Necromancer Hell (SSF): Stuck and looking for help

Classic General Discussion
1

Hey there D2 Classic community,

Before I jump into the details, I have one important question to ask: Is this area of the forums active enough, or should I try asking about this over at D2R (e.g. general discussion, necromancer etc.)? I actually have no idea how different this version is from Resurrected.

Alright, with that out of the way, let me provide a little background: I played a bit of SSF D2 back in the day with a Necromancer but never finished the game. Ever since then, I’ve wanted to revisit this title and clear it all the way through to the end of hell.

Fast forward to 2023, and I finally decided to scratch this one off the list. So I bought LoD and made it through normal and nightmare on SSF, clearing all the quests and unlocking all the waypoints (since these were my secondary goals), using only one respec early on. I then moved on to hell and cleared Act I. In Act II, I got all the waypoints and cleared most of the quests, but unfortunately hit a wall. Now I had hit a few walls up to this point, but the current one seems near insurmountable: the Maggot Lair.

Just like in the past, I am playing a necromancer. Before my first respec, I was messing around with skills and not really building anything in particular (thus the respec). After that, I decided to go all in on a poison necromancer and have tried to stay faithful to that. While there have been upsides, this has caused me no shortage of grief as the game ramped up in difficulty. I persevered in spite of this, making it to Act II on hell without going out of my way to grind for gear or levels (although the latter was targeted somewhat indirectly by me trying to fill out some of the maps and defeating all the enemies I encountered along the way).

But the Maggot Lair makes me feel like there may just be no way through it with how my character is currently built. I can handle the scarabs and locusts with poison, and even the sand maggot babies (lower resist + poison), but the poison immune sand maggots and rock worms are too much because they can also regenerate health. Amplify damage + corpse explosion can work with enough bodies on one of these enemies (although I often encounter multiple), but even then it’s not a simple task to kite them toward the bodies and keep them there (it’s hard to control their movement because they also have a ranged attack). What’s more, if I don’t have enough bodies to take them out, they just regenerate back to full health.

Now it’s not like I haven’t dealt with enemies that have incredible poison and health regeneration before. But the problem with this dungeon is that it’s often too narrow, making my usual avoidance strategy (distract them with my summon, run past them out of range, and then resummon my golem to deaggro) unusable. So I tried to problem solve this by picking up a staff with teleport. Unfortunately, this hasn’t proved to be the silver bullet I wanted it to be. It seems that whenever I teleport, I get sandwiched between a bunch of enemies that stun my necromancer and kill him very quickly, and with the staff on my now inaccessible corpse, I have to save and exit (thus resetting the enemies and the dungeon) to regain my equipment.

I’ve tried this dungeon numerous times, temporarily giving up on it for a while and instead clearing other content in Act II. But now there’s nothing left but to fight Duriel, which I can’t do until I enter the Maggot Lair and retrieve the Staff of Kings. Greatly exasperated and unsure about how to proceed, I decided to make a thread on this forum and take it from there. I really want to finish this game before the year ends, but the last couple of sessions have dampened my desire to play Diablo II.

Alright, so with that out of the way, I thought I’d list my character’s level, attributes, skills, equipment, and stash inventory. I have two respecs available, and if at all possible would like to avoid grinding, but I am open to suggestions if grinding ultimately proves necessary. For the sake of thoroughness, I included everything I can think of, although I doubt much of it is necessary information.

Character Info: Start

GENERAL

Class: Necromancer
Build: Poisonmancer (also Poison Nova Necromancer / Daggermancer?)
Version: Classic (w/ LoD Expansion)
Game Type: Solo Self-found

LEVEL AND ATTRIBUTES

NOTE: I’ve included any gear bonuses within the stats below

Level: 70

Strength: 76
Attack Damage: 188-192
Poison Dagger: 5602-5992
Poison Explosion: 9187-11000
Poison Nova: 2140-2343

Dexterity: 66
Attack Rating: 473
Defense: 632

Vitality: 273
Stamina: 406
Life: 833

Energy: 26
Mana: 249

Fire Resistance: 1
Cold Resistance: 19
Lightning Resistance: -3
Poison Resistance: 86

SKILLS

NOTE: My armor gives +1 to all skills, which I’ve included in the values below

Summoning Spells
Raise Skeleton: 2
Skeleton Mastery: 2
Clay Golem: 2
Golem Mastery: 2
Summon Resist: 2

Poison and Bone Spells
Teeth: 2
Corpse Explosion: 5
Poison Dagger: 21
Poison Explosion: 21
Poison Nova: 21

Curses
Amplify Damage: 2
Iron Maiden: 2
Life Tap: 2
Lower Resist: 2
Weaken: 2
Terror: 2
Decrepify: 2
Dim Vision: 2
Confuse: 2

GEAR

NOTE: I can’t include links in my post because my trust level is too low, but my weapon, headgear, armor, boots, belt and gloves can all be viewed on the diablo2 io database; however, for the convenience of anyone reading, I have included all item stats below.

Weapon: The Jade Tan Do Kris [no socketed items]
One-hand Damage = 2-11
Speed = Very Fast
109 to Attack Rating
180 Poison Damage over 4 Seconds
20% to Maximum Poison Resist
Poison Resist 95%
Cannot be Frozen

Headgear: Tal Rasha’s Horadric Crest Death Mask [no socketed items]
Defense = 119
10% Mana Stolen per Hit
10% Life Stolen per Hit
45 Defense
60 to Life
30 to Mana
All Resistances 15

Armor: Skin of the Vipermagi Serpentskin Armor [no socketed items]
Defense = 279
1 to All Skills
30% Faster Cast Rate
120% Enhanced Defense
All Resistances 20
Magic Damage Reduced by 13

Shield: Blood Mark Tower Shield [no socketed items]
Defense = 45
Chance to Block = 64%
Durability = 60
30% Faster Block Rate
20% Increased Chance of Blocking
76% Enhanced Defense
All Resistances 11
Damage Reduced by 2

Boots: Natalya’s Soul Mesh Boots [no socketed items]
Defense = 142
40% Faster Run/Walk
102 Defense
Heal Stamina Plus 17% (based on character level)
Cold Resist 25%
Lightning Resist 23%

Belt: Hsarus’ Iron Stay Belt [no socketed items]
Defense 5
20 to Life
Cold Resist 20%
Gives the Player 2 Additional Rows of Potions

Gloves: Sander’s Taboo Heavy Gloves [no socketed items]
Defense = 26
20% Increased Attack Speed
Adds 9-11 Poison Damage over 3 seconds
20 Defense
40 to Life

Amulet: Rainbow Amulet of Light [no socketed items]
16 to Attack Rating
All Resistances 8
1 to Light Radius

Ring #1: Rune Band Ring [no socketed items]
9 to Minimum Damage
34 to Attack Rating
9 to Life
Replenish Life 4
Fire Resist 21%
Poison Resist 16%

Ring #2: Bone Circle Ring [no socketed items]
1 to Maximum Damage
30 to Attack Rating
1 to Energy
Fire Resist 6%
Poison Length Reduced by 25%
10% Better Chance of Getting Magic Items

Charm: Serpent’s Grand Charm of Strength [no socketed items]
4 to Strength
54 to Mana

(I also have the Screaming Battlestaff of Teleportation; I use this solely for the teleport spell)

Stash Inventory

Gems: Flawless Amethyst (x2), Perfect Diamond (x1), Flawless Diamond (x1), Flawless Emerald (x2), Flawless Ruby (x2), Flawless Sapphire (x2), Perfect Topaz (x1), Flawless Topaz (x1), Flawless Skull (x2)

Runes: Amn (x2), Dol (x3), El (x1), Eld (x1), Eth (x1), Fal (x1), Io (x1), Ith (x2), Lem (x1), Nef (x2), Ort (x2), Ral (x2), Shael (x1), Sol (x1), Tal (x3), Thul (x2), Tir (x2)

Other: Garnet Heavy Boots of Fortune (for 22% magic find)

Character Info: End

Alright, so I realize that I haven’t asked anything besides, “I’m stuck on the Maggot Lair on Hell. Please help.” More specifically, I’d like to know:

  1. Is there something I haven’t tried/don’t know about this game that would allow me to clear this dungeon without respeccing or grinding?

  2. Based on my equipment, is there any respec I could do to get me through the Maggot Lair without fail? (FYI by without fail I do not mean without dying)

  3. If grinding is ultimately necessary, would getting a few more levels and improving my skills suffice (and if so, where should I put my points)? Could this be done without respeccing, or would it imply a respec? Could I reasonably keep the hours spent grinding experience in the single digits? What are the most time-efficient grinding spots (based on my character as is or after a respec)?

  4. If grinding experience isn’t enough, what should be my focus when grinding? Would it be farming gear for a merc (FYI I have yet to use one)? Acquiring runes, jewels, or gems and socketing them? Looking for replacement gear for my character? Also, like Question 3, could I reasonably keep the hours spent grinding for gear/items in the single digits, and what are the most time-efficient grinding spots (based on my character as is or after a respec)?

This has already grown into quite the post, so I’ll end it here. Hopefully I’ve provided enough information to give anyone willing to help a decent idea of how to guide me out of my conundrum. Thanks in advance for any advice given.

2

A brief explanation would have been enough info here.

Reskill to summon necro:
20 raise, 20 mastery, 20 spear, 20 bone wall, 1 amp, 1 decrep, 1 clay golem, 1 summon res & remaining into bone prison.

(Bone wall & bone prison synergises with not only bone spear, but bone armour for higher damage absorb).

With this setup you have projectiles that pierces, also can summon your army easier and it’s another form of damage for bosses.

Grab an obedience for merc with might aura (Crushing blow for bosses).

Can shop a 3 bone spear wand in act 2 normal at drognan and socket quest it (White runeword that gives you +8 bone spear).

Can take out anything in the game with that.

4

You should put more points into lr. Maybe switching merc to a3 cold could help. Or do it like Lawson said, fishymancer is op =] Skelets, mastery and CE maxed.

5

It looks like you are quite new to this game. It’s ok to feel frustrated in hell level as those immune monsters are designed to upset single players who usually invest heavily on a single elemental skill. But with proper gear and strategy, hell is beatable with single player. My suggestions are:

  1. It seems that you haven’t realized how useful a merc is. A merc with good gear will be your tank and killer for the poison immunes. Go to nightmare difficulty, hire an offesive Act 2 merc. He will activate might aura in battle which will benefit himself and your other minions. Give him reasonably good gear and he will be a powerful aid. Clay golem will be a supportive minion. In tough situations, keep the merc alive by casting curses on enemies such as confuse (for normal monsters) and decripify (for champion and unique monsters). You can feed him potions by pressing shift+1/2/3/4. If he dies in battle, you can resurrect him in town from mercenary agents (each town has one). Make sure to resurrect him, but not hiring a new one, because a new one would erase your old merc who carries your precious gear.

  2. Talking about gear, Bnet Ladder (or offline single player) has some cheap and powerful runewords which can help you beat hell. I see you already have a lot of runes. Now you need to find the base (non-magic) items with sockets to use runewords.

Gear for your Act 2 merc:
Weapon: “obedience” polearm class weapon. The base should be 5-socket elite polearm including thresher/cryptic axe/great poleaxe/giant thresher, although thresher is preferred for the low str/dex requirements. Find a white thresher/cryptic axe and use a socket quest on it will give it 5 sockets. Or if you are lucky, some monster may directly drop a 5-socket one. It’s even better if you can find an ethereal 5-socket thresher, because it has higher damage and the durability won’t be consumed on a merc.
“obedience” is not available for non-ladder characters on Bnet. In that case I suggest you to make “honor”. It’s far less powerful than obedience but should be a reasonable starting gear.
Edit: If you find a 4-socket thresher/cryptic axe instead of a 5-socket one, you can make an “insight” weapon. It is also a decent choice for your merc. Its meditation aura provides fast mana regeneration and so you don’t need to worry about using up mana ever.

Armor: “smoke” or “duress”. The base should be a 2-socket or 3-socket elite armor. Again, better to get an ethereal base armor with about 700 base defense. Don’t use socket quest on a white elite armor because it will give 4 sockets for sure. Then you won’t be able to use “smoke” or “duress”. For 4-socket armor a proper runeword is “stone”, but that is more expensive.

Helm: give your tal’s helm to the merc. The 10% life leech will help him survive.

Gear for yourself:
You are a spell caster. You need +skills items as many as possible.
Helm/amulet: try to gamble for circlets/amulets. If you are lucky, you can get one with +2 necro skills and some good resistances. You need to reach level 86 to gamble +2 skill ammy though.
Shield: your current shield is trash. At least get a 3-socket shield and put 3 perfect diamonds for 57 resist to all. It will significantly boost your survivability against elemental attacks. In the future, try to find a good unique shield or make a “sanctuary” shield.
Weapon: “spirit” sword. Use a 4-socket normal sword as base for the low str/dex requirements. It’s a good runeword for casters. However, it’s not available for non-ladder characters on Bnet.

Your armor is ok, although you may want to upgrade it to elite armor for better defense, when you have Lem, KO and a perfect diamond to spare.
For belt/rings/boots, generally useful mods for you are life/mana/resist/fast cast rate. Magic finding is a plus.

For stat points, give enough str/dex for gear, all the rest goes to vit. Don’t waste any point on energy. Mana is not an issue with proper gear.

Still, level 70 is a bit low for hell. I would advise you to go farm Act 1 countess for some time, both to level up and to gather runes.

In hell you will meet random unique bosses with double immunity. Luckily you are a necro with curses. If a boss is immune to both poison and physical, you can cast amplify damage or decripify which will likely remove its physical immunity and allow you merc to kill it. If not, hopefully the fire damage from “obedience” will kill it slowly, or you’ll have to use bone spear to grind it down. Or else there is no shame in running away from tough bosses in hell. Even those “godly” players have to run back to town occasionally.