Summoner help

[princeofdarkness]

Summoner help

okay, im relativley new to single player because i usually play online

i wanted to start a summoning necro to go through normal mode on single player [a friend said i couldent do it without cheating,, ill show him]

can sombody give me some guidelines for a summoner that can do normal mode single player?
i was having trouble before with single bosses like Durial, how am i supposed to kill him as a summoner? the skeles would die too fast and leave me there

any help would be greatly appriciated

 

[iLi]

um well i just started, but everyone says that a Summoner can easily make it through Hell naked.


umm i'm not too sure on skills besides Raise Skeleton and Skeleton Mastery, so a more experienced person would have to tell you

 

[dcrunk]

1 pt in revives helps alot, if you can get a substantial amount of plus skills. Decrepify another one pt wonder along with clay golem really are your primary boss killers. max corpse explosion, and if you decide to go with a merc get him some crushing blow gear, I made a strength runeword polearm and it helps get that CE chain going. Then if you have left over pts just toss em in amp if your lacking or even more revives.

 

[Skjolde]

have a look at nightfish guide
http://forums.diabloii.net/showthread.php?t=349093
its a great guid for playing an untwinked summoner.

enjoy! :thumbsup:

 

[Latex Glove]

have a look at nightfish guide
http://forums.diabloii.net/showthread.php?t=349093
its a great guid for playing an untwinked summoner.

enjoy! :thumbsup:

I absolutely agree - this is THE perfect guide for a beginning and/or unmodified Summoner.

 

[Soepgroente]

Clay golem + decrepify = no problem at duriel.

 

[Latex Glove]

Clay golem + decrepify = no problem at duriel.

I think he was more or less talking about when you first encounter Duriel, which is sometimes an issue with an untwinked, low level Summoner (since you don't have the tremendous boost to skills, let alone access to the mentioned Decrepify).

If the OP is talking about Duriel in this manner, than might I suggest using Iron Maiden or Life Leech? You ought to be level 18 by that point anyway, so you will have access to such curses.

However, if the OP was not talking about being under level 24, then Clay Golem + Decrepify is indeed the most effective way in handling Duriel.

 

[AnimeCraze]

Or just some nice shopped wand from Drognan or Akara. With enough +skills (which means usually 3 to RS) and not wasting any skill points, you need to resummon at most once or twice (unless you are horribly under lvled).

 

[bogie]

I would wait for duriel until your 24, grab some +skills, and throw decript + gumby on him. As anime said, you may have to resummon, but it shouldnt be anything you cant handle.

 

[princeofdarkness]

ok but how many points should i have into clay golem/golem mastery?
i doubt im guna get to lvl 70 in normal to max summon skele/ skele mastery and put sufficient points into corpse explosion and golems

my friend made it to act 4 and was level 29 when he was doing hellforge
so im guessing ill be around the same
maxing skills seems an impossible dream

 

[AnimeCraze]

Well, don't stop at normal, then. Beat your friend and make it through hell. It's possible to do it with this build (in fact, not difficult at all) even in single player.

As for points in golem/mastery, 1 each is plenty.

BTW, is this hardcore? If this is SC, there's no problem with dying, so there's definitely no problem in killing Duriel.

 

[Skjolde]

well 1 point i clay golem and mastery should be sufficient.
your golem works as a tank and is further easy to recast.

even though maxing skills can be a pain, you should concentrate on maxing: RS,SM and CE at first and during the progress just remember to grab amp, decrep and such skills.

But as mentioned (and linked) before, you can find all the answers to your questions in the fishyguide.

It's possible to do it with this build (in fact, not difficult at all) even in single player.

i could not agree more:tongue:


Cheers

 

[Damric]

Ok check it out. This is the order for skills low level untwinked.

-Put only one point in skeleton mastery (trust me just max this later).
-One point in amplify damage
-One point in iron maiden
-One point in clay golem
-One pont in golem mastery
-One point in corpse explosion
-One point in raise skeleton mage
-One in prerequisites
-Then ALL THE REST IN RAISE SKELETON

When you get to duriel you should be around level 20ish, so by then your skeles will be very strong even with only 1 in mastery. Immediatle cast iron maiden on Duriel. He will usually prefers to attack your golem before he attacks anything else, so bring a ton of mana pots and keep spamming that clay golem and iron maiden on him. he may destroy all your skeletons eventually, but you should be able to bring him down with just the level 1 clay golem and iron maiden.

Now Mephisto/Diablo/Baal

You should have a point in decrepify and life tap at this point. Also a point in summon resist. Make sure you have a cold using skeleton mage. Cold+clay+decrepify absolutely paralyzes these guys if you can get it all casted before they lay waste to your troops. If you think you have them slow enough without decrepify, then try casting level 1 life tap. it helps your skeleton warriors very much.

I reccomend maxing raise skeleton as soon as you can, then getting corpse explosion going, and enough amplify damage to keep up with your needs. After you do those to a respectable level (like 20 for ce , then max out skeleton mastery. The reason I say skeleton mastery last is the difference between level 1 mastery and level 20 mastery only doubles your skeleton damage. You get much heftier gains by adding to raise skeleton. See the pet calculator and it's all self explanitory. At this point you need to decide if you will maximize skeletal mages, or maybe maximize golem mastery, or alternatively dim vision. Mages= more killing power, golem mastery= nice iron golems with very high life, dim vision= good defences.

Also, against bosses, your mercinary is absolutely your best minion. Try to get him equipment with crushing blow. Strength runeword is easy to make (amn-tir), but there are so many more. Crushing blows will take huge chunks of life from bosses.

 

[AnimeCraze]

I like to do mastery before CE myself. CE takes up way too much mana for a low level necro, even if you have more than 1/2 dozen mana pots in the inventory.

But, these are all personal preferences. It's too hard to screw up this build, IMO.

 

[Soepgroente]

I think he was more or less talking about when you first encounter Duriel, which is sometimes an issue with an untwinked, low level Summoner (since you don't have the tremendous boost to skills, let alone access to the mentioned Decrepify).

If the OP is talking about Duriel in this manner, than might I suggest using Iron Maiden or Life Leech? You ought to be level 18 by that point anyway, so you will have access to such curses.

However, if the OP was not talking about being under level 24, then Clay Golem + Decrepify is indeed the most effective way in handling Duriel.

If you're not lvl 24 before facing duriel you're just asking for it. If you play on players5 or higher, which anyone should early in the game, you'll be lvl 24+. Players8 you're lvl 26-28 depending how many areas you run...

 

[Skjolde]

Agree that you really cant screw up this build.
I prefer to use decrep on duriel, have a solid merc, claÿ golem and some few skeleton. - you guessed right, i like to max SM before the actually skeleton themselves.
In act 2 i have around 3 skeletons and it works just fine.

Ofc, you can be forced to tp to town to make a new army, but my main reason for doing so, is almost always because my merc died.

- recast golem as soon as it dies
- keep your merc alive with red pots
- and spam decrep, it goes out faster than you think, and duriels attack hurts.

But as Anime says, its a matter of personal preferences. do it the way that it serves you most.

cheers

 

[Ed from Russia]

The only bosses that summoners may have problems with are Normal Duriel and Normal Diablo. Your skellies are not strong enough at that point.

Here are some ways to deal with that:
- level a bit further before you approach Duriel, so you have Decrepify. As mentioned, together with Clay Golem this will help a lot.
- Make sure you put as many points as you can in Raise Skeleton and Skeletal Mastery. Only put 1 pt each in Glay Golem, Golem Mastery, Summon REsist, Amp Damage and Decrepify (+2 prerequisites). That way your skellies are as strong as they can when you get to Diablo.
- Level further before you fight Diablo. Level 28-30 will be easier than 20-22.

Even if you take these precautions your skellies may die too soon. The solution is easy: use a town portal out of there, revive your Merc, find a place to raise some more skellies and get back in. Do this 2-3 times and Duriel / Diablo dies.

By the way, here are some thoughts on gear for Single Player untwinked skellymancers:
- Look for a wand with +3 to Raise Skeleton immediately, replace with +3 to summoning when you are lvl 50 or so.
- Armor: Stealth to start with, replace with Smoke at some point for high resists
- Shield: large with 3 perfect diamonds
- Helm: Lore runeword for +1 to skills
- Boots: anything with FRW
- Belt, Gloves: anything with resists
- amu, rings: anything with resists