Pitmancer Guide

I'd use a holy freeze...

what merc if any?

I don't use a merc. If I did, I'd go with either Holy Freeze or Defiance for Pallys, or a Barb merc to tank.

bumping this, and reporting

made this...lvl 81 currently
useast sc ladder
gear:
um shako
trang shield p diamond
trang belt
trang glove
marrowwalk
2 soj
28 maras
+1 43% death web
5/5 cta with sig shield offhand
enigma archon
20/19 anni
1 pb charm

currently do
5859-6074 damage with nova
44-48k damage with explosion
1 pt in lower resist, will be getting 1 more for -61% (sorta cap)

doesnt really seem like much damage at first, but with all the gear mentioned i have decent resists in hell (lightning is low but positive) and i kill everything that isnt champion/unique in the pit in 1 nova

i was using hoto before, but death web, even +1 40% will kill everything 1 hit so i feel it is a must, whereas hoto wont let you kill skellies 1 shot using the rest of the stuff mentioned. for champion and uniques just cast nova twice or lower resist once then nova once (lower resist hits a bigger radius than the screen in the higher resolution)

cta helps but isnt necessary, enigma is a must though, because you can (if using pickit with custom ini to get good drops) keep holding down right click and use left hand to alternate between nova and teleport so you never have to stop

i have maxed bone wall and using marrow bug and i turn on bone armor at start of run, but i really dont feel it is necessary for the build,you can place those points you put into bone wall in revive if you so desire for extra defense

a MAJOR flaw i have discovered is that you cannot kill some enemies, one in particular being the venom lords of baal's minions, which sucks bad, and also the annoying ass maggots. this is because they have over 160 poison resist so lower resist doesnt affect them with poison

all in all the best pit runner iv used, though i wish it could baal run, and rushing is easy, except for the maggots which suck.

i recommend it to everyone who wants to do pit

a MAJOR flaw i have discovered is that you cannot kill some enemies, one in particular being the venom lords of baal's minions, which sucks bad, and also the annoying ass maggots. this is because they have over 160 poison resist so lower resist doesnt affect them with poison

Well, obviously. You can't kill Poison Immunes. This character was designed ENTIRELY and SOLELY for running The Pit.

I have not tried it on Ladder, but on NL I can kill anything BUT a unique Skeleton in 1 hit. My Poison Nova, is at 7.7k however. If you plan on running in large (5+ people) games, you might want to waste the extra second to cast Lower Resist.

Beyond that, I personally have to say the Poisonmancer makes an excellent Pit runner.

he isn´t only good for pit runs

What else then?

No, but that's his primary purpose. He can PvP and quest a bit too, just Poison Immunes will own him if you don't drop Bone Walls to keep them off your nuts.

Would a bone spear necro not be good for pit runs ?

That could work out great, as it is magic damage. But it is not that widely ranged as poison nova. Test it and see...

It's more mana-intensive, and does not attack multiple monsters as well as Poison Nova.

Teeth would be the spell for clearing Fallen, but 1 Nova almost clears the entire screen on 800x600 in 1-2 seconds tops.

You can try it, and post your Pit Run times vs. the ones I can post. My fastest run has been 1:37. Average is around 3:00...(Time is time IN GAME, not in Pit.)

If it works well, feel free to post a guide here.

I made your build on USWest Ladder. Right now I am lvl80 with a lvl79 Holy Freeze Merc. I don’t have any P&B charms but with this gear I do almost 7k per nova:

Helm: Shako, I have a +2 Necro skill 20% faster cast Circlet but I still don’t hit the next FCR break point so I went back to the shako.

Weapon: 2/2/40 Death’s Web

Armor: Enigma

Amulet: Rare +2 P&B 10% FCR and some Light and Cold resists

Rings: 2x SoJ

Gloves: Trangs

Belt: Trangs

Shield: Trangs

Boots: Marrowwalk

Charms: Gheeds, Anni, and a bunch of 17-20 life and mana small charms

One thing is this build is VERY item dependent. More so than any other build I have tried. The most important parts are probably Death’s Web, Trangs partial set, and Enigma. Without those things you won’t be able to kill crap in hell, or maybe even NM. It is a very decent pit runner build. I usually only run in a 1 person game. I have tried with more people but when I get in a game with 5-8 people it takes way too long to kill those pit monsters. You were right about the mana consumption. I get a lot of mana back when I kill monsters, that helps out a lot. I may consume 1 mana pot per run max. Great job on the build. It’s a nice break from running with my Multishot Zon. Right now the Poison build is more fun but my Zon runs the pit a little faster. I’ll stick with the Poison necro pit runs for now. Thanks Volls

This build was designed Non-Ladder, so it didn't take into account the more resilient nature of Ladder monsters.

Yes, it IS very item dependant, but if you can pull it off, it does great!