AcidRane’s PVP/PvM Poisonmancer Guide
---Why a Poisonmancer?—-
Because they rock, that’s why. Actually, while dueling, very few people are prepared to deal with a poison character. Poison-Length-Reduction isn’t something people often seek out in their builds (if they have it, it’s usually just a coincidence), and poison resistance is often the last one to be maxed out. Last, everyone knows about the 4-Ort shields, etc., but no one ever makes a 4-Tal to stack poison resistance. Of course, this isn’t just to exploit peoples’ expectations, because even PvM, this build is a lot of fun. I added some PvM notes at the bottom, in case you wanted to try this out, but don’t dig on dueling.
This build might be the most expensive one I’ve built, but that’s still not saying much. Everything but Death’s Web is fairly cheap, or can be gamble with some patience. I rely on a lot of rares, but uniques can be almost as good in most spots. Just make sure your gear complements itself well. There aren’t many options listed because PvP doesn’t leave a lot of room for error. You’re going up against Ebayers, hackers, dupe-users, and all sorts of lowlife scum :)
---Notes about Poison Nova and leveling---
-Level the character as if it’s a melee build, keeping your AR up etc. You will need the dex later on for your blocking, anyway.
- When you start out, play as a Daggermancer. Your poison damage will be enough to take down most monsters. Keep it as your main attack, even after you get to Poison Nova, until you switch to a wand as your main weapon.
- Poison Nova is very powerful, and the radius is HUGE, but don’t forget about your Poison Explosion, either. Maxed and fully-synergized, it’s one of the highest-damage skills in the game. Blasting one of these off and luring the monsters through it will kill anything.
- Max Poison Dagger last. While using it as your main attack, maxing its synergies will give it more damage over less time. Every point in Dagger increases the damage AND the duration. Each point in a synergy only increases its damage.
---Stats---
Str.: Enough for gear.
Dex: Enough for blocking, if you want to block at all. You’ll need a lot, and you don’t have to shoot for 75%, but try to get at least 65%.
Vit: Everything else
Ener: I used none, but you should spend no more than 50 here.
---Skills---
Max Poison Dagger
Max Poison Explosion
Max Poison Nova
~7 Lower Resist (You’re going for radius, here, due to a severe diminishing return on the effect. Your +skills will cover the rest)
~5 Fire Golem
1 Golem Mastery
1 Summon Resist
1 Bone Spirit
Rest in Bone Prison/BP synergies (work these out last)
---Equipment---
--Belt, Gloves, Shield:
-Trang-Oul’s Gloves, Belt, and Shield (socketed with a Pdiamond/Um) – The gloves give you +25% poison damage, FCR, +2 curses, and some cold resist. The belt is CBF, some life, and mana. The shield has good resists, strength, dex, good blocking, and +2 poison PnB. With all 3, you’ll get a partial set bonus of: -25% to enemy poison resistance, more cold resist, huge mana regeneration, and +13 Fireball, +18 Firewall. There is no reason NOT to have these 3 items, and they’re easy to get.
--Armor:
-Optimally, you’d have a Bramble or Enigma, but those are suspect, and I wouldn’t use them.
-Next best option is Skin of the Vipermagi. FCR and good resists.
-Trang’s Armor – Good for the set bonuses, and provides some more resists, plus some crazy FRW. Not as useful, however, since it gives bonuses to summoning, which you don’t really need.
-Arkaine’s Valor, Vipermagi, or even Gladiator’s Bane could all work.
--Boots
-Sandstorm Treks – Lots of life, FRW, str., FHR. You know why.
-Waterwalks or Silkweaves can work, but they’re no Treks.
-You can use Marrows, but you’ll be cheapened. You won’t need the bug anyway, if you play right.
--Helmet
-Rare +2 necro or +2 PnB with resist all and hopefully FRW or FCR, socketed with a poison facet. What more could you ask for?
-A Harlequin Crest Shako will work almost as well, when socketed with a resist jewel or Um. The +mana and 2 skills will help tremendously.
-Peasant Crown, maybe.
--Weapon
-Start out with Blackbog’s Sharp, socketed with a Poison Facet. +to all your relevant skills, and GREAT for stabbity death with Poison Dagger. But this is only temporary.
-Eventually, shoot for a Death’s Web, socketed with a poison facet. When I got mine, duels got 10,000 times easier. The -40% to -50% to enemy poison resistance makes a HUGE difference, plus some +skills.
-If you can’t get a DW, stick with ol’ Blackbog, or maybe go for a wand with +necro, +Poison Nova, with some FCR.
-Wizardspike or Suicide Branch, if all else fails (faceted, of course).
--Rings
-2 Rare FCR/Resist rings – This build doesn’t need resists badly, but this one place where you can’t fall short. You don’t need resist-all, but it’s nice to have 2 that complement each other nicely. Look for +mana, dex, and life, too.
-SoJ if you can FIND one of your own, or a BK if you feel like trading that much for one.
-Almost any other unique ring can help you by adding resists, a lot of mana, or life. Just find one that suits your needs the best.
--Ammy:
-Mara’s (if you feel the need to show off how rich you are), or a +1 or +2 necro with resists and other decent mods will do just fine. I use a +3 PnB, and it works beautifully.
-Any crafted/rare ammy with teleport charges will help you a LOT in caster duels, but it’s very expensive to repair. If you lose a few in a row, this one’s not the best choice.
-Any unique ammy that has a +1 or +2 skills can work, or even a Metalgrid. There are just a lot of wasted mods in there.
--Inventory:
-PnB GCs (if you have Death’s Web, the need for these is reduced dramatically).
-FRW Charms. Lots. If you want to beat a hard-hitting melee’er, you’ve gotta be able to out-run them.
-Life/Mana charms, for obvious reasons.
-FHR charms, while not AS important, never hurt.
-Fill out your resists with charms, too. I only needed a 30% Lightning resist GC to have 75% res all in hell, as this build is generous with resists.
-Annihilus, if you’ve got one. You don’t NEED it, but yet again, it doesn’t hurt. It will be even less important with Death’s Web or more +PnB.
---Summary of Skills/Equipment---
-You will need more +PnB without Death’s Web. It’s not vital to have a DW, but it got a LOT easier for me when I had it.
-Make sure at least one facet is a Die Facet. A fully synergized, lvl 50 Poison Nova will make ANYONE cry. I’ve considered adding a Cold Die Facet to attempt to take my killer with me when I go :)
-FCR isn’t as important, since your Nova will only be effective every 2 seconds. But more FCR will help you when trying to finish someone off.
---Finishers: What are they?---
-Poison Nova will kill monsters, but can only drop PCs to 1 hp, unless they are AT 1 hp already, in which case it will kill them. This is why you need a backup spell to FINISH them off. This build has many options for this. They are: Bone Spirit, Bone Spear, Teeth, Fireball, Firewall, Fire Golem. This is where FCR will help you most.
-So, you spam your Novas a few times, the guy’s hurtin’, now which one do you use?
-Bone Spirit is my favorite one. The damage doesn’t have to be high, but they’re homing. Send a “snake” of these out, run away, and you’ll get your win.
-Bone Spear is faster-moving than Spirit, but it won’t chase. It works pretty well on people trying to rush in and tank you, though.
-Teeth are quick and hard to dodge. They can cover the screen at high levels, but you’ll need to invest a lot of points to make it work. They can be harder to aim if you can’t just spam the screen full of them. If you want a higher-damage Spirit, I’d put points in Teeth.
-Fireball is comparable to Spear
-Firewall can be good if someone runs away after realizing they were dropped to near death, but it takes a lot of practice to aim. The 3 fire spells will surprise the hell out of anyone.
-Fire Golem is best when you’re chasing someone who’s good at dodging your Spirits. The Holy Fire aura is weak, but you only need to do 1 point of damage to kill, so as long as they’re in the radius…
---Dueling Strategy---
Cast Lower Resist, cast Poison Nova, cast your finisher. (You can sometimes get away with casting Nova first, then LR, but you have to be quick to pull that off).
-Melee characters: Stay away from trouble. Nova has a huge range, so someone barely on your screen will still get hit. Cast Lower Resist right out of the gate. One or two Novas will be enough to drop just about anyone to 1 hp, unless they have ridiculously high life, or have stacked their gear against poison. This is where FRW comes into play. You can fight them from across the screen and drop them before they get to you. If they teleport, see the next paragraph.
- Teleporters like Wind Druids or Bone Necros: These guys are harder to deal with, but if your resists are high, you can do this. Cast Lower Resist at the edge of the screen where they’re going to be coming from. Just predict when they’re coming and try to tag them with a Nova as they hit the last point they land before they land on you (this will be at the edge of your screen unless they’re using auto-aim). Often times, they’ll land in it themselves, saving you some trouble. By the time they land on you, they’ll be at 1 hp and you can tag them with a Spear/Spirit.
-Sorcs: Maybe the trickiest duel. They’ll try to teleport and dance around, but if you spam Nova, they’ll land in one. Your Lower Resist radius will be big enough to tag them pretty easily. If you throw a few Spirits first, they’ll get hit by the Nova right as a Spirit hits them. Often, Sorcs kill themselves by landing in front of an attack.
-Ranged attackers: Spam Spirits to get them running. Lower Resist will often freak people out and they’ll panic and run. You can run faster. You only have to get close enough for one Nova, since most Zons have low life and poor resists. As soon as they turn green, throw your Fire Golem next to them and start spamming Spirits. Hope your Bone Armor/blocking can take a hit, because you will get hit at least once before you make the kill.
-Other Poison Necros: Hope you do more damage. The “expensive” Poisoner won’t have as much –resist as you (they often use Boneflame), so you can probably drop them to 1 faster. Distract them with a flood of Spirits or some Firewalls. Whoever gets hit with the first Nova will lose, most-likely. But, you don’t have to worry too much, since you will rarely come across these, oh most noble of contenders :)
-Teleport charges can let you play the jump game, but instead of namelock-teleporting, try to land half a screen out, toss a nova, jump away, and spam your finisher. This strategy will work against almost anyone. Just don’t fall prey to the Sorc mistake and land in a Blizzard or a WW.
---PvM Notes---
This character can work VERY well PvM, but late Hell Mode can get hairy without Death’s Web. Poison Immunes are a big problem, but Lower Resist can break a lot of them. Once that’s taken care of, all of your –resist gear will come into play and make it much, much easier. But, of course, some monsters are just impossible to break of their immunity. A good merc helps in these situations. I’d suggest a Holy Freeze merc. Slowed and poisoned monsters don’t make for good attackers. Corpse Explosion is your buddy PvM, as well. It’s about the best PvM skill in the game, so don’t be afraid to use it. Don’t underestimate the use of LR+Fireball or Firewall against poison immunes. Every bit helps.
---My basic stats---
Poison Nova Damage: 5108-5339, with -78% to enemy poison resist, before LR.
Total LR: -55% enemy resists, bringing the total to -133% to enemy poison resist.
Bone Spirit Damage: 308-340
Life: 1121
Blocking: 73%
All resists maxed at 75%
FRW: 83%
FCR: hits the 48% breakpoint
FHR: hits the 86% breakpoint
Thanks for reading, and comments/questions are welcome.