Help pushing past Level 80

Necromancer
1

Hey all first time posting here sorry if in the wrong area. Running Minion Necro (Maxroll build) and cruised super easy to about 75, just hit 80 and my damage output is fine (everything melts lol) but my actual necro is starting to die pretty often and idk how to address it. When I die it’s mostly getting locked down in an NMD and my health just plummets in like 1-2 seconds (not sure if there’s a way to tell what type of element was hitting me?).

At any rate I figure it’s a resistance issue so then my question is how else do I buff resistances (get all to 70%) if equipping diamonds isn’t enough, my jewelry is decent, and I’m not allowed to temper on resistances per the build (it wants golem damage etc. instead)? Would I just be looking for new 925 gear that happens to drop with elemental resistances better than what I currently have?

I took an hour today and filtered through my gear I’d been hoarding and mass equipped and re-tempered a whole new set (higher armor) but saw my attack and resistances plummeted…with better gear? I’m confused lol ugh. I wound up re-equipping my old set and re-rolling my tempers and seems to be slightly better.

Rambling but there’s clearly some mechanic I’m not getting if anyone can shed some light. Also I’m level 81 running lvl 45 NMD’s not sure if that’s an issue?

Attack 17,077
Armor 6,545
Life 10,588

Fire res 70
Lightning res 58
Cold res 49
Poison Res 70
Shadow Res 49

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Your armor is too low, you want 9230.

Your health is too low, you want minimum 20k and thats still very low.

You need to cap your resistances either through gear, gems or paragon.

I dont think you actually have followed the guide accordingly becasuse if you did, you would have had these things in check already…

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3

When you say it’s mostly getting locked down do you mean getting CC chained? If so the golem active breaks CC via providing brief unstoppable. Hitting that button to break or preemptively block it helps on that front. Some of it just boils down to getting familiar with the various horrors of Sanctuary.

The build you cited runs Blight I believe? You could temporarily swap that for Mist until you pick up more life, resists, etc. It helps significantly for overall survivability and dealing with CC. You’ll do less damage but you can’t do damage if you’re dead. That swap will complicate skill selection and glyphs though.

For resists you shouldn’t generally need any resist rolls or tempers on Necro. That area can be solved via gems, intelligence rolls and paragon. Worst case slap on some incense.

A lot of setups in guides/planners are tooled around end-game. They usually optimize around caps and whatnot. You’ll often need to adjust a bit while leveling. Another option is to follow a leveling guide until you hit the level cap, then swap to an end-game setup. Leveling setups are more likely to account for this bit. Those Maxroll guide builds do account for this area.

Your listed values for armor/life are a bit low. That’s to be expected during leveling, to some degree. More there will help. The resist situation isn’t the best either. Some elite affixes are kind of nasty if you get caught in them or don’t react quickly to get out of the way.

That said, you should be able to handle NM 45’s in the 80’s. It does depend on your play, gear, etc. though.

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my suggestions, the below should be your goals. Some will be easier then others to achieve.

Attack 17,077 - ignore
Armor 6,545 - 9230
Life 10,588 - 40k+

  • start stacking damage reduction wherever you can find it!

Fire res 70 -70+
Lightning res 58 - 70+
Cold res 49 - 70+
Poison Res 70 - 70+
Shadow Res 49 - 70+

  • your best unique if you are mages is tyreal’s might, this will get you over 70% all res. if you are golem, ignore this and just get 70% all resists.
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Tysm, I def feel where you said the builds are more end-game focused and it’s okay to deviate a little on the way up. I have a habit to stick religiously to the build and never deviate and like right now I feel it’s sort of selling me short on armor and life it’s prioritizing other stuff so much (I think).

Besides gems what are some ways to get my armor and life up?

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The Impact % life nodes begins to add up since they stack multiplicatively. Beyond that you’re looking at more life rolls, GA life rolls, a bit from tempering depending on approach there and masterworking.

A good option for armor is to shift skill points out of some areas into 3/3 Spiked Armor. As you level, gear up more and invest further into masterworking those points can easily be trimmed. The other option is to temporarily run an armor aspect like Disobedience. I believe the build guide you cited recommends doing so while leveling.

In your case, at 6,545 armor, full Disobedience stacks gets you near the 9,230 armor cap (6,545 x 1.4 = 9,163). Looking at the Maxroll Minion build guide you’d probably drop Hulking or Meta to fit it. I’d probably drop Hulking for it because the setup you mentioned runs Ultimate CDR tempers on amulet/rings. Meta provides reliable unstoppable redundancy and you said you have no issue killing mobs.

For resists filling out un-used resist nodes on paragon by temporarily cutting points elsewhere is an option. If none are available and you’re running 3 diamonds in jewelry options become more limited. Again, more Int rolls is an option but returns aren’t always amazing. Perhaps even +% int via an amulet affix. That can give a deceptively large chunk.

The Tyrael’s suggestion by Ralph is solid advice but you may not have it while leveling. Unless it was obtained with a previous character. I don’t actually think it’s optimal for stuff like Pit pushing. It is a solid item elsewhere and in general though.

7

I just got back playing D4. It’s my 4th day (4th sitting) or 5th sitting on this season.

I am answering your post becoz I just got to level 80 last night at your level. But I just completed a NMD 77. Still progressing… I might try NMD 90+ next.

Here’s my current stats:

Attack 26k
Armor 17k - have Disobedience and it would go up to 24k when it procs
Life 14k
All resistance at 70 right now.

On Helltide, I can sit on one place and wont move and have my minions kill all the super elites that pops out.

How do you get Armor and Life?

Almost all slots have Armor and Life as common stats. And add Tempering, particularly Worldly Endurance on Defensive Tempering where it could roll any of these 3: Max Life, Total Armor or Dodge. You can never get a bad tempering rolls when aiming for Life/Armor. BTW, Armor stats on Amulet is pretty high but they are pretty rare and it’s okay to use while leveling until you get the Amulet with perfect stats.

I am not yet level 100. But that’s how I roll on my stats.

About resistances, dont ever wear a low item level jewelries. Get 925 item power jewelries if you can. At NMD 77, most of the drops were almost all item power 925s. The higher the item level or item power, the higher the resistances. I learned that from previous seasons. That’s the reason why players never wear a non-925 jewelry at level 100. I saw level 100 players dump non-925 jewelries right away without looking at its stats and that’s the reason why.

Also, some Paragon Nodes have resistances, get them. If you are super low on Resistances, use Tassets of the Dawning Sky Unique Leg armor temporarily until you fix your resistances from jewelries and Paragon Nodes.

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Your armor is way too high. 17k is almost 2X the cap of 9230.
Switch a lot of that info life and you’ll be a lot happier.

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I am leveling. I never do much Temper rolls becoz I know all my gear would be replaced. It’s either Life or Armor on one of Temper rolls and once I get any, it’s good with no more rerolls. It’s just so high right now becoz of my chosen Amulet has Armor (and perfectly rolled Armor on Chest). My leveling Ebonpiercer Unique Amulet has low item level (low resistance). Still hunting for Hellbent Commander.

I like it how it is right now. Even if the Butcher shows up with 50+ levels above me in NMD, I wont die. ROFL. I would stop using such armor only after I beat NM100 and dont die on melee at this low level. I am just level 80 btw.

I have to test the 9230 cap myself if it’s true. On Helltide with Profane Mindcage, it’s like I am still over-armored LOL. It would change at NM100 where I would be forced to switch all those Armor stats into something else. The first thing I am thinking is get rid of Disobedience. It’s just I am used to it from previous Seasons. I might get a better Necklace and Chest with less or zero Armor that would improve further my DPS. We will see.

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You don’t even need to test it. The tooltip literally says 9230 is required for 85% damage reduction against level 100 monsters. It will never go past that.

I’d still advise rolling tempers to help with dps and/or effects, because they do help speed up the leveling process.

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Leveling is already fast at 25k DPS. My highest DPS with toon at rest was Attack = 36k but I felt the attacks on me gets harder and harder when my Armor was just like 8k Armor at 9k Life when I jumped NMD from NMD20 to NM40 then to NMD 60. I felt the one shot kill… and hasnt seen the Butcher yet then. I was used to NMD 100 on previous seasons. So I abuse the current mechanics and overdo Armor and Life as much as I can do while maintaining high DPS. Never know the threshold yet as it’s just my 5th sitting. But I am happy to see my toon not dying from Butcher level 50+ above me. Maybe my one shot death was on Resistance not armor. My stats still fluctuates until I find my perfect gear.

Good to know if 9230 is the cap. But those numbers I have to try it myself becoz this game is known for too many stuffs that suppose to work but wont work like Aspect of the Damned not working with minions and I find Reapers still not producing enough Corpses like how it was before.

I am doing fine with what I am doing. Help the OP. Not me. I am not struggling at level 80. I find Summoner so OP right now. Good to be playing the flavor of the month Class/specs right now.

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yes its the cap, it says it on the tool tip, they spoke about it on their season 4 campfire chat and it was in the season 4 patch notes. It has been tested on the season 4 PTR by the community and since its gone live as the season has been out for quite a few weeks now. But if you feel you need to test this… i guess go ahead.

Always temper gear no matter how fast you will replace it, its extremely cheap on materials and costs zero gold. This system is supposed to be used as soon as you pick up a possible upgrade.
The power gain from tempering is extreme, gear is essentially going from 3 stats to 5 stats, with the 2 tempered stats being in most cases the exact stats you need.

Like I said to the OP attack power should be ignored, it has almost no impact on your actual damage, in many cases trying to build this stat can result in less actual damage.

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I am confused. I thought Minions inherit 100% of the Summoner’s stats. So if the Summoner has awesome Attack Power (thru high Intelligence and high “Damage” stats from Natural Finesse Offensive Tempering), the minions inherit 100% of it.

I just came back and started playing this Season. Pls tell me what I’ve missed.

Or you guys use Summoning Finesse Tempering improving all Minions Summoning damage, Skeletal damage or Golem damage. But your summoner would hit like a sissy.

I am planning to be a Shadow Necro with Minions inherit my shadow damage. So if there’s a wipe and my Army of Dead on cooldown, I could still kill stuffs without my minions… and they join me when my Sacrilegious ring starts to resummon them from corpses.

I am just leveling. I am not into Pit 101 yet. But I might get there. I am still on Pit 25/NMD 91 at level 85… still moving up, currently at 36k Attack Power with 12k Armor at 19K Life. I never die on Helltide with Profane MindCage as I am abusing the OP’ness of the Summoning build. It seems I havent seen my ceiling yet. I might not see the ceiling since I am still leveling and stats improvements keep on coming.

You know what I want to try to do in the near future? I want to use the Ring of Mendeln along with these overpowered Minions. Imagine overpowered minions with awesome Shadow Necro also proc’ing the Mendeln Ring in Million damages. That’s what I want to try. That’s why I never left out my Necromancer to have her hit like a sissy. She has to be Monster too not just my Minions. Let me find out what’s in there.

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Attack power just is not a good indicator of character power. A char with 26k AP like yours will not necessarily do more damage then one with 11-12k AP. So making improvements to your char to boost this stat does not mean you will necessarily get stronger. My char is by no mean’s that powerful, but my AP is about 12-13k, and I have cleared up to Pit132. I think the highest shadow mage is about 140, and they will have probably roughly the same attack power as I.
So in short, AP is just a worthless stat that really doesn’t give any useful data on the power of your char. I should add, this is specifically for necromancers, I have not played any other class.

minion’s wont die if you invest in them a little. I never lose a single minion on any content except uber lilith phase 2 and beams on tormented andarial. As long as you have lots of life, use skeletal preist and have 9230 armour and max all res, they will be extremely tanky, far tankier then you. So don’t worry about them dying.

pick a minion type you want to boost, and go all in on that one. Shadow and shadow mages makes sense for you I guess. then temper +mage damage and get the extra projectiles on weapon, this is absolutely mandatory for mages.

But I will say, golem builds are the highest pit clear this season, however if you just want to do up to pit 120 or so, mages are great. I play mages and speed farm 115 np. I have no real wish to climb the pit,

personally I would build my HP as high as possible, I play with about 51k before elixirs. I also recommend Tyreal’s Might as an armour if you go mages, if you go golem this is not possible. your armour can be dropped down to 9230.

sadly Mendeln is really bad this season, because you lose out on so many temper’s and important stats. Also mendeln is physical damage so doesn’t scale with any of your shadow damage, in addition it takes your stats not the mages/minions so it looses out on the 600%+ additive mage damage you can get on gear along with all the minion specific aspects and things like cult leader. I hope it is fixed for season 5, so many of us have reported this to the dev’s but still no change/fix.

i quipped mendeln to see what its like, sadly we are talking 1-2 million hits, which is absolutely nothing given mages can crit from 25-50million. losing a single aspect and top legendary ring stats just doesnt make the ring worth it.

anyway thats my advice, there are others who can tell you more. I have not put to much time into the season recently.

15

I added this on my above post.

It’s good to be back. Just like the old days, I am pursuing the Summoner with Ring of Mendeln. I am thinking outside of your box.

My only issue is … would I be able to get the RIng of Mendeln at this late start? For now, let the minions do their thing… but my actual Necro hits hard too. BTW, I am now at 48% Lucky Hit stats… ready for Mendeln action. ROFL.

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I’ve been working a mendeln build for a few weeks now. It can run 101-105, but it just can’t scale the damage to go any higher. The problem is giving up a multiplicative modifier and good stats for underpowered damage on a ring with largely irrelevant stats.

Basically:

  1. Don’t need thorns
  2. Don’t need minion life
  3. The damage is YOUR damage (and physical), not the minions, so scaling it is hard (though not impossible).
  4. It only procs every 6 hits.
  5. Lucky hit chance is useless as the ring is no longer based on lucky hit.

This is what I personally give up to use it:

  1. Life
  2. Crit strike chance
  3. Golem cooldown red
  4. Summoning damage
  5. x30% damage source
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Oh… crap. Never seen the new Ring of Mendeln yet.

They also modified Xfal’s. No longer covered by Lucky Hit stats.

Since many back then refuse to play the Lucky Hits gameplay, Blizz got rid of it. ROFL. All my Lucky Hit stats do now is just for Worldly Fortune tempering… mass CC the mobs while my Minions eat them for breakfast.

18

couldn’t agree more.

Like I said since season 1, they need to make the proc scale with all minion damage types to really boost its damage. Then it would be an actual summoner ring that would be really powerful and worth losing an aspect and tempering for.

every 6th hit would work amazingly with skeletal mages with the extra projectile on weapon and on book of the dead, and even a onehander would work given how attackspeed on weapons now matters. you could have mini gun mages procing it like crazy.

19

I was actually wondering if anyone got it past the 1.5-2.5 crits I usually see. I know you’re pretty good about finding the ways to test things, so it sounds like this may really be the top end for the ring this season. Pretty sad considering it used to actually be useful.

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Right right.

This is how I’d change the ring to make it a good addition for summoners:

  1. Thorns → life
  2. Minion life → skeleton warrior mastery (+1-2 ranks)
  3. Lucky hit → int
  4. Make the proc damage source from the minions, not the player

Makes it very good, but not god-tier must-include tech.

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