How's My Summonancer?

Time Burglar

Diabloii.Net Member
How's My Summonancer?

This is my ideal Summonancer based on varying guides I've found throughout these boards, and I thought I'd get everyone's opinion of it. Hopefully it meets with approval, seeing as how he's already at Level 75. :lol: I already have the equipment, so that isn't a problem. Thanks!

Equipment
Shako
Enigma
Arm of King Leoric
Homunculus
Trang-Oul's Gloves
Spiderweb Sash
Marrowwalks
SoJ x2
+3 To Summoning, Level 1 Grim Ward (22/22) Amulet

Skills
20 To Skeleton Mastery
20 To Raise Skeleton
20 To Raise Skeleton Mage
20 To Golem Mastery
20 To Corpse Explosion
1 To Clay Golem
1 To Blood Golem
1 To Iron Golem
1 To Fire Golem
1 To Revive
1 To Summon Resist
1 To Teeth (prereq)
1 To Bone Armor
1 To Amplify Damage
1 To Iron Maiden
 

[D]Rui[D]

Diabloii.Net Member
looks rather decent except for the 20 pts into golem mastery..... wonder why you invest 20 in here when 1 is enough.
would recommend 1 pt into all the curses and maybe a few more into DV
 

Time Burglar

Diabloii.Net Member
I haven't put more than 1 into the Golem Mastery yet, since that's the only one I was hesitant to max out. I figured I'd max it out since it would help me no matter which Golem I used in each situation. :thanks:
 

tangzor

Diabloii.Net Member
id like to say a few things about this build, my summon nec is lvl 92

first of all, no mages, u may think they're great at the start, but all they do is clog up pathways, waste corpses and die

secondly, u only need amp dmg and decreprify ( and their corresponding prereqs ), i like to have a fairly large cast area for amp dmg, ive got about 10 points on it, decrep is only for baal so stop him from casting so much

since u already have enigma, u dont need to waste points on dimvison, attract and the such

1 item u should get is +3 boneflame, which i think is better than a homo

i like to use iron golem, and since u maxed golem mastery this combo should work, with maxed mastery he'll be buff, IK maul with 2 eths in it is the best and cheapest golem i can think of
 

Time Burglar

Diabloii.Net Member
I haven't put more than 1 point into Golem Mastery yet and I'm not sure I'm going to; that's one of the reasons I wanted to get some opinions. :thumbsup:

I personally love Mages; they may not be able to take as many hits as Soldiers but they're awesome for dealing with Physical Immunes in Hell (I had 13 Soldiers do nothing to a Quill Rat :grrr: then I made some Mages and swiftly dealt with it).

So far I've invested a single point into Amplify Damage & Iron Maiden. I like using the Level 33 Bone Wall from my Marrowwalks and let 'em kill themselves attacking it while cursed with Iron Maiden. I do kinda like Decrepify, but I don't wanna invest points in a skill and its prerequisites exclusively for Baal. Maybe I'm wrong, though.... :thanks:
 

Shanksie1337

Diabloii.Net Member
Trust me, decrep + Clay golem = dead baal.
And as this build is excellent for baal runs it would be a shame not to get decrep, esp as if you don't max GM you will easily have the points spare.
 

TheAlfheim

Diabloii.Net Member
tangzor said:
id like to say a few things about this build, my summon nec is lvl 92

first of all, no mages, u may think they're great at the start, but all they do is clog up pathways, waste corpses and die

secondly, u only need amp dmg and decreprify ( and their corresponding prereqs ), i like to have a fairly large cast area for amp dmg, ive got about 10 points on it, decrep is only for baal so stop him from casting so much

since u already have enigma, u dont need to waste points on dimvison, attract and the such

1 item u should get is +3 boneflame, which i think is better than a homo

i like to use iron golem, and since u maxed golem mastery this combo should work, with maxed mastery he'll be buff, IK maul with 2 eths in it is the best and cheapest golem i can think of
Out of interest, could you elaborate on the build you're using? I would imagine it has to be some kind of a hybrid? Or many points into revive?

I found with my summoner, I was going poorly, then dumped a number of points into the mages. While I'm only on act1 hell, its quite effective, especially against physical immunes (but yes, they do die more often)

Cheers
TheAlfheim
 

Time Burglar

Diabloii.Net Member
Is it really any good to put more than 1 point into Corpse Explosion, since it only affects the Radius? With my equipment, 1 point would put it at Level 10, so I'm not sure. Thanks!
 

shadow-hc

Diabloii.Net Member
my necro i built was lvl 16 in hc a summonacer and the game wouldnt let me get more than 3 skel fighters and 3 mages i wonder y :scratch: . If u know can u pm me in game at shadow the brave.
 

Time Burglar

Diabloii.Net Member
Wow, that's weird. o_O Sorry I can't help ya' there.

I've been considering a new build for my Necro, and here's what it would look like.

20 To Skeleton mastery
20 To Raise Skeleton
20 To Raise Skeleton Mage
20 To Poison Explosion
20 To Poison Nova
1 To Clay Golem
1 To Golem Mastery
1 To Summon Resist
1 To Poison Dagger
1 To Teeth
1 To Corpse Explosion
1 To Bone Armor
1 To Amplify Damage
1 To Weaken
1 To Terror
1 To Decrepify

I would still have the same equipment, since I still want to make my Summons as strong as possible, but this way I can help my Undead Army from a distance. Although I won't have Poison Dagger for the 3rd Synergy, my 2 maxed Poison Skills will still be strong. The main problems with this build are that I don't have Revive, and I have 1 too many points invested, so something would have to suffer. The only noticeable thing is Bone Armor, but that skill has protected me numerous times, and I have Marrowwalks besides. Does anyone have any suggestions on what to do with this build, or whether or not it should be scrapped? Thanks!
 

rickcarson

Diabloii.Net Member
Time Burglar said:
Wow, that's weird. o_O Sorry I can't help ya' there.

I've been considering a new build for my Necro, and here's what it would look like.

20 To Skeleton mastery
20 To Raise Skeleton
20 To Raise Skeleton Mage
20 To Poison Explosion
20 To Poison Nova
1 To Clay Golem
1 To Golem Mastery
1 To Summon Resist
1 To Poison Dagger
1 To Teeth
1 To Corpse Explosion
1 To Bone Armor
1 To Amplify Damage
1 To Weaken
1 To Terror
1 To Decrepify

I would still have the same equipment, since I still want to make my Summons as strong as possible, but this way I can help my Undead Army from a distance. Although I won't have Poison Dagger for the 3rd Synergy, my 2 maxed Poison Skills will still be strong. The main problems with this build are that I don't have Revive, and I have 1 too many points invested, so something would have to suffer. The only noticeable thing is Bone Armor, but that skill has protected me numerous times, and I have Marrowwalks besides. Does anyone have any suggestions on what to do with this build, or whether or not it should be scrapped? Thanks!
Well, its heresy, but you could ditch the Skeletons, and then everything else powers up off Lower Resist.

Add Revive and Lower Resist, remove Raise Skeleton, and put any spare points into Poison Dagger. QED.

Alternately, skip Mages (1 point), get Revive, and swap out Poison Explosion for Corpse Explosion + more radius on Amp (so that CE and Amp radius is the same). That way everything powers up off Amplify Damage. QED.
 

[D]Rui[D]

Diabloii.Net Member
shadow-hc said:
my necro i built was lvl 16 in hc a summonacer and the game wouldnt let me get more than 3 skel fighters and 3 mages i wonder y :scratch: . If u know can u pm me in game at shadow the brave.
its a rough guess but can it be due to the fact that since 1.10 you can only get 1 skelly/mage per 3skill pts invested in the skill. unlike 1.09 you get 1 skelly/mage for every skill pts you out in the summon tree.
 

tangzor

Diabloii.Net Member
this is my necro, he started from day 1 of the ladder, he has random point allocations, but since hes 92, i dont wanna start again

20 skel mastery
20 skeleton warriors
1 skel mage
5 revives
1 golem mastery
1 of each golem
1 summon resist
10 amp dmg
1 on every other curse
20 corpse explosion
1 bone shield
1 teeth

the curses is a bit random, i had a lot of points to spare so i thought, what the heck

phys immune should not be a problem, amp damg removes it anyway, if it doesnt then corpse explosion will kill it

as to the build u ask? just skels
skels and merc should do more than enuff dmg, a guilhames face and a bonehew will make short work of anything, just tele rite on it
i hardly ever use revives
 

Time Burglar

Diabloii.Net Member
Well, a lot of people seem to like putting only 1 point into Skeleton Mages for some reason, which I don't quite understand, as I love Mages and I'd want to make 'em stronger/summon more of 'em. I'm probably not gonna try building a Summon/Poison Hybrid, since the point of building my Necro was to have a big army and using Poison moves seems to compromise that. My original plan was to max out Corpse Explosion, but I found out the hard way that it only increases the radius. I was thinking about maxing out Clay Golem + Golem Mastery, since I've read that Clay Golem can reach incredible amounts of life at Level 40+, and also because my Clay Golem can slow down its target even more and last even longer. Does anyone have any thoughts on that?

Without further ado, here's Possible Necro Build #3:

20 To Skeleton Mastery
20 To Raise Skeleton
20 To Raise Skeleton Mage
20 To Clay Golem
20 To Golem Mastery
1 To Summon Resist
1 To Blood Golem
1 To Iron Golem
1 To Revive
1 To Teeth
1 To Corpse Explosion
1 To Amplify Damage
1 To Weaken
1 To Terror
1 To Decrepify

This would be pure Summoning, with Curses and Corpse Explosion to use on the sideline. I can get Corse Explosion to Level 16 with only 1 point into it, so that isn't a big problem. I wish I could fit Bone Armor into this build, especially since I have Marrowwalks, but it's not as important as having Corpse Explosion. Now, I'm not by any means dedicated to this build yet, but I'm trying like crazy to find a build that I'm satisfied with!!!!! :flip:
 

Mad Mantis

D2/3 Necromancer & Witch Doctor Moderator
Time Burglar said:
I was thinking about maxing out Clay Golem + Golem Mastery, since I've read that Clay Golem can reach incredible amounts of life at Level 40+, and also because my Clay Golem can slow down its target even more and last even longer. Does anyone have any thoughts on that?
The difference in slow between a level 40 and level 20 Clay is 8%. The difference in life is huge, more than 20k. So regarding life it would be worth it.

The difference between a level 30 and level 40 Clay in regards to life is 9k. A considerable amount, but not something as drastic as before. So if you pump Clay to 10 instead of 20 you can get an insane amount of life and still pump your BA some.

So depending on the amount of +skills you are able to get you might want to put less in Clay and pump BA some since you expressed a desire to do so. Couple your new found BA with Marrowwalk and some +skills and it will serve you nicely.
 

tangzor

Diabloii.Net Member
i love summonmancers i have to say
i think golems r good, but in my experience, golems have never done anything drastic for me, ok so ur golem can slow down stuff, but ur merc should have a gaze, which has cold dmg, decrep also slows.
who cares about a golems life if its not iron golem, if it can take more than 3 hits, its served u well, u can just summon again, its not like it costs u an item.
the reason i use iron golem is crushing blow, IK maul has 40%, that and 2 eths make it a good boss killer
 
Hey,

I have a lvl 84 Necro. I was thinking of doing the old blood golem/iron maiden build, since I hadn't played in a while. But, I looked over the skills and saw Clay Golem has slow. mmm...yummy.

My build looks like:
1+ in all summon skills
20 in golem mastery
20 in skeleton mastery
1 in everything to Lower resist
1+ in everything to bone prison and bone spirit.
20 in corpse explosion
2 bone spirit

I have been upping bone prison for bone armor and bone spirit synergies. I wasted a few skills getting lower resist and iron maiden. I might have overdone corpse explosion a bit, but I'll be dammed if a 11+ yard radius isn't fun :flip:

Anyway, with my merc's Holy Freeze, my decripfy and my golems 49% slow, the monsters barely moving. Dodging is a matter of, "Is he swinging? Oh yeah he is, I'll move in a few minutes." Don't forget that decripfy amplifies damage. Although, I cast amplify damage first since it has a huge radius, in case I miss anything.

Also, my clay golem rarely, rarely dies. He has 26k life and with the slow, decripfy, and freeze things barely hit him, let alone do damage. The only time he is killed is by Slingers or Bone Archers in act 5 hell.

I can get to hell baal pretty easy, the matter of killing him is...well 20 minutes+ I usually just do runs with my hammerdin friend or my cold sorc one. Or I do shenk/eld/pindle runs in 5 minutes or less.

I don't particularly like skeletons, they are great meat shields, and last a long time...but revive is SO much better IMO.

Hoped that helped...
 
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