Help with defeating Mephisto

[Guest]

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So I am in SC normal, and have run into Mephisto with my L26 Skellimancer
and, for the life of me, I can't beat him. After far too many defeats and
party wipes, I need help.

I have one of the Iron Fist mercenaries (cold). I think that is a mistake
and that I should be taking fire or lightning. What can I give him by way
of weapons to improve him??

My skills are currently L10 Skeleton, L6 Skeleton Mage plus a couple of
levels in Skeleton Mastery. Is he hopeless?? Are my skill points mis-
appropriated and should I recruit some help??

--
Marcel and Moogli

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.games.diablo (More info?)

Marcel Beaudoin wrote:
> So I am in SC normal, and have run into Mephisto with my L26
Skellimancer
> and, for the life of me, I can't beat him. After far too many defeats
and
> party wipes, I need help.
>
> I have one of the Iron Fist mercenaries (cold). I think that is a
mistake
> and that I should be taking fire or lightning. What can I give him by
way
> of weapons to improve him??
>
Hi

yeah cold merc prolly not best choise for necro. Not just for bosses
but cuz that means more monsters shatter and not many corpses when u
need them. I don know if u sp or batle.net or or untwinked or what so I
will guess untwinked. I would get a act 2 spear merc offensive and give
him the best spears and hat and armor u find buy or gamble if u need
to. Then when u get into NM act 2 trade him in for a nm offensive merc
they are the best mercs for skellie necros I think. Dont 4get to take
out mercs gear b4 u buy new merc so u can give it to new 1.


> My skills are currently L10 Skeleton, L6 Skeleton Mage plus a couple
of
> levels in Skeleton Mastery. Is he hopeless?? Are my skill points mis-
> appropriated and should I recruit some help??
>
> --
> Marcel and Moogli

if 6 points in mages real point then yeah that kinda waste of 5 points
cuz even maxed skellies don help that much and if u use them at all it
better to put 1 and then just get more from plus skills. but 5 points
isnt TOTAL mistakes lots of ppl have matriarchs and patriarchs with
that many points in wrong place if u change now ur necro wont be a
strong as he would have been but he can still finish all 3 parts I
think.

right now 2 things u need most u havent said nething bout is decripfy
and clay golem using both make killing bosses REAL easy. If u dont have
ne points in them get them as u level up and shop for necro wands with
pluses to them then for meph use clay golem and cast decripify and ur
merc and skellies can kill him. All ur skellies might die but just keep
giving ur merc purples and recast ur golem and decripfy when u need to.
And if merc dies make town portal go back and buy him out of heaven
then while u in town take a wp to act1 coldplain kill some stuff and
get more skellies then take wp back to act 2 and go back through town
portal and finish meph. He might get a little bit of life back but he
shouldnt get all of it back so it wont be like u have to start
completely over and if u keep doing that meph will die.

Kaytie

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.games.diablo (More info?)

On 18 May 2005 01:28:57 GMT, Marcel Beaudoin
<mbeauINVALID@Sympatico.INVALID.ca> wrote:

>So I am in SC normal, and have run into Mephisto with my L26 Skellimancer
>and, for the life of me, I can't beat him. After far too many defeats and
>party wipes, I need help.
>
>I have one of the Iron Fist mercenaries (cold). I think that is a mistake
>and that I should be taking fire or lightning. What can I give him by way
>of weapons to improve him??

Not much. The best thing is just to have the highest level merc you
can buy, though I would say lightning might work better.

>My skills are currently L10 Skeleton, L6 Skeleton Mage plus a couple of
>levels in Skeleton Mastery. Is he hopeless?? Are my skill points mis-
>appropriated and should I recruit some help??

Gear? Other skills like Summon Resist? Curses? Golem?

One problem I see is that you are using both skels and mages, which
means you probably haven't got a really suitable curse, maybe just
Decrep. That said, I don't see any reason why you shouldn't be able
to down him through sheer dogged persistence. An untwinked
skellimancer should be able to solo everything up to Diablo at 23.
Use the A1 wps to gather new armies whenever you need them.

-- Roy L

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.games.diablo (More info?)

OK, so before work this morning, I grabbed his stats:
L26
Str - 78
Dex - 37
Vit - 74
Ene - 41 (incl +24 in bonus)

Fire resist - 24
Lightning Resist - 33

Skills
Raise Skeleton - 10
Skeleton Mage - 7 (+1)
Skeleton Mastery - 7 (+1)
Clay Golem - 1
Blood Golem - 1
Amplify - 5 (+2)
Teeth - 2 (+2)

His weapon is a bonewand, and his shield is one of those head in a bottle
things.

I am not so attached to him that I wouldn't be willing to start all over
again.

--
Marcel
http://mudbunny.blogspot.com/

 

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Archived from groups: alt.games.diablo (More info?)

"Marcel Beaudoin" <mbeaudoin@scintrextrace.com> wrote in message
news:Xns965A5317A9334mbeausympaticoca@130.133.1.4...
> OK, so before work this morning, I grabbed his stats:
> L26
> Str - 78
> Dex - 37
> Vit - 74
> Ene - 41 (incl +24 in bonus)
>
> Fire resist - 24
> Lightning Resist - 33
>
> Skills
> Raise Skeleton - 10
> Skeleton Mage - 7 (+1)
> Skeleton Mastery - 7 (+1)
> Clay Golem - 1
> Blood Golem - 1
> Amplify - 5 (+2)
> Teeth - 2 (+2)
>
> His weapon is a bonewand, and his shield is one of those head in a bottle
> things.
>
> I am not so attached to him that I wouldn't be willing to start all over
> again.

He'll be fine. He still has plenty of potential to be a summoner/meat
grinder necro.
I just started ladder a month ago, my first character is a necro and he's
killing with the best of them, well his minions are...His only weakness is
very low resists, which means gloams etc.. can drop him easily and from off
screen.

The end of my build was (all hard points)
Raise Skeleton - 20
Skeleton Mage - 20
Skeleton Mastery - 20
All Golems - 1
Summon Resist - 1
All Curses (except confuse/attract) - 1
Corpse Explosion - 20

Any extras I have I'll be putting into Dim Vision

Meph can be a pain in normal. Get an Act II merc with the best gear you
can buy/find (some life leach a plus). Although to be honest he'll probably
die. The long slow route is to get a wand with Iron Maiden and cast that,
then clay golems over and over and over and....... :-/

Rod

 

[Watchman]

Archived from groups: alt.games.diablo (More info?)

Marcel Beaudoin wrote:
>
> So I am in SC normal, and have run into Mephisto with my L26 Skellimancer
> and, for the life of me, I can't beat him. After far too many defeats and
> party wipes, I need help.
>
> I have one of the Iron Fist mercenaries (cold). I think that is a mistake
> and that I should be taking fire or lightning. What can I give him by way
> of weapons to improve him??
>
> My skills are currently L10 Skeleton, L6 Skeleton Mage plus a couple of
> levels in Skeleton Mastery. Is he hopeless?? Are my skill points mis-
> appropriated and should I recruit some help??
>
> --
> Marcel and Moogli

Against bosses the Clay Golem and Decrepify are a good combo.

If you're running the LOD expansion then you'd be better off with an act
II merc, I like the combat merc with his Prayer aura. If not, then the
lightning or fire merc would be better than your cold merc, both damage
and corpse-creation-wise. There's not much use in giving him a good
damage sword as he'd hardly ever use it anyway.

Watchman
--
'Anyone who isn't confused doesn't really know what's going on'

 

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"~misfit~" <misfit61nz@hooya.co.nz> wrote in
news:d6gti7.294.1@fairground.synaptic.net.nz:

> Marcel Beaudoin wrote:
>> OK, so before work this morning, I grabbed his stats:
>> L26
>> Str - 78
>> Dex - 37
>> Vit - 74
>> Ene - 41 (incl +24 in bonus)
>>
>> Fire resist - 24
>> Lightning Resist - 33
>>
>> Skills
>> Raise Skeleton - 10
>> Skeleton Mage - 7 (+1)
>> Skeleton Mastery - 7 (+1)
>> Clay Golem - 1
>> Blood Golem - 1
>> Amplify - 5 (+2)
>> Teeth - 2 (+2)
>>
>> His weapon is a bonewand, and his shield is one of those head in a
>> bottle things.
>>
>> I am not so attached to him that I wouldn't be willing to start all
>> over again.
>
> The other respondants gave you some good advice. Normal difficulty is
> hardest for a skellimancer IMO (Unless it's hardcore). He often
> doesn't have the skills he needs to get the bosses sorted.
>
> You need decrep, soon if not now. Unfortunately that means three
> levels as there are two prerequisites right?

Not sure, but the only curse I have is Amp. Checking at
(http://diabloii.calcon.net/necrocurses.shtml), I would need to get
Weaken and Terror before decrepify. SO yeah, 3 more levels.

> I have built about a million skellimancers and, IMO, you have wasted
> exactly seven points so far (which isn't enough to make him useless,
> it just means he's gonna have to be a bit older to get the job done,
> like being held back a class). The points that are wasted are all but
> one in mages and the second one in teeth.

Live and learn I guess. I actually have no points in teeth, the skill
comes entirely from a staff he has in the other weapon slot.

> In your situation I would have only one or two in amp yet, only a
> couple in SM and more in RS. Only one in blood golem ever IMO, I never
> use it, only as a prerequisite for revive later in the game.
>
> Your wand and handbag could be better. +1 each to mages and mastery
> and +2 to amp and teeth isn't that great. You can normally find some
> better ones or buy them. The +1 to mastery is Ok, as is the +2 to amp.
> Mages and teeth? Nah! It doesn't hurt to go back to act 1 and see what
> Akara has for sale in the way of wands. I've bought some really useful
> ones from her like +3 RS, +2 SN +1 bone armour all on one wand.

Hmm. Good idea.

<snip stuff>

I am snipping not because it isn't useful to me, but I just don't have
the experience to understand or make use of it yet. I see the words on
the screen, and they make sense and I understand them, but all together
it is like the teachers in Peanuts. Maybe in a couple of more levels it
will be clear.

> Your character isn't screwed. I made bigger mistakes with my first few
> and still got them through to their Patriarch status. In fact I have a
> level 80-ish magic find patriarch skellimancer with 13 unused skill
> points who is formidable. He can take out Baals minions in hell before
> breakfast. However, it's up to you if you want to start again. Bear in
> mind, normal difficulty is by far the toughest for a skellimancer and
> Diablo is going to be three times as hard as Meph is so you'll need to
> be prepared. You can do that by re-doing areas, getting a few levels
> on him and maybe finding some (lightning and fire) resist gear for
> your merc before Diablo and trying for a point in summon resist or
> those skellys go down like a......... thing that goes down really
> fast.

Allrighty then. The overall consensus is that he isn't screwed, just
needs some more fine-tuning. I guess that means I will make some more
runs through various levels and get a couple more levels, runes and
assorted equipment.

> Are you playing single-player or multi? On-line or not. If so what
> server? What patch? 1.10? If not most of what I've just said was a
> waste of time.

US East ladder, patched to 1.10.

Thanks!!
--
Marcel
http://mudbunny.blogspot.com/

 

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Archived from groups: alt.games.diablo (More info?)

royls@telus.net wrote in news:428aaba0.15286768@news.telus.net:

> On 18 May 2005 01:28:57 GMT, Marcel Beaudoin
> <mbeauINVALID@Sympatico.INVALID.ca> wrote:
>
>>So I am in SC normal, and have run into Mephisto with my L26
>>Skellimancer and, for the life of me, I can't beat him. After far too
>>many defeats and party wipes, I need help.
>>
>>I have one of the Iron Fist mercenaries (cold). I think that is a
>>mistake and that I should be taking fire or lightning. What can I give
>>him by way of weapons to improve him??
>
> Not much. The best thing is just to have the highest level merc you
> can buy, though I would say lightning might work better.

Is there any place that I could go to raise the level of my merc?? Is it
just a matter of bringing him somewhere and letting him kill stuff? What is
the best area for that to be done. If I have my skeletons out, does he
still get XP or is it only on things that he kills??

>>My skills are currently L10 Skeleton, L6 Skeleton Mage plus a couple
>>of levels in Skeleton Mastery. Is he hopeless?? Are my skill points
>>mis- appropriated and should I recruit some help??
>
> Gear? Other skills like Summon Resist? Curses? Golem?

See my other post.

> One problem I see is that you are using both skels and mages, which
> means you probably haven't got a really suitable curse, maybe just
> Decrep. That said, I don't see any reason why you shouldn't be able
> to down him through sheer dogged persistence. An untwinked
> skellimancer should be able to solo everything up to Diablo at 23.
> Use the A1 wps to gather new armies whenever you need them.

Only curse I have is Amp.

--
Marcel
http://mudbunny.blogspot.com/

 

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Archived from groups: alt.games.diablo (More info?)

"Kaytie" <kaytiekat@aol.com> wrote in
news:1116386823.401298.111090@g14g2000cwa.googlegroups.com:

>
> Marcel Beaudoin wrote:
>> So I am in SC normal, and have run into Mephisto with my L26
> Skellimancer
>> and, for the life of me, I can't beat him. After far too many defeats
> and
>> party wipes, I need help.
>>
>> I have one of the Iron Fist mercenaries (cold). I think that is a
> mistake
>> and that I should be taking fire or lightning. What can I give him by
> way
>> of weapons to improve him??
>>
> Hi
>
> yeah cold merc prolly not best choise for necro. Not just for bosses
> but cuz that means more monsters shatter and not many corpses when u
> need them. I don know if u sp or batle.net or or untwinked or what so
> I will guess untwinked. I would get a act 2 spear merc offensive and
> give him the best spears and hat and armor u find buy or gamble if u
> need to. Then when u get into NM act 2 trade him in for a nm offensive
> merc they are the best mercs for skellie necros I think. Dont 4get to
> take out mercs gear b4 u buy new merc so u can give it to new 1.

Untwinked bnet. US East ladder.

>
>
>> My skills are currently L10 Skeleton, L6 Skeleton Mage plus a couple
> of
>> levels in Skeleton Mastery. Is he hopeless?? Are my skill points mis-
>> appropriated and should I recruit some help??

> if 6 points in mages real point then yeah that kinda waste of 5 points
> cuz even maxed skellies don help that much and if u use them at all it
> better to put 1 and then just get more from plus skills. but 5 points
> isnt TOTAL mistakes lots of ppl have matriarchs and patriarchs with
> that many points in wrong place if u change now ur necro wont be a
> strong as he would have been but he can still finish all 3 parts I
> think.

OK

> right now 2 things u need most u havent said nething bout is decripfy
> and clay golem using both make killing bosses REAL easy. If u dont
> have ne points in them get them as u level up and shop for necro wands
> with pluses to them then for meph use clay golem and cast decripify
> and ur merc and skellies can kill him. All ur skellies might die but
> just keep giving ur merc purples and recast ur golem and decripfy when
> u need to. And if merc dies make town portal go back and buy him out
> of heaven then while u in town take a wp to act1 coldplain kill some
> stuff and get more skellies then take wp back to act 2 and go back
> through town portal and finish meph. He might get a little bit of life
> back but he shouldnt get all of it back so it wont be like u have to
> start completely over and if u keep doing that meph will die.

OK. So it sounds like all I need is a couple more levels to get Decrep
and to level up my merc and I should be good to go. How difficult would
it be to level up an Act II merc up to a level where he can do good
enough in Act III??

--
Marcel
http://mudbunny.blogspot.com/

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.games.diablo (More info?)

out mercs gear b4 u buy new merc so u can give it to new 1.
>
> Untwinked bnet. US East ladder.

In that case, make "Edge". The thorns + amp damage is killer.

Rod

 

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Watchman <stryder@SPAMPHOBICwhyalla.net.au> wrote in news:428AC066.C9E89972
@SPAMPHOBICwhyalla.net.au:

> Against bosses the Clay Golem and Decrepify are a good combo.
>
> If you're running the LOD expansion then you'd be better off with an act
> II merc, I like the combat merc with his Prayer aura. If not, then the
> lightning or fire merc would be better than your cold merc, both damage
> and corpse-creation-wise. There's not much use in giving him a good
> damage sword as he'd hardly ever use it anyway.
>

Thanks!!

--
Marcel
http://mudbunny.blogspot.com/

 

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Archived from groups: alt.games.diablo (More info?)

"Rod Runnheim" <rodr@lmcg.wisc.edu> wrote in news:d6fm7v$5b0$1
@news.doit.wisc.edu:

> out mercs gear b4 u buy new merc so u can give it to new 1.
>>
>> Untwinked bnet. US East ladder.
>
> In that case, make "Edge". The thorns + amp damage is killer.


Edge??



--
Marcel
http://mudbunny.blogspot.com/

 

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Marcel Beaudoin <mbeaudoin@scintrextrace.com> wrote in
news:Xns965A77F7885Bmbeausympaticoca@130.133.1.4:

> "Rod Runnheim" <rodr@lmcg.wisc.edu> wrote in news:d6fm7v$5b0$1
> @news.doit.wisc.edu:
>
>> out mercs gear b4 u buy new merc so u can give it to new 1.
>>>
>>> Untwinked bnet. US East ladder.
>>
>> In that case, make "Edge". The thorns + amp damage is killer.
>
>
> Edge??

Never mind. Just looked it up, and it seems to be a bit high in the rune
requirements for a L26 Necr.


--
Marcel
http://mudbunny.blogspot.com/

 

[mark]

Archived from groups: alt.games.diablo (More info?)

"Marcel Beaudoin" <mbeaudoin@scintrextrace.com> wrote in message
news:Xns965A5317A9334mbeausympaticoca@130.133.1.4...
> OK, so before work this morning, I grabbed his stats:
> L26
> Str - 78
> Dex - 37
> Vit - 74
> Ene - 41 (incl +24 in bonus)

Your strength should allow you to wear almost anything you should need at
this point. Dexterity is only beneficial if you want high blocking, and
that's only really viable for a Necro if you have a Homonculous, unique
Necro Head. So no more points there. And for a Summoner, you generally only
need mana for casting your minions, not in combat situations. So for now, no
more points in Energy either. So that only leaves Vitality, put all your
points there to build up a big life ball, it will help you survive.

> Fire resist - 24
> Lightning Resist - 33

Early on these are not very important, but by the time you reach Diablo
you'll want these two maxed (75%) or close to it. For Mephisto it might be
good to get your Cold resistance up.

> Skills
> Raise Skeleton - 10
> Skeleton Mage - 7 (+1)
> Skeleton Mastery - 7 (+1)
> Clay Golem - 1
> Blood Golem - 1
> Amplify - 5 (+2)
> Teeth - 2 (+2)

Others have suggested getting Decrepify, that's pretty good, but not
manditory. If you shop you might be able to get it on a wand. You should put
a point in Golem Mastery and Summon Resist. You'll also want to have the
curse Iron Maiden for the fight with Diablo. Put a point into it or get a
wand with it.

Otherwise, the strength of a Skellimancer is his Skeletons. I usually put
enough points into Skeleton Mastery until the skeletons have a sword. Then
put your points into Raise Skeleton until it is maxed. Next, max Skeleton
Mastery. That will give you the basic Skellimancer build and will give you
an effective character. From there you have many options. You can put one
point in all the curses so that you can use them as the situation dictates.
This will be good to test out and learn what all the curses do. You can also
put a point in the other Golems, and a point in Revives. A very popular
option for NM difficulty, and to speed up your killing of large groups is to
put points into Corpse Explosion. Get it to the 15-25 (with item adders)
point area and it will clear whole rooms of monsters. CE will require more
mana, so if you cannot get extra mana from items you will then need some
additional points in Energy.

> His weapon is a bonewand, and his shield is one of those head in a bottle
> things.

Good, this is the combination that you will want to use with your
Skellimancer. Look for ones that give you the best Skill adders and other
useful modifiers.

> I am not so attached to him that I wouldn't be willing to start all over
> again.

He is absolutely playable throughout the game. No need to rebuild him,
unless you want to. And if you do decide to go with a rebuild, consider
changing to the US West Realm. Either SC or HC, most people on this
newsgroup play there and would welcome you joining in their game.

Regards-
Mark

Bongo-Fury

 

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On 18 May 2005 14:54:26 GMT, Marcel Beaudoin
<mbeaudoin@scintrextrace.com> wrote:

>royls@telus.net wrote in news:428aaba0.15286768@news.telus.net:
>
>> On 18 May 2005 01:28:57 GMT, Marcel Beaudoin
>> <mbeauINVALID@Sympatico.INVALID.ca> wrote:
>>
>>>So I am in SC normal, and have run into Mephisto with my L26
>>>Skellimancer and, for the life of me, I can't beat him. After far too
>>>many defeats and party wipes, I need help.
>>>
>>>I have one of the Iron Fist mercenaries (cold). I think that is a
>>>mistake and that I should be taking fire or lightning. What can I give
>>>him by way of weapons to improve him??
>>
>> Not much. The best thing is just to have the highest level merc you
>> can buy, though I would say lightning might work better.
>
>Is there any place that I could go to raise the level of my merc??

Yes, but the best place depends on his level. The Jungles are usually
considered reasonably good. Just make sure your merc does some
killing, not just your minions.

>Is it
>just a matter of bringing him somewhere and letting him kill stuff?

Yes, but it's way faster if the stuff is near his level.

>What is
>the best area for that to be done. If I have my skeletons out, does he
>still get XP or is it only on things that he kills??

He will do better if he is doing the killing, but you don't want to
totally bog down. I'm not sure what the highest level mage merc you
can buy in Normal is.

>> One problem I see is that you are using both skels and mages, which
>> means you probably haven't got a really suitable curse, maybe just
>> Decrep. That said, I don't see any reason why you shouldn't be able
>> to down him through sheer dogged persistence. An untwinked
>> skellimancer should be able to solo everything up to Diablo at 23.
>> Use the A1 wps to gather new armies whenever you need them.
>
>Only curse I have is Amp.

You need Decrep. Unfortunately, it has pre-requisites, and you are at
the point where you will find it very slow to level in A3. Maybe you
should just shop for Decrep (and some other good skills) on a wand,
for now. Your current wand sux.

-- Roy L

 

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Archived from groups: alt.games.diablo (More info?)

On 18 May 2005 12:10:43 GMT, Marcel Beaudoin
<mbeaudoin@scintrextrace.com> wrote:

>OK, so before work this morning, I grabbed his stats:
>L26
>Str - 78
>Dex - 37
>Vit - 74
>Ene - 41 (incl +24 in bonus)

?? Not possible. Necro's starting nrg is 25.

More vit, no more dex or nrg, no more str until you need it for a
particularly useful item.

>Fire resist - 24
>Lightning Resist - 33

CR would help a lot against Meph.

>Skills
>Raise Skeleton - 10
>Skeleton Mage - 7 (+1)

6 pretty much wasted points.

>Skeleton Mastery - 7 (+1)
>Clay Golem - 1
>Blood Golem - 1
>Amplify - 5 (+2)

Should be only 1 hard point in Amp.

>Teeth - 2 (+2)

Only take 1 hard point, as pre-req to CE.

>His weapon is a bonewand, and his shield is one of those head in a bottle
>things.

Shop for a better wand, one with Decrep on it until you can get a hard
point in it. Just shop all three wand vendors (Ormus, Drognan and
Akara) whenever you go to town for pots, to sell items, res your merc,
etc. It shouldn't take long to find a good wand, assuming you have
some gold saved up.

>I am not so attached to him that I wouldn't be willing to start all over
>again.

I see 8 wasted skill points, a dozen wasted stat points (in dex).
He's not a total loss, but if you are serious about playing him all
the way through, you should restart him, especially if you are playing
him untwinked (getting no items from other players or chars). It will
be faster in the long run, and more fun.

-- Roy L

 

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"Marcel Beaudoin" <mbeaudoin@scintrextrace.com> wrote in message
news:Xns965A6FD252984mbeausympaticoca@130.133.1.4...
[Snip]
> OK. So it sounds like all I need is a couple more levels to get Decrep
> and to level up my merc and I should be good to go. How difficult would
> it be to level up an Act II merc up to a level where he can do good
> enough in Act III??

You're going to want dim vision too. It works great on shutting down ranged
attackers. They just stand around looking stupid with a light bulb over
their head.

If you go back to hire an act two merc, I think the best you'll be able to
get is level 13. Once you hire and equip him, the best way to level him is
to NOT raise any skeletons. I'd use the clay golum, to slow things down,
and amp damage everything, and then just stand around while your merc kills.
If you raise the skeletons, they'll do most of the killing, as they get
raised at your character level. Your merc would get some experience from
their kills, but gets much more from his own. I'd start by cleaning out the
area under the act two town, through the trap door right beside the guy that
you hire the merc from. Your merc should get a level or two from that, then
proceed through the other areas, skipping tough areas like the maggot lair
and such. If your merc's level slows down, skip ahead to the next area.
I'd skip most of the arcane sanctuary, merc's don't do well there. You
should be able to easily level him to level 20 or so in act two, then move
to act three. The early areas of act three are often pretty good for
leveling mercs, as there are a LOT of targets. Dim vision is really useful
here, as it will put most of the monsters out of action until your merc gets
around to dealing with them.

The process is painfully slow, but shouldn't take more than a couple of
hours or so. Once the merc finally reaches level 25, he levels well, almost
faster than you do. Try to find some fire resist gear for the merc as soon
as possible, as much of act three is tough on merc's due to the fire.
Meph's chamber in particular is often a hotbed of firewalls, meteors, and
fireballs, at least in normal. If you get lucky and find a useable spear or
polearm with even a single point of cold damage on it, that really helps
your merc. If nothing else, maybe you can find one with a socket in it and
pop a blue gem in it.

Good luck.

Ruben

 

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On 18 May 2005 14:52:09 GMT, Marcel Beaudoin
<mbeaudoin@scintrextrace.com> wrote:

>US East ladder, patched to 1.10.

Well, you could always just haunt frees games until you have the best
gear you can use.

-- Roy L

 

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royls@telus.net wrote in news:428b73be.1745829@news.telus.net:

> On 18 May 2005 14:54:26 GMT, Marcel Beaudoin
> <mbeaudoin@scintrextrace.com> wrote:
>
>>royls@telus.net wrote in news:428aaba0.15286768@news.telus.net:

>>> Not much. The best thing is just to have the highest level merc you
>>> can buy, though I would say lightning might work better.
>>
>>Is there any place that I could go to raise the level of my merc??
>
> Yes, but the best place depends on his level. The Jungles are usually
> considered reasonably good. Just make sure your merc does some
> killing, not just your minions.

Yeah, I was pretty sure it was that way, but now I know. The message from
mark confirms that...

>>Is it
>>just a matter of bringing him somewhere and letting him kill stuff?
>
> Yes, but it's way faster if the stuff is near his level.

So hang out in Act II if I grab an Act II merc, and Act II if I take an
Act III merc.

>>What is
>>the best area for that to be done. If I have my skeletons out, does he
>>still get XP or is it only on things that he kills??
>
> He will do better if he is doing the killing, but you don't want to
> totally bog down. I'm not sure what the highest level mage merc you
> can buy in Normal is.

Well, in Act III Normal, I think the highest is 17 or 18.

>>> One problem I see is that you are using both skels and mages, which
>>> means you probably haven't got a really suitable curse, maybe just
>>> Decrep. That said, I don't see any reason why you shouldn't be able
>>> to down him through sheer dogged persistence. An untwinked
>>> skellimancer should be able to solo everything up to Diablo at 23.
>>> Use the A1 wps to gather new armies whenever you need them.
>>
>>Only curse I have is Amp.
>
> You need Decrep. Unfortunately, it has pre-requisites, and you are at
> the point where you will find it very slow to level in A3. Maybe you
> should just shop for Decrep (and some other good skills) on a wand,
> for now. Your current wand sux.

Hmmm, maybe I will shelve him for a while and make my way over to USW.

Decisions, decisions.

--
Marcel
http://mudbunny.blogspot.com/

 

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"Ruben-P" <ruben_ptREMOVE@hotmail.com> wrote in
news:MIKie.6770$w21.5855@newsread3.news.atl.earthlink.net:

<snip good advice>

Thanks!!

--
Marcel
http://mudbunny.blogspot.com/

 

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"Rod Runnheim" <rodr@lmcg.wisc.edu> wrote in
news:d6fk0g$43h$1@news.doit.wisc.edu:

<snip>

> Meph can be a pain in normal. Get an Act II merc with the best gear
> you
> can buy/find (some life leach a plus). Although to be honest he'll
> probably die. The long slow route is to get a wand with Iron Maiden
> and cast that, then clay golems over and over and over and....... :-/

My clay golem, when I summoned him, would immediately crumple into dust. I
mean, immediately, within 2 or 3 seconds. Is that normal??


--
Marcel
http://mudbunny.blogspot.com/

 

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"Mark" <bongofury@verizon.net> wrote in
news:J8Kie.6786$Y36.4455@trndny05:

>
> "Marcel Beaudoin" <mbeaudoin@scintrextrace.com> wrote in message
> news:Xns965A5317A9334mbeausympaticoca@130.133.1.4...
>> OK, so before work this morning, I grabbed his stats:
>> L26
>> Str - 78
>> Dex - 37
>> Vit - 74
>> Ene - 41 (incl +24 in bonus)
>
> Your strength should allow you to wear almost anything you should need
> at this point. Dexterity is only beneficial if you want high blocking,
> and that's only really viable for a Necro if you have a Homonculous,
> unique Necro Head. So no more points there. And for a Summoner, you
> generally only need mana for casting your minions, not in combat
> situations. So for now, no more points in Energy either. So that only
> leaves Vitality, put all your points there to build up a big life
> ball, it will help you survive.
>
>> Fire resist - 24
>> Lightning Resist - 33
>
> Early on these are not very important, but by the time you reach
> Diablo you'll want these two maxed (75%) or close to it. For Mephisto
> it might be good to get your Cold resistance up.

Hmmm, DII came with, for me at least, the Guide. Looking in it, it
recommended LR for Mephisto, not cold. Has he changed since the book was
printed??

>> Skills
>> Raise Skeleton - 10
>> Skeleton Mage - 7 (+1)
>> Skeleton Mastery - 7 (+1)
>> Clay Golem - 1
>> Blood Golem - 1
>> Amplify - 5 (+2)
>> Teeth - 2 (+2)
>
> Others have suggested getting Decrepify, that's pretty good, but not
> manditory. If you shop you might be able to get it on a wand. You
> should put a point in Golem Mastery and Summon Resist. You'll also
> want to have the curse Iron Maiden for the fight with Diablo. Put a
> point into it or get a wand with it.

Well, Summon resist is L24, but needs Clay golem and Golem Mastery. I
don't have GOlem Mastery yet, so that is 2 levels before I can get that.

> Otherwise, the strength of a Skellimancer is his Skeletons. I usually
> put enough points into Skeleton Mastery until the skeletons have a
> sword. Then put your points into Raise Skeleton until it is maxed.
> Next, max Skeleton Mastery. That will give you the basic Skellimancer
> build and will give you an effective character. From there you have
> many options. You can put one point in all the curses so that you can
> use them as the situation dictates. This will be good to test out and
> learn what all the curses do. You can also put a point in the other
> Golems, and a point in Revives. A very popular option for NM
> difficulty, and to speed up your killing of large groups is to put
> points into Corpse Explosion. Get it to the 15-25 (with item adders)
> point area and it will clear whole rooms of monsters. CE will require
> more mana, so if you cannot get extra mana from items you will then
> need some additional points in Energy.

So for a lowbie skellimancer (first 15 levels or so), how would this
sound for order in which to put skill points:

For the first 3 levels, get Raise Skeleton. Then, grab Skeleton Mastery.
Keep on putting points in SM (except for 1 point in Clay Golem). Once
they get swords, go back to RS. At 12, grab Golem Mastery so I can get
Summon Resist. Then, from 12 on, alternate RS and curses (amp, weaken,
terror then decrep)

> He is absolutely playable throughout the game. No need to rebuild him,
> unless you want to. And if you do decide to go with a rebuild,
> consider changing to the US West Realm. Either SC or HC, most people
> on this newsgroup play there and would welcome you joining in their
> game.

Thinking seriously of moving to USW. That would explain why all the time
when I make an AGD game, no-one joins.

--
Marcel
http://mudbunny.blogspot.com/

 

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royls@telus.net wrote in news:428b7524.2104301@news.telus.net:

> On 18 May 2005 12:10:43 GMT, Marcel Beaudoin
> <mbeaudoin@scintrextrace.com> wrote:
>
>>OK, so before work this morning, I grabbed his stats:
>>L26
>>Str - 78
>>Dex - 37
>>Vit - 74
>>Ene - 41 (incl +24 in bonus)
>
> ?? Not possible. Necro's starting nrg is 25.

Hrrmmm, may have written that down wrong.

>
> More vit, no more dex or nrg, no more str until you need it for a
> particularly useful item.
>
>>Fire resist - 24
>>Lightning Resist - 33
>
> CR would help a lot against Meph.

You are the second person to mention that. The guide book that cam efee
with DII said that Fire and Lightniong resist are the way to go when
going through the Durance of Hate.

>>Skills
>>Raise Skeleton - 10
>>Skeleton Mage - 7 (+1)
>
> 6 pretty much wasted points.

So I am reading.

>>Skeleton Mastery - 7 (+1)
>>Clay Golem - 1
>>Blood Golem - 1
>>Amplify - 5 (+2)
>
> Should be only 1 hard point in Amp.
>
>>Teeth - 2 (+2)
>
> Only take 1 hard point, as pre-req to CE.
>
>>His weapon is a bonewand, and his shield is one of those head in a
>>bottle things.
>
> Shop for a better wand, one with Decrep on it until you can get a hard
> point in it. Just shop all three wand vendors (Ormus, Drognan and
> Akara) whenever you go to town for pots, to sell items, res your merc,
> etc. It shouldn't take long to find a good wand, assuming you have
> some gold saved up.

I have a couple of hundred thousand saved up.

>>I am not so attached to him that I wouldn't be willing to start all
>>over again.
>
> I see 8 wasted skill points, a dozen wasted stat points (in dex).
> He's not a total loss, but if you are serious about playing him all
> the way through, you should restart him, especially if you are playing
> him untwinked (getting no items from other players or chars). It will
> be faster in the long run, and more fun.

USW is looking more and more like my new home.


--
Marcel
http://mudbunny.blogspot.com/

 

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Archived from groups: alt.games.diablo (More info?)

"Marcel Beaudoin" <mbeaudoin@scintrextrace.com> wrote in message
news:Xns965A8D7104493mbeausympaticoca@130.133.1.4...
>
> Hmmm, DII came with, for me at least, the Guide. Looking in it, it
> recommended LR for Mephisto, not cold. Has he changed since the book was
> printed??

IIRC, the guide book was written for version 1.00. You are playing version
1.10. There have been 10 revisions to the game since the book was written.
Throw the book away right NOW. OK, now that you're back you can ask us any
questions you have and we'll be MUCH more help than that stupid book.

>> Others have suggested getting Decrepify, that's pretty good, but not
>> manditory. If you shop you might be able to get it on a wand. You
>> should put a point in Golem Mastery and Summon Resist. You'll also
>> want to have the curse Iron Maiden for the fight with Diablo. Put a
>> point into it or get a wand with it.
>
> Well, Summon resist is L24, but needs Clay golem and Golem Mastery. I
> don't have GOlem Mastery yet, so that is 2 levels before I can get that.

Right. And I reccommended GM too so that won't be a wasted point. It will
make your golem tougher.

> So for a lowbie skellimancer (first 15 levels or so), how would this
> sound for order in which to put skill points:
>
> For the first 3 levels, get Raise Skeleton. Then, grab Skeleton Mastery.
> Keep on putting points in SM (except for 1 point in Clay Golem). Once
> they get swords, go back to RS. At 12, grab Golem Mastery so I can get
> Summon Resist. Then, from 12 on, alternate RS and curses (amp, weaken,
> terror then decrep)

OK to spell it out. First two skills go into Raise Skeleton. Then Amplify
Damage and Bone Armor (if you wish). From there, put points into Skeleton
Mastery till the skeletons you raise have a sword (I forget what level this
is). The exception is a point in Clay Golem at L6 (and Weaken if you want to
get Decrepify and you don't have it on your Wand or Head). After your
skeletons have swords, put your points into Raise Skeleton till it is maxed
(20). The exception is Golem Mastery (and Iron Maiden and Terror if you
don't have items with IM and/or Decrep, possibly one in Skeletal Mage too)
at L12, and Summon Resist (and Decrepify if not on items) at L24. After RS
is maxed, put your points into SM till it is maxed. Thereafter you have many
options, as I explained earlier. But once you reach that point we'll flood
you with advise on how to proceed.

> Thinking seriously of moving to USW. That would explain why all the time
> when I make an AGD game, no-one joins.

Not a bad idea, most of the folks here play on West. But check your ping to
the West server to make sure your connection is viable. In game type '/fps'
to see your ping.

Warning though if you move to West, the folks here are very nice and will
gladly give you piles of good gear. Resist the temptation to take too much,
as it will hinder your learning of the game. And making mistakes and
learning the ropes are half the fun of the game. There's no sin in making
mistakes. We all skinned our knees many times when we were learning.

Having fun is your primary goal. Good luck and keep us updated on your
progress. The stories and enthusiasm of the newer players are what breath
life into the newsgroup and the grizzled old veterans here.

Regards-
Mark

Bongo-Fury

 

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"Mark" <bongofury@verizon.net> wrote in
news:4XLie.7522$_f7.4098@trndny01:

>
> "Marcel Beaudoin" <mbeaudoin@scintrextrace.com> wrote in message
> news:Xns965A8D7104493mbeausympaticoca@130.133.1.4...
>>
>> Hmmm, DII came with, for me at least, the Guide. Looking in it, it
>> recommended LR for Mephisto, not cold. Has he changed since the book
>> was printed??
>
> IIRC, the guide book was written for version 1.00. You are playing
> version 1.10. There have been 10 revisions to the game since the book
> was written. Throw the book away right NOW. OK, now that you're back
> you can ask us any questions you have and we'll be MUCH more help than
> that stupid book.

Throw away a book. Wow. Don't think I can actually do that. Don't think I
actually ever have, unless it was destroyed. I will put it on the shelf
and only use it for hints n where to go, but not on anything else.

<snip rockin advice>

>> Thinking seriously of moving to USW. That would explain why all the
>> time when I make an AGD game, no-one joins.
>
> Not a bad idea, most of the folks here play on West. But check your
> ping to the West server to make sure your connection is viable. In
> game type '/fps' to see your ping.

Good point. What ping time would make USW difficult to play in?? What
ping time would make it impossible??

> Warning though if you move to West, the folks here are very nice and
> will gladly give you piles of good gear. Resist the temptation to take
> too much, as it will hinder your learning of the game. And making
> mistakes and learning the ropes are half the fun of the game. There's
> no sin in making mistakes. We all skinned our knees many times when we
> were learning.

What?? You mean you weren't all perfect when you started?? I have no
heroes left, my vision of you all has been ruined.

Sob!!

> Having fun is your primary goal. Good luck and keep us updated on your
> progress. The stories and enthusiasm of the newer players are what
> breath life into the newsgroup and the grizzled old veterans here.

OK. For everyone's info, my account name is mudbunny.

Am I allowed to use the book to find the multiplayer commands??

--
Marcel
http://mudbunny.blogspot.com/