what makes the Necromancer so powerful
Al Smith
Necromancer is considered the most powerful character in the game.
I've told her that is what was written in this group. She's playing
a Necromancer and can't figure out why the Necromancer is supposed
to be so strong. What's the reason?
-Al-
Jeff
"Al Smith" <inv...@address.com> wrote in message
news:J5Z%j.47$Gn.28@edtnps92...
There are other folks here that can give you a more detailed answer than I.
That said, the necromancer's skill set is such that he can solo the game
through hell with relatively common equipment. With the combination of
minnions, golems, merc, curses and of course corpse explosion(one of the
most, if not THE most powerful offensive skill in the game) you can remain a
safe distance from the fray and still deal decent damage. A very potent and
easily managed blend of survivability and offensive power.
Just my observations, Jeff
EB
I agree about CE. CE is incredibly powerful. Plus with a enough minions, you
can play a very good defensive game.
The cons against a Necro is he is very hands on playing. With curses and CE
I have to be constantly aware all the time.
I haven't played as a skeleton master. Only as a Golemancer with revives. He
can be very slow going.
Right now, ATM, I prefer Amazons or Sorcs.
My first character in D2 was a Necro.
EB
Ray
news:7G_%j.29825$qg....@fe31.usenetserver.com:
I have no experience with the golemancer biuld, but with a skelliemancer,
it is almost mind-numbingly easy to play the game. Just follow the
skellies around and pick up the loot. Although i would use CE on ocassion,
i found totally unnecessary. I only used revives for hell Baal. A little
Amp Damage and your army of skellies is all you really need. It may get a
little slow during some boss packs or heavily congested areas, but what do
you want for letting others kill for ya :) I havent played in 3 or 4
months, thanks to WoW, but i do have to admit I miss running the normal
hell baddies looking for the cream of the crop in drops.
Ray
Ulandx
Ok,here it goes:
Raise Skeleton (20)
Skeleton Mastery (20)
Clay Golem (1)
Golem Mastery (1)
Raise Skeletal Mage(1)
Teeth(1) - prerequisite for Corpse Explosion
Corpse Explosion(20)
Amplify Damage(1)
Decrepify(1 + 3 prerequisites) - Break physical immunities,slow bosses.
Rest doesnt matter,I found Dim Vision especially useless,just summon a
Golem ahed of you in dangerous areas (mostly areas with Gloams).
With some +skill gear you get an army which is unstoppable,in most places
it even isnt necessary to bother with CE.
But there are some drawbacks,tight quarters like The Tower or The Catacombs
with many doors are a pain when only 1 of your 25 minions can attack the
mobs
behind the door.
Also Archers can be a pain,they easily freeze the whole army,can be deadly
in
Icy Cellar or Drifter Cavern.
As mentioned in a posting before,Necros can get away ith almost no gear to
speak of
which on the other hand means they have plenty of room for magic find
stuff.
At 84 my Necro wears full Angelic Set,Chance gloves,Goldwrap,some rare
boots,
Tarnhelm,lots of small magic find charms - resists are non existant and
deep red.
All in all Necro is one of the strongest chars in D2,although I see a tie
with
a non-elemental Bowazone,Bowazone has the advantage of needing less
keystrokes,
just press right mouse button and strafe,almost no need to pay attention
to the
surroundings.
Wutz
-snip-
> Ok,here it goes:
>
> Raise Skeleton (20)
> Skeleton Mastery (20)
> Clay Golem (1)
> Golem Mastery (1)
> Raise Skeletal Mage(1)
> Teeth(1) - prerequisite for Corpse Explosion
> Corpse Explosion(20)
> Amplify Damage(1)
> Decrepify(1 + 3 prerequisites) - Break physical immunities,slow bosses.
>
All good, but don't forget Summon Resist - at least one point. Makes a
big difference in the survivability of your skeletons, golems and
revives.
Bruce
Al Smith
I copied all the responses in this thread into a text file, and I
will e-mail it to her computer, so that she can read them. Thanks
for the info.
-Al-
Flank Groinpull
> On Fri, 30 May 2008 22:04:57 +0200, Al Smith <inva...@address.com> wrote:
> > My wife is playing Diablo II and she wants to know why the Necromancer
> > is considered the most powerful character in the game. I've told her
> > that is what was written in this group. She's playing a Necromancer and
> > can't figure out why the Necromancer is supposed to be so strong. What's
> > the reason?
>
> > -Al-
> Also Archers can be a pain,they easily freeze the whole army,can be deadly
> in
> Icy Cellar or Drifter Cavern.
That's why Dim Vision is a popular spell. With a few hard points in
it, plus whatever your +skills bumps it by, you can blind EVERY non-
boss/champion on the screen.
That's one of the reasons a Necromancer is so powerful:
- Melee attacks: Who cares? That's what your minions are for. Once
a Necro reaches about level 6-8, he can go the rest of the game
without touching, or being touched by, a single monster in combat.
- Ranged attacks: Who cares? Use Dim Vision, Attract, or Confuse,
and they're not a problem.
- Physical immunes: Not a problem, use Amplify Damage.
- Elemental immunes? Many can be broken by Lower Resist.
- Super-fast attacker tearing your minions up? Decrepify combined
with Clay Golem will slow them to a standstill.
And all of the above are achieved with one build - the Skellimancer.
I've never played a Golemancer, but I've done quite a few
Skellimancers. Put 20 hard points in Raise Skeleton, 20 in Skeleton
Mastery, and really, the build is done. From there, it's your
choice. A couple of points in Summon Resist is almost a must, but it
has diminishing returns after a few. I usually put one point in all
of the curses, then bump Dim Vision until it covers the whole screen.
Corpse Explosion gets about 10 hard points. I use Fire Golem for
"regular" questing, and Clay Golem for end-of-act bosses.
If you want a clear illustration for how powerful a Necro is, google
"Naked Necro" to read about a guy who took a hardcore necro through
the whole game without wearing any gear at all. THAT'S how powerful a
Necro is.
Virtual Den
"Ulandx" <ula...@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:op.ubzwh...@p5b34cfa3.dip.t-dialin.net...
> On Fri, 30 May 2008 22:04:57 +0200, Al Smith <inv...@address.com> wrote:
>
>> My wife is playing Diablo II and she wants to know why the Necromancer
>> is considered the most powerful character in the game. I've told her
>> that is what was written in this group. She's playing a Necromancer and
>> can't figure out why the Necromancer is supposed to be so strong. What's
>> the reason?
>>
>> -Al-
>
> Ok,here it goes:
>
> Raise Skeleton (20)
> Skeleton Mastery (20)
> Clay Golem (1)
> Golem Mastery (1)
> Raise Skeletal Mage(1)
> Teeth(1) - prerequisite for Corpse Explosion
> Corpse Explosion(20)
> Amplify Damage(1)
> Decrepify(1 + 3 prerequisites) - Break physical immunities,slow bosses.
This is the basic of a good Necro which is what I do but for the max CE
which I will keep at 15+ with +items as I do with Dim Vision. Here a link
for people who do not know it yet who need to know how much remaining points
are available. Though it is version 1.10 instead of 1.11
http://www.d2items.com/skills.php .
> Rest doesnt matter,I found Dim Vision especially useless,just summon a
> Golem ahed of you in dangerous areas (mostly areas with Gloams).
A low level Dim Vison is useless but put enough points in it and you are a
god since only the boss and enhanced monsters will attack. The area of DV
increase with more points but the main feature IMO is the duration because a
low duration makes the curse useless since you always have to spam it.
> With some +skill gear you get an army which is unstoppable,in most places
> it even isnt necessary to bother with CE.
I do not max CE but share the points with DV but CE helps a lot to kill
physical immune and speed up the fight though I would never max it since DV
is so good.
> But there are some drawbacks,tight quarters like The Tower or The
> Catacombs
> with many doors are a pain when only 1 of your 25 minions can attack the
> mobs
> behind the door.
> Also Archers can be a pain,they easily freeze the whole army,can be deadly
> in
> Icy Cellar or Drifter Cavern.
There are also the viper type of monster who charge and kill your skell in
one hit or shoot some elemental attack I do not recall but DV can fix this.
> As mentioned in a posting before,Necros can get away ith almost no gear to
> speak of
> which on the other hand means they have plenty of room for magic find
> stuff.
The is the two sockets helm runeword that gives +1 to skill with easy to get
runeword. At level 45 you can shop for a +2 to skill with +1 Decrepify and
+1 to Revive which will save 4 skill points or choose the skills you prefer,
just keep shopping.
> At 84 my Necro wears full Angelic Set,Chance gloves,Goldwrap,some rare
> boots,
> Tarnhelm,lots of small magic find charms - resists are non existant and
> deep red.
Not a good HC set up. ;oP I also put one point in Skell Mage because
Decrepify + Clay Golem + Cold Mage make Baal useless boosting the skill with
+ skill item.
<Snip>
VD
Virtual Den
"Virtual Den" <nos...@nospam.com> wrote in message
news:g1srqi$5ik$1...@aioe.org...
>
I forgot to say if you shop for a wand keep the points you may need in
reserve if you change for a better wand so you can put the hard points in
the skills you got for free.
VD
bergs...@bellsouth.net
My zookeeper ( skelliemancer to the max ) Grampa_Munster was built
like this : 20 Skel Mast , 20 skellies , 20 mages , 20 revive 1
golum mast , 1 in each golum 4 syn , 1 sum res , 1 teeth , 1 corpse
explode , 1 bone arm , 1 amp dmg , Leaving me 20 to play with. I have
been lucky as far as gear with + skills . I use the following : +3
HOTO , + 3 Boneflame sheild , +2 Enigma , +2 Shako , 2x +1 soj's ,
arachnids , Trang gloves for the + 2 curses, and +2 marrowwalks for +2
skellie mastery , and a +3 summon ammy , Nectorch , anni , and upto 9
summon Gcs . I can walk hell without any problems . And even do the
Ubers . I will use my left over 20 skill points putting 4 each in
golum mast and each golum so i get a golum with massive def , life
and damage .I find that amp dam is all u really need as far as
curses . And Corpse explode is needed 4 the most part 4 the maggot
lair . With 1 point in sum res and the + skills equip I have a sum
res of 67 . Good enough to keep all my pretties alive in hell . IMHO
a skelliemancer is the best all around char in the game . Just stand
back And let your army do the dirty work . It will be slow going but
use the time to pick up all the gold and other drops . Put points as
needed into strength , Non really needed in dex or energy , so you
guessed it put almost everything you can in LIFE your best friend .
With this build You can raise an army of 80+ and if someone goes
hostile don't run wait till you see them on your map and tele right
next to them .Most times their dead before they know what happened .
With 80+ in your control all that damage is directed at the hostile
party as if your only 1 person . It also works the same when doing the
Ubers . They drop very quickly . As your walking around killing just
amp dmg ahead of you in the direction you are going if theres
something ahead of you that you can't see yet the amp dmg seems to
work like a magnet keeping your army up with you and not following
behind like a gaggle of geese .This is also my char of choice to self
rush a new char either 4 myself ( i have 2 cd key on my comp ) or when
rushing a friend . They like it when their having a problem with
Diablo the crowd kills him in 30 seconds while i just stand there
laughing at him . Also remember to use Clay golum 4 all bosses it
will slow them down to a crawl and keeps Baal from cloning a twin or
teleporting once he gets to clawing at
him .
i
Al Smith
We've been playing together, she with a Necro and me with a
Sorcerer. We are just cutting through those monsters like a buzzsaw,
but her Necro is doing most of the work. I can see now why it's
supposed to be so powerful. I'm wondering how it will do against the
ancients, where there are no corpses to resurrect for skeletons.
She's read over the comments in this thread, and found them interesting.
Before, we were playing an Assassin (her) and an Amazon (me) but we
kept getting out asses kicked by the ancients in Hell level, so we
decided to move to a couple of other characters for a while. We're
about ready to do the snakes in the desert with our Necro and Sorc
in Normal. I'm using frost nova as my main weapon at the moment, but
haven't put more than one point into anything but warmth (to
regenerate my mana faster) so I'm weak at this time. I'm waiting
until I get to blizzard, which is my favorite weapon with the Sorc.
She's using skeletons, and a blood golem, along with various curses.
-Al-
Bob I
Navigate to the door to Arreat summit, pop a town portal, gather up the
zoo in Pindels place, load up some more at Frigid and then go back thru
the TP and up to Arreat and then wack the Ancients, use Clay golem and
Decrepify, move on to the next Way point.
Zamboni
20 Raise Skeleton
20 Skeleton Mastery
1 Fire Golem
1 Amp damage
1 Decrepify
1 Summon Resist
1 Revive
20 Corpse Explosion
20 Dim Vision (optional)
Maximum Skeletons can effectively kill everything when multiplied by
Amp Damage and a Might aura from the mercenary. The huge damage
generated from Corpse Explosion is icing on the cake.
Maximum Dim Vision will extend way beyond the edge of the screen, so I
would spam that everywhere when confronted by Gloams, Spearcats and
Burning Archers. These are the enemies that can shoot through the wall
of the skellies, so these are effectively be the only monsters than
can kill you. I then cast the smaller radius AmpDamage on the area
around me and the skellies. Once a few bodies have piled up, start the
CE daisy chain and walk the blasts up towards the blinded Gloams (who
are really short on hit points).
I also preferred the Fire Golem due to his flypaper affect; the merc
was much safer with everyone focused on the Fire Golem. Baal goes down
insanely easy against this combo - teleport to him, cast Decrepify and
he spends the rest of the battle swinging helplessly against the Fire
Golem.
--
Zamboni
Al Smith
Sound like an awesome build.
-Al-
Al Smith
Ah, Pindel's hoard. A ready source of corpses. :-)
-Al-
Al Smith
I'll copy this over so that she can take a look at it. Thanks.
-Al-