The Jailkeeper Necromancer v 2.0 Author: Leuchovius Version: 1.10 Page 1 Navigation Preparations & Outfit General Jailkeeping Lore Jailkeeper Variants Bone Prison is the ultimate Crowd Control spell. Monsters can’t move, monsters target the Prison instead of you, monsters are in effect held captive to be disposed of at your whim and preference. This guide is intended to outline the benefits – as well as problems – of using Bone Prisons instead of Skeleton Warriors as tanks. Also, I will discuss a few build variants. You will need a primary form of attack, that is to say a way to do damage. Jail keeping can be combined with Venomancy, Bonemancy, Lord of Magi, Bowmancy and even Meleemancy. Disclaimer: This is not an attempt to vilify or diminish the effectiveness of Skelliemancers. This is an attempt to give some tips and pointers on how to best make use of one of the most underrated Necromancer skills in the game. Jailkeeping has, in comparison to Skelliemancy, some positive aspects and some negative aspects. Pros 1. Bone Prison does not require a corpse. That means more corpses for CE, and you’re never have to think about army maintenance. 2. Bone Prison is an incredible monster magnet. You will find your field of bone swamped by fiends in no-time, just dying to get in range of your Corpse Explosion. 3. At level 27 and above, Bone Prison cost only 1 point of mana. 4. Bone Prison only needs 20, as opposed to 40 skill points to be effective (Raise Skeleton plus Skeleton Mastery). 5. Bone Prison synergy gives +300 hit points to your Bone Armor. 6. Bone Prison synergy gives +140% damage to your Bone Spear and +120% damage to your Bone Spirit. 7. In Hell difficulty, Bone Prisons have astounding amounts of life, and can be restored easily and cheaply. Cons 1. Bone Prisons are only used for Tanking purposes. You have to rely on your own attack spells to deal damage. 2. Because of hit point scaling, Bone Prisons aren’t very tough or useful before Hell difficulty. 3. In large, open areas such as the Canyon of the Magi or Tamoe Highlands, the monster magnetism of Bone Prison may result in you getting swarmed from all sides. 4. You may find Bone Prisons temporarily blocking your path thereby slowing your progress. 5. It’s a Single Player trick. Parties will hate you if you use Prison everywhere (except Sorceresses). If you party, forget about Prisons and just let the Barbarians do the tanking (except if you party exclusively with Sorceresses). 6. You may wall yourself in with stray monsters by accident, leaving yourself immobilized and at the monster’s mercy. Be careful and don’t panic! Read the section below on how to deal with this. Preparations & Outfit Equipment Priorities Since we most likely won’t be using Skeletal Minions (unless you’ve found a Wand or Totem to compensate, or are playing Lord of Magi) Normal difficulty will be a pain. If you can, cheese yourself up with some cheap Sets. Infernal Tools, for example, is great for any low/mid-level Necromancer build. Later in the game Resistances, especially vs. Lightning and Fire, should be maxed or as close to maxed as possible. Elemental damage, particularly from Gloams and monster Auras, is the only thing that may seriously hurt you. Get enough Mana and Mana-regen to support one battle. You will need Faster Cast, preferably at least 20%. Faster Run/Walk is important for those moments when Extra Fast Boss Packs come chasing after you – about 40% (not counting armor) should do it. If you want to play Lord of Magi, I strongly recommend the Rune word ”White” (Dol+Io) in a good 2-socketed Wand, since the mods of that Rune word are right up our alley. Mercenary Act I Fire Rogues or Act III Fire or Lightning Sorcerers, that is to say Hirelings with non-Cold-based ranged attacks, are the most viable Jailkeeper companions. There is no point employing a Holy Freeze mercenary, as everything will be restrained within cages and we want every monster corpse as intact as possible. Rogues and Sorcerers will fire over Prisons and be of much greater assistance to you generally, particularly against Poison and Magic Immune monsters, than the melee die-o-matic kamikaze Barbarians and Desert Mercenaries. Shields & Totems Use a Shield (or Totem) with high +Resistances. Do NOT go for max block (unless you’re planning on doing some Poison Dagger meleeing). Necromancers block slowly, and any attack that comes through should get absorbed by your Bone Armor. Put those Dexterity points somewhere else. For a good, cheap Magic Find shield, I’d suggest Shael+Eth (”Rhyme”) in a 2-socketed Totem that has some beneficial +skills on it. ”Rhyme” adds Magic Find, Resistances and Mana Regeneration so it’s a fine poor man’s option. General Jailkeeping Lore Act Bosses If you’re fighting Diablo or Baal, don’t bother casting Prisons. Diablo will most likely (but not always) target you instead of the Prison with any of his ranged elemental attacks and destroy the Prison instantly in the process. Baal will simply teleport away or make copies of himself. With Diablo and Baal, you’re just decreasing your own maneuvering space. Andariel, Duriel and Mephisto, however, will stop and attack any Prisons you raise around them, so they are easily defeated. AI Curses While I absolutely adore AI curses, I cannot find a single use for them when I keep everything covered in seas of bone. Dim Vision? But they’re already in melee range of something. Attract? Confuse? But monsters can’t reach each other, so they attack the Prison anyway. Playing multiplayer is an exception, of course. Everyone loves Dim Vision. Bone Wall Bone Wall works differently from Bone Prison. They don’t appear instantly and always cost 17 mana, so won’t normally be spammed in the same way as Bone Prison. But they do have some special uses. Most importantly, Walls don’t need monster targets. This means you can use them to seal off passageways before any monsters enter them as well as block off archer fire without having to see or target archer packs specifically. Also, Walls are hugely useful in the Chaos Sanctuary because you can raise them before Lord De Seis, Grand Vizier of Chaos and Infector of Souls appear when you break a Seal, forcing them to target the Walls instead of you initially. Corpse Explosion Two things needs to be said about Corpse Explosion. Firstly, you may question why I advocate maxing Corpse Explosion. After all, at high levels CE costs huge amounts of mana and the added range isn’t that useful for most builds. For Jailkeepers, however, a large CE radius is essential because monsters will often be scattered – caged as it were – some distance apart. If you have a lot of +Skill items, maxing CE might not be necessary. Just make sure you reach all the monsters you want to reach. Secondly, Corpse Explosion seems to have a peculiar ‘dynamite’ function on Bone Walls and Prisons. That is to say, if you find your way blocked by your own barriers, letting off a couple of blasts seems to clear the path faster. Hit Points and Durability Bone Prisons and Walls expire naturally after 24 seconds regardless of damage done to them. A basic, unsynergized level 20 Bone Prison or Wall have about 50/400/1100 hit points in Normal, Nightmare and Hell, respectively. A level 20 Bone Prison or Wall with one synergy maxed have about 145/1120/3300 hit points in Normal, Nightmare and Hell, respectively (Bone Walls are slightly tougher than Bone Prisons). If the figures look low, remember Bone Prison can be spammed for just 1 mana per cast. Iron Maiden (Don’t just lock them up! Torture them with pliers and hot irons!) Sadly, since the Thorns Aura doesn’t work on Prisons and Walls, if you want monsters to kill themselves by damage return as they’re trying to get out of their confinement (an evil prospect indeed!), you’ll have to use Iron Maiden. Unfortunately, as most monsters in Hell have over ten thousand hit points and only do around 100 damage per attack, and even a fully charged Iron Maiden only gives around 700% damage return, a monster would have to throw itself in despair at the bars at least 20-30 times before passing – more for really tough monsters. This means you can’t rely on Iron Maiden exclusively. But never forget – with Jailkeeping, time is on your side. Every monster damages itself for several hundred physical hit points per attack round. If you play a Pure Bonemancer you could use Iron Maiden as your main curse and use Amplify Damage only when it’s time to blow things up, just to torture your captives a bit. Not the most effective strategy I admit, but you get serious points for style and up through Nightmare Iron Maiden is still pretty viable all on its own. Large Open Areas Large open areas, such as Canyon of the Magi, are generally to be avoided. Bone Prisons will attract monsters from far, far away, and while this is often a good thing (concentrating large groups of monsters into smallish areas for better CE effectiveness), it can also lead to you getting stabbed in the back. Instead of spamming Bone Prisons, retreat and cast Terror on nearby monster packs until you have at least one screen edge covering your back. Try running caverns, tombs and temples as much as you can. Stay away from open spaces. Embrace the agoraphobic within. Magic Finding The River of Flame followed by Chaos Sanctuary and Diablo are ideal Magic Find spots for Venomancer and Bonemancer Jailkeepers. You know exactly where monsters are coming from. The Area Level is 85. Resident Poison Immunes are wimpy – Maggots and Regurgitators are resilient but quite harmless. There are no Gloams or piercing-attack Serpent Magi here, and Diablo himself is a cakewalk – just keep running in circles and spam Poison Nova/Bone Spirit until He goes down. Mephisto is effectively caged by Prisons. Pit runs are also perfectly doable. Walling Yourself In When fast monsters rush at you into melee range, cast Clay Golem, or Terror, or run away. Do NOT cast Bone Prison. When they’re distracted, retreat half a screen away. When no monster is targeting you specifically, then, and only then, can you start respawning the Prison landscape. If you by any chance wall yourself in with a quick foe, just keep recasting Bone Armor and your primary form of attack until the Prison vanishes or the monster is dead. If you’re rich enough, you may want to get access to Teleport, in which case just bamf out of there. Avoid this situation by keeping a distance to your Prison landscape at all times and stay attentive to your surroundings. Jailkeeper Variants Venomancer Jailkeeper Stats Strength – Enough to wear equipment. Dexterity – Base, or enough to equip a good Dagger. Vitality – All the rest. Energy – 70+ for users of Poison Nova, Base for Poison Daggermancers. Skills Max Poison Nova Max Bone Prison Max Corpse Explosion Max Poison Dagger Max Poison Explosion 1 point into all curses, except Dim Vision, Confuse and Attract 1 point into Clay Golem, Golem Mastery and Summon Resist Basic Strategy And Gameplay 1. Bone Prison first monster pack that comes across, and/or let your Clay Golem engage them. 2. Cast Lower Resist, then Poison Nova. 3. Wait for the poison to work, watch as other monster packs approach.. 4. Bone Prison the newly arrived monster packs. Cast Lower Resist and Poison Nova again. 5. When monsters begin to drop, cast Amplify Damage and Corpse Explosion. 6. Pick up any goodies when the Prison timer runs out. 7. Move along and repeat. Early leveling is a pain. I suggest investing heavily into Poison Dagger early on. The added Poison Damage really is quite powerful in Normal, and will add synergy to your Nova later. You may even want to invest a few points into Dexterity. The Dexterity requirement for Krises is 45, but high-level Daggers often have +Necromancer Skills and so may well substitute a Wand later AND you will be able to do some PD meleeing, since your Bone Armor will be tougher than most standard Venomancer’s. Poison Nova And The Conundrum Of Immunity Every Act has them – Poison Immunes. Poison Nova is a great damage-dealer, especially with Lower Resist and especially with the monster magnetism of Bone Prison – more monsters will be affected by each Nova. But Poison damage is singular and Immunity is a problem, especially since Lower Resist isn’t always enough to break certain powerful Immunes. There are three solutions to this dilemma: 1. Whittle them down with your Bone Spear. You should do at least 300 damage with each Spear as one relevant synergy is already maxed. When one is down, Amplify Damage the rest and CE. 2. Amplify Damage and let your Rogue mercenary do her thing. When one is down, Amplify Damage the rest and CE. 3. If you happen to come across mixed packs of both Immunes and non-Immunes, you’re saved. When one of the non-Immunes hits the dirt, spitting slime and couching blood, Amplify Damage the Immunes and CE. Bonemancer Jailkeeper Stats Strength – Enough to wear equipment. Dexterity – Base. Vitality – All the rest. Energy – 100+ Skills Max Bone Spirit Max Bone Prison Max Corpse Explosion Max Bone Spear Max Bone Wall 1 point into Amplify Damage, Iron Maiden and Terror 1 point into Clay Golem, Golem Mastery and Summon Resist Basic Strategy And Gameplay 1. Bone Prison first monster pack that comes across, and/or let your Clay Golem engage them. 2. Watch who your Mercenary is targeting. Amplify Damage that monster, and start pummeling it yourself with Bone Spirits. 3. Watch as other monster packs approach.. 4. Bone Prison the newly arrived monster packs. 5. Cast Amplify Damage and Corpse Explosion on the newly killed monster. 6. Pick up any goodies when the Prison timer runs out. 7. Move along and repeat. The Pure Bonemancer variant requires more synergy investment than the Venomancer build to be effective and does less damage per mana point, relatively (Spirits only target one monster at a time). On the upside, it can damage more monster types – few monsters are Magic Immune, and they’re pretty much all located in Act II. So stay away from Act II. Also, Spirits are useful for downing one or two monsters at a time, for the purposes of Corpse Explosion. Also, you get an even tougher Bone Armor and Bone Prison, since you’re investing into Bone Wall for synergies. Lord of Magi Jailkeeper Stats Strength – Enough to wear equipment. Dexterity – Base. Vitality – All the rest. Energy – 50+ Skills Max Skeleton Mage Max Skeleton Mastery Max Bone Prison Max Corpse Explosion Max Bone Spear 1 point into all curses, except Dim Vision, Confuse and Attract 1 point into Clay Golem, Golem Mastery and Summon Resist Basic Strategy And Gameplay 1. Bone Prison first monster pack that comes across, and/or let your Clay Golem and Magi engage them. 2. Cast Lower Resist. 3. Watch your Magi go to work, watch as other monster packs approach.. 4. Bone Prison the newly arrived monster packs. Cast Lower Resist again. Assist with Bone Spear. 5. When monsters begin to drop, cast Amplify Damage and Corpse Explosion. 6. Pick up any goodies when the Prison timer runs out. Resummon Magi as necessary. 7. Move along and repeat. Lord of Mages is an interesting variant, and quite effective, as all tanking needs are already taken care of and you’ll be dashing out a horrendous amount of very diverse damage while not having to lift a finger yourself. At high levels, 10 Skeleton Magi will easily do a combined 2,000 points of varied elemental damage per attack round, shooting over your Bone Prisons and at the same time be extremely mana efficient as well as points efficient – you can support them with a low-end Bone Spear with one synergy already maxed. However, Bosses, especially Act Bosses, will pose a problem. Also, I find myself running out of corpses a bit too often for my taste – both due to resummoning but also due to the cold damage done by some of the mages. If you absolutely want to build a Lord of Magi, however, Jailkeeping is the way to go. Meleemancer/Bowmancer Jailkeeper Stats Strength – Enough to wear equipment. Dexterity – Enough to wear equipment. Vitality – All the rest. Energy – Base. Skills Max Bone Prison Max Bone Wall Max Corpse Explosion Max Poison Dagger 1 or more points into Amplify Damage, Iron Maiden, Terror and Decrepify 1 or more points into Clay Golem, Golem Mastery and Summon Resist Basic Strategy And Gameplay 1. Bone Prison first monster pack that comes across, and/or let your Clay Golem engage them. 2. Watch who your Mercenary is targeting. Amplify Damage or Decrepify that monster, and start pummeling it yourself if you can reach it. 3. Watch as other monster packs approach.. 4. Bone Prison the newly arrived monster packs. Attack through the Prison walls if you’re using a melee weapon. 5. Cast Amplify Damage and Corpse Explosion on the newly killed monster. 6. Pick up any goodies when the Prison timer runs out. 7. Move along and repeat. As Mad Mantis points out, Meleemancers wielding sufficiently far-reaching weapons (Spears or Pole arms, typically) can attack over Prison walls. Poke them through the bars, essentially. Since Bone Prisons are very mana cheap, this is a good way of dealing with monsters one at a time. Or you could equip a good bow and fire bolts or arrows – you’ll fire over the walls just like magical attacks. Leuchovius 0 Please log in to post... Please log in. Use your Diii.net Forum account. Username: Remember me? Password: Want to register?     Lost password?