Feedback on my Summoner Necro pls :)

[Archangel Manael]

Feedback on my Summoner Necro pls

Greetings all, just registered at the forums

I'm a noob by all standards in D2, and I got 2 characters so far. A level 27 Fire Sorc and a Level 23 Summoner Necro.

I wanted to some feedback on my build. I don't want to rely on items, so I'd like to hear mostly about skills.

Here are my current skills:

SM Level 10
SR Level 10
Skeleton Mages Level 6
CE level 2
Amp Level 1
Teeth level 2
Weaken Level 2

I have one item that gives me +1 to all skills, and one that gives me 2 to skeleton raise and 1 to teeth and 2 to weaken I think.

Anyways, with these stats, I was able to own anythign in might site in normal up to Mephisto. A few of his minions, were the first i encountered that killed my 5 skeletons and 4 mages and Level 19 merc quite easily.

So this made me question the sequence in which I'm adding skills perhaps I should concentrate on skeletons as they are more powerful and max that first?

Here is the final build that I'm aiming for, let me know what you think:

Max SM
Max SR
Max RSM
Max CE
Level 10 Revive
Level 1 Amp, Weaken, Terror, Decrip, Teeth, Clay Golem, Blood Golem, Iron Golem

For a total of 98 skill points.

Strategy would be so summon the entire army of 8 skeletons, 8 mages, 10 revives, 1 merc.

Then keep casting Amp or Weaken or Decrip or all depending on the strength of the foes.

And whenever there is a good group of monsters, help my army out with a few CE explosions.

Thoughts?


P.S. also quick question about my Fire Sorc...should I just go all firebolt/fireball/meteor/firemastery or should I go for metoerb, and spend 20 on orb and 7 or 8 on cold mastery? This I belive is done to allow people to solo against fire immune/resistant monsters.

 

[jkra]

You're on the right track for your summoner. A few pointers though.

1) With Maxed Skeletons you're going to have a lot more than 8 Skellies total. More like 12. Or 16 if you get good equipment.

2) Mages aren't worth maxing. Unless you have Enigma, they get stuck everywhere and get in the way of your skellies, which do the real damage. And Mages do pitiful damage in hell. Their main use is to stop monster regeneration (poison) and slow (cold).

3) No need for so many points in revives. Just put a few and rely on + skills to do the rest.

4) What happened to Summon Resist?

You're going about your sorc all wrong though. Focusing only on fire tree is going to get you into a whole lot of trouble. About half the monsters in hell seem to be fire immune.

 

[Rawness]

Max SM
Max SR
Max RSM
Max CE
Level 10 Revive
Level 1 Amp, Weaken, Terror, Decrip, Teeth, Clay Golem, Blood Golem, Iron Golem.

The only thing I'd say you don't need is 10pt revives, 1pt it instead. 1pt Golem mastery and natural resist. Also 1pt Dim vision, attract and confusion, this counts to
7 points into Curses
21 into bone/pb tree.
67 or 76 points into the summoning tree:
You have: 110 points = lvl 99 .

95 or 104 points. Most people prefer to either max Golem mastery or Dim vision, or something bonewall/bprison

2) Mages aren't worth maxing. Unless you have Enigma, they get stuck everywhere and get in the way of your skellies, which do the real damage. And Mages do pitiful damage in hell. Their main use is to stop monster regeneration (poison) and slow (cold).

If you're mentioning getting 16skellies, you should atleast mention the merc setup most use laters, Infinite = makes the mages quiet useful. Lower resist too. Mages are worth maxing, and what would you max else? Bone wall will only be in the way because your skellies are melee only, they'll also die like lambs by IM most of the time.
Beefing up the bonearmor is quiet useless unless you're playing hc and want the extra protection, and hey, you're standing behind an undead army.

http://tph.tuwien.ac.at/~gottwald/necro_pet_calculator.html for a quiet useful calculator for summoners.

 

[Archangel Manael]

1) With Maxed Skeletons you're going to have a lot more than 8 Skellies total. More like 12. Or 16 if you get good equipment.

Mod Edit: Please do not link to that site as it sells items. Try using this one or this one instead.

Says 8 skeletons for level 20. I'm not counting on equipment much at this stage. The more skills points from equip the merier.

Why would you not put many points in revives? Would having 10 monsters on your side not be better than 1 monster, especailly high damage monsters, the types you face and you wish u'd have 10 of those on ur side?

With my current build plan, that's 98 points I hear getting past level 90 is hard, so I'm just being generally conservative. 98 instead of 110 points

Rawness, I don't see the advantage of getting all those other curses you mentioned. I have a tough time even using the 2 curses I have now (weaken and amp) let alone use 7 of them. I'd rather focus my attention on raising minions, CE and only 1 or 2 curses during a battle. I don't want to be switching between 10 different skills, because then I'd start neglecting to raise new minions as mine die, and neglecting CE.

Also why put any points into Golem (such as maxing Golem mastery at all) if ur not going to max golems?

btw, I again just tried taking on Meph (in normal) on my own with my level 23 Necro, and my minions got slaughtered within 30 seconds by Meph's minions.

As I said, that's with level 10 RS and SM, Level 6 RSM and me doing whatever I can to help with Level 2 CE, and Level 1 Weaken and Amp.

 

[Rawness]

Why would you not put many points in revives? Would having 10 monsters on your side not be better than 1 monster, especailly high damage monsters, the types you face and you wish u'd have 10 of those on ur side?

Because it isn't necessary, and most of the monster do not do such hefty damage, and you'll hardly have 20-30 revives with you all the time. I don't find them that useful unless I am doing bosses, or Chaos sanct.
Glooms, Deathlords, casters are useful, other things = meatballs.

I have now (weaken and amp) let alone use 7 of them. I'd rather focus my attention on raising minions, CE and only 1 or 2 curses during a battle. I don't want to be switching between 10 different skills, because then I'd start neglecting to raise new minions as mine die, and neglecting CE.

Different curses are meant for different times, i'd set 1pt into every curse if I were you. And Who would even think of casting different spells all the time? One spell works one at a time, they can't have simulantous effects.
1. Amp: Amplifies your psy damage by 50%, = increases your CE damage by 25%.
2: Weaken > Pissish spell, unnecessary, but preq for Deceph,
3: : slows and weakens the damage of the attack by 50%, deceph is mostley used for the bosses
4: Lower resist, used against Phys immunities you MIGHT come across, increases ce damage.
5. Lifetap: 50LL; increases survivablity among melee units like your merc and skellies.
6. Iron maiden. Not that necessary, but nice in the lower lvls.
7. Dim vision; make the target stand still doing nothing, very efficient against Casters, they just stand their until you come and kill them
8. Confuse, disarray their trups +them attack themselves.
9. Attract, make one of them your own for a few secs, very useful when you start summoning your army. You can also summon your army at Nihlas.

Also why put any points into Golem (such as maxing Golem mastery at all) if ur not going to max golems?

Golem mastery makes your golem stronger, life wise. Putting points into the golem itself isn't really worth it.
Clay golem is a really good tank, and can provide cover for a few secounds if your army dies, or if someones chasing you.
Not necessary to max thou, but could be nice having a few points in it if you want a Iron golem of some runeword.

With my current build plan, that's 98 points I hear getting past level 90 is hard,

btw, I again just tried taking on Meph (in normal) on my own with my level 23 Necro, and my minions got slaughtered within 30 seconds by Meph's minions.

They're not that good in the beginning :/, are you SP or bnet? Realm?
It's a breeze up till 90, = 91 points.

 

[jkra]

I don't think linking to that site is allowed here.

Anyhow, you can buy +2 wands from shops and finding a magical +2 shrunken head is not all that hard. That's level 24 skellies right there.

Get a pul from your nm forge or hell forge? Low N torches go for pul on US West. I bought my 11/14 for a pul when I was first building my necro.

If you get luckier and get an um, then you can get a higher torch, or possibly some nsummon skiller, which go for around pul each.

Trang ouls armor goes for perfect gems. Another +2 skills there. So now you have +2 from your wand, +2 from your shrunken head, +3 from your torch, and +2 from Trang Armor. 29 skellies all for a pul, some gold, and some perfect gems.

As for getting owned by Meph, that's because you're not doing as Raw suggested and utilizing the curse tree. Decrep and clay golem and a cold mage will bring meph to a standstill. If his minions (by his minions i'm assuming you're talking about the council members and nighlords in durance 3) bother you, just terror them away. A necro is one of the most versatile characters in the game because of his curses. There's no reason to just limit yourself to amp and weaken.

Don't underestimate clay golem. It doesn't do any damage. But it has ungodly amounts of hp and slows bosses to a crawl. It's worth adding a few points to it.

 

[BlargX]

Eventually you will want to get Enigma chestpiece, which provides teleport and is big for any character(it helps to get to magic find bosses SUPER quickly by just teleporting right through monsters without getting hit) and necros especially, for keeping their army together(especially revives, which stand still and are generally cussed). When that happens, you might like things like max block and a point in bone armor and its synergies. Ideally you never get hit, but hey, if you achieve the gear of your dreams, it will constantly put you in the position to be hit! That said, few people get into putting many or even any points in bone armor and synergies. But a point is something to consider. It's nice to have an extra hundred hitpoints.

Don't count on having a million +skills items, especially not anytime soon. But you can count on finding enough that you'll be fine with a single point in revive, and you can get the rest of your revives from your +skills.

Vital curses include amplify and decrepitude and summon resist, extremely useful ones include dim vision, and a sometimes very nice one is attract. Most of those are fine with one point, and those that might be worth building up more than that(usually only dim vision and amplify come into consideration here) can wait to do it until your build is basically complete, i.e., get all the curses you want as one-point wonders first, and max RS, SM, and CE first, and maybe even get all the golems you want for at least a point first(not everybody wants all golems).

I'm very far from an expert, but if I were you I would seriously consider bumping dim vision eventually to at least a handful of points. This doesn't seem a big deal in Normal and most of Nightmare, but then becomes a very powerful skill.

If I were you, I would play a while, at least through nightmare, before committing yourself to particular skills. You will miss those points you've put into skeleton mage -- heck, it sounds like you're missing them right NOW -- instead of into your skeletons, etc. I'd focus entirely on skeletons until they are done to catch up, as you've let them fall behind. Then CE. Divert only enough for decrepitude. Dim vision can wait until nightmare.

Oh, another exception. I don't see that you have a golem. Get a clay golem. Even if you find him of little value in general, he is a great escape hatch/panic button. He is so cheap to cast that when your skellies are dead and you fear for the sanctity of your virgin booty, you can just keep casting him and portal or run away. And even with a single point in clay golem and golem mastery, he's actually pretty useful to keep the attention off you and your merc($$$).

Also, when you get to Nightmare level, do some leveling up in Lower Kurast so you can get stuff to sell and gamble with. You can get some very nice headgear, amulets, and sometimes boots and gloves and belts that way. (Rings I'd just wait to loot -- good rings come along pretty frequently.) Plus it gives you gems you can cube into perfect gems, and the people in this forum and in the trading forum are super friendly and will often trade you really nice stuff for just a few perfect gems. One day, you'll be in a position to return the favor, but for now, unless you are resolved to find everything yourself, you can enjoy the generosity of other players for just a little bit of your own work and a good attitude.

 

[MalVeauX]

Heya,

Skeletons will not go as far as you may like without Mastery if you don't have awesome gear to compensate. So if you have skeletons, I'd go 20/20 right there in those two skills.

From there, it's up to how you want to play. 40+ skills into bone? 40+ skills into poison? Either will work. It won't be super strong, but it gives you something else to do/try and another damage source. I've done it with poison explosion (yea, the corpse one!) because the poison damage is ultimately higher and because it was fun and looked cool (Nova looks silly to me, sorry folks). It's not super effective, but the beauty of the skels is that it doesn't matter since they're super strong and you can curse things to double their damage, or to make your poison stronger (amp or lower res).

Personally I don't go with all the curses when I have skeletons. I get Dim Vision--a lot of it, because I'm insane and love fighting blind monsters. Amp is to kill things that Dim Vision doesn't work on (possessed, bosses, etc). Terror is for management, so I get 1 point there--it makes bad things go away fast, lovely. And I get decrep, since it's one point more. I stop there. I don't bother with maiden, tap, confuse, attract, or lower res on a skeleton based character unless one of those is part of a hybrid aspect. For me, it's all about high level dim vision. Amp is my 2nd curse for situations. Decrep is for bosses, bout only that.

Just try what you like the idea of. You can't really go wrong so long as you max out skels & mastery.

Cheers,

 

[Archangel Manael]

Thanx folks, lots of info there to digest. I guess I'll stop wasting points on Skeleton Mages for now, until my SM and RS are maxed.

And put one on clay golem at least.

Sigh, I miss diablo 1 skill books

 

[MalVeauX]

Sigh, I miss diablo 1 skill books

Haha, sometimes I do too, but the days of a Warrior with a high level FireWall standing there tanking waves of uglies in the Fire that lasts forever are long gone, as they should be. Equivalent of today? PDR barb standing in the middle of a 30 second duration level 40/40 Blizzard.... hah. :grin:

Cheers,

 

[HCKull]

Full trangs is pretty good for a summoner and not that expensive. Get Arm of king leoric for a weapon and put a pdiamond in the shield and ur almost ready for hell.

I would max RS before SM so you have lots of skells and put a few points in summon resists as your skells need to be able to survive elemental damage.

The clay golem is very useful. Not just to distract a bad guy from chasing you. I use mine just like a zon decoy.

As I walk thru the land of evil lots of bad guys are waiting to attack me and as I have to lead my hord they attack me first. This is not a good situation and I would end up dying. Instead, I cast it ahead of me into the unknown and they charge him instead of me. This is much better as I can deal with them at distance and my horde tends to follow and support my golem.

When I am fighting a horde of bad guys I will drop my golem behind their front lines to draw fire away from my skells. He dies frequently, but I watch his life and when he is close to death I just recast. This technique helps lots.

I have almost maxed golem mastery so the clay golem does not die easily.

I might use fire golem instead as with his fire aura he is better at drawing attention, but I dont have insight and he costs lots more mana.

I might use an iron golem with lots of crushing blow against bosses as this would help lots. Instead, I just cast clay golem on the far side of the boss to draw is fire away from me and slow the boss.

I have 1 point in bone armor and this is a geat convience for me. I frequently take hits from bad guys that are absorbed by bone armor and it does not cost much to cast. This saves taking potions and worrying about fhr.

I use bone spirit to direct my army and to help with a bit of damage. I have a few points in this skill and with +skills I do a noticable amount of damage. Bone spirit lets me stand back from the bad guys and still help my minions some. This helps get the first corpse for my CE.

Over have of the guys I kill die from CE so you want to put a fair number of points in this skill. Additional skill points in CE dont increase the damage it does per monster, but it makes each CE affect all of the monsters on the screen after you max it so they have a huge effect. Many times in cows I kill 10-20 more from a few CEs.