Is there a stat cap for each character?

Foxhound3857 · Post by **Foxhound3857** » 26 Jun, 2016 22:31

As in, a maximum cap on the hard points a character can put into each of the four stats before the game won't allow you to invest any further in that stat?

Been playing a Necromancer, dumping EVERYTHING into Vitality to maximize the HP of my Skeletons, stashing all the Magic adders I find for when I need to read books, and I'm wondering if my Vitality will ever cap and I can start focusing on another stat. I'm Clvl17 so far and my Vit is 105 and still climbing. Str/Dex/Mag are still at their base values.

Can I do better as a Necromancer? Been using Arkaine's Valor for my armor and random rares that require 15 Str or less (Sash, Dagger, Buckler, Short Bow, etc). Should I be investing in Str or Dex at all, or am I fine the way I'm going?

pocket951 · Post by **pocket951** » 26 Jun, 2016 22:39

there is no stat cap, so keep pumping to your hearts content

Foxhound3857 · Post by **Foxhound3857** » 26 Jun, 2016 23:12

Is that what I should be doing as a Necro though, dumping everything into Vitality? I'm not really sure if I should be trying to melee as a Necro, usually I just hang behind my skeletons and assist them with Lightning, keeping myself up with Healing and Dark Pact.

Not even really sure what I should be looking for on my gear later, other than resist all, +stats, and maybe +spell levels. Maybe things like Dreamflange, Royal Circlet, Skin of the Vipermagi, Arachnid's Mesh, etc. Dunno if I'll really need mana after Clvl32 with Blood Pact, unless Mana Shield can be learned from a book and isn't just Sorcerer exclusive, so I'm mostly assuming I want +resists and +all stats from my gear later, so maybe going for Brilliant/Radiant crafted gear to keep my resists up later.

Edit: Energy Shield is apparently a stat, so I'll probably want some kind of item that gives it, just so my mana is actually doing something after I get Blood Pact. Nightsmoke looks pretty decent for a low-strength belt because of that.

pocket951 · Post by **pocket951** » 27 Jun, 2016 4:24

I havent played a necro so I cant help you there but energy shield is a sorceror only skill, and yes you do want +stats and +res

Foxhound3857 · Post by **Foxhound3857** » 27 Jun, 2016 6:26

Okay, cool, but I noticed there's a stat that says "X% of damage absorbed by mana." I'm assuming that means that if you have any of this stat, that any damage taken will be partially diverted to your mana pool instead of your HP.

DacianDraco · Post by **DacianDraco** » 27 Jun, 2016 9:04

I've played as melee all through Normal with the Necromancer, and even beaten Diablo in melee, i remember i had a flail and shield, all max resistances and a bit of life leech, it wasn't necessarily fast but i was really tanky with all points into VIT and had primo rare gear that provided the needed % To Hit and +All Attributes all over. Then in Nightmare when i got Blood Ritual i switched to caster not because i couldn't survive in melee anymore but because the skeleton and other minions count was getting too high and they were surrounding the target faster then i could reach it, so i couldn't actually get to hit it in melee anymore, plus it was generally difficult to move alongside your skeletons especially in levels with lots of rooms and doors (Cathedral, Catacombs) and the ones that have narrow paths (Infested Cellar, Horazon's Sanctum, Secret Tunnel, etc), the minions AI is kinda stupid, if there are no targets around they form a circle around your character at a 2 square distance, if you click to move further behind them you can't move so you have to keep clicking in the 2 squares between you and them to move and they will move further to make a 2 square distance again, i find it extremely annoying and so i don't even bother with opening doors and just Teleport in the next room once i cleared the one i am in.

Also with the Necromancer you could switch to pumping MAG when you feel your minions are strong enough, even half and half VIT/MAG can work well in the long run, you can always resummon your minions cheaply and you get to have a lot of them, for ex only 8 can surround a uniq monster and the rest just sit back and take the place of any of the 8 that die. As for gear up until Hell difficulty's end with a caster you would make use of just +Life and +All Attributes on gear and can even go weapon+shield for the extra affixes, if not then the staff or any of the crafted recipes that give +1-3 (Page X) Skill levels will better your spells. In Torment if you do want to keep casting spells and not just waiting around while minions chop at targets you'd need to have a minimum of -10% Target Resistance (then more as you advance to Caves levels) on rare/crafted staves, i prefer -% Target Lightning Resist on a Conjurer crafted staff with % Spell Dmg, +2 All Spells and +X Chain Lightning because i have other types of uniq/set items that help pierce resistances, most monsters in Torment are immune to 3 or all resistances. For ex i've had success with using the Belial's Visage crown, Snow Clash belt and Buriza-Do Kyanon xbow and casting Blizzard, Blade of 5 Suns sword and Dragon's Breach shield and casting Meteor Cluster or Apocalypse, all these spells do heavy dmg while my minions keep the target in place.

As for mana it's kinda useless, you can turn off Blood Ritual by right clicking on the top right icon and casting Healing to fill your life up and then recast Blood Ritual and have 3/4 of the life globe filled if lets say you run out of Full Life Potions, but your life pool easily goes over 1k in Torment with VIT investment and good gear, so this is more of a last resort thing, Full Life potions are abundant and you won't use them up quicker then you find them. Mana Shield can be temporarily gotten from a Magical Shrine and the items that have % Damage Absorbed by Mana work the same way but you won't really benefit from them because you rarely get hit with all (20+) of your minions around, the Necromancer is the safest character to play imo. I find that even +Resistances or -Damage From Enemy affixes are secondary, and you don't always need to have them maxed, thou they help when facing Diablo himself, since he casts Apocalypse/Fire Wall/Meteor Cluster on top of your character, but you can keep him distracted with continuously summoning minions behind him so he turns his back at your character and doesn't cast his spells in your general direction, or just Teleport around and still be fine even without maxed Resistances or -Damage From Enemy, it's the most active fight and will feel different since you have an easy time with everything else, but it's still not at all harder then it is for other characters. Somehow he stuns and knocks back your minions with his ring of fire type spell, but it's fine if you keep summoning minions on top of him, i alternate LMB spell with RMB summon and it's easy to keep him in place, even if he kills everyone next to him he will move and melee attack the stunned minions that are a couple of squares away, so you can just keep throwing whatever you got at him.

Foxhound3857 · Post by **Foxhound3857** » 27 Jun, 2016 16:29

Right now I'm using Lightning as my primary spell, which is doing GREAT work one-shotting everything at slvl7, but I can see in the future that I'll probably want something with better crowd control for my minions later, Frozen Orb and Chain Lightning looking like the best candidates. So yeah, I'll definitely want Spell Power/-Enemy Resist later to beef it up. I'm hoping I can get that on a crafted staff or wand.

Had to actually switch to another spell for dlvls 9 and 10, Fireball. Litch Demons are really, really MEAN, tear my skeletons up in half a second and I don't last long against them either.

Will definitely be trying to farm/craft some better gear for Nightmare. Hopefully I can get hold of some Brilliant recipes and make them with +all stats and +spells.

Speaking of which, when DO recipes start showing up? I'm on dlvl13 now and haven't seen a single one yet. In particular, I really want to get Brilliant before Nightmare mode.

DacianDraco · Post by **DacianDraco** » 27 Jun, 2016 21:22

Recipes start dropping from Hell levels (13+) i believe, but in Normal you get just the 1st sets of recipes for characters, and i think Brilliant will be available from Hell difficulty.

Foxhound3857 · Post by **Foxhound3857** » 27 Jun, 2016 21:43

Oh, none of those are really any good at Tier 1. So I guess I'll just be looking for sets and uniques for the time being. Hopefully Royal Circlet and Nightsmoke drop in Normal mode at least. I'm not going into Nightmare until clvl32 (for Blood Pact) anyway, so hopefully I'll find some decent items to slot.

The main thing is I've been saving every spellbook and every decent magic adder that I find so that I can read as many books as possible later, because I'm never gonna have the magic to really beef up certain spells later. But right now my offensive candidates are looking like Guardian, Frozen Orb, and Chain Lightning, with Bone Spirit for boss fights.

I certainly hope my skeletons get stronger. I can summon 6 right now, and I've put my points in nothing BUT Vitality, but they still go down in all of five seconds fighting any 13+ mobs and I constantly have to resummon then. They just can't fight anything down here, they do no damage.

The way I'm playing this game right now, I feel like I would've been better off as a Sorcerer.

DacianDraco · Post by **DacianDraco** » 27 Jun, 2016 23:15

Yes Tier 1 uniq/sets can drop in Normal, but it's not good to hang around in Normal, just go to Nightmare, the Cathedral and Catacombs dungeon levels have easy monsters, skeletons and the like, generally ones that can be easily killed. And the qlvl of items dropped is higher in Nightmare. Without any leveling you'll hit clvl 32 in Hidden Forest (if you go in it between dungeon lvls 11-12) and if you want to farm, don't farm Normal, nothing that you will use further on drops in Normal.

Sorcerer or Disciple (and their higher equivalents) crafts can provide more MAG then any item you find, because besides the fix +MAG another +MAG affix can spawn, like the ones that appear on magic/rare items you find. Plus you can drink a Magic Elixir, touch a Eerie shrine and even a Fountain of Tiers (if you are lucky and one of the attributes spawned gets temporarily dumped into MAG).

And all minions (Golem too) get better with difficulty, their stats change on each difficulty you play, to accommodate with the increase in difficulty. And their nr increases when you gain more clvls. Also get revives up, the raised dead monster will have some increase in power even if they don't live too long, just don't revive any of the Necromancer type monsters because those continue to summon hostile skeletons.

And besides spells also use Corpse Explosion in tight places, it does physical dmg based on corpse's total hp, probably more than anything your spells do at the time. And it may cost more, but your life pool is bigger than your mana pool anyway.

Foxhound3857 · Post by **Foxhound3857** » 27 Jun, 2016 23:24

I'm Clvl27 and getting absolutely crushed on Terror's Domain. I can't even kill Diablo, he's resistant to all my spells, wipes all my skeletons instantly, and shreds me in about 3 seconds. And this is before the hour passes.

What am I doing wrong. I made it past the other three bosses but Diablo just completely WRECKS me, and NONE of my spells do anything more than chip damage against him. Am I NOT supposed to be able to take this guy with quest items at my level?

pocket951 · Post by **pocket951** » 27 Jun, 2016 23:40

quest gear isn't that particularly good, how ever the gear you find on Dlvl 16,17 and Lazarus lair should be adequate enough to beat normal.

just keep doing runs to grind untill your overall gear gets better.

I haven't played necro before but you may have to resort to chain lightning spam

Foxhound3857 · Post by **Foxhound3857** » 27 Jun, 2016 23:56

I'm actually really hating Necro right now. I'm having to resummon skeletons way, WAY too often, for no return. They walk up to stuff, die in about three seconds doing no damage, and then I have to resummon and repeat.

It's too much micro-managing for no return. I'm gonna shelf this character for now and give Sorcerer a try, all MAG.

DacianDraco · Post by **DacianDraco** » 28 Jun, 2016 10:44

I don't believe Sorcerer will be easier for you, you'll have to resummon Golem a lot and he has a 10s cooldown instead of the 1s of skeletons. And Golem is slower in movement and attack plus with less time up you'll have to be on the move much more, than doing what i told you, to alternate LMB spell with RMB summon, and summon behind him so he doesn't throw spells in your direction, so you can just sit and drink potions. But it's ok to try the Sorcerer, after all i guess it's good exercise and you might find some other useful items while leveling him.

pocket951 · Post by **pocket951** » 28 Jun, 2016 14:14

In my experience with golems on normal, they just die and evaporate instantly, but then all of a sudden in night mare and hell and torment the golem is kind of tanky..Idk if thats because the golem scales with game difficulty but it seems like it does

Is there a stat cap for each character?

Is there a stat cap for each character?

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