I’m a level 85 Necro. I haven’t had too many problems until I entered Travincal in Hell. The problem is those baddies that constantly feed life to their minions. Being at the entrance right at the get go doesn’t leave me any chance to kill those feeders of life. I guess they are Cantors or something akin.
I have 10 Skeletons and 9 Mage Skeletons. Also I have a choice of the Clay Golem, Iron Golem and Fire Golem. My Merc has of Meditation of Aura (or so it says). As a Necro I need my posse, I can’t possibly do killing on my own. I have Bone armor and Bone wall. Also Corpse explosion which is hard to accomplish when no baddies die. Most of my items and my Mercs are Unique with an all spells increase of +3. My stats seem to have served me well until Travincal.
So how do I kill those givers of life which I am guessing need to be taken out first.? There must be a strategy. I am pretty safe but my Posse are the ones that take all the kills.
Dim vision…it stops them from moving so you can get in close.
Secondary decrep them so your boys can catch them
I’ll expand on it later
I’ll have to wait until my next level up to get dim vision. Am I correct that they are being fed life on a continuous basis? If so how can I kill them unless I kill the Cantors or whatever they are called? The Cantors are off screen at this point.
It sounds more like a tactics issue to me, I’m running +5 to skellys and I was able to get through them with a little pulling. I didn’t expect them to take the hydra’s so I pulled everyone out.
If the Cantors are healing, you should probably clear the area of them first. Get rid of the ones on the outside before you engage the council. The heal they have is a spell, not a continuous heal so shutting them down with something like Dim works to stop the healing. You can also cast your golem right on top of them to distract them. If they are dealing with your golem, they aren’t healing others.
For the council as +3 is on low side, in fact +3 is the absolute minimum gear which should be spirit + lore. This means you don’t have an amy or shrunken head adding anything in to help. The fight will just take some tactics. Run up to the council zone and cast your golem in to agro them. Pull back and see who runs out to fight you. This way you will be able to fight one or two at a time instead of tanking all their hydras all at once. You don’t have the + to skills to expect your boys and your merc to live through that yet.
You may need to telly back to pull your boys and merc out of the fight if they are facing too much. Make sure you have a telly staff on switch.
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Also, ignore the polearm Zealots (the guys receiving the heals) as soon as they turn and run off. They’re trying to draw you off, so just let them go. Chasing them will land you halfway across the map, surrounded by a fresh mob.
My problem is that when I enter Travincal on the causeway there is an archway that gets loaded with bad guys. Trying to kill them is basically useless and my Bros eventually will get killed and there are no corpses to resurrect. Even though I have corpse explode I can’t even get one to die so I can use it in a chain reaction.
I have the Terror spell. Will that work to get them to back off? Even if it is I have no idea what to expect when I break through. I can’t do much when my Bros are getting killed left and right.
I am guessing this means you don’t have the WP yet? Your just trying to get past the causeway? Definitely haven’t gotten hydra’s in the face yet…I’m assuming you get stuck in the fight and your boys get meteored or blizzarded down before you get through the fight.
One option: Telly staff, jump past everything.
Just keep the telly staff close by when you see the big spell coming, telly back to get your boiz out of the fight.
Your merc needs to be in optimal shape for this. If you can get the skellys out of the way and get him into the fight, you will do fine. Your not at the council yet so getting him making the kills is what matters. The best killer you have is the merc not your skellys. So is he your level, how is the gear, which merc you useing?
If you can find the Heirophant, cast either your clay golem or your fire golem on top of him. This occupies him so he stops casting nasty spells and healing things.
It may pay to gamble a + to skills amy to get the army stronger. You should also look to upgrade the shield. I am still using a +1 Skelly +1 Mastery shrunken head I made into a rhyme back in nightmare.
Yes try Terror to get them moving away so you can get to the good targets. Terror the non-spell casters, then move in on the casters.
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I took screenshots of my Necro, Merc, and skills. I can’t include a link in a post so how can I get it to you guys? They are in a PDF file about 18MB.
Yes, they cast healing spells. As Rondel said Dim works but downside is low duration.
If you get a teleport staff / item you can easily destroy them if you teleport with full revives right into them, kill one then CE.
It sounds crazy but it’s better to rush them or they summon dozen of hydras.
You say that Mercs are my best weapon. Mine seems to die very often. He appears to have good stats. I hired him in Act II. Would that make him a Paladin? Besides equipping my Merc with great gear is there anything I can equip my self with that also strenthens him and for that matter my Skelleys and Golom? I still can’t get pass the arch to Travincal.
I also read that starting an online game with only 1 player makes it easier. Is this true? I swear that at times there are less enemies or less effective ones at the same place when playing a new game. As it stands right now I am not going site seeing in Travincal. I also bought the Teleport staff which says I can teleport as long as it’s in my line of site. Is this the teleport staff you guys are taking about?
To add to my problems my hand coordination in pressing my various key bindings is not possible in most cases without looking at my KB to make the switch. This is why my typing skills on my phone are abysmal. Basically one finger typing and have to look at the on screen KB.
Your merc is Act 2, from what difficulty? You want a might merc (offensive) from Act 2 Nightmare. If you don’t have a might merc you are missing out on almost tripling your skelly’s damage. You then need to give him the best gear you can. He needs Life leech to help stay alive, some crushing blow would be good and a high damage weapon. He should also be your level.
The telly staff is for weapon switch, if your coordination isn’t up to a quick weapon switch, telly, then switch back, don’t rely on it much.
As for your gear, you need as much + to skills as you can get, that’s what summoners need. For a ‘cheap gearing’ you want spirit weapon, lore hat, if you have any + to skills armor or shield, use it. The more + to skills the better.
Honestly I am not really sure what is going wrong for you. Do you use Amp Damage?
With might merc and Amp damage your skelies+merc shouldn’t really have problem to take first one down and let you ce everything else.
Insight is quite okay-ish merc weapon, however if you made it in normal class weapon you may try better base for it, or get better weapon altogether, as at this lvl mana shouldn’t really be much of issue, unless you revive every single mob.
You didn’t mention skele mastery I am going to assume you have 20 - if not then that needs fixing.
Tele charges - summoner is the build which benefits from teleport the most, to the point that it is actually ridiculous that it doesn’t have it, get anything with tele charges and use it - you will quickly notice that 10 skelies with teleport is better than 20 without.
Dim Vision is great skill - get it and drop points into it - it will make WSK a joke with bad monster spawn (with good monster spawn Amp makes it a joke anyway)
Again use Amp - beside Act bosses (decrepify) few special monsters (Dim Vision) Amp should be on pretty much every monster you see.
A lot to digest here. Thanks for all your input guys. I will do as you all suggested.
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Keep in mind Trav is possibly the most brutal spot for a merc. There are a lot of budget options, I use some myself. Suggestions:
An insight polearm for merc if you have one laying around, higher dmg the better (any etheral works great, merc don’t lose durability). Very cheap runes if you can’t do obedience and great damage.
Duriel shell for chest armor (can cube it to it’s hell version for more armor)
Tal Rasha Helmet for lifesteal.
All 3 items being very very cheapo to make
Gl!
OK. I finally hacked my way to the end of Act III. Is there any way to kill the hydras? One thing I hate is that my Merc goes at them at the get go and ultimately gets killed. I know that’s his job but we should have control over him to some extent.
I now have 20 Skelley’s and my Merc and I are level 86. I have many skills with the minimum at an 8. Some are in the mid 20’s. So I think I am good as far as skills go but I have to admit my tactics suck as I think I mentioned. I just don’t have the coordination to keep changing my skills as the need arises. You can say I am finger challenged 
No Hydra’s are non-targetable and only good for spitting fireballs in your mercs face while he says “thanks”.
Your crew is strong enough, pull them out till your more confident. Run up, cast a golem in their agro zone and run back. One or two will come out to meet you. Kill, rinse, repeat till they are dead. If you can use the telly staff decently you can use it to pull your merc back.
The next challenge will be getting through to Meph without getting killed by a Doll.
I made it to Act IV. Did a lot of teleporting back to home base, got more Skellies and if my Merc died I had to buy him back. Wash, rinse and repeat. Good thing I farmed a lot of Gold.
So what should I expect from Act IV?
Act IV is easy compared to the Durast/Trav. The only thing to worry about is Gloams, make sure you have good Lit resists because this is where you start seeing Lit flying at you. If your resists are low you can get fried real easy.
Just found that out. So much going on up on the hill that I forgot to keep an eye on myself and died.
To quote myself 
.
On a serious note: with good level of Dim Vision gloams are a joke - just spam it on the edge of screen and all you have to worry about are boss packs