Need help deciding.

For the past 3 days I've searched the forums (thoroughly) for clarification on a few questions. A lot of the information I was looking for was difficult to follow, because it seemed like most of the guides were based off of personal experience, rather than a general guide.

For example:

Out of the many guides I read, one of them suggested that the player use fire golems while the others suggested clay golems. Another, Revive/Skeletal Mage over Skeleton. The majority suggested Skeleton.

My disposition is to create summoners - no particular reason - I just enjoy watching armies devour my enemies.

So I guess my questions are:

Fire Golem/Clay Golem?

Is revive worth it?

Skeletal mages/Skeletons? (I heard skeletons are more useful)

Any bone/poison spells involved? (Don't think they're needed if I'm standing in the back while my skeletons kill everything)

Which curses would be beneficial for my skeletons?

I have a basic idea of gear, so I *don't* need help with that (unless you have suggestions that contradict my idea)

Is summon resist important?

I guess I should mention that I haven't played/created a character since 2004/patch 1.07 (Never played on bnet as well)|||I'm assuming you have came across Nightfish's summonmancer (Fishymancer).

That is generally the standard for Necro summoners. What makes that one so effective is it utilizes Corpse Explosion after the army is build and after the first corpse drops.

Before I get into anything: Make what you want! If you want Fire Golem (they end up costing a LOT of mana), then use a Fire Golem! You want Mages and Revies, build Mages and Revies!

People use Clay because of the slowing effect. It winds up being a great tank as well (don't know how exactly), costs very little mana, can scout ahead, and slows bosses (along with Decrip, is magical).

Apparently the Fire attracts monsters due to the Fire Aura he has. I don't know much about Fire Golems, but I don't think the end up doing a lot of dmg...

Revives are worth it. There are certain ones you want; ranged to stay out of the way of your merc and skeleton army. There is another melee monster worth getting, forget what they are called.

There is a build that uses Mages specifically. Lord of Mages. If you are wanting a pure summoner, do the mages. The will sometimes get in the way of your army, and you will be casting Amplify Damage against regular mobs, so they are sort of burdensome to some.

Amplify Damage is the curse you want for you Skeletons. It will double the damage they deal. Decrip for Bosses to slow them down. Attract for some Crowd Control. That one really works wonders.

I enjoy summoners. They may not be the fastest, but I spend too much time looking at all the goodies that have fell and that gets me killed.

If you haven't played since 04ish, roll with the Fishymancer. Those are great. (ie: Max- Skel Mastery, Raise Skel, Corpse Explosion. One point wonders: Clay, Golem Mastery, Summon Resist, Decrip, Amplify Damage-more for less casts-, mage, revive, attact.)

The Fishymancer allows for a lot of room to customize the build to suit your play style.

GLHF!|||Thanks for the quick reply.

I totally forgot about mercs. What type of gear do they require?

I read that Act 2 Offensive Mercs are the best.|||You are correct for skelimancers.

There is a merc guide somewhere or another. Generally you want them to have high defense and a way to leech back life.

A big hurty stick ftw until then! (cube recipe: any diamond + any belt + any staff + any kriss = good starting weapon for merc. Keep all the diamonds you find, and you can buy the cheap kriss from act 2, then the cheap belt/staff in act 1. all together a/b 2000gold. If you don't like it, you can generally sell for more than you put in.)

Until you get to NM, Combat in normal for the Blessed Aim so your skelies hit more often than not. You could also roll for a defensive, they'll stick around longer.|||I'm pretty good with summoners, I've made quite a few, and for whats its worth, and just my opinion, I build them differently than the fishymancer guide.

I go with

20 raise skeleton

20 skeleton master

20 raise skelly mage

20 revive

1 in all curses you want

1 in Corpse explode

The skellies in this build are plenty badass enough to do baal runs, the +skills you will gain through items (leoric spirit shako etc) will raise all your curses to +10 as well as corpse explode up real nice and high as well.

I used this build to do baal runs in 8player games on bnet, as well as doing ubrs and ubr-D with 3-4 people in game.

I get revive to 20 (and with a proper super high end build you'll end up with 40ish or so RS SM SM and Revive) something like 15 or 17 skellies, mages, and TONS of revives, which are a piece of cake to get by opening a cow level, cows also make really good revives I find too.

Using a Tele charge item or w/e, you can plop an army of 60+ badarse crazy army blasting sons of guns in 1 spot all railing on anything.

Nothing can stand up to that kind of brutality.|||For merc guide check this one for information about them

http://diablo.incgamers.com/forums/s...d.php?t=306061

And this one for gear guide for the act 2 ones (most popular)

http://diablo.incgamers.com/forums/s...d.php?t=488619

The corpse explosion is what makes this a faster killing tool. But it depends on what you want. For questing when you play for a longer period of time and only need to collect your army once; Menomage's suggestion is good. If you are doing runs, meaning you need to collect new skellies every 5 minutes it gets pretty tedious.|||"based off of personal experience"

If it wasn't, what right do they have to claim they know what they're talking about?



Mages are generally considered far less powerful than skellies, but are a fun build on their own. Clay golems slow enemies and fire golems attract them, so again, it's choice. Guides are just that, a guide, just take it and mould it to your own opinions.|||I agree with Virgait. It all depends on experience and how you want to play. My skelliemancer is now lvl 90 and I enjoy playing him a certain way. Max skellies, skelliy mastery and corpse explosion. And one clay golem. That's it. (some curses as well, but it turns ut I only use Amp damage and decrepe...)

Reason for no mages and no revives is that it takes me too long time to collect them and maintain them. So I usually don't bother with them, I have points in them but don't use them.|||Oh ya, the playstyle of mine is similar to virgs.

When I'm doing something I wanna make die quickly, hell baal, diablo, etc, I often summon my whole massive army. I always summon up a big army to kill the 3 mini-ubrs Lillith etc.., and the ubrs themselves.

If I'm just doing some runs through WSK or some Pitt runs on hell diff, I will simply run my melee skellies. Perhaps a couple nice revives if I see them, the big ogre thingies that stun for one.

I got to this build by fooling around with fishymancer and changing it to my liking though, it's best to do that for you too of course, maybe you'll like 20 CE, maybe 1 CE, maybe 10? maybe you want more curses etc.|||Thanks for the suggestions.

I'll probably create 2 totally different necromancers, unless there's the option to reset your skills more than once.