diablo ii - necro

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Diablo II: Lord of Destruction: 1.13 Necro Summoner Guide by D'HoostVersion 3.0, Last Updated 2010-09-06 View/Download Original File

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Liked this FAQ? Click here to recommend this item to other users.-Diablo 2 Summoner Guide (1.13)-V3.00 (09/06/10)-By Sean D'Hoostelaere

DISCLAIMER:This is property of Sean D'Hoostelaere. This may be not bereproduced under any circumstances except for personal, private use. It maynotbe placed on any web site or otherwise distributed publicly without advancewritten permission. Use of this guide on any other web site or as a part ofanypublic display is strictly prohibited, and a violation of copyright.In plain English, this means that it is against the law for you to copy this

guide. If you want to print it out, that's fine, but I do not permit its useanywhere on the web or for it to be used for anything profitable.

_________________/ \|*****************||Table of Contents||*****************|\_________________/

I. Overview of the SummonerIV. Skill List

a. Summoning Skills

b. Poison and Bone Skillsc. Curses

V. Skill allocationVI. StatsVII. Equipment

a. Helmetb. Armorc. Glovesd. Belte. Bootsf. Weapong. Armorh. Jewelery

VIII. MercenaryIX. How to Use/ Leveling up

a. Skeleton damage (just for show)b. Skeleton mage damage (to make my point)

X. Contact MeXI. Credits


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I. OVERVIEW OF THE SUMMONER@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@The Necromancer class is one that focuses on, as the name describes, usingandmanipulating the dead. His three skill trees focus on cursing the enemy,creating bones that he uses to attack his foes, and in some cases he evencan raise the dead to fight for him. It's this last tree that we are going tobe looking at- the summoning tree.

If you haven't played Diablo 2 in a while, Summoners are not what they usedtobe. In the old days, people used to max blood golem and revive while usingbone spells from the back lines. The "synergy" idea that was introduced inv1.10 of Diablo 2 totally reworked the necromancer (indeed, it changed almostevery character.)

What this means for the summoner is that it's no longer feasible to putpointsinto bone spells and into summoning- a necromancer is best served to focus on

either one or the other. The good news is that where the skeletons were notof much use in prior versions, raise skeleton is now a powerhouse skill andthe skeletons can do some very serious damage to anything that gets in theirway. For this reason, the summoner will put his primary focus into the skillsraise skeleton and skeleton mastery, and all other skills that he uses willbe a method of backing up the skeletons and enhancing their ability to kill.

Summoners are VERY skill dependent. What skills you choose have a largeeffect on how powerful your summoner is in certain situations. HOWEVER, thesummoner is NOT item dependent. You don't need amazing equipment. A necrothatknows what he's doing can actually solo hell with no equipment whatsoever-they're that durable.

Ulimately the Summoner is a great character to start with- it's notcomplicated,it's powerful, and for Battle.net users, summoners are always popular becausethey provide some much-needed cannon fodder to take the focus away from theother players.

IV. THE SKILLS@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@Skills in Diablo 2 are broken up into three parts, represented by the threetrees that the necromancer has. I'll only include abilities that you ought tobe aware of in case you choose to utilize them. If they have no place, thenI'll ignore them entirely.

_ _ _/ \/ \/ \

IVa. Summoning Skills#########################~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Raise Skeleton~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Required Level: 1Effect: Raise a skeletal warrior from the corpse of a fallen enemy


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Raise skeleton creates the most basic minion for the necromancer- a skeletonthat wields a sword and shield. Generally very weak, the skeleton is asuiciderunner, running headlong into danger to hack away at whatever it can get itshands on first.

While fairly weak on its own, the raise skeleton ability is actually thestrongest of all summoning abilities. "United we stand, divided we fall."-asyour levels increase, your number of skeletal warriors will increase. While1skeleton may not stand a chance, maybe 10 skeletons can get the job done.

When coupled with Skeleton Mastery, this is the core ability for anysummoner.Your summoner will live and die by the proficiency of this skill and the onebelow.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

~~Skeleton Mastery~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Required Level: 1Effect: Increases the life and damage of your skeletons and revives.

This ability runs hand-in-hand with raise skeleton. While raise skeletonraisesthe number of skeletons you have, this ability makes your skeletons morepowerful. Used in conjunction with raise skeleton, you get 10 skeletonsdishingout 200 damage apiece at a fairly rapid rate.

However, Skeleton Mastery goes even further- it also increases the damageandlife of revives. While not initially useful, people who max this skill fortheir skeletons will find a very solid revive spell waiting for them at theendof the road.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Summon Clay Golem~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Required Level: 6Effect: Summon a golem from the earth to fight for you

Summoners can also erect golems from nothingness to fight for them. Claygolems

are the most basic of these creatures.

Despite being the most basic, clay golems are invaluable to a summoner. Theyhave a much higher maximum life than other golems, and they also cause anytarget they hit to slow down. This means that your clay golem can sit thereandtake a vicious beating from anything that comes your way, while additionallyslowing them down. In conjunction with skeletons, this is a very effectivemethod to defeat bosses.


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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Golem Mastery~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Required Level: 12Effect: Increase the life, attack rating and speed of your golem

Attack rating can be somewhat useful, depending on your use of the golem.However, I will not be discussing the in-depth purposes of an attack golem.

STILL, increased speed and life can be quite useful. If you're trying tomakea tank, the more life is (obviously) better. The increased speed is alsovery useful when dealing with archers. Golems can run up to ranged attackersand quickly draw their fire while the skeletons amble along aimlessly.For those of us who use golems, this ability is essential.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Raise Skeletal Mage~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Required Level: 12

Effect: Raise a mage from the corpse of the fallen

Like raise skeleton, you take a corpse and create a skeletal warrior tofightfor you. However, these skeletons cast spells- fire, ice, lightning andpoison.

Skeleton mages fill a great side role to your skeletons. They're nowherenearas powerful as the regular skeletons and are in the eyes of many people notall that useful. However, they should not be ignored entirely. Havingminionsthat can do elemental damage is very useful when the physical immunes comearound.

While they pale in comparison to your regular skeletons, they're worth alook.How many points you invest is up to you, and will be discussed later on.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Summon Blood Golem~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Required Level: 18Effect: Summon a mass of blood and flesh to fight alongside you

Oddly, you don't need a corpse to make a blood golem, despite the name...

Anyhow, the blood golem is the second of the four types, and it is fairlysturdy. While it doesn't do tremendous damage, it has the wonderful abilityof life leech, which means it is fairly competant at staying alive.

An old trick from the earlier Diablo days was to use a blood golem inconjunction with iron maiden. Iron maiden causes the enemy to take moredamagethan it gives to the opponent. When the enemy attacks the blood golem, thedamage dealt back by iron maiden gets leeched off by the blood golem. Inthis


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way, the blood golem is nearly invincible.Oh, and an added bonus- your life is linked to the life of your blood golem,soassuming that you use iron maiden correctly, your health will always remainfull.

However, it has some drawbacks; it gets nowhere near as much life as a claygolem, and it cannot slow the enemy. Iron Maiden is also very limited- innightmare and hell, it is often nigh on useless, as returning 70 damage to amonster with 4000 HP really isn't good compared to a horde of skeletons.There's also the final drawback of linking HP- if he dies, you end up withnext to no HP, and quickly follow suit.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Summon Resist~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Required Level: 24Effect: Raises all resists on your summoned creatures

There's not much to say about this skill- it raises the resistances of all

ofyour monsters. Every summoner needs this skill to keep their minions alive.Of course, there's limits- past level 5, the points yield results far toolittle to be worth your time. Instead, +skills will bring your summons up tomaximum resists.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Summon Iron Golem~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Required Level: 24Effect: Transform a weapon into a massive mechanical golem

Iron golems are, like all golems, good in their own way. However, bad newsfirst this time: To make an iron golem, you need a piece of equipment. Youmustthrow the piece of equipment on the ground and summon the golem out of theweapon/armor. When you summon your iron golem, that weapon/armor goes away.Forever.

HOWEVER, that aside, the iron golem is quite powerful. Golems retain theproperties of the items used to create them, which means that you can takea weapon with crushing blow, and your golem will have crushing blow. If youhave open wounds, your golem will cause open wounds. The iron golem also hasan automatic thorns aura to deal damage back to the enemy.

The thing is, the bonuses of an iron golem with crushing blow don't meritruining a weapon that has crushing blow, and as for thorns, it's as bad as a

blood golem, only this guy doesn't even get healed for it.

~~~~~~~~~~Revive~~~~~~~~~~Required Level: 30Effect: Raise specters of fallen foes to battle alongside you

This spell is very simple, yet very difficult to use properly. What it doesis


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quite straightforward: you cast revive on a corpse, and a shade of the enemythat just died comes to life and fights for you with their same attacks.The difference is that their HP and damage is given significant boosts fromwhat the original monster had, which means you not only get what you killed,but your version is even better!

In conjunction with corpse explosion, this skill is DEVASTATING. Doing 5xthedamage of its enemy counterparts and having 6x the HP, add on that the enemyis now at 30% HP from corpse explosion, and one revive can possibly take outan entire horde on his own.

However, revive has limitations- the revives are dumb as bricks. Once you'redone killing all nearby monsters, a revive becomes useless, and it isutterlyincapable of walking behind you. It will get stuck in the most bizarre areasand never unstick.

Revives last only three minutes, and if you walk too far away from them,they

disappear outright. Again, this makes them fairly limited outside of intensebattles.

That being said, they are vital to summoning necros, as they are a greatsupport to your skeletons. Every summoner should use them. You simply needtobear in mind their limitations, which is why most people never spend morethanone point into revive, as skeleton mastery is the skills that raises theirHPand damage._ _ _

/ \/ \/ \

IVb. Poison and Bone Skills############################~~~~~~~~~Teeth~~~~~~~~~Required Level: 1Effect: spew little bone teeth in several directions

Well, it's a great skill for a bone necro, but you're not attempting todamageenemies with bone spells.

BUT, it's a prerequisite for corpse explosion, so put a point here.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Corpse Explosion~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Required Level: 6Effect: Destroy enemy corpses to deal damage to everyone nearby

This is the single best necromancer ability in the game. Corpse explosiondoes


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60%-100% of the health of the monster, which means that no matter how faryouare into the game, it will do massive damage. The problem lies in range- youneed lots of points to make it good.

However, despite requiring 20 points to be effective, every necro uses it;it deals dual fire/physical damage, which means that almost no enemy isimmuneto it completely, and with a couple of well-placed explosions, you candecimate entire hordes in no time flat.

No matter what your skill preference, corpse explosion can always be useful.Some people prefer not to max it, but no good summoner goes without it._ _ _

/ \/ \/ \

IVc. Curses###############Curses are an essential part to any necro build. Each curse has a use, andthey

can be used for different situations to make necros more versatile than eventhe paladin with his auras.

Curses generally are the same at level one as at level twenty. The radius ofthecurse may increase, or the length of time, but the MP cost never raises, andthe effects rarely change when you level up.

For this reason, it's ALWAYS one point into a curse- never more. +skills willtake care of the rest.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Amplify Damage~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Required Level: 1Effect: Lowers enemy defense

Such a simple definition for a curse that is actually much better than justasimple reduction of defense.

Curse actually lowers physical resistance by 100 percent. That means that anenemy with zero physical resistance will take double the damage. However,ampis even more valuable with enemies who DON'T have 0 percent resistance.

Let's say they are 50% resistant. Amplify damage will lower their resistance

to-50%, which will triple the damage that you would have normally done. Up itanotch to 75%, which changes to -25%, and your damage is five times as muchasit would have been.

It gets better still, though. Amplify damage removes immunties. You see, animmunity isn't simply a computer telling the game that the monster can'ttake


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damage. Immunity is where the monster has 100% or more resitance andthereforeis effectively immune.This means that unless the enemy is 200% resistant to physical damage, theuseof amplify damage will ALWAYS remove their immunity.

For the most simple curse, this is by far the most useful, ESPECIALLY forthe summoner, who can double, triple, or quintuple his minion damage withonlyone point.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Dim Vision~~~~~~~~~~~~~Required Level: 6Effect: lowers the sight radius of all enemies affected

Dim Vision is, at first glance, not much of a spell. Vision range reallydoesn't seem all that important. I mean really- how often do you worry about

your light radius on your character, right? For that reason, it's easy toblowoff Dim Vision and ignore it.

However, the use of the spell can be summed up in one word: archers. Most D2players will tell you that the most dangerous enemies in the game are theones who attack from a distance. Gloams are the infamous lightning castersinA5 who rip players in half on a regular basis. However, with dim vision youcan stop the gloams from even seeing you, which can give you an opportunityto pick off the other enemies before focusing on them.

It really is an often underrated spell that is very useful when usedproperly.

~~~~~~~~~~Weaken~~~~~~~~~~Required Level: 6Effect: Lower the damage that enemies do

This spell isn't very useful to you. It lowers damage that the enemy does bya small amount, but 98.6% of the people who get weaken are going toeventuallyget decrepify, which is FAR better than weaken is.

(By the way, did you know that 56.4% of all statistics are made up?)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Iron Maiden~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Required Level: 12Effect: Send damage back to foes at multiples of the damage dealt to you

A very useful curse in parties of melee units. You can quickly deal backsomefairly significant damage.


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... At least, that's true in normal difficulty. In nightmare and hell, thecurse is nigh on useless. As I said when discussing blood golems, ironmaidensimply doesn't dish out enough damage for the high HP amounts that themonstershave in Nightmare and Hell. Put a point into it for early on, but you're notlikely to ever use it past normal.

~~~~~~~~~~Terror~~~~~~~~~~Required Level: 12Effect: Send your enemies running in terror

Effective at removing your enemies from around you, this curse can be VERYuseful for those of us who are more defensive. Sending your foes runningawayin terror can be good if you need a break; just remember that it doesn'tlast

forever.

It doesn't work on champions, super uniques, bosses or players. Learn toeffectively use this spell and it will save you more than once.

~~~~~~~~~~~~Life Tap~~~~~~~~~~~~Required Level: 18Effect: Suck the life out of your foes

VERY useful skill. For every point of damage you inflict, you recieve 50%backto your own health. The reason for this invaluability is for the summoner;a summoner can unleash a group of skeletons upon the foe and the skeletonswillheal back the damage that they deal. It's very similar to the bloodgolem/ironmaiden combo, only this one happens to be much more effective (it's used inchaos tristram.)

If you have melee classes playing alongside you, using this curse will makeyoua very popular guy, indeed.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~Decrepify~~

~~~~~~~~~~~Required Level: 24Effect: Make monsters weaker all around

Considered to be the most all-round useful curse that the necromancerhas in his arsenal. It slows down the monster, lowers the defense ANDattack.It's an ideal boss spell, as it leaves bosses prone to lots of attacks.In conjunction with a clay golem, it can make bosses slow down to an uttersnail's pace. Add on that their damage is reduced and their defense lowered,


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and this is a total boss killer.

When in doubt, decrepify them all!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Lower Resist~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Required Level: 30Effect: Lower the resistance of your enemies

A definite crowd pleaser, this is conviction in curse form. While not quiteas powerful, this curse can be devastatingly useful in a group ofsorceresses.Seeing as it seems like 85% of the players these days are using a sorc, thiscurse makes a lot of sense.

_ _ _/ \/ \/ \\_/\_/\_/

V. SKILL ALLOCATION@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@

First, let's get the list of skills out of the way. From there, we can diginto what to choose, and why.

There are a total of 110 points that can be spent in the course of the game.However, giving the realistic expectation that you will never reach level 99,most players assume 95 skill points instead, which gets you all the way tolevel 84. Your distribution, with that assumption, should look like this:

Raise Skeleton 20Skeleton Mastery 20Corpse Explosion 20Skeleton Mage 1-16Clay Golem 1-16Golem Mastery 1Blood Golem 1Iron Golem 1Revive 1Summon Resist 5Amplify Damage 1Dim Vision 1Weaken 1Iron Maiden 1Terror 1

Life Tap 1Decrepify 1Lower Resist 1Teeth 1

TOTAL: 95

Raise Skeleton and Skeleton Mastery are a given- without those two you aren'tgoing to be much of a summoner! Points into each of the summoning skills isalso a given- we need a golem, we need some mages, and we need revives.Revives are a one-point wonder; you'll be wearing lots of +Skills with this


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build and you'll receive plenty of bonuses from that. Summon Resist, as wasmentioned before, is a skill that has diminishing returns with more and morepoints, and so five is generally the recommended amount. And finally, we takethe curses that we want (generally every curse but confuse and attract) andplace one point into each of them. And since we'll use Corpse Explosion, youneed a point in teeth. So far we've used only 60 points. That meanswe have 35 more to use. How to best use them?

First, I recommend 20 points into Corpse Explosion. This spell really does alot of damage when you use it, and once you've killed one monster, it startsa sort of chain reaction where each new corpse explosion kills anothermonster,which in turn leads to another corpse explosion, and before you know it theentire group of monsters is gone.

Now, it's easy to write off putting points into CE as irrelevant when youlook at the numbers. The difference in the explosion's radius between level10and 20 is only 3.4 yards. When you've already got 5.6 yards, that doesn'tseem

like much of a change.

However, there are two points against this argument. First of all, 5.6 yardsisn't all that large, and the more range you can get out of this spell, themore it can take advantage of the riduculous damage it does. Secondly, youhaveto look at it in terms of total area, not radius. For those of you whoare not math oriented, let's dust off our geometry textbook and look at Area.The area of a circle is calculated as Pi (3.14) * radius squared. So witha level 10 CE, your total area is 3.14 * 5.6^2, or about 99 square yards.With a level 20 CE, the total area increases to 254 square yards, over twiceas big. Suddenly we see that the increase is much better than we hadoriginallythought, and there's a good reason to put all 20 points there.

That leaves us with 15 points to spend. Where to spend them? This issomethingthat is completely up to you and depends on you and your playing style.However,there are two schools of thought on this one. The first school is to pumpup skeleton mages, while the other is to pump the clay golem. Both sides havetheir merits, so let's look at each one.

Skeleton Mages are the natural fit for a summoner. First, it's moreskeletons,which only helps your horde look all the more impressive. Second, theyprovide

non-physical damage to your team that can help with the physically immunemonsters that you run into. With fire, ice, poison AND lightning skeletons,youcan really diversify your mages so that you face no enemy that's completelyimmune to your attacks.

The problem with skeleton mages is in the damage they deal. While it's*decent*elemental damage, it doesn't hold a candle to the damage of your regularskeletons. They'll be sitting in the back picking away at the enemies at a


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VERY slow rate. Still, the best argument I've heard for using skeleton magesis "Why not? What else are you going to invest your skills in?"

Enter the Clay Golem. With high HP and a chance to slow the target, claygolems are a distraction, pure and simple. Take everything you know aboutthe Grizzly Bear for a wind druid and amplify it. The Clay golem is designedto absorb damage and to keep the enemies focused on itself rather than onsomething else. As an added bonus, it slows down your enemies, which makes ittougher for the enemies to kill both you and your minions.

As you add points to Clay Golem, you increase both its HP and the chance thatit has to slow an enemy down. With one point, that chance is 11%, and withtheextra 15 points, you increase that chance to 60%! It's life also rockets upfrom ~350 in hell to over 2,000.

However, as with other skills the necro has, the returns of pumping claygolemdiminish hugely as your skills increase, and a player with lots of +skillsequipment may actually do themselves a disservice by pumping this skill. The

mana costs jump in a huge way when you get past level 20 while the returnsareminimal. Sure, the golem has a lot more HP, but to be honest it has enough asit is. In addition, the chance to slow target at level 35 is only 68% vs. the60% it was at level 16, so you're not improving on much with those extra 19levels.

My ultimate recommendation is that equipment-poor players should add thosepoints to clay golem, while more wealthy players should opt for skeletonmages.A wealthier player would equip his mercenary with infinity anyway, which willonly make your mages better.Whichever you choose, keep using mages and the clay golem regardless. Even ifyour mages/golem are weak, having them on the field beats not having themthere.

One thing I considered was golem mastery, but it's not worth putting morethana single point into this skill, because while it keeps mana costs down, itprovides less HP and the chance to slow target does not increase. So if youdecide to use the clay golem, your best bet is to stick with increasing theclay golem skill, not golem mastery.

NOW, there is the matter of skill points after you hit level 84. Technicallythere are 15 more skill points that you could spend, and I need to at leastexplain how you would do that. There's also 4 potential points that you cansave once you have good equipment: only put one point in summon resist. With

good equipment, your +skills are incredibly high and that means that yoursummon resist will be high. As we mentioned before, it's got diminishingreturnsand so the difference between having one and five in the skill is negligable.So in reality, at the end of the game you can have 19 skills to allocate.Whatto do with them?

First, go ahead and max skeleton mages to get the most out of your mages.After


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that, it's really up to you. A point in bone armor and then pumping bone wallwill give you another obstacle to distract enemies, but more importantly youcan create a pretty useful bone armor that will absorb a few hundred damage.The other option is to put points into golem mastery. I know, I said ignoregolem mastery earlier, but that was in a different situation, where you didnothave good gear. If you do have good gear, your clay golem will already be ahigh enough level that you'll be getting to that threshold where it's justneedless increasing the MP cost of the golem. Increasing golem mastery letsyoupump the golem's HP while keeping the MP cost as low as possible.

So with good gear, your theoretical skill allocation at level 99 would be:

Raise Skeleton 20Skeleton Mastery 20Corpse Explosion 20Skeleton Mage 20Clay Golem 1Blood Golem 1

Iron Golem 1Revive 1Summon Resist 1Amplify Damage 1Dim Vision 1Weaken 1Iron Maiden 1Terror 1Life Tap 1Decrepify 1Lower Resist 1Teeth 1Golem Mastery 1-16Bone Armor 0-1Bone Wall 0-15

TOTAL: 110

###########################

Now, when do you distribute them?

First of all, in version 1.13 you get the truly great ability to reset yourskills three times with each character, for free. Just complete the Den ofEviland ask Akara to do it for you. This means that if you want, you can pumpskills that may not be useful later and just reset your skills at a higherlevel to negate it. Having said that, the summoner never needs to do this, as

the spells he wants are available from the very beginning and should beutilized right away.

To start, put points into raise skeleton. You ultimately have to decide bothhowmuch mana you're willing to spend on each skeleton (raise skeleton increasesMPcost; skeleton mastery does not) and how many skeletons you want (raiseskeleton increases the number of skeletons; skeleton mastery does not.)


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Personally, I go for level 6 Raise Skeleton initially. That will bring you tofour skeletons, which is more than sufficient as your basic army. Next, get apoint into amplify damage, teeth and corpse explosion. From there, you candump all points into skeleton mastery. Get skeleton mastery to AT LEAST level15before touching raise skeleton again. Maxing it can't hurt, either. You see,skeleton mastery adds a fixed amount of damage to your skeletons, while raiseskeletons adds percentage. Therefore, skeleton mastery is more beneficialearlyon, but when you have level 15 or greater into mastery, raise skeleton beginsto yield much better returns. While another 10 damage per level doesn't seemlike a lot, take into account that you have 8 or 9 skeletons, and thatamplifydamage doubles that.

Now, there's the matter of clay golem, golem mastery and decrepify. Whileyou'rebusy maxing your skeletons, you also need to make sure to get these skills aswell. The most important thing is that you have these skills by the time youget

to the end of Act 4. Diablo, the Act 4 boss, is the single toughest enemy fora summoner and his spells wipe out your entire horde in virtually an instant.To combat this, you need to slow him down using a combination of decrepifyandthe clay golem's slowing ability. You could also put a point into skeletonmages if you want- get a cold mage and let the cold effect slow Diablo down.However, you may prefer to wait; put that point into the regular skeletonsto beef them up. Hire an Act 1 Mercenary with cold arrows instead.

At this point you can finish leveling raise skeleton and skeleton mastery.Once your skeletons are taken care of, quickly get revive, attract and lowerresist. That should put you into your 40s, which means you'll be midwaythroughNightmare. I recommend putting your points into summon resist at this point.From there, max corpse explosion. As you're probably noticing, summoning isboth boring and is starting to get a little slower (that is, things are notdying quite as fast as they used to.) Corpse Explosion's increased range willhelp your necro to kill more enemies faster.

And then finally, as you finish maxing that you'll probably be entering hellmode. As we said before, it's up to you what skill you choose to max next.Youget plenty of time to do that as you work your way through hell. Then...well,that's all there is to it!_ _ _/ \/ \/ \

\_/\_/\_/

VI. STATS@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@Your Necro has four stats to consider: Strength, Vitality, Energy andDexterity.

\ /\ /Strength


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/ \/ \While is used to determine damage, that really doesn't matter fora summoner. Instead, strength only serves one purpose- to allow yourself toequip the items you want to equip.

Your strength is based on how good your equipment is. The highest strengththatyou will ever need is 156, for a monarch shield with the spirit runeword. Andif you don't have spirit, it's only 118 if you decide to wear Marrowalkboots. And with neither one, the requirement is even lower! Base whatstrengthyou need on what you have- you may find you don't very much strength at all!

\ / \ /Dexterity/ \ / \Dexterity is a matter of preference; the homunuculus shield for necros has ablock rate of 72%. Due to this detail, max block is quite obtainable. On theother hand, why do you want it? You're not fighting and using your block: thenecro sits in the back and avoids combat whenever possible. That's the whole

point of a summoner.

Personally, I wouldn't bother, but if you want to, put in as much dexterityasyou need for max block with the homunuculus (if you don't have homun, DON'TBOTHER.) I'll leave you to look up the amount of dexterity for that yourself.

\ /\ /Vitality/ \/ \The most important of the stats- place every extra point into vitality. Partofthe reason is that there's no reason to place points elsewhere, but the otherreason is that when you consider that a summoner loses every summon hecreateswhen he dies, dying becomes a pain in the ass; the less you die, the less youhave to rebuild your army.

\ /\ /Energy/ \/ \NO POINTS IN ENERGY. Summoners don't use much mana once their minions arecreated, so you have no good reason to get energy. Any mana you need willcome from equipment._ _ _/ \/ \/ \\_/\_/\_/

VII. EQUIPMENT###############Summoners have very few needs, really. Because they don't often get into thebattle, equipment to benefit your summoner isn't vital. The skills you maywantto consider:

+Skills -Single most important stat; go for this before all else.+Resist -Due to your distance from the battle, elemental damage is the most


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dangerous enemy of the summoner. As a result, resists are yoursavior.+Life -In the same way, the more health you have, the more durable you'llbe.+FHR -Faster Hit Recovery is important for when you're stupid and getcaught

in a mob. With no means to fight back, you need to get out ASAP, andto that end, FHR is important. However, a good necro should never

runinto this problem, so I generally ignore this in my equips.

+Mana -In some ways, +mana isn't necessary because once your army is builtyour mana demands should be small. However, liberal use of CorpseExplosion can take a toll on your mana, and for people who don't

wantto chug mana potions, this can be useful.

+Stats -Not particularly important, but early on when you don't have manyoptions, look for items that provide +strength, vitality or energy.The more +strength you have, the less strength you need to invest

in,letting you invest in vitality. And of course, +vitality and +energy

provide more life and mana, respectively.

Because the demands are so simple, you really don't need to focus on nicerareswith amazing mods; simple uniques will do. Runewords also provide some prettynice bonuses for your necromancer.

For each piece of weapon and/or armor, I'll list a few options, and you candecide (based on your personal wealth) what's in your price range and whatwillwork best for you. For every item that I recommend, I'll put a ** next to thename. From there, I will list them from most to least useful.

******************************************************************************** VIIA. HELMET********************************************************************************

/**Harlequin Crest (unique shako)\Required Level: 62/Required Strength: 50\+2 To All Skills/+ 1-148 To Life (Based On Character Level)\+ 1-148 To Mana (Based On Character Level)/Damage Reduced By 10%

\50% Better Chance of Getting Magic Items/+2 To All Attributes

This helm is pretty easy to obtain online, and does wonders for your necro.Ithits almost all of the things that we want- life, mana, +skills. The DamageReduction is also never a bad thing, and will only help to augment thenecro'sdurability.


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If you can afford it, socket the helmet and add and um to make it thetrifectaof all helmets.

/Rare Circlet\Various Stats

A circlet can carry all kinds of stats at one time, including +2 tonecromancerskills, +2 to summoning skills, +life, +mana, +FHR, +resists... theoreticallyyou could get a circlet with all of those things, and if you manage to get acirclet with even just 2 necro skills and 2 summoning skills, it may be worthgrabbing just because it pushes your skeletons that much further towardsexcellence. I prefer the harlequin crest because I'm a fan of that life/manaboost, but of course a circlet could have those mods on it.Ultimately circlets are a good place to start if you don't have much to yourname yet; a +2 necro skills circlet can be found fairly easily in Hell, andifyou find one with +2 of another class, you can probably trade for a necroone.

\Delirium (3 Socket Helms) Lem+Ist+Io/1% Chance To Cast Level 50 Delirium* (morph) When Struck\6% Chance To Cast Level 14 Mind Blast When Struck/14% Chance To Cast Level 13 Terror When Struck\11% Chance To Cast Level 18 Confuse On Striking/+2 To All Skills\+261 Defense/+10 To Vitality\50% Extra Gold From Monsters/25% Better Chance of Getting Magic Items\Level 17 Attract (60 Charges)

Delirium has a lot of pretty unique mods on it. The +2 skills obviouslystandsout immediately, but there are several "when struck" abilities that are kindof nice for a necro to have. In particular, the chance to cast terror is veryuseful for you- if an enemy hits you, there's a chance that they'll allrun away, providing you with some further protection. Extra vitality alsohelps quite a bit.One of the nice things about Delirium is that all three runes, while rare,arenot hard for you to find. Even Ist can be obtained both from the hellforge inthe River of Flame and from the countess (the countess always drops at leastone rune, and that rune can be as high as an ist, at levels MUCH more commonthan other monsters). So while I'd rather have a Shako myself (which is worthless than an Ist, for whatever that's worth), the delirium helm provides an

alternative for those without the means to collect uniques, especially singleplayer.

\Peasant Crown (unique war hat)/Required Level: 28\Required Strength: 20/+100% Enhanced Defense\+1 To All Skills/15% Faster Run/Walk\Replenish Life +6-12


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/+20 To Energy\+20 To Vitality

A poor man's harlequin crest, the peasant crown has most of the same bonuses-+Skills, life and mana. It's much easier to get one of these things, so aimfor this early on to give yourself some nice, well-rounded bonuses.

\Undead Crown (unique crown)/Required Level: 29\Required Strength: 55/+30-60% Enhanced Defense\+50% Damage Vs. Undead/+50-100 Attack Rating Vs. Undead\Half Freeze Duration/5% Life Stolen Per Hit\Poison Resist +50%/+40 Defense\+3 To Skeleton Mastery (Necromancer Only)

This is a helm that may be kind of hard to find, if only because I can't

imaginemany people keep these things. However, the +3 skeleton mastery is reallyhelpful for a summoner. It lacks any other good mods, but for a level 29necromancer, you get what you can find, and +3 skeleton mastery is about asgood of a helmet as you can find, most times.

\Lore (2 Socket Helms) Ort+Sol/+1 To All Skill Levels\+10 To Energy/+2 To Mana After Each Kill\Lightning Resist +30%/Damage Reduced By 7\+2 To Light Radius

Lore is a very simple helmet to get, which is why it makes the list. Ifyou'replaying offline, it can be tough for a low-leveled summoner to get uniques,but getting ort and sol should be VERY simple. +1 skills and +10 energy makethis helm a solid choice for a poor necromancer. It's not as good as theotherhelms on this list, but it's great for a necro on a budget, or one withoutthemeans to get ready access to uniques.******************************************************************************** VIIB. ARMOR**

******************************************************************************

Armor has a tendency to be the most expensive part of the build, because manyruneword armors are incredibly useful for a summoning necromancer. However,once I've listed the expensive runewords, I'll have some more affordablearmor.

\**Enigma (3 Socket Body Armor) Jah+Ith+Ber/+2 To All Skills


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\+45% Faster Run/Walk/+1 To Teleport\+750-775 Defense/++0-74 To Strength (Based On Character Level)\Increase Maximum Life 5%/Damage Reduced By 8%\+14 Life After Each Kill/15% Damage Taken Goes To Mana\+1-99% Better Chance of Getting Magic Items (Based On Character Level)

The stats on Enigma are fine; +2 skills, damage reduction, strength... butreally, all we care about is teleport. With well over 20 minions runningaround,the necromancer's horde can be VERY chaotic, with skeletons all over theplacegoing who knows where. This makes sending your mob after particular enemiesrather difficult. Enter enigma. With this equipped, you can teleportsomewhere,which immediately brings ALL of your minions directly to your side. Withthis,

you can teleport up to an enemy and your horde will all immediately lock onand,in all likelihood, slaughter the enemy.Other armors have better stats for your necromancer, but the simple use ofteleport outweighs the rest.

\Chains of Honor (4 Socket Body Armor) Dol+Um+Ber+Ist/+2 To All Skills\+200% Damage To Demons/+100% Damage To Undead\8% Life Stolen Per Hit/+70% Enhanced Defense\+20 To Strength/Replenish Life +7\All Resistances +65/Damage Reduced By 8%\25% Better Chance of Getting Magic Items

+2 skills, +65 to all resists, 8% damage reduction... this armor has it all.CoH is actually one of my favorite armors in general, regardless of theclass.However, it doesn't have teleport. While it's not quite as expensive asenigma,it's pretty darn close, and you might as well go the extra step and getenigmafor the ability to teleport.

\Bone (3 Socket Body Armor) Sol+Um+Um/15% Chance To Cast level 10 Bone Armor When Struck\15% Chance To Cast level 10 Bone Spear On Striking/+2 To Necromancer Skill Levels\+100-150 To Mana/All Resistances +30\Damage Reduced By 7

Essentially a lesser, more affordable Chains of Honor. Lots of resists, +2


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to necro skills and a bunch of mana gives you a great mid-level armor. TwoUmscan be kind of hard to come by, but certainly easier than Um, Ber and Ist!

\Skin of the Vipermagi (unique serpentskin armor)/Required Level: 29\Required Strength: 43/+120% Enhanced Defense\+1 To All Skills/30% Faster Cast Rate\Magic Damage Reduced By 9-13/All Resistances +20-35

And yet again we take a step down- resists are typically lower, and the+skillsare not as high. While this armor is great on characters where Faster CastRateis important, it's not important to you, so it hardly matters. However, theresist/skill combo is hard to pass up if you don't have one of the aboverunewords.

\Trang-Oul's Scales (set Chaos Armor)/Required Level: 49\Required Strength: 84/+150% Enhanced Defense\Requirements -40%/40% Faster Run/Walk\Poison Resist +40%/+100 Defense vs. Missile\+2 To Summoning Skills (Necromancer Only)

Really we're only looking at this thing because of the +2 summoning skills.However, that does count for something all on its own. It also provides 40%run/walk, which makes you a lot faster than you would initially think. Otherthan that, it's a pretty forgettable piece of armor.

\Smoke (2 Socket Body Armor) Nef+Lum/+75% Enhanced Defense\+280 Defense Vs. Missile/All Resistances +50\20% Faster Hit Recovery/Level 6 Weaken (18 Charges)\+10 To Energy/-1 To Light Radius

For two very low runes, you get +50 resistances and 20% FHR, along with anenergy boost. Obviously this is not an end-game armor, but the value is HUGE

for a low-leveled necromancer that's just getting started; 50 resists can doa lot for you when you're in normal and even into nightmare.

\Lionheart (3 Socket Body Armor) Hel+Lum+Fal/+20% Enhanced Damage\Requirements -15%/+25 To Strength\+10 To Energy/+20 To Vitality\+15 To Dexterity


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/+50 To Life\All Resistances +30

The requirements on this armor are higher than smoke which is why it's at thebottom of my list. However, the bonuses to all of your attributes is verywelcome, as is the straight life boost and the +30 resists. This is betterthan any random magic/rare armor you're going to find- that much is certain.

******************************************************************************** VIIC. GLOVES********************************************************************************

As a whole, gloves tend to be the least important piece of equipment fora summoner. The reason for this is that most classes use gloves to eitherincrease their attack/casting speed, or in the case of melee classes, glovesprovide some of the primary means for leeching life. A summoner needs none ofthese things, so what is best for you is really simple- find gloves that

providelife and/or mana. Now there are a couple of uniques worth mentioning, butfirstlet's look at crafting some gloves. If you want life, you'll be craftingBloodGloves, while mana seekers will craft Caster Gloves. While uniques arebetter,crafting is easy and can be done the moment you get the Horardric Cube, anda decent set of crafted gloves will carry you all the way until you get thebestpairs.

For Blood Gloves, combine a set of MAGIC heavy leather, sharkskin orvampirebonegloves (it must be one of those three) with a Nef Rune, a Perfect Ruby,and any jewel. Blood gloves will provide 10-20 life, along with a randomassortment of bonuses that gloves can give, including up to 40 mana.On the opposite side, caster gloves require you to take a set of MAGICleather,demonhide or bramble gloves and combine it with an Ort Rune, a PerfectAmethystand any jewel. Caster gloves provide 10-20 mana and 1-4% mana regeneration inaddition to the bonuses that gloves can already get; theoretically you couldget up to 60 mana from your gloves, which is a nice bonus!

As for unique/set gloves to get:

\**Bloodfist (unique heavy gloves)/Required Level: 9\+10-20% Enhanced Defense/+10 Defense\+10% Increased Attack Speed/+30% Faster Hit Recovery\+40 To Life/+5 To Min Damage


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These are my favorite gloves because they provide a large life boost alongwitha bunch of Faster Hit Recovery. I also typically don't need a lot of mana, sothe bonuses that most of these other gloves provide do not do much for me.It's also a consistent, large life boost when compared with the 10-20 thatblood gloves provide.

\Sander's Taboo (set heavy gloves)/Required Level: 28\Adds 9-11 Poison Damage Over 3 Seconds/+20-25 Defense\+40 To Life/+20% Increased Attack Speed

Weaker bloodfists; easier to find, but completely inferior- get bloodfists ifyou're going for an all-life set of gloves.

\Frostburn (Unique Guantlets)/Defense: 47-49\+10-20% Enhanced Defense

/+30 Defense\+5% Enhanced Damage/Maximum Mana 40%\Adds 1-6 Cold Damage, Cold Duration: 2 Seconds

These gauntlets are straightforward in their purpose: straight mana boost.The40% boost is HUGE, and will go a long way towards helping your mana out.However, that's all frostburn has, and it's not all that exciting. For thesummoner who wants mana all the way, go with frostburn.

\Magefist (unique light guantlets)/Defense: 24-25\+20-30% Enhanced Defense/+10 Defense\+1 To Fire Skills/20% Faster Cast Rate\Regenerate Mana 25%/Adds 1-6 Fire Damage

This pair of gloves does two things. First, the mana regeneration helps withthat mana problem mentioned earlier. Second, +1 fire skills will provide abonusto corpse explosion, which is technically a fire attack. These gloves areuniquefrom all other gloves the necro uses because they *almost* provide some+skills

for him to use. Still, I find the mana/life bonus more important- CorpseExplosion really doesn't benefit much from a +1 bonus, as it's deadly enoughalready.

******************************************************************************** VIID. BELT********************************************************************************


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As with gloves, you could try crafting a caster or blood belt for theguaranteedlife/mana bonuses that they grant. Where gloves can provide prettysignificantmana bonuses, belts can provide a huge life boost (up to 80 on a blood belt!)

The recipe for a caster belt is a MAGIC Light, Sharkskin or Vampirefang Belt,one ith rune, one perfect amethyst, and any jewel.For a blood belt, you need a MAGIC, Belt, Mesh Belt or Mithril Coil, alongwitha Tal Rune, a Perfect Ruby, and any jewel.

Make sure to use at least an exceptional belt so that get the maximum amountofbelt boxes possible!

\**Arachnid's Mesh (unique spiderweb sash)/Required Level: 80\Required Strength: 50

/+90-120% Enhanced Defense\Slows Target By 10%/+1 To All Skills\+20% Faster Cast Rate/Increases Maximum Mana 5%\Level 3 Venom (11 Charges)

This belt is expensive and has a VERY high level requirement, but it's theonly belt in Diablo 2 to offer a +skill. The other skills are prettyunimportantto you, but as I said in the beginning, having some +skills is always yourtoppriority.

\Trang-Oul's Girth (set troll belt)/Required Level: 62\Required Strength: 91/+75-100 Defense\Requirements -40%/Cannot Be Frozen\Replenish Life +5/+25-50 To Mana\+30 Maximum Stamina/+66 To Life

This belt provides three great mods: Cannot be Frozen, +life, and +mana. Iwould

actually recommend this belt over Arachnid's Mesh if you haven't got cannotbe frozen somewhere else on your person. Just a great belt all around.

Credendum (set mithril coil)Required Level: 65Required Strength: 106+50 DefenseAll Resistances +15+10 To Dexterity+10 To Strength


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Not a particularly exciting belt, but it provides +15 to all resists, and thestrength/dexterity bonus will help a bit with equipping everything that youwant to equip. Not particularly useful, though- probably better off getting acrafted belt unless you really need the resists.

******************************************************************************** VIIE. BOOTS********************************************************************************

Boots round out the secondary armor, and as with the belt and gloves, youcan't really expect too much from them, and so crafting a pair might be agoodidea. As a matter of fact, crafted and/or rare boots are the best option foryou.

\**Rare/Crafted Boots

/Various Stats

Boots can come with 31-40% resist of all four elements, and so a lucky personcould conceivably craft a set of boots with 31-40% resist all, along with a30%faster run/walk bonus. Throw a mana/life boost into the mix, and these workbetter than any of the unique/set boots you can find. Of course, it may takeMANY tries to successfully craft a set of boots with those stats. It's worththe effort, though.

\Marrowalk (unique boneweave boots)/Defense: 183-204\+170-200% Enhanced Defense/+20% Faster Run/Walk\+1-2 To Skeleton Mastery (Necromancer Only)/+10-20 To Strength\+17 To Dexterity/Regenerate Mana 10%\Heal Stamina Plus 10%/Half Freeze Duration\Level 33 Bone Prison (13 Charges)/Level 12 Life Tap (10 Charges)

A pretty useful set of boots with nice all-around bonuses. The strength bonusis always nice, and the mana regeneration is useful (see Magefists). However,what makes marrowalk boots great is the boost to skeleton mastery. LikeArachnid's Mesh, no other boots provide this bonus, so it's very useful if

onlyfor that.

\Aldur's Advance (set battle boots)/Required Level: 45\Required Strength: 95/Indestructible\40% Faster Run/Walk/+180 Maximum Stamina\10% Damage Taken Goes To Mana


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/Heal Stamina Plus +32%\+50 To Life/Fire Resist +40-50%

+life, huge fire resist and one of the highest faster run/walk of any boots,these are a solid choice for anyone. You don't think about Faster R/W untilyouget it, and believe me- it makes a noticeable difference.(IK boots provide the same R/W and nearly the same life bonus, so they workasan inferior version of these- worth looking into)

\Waterwalk (unique sharkskin boots)/Required Level: 32\Required Strength: 47/+180-210% Enhanced Defense\20% Faster Run/Walk/+100 Defense Vs. Missile\+15 To Dexterity/+5% Maximum Fire Resist

\Heal Stamina Plus 50%/+40 Max Stamina\+45-65 To Life

About the only reason worth having these is the huge life boost. The rest ofthe stats are negligable. The extra fire resist is cool too, if your resistsare high enough to take advantage of it.

\Silkweave (unique mesh boots)/Required Level: 36\Required Strength: 65/+150-190% Enhanced Defense\30% Faster Run/Walk/+5 To Mana After Each Kill\Increase Maximum Mana 10%/+200 Defense VS. Missile

Where Waterwalk boots give lots of life, these give a big mana boost. Andlikethe Waterwalk, that's all they do, and it's probably not worth searching forthem just for that.

******************************************************************************** VIIF. WEAPON*******************************************************************************

*

Your weapon can make a VERY significant difference in how you perform. Rightfrom the beginning, finding a strong wand is an important part of everysummoner's life. Grab a +Raise Skeleton and +Skeleton Mastery wand ASAP- youshould easily be able to find a wand with +2 in both if you just shop atAkarafor a bit.

Past a wand like that, the weapon of choice for a summoner can vary wildly


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depending on what your wealth is and what you're looking to achieve. As we'lldiscuss, the best weapon doesn't provide many useful mods at all, but one modon its own outweighs every other weapon you could choose.

\**Beast (5 socket axes/scepters/hammers) Ber+Tir+Um+Mal+Lum/Level 9 Fanaticism Aura When Equipped\+40% Increased Attack Speed/+240-270% Enhanced Damage\20% Chance of Crushing Blow/25% Chance of Open Wounds\+3 To Werebear/+3 To Lycanthropy\Prevent Monster Heal/+25-40 To Strength (varies)\+10 To Energy/+2 To Mana After Each Kill\Level 13 Summon Grizzly (5 Charges)

As with enigma, this weapon has pretty ordinary mods. Great modifiers fora werebear sorceress, but for the most part, the summoning necromancer gets

verylittle benefit from these things. However, as with enigma, there's only onemodifier that matters on this weapon: the level 9 Fanaticism Aura.Fanaticism provides damage, attrack rating and attack speed for yourskeletons.With these bonuses, your skeletons become noticeably more effective killingmachines, particularly since there's an AR boost to go with it.

\Arm of King Leoric (unique Tomb Wand)/Required Level: 42\+50% Damage To Undead/10% Chance To Cast Level 2 Bone Prison When Struck\5% Chance To Cast Level 10 Bone Spirit When Struck/+ 1-123 To Mana (Based On Character Level)\10% Faster Cast Rate/+2 To Terror (Necromancer Only)\+2 To Raise Skeletal Mage (Necromancer Only)/+3 To Skeleton Mastery (Necromancer Only)\+3 To Raise Skeleton (Necromancer Only)/+2 To Summoning Skills (Necromancer Only)\+2 To Poison And Bone Skills (Necromancer Only)

This is a great wand to keep in your inventory to equip when you're buildingyour army. There's a very nice mana bonus (helpful for the high mana cost foryour skeletons), and of course the HUGE +skills of skeletons is just awesome.However, there's nothing else to this wand, and so once your army is built,equipping something else is highly recommended.

\Heart of the Oak (4 Socket Staves/Maces) Ko+Vex+Pul+Thul/+3 To All Skills\+40% Faster Cast Rate/+75% Damage To Demons\+100 To Attack Rating Against Demons/Adds 3-14 Cold Damage, 3 sec. Duration\7% Mana Stolen Per Hit/+10 To Dexterity\Replenish Life +20


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/Increase Maximum Mana 15%\All Resistances +30-40/Level 4 Oak Sage (25 Charges)\Level 14 Raven (60 Charges)/+50% Damage To Undead

This is the classic "caster" weapon. The 40% faster cast rate and +3 skillsisfantastic for classes that need to hit a FCR breakpoint. However, you don'tneedany FCR in this build, and so while the resists are nice and the +skills arecertainly great, Heart of the Oak is awfully expensive and really isn't worthit sometimes.Summoners who make liberal use of teleport swear by this, but you'll needto consult another guide beyond this one if you intend to do that.

\Spirit (4 Socket Swords/Shields) Tal+Thul+Ort+Amn/+2 To All Skills\+25-35% Faster Cast Rate/+55% Faster Hit Recovery

\Adds 1-50 Lightning Damage/Adds 3-14 Cold Damage 3 Second Duration\+75 Poison Damage Over 5 Seconds/7% Life Stolen Per Hit\+250 Defense Vs. Missile/+22 To Vitality\+89-112 To Mana/+3-8 Magic Absorb

Generally speaking, if you don't have one of the above weapons, just get aspirit sword instead. Lots of Faster Hit Recovery, +2 skills and a bunch oflife and mana. It's also incredibly easy to get one- just find a broad swordwith four sockets, which can be picked up as early as Nightmare mode. A +2raise skeleton wand is more than enough to hold you over to that point, andfrom here a spirit sword is really all you need until you can get one of thebest weapons.

******************************************************************************** VIIG. SHIELD********************************************************************************

\Rare Necro Shield/Various Stats

The necromancer's unique shield comes with innate +skills attached to it ontop of the mods that can come from it being rare, which means you can get +3raise skeleton, +3 skeleton mastery, and THEN get +2 to necromancer skillsand summoning skills.And as with the circlets, you can also get other mods you like such asresists,life, mana, etc.Like with the rare circlet, this is a fairly simple thing to look for- justpick up any and all rares that you find and see what the stats are. And like


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the circlet, there are other options that are easier to obtain, so youprobablywon't even bother with these.

\**Homunuculus (Unique Heirophant Trophy)/Required Level: 42\Required Strength: 58/Chance To Block: 72%\+150-200% Enhanced Defense/+5 To Mana After Each Kill\40% Increased Chance of Blocking/30% Faster Block Rate\+2 To Necromancer Skill Levels/+20 To Energy\Regenerate Mana 33%/All Resistances +40\+2 To Curses Skills (Necromancer Only)

Solid all-around shield. Mana regen, +20 energy, +2 to necro skills, andresists

to all give a very nice set of skills for any necromancer.Between this and the Spirit shield, it's ultimatley up to you what youchoose.I personally prefer the Homunuculus because there's a nifty +2 curses, alongwith better resists. However, Spirit offers more mana and a BUNCH of FHR, soyou really can pick based on your needs.

\Spirit (4 Socket Swords/Shields) Tal+Thul+Ort+Amn/+2 To All Skills\+25-35% Faster Cast Rate/+55% Faster Hit Recovery\+250 Defense Vs. Missile/+22 To Vitality\+89-112 To Mana/Cold Resist +35%\Lightning Resist +35%/Poison Resist +35%\+3-8 Magic Absorb/Attacker Takes Damage of 14

As with the Spirit sword, this is an awesome piece of equipment and I highlyrecommend it for you as soon as you can get it. Of course, that may take awhile- it requires a 4-socket shield, which cannot be obtained until Hellmode,and then it's fairly difficult to find a monarch shield. However, with theshield in hand, the runes are easy to obtain.The strength requirement is pretty high, but good equipment will offset that.

This really is one of the best shields in Diablo 2- there's a reason that aspirit with 35% FCR is worth as much as an Enigma: everyone wants one.

\Boneflame (unique succubus skull)/Required Level: 72\Required Strength: 95/Chance To Block: 30%\(Necromancer Only)/+120-150% Enhanced Defense\+20% Faster Run/Walk


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/+2-3 To Necromancer Skill Levels\All Resistances +20-30/15% Chance To Cast Level 3 Terror When Struck

With the potential for +3 skills, boneflame is somewhat worth mentioning.However, that's about all it has going for it. Inferior resists and no manabonus make it less desirable than homunuculus and spirit, and it's also muchharder to find owing to the level requirement on it. If you have a good one,then great! You don't need to waste your time, though.

\Necromancer shield/Various stats

Just look for a necromancer head that provides +raise skeleton or +skeletonmastery. The more the better.

******************************************************************************** VIIH. JEWELRY**

******************************************************************************

\**Stone of Jordan (unique ring)/+1 To All Skill Levels\Increase Maximum Mana 25%/Adds 1-12 Lightning Damage\+20 To Mana

There's a reason the Stone of Jordan is so darned expensive! With a +skillanda mana boost, casters love this ring. You're no exception- your ultimate goalis to wield dual SoJs in order to take advantage of the +2 skills.

\Bul-Kathos' Wedding Band (unique ring)/+1 To All Skill Levels\+0-49 To Life (Based On Character Level)/3-5% Life Stolen Per Hit (varies)\+50 Maximum Stamina

Of course, this is an interesting alternative with its own merits as well.Extra life is something really important for a necro, just like extra mana.Plusthere's still that +1 skills modifier which is what is most important.

Ultimately when it comes to SoJ versus Bul-Kathos, use your judgment. Ifyou've

got 2 SoJ rings and find you've got more mana than you need, swap out for BK.I personally find you can never have enough mana, which is why I prefer SoJ.

\Rare Ring/Various Stats

Not much to this one, because there are no rares with +skills and thereforethere's no ring better than the two listed above. However, as you arebuildingwealth (SoJ and BK can be very expensive), find a ring with resist-all, as


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well as possibly some life and mana. Resists are the best thing for you,though- you can get some pretty good res-all on a rare ring.

#####################

\**Rare Amulet/Various Stats

As with all previous rare items, you can get some pretty amazing mods onan amulet that sweep the competition. You can get +2 necro skills, +2summoningskills, +20 resist all, +60 life and +20 energy all on one amulet! Clearlythiswould blow anything else out of the water. However... how the heck are yougoing to find one of those? It's possible, sure- I don't think I've ever seenone, though. In general, finding a +2 necro amulet with life/mana/resists ispretty solid and worth keeping. Having said that, perhaps Mara's Kaleidoscopeis also worth a look- expensive, but easier to come by than a perfect amulet!

\Mara's Kaleidoscope (unique amulet)

/+2 To All Skill Levels\All Resistances +20-30/+5 To All Attributes

Mara's Kaleidoscope is by far the most popular amulet for pretty mucheveryone.The +2 skills are the most appealing aspect, but of course the 20-30 resistsarealso incredibly appealing. The attributes are just window dressing, at thatpoint. You may not get the max +skills, but you get two very important statsinone nice package.

\Golemlord's Amulet/+3 Summoning Skills

Cheap, effective- a golemlord's amulet will provide a hefty summoning bonusand is easy to get._ _ _/ \/ \/ \\_/\_/\_/

VIII. MERCENARY@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@Act 2 mercenaries give auras that will affect your entire party... Is therereally any question? Use an act 2 mercenary!

The only viable option is the might mercenary, which is found in Nightmareandis the offensive mercenary. Might will increase the damage of all of yourskeletons, which is a crucial thing. Of course, before you get to nightmare,grab a normal offensive A2 mercenary for his Blessed Aim aura- while attackrating isn't as important as damage, it is nevertheless a useful effect.

Now, as for equipment.


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WEAPON++++++++In the past, I had always suggested equipping a Pride runeword. Theconcentration aura on top of the might aura and the fanaticism aura frombeast gives an unbelievable damage boost to your skeletons. However, afteractually testing it out, Pride made no sense. Pride causes your mercenaryto freeze the opponent, and since your mercenary is your strongest minion,he's going to do a fair bit of killing. A frozen enemy is an enemy who, whenkilled, leaves no corpse. That means no more skeletons, and no corpseexplosion.Terrible idea on my part, really.

Instead, I went with the conventional wisdom of Diablo 2 and picked out amuchnicer polearm for your mercenary- Infinity.

\**Infinity (4 Socket Polearms) Ber+Mal+Ber+Ist/50% Chance To Cast Level 20 Chain Lightning When You Kill An Enemy\Level 12 Conviction Aura When Equipped/+35% Faster Run/Walk

\+255-325% Enhanced Damage/-(45-55)% To Enemy Lightning Resistance\40% Chance of Crushing Blow/Prevent Monster Heal\0.5-49.5 To Vitality (Based on Character Level)/30% Better Chance of Getting Magic Items\Level 21 Cyclone Armor (30 Charges)

I realize this is a very expensive runeword; that's why it's the best,though.Infinity provides the mercenary with a bunch of good mods: faster run/walk,Prevent Monster Heal (very useful against champions and bosses) crushing blow(also good for bosses) and a life bonus. But as with any aura weapon, whatwe really like is that it adds an automatic conviction aura. Conviction istraditionally used with elemental characters such as a sorceress as it lowersthe resistance of all enemies to the elements, making them susceptible toyourspells. However, Infinity has an oft-ignored secondary feature: it lowersenemy defense. As a consequence, your skeletons will be much more capable ofhitting the enemies, which in turn means they will connect more often. Peoplepointed out to me that while pride may increase damage, this increase inchanceto hit will typically lead to more overall damage because the skeletons missless.

\Obedience (5 Socket Polearms) Hel+Ko+Thul+Eth+Fal/30% Chance To Cast Level 21 Enchant When You Kill An Enemy

\40% Faster Hit Recovery/+370% Enhanced Damage\-25% Target Defense/Adds 3-14 Cold Damage 3 Second Duration\-25% To Enemy Fire Resistance/40% Chance of Crushing Blow\+200-300 Defense/+10 To Strength\+10 To Dexterity/All Resistances +20-30


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\Requirements -20%

A very much overlooked runeword, Obedience provides some of the bestmercenarymods available. A HUGE damage bonus, a large chance of crushing blow, extraresists, and a chance to cast level 21 enchant, which increases the damageand has an enormous effect on your merc's attack rating.The only reason I would recommend infinity over this one is because of thefactthat it helps out all of your minions- this is one of my go-to runewords forany other mercenaries, particularly because none of the runes are all thatdifficult to get; all can be obtained from the hellforge in nightmare.

\Insight (4 Socket Polearms/Staves) Ral+Tir+Tal+Sol/Level 12-17 Meditation Aura When Equipped\+35% Faster Cast Rate/+200-260% Enhanced Damage\+9 To Minimum Damage/180-250% Bonus to Attack Rating\Adds 5-30 Fire Damage

/+75 Poison Damage Over 5 Seconds\+1-6 To Critical Strike/+5 To All Attributes\+2 To Mana After Each Kill/23% Better Chance of Getting Magic Items

Insight is the staple runeword of most mercenaries in Diablo 2. You can getitearly on by finding a 4 open-socket Voulge, and the runes are not hard toget,with sol being an easy find late in normal and early in nightmare(particularlyat the countess in nightmare). The damage bonus is great for an earlypolearm,and of course insight provides you with a great source of mana, which can bea frustrating point for any character before they start collecting goodequipment with mana bonuses built in.

ARMOR+++++++++Another weird (somewhat stupid) choice on my part in prior editions: I alwayswent with Guardian Angel due to a mercenary's natural resists. Of course,whatI failed to recognize was that while a mercenary does get natural resists,theynever get to 90, which makes guardian angel totally worthless.So instead, here are a few of the popular armors that people use.

\**Fortitude (4 Socket Weapons/Body Armor) El+Sol+Dol+Lo/20% Chance To Cast Level 15 Chilling Armor when Struck\+25% Faster Cast Rate/+300% Enhanced Damage\+200% Enhanced Defense/+15 Defense\+1-148 To Life (Based on Character Level)/Replenish Life +7\+5% To Maximum Lightning Resist


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/All Resistances +25-30\Damage Reduced By 7/12% Damage Taken Goes To Mana\+1 To Light Radius

Fortitude is an awesome armor for melee characters in general. Defense bonus,life bonus, resist bonus, and then a 300% enhanced damage bonus that willdo amazing things for the overall damage of your mercenary. Plus there's achance to cast chilling armor, which further elevates your defense.As with all good things, it's expensive, but there's really no beatingfortitudefor its usefulness.

\Treachery (3 Socket Body Armor) Shael+Thul+Lem/5% Chance To Cast Level 15 Fade When Struck\25% Chance To Cast level 15 Venom On Striking/+2 To Assassin Skills\+45% Increased Attack Speed/+20% Faster Hit Recovery\Cold Resist +30%

/50% Extra Gold From Monsters

Obviously the assassin skills are useless! However, treachery has a bunch ofmods that are nice for a mercenary. First there's the chance of casting fade,which can provide a large resistance and damage reduction boost. Then there'sthe chance ot cast venom, which will add a nice boost to your mercenary'sdamage. And lastly there are the increased attack speed and faster hitrecovery,which is never a bad thing for a mercenary!I'd never heard of a mercenary using treachery until recently, but it hastakenthe community by storm, and is now the popular budget armor for all mercs.WithLem being a moderately high rune at best, everyone should be able to find thenecessary runes for this armor.There is one drawback to treachery- the runeword provides no defense bonus toyour armor, so you will want to find a VERY high-defense armor if possible.Of course, if you want a similar armor that has a defense bonus, look nofurtherthan gloom.

\Gloom (3 Socket Body Armor) Fal+Um+Pul/15% Chance To Cast Level 3 Dim Vision When Struck\+10% Faster Hit Recovery/+200-260% Enhanced Defense\+10 To Strength/All Resistances +45

\Half Freeze Duration/5% Damage Taken Goes To Mana\-3 To Light Radius

Another piece of equipment that never seems to get mentioned. It's a decentbit of armor with solid resists, FHR and defense. The chance to cast dimvisionis kind of cool as well, although you may find yourself just casting over itwith some other curse anyway.


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It's not really worth using over treachery in most cases, but the defensebonusand dependable resist bonus may be worth the increased cost.

HELMET+++++++++One of the most important mods on equipment for a mercenary is the amount oflife stolen per hit, or life leech. You may have noticed that none of theweapons or armor I mentioned have these on them. That leaves us with a helmetto find with life leech. Fortunately, several helmets provide very good lifeleech for us.

\**Tal Rasha's Horadric Crest (set death mask)/Required Level: 66\Required Strength: 55/10% Life Stolen Per Hit\10% Mana Stolen Per Hit/All Resistances +15\+45 Defense/+30 To Mana

\+60 To Life

Despite the fact that this is technically meant for sorceresses, it's areallygood mercenary helmet. Life leech, good life bonus and a nice resistanceboost.One of the really nice things about it is the consistently good life leech-many helmets provide varying degrees of life leech, and it's nice to get onewith some consistency.

\Crown of Thieves (unique grand crown)/Required Level: 49\Required Strength: 103/+160-200% Enhanced Defense\9-12% Life Stolen Per Hit/Fire Resist +33%\+35 To Mana/+50 To Life\+25 To Dexterity/80-100% Extra Gold From Monsters

The Crown of Thieves is another great life-stealing helmet, with up to 12%stolen! Plus there's a life bonus and a nice dexterity bonus.Typically people ignore this in favor of the Vampire Gaze or Andariel'sVisage,but I'm not quite sure why it's never mentioned. The fact that it steals lifebetter than the other two is at least worth a mention.

\Andariel's Visage (unique demonhead)/Required Level: 83\Required Strength: 102/+100-150% Enhanced Defense\+2 To All Skills/20% Increased Attack Speed\8-10% Life Stolen Per Hit/+25-30 To Strength\+10% To Maximum Poison Resist


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/Fire Resist -30%\Poison Resist +70%/15% Chance To Cast Level 15 Poison Nova When Struck\Level 3 Venom (20 charges)

This helmet serves one purpose, really- providing the strength bonus neededfora mercenary to equip a Colossus Voulge, which typically requires morestrengththan a mercenary gets. Of course, the catch to that is a very high levelrequirement, which makes it an end-game helmet rather than one useful earlyon.I personally don't like it because I don't like the -30% fire resist, but Icanunderstand why people with an infinity in a CV are anxious to get their mercto that strength requirement.

\Vampire Gaze (unique grim helm)/Required Level: 41\Required Strength: 58

/+100% Enhanced Defense\Adds 6-22 Cold Damage - 4 Second Duration/15% Slower Stamina Drain\6-8% Life Stolen Per Hit/6-8% Mana Stolen Per Hit\Damage Reduced By 15-20%/Magic Damage Reduced By 10-15

Not the greatest life leech out there, but there's a huge damage reductionbonusthat will do very nice things for your mercenary's survivability. Kind of anaverage helm beyond that, though._ _ _/ \/ \/ \\_/\_/\_/

IX. HOW TO USE/ LEVELING UP@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@Summoners are EASY to use. All you have to do is kill an enemy off (use amercenary to kill your first enemy- go to the blood moor) and then you cancreate your first skeleton. From there, let the good times roll! Yourskeletonwill kill another enemy, you create another skeleton, and it's a chainreactionthat will eventually create an entire army.

Basically, you just watch them kill the enemy. Cast Amplify Damage orDecrepifywhen necessary. When you're in a group, use lower resist, and throwing in anattract or two doesn't hurt.

When you reach the middle of nightmare, your skeletons start to suffer alittle. Time to whip out corpse explosion. One corpse can flatline an entirearmy, and since you have 10 or 15 skeletons working at once,in conjunctionwithCE, it's possible to kill 50 enemies in a matter of seconds. When used right,


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this build is the safest AND fastest-killing build of them all.

Use the skill allocation advice that I gave, and as long as you take itslowly,you will never have a problem beating the enemy.

If you DO have problems, join a party- summoners are always welcome ingroups,as they provide lots of protection for people that cast spells.

XI. CREDITS@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@

The Arreast Summit (http://www.battle.net/diablo2exp/)- Best website on thenet for Diablo 2; I owe them a lot of information.

GameFAQs and CjayC- My favorite gaming website, it's a pleasure to writehere.

VERSION HISTORY@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@1.0- I split up my necro guide into two parts. This is the summoner half.

2.0- I added several tweaks and some interesting information about skeletonsthat should prove useful for everyone.

2.01(6/07)- Housekeeping

3.00(9/10)- After nearly five years of completely ignoring this guide, it'stime for a makeover. The guide has been completely gutted and refitted

withinformation that is more useful and more helpful (hopefully!)

Copyright 2005-2010 Sean D'Hoostelaere

Diablo II: Lord of Destruction: 1.13 Necro Summoner Guide by D'HoostVersion 3.0, Last Updated 2010-09-06 View/Download Original File

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