Life vs Hybrid vs ES Necro

Hi all,

Currently in the process of trying to fenagle my build into being red map viable, aka not getting 1 shot all the time. Invested too much into my minions, and not myself.

That said, I'm trying to figure out which is the best survivability option for that part of the game for me. I realize there is a lot of disagreement on this, and I've read a ton of the threads on here about it, but I'm still unsure.

Mostly because Necro is inherently an intelligence class. Meaning, you get ES basically for free with all the intelligence on your part of the tree.


That said, it would seem to make the most sense not to eschew all of that, and focus on ES. However, if you focus on ES, you ofc need to also have some chaos resists. But this means your life will naturally suffer. Alternatively, CI is a thing, but you need some really, really high end numbers to rely solely on the ES, right? Note: the build I'm experimenting with, I'm using a staff (so less ES b/c no shield).

The other side of the argument is focus on life, which I find difficult to do, given that you have to travel far on the tree to get those nodes. Ofc with this option you absolutely need chaos resists. Any ES from gear on top of that would essentially act as a 1-off temporary thing that breaks from the first big burst.

I realize that Hybrids lategame are not very good, because you can't get enough of both types of defenses, usually. This seems to be my current lived experience atm.


Writing it all makes me think that focusing on life is a better option, and then the ES (whatever it ends up being) is just a bonus. Dulls the blow from big hits, then you rely on regen and your life pool.


But I'm a scrub at this game, never completed all content, so I defer to any of your fine brains. Any insight is appreciated.


Cheers

In general, and thats all I can say without knowing your specific build...

Life better for low and medium currency.
ES better for high currency.
Low life best, but takes the most currency.

Hybrid not so good anymore, as most necros cannot easily replenish both of them, and without good replenishment they dont do much.

Could you elaborate on "expensive"? What types of gear are we talking here. I use the wiki and Poedb all the time but I'm continuously surprised by new pieces of kit I didn't know existed.

But it makes sense now that I've had time to ruminate on it.

With a life focus, you only need to worry about that on your gear/passives, then chaos resist. ES is a bonus. With ES focus, you have to have at least some investment in life, chaos resist, and your shield. Unless CI, ofc.

Without getting into it, CI wouldn't be wise for my build. So I guess that leaves me with the one option.

Low life is best because of all the auras you can run.

It's expensive because if forces a chest that has mediocre ES (Shavronne's Wrappings) and a shield (Prism Guardian) that has no almost no ES, so you have to have REALLY high ES on the other items to have a large ES pool, and that makes those REALLY high ES pieces expensive.

Prices may vary, so I can't say exactly how expensive.

Necro builds using minions almoast never use low life.

For new players necro builds using life are the best.

IF you decide to go CI you need to invest a lot more. Not only into gear with high ES, but also into solving stun and freeze problem( you will have 1 HP and stun/freeze chance are based on your HP). Without harvest crafts gearing is simply too hard for new player.

For HP necro summoner if you dont want to get oneshooted:

1. Optimise the skill tree, drop suboptimal notables and pathing,drop weakest dmg nodes, get large/medium/ small clusters setup with 2x fettle notable.

2. Get more life on gear.

3. Use Bone offering + glancing blow combo, you can invest more into block and get almoast capped. You can invest more into block and drop Glancing Blows later. I have almoast capped block with Rumis up without Glancing.

4. Use defensive flasks, Rumis Concoction is a must, Basalt, Jade etc

5. Jinxed Juju amulet might fit some builds and help.

6. Abyssal jewels with Taunt on hit, and blind on hit help a lot.

7. Get some good CWDT setup, use steelskin or that skill name i forgot from ascendancy on leftclick.

8. Make sure you have Pantheon maxed out. Speccially that chained projectiles immunity.

9. Get Animated Guardian with proper items to boost your defences.
OR:
Just ignore all of that, go pure dmg and just don't get hit :D

Thanks for your ideas

Since writing this, I've rejigged my build to focus on life first. Took every node on my side of the tree for life, got rid of anything that wasn't basic needed attributes, relevant minion stuff, or life.

My plan is to EVENTUALLY got EB/MoM, maybe. In the immediate short term, things I've got already or am aiming for:

1. Have 3 abyss jewels currently (totaling 10% blind and 8% taunt)

2. Running a side chaos golem for that sweet dmg reduction with bone armour = ~20%

3. Run enfeeble with blasphemy, as well as dread banner for impale DPS + further reduced accuracy

4. Once I can afford it, give my guardian kingmaker + meatshield

5. I have mistress of sacrifice, gonna set up bone offering and cwdt for around 50%/30% attack/spell block

6. Considering running flesh and stone for further dmg reduction and blind

7. I already have high sustain as a core mechanic of the build, around 400-600 hp/s

8. I spam bone barrier basically any time I see a rare that could causea problem.

Shield is basically taking a backseat for now, like... if it's there, great. If not, maybe consider retreating or slowing down/retreat. I need at least 5000 life before I'll really consider EB/MoM.


Thanks again for the ideas, frens