slowed down GREATLY. I maxed this out cos it went with my tactic. Better than weaken because it makes the enemy easy for you to hit as well as making the enemy do less damage (or less hits if you prefer). You either max it or leave it, because otherwise the duration is too small. This works wonderfully if you cast a bone spirit/spear after it. Watch the target try to run away and laugh. Hehe. ------------ Lower Resist ------------ Lowers enemy resistance to magic. Useful in multiplayer. Otherwise, no points. If you like multiplayer, stick a point into it and play with a sorceress :) --------------- 2.2.Poison+Bone --------------- Somewhat useful for a fighter necro. But you must have Bone Spear/Spirit. Maybe Bone Prison, but that's not essential. ----- Teeth ----- Summons some teeth. A point to get to better moves. Put in the point, and forget about the move. ----------- Bone Armour ----------- Summons armour of bone to fly around you and take MELEE (not magical) damage. Put a point here if you plan to use bone prison. You might want to max this out though seeing as a fighter necro is always meleeing. If you do, and if you have terror, you'll find yourself rarely dying. ***-READ THIS-*** All Bone Armour spells (Armour, Wall, Prison) are in scale with the difficulty of the game. So slvl20 bone prison has upto 400hp in nitemare. Don't be afraid to invest in these because of the low hp. It DOES increase in nitemare and hell. ***-END NOTE-*** ------------- Poison Dagger ------------- Your dagger does poison damage. When the hell are you gonna use a dagger?? ---------------- Corpse Explosion ---------------- Makes the target corpse explode, doing 60-100% of enemies max life. Max it, or just put a point into it. This can be so useful, but then again, you might have better moves to put points into. --------- Bone Wall --------- Summons a bone wall to stop your attackers reaching you. This is OK, but Bone Armour and Bone Prison are better. This move is hard to aim, and can be a bit of a pain. Put in a point if you want Bone Prison. Some like this because it ends fights, but that's what terror is for. ---------------- Poison Explosion ---------------- Explodes a corpse into a poisonous gas. Good if you like poison, but you'd be better off putting points into something else. You'd kill the enemies faster than waiting for then to choke on your poison. ---------- Bone Spear ---------- Summons a deadly spear that FLIES THROUGH attackers (hits multiple enemies, like Amazon's Pierce move). I prefer this to Spirit. It is cheap mana-wise, and does enough damage. And hits multiple enemies. I like this, but don't bother with it if you'd rather use Spirit. ----------- Bone Prison ----------- Creates a prison of bone around your enemies. Works brilliantly against ranged attackers (Abyss Knights), bosses (Diablo!) and in PvP. I maxed this out, but if you don't like the sound of this don't bother. ----------- Poison Nova ----------- Creates a VERY cool-looking ring of poison. Again, I don't like poison moves, but this can be quite useful. The only half-decent poison spell. But as a fighter necro you'll no doubt have better skills to put points into. ----------- Bone Spirit ----------- Summons a bone spirit to chase an enemy around. Cool, cool move. Use it with decreptify to devastating affect. Or, lock someone in a bone prison and use this. A very cool move. I prefer Spear for my own reasons, but this is easier to use. You must max it if you chose this over spear. ------------- 2.3.Summoning ------------- For a fighter necro, this is A LOT less useful than the other two trees. Some of the summonables are good, but then again, not really very many of them. I didn't use golems, just a few mages. Laugh, go on. Laugh your head off. But I had a lot of success with my necro. -------------- Raise Skeleton -------------- Raise a skeleton. Haha. Raise a skeleton!! Wow. They look scary, but a fetish will get it down with a kick to the kneecap :) They're far too weak and useless for a fighter necro. Just a point if you want to get revives/mages. ---------------- Skeleton Mastery ---------------- Pump up life of skeletons and revives. The kick to the kneecap is now a kick to the groin. Don't bother. Revives are stong enough anyway, and skeletons are useless. ---------- Clay Golem ---------- Raises a golem of clay. If you decide to use golems, only put a point into each one. But if you don't want a golem running around with you, then don't bother. I didn't use them. You'll probably be killing enemies with Bone Spears and Curses and weapons that your golem wouldn't get much to fight anyway. ------------- Golem Mastery ------------- Pumps up life and speed of golems. A few points if you use golems. Otherwise, no (obviously). ---------- Raise Mage ---------- Raises an elemental undead mage. I use three. I still do, from act I normal to act I hell. They are ranged attackers, and so they don't die too fast. Also, I 'think' that the damage of the missile is in scale with the enemy hp. Not confirmed though. Seems to work. ----------- Blood Golem ----------- Raises a golem that shared life. Again, a point if you use golems. They work VERY well with Iron Maiden though. ------------- Summon Resist ------------- Makes your golems resistant to magic. A point if you use golems. Nothing else much to say about this skill. ---------- Iron Golem ---------- Summons a golem from a metallic object. Yes, the golem does take the property of the object. Cool, but you'd probably want all the decent items you find for yourself. Has thorns, which is nice. ---------- Fire Golem ---------- Summons a golem of fire. Cool. This guy absorbs and does fire damage. Don't listen to any rumours about a fire golem 'soloing' diablo in hell. He can't even solo him on normal (with lvl20 mastery and the golem himself on lvl20). ------ Revive ------ Revived a killed monster for 3 minutes. I use this a little. It's nice to have a few vampire lords running around with you :) It'll help you, so may as well throw in a point or two. ------- 3.Stats ------- Strength is most important for a fighter necro, as is dexterity and vitality (like a barbarian). Try to avoid putting points into Energy, although you might have to if you use Bone Spirit. USE MANA STEALING OBJECTS. They'll sort you out in no time. I reccomend 3-Strength, 1-Dexterity, 1-Vitality. Sometimes use 2-Strength, 2/3-Dexterity, 1/0-Vitality if you are short on Dexterity. ------ 4.Tips ------ Some tips for the fighter necro. * Use Life Tap as your main curse. This gives you TONS of life back. 50% of a weapon doing 40 damage (average in normal) gives you 20 life PER HIT. That's alot of life. In a few hits you'll regain all of your life. * Save imbues! This is covered in a later section * Don't overestimate yourself. Run away and use a potion if you need to. This is important in nitemare/hell where you lose exp. when you die. * Make sure you have good resistance to magic. This'll be important in later difficulties where you get -20 and -50 to your magic resistance. Lightning and Fire are the most annoying. * Have one mana steal item, and maybe one that adds to mana. This'll stop you running out. * Specialize in either Bone Spear or Bone Spirit. They both have advantages and disadvantages covered earlier in the FAQ. --------- 5.Imbuing --------- I recommend you imbue at lvl45-50, cos that way you get the best stuff. Remember the higher level you are, the better imbue you get. Save and try again until you get what you need. Also save all three imbues (from all difficulty levels). I would recommend : 1 imbue for a weapon (sword, axe etc) 1 imbue for armour 1 imbue for helm (a good helm is HARD to find) ------- 6.Other ------- This FAQ is always under construction. I've tried to make it brief to stop you spending endless hours reading it. EMAIL ME! Tell me what you think. Email me at neoginetic@hotmail.com. I'll always reply. Also email me if you want to duel me :) Thanks for reading this. I hope it helps. Find the latest version of this FAQ at http://www.gamefaqs.com This FAQ is copyright neoginetic 2000