what character/build to start fresh with?

[:1]Hi, I'm starting brand new on USwest non-ladder.

I have no items whatsoever, I was thinking a necro summoner might be able to hold its own naked. Anyone recommend a PvM build I should start off that can hold its own.



p.s., anyone want to level up, nonladder west *DimSumMule|||A necro summoner can absolutely finish the game naked. A Lightning Fury n/ Plague Javalin is my other favorite starting character. I had a blast levelling her with Plague Jav - running forward to attract some monsters, rossing a single PJ, and running away cackling. Then creeping forward to see the ground littered with dead bodies. Good times! A very safe character with Decoy, Valkyrie, and Slow Missles. Only dual lightning and poison immunes I recall are Burning Souls in the World Stone Keep, and the merc, valk, and a point on Jab take them out without problems. Good luck!|||thanks for the help.|||The summoning necro is a good startup character. Personally I always start out with a blizzard sorc so I can do meph runs (and decent gear) as soon as possible. It isn't going to be able to kill everything in hell, but it is effective at mfing which given enough time/luck should allow you to gear any other characters up that you want.|||a skelemancer won't be the fastest, but it will be the safest and the most versatile. There's nothing it can't kill. Can even kill physical+fire immunes, but that takes a while.

Wish I'd spotted this thread a few hours ago, I just vendored a wormskull and an ume's lament on west.|||Hi

When I am starting out completely from scratch on a new ladder I tend to go in stages.

First char a holy freeze zealot. I like them cuz even if you have absolute ZERO luck on drops they can still get by with things like steel, strength, and even black weapons--which dont require luck just patience in shopping for the socketable weopons and then hitting tessy for the runes.

A zealot using a black flaila nd whatever junk he picks up can by on his cold damage all thru normal and wont really hit a wall until mid nm. Which is ok cuz by then 4 socket swords and polearms will be dropping and soon as that happens...

I make a sorcy. With a spirit sword and insight merc once she past lvl 27 she can breeze thru normal and spamming maxed frozen orb in NM is just demon abuse. Then she can start farming NM baal and even with just ptopazes stuck in helmet and armor eventually enough nice stuff will drop that I can start working on making zealot and sorcy more hell viable. At least viable enuff that zealot can start farming hell tessy for better runes and sorcy can start farming maus and pit in hell.

Kaytie|||I just started again and I went with a meteorb sorc. I got rushed to hell and did chaos runs and got to lvl 65. In ladder people sometimes have drop games. I scored a tals helm belt and crystal orb. With full tals a meteorb sorc can magicfind about anything.

I'd deff recommend it!|||I had great success starting off with an amplify damage/skeleton/corpse explosion necromancer. Corpse explosion is very nice as a main form of attack because it starts out at its maximum damage. The radius starts off small but quickly reaches a point where it becomes very deadly, up to (with +skills) killing everything on screen and beyond.



The best parts about it? You basically, if played carefully, need none to very minimal gear to be effective. Another big plus is the damage done is based on the target corpse's life, so your damage scales accordingly with the monsters in the area. You cast amplify damage on a group of monsters and then corpse explode for increased damage.



The cons: You have to be able to kill at least one monster without using corpse explosion, as it requires the use of a corpse. This is where the skeletons and the Act 2 NM merc with might aura comes in. Corpse explosion also uses a ton of mana, even at the early levels of the skill. This means you will be chugging mana potions all the time at first. If playing solo, another problem is act bosses, because there generally aren't many corpses around to damage them with. An exception can be Andariel, but it seems like these corpses tend to disappear over time. A good thing I've found is to put items with crushing blow on your merc. This does damage based on percentages of the target's life, so it can be extremely damaging to act bosses or other high hp targets.



Basically, your skeletons will just be there as a distraction for your mercenary to make the first kill, which you will then corpse explode the body, which will hopefully create more bodies and so on. Even at full raise skeleton level and full mastery (you should max both), they will be little more than an annoyance to most enemies in hell. The only immunities you have to worry about are fire and physical, and really only when both are on the same monster. This is because corpse explosion does 50% of its damage as fire and the other half as physical. Luckily Amplify Damage is the only skill in the game to remove physical immunities. The monsters will still be phys resistant somewhat but at least you will be able to kill them.

Kind of a long post but maybe it will help someone, haha.|||thanks for the input from everyone.

I still have 40+ skills saved, I maxed Skeleton Mastery and Raise Skeleton. I have no idea what the rest to use.

My setup is a MF summoner wearing Beast and my merc has infinity because I dont have pride yet. What skills should I put the rest in?|||Quote:








thanks for the input from everyone.

I still have 40+ skills saved, I maxed Skeleton Mastery and Raise Skeleton. I have no idea what the rest to use.

My setup is a MF summoner wearing Beast and my merc has infinity because I dont have pride yet. What skills should I put the rest in?




Didn't take you long to go from "starting fresh" to uber gear...

Anyway, don't get pride, infinity is better - It will boost your corpse explosion damage (CE is half fire, half physical), and your merc will do a lot more damage with it than he will with pride, getting those first corpses down sooner. (Assuming we're talking PvE here)

After maxing RS and SM the next thing to max is corpse explosion. Then whatever you want after that really. I do amp and golem mastery. Amp because I'm lazy and like to only have to cast it once, and golem mastery obviously so my insight iron golem doesn't die.