Poison vs Bone

[kwittstruck]

I have played a summon type necro a few times and to be honest, im kind of tired lettin the minions do the work and i was looking to make either a poison or bone mancer primarily for pvm.
I was just wonderin if there are any viable builds for either for pvm.
and also which would hold up more?

[Habit88]

posion isn't bad. bone nec's take some getting used to. check out this build though http://forums.diabloii.net/showthread.php?t=348494

[DarkPrinceLoki]

demon lord and omincide both have guides you might find interesting

poison (mostly pvp, but is viable for pvm)
http://www.diablo2.com/forum/showthread.php?t=820

bone (again mostly about pvp, but is viable for pvm)
http://www.diablo2.com/forum/showthread.php?t=980

good luck

also with the right summoner builds, you can have lots of points left over to smuggle in an extra build to make it a hybrid. or you can be a commando necro, if you like summons.

[kwittstruck]

that is a good guide link however im on classic, so runes and charms, and some other things as of now i dont have access too. but ill in the future, ill keep that guide in mind thanks

[Omnicide]

Do you have points into Corpse Explosion? That plus curses is where a necro puts some of his own weight into the battle. Corpse Explosion is one of the best skills in Diablo...period. With a few points into it you can clear a room in no time.

There are also PvM Summoner/poison hybrids, too.

With a summoner there's a lot you can do so the necro has a part in the fighting.

[Shallie]

Check this link (http://forums.diabloii.net/showthread.php?t=366742) for some nice guides.

Personally I'd go for poison for a PvM Necro.

[tl613]

From my experience a Poison/Summon hybrid would be a lot more effective than Bone. Maxing the Poison synergies doesn't use up nearly as many skill points as Bone, so you will be left with a lot of points you can put into skeletons or revives.

Also Bone spells don't do too well against large groups as they are very linear. Yes you could tele around and try to get them in a line but that's a pain. Usually you will just get one or two monsters with Spear then the rest of the damage will be from CE.

[Omnicide]

Well the finishing move should be CE on any PvM necro, anyway. O_o;

[kwittstruck]

well i thought up maybe using just the physical skellies/mastery, skip the mages except for 1 (pre) for revives later, and thougth about 5 on explosion and maybe target poison tree with what may be left, way i figure ill have 20 on R-skeletion, 20skeleton mastery, 1 on clay, and 1 on golem mastery, then 1 or 2 on resist. as far as the poison tree i figure nova and explosion, just to help out, as i said maybe 5 or so on corps explosion and 1 on amplify, and im going for a point on decript too, figured let +skills manage the rest.

[Omnicide]

Good plan. It sounds solid as you have it right now.

If you find your poison being too weak, you should take some points out of the skeles/revives and put them into the poison tree, too. As your revives will be dying after 3 minutes, meaning doing some serious reviving every so often.

[kwittstruck]

Havnt gotten to lvl 30 yet on him, but ill keep that in mind, my skellies pawned act 2 including boss quite easily i have em maxed and 4 in skelly mastery, getting summon resists now once i get that im gona start on my poison, cause i wanted a solid force first as im not used to how poison part works just yet. Just somewhat worried on how its gona work vs diablo.... gona try that timing for shortest distance and portal ouafter the last seal is borken, build up what i need and jump back in. but as far as stats placement i took your suggestion and just held my first 25 pts and just used what i needed as i got my gear, never done it like that but it works out better for me, thanks omnicide! but ive just kind of skeched it out for now, ill tell ya how it works out later:) Who knows maybe ill toss out some sort of guide in the future on it

[kwittstruck]

after 1 point in revives i dont think i like em much, mana cost is a lil high for me and they dont like to do what you want them to do most the time. but 1 point is ok cause they do come in handy at times, now if i get somethign really fast it works out, but thats about the only time, cause i dont like slowin down. anyway, leaves me with all points placed cept for 2 more in CE, now in act 2 nightmare, max mastery or work on poison? i figured since skelies/summons are main damage max mastery and start to dump points into poisons

[Omnicide]

One point in revives is usually all you need because other skill gear will increase their effectiveness and amount you can summon.

I say as long as you stick to CE backing up your summons you should be fine until you put points into poison.