Rate my Summoner Necromancer please.

[DiscipleRock]

This is Nalademus, my planned Summoner Necromancer, I've been trying out several builds and this is best one I've come up with. I think it's pretty sound but I;d like a second opinion. Are the skills point well placed, right equipment, merc etc.

Thanks, by the way. I have most of the items listed here. The few I dont have I'll trade for or do a few Baal/Meph runs, depending on how lazy I feel B) !

Summoner Necromancer (Completed at Level 85)

Skills:

Main Skills:

Level 7 Summon Skeleton Magi (taken up to 20+ with items)
Level 15 Skeleton Mastery
Level 20 Fire Golem
Level 20 Bone Spirit
Level 10 Golem Mastery
Level 10 Revive
Level 1 Amplify Damage
Level 1 Lower Resist
Level 1 Bone Armour

Prereqs:

Level 1 Raise Skeleton
Level 1 Clay Golem
Level 1 Blood Golem
Level 1 Iron Golem
Level 1 Teeth
Level 1 Corpse Explosion
Level 1 Bone Spear
Level 1Weaken
Level 1 Iron Maiden
Level 1 Terror
Level 1 Life Tap

Stats

65 Strength
60 Dexterity
180 Vitality
210 Energy

Equipment:

Helm: Harlequin’s Crest Socketed with “Perfect Skull”
Amulet: Mara’s Kaleidoscope
Weapon 1: Ethereal Arm of King Leoric Socketed with “Zod”
Weapon 2: Homonculus Socketed with “Um”
Armour: Skin of the Vampiremagi Socketed with “Um”
Ring 1: Stone of Jordan
Ring 2: Stone of Jordan
Belt: Gloomstrap
Gloves: Frostburns
Boots: Silkweave

Mercenary

Act 2 Prayer Mercenary

Weapon: Hone Sundan Yari (2x “Ber” Runes and “Mal” Rune)
Helm: Stealskull
Armour: Duriel’s Shell

Please note, skill and stat point assume I've completed the Den of Evil, Radament, Izual and Lam Esen's Tome for +12 skill points and +15 stats.

[adeyke]

Ethereal Arm of King Leoric Socketed with “Zod”

Now why do I have the feeling your equipment isn't remotely legit <_<?

[the Langolier]

Level 7 Summon Skeleton Magi (taken up to 20+ with items)

Sometimes I think +skill equipment has gone too far. +2 or 3 I could understand, but +14, or more? My goodness. The max for base skill levels is 20, isn't it over the top that you can more than double that with just items? I think a level 20 skill should be enough. For goodness sake, it is 1/5 of your entire character.

IMO, with that kind of skill power, this build will be done at level 30 (ignoring lvl requirements). One point into all skills, and viola!, level 15 skills all across the board.

[Obi2Kenobi]

Why zod the Arm of King leoric? It doesn't do much damage, so you shouldn't be beating on things with it. Unless you are using a crazy build.

[Shade]

Is this 1.09 build or 1.10? Looking to your item selection, I assume it's 1.09 build.

Weapon 1: Ethereal Arm of King Leoric Socketed with “Zod”

For Summoner build, Carin Shard (unique petrified wand) is much better, IMO. Not only you have solid bonus to your summoning skills, but for the same price you aquire large +mana bouns.

210 Energy

With your current equipment (remember, we are talking about dual SOJs, Frosties, Gloomstrap, Silkweave AND Harlequin), you should have about 1300-1400 mana, if my calculations are correct. Do you really need that much? Even with base energy and some +mana charms one can have 600-700 mana.

60 Dexterity

You are using shield (Hommunculus) with 72% base block. But because of your low Dex, this block is
wasted.

Also, I'd switch prayer merc to might (you have enough revives to think about it), or thorns (which is even better). And in 1.09 fire golem do not do good damage even at slvl 33.

In its current state build is working, of this I'm pretty sure. But, to increase it's effectiveness
- replace prayer merc with thorns or might merc
- replace wand (no, really, why Zod?) with Carin Shard
- for new char, do not raise Energy. Raise Dexterity (or Vitality, which is even better in case of Summoner).
- consider using Attract or Confuse. Even with 1 point in them, with your +skills, they are godly.

[LavCat]

I have a similar 1.09 build, now 90, but the armor and gloves are Trang-Oul's and I have never seen a Harlequin. My summoner wears a rare circlet to show off his handsome hair. The amulet is also rare.

For most of his career he used a Carin Shard, and I sincerely hope Blizzard fixes the spelling in the patch: *CAIRN*, if anyone from Blizzard is listening.

After days of consulting with Drognan he recently switched to White, made from a bone wand with +3 skeleton and +2 raise skeletal mage. I have better, but I thought this would do for testing.

His thorns merc wears ethereal Lionheart Lacquered Plate and Blackhorn's Face, and wields a Condensing Giant Thresher of the Lamprey. None of the mercenery's items are socketed, except obviously the Lacquered Plate.

Current stats: strength 84, dex 58, vitality 176, energy 208 -- with 65 stat points unallocated.

Skeleton Mastery is maxed, currently 39 but I am working on it. Bone Spirit is maxed. The most used curses are Lower Resist and Attract. There are 15 skill points unallocated.

I think it is a successful build, although he died once in hell -- in the Monastery, facing an LEB single-handed -- when he had negative lightning resistance.


Three suggestions I would make:

1.) Hire a thorns or might merc.

2.) Max Skeleton Mastery.

3.) Get a different wand.


By the way, I never feel a build is finished until all skills are maxed.

[LavCat]

You are using shield (Hommunculus) with 72% base block. But because of your low Dex, this block is
wasted.

I respectfully disagree about dexterity. With a summoner if you need to block you are somewhere you ought not to be. Blocking is what all your little friends are for.

Granted, maybe different in PvP, but I play only PvM. Also, as I recall, necromancers have a very long blocking animation.

[Shade]

I respectfully disagree about dexterity.&nbsp; With a summoner if you need to block you are somewhere you ought not to be.&nbsp; Blocking is what all your little friends are for.

Granted, maybe different in PvP, but I play only PvM.&nbsp; Also, as I recall, necromancers have a very long blocking animation.

I agree, there are two options here - max block, or do not touch Dex at all. Playing 1.10beta plays bad joke on me - as you surely know, in 1.10 having at least some block (I'm talking about shrunken heads of deflecting - 30-40% base block) makes life easier. In 1.09 block for summoner is not really recommended, may be except Hell Ancients and Hell Baal. It's true that block animation is somewhat long, but for me it's better to block some occational blows, than depend from quantity of your HPs.

And I can hardly imagine such build in PvP. May be that's because I do not duel.

(edit: typos)

[LavCat]

I have not tried 1.10. Why is blocking now more important than 1.09 (other than I assume the monsters are faster)? I have all those stat points that I could dump in dex!

[Shade]

I have not tried 1.10. Why is blocking now more important than 1.09 (other than I assume the monsters are faster)?

Not only they are faster, but they hit harder, which is usually results in stunlock. Melee monsters aren't a problem, but Bliz boosted archers (e.g. quill rats, returned etc). These guys are real PITA.
So in 1.10 you have to choose - to be stunlocked (and be dead), or to be blocklocked (and have a chance to kill them before they kill you).

[InFlames]

Ya...Archers and any ranged attackers have been beefed up majorly. Just wait til act V hell and you'll see how bad blocklock can be...and if you can manage +15 to all skills, Confuse is a must 1 pointer.

[Archon_Wing]

I would personally not max fire golem. The damage is lame and the mana cost is too high.
I'd recomond putting less points in energy (125?) and spend the points either for vitality or dex (block) Enemies do get through, especialy when your minion numbers are low or you are in a crowded area.

There's no point in zodding the Arm of King Leoric. It doesn't do damage that most would care about. :)

If you wanted to socket the Harlequin, I wouldn't use a perfect Skull. It just doesn't do enough to justify it. I'd even prefer a p.ruby/saphire or better yet another Um. A resist jewel would also do.

[Archon_Wing]

Actualy I'd have a hard time deciding which is better: the Shard or the Arm.

The Shard's main advantage is the big life boost. It also has the mana boost , but the Arm has it too.

The Shard also has advantage of +1 extra summoing skills, but the Arm readily gives +3 skeletons, +3 skel /mage and +3 mastery. That's basicaly more summoning skills in favor of the Arm. The extra bonus for the golems and summon resist seem pretty trivial.

The Shard would give +1 extra curses, but for the most part that doesn't do that much.

The Shard gives 30% FHR (good), and a little life regen, which is practicaly useless.

The Arm gives an extra bonus to p/b skills.

So overall, I think the Shard is better for making your necro more durable and the Arm gives you a bigger army. If it lags really bad, I'd suppose the Shard would be better. Personally I use the Arm, but since I had a hard time figuring out which ones to use. The Shard is on weapon switch, and I do switch frequently.


I'd agree that too much mana is really unecessary especialy for this sort of build. :)

[Phyloxerra]

Howdy,

I can tell you from first hand experience that you will want as much +summons gear as possible. Even if it means taking a +2 all skills item and replacing it with +3 summons. I have had an Overlord since right after I found out that you could potentially raise over 100 minions to do your evil bidding. My char has been stuck on lvl 80 for about a year and a half now with lvl 47 skel mast and 47 skel mage, wait maybe thats 47 in skel and 46 in mage. Either way you'll need as many as possible to make it even a semi-fair fight. And as far as mercs go, I had done some experimenting quite some time ago and I found that the prayer merc is the most beneficial to the build. When his skill lvl is high it seems like i have the same skels/mages for long lengths of time. Hope this helps you out some.

Scotty

[LavCat]

My char has been stuck on lvl 80 for about a year and a half now with lvl 47 skel mast and 47 skel mage, wait maybe thats 47 in skel and 46 in mage.

Please share how you got Skeleton Mastery to 47!

I have been trying pretty hard and mine is only 39 -- though I could get to 40 with the Undead Crown, and 41 with a different amulet. A bunch of Graverobber's charms would help.

[Phyloxerra]

Howdy,

You can get up to 47 with the following gear. +3 summons circlet, +3 summons ammy, 2 x SOJ, Trang's armor (or +2 necro Valor), Arm of King Leoric, Homunculus, and 10 x summons grand charms. For gloves you can go either Trang's or Frostburns. And for a belt you can go Gloom's or a crafted one with good mods. If you want to see him he is on East, on the acct
scooter-necros. Cya around.


Scotty

[LavCat]

Ah, the ten Graverobber's charms are what I'm missing! I have one or two. Note, if you replaced Arm of King Leoric with white, you would be up to 49.