Need help with Necromancer

[Ruvanal]

I guess the thing is to continue looking in act 2 shop then. Can't tell if I have seen low level spells though, but skeleton mages are level 6 no? Not level 12.

Skeleton Mages are in the level 12 set (3rd tier).

The rune word that most are trying to find a wand to use with is "White" (DolIo). While it is strongly favoring the bone skills, it does add a +4 to Skeleton Mastery. Coupling the natural staffmods on the wand with what the White runeword adds is what most players are shooting for. So that plain wand without the staff mods is not really all that great. But do not just discard it right away. What the majority of the players are not considering is to use one of the Horadric Cube formulas to reroll these items.

3 standard gems + 1 socketed weapon -> magic, socketable weapon (ilvl=30)
3 flawless gems + 1 magic weapon -> socketed, magic weapon (ilvl=30)
3 chipped gems + 1 magic weapon -> socketed, magic weapon (ilvl=25)

The first formula could make that wand a magical socketed wand with a new set of staffmods. After that any of the 3 formulas could be used to continue rerolling the wand looking for a better mix of properties. The sockets that come ont he wand would not be of any use for a runeword, but you might find some useful jewels to put in it.

The staff mods that would be available on these would be
2nd tier (level 6 required) 10%
Dim Vision
Weaken
Poison Dagger ('rerolled')
Corpse Explosion
Clay Golem

3rd tier (level 12 required) 20%
Iron Maiden
Terror
Bone Wall
Golem Mastery
Raise Skeletal Mage

4th tier (level 18 required) 50%
Confuse
Life Tap
Poison Explosion
Bone Spear
BloodGolem

5th tier (level 24 required) 20%
Attract
Decrepify
Bone Prison
Summon Resist
IronGolem

All of the wands used in these three formulas will have a cnace to get one of the +1 skilltab prefixes.

For the +2 skilltab prefixes only these wands will work: Tomb Wand, Grave Wand, Lich Wand and Unearthed Wand.

For the +3 skilltab prefixes only the Unearthed Wand will work.

For the +1 Necromancer skills, using the chipped formula, the following will work : Burnt Wand, Petrified Wand, Tomb Wand, Grave Wand, Ghost Wand, Lich Wand and Unearthed Wand.

For the +1 Necromancer skills, using the other two formulas, all the wands except the Polished Wand will work.

For the +2 necromacer skills the Lich Wand and Unearthed Wand will have a chance with all three formulas.

So it can be worth while to be picking up many of the gems and just keep cubing as you go along. Just keep you eye open for some of the wands that are more flexible in what they can get.

...Other than that, I seem to only use my level 1 or 2 Amp Damage or level 1 or 2 Decrepify. Occationally a Iron Maiden is used too. Other skills, I have not explored yet as for their use (except Bone Armor which is also level 1 or 2 or so).

Consider branching out to include the Dim Vision, Confuse, Attract line of curses. Most players prefer the Confuse, but they all have their uses. Typically 1 point plus skill adders is sufficient. Make sure to use those other hot keys.

OK, so I crused through act 1. In act 2, I switched my hireling for a combat one for the might aura. His DR droped from arround 1400 to 500 and the damage also droped by about 40-60 points (using same equipment). Is that normal? Will he catch up again? I think he is still some levels higher than my old merc from normal difficulty. It seems strange though.

What level was the old merc and the level of the new one? The nightmare mercs are taking a beating on their stats if you hire them before their target level. For teh nightmare Desert Mercanaries the target starting level for them should be 43. At levels lower than this their stats are adjusted along these lines:
HP/lvl: 25
Def/Lvl: 19
Str/Lvl: 1.75
Dex/lvl: 1.5
AR/Lvl: 3
Dmg/Lvl: 0.75
Resist/Lvl: 0.875

So if you hired him at level 37 instead of 43 his base stats would be reduced by -150 HP, -112 defense, -10.5 (effectively -11) strength (one of two factors effecting the damage done), -9 dexterity (also having repercussions on the AR and DR), -18 AR, -4.5 on their damage adder for their weapon and the resists by -5.25 (effectively -6). These kinds of adjustments may have put many of the mercs attributes at lower than the attributes of a level 37 normal difficulty Desert Mercanaries.

Messy stuff to try to figure by hand. Does Bolty want someone to try to update Spireas Calculator's database for the the 1.10 expansion game?

Do the AI of a defensive versus an offensive/combat merc vary? It seems at times he like standing back not running forward and fight, so I have to kamikaze forward to pull him along and then retreat.

Not really. There only appear to be two AI in use for the mercs, melee and ranged versions. The problem that you are seeing is that the AI distance leash was increased for all the mercs with this release. This can leave them hanging back often. So far back that the monsters are out of the mercs threat detection range. That is until you 'drag' them up close enough for them to 'see' the threat of monsters in the area. In my opinion this was not a change for the better.