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Enigma

01-01-2008, 10:24 PM

From the steamy recesses of the southern swamps comes a figure cloaked in mystery. The Necromancer, as his name implies, is an unseemly form of sorcerer whose spells deal with the raising of the dead and the summoning and control of various creatures for his purposes. Though his goals are often aligned with those of the forces of Light, some do not think that these ends can justify his foul means. Long hours of study in dank mausolea have made his skin pale and corpselike, his figure, skeletal. Most people shun him for his peculiar looks and ways, but none doubt the power of the Necromancer, for it is the stuff of nightmares.
-The Arreat Summit

Congrats on choosing to walk the path of a Necromancer or Necro for short. As the Arreat Summit puts it, the necro's power is the stuff of nightmares. No other Character can invoke the type of fear that makes even FearItself wet its pants and run crying. Its a long hard path to walk, one that is field with Power, Amusement and constant whining from fellow party members about this mythical condition called

L. A. A. G. ( Loser PC getting it's Acehole raped, due to its Ancient processors, by my Godly PCs alienware).

Interested so far? I hope so, because whether you like it or not this is a guide about Necromancers, more specifically the summoning kind:

Loki's Guide to Dethwalking
or
How to build an Army of Darkness real cheap

First things first, the Dethwalker is a combination of many necro builds, but at the very heart of thebuild is a basic summoner. In my opinion (IMO) a summoner is THE purest of all necro builds. It relies on the core abilities of a necro: Curses, raising Skeletons, and control of the recently deceased. Skeletons serve as both infantry and artillery, with curses as support and revives being the tanks and heavy-hitters.
Unlike a majority of guides that I have read, the Necromancer isn't as reliant on equipment (EQ) as others make them out to be. Unless you plan on dueling other players (PVP), the EQ is not a heavy concern, some necro's even prefer to magic-find (MFing) naked. Also this build wont be as expensive as others, the main build can be completed as early as level (LVL) 42, or 49 depending on how certain decisions regarding skills are made. The quicker route is effective and i have soloed hell diablo using it, but it does leave many things to be desired, which is why the build doesn't reach "Perfection" until around LVL 66. I use perfection as a loose term as no one build is perfect, as all have their flaws, even mine. Now, after finishing the main build there is still plenty to do, you still have 35 skill points left over, that's one extra skill you can max, and i will touch on suggestions for that later in this guide.

The Army of Darkness:

What's a Summoner without his minions? Just a crazy, pale-faced man shouting in tongues, that's what! The main meat and potatoes of this type of necromancer is his skeletons. These will be the force by which you beat the three prime evils back to the burning hell's with. Some will simply scoff at these skills, passing them up and using bone skills, which although are powerful, just aren't as intimidating as 16+ skeletons carrying battle axes and lobbing elemental magic in their direction.

Skeletal Warriors: Main physical damage source, although weak at first, these guys can get bad to the bone, pun intended, when supported right. You are going to max this skill.

Skeletal Magi: This is your artillery, and the source of your elemental damage support. Although not needed, they help get the job done quicker and easier. I highly suggest starting off with at least three, after that its up to you. In this guide i will be assuming that you do max it.

Revives: These are your slot fillers and main tanks, sporting more health than their living versions, while still keeping all their strengths and skills. need more artillery?, resurrect something that can fire from a distance. going against a massive foe? throw some blunderbores in the mix. nothing is sacred when revived is used, just don't get something weak, like a fallen...... that's just stupid.

Golems: Golems, although not stressed are necessary to put points into. You have to go through them in order to get to summon resist, so why not reap the benefits of those spent points. Golems are the last line of defense should you find yourself against, lets say diablo. When he uses his fire nova and wipes the floor with your skeletons (who aren't strong enough . . . yet) and mercenary. what's left to do when the lord of terror is chasing you? summon a golem of course, they can tank him enough to give you the time to escape or regroup. Some golems can be great support tanks as well, like the Clay and Iron variety . The clay golem can slow the enemy its focused on, and gets more life per level than the other golems, while the Iron golem can take the properties of whatever item you create it from, runic items included. good things to make an iron golem from include open- socketed (#OS) weapons with ETH and SHAEL runes in them, for both minus target defense and crushing blow. What if you have low quality runic items ( bramble, breath of the dying (are you crazy?) Infinity, etc)? They're well worth the effort to sacrifice, but i wouldn't get that extreme with them.

Mustakrakish: Oh wait . . . . you cant summon a lake troll in this game. Some think its impossible to summon a lake troll. Those same people also can't explain the recent unicorn massacre.......

The Hired Help:
Look up just about any guide on the necromancer, and the main mercenary (Merc) that is listed, 9 times out of 10, is the Act 2 Offensive Spear-man. Regardless what difficulty you're in, this is the one you NEED. When Starting out the Blessed Aim Aura can help your minions hit more often. Being able to hit more often and thus killing quicker is more likely desired, than having to tank Normal Mephisto for an hour or more with a Defiance Aura Merc. Once you get to nightmare, it becomes a whole different ballgame. Enemies hit harder and have more life, so amplify damage isn't going to cut it anymore, not without help. This is where the Nightmare version of the Offensive merc becomes necessary. Packing a Might Aura, this guy will help you conquer the depths of the abyss and anywhere else you go. With a Merc you also have more options to support your army. More on this and equipment choices later.

What Is Thy Biding My Master?

Who's the master you ask? Why me of course, Muhahaha! All minions need a master to serve, and as a necromancer your minions are . . . . . . well . . . . let's face it your minions are dead. yes they are dead, but you breathe life into them. As the creator of this "life" you have to support and manage your spawn, so that they may be more efficient killers. In order to do that, you have to survive.

STATS

When it comes to stats most people, if not all, when asked about their placement suggest this:
Str --- Enough for equipment
Dex --- Enough for equipment or max block
Vit --- Everything else
Nrg --- Base
Now while this is perfectly fine, I myself have a little something different in mind.

Energy:
Leave this at base? Really? The stone set claim for this, is that by the time you hit Lvl 60, there will be enough mana points (MP) from leveling that you wont need any points in Energy (NRG). Should you hear "I need more mana" then the general solution is to drink a mana potion. IMO not everyone reaches lvl 60, and then there's the few builds that while later in the build it's perfect not to put points into it, the early game suffers from the lack thereof. One good example is a hammerdin, and Shinchibi can even back me up in this fact. So what do you do, rely on mana potions? It's really a matter of personal preference, I tend to cast curses alot, making sure that all the enemies stay cursed and that the right curses are used in the right situation, so during the early game i find that i need more mana, so i like to bring my NRG stat up to 50, and i highly suggest doing it with any type of character (Char) build. It really does make a difference, and helps in the long run, not to mention gold and trips back to town.

Dexterity & Max Block:
This is another subject of debate, while max block is a good thing to have for a melee extensive build, for most its a waste of skill points that could be put in a more useful stat, like vitality. Sure stopping 75% of all attacks that come your way is something indeed, but remember that this changes with your level, and at Lvl 99, using the highly coveted Homunculus as a shield, it still takes a whopping 148 points in Dexterity (DEX) to reach max block. Now add in the fact that you have minions and a merc to distract the enemy and engage them in battle, a swirling ring of bone armor, and 2 legs that function, do you really need max block? Instead an easier and more practical 50% block should be much easier to achieve, but then again don't break your computer or gripe at me for Hell Diablo killing you . . . . . you really shouldn't have been standing right in his way.

"Because lets face it We're not used to the whole "apology" thing, I mean we're not professional apologizes, we're musicians, so we wrote you a new national anthem and used lyrics from the Finnish folk book of necronomic spells, a little song that you people might recognize, though it hasn't been heard in over 1,000 years........"

Here is a link that can help you determine Max block should you choose:

http://www.baronsbazaar.invisionzone...lock_calc.html

Getting Started:
I do have a chart that gives my suggestion for stats and skill placement, you can find it towards the end in the charts section. this walk-through takes in consideration that you follow the stat and skill charts like a stalker to its victim.

Table on "Runs"
LVLS 3-12______________Tristram
LVLS 12-14_____________Andariel
LVLS 15-20______________Tombs
LVLS 21-24_______________Cows
LVLS 25-28____________Travincal
LVLS 29-32______Chaos Sanctuary
LVLS 33-46_____Baal's Throne-room

Newbish: Lvls 1-3ish
Starting out you really don't have much. a +1 skeleton wand is pathetic and you cant afford the better ones, so what do you do? Cow Runs, not for experience (exp) but for loot. doing a few cow runs early can give you the benefit of having gold, and when you meet the requirements, future items and bartering chips (aka runes and gems).once you get a comfortable amount of "good" loot (yellow and gold items, Normal grade and higher gems, maxed gold in stash and on char, runes, etc.) then it's time to go do the first quest, THE DEN OF EVIL! (insert evil music and laughter).
So after you earn some respect, you should be about lvl 3ish, enter random games and check Akara's wares for a decent wand that is usable or soon to be usable. Stats that are keen to look for are plus to skeletons, bone armor, amplify damage (AMP), etc. think smart when choosing, don't get a plus +1 skeleton, +3 weaken wand, you don't need that. something better would be a +2 skeleton mastery, +2 raise skeleton, +3 bone armor wand. this is an actual wand i bought too, and i cherished it until i found my first ume's lament. now that you're good to go, it's time to do your job: Scaring the Crap out of Evil.

Powering-up: Lvls 4-12
Start doing Tristram (Trist) Runs now. don't summon, just curse, help the others out, when you get Corpse Explosion, use it and help, but not too much. When you hit Lvl 12 you should be wearing a full set of rare EQ. If not then you didn't get the right stuff during those cow runs....
Also after hitting Lvl 12 you earn your first skeleton mage, and are now ready to take on Andariel (Andy). But before you do this go finish all the other quests, except for the countess, you want to save those drops till later, also don't Imbue anything yet from charsi, that's good to save as well. When you enter Act 2 Immediately get your first Act 2 offensive merc. He will Serve you well. If You need to, do some more cow runs, to restock on gold and maybe get some better Items, though its more a waste right now to do it then wait a few more levels. when you think you're ready, proceed with the Radament's Lair Quest, and get your free skill point.

The Rest of the Story:
Now that we've gotten you started the rest is up to you, just keep following the stat and skill placements till you reach lvl 66 . . . . . . . think I would leave you hanging? though I do leave the rest up to you, there are some spots that might get tricky. I will note these as follows:

Maggot Lair & Arcane Sanctuary: If you plan on soloing these area's i suggest getting a good bone shield, a good 1 handed weapon, and lots of resists. Don't summon your minions they get lost very easy and often get in the way.golems are OK as you can re-summon them anytime. this goes for any small, cramped areas also.

Diablo: Best advice i can give is save the seals until last, clear everything out of Chaos Sanctuary, then do the three seals that spawn the demon lords. After killing them and leaving the last two seals, go to where diablo appears and cast a town portal (TP) right in the middle. If you have Skeletal magi, swap them all out for Cold Mages, trust me. Time yourself from each of the seals to the middle, whichever you can get from to the middle fastest, is the one you open last. after opening the last seal run into the town portal and right back out this will have all your minions right on top of diablo when he spawns, immediately cast Decreptify when Satan, i mean diablo appears. the cold mages should do their job and so should the others, keep him decreptified (decrept) and every now and then cast life tap, or amplify damage, but only for a few seconds, constantly keep him slowed with the cold mages and decrept. It will take time, but this strategy is easy and safe.

If there are any other problem spots you have, let me know and ill help you the best i can.

GEAR:

This section is still in progress as I test rarity and check prices. For now I'm just going to list Uniques, but often the best substitutes can be set and rare items.

Feel Free To let me know of Items you think will work that are on the cheap side.

*Some Items Can Also Work For your Merc as well.

Helms: Wormskull, Undead Crown, Tarnhelm, Peasant Crown, Harlequin Crest, Andariel's Visage, Crown of Ages or *"Lore"*, *"Dream"*

Chest: Hawkmail, Heavenly Garb, Spirit Shroud, Skin of the Vipermagi, Crow Caw, Spirit Forge, Duriel's Shell, Que-Hegan's Wisdom, Arkaine's Valor, Tyrael's Might or *"Enigma"*, *"Duress"*, "Bramble"

Gloves: Frostburn.......... really these are the only one's IMO that fit the demands of this build.

Boots: Tearhaunch, WaterWalk, Silkweave, War Traveler, Marrow Walk

Belt: Goldwrap, String of Ears, Arachnid Mesh, Verdungo's Hearty Cord

*Weapons: With weapons, as a Necro, the choices are pretty straight forward, whatever wand you can find. The easiest to find are Gravenspine, and Ume's Lament. The Best Wand (other than a "White"with great mods) for a summoner is King Leoric's Arm, but it can be expensive to obtain. Later once the build is complete, I Strongly Urge you to get a "BEAST", in a War Axe host. This Runeword will boost the damage and attack speed of all your minions by an alarming rate. As for what to keep on switch, most Builds suggest a "Call To Arms" in a Flail type host.while this is an easier less expensive runeword, trying to get one is still no easy feat.

*Merc Weapon: Eventually You Should work towards getting a polearm with the "Pride" runeword in it. Weapons to use until you obtain one should have these mods: - Target Defense, Crushing Blow, Leech Life, Prevent Monster Heal, Slows Target. A Great and cheap choice would be the unique yari Hone Sudan, it has good mods and comes with 3 open sockets, which can be used to add mods you want.

*Shields: For a Shield, the best bet a Necromancer has is a totem. Homunculus is among the most sought after due to its better mods and defensive stats, but is quite hard to find, not to mention expensive.
Another Totem to look for is the BloodFlame. I'm Not sure of its rarity or value at the moment, but its a decent alternative. Wall of the Eyeless is another good shield, it may lake the + to skills that most look for, but its easy to find and has wonderful mods. for a last resort you can always craft yourself a Safety shield.

*Rings & Amulets: These are some of the most expensive Items to obtain IMO. Its best to just look at your current setup, and use these to fill in the gaps. Some to get your hands on include: (Rings)Madald Heal, Stone Of Jordan, Ravenfrost, Bul-Katho's Wedding Band, Wisp Projector; (Amulets) Mara's Kaleidoscope, Eye of Etlich. Crafted Rings and Amulets are also a great choice.

Charts:

Stat Placement: Stat (Increase Till) This is mearly my suggestion. The final decision is up to you.

Str = Strength, Dex = Dexterity, Vit = Vitality, Nrg = Energy

2 - 10. Str (60)
11. Vit (20)
12. Vit (25)
13. Vit (30)
14. Nrg (30)
15. Dex (30)
16 - 19. Nrg (50)
20 - 23. Vit (50)
24. Str (65) Lam Elsome: Str (70)
25. Str (75)
26 - 35. Vit (100) *Enter Nightmare at Lvl 33*

*This is a good start, the rest of the stat placement from this point on is based upon what you need, due to EQ, Health needs, or how much block you want.*

Skill Placement: Full/Long Version Skill (new level after point)

2. Skeleton (1)
3. Amplify Damage (1) Den of Evil: Bone Armor (1)
4. Skeleton (2)
5. Skeleton (3)
6. Skeleton Mastery (1)
7. Teeth (1)
8. Corpse Explosion (1)
9 Save
10. Save
11. Save
12. Skeletal Mage (1) Skeleton Mastery x2 (3) Clay Golem (1)
13. Skeletal Mage (2)
14. Skeleton Mastery (4)
15. Skeleton (4) Radament's Lair: Weaken (1)
16. Skeletal Mage (3)
17. Golem Mastery (1)
18. Iron Maiden (1)
19. Life Tap (1)
20. Skeleton Mastery (5)
21. Skeleton Mastery (6)
22. Terror (1)
23. Save
24. Decreptify (1) Summon Resist (1)
25. Skeleton (5)
26. Skeleton Mastery (7)
27. Skeleton (6) Fallen Angel: Skeletal Mage (4), Skeleton Mastery (8)
28. Skeletal Mage (5)
29. Skeleton Mastery (9)
30. Skeleton Mastery (10)
31. Skeleton (7)
32. Skeleton (8)
33. Skeleton (9)
*Enter Nightmare*
34. Skeleton (10)
35. Blood Golem (1)
36. Iron Golem (1) Den of Evil: Revived (1)
37. Skeleton Mastery (11)
38. Skeleton Mastery (12)
39. Skeleton Mastery (13)
40. Skeleton Mastery (14)
41. Skeleton Mastery (15)
42. Skeleton Mastery (16) Radament's Lair: Skeleton (11)
43. Skeleton Mastery (17)
44. Skeleton Mastery (18)
45. Skeleton Mastery (19)
46. Skeleton Mastery (20)
47. Skeleton (12)
48. Skeleton (13)
49. Skeleton (14)
50. Skeleton (15)
51. Skeleton (16)
52. Skeleton (17)
53. Skeleton (18) Fallen Angel: Skeleton x 2 (20)
54. Skeletal Mage (6)
*Enter Hell*
55. Skeletal Mage (7)
56. Skeletal Mage (8) Den of Evil: Skeletal Mage (9)
57. Skeletal Mage (10)
58. Skeletal Mage (11)
59. Skeletal Mage (12)
60. Skeletal Mage (13)
61. Skeletal Mage (14)
62. Skeletal Mage (15) Radament's Lair: Skeletal Mage (16)
63. Skeletal Mage (17)
64. Skeletal Mage (18)
65. Skeletal Mage (19)
66. Skeletal Mage (20)
Total Skill Points Used: 75 (66 Lvl + 9 Quest)
Total Skill Points Left: 35
*Build Complete*

What Now?

Remaining Skill Points: 35

You got 35 skill points left, and you don't know what to put them into? There is several help skills to invest in, and you even got enough points to Max one. Now while most of the skills that have only one point placed into them (like curses and revived) get taken care of with plus to skill Items, for the rest, you will need to help them out by adding more points into them. Some good Skills to consider are:

*Corpse Explosion
*Bone Spear/Bone Spirit (IMO Bone Spirit)
*Bone Armor/Bone Wall/Bone Prison (IMO put points into Bone wall, its a synergy for many bone spells and can help manage incoming enemies)
*Revived
*Poison Explosion/Poison Nova
*Golems

*Questions?*

Let me know and I will try to help you to the best of my abilities, and If I can't, then I will point you in the right direction at least. I Play on The USEast Servers and since I have a family I'm not always on, so message me with your questions and I will Answer them as quickly as possible, and please no spam or flaming.

*Now Go Forth and Conquer*

ALL YOUR BASE ARE BELONG TO US!!!!!!!

Introduction
The equipment required for this build is pretty godly, a lot overlap Tony's guild, but mine has more of a "step by step" appoarch.

This Guide is divided into 4 sections, Equipment, Stats, Skills then the Step by Step section.

Equipment:

Helm: Um'ed or Ber'ed Shako

Ammy: Maras

Weapon: Hoto, try to get at least 35% all rez on it.

Shield: Um'ed Hoz or Eth Zod'ed Hoz

Armor: Mage Plate Enigma

Gloves: Upped Magefists

Rings: 2xSOJ / 1xSOJ + 1xBK, its your choice, personally i'd go for 2xSOJ

Belt: Arachnid Belt

Boots: Travs (45% mf or higher) for the MF, your other options are treks.

As your secondary, a Crystal Sword CTA and any spirit pally shield with any fcr.
The reason I picked a Crystal Sword is because usually Hotos are flails, and if your CTA is a crystal sword, you will see a blue sword when you switch to it, so you dont have to check if you are using your primary or secondary.

Your inventory should consist of 20 life scs, offensive pally GCs, Combat pally GCs, Pally Torch, and Anni.
This guild has not taken anni into consideration. Another option instead of Pally Torch is to have a 20 attribute Any Class Torch, just to save yourself a few points that you would have had to put into strength.

Stats:

Strength: NONE! You dont need any strength at all! Since you have Mage Plate Enigma, you only need 55 str to use it! Since pallys start with 25 str, just wait til you put on mara, torch and anni to gain the extra 30 str.

Dexterity: 73 points at level 80, if you are higher than level 80, check out this 75% caculator:
http://www.baronsbazaar.invisionzone...lock_calc.html

Vitality: Once you have the right amount of stats in dex, the rest go here.

Energy: None

Skills:

Combat Skills
1 - Smite
1 - Holy Bolt
1 - Charge
20 - Blessed Hammer
20 - Holy Shield

Offensive Aura
1 - Might
20 - Blessed Aim
20 - Concentration

Defensive Aura
1 - Prayer
1 - Cleansing (good for after combat curse time reduction/poison reduction)
1 - Defiance
20 - Vigor
1 - Redemption

All these skills added together make up 108 skill points. With all the skill quests completed and when your character reachs level 99, you will have 2 skill points left over. If you have gotten do this point, by all means... put these 2 skill points into whatever you want, i would recommend 2 more points in Defiance.

Step by Step
To follow along with this step by step, you basically need to have the same equipment that I have used for this guild, that is the only catch.

First few levels
Put all of your stat points in dex until it gets to 73 (I have taken into account that you will have a +20 to attributes Ptorch)

Skills:
(order does not matter)
1 to Smite
1 to Holy Bolt
1 to Might
1 to Prayer
1 to Defiance
Save the rest.

First Marker
LEVEL 12:

Stats:
You should now have enough points into dex. From now on, all of your points are going into vitality.

Skills:
1 to Cleansing
1 to Charge
Start putting points into Blessed Aim until it has 6 skill points in it (until you reach level 18)

Second Marker
LEVEL 18:

Skills:
1 to Vigor
From now on, all your skill points will go into Blessed Hammer and Concentration.
I would recommend putting 1 point into Blessed Hammer, and put the rest into Concentration because the mana cost is very high for hammers at such a low level.

Third Marker
LEVEL 24:

Skills:
Take a break from putting points in Hammers and Concentration.
Put 1 point into Holy shield, now continue with Hammers and Concentration once again.

Third Marker
LEVEL 29:

Equip:
Equip your 2 SOJS! Your first piece of godly equipment has been... well... equipped

Forth Marker
LEVEL 30:

Skills:
Take a break from maxing Hammers and Concentration.
1 to Redemption
Continue maxing Hammers and Concentration.

Fifth Marker
LEVELS 45-57

Skills:
You should now have maxed out Hammers and Concentration.
Start maxing Vigor then Blessed Aim.

Sixth Marker
LEVEL 67:

Equip:
Mara

Seventh Marker
LEVEL 70:

Equip:
Anni

Eighth Marker
LEVEL 75:

Equip:
Pally Torch
Enigma
Shako
Travs
UM'ed or Eth Zod'ed Hoz
Hoto
Upped Magefists
CTA
Low Pally Spirit

Nineth Marker
LEVEL 80:

Equip:
Arach

Last Marker
Continue leveling up and keep an eye out for your 75% block rate to decrease, add 1 point to dex and continue process until block rate is at 75%.

Also, once you have maxed out Blessed Aim and Vigor, add the rest of your points to Holy Shield.

*END NOTE* If you don't understand some of the D2 "lingo" like travs etc. PM me and with the "lingo" you do not understand and i'll elaborate on it.

Thanks to Tony for the style format

just some of the handful of guides i thoughtfully copy/pasted