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Beginner's Necromancer Guide:
Version: 1.04
Skill Level: Newbie to Beginner
Game Type: Any
Author: Numbed
Objective: To uncover how you should develop your Necromancer
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This guide will explain you in detail how to build a great Necromancer. As of right now, my Necromancer that uses this tactic is level 40, which means I've tested and player all the high level skills and that I'm not just assuming the strategy by other guides that I've read.
Stat Points Distribution:
Strength
Try to reach to 75 as fast as you can here (refer to the table below for more info) but don't spend any additional points.
Why 75? Because from the items I'll recommend you later at this guide, the item, which requires the highest strength is tower shield, which requires exactly 75 on strength. You may also consider investing only 65 points here instead of 75, check the equipment part under Armor & Shield for more info…
Dexterity
Leave it on 25. The only attributes that are affected by dexterity are the attack rating and the defense, both of them mean nothing for you Necromancer. Bone Spells don't have attack rating and defense means nothing because you'll always run when your attacking or fleeing from attacks. You should however, care about the chance to block on the shield but the dexterity has no affect over it.
Vitality
After you reached 75 on strength and whenever you don't run out of mana constantly during fights, you should spend your points here. That's all the deal here.
Energy
After you reached 75 on strength and you are running out of mana, spend your points here. You shouldn't, however, spend all your early points on strength. Refer to the table below for more info.
| Level |
Strength |
Dexterity |
Vitality |
Energy |
| 1 |
15 |
25 |
15 |
25 |
| 10 |
35 |
25 |
25 |
40 |
| 15 |
65 |
25 |
30 |
60 |
| 30 |
75 |
25 |
40 |
90 |
| 40 |
75 |
25 |
50 |
135 |
The stats on the table may not be accurate because it depend if you have finished the
"free 5 points" quest.
Skills Points Distribution:
Raise Skeleton 1 point (not just a prerequisite)
Why 1 point and it's not just a prerequisite? Because with the + to skills from your items, you'll reach 6-7 and you don't need more than 6-7. You may also think that they suck on nightmare and hell. The answer is yes, they suck but because of the combination with Iron Maiden it rules. Even if they die in one hit, the monsters deal a lot of damage to itself thanks to the Iron Maiden curse.
Skeletal Mage 1 point (not just a prerequisite)
Same as with the Raise Skeletons.
Revive - 7-8 points
Why 7-8? Because with the items, you'll reach about 15 and you wouldn't be able to control more than 15 at the same time since they die after 3 minutes. However, if I'm wrong and you can control more than 15, spend more points at Revive.
Clay Golem - 1 point. (just as a prerequisite)
Iron Golem - 1 point. (just as a prerequisite)
Blood Golem - 10 points
Why to invest 10 points here? Why not to get Fire Golem with the higher damage? Now we get to the main point of this guide. When a monster hits the blood golem while it is cursed with Iron Maiden, not only it deals damage to itself, but also fill your health immediately because the game calculate the damage the returns to the monster as if the blood golem made it.
A bug? Maybe, but on the Chaos Sanctuary, the official strategy site, Blizzard mentions it as a good strategy and not as a bug that will be fixed soon. Why 10 points and not 5? Because the more points you invest at Blood Golem, which means he steals more life, the more life the Golem get from the Iron Maiden.
Golem Mastery 10+ points
As much as you can, since this boosts your Golem's strength
Golem Mastery 10 points
With the items, you'll reach over 15, which is great. If you have additional points, spend them at this skill.
Summoning Resist -3 points
Along with the points from the items you'll reach about 10. More than 10 is almost useless.
Amplify Damage 1 point
Why to use this and not just Iron Maiden? Because Iron Maiden does not work with ranged attacks and magic attacks. Therefore, on these types of monsters, Amplify Damage along with your high level Bone Spirit feet very well.
Iron Maiden 10+ points
The trick was already explained on the raise skeletons and blood golem skills.
Teeth 1 point. (Just as a prerequisite)
Corpse Explosion 10 Points
This skill is awesome when there are 1 to 3 players on the game. It can replace the Bone Spirit then, but if the game is full with players, the effect of Corpse Explosion will be minimal and Bone Spirit will be better. If there are 1-3 players on the game, kill 2-3 monsters with Bone Spirit (or wait for 2-3 monsters to kill themselves with the Iron Maiden) and then start casting Corpse Explosion non-stop. If you have additional points, consider spending them here cause the range of Corpse Explosion is very important.
Bone Spear - 1 point. (Just as a prerequisite)
Bone Spirit - 20 points -
Why Bone Spirit and not Bone Spear? Because the disadvantage of this tactic is when fighting bosses such as Mephisto and Diablo whose most attacks are magic attacks and not physical. Bone Spirit is much better against bosses, specially thanks to its 2x damage and that it's seek the target and follows it. Cast Amplify Damage on the boss and start firing Bone Spirit on it.
You can also get Clay/Iron Golem to make the boss busy while you attack him with the Bone Spirit. Don't cast Blood Golem against such bosses because they will lower your life to 1 within 2-3 hits.However! Against bosses such as the Armorer or the Smith, Blood Golem with Iron Maiden is the greatest thing because they do massive physical attack.
Equipment
As I mentioned before, the defense does not matter at all for you. Therefore, I'll take into account only the magic properties of the items and not their defense.
Helms
In the beginning get Tarnhelm. Although the + to gold that drops from monsters and the + to find magic item does not work when a minion kills the monster, the helm is easy to get upon gambling and the +1 to skills is great, specially for Necromancers that uses a lot of skills. After sometime try to get Wormskull by trade or by gambling.
Gloves
Get Frostburn by gambling. Only if you have enough mana even when not wearing Frostburn, then consider getting good rare gloves.
Boots
Gamble for good rare grieves with resistance and fastest run/walk.
Belts
As with the boots, gamble for rare plated belt with magic resistance and + to life modifiers.
Rings
2 Stones Of Jordan only. Try gambling or trading for them.
Amulet
Try to trade for a rare amulet with +1 to (later with +2) Necromancer skills, + to life and good resistance. Also, use the 6 perfect skulls formula to transmute rare amulets whenever possible.
Wand
Ume's Lament ONLY. This is the first item in your priorities of trades.
Armor and Shield
Why have I included these 2 items on one part? Because there are 2 options here and I'll explain it now.
If you have mana problems, then the shield should be Sigon's Guard shield and the armor should be the unique Heavenly Garb. If you don't have mana problems, the shield should be a 3 perfect diamonds socketed tower shield and the armor should be the unique Twitchthroe.
The reason is that on the Heavenly Garb, there's a faster mana regeneration mod and on Twitchthroe there's increase chance of blocking of +25% which is very very important. You don't need to wear both Sigon's Guard and Twitchthroe because the max chance of blocking is 75%. My recommending is to have Twitchthroe with 3 perfect diamonds socketed tower shield.
Hot keys
I have written here how I use the hotkeys, however, this is just an advice and you may use it as you feel like. Assign Bone Spirit to the left button action. All the hot keys refers to the right button action:
F1 - Iron Maiden - Always curse a bunch of monsters at the moment you see them in this curse.
F2 - Amplify Damage - Whenever you meet ranged attackers, if you have time, cast Amplify Damage on them after you cursed the others with Iron Maiden. Also, curse bosses that doesn't use close combat physical attack with this curse.
F3 - Corpse Explosion - Always use this when there are 1-3 players on the game.
F4 - Bone Armor - Always, but always cast it. Even if it's still active, recast it. Don't forget to recast it before you quit town.
F5 - Raise Skeleton - Whenever your revive monsters is on max, make skeletons.
F6 - Skeletal Mage - Same as above.
F7 - Revive - Always make revives, if you see a dead corpse of a monster that is stronger than a monster that you control now, replace it. Beware that reviving a monster takes a lot of mana.
F8 - Blood Golem - The most important. He will barely die if the monsters are cursed with Iron Maiden. Cast it immediately if it dies.
Sorry that there is no place for Town Portals hotkey. If you want to hotkey Town Portals, you have to choose which of the above skills to remove.
Summary
The main idea of this Tactic is to use the trick of the Blood Golem with the Iron Maiden. This guide gave you accurate details for the skills, stats points and equipment. It wasn't a basic guide about Necromancers. There may be many other strategies for building other great Necromancers with combinations of Bone Spear and/or Fire Golem.
The Necromancer specializes in many skills from all the trees and not just from the bone tree or from the summoning skills. Therefore, during battles it requires a lot of micromanagement but once you get used of using the "Curse => Attack => Summon" tactic and after you get used of using the hotkeys for 8 different skills, your Necromancer will kick everybody's ass!
If you want the Necromancer to be good for duels, you may spend some points at on bone prison. Feel free to post any comments.
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