Help on strategy for a new necromancer

[Scorchand]

Help on strategy for a new necromancer

Hi all,
So I started a necromacer and I thought well I want to become Summoner . So I invested a few points into Raise Skeletons (10) and Skeletal Mastery (10) and Skeleton Mages (3) , Clay golem 1 , Golem Mastery (1) , Summon Resist (1) . All curses till Confuse 1 each.

I have +2 skill items Infernal wand and I think the other is an Amy I think. Anyway I tried to kill Diablo I can summon up to 5 Skeles One golem and 3 mages and tried to kill him and they all collapsed before they reached him :scratch: . So I tried again with the skeles and then this time they survived a few hits but then died again . Unfortunaltey I dont have a secondary skill to kill diablo either .So someone who had joined the game came and help me kill Diablo while I cast life tap on him so the melee chaacter could live.

I started a necromance because I was trying to complete Normal to hell on ym own. I read that Summoners could do that but I think Im doing something wrong. Could anyone link me or suggest a good build which I can use to solo hell. I was thinking on one that is based on summoning but any suggestions will help.

I know this is kind of vague let me know if I can describe this better.

-Dalvoremancer

 

[Myrakh-2]

1) Normal-Diablo is very difficult for a Skelemancer
2) Max Skeleton Mastery and Raise Skeleton BEFORE getting mages

The way to kill act bosses is to cast gumby next to them, cast decrep on them, and let your skellies kill them. If that doesn't work at your low level, don't bother and get help. Or be very patient.

EDIT: yes, a Skelemancer can solo hell; I'm doing it all the time. However, if you expect it to be an easy go with "no" gear... I'm not saying it's impossible to do naked or with crappy gear (I've never tried that), but it will certainly be difficult. You'll need a decent amount of +skills in your summoning tree.

 

[HarbingersOfSkulls]

1) Normal-Diablo is very difficult for a Skelemancer
2) Max Skeleton Mastery and Raise Skeleton BEFORE getting mages

The way to kill act bosses is to cast gumby next to them, cast decrep on them, and let your skellies kill them. If that doesn't work at your low level, don't bother and get help. Or be very patient.

EDIT: yes, a Skelemancer can solo hell; I'm doing it all the time. However, if you expect it to be an easy go with "no" gear... I'm not saying it's impossible to do naked or with crappy gear (I've never tried that), but it will certainly be difficult. You'll need a decent amount of +skills in your summoning tree.

I've solo'd hell wearing only a belt for potions with my summoner...took a while to do so...but can be done.

Then after I've done that a few times...I had my buddy LyteHammer in a game to just witness the fact that I have done it...and it can be done.

I got the idea a long timie ago from reading about Kristy from the amazon and druid forums...doing hell solo with one of her zon builds on a bet more less.

HoS

 

[HarbingersOfSkulls]

Hi all,
So I started a necromacer and I thought well I want to become Summoner . So I invested a few points into Raise Skeletons (10) and Skeletal Mastery (10) and Skeleton Mages (3) , Clay golem 1 , Golem Mastery (1) , Summon Resist (1) . All curses till Confuse 1 each.

I have +2 skill items Infernal wand and I think the other is an Amy I think. Anyway I tried to kill Diablo I can summon up to 5 Skeles One golem and 3 mages and tried to kill him and they all collapsed before they reached him :scratch: . So I tried again with the skeles and then this time they survived a few hits but then died again . Unfortunaltey I dont have a secondary skill to kill diablo either .So someone who had joined the game came and help me kill Diablo while I cast life tap on him so the melee chaacter could live.

I started a necromance because I was trying to complete Normal to hell on ym own. I read that Summoners could do that but I think Im doing something wrong. Could anyone link me or suggest a good build which I can use to solo hell. I was thinking on one that is based on summoning but any suggestions will help.

I know this is kind of vague let me know if I can describe this better.

-Dalvoremancer

Like what was already said...max out your skeletons and mastery before doing anything else...they are the main part to your army...then max your mages afterwards...revives only need 1 point for the most part...then after you have all your army done put your remaining points into ce.

HoS

 

[Scorchand]

Thank you much for the suggestions I will max my Raise Skeleton and Mastery fast. Should I specialize in a certain golem too? If so how many points should I invest in it.

 

[HarbingersOfSkulls]

Thank you much for the suggestions I will max my Raise Skeleton and Mastery fast. Should I specialize in a certain golem too? If so how many points should I invest in it.

The only golem you will need is Gumby (clay)

HoS

 

[Scorchand]

Ok one more question. What are some easy to get + skill items. The best item I have is Umes Lament. so that is +2 skills . Im sure I can get a +2 ammy in time. Are there other easy or not to expensive to get items. I think I can get a sigons shields which has +1.. ANy other recommendations ?

 

[masakerr]

I've solo'd hell wearing only a belt for potions with my summoner...took a while to do so...but can be done.

Then after I've done that a few times...I had my buddy LyteHammer in a game to just witness the fact that I have done it...and it can be done.

I got the idea a long timie ago from reading about Kristy from the amazon and druid forums...doing hell solo with one of her zon builds on a bet more less.

HoS

HoS, that's bloody awesome! I gather your resistances were way negative though. Nothing but a belt? Zero +skills? what did you max skill wise? Raise Skelly, Skelly Mastery ... Summon Resist? What, do tell, don't hold back Jack, the public wants to know, lol

Masa

 

[darnocpdx]

If you can keep your golem cast to the side of him and keep life tap on him, your merc should be ablle to kill him off, just make sure he's got some good fire and light resists. If need be retreat down a hall and TP back to town to rez him back. In norm he wont reheal. Bonewalls help prtect you from the his fire nova as well.

 

[Myrakh-2]

Items that are necromancer-specific are generally cheap; homunculus and arm of king leoric can be gotten for pgems; a spirit shroud armor, although not an necro item, probably goes for very little or for free. I got most of my TO set for pgems as well, but you might need some patience collecting these. Same goes for Marrowwalks; the +2 version is only slightly more expensive than the +1, since all those PK-bonemancers out there don't care about the +skills on them (they only want the synergy bug).

In MY (yes, MY) experience, things start getting expensive when you try to compete with mf sorcs. Shako, Skullders and the like are impossible to get unless you are willing to pay A LOT (I've been trying to get skullders for my new mf necro for a while... no success yet). Maras you can forget as well, but a +3 summoning amulet (the better choice, anyway, unless you badly need the reists) goes for a few pgems since no mf sorc wants that.

Note: I'm playing EU softcore ladder; from what I can see, prizes on no-ladder are insane, despite the dupes.

 

[Scorchand]

Im on us east ladder. I never knew items could go for pgems :surprise: . I do have a few pgems if anyone is interested in those . Thanks for all the sugestions and help.

Dalvoremancer

PS My account name is *bmathew1977 if anyone would like to play with me sometime

 

[HarbingersOfSkulls]

HoS, that's bloody awesome! I gather your resistances were way negative though. Nothing but a belt? Zero +skills? what did you max skill wise? Raise Skelly, Skelly Mastery ... Summon Resist? What, do tell, don't hold back Jack, the public wants to know, lol

Masa

I had your typical summoner build: max skeletons...mastery...mages...1 in revives...had 1 into every curse leading to decrep and 1 into dv...bone armor...bone wall and ce also enjoyed 1 point.

Gumby...summon resists...and mastery also got 1 also.

In the game with hammer...deal was I could find wands only...and could not have any more than 9 skeletons or mages out...only my curses could be inproved...nothing else...and had to do the typical quest along the way(den...caine...and malus before going on to andy).

My resists was all at -100...I started with no wands...and used the first one I found...my merc had a shaft...tal's helm...and steel pillar...I was level 75-76 when I did this as well.

HoS

 

[HarbingersOfSkulls]

Im on us east ladder. I never knew items could go for pgems :surprise: . I do have a few pgems if anyone is interested in those . Thanks for all the sugestions and help.

Dalvoremancer

PS My account name is *bmathew1977 if anyone would like to play with me sometime

Mine is *MasterDamned and *MasterDamned2 on both West and East.

HoS

 

[Scorchand]

Ok , So now Im level 50 with Max Skeleton mastery and Max Raise Skeletons (24) each :clap: . Today morning before I went to work I tried out nightmare and guess what in a 5 player game my minions ate Mephisto , Diablo , Izual of course for these I had the help of others but for ancients Everyone died on the ancients though and my minions were able to take them down. I did have 10 skeletons 4 mages 5 revives and one merc though :evil: .

Never had this much fun with a character on in Diablo

So far my gear has improved alot

Im using

Umes Lament
A Rare Helm
A rare shield which adds +1 to decripify and +2 to Poison Nova
Normal Ghost Armor ( Amazingly I havent found a 2 socket armor or rare one yet and I havent even picked up one of those magical ones :scratch: )
A +2 Summon SKills Ammy
Trangouls Gloves
Sanders shoes

Im going to try to get the whole set gradually and hopefully an Arm of King leoric. Wow just looked up the stats on that things and it is huge lol

Thanks for all the recommendations and help.

Dalvoremancer

 

[Myrakh-2]

Im going to try to get the whole set gradually and hopefully an Arm of King leoric. Wow just looked up the stats on that things and it is huge

If you are aiming for full-trangs, then wait until you socket your shield with a perfect diamond... it will have so many mods on it that D2 uses a smaller font (well, I guess it's just scaling the font down, though) Most of them aren't the big uber-mods, thiough, but the sheer size of the display is impressive

 

[Scorchand]

Out of curiosity, how rare are the pieces. Should I trade for them or do you think I have enough stuff and should just farm the rest. I dont have alot of items per say to trade. The best item I have is couple of runes though I think my best is fal and a few pgems here and there.

 

[Myrakh-2]

Out of curiosity, how rare are the pieces. Should I trade for them or do you think I have enough stuff and should just farm the rest. I dont have alot of items per say to trade. The best item I have is couple of runes though I think my best is fal and a few pgems here and there.

Depends on your luck

Since the beginning of the ladder, I've found the gloves and a shield myself; but the shield came after I had already bought 2 of them in the trade forum here (still wearing it, because it had better resists).

So, I traded for most of my gear. My "homepage" link shows my char; all the gear except for the gloves, rings, charms and merc armor I have traded for perfect gems and a lum rune, so trading (or buying, as I don't have shakos and other items that people want) worked very well for me (both this ladder and the previous one). I've also found a +summoning amulet recently, but I like the one I'm wearing (which is the 2nd one I traded for in this season; the previous one had a crappy 2nd mod) better.

But, of course, it's luck --- nothing prevents mephi from dropping you a full set right after you traded for one

You can also try to go a non-TO route --- homunculus can be gotten for pgems (already bought one for my new mf skelemancer), a low vipermagi probably as well, a spirit shroud probably goes for almost nothing. TO armor is also a nice piece of gear on its own. Getting a nice helmet would be difficult --- prices for shakos are insane, so you'd need to find/gamble some +skills circlet, or use a peasant crown. Belt and gloves would be available to make up for some resists.

The non-TO route has the potential for more +skills, as full-TO only gives +5 to all skills, using 5 gear slots. TO is still worth it for me, as the bonuses you get from the (full) set provide an excellent foundation to work on. My next Skelemancer will be non-TO, but going an mf route rather than a more +skills one.

Of course, all of the above is simply my opinion and my experience; "+skills are a must-have" can be stated as a fact; what items to use and how to get them is a different story.

 

[Relive The Stupidty]

Ok one more question. What are some easy to get + skill items. The best item I have is Umes Lament. so that is +2 skills . Im sure I can get a +2 ammy in time. Are there other easy or not to expensive to get items. I think I can get a sigons shields which has +1.. ANy other recommendations ?

hrm cheap stuff for skelie necro...lemme think...well skins of viper mage arnt too expensive. marrows are expensive so id say...rare boots...30 frw and some res. trangs gloves...fcr rings..well belt...uhhhhhhhhh.....idk that 1.

BtW Myrakh-2 isnt ur avatare the guy who got punished by the gods and was sentenced to roll up a boulder to have it inveatably roll down so he could start over again(i was reading god of war in a gi issue)?