Looking for expert advice on a necro.

[Arem]

Hi. I'm new here. I played diablo 2 a lot a long time ago, before the expansion came out, but never really got too far. I tried all the characters, but got the furthest with my cold sorceress (which was only as far as chapter 3 nightmare). A couple days ago I decided to try to make it all the way through Hell, so I picked up the expansion.

I was thinking about starting a new Amazon, after playing around with the druid and assasin for a little bit, but then I heard that a necro with lots of minions was viable. This surprised me, since before my skeletons seemed to be useful until the beginning of Act2 at the very most. I checked GameFAQs, but all the guides seemed out of date, and the forum seemed only useful if I desire abuse from a bunch of jerks who all use Whirlwind Barbs, or whatever the equivalent is these days. After some searching I found this place. I am trying to build a necro with a huge skeleton army (I'm not sure what the official term is, zookeeper?) and I want to take it all the way through Hell.

Also, I should mention that I am only doing Single Player. Battlenet was always filled with morons when I played and even if I got a good group together my 56k connection always hurt the experience. That means that I won't have the ability to trade or bot for the uber wand of 1000+ to everything, so I can't use a build that relies on it. There's also really no point in raisng my strength to 80 so I can wear the super robe, since I will probably never see it. I also can't save all my points and use a character who only does well at level 30, because I won't have a party to get me there.

Which skills should I take and how many points should I invest? I'd prefer to just do it with curses, but should I also take a direct damage spell? What is a good stat point distribution? I'm especially curious as to how much strength and energy I will need. Also, am I just making things hard for myself by trying to take a character like this through Hell?

Thank you for reading this. I apologize for the length.

[Len Darker]

As someone who favored Skeleton Necromancers from day 1 (yes, that's D2 Classic from right when it came out ;-), I can only say: Wow. Patch 1.10 really made the summoner Necromancer what I had expected when I created my first one (and got bitterly disappointed that day many years ago).

Basically, what I do (your mileage may vary, but I've successfully and repeatedly gotten this kind of build to hell hellforge) is start out with raise skeleton up to level 3 (allowing for three skeletons), then putting a point into mastery, then amplify, then mastery up to 3-5 (toss in the clay golem when it becomes available).

After that, you have three skeletons and a golem, and your little troop should be fairly capable of dealing with any threat your level.

What I do next, is max raise skeleton. After spell level 3, you only get another new skeleton for every three skillpoints you invest. So you gain your fourth skellie only after reaching level 6 raise skeleton. BUT: pour them points in nonetheless. Each point in raise skel increases skeleton life, damage, attack rating and defense. Max raise skeleton first thing you do.

If you need power against act bosses, I suggest investing a few skill points in curses, to get to decrepify. This curse really cuts down on act boss danger.

Mages are a matter of taste. I, favoring the image of a necromancer with a larger skeleton army, do invest points, even though I don't right away. I first max raise skeleton, then skeleton mastery, and maybe put 1-3 points into skeleton mages somwehere in between to get those first three mages (more mages come at the cost of 3 skill points per mage, just like with raise skeleton).

You may also choose to spend a skillpoint into teeth and corpse explosion (maybe even as early as act 2, it works wonders at doorways, but eats your little starting mana like mad).

Revives are a topic of discussion among many people, but frankly, I don't put points into the prerequisites and revive before mid to late nightmare. Maxed skeletons with maxed mastery can easily take you all the way through to late nm.

As to how much energy points you need: if you don't have lots of +mana gear, try to keep enough mana on your hands to raise 3-4 skeletons. Drink mana potions when you need more. Mana potions are for sale now.

Strength would depend on your equipment, but most people stop at around 70-100.

A few final hints:

1. Try to go "Akara shopping" for a +3 raise skeleton, +3 skeleton mastery wand right away once you get enough gold for that (or something similar, pick whatever shows up). +skills HEAVILY bolster your army. At spell level 32 with level 32 mastery, skeletons do a wee bit under 400 damage a hit, and have around 800-900 life each.

2. Act 2 Mercenaries:

a. Prayer (combat, normal and hell difficulty): cool in all of normal. Greatly supports your and your skeletons' life regeneration. Next to worthless, though, from mid nightmare on. Either your skeleton can take the immediate threat and live, or prayer won't heal it fast enough to make a difference. Plus, it doesn't help your damage output at all. Which is bad. Never leave Frenzy Minotaurs standing in front of your troops longer than necessary. Especially when they're fanaticism enchanted.

b. Blessed Aim (offensive, normal and hell difficulty): not necessary in normal difficulty, but a real staple on hell difficulty, especially when you do like me and go to hell diff at level 65. Skeletons are created at your character level when you summon them, so my skels were lvl 65,and monsters tended to quickly reach the 80s, basically putting my skeletons at a severe disadvantage in regards of hit probability. Blessed Aim can go a long way towards setting off this "penalty", and keeps them marching more easily.

c. Defiance (defensive, normal and hell difficulty): bolsters the defense rating of your minions. However, as with prayer, this does not help your damage output at all, so I advise against it. There are monsters who completely ignore defense, too. Besides, skeletons have some defense, but nothing like what a barbarian or tanker paladin could achieve, so the benefit of defiance is somewhat less.

d. Thorns (combat, nightmare difficulty): This is a blessing against heavy hitter melee monsters. IF your skeletons are durable enough to take a couple of hits, the enemies simply kill themselves on your troops. Marvelous. Drawback: Thorns is useless against ranged attackers (as long as your minions haven't closed the distance) and magical attacks. Nice against melee-happy act bosses like duriel or andariel, too.

e. Might (offensive, nightmare difficulty): Another good candidate (the other two being blessed aim and thorns) to choose. Might can really skyrocket your minions' damage, more than tripling it. Consider a skeleton melee damage of 350 ok? Whaddaya say to over 1000 damage per hit? Might is good, and it supports all your melee minions no matter what they hit, be it melee monster, ranged, or magic. On hell difficulty, it means they will hit less often than with blessed aim on. I still don't know what would calculate better. I have used both, and liked both, even though secretly I am starting to like blessed aim better.

f. Holy Freeze (defensive, nightmare difficulty): The concept of slowing down the enemy, allowing your troops more time to deal out damage and to recover from damage done to them sounds good. It is. BUT: You might just as well increase YOUR damage over time instead of lowering that of the enemy. Going is slow enough on hell difficulty as it is, and with holy freeze, you don't kill monsters one bit faster.

Final Note: A well-built summoner necromancer (with gentle use of amplify damage, dim vision, and decrepify) can pretty easily handle most everything the game routinely tosses at you. This includes hell Baal and the hell Ancients. Of course, 1.10 still spawns a few really ugly boss packs (especially, when two or three bosses have a meet-and-greet in close quarters) - but apart from that, the worst things you will be facing are narrow passages and doorways. ;-)

[brianc84]

At spell level 32 with level 32 mastery, skeletons do a wee bit under 400 damage a hit, and have around 800-900 life each.

With level 32 Raise Skeleton with level 32 mastery, they actually have close to 4619 life in Hell. The skill description doesn't appear to display their life accurately.

e. Might (offensive, nightmare difficulty): Another good candidate (the other two being blessed aim and thorns) to choose. Might can really skyrocket your minions' damage, more than tripling it. Consider a skeleton melee damage of 350 ok? Whaddaya say to over 1000 damage per hit? Might is good, and it supports all your melee minions no matter what they hit, be it melee monster, ranged, or magic. On hell difficulty, it means they will hit less often than with blessed aim on. I still don't know what would calculate better. I have used both, and liked both, even though secretly I am starting to like blessed aim better.

Skeletons already have some off weapon ED%, so the increase in damage from Might is really not that drastic. Level 20 Might will just increase the damage of skeletons summoned with level 32 raise skeleton and level 32 skeleton mastery from 360-363 to 634-639. Getting Level 20 Might out of the merc will take quite a few +all skills, too.

SerraAngel's Necroskeleton stat calculator (Excel)

[Obi2Kenobi]

Generally, BA will help your skeletons more, but Might will help your mercenary more. So it's really whichever you prefer (in multiplayer, might also helps out party members a lot, but that's irrelevant here).

[Arem]

Thanks for all the great advice. I'm just at level 10 now, but it has been a really smooth ride. I think I put a few too many points in skeleton mastery, because I know that will also help my mages (these don't seem to be as popular, but I want a huge army). I also put a point in amplify damage, clay golem, and dim vision. Stat distrubution wise I have been adding one to strength, two to vitality, and two to energy every level up. That might be too much energy, but I like being able to resurrect my army whenever I hit a snag without having to rely on potions. It also lets me use curses carefreely.

I have had a couple problems. At first the uniques were wasting my troops, but now they die quickly. However, lighting enchanted ones tend to kill off my whole army with the possible exception of the golem. I have to quickly raise more skeletons to take those enemies down. Is there anything I can do before I am high enough for summon resist? Also, how can I counter iron maiden when that is cast on my guys?

[Guest]

Iron Maiden has always been a huge problem when soloing it. In most cases, you can't work around it, but thankfully you have Skeletal mage.

Summon Resist is a passive skill that gives resistances to your summonables. You might want to invest in this if you are having trouble with LEs.

[Bob the Beholder]

I have had a couple problems.  At first the uniques were wasting my troops, but now they die quickly.  However, lighting enchanted ones tend to kill off my whole army with the possible exception of the golem.  I have to quickly raise more skeletons to take those enemies down.  Is there anything I can do before I am high enough for summon resist?  Also, how can I counter iron maiden when that is cast on my guys?

First off: It's normal. Normal is easy. Unless you're skipping over everything, and thus you don't get experience or items, your level/skill levels will easily keep up with your opponents, at least until at act V, where you can start getting better items and such anyway.

For the iron maiden: Where are you finding iron maiden at level 10? You should only see that in acts IV and V! And by then you'll have the strength to deal with it, either by finding a way around it, or suiciding your troops and recruiting more.

As to the lightning enchanted ones, they're easy enough in normal, as long as you have a bit of resistance. Iron maiden and a point in clay golem will do the job so far. Just resummon the golem right in front of the boss when the golem is about to die; the boss'll won't move around too much, and most of the damage will go to the golem, and, through the curse, back to the boss. You'll still lose most of your army, but at least the unique'll be dead, and you can go about recruiting a new one.

[Rinnhart]

Best way I've found for dealing with IM is the same way I deal with it on my zealot; pop a portal and talk to the nearest healer.

[Baajikiil]

Is there anything I can do before I am high enough for summon resist?

Basically just pump mastery and raise skeleton. Very shortly into normal, your skellys hp will be so high that no leb in normal will dent them. A point in summon resist is definitely a good idea, but I usually just leave it at 1 point. +all and +summoning skill wands/ammys/circlets are common enough by late nm/hell that the diminishing returns on the skill make it a 1 point wonder.

As for IM, I usually back off from the knights that casted it, and my merc gets hit by it, I take a port to town or beat a hasty retreat. If it's just my skellys, I usually back off a little and let only a few engage. I often just wait out the curse, and summon new minions as the old kill themselves. Not a huge deal because it is very rare for all the skellys to be IMed at once. Only maybe 1/2 at a time.

[Sailboat]

Also, I should mention that I am only doing Single Player.  Battlenet was always filled with morons when I played and even if I got a good group together my 56k connection always hurt the experience.  That means that I won't have the ability to trade or bot for the uber wand of 1000+ to everything

Not all of us who play on Battle.net bot, or even trade, for that matter.

Some choose not to, even though we play on realms.

Regards,

Sailboat