Solo Crucible Guide

[acculla]

So.. thunderfuries and other nice crucible stuff is so hard to buy, which inspires me to want to farm my own. The problem is.. its difficult to find a cruci group as the majority of players are in a different time zone. Thus I was wondering if people would be willing to share their strategies for running the crucible levels on their own.

What combinations of chars do you guys use? Are there any special tricks that you do to keep your leader alive?

I know that some people maybe won't like me for asking this, but I am keen on finally being able to properly gear up my chars. Might as well try, right?

Many thanks in advance!!

[Lampogriz]

try psn nec

[LordManhammer]

Is there a guide for the poison necro that you are suggesting, Lampo?

[Lampogriz]

Is there a guide for the poison necro that you are suggesting, Lampo?

make your necro as stronger as you can, and try run crucible!

[acculla]

I did my first try at solo cruci yesterday. My leader was a necro with maxed clay golem plus synergies. I didn't bother investing points in any damage skills as I know that my gear is not strong enough to support both tanky golems and a nice damage output. I managed to get to lvl 14 before I ran over the time limit. The necro seemed quite safe up to that point and as long as you have a nice damage dealer (and are able to clear stuff faster than I can), you shouldn't have too much trouble to get to lvl 15/16. I wonder how strong enemies will become beyond lvl 15. My strategy will go down the drain as soon as they start to hit hard enough to kill the golems.

Does anyone have any experience with golem survivability beyond level 15?

[rrra]

if you get well synergized golems and then bo them, they can get pretty absurdly tanky. In my experience they can tank just about anything the game can throw at them. Lvl 20 with them is easy. Lvl 19 is still manageable even with them all attacking at once now. They tank knarst and azatoth on 18 easily. Lvl 17 isnt a problem for them. Nor is 16 even if you run into mass nihlathak. They tank the bone spirits just fine. You on the other hand, will get 3 shotted. So beware of that. The only issue I have ever had with them surviving is vs cain. But in that case, just recast them as he is immune to curses and so your necro isnt doing anything but standing by the entrance anyway. So the life of the golems isnt a problem usually.

All that being said, you are much less tanky than the golems. Some things to watch out for in later levels are:
1. Bone spirits from nihlathaks. (and the less dangerous ones from sand dwellers on lvl 13) Avoid them at all cost. Luckily level 16 has a lot of walls you can hide behind while your golems distract things.
2. Kaalut and Mappo on lvl 19. Inject acid from Kaalut will kill you unless you are immune to curses. Stay far enough away to avoid it. Mappos magic-damage fire attack can also ruin your day. Stay back from it.
3. Psi storm on lvl 20. The psionic storm (it looks alot like the one on SC2 and procs from the nephalem birthright amulet) from Eldryssian can one shot you if you arent careful. Try to stay far back from her.

Overall, the keys to playing a decent golemmancer in the crucible are:
1. High max resists (As close to 95 as possible) and decent life. This helps you to avoid the damage from random spells and gives you time to pop a pot in bad situations.
2. Good positioning. I usually use 800x600 resolution. On that resolution, I can stand just over a screen away from my golems without them running back to me. If you can hide behind a wall to dodge spells in scary situations, (lvl 16 nihlathak packs) do so. You dont really need much damage reduction as you shouldnt get hit much to begin with. But watch out for centaurs on lvl 14 because of this.

If you are fairly wealthy, it is possible to make a poison maelstrom necro with enough golems to tank effectively while still pumping out good damage. My necro is not at this point yet, but if I ever find the new Trag Oul's True Guise, (for conviction aura) I think I can get there.

[acculla]

if you get well synergized golems and then bo them, they can get pretty absurdly tanky. In my experience they can tank just about anything the game can throw at them. Lvl 20 with them is easy. Lvl 19 is still manageable even with them all attacking at once now. They tank knarst and azatoth on 18 easily. Lvl 17 isnt a problem for them. Nor is 16 even if you run into mass nihlathak. They tank the bone spirits just fine. You on the other hand, will get 3 shotted. So beware of that. The only issue I have ever had with them surviving is vs cain. But in that case, just recast them as he is immune to curses and so your necro isnt doing anything but standing by the entrance anyway. So the life of the golems isnt a problem usually.

All that being said, you are much less tanky than the golems. Some things to watch out for in later levels are:
1. Bone spirits from nihlathaks. (and the less dangerous ones from sand dwellers on lvl 13) Avoid them at all cost. Luckily level 16 has a lot of walls you can hide behind while your golems distract things.
2. Kaalut and Mappo on lvl 19. Inject acid from Kaalut will kill you unless you are immune to curses. Stay far enough away to avoid it. Mappos magic-damage fire attack can also ruin your day. Stay back from it.
3. Psi storm on lvl 20. The psionic storm (it looks alot like the one on SC2 and procs from the nephalem birthright amulet) from Eldryssian can one shot you if you arent careful. Try to stay far back from her.

Overall, the keys to playing a decent golemmancer in the crucible are:
1. High max resists (As close to 95 as possible) and decent life. This helps you to avoid the damage from random spells and gives you time to pop a pot in bad situations.
2. Good positioning. I usually use 800x600 resolution. On that resolution, I can stand just over a screen away from my golems without them running back to me. If you can hide behind a wall to dodge spells in scary situations, (lvl 16 nihlathak packs) do so. You dont really need much damage reduction as you shouldnt get hit much to begin with. But watch out for centaurs on lvl 14 because of this.

If you are fairly wealthy, it is possible to make a poison maelstrom necro with enough golems to tank effectively while still pumping out good damage. My necro is not at this point yet, but if I ever find the new Trag Oul's True Guise, (for conviction aura) I think I can get there.

This was extremely helpful Thanks for explaining in so much detail!

[Frigide]

Can someone give advices on doing cain fast?
What chars are you using for that boss and how do you handle the fight?

(i killed him many times, thats not the problem, but id really like some insight from other players on how they do)

[Lampogriz]

cast golems/valkiries, attack, recast golems/valkiries, attack
repeat

i believe murder of crows drool with life per hit can tank him very easy also

[Lucid]

@Lampo

is it your poison damage that actually kills, or the fact that maelstrom profits from cb?

how much dmg deals your maelstrom? I made a psn nec on hc with trang set but its at something with 125k psn dmg over 11 or 12 seconds. And its far less damage than my ik shield thrower on inferno mobs...

i wonder how much damage is possible if you are able to clear crucible solo with this