(SCSP) whistlers Abbadon Pyromancer

Introduction

**What is a pyromancer ?**

A pyromancer is a **Necromancer** which solely focuses on fire damage output and the means to maximise it, its able to tackle any content in the game and is really versatile but its a reckless build for hc so i wouldnt recommend it.

**The only core item in this build is grimms burning dead anything else is replaceable and not necesary for the build to function**

**SKILLS:**

**20 hard points: minion mastery/summon skeleton warrior+archer/corpse explosion and convocation OR elemental weakness**

**then 1 point into decrepify/fire golem/bone armor and optionally into revives**

**its worth noting that raise zombie should not be underestimated early on when skeletons wont be as tanky and you should invest some points early on, later on they are worthless because they create a really awfull colision issue and their damage output is negligible in any scenario**

**Occultist**

**OFFSWITCH+WEAPON+SHIELD:**

**Apart from the grimms burning dead offswitch you should use a diamond crafted shrunken head and ideally a kris family diamond crafted dagger since its the only weapon type that both rolls 3 sockets and necromancer skills otherwise you can use a wand with 1 less socket but it can have the precious 20% fire absorb aug which is wand/orb exclusive its a tough choise and you should underestimate neither**

Belt:

loghok's heart until you can worldstone skull craft a belt tested and aprooved as the best choise in any scenario the both the phys pierce and the minion dmg are too useful to pass for anything else

rings:

gold rings with +1 skill augmentation or some stratagem shenanigans

Amulet:

any +3 summoner and or saphire diamond crafted amulet otherwise auriels bliss or mara's kaleidoscope are both solid choises

Chestpiece:

I prioritise +skills over any other stat i usually make a transition from a bone runeword into a arkaine's into a horadrim rainment but apart from a statstick your chestpiece can be anything you feel fits your liking

Helmet:

i usually roll/craft a coronet/diadem with +3 summoner or +2 necro then aug fcr with shaman's head and socket it for more skills but crown of ages or shako are also really strong choises

gloves:

usually a resist/hp stick you can ruby craft and 5 ele pierce aug it or you can use trang's gloves for the fcr and curses or magefists for the same reason if you can spare the resistances

boots:

skull/diamond crafted boots depends if you prioritise mobility or minion damage more otherwise fleet feet or marrow walks and ideally dreamer's gaits with +summoner

MERCENARY:

this is the most important choise since necromancer can keep merc's alive and fully utilise them the only exception in this rule is cave of horrors but that place you can manage without a merc anyways so its fine

the mercenary of choise is an a2 vulnerability aura mercenary and i will be talking about his itemisation in the next part since its adaptable to the circumstances.

NON PORTAL NON KF NON UBERS NON COH content (aka baal runs)

Itemisation:

your mercenary should be capped in res ideally using a tyrael's might uncorrupted with vordok ishtar and visions from the aether to be capped in magic resistances alternatively face of the void and darkglow both um'ed and stonebraker for the damage in case you still struggle with damage you should also replace darkglow with shah's attonement

try to decrepify before conflicts occur and have your army presummoned so your mercenary doesnt commite suicide,also be a good boss and convo him out of meteors and other assholes that try to deprive you of 50k gold

Killing fields

your mercenaries gear should be unchanged and the general playstyle should resemble the baal runs but with extra caution, try to blow up ravagers and or kf bosses to melt the rest of the monsters in the vincinity and revive ice maidens to freeze the screen and you should be solid

Portals:

the only real farmable portal is abbadon,acheron and infernal are aids so reroll another charachter for them,The cool thing about it is that you can litteraly not die inside the portal unless you suicide into bonebrakers or telestomp a gargantuan outside

Here the true nature of the pyromancer emerges, your goal is to focus kill a bonebraker then blow it up and the rest of the screen follows

your mercenary gear should be as follows: any non fire resistance socketable weapon which you should add high - fire rest anger gharbad's pyre socketed with a high - fire res anger and an andariel's visage socketed with high - fire res anger this is capable of breaking the fire immunity of void knights and your mercenary is relatively safe since the only fire type of damage is fire/spectral rare monsters which you can focus fire. also angers give a hefty ammount of stun on hit and attackspeed so anything your merc hits is rendered USELESS AS HELL (god its satisfying :D)

you should be using decrepify curse since it prevents monsters from retaliating and you need the phys resistance pierce since gharbad's is more than enough fire resistance reduction

Ubers:

you should be skilling zombies early on  to prevent beeing overwhelmed,apart from that you can either use elemental weakness or decrepify be cautious since the bosses themselves are immune to curses so they only affect thrash

duriel portal is litteraly a slow crawl to telestomp the boss but relatively safe so long you stay behind your summons

Lilith is dangerous since toxic princesses can drop your life low and coldhands can straight out onshot you so you should keep your distance at all times and pamper your mercenary out of harms way with some antidotes and convocation

Izual is a hellhole with hydras everywhere nothing except zombies survives and i suggest you have firebloom aug'ed in your wand and some max cold/absorb before you enter i suggest you try ubers early on since its the only place where zombies are vital for survival unless you have overwhelming gear so they are unnecesary

uber tristram is a joke so long you seperate the bosses and have capped resistances they are also curse immune so there is little to be said except the fact that shah's saves you a bunch of time while bossing in general

lastly clone is an intresting encounter, if you are cocky you can snipe some molten ogre revives from the infernal pit then summon him and telestomp him to death with them since they deal insane single target damage

Cave Of Horrors

is the true pyromancer playground you should be maxing elemental weakness and summoning melee skeletons as fire and archers normally or the opposite depending on your preference, bosses get demolished by the sheer fire damage and you can decrepify the fire golem since it has high fire resistance, always corpse explode the abomination boss with the wierd name and skip the majority of the miscreations since they are too tank and drop too little to bother with

last note no mercenary can survive cave of horrors yet so dont bother trying

As a Last Note:

the majority of the content is beeing done in players 8 so a solo player should never struggle and can easily sacrifice a large portion of damage for more tankiness and still do relatively well.

what makes this build so charming is the flexibility with items and the fact that it is relatively cheap to setup

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v1QbuHfWZd4