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Strategy




General Strategies     Amazon Strategies

Assassin Strategies     Barbarian Strategies

Druid Strategies     Necromancer Strategies

Paladin Strategies     Sorceress Strategies




Necromancer Strategies

If u like blood golems than use life trap in conjunction. this will heal u and you dont even have to fight! this is great against Diabl. Also use bone spear or spirit for a pimary attack. in act 5 there are some great heads, but if you cant get one trade.

Boner the necro

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To all you wanna be necro's out there: For life beyond D2 normal mode, you gotta think ahead. I have read those other strategies and some of them make sense, but some just suck! You can't take advice from a level 20 something necro who claims they beat Diablo in Hell mode! It is impossible. The monster level upgrades for each of the game play modes (nightmare, hell) makes this a ridiculous claim. Bottom line: If you are going to use your necro in nightmare or hell modes, you gotta think ahead. Don't waste a single skill point on something you won't use in later levels. That point will be better used to make advanced skills (like bone spirit) stronger. Use blood golem and iron maiden always! You don't need other golems even though they are stronger. With upgraded iron maiden the monsters kill themselves just by looking at your blood golem. You only need to cast blood golem once, because with iron maiden each time the enemy tries to hurt your golem, they hurt themselves and the golem gets health for it (which means you get health for it). With the simple blood golem/iron maiden combo, dying as a necro actually takes effort! The point is you aren't trying to kill enemies with your golem, you are trying to make them kill themselves by fighting with your golem while you cast iron maiden on them from afar. Meanwhile, grab a missile weapon and shoot from a distance. I even like to send in a blood golem, cast iron maiden then start hurling rancid gas potions at the monsters as they stand in line for a shot at your golem which will kill them as soon as they touch him. Also, Keep the rogue you hire in Act 1, she can't be beat! She is smart enough to run away from enemies and can shoot from a distance. Plus you can equip her with some bad-ass gemmed/runed bows that do some hefty damage. My rogue has a gemmed/runed bow and a static circlet and does up to 258 damage per shot! Good luck in your own adventures.

Gandalf, Necro level 47

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ok, this is sad, I am tired of reading all these strategies for necs, that were written before the IM/Blood Golem bug was fixed. IT SUCKS NOW! If you have the latest patch, do not bother with blood golem. He is only a stepping stone to your real goals: Iron and Fire. This choice comes down to preference. I prefer Iron Golems myself, because if you use an iron golem and amp damage, the golem's natural throns damage far exceeds that of IM. Even so, I still would put about 3-5 points into fire (your items should be boosting all skills by 5 or more) for a backup and for fighting large numbers of fire based enemies (Arcane Sancutary). The skills that are really important are your curses, no question about it. Three in particular: iron maiden, amp damage, and life tap. decripify is a necessity if you plan to do pvp, and confuse or terror are both nice ways of covering your ass on single player retreats if you get in over your head, but you should make sure not to put more than a few points into any curse. Most of the important curses require almost no mana, thus you can cast it multiple times to cover an area and save your skill points for other things. Now, along with your golem you will need other summons to keep enemies distracted. Two very viable options are revives or mages. A lot of people probably stopped reading this now that I've mentioned mages, but they are always useful, if only for a ranged unit that deals elemental damage. They also make fights with phys. immune creatures in hell a lot easier. Even so, I much prefer revives. But to use them in numbers you need a LOT of mana. I have about 10 points in revives with the items i currently have. That's plenty, you will rarely get more than 10 good revive enemies, a lot of the monsters you will fight will be worthless as revives. Other summoning skills to boost are skeleton mastery (this also boosts revives hp and attack, thus it is highly worth it) and summon resist. Bone/Poison skills to focus on are bone spirit and corpse explosion. Again, a lot of mana is needed, but ce+amp damage=lots of dead enemies in no time. Just cast amp damage, bone spirit until the first corpse hits the ground, then bust out ce and don't stop until you can't see the floor anymore. Now, one last peice is missing from the puzzle. The merc. These guys will frustrate the hell out of you at early levels. They will die over and over and over again. Resist the urge to say f*** it and leave him dead. These guys can be your best friend later in the game if you make sure their level stays near yours. My favorite merc is the might merc from act 2. When you combine might aura's damage boost for your revives and life tap's 50% life steal, your revives will always live through the whole three minutes. Also, my merc is lvl69 and is carrying Hwannin's Justice (see Elite Set Items, though my mercs version of Hwannin's Justice also boosts his attack rating by 300, giving him over 1200 damage with might aura and a very fast attack rating). With might aura, I can send my merc and iron golem in to face diablo alone on hell, cast life tap, and sit back and watch them beat the shit out of his punk ass. The last time I did it, I didn't even have to give my merc a potion, he stayed alive through the life steal alone. These strategies also work pvp. Barbs are a cake walk, cast decrep and run around him in circles. If it's a whirlwind barb, wait till he goes into whirlwind then cast amp damage and your iron golem should finish him off with thorns in the first spin. Sorc's aren't too bad, but have really, really high resistances. Bowazons just need to be slowed down a little with decrep then they fall pretty quick. It's really that simple. i didn't used to think so, but after my latest nec (lvl 71), I believe that they can be by far the most powerful character in the game. However, they also take the most thought and work to get to that point. So if you are looking for an easy way to beat it and don't want to put in the time and effort required to make the ultimate character, go build a barb or sorc.

The Necromancer King

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Here is a stategy i have used.
Poision and Bone: Poision is very good when in Normal and Nightmare, but if you plan to play till hell i recomend you either use 1 or 2 types of Poision or Bone spells, or not at all. I did put poision dagger up to level 20 as well as bone armour, but the bone armour didnt give enough protection and the poision dagger isnt great unless you have a REALLY good dagger.
Curses: Quite good especially amplify damage. Lower resistance is good but not always that helpful.
Summoning: This is the one you should probably use the most!
Ressurection: Is the one i have found is by far the most useful, the low mana cost, you need nothing but a dead body and you get back that body with more Hit Points ect. ect.
Fire Golem: Absolutely burns everyone in the sidekick department, mercenaris, valkyries, shadow masters, EVERYTHING!!! The problem with these 2 is that they are the spells that come when you reach level 30, but the wait is worth it if you are a little patient and then you can go out and kick everybodies arse!!!!!
Equipment: Im not that picky. It all really depends on what you find or trade. But if your using poision dagger, i cant stress enough the importance of getting a very good dagger, its essential.

Patriarch Necro the Evil, Necromancer lvl 99 , Patriarch Marduk the bloody, Barbarian lvl 99, Patriarch Lord de Seith, Paladin lvl 99, Matriarch Fyre, Sorceress lvl 99, Slayer Ruckas, Druid lvl 38, Matriarch VeLvEt, Assasin lvl 99, Matriarch Daine, Amazon lvl 99

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PvM Necro
Ok, just to let you know i have been playing diablo since it came out, and after reading most of these strategies i came to realize that half of these people dont know what they are talking about. I mean common what good can you accomplish at lvl 10 and posting a strategy ur basically saying use ur skills points on all ur lvl 1 and 6 skills and hope that helps you survuve Duriel. Well lemme tell you i dont know what is the big deal about Duriel hes only a real threat in hell. So anyways lemme get back to my Necro, who was able to Solo all the way to hell and kill baal. Lets start of with the skill points.
Skeleton Mastery- Increase the damage and life of your revives, who will be doing your main damage. Skeleton- Ugh, one is it, this is a lvl one skill and you will see why in hell Magi- Not much better than the skeleton in hell, so dont waste more than one point. Revive- Ah, stupid, but strong, about 10 here, if you have the mana maybe more. Combine this with decripify and you have one awsome combo. Blood Golem- Ok what can you accomplish surviving an 8 player hell game for an hour without actually killing anything. I dont like this golem, its lvl 18 and i never questioned why. Iron Golem- This golem will be droping bodies imo. I made him out of a cruel elite polearm and he can really tank em. Max if main golem. Fire golem- alternate golem, he makes a great attention drawer with his holy fire aura, and with the current bug, he deals physi cal dam (although not very good) as well. Max if main golem. Golem Mastery- 1-20 depends, i only have one, all the revives seem to keep them alive longer. Bone Spear- Bah, thats all i can say. Avoid this like a bad habit Bone Spirit- Ah, max this if you want, great boss killer and body dropper (if you have the mana) I personally had no use of it till later my minions did all the work Amplify Damage- this is nice for a lvl one curse, but there is a reason it is a lvl one curse (because there is something better) Decripify- Oh ok lets compare with Amplify dam. Amplify dam lowers physical resist by 100. Decripify lowers it by only 50 BUT it lowers their speed by 50% and their dam by 50%. Now with the monsters going at half speed your minions will be doing two hits by the time they react one, as compared to Amplify damage where they still hit back hard and fast. Also, that lower dam can really help you out. Max this for the duration Lower Resist- Nah, not for this build, but it is still the best

Ok now for stats. Strength- 110 - Nice number, allows for a number of good gear. Dex- 0-200 it all depends on ur personal preference, i never needed the dex. Life- 0- 120 i put my points into life since this necro doesnt duel much, not to mention u wont get hit often. Mana- rest, this build needs alot of mana for the revives, and well as if you are using a fire golem.. Ok i would describe the equipment, but this build is long enough, just make sure you get a total of at least +10 to all skill lvls, this is not very hard to accomplish

Now for lvling skills. act1 norm. Just play the act in an 8 player hell game, points into all the prereqs and do your thing. act 1 nm ah, you should be around lvl 40, ull do ok just stay in the outer cloiser and lvl hell- hmm, may take longer, but just join a game where you can kill andy, u should be around lvl 65+.
act 2 nm- follow through, do what you need to do to lvl up, and u will be ok -nm- lvl up in the sewers a bit, then proceed to kill duriel (hes not that hard) -hell- ok you might want to get help because he can take a while, just use ur minions to chip away at his health
act3 all lvl up in flayer jungle and then kill mephistro
act 4- make sure you do the izual quest, in all lvls you might need help to kill diablo but just follow through
act 5- ah, lvl up in bfs (all acts) and then proceed to kill baal. I actually died once while killing him, but o well 200000 gold isnt a big deal to me
You have plenty of room to experience with skill points, i put about 10 into summon resist, and experiented with corpse explosion (nearly maxed this) and attract (may not sound good, but if all your minions ever die, then this can actually finish some monsters off) I have about every type of necro varient their is this is just an example of one of my monster killers, i do have better ones but this is the most fun. there you go and remember, if you have not experienced the game, please just refrain from even posting its just annoying.

(123diablox, 123diablow) realm bnet useast

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The infinite HP method: just get a blood Golem, and Iron Maiden...that's all you'll ever need...create a blood golem and cast iron maiden on your enemies...when they whack your golem, it'll return them LOADS of damage and gain you health at the same time...it's as easy as letting your golem loose and cursing!!!

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I don't know what people are talking about?! I kicked Diablo, Mephisto, and Baal's disfigured butts with skeletons. Also Corpse Explosion SUCKS!!! So does poison Nova. And by the way, Who out there thinks a wand is a good weapon and you should not be a melee type for a necro. Come on I know you think that. BUT OUR WRONG!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I've got a lv38 necro who carries a warriors giant axe of slaying that does 32-71 damage and a 44+ to attack rating. Revives stink also for the amount of mana and commitment they require. So if you like the CE, PN, revive combination, that is fine. I just think that combination STINKS BIG TIME!!!

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Here is a winning Necro strategy, I should know I have built 4. Ok first for PVM Necro's.
First off. Forget Summoning. All you need is 2 into Blood Golem. maybe 4 into Golem Mastery. Next Max Iron Maiden and Corpse Explosion. Also would be a good Idea to max Amp Damage(For those times in cows you have a good barb with you.). These are all the skills you really need after these are maxed do anything you want with the other points I would pump Bone Armor. Maybe a few Revives. Oh yeah and get the spell Attract. BE CAREFUL. DO NOT I MEAN DO NOT use Attract right away when you get out of red portal in cows you will clog it and people get mad.
So what you do is cast your armor. If you have no sorces with static or a good barb then forget Amp. USe Iron Maiden on the cows and attract when you have a big enough herd a cow should have died by then use ce and then more ce till they all dead. Works best in cows. Suks on ranged attacks. On bosses it rocks as well.
Now i you have a sorc with static or a good barb, GOOD barb key here. Use amp instead of Iron Maiden Tell the sorc to statc the cows. Then as soon as 1 cow dies. You just hit one Ce and they all drop. THis is due to the Static effect of the sorces.
Now for PVP. If you are fighting Zons r Sorces well to bad for you I wish you luck. Best PVP same strat as above except dun put any in attract or Revive instead put it all in Armor Bone Spirit and Bone wall. Yes Bone wall. What you do to a barb or pally or the occasional Zon(Sorces Tele) is cram them with Walls, Max the walls. Then you fire away with Bone Spirit after you AMp them. Your BS will pass through your walls and hit them.

This from, Anotherrrchar,LVL 99 Necro. Another Charrr, LVL99 Necro Anotherrr Charrr LVL 98 Necro and Torendrell lvl 99 Zon and SummoningCrazed lvl 99 Necro.

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Ok, necromancers are hard to deal with but you can make them a war lord with millions of monsters to protect or you can make him a meleemancer I'll try an explain from my experience how to make a wicked necromancer. It depends on what type, personally I like summoning because poison and bone spells won't help you past act 5. I know I've tried my bone spirit couldn't brake or hurt anything in normal that's why I had to make my necro. So to make a that summons you need a few things. First decide what type of golem you want do you want iron or fire? NEVER FOR ANY CHARACTER PUT MORE THAN 1 SKILL POINT IN A TEMPORARY SKILL, example would be a clay golem. Just put 1 skill point. Ok for a summoner you have to curse to weaken those other monsters and also corpse explosion helps alot in cows. Ok first when you start try putting as many points as possible in skeleton mastery, this will really strengthen your revives! Then when you get level 30 you should have mastered skeleton mastery but this will be hard if you play the game through maybe you should try to get a free rush and level up in cows. Anyways master revive then maybe 2-5 point in summon resist and just master golem mastery and the golem you like. Now for curses decripify is great help its far better than amp damage but amp damage is good for cows when your about to explode them so you try to get the maximum damage. Also put a point in lower resist just encase you come across immune to physical which is basically hell act 2 and 5. Ok for poison and bone. Bone spirit pathetic damage even when maxed. Poison Nova trust me your probably never going to use this unless your a pvper. Ok you should now decide what items I'm going to try different sections depending how rich you are. Poor mans equipment: a rare +2 to all skill necro helm trust me go to the necromancer channel advertise for a few days you'll find someone, any of wand that you can find with +2 to all skills which isn't to hard. A head with +2 to all skills trust me not hard again just pick up all the heads and wands you've found in hell cows. A +2 all skill necro ammy which you can easily find or trade. in-between rich and poor has a few sojs or good items: Homunculus worth 1 soj, Black hand key 1 soj, Trang ouls scales (the armour), 1 soj, +2 all skill rare helm same as in poor man section, Trang ouls claws pretty cheap just offer some unique or set, 2 soj and +2 necro skill ammy. Rich mans: use everything except the helm and armour from the medium man and replace them with shako your rich forget about price and an Arkaines Valour either with +2 to all skills or +2 to necromancer skills also try to get 10 summoning charms. Now for stat points. TONS OF ENERGY! My necro has 35 revives and each revive costs 45 I think mana. He has 220 energy and around 950 mana and still has no mana after revive like his golem costs 280 mana and each revive taking away a large portion. For strength enough to use trang ouls armour. After you have at least 700 mana you can stop putting points in energy and work on dex. Now for a merc get an act 2 offensive merc NM make sure its nm. He will have might and level him up with you he will give all your revives alot more strength!!!
PvP necro: These aren't my best but I know how they work. Nice level decripify, Master bone spirit, bone wall and bone prison. If you want you could get poison nova because if your lucky they haven't worked on there resist. For items 10 P and B charms, 10 small +20 life charms, Wiz spike, Shaft stop, Storm Shield, Shako, String of Ears, +2 necromancer skill ammy, trangs gloves ,and 2 sojs. You'll be able to take out zons just by trapping them in walls and cages. Cast decripify and shoot bone spirits like there no tomorrow. Hopefully she doesn't have a wind force and shoots like crazy taking down your walls soon but bone spirits kill players in a few shots just depends on there life.

79 necro, 31 necro , 51 necro. Made_formulez on USEast realm.

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The ultimate necro is max out fire golem and golem mastery. then max out lower resist and bone spirit. Put 5 to 10 skill points into life tap. get a bunch of stuff that gets your max out skills atleast to lvl 30. Then find out wat armor you want to use and put enough pts. into strenght to use it. Some in to vitality none in to dexterity and the rest into energy. And if ur planning to do cows then put 10 into corpse explosion.

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I like the necromancer and have played it a lot. I find that my general style playing means that I need as many bodies on the field helping me out as I can get. I usually focus on skeletons and mage skeletons and put very little into anything else. I try to get my hands on magical throwing knives because I can set them to be used with poison dagger if someone gets too close to me. Otherwise I toss the daggers at enemies that my skeletons are fighting. When I get high enough to get an iron golem I but at least 5 ranks into that (but no more then 1 rank into any other type of golem) and then try to get revive. Bone armor is very underrated I feel and it has pulled me out of jams form time to time. I would suggest to have at least 5 ranks in Bone armor as well. Bone spear is ok if you don't have magical/Unique throwing daggers by level 18 but I find you could but the points into other things first. As for curses I avoid them like the plague. They take up much needed mana for other things like bone armor and raising minions.

TBRMInsanity (The General Necromancer)

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PK Necromancer FAQ
STATS: STR 81 (put 66 points in STR), DEX 60 (put 35 points in DEX), LIFE MAX, MANA BASE

SKILLS: BONE ARMOUR MAX, BONE SPIRIT MAX(keep these 2 equal), POISON NOVA MAX(keep these 2 equal), LOWER RESIST 10-15, FIRE GOLEM MAX(max this one out 2nd last), GOLEM MASTERY MAX(max this one last)
-Put 1 skill point into summon resist and golem mastery then leave them till the end.

EQUIPMENT: TRANG-OULS HELM w/PSKULL, TRANG-OULS ARMOUR w/PSKULL, TRANG-OULS SHIELD* w/JAH RUNE, TRANG-OULS BELT, TRANG-OULS GLOVES, WIZARDSPIKE** w/IO RUNE + Personalized, ALDURS ADVANCE, Crafted caster amulet*** (orange) with +2 on Bone skills and +10% to cast , x2 SOJ, x8 +1 Poison/Bone Grand charms with +40 to life on them, x1 +1 Poison/Bone Grand charms with +7% run/walk on it, x1 +1 Poison/Bone Grand charms with +12% hit recovery on it, x10 +5% run/walk small charms with any mods (you will be short of LIT resist and you have to make up about 10% on these small charms)

* The alternate shield should also be trang-ouls, but socketed with an UM rune
** The alternate weapon should be BLACKHAND KEY (Socket with IO) or "WHITE" wand with +6 to bone spirit (this is a runeword "DOL/IO"..i think..and it must have +6!)
*** This is hard to get, good alternates are rare (yellow) +2 to all skills amulets, i had one with 75% poison reduce on it which is very useful

TACTICS: Use all your function keys!, ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS PK IN HELL. Fighter classes will kick your ass in normal b/c magic does no damage. Speed is your lifeline! Dont let anyone get near you and dont chase too much. Let them come after you. Some characters are immune to poison. Check to see if theyre turning green when you hit them with the novas.
vs SORC with thunderstorm put the fire golem between you and the sorc - it will absorb the thunder strike while you maul her with bone spirit. BE SURE THE GOLEM IS ALWAYS BETWEEN THE TWO OF YOU OR YOU WILL GET HIT AND YOU WILL DIE VERY QUICKLY! You have to re-cast the golem to do this and it takes a lot of mana.
vs BARB/ETC. Run. If you are faster, you can just pop off novas and bone spirits while you run away. Otherwise, they'll get you every time.
vs DRUID If its a good PK druid he is likely to be faster than you. Utilize bone prison to trap him, as the druid cant get out of this as easily as the other classes.
vs AMAZON You can use bone walls to mess up the amazons guided arrow. Though they will leech life from your walls they wont be able to stand up to the onslaught of bone spirits if you have them moving fast enough. (I think you need the caster amulet to pull this off)
LEVELING use amplify damage and decrepify in cow level to help your party kill cows. this nec wont be able to kill many cows on his own.
IN COW LEVEL Heres a great place where the necro can be a prick to other players! They cant hostile anyone while in the cow level so theres no way for them to stop your fun. You can use your speed to herd up great numbers of cows (works best with the COW KING) and set them on your fellow players, then use bone prison repeatedly over them to trap them in with the horde. The bone prison wont work on some classes, like the SORC but you can mess most people up this way. After someone has died, bone over the area where their body has fallen. Now they cant get their body! Your high mana and regen will make you outlast anyone who tries to knock down your wall. Punish people who displease you by following them and using this tactic mercilessly.
AT THE TOWN ENTRANCE if someones is gaurding the town entrance, you can harass them by standing just inside the town and summoning your golem next to them. Also, you can jump out, pop off a poison nova, and jump back in quickly. Bone spirits are also good because they track the enemy.

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Well,i can be said as the worst trainer ever BUT i have my strategy good enough to kick their asses.I am currently at lvl 11,i will max up my bone amour,it is good.Clay golem will be good too as well as the myestries and the iron maiden.And the best of all,the teeth,try to max it.Maybe it do things great

choonwei(Necro lvl 11)

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This is what you need to know: Fire Golem: MAX, Iron Maiden: MAX, Corpse Explosion: MAX, Bone Spirit: MAX, Summon Resist: 5-10(items will boost it further), Summon Mastery: 5-10, Revive: 5 (items will boost it), Skeleton Mastery: 5-10, (THAT'S IT! No poison and only 1 to skills that are pre-requesites for these!)
It is tough in the begining but after you reach level 30 you'll understand. Cast Iron Maiden on everything and have your golem and revives fight for you. As soon as one enemy goes down, the slaughter begins. Cast your corpse explosion on it. Others will fall and cast corpse explosion on them. Bone spirit helps to kill that first one.
When fighting an extra nasty boss, I follow this strategy: Send your golem in, cast iron maiden, and start pumping the bone spirit at them. When your golem is about to go just cast another one right next to the boss and keep pumping bone spirit. Works great for Diablo.
COW LEVEL: USame as above but use blood golem instead of fire golem and you will never die. Just save the Cow King for last and DON'T KILL HIM. Leave the cow level, save and exit, start a new game at the same difficulty, open a new portal and you can go through it again! I did this after killing Diablo the first time and leveled up once every two times I cleared the cow level.
ITEMS: Everyone will tell what you need. Items are the fun part so just keep looking and compare the ones you find to the ones you have.A final hint: Hire a cold mage in Kurast. In normal and nightmare he leaves few corpses but in hell level, few monsters are immune to cold though few can be frozen. This works to your advantage because when they die you can use corpse explosion.

Von Zepplin lvl91 necro

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I'm a only a level 38 necro, but I've got a winner. Start with 2 skeletons, no more. Put in some skeleton mastery if you want, but dount get too worried about it. Definitely put 1 or 2 for Blood Golem, and at least 5 for Golem mastery - he is your best friend! A Blood Golem mixed with a maxed out iron maiden is a beautiful thing. Iron is a waste, like almost all the curses (except Iron Maiden). I also keep around 4 or 5 skeleton mages, but the monsters seem to all go after the Blood Golem, so the mages can just hang out and shoot. If they die no big deal, make more. Use either skeleton mages or (just 1 point!) corpse explosion to keep the dead monsters from being brought back to life. This is very effective with crowds. Bone spear is fantastic, great for crowd control, and necessary as the bosses will probably kill all your buddies. I put nothing in dexterity, focus on mana (of course) and strength (for armor). Vitality is not a priority, but should get points now and then. I tend to use rings and armor to bolster life. Patience is key to surviving as a necro - don't be afraid to be a coward! Let your buddies do the fighting. I still stick with my original Amazon, giving her lots of defense and a bow that does tons of poison damage (2 perfect emeralds and 2 Thal runes). In a nut shell, throw out Iron Maiden (at least 500%) on ALL the monsters and let Blood Golem go to town, while your hireling, 4 or 5 mages, and a killer Bone Spear lend support. In a big room, run around and make sure everyone gets a taste of the Iron Maiden, or your Blood will disappear quickly. Finally, only go for wands that give +3 to Bone Spear or Iron Maiden, a few more mages (no more than 5 are needed!), or +2 or 3 to all skills. Keep looking for a good one, because they ain't cheap!

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Why do people still say that summoning doesn't work when in reality it works just fine for lots of people. I mean some people get hostile. There just opinions. I plan on putting a lot into fire golem and Iron Golem. Most importantly i'm having fun with it. I've got the Jade Tan Do for melee right now and i'm working on some better armor.

CrimsonDeath Lvl 27 Necro, Frostbite Lvl 42 Sorc. Skullthrasher Lvl 22 Barb., Windtalker Lvl 45 Druid, SoulBlight Lvl 25 Asassin, Jared Lvl 44 Paly, InfernoFang Lvl 22 Druid, Shea Lvl 44 Amazon

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Well, I'm probably at the bottom of the list so no one will ever read this but I'd like to write a little.
I have played over 10 necros, all through level 40 at least, many above 80. I have played lots on single player, multiplayer LAN, and Bnet. I must admit, I am not really very impressed by many of these comments, but since there are like a million of them I was not able to read them all (nor would I want to). I have tried a lot of different skills and combinations but I can easily break down the usefulness, or lack therein, of it all. Firstly it all depends on what purpose you have in mind for your necromancer. A single player game where you only want to play through once, to the end of normal, and then put the game back on the shelf is a common use, we'll call it SCENARIO 1. If you plan to play through the whole game right to the end of hell mode, you'll need a very different strategy, this will be SCENARIO 2. For a pk necro (dueller), we'll look to SCENARIO 3. And finally (these are the most important breakdowns), if you plan on using your necro as a combo dueller and monster killer, then we'll call this SCENARIO 4.
SCENARIO 1: You just want to play the game from Act 1 to Act 5 (err or 4 if you dont have the x-pack), see what all the fuss is about, and then go back to bed, is that right? Well its very simple, it doesnt matter one hoot what skills, combo or anything you choose. I'm serious. You could play through and kill Baal on normal with teeth for christs sake. Have fun, experiment and see what the best character in the game can do!
SCENARIO 2: So you actually want to finish all the difficulties and kill Baal on hell mode, well thats a good accomplishment and well worth recognition (especially if you do it in single player, though Bnet would probably be funner). As has been pointed out in the numerous posts on this page, you can do it many different ways. But I'll be honest, despite what everyone else says here, there is only really one dependable and strong way to do this. Every high level nec I know uses this strategy. You need a few points into blood golem (maybe 5), a bunch into golem mastery and summon resist (10 or more), a lot into iron maiden (like 20 please :) ), and a whole bunch into bone spirit (everything else youve got), plus one into fire golem (and of course, any you need to get there!). Try to get a lot of energy, and your dexterity and strength up to minimum standards for the weapons and armor you want (probably >100 strength and >70 dexterity, at least), then put a few into vitality (but as much as you can into energy). Also aim for armor and weapons which give you as much +skills as possible. An average high level nec will have +8 or more to all skills (of course, this pops your low level skills up to pretty good levels). The strategy here is to hide behind your blood golem while all the monsters beat there heads on him with iron maiden cast on them. As long as they are physically hitting him (as opposed to archers or mages), he will never die, and you will never need health potions. You bone spirit is for those damn mages! Also I highly suggest sticking to the very first mercenary you get, the rogue. She will be absolutely invaluable to you and probably save you from all those running out of mana instances. Individual enemies die a lot faster with her around too. And so do those damn mages! And for those beasts who kill you blood golem with a hit and knock your life down to harrowing levels (like Diablo) use the fire golem (who is actually a high level because of all your +skills).
SCENARIO 3: PK eh? Well for the dueller in you, you need the decrepify. Basically I'll tell you what the strategy is, and you can do the points. You use decrepify on everyone, especially those cursed Bowazons. This will slow their arrows down to actually manageable speeds so you can run in circles to get away from them! So you need everything you've got into decrepify. And then you need bone prison to trap the stupid bowazons (and whatever other victims you find along the way, mahahaha). Get the prison up to a liveable level so it doesnt break when someone hits it, it may take quite a few points! Lastly you need the bone spirit, to make the kill (get that boosted way up to level 20 too). As secondaries you need a golem, maybe fire since he has so much life and you'll probably need the blood to get through the game anyways so your half way there! Iron would do fine also but always finding something to cast it from is a pain in the royal ass. Clay is a little to weak for those barb whirlwinds and the like (and blood will knock you down in life wayyy to fast when he starts getting pegged). You also need iron maiden to watch those poor barbs kill themselves on your golems. When the barb learns himself, start spanking him with bone spirits to unlearn him :) To do with stats, you will probably want a lot of life and a lot of energy and minimum amounts of strength and dexterity (just enough for your fav armor or whatever) You can take it from there! I caution you though, carefully think through every point allocation before you do so, and think waayyyy in advance.
SCENARIO 4: Ahh my favorite choice. Look to scenarios 2 and 3 for the basic info. Basically you want a combo of those two strategies (duh). I would aim more towards scenario 2, and then include decrepify (still up to lvl 20). Don't simply play the game as though scenario 2 and then try and become a scenario 4 though, it will be too hard. Think in advance. Far, far in advance. Plan every stat placement, every skill point. Know exactly when and where you will do what. Scenario 4 is a careful balancing act and you could end up either having a tough time dealing with those big groups of monsters, or being a sucky PKer. But I wont tell you exactly how to do scenario 4 because it is an art form, and requires a skilled user. This is the ultimate necromancer!

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For my Necro I like iron golem because of the diversity. They gain the attributes of whatever you create them with. I use my cube (any staff + any kris + any belt + any diamond) to create a savage polearm that gets something like +76% damage. Create your golem with it and he gets the damage modifier. all you need to find is the diamond and you can buy the other stuff almost anywhere. I also sometimes just cast a 1 point clay golem right next to a group of advancing monsters followed by a fast Iron Maiden - the golem dies fast but so do they usually and you can just recast him because he is cheap have a few mages with you and the monsters will just keep attacking the stupid golem while your mages fire from a distance. I usually use the clay golem strat in tight areas and my iron golem in the open, that way your tough iron golem is not stuck behind your mages in a narrow corridor and cant get into the fray.

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During the game consentrate on summoning skills and bone spear. Once those spells are powerful, just let your golems, skeletons, and revied handle close combat while you shote them with bone spear. But make sure you don't up grade the golems the selves once you have got a fire golem cause it is the last golem you can upgrade. What is the since to upgrade somthing if your only going to use it for a cuple levels. Do golem mastery untill fire golem, and make sure you upgrade bone spear! Then kick Diablo's Butt

A level 40 Necromancer

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-necro- probly the worst character at everything. things to max out are poison nova revive amp damage skeleton mastery, rest into skeletal mage.

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Hey guys. Here is my tip on how to beat most enemies/bosses with a high-damaging melee attack (such as the tough Duriel). First of all, make sure you have Bone Prison and a few points into Iron Maiden. Then all you have to do is cast Bone Prison around the enemy/boss then cast Iron Maiden. While they try to attack the Bone Prison to escape, they end up hurting (and more often than not, killing) themselves! And with a few points into Iron Maiden, you can get the damage return up to 250%! This is why you should use this on a high-damage melee attack enemy, especially Duriel. His attack does significant damage, and when multiplied by 2.5, then have that damage done to him, it is surely an invaluable tactic. It wouldn't hurt to have a few points into Bone Prison, also, because then it would take more hits to break through it, thus causing more damage before you have to cast again. Just whatever you do, for this strategy, DO NOT have your minions out. They tend to attack the Bone Prison, especially if it is the only target around (again, like Duriel), thus causing it to break faster.
Another thing I like to do (off of the subject of the afore-mentioned strategy) is to cast my Fire Golem in conjunction with Iron Maiden and keep him alive as long as possible. He can take a beating, if necessary. With max Golem Mastery, he is a definate force to be reconned with, with a whopping 1,252 life (for a summoned creature, that is huge). Now, compared to the amount of life available, the damage may seem insignificant, but as long as he can take a beating, it doesn't matter, he's gonna have plenty of time to deal damage. Also, he absorbs fire damage. You only need one or two points into him, because his mana cost gets too high (50 at level 1, 240 at level 20). Another decent Golem would be the Iron Golem (unless you don't have Golem Mastery). He, too, has a rather large amount of life for a summoned creature (804). You only need to have about 3 or 4 points into Iron Golem because it only adds to one area of effect (Thorns damage). Trust me, 180% returned damage is enough. Why I like him is because you can choose whether you want him to be more offensive or defensive, depending on what item you cast him from, and he also takes on the magical properties (if any) of the item. Well, I hope my tips have been helpful to all you new or re-started Necromancers trying to decide how to build yourself.
My Characters: Veritan - level 78 Necromancer , Mike - level 91 Barbarian (Mace) , Halgon - level 45 Paladin

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The strategy that I have found out that works best for me is when you level up put all you points into either Strength, Energy, or Vitality.
Strength- If you put a lot of points into Strength, say you go up to 65, you will be able to use good armor yes, but more importantly you will be able to have a belt with twenty or more spaces. If you have twenty spaces for potions I recommend that you fill 3/4 of it up with Healing Potions, (Best to use Healing, Greater or Super) and the rest with Greater or Super Mana Potions. This way you will always have plenty of life and mana to help you out.
Energy- Seeing as in a fight you as Necro will more than likely be raising dead or golems, or casting curses or bone spells you should have a lot of mana, because if you can't raise a skeleton then there is not much use being a Necromancer.
Vitality- This will ensure that you will have enough life that in a middle of a fight you can stop and go through your spells without worrying about dying. Also it gives you a lot of stamina to run away if you are out of mana and close to dying you can run away until you build up some mana.
Spells are the most important weapon you will ever have, next to some very powerful wands, and the most useful. Now most people will say to forget about Curses, or forget about Summoning Spells, well in my opinion that is bad. You need to spread it out and not concentrate in one area for too long.
Curses- Curses are very useful in a fight because they can make your enemies confused or it can cause them to die quicker. One of the first curses you will get is Amplify Damage, most rookies make to the mistake of putting too many points into this and when it's crunch time they realize just how worthless it is. Amplify Damage is a good stepping stone to start but don't put more then one point in it. Weaken is the next Curse you should go for, it is a natural step up from Amplify Damage. The other useful Curses are Iron Maiden, Terror, and Life Tap. Iron Maiden is practically the same as Amplify Damage and Weaken but it is better to use on lower enemies since the big boys tend to be too powerful to be hurt be this. Life Tap is quite possibly the most useful and important Curse you'll ever have, it is the best one to use on Bosses and Super Unique Monsters, Andariel, The Smith, Duriel, Mephisto and even the lower monsters are the best to use this on. When you are fighting Mephisto or whoever casting this Curse gives you a huge advantage, all the while they are dying and getting weaker, no matter how hurt you are you will grow stronger due to this, you feed off of them.
Bone Spells- Most players say "Use this the most." Well, in my opinion this is true to an extent. Many of these Spells are good, Teeth, Corpse Explosion, Bone Spear, Bone Prison and Bone Spirit are about all you'll need. Teeth are good toward the beginning since with it you can off enemies from a long way off. Corpse Explosion and Bone Spear are the best to use from far off not from hand to hand combat. Bone Spirit is a good one to use on the higher ups, lower ones offer no resistance. The rest of the spell are good for a time but after a will they tend to stop working.
Summoning Spells- Now almost every strategist says forget this one, or don't bother, these players obviously forget that this is what the Necro is best at. If you have fifteen skeletons fighting off groups of monsters then you can either sit back and cast Spells and Curses or just sit back.
Skeletons- Most players say these guys stink, they are absolutely right, they do... when your in Acts IV or V. Skeletons totally suck because most monsters are so powerful they smash them with one hit. But when you are just starting out, these babies are your best allies, they keep demons off your back and when a Boss' attention is focused on you these guys run around and attack him from all sides. But in Act II you should forget about them because they stop being useful after that. I recommend putting no more then 2 levels in them.
Golems- The strongest fighters you will ever have, yes they're a little slow in the head but they are the best things you can raise, in any level. Like most other players you should hit the Clay Golem tab once and hit the Golem Mastery tab after that and never look back. This raises the stats of not just your Clay, but your Blood, Iron, and Fire.
Skeletal Mages- Up these guys only four levels after that they start becoming too draining on your mana.
Armor/Weapons- Now I explained earlier that it was best that you have a lot of strength, here's why. Don't worry too much about getting that 'Ultimate Weapon' it doesn't exist, at least not for a Necro the best thing is to get good armor like a Breastplate and get a good weapon like a Scythe or Scimitar and stick with it, if you have a one handed sword best to get a sheild too, if you have a two-handed poleaxe it's best to get a really good Breastplate, the best Helm you can find and the absolute best gloves and boots.
This may not work for all of you but it has definitely worked for me.

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Most people say skeletons suck personaly i think numbers is never a bad thing my necro is a shy lvl 31 but he is looking to become pretty good i put a lot of points into mages golem and revives most importantly i will max out poisondagger and bonespirit (plus a few pillow points into bonecage and such) my strategy is to run stab a dude with a poisened dagger and let the summons get their hits in i think it is a good idea so blaah

ME

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Some people who write in here are idiots. They talk about skeletons and golems and masteries which doesnt work. This is one stratagy my necro uses and i defeat any act in the game, any diff. For skills:

Summoning: lvl 20 revive lvl 20 summon resist, Poison/ Bone: lvl 20 Bone Spirit or lvl 20 Poison nova, Curses: lvl 20 amp. damage
Using these skills employes one simple stratagy. First, revive as many monsters as possible. To do this you need at least 1000 mana so put stats on energy untill u reach that amount (frostburns will help). When u get enough monsters u can raise an iron golem if u want for some extra protection dont get blood or fire. You must use Bone Spirit or Poison Nova to get corpses. Cast Amp. Damage and you minions will do the rest.

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For A good necromanceri first suggest to get lots of mana life and strenth.Dont bother too much with dexterity unless u want to be a meelee necro.u should get skeloton and skeloton mastery up to around lvl 10 each.Then het iron maiden to lvl 5 or six.When u get to lvl 30 max out poison nova and revive. After u have them maxed out u can finish maxing iron maidon gl with ur necro.

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i use bone armor, a crossbow, a few magi, and a whole pile of skeletons. i make sure my skel. mastery is through the roof, and just hang back and take out the big guys and missile attacks while my skeletons take out the front line. i keep my belt half mana/half health, focus my stat points on strength and vitality. i keep a good melee weapon and shield for bosses [rarely needed]
this system has been great for me: the magi and i almost never take damage and i use far fewer potions than with any other class.

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Sup all necro i have a lvl 70 necro just to tell u.... HE KICK BUTT FASTER THAN U CAN SAY NECRO! first for the skill...use ONLY blood golem / iron maiden / bone spirit / revive / skells(to start with) / mages / poison nova and maybe corpse explosion put around 5 in blood golem 20 iron maiden bone spirit ...15-20 revive 10-15 skells 5-15 10-15 mage 5 poison nova 1 corpse explosion(if u want)
foe stats im not the specialist but ..... around 130 to strenght(to use good armor and weapon) 80 dex 80 vitality 190 to energy thats all for the rest use it at your choice(by lv 60 u must have this after do wut u uwant) for the items....graverspine is quit good.... trang-oul glove and the rest i dont know...and to tell u necro arent THE best for duel... but u kick a paladin ass quiter than u can say hello!!!!!!!

killanobody 71 necro (the kick butt necro)

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I'm a level 40 Necro on the expansion and I've restarted many necro's in order to get the perfect one. I recommend no skeletons at all and 1 point to each golem except fire. Fire should have at least 5. Then Golem mastery should have 6 and summon resist should have 4. My golem health is 750. Even though the golem is strong its main purpose is a distraction. A level 15 bone spear is perfect after you mix it with some items that give you plus to necro skills. Just 1 to teeth and corpse explosion is all you need. You may not always have a dead corpse to revive or explode. I don't put any skills to bone spirit but its not a bad idea if you want to duel. (A barbarians frenzy sends him running at a speed almost equal to the bone spear). I recently got a zombie head that gives me +2 to poison nova so I'm only in the testing stage of this skill. Besides the fact that it drain a high amount a mana when used, it is helpful when faced against a group of enemy's. Curses are not really me, I don't waist any points on them and prefer to use my bone spear instead of curses. Revived monsters are useless since they don't last very long and mana cost is so much. Bone wall and cage don't work very well for me. The last skill is bone armor. I put 10 to it so it absorbs 110 physical damage. This skill at this level prevents me from dieing. My health evel barely goes down.

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aight hell-raizer and blood golem is wrong, blood golems give you life, and if they die, u dont die, just thot id tell you all that b4 you all decide not to use it cuz i thot it was true then i tried it in arcane sanctuary becuz of all those pain in the ass ghoul lords and it worked great

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first of all, i'm a level 29 and am in act 3. I'm on miphisto. the best skills are: 5 into skeleton, 22 into skeletal mastery (my skeletons do 42-43 damage and have 204 health!), 2 into clay golem, 3 into blood golem, 3 into iron golem, 3 into skeletal mage (for act I), 3 into iron madin, and...3 into confuse.
(i have an item that gives 1 to all skill levels so it's easier for me) then, when your at level 30, learn bone spirit. then repeat the following: cast a clay golem, cast a blood golem, cast an iron golem, cast a blood golem, cast a bone spirit, hit enter and type: THEDEADMUSTFEED then die., save and exit, get back on, when you find your carcass in town and pick it up, you wil have the stroke of death in your inventory!(the best necro weapon) then kill diablo!

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I've spent many hours reading these strategies and I believe I can add something useful. Firstly, two types of people read these strategies: those who want to experiment with new character set-ups, and those who just want to know how to build a necro that will make the game easy and enjoyable. I'm one of the latter. I've also picked up that there are two types of players who contribute to this page: those who have high level necros and want to share how it was done, and those who think they've mastered the game becuase they killed Blood Raven in Act 1 on normal mode. I am neither of these types. But for those who want to know how to build a good necro, I'll give you some useful tips. I'll tell you how to avoid some bad mistakes in wasting your skill points, and it will save you a lot of frustration.
Firstly, curses. There are only 2 that you need. Amplify damage gets 1 point to gain access to Iron Maiden. Plug 4 or 5 into IM early on and enjoy it. If it's really your bag, add more later on, but it's the only curse you will need. And that's it for curses. Isn't that nice?
Now you start working your way to level 30 spells where the real power lies. There's much debate on this page as to whether bone sprit beats bone spear, and also whether or not poison nova is really worth its weight in gold. Regarding the sprit/spear debate, both are good, and choosing to specialise in either one will not be a mistake. As for poison nova, yes it's cool early on in the game, and it does a nice amount of damage. My advice is: you're better without it. You won't miss it. Those skill points will be better spent on something else, or you're spreading your skill points too thin. You also save 2 points on the prerequisites to the nova. Better to put those into corpse explosion which is a must!
Golems are great, really. Clay is only a prerequisite, though so give it its 1 point. If you're going to make golems your main attack, golem mastery benefits Iron, Blood and Fire all at once. So clearly, I think, if it's a choice between making the golem stronger or golem mastery, mastery must win. This is the only time I'll express my personal preference: I've tried but I don't see how iron golem beats blood golem. I just think there's no comparison, really.
Skeletons, it should be clear, are worthless. This point is not even debatable. What is debatable, however, is the usefulness of mage skeletons. My adice: if you're gonna use minions, use revives. Mana-wise they're expensive but you will get a thrill at how much just 2 revives help.
Undeniably, the necro is not a fighter. Waste no points in dexterity - carrying a crossbow cheats your necro out of extra skill points with those nice summoner wands, for example. Spend 1 attribute point at most on vitality each level. The rest should go to mana and strength.
Alright, as you've seen I haven't really told you what kind of a necro to build: summoner or mass attack. The choice is yours. But I have told you what to avoid, whichever route you take. Oh, also leave out teeth completely. I wasted an entire weekend because someone here said teeth is great at high levels. No, it's not. That's all there is to it. I had to start again. Thanks, bud.
And finally, the most useful tip I have, is that many people who have written to this site should invest many more skill points in how to write English. Half the time I spent reading these strategies went to trying to decifer what they were trying to say. Other useful tips I can add to those just getting into the game are as follows: there are only 111 skill points in total to get. 99 from your character, and 12 bonus points. 20 is the maximum of any skill you can get, but items can add additional points. You can only play the cow level after you finish the game on a mode. Don't get clever and beat Diablo, play the cow level and then load the expansion set, kill baal and try again. It won't work. Put any money you have in your stash lest you lose it when you die (and you will, don't worry about it). When your stash is full, fill up your belt. When that is full gamble a bit and fill up again. Gold is never really a problem. Pick up all magic items, but don't bother with wearing items that increase your percentage of gold from monsters. Gold is like necromancer strategies - plentiful!

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these nec strats are all from newbies whay u need 2 do is--
Curses 20-Iron Maiden, 20-Lower Resist
Poison Bone Spells 20-Bone Wall, 20-Bone Spirit, 20-Bone Armor
Summoning (i recomend no summoning)
i wont tell u why this good u will have 2 figure it out for yourself, that makes a unstopable nec that even 4 bowazons cant even beat!!!

*bm_ara_zealot

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Hello, folks. Although I haven't been in the trenches as long as some of you playing my personal favorite, the Necromancer, I thought I'd offer up some tips from my previous trials and tribulations within the realm of Diablo II. Note: These tips are for Diablo II exclusively, NOT the expansion pack.
1) If you like specializing, choose one skill set and pump the points you choose into the skill of your liking. Lockshol, one of my many Necromancers, choose a combo skill set of Summoning/Bone spells. As he progressed past level 12, he could summon a veritable army of Skeletons and Skeleton Mages, with a Clay Golem mixed in for good measure. Note: This worked especially well with a wand that focuses on your summoning skills.
2) Tailor your Necromancer to your preferred play style. This might take you a few characters to decide which variety you like best, but once you find it, stick with it and don't diversify half way through the game! My Necromancer uses wands in lieu of all other weapons. He is also outfitted with unique items/set/rare items that reflect bone/soul/etc. names and abilities.
3) If you play the Summoner variety of Necromancer, stay BACK as your army does the work. Approach a volatile situation (e.i. intense combat) only to resummon your minions as they get wasted. Rushing helper-skelter into a situation (especially a unique situation, no pun intended) will just end up with you on the floor with your minions. If needed, and no bodies remain for you to reanimate, LEAVE the area and find some lesser creatures to kill to bring your army back up to fighting strength.
4) Bone Wall is very useful to protect yourself. Make sure your minions are nowhere behind the wall, or they will break it to get to a combat situation. Note: Minions WILL attack your wall and destroy it. Seems they don't like you leaving them alone. Talk about unconditional love. Makes your heart warm, doesn't it? :-)
5) If you are a fighting Necromancer, and this is pretty obvious for hints, boost your strength and vitality. You will need more hit points and strength to wield good armor/weapons, and the hps will come in handy when monsters start whacking the crap out of you. Pick the right weapon for the job, as in Diablo I (e.i. clubs/maces/etc. for undead, slashing weapons for animal types, extra cold/fire/lightning damage is ALWAYS helpful, etc.).
6) Explore areas thoroughly, and if you are a Summoner, let your minions "fan out" around you. They are great for detecting incoming enemies, and will let you rest/recuperate as you drink potions, rearrange items, etc. This only usually works if you have about 4 or more minions, that can cover more directions than two. It also helps to have a Rogue along in act one, as her line of sight is greater than yours. Being a Sister of the Sightless Eye, her vision is greater.
7) Last, but not least, HAVE FUN. This is a tremendous game, with lots of depth and replayability! I have played this game nonstop and enjoyed every minute of it. As stupid as this sounds, take a BREAK every hour of gameplay to avoid stiffness and fatigue. You'll enjoy the game more if you're not cramped or in pain from sitting in one spot for hours on end. Take at least 15 minutes to get the kinks out of your body.

Steve, a.k.a. Lockshol the Summoner

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"I am currently a lvl 10 Necro and looking very fine. Really, this stratergy is my opinion. You may disagree with me, but listen:
I believe that teeth is a really useful spell to use. When maxed out, you can turn odds to ends and turn the tables over. But, I use teeth as a back up spell. Especially when a huge minion army is against you adn your army (skeletons, ages, golems and merc) are dead, and overhwlming numbers are against you, use teeth. They shoot in the front 120 degrees- a nice teeth barrage, and the minions are dead. Even though poison nova may substitute this in, teeth, as a very basic skill, costs very little mana, when used repetitively, can wipe out minions and unqiues-fast. I may be wrong, but this is a thought that might work during only the middle of the game.
Also, because the necro is more of a magic typed character, don't use him in melee unless otherwise. Equip him with a good wand or a nice magic item (no huge weapons), because it can raise skills, and also, a nice dagger will do as well (poison dagger skill) A bone shield makes him look more familiar, and always have a backup weapon. The rest all necro fans knows, get decent armour and gems and runes and have fun!"

lvl 10 Necro Death_Mage"

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I made a great summoning necro who was almost god. At lvl 40 he had lvl 25 skelital mastry and something like 8 warriors 13 mages and 16 revives the only problem was that in the very begining i realy sucked because i am so depandint on corpses. so rember all points in sommining
Mastry is your most important skill and run in circles

guyinbones

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Well, what my necro does may be traveling a bit far away form what the necro is really supposed to be doing, but my strategy works quite well if you build up in the right areas. Firstly, do NOT put any skills into teeth. It is a weak spell and I never should have thought that leveling that up would ever kill Andariel. Instead, put stuff into skeleton and golem mastery, and have perhaps a few skeletons and mages for the beginning, because they all at once when you start to get into nightmare and heck mode. So, it would be wiser to put more into golems, but do continue to add to skeleton mastery, because this becomes quite essential later on. When you reach level 30, start building up revive a few times, and summon resist, because if you built up skeleton mastery those things will be over 5 times as strong as their enemy version. So, now for poison and bone. Try to put stuff into bone armor, because it may save your life one day, if you are fighting someone who does about 500 damage in heck mode, and you have bone armor there to absorb a little bit of that, say about 90 or up when you get to that kind of a point, then you run like mad and either cast life tap or potions. Bone spear is something you may want to put some into, especially if your necro is a wimp and cant take damage without dying. Put a few into corpse explosion too, and bone wall don't even bother with; that skill is so lame if you have any summons out as they will immediately start to attack it while there are other things beating on them. Bone prison is another thing I wouldn't put much into, either. Don't even bother with poison explosion as it is weak compared to the corpse one. Put a lot into poison nova and bone spirit, because those are going to get very powerful later on. I wouldn't bother with poison dagger, either, because it hardly adds anything, and dagger are weak to begin with. Now, for Curses. Put at least one into every one of them, but mainly focus at Amp. Damage in the beginning, and later on you should focus on Lower Resist and Decrepify, because they rock. Stat wise, you can do whatever, because if you raised your necro with high level spells, then you should put more into energy. But if you are like me, then put more into vitality, dexterity, and strength, because the spells are weak compared to things you will find in heck and nightmare modes, and just have some skeletons and golems help you, and a few mages in the back to freeze, poison, or whatever, and then the revived can just do whatever they are good at, and you have a pefect team right there. It especially helps that strategy of mine to have a weapon that will make the damage dealt from 500 to 1000 and up(not the weapon damage alone, but total, with the included strength and such) in Act 1 of heck, to get the job done fast. It would also be considered a wise choice(if you are using the summons to help you attack strategy) to build up bone armor and decrepify.

necro at level 59 currently, *BalioAnchors(Balio char. name)

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ok im only lvl 47 but i just started this guy about 2 weeks ago and onlyplayed it for 1 week all together. i have + 10 to skills altogether. i have ume's lament wand, wall of the lidless sheild, someones circlet(green writing) 102 defense, some other boots and stuff that arnt that good around 50 defense, mand i have trang-ougles (or what ever you call him) armor. put points into poison nova, bone spirit, goem mastery and 1 in to fire golem and all othert golems. with your + skills stuff it sholbe pretty high.

Dunikus
/w mini_me000 if you can help me sometimes plz do. im on useast. and never do what someone tells you to do that has anything! to do with your password.
Stevie-Wonder pally useast lvl 35
Stevie-Wild druid uswest lvl 14
BlackSocr socr uswest lvl 30
if anyone want to help me socr plz do im at baal normal and need help. user name is mini_me000 it may not be me, it may be my dad...so if i dont answer just add me to find out where i go and join and help. if i do answer ill prob ask you to help.

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some people say necros should use fire golem and bonespear but that all really really really SUCKS. i got my necro rushed to hell cows at lvl 39. he could beat it by himself at lvl 39, although it would take a while. the skills you need are iron cost a slot of mana. people say bonespear and fire golem but i say screw them. bonesprear is super weak and fire golem dies way too easy. if u have iron maiden and a blood golem the golem gets life every time he gets hit. so you need iron maiden. lvl 20. blood golem, lvl 5. skelten mastery lvl 10. revive lvl 9. golem mastry lvl 3. thats 47 skills. that right there works the best. i got like 160 strenth and im goin for 174 for a kraken shell. and not enough vitality. i got 100 energy which may seem like a lot but i need it cuz the spells cost a lot of mana. this way u and your golem are invinicble. the red life steal circle will always be there. unless u forget iron miaden and your down to zeroe life in 1 sec.
use boneprisons. thier so much fun althoug hthey might be a waste i think thier the funnest thing in the whole game!! i dont know how to duel thogh. i guess if your against a barb u can iron maiden him right before he hits your golem and then hes dead. i have no idea how to kill zons.
if you say anybody like JOHNNYBRAVOMAN thats me. i got 8 names like that all the classes and an extra barb. NECROMANCERS OWN!!

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Ok, Here is a strategy that works just fine normal through nightmare mode (dont know about hell cause im not there yet). Up until the end of normal mode here were my skills (level 35). 2 skeleton, 2 amplify damage, 16 skeleton mastery, 5 skeletal mage, 1 clay golem, 1 blood golem, 1 iron golem, 1 fire golem, 1 golem mastery, 2 summon resist, 5 revive. The weapon i used gave +1 to all summoning skills, so add 1 to each of those skills above. My strategy was simple, i had out 3 skeletons and my golem and they would do the melee combat. Then i had my 6 mages and my Ac1 hireling sit back and attack while i used amplify damage. It sounds so simple, but it was effective. THen when i got revive i threw them into my strategy and i did rather well. I went through and was able to beat every boss by myself. In nightmare i put more points into revive until i got it to 20. By that tiem i had found an ammy that gave +3 to all summoning skills. So i had many powered up skeletons, mages, revived, and my fire golem fighting for me and i always used amplify damage. Currently im working on Golem mastery and im siiting back relaxing and watching my creatures fight for me with ease.

Undead Bovine, lvl 56 Necromancer

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Hello to all Necro's,i know most Necro's like skels but there useless Golems with lots of mastery, and lots of skel mages is all you really need.While they are fighting poison the enemy or use some kind of magic (fire ice poison lighting)whatever and u are ready to deafet Diablo and his brothers.

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O.K., O.K., I might not be the "best" out there but I do know what i'm doin' and if you like where i'm goin' with this, then read on and get in touch with your necro. MAD SKILLZ - 1st thing's 1st it is not E.Z. 2 do this and failure is quite possible, but in the right hands this build gets results. The trick you wonder . . . balance, a very good, hidiosoly-strong, evil, vile, potent, balance . . .
The Equimpment makes the man, if U never go on a shoping splurge and get whats best 4 U, U R gonna die plain and simple . . .How 2 fix that U wonder? STOP BEING STUPID, if U have a chioce between a "+ 10% regenerate mana armor", and a "attacker gets frozen" armor pick the regenerate, What kind of idiot necromancer runs around in circles saying "want some, come get some" - E.Z. a dead1 . . . 4 best equipment I pick the ~ Blackhand Key (wand) - this bad boy will up your cast rate, and skill levels and if you're desperate to think you're a Barb it does the most damage of any wand 2. Next is Gloom's Trap (belt) - this handy little thing has some good mods 4 U necros, and some more vitality never hurt NE1 right? Next is The Homunclulus - need I say NE more? Then you'll want some Silkweave boots these little buggers can Really help out. Next on the line Trang-Oul's claws - This is ok, but good gloves R hard 2 find (especialy with + to skills) 4 armor go with Skin of the Vipermagi - the resists R invaluable at late game. 4 jewelry I like to pick Mara's Kaleidoscope - Very nice. And 2 Stone of Jordan - I'm ignorant not stupid.
Ok with that out of the way I'll move on 2 skills my best sugestions R 2 cosentrate on the following Lots of skeiton mastury, a few in revive, fire golem (he can take all the fire damage and it just makes him better) bone spirt (4 bosses), poison nova (crowd controll) no spear (thats Y U got revives and poison nova), 1 in bone prison (pvp and bosses) a few in corpse explode (also GREAT at crowd controll) and now 4 the great equalizer perhaps a totaly underestimated skill Lower resist your spells and elements and poison do more damage with this killer combo skill with the + to skill items you can do over 700 damage with 1 bone spirt EZ when maxxed it is -62% resist to fire, cold, lightning, poison, and genral-magic/bone skills (now that HURTS) it lasts nearly a minute and covers over half the screen ! ! !
Lastly for stat points - you need only 65 str. 2 wear your items so 65 there no dex., and the rest to vit. and ene. about a 50%/50% 60%/40% build up I hope this helps all U necros out there whom wish 2 kick . . . errr . . . ballz with the best

DustmanD_EVIL

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many of the stratagies i have read here are pretty good only for normal mode. their stratagy won't work once they get to nightmare and especially hell. although there are some stratagy here that are very useful i would like to give u some tips on using a necro.
i'll start of with skills as they are most important. this is a list of the skills u should use and how many points u should put on it.
  1. revive-10 u need this if u want to survive through hell.
  2. bonespirit-max i reccomend this over bone spear as it dones twice the damage and it also targets enemies. the only skill necro has that works against non-meelee humans.
  3. poison nova-max this spell is does over 400 over 2 seconds!!! and works even better with lower resist. if you have about level 5 LR and maxed poison nova it should do about 600 over 2 seconds:):):):):):):):):)
  4. lower resist-5 as i said before a must have if you use poison nova.
  5. skeleton mastery-max will boost the power of your revive tremendously.
  6. bone armor-none not worth your skill points and makes life harder haveing to pressing f1 or whatever all the time.
  7. iron maiden-max u don't need this very early on but in cow level it works wonders.
  8. corpse explosion-1 put only one on this and let items raise the skill level. if u decide to max this then i wouldn't reccomending using IM
  9. NO GOLEMS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
now for the char points. generally when u level up put 2 on energy, 2on vitality, and 1 on strength or 2 on energy, 1 on the rest. do this until you are level 50 then put 1 on energy, 2 vitality, get enough strength to wear a heavy armour.no dex really needed as u won't be meeleing and u should keep your distance from monsters.
heres some items suitable for necromancer. head gear- wormskull, weapon- gravespine isn't very hard to get., shield- preferably one with lots of sockets so u can socket perfect diamonds., armour- one with decent armor and some resistance., amulet- any that plus to all skills., ring- SOJ would be good or if u don't have one wear sumthing with plus to skills or mana
follow my advice and u should have a necromancer that will kickass in all 3 modes.

lvl-77 necro(balltosser)

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well i have read a random number of these and i c that allot of u play single player and allot of u r quite sad. This is quoted from 1 lets go on open b.net and plead for a +7 skill ring ummmm lets not coz that's just not rite, the only way to go is on normal b.net, neway 2 the point get some + skill items NO HACKING +2 wand, +1 helm and sheild, it's pretty hard to get others without good friends or good mf, nething else if u can. Then i recommend putting 10 or so into skel mastery a few into summon resist and golem mastery 10-20 into fire golem, corpse explosion 10+ 12+ revives, not quite sure about poison nova maybe a few in x-pack, not 2 many in bone spear or spirit or wateva u choose, and iron maiden, plus atract can confuse a group of monsters and make em attack allies. None in mages or skeletons mages really do lots in hell and skeletons well those good old skeletons *cough* *cough* neway thats my stratagy thnx 4 ure time.

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My necro is a level 66 and after reading many of the above mentioned strategies I fear that I have sunk a whole of skillpoints in to the wrong skills. I finally have acquired the full Trang Oul set which adds +3 to all skills I wear an ammy that adds +3 to poison and bone skills, my wand adds 2. With all of this I can summon a total of 9 skeleton mages, 7 skeletons, and 11 revived. This along with a level 20 fire golumn does pretty well for me. My attack usually begins with amplify damage being cast and then letting my minions do their thing while I throw my maxed out level 20 bone spear. The thing is, I have never even tried poison on anything. I am still attempting to kill mephisto in hell but having a hell of a time. I have read that in hell iron golumn is best used, and I found out that the quality of the item you use to create him goes directly to him, so if you use a cheap, junky sword to create you iron golumn, you will have a cheap, junky golumn. So use the best when using the iron golumn.

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Hey fellow Necromancers, here is a strategy for those of you who are tired of baby-sitting your revives who are weak and stupid under the best of circumstances and watching over and saving your mercenary’s butt. I have a level 70 necro in Act 5 Hell and I have no points in Summoning skills at all, no merc, no revives, no golem. I have 1 point in each of the curses except Attract and Confuse and the rest are in Poison and Bone. I have 3 skills maxed : Bone Spirit, Poison Nova and Bone Cage and I have Corpse Explosion at level 9 with + skill items. The strategy is simple: put Bone Cages ( you can make a whole wall of them) around any monsters approaching, Decrepify or LR them depending on the type of monster and pick them off at your leisure with BS or PN. No monster is immune to both. When you have enough dead bodies explode them. Bone Cage at high level is very powerful and will hold any monster long enough to deal with, including bosses, although for the tough guys you may have to recast it often. The exceptions are those blue flying things that steal your mana (forgot the name), and any ranged attacks including the Oblivion Knights etc. These can be dealt with in various ways. Use Decrepify to slow and weaken them and deal with them one by one, use Dim Vision and fast movement to hit and run. Max lightning and fire resistance if you can and use Bone Armor. I have +5 to skills and level 6 Bone Armor protects me well from ranged attacks and stray hits. Just recast it often. This style of play is mana intensive, I have a mana pool of over 1000 with Frostburns and 1 SOJ and do run out but so what, TPs are cheap, go and heal. Lastly about golems. You don’t need one because they get locked in one of your Bone Cages with a monster and if they kill it spend the rest of the time trying to break it which defeats the purpose of this style of play. Enjoy..

Soulreaper, lvl 70 Necromancer

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I am a lvl 81 necromancer. And I have learned a lot form the skills I put my points into. First to start off, as most necros are when they use poison and bone skills, they run out of mana because they do not have warmth like a sorceress. Well I never have carried any mana potions when I played because I never need it. The reason for that is because of 1 belt, nightsmoke. As most of you know it has 50% dmg going to mana. When your blood golem gets dmg you get dmg also, and when you get dmg you gain mana from the belt. When you are down to your minimum life just cast iron maiden and BOOM your life is back up. Cast a different curse on the enemy again so the iron maiden is off. That way you will get mana all you want and solves your mana problems(this may only work in hell cows only because they cows do more dmg than fallen in normal). Next is that iron golem is quite useless even with iron maiden. The thing is that in hell cows the golem dies etremely quick due to the cows dmg, also if you want a good golem you would also have to sacrifice or find a good weapon or armor. The only thing you would need in hell cows is a disraction so you can cast bone spirit to kill an enemy, after that just use amp dmg and corpse explosion, it is WAAAY more effective than iron golem and iron maiden. Most people may use lower resist and poison nova and maybe corpse explosion but, even though corpse explosion is 50/50 fire and physical dmg lower resist may not help in hell because the cows have more resist than usual. Now for the distraction, The most useful distraction would be clay golem or revives, if you pick clay golem it requires less skill points but if you pick revives you'll require skeleton mastery and the prerequisites which uses up too many skill points. The reason for clay golem is that they get dmg reduce by a % (physical dmg). This is most helpful in cows because all they do is whack away at you. And now for the poison and bone skills, DON"T MAX POISON NOVA OR EVEN PUT A POINT INTO THOSE POISON SKILLS. They are completely useless! Poison nova: 359-378 dmg in 2 seconds....... You'll be dead in 2 seconds if you get close to the cows so you can poison all off them. The dmg is too little to have any effect in hell. Especially if you have 8 people in the game. Also bone spear is not only teh crappieast necro attack besides teeth but it sucks. It may be go through enemies and all but look at the dmg.... I'd suggest only max bone spirit so you can have at least 1 corpse to dmg all the cows with corpse explosion. Bone prison, wall, and armor is NOT an useless as people say! For one thing, The enemies dont seem to attack the bone prison/wall. And if they do you can cast iron maiden on them while they attack the walls. Most enemies dont and so you can say back and fire bone spirits. DON"T USE BONE SPEAR IT WILL DESTROY TEH WALLS(this is why I said don't max it because you wont get the wall advantages). And now for curses, put 1 point into every skill form the middle to the right. Dim Vision, Confuse, and Attract are completely useless. Dim vision maybe useful against archers but most people would cast lower resist and use bone spirit instead. Confuse.... You should know why it's crappy. Attract would be a great skill if only you could use it on a boss/unique/champion enemy. Sonce you can't its sucks (if you want to have fun with curses, cast attract on an enemy and iron maiden teh rest and surround yourself with bone walls and watch the enemies fight to their death mwhahahahahaha!). Their are 4 useful curses, Decrepify, Iron maiden, Lower resist, and Amplify dmg. Decrepify any enemies with extra fast enchantment on them. You should know how to use the rest, it's just too obvious. That's all for the Necromancer, this is one of the most successful strategy's. Enjoy! (And dmg = damage)

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all you need for a necro is a very tanked up golem(alot of life) and iron maden, mages and revive work nice too. you just cast iron maden on the demons and watch them kill themselves on your golem

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May I just say that there is a perfectly good, lucid, well thought, logical reason that everyone is saying skeletons suck; It's beacuse they do! They suck before you even get through normal, let alone nightmare and hell modes! Golems are great, and fire is my personal fav. Skelotons do have their advantages, like numbers and distance, if your dealing with mages. But appart from being a small part of the team, they're not much good at all!
I accidentily put two into skeletons, so I have two skeletons and one skeletal mage, then my golem. Us four, along with my bone armor and amp. damage get in there and kill groups quickly and most importently, IT'S FUN, NOT BORING! For the love of cake people, It's a computergame not a chore, have fun with it! If I'm going to face a few, very strong enemys, like in the case of a boss, or new act, I just switch from useing amp. damage to useing iron maden. By the way iron maden is very useful, but It think it's a bit overated and becomes a waiste of skill points if you put more than 3 into it. But, then again that's just my opinon, you people may have better uses for it than I, but remember fellow necros, have fun, and happy game-play to all! May the light be your strength, and the dark be your extra edge!

~Grizzly~

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To All of them who belive that a battle Necro is weak.. to bad. I currently have a level 34 Necro with 81 strength and doing a good deal of damage all it melee. Using a Azure Wrath and Sigon's Shield (along iwth Wormskull) I can dish out enought damage to be more than just support to my minons. And if that's not enough then i turn to my (4) Socketed Sycthe that has a faster attack rate than tha sword. Just to let All you that disbleieve me to know what i'm capablable of

IRONMONKEYHELL lvl 34 Necro

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DO NOT USE POISION NOVA. Its a waste of 20 skill points. I had a lvl 65 poision/spear/blood/IM necro. Bad idea. When i got to hell, i did **** in the cow lvls. With the new patches, poision nova does ****. I started a new necro and its now at 98. Its a bone spirit/ IM/ revive/ fire golem/ and corpse exp. I suggest using these. My spirit, IM, and fire golem are maxed at 20, but with equipement about 34(including charms). Corpse and revives are both at 12, skeleton mastery and golem are at about 10. This necro works. DO NOT USE POISION NOVA, because the monsters in hell are almost resist to poision. DO NOT USE POISION NOVA regardless of what the others say, it just doesn't work.

Fire God: 98 nec (described above)

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Hi I am a level 63 necromancer. I have just beaten the ancients at hell level and look forward to the final battle with Baal. Many people always look to the blood golem/iron maiden as the ultimate combo, but it works good in normal, insignificant in nightmare and useless in hell. In hell level monsters can level out your blood golem in just a few hits. So instead of gaining infinite life, u lose half of your life, or even die whenever your blood g dies. Remember that a necromancer has low life and CANNOT AFFORD to lose life like that. To survive well in hell, invest about 10 points in revive, then max out skeleton mastery. Interestingly although i have 22 in skeleton mastery, my revived creatures are doing insignificant damage, except those moon lords or similar other creatures. To me they are the best source of distraction,and shield me from those monsters while i dished out my favourite combo: bone spirit/lower resist. Bone spirit is great because of the great magic damage it deals and also because of its auto-target feature. For teleportation creatures, its a nightmare for them. Just target them, press down and hold the mouse button and watch them helplessly teleport as bone spirit tracks them down in ruthless fashion.Coupled with lower resist, this combo is much more effective than when u tried to cast iron maiden with fire or blood golem. Another superb skill is corpse explosion. When it comes to crowd control, C.E. is definitely number 1 in the game. The necromancer is the only character in the game that doesn't need to run away from Minions of destruction(the most powerful lot)in Throne of destruction. With 10 revived creatures blocking their path, bone spirit/lower resist and corpse explosion, they dun stand any chance at all. However I must emphasize that the necromancer has low life and low defense so maintaining a safety distance is mandatory.
If you have chosen the necromancer, its definitely the best character in the game. Have fun people!

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Well first of all, the best strategy is your own. While you're playin' you'll learn your own best strategy. Don't listen to the stories of the - so called - "Necro Master Players". If you'll hand your own tactics you'll become a Master Necromancer yourself. And by the way for al Revive fanatics : I think Revive sucks. I'm half way hell right now and have spoiled two whole skill points on Revive. you'd better use your skill points on Bone Spear (Bone Sprit sucks to) and Fire Golem. Good luck becoming a Master Necromancer!

Supermarct

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I read a lot about all the other necro's strategie and i think some of them are right, but u people who think bone spear is the best, well, death is on your way. while your pking or training in cow level, your gonna get your @$$ whipped. For pking, your gonna need a maxed out bonespirit,a powerful golem, and iron maiden. For pking barbs, u need to escape their ww cuz it hurts like crap when u get caught in it. when their close too u just move out of the way and shoot your spirit. if u have as much lag as i do, your dead. get fast cast rate and u need to max out bone armor. try to get bone armor and bone spirit to level 30 becuz its really useful. bone armor can even save your life against cows and other players.here is what u need to max:
Bone armor and spirit, level 30
Fire golem and golem mastery, 30
blood golem, 1 point into it to get your life back(curse the monster with iron maiden and let your golem fight to get your life back.)
after this, put points into anything else u want, but dont learn any poison spells. put 1 point into mages and skeletons to get revive. try to get them to level 10-15.

-SpiritOfDeads-level 77

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Right! First off, thank you for choosing the Necromancer, you most definitly made the right choice. The first thing you must be wondering about is how to use your hard earned skill points, so here we go; Un; max out skeleton mastery! You won't believe how much easier things get! Some say go straight for golem mastery, but your golem will have INSANE amounts of life anyway! Deux; put a few points into raise skel. i don't care what people say about weak skeletons, but they will probably save your ass three times over (never put more than 4 points in though, they get a bit "uppity" after that)! Tres; about 4 or 5 in skel. mage, for the cold damage, the will aid your veritable army. Quatre; put about 10 to 12 in ressurect, during a rush these Judas wannabes will kick ass till everyone's wearing ass hats! Cinq; one in all prereq. for FIRE GOLEM! This guy rules the game, max him out and you have a (nearly) fire immune tank ready for action, pump a few into golem mastery if you can, it DOES help. Six; get bone spirit maxed, this will be YOUR weapon, don't believe the bone spear fanatics, in hell that thing won't kill jack, bone spirit will still rock the house though, hehe ;-). Sept; corpse explosion, dont max it unless you want an a-bomb without the a, get it to about 6-9, above 10 your just including fart gas, use it in a crouded room when your ressurects don't cut the mustard (or for a laugh). Huit; don't invest in the following: Poison skills (in hell it will just get you bettfucked in the meanest way, and who can blame the pooor monsters after you fart in their home and feed them decaf with a knife?), curses (iron maiden is rather good though, but a pally with thorns will be better, but it IS a crowd pleaser, so give it a go, 1 or 2 points wont hurt!), cause you will have an army fighting out there, and you want to help them with bone spirit and corpse expl., do you really want to waste time fumbling through curses when you could help your platoon? Thought not. Neuf; find a good merc, i recommend the act2 flavo an act2 merc will beat Duriels beatle ass 5 times over without yor skel's getting hurt! Give him some nice equipment and make a cuppa, cause he will do the talking while you rest your skinny ass. Dix; stat points, give str. a boost until you cane wear that plate you've alway's dreamed of (i.e about 160-220 depending on your taste in clothes), dex; dont worry too much about this, get enough to kill a fallen in hell (i.e about 90) or you WILL have problems, I saw a friend get ripped apart by an army of fallen after they killed his blood golem, peace to his tortured soul, but you will PROBABLY not have that problem due to your army's size (about 20+ at best) you won't need to worry, but you might have a problem when you are trying to fight your way to a portal so you should be prepared! Vit; put some in here till about 250, that should be enough, you wont be doing the fighting anyway! Mana; VERY important! You won't be fighting so life/mana steal is useless! Get it up to 300 and chaos sancuary (even hell) will have to bow before you. Onze; how to play your damn necro, first summon a fire golem (or whatever is your best golem) and let him kill a thing or two, though your merc probably will do most of the killing, summon your skel's, mages and ressurect if there's anything left, you now have an army! The commander (you), the field general (the merc you hired), the captain (your fire golem), your snipers (the mages) some grunts (skel's), and banzai's (ressurects), so sit back, put on some nice music, and cruise through the game, bosses will die because of your numbers (and especially your merc), and army's will fall due to THEIR numbers! Perfect eh? And duals? Barbs? Forgot to show up. Assasins? They will kiss your boots when they see your army (though cloak of shadows could tip the scales, stay close to your army!). Druids? Elemental could get hairy, but a skilled dualer will win the day. Shapeshifters won't even beat your skel's. Nec's? One similar to this one will be close, but i've met about all others and they die faster than quill rats. Pally's? Fist OT heavens might balance it out but other than that, they're a disease, and you're the cure. Amazons will probably win but you can if you are determined (and have a lot of corpses and mana to work with). And finally Sorc's, these female tricksters will lay waste to your skel's in a split second, then everything else and then YOU, but your fire golem and your merc combined with a LOT of bone spirits will see you as the victor. In parties you will alway's benefit, you have an army and the eye of the ass-kicker on your side, even the cow king will pack his bags after two minutes. Douze; equipment, get your resistanses up and find a good helm with three sockets, then socket it with three perfect skulls for the mana/life regen., other than that its your choise, but try to get that set that increases your skill levels (the name has skipped my frail mind). In closing thank you for listening to my insane babbel, though it is true, and if i might quote a famous military strategest by the name of Sun Tzu: "Know your enemy, know yourself, and your victory will never be in danger."

Harold_guy level 89 (open), Robert_guy level 78 (open), Fred_guy level 45 (trainee) (open)

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NECROPEOPLE Hello fellas, here my advice
Put pts on str, vit, ene. Dex is useless, unless for a meele (psn dagger?) necro. Here a guide until lvl 30
LEVEL
    Point distribution
  1. skeletal: you don't want to past the rest of your life depending that initial wand, do you?
  2. skeletal mastery: boost minions
  3. teeth: for prerequisite (helps a little in beginning)
  4. (Akara's point) skeletal mastery
  5. skeletal mastery
  6. save this point
  7. 1 in poison dagger: prerequisite; 1 in corpse explosion: just 1 pt works, also a good spell
  8. Clay golem: useful just at beginning
  9. skeletal mastery
  10. skeletal mastery
  11. skeletal mastery
  12. save this point
  13. 1 pt in skeletal magi: they are very good ranged attackers; 1 pt in golem mastery: boost golens
  14. skeletal magi
  15. skeletal magi: just 3 of these for now
  16. skeletal mastery
  17. save this point
  18. save this point
  19. you should have 3 pts. 1 on blood golem (they are best until fire golem), 1 on bone spear (this little baby is great even in slvl 1, but put just this point), 1 on poison explosion (prerequisite..by the way, this sucks!)
  20. golem mastery
  21. skeletal mastery
  22. (Radament's point) golem mastery
  23. skeletal mastery
  24. golem mastery
  25. save this point
  26. 1 on iron golem (this SUCKS, just prerequisite); 1 on summon resist: this helps keeping magis alive (?alive?)
  27. skeletal magi
  28. skeletal mastery
  29. (Tyrael's points) both in summon resist
  30. save this point
  31. save this point
  32. save this point
  33. wow, 4 pts! put 1 in bone spirit: great ranged spell, 1 in fire golem: the best one!, 1 in poison nova : another gerat spell, 1 on revive: more minions to the troop!
  34. ... this you figure it out!, but just keep raising the masteries, fire golem, one more magi should be enough, spend at least 3 more pts on revives, raise poison nova a lot cuz its much better after lvl 7 (118-153 dmg) and max out bone spirit (this should be your main offensive spell).
You should find a wand w/ lot points in bone spear in order to survive until bone spirit. curses sucks, except for iron maiden. the best is buy/find a wand (or other stuff) w/ 3 points on it , cuz 3 points its more than enough. Bone armor isn't a good choice cuz don't its very effective. the bone prison/wall also sucks (belive me REALLY sucks). Your hireling should be your main meele force, so, don't put too much elements on his weapon, instead give him equip that raise %dmg vs demons and undeads.
Boost these pts w/ stuff (but keep a iron maiden wand on the other hand). I'm usually use 2 shields, 1 w/ poison and fire resistance, other w/ cold and ligth resistance (just switch when you need protection vs a specific element!). If you pretand to buy a lvl 3 ir maid wand, start saving money in start of the game (also use +%gold find items). The best hire is lut gholein guard. Choose a appropriated aua (all auras are great for minons EXCEPT blessed aim). Ah, keep the left button w/ bone spear (later, spirit.) and the rigth swiching w/ poison nova and iron maiden. dont forget to raise minions, ok!
PS: its possible a necro w/ 30 or more minions on the field?...hehehe :-)

Chayenne, lvl 78 necro and his wife Riete, lvl 60sorc

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Hey fellow necros, im baffled at some of your tips because some of it is not really good ones. i once had a lvl 76 necro during diablo 2 but i quit 4 a while but i have started again now and trying to build up a badass necro but its taking me a long time to do so. heres d scoop, dont concentrate on sumoning skills coz it will be useless in the end xcept golems but the skeletons suk. curses are a necros strength and you should concentrate on it and a little on poison and bone skills. but dont put alot on poison spells but on the bone spells coz it helps late in the game when the monsters r physically resistant. you should concentrate on bonespear and bonespirit and try to max both of them and for curses, max iron maiden and decrepify which are useful in later dificulties.

al-ong lvl-43 Necromancer

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listen up. if you want a good necro do the following:
1. put 1 on skel and mage
2. put 5-7 skel mast
3. put 5-7 gol mast
4. POISON NOVA MAXED
5. LOWER RESIST
6. REVIVE
never put your precious points on your prerequisites for lower resist. just get an item that gives +1 to all necro skills. once you have poison nova, loweer resist and revive, you are unstopable.

level 39 (nightmare)

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This is information about the necro to put on your website: you should get the affensive skills and ware defensive items and dont level up strengh that much but as much as you need. Or do it all offensive! In your skills you should level up the bone spear, Because: it hits multiple people at a time unlike the bonespirit wich is slow and destroys one at a time. and level up a few really strong minions.

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I got a plan that will whipe out all players in this site. I got a Level 76 necro so i know what im doing. and all these necro's just plain suck. I got a stratedy that will whip all cows,players,bosses, and even amazons because they are the hardest to beat. I got 2 necro's. my level 38 necro beat a level 69 amazon with my bonespirit. and for cows, they all suck because wit iron maiden blood golem and corpse explosion then u will clean house all by yourself in the cow level. And golem mastery stinks. My fire golem has 2000 life witout mastery.all you need to do is kill one cow, blow up their corpse and then another and another and another til all of them die. its really simple

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i'm sickntirec of people using blood gol/IM. heres a way to be just as effective using a necro as using IM. when you are in early levels, put only 2 points on skeleton and mage. also put about 3 on corpse explosion. when you reach 18 start putting points on spear until u get about level 6-7. then put one on summon resist and 2 on iron golem. then reserve the rest of your skill points until 30, then put 1 on fire golem and pour the rest of your skill onto poison nova and revive. all you need is high level poison nova, revive, corpse exlosion, and bone spear.

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Just because I am currently a level 12 Necromancer about to kil Andariel doesn't mean I don't know stuff. If you have the expansion set you should try to get a good charm. I have one that does 7 to all skill levels and 100% better magic items dropped by monsters. If you get a good leveling charm just put one skill point into all your skills and they will jump up to level 8. Also you should take advantage of the ability to use 2 sets of weapons/sheilds. You should have one set with a wand that adds to summoning skills and a sheild or shrunken head and another with a dagger and a preserved head that adds to curses, poison and bone, or poison damage. Now your'll all ready to take on Diablo's minions.

Level 12 Necromancer, BartucTheDamned

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I rock with the Necro. Start with most of your skills in summoning, but you can also put some in poison and bone. Later you can put some in curses. When I faced Duriel, I had 9 skeletons, 6 skeleton mages, a blood golem, and a act II mercenary. When they all died, Duriels life was at the "D". I'm still at act III, but I am doing great. I can't wait to beat diablo.

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this is a very basic tactic. if there are a hole bunch of enamys all gathered up and, close together run in there and cast pioson nova a cople times and the creatures will drop dead. best to use in secret cow lvl

LVL.99 necro

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ATTENTION ALL SUMMONING NECROMANCERS
For anyone who invested a lot in skeletons (I have 9 in skel, 5 in mage, and 24 in mastery), be warned: SKELETONS SUCK IN HELL! They work just fine in Nightmare, but as you approach Hell, please please please put something in bone spirit/spear, poison nova(better than you think), iron maiden, and most important: REVIVE! All those points you put in mastery work with revive.

Palidom, lv 58

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I have been reading these strategies for some time now, and I must say that some are very well thought through, others are, not so much. It seems the majority of people focus on strategies that will get them through normal mode only. Nightmare and Hell are 2/3rds of the game, and a must if you want to get your character into the higher levels. Im not going to waste your time telling you what to put each skill point, just give you a general overview. Personally I think that skeletons are a waste of time and skill points. This is a fact, they don’t do anything in Nightmare/Hell modes. I have F1-F12 hotkeyed with something useful for every situation. I use curses on everything (you have to in nightmare/hell modes), my number one is lower resistance. Iron maiden is very useful in many situations, especially in Hell mode where some things are immune to magic. I mainly use fire golem, some swear to blood, but I don’t really like iron maiden/blood golem strategy, it didn’t seem too effective in post normal. I don’t think I would have been able to get through Hell mode without revive. When you revive a creature its’ life and damage are boosted a ton. Add that to an already powerful Hell monster, and you have got a great attacking shield that has 1000s of hps. (My favorite thing to revive are moon lords, They make very short work of anything, including the Ancients.) Granted, you have to be patient when working with revived stuff, they don’t follow for crap but well worth the wait. As far as poison and bone; Bone spear is a must in normal and through some of nightmare; however, it is worthless in Hell and must be replaced by bone spirit, no other way around that. I use bone armor as purely a one hit cousin. This is useful in later Hell when things can kill you in just a few hits. Some say bone wall and prison are worthless, personally I like them. I usually use them to block ranged attacks and lightning enchanted enemies, as well as a tool to buy yourself some time to restock, resummon, or to just run away. I read that the Blizzard team voted corpse explosion the #1 skill in the game, I strongly agree, and strongly recommend using it in appropriate situations, i.e. when there are large groups after you (cow level), use this with lower resistance, a wicked combo. Most of my equipment gives +1 and +2 bonuses to all my skills, I strongly recommend obtaining similar. As far as mercenaries go, they all seem to die a lot in Hell, and not always worth the money to resurrect, but none the less, valuable in some parts. The above information is not necessarily the only way to go, but a pretty damn good one seeing as it has got me to lvl 75 and through all three modes of the game.

Baron lvl 75 Necromancer

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Hey all, dont have lots of time so il make it nice and quick. The best thing for your necro is to have skel. mastery mastered and have at least 10 magi. 1 point on all golems and use fire golem the most. at least 15 revives (more if you can). use iron maiden cuz it rules. dont use any bone or poison stuff cuz you wont have any time to attack with all your revives getting killed, you have to have most of your consentration on keeping your team at a good number. any time one of your revives dies raise anouther one. anyways got to go, good luck.

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Hey. I just have some tips on how to get past some bosses. Note: THIS IS FOR NECROMANCERS ONLY!! I am a lvl 54 necromancer in Nightmare Act 5. Doing Bloody runs and baal runs. Before the strategies, however, some help on skill distribution. Trust me, this works.

First, focus on skeleton mastery till lvl 4, then hit golem at 6. Your stat points should eventually be like this: strength to about 100, no dex, 100 to vitality and everything else to energy. I myself have 400 mana and health and dying is still easy. I only have 80 into vitality. You should have amp dmg and teeth by now. Forget Bone armor, it won't save u. Then, at 12, (u should have many pts saved...) Iron Madien becomes the most importatn ever. Corpse explosion is also a necessary skill. At lvl 18, get blood golem and bone spear. U are now literally invincible with the blod golem, iron maiden combo (it still works!:p) Just cast rion maiden on monsters and let golem pound them. Only put ONE point ito bone spear, however. Try to get iron maiden up fast and upgrade your golem mastery. They are essential to your necro's survival. Also, only one pt into all the golem types. Just put pts ito golem mastery.

ACT 1    Blood Raven: Must I? Amp dmg and then use your few skeletons as distractors and fire teeth at her minions. Get potions ready. Teeth won't work on Blood Raven, so just mellee her. It will take a while.
Countess: Iron Maiden, let golem pound her.
Smith: IM, then golem and fire teeth.
Andariel: You should be around lvl12-14 wen u take this ugly bi***. First, clear out te first two rooms and open the large door. Step in, lure minions out, then mercilessly kill with amp dmg and teeth. When u meet this demon lady, lure her out, so no annoying minions are bothering u. Cast iron maiden and let your clay golem attack. Remember that free merc u got in Act 1? Now is a good time to have her. Your golem WILL get punded no matter how many pts you have into golem mastery, so get ready to constantly cast new ones and iron maiden when it runs out. You'll have her dead in no time. NEVER ATTACK HER YOURSELF!!

ACT 2    Radament: THIS GUY HAS TOO MANY HIT PTS!! When u recieve the KILL RADAMENT part, back off. His minions will slowly follow. He'll be a fool and stay there, not knowing that staying there wil be his dom. Kill one minion, make sure it's not chunks of ice, and corpse explosion it. Corpse explosion ALL the bodies of every enemy that aproaces. Yes, u will need mana potions. Replcae Act 1 merc with combat act 2 merc. Now, Radament can't heal or resurrect anything. See? He was a fool. Now, u have him all to yourself. Cast iron maiden, and sit back and watch as golem and merc pound him.
Coldworm: No strategy needed. Kill minions normally with bone spear, (yes, u should have it) and save coldworm for last. stay far away when she dies. hint hint.
Fangskin: Shoot bone spear, run, shoot some more, run, etc...
Duriel: Extremely easy, if doe right. Enter chamber, cast iron maiden (it should be around sklvl5-7) and let blood golem attack along with merc. As long as the iron maiden doens't drain, u will never get hurt. Bone Spear from far away anc recast iron maiden when needed.

ACT 3    Council fools in Travncal: Get rid of the four waer wathcers in the two lakes. They will save you some hair-pulling. A coucnil dude will usually be stuck behind a wall, so just cast amp dmg, and shoot one spear. HAVE AN ACT 3 MERC THAT USES COLD!! He sould be dead, if u can keep him stuck behind the wall. If he uses hydra, run! It's the tri-headed flame beast. Then, charge up the stairway into the rom with the compelling orb. Two moore coucil fools sould be there, along with some minions. Cast iron maiden, and get to work wth that bone spear. Still only one pt, right?
Mephisto: Cear out the first room with blood lords and lure Bremm arkfist. Learn to be careful of this dude. Hes killed many in nightmare and hell difficulties. He almost killed me. Wait. He did. :) Keep your distance when he dies. You should be lvl 24? Have Iron golem, and decrepify as prereqs. Get psn dagger and explosion as prereqs. U will never use them. at for bone spirit and psn nova. Hehe... Create a mage, (you should put 5 ito this) and make sure u have at least one pt into summon resist. Anyways, clear the two roomso the left and right. Aproach the top of the floor with caution,. As soon as u see him, cast iron maiden and let your blood golem rush him Don't let merc get to close. He'll be toast soon enough.

ACT 4    Izual: This guy takes very long to kill. Must be lvl 25-27 too kill him safely. Cast Amp dmg and fire off bone spear before your minions arrive.. DON"T GET CLOSE! Your golem and act 3 cold merc will charge. When Izzy attacks them, retreat and cast iron maiden. It will take a lllllllloooooooooonnnnnnnnnnnggggggggg time.
Hepahsto: Cast iron maiden, about slvl 10 by now, and let blood golem pound him. Recast golem. Easy.
Grand Vizier of Chaos: Cast amp dmg and kill with bone spear. then use corpse explosion on one of his minions and repeat process. U should be lvl 30 now, with Poison Nova and Bone Spirit. Don't forget that Fire Golem. Hehe...
Infector of Souls: Easy. Let fire golem charge, and cast amp dmg. That's right. Kill one with bone spirit, then POP the body. fun...
Lord de Seis: Scary. You'll get hit by a curse before u even see them. Retaliate with amp dmg and let fire golem die. His death wll cause a fire explosion that will most likely take out a couple minions. Fire Poison Nova like a madman and use Bone Spirit o the leader. U better have around 200 mana, or you're DOOMED!!!
Diablo: Ok. Open portal. Wait for that annoying speech of his. Have fire golem and at least two revies. One will suffice. Cast iron maiden and charge him. Get him away from that red star in the middle into the open. Cast iron maidne, and let minions get close and persanol. When they all die, don't despair. Fire bone spirit ad fire golem. Fire one sirit some more. Run when out of all potions. You'll need probably need more mana pots than health. He'll eventually die with bone spirit. Oh. BEWARE THE RED LIGHTNING!!

ACT 5    Shenk: Kill one minion and corpse explosionlike crazy. Poison nova will mop up any leftovers. Now is a good time too get on battle.net and beg for a +7 to all skills equipment. Actually, any +skills will save your @$$ here. I have a +7 skills ring, +1 armor and weapon. Maker sure to get high resists or you are doomed. Shenk himself is easy. Do this over and over again. This is known a a bloddy run. Gives mcho exp and items.
Frozenstein: This one gave me too much trouble. Always carry around 5 revies wit u. Mana better be reaching 300. Health should be about 200. You shoud be lvl 36 around. Your act 3 cld merc will be rendered useless cuz he's immune to cold. But, your fire golem will shout in hapiness. Let hi in there, then iron maiden. They attack hard and fast, with stun. Not good. Poison Nova like a maniac.
Nilathak: Absolutely deadly in Nightmare and Hell. Loser in normal. Draw his minions out. Kill them, and use any bodies to revive and/or make skellies out of them. Charge him and cast amp dmg. Fire Bone spirit and he wiill die. MAKE SURE THERE ARE NO BODIES ANYWHERE!! He will corpse explosion them with terrifying results. IN nightmare, he killed me with slvl12 (granted from item )bone armor, and full health, with defense of close to 1500 with ONE CORPSE EXPLOSION!! Scared?
Ancients: Be lvl 38. Easy. Bring them to life, then cast iron maiden. DON"T OPEN A PORTAL ANY TIME!! It will reset them. One will whirlwind towards u. Be afriad of him. One will leap towards and warcry. Laugh at him. Another will double throw. Be VERY afraid of him. Contrary to poupular belief, Madawc (the double throw dude) is the most dangerous to a necromancer. Everyone is afraid of Talic. He's only lethal if he hits you. If u let golem or merc stand, and Talic (the whirlwind loser) goes through them, his HP will go plummeting. Repeat process and he'll be dead in no time. I didn't even see him die in Nightmare. Korlic will leap at you and use a warcry that damages. He's is laghuable. Cast iron maiden and use bone spirit. Madawc should be the last one alive. Cast amp dmg and use psn nova. Fire golem and merc should charge and u shoudl fire bone spirit. He will be dead also. U will grow three lvls at the very least.
Baal: BE LVL 40-45! Get lower resist to about slvl 5-10. You willl need it. Ooooooooooooo.........he is easy. When u first meet up with him, he willl send a bunch of Warped Shamans tat u see i Act 1, just a little tougher. Tey are fruitcakes. Dispose of them. He will then send out Unravellers and death mages. Run and cast corpse explosion. Eveything shoould die. He will then send out council members. If one dies, revive it. Cast iron maiden. Beware, cuz theyre lightning enchanted. Revieve as much as possible, then get ready for the 4th round. Venom lords will attack you and just cast lower resist and use psn nova. The 5th batch is scary. It will lag a lot. Run when u can move again. Minions of Destruction will come running after u. Cast iron maiden and open a portal. Your fire gole wil die instantly and keep recreating. Expect your minions to die. Kill them with bone spirit (slvl 10 is a must.) and Baal will run. Follow him.
Baal will laugh and send tentacles after u. Kill them and cast iron maiden. Your miions will charge, and hopefully do some dmg. Once Baal kills your golem for the first time, curse him with amp dmg and fire bone spirit like crazy. go back to town nd repeat process.
THATS IT! HOPE IT HELPED! Night mare and Hell are exactly the same. Just beware of dying, cuz u lose exp...

Eddie  Lvl54 Necro Name: Darkone  Lvl33 Barb-Barbarian  Lvl33 Sorc-Xena  Lvl43 Druid-Timberfrost  Lvl3 Hardcore Amazon-Test #1  Lvl43 Necro-Edward  Lvl28 Assassin-Slasher  No pallies. They bite.

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I think this is extremely important for anyone who has an expansion pack (Lord of Destruction). In the original game poison can take as long as 15 seconds to complete its damage. Unfortunately all the monsters have killed us and run away by then. However, in the expansion set, all poisons only take 2 seconds! Do you realize that poison nova is even more powerful than the sorceress' novas (lightning and ice)? It's the necromancer's most powerfull ranged attack, even more effective than bone spirit. Many people are fond of bone spear because it travels through enemies lined up; well, what about an attack that affects every single enemy on the playing screen. If you can withstand the two second delay along with the high mana cost, I think this deserves some serious attention. A word of advice though, the main use for poison novas and any other ranged attacks are to get rid of non-melee monsters where iron maiden isn't affective. Otherwise, let golems take the beating for you with iron maiden and just sit back and relax. The necromancer is a pretty old guy and deserves some rest.

Necromaster Lvl 30, just about to face Baal.

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I was just surfing, looking for various strategies, trying to improve my own with good points other people have made... but i'm finding that it's getting rarer and rarer that i find something intelligent someone else puts.
Anyway, here's the current strategy i use for my necro: This necro should have around +4-7 to skills, My necro is currently using +2 wand, +2 helm, +2 ammy, +1 shield. Always go for masteries rather than the actual skill. (eg. skel mastery vs. revives, golem mastery vs. any of the golem spells.) summons are all about distraction and meat. Max skel mastery, 5-10 points in golem mastery, 1 in each golem, and make it so you can revive around 10-15 monsters. For curses, you'll be relying mostly on your +skill items. Curses you should increase are IM and lower resist. Although for the levelling part, AMP damage is the best way to go, i'll explain later. Now for the poison and bone spells: Max either of the direct damaging spells, bone spirit or bone spear. I suggest maxxing bonespirit, because it doubles great for PvP. And it kills that 1 monster that you need for CE faster than bonespear would. stick 1-4 points into CE accordingly. Add 1-3 points into boneprison, it's useful both PvM and PvP, especially when you don't have those revives set.
Main part of my strategy: I rely alot on my mercenary, not because my necro is weak, not because the build is bad, but because it improves my killing time so much more. This build will enable you to kill as fast, or even faster than alot of necros with other builds, but the my main point in this strategy, is to point out how well thorns mercenary goes with amplify damage and revives. It's not too hard to level your mercenary up. And at high levels, they easily hold higher thorns levels than any paly out there. Another point i'd like to make is that IM does almost no damage compared to thorns/amp. My merc does level 27 thorns, which is easily 1290% damage returned. Coupled with AMP damage, that's 2580%. However, the sad part is, that not alot of people realize the 50% physical resist in nightmare and hell difficulties, therefore that maxxed out lvl 20 IM, instead of doing 900% damage returned, only throws back about 450%, which is not alot, considering the high hp bonus vs. damage the monsters have in 8 player hell games. Now, with thorns/amp, they receive at least 1700-2000% damage they throw, that's about 20x the damage. Also, with amplify damage, the high damage your revives and golem already do, are also doubled.
You've read the good points, but there ARE some bad points. - First of all, you'll need to dish out that extra little bit of cash. Not quite hard if you frequent hell cow games. pick up elite armor, elite staffs, and gems. that's easily 100k a game, also get some +gold eq. those boost your gold drops to about 3k a drop. When your mercenary is at your level, then he shouldn't die more than once per 5-10 games, that's plenty of cash left over considering he's only 50k to revive. - Second, you need to dish out that extra time to level your merc up to your level. My level 85 necro has a level 85 merc. It's not that hard, my level 93 paly friend has a level 93 might merc that does 6k damage =P
- Third, you need to suit up your merc with decent eq. This is where those ethereals come in. This is also where those ethereal uber uniques go. That ethereal 5 socket cryptic axe that you could have used as a new honor, or that ethereal vamp's gaze you could have used. Hell, what about the ethereal shaftstop? heh.
- One last point, even at level 90, a merc still dies if there are 20 monsters around it, therefore, run up to a group of monsters real quick, amp them, and since your golem should be the fastest of your bunch, he'd be the one closest behind you. Run back, and they'll hit him. Your merc should come second, revives third. But since your merc follows most loyally, second golem, third revives, it makes it so that when you run back, your mercenary will too, staying away from the horde of monsters. Your golem will then soon follow, leaving a wall of revives to meet the enemy. You can then sit back, and wait those 10 seconds for your men to kill the monsters. I do recommend however that you run circles around the group, to keep your merc moving. Not too much, because you need him to hit, and leech some life as well. The procedure only takes about 5 seconds. All in all, it takes less than 30 seconds to level a group of extremely hard monsters. And it doesn't quite matter if there are 10, or 50 in number, because all you need to do, is keep your merc from dying, and your revives will do the rest.
All the pros and cons weighed out for you guys =] I came across this by chance, i just bought a thorns merc, and noticed how effective thorns was with amp damage. My merc does 2k damage, 4k with amp. When i'm with my friend, with fanat/might, my merc does 5k damage... that's 10k with amp. With the 200-500 damage revives do, the 10k damage thorns/amp does, you can level a group of 50 cows in a few minutes.
I'm a level 85 necro, ExcitoInferi, with a level 85 merc. This is specialized for the cow level. However, can be used to level extremely hard melee monsters almost anywhere. I've noticed that, any other place, even hell chaos sanctuary with the infamous LDS and oblivion knights, aren't too hard with the current build i'm using. All you need to remember is: Amp for melee, lower resist for magic, decrepify to run away. bone prison handy for those pesky oblivion knights btw. And finish them off with lower resist/bone(spear/spirit). This goes for any magic monster in the game. Have fun =]

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When usng a necro the best spells you can have have to be blood golem, iron maiden and bone spear. To kill diablo all you have to do is cast a blood golem , cast iron maiden on him and then bone spear the hell out of him. When casting bone spear never stand directly behind your golem as it is likely you will get done by the lightning attack. Keep casting blood golem as soon as your old one dies, cause i'm sure you will. In the cow level after me and my golem never even got hurt. Just cast iron maiden on a herd of cows and they will kill themselves attacking the blood golem and of course he'll get all his health back, this works for the cow king and any other type of boss.

Bucko lvl 27 necro

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Okay here's some strategies for the necro: Skeleton mastery is very important. Try to max it out. It will work wonders on your minions. Also, put a lot of skill points into amp damage and iron maiden. You have to if you want to survive hell difficulty. Also max out revive which will help a lot

Norm-Level 91 Necro

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Ok, I know I am not an experienced Necro but I am about level 26 and i am beating Diablo( he is hard) , Mephisto ( no problem at all, he has never hit me), Duriel ( he is easy, he has hit me but never killed me), and Andariel (In the beginning it is rough but all you need is potions, and a portal waiting in the floor above). I have two set items(ring and Hat thing), a unique glove, and a regular armor, shield, and boots ( they are rare but makes no difference). I still don't know about bonespear or bonespirit) bone spear does not miss to often, while bonespear hit multiple. I just made up my mind 4 for bone spear and the rest for bone spirit.
Here I go........This is for a plan to level 30. You should have 150 attributes + any special things for quest and items. Strength- 70 (I think you start at 10) That is 60 points. Dexterity- 25( you start at 25) That is 0 points. Vitality -55( I think you start will 10) That is 45 points. Energy - 70 (You start with 25) That is 45 points. Strength? This is so you can get all or most of the armor, helms, and anything else. Dexterity? why bonespirit never misses! Vitality? You want to live, and you can run for a long time. Energy? Bonespirit takes its tolls.
Skills for Level 30. You should have 30 plus about 3 for quests and any items that you have. Preriquisites- Amplify damage, bone teeth, corpse explosion, and clay golem. Oh and Bone spear. skeletons (one point) Iron Golem. 5 skills into - Summon resist. 7 skills into - Golem mastery and Iron Maiden . Skills to build up ( After 30)- Skeleton Mastery, Revives, Fire Golem, and bone spirit.
This is to start you off. Take the advice of the other great ones that are on this page for more advanced stuff ( after level 30 of coarse)

Necromancer- Level 26

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Ello! Quick notice to you all. If you are going to do ANY dueling with a necro DO NOT bother with bone wall/prison and IM unless you're fighting a barb. ANY other class will kill you in approx. 2 seconds. Even barbs will leap over your walls and such. Those skills are only usefull against the bumbling idiots in the game. Bone spirit and a helluva lotta run/walk is your best chance for dueling. Just watch out for zons with guided arrow. god i hate them...........

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I'll make this short and sweet. One, I'm not overly experienced, but I do know what I'm doing when it comes to Necromancers. Most people will make fun of me for this strategy since no one else has probablly never tried it before, but hey, why would anyone?
Two words: Poison Dagger-with enough points on it, it adds mad damage to daggers attack, not to mention the poison damage. Plus, if you have actually played the game, you'll know that a nice amount of daggers add to Necro skills. Mine adds to all. And most Necros are gonna stand back and let their army do most of the work, so why not poison you're enemies and laugh while they slowly die? Go ahead and LAUGH AT ME! The Blood Golem/Iron Maiden combo is kick ass also, not to mention revived crap. And add to the damage by putting stuff on your Amplify Damage. So my current multiplayer Necro sucks. I am just now experimenting after all. So far this strategy has worked in single player, and my current Necro is coming along nicely with it.

My dude: GaryOakston lvl28 Necro (yeah, he can't revive quite yet)

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welcome to the necro master gide first of all im going to say some thing that could make you all very angry so to stop my helth insurance provider from haveing a hart attack if you promiss not to hurt me read on if not go on ...sommoning skelitons SUCK don't do it go up on golem mastery ONLY GO UP ONE LEV ON CLAY GOLEM AND BLOOD GOLEM AND STEEL GOLEM get max on golem mastery and fire golem get max on rivive and bone sprit sucks go up on summon risist and things like that... if you realy want to you can go up on curse but necros my mastery so i advise you DO NOT!!!!!

hazard

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Some peple are just bone,and others just summoning ,but im both.Get a good golem and some golem mastery,iron maiden bone spear should be maxed. ( don’t get blood golem totally useless.)Also get good bonearmour , some rivive, and 2-4skelly, 2mastery, 1mageskelly and summon resist and a healing merchant which will heal your weakling skellys ( they are actually just a distraction) and skellys will live longer.
Now at a boss make sure your bone armour is on and walk into the lair. Cast your strong iron maiden on the boss and hell be distracted by your men and will hit them and hurt himself. Stand back and start firing as many bone spears at him as fast as you can. In no time hell be fucked. It has worked for me and will for you ( didn’t even use one townportal at duriel or andariel)I know the stuff I wrote above like revive I don’t hav, but you should get it!

Kenrich Dark l.v 22necro

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Seems to me people underestimate the power of their clay golem. I took out Andariel at level 14 with little effort. I bought a wand that adds 3 to clay golem (for a total of 4). I had 2 points in Golem mastery and 1 in Iron Maiden. The difference between a level 1 clay golem and a level 4 + 2 mastery golem is HUGE. A level 1 golem will be lucky if it gets to take a swing at Andariel as she can kill it with one swing. A level 4 + 2 golem has about 3 times the hit points so it can take about 3 hits from her. This is plenty of time for you to cast Iron Maiden, use a potion and recast clay golem. Killing her took me 4 healing potions and 2 mana potions (I don't need no stinken' cure poison) without every being in danger myself. I feel it is important to get to Act 2 and the Cube as soon as possible so that you don't have to waste all the items you are picking up in Act 1. Typically my entire stash is gems, jewels, rings and amulets plus I am carrying more of them and rejuvenation potions so getting the cube becomes the only way to avoid selling items you could be converting to something more useful. Remember you pay 50,000 gps for a ring and it takes 3 to try to get a better one so having to sell one to a vendor in Act I because you have run out of inventory space costs big time. I also like to make as many Full Rejuvenations potions as I can as they are a thing of beauty. Don't waste your time getting to level 18 in Act 1 it takes forever and is unnecessary. Kill Andariel skip the first quest in Act 2 and get the cube. Convert your items then go back to first quest.
Also as soon as possible get a decent suit of armor/helm and put a chipped skull in it. The extra mana from this a huge help to a necro and using up one chipped skull don't cost you much.

Onpur

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My very first character was a necromaner. I have made about 7 so far...all lev 40+ My highest as of now is lev 75...then a lev 72(xpack)...For stat points, (non-x) 100str, base dex, then all to life and mana, i keep my eng about 10 points more than my vit. (xpack) 86str, base dex, then all to life and mana, i keep my eng about 10 points more than my vit. (in non-x) the best armor for necro is silks, and the str req is 100str. (xpack) the best armor for necro is Trang-oul's chaos plate, and the req is 86str. Never go above these str reqs, and never add any to dex (necro's will hit themselves with a sword, so give them a wand). Necromancers are a wonderful choice class, if your mother frequently askes you to take out the trash, just raise a few things and go!
The very first skill that you should have is Iron Maiden. 700%dmg returned at lev20 who could resist that? Each additional point that is added above 20 gives 25% more dmg. All my necro's have at least lev 26IM, 825%dmg returned. Just remember when raising IM's skill lev, to add a point to your newest available (and useful) skills. My skill trees consist of (base, no item skills) lev 20IM, lev 20golem mastery, lev 10blood golem, lev 1skelleton, lev 1mage, lev 1 clay golem, lev 1Iron golem, lev 1Fire golem (used in circumstances where physical dmg is not available), lev 1 revive, lev 1 amp, lev 1 teeth, lev 1bonespear,lev 10-15corpse explosion (great in cow lev for jacking other's kills, or keeping your own from being stolen), lev 20bonespirit, lev 1bone shield, lev 1bone wall, lev 1bone prision. *note...for this exact number of points, one needs to be lev 70+ and have done all the skill quests*.
The best thing one could do for their necro, is get as many +skill items as they can. (in non-x), my necro wears (lev 75) wormskull, silks1.09, a rare +1 ammy, sigons tower, and an imbued grim wand +2 all +3 blood golem +1attract...for a total of +6 skill points...with these or similar items, all of your lev 1 skills become lev 7!!!
Resistances/mana are a general problem for necro's, so I use lenymo sash (15% faster mana regen, and +5 all res), frosties (40% more mana), tearhaunce greaves (+10 all res), and 2 rare rings that add to mana and spectral res (one adds about 122 mana and the other has +36Fr and +15Cr,Pr,Lr with about 20+ mana. (xpack) The best gear to have is Trang-oul's complete set...+5 all skills, +to all res, and high as hell def. +2 ammy's are very common around xpack... and wands are common enough. So, with the set, the ammy, and the wand, you should have around +9 all skills! Boots, wand, and jewlery are the only things that dont come with the set. Tearhaunces still add +10 all res, but there are way better ones out there. My neco in (xpack..lev 72) currently wears the assassin set chain boots (this combo with armor gives me +80% faster run/walk...for dodging all the "smart" monsters that just dont like my golem). Rings, just use rings for what ever you feel your necro is lacking in. In a5 I socketed my Trang-oul's wing (shield) and put in a perfect diamond (+19 all res). My wand has +2 all +1decrepify and +2 life tap.
Now, for the strategy!!! I always start off my casting my boneshield. Its cheap, and if you do get hit, it doesnt hurt so bad...just recast it when you get the next chance to. I use everything but blood golem in the general game. Normally, I tend to use either Iron or Fire golem in the normal stages. I use blood golem pretty much exclusivly in cow level for the purpose of becoming invincible *note...IM must be cast on all cows! or your only claim is that your ghost is invincible. My friends always ask me to take out the lightning monsters in a lev, for one simple fact... necro's have the best combo ever known to kill those annoying little bastards! If you have ever heard that bonespear is the best, well...its not. While it may hit a lot of monsters at once, it does minimal dmg and you have to aim it just right or it won't hit any! Also..it does hit everything in its path, but this is not always a good thing. It WILL kill your bone wall/prision. My favorite and proven strategy against lightning monsters is to either trap them with prision/claygolem/IM or bone wall and launch a volly or bone spirits at it. Bone spirits deal 448-458dmg at lev 26 that is a lot of dmg...more than the sorc's orb at that lev, and to top it off, it goes right on through your bone wall...allowing all the lightning to smack your bone wall (100% res for you!!!) and deal dmg to the desired target! Yes bone spirit goes right through your bone wall/prision!!!
For the general minion, Iron golem/IM/revive is the best way to get through the game. For the physical immune monsters, Fire golem/life tap/bone spirit is the best tactic. Bosses...don't waste your time with revive, just send out your toughest, strongest, and meanest golem, IM the boss, and hide behind a pilliar or a permanent wall (not bonewall) and cast bone spirit like theres no tomorrow!
I killed baal in hell with my necro at lev 56!!! without even beign touched...don't you just love those pillars! I would love to see a bone spear going through a pillar, while one could just cast bonespirit slightly to the side of the pillar, then it seeks its target once around the pillar/wall *note takes practice on choosing where to tell it to go before it will seek target AND get around the desired object of defense.
(xpack)*note...best strategy for killing the ancients...make lots of friends with people that have zon/barb/sorc char!!! As of yet, I have found no easy way of dealing with them. I cast life tap on them and a clay golem and lots of bone spirits trying to help my friends kill them. They run fast, so launch spirits in front of them. There is no chance in hell that one could hit an ancient with a spear w/o spending hours on end practicing...then it doesnt even do enough dmg to make the ancients laugh at you.
For leveling. (non-x) Cow runs. My favorite tactic is to go into a game where there is a lot of people doing quests. Party up with them, then start the cow lev. You will get the exp bonus for having all the party members, while getting all the kills to yourself! *the additional bonus...you know who killed the king if u can't remake.*
(xpack) Cow runs. Same tactic. Bloody runs will give you about a level per run untill about level 71. Necromancers really don't have a chance to kill anything in bloody because a sorc's firewall just mutilates everything...also, theres not enough monsters to make full use of the corpse explosion efficient.
*the reason why a necro can kill massive ammounts of cows...necro's main tools are percentage based...so, the stronger they are the harder they fall! my necro(non-x) did a nm cow run with the tactic shown above at lev 27...when he came out...lev 31. The necromancers best skill overall is Iron Maiden. It is lev 12 req..so after that, enjoy your necro racing through difficulty settings.
For fun... The only time i ever cast a skeleton is out of spite for a tough boss...you can't revive bosses, but most of the time, you can turn them into a skeleton and send them into their own and watch them die a 2nd time!!!


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ok, most summoning suck after nightmare mode. bone spirit takes like 10 hits to kill a damn zombie. u need a hardcore powerful dude to help you. i would relocate skills in these places: summoning (45 points total), golem:1 (just to get the rest fo the golems), blood golem:1 , iron golem:1, fire golem:20 (most powerful golem, max this and like 500 dm +200 holy fire, immune to fire, fast, with lvl20 golem mastery: from 4000-8000 hp), revive:1 (your +1 to skill items will bring this up, use only on cow lvl), golem mastery:20 (to complement your golem), summon resist:1 (good start rate but later sucks)
curses (21+ points) a. dm:1, iron madien:20 (best spell), rest:optional
bone (poison sucks soooo bad, u use poison the monsters are just gonna laugh at you, cause takes time to do dm and lesss dm) 1 point on all except poison spells, bone spirit:20 (need it to duel, or else you suck like dumbshit and help golem when dude is fire immune)

minion_god lvl20

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This isn't a strategy for people who are looking for the best character, or the easiest way to beat the game. It's for those few of us who enjoy a bit of challenge and are tired of watching the cheesy Blood Golem combos, and simply like having a small army at our disposal. A few days ago, I decided to try a completely undead Necromancer. This decided, I invested a point into Amplify Damage, and then began alternating Skeletal Mastery and Raise Skeleton until I had 3 or 4 points in Skeleton. By that time I got both Skeletal Mage and Iron Maiden. To make a long story short, I found that there was a very steep power curve in the beginning, but I am currently walking around in the Jungle (much better than my other Necro I might add) with my 4 Skeletons, and 4 Mages, rapidly approaching level 30. I have Skeleton Mastery maxed, and plan on getting a killer handful of Revived monsters. For those who say that Skeletons won't last past Act 2... I've died once... to the Summoner. My skeletons hold their own against all of the monsters I've encountered so far, and show no real sign of weakening. I haven't used Corpse Explosion, Bone Spear, or any Golem at all. Maybe this isn't the fastest killing machine out there, but it is a lot of fun, and a nice change of pace from the standard Necromancer.

Kiseki

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My necromancer 'Mortdecai' is currently at lvl 76. I spent quite a long time before I finally decided where to put my points. In fact, I had around 30 before I began to use any of them. If you can get decent armour, shield, helm etc. and a suitable fast weapon with high damage you can melee it out in the early acts.
Anyway, I have only put points into 3 skills, and maxed them out: Fire Golem, Golem Mastery and Bone Spear. Of course, I had to use points on the prerequisites but only 1 point in each of them. Once these 3 skills were maxed I also put enough points into Summon Resist that absorbs 50% elemental damage. This means that now I have a super-sidekick that really kicks arse. In addition, I also have a hireling in the form of a Bowazon (lvl 76 also) to help we out with long range attacks. She has a stonking great bow that does huge damage including +200% against demons.
With regards to stat points, I put a lot into mana (800 pts) and life (600 pts) and now have 120 in str (ready to use the Trang-Oul set when I finally find it). To help the mana I inserted a perfect skull into my armour and my Tiara. This improves mana regeneration a great deal. I still have another chance to socket another item, but I want to wait until I find a better suit of armour (if I ever find one).
So now Mortdecai is at lvl 76 I have surplus skill points still and I am still not sure where to put them, since I don't appear to really need them at the moment.

Robert

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hey necros!!! my strategy was to save up hella money. max out on blood golem and skeleton mages. bone spear is a good idea to cause you can get people from far away. skeletons are weak unless you get lots of skeleton mastery. do all this and you will have kick-ass necro.

Bloodyhell Lvl 79 necro

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O.K. to start all of this off, figure out what kinda items u want ur necro to use. Are you gonna hav a lot of plus to skill items (trang oul set, soj's, etc.) or or u going for def. If you are going for skills like me follow this strategy and in the later levels you are practically invincible. Now ppl talk about putting points into the summoning section, but think about, its wrong, the only useful summon is blood golem/iron maiden mix. Skeletons die VERY easily and revived dont last to long. So what I did was put 1 point into all the summon skills except revive, fire and iron golem bcuz i had no need for them. Now with my items i get a +10 bonus to skills so now they are all on 11. So i hav a blood golem on lvl 11 with mastery on 11 which makes for a pretty decent golem because all you want to use ur summoned creatures for is a distraction for the ass whoopin ur necro will giv em. Curses is another place where u should reap the benefits of + to skills. I put 1 into all but decrepify, dim vision, and attract. But then i pumped in extra 5 into iron maiden and lower resist which are the only good curses. Any more into lower resist and the decrease of resist per level drops and too much in iron maiden is RIDICULUS and a waste of points. Lower Resist is good for all ur poison and bone spells. Now with all that done the place where all your points should go is poison and bone, they are VERY useful. max out bone spear AND bone spirit. With my bonuses they are on level 30 and although in hell they dont kill stuff with one hit, they sure do a lot better then those summoners are. Plus with lower resist it actually dont seem that hard to kill em. Bone Armor should also be a spell to max out. It's like having a free 200 HP on your necro that you can recast over and over. But with the bonuses putting points into c. explosion aint worth it, but u should still use it as it is very useful. But on lvl 11 it seems to work just fine from only putting 1 point into it. Poison Nova is worth points too, if u ever get surrounded poison nova could be your last hope, although resistant monsters won't really be effected by it. Now with that said the strategy to use is hav 11 magi followin u aorund as a distraction and either a clay or a blood golem. If your low on life cast a blood and iron maiden a group of ppl and wait till ur life is full then cast your clay to be a distraction for a while. Then you can cast lower resist on enemies and spear, spirit them to death and then use ur c. explosion to finish em all off. But to use this plan a lot of points must be put into energy. I only hav 85 in strength to be able to handle my trang oul set. Don't worry to much about dex bcuz ur not gonna be attacking and hopefully being attacked to much. Vitality i put points into so i hav more life for dueling which seems to work pretty well with this set up. Go ahead and email me and try to tell me this plan sucks and ill gladly duel you :)

Danjuz - lvl 65 necro

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Most of these startegies are for the earlier game but the challenge really starts with hell mode. None of the necromancer attacks do any damage on hell! I got there and watched my lv 22 bone spirit bouncing off fallen. So do not neglect dexterity if you want to survive on hell mode. You need to find a big nasty weapon and be able to use it well. I have a unique knife that does 500 poison damge on top of its normal damage which is quite high. So now I use that as much as possible. Also revive is useful for protection. Golems are also useful as shields but they do very little damage. All the skeketons are useless beyond normal mode but revived creatures improve as the opposition does so they can take the hits while you can get in close with your weapon. Finally get a good armour count. I used to have armour that gave me bonuses in skills or life or whatever but if you are in close with melee attackers you can be minced unless your armour count is high.

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Alright, i'm a level 61 necro, and i'm not going to pretend that i know that much about him. Necro kicks ass in normal and nightmare, but im in act5 hell, and its getting pretty tough. Bone spirit is probably the way to go, although bone spear can hit multiple enemies, it doesn't do nearly enough damage to have any effect. Even bone spirit isn't cutting it, and mine is level 27. Skeletons don't last 2 seconds, i use revive, fire golem, and iron maiden and its working for me. Iron maiden is the only curse i use, but curses might be a better way to go. the necro is not the best choice of characters, but if you play one, i suggest golems, iron maiden, revive, and bone spirit. Just be careful not to waste points on skeletons and bone spear.

Sheridar, lvl 61 necro

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You want a kick-ass necro, don't you? so here are some of my suggestions:
At first I have some skill comments. Iron Maiden and blood golem is probably the most powerful combo that the necro can have, the only downfall is that it doesn't work against skelettons and ranged attackers, but since the majority of the opponents are non-skelettal meele fighters i strongly recommend those skills. IM should be maxed while blood golem can stay at lvl 6 or so (remember that you'll find +1/2 to all skill level items very early in the game). as you get to greater difficulties it'll take longer to take out the monsters using this strategies, as they get a lot more HPs and have physical resistances. That's why i switched to revives when i got at the necessary level. they might only live 3 minutes but if you take about 10 of them along with you your necro becomes practically unstopable! with a few points in skeletton mastery they will usually survive the full three minutes too. I have revive at lvl 16 (with items) and i sometimes dont even have enough corpses to resurrect em all. However, you should always combine them with iron maiden.
Another skill to max is Bone Spirit. With items you should get it to do about 400+ damage. Actually this won't be a lot in the later game, but sometimes its the only way to kill monsters that are immune to physical attacks (and its also one hell of a spell all throughout nightmare difficulty). You can also try to curse those guys woth lower resist if you feel your bone spirit doesn't do enough damage (one skill point should be enough here since you'll bring it up with ypur other items).
Fire Golem can be really useful at times, especially against that son of a bitch witch doctor endugu, since he won't take any damge from him and his pals (only put one or two points in it though). You should definately put at least one point in golem mastery and in monster resist too!
Forget stuff like poison nova! in hell difficulty the monsters will just laugh at you casting it and buttfuck you in the nastiest way!
Bone Wall can be a really useful skill too, in fact i use it quite often. first of all it'll block the oblivian knight shots for a little while, and more imporatant, it can also keep those exploding bastards in act 5 away from you. You can also use it on bosses combined with IM. Just out like 30 of them around the guy and cast iron maiden (this wont on diablo or baal, and in hell difficulty for guys that are lightning enchanted).
Also very well, and i dind't think that at first: dim vision. i really hate those parts in act 5 where all those annoying little fuckers teleport around and constantly steal life from you. If curse them with DV, most of them just won't see you and there will be something that you usually don' have in those areas: silence. but don't wait too long and get your ass moving.
Now I don't feel like wrinting anymore. hope i helped you a little bit.

Konfuzius --- lvl 74 necro
LanceInHouse --- lvl 72 barb
FörsterHorst --- lvl 56 druid

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Okay, this is my strategy for the necros:

For skills (those worthy)-1. Bone Spirit- accurate, high damage, ranged, fast speed, MAX this
2. Bone Spear- a second good attack spell, though less damage, but hits multiple enemies, good in Act II, cheaper too
3.Corpse Explosion- Fantastic! Put in some points for wider damage, use this in the Secret Cow Level and u will see the great effect. Expensive though
3. Bone Armor- optional, though i don't use, easily gone
4. Teeth- 1 to get get Corpse Explosion, lousy and no use at all even at the start
5. Amplify Damage- quite good, but i see no need for putting in more than 1 point
6. Iron Maiden- Must have spell, works best with the blood golem, low mana cost
7. Skeleton Mastery, Golem Mastery, Summon Resist- Put in what you can afford
8. Clay Golem- 1 to get Blood Golem
9. Blood Golem- Best summoning spell of necros, and when use with Iron Maiden your life will keep increasing as long as your golem is being hit
10. Iron Maiden- 1 only to get Fire Golem, i don't likeother spells
13. Skeletal Magi- Okay not that vulnerable since they hit from the back. Put in some to deal with Duriel
14. Revived- Invest more in this as they will protect you most of the time. Revive those powerful ones. Somewhat like Conversion spell of the paladin and will work most of the time Iron Maiden your life will keep increasing as long as your golem is being hit
10. Iron Maiden- 1 only to get Fire Golem, i don't like Believe me, these are the only spells you truly need and the others are just crap. The must-have spells are: Bone Spirit, Blood Golem, Iron Maiden, Revived, Corpse Explosion and you will survive pretty well with these.
For Stats, Items-Strength and Dex.: Less than 50
Vitality: +2 per level increase
Mana: +3 per level increase
Necros. don't use weapons unlike the barbs and paladins, so str. and dex. aren't important and roughly 50 to put on the most basic items. I suggest using wands and the necros. shrunken heads (in expansion) that gives skills bonuses. Try to look for fastest cast rate, resistances, mana regeneration, + to max. mana and skill bonuses(+1 skill will give 1 more skeleton, 1 more mage and 1 more revived) in items. U will need a large amount of mana for casting bone spirits, corpse explosion...
For bosses- Hepasto, Izual, council members,...: Just use blood golem and cast iron maiden. Settled
Andariel: Use iron maiden and prepare some antidotes and try your best. I defeated her at level 16
Duriel: the easiest of the 5 bosses for necros in my opinion. Just walk in there with blood golem, many minions and stand at the back casting iron maiden, bone spear/spirit. I defeated him at level 21.
Mephisto: quite difficult, with the lightning damage. Golems doesn't work very well either. Enter by the left throne (don't ask me why, just seem nearer) and kill all the council members and ghoul lords before luring him back into the left throne. Don't go further north than when u can see Mephisto as that will attract more minions. Stay away and dodge swiftly from the lightning attacks. Cast iron maiden, and then strike him from a range. If your golem dies, cast another, to block the lightning. I defeated her at level 25
Diablo- Use Fire golem (if u are not yet level 30, good luck!) against the fire damages. Don't bother casting minions as they just die with Diablo's 1 or 2 fire rings. Stand behind the golem cursing and casting bone spirit and u will be quite safe. If the golem dies, immediately cast another. I defeated her at level 30
Baal- Walk in with many revived, skeleton magis. Use iron maiden and blood golem and spirit him from the back. I'm not sure whether this strategy works most of the time 'cause i only defeat him once using the necromancer class. Baal defeated in my hands at level 37.
Hirelings-I suggest using the Barbarian from Act 5 for all the quests. He will fight alongside your golem and his damage is tremendous(1 hit, 1 kill in Act 5 normal). Give him the highest defense armor and helm, and greatest damaging sword. Use properties like +life, +strength, +resistances and not like +barbarian skills (i tried, no use), +mana. Mine does a damage of 234-444 with the great sword and a defense of 1045. That's all, have fun!

Level 47 necromancer, in Act 4 nightmare about to kill Diablo 2nd time.

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I have read many of the strategies and I have tried a few of them and some variations. No one seems to mention that the great thing about D2 is the variety of monsters. Some strategies work great on some monsters and do nothing on others. IM is great on monsters with striking skills but sucks on monsters which cast. Also, revives wipe out most monsters but do little or nothing to Baal or Diablo. Additionally, those monsters are in places where it is very hard to get your revives into. Revives die in 3 minutes and they don't follow you very well. Baal casts the stalks which your minions spend most of the time fighting until it is too late. Also, Baal casts an IM on you so if your mana exceeds you vitality, every cast you do costs you a chunk of life. You can go back to town but waste precious lifetime of your revives.
I am trying a combination type of a combat Necro with some revives and some curses. I am trying decrepify and like it thus far. I found a unique defender which gives 2+ to skills and 80+ to life with good blocking and defense. It does not give protection against elemental damage but, at level 38 in early nightmare level, is really neat along with my 1+ skill circlet. That means you get 4 points in any skill you choose. I had a sorceress which beat D2 mainly with the frozen orb but found I needed other skills too.
So my necro can stay back and let 4 mages and 4 revives along with a fire golem (20 level golem mastery) do the work or I can join in and do melee work too. I have put most skill points into strength and dexterity. When I find a great weapon, I will probably melee more. It is so nice not having to worry about Baal's IM, that leaves so much more ability to attack him. I do have a problem with running out of mana but that is solved by having either leeching items or just filling 2 of the rows of the belt with super mana potions.
I tried a character with 20 skeleton mastery and tons of revives but you get stuck against the bosses. It rips through areas and helps to quickly level up. You do need the ability to fight if your revives fail you and they will fail.
In closing, my suggestion is to specialize but don't put all your eggs (or skill points) in one basket. Think about the different types of bosses and monsters you will face and try to be flexible. Do bone up on the mega skills and the passive skills that make your necro strong but remember there will be situations that running back to town won't help.

Bentoo

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I personally prefer bone spear rather than spirit becoz of 3 reasons
1.Spear lv is easy to build up in lower lvs it did takes quite a lot of time to get to lv 20 bone pirit as you at least have to be lv 45-50
2.Bone spirit only hits 1 target at a time while spear attacks multiple targets.
Count like this: Max damage done by spear:176 times number of target
Max damage done by spirit: 350 times only 1
So if spear hits more than 1 target than it's more preferable than spirit also, it saves mana(about halve as much as spirit)
Count like this: 11.7 for at max 352 damage if spear harms more than one target each mana then cause approx 30 sth damage
21 for at max 350 damage caused by spirit each mana then cause approx 16 sth damage
3.If you finished maxing out spear earlier (say lv 40 sth) you can also save up points for summon resist and revive.
I don't prefer melee skeletons (Personal interest) as they're easy to be killed and you need heaps of corpes to summon them.
Also I think ideally it'll be really good if we can always keep around 3-4 mages as they quite helpful if you're lacking of mana potions to cast spear/spirit and the enemy is immue to physical (My skeleton mastery is now 7 and I have 5 mages)
For golem, I prefer iron and fire rather than blood.
I used iron golem when I'm facing the boss becoz of their thorns and they gain powerful bounus from item that they summoned from.
I used fire golem when I'm not facing the boss as it harms multiple targets and they have high hit pts.
I used clay golem sometimes if I'm facing the boss and I don't have much mana potion with iron maiden
I never use blood golem as I didn't put much in vitality, I rather not losing any health than gaining health, come on! Potions are cheap.
I don't prefer bone armor as it might be quite troublesome to regenerating it again again and again.(Try to think if Diablo can finish off a 400sth hit pt blood golem in a single blow then it can do the same thing to your bone armor) and eventually if you reach hell lv most of the damage caused by enemies will be really high. So I prefer potions to armor (save the points for golem mastery and Iron maiden)
For curse, I never use Amp damage, it's really cool but I prefer iron maiden more than amp damage. However I didn't max out iron maiden (Currently at lv6 325% return is already enough I think may be I'll stop adding pts at lv10)see if I'm lucky enough to get more stuffs which add skills lv. And I think it'll be good if we can have 1 single point in terror to drive monster away if surrounded. And a few points in lower resist to make your mages works better.
About attribute points, I'm now lv 36 and I have 100 in energy and 80 in str I never put any in dex and each time I'll give at least 1 pt to vitality

Slayer Pharmacysam lv 36 necromancer from brisbane

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Ok, got a Necro strategy for ya. I am level 40, just beat The first level rather easily. I have 10 points in skeleton mastery, 7 points in skeletal mage, and 10 points in Iron Maiden; people naysay skeletal mages in favor of golems, but mages are quite useful. First of all, they will fire at annoying teleporting or other creatures. Second, when you are fighting hordes of creatures, this strat works great: set up raise Skel mage on one weapon config, iron maiden on the other. Before you approach a group, cast IM. Send your mages in. True, higher level chars will chew through the mages, but with between Iron Maiden damage being incurred with every melee strike on your front mage, and the spell damage of the ones behind, you can generally kill one monster (even a strong one) just as the lead mage gets killed. Most of the time, the monster you killed will provide a body for you to conjure another mage - I plow through huge numbers of enemies with this tactic. If you use it, NEVER engage an enemy without a few mages, and NEVER engage without using iron maiden! (The mana cost for this is small...) Works like a charm. Oh, I wouldn't mess with blood golems - stick with fire golem points if you are going to use golems - they seem to do well all the time, even with enemies who don't use fire attacks - I usually spend half a level with the original fire golem...

DeathTwisted

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When first starting out, it may be very tempting to go and put lots of skill points into skeletons...don't do it!! they are very pointless in later acts and you will be mad you did. One thing that helps a whooole lot is finding +1 items for necros. I currently have a lvl 36 necro with a +2 wand, wormskull (+1 necro skills), SIgons shield (+1 all skills), +1 amulet, and 2 stone of jordans (+1 to all skills each). These are incredibly helpfull because I only needed to put 1 point into skeleton stuff and I get 7 minions for free. If you can't get this don't worry about it, but still don't put many points into skellies..Put the majority of yoru points into iron maiden and blood or fire golem when you can (preferably save your points for fire). one of the best tactics I have found that works 95% of the time for me is: get large groups of guys to attack your golem, spray them all with iron maiden, and all the monsters die within a short amount of time. This is an especially effective strategy on cow levels. To enhance that get about 3 into normal skeletons. When a group of guys are raping your golem, summon the skellies and they will go get attacked and almost certainly get killed, but as long as the guy that killed your skelly has iron maiden on him, it will do damage to them, and just keep summoning skeletons. Also look into puting a fair amount of points into bone spear and spirit. Bone spirit is a very nice dueling skill, especially with slower characters. don't die.

-Caer-seint lvl 36 necro; BoobiesFromHell lvl 54 sorc

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Alright you're probably expecting me to say that my strategy is the best and to forget everyone else's,well I'll try not to do that. I have a lvl 62 necro atthe moment and he kicks a lot of ass. Try to do very little summon with your necro. Here is how I would recommend allocating your skill points:
Amplify Damage: 4 points
Iron Maiden: 20 points
Weaken: 1 point
Terror: 1 point
Decripify: 1 point
Lower Resist: 5 points
Life tap: 1 point
Teeth: 1 point
Corpse Explosion: 10 points
Bone Spear: 6 points
Bone Spirit: 20 points
Poison dagger: 1 point
Poison Explosion: 1 point
Poison Nova: 1-10 points
Golem: 1 point
Blood Golem: 1 point

CaptorOfSin lvl 62 Necromancer

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I looked at quite a few of these when I first started for help cos I didnt want to waste all my skill points on things which would turn out useless later on. Now, combining a number of these, I have my own strategy.
Firstly, DONT WASTE YOUR POINTS ON SKELETONS! They are useless, even in act I, so how do u think they will get on in acts 2-4! Put 1 point in cos u need to get it to get on to the next skill. Put 1 or 2 points in skeleton mastery as it improves your other stuff like revived and magi. Dont put points into teeth as bone spear is far better at lvl 18. Bone Armour is a skill u should use throughout the game as a little extra "padding" to stop been killed when all your minions are dead. It still works fine at later levels.
Youll want the clay golem at lvl 6 but dont put any points into it u wont use it later on.
Corpse explosion is one of the most publisized skills in the game. Its effective, and u would be wise to put some spare points in here. But to be honest, most of the time, u need something thatll work all the time, not just when there are some corpses and foes nearby. Besides, less material to ressurect your minions.
At lvl 12, get 1 mage. No more as you can get wands to increase the no later on. Although they deal out limited damage, they are extra targets that hopefully the enemy will go for instead of u.
GET iron maiden as it is useful throughout the game and makes your minions' jobs much easier. Run up to uniques, get them with iron maiden and run and let ur minions do the job. After that, dont bother with any other curses. Some people like life tap, but it is only useful really if u r a fighting necromancer and constantly getting injured.
Put a couple of points into golem mastery as it stops your golems from dying all the time. U dont want too many as u can often cast a new one anyway.
At lvl 18, get bone spear and blood golem. Bone spear is an excellent way of making a direct contribution to the battle and can strike through multiple foes at once (this is lethal in crampt places like the arcane sanctuary and the maggot lair in act 2). Many people say the blood golem is amazing, but i dont cos his effectiveness is limited, if he dies, u will be almost dead cos of the life transfer attribute.
At lvl 24, put 1 or 2 in summon resist. Behond this, the advantages are not too great. Get the iron golem. He is mych better than the blood golem. I usually cast a blood golem in town, then kill some people and wait for a metal item to drop and cast the golem from there.
Most of the other poison and bone spells are rubbish: dont bother.
At lvl 30, get the Fire golem as he is amazing when coupled with iron maiden.
Put 3 points intro revive to supplement your army. No more, the mana cost is too high and the cost no longer goes down as before.
Dont get bone spirit as it only targets one enemy at a time, although its damage goes up quickly. Use bone spear instead.
From now on, pile points onto your fire golem and make him unbeatable, with a few put onto iron maiden.

AZORE lvl 36 NECROMANCER and loads of other ranging to 24 barb

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I am a lv28n necro. I have read a lot of these strategies, and I don't agree with most of them. I have 5 in skeleton and 13 in mastery. I realize that this isn't very smart, but the only reason I even play the necro is to raise an undead legion of minions. I beat Andariel and Duriel without a golem or mercenary. My main point is... HAVE FUN! Life isn't all bone spears and bone armor. As for iron maiden, I like to quote Bill and Ted when I say, "Iron Maiden?Excellent!".

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Do the following
max - skeleton mastery
max - iron maiden
max - bone spirit
10 points in revive
It's the only damn thing that still works with the 1.09 patch!

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Here is a Strategy that i have to offer when dueling barbs:
To get a sure 100% win on a barb that has ww (most of em do unless they r below lvl 30 or r really dumb) all you have to do is run circles around em till they begin a ww, have your primary button set to iron madin and you second button set to bone wall. cast iron madin on them when they r in ww, or else they usually run to town or tell u not to use it...neway once sucessfully ironmadined, be quick to make a bone wall right in front of them and when their ww collides with it, the iron madin should kill them easily, if it is at a high enough. A really fun thing to do, is when they go into a death roll (they clcik on you for ww, and start following) u will have all the time to kill em as long as u don't run out of stamina, or they hit you, or you go to town. I have a lvl 62 barb and a necro that wuz about 25 lvls below me killed me every time with it...now that i have a necro, i can't wait to try it out...heh heh...I hope this helps.

MetallicCrush - barbarian - lvl62
SoulSlicer - necro - lvl 20

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Alright I am a level 56 necromancer and I haven't been playing diablo2 that long so I know whats up with the necromancer. First of all, max out golem mastery, iron maiden at high levels really can help especially in nightmare. Fire golem all the way. Put a few points on amplify damage because, for example I still use the curse to this day. Max out bone spear. It is far more useful than spirit. Stay away from spells like decreptify and all the poison stuff because the poison takes time to wear them down. Use as many revives as you feel you need but don't put a lot of points in them unless you have a strong golem. The armor is important because you need to be able to withstand heavy attacks. I have a wand that's plus 3 to summoning skills. After a while you will know what equipment is better than others and what is useful or not.

Champion Merlin level 56

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Ok, I've done every strategy possible and believe me, this one is the best. Golems, skeletons, iron maiden, all are poor skills compared to revive. I know it sounds weird, but hear me out. First 20 points are into skeleton mastery (trust me) 1 point into golem mastery, golems, skeletons, mages, 4 into amplify damage, and 6 into summon resist. After that extremely boring part, the next 20 points are into revive. Any quest points are into bone armor (trust me, it can save your life). That’s the minimum for the skills, the rest should be put into curses of your choice. With 20 mastery/revive they are insanely strong against anything (with the curses like amplify damage, I can kill everything in nothing flat). Always go solo after you get revive, the more other people the better (your guys will get stronger and stronger). I mow through hordes of demons like they weren't there, and I gain 3 levels an hour. As for stats, revive costs a bit so you have to put everything into energy and some into strength (100 max), your not going to be fighting so none into dexterity, and none in vitality (each level you gain enough hp and bone armor will save you). My current character is level 40 something and mows through hell difficulty cow levels like crazy. I made that character in a day’s time. Trust me, it’s the best strategy in the game. (By the way, go hardcore, it requires more skill)

Open battle.net-->Nargoth; Nargoth_II; Nargoth_III
Battle.net-->Nargoth_IV
Battle.net Hardcore-->Nargoth_V; Nargoth_VI; Nargoth_VII

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Hi guys! I have something simple and good.
1. Try to get the powerful fire golem when you're at lv.32.
2. Use items that have fastest hit recovery to recover the lost hit points.
3. Try to have the tome of town portal & the tome of identify-they are very useful
4. Mages are powerful, so try to use at least 10 mage.
5. To save mana, use Iron golem

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i have a great necro strat. Its hard in the beginning but once you get to around level 30 it becomes very easy. 30 is the level that my current necro is at and i can kill most monsters very easily. I put 5 points in bone armor. This is enough because you don't mele but when you get surrounded it will keep you alive. The main way you will kill everything is with iron maiden. I put 7 skill points in this and plan to do more. Every time a monster hits me or my golem it gets it back 350 %. Thats a lot of damage if its a strong monster. It even works on bosses. Almost everything i go up against kills itself in just a few seconds. The only problem with this is ranged attackers. For them i use bone spear. I only have it at level 4 right now but i will put more in later. Some might choose to use bone spirit instead. They both work but i prefer spear.
As far as summoning goes. DO NOT put any points into skeleton skills. This is very tempting but they are COMPLETELY USELESS by the time you get to the end of act 2. Usually before then. The only thing you need to summon is a golem. Only put one point in all the early golems. They will all be replaced by fire golem. The only thing you use the golem for is to get hit so iron maiden will kill them. Because of this it helps if your golem has a lot of hit points. If you put only five points in golem mastery it will double the hit points of your golems. This is very usefull. Summon resist is also good. It will keep the golem alive a lot longer.
That is basically it. You may not like not having an army of skeletons but if another necro says something, the chances are that you could beat them in a duel if you follow this guide because all of their skeletons will kill themselves and when i was at level 24 i killed a level 34's fire golem in less than five seconds because my blood golems health was so high from the mastery and when he hit my golem he got it back 350 % and he killed himself fast.
That is my guide. In my opinion it is great but thats just my very experienced opinion. (this is around my 25th high level necro. I have been playing for a long time-

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Hey fellow necros, I'm currently level 25 and just starting Act III. I hope you were joking when you said Duriel was the hardest monster in the game. I may have some problems with him in Nightmare or Hell, but in Normal, my blood golem and Iron Maiden took him out without any problems whatsoever. Unless he killed my golem in one hit, he would heal it back up to full as he struck it. Of course, in harder levels, it'll be a different story, but hey, I can always just keep casting golem and make sure Iron Maiden is up, and he'll whack himself to death eventually...

-Crom

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I read these necro stetagies and i don't agree with most of them.
1. first of all, you need to put a lot of skills into bone spear. it attacks multiple targets and does quite a lot of damage. i should know since i beat diablo with my necro using bone spear and i didn't even die and i was fighting him alone.
2.Go to the cow level a lot of times since the cow king gives you lots of good items. i got the wormskull, silks of victer, blastbark bow, and the patriarch great sword from him.
3.Put a lot into mages and skelaton masteries. I have 8 mages and 12 skelaton masteries. they are a lot of help but don't bother with skelatons.
4. use either a blood golem or fire since they gain life in a way. put some skills into golem masteries. they are extremely helpful in your way through the game.
5. When fighting duriel, just sommun some minions to distract him. open a tp just in case and blast him away with a good leveled bone spear.
6. All the other bosses are relatively easy, just hit them from a distance.
By using these stretagies, you shoud beat the game in no time.

Sir skelatal-master level 31

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A couple of days ago I decided to make a new necromancer because I had just gotten the expansion pack. Things were going along easy until I got to the end of act two and realized that I was about to face Duriel. I remember the last time I faced and dieing atleast a dozen times because I refused to use the iron maiden/blood golem trick. I thought it was going to be worse since I was facing Duriel by myself on an 8 player internet game. I closed my eyes walked through the gate with my minions (An act 2 hireling with the prayer aura, 2 skeles, 4 mages, and my level two blood golem). When I finally opened my eyes I realized I was untouched. I opened a portal quickly and waited for my blood golem to start dieing because Duriel was focused on him. After thirty seconds I checked my blood golems health and to my utter amazement he wasn't even a third of the way down. Still confused I started to cast level 2 bone spear at him after 3 minutes duriel went down and all my minions were still alive. When I saw my Blood Golems health quickly regenerate I knew what happened my hireling just saved my arse!!!
The moral of the story is: BUY A FRIGGIN ACT 2 HIRELING!!

My_Project: LVL 30 NECRO
Hades: LVL 40 NECRO
Blizzard: LVL 35 sorc

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Just a note of strategy that probably any respectable Necromancer has already realized. They have the singularly best power for killing off every cow in the secret cow level (at any difficulty level) - without touching one or getting killed at all. You must have a decent curse (I like lower resist and Iron Maiden myself), a moderately powered Golem (I like fire, blood may not be a good idea), and high level bone spear and corpse explosion. You probably see where I'm getting with this. Use the curse and golem, or the bone spear, whatever, just get at least one cow dead (it may take 2 or 3 to get going good though), then lure the herd over the corpse and blow that puppy up. This sets up a chain reaction, and as long as you have mana to spend (it is expensive) on corpse explosion, you can easily take out every cow in the area - at any difficulty level. I was only level 15 or so at the time, playing with my level 25 and up friends, and I took out many more cows than they did with other classes! Happy cow hunting.

Perocles, lvl. 61 Necromancer

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Necromancers rule in the Cow level stage. Just bone spear (or something to that effect) and corpse explosion is necessary. (Come in with lots of minions as decoys, and make sure you kill at least one damn cow) Then, blow up its dead body with corpse explosion and the rest of the cows follow - to give you more body bombs. Rinse and repeat - and before long, the whole screen will be filled with beef, blood, and most importantly those useful items. (If you find that you have to retreat from the herd, you [and your character] definitely suck.) Just make sure you have town portals and/or mana potions.
Necromancers are better on support that on their own. Golems (especially), skeletons, and revived are usually just there to take your damage while you bone spear your enemies to death (this is an extremely effective tactic since I didn't even use a single skill point in curses, so my summon and bone spells are 1/3 stronger than an evenly distributed necromancer. In the time it takes to curse an enemy, 2 or 3 are already killed by bone spear). Even though bosses kill minions with just one hit, it buys you a few extra seconds for a portal retreat or the like. Bone armour and faster walk/run & + 50% faster stamina restore boots let you survive anything, since melee and ranged attacks can be absorbed and it's wise to run like hell once magic attacks are coming. Just run and spear wildly behind you (one at the enemy and another where you predict it might go). You don't even have to turn around and aim if you have bone spirit. Effective even for Diablo.
The only ( and I mean ONLY ) enemy that this doesn't work with is Duriel (that bastard killed me the first and only time I use hit and run tactics against him). Just get the best weapon available and use bone armour and lots of potions. The portal tactic is stupid (open a portal, retreat to town, run aaaaaaaaalllllllll the way back to Duriel so portal can be reused without opening another) Sure, Duriel can kill you in two seconds, but that's what minions (and you can hire those useless mercenaries just to take one of Duriel's stabs) are for - to buy you time to open a portal. Just go out of town to restore your minions each time you return from an ass - whuppin'. The 3 bone armour debris is an indicator of its remaining life. Just hit Duriel over and over, restoring the armour once there are less than 3 white spots flying around and using potions when necessary. Mephisto can be killed without you taking a single hit.
Step 1: Kill all of his minions (preferably before you meet him).
Step 2: There are two paths heading north to his "throne". Approach from the top right fork.
Step 3: Lure him back to the path (there should be a blood pit and a wall to block his way). Be fast so that he'll be stuck between the two obstacles like this : M/ .
Step 4: Go south until you can barely see him. For some strange reason, he'll just sit there and do nothing (not even attack).
Step 5: Kill the sucker cuz he's asking for it. Of course, unless you're stupid enough to free him by moving close, bring along ranged weapons or have ranged spells.

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WANT TO KILL ANDARIEL... but don't want to wait until you get blood golem? Well, all you need is Iron Maiden and a clay golem. I'm a puny necro, but I restarted my lovely, fun, skeleton-army character based on the advice here and struggled up through Act I, saving my points. I'm currently level 15 with level 4 golem mastery and iron maiden, and I beat Andarial at level 14 with one less in each. Just lure her over to the steps to level 3. Make sure you have antidote and healing potions just in case you get poisoned, but, if you're quick, you shouldn't get hit at all. Raise a golem and have iron maiden handy in the right-click slot. Run downstairs. Your golem will appear ahead of you and engage Andariel. Cast iron maiden on her QUICKLY, before your golem dies. She'll whack your golem for a good 150-200 points of damage and take 400-500 damage from your iron maiden! Run back upstairs as soon as your golem dies and recast it. Repeat. Portal to town and buy potions when/if necessary. It won't be long before that slut from beyond the gates of hell lies gasping for mercy in a tangle of her own stinking entrails. This is a risk-free way for low-level necros to beat Act I. By the way, necros rock the house! I can't wait until I get my cable modem access so I can play online witchall

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Ok, I am a necro person, i dont like any other type but you know what? my highest encro (37) is quite tuff in fights alone or in groups and he doesnt summon or curse! dont waste points in poisen spells either, my necro very good in duels compared to some other necros and can beat any necro almost thats 40 and lower. I am the oddball of necros but i want others to try it out someday but i still would actually like credit for an idea if it gets popular about this
USE ALL UR POINTS IN 3SKILLS! I've gto lvl 13 bone spear when alot of monsters around so it goes through them all and it does over 100 damage abd kills most. ive got level 21 bone armor and if i get into a little melee fight i never get hurt! if im fighting most amount of monsters i can survive! then once you get to level 30 stop putting points into any other spell and start piling hte points on bone psirit. so actually not bragging this necro is invincable except when fighting mages which really bothers me. But if ya got some good resistance uve got one hell of a tuff necro!
Once i battled a sorceress and almost beat her and she was lvl 82! my resistancees where almost maxewd out in fire and cold and lightining and poisen were both around 50 so i could resist any shot she took almost but it still hurt becuase everything hurts. and i was only 36 then vs a 82 and ALMOST won... it sux she didnt stay i was trying new things,... well cya im bored so im typing this out. Also save your imbue and buy a normal wand, yew wand, bone wand, grim wand, watever and make sure it has no properties and imbue it around lvl 30 or so,.... i imbued mine at lvl 29 and been using it since! it rules!

Armanian_Necro Level 37

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Hey all of u Necromancer's. I have a great strategy. One, save up alot of money and use it to gamble. I have max money in my box and a lot of money in my inventory and I use it to gamble. I brought an unidentify morning Star and it turn out to be a Bloodrise Morning Star. Very powerful. Two, gain a lot of experience point without dying 'cause u will lose money. If you start dying press Esc button. Three, use any weapon that is fast attack speed or very fast attack speed. They rock. Four level up Golem mastery, skeleton mastery and mainly bone spear. I kill Diablo and Baal without dying using Fire Golem, Skeleton, Skeleton Mage, and bone Spear. I am unbeatable.

BlazingDead the Necromancer level 91

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I have a necro on hell difficulty and all those that say skellys are useless have never been to hell difficulty. Right now I have plus 8 to skills from my items which gives me a total of 10 skellys and 11 skelly mages. I have 16 in skelly mastery with the +8 thats 24. Now to my point in hell I have 21 skellys and my iron golem (Fire is useless in hell because a lot of monsters are fire immune). Not only do my skellys keep the monsters from hurting me they hurt and kill them pretty well plus with me shooting lvl 28 bone spirits I own everything. They dont die to as fast as everyone says mainly just the fighting ones but they are fodder to protect you and the mages. I have a total of 20% mana leech so I never run out so I just keep raising the fighters and mages rarely. When it comes to baal the skellys are useless I will admit he tends to kill them very fast but they give you enough time to curse with amplify damage and to rape him with bone spirit. So my advice is max Bone spirit and amplify damage put about 15 in skelly mastery and 2 in skelly and 3 in skelly mage. To all those who say spear is better you dont know what you are talking about!!! It does crapy damage compared to bone spirit with good mana leech eq. Also dont forget golems max golem mastery and only put 1 in each golem, if you want to put more in a golem go in just 1 put not fire! its useless in hell difficulty. I prefer iron golem it has good hit points with thorns!

Necromancer: Ownage lvl 89 USEast

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This is a basic necro strategy that works all throughout the game...
It's hard to start with, because you can't invest your skill points early on, but once you reach level 30 and beyond, your necro starts to kick ass. Early on, put a few points into iron maiden, golem mastery, and blood golem. I also put a point into corpse explosion and bone spear. Anyway, early on do the usual blood golem/iron maiden thing with a few bone spears to back them up when you encounter some range or magic attackers. When you reach level 30 and beyond, dump your points into fire golem and bone spirit. Many people argue against the spirit, but for this necro, you really won't be needing to send a bone spear through packs of enemies; your golem and iron maiden will finish most of them off. The bone spirit is much better for picking off individual targets (homing, higher damage, etc). In the end, as far as skills go, you'll want: Max golem mastery, 5 points in iron maiden, 10 in bone spirit, 10 in fire golem, 2-4 in blood golem, 2-4 in summon resist, and 3-4 in revives. +1 necro skills stuff is always useful.... This kind of necro requires a LOT of mana, so I'd suggest that from level 1 to 40, put 1 point in str, 2 in vit, and 2 in magic for each level. Later on, you'll need more strength and magic.
I have 3 necros, level 25, 53, and 65.... 25 and 65 use this strategy, and they're doing just fine.

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Ah, yes. The necromancer. He can be the best character in the game if used correctly. Personally, I have a level 21 character in Quest 3 of Act 3. I know, a level 21 shouldn't give advice, but I have made many other necromancers that have reached much higher levels.
ITEMS:
First of all, PLEASE DONT GO ON BATTLE.NET AND BEG FOR UME'S LAMENT, WORMSKULL, ETC. That, in my opinion, is only one level above using an item editor. However, with previous characters, I have found some of the highly sought-after items from killing Diablo (Frostburn, Tearhaunch, Videla's Fetlock) and a few good +1 to amazon/ barbarian/ sorceress/ paladin skill amulets (I think Blizzard is tormenting me!). Also, In nightmare, the local wand-selling merchant occasionally has +1 to all skill wands for a mere 100,000 (HA).
Until you can get one of these wands (not off B-Net), a crossbow is my weapon of choice. Somehow, a socketed crossbow with two emeralds (18 poison damage each) can deal 70 poison damage over 2 seconds. For everything else, just use whatever you can find that gives a nice bonus to basically anything useful (Don't you just love finding a magic Gothic Plate, and identifying it to see that poison length is reduced by 23%?) .
SKILLS:
My current necromancer has no curses, and I find that I am getting along fine without them. I know, Iron Maiden/Golem can return 400%, but I prefer spells that either kill, prevent me from being killed, or make things that kill. The only spells in the remaining two categories that are above level one are Bone Shield at level 2 (and I miss both of those points) and Golem Mastery at level 6. I am waiting until level thirty for the almighty poison nova as my main offensive weapon and fire golem as a companion. I don't like melee skeletons (too weak) or revives (too expensive and they die in three minutes), but mages act like little snipers. Both Bone Spear and Spirit are okay, but nova has the best mana-to-damage ratio. Bone Wall and Prison look cool, but are too expensive.
BOSSES:
Andariel: Just hotkey a golem and make a new one when the life bar is in the red, and fire at her with any bow or crossbow.
Duriel: I forgot about thawing potions when I was facing the Act 2 main demon, and spent a lot of time watching a little blue guy run around my computer screen. But, with potions, he/she isn't that hard.
Mephisto: I haven't faced him in a while, and I can't remember how I killed him.
Diablo: His fire nova will most likely kill all skeletons in one hit, but the golem should survive (unless it is a level one clay). After the initial nova, just do basically treat him the same way as Andariel
Baal: This monster is one tough cookie! Inevitably, you will die unless you are level 50, and while you are in town restocking on the "essentials," he (or "they," because there are two of 'em) will heal himself. So, after dying many times, I decided just to cast a town portal once I entered the Worldstone Chamber, and go in, not care about life, fire a few novas, then get killed. When back in town, I summoned a fire golem, healed my mana via the local witch, and repeated the aforementioned process. Because he didn't have enough time to heal while I was in town, he was not any harder than, uh, two Diablos. I think I did die around 20 times, though.

-Korinthacioune (toa3t@hotmail.com)

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I am a level 44 necro and I would talk about beating act 1. act 1 is about the hardest level for a necro. you wont have any really prowerfull spells until level 18. So what do you do? Well you have to remenber there are really two types of a necromacer. One a summings the other cast powerfull bone spells. Both need to be deside in the rounds before start investing your skill points.
In the frist act, not going to have much. This is really bad on the hardcore ladder. It's very easy to die. I would say if you plan on being a caster of bone spell in the later part of the game, than put most of your point into bone armor. Try your best to tuff it out with the monsters. Get good armor and a good ax. A shield is a must... Let me repeat that A SHIELD IS A MUST !!! Also keep in mind your stregnth keep it high. So you can get good armor. When you get to your bone spear armor wont be as important. But its needed at frist. That is if you want to be a good bone caster.
Now if you want to be a skeleton man. You got your work cut out for you. It's easier to beat act one like this and maybe act 2. But it dose get harder. Casting skeletons is fun. but you need a ton of skill points to really make it. If you are going to go this way. I suggest putting most your points into mastery. A skeleton with a level 11 mastery has a 100 hit points and dose 25 points of damage. Wands will help this, but you better be able to run if you have too. A trapped necro is a dead necro, weather it be a bone caster or a skeletons caster.

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Okay, everbody says that duriel is really hard, and I agree with them. But my necro had a really easy time beating him. First I summoned a blood golem. Then before Duriel could attack me, I cast iron maiden on him (blood golem and iron maiden work great together). So now, every time he hit my blood golem, he took damage and my blood golem regenerated his hp to full. All i did was sit back and cast iron maiden every 20 seconds or so (depending on skill level). And i even equiped a spear and joined into the action, i didnt even use a healing potion...
And to the person who said that there is only 1 unique item per item type, that was right for the mostpart, but there is 2 different unique hydra bows, eaglehorn and windforce...

Lord Mighty_Cecil Lvl:36 Pally (UsWest

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NO ONE ever mentions Lower resistance in combo with your skeletal mages and poison nova. It ROCKS. When I go to hell I keep about 8 skeletal mages going.(I have three points in the skill and 5 from armor and such.) When I see a group of monsters I cast lower resistance on them. Has no one noticed that the mages cast elemental damage??? That also ROCKS with poison nova. It is really funny to go to a cow game and have everyone whining that they can't get in because someone has lead all the cows to the portal.......I go in there and cast lower resistance followed by a poison nova and BOOM they all fall down. Poison nova has been greatly improved because of the latest patch.....Now it only takes two seconds for the damage. I am currently doing about 200+ damage and even more with lower resistance. I have not heard of one other person that uses these tactics. Another thing with lower res. is the fire golem....when he hits a monster everything near it takes damage.....and it is FIRE damage.......fire damage...lower resist....fire damage....lower resist....Hmmm.

Word.........Gonnadieanyway

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I am a lvl 50 necro, and all I have to say is: once you get to Act 5 nightmare and beyond, bone spear is practically useless.. even at skill levels of 12 +, it just doesn't do enough damage. You have to get bone spirit very high, and even though it only hits one guy at a time, lvl 10 bone spirit has more damage than probably a lvl 15 spear. With all of my + skills, right now I have lvl 15 spear, which I use when there is a VERY large clump of guys, and I use my lvl 22 spirit on everyone else.

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fisrt of...if you dont already know whenever you die and you reapear in a town escape and exit the game ...than come back in ..your corps should be right next to you or some where in town. you can loot your own corps getting everything back you had before exsept for gold...ok on with it..i have a lvl 24 necro. and i just got diablo II and the expansion pack 2 days ago...i go in with hand to hand combat all the time with my scyth.....some people think that you should hang around in the back with magic and bows and pick them off while your minions hack away....bulll!!!!i only do that in a close quarter room with the bone spear!!!!any way the way i see it is get some minions together.....blood golem,2 cold mages,and maybe some one from hire!!....now im not sure if this works for people without the expansion pack but for those of you that have it......get some nice armor for your hired persons.....(in act III) take your blood golem ...your2 mages(cold) and one of those dudes to hire and epuip the dude witth a sword that has an ice capability..now every time you fight out there always keep your bone spear ready and your two mages and your hired persons and blood golem ready.... your mages and hired should easily freeze your opponants leaving your blood golem up for a nice "break the frozen demons game" and take your mele weapon hack them to bits and also if they dont freeze you can easily hack them in the back...i have a scyth with fast attack speed 16-26 damage and ect.its soo easy always get a belt that can store 3 lines of items fill them all up with health potion leaving 3 spaces open for antidote potions ...i always have 3 lines in my inventory open for potions,tombs, and mana....i always get my tomb of town portal filled all the way up and every time my health goes below 45% i take the portal express all the way back to town...i have a lvl2 bone spear and lvl 4 teeth.ive only used teeth when there are lots of little things after me!!any way also almost every other turn i added another lvl to my bone shield.....p.s. i dont know about anyone else but the exploding corpse seems to suck to mee!!! well thats it remeber never join the arrow flingig crowd and stay an annoying outcast that no one wants to talk to cause your a game genius!!(like me)!!!tthattts all!!!!

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Building your necro badly
If you are reading the tips here and realize that your necro isn't what it should be, you may not have to worry. I was level 25 in Act III (Travincal) when I was stuck. My lvl 5 teeth hadn't been working so good in Act III (I know, duh), but had gotten me by. Not there. I had one level on bone spear, one on IM, one on corpse explosion, one each on iron and blood golems, three mages, lvl 3 golem mastery and 1 on summon resist (at least I did a few things ok). I didn't even use IM and until then, I had been still doing melee fighting (with my wand, which cost a lot to be repaired). Then I discovered this web site. At my next level, I upped my bone spear, bought a wand to give +1 to blood golem and some other stuff. That got me through the three uniques in Travincal (pretty easily actually) and through Mephisto. Upping IM by a few points, golem mastery by 1 and finding a wand to give +2 to blood golem got me to Diablo. It got me through Diablo as well (see below). I'm now in Act 5, level 29 with 5 IM, 5 golem mastery and 3 bone spear. It's not very difficult either, but I'm looking forward to my fire golem.
My plan after level 30 and fire golem, is for every four skill points get 1 on fire golem, 1 on golem mastery and two on bone spear. That should take me to level 40 with level 9 bone spear, fire golem at 4 and golem mastery at 7 (assuming I get some skill points from completing quests in nightmare).
Now for killing Diablo. I didn't think that I could do it due to my wasting points when developing my necro, but my level 5 IM and level 3 blood golem (including 2 from my wand and my golem master set at 4) did him in. I would cast a blood golem (or an iron one if there was a weapon where I retreated, which I did a few times), run out of cover at Diablo and cast IM on him. Then run behind my golem, wait a second or two before the golem died or was close to dying, cast another one and run again to safety (you learn pretty quickly where Diablo stays), firing a few bone spears in there. My life would always be pretty low then. The golem was just there to get killed with the IM to take life from Diablo. I did die twice. Diablo may have hit me once but that was all, so all of the damage was from fire, so I had about 50% fire resistance. The first time I tried this with only 25%, I couldn't even cast IM and get out of the way without dying half the time.

Zohr the Necro

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I have already beaten D2 but have come back to play it again. Here are three tips that I have picked up...
1- To build up your character to high level, stay in an act as long as you can, killing as many monsters as possible. Even repeat quests. With my current Necro, (level 21) I have beaten Andariel 4 times already. In Act 2 I have only completed the first quest. Because of this I am way stronger than the majority of people who are on quest 2.
2- As a Necro I have discovered a very helpful spell. Bone spear. If you put enough points into it, it is deadly. I have 4 points in it and can kill most of the non-unique monsters in one hit. Also as many people will tell you, blood golem and Iron maiden are an incredible team.
3- Gamble Gamble Gamble, All of my items with the exception of my wand are rares, which I got from gambling. To sum it up, GAMBLE!!!
Well hope that these tips help you as they have certainly helped me.

Mike_OxHUGE -- Necro Lvl 21

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I think all that crap about "Iron Maiden" is CRAP!!!!!!! You Should Use points on teeth, It's like the best f*ck'n spell in the game. Sure it starts weak but get it to level 10 CHA-CHING!! 20 Lasers 15 Kills.

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Hey all you fellow necro's. I am a level 21 necromancer and let me tell you it has been hard reading all these strategies. I don't agree with all them but some i do. Heres what worked for me equipment wise. I have a broad sword and a spiked shield in case I end up bustin out some melee combat. What I had before was a pike even though it's slow and meant for jabazons it worked for me and does lots of damage. I switch off between a great helm and bone helm. I have some rare armor and unique boots and gloves. Statistic points you should have about 60 into strength and some into vitality and energy for mana when using your bone spear. With dexterity I put about 35 so I could use a crossbow in some situations. Skill point wise I would say put some into skeleton mastery. I have one skeleton that dies a lot and 5 skeletal mages. There pretty good and are a good backup when i charge forward. I have a blood golem and he is cool. He doesn't die often and I get health. Have these other essentials in your skill tree. Have iron maiden, amplify damage, and life tap. Have some into golem mastery and bone spear. Don't waste points on things like corpse explosion or teeth. Just use bone spear. I don't have any poison spells because they don't seem that useful my skeletal mages do that. I have no points into bone armor but I heard that is a good idea. Whatever you do have fun. If you mess up you can always delete your character. Any good items you have just join a game with one person drop them on the ground pick them up with another character. Delete your character start a new one and pick the stuff up.

The-Reviver Lv 21 and growing USWEST

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Listen up Necro's i have the best strategy. I have a level 40 necro and i used to have a bunch of others to experiment with so i know what i am talkin about. First of all do not put points into anything that has to do with skeletons! They are useless. All u really need are golems. As for curses all you really need is iron maiden. You use ur iron maiden with ur blood golem, you will kill anything except for the big guys, like diablo, duriel, etc. Also all u need to do is just put one or two points in each golem and the rest should go into golem mastery, this way u can use any golem depending on the circumstances. As for corpse explosion, u can pour points into it. U do not really need bone armor, but it can be helpful when u first start off. And as for bone spear or bone spirit, it is really ur decision. On one hand u have bone spirit which deals a real lot of damage, but costs a real lot of mana. On the other hand u have bone spear, which deals a minimum amount of damage for a lower mana cost. As for strength, dexterity, vitality, and energy, u definately need to put points into energy the most, while not as much in strength and vitality. But do NOT put any points into dexterity.U DO NOT NEED IT. If u use this strategy that i have given u, u will not need to deal any melee damage at all, with ANY weapon. Well thats about it, if u follow this u should be finishing up the Hell level no problem.

-Undead Minion the Necro

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I'm a lvl 69 necro and this is my strategy.
you need to max out iron maiden
you need to max golem mastery and get a good lvl skeleton mastery for sure.
you need about ten to revive
put one into all the golems or two if you want don't waste them there though.
put one to summon resist put bone wall and bone prison. trust me on this. you need this to defeat bosses especially deriel and mephisto. cast an iron maiden and a couple of bone prison's and have fun watching them kill themselves (I know it might take a while but what can you do??)
bone armour is useless one point is neccessary just for pre requisite.
I personally use bone spirit I think it is much better than bonespear. it does greater damage and it follows the target, it may be slow but when you create a necro patience is the key. I would invest a few in bonespear but once you get bonespirit don't look back. I personally run around with a blood golem but when you fight bosses you must put out a fire golem. use your minions as a target for your enemies and let the iron maiden do the rest. I only have 2 curses amplify damage and iron maiden and look how far they got me. there is no need for any other curses. as far as attributes go you should get enough strength to wear war boots but focus your attributes to vitality and energy. to this day I have not invested one point in dex because it is useless. you need good resistances but also items that add to skills. you need a good wand with 2 to necro skills. Ume's is good but I got a wand that is way better. oh I almost forgot just put one skill point in both skeleton and skeleton mage. you don't need a great number of skeletons because they are weak and besides when you get skill adding items you can make more.
and for dueling on b net for melee attack the best choise is a fire golem and iron maiden, just hope your opponent concentrates on killing your golem before you. and continue to fire bonespirit at them. I've killed so many barbs like that, they come in talking they're shit about the damage they do and they're weapons, a good lvl iron maiden will shut them up trust me

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Here's a tip for all necros. Use bone prison and iron maiden on boss monsters! If your bone prison and iron maiden are good enough, and you are not afraid to go back into town to re-stock. Also, use about 10 skeletal mages along with blood golem/iron maiden to get through common monsters. DO NOT WASTE TOO MANY POINTS INTO SKELETONS! No more than three. Also, at early levels, use your starting staff as your weapon but be on the lookout for rare items! Your starting staff costs 1 coin to repair no matter how damaged it is!!! Also, if you are big on minions but they need help and you don't want to melee, use a bow. Never underestimate the power of basics.

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Hey all you Necro's, I currently have a Necro that used to suck, but now has shown a bit of life. I started out with the fatal mistake, 7 in raise skel, and 4 in skel mast. Ohh boy, I thought I was over with. I just about started over until I got bone spear. Jeez, life saver! Bone spear at level 6 can take out the high council no problem, raise a blood golem, cast iron maiden, and stand on the other side of the screen shooting in there direction. Now I have no problems with the game, I just keep putting skills in bone spear, and I don't have any problems, although I wish I didn't spend all the crap into skel's because I didn't realize how bad they really are. If you want to make a great necro, get blood golem high, fudge the iron and fire golem, they don't give you health, get iron maiden high, get bone spear high, fudge spirit, by the time you get it, it won't compare with spear, and spear rips through shit. Get decrepify for diablo, because he is fast, and to slow him down gives you time to shoot the shit outta him with spear. Spear is all you need for Duriel, he is way too easy, and anyone who has problems with him suck, because my Necro used 4 light healing potions and killed his ass, just pump him with spear, and cast iron maiden a lot. If you run low on health, even though it is risky, cast blood golem, and iron maiden. He kept on healing me instead of hurting me. Remember, even though it sounds shitty, attract is great, cast it on lighting enchanted, and everyone attacks him! fun to use on shamans!!! Hope you give my strat some thought, it really does kick ass, just don't waste your skills in something you won't use later (clay golem only needs 1 point, and use javilins against blood raven, don't get teeth so early!!). Also, Soj's aren't very good, I was dissipointed!

Diablo_Piatt
Diablo level 28
Necro level 7 (who is better then diablo sad to say, I have +7 to all skills, so one in skel and mastery gets me going, and teeth shoots

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Now I have a level 47 necro so u can believe me on this. This is not the end all be all of strategies so there are different ones. First of all is stats. I don't think strength is that vital except for being able to wear armor. You need a little over 100 strength. Mot much more cuz most armors don't require more. Dexterity is ok. You only need about 40 dex. Energy is a must. You will need about 120. Put the rest of your points in vitality or as you see fit. Now is equipment. Wands are usseless unless u find a really powerful one. U need a sword for protection. Then a sheild preferably Sigon. Now u have to lie cheat or steal to get a wormskull. It is a must for any necro. Frostburn gauntlets and 2 soj's are also REALLY helpful. Any belt with decent protection is required. Boots with a +1 to all skills is nice. I'll leave skill distribution to you so I don't get thousands of e-mails telling me I was wrong.Just as long as u use iron maiden u r ok.

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Firstly, I want to tell all Necros out there that Necros rulez! Start out with a skeleton with your starting wand. When you level up for the first time, put 1 point into skeleton warrior and that’s it. Don’t put more than 1 point into it! They will be totally useless in act two, three and four so don’t bother with it. Instead, put most of your points into your golems, they will accompany through you through the game. When you level up the second time, put the skill point into amplify damage. When you are level three, put the point into teeth. After that, stay where you are and save all the skill points for later on. Clear the Den of Evil, they give experience. Very soon, you will reach level six. Put the skill point you have saved into a clay golem. Only one point! If you want more life, then put the points into golem mastery later on in level 12. That is because you must put the points into all the advantages of the golems and blood golem is at level 18 and he rocks! It is not worth it to put points into the clay golem. Next, also add points into corpse explosion but not too much, that is because they cost too much mana. Next, on the cursing side, focus only on Iron Maiden and Life Tap. They are consider the best skills the game! When you hit level 18, get the blood golem! He is a true companion that will accompany you through most acts. He is almost invincible when you use Iron Maiden together with him. But before that, (HaHa!) still a long way to go. When you are level 12, get a skeletal mage, only 1! You can get wands in act three that will boost them up. They are very useful throughout the game, boosting your offensive power. I personally like the Ice-Shooting mage. They slow down your enemies making then easier to hit. When you are around level 14-15, go get Andariel. Use a bow and arrow against her. Kill all the little kiddies outside her room first before opening the huge door. Before you open the door, open a portal. Then, open the door, don’t go in! Instead, let your golem and skeletons go in. Andariel first blast may already kill everything insight. So use your bow and arrow and kill her. Remember to run and then shoot run and then shoot. When you run out of stamina, pop a stamina potion and continue. When you run out of potions, enter the portal and repeat the process as needed.
When you are in Act 2, things may get abit harder for the other classes, but not for necros. That is because of Duriel, probably the hardest boss in the game. The first quest is easy, fighting a poison mummy. Next is gathering the relics: Horadric Staff! Next get to the Arcane Santuary, you should already have the blood golem by now so everything is easy with the Iron Maiden. For the last quest, you have to Face the Act Boss, Duriel. First, get into the chamber. First thing you should do is cast Iron Maiden on Duriel. Then keeping firing Bone Spear at Duriel. (EASY!) All the points here should be focused on the following: Iron Maiden, Bone Spear and Golem Mastery.
Act three is quite easy with the fetishes. Hire one of the mecenaries, they are really good. I recommend one which is lightning. Don’t hire ice, that is because when the mecenary freezes the enemies, they usually get broken into pieces and you cannot summon skeletons out of broken bodies. Points you should focus on: Iron Maiden, Bone Spear and Golem Mastery and Corpse Explosion.
Act four: The enemies here can get abit hard. Quest one is easy: Kill the unique monster which holds the spirit of an angel. You will get a skill point for reward. Use it wisely. When you hit level 30, get a fire golem. He is really great. He is the golem that you should dump points into. Quest two, you must take Mephisto’s soulstone to the Hellforge at the River of Flame. Beware of the Amourer that guards it. Leave the killing job to your Blood/Iron golem. Just cast Iron Maiden on the Amourer and your blood golem don’t even have a scratch on him! Lastly, you must kill Diablo. He is really hard, but with your fire golem, things should get abit easier. Just keep casting Iron Maiden on Diablo. As he attacks your golems, he keeps getting damage from his own attacks. Just cast Bone Spear on him all the time. Repeat this for 4-5 times and you should defeat him. Skills you should focus on: golem mastery, Iron Maiden, Revive, fire golem.
Stat Points: Don’t put any into dex. Put most of the points into strength and energy.


Kel_N Level 68 Necromancer
Kel_LB Level 75 Lance Barb
Kel_MB Level 72 Mace Barb
Kel_S Level 69 Ice Sorc

Kel_A Level 49 Bowazon
And incoming…Kel_P Level 1 Paladin

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Greetings Fellow Necros! M n lvl 84 ryt now, and i cnt help but get amused at the strategy some of you guys are offering. Most of them are ayt, but one thing is really, really ignored. CORPSE EXPLOSION!! Dont u guys now it was voted as the num 1 skill of all tym by blizzard employees? Personally, I maxd out Bone spirit, iron maiden and c explosion. Dnt spend 2 much on skeletns! deyl all jus die wen u reach higher levels. A mid level blood golem and mastery wud work jus well. Jus use iron maiden wid ur minions, and fire off wid corpse explosion once ya get started. 4 ne other questions, jus email me at Si45_ghostface@lycos.com. Hapi Gamn!

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i have found possibly the best stratagy ever for a necro. One day i decieded to PvP some lam0rz and jack their gold. So a 77 paladin came in and i though oh damn( he was 19 lvls above me). So i though i would play around with him.....i have 17 in bone wall, and 20 in iron maiden, what u do is surround him with the frickin walls and stick em with the iron maiden!! he hurts him self as he tries to break free!!!! wallah!! poof!!! dead paladins!! dead monsters!! dead diablo!!(havent tried heavy d himself though...)

Baron Nightfall

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I have a level 91 Necromancer, believe in what i do...I am almost invincible. My tip to you readers out there, is ALWAYS put a point on Clay Golem and a lot of points on Golem Mastery because in the near future, u will have Fire (or) Iron Golem. try to put at least 10 on Golem Mastery PLEASE!!! You'll thank me in the future. If you want to let your Golems get the beat down, is just "point-spill" on your Golems, doesn't matter to me, your death. ALWAYS, ALWAYS...have something top back it up. Me for instance, on my left click box, i put my Bone Spear skill in there instead of normal attack and in the right, i put Iron Maiden or i switch off with Amplify Damage in the same box. That way, when your Golem is fighting a monster(s) u can put Iron Maiden (Amplify Damage) on your enemy and shoot your Bone Spear when you are at a distance. Diablo is pretty to this Strategy! :P [I have another "Unbeatable" strategy but I'll keep it for myself]

P.S. : i'm in clan [KoDe], if you want to duel me, type /whisper or /w *Kyndraed.
Good Luck Fellow Necros! LvL 91 Kyndraed

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I have a Level59 Necromancer is Asia2 and I am very experienced with him. There are no "wrong" necromancers in the world of diablo2. There is zookeeper necro,the PK-mancer, the Golem Necromancer, and the Meleemancer~
Zookeeper- Only skeleton/magi and golem. Good for begginers but bad future result
PK-Mancer (what i am)- The evil of the evil necromancers. These necros curse you with decripify, Lower Resist and Iron Madin (scary curses) They master golem mastery, master bone Sprit and master the skill of their choice (mostly decripfy) also put a bit on bone armour :) EVERYTHING PUT "ONE" SKILL POINT!! TRUST ME
U LL GET VERY GOOD SKILL GIVING ITEMS LOOK AT MY ITEMS
Wand- Umes Lament: 2+
Helm- +1
2 Soj's- 2+
Amulet- 2+
thats seven... seven skeltons seven magis seven revives stronger golems :)
THIS MAY SOUND HORRIBLE BUT IN THE FUTURE WHERE EVIL PK'ing PPL COME UP TO U .....ULL BE READY. Note- if PK-mancer sound bit TOO evil...think it as a self-defense necro :)

stephanoya Email-Stephanoya@hotmail.com

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1) NEVER put more than 1 point into either skeleton OR mage!!!
2) Place no more than 2 points into skeleton masterie, unless u plan to use revive alot.
3) Only one point goes to clay or iron golems.
4) Bunches of points into fire golem, and some into blood.
5) Teeth=1 point, try to max out spear. spirit should be at about half.
6) Bone armor will save your ass, so try to get it to level 5 or 6
7) all curses suck, except for Iron maiden, and maybe, just maybe attract.
8) NEVER go into melee combat. U will die almost instantly.
9) Items must be skills or mana.
10) Silks of the victor are pointless, too hard to get, and require too much str. imbue an ornate plate, or an ancient armor at exactly level 30
11) At least one Stone of jordan, if none, get a life regeneration, fast cast, and/or +mana
12) try to get eye of the etlich for an amulet, very good.
13) NEVER use tarnhelm, only wormskull, tarn seems like a good alternative, but worm is much better.
14) Boots, go for tearhaunch. u will need the dex and str andres bonuses, plus the fast speed, cuz necros are slow.
15) Gloves, u should get frostburns, they are extreemly useful.
16) If u can't get umes lament, dont worry. at level 30, imbue a grim wand. most likely it will be +2 to necro skills. Only at level 30.
17) Lastly, u MUST have a sigons guard.
18) with this makeup, i got to level 78, and died 3 times, on hell when trying to kill diablo. then the realm deleted my char, and it was lost. now i started a char, and after playing for about 2 hours, i got my necro to level 13, with umes, sigons, and wormskull. that is good. this is a strategy for all people. this new char now has +4 to all skills, so with one point into every skill at level 30 and at lest 4 extra points left over (which will go into bone spear), i will be practically unbeatable. what will be hard, it hell, thats why fire golem, golem mastery, and bone spirit must be all pumped, so at lest 10 in each of those by level 50 with the special items.
19) This strategy works for single and multiplayer.
20) my account is /w *metakuna and my necro is /w darkmaker
i have other chars, but they all suck. my necro runs like superman, which is gay, but its looks hilarious. thanks for reading this. good luck

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Hi i am a level 24 Necromancer and a complete novice to Diablo 2. After many,many deaths at the hands of Duriel.Yesterday i finally kicked Duriel's butt and mainly thanks to the advice that i gotten from my fellow Necromancers here on this site. A lot of you had advised that a combination of Iron Maiden and Blood Golem would bring this sucker down.At the time i had one point to each,but was lucky enough to find a bone wand in my stash that added an extra two points to both. So i armed myself with my wand and a complete belt of Rejuvenation potions, 5 Skeletons,6 Skeleton mages,1 hirling and of course my Blood Golem and went into Duriels lair expecting the hardest battle of my life.
I cast the Iron Maiden spell and what followed was a combination of dissappointed and relief. Duriel went down soooo easily that it almost felt like cheating.After the some what brief battle (I did melee and bashed Duriel with my bone Wand.It only has 2-7 damage,but 8 % life steal makes up for it) i still had 5 Skeleton Mages and 1 Skeleton left standing and had not needed to use any of my rejuvenation potions. So theres my testament.Iron Maiden/Blood Golem really works on Duriel,just make sure you bring your own little army to distract him and watch him go down like a sack of potatoes.

Best C, Necromancer level 24

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My necromancer is only lv 20 and I am not going to say my strategy is the best (it's quite difficult at times). I indulge in melee combat almost as much as my minions. I use a scythe, and even with only a necro, some enemies die in one hit. To use this strategy, just put points in all four categories (STR, DEX, VIT, EN) and learn AMPLIFY DAMAGE. It's a great curse. Also, use a golem and some skeletal mages. Skeletons are all but useless, however they draw enemy attention, while your mages bombard them from a safe distance. You then can run up, kill a few, then retreat to heal wounds. And you will get them.

Sacred_Penguin

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ok well i have looked at a lot of strategies for a necromancer onthis site and to a small extent i am impressed. at least a few of u have been smart. now this is not just some phony talking like hes hot shit and thinks he knows what hes doing, this is the real thing. first off, whoeevr says to raise ur skeletons a lot should be shot in the face. imean cmon thats like first two quest baby crap. who wants to be putting alltheyr skill points into skels to keep up with the rest when they can move on to better things in a very short time."screw that!" in the words of the late chris farley, may his sole rest in peace. now u can invest some points into it just to keep ur skill tree going but save ur points for level 18 as much as u can. that is the level when you get acquainted with 3 of ur best friends-blood golem, iron maiden, and bone spear. these moves in combo r just great. so function these moves in with ur strategy and u will be great. so as for skills ur main thing will be to raise blood golem, iron maiden, and bonespear. u may also want to get golem and skel mastery(it will be helpful later, but seriously not for now though). when u get to lvl 30 say hi to bone spirit and fire golem and revive(that is where ur monstrous hoard of darkness comes from). thats ur main skills tree. to recap ur skills should be only fire golem, revive, bone spirit, bone spear, blood golem, iron maiden, golem and skel mastery. now u say dude that is too many skills. dont worry i got u covered. wiht these itemsur skills will be raised a lot to make significant differences.
Helm-tarnhelm (gotta luv the extra gold)
Armor-either silks of victor of goldskin ur preference
Gloves-frostburn by far
Belt-try to get a great resistance one maybe nightsmoke
Boots-vidalas fetlock fa sho
Arm-umes lament is great for +2 to all skills
Arm-socket a shield with 3 diamonds or sigons shield
Amulet-eye of etlich
rings-some dont like to be so snobby as to do this but 2 sojs is the best for a necro for +2 skills and the huge mana increase. ok so if u follow my advice u will have like +6 or 7 (depending on your choice) to all skills which makes it such a good combo to have all of those moves. and if u say im wrong u should go kill yourself for lying because know that I am right and that should be an unbearable burden.

theoraclewon

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ok , enough with bashing curses and skeletons. if you put enough points into both, you shall live my fellow necromancer. i love Diablo 2 and will play it forever. and for everyone trying to kill andariel, heres how
go to town and buy the best armor (preferably with Poison resistance, because all her attacks are related to poison) and weaponry(preferably with fire damage, she isn't very resistant to fire, and it pisses her off because she hates it) then go in and kill every one in the 2 rooms starting with the Tainted and the Shamans. Then kill everyone else. Then, heal up, raise ALL minions you can, then open the really big cathedral doors. Stay away from Andariel, and let your minions deal with her while you kill everyone else, when all are dead except Andariel, raise new minions (as you should've been when she kept on killing them) and stand back and keep on using bone spear and raising new minions when they die. Eventually Andariel will fall. ALWAYS keep a portal open, so when your about to die, run for the portal, and heal up in town, then go back and repeat the process. good luck young necromancer

Hellraisergirl (clmb)

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I have a level 31 Necro and one thing I NEVER regretted was to put 9 points in Bone Armor. I know I might sound crazy BUT with 9 points in Bone Armor you are invulnerable to melee attacks unless they have any elementals. Very easy with stupid barbarians that use swords or axes, they will only be chopping away your Bone Armor and will NEVER hit you. Same goes with Duriel (Normal) I had +44 to cold resist by then and I was invincible! He couldn’t hit me! His physical attacks were completely absorbed by Bone Armor and my Cold Resist made me invincible!
Also try to max out Golem Mastery you will never regret it. Blood Golem and Iron Maiden is way TO SLOW!!! The best is any Golem backed up by Bone Spear, Bone Sprit is more powerful but as well too slow and doesn't affect multiple targets, I'd say it's only good for bosses. Try to put points to Fire Golem, he is much more powerful than any other Golem and will take a LOT of damage from foes instead of you.
NEVER put more than 1 point in Clay, Blood or Iron Golem, that is.. if you do not plan to use either of these for the rest of the game otherwise what's the point? Just a waste of skill points.

GreyWolf lvl 31 Necro.

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I am only a level24 necro but i have sum good skills fist only put one point in all golems, only one into skeletel mage and skeleton so you can get revives later, keep bone skills about 2-3 levels each skill, i only use the middle collum and bone armor- don't put too much into bone armor i cranked it up to 6 and i don't use it because i have minions, try to get a good wand, one that has iron madion( dont spend points yourself) stay away from the curses, POUR POINTS INTO GOLEM MASTERY for stats i use 2 str 1 vit and 2 energy i don't really need that much more strength though i have a belt with +7 and a ring with +9 , most important is FIND GOOD ITEMS thats all you will need to get you to levl 30 save skill points from 28, 29, 30 that way you get revived, fire golem and bone spirit

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I have 2 lvl 24 necros with different strategies. One necro worked, other didn't. First nerco has lvl 20 Skeleton Masteries with 1 Normal Skeleton and 4 Mage(3 from wand), 1 Clay Golem, 1 Golem Masteries, 1 Resist All(this is the one that didn't work). The one that worked was 1 Amplify, 10 Iron Maiden, 1 Clay Golem,10 Golem Masteries, 1 Blood Golem, 1 Iron Golem, 1 Resist All. This is what i have to say
First, do not put ALL of your points in skeletons(including mages). It will make fighting hard in Maggots Lair and Arcane Sanctuary. Also don't count on Iron Maiden. Those poison shots, firewall and fireballs will murder your skeletons without the thorns affect. Also those birds in Act 2 that fly are really hard without Iron Maiden. For you see, when they attack, it is much like Zeal for Paladin. So your Skeletons cant attack back. Don't count on the skeletons in act 4, cause those monsters that eats up corpse will really screw you up. For the people who want to rush through the game, FOR GOD SAKE, DON'T REVIVE THE SLOW MONSTERS. The bad thing about revived monsters than all the rest of your creatures is that it has a time limit, so you'll eventually run out
Second, Golems are probably the best Summoned Monsters. NOTE: Golems and Iron Maiden are perfect when they are together. For starting new necros, put 1 in Amplify, then save up your points until you get lvl 6 were you can get clay, so you only used 2 skills of the 6 so far. Now here's the tricky part, you got to get lvl 12 without using any points, when you get to lvl 12, put points in Iron Maiden and Golem Masteries, by the time you reach lvl 18, you got 400% return damage with 400-500 hp for your Blood Golem. Trust me, it works. I defeated Duriel in less than 1 min in normal. because of the high hp for your golem, you barely feel your health go down, and with his fast Double Swing, it made him die faster with Iron Maiden. I suggest after lvl 30 that you increase your Fire Golem OR Iron Golem, Golem Masteries, and Iron Maiden. Remember to always alternate your points. Make sure you got lvl 4 of Summon Resist. I have a Theory(if not proven) that when you go to nightmare and hell, your creatures has a negative resistance. But that's only a Theory.
For stats, the people who just stand around, get a lot of Strength, Vitality, and Energy. Use your points as(from top to bottom)2 0 2 1. Then next lvl do 1 0 2 2. For the necros that uses Bows, Crossbows, etc., do 0 2 1 2. Then do 1 2 2 0.

If you have any comments, e-mail me at zxcvqwerasdfff@hotmail.com

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I only have a necro Lv27 but I had a Lv54, so, you can trust me!!! First, the perfect items for the necro, I think it's : Wormskull, Silk of victor, 2 soj, Umes, Nigthsmoke, Sigon sheild, a good fast run/walk boot, +2 skills ammy and frostburn. Now, I have the half of that, if you can have all that, your necro will be very happy!!! Now, the skills, first of all, you HAVE TO max up iron maiden, this is the most important skill of the necro!!! My suggestion is to use blood golem with IM, so, don't lose points in iron or fire golem!!! I know fire golem is cool, blow itself when die so cool... BUT, don't put points on him!!! Now, what choice between bone spirit and bone spear hein?!?!? Of course bone spirit! Bone spear not bad when a lot of monster in line but... go for spirit, really more powerful!!! Then, you can put some points in golem masterie and bone armor and... that I'm not really sure... skelletons masterie, it can be good for revive but... I'm not sure... I think that's all for skills!!! Now, for the points in strengh, dex, vit and energie, I'll only say to put 100 in strengh (to dress silk) and 0, did you see?!?!? ZERO in dex, put around 100 in energie (you need a lot with nigth) and the rest in vitality!!!

Fistandilus_KdG (necro Lv27)

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oka heres my necro strategy
the start is the boring stage and u should try to get to lvl 12 as quick as possible anyway keep your wand the extra skel counts and u melee heaps dont bother with teeth how crap pump your skills into skel mastery until it's lvl 10 no items then start putting your skills into bone armor(saves your ass) it is best to have 4-6 mages no items because they come in usefull until lvl 30 try to put as many skills as possible into bone armor and save 3 points for lvl 30 then learn fire golem revive and bone spirit max out fire golrm and put +10 into bone spirit and natural resist keep about 5 and revive around 6 no items and then u need iron maiden(a dream) and youll be a kick @$$ necro in skills
Items
Helm wormskull or tarnhelm
2 sojs
+2 to nec skills amulet
Umes
Videlas/other good resist boots
Sigons sheild
Frostys
Silks of the victor
im on Europe *ice_blink

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okay this is the bottom line for Necro's: - Bone spear is all you need, everything else is a waste, what's the point of attacking ONE at a time?
- Iron maiden! you can't live without it (literally)
- blood golem and iron maiden will destroy everything ecept for duriel, mephisto, and diablo.
- duriel, get many regen potions and run around while you cast iron maiden bone spear him
- mephisto, after you live all his henchmen, draw him to the left side and run around to where he is on one side of the lave stream and you're on the other, go far enough down so that you can barely see him up top, and bone spear away, he wont attack you, just stand there!
- diablo, the only way is to use a fire golem, anything else dies too fast, and run around bone spearing him and recasting fire golem, watch out for the red lightning!
- also try out revives, and dont put more than one point into skeleton and not mroe than 5 into mages
- you'll need about 10 skeleton mastery and 10 golem mastery

Mystikal level 51 Necromancer

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If you want to have the best Necro do the next: First form Bone/Poison put some skills on Bone Armor (about 2, just for the begining) and about 5 on Corpse Explosion.On the higher levels put some points on Bone Spear and Poison Nova.From the curses you need only the Iron Maiden and Aplify Damage.You need most of the points to put on Summoning.Don't put many points on Skeletons,Mages and Monsters, put only 2 and put 10 points on Skeleton Mastery.On every golem put about 2 points( belive me, you'll survive),just put 10 on your favourite:).Put 10 points on Golem Mastery and Summon Resist.You'll kick'n everything.

Dracula The Nekro

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These are good strategies for those of you who play necromancers in single players game. First of all do not waste points in your skill to raise skeletons. By level 6, which comes fast enough, you can raise a clay golem who is much better then 3-4 skeletons. Skeletons are fun but they become useless by level 15 because they die in one hit. Skeletal mages are nice because they attack from a distance, specially cold-using skeletal mages so I would advise to put 2-3 points in them. Go for golems all the way. Avoid poison spells and most curses. Outside my summoning skills I only use bone spear, amplify damage and iron maiden. Next is your weapon: necromancer should use wands normally but I find that a bow is much better. True, you do not get the +skills from a wand but you can attack from a distance while your minions keep the monsters busy. You will usually not get hurt much. As for the stats I advise spending 2 in str, 2 in health and 1 in energy at every level. You do not need tons of mana since you have a bow. I use bone spear only when there is a big group of meanies, otherwise I just shoot em down with my bow while my golems keeps them from coming at me. Hope this helps.

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I have a level 32 Necromancer and he is about as messed up as they get. He has a base strengh of 110, and like 180 mana, 80 dexterity and so on.....Let's start with the fact that i have a kick butt weapon called the Death Cleaver, it is a rare great sword(39-59 damage, adds 1-8 lightning damage, 133 to attack rating, very fast attack speed due to the greatly increased attack speed. I also have the Undead Crown, 4 rare rings that each add a lot to mana. I have no problem just fighting hand to hand with adversaries because of my awesome sword. This might be a good strategy. I have a lvl 10 bonespear which i find incredibly useful in fighting the Hell Bovines, it goes right through herdes doing 55-75 damage, and costing 8.5 mana per spear. The cow king always drops something rare, unique, or a set item, but mostly its rare items, this is where i go to outfit my self.
Andariel^^^^^She is easy if you use the hit n' run tactic cast a town portal in the chamber with the blood pool, everytime you come in cast it just keep hiting her w/ arrows, preferably get a good bow everytime you die, go back via town portal
Duriel^^^^^^^^Use the same tactic as w/ andariel, he's farely easy w/ bone spear, dont bother bringing a golem, it'll die instantly, just buy lots of scrolls of t.p.
Mephisto^^^^^^^^Kill all of the monsters that attack you such as bremm sparkfist who is hard, then proceed further into the chamber ........I used a nifty trick on him: get him on one side of the river of blood, get on the other side so that he is barely showing in the screen, he cant see you but you can see and attack him w/ bone spear(much better against cows then bone spiritDON'T BE LAZY, ACTUALLY TRY AIMING) he;ll die fast
Diablo^^^^^^i didn't die once following this strategy: he always prowls around the pentagram, casting a t. p. near the entrance to the chaos sanctuary will be safe from him. get in the same screen with him and attack him w/ bone spear, when on bad health run away from the pentagram, (YOU WON'T BE FOLLOWED!!!!) and recharge, or restock on potions in town. there that was really easy, pick up the items he drops, chances are that they are rare or someting like that...............He's scary but not that hard, he runs like a giant cat, just thought you should know that, he's really fast, but he usually runs around you in circles .........watch out for the lightning breath, it can kill you in 2 seconds, it drains your health 5 times as fast as andariels poison

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Like everyone says "Nec is not a melee chacter.." So try not to bother going Head 2 Head with enemies. For the entire game "your as useless as a tit on a bull" when it comes to melee, so don't try. Sure it sounds neat to say your a meleemancer, the name even sounds cool, but in the end you'll most likely die if you try. So here goes... I have a level 24 Nec, so i'm not going to tell you to pump up a skill with 20 points, basically it's unrealistic and impossible (at first).
-Skeletons are useful no matter what anybody says, but at the same time don't go nuts with them (I have 5).
-Mages are good as "archers", but don't go nuts(i have 3)
-Skeletal mastery is Very helpful at the beginning of the game and later (so i hear)
-Golems have more HP therefore make better Punching bags, but once again don't pump any one up more than say 3
*** On a minor note... Iron golems suck donkey C**k.***-Iron maiden is definately a necessary spell. (I know it's over-done and obvious, but with blood golem it rules)
It will also help you against bosses and the ilck -Bone spear is great if you wanna help your minions out, once again don't pump it up too much (it tends to miss often)
-Corpse explosion comes in handy often (especially in the maggot lair) once again don't pump it up.
Your stats for your Nec is up to you, but i really recommend putting at least 2 points in mana each level. Honestly dex dosen't seem to have any effect on the Nec abilities, or so i've found (after putting many points in Dex).
When playing multiplayer the Nec is a SUPPORT character. You WILL feel useless, and chances are you'll get kinda bored. But your human allies will apprecieate the curses and extra minions you bring to the battle. Don't try to be brave... When your montsers are overrun (heaven forbid) RUN AWAY... The nerco that runs away, lives to see another day...
That's about it dudes...

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There seems to be some controversy about beating Duriel by running up the steps to the next shrine and standing on the edge. This is kinda true and kinda not. Duriel can reach you, but he/she cannot or for some reason does not use that freezing aurora. That's what gets you. I used a Necro and as soon as I jumped thru the hole, I made sure I had a couple of skeletons, just for distraction only, so you can run wide open past Duriel. By the time the bug turns around ,you need to be on the top step, have your inventory open so you can get extra mana and start firing bone spirits with both fingers. It's a race against time but I just did it. You will probably take some serious hits so have plenty of health potions on your belt. You will need at least 4 full mana potions to recharge but it works.

PH

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I'd like to say once again, that on your quest to kill diablo, be wary of false information. I read one strategythat said, '"everyone else says that you should put points into bone armor, they are just f$%&in with ya. A level 10 bone armor in destroyed in 2 hits in act ll" True, but if you didn't have bone armor, you probably would have had half of your health gone, or probably have been dead. One other thing is that I don't understand the poison issue. To me, poison SEEMS useless, I didn't say that it was, but I cannot find a good way to use it. I read one strategy that said a lv 20 or so poison dagger did 200 dmg in 16 sec. Wouldn't that be nice? I don't know, but I'll try it on another character, and I'll let you know.

Keith Necro lv 43

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I have a Level 21 Necromancer and it is so far my most successful character. (I'm a new player.) First of all, I think everyone's got cool strategies and I'm looking forward to trying them. This is what I do. I put most of my points in Iron Maiden and Poison Dagger, and Amplify Damage. I have a few points in Blood Golem and one point in Golem Mastery, and Corps Explosion. One point in Bone Wall too. With my Poisoned Dagger, I use a Howling (something something) Dirk with enhanced damage, that sends the monster running and the poison takes care of it. I also cast Amplify Damage on my target before and after my attack. Works well. Blood Golem and Iron Maiden are an awesome combination. I also use potions extensively. If there are monsters behind bars or I can't get to them, I cast Amp. Dam. then toss a few potions in there. Once a few start dying, I cast Corps Explosion. To give the baddies something to play with, I cast Bone Wall behind them so they are trapped between it and the bars. They also get damaged from it. It has worked well for me so far, but I think I will make a new character to try some other ideas. Thanks all.

T-Bone

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I only have a L24 necromancer so I won't tell you this or that is the best, but I can tell you so far I have put 2 points in str, 0 in dex, 1 in vitality, and 2 in energy every level. So far this has worked very well i have str for armors so, far enough life to surive and stan to run all i want, and energy isn't to much of a problem even casting iron golem and bone spear L1 alot

BS_IG Necromancer L24

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The only skills that are truly necessary for a good necro are Iron Maiden and Revive (with Skeleton mastery). You'll obviously need to have more skills (duh), but what you chose for those is entirely up to you.
I've been playing a long time, and I've seen extremely good Necros that have completely different tastes for skills. As far as I've seen, whatever strategy you choose to specialize in, whether Golem, Skeleton, Curses, Bone Spirit, etc. doesnt really matter. However, as with all good Necros will tell you, Iron Maiden and Revive are musts.
As far as equipment goes, try to find Ume's Lament and use it with the Wall of the Eyeless. This is an ideal wand/shield combination for a Necro. As with all unique items with all characters in the game, always be on the look out for exceptional rares which can, and often are, must better than uniques.

-Altirus

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Quest strategies
My last entry I put in here strategy tomb thing sux. Don't bother listening to it no more. First of all dont waste ur skills in normal skeletons. They will be useless later in the game. A few (like 3) in skelo. mages they will act as archers. Dont put much in golem mastery cause u can just keep reviving them and the run/walk wont improve that much. You need a hell lot in skeleton mastery. They will help your mages and revived monster. I say fire golem is the best, although they cost alot of mana. Many people suggest blood golem, but see here they suck cause if it dies u die. If you are a fire golem guy don't max it out if u want to about 5 skills is enough plus you will need some plus skills items. Bone spirit is something you should max out. Put a little skills in bone spear to help you out awhile. Curses work for me. You basically all you need are decripcify ( for dueling maybe ), iron maiden, amplify damage, and attract which is good for me cause the enemies will all aim for the one u cast it on. I will get an update on this part later.
Dueling strategies
When dueling a barb cast decripcify and iron maiden. these are the curses u need for them. When they try to whirl wind you just keep running and stop like 1 second to fire some spirits to kill them. believe me im only lvl 33 and i killed a lvl 76 barbarian.
If you fight against sorceress... Well all i can say is keep shooting spirits. Don't try running in one direction away when they do frozen orbs. Their teleportations can catch up to you like a SNAP!!
Against paladins you will do just about the same thing against barbarians.
When against amazons. Well..... necroz arent affective to zons that much. They are very cheap to necros. They shoot guided arrmows which can kill us just like that. So run up to them and chase them with spirits.
Equipment
Helmets- Wormskull= the best necro helmet. +1 necro skills
Gloves- Magefist, Frost burns=these got mana regenertate and fastest cast rate which are pretty good. Frosties are probably the best. I dont know why. I just follow with the crowd and they are really good +40% mana
Boots- Treads of Cthon= these are probably the best for necros. Because necros have to run and need defense against missles which are arrows and some sorc. magics
Ring- Soj (stone of jordan )= these are the ultimate rings for maybe anyone +1 skills +25% mana
Armor- Rare Mage Plate, Silks of the Victor= Mage plates have lots of defense and have little requirements Silks have +1 all skills and have ok defense.
Amulets- any ammy +1 or +2 necros skills with other stuff
Belt- Varies = any belt that is helpful to you.

Dark_HellRaizer

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haha i read all of these necro tips and they are good dont get me wrong. but i think that the best necro lives on his own with his trusty fire golem at his side.here ill show you what i mean. ok i have a lvl 91 necro and he is one of the best there is out there i eat all the other classes for lunch i have a fire golem that has 28 points in him thx to the my lvl items in hell mode when he walks around he kills everything without swinging it is so damn funny to get a smack talking sorce or amazon but when they get in the same screen with my fire golem they instantly die or at so little life they have to run to town it so so damn funny.ounce your as hi as me you do not worry about anything out there ill duel you any time whisper me. *NECLINK*

LinkSteele

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When playing as the necro, it can often be difficult to enter large battles in hell when you have nothing more than a golem at your side. However once a large army is constructed, through use of amplify damage and corpse explosion along with revive, little can stand in your way. The way to enter more difficult battles is to go to a less difficult area and construct an army of maximum revives then take a portal to town. This acts much like the recall ability in starcraft, you then either have a friend open a portal or you take a waypoint, and your troops are instantly warped into the battle.

GL... (MyWiFe4HiRe)

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i wanna talk about gettin good items and skills.Listen if u get silks of the victor,umes lament, wormskull,and 2 sojs, u get like 7 each time u put in a skill.NOw u ask what skills act 1u have to have IRON MAIDEN,bone armor skeletons u need em golems u need em and when u can get im mages. even if they suck they distract the enemy. mages will help u the whole game they freeze and stuff trust me that helps.Act 2 bone spear is a must and so is blood golems and if u listened to me u now rock cause u have alot in iron maiden right?Act 3 same as act 2 if u reach lvl.30 bone spirit is your new best friend.Face it Mephisto a wuss and a sorry excuse for a brother of Diablo.Act 4 use bone spirit and revives the make a good distraction.And my number1 tip make friends thell give u stuff.

Shunto lvl 56 necro (no hacks)

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well met fellow necros. perhaps i dont understand poison but the other day an oblivion night hit me with a poisoned sword and i fled the scene only to be down to 1 hp a few seconds later. this little run-in with poison intrigued me. if a lowly knight could bring me to 1 hp then a maxed out poisoned dagger could bring most foes down to 1 hp as well. unless i am completely unhinged, then a level 20 poisoned dagger will do around 200 points of damage a sec for 16 sec, right? at 7.7 mana cost that has to be the cheapest way to bring enemies down to a single hp. then i guess one could use the terror curse so that a stabbed monster would run around dying. i could be mistaken about the power of poison, but if i am right then necros could shed the image of pathetic melee combat fighters. mind if you want hack and slash you should be a barb, but i always felt my place was with my minions.

skot

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Necro's are great. First of all Points should only go into Str, Vitality, and Mana. This is only if you are going to use bone spirit. Because when you get it it is pointless to go into battle when you can just hang back. Ok first of all put one into the skills you need to grab bone spirit. That is the only good spell, I think. Then in curses get Amplify Damage and Iron Maiden. Put one into each maybe a few into maiden until it returns 300% damage. Ok now the good stuff. Max out Skeleton mastery. Only because it is linked to Revive, My fav. skill. Next wait till you get golems. Personally I love Blood golems. So I have a whole bunch into that. Yet you also need to Max Golem mastery and put two or three into resist. Fire golem SUX the Lamas @$$. Blood golem with iron maiden and Revive in your right click with Bone spirit in your left click makes you the most leathal. Well Revive is costly to mana but that is why you should put for the first 18 levels 2 strength 1 vitality 2 mana. 3 mana and 2 Vitality. It depends on how you aproach but i like to watch my 20 revives and my blood golem wreck havoc in Hell.

Lord LeTimDeTimmy Lev 43

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I am a 50 level Necro.... I have a slvl 7 Bone Spirit, a slvl 6 Bone Spear, Corpse Explosioin slvl 8, Iron Maiden slvl 10, Fire Golem slvl 5, golem mastery 3..... just 2 Skelton and 1 skelton mage and 2 revive, plus 2 Skeleton Mastery, 1 point at aplify damge, teeth and bone armor, iron and blood golem...I hate the combo of blood golem and iron maiden, although i use iron maiden.... I prefer fire golem because when your bllod golem die, you die.... very simple.....

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This is the best way to build a necro. For the skill trees.... put only 1 point into amp dam and iron maiden each. I ron maiden will get strong once you get plus skills items. Thats all you need for the curses. As for the poison and bone... dont put any more than 1 into teeth... its nice at first but it is useless dont regret it. put one or two points into bone armor, nothing special. Dont put anything into boneprison or poison attacks save it all for bone spear and spirit. Spear is great for attacking in narrow areas it doesnt do as much damage as spirit but it works nicely since it will attack anything in its path. But once you get enough minnions for your army attacking with your bonespells isnt as important. I put points into spear untill i was able to get bonespirit. My spear is at 16 and my spirit is at 20. But that is with plus skills items. The summon tree is the most important. A lot of people mess up by putting too many points into skeletons and mages. Just put one... you will be able to survive. A couple more into mages wont hurt and it could be helpful early on but dont waste them. Golems are very important, they dont do most of the killing but the blood golem is the stud who will keep you alive. Put about 8-10 points into golem master and 2-3 into blood golem. The rest of your skills need to go into SKELETON mastery. Trust me. Skeleton mastery is linked to revives. If your mastery is up high enough and your revives are in the teens you will be unstoppable. Master gives them lots of life and makes their damage insane. I clear through stuff in hell difficulty easy by raising dead enemies and using iron maiden. The revives damage get up to over 1000 and they have about 7000 life. no joke they are unstoppable. They last for awhile but dont get discouraged when they die after about 5 min. just raise stuff every time you kill something and you will never notice or care. I suggest putting only one point into each golem except blood.... do a few for him. Fire isnt as nice as you think. After being used to the best golem,,, blood, you will need to use life potions or you will die easier. With iron maiden and your blood golem you cant die. its impossible, because the golem wont take in damage and you will get life for every hit he makes. That is the perfect placement. skeleton mastery, revives, golem mastery and blood golem, those are the big ones. As for stats: strength strength strenght early: stop untill you get to about 80 if you want to wear silks get 100 but most people wear goldskin and heavenly garb. I prefer skin, because in hell mode the lighting enchanted dudes will smoke me if i dont. your resists go to -50 in hell. That makes it tough to survive elemental dam. After your strength is up go mana untill it is level 120 or so. With frostburns it will be around 600 mana. Keep going higher if you want but its is good to get life, mainly for dueling and bosses. For dueling use a fire golem and bone spirit... and if a barb is giving you trouble go raise some skeletons real quick and use iron maiden.... the barb will drop real quick. Its pretty cheap but then again.... thats how necros fight stuff.

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Firstly, i can't understand two types of necromancers. The first kind say that you should not put more than one point into skeletons and should concentrate on golems instead. These people are missing the main point of a necromancer character which is to raise an undead horde. The second type put 20 points into raise skeleton and skeleton mastery which is even worse. A good summoning necromancer makes good use of both skeletons (though only skeletal mages!) and golems. Skeletal mages are useful because 1) They create extra targets for groups of monsters 2) They tend to stand back from the fight and attack from range 3) Like golems they act as punching bags which damages enemies cursed with iron maiden 4) Ice mages freeze their target 5) when dueling, if an ice mage hits your opponent he will be unable to avoid your bone spirits 6) lastly, you will benifit greatly from + to all skill level items. It is true that in Hell difficulty they do little damage without heavy investment but golems don't do that much damage either and you can only have one. It is iron maiden that does the damage and 5 skeletons are ample punching bags.
Take the games hardest enemy Duriel. If you walk in with just a golem you're in big trouble. If like me however (with +2 to all skill levels, you walk in with 5 skeletal  mages 3 skeletons, an iron golem (just for the thorns damage) 2 revives and a mercenary, Duriel has 13 targets to deal with!!! Cast iron maiden on him and he'll be half dead by the time he gets through that lot. And while he's busy contending with you're horde you'll be free to pound him with bone spirits. When all you're allies are dead, leave by portal, raise more creatures and repeat the process until he's dead. Better than having to run around the room and dying all the time! And using a golem and skeletal mages works even better with large groups of enemies. It's what being a necromancer is about.
Some general tips
1) Act 2 is the best place to gamble because you can quickly leave town via the sewer.
2) Gamble for Gauntels until you get the frostburn Gauntlets which are great!
3) A shields blocking chance is more important than it's defence.
4) Keep any poor rings and amulets and transmute them.
5) Don't give Charsi an item to imbue unless you have a really good item.
6) Bone spirit beats bone spear hands down. Bone spears often miss.
7)You need around a hundred strenght to wear the best armours.
8) Dexterety is not necessary for a good Necromancer who fights from distance. Trying H2H combat in Hell difficulty is not a good idea!

Lord Gray, lvl 40 Necromancer

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Mordred here.
Of late, I have been reading your strategies page with great interest, as it was there that I first read of the secret cow level. The necromantic spell "Corpse Explosion" is ideal for encounters with Hell Bovines, as they insist on bunching themselves tightly together - herd mentality, I suppose. By casting "Iron Maiden" on a selected herd, the necromancer can hasten the death of just one bovine, and that is all it takes to start the ball rolling. Once the immediate area is clear, run like crazy through as much space as you can safely negotiate, then loop back to where you started. When the inevitable stampede (or cow collective) catches up with you, make sure that you are caught within your initial kill zone. As those terrible cattle press in from all sides, start exploding corpses. In between explosions, you will be thrilled to hear the sound of all manner of items and gems hitting the ground. When the dust (and blood) settles, ressurect a few cow corpses, just to get a laugh out of hearing them 'talk.' Don't forget to pay your respects to the Cow King before you rub him out. He is royalty, after all.

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This is for getting higher level skills a little more quickly than you might otherwise. Instead of waiting till you reach (for instance) Level 24 for your Necromancer to start investing in either Resist All or Iron Golem, DON'T use your skill point when you get to Level 23: save it, then once you reach L24, you can get BOTH skills right off instead of waiting till L25 to get the second one. Personally, I did this one better and stopped using points at L22, saving them till I reached L24. So I had 3 skill points to use, but I still only wanted those two skills (you can only increase any skill level once per character level increase) so I still had one left over when I got to L25 and did it again. Depending on what kind of skills you're going for (and keeping them concentrated in small areas as has been suggested elsewhere is a great idea), you can easily spare increasing your skills everytime you have a point available, so don't be afraid of waiting.
This works VERY well with getting up in the higher level skills relatively quickly.
Oh, and something specifically for Necromancer: I haven't spent one skill point anywhere besides summoning skills, and at L27, it's working great.
Having an entourage bigger than Puff Daddy's (4 skeletons, 6 skeletal mages, an iron golem, and sometimes a hireling from whatever level's town I can get to) can save your butt from ever being touched, much less killed. And if you don't find a good wand to use, find a decent bow/crossbow and you can join the fun your boys are having and whack on the beasties with them from a safe distance (which also has the advantage of being able to actually PICK a target, as your boys aren't terribly smart when it comes to going straight after the monsters that can resurrect other critters). I know this gets kinda crowded when you end up in maps with narrow paths (like the Arcane Sanctuary, or some sewers) but you will be a mighty, mighty boss in more open areas like the Kurasts and the deserts of Act II (yeah, I forgot how to spell Lut G.). In crowded areas, just get picky about your summons. Remember, you don't have to summon EVERYthing you have available.

Mordindae

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First of all i am a lvl 36 Necro and this is what i have learned so far... until u get to lvl 45 use a blood golem combined with iron maiden my lvl 3 blood golem has 5 to golem mastery and it can stand his own agaianst the enemies in act 2 canyon of the magi.. if u see lots of enemies using magic on ur blood golem recast it some where immediatly and run away as fast as u can and dont put so much points into skeletons or skelemages TRUST me its not worth it! The demons in hell difficulty can slaughter ur mages and skeletons with one hit to avoid this is to have at least 5 revived monsters and a golem of ur choice and try to raise ur golem and skele mastery by alot and max out bonespirit ull need it later and when u fight really high lvl enemies its not smart to waste ur mana pointlessly shooting at them repeatedly if u see that its not working the first time if it doesnt work use a blood golem and cast iron maiden itll do alot more damage on itself then ull do by ur magic if ur surrounded by enemies make a blood golem and cast iron maiden so u wont lose help if the enemies r batting u around, try to find an escape cause if ur golem dies or ur out of mana ur pretty much screwed u shouldnt waste points on other curses other then lower resist and lastly gamble for ur items if u have plenty of $ on u

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Ok, this may seem weird to some guys, but I am a cradle catholic girl who is ADDICTED to my necromancer in Diablo 2! To me all summonable beings (skeletons and golems) are good. Golems last longer, but skeletons are cheaper. When a necromancer, ALWAYS add to vitality and dexterity.This will enable you to throw items from far away while a blood or fire golem does all the dirty work (if you plan to stand back, which is pretty boring!). Add to energy when you have extra, it makes you go faster when your in a bad spot and have to run away A.S.A.P.! For skills pick your favorites. Mine are Iron maiden and Blood golem. Now that I'm at a higher level, mostly skeletal magi( the more points you add the more strong and cheap mages you get!) and bone spear. This is a cool thing cuz you can shoot it through a hallway and it runs through every one in line! It's also good when you decide to stand back, but want to help. I've heard bone spirit is cool so add to that, cuz you don't have to aim, it finds targets for you! Never buy really expensive weapons or armor if you don't fight face 2 face. It's a waste of your gold! If you get right up there and fight, add to strength and vitality and a few to energy in your stat points, then you can buy big armor and weapons. While fighting bosses or a room full of beasties, ALWAYS KEEP A PORTAL OPEN! then you can run away.Well, that's pretty much it. Just remember the necromancer is the COOLEST character in this game, and can reawaken the dead!

Hellraisergirl(cb)

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All of you people complain about how effective curses are, the sucK!!!!!!My strategy is all out-obliteration. Until i get to level 6, i put every other point into skeletons. by the time I can get Golems, I have three, maybe four skeletons and a level three skeleton mastery. those three skeltons kicks so much a$$ that curses are made useless. Against Andarial, I will already hgave about four skeletal mages, and a beat down golem. Act II sucks, so I just invest all points into skeltons, skeletal mages, skeltal mastery, golem, golem mastery, everyone else says that you should put points into bone armor, they are just f$%&in with ya. A level 10 bone armor in destroyed in 2 hits in act II. PUT POINTS IN BONE SPEAR. the one correect thing that everyone else say's. in the sand maggot caverns, it saves you life.

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Do you know how to defeat Andariel?This is how I killed her.I was a level 16 nerco and entered her lair.I gave her a taste of her own medicine-I threw poison poitions at her.I also struck her candy ass when she bend down to attacked my sketelons and golem.Soon her life was low and whacked her to a heap of meat.

Baby Bobo Lvl 26 Necro in Act 3 close to Lvl 27

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ok, i'll i'm going to talk about are skill points. First, put one in skeleton and one in clay golem- thats all you need. it will be tough in the beginning, but once you get to lvl 12 put 1 or 2 in mage. find a wand that gives +3 to mage and you don't need to worry after that cuz it's really easy!! start building up iron maiden, and get corpse explosion to 5( thats about all you need). at 18, get bone spear and blood golem( the best). You'll have an easy time with your blood golem and iron maiden. Be sure to put a few points in golem mastery so you blood golem will last. After that, all you really need are bone spirit( get as high as possible) and revieves( only a few). instead of putting points into mage and bone spear, just get a wand that has +3 to both, and keep it because thats all you need the entire game. when you get to really high levels( like 45), you can mess around a bit, and put some into skeleton mastery and mage because it's nice to have some extra targets. Thats about it, so you'll be set.

hellreaper

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Hi, I am currently level 52 on USWest and have some necromancer tips. This one is for killing Diablo. First off, dont use blood golem. You will die really fast if you do. This is because if Diablo hits him with red lightning (Which he probably will) your health will go down to 1. Even if Diablo uses fire ring, you will die. Use Fire Golem. He is not linked to your health and he heals himself with fire. Secondly, get some revived. If you are not level 30, then just use skeletons. (Not many skeletons, you shouldnt have more than 1 point in them, but you should have items that add to skills). If you have enough minions, do not use iron maiden, use amp damage. Diablo will take more damage this way than if you maiden him. The reason is that his melee attack only does around 40 dmg. He will not take maiden damage from red lightning. If you amp him, then he will take double your golem damage, double your skeleton damage, and double your bone spear damage. If you are in nightmare/hell difficulty, I find it easy to kill him becuase your reviveds will be doing double damage with amp, if you have about 10 reviveds, well, thats a lot of damage (Along with Bone SPIRIT and Fire Golem.)
Next, dont stand near Diablo. You just dont need to. If he hits your with red lightning, you're in some trouble. If your skeletons die, go find some more. There are plenty of corpses in the Chaos Sanctuary. This is how I kill Diablo. I havent tested it on hell difficulty, but I will very soon. So far, its worked every time!
By the way, if any of you have a rare, 200+ lance, message me at *xaf_108 on USWest.

Lord Bumlike_Hobo, level 52.

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probably the best way to kill diablo with a necromancer is to get ALL your minions (never put alot on skeletons) and save one of the seals that dont bring out enemys in the choas sanctuary and when you defeat all the monsters in the choas sanctuary bring back all lost minions and then press the seal when you do that you run as fast as you can to the star and amplify diablo and throw as many bone spirits or spears at him as you can untill hes dead. once your weaker minions die dont bother bringing them back there a waste of mana. golems the best way to distract.

A fan of diablo :)

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hi, i seem to have a separate stratagy for every one elese. mine is for the long term player. it wont be easy early on but it pays off. first add to bone armor alot i add none to sceletons at all. only add more than 1 to bone armor, golem masteriy, mabe life tap, firegolem and bone spirit. latly if looked at poison dagger and it seems to work. only add to spells which you will permanetly use. it'll be like playing as a pladan for the first few levels but it is extremly worth it. in the end you should have an awsum golem, a very very powerful bone spirit and very good armor, and posibly a very powerful dager (if your in to meley attacks).
As for stats i would say first add to strength and vitality (always add 1 to energy). vitality is very good. you may hear otherwise but it help your armor your chance of hit and the enemys chance to not hit you.still do not add a huge number of points to this. as for energy sakes always add at least one to it. for stenght only add to around 100. as a necro you do not need more(unless for realy good armor).Vitality is a must. continually add to this a lot.
anyway, my stratigy may seem hard to follow but it is the way to go.best of luck to you against diablo and baal.

REDOGIII (Jimminnie)

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This is yet another guide from me, the experienced player, to you newbies who are about to dive into a huge new world. For a little background info, I'm a level 42 Necromancer in Hell Act 1 and have over a dozen other characters on open and closed battle.net, of all classes. I find that I like the Necromancer the best simply because all he/she has to do is raise a minion, sit back, and enjoy the slaughter. But I have taken it a couple of steps further.

Stat Points
I spend a LOT on dexterity and have found that even though I must go to town every once in a while to recharge, I kill more baddies than my other rival character, which is a pure summoning Necro. This strategy works out well because you waste a town portal worth 90 gold, and so what if you waste 90 gold? Put most points into strength/energy and wear those heavy armors. Don't worry about vitality a lot. I have 290 or so health with the help of items, with the 50 points in vitality.

My own personal skills look like this:
90 Strength
85 Dexterity
50 Vitality
80 Energy
(w/o any stat-enhancing items) I have yet to complete the Lam Essen's Tomb quest on either difficulty

Skills
A lot of controversy over which skills you should put points into, especially bone spear/spirit. Let me address that issue by saying that both are good. You DO need bone spear, but don't go overboard on skill points. 5 or 6 should do it. You can only get the spirit at level 30, and in-between that time and level 18, what are you going to do?
When spending the first couple of points, put about 2 into bone armor, 1 into teeth, 1 into skeletons AS A PREREQUISITE and 1 in amplify damage. Bone armor will be your savior later on in the game. Now, at level 6, put 1 point into clay golem, then at level 7, put the point into corpse explosion. Raise Skeleton Mastery, as you will need it for the Magi to come. Level 12 is a big level, so put a few into iron maiden and a few in golem mastery, but don't forget 1 or 2 in skeletal mage. At level 18, blood golem and iron maiden finally join forces. Then build up your Bone Spear, while adding to golem mastery, skeleton magi, and iron maiden. Summon Resist and Bone Prison are highly underrated spells and should have 2 or 3 points in each. Iron Golem is required for Fire Golem and Revive, so 1 point. At level 30, Revive and Bone Spirit are needed. No Fooling. You golem and magi will NOT be able to handle all the monsters alone, so get 4 or 5 points in there. Max out Bone Spirit. At level 18, it does almost 300 Damage. If you prefer dueling to fighting Diablo and his minions, get Decrepify and Bone Wall, also good spells.

Items
I'm not giving specific items, since not everyone can obtain all of them. Weapon- TRY to get something that does enhanced damage and/or boost to attack rating. If its two-handed, it better be worth dying for. Plus 1 to all skills always is a nice backup.
Shield- Get either a Tower or a Gothic Shield, socketed, with diamonds (all grades of diamonds work) in there. That or get something with an increased block rate and/or enhanced defense.
Armor- In the beginning, I used Greyform (it's a good item in lower levels). In later levels (12 - 30), get a rare plate of some sort, whether it be a plate mail, chain mail, field plate or gothic plate. After that, trade/beg/lie/cheat/steal for an ancient armor or ornate plate and imbue it with your imbue that you saved (I, regrettably, wasted my normal imbue on a lousy shield). Then again, you may want to use Goldskin (if someone will trade it to you) for the lack of resistance in Nightmare and Hell.
Helm- Try to get a Wormskull or something that gives great defense and other stats. Wormskull is good, but not great. In Nightmare and Hell games, you can find better.
Gloves- Frostburn gauntlets actually seem like the best way to go. Although if you can't get them, get something that gives mana, life, strength or resistance.
Belt- Get something good, that give either strength, life, mana, resistance and MOST IMPORTANTLY, space to stash potions. You can easily die if you have a Nightsmoke Belt with good mana and resistance, but only have 12 slots instead of 16. That can make all the difference in the world.
Boots- FASTEST RUN/WALK is the MOST important thing when dealing with boots/greaves. If it comes down to getting +10 to your cold resistance or the fastest run or walk, take the latter of the two and run like the wind. Resistance come next, then try to get strength/dexterity. Defense does not matter whatsoever.
Amulet- Get something with resistance and +1 to skills in the later levels. In the early levels, get something that gives a little to life, a little to strength, a little to resistance, etc. You'll find something.
Rings- I personally use 1 Stone of Jordan and a rare ring since I do not like to be so close-minded and get two SoJ's. Get rings that leech off of either mana or life, more towards mana.

Additional Information
When fighting Coldworm the Burrower in Act 2 in the Maggot Lair, watch out. Yes, he's unable to move, but he'll have about 10 Sand Maggots lying in wait, each maggot able to hatch 4 minions. Have Bone Spear at the ready.

The Countess is WAY to easy. I killed her in 4 hits with my Necro. Get a good weapon, use a clay golem and 1 or maybe 2 skeletons to hold off the minions, and use amplify damage (which, by the way, is also a highly underrated skill).
Andarial is fairly easy, although your golem may be dead by about the second poison spewing. When in Rome, do like the Romans. When in Andarial's Lair, do like Andarial and hack the crap out of her until she falls. Iron Maiden and Amplify Damage are again good here.
GAMBLE!!!!! You never know what you're gonna find.
Good Luck, fellow Necros, and if you are slightly unsatisfied with your character, just fudge through it. I spent 10 points in Bone Spear, but did not start over. Let that be a lesson to you all.

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The skills I think you should max out with are: bone spirit/spear, blood golem, golem master, amplify damage, iron maiden, a few skeloton mages, a few elemental resistance, AND ALOT OF REVIVES. Mainly i think all you need is a maxed out blood golem, golem master, bone spirit, and iron maiden.

*Dark_HellRaizer

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I am fairly new at this, and only have a level 21 Necro. But I don't know what everybodies problem is!!!! I kicked Duriels butt eis!!!! Plus I did it with Skeletons!!!! Everyone is saying how much they suck, but I have 5 skeletons and 5 skeletal mages, with 9 skeleton masterery! And I have yet to find anything to stand in my way!!!!! Duriel only killed two of my skeletons before he got whipped!!!! So for you new necros out there, skeletons aren't half as bad as everyone thinks they are!!! I would take my skeletons against Golems anyday!!!!

Kothros

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Hi yall waz up. The stadegy to defeating Duriel in the Nightmare mode is to have a lot of golems and resurrected. This is important so that when they are figthing Duriel you can hit him with your bone spear. Your bone spear is probably the most powerfiul thing you got since your bone spirit isn't too high. The key to beating Duiel in the Nightmare mode is to have a big army.

SirBlueFire

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For all of you cool necros you picked the best class! it is so much more fun then hacking away at stupid idiots wit the barbarian.so, stradagy skeltons really suk past actI and can barly survive at actII. Bone spear is ok but no more than 4 levels i use my blood golem+iron Maid.i dont use healing potions beacause i get more than enough health.bone spear is good for all bosses beacause u dont interfere wit the golem and it uses little mana it also does long range.Duriel is hard no doubt about it. Well i was at lvl 36 so it was not to hard i used bone spear and bonespirit+blood golem+iron maid to get health.he only has 2000 hp so it use about 50 mana potions and bone spirit.my blood golem was all most dead and i was running out of mana i used amp damage and killed him!!! i put about 3 skills on it and i thought i wasteed it. it really saved my life. at act 4 i used fire golem and i used about 4 skelton mages.they are really cool if you no how to use them.these r my most used skills
#1 skill iron Maid
#2 skill blood golem
#3 skill skelton mage
#4 skill amp damage
#5 skill Bone Spear/Bonespirit
These may be very werid but they worked for me and i am the father of all necros lvl 127 necro.meet me on battle .net

-Stormrider710

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Well this is my tip for a necromancer user.. first, the stats.
after you have reached about 40-45 strength, you have to stop putting your stat points into strength.. you'll know why later on. don't put a single point into dexerity.. vitality and energy in a ratio of 2:3 ALL the way through~
for items, Use wormskull OR tarnhelm for headgear.. tarnhelm adds to your chance to find magic items so it would be really useful in hell difficulties
For a weapon, use Ume's Lament which not only gives you skill bonuses, but it has the fastest cast rate option.. it is REALLY useful.
for a shield, use Sigon Sheild if you'd really like a skill bonus and the highest block rate for a shield. If you care about resistances, use a gemmed(3 perfect diamonds) tower shield, and if you care about cast rate, use The Wall of the Eyeless.
For armor, You would have to find a rare mage plate with fastest hit recovery and resistances.. You are NOT that strong to wear a Victor and literally CRAWL.. for gloves, use Frostburn if your mana is too low, but use Magefist if you care about fastest cast rate...
Belts.. Nightsmoke and Lenymo is NOT THAT useful later on.. find a rare belt with high resistances and fastest hit recovery.
boots.. Use Tearhaunch and Vidala's fetlock, and change it to a better boots with BOTH fastest hit recovery AND fastest run/walk.
rings and amulets.. SOJ is always nice.. but 1 is enough. for another ring, use a ring with fast cast rate and other options.. probably life and mana. Use an amulet with fast cast rate and +2 to necromancer skill levels and resistances...
that was the ideal item set for a necromancer.. and among these I really recommend items with fastest/fast cast rates. They affect your life directly. It would take some time to get all these, but at least you can try^^ for skills..
I'll tell you the skills you have to MAX..
1. Irom maiden
2. bone spirit OR bone spear (concentrate on ONE of them) and the skills you can choose to max...
1. bone armor
2. decrepify(useful in pvp)
3. corpse explosion(Very useful if used right)
4. revive(but then again.. they're too dumb)

skills very useful if you put a point into it
1. poison nova(prevents monsters from healing themselves)
2. bone wall(good when combined with iron maiden)
3. golems(a faithful friend of a necromancer)
4. terror(ends a fight instantly.. useful when surrounded by monsters)
..you cannot max all the skills... you have to choose what to raise and what not^^ good luck~

Ben

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In orde to have the easiest time in D2 u most do is be a loner and by that i mean do not upgrade minions if u dont u save a hell lot of points to use on bone spirit, bone armor, etc. u should upgrade bone armor and bone spirit to the MAX when u do u will be hard to kill i am only lvl 31 and i killed a lvl 53 amazon so when combined with sigons it will do well. About the bone armor u may think that it is a was of points but u are wrong because if u upgrade it to the max it is like adding hp to u because it "absorbes" 200+ dam so when u face monsters or u duel ur bone armor will save u. mybe u can upgrade iron maiden but i dont because the bone armor protects me a lot.

scsa316

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The Summoner- The Summoner is really easy once you get up to him. What I did was I was the Necromancer and I just dodged the flame spell he has and run up the stairs to him. If your Necromancer get a blood Golem or a Skeleton Mage would be better and have them attack the Hell Clans from afar. While they are attacking the Hell Clans you can run up to the Summoner and kill him before the Hell Clans Notice You. I killed him in 4 hits. I died when the Hell Clans got to me but then just use the waypoint to the Arcane Sancuary and then if you are
Necromancer Use Teeth or Bone Spirit or something to kill the Hell Clans
Amazon- Shoot the Hell Clans with bows or something from a long distance.
Sorceress- Use any far attack and kill them.
Barbarian- Run and Bash them in.
Paladin- Try to either bash them in or use a attack that can kill form afar.
The just go and read the journel.

Twister

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I am a (i think) level 26 necro..... time flys with these guys.... very good character.. better than a barb sometimes.... well, its all the matter of skills. get bone armor. JUST 1. thats just for the start so you can go nuts and attack with your minions of hell. obviously you get golem.. put one in clay. along with all the other ones. run around with your golem and your 1 skel til level 18. this is where the fun begins. THE ALMIGHTY SKELETAL MAGE!!! some people may think that they suck. but they sure beat the crap outta those dumb barbarians... the only problem is the bosses..... for curses, 1 into amplify damage and maybe 2 or 3 into iron maiden. put more in at the end cuz of the blood golem strategy. Blood golem/iron maiden. HEY!! MY DOGS HAVING NIGHTMARES!!! well back to the strategys.. put at least 10 or 15 into skel mages.. they are fun and funny. hmm.. i seem to have lost myself... ummm so so far. 1 bone armor. 1 golem. 1 teeth for tree thingy. 1 skel. a couple in mastery. try and get 10 into skel mastery. ummm the you got all those golems. 1 into each.... eventually... get revive for sure.... put a phew into that one..... now that was kinda of confusing but now for the items. Wormskull or tarnhelm would be healthy. at the start try to run around with a melee weapon.. since u have bone armor.. right now im level 26 with my infernal torch hitting people from act 2 in nightmare. its pretty cool. yeh..so a good melee weapon. try and get goooood armor. it helps alot if u end up being trapped in your own minions... its happened to me many times. rings that put up mana and health and try to get mana and health steal... shield.. GO SIGNONS GUARD!!! it rox... ummm fast run for sure... usually just try and get things that put up health and mana.. that should be all.... REMEMBER KEEP FIT AND HAVE FUN! hehe thats cheesy.. oh yeh... and another thing.. my necro has 135 strength. 45 dex. normal vitality and normal mana. it was a kinda stupid idea for small mana but.. u find alot of mana potions. HAPPY KILLING

Might_Moose Barb level 27
Strange_Moose Necro level 26
Canadian_Moose Bowazon ( SHITY) level 17

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A great strategy with the necromancer is that you just give all the skills before iron maiden,bone spirit,fire golem and revie 1 skill point each. And when your get to iron maiden you just give it all skill points you have. And you dont need to worry about curses no more.....
And you can give golem mastery, resist to all sommond monsters and to skeleton mastery. Cuse you will need your golem to have more HP and your revied monsters to give more dammege and have more health.....
Use iron maiden on the monsters that whant to harm you and then stand back so they hit your golem and your revieds.... and if there i a monster that have yellow name you can just stand back as you do and cast bone spirits! I am at lv 45 and on act4 on hell and it goes very well....

Macross

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for necros i say u should max out iron maiden and golem mastrey my necro is level 25 and i have neo pro in nightmare also if u have revive i sugest u put a few into skello mastrey trust me it works and dont bother with skellos but if u want u can put a few in mages. put 1 in clay and blood golem and put at least 3 in iron and fire golem. and dont bother with teeth and 4 into bonespear should be enough . also put at least 5-7 at least in bone spirit mmmm and 3 into bone prison. of coures some of u are not level 30 yet. soo here r some tips for those who r level 18 and down put 1 in clay golem and 3-6 in golem mast 1 for skellos and 3-5 in mages. 1 into blood golem is enough also mabe 2 in amp damage . for sure u should put a few in iron maiden. if u follow these instructions u should have no pro in nightmare and normal bytheway dont ask me about hell... lalala i cant hear u

sir informer

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Hi there Necro's ... To start : I completely agree with "Death" Outnumber the enemy with 20 skill point in Skeleton mastery , about 10 in skeleton mage and 20 in revive. Use Iron maiden+blood golem for your own life ... make sure you have Frostburn because this strategy needs MUCH mana !! That's what Necro is about !!!

De-GeXte ( lvl 52 Necro)

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I said before that what gets most necromancers is lack of patience. I was only half-right the other half is just plain laziness. I have chatted with many necros who insist on putting lots of points into corpse explosion and amplify damage. If you are two lazy to hit the right mouse button more than once you should not be using this character. So what if a level 20 amplify damage covers the whole screen and level 20 corpse explosion takes care of a whole room. I can get the same effect by casting level 1 amplify damage and corpse explosion multiple times. Guess what I have skill points left over to cast a level 20 bone spirit and send what ever I want to kingdom come. Which brings me to my second point bone spirit is way better than bone spear. There are two main reasons for this. First and most obviously, it does twice as much damage. Second it rarely misses. This is something that people don't seem to realize. When you need something dead you don't need your bone spears missing the target. So what if they can hit every thing in a line behind the creature, 99% of the time you are trying to kill a specific creature. If you don't hit that creature you have to recast which means you are frozen still for twice as long as you should have been. With bone spirit you cast it and the creature dies, end of story.

Portent

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Vukodlak the lvl 31 necromancer here, I agree that to create the most effective necromancer possible you should not put more than one point into each of the "Skeleton/Mage/Mastery" skills. However a Necromancer without an undead horde isn't really a Necromancer is he? If it wasn't for the Necromancer's ability to raise undead I probably wouldn't have chosen him as my character or played Diablo 2 in the first place. With that in mind here is my attempt at balancing effectiveness with my stubborn refusal to abandon the "Skeleton" skills.

Curses
Amplify damage: just two points here so that it doesn't run out so quickly. I've found a bit of a weird effect of this curse when used in conjunction with the Paladins "Conviction" aura. The curse seems to multiply the result of Convictions already multiplied damage rather than just the base damage. Duriel and Izual dropped in seconds to this combo.
Iron maiden: yeah everyone has already told you why. I have 4 pts here. At this point I don't have any interest in spending on any other curses.
Bone & Poison
I put a point or two into Bone shield because it costs practically no mana and mana regenerates while life doesn't. All in all its unessential.
Corpse explosion is the ultimate "DefCon 5 last chance to save your ass" spell. I have 3 points here.
Bone Spirit: ok I'm too busy cursing and tending to my minions to bother with actually aiming a Bone Spear. The homing ability of this spell is what sold Bone Spirit to me, I have 2 pts here and am getting more soon. Its nice for the Necromancer to be able to contribute directly to a big fight rather than waiting behind the lines.
Summoning
This tab is what being a Necromancer is all about baby! I found I needed to get to about skill lvl 7 in Skeleton Mastery for my Skeletons and mages to be able to take a good beating and keep standing. (magical attacks excepted)
Skeletons/Skeletal mage: I might have spent too many points here because it slipped my mind that the numbers of these fellows would increase when I got more +1 all skills items. I have 4 in Skeletons and 3 in mages, if I could do it again I would have one less in each and put those skill points in Skeleton Mastery or Corpse Explosion. Remember that too many skeleton minions can make some of the levels (maggots lair) absolutely frustrating.
Golem mastery, Clay and Blood golems: these are OK skills but I only really got them to get to the more high end Summoning skills. I have one in each. The blood golem was a lifesaver until I got the iron golem and Golem mastery has paid off as my golems have often only barely survived big fights on many occasions. Iron Golem At first I was disappointed with this skill as creating golems out of extremely powerful items doesn't really pay off as much as I thought it would. On the other hand a golem made out of an entirely normal dagger or other cheap item isn't that bad either. I don't know why people complain about needing an item for this skill, after all a proper Necromancer isn't spending thousands of dollars on repairing his items so he should be able to easily afford the occasional sacrificial item.
If you know a big fight is coming collect all the dodgy items in a dungeon that you wouldn't normally bother picking up. Then drop them in a big pile near where the fight is going to go down. I've got 2 points here and don't really intend to spend more since it doesn't add to the life of damage of the golem. Summon resist the thing I hate most is lightning enchanted monsters. This skill at least adds a little more survival time for my boys against these skeleton killer monsters.1 point here.
Well that's pretty much it. I am beginning to see how skeletons are getting more and more useless as I progress into Nightmare mode. Still if any Necromancer can prosper in higher levels while still maintaining his "lord of the undead" feeling then I think this one can do it.
A few of the skills I don't intend to spend more in because I hope to get some more +skills items. Right now I've only got a "Summoners wand of the Mind". In case anyone is interested my stats look like this (second number is after item bonuses)
Str: 60/76 Resistances (on nightmare with the ­20)
Dex: 30/39 Fire:52
Vit: 80/80 Cold:57
Life: 240/296 Lightning:57
Mana: 165/262 Poison: MAX

-Manny Mk IV

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Back again, but only to address a certain issue for the Necromancer. People on this page say that if you don't worry about dex, then you'll have more points in strength/energy, but they're morons. For one, you need dex to wear the heavier armor, like Silks and Goldskin, and since you would "have to" get Frostburns or Stone of Jordan, it would be almost impossible unless you were very lucky and found some good items to trade. I was lucky, however, and found a nice, big, rare axe that I used to slaughtered my friend in a duel. Since I had that, I faced Andarial (although I died) at level 11. I found a rare Claymore in Act 2 and so I used that and faced Duriel at level 19-20 (I leveled after I killed him). My character is deleted now though, since I got greedy and tried to hack some items for me, which just goes to show you that you SHOULD NOT HACK unless someone hacks your health to 1 point (it happened and someone that I asked helped hack it back up for me). So until one of these Necros the same level as me duels me and wins, telling me that they didn't put any points into dex, then I'll revoke this strategy.

Keith (Necro lv 35 NO HACKS)

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hey sup. first thing you should do is worry bout your items
have helm face of horror mask then switch to wormskull because you will need the extra strenght, amulet eye of elitch, 2 stone rings from battlenet, for weapon you should have either a good broad or crystal sword or culwens point or ums lament if you can get it( people dont give that out for free), armor silks of victor or any ancient armor will do, shield sigons shield or migallreis orb, boots tearhunch or viradlas fetlok or goblin toe, belt should have 4 slots i have bladebuclke, for gloves you should find frostburn gauntlets or some war gauntlets or sigons gage gauntlest.
people say that teeth sucks and it does but not in act one so put 2 or 3 in it. everybody says that corpse explosion is good but i prefer to use a big axe or a cool sword with mana steal and hack hack hack and they are all dead(sounds like a barbarian) when you get to act 2 put 5 on bone spear and use this concept: bone bone bone hack hack hack bone bone bone hack hack hack, since you have that sword that has mana steal you can keep on doing bone spear while the enemy is distracted by you blood golem. fight duriel by doing a bone armor and a blood golem and have lots of skeletons. sure you might say skeltons suck but you can surround him with skeletons and he cant move so all you gots to do you bone spear him to death HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHA. after that, do lots of maniacal laughter and go to the hospital because you laughing makes a hole in your vocal cord and you spend the rest of your life in the hospital never talking to anybody again, ever.
havent beaten act 3 yet so i cant help youthere when you level up you shouyld put 3 or 2 on strenght each time and at least one on mana. when your strenght gets to 100, then put 1 on every 2 levels because you wont need anymore strenght. the spell you want to focus on is bone spear and bone spirit. even if you do plan to use corpse explosion, dont put more than 1 beacuse you should already have a lot of skill bonuses. the best curse is iron maiden(duh) because whoever hits you gets a lot more damage back. it is the same as throns except its a curse so its better. Remeber the hospital? well by now you should have healed to start using iron maiden. do iron maiden on bunch of guys and start laughing again HAHAHAHAHAHAHHA. But wait, then you realize that doctors only gave you medicine and didnt stich up your vocal cord so this time the laughing rips your lungs in half and you miseralby live on a resperator as the evil nurse taunts you by making you watch mad tv and hype everyday

Dongxu

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I've read all the necro strategy guides on this site and I'd like to offer something different. Here's some strategy tips by a REGULAR gamer for REGULAR gamers. Those tips to equip 6 uniques and max out 30th level skills are all well and good, but they require a massive time commitment for the long haul. For those of you that view DII as a game and not a lifestyle, I offer some suggestions that you can use to have fun in a single play-thru on normal level. These tips are NOT designed as a precise formula for a 60th lvl super character in mind. I've played 3 necromancers, but none of them past normal difficulty and none past 30th level.
You can beat the game once through as a generalist, but you will be more effective if you pick a style. As I see it, there are 4 basic approaches - the poison necro, the Iron Maiden necro, the Army of Darkness necro, and the Direct Damage necro.
The Army of Darkness strategy is one where you simply raise a huge army of minions. Your primary skills are raise skeleton, raise skeleton mage, and skeleton mastery. It has a very high "coolness" factor. You will see epic battles with creatures dying all around you. Your undead legion can have a damage output factor unrivalled in the game. This is the strategy I used with my first necro. The big advantage is, of course, that your minions do your fighting for you. You are rarely in danger. You can clear entire levels without taking a single mana or hit point off. The disadvantage is the heavy reliance on corpses and the obsolesence of spells. The farther in the game you get, the less powerful your minions are compared to the monsters. You'll need more and more corpses to keep replacing your losses. Since you can't raise the corpses of your own minions, you can find yourself with a destroyed army and no corpses with which to raise a new one. You are then up sh*t creek without a paddle. An annoyance with this strategy is that your minions can tend to block your way getting around town and through narrow passages. If you want to follow this strategy, put your points into skeleton mastery and look for wands of raise skeleton in act I then switch to wands of raise skeleton mage in act II. That way you're less locked into the lower power spells.
The direct damage strategy concentrates on the bone spells. Your primary skills are teeth and bone spear. This strategy uses your minions as blockers while you fire off spells from the rear. I used this strategy for my latest necromancer character. One advantage is that the bone spells are all highly effective. Even Teeth can be effective throughout the game at high enough levels. Unlike with minions or curses, you can decide where the bulk of your damage is going to be done. You can hit the shamans and boss monsters directly. This will let you get through fights much quicker. Another advantage is that you aren't reliant at all on corpses. The main disadvantage of this is that it is very mana intensive. Try to find a socketed helmet and some skulls as soon as possible. Another disadvantage is that there is no direct damage spell between levels 1 and 18. Teeth will have to last you well into act II.
The poison necro concentrates on, obviously, the poison spells. Your primary skills are poison dagger and poison explosion. The advantage of this is the efficiency. Due to the "damage over time" aspect, poison generally gives a lot more bang for the buck than other attacks. The poison necro has the advantage of not being dependent on either mana or corpses to be effective. This can be considerable at higher levels - a poisoned dagger stab can do 40 or more times the mana cost in poison damage in addition to whatever the dagger itself does. The main disadvantage is time. Poison doesn't stack, so you will have to run around jabbing every monster and wait for the poison to take effect. And while they're dying from the poison, the monsters are still attacking you and your minions. It gets a little better at 18th level when you can use poison explosion to poison several monsters at once. The other disadvantage of this approach is that you have to build a very specialized character around it by assigning stats and getting equipment which will help you in melee instead of spellcasting. Like the poison strategy, the iron maiden strategy is efficient. It concentrates on cursing your enemies, primarily with the iron maiden spell. I used this theme my second time as a necro. A variation is to use corpse explosion instead of iron maiden. The point is the same - to use your enemies against themselves. Both spells are relatively cheap (especially iron maiden) and don't rely much on corpses. Corpse explosion tends to make its own corpse for the next explosion. The main disadvantages here are time and lack of control. It's difficult to control when or where particular monsters die. If you are using this strategy, a good tactic is to run out ahead of your minions and bring groups of monsters chasing you back to them. Try to get them to cluster around your minions to make good spell targets. You can find +3 iron maiden or corpse explosion wands fairly early in the game if you check the shop frequently.
Whatever strategy you use, realize that you will have around 30 skill points to work with total by the time you get to the end of act IV. I would suggest reserving a third to a half of those points for the primary skills and spread the rest around one or two points each to other skills to maintain versatility. Yes, you may be able to go through the entire game with nothing but iron maiden, but how much fun would it be? The exception to this is the poison spells. I found if you aren't going to concentrate in them, you might as well ignore them entirely.
Some general tips:
You will find some people that swear by bone armor. A single point in it will save your life early on but later monsters will strip away your armor in one hit. It also doesn't work against magic. You get far more stat points than skill points. Consider saving precious skill points and putting stat points into vitality occasionally instead.
Look for a wand that enhances golem skills. Use this wand to summon a golem, then switch out to whatever you regularly use. >From my tests, the golem will keep the extra abilities. It's a pain to do in the middle of battle, but it's easy to do between fights and gives you a stronger golem for free.
Everyone seems to ignore iron golems. If you don't need the money a really nice magic weapon can make for a great iron golem. Mephisto dropped a unique maul for me which I used to summon an iron golem from at the start of act IV. That golem lasted throughout the first two levels of hell. Best money I ever spent.
Don't overlook dim vision or terror. Cast dim vision on enemy archers and they will be unable to fire at you. It's especially handy against those annoying flayer blowdarts or clusters full of shamans. Terror isn't very useful most of the time but it can be a real life saver in an emergency. When your army collapses and you're going to be surrounded, or the monsters are clustered too thick for you to break into a room, terrorize them and it gives you some breathing room for a few seconds.
Try to make end runs around minion monsters and get next to the shaman or mummy who is raising them. Then resummon your golem right next to him and the golem will attack him instead of wasting time on the minions. Plus while he's fighting the golem, he won't be ressurecting his little friends.
Consider using a bow from levels 6-12. Skeletons aren't very strong, but once you get your clay golem he can keep the enemy busy and you can pick them off from a distance at no mana cost.
Realize that iron maiden only does damage when the monsters hit. If you're facing a lot of little annoyances that aren't doing a lot of damage, switch to amplify damage instead.
Attract can be very useful in a pinch. Use it on a monster in back instead of terror once you get to level 24. It can also help a lot against oblivion knights. Attract will cause oblivion knights to hack each other down in seconds. Keep a watchful eye out for resistance gear. Necros are one of the few classes that never get any way to increase their resistances. Gathering poison resistance in act I will help out greatly in killing Andariel and against the undead in act II. If you don't have good lightning resistance, let your minions do the talking to Scarabs. Their charged bolts will kill you quickly.
Watch out for the maggot lair and the Arcane Sanctuary. Your minions will trap you in those narrow corridors easily. Consider using only your golem in these zones for that reason. If you do use skeletons, try to get fire mages in the lair as the insect swarms are very vulnerable to fire. I wouldn't recommend skeletons in the Sanctuary at all. They will often trap you on a patch of fire and they won't move off of it.
Remember that monsters can only be affected by one curse at a time. You can't stack life tap and iron maiden, for instance.
At low levels, refresh your bone armor whenever you're in town. Then you can visit the healer and get the mana right back. That way you'll always be walking back into combat with full mana and full armor up.
Don't run too far ahead of your minions. If they lose sight of you for too long, they will disappear. This can be a rude shock at first if you run into a group of enemy and find your undead army isn't behind you anymore.
Mercenaries are often well worth investing in. With other characters, they tend to die often. But the necromancer's minions generally present enough targets for the monsters as it is that it's easy to keep the mercenary alive. A cold mage's freeze in act III can really help set the targets up for your skeleton mages to take down.

Patrick

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Hi, these are just general Necromancer tips.
I will have to agree with most of the other tips and say forget about dexterity. It will be completely useless most of the time since you probably won't do any melee fighting.
Beginning:
In the first few levels, try to get an item like bloodfist to increase your health. When you level up, mainly concentrate stat points into energy and strength. Stop at strength when you get to around 100 w/o any strength-enhancing items. Then begin adding to your vitality and keep adding to energy. With my necro, I stopped adding to strength at level 15 and from then on have been putting points into vitality and energy.
I don't really suggest putting many points into teeth. Two points is probably enough. Put several points into bone armor, since it is extremely useful later on. (I went to act4 at level23 and thru the entire outer steppes I took a total of ten damage, fighting all of the monsters, with bone armor on.) I would put several points into corpse explosion as well. It is a very useful spell when you are stuck in a room with a lot of guys.
Put one into clay golem, but a lot into golem mastery.
I don't suggest putting a lot, if any, into poison dagger.

Middle(levels 12-24)
Put A LOT of points into iron maiden. This is an incredible skill. One of the good things about it is that it only costs 5 mana!
Level 18 is very important. Put one into blood golem, and a lot into bone spear. Bone spear is also incredible. That is mainly what you need at level 18.
At level 24, put a point into iron golem. You will need it to be able to get fire golems.

Later(Levels 30+)
At thirty, begin putting a lot into bone spirit. While bone spirit does not pass through its target, it does a lot more damage than bone spear and is more useful against bosses like Duriel and Diablo.

Items to get:
Weapon: Ume's Lament. +2 to necro skill levels and +40 to mana is mainly why. Later on, in nightmare/hell modes, you might find an even better wand.
Armor: Goldskin or Silks of the Victor. Silks is good because it adds 1 to all skill levels, but Goldskin might be more useful later to make up for the resistance loss in nightmare and hell modes.
Helm: Wormskull. +1 to skills, and +10 to mana. The other abilities are nice to.
Shield: I would have to say you should use the Sigon Shield. It has a very high chance of blocking (higher than 60%), and adds to your skills.
Belt: Nightsmoke or Lenymo. I mainly use these for the addition to mana. The resistances are also very nice.
Boots: Use something like Tearhaunch or Vidala's Fetlock. The fetlock is very nice as it adds to your stamina and gives FASTEST (very important) run/walk.
Gloves: You guessed it, Frostburn. These are excellent becuase they add to maximum mana by 40%.
Jewelry: The Stone of Jordan is your ring of choice. The skill bonus is awesome and the mana is great. For the amulet, I would just get something that adds to mana or resistances in the beginning. Then get something that adds to skill levels and gives resistances. In the beginning, you might also like to use the Eye of Etlich.
By the way, don't put too much, if any, into skelletons. They are really only useful in act1 normal. Good Luck.

Deathbringer

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Hi, I've heard a lot of tips about killing Duriel. I will add one as well.
First of all, I think that Duriel is very difficult to kill and you should not be surprised if you die your first time fighting him. In case you don't know, his melee attack will deal around 27 damage (in normal difficulty). He also uses an aura that is similar to the Paladin's holy freeze aura, so bring some thawing potions. He also has an array of other abilities/attacks.
Ok, here's what you do. First of all, you need a lot of skill points in iron maiden and bone spear. Hopefully, you will have items that add to skill levels so your bone spear will be around 5 or 6 and maiden around 7 of 8.
Get yourself a blood golem and insert the horadric staff into the orifice. Have your bone spear set to the left mouse button and iron maiden on right mouse button. Open up a town portal before stepping into the chamber. Now, step into the chamber. Duriel will appear and will start hacking at you. Before he does this, put on an iron maiden on him. If you did this, he will take about 500 damage every time he hits you or your golem. Now begin running around the room and hitting him with bone spear. The big problem is that the room is very small. Duriel will probably kill you once or twice, but that is not a problem since you have your portal right outside the chamber. If you die, repeat this process (The golem, portal, maiden+spear). Each time that you die, you will deal 1000+ damage to him. Remember, in single player, he only has about 2000 HP, so you might die once or twice before he does.
This strategy worked for me, good luck using it. By the way, don't try fighting Duriel if you are under level 21 becuase he will probably kill you extremely quickly unless you are REALLY good.

Deathbringer

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well i'm a lvl35 necro and i have never had to use and never will have iron maiden i am in act 2 nightmare and i kick ass without it i have skill lvl10 bone spear and skill lvl9 bone spirit i don't need iron maiden and also for the lower lvls in act 4 normal a good way to kill diablo is to runn around him in circles while using a blood golem or fire and use bone spear or spirit until he dies also if you are a lvl 30 use revives but get the storm casters you have a better chance with them since they fly

Sir Kidhowmoon

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Hey sup fellow necros...I have a good strat for building a necro. The key is specialization. What you need is to add about 10 points to blood golem and 1 to golem mastery and resistance. Max out iron maiden and bone spirit. The blood golem/iron maiden combo will be your primary attack. Put about 1 into corpse explosion. For dueling you will need decrepify and bone wall. Dont waste time with bone armor, it becomes futile in the hell difficulty because the creatures are so strong. Now your asking why just one skill point into golem mastery, decrepify, corpse explosion and bone wall right? well its because you should find items to give you plus one skills. You should get at least plus 3 i currently have up to plus 4 right now. Ideally you should get ume lament wand, plus 1 amulet, signon's shield, worm skull, frostburns, silk, SOJ, and fastest run boots. so even though you add 1 skill point you will automatically have 4 to 5. Finally, your stats points should be managed to max str 100. dex no points, vit 50, and the rest to mana.

AlucardofUCR

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O.K, O.K. Death here. The mother of all necros. LV 85 Hardcore. What I have done after trying every possible skill path, (sad I know)is this.
Right believe what everyone says about skeletons. They are poor. However skeleton mages and skeleton mastery are awesome. They act as archers and destroy targets from afar. Seens from braveheart and gladiators come to mind. Remember the archers. Put both to 20.
Iron maiden is not like the band name sake, it is actually awesome, but you don't need me to tell you that.
Blood golem Saves you money on potions and is good to upgrade. So is golem mastery.
Bone spirit is your own security badge, and dont be shy to stamp it on anything that comes too close and asks for your i.d. Don't waste skills on bone spear others e.t.c you wont use it later on. You won't need to if you have loads of hard skeleton mages and iron maiden. Then in later lvs i.e 30+ start on revive and because skeleton mastery is high you own an army of darkness with multiple attacks. It cuts through diablo's hordes like a knife through butter.
Remember Diablo is not like the film commando, or conan the barbarain. If you outnumber them you kill them, there will be too many to kill and against pvp it lags the screen and you destroy low connection 56k guys. 90 kills + to my name.

Death

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Spending skills/stat points:
When increasing stats, you should not worry about dex at all. Ignoring it gives you more time to increase your mana level and strength. Strength is important to be able to equip certain useful items, like silks, sigons guard and frostburn gauntlets. Vitality is important later on, to survive the rouge hits from hell difficulty mosters. Its a good idea to balance strength, vitality and energy as best you can, get all to about 100 and leave dexterity at base level. then spend points at your leisure, focusing mainly on mana. (My charater has almost 1000 mana now, and it is no longer a concern)

Summoning spells: Its best to ignore skeletons, as well as skeleton mastery, (I'm almost lvl 60 and I have skeleton mastery at 0) Only invest one in raise skeleton and possilbly around 2-4 into magi to tide you over until you reach higher levels, when revive will be your tool. Golems are an asset, although not worth anymore points than what is needed to cast them, 1. Golem mastery is a useful skill, but should not be overdone. Revives are useful. But you shouldn't need more than 10.

Curses: Most curses are not useful. Only place one point in amplify damage and then 20 into iron maiden. Which is the most useful necro skill. (excellent when coupled with blood golem and a few revives to distract. All other curses should be ignored, with possibly the exception of decreptify which might be useful in dueling. Although you would have to waste a couple of points to get it.

Poison and bone spells: First of all, poison is weak and slow, and damage does not stack with multiple spells cast... not needed at any level of play.I recomend not spending any points there at all. Bone spells are essential. at lower levels, but do not waste time with teeth, increase bone spear until you can get bone spirit, then max the spirit. Once you have a fairly strong magical attack, put one point into bone armor and bone wall. The extra health from the armor is marginaly useful if you cast it often. (use a hotkey) And bone wall is an assest against lightning enchanted enemies... its also a convienient barrier, to keep the mosters concentrated on your golem and revives. It is also very useful as a shield against frozen orb and multishot in duels.

Equipment: When considering the best equipment for a necro, usually abilities involving skill increase and mana are the best. Defense and high weapon damage is not needed. An unorthodox strategy is to equip your necro with a bow until you get a decent attack spell (lvl 18). You should never be attacking somthing melee.. that is not the point of a necro at all. Get items like frostburn and stone of jordan to increase your mana drastically. Nightsmoke is also a useful belt, unless a rare that adds mana can be found. The ultimate armor is silks of the victor for the skills, although twitchthrowe is very useful when coupled with sigons guard for a very high block rate. Of course sigons guard is the obvious choice for a shield. It adds essential skills and the high block rate saves you more than you might expect. Some say a pavise or tower shield with 3 perfect diamonds is nessesary to beat hell difficulty, but i've not needed it. Its up to you, both are good choices. But ultimately the block rate is the most important aspect of a sheild, thats what they are for right? If you can get Ume's lament, it is the best wand available, with fastest cast and increase in mana, not to mention +2 to skills. If you can't find umes, a necromancers wand with a +3 bonus to iron maiden would be a good choice, If it had of the magus and wyrms modifiers, concievably it would be much better than Umes lament is. Good luck finding one! 8) For a helm use either wormskull or tarnhelm for skills. Or perhaps find a rare helm with high life or mana mod on it. Its basically free game there. Any boots with fastest run/walk modifiers are extremely useful. Amulets and rings that add skills and mana are a must. High addition to mana and life are needed, life drain and mana drain are not (since you never attack right?) this is a basic outline. Overall, increase your skills and mana as much as you can... defense is not important, but block rate is.

Dueling: The most importand ability in dueling is bone spirit. It is what you deal damage with. When attacking characters from afar, fire many bone spirits in a few directions to maximize spread and minimize the chance that they dodge them. If you fire bone spirits very far distances, they do not track the target and become invisible to the victim, causing a surprising and unexpected death if they actually hit. Also keep a golem around to attract other characters bone spirits and guided arrows.
Each class of opponent requires a slighly different fighting strategy. When fighting barbarians, use iron maiden, and cast bone walls at them when they begin to attack, causing them to kill themselves. Leap attack negates this, so you better have a good sheild for that reason. always keep them on thier toes with plenty of bone spirits, but do not try to completely overcome them with that unless they are lower leveled.
When fighting Amazons your shield will be your savior, but the only way to kill them effectively is make sure you keep them running. by not letting up on spirits. You must keep your distance to avoid the slow missile spell, which will eliminate your threat. If the amazon uses mutlishot, defend using bone wall. Keep your golem busy chasing the amazon and try to avoid the valkerie from attracting your spirits.
When fighting paladins, again use iron maiden and bone wall against charge. If they use hammers, just continuously fire spirits at them, and they will be no match, just keep your distance. never let them get into melee range to use smite or zeal against you.
Against a sorcerous, it is difficult to predict what tactic they will use, they have many spells at thier disposal. Generally cast bone wall against frozen orb and be careful of teleporting.They can easily get away from bone spirits with teleport, so you will just have to catch them off guard. Generally it is difficulty to duel a skilled sorceress, you must capitalize on mistakes, and hit home with a few spirits. generally a few should kill most.
When fighting a fellow necromancer, it is a battle of bone spirits and dodging. Fire many at your enemy and use a golem to attract his shots. Using decreptify on the enemy prevents him from getting away from your spirits in time, this works for any characters of course. Also use of bone wall creates additonal targets for spirits, reducing the chance that they go for you.


Good Luck to all upcoming Necromancers. (SinCrafter USEast)

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OK, so what if my Necro is only lv 17? I still know alot about the game. All you really need is a lot of luck. My Necro has a unique Claymore that does 13-30 reg damg, 1-8 lightning, hit-and-run (You hit the monsters and they run away), +92 to attack rating and +1 mana after each kill. The rest of my stuff may suck, but I have good skills. Try to invest:
3-4 points in bone armor
1 point in any golem
2-3 points in bone spear/spirit
1-2 points in teeth
2-5 points in golem mastery
2-5 points in iron maiden (kicks ass)
1 point in amplify damage (just in case)
1 point in weaken (needed for iron maiden)
1-2 points in revive
1 point in corpse explosion (don't get me wrong, i just never need to use it)
I don't really have a strategy, just hit and run or find whatever you like the best, since no two people's startegy's ever agree.


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If your a Necromancer taking down Mephisto is easy. First, you need to draw him out. Run into his layer and then quickly run back out. You don't want him following you. You just want to activate him. Once activated run back into the main room. Carefully move forward until you can just barely see the steps where Mesphisto is. Cast a Golem spell on those steps and Mesphisto will go there and kill it. Once he's at the steps he stay's there, and if your not too close you can see him but he doesn't see you. Now you can easily kill him using Iron Maiden and Clay Golem spells.

Rick

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Hey i have a level 25 necro, and i have a few tips for you. Only put ONE point into teeth, it doesn't do SQUAT in act 3 and up. Skills to learn: Iron Maiden, Life Tap, Bone Spear\Spirit, Corpse Explosion, Blood\Iron Golem,and Amplify Damage. Don't put one point into Skeletons they suck.

-Zeratul

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Well the necromancer can be the best character if you train him properly. First of all, some people think raise skeleton sucks. Well it doesent, because early in the game you can just get a whatever weapon you want and just raise your skeletons and let them fight. Put two skill points here, one into skelton mastery, two into mages, two into clay golem, 3-5 into blood golem, 3-4 into fire golem and 4-5 into bone spear and bone spirit. also put a couple of points into summon resist, life tap and revive. my weapon of choice is the hordraic staff. Well have fun!

Shadow the Necro

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My necro is Lv15 and I know much already. Ok this is a continuation of the previous guide. U should have 3 sketons without a wand now stop putting any more into skeletons and put more into skelton mastery. When u hit Lv 12 get iron maiden and some mages this should help the skeletons and golem. Try to hire a Lv 10 cold arrow rouge a good addition to the team. Try to not let them die so that they can lv up as u do. Heres a trick to help your minions cast iron maiden on the monster as your minions hit it, run to it hit it and run back the monster should give your minons some free hits thats it for now.


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I may not have a very high necro (lvl 50 act 4 hell) but i know what im doing! When it comes to raising a necro, its easy! All you need is blood golem, iron maiden, corpse explosion, bone spear/spirit, and revivides! ill explain them all. Blood golem and iron maiden is a good combo, think of it this way everytime a monster cursed with iron maiden hits your blood golem, he and you both get life back while he gets hurt, its simple, right? thats your survival! revivides, they are their to keep anything else back that the golem cant handle (to busy with other monsters). Bone spear, good even in hell mode at lvl 7! i use it only once in a while in hell. Bone spirit, good for anything the gets to close to you. Corpse explosion, when you have shamans or any kind of reviving monsters, make the corpse explode hurting all baddies within the range. Thats all i have to say, those skills i just pointed out are vital for survival as a necromancer.

Sylkis

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This is the way to make a cool necromancer.
You start with putting your skill points into blood golem when you reach v.18.Before that you have to learn iron maiden. When you have learned blood golem start putting points on golem mastery and bone spear until you`ve maxed them both.Also save about 4-5 points to summon resist. WARNING don`t put more than 1 point on blood golem!!! Now your golem willl almost be invincible,and he drains tonns of life too you with iron maiden.You will defeat Diablo ALONE with bone spear. When you have reached about level 50.You may start learning bone spirit,because Diablo may be a little hard on hell without it. Pump strenght,mana and a bit on vitality. I promise,this character kick ASS !!!

Baron Crovax lv.51 necro

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This strategy works for Necromancers in act II (It has not been tested in later acts. Get your golem up to level 3, your skeleton mages up to level 2 and your poison dagger up to level 3. Don't foget Iron maiden it helps. You must pump your dexderity up to 45 so that you may handle a Kris. Get a Kris with about +90 attack rating and activate Poison dagger. When playing create golems and 2 Skeletal mages to work for you then activate bone shield. have your underlings handle the main fight while you run up occasionally and refresh your golems, Iron maiden curse, and skeletons. About every 10 seconds run up to the group and stab all of them once with your dagger the retreat and keep cursing. The golem should take them out for you. Boss strategies... Countess--Cast curses and golems then stab her without stopping unless your golem dies. It golem dies you must run away and rechage him. Andariel--This is a hard battle with the poison strategy. You must equip teeth as you basic attack and amplify damage as you secondary. Cast town portal outside in level 3 of the catacombs. Go to level four and kill all lesser monsters in outer room. Open the door and draw andariel out. !DO NOT LET HER TOUCH YOU!
Run around the pit of blood in her floor. Curse her then cast teeth. when she poisons you use antidote. If you run out of potions retreat to level 3 and take town portal back to town. Refill potions and go back to level 3, cast another town portal for retreat again. It took me an hour to beat her. My character is just starting act 2 more strategy later.

Lord_Necromage.

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If played right, necromancers can be the best class in Diablo II. The key to a good necromancer is skill point assignment. Put NO POINTS into skeleton or skeleton mastery. At higher levels, the skeletons are useless. Put one point into each golem. Put a lot of points into golem mastery, corpse explosion, and iron maiden. Also put one point into summon resist, but any points after that are a waste. Specialize in either bone spear or bone spirit. If you plan on reaching high levels, I suggest bone spirit because it is easy to aim and dishes out massive amounts of damage with enough skill points. Bone spear is good through nightmare, but becomes far less effective in hell, even when maxed out. Save all your points for these skills and put one point into theprerequisite skills. Here is mystrategy before you have bone spirit: before entering a room, cast blood golem. When melee monsters begin to surround the golem, cast iron maiden on them. When one or two monsters are down, cast corpse explosion and if it is ata high enough level, it will damage or kill all monsters in the room. Cast it again with the new corpses and starta chain reaction until all monsters are dead. Because this method requires a lot of mana, you should concentrate on putting points into corpse explosion as soon as you can so that it is moreeffective. Also put 1-3 stat points into energy every time you level up until you think you have enough mana to last an entire battle. Even though monsters with ranged or magical attacks are not effected by the iron maiden/golem combonation, corpse explosion will kill them. If there are no melee monsters in the room, cast your golem and stand back. Even though it is slow, the golem will eventually kill one of the monsters on its own. If it dies, recast it. Because you have high golem mastery, the golem will not die too often. Also, it helps the golem to cast amplify damage on the monster it is attacking (you should have one point in it as it is a prerequisite to iron maiden). Once the golem kills a monster, cast corpse explosion on it. If you can get a chain reaction going, great, but you are still okay if none of the other monsters die. They are now all weakened a lot, and the golem will kill another soon. Then you should have no problem starting a chain reaction. As a necromancer, you should NEVER have yourbase strength above 80 (your strength without boosting items). 80 is the best, but any more and the additional items you can get are not worth it. Even if you get silks of the victor (+1 to all skills), do not put anymore points into strength. You will soon need to ditch it in favor of goldskin(+30 to all resistances), to make up for the resistance loss in nightmare and hell. Otherwise, you will die a lot faster, even with your +1 skills. Also, do not put any points into dexterity. You will not rely on standard weapons at any time other than act 1 normal, and you do not need anymore dexterity than you start out with. What does it matter that you can't hit anything if you're not trying to hit anything? So put points into strength until it reaches 80, energy until you can fight an entire battle (if you start running out of mana during battles, remember to put points into energy next time you level up), and whatever is left into vitality. Once you get bone spirit to a level where it does a good amount of damage, use it to kill what looks like the most powerful non-unique monster and then use corpse explosion. You should have bone spirit set as your left mouse button attack almost all of the time. Use golems to distract enemies while using bone spirit and corpse explosion or you will die very quickly. This is another reason for a high golem mastery so you will not have to waste valuable time recasting golems during a fight. Some people say bone armor is the way to go, but I disagree. Bone armor sucks up a lot of points to remain effective during nightmare and hell. Also, you must re-cast it during or before every battle. So you have a choice- you can have less points in the needed areas and another spell to cast before every battle or you can put points where they will actually help you kill enemies. Bone armor takes uppoints and makes your character more defensive, and if you use my strategy, you will be on the offensive almost all of the time and won't need bone armor anyway. If you are looking for set, rare, and unique items, I have a great way to find what you want. I found out that you can go to the secret cow level as many times as you want after you can get there once. You just go to the stony field (in normal) and find the portal to Tristram. Go in and find the wirt's leg again. You can pick it up as long as you don't have another wirt's leg in your inventory. Then follow the same instructions you did to get to the secret cow the first time. Once in the cow level, find the cabin. The cow king always hangs out near the cabin. Once you kill the cow king, he will always drop a rare, unique,or set item (usually rare or unique). Then just save and exit, re-enter on normal, find the wirt's leg again,and go back to the secret cow level for another item. If you are looking for a specific item, it can take a long time, but you may find many other good items while searching. Make sure you hang on to items like goldskin armor, +1 or 2 to all skills wands, +1 or 2 to necromancers skills amulets, stone of jordan rings, wormskull bone helm, nightsmoke belt, frostburn gauntlets, and sigon's guard shield. These will really help any necromancer. If you realize that your necromancer is good now but will suck at higher levels, you may want to think seriously about restarting your character. Good luck necromancers, glad I could help.

Brona

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What ruins most necromancers is their lack of patients. When the game first begins don't spend all of your skill points on skeletons, skeleton mastery, clay golem, teeth, corpse explosion etc... You should only spend one point dim-vision, clay golem and teeth because you need them to advance along the skill tree. While very usefulYou only need on skill point invested in corpse explosion since enemies group together when attacking and only the radius not the strength of corpse explosion is increased by upgrading and the mana cost goes up steeply. A key point is not to invest any skill points in anything having to do with skeletons. They are too week in the later game and you cannot get those skill points back. The trick is to save your skill points for later in the game. The first spell that you will be able to use that will help you on a permeate basis and is worth pumping skill points into is iron maiden. This is by far the best spell you will use in the entire game. You should make getting this skill to level 20 your first priority. Many people think that level one is all you need but that is simply not the case. In the game there are many bosses and creatures that can deal out a ton of damage but don't have that much life(so you have a chance to kill them) iron maiden combined with a golem can take out almost any unique character or boss with ease because iron maiden deals more damage to them than you could ever hope to deal out yourself. Another mistake would be necromancers make is that they think they need good weapons and armor so they can melee. From levels 1 to 18 all you need is your original weapon. It only cost 1 to repair no matter how damaged it is, it has amplified damage against undead which is what you see most of in ACT-1 and gives you a skeleton. Once you get to level 18 you will be able to use bone spear as your direct damage of choice from a good safe distance. However, don't invest more than 1 skill point into bone spear instead get a +3 bone spear wand. A good idea is to make bone spear your primary attack so you wont have to repair your expensive wand. When you reach level 30 you should almost have iron maiden to sklv 20 so your next task should be to get bone spirit to sklv 20. This spell does massive damage and no mater what any one says is more useful than bone spear. You should be sure to invest some skill points into other areas, blood golem(1), golem mastery(1), summon resist(1), iron golem(1), revive (1), bone armor (1). Remember though your primary spells are corpse explosion iron maiden/golem(blood) bone spear(18-29) and bone spirit(30-99). As far as armor and weapons go don't look for attack and defense because after lv 18 you wont be fighting directly look for abilities, +# to all necromancer abilities is choice as well as resistances seeing how most damage you take will come from magic. When choosing a shield look for blocking % since most attacks on you will be ranged attacks and magic. For stats get your strength to level 100 you don't need anything more than that. You don't need dexterity since you won't be fighting directly; any investment in dexterity is a waste. Vitality is a must have because you will have to run a lot to avoid direct combat and lead enemies toward your golem. Energy is also a must have because or the high costs of your magics.

Portent the Necromancer

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Ok, I have been reading the other Necromancer strats, and I must say, some of them are very misleading
I have a level 67 Necro, and I can tell you right now, Bone Spear is inferior to Bone spirit. A high level necro has no need AT ALL for bone spear. No tracking, half the damage. Sure, it costs half the mana, but at high levels, mana is not an issue. You want more damage per CAST. Bone spear does not cast any faster than bone spirit, and thus it is inferior.
These are the skills you should invest in
Fire Golem/Blood Golem - It doesn't matter which way you go, both are good. Spend a few points in 1, but not too many
Golem Mastery - Coupled with Iron Maiden, this skill is mandatory. Put at least 10 points into this
Bone Spirit - Once you get bone spirit, start putting 1 point per level into it. Max this skill out, it will be your best skill
Iron Maiden - The best curse, invest heavily in this, I would recommend at least 12, but more if you can, try and max it out
Revive - Stupid as they may be, they can be helpful. Don't put too many points here, as each point only allows you one extra revive, but get this up to about 10 (with skill adding gear equipped)
Skeleton Mastery - This helps a lot with your revives, put another 10-12 points here
Corpse Explosion - Even though it has been downgraded, it is still good. It is useful in the Secret Cow Level, if for nothing else.
Bone Prison - This has not been mentioned at all. A well placed bone prison, with iron maiden, can work wonders. Put about 3-4 points here. The life by the side is misleading. It will actually take a fair few hits, and it doesn't cost much to cast.
Stat point wise, get up to 75 strength, this will allow you to equip a 3D (3 Perfect Diamond Tower shield, great for resists) or Signon's Guard. If you plan on using silks, raise it to 100, but I don't really see the need for that if you are not going to use Silks
DO NOT PUT A SINGLE POINT INTO DEXTERITY! Any point there is completely wasted. You will NOT be engaging in Melee combat for long, maybe up to the end of act 2. Vitality is good, but in the early levels, put only 1 point into it. Later (when you have reached 75 (or 100 strength, depends on your choice) start putting 2 points here.
Energy is the most vital stat. Put 3 points here every level. By level 30 you will want over 100 in energy, by 40, 130, and by 50 at least 150. Mana is vital for Necromancers. Along with this, try and get frostburns (unique gauntlets) and Stone of Jordan (unique ring) These Items will raise your base mana by 40% and 25% respectively. Try and get 2 soj's, if you can.
Finally, Armour means nothing to a necromancer over level 30. Try and get either Garb (Unique light plate, this is what I use, it is perfect for a necro), or you could try Goldskin, Silks of the Victor is also a viable option. However, I realise these items may be hard to find. If you cannot find them, get a nice rare mage plate with +resists and +life.
Good luck with your necro, if you train it right, it should be your best character.

Zane

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I'm now halfway in Act III at level 25 and can only give some advice for all you Necros out there, but it's precious. Don't waste too many skill points into Clay Golem and Teeth at the start. At most two, to handle the earlier monsters in Act I. Pour a few points into Iron Maiden once you can. It'll come in very handy when used with a Level 1 or 2 Blood Golem, especially in Act II against Duriel. Put lots of points into Bone Spear but don't go overboard. A Level 4-5 Bone Spear comes in very handy in the later stages, when monsters swarm all over you. In Act III, acquire Iron Golem as fast as you can. It's more effective than Clay or Blood Golems. Every time you start the game, buy a magical item before engaging in battle. Then summon an Iron Golem from it when you need it.
As for Skeletons, don't put too many points into them, as they are rendered helpless in the later stages of Act II and beyond. Even Skeletal Mages aren't very effective, so Golems would work best. In Acts I and II, use the mercenaries as decoys when fighting the bosses. I'll give you tips on how to beat the bosses and sub-bosses in Acts I and II below.

ACT I
Blood Raven: She's really fast and fires powerful arrows. Use skeletons to hold off her minions while you chase after her yourself. Bone Armor and a good temporary weapon are highly recommended.
Griswold: This guy may pose a problem to non-Necromancers, but for you Necros out there, it's easy. Use Skeletons (and Skeletal Magi if you have them) to hold the other monsters off. Summon a Clay Golem to attack Griswold. Use Iron Maiden and Teeth to help your Golem.
Andariel: She surprised me as she was much more powerful than the other pushover monsters. I almost died of poison. I suggest several Antidote and Health Potions in your belt. One or two Light Mana Potions would be quite good too. Hire a mercenary and summon Skeletons and Skeletal Magi to fight her. A Golem of any type would be effective too. As you fight, keep casting Teeth and Iron Maiden against her. She'll die really fast this way.

ACT II
Radament: He shouldn't be that hard. Even the path that leads to him poses little peril. Use whatever you've got to whack him hard. After defeating him, use the Book of Skill wisely.
Cold Worm the Devourer: Hack your way through the Sand Maggot Lair. The Sand Maggots are really irritating, but not really a problem. But when you reach Cold Worm, he's surrounded by a swarm of Sand Maggot minions! Use your own minions to kill them while you cast Iron Maiden and Bone Spear (Teeth if you don't have Bone Spear) By the time you reach Cold Worm, you can just finish him off easily. No sweat.
Fang Skin: No big deal. In the Claw Viper Temple, just keep a steady supply of Life and Mana Potions on hand. Then use your minions to clear the way. If your minions are almost overpowered, a few Bone Spears should be enough to finish off the Claw Vipers. Fang Skin is easily killed in the same way as his minions.
The Summoner: Alone, he is no big deal. But finding him is really hard. The Arcane Sanctuary is swarming with monsters. I sometimes felt I'd rather die than fight! But hire a mercenary and summon a few minions. Then hack your way through the Arcane Sanctuary till you find him. Kill his minions, then use a few well aimed Bone Spears to finish him off.
Duriel: This guy was nothing less than a nightmare. The path that leads to him wasn't very different from the other paths. But when you fight him... Before you enter Tal Rasha's Chamber, open a Town Portal outside. You'll need it. Duriel is alone and doesn't have any minions when you battle him. But his claws take a handful out of my life. And before you know it, I'm dead. So use a Blood Golem and cast Iron Maiden on him. Also get ready to summon more Blood Golems. Don't waste your money hiring mercs coz they aren't any use here. One hit and he's dead. So just a Blood Golem and Iron Maiden should do.

Just to warn you, it all seems very easy here in typing. But the real action is real hard. So be prepared to kill and be killed. But then again, without that, where's the fun?

Necro Mike

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The necromancer can be equal to all other classes, if it is used properly. I say equal because Blizzard North has done a great job balancing the classes, and EVERY class has its weaknesses. I have a level 63 necro, and can solo in hell in 8-player games. The ideal necromancer would have the following skills

CURSES:
Iron Maiden (whatever level you want, its effective at any level)(I have it as my default curse)
Decrepify (It doesnt last long, so it would have to be used wisely)
Lower Resist(Don't bother pumping it, one point is enough with any +skills items)(This is my secondary curse, and it helps with any revived elemental attacks, my fire golem, and my bone spirits)
POISON/BONE:
Don't use poison, it is currently useless. Blizzard may change it in the future, though.
Bone Spirit (Max this out. It deals massive damage and can kill any monster that gets past your minions. It is the weapon of choice vs. bosses.)
Bone Armor (I have no clue why I use it, I just do. A good necromancer doesnt get hit, but a single hit will destroy any armor below level 10 in hell)
Bone Wall/Prison (not that useful, but hey. There are occasions, especially in PVP)
Bone Spear (I found myself discarding it at level 40 because my Bone Spirit did better damage. It can be a great spell, and cheap too, but in the future your minions will be doing the bulk fighting, and monsters become hard to line up)
SUMMONING SPELLS:
These are the bulk fighters of a Classical Necro Skeleton Mastery (not really, but at a high level can help your reviveds)
Skeletal Mage (Can even be useful in hell act 4)
Blood Golem (I use it sometimes, it can be useful, you wont have to quaff potions as much)
Fire Golem (Immunity to fire is helpful, and it deals the most damage of all golems and has the most hp)
Golem Mastery (useful)
Summon Resist (only put one point in here, its not worth a skill point for +3 resistance on minions that die in 3 minutes anyway)
Revive (your bulk fighting force. Curse their enemies for maximum effect. These almost always last their full 3 minutes. They may be hard to control, but learn patience and guide them into battle properly, and they will level the enemy. Get this to a decent level, maybe not 20, but enough to outnumber your enemy)

Those skill setups are for the Classical Necro. Obviously if you want to try a different setup, go right ahead. The necromancer has the most ways to be played, and you should consider if your playing style will really make use of each of these skills.

Baron Taramir, level 63 Necromancer

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Skills to maximize:
1. Bone Spear (kills everything, but bosses, in nightmare level with maximum of three shots)
2. Bone Armor (allows you to avoid getting damage when running around your golem)
3. Golem Mastery (Increase hit points of your golem)

Skills to invest several points:
1. Corpse Explosion (disable the corpse from hostile actions from other monsters/players)
2. Iron Maiden (help out your blood golem)

Skills to invest one single point:
1. Blood Golem (your best companion)
2. Clay Golem (better to use it when fighting bosses.)
3. Golem Resist (20-30% is enough)
4. skills that allow the above skills possible.

Popular, but yet unworthy skills:
1. Iron Golem (Do you have the time to push "i" and drag some metal stuff out for it when a gang of monsters are at your tail?)
2. Fire Golem (Not regenerating life as fast as Blood Golem)
3. Raise Skeleton, Skeletal Mage (At higher level, they simply block your emergency exit. Can cost your life!)
4. Revive (Monsters spend most of their time wondering around. Time limited, usually they aren't there when a fight begins)
5. Bone Spirit (cost more mana than bone spear, but make less damages. No control of target)

8 Function hotkeys:
1. Golem (switch between Blood/Clay depends on situations, blood golem cost too much life from your character when a powerful monster is encountered)
2. Bone Armor (Secure yourself when you sit back and let golem do the fighting)
3. Bone Spear (Vaporizes anything coming to get you, kill dead raising monsters without running thru an army on undead, as in act 2)
4. Iron Maiden (cast it on whenever Golem make a new friend)
5. Corpse Explosion (use it as soon as golem has killed a powerful monster)
6,7 customize
8. Town Portal (fast escape)
*Note that in combat time, F3 F4 F5 are most commonly used

I've Iron Maiden active when I'm running around looking for something to kill. It gives you couple seconds of vision when you cast it and only cost 5 mana.
In combat, try to run around - expose golem to more monsters and get them off your own tail, cast Iron Maiden whenever Golem needs it.
One more thing, it is easier to increase the life of your Blood Golem than your own, and blood golem share you life. Better to use clay golem when facing a monster that can make a 300+ damage. Otherwise at the moment the monster finishes golem off and come to get you, you are dead with one single hit.
*It's impossible to get all those skills, but it's my goal.

Isaac

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If you get a blood golem and its surrounded by a lot of enemies. Use Iron Maiden on the enemies and then every time the enemy hits the golem you and your golem get while the enemies get hurt right back!

Pikablu454

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I played my necro to level 22 (in about a day) and then realized the true potential of the Blood Golem/Iron Maiden combo. Along with Bone Spear/Spirit, Necromancers are the shiz-nit! I was compelled to start over to save skill points for these skills. I had a bit of a hard time in ACT I before I used my skills, but it was worth the investment. The Blood Golem at level one will turn around 33% of the damage he gives into life for you. When an enemy is cursed with Iron Maiden, every hit they inflict on your Blood Golem, is reflected back at them at a higher percentage (400% with mine so far) That percentage is also turned into life for you. Even at low skill levels, you are almost invincible...bug??? For now it is great. Once I got my bone spear, it was time to start crackin skulls, though Im holding onto my skill points for bone spirit due to the large amount of damage it inflicts. Im pretty new, but I've been playing almost nonstop for two days, and I killed Baal in about 10 seconds. It was really cool considering the first time i played against him i died like 400 times with my level 7 skeletons and my level 6 clay golem. Mana becomes a necessity with this strategy, because you will constantly be cursing enemies and throwing bone spears. I know i should throw some points into life but i've been doing fine and think i put like 10 points into it.

Jeremy

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Killing blood rven can be a chore at early lvs right? Especially when those dumb skeletons and golem attack the hungry dead. Heres how to kill her easily. First make sure u have a few skeletons and a golem. MAKE SURE THEY ARE IN FULL HEALTH. Now rush into the graveyard the minions will attack the hungry dead. Rush to blood raven and dodge the arrows as they come. When u get to her,attack her or shoot her with teeth. Drive her into a corner now cast a golem an one side. She will start firing at it. Rush to her and beat her into pulp now. She is dumb enough to continue fireing at the golem. One more thing ,skeleton warriors aren't bad espacially when u use IRON MADIEN. Cast it on the archers and when your warriors hit them, thy fire back and get hit with twice as much.

Fattfool(the idiot)

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The necromancer is without a doubt one of the best classes in Diablo II, and can be the greatest if played to perfection. In this style of playing you will be able to call the shots from behind the battle lines, while still taking an active part in the destruction of the 3 Brothers.
The first thing to deal with is skill points. A few (no more than 3) points into Raise Skeleton will go a long way in Act 1, but once Act 2 rolls around they will be usesless. Skeleton Mages are a great boon to your offense, lasting throughout the game as good support and if nothing else and good target. Curses are just as simple, Iron Maiden will turn your mininons and yourself in to the bearer of death to all who dare challenge you. One point is good enough. Golems will be your tried and true compainions at any stage in the game. One point in Clay and Blood Golems will do nicely, 2 in Iron to get the Thorns Aura and 1 into Fire Golem. Corpse Explosion may be the best ability in the game. Line up and watch em drop. The best part is that following this strategy one or two points are that is needed to maximize the spells ability. The rest of the points can be spent in any direction you choose, though I suggest sticking to the summoning tree, or the curse tree if you want to explore some possiblities.
The bulk of your points should go into golem mastery, this turns them into walking tanks. Not much will stand in the way of an angry golem for long, and the golem will not be phased by long periods of attack if it gets hairy. Since you have an army to attract all the monsters, it only makes sense that you not get involved up close, thats the grunts job. Get a good bow or crossbow, preferably cold enchanted or sapphire gemmed, and go to town. Pick off offending creatures from a distance and if things get to tight just summon a golem at your feet to take on whatever is bothering you. It doesn't sound like much of a good idea, but it is tried and true. Since everything will be swarming around your golem and mages, a good chain of corpse explosions will end any conflict in a delightfully gory display.
Skill points are easy to divy up. Strength is important to be able to wear the best armor available to you. Dexterity is very important, since it determines how many arrows actually hit what they were shot at. Energy is not to important, you will not be firing of spells in succession, with the exception of a string of Corpse Explosion, which will leave plenty of time for resting anyway. Vitality is useless, the hitpoints you gain are few and you will not be advancing your important stats if hampered by this one.
There you have it, the guide to create a necro with supreme order over his battlefield, all on it are a part of his scheme, whether they know it or not.

Gath'lo Mal
Necromancer of The Order of Silvermoon
Jason Reedy
Webmaster
6x Olympian Camper, Va State Champ

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Welcome to the the wealth of my Necromancer experience. I would have to say this is the cheapest character. Thats probably why i love it so much! Let me outline the skills you should focus on: corpse explosion, skeleton mastery, golem mastery, revive, iron maiden, bone spirit(if you want to pk, which is a good way to blow off some steam), blood golem, and fire golem. These skills remain usefully through hell dificullty.The blood golem/ iron maiden combo will get you through lvl 18 through 30 before some good stuff actually opens up. Save points for fire golem/revive. You may pump about 3-5 points in corpse explosion/ iron maiden depending on your preference. I enjoyed finishing the cow level with corpse explosion by myself. The blood golem combo wasnt working b/c of the of the inane amoutns of bovines. But 2 explosions kill 10 cows and so on. I doubt any other class could cheap their way out of that b/c. There is also nothing as fun as rasing oblivion knights in and 8 player game. If you max out revive you get monsters with 8 times 5 times a certain percentage due to skelly mastery. You can have knights with over 40 times their normal life. thats a lot!

Lick Kong Tam

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Well, the Necromancer is one of the two most powerfull characters in the whole game, along with the Sorceres. Used correctly they are both nearly invincible.
With the necro start out putting a few points into teeth and some into bone armor. about 4 on teeth and 2 on bone armor. then u can use clay golem. get one golem, and iron maiden. Then just keep getting teeth and bone armor. these will be your weapons untill act two. i know, i know, it's a bit hard to pass act one with just that, but it can be done. a bow really helps against andariel. to get to her try to buy a wand to give you more skill levels, for bone armor and teeth. and don't foget to dump one point into corpse exlosion. it's really helpfull in the crouded spaces at the catacoms in act 1. In act 2, you get your first taste of Bone Spear. this will be your primary weapon throughout most of the game, though u might still use teeth to mow down large numbers of weaker creatures in act 2. dump 2 points into blood golem, and maybe four into Golem Mastery. this wi! ll really help.
When you level up, this is what i think everyone should do: fpr maybe 3 or four levels straight, put 2 points into Stength and 3 into Energy. take one level in between those to give a few points to dexterity. it will be usefull later. My stamina, at level 30 , is 2 points higher than when i started. my level 10 bone armor bares the blunt of phisical attacks, and your golem takes most of the magic hits while you mow the caster down with high-level bone spear. poison spells SUCK@! so dont waste your time witht hem. and for curses, only a few levels of iron maiden are nccesery. no other curse is really worth your precious points. at higher levels, i recomend you stick with bone spear instead of switching to bone spirit. your levels of bone spear should be around nine or so, and starting over would be stupid. but if you like what it does and the improved damge, go ahead and! dump points into it.
I MUST EMPHASIZE AGAIN HOW IMPORTANT IT IS TO PUT AT LEAST @ POINTS INTO STRENGTH ALMOST EVERY LEVEL!!!!!!
You will want to be able to hold a good weapon in your hands. a scythe looks really cool in the hands of a necro with bine helm and breast plate, but that's beside the point. A good sword or other weapon is almost mandatory, but GOOD ARMOR YOU CANNOT LIVE WITHOUT@@!!! It will help a hell of allot, especilly after Act1. Your bone armor will help, but it always gets breached if you are overwealmed, and if you are out of mana and want to save your potions, you can always cast bone armor agin and again and fight ur way out. but you need good armor, becuase your HP will be so low, you can't aford the few hits that happen when they ocasionally break through your bone armor. but don't worry too much about magic killing you. dodge it, and your golem takes the blunt. make sure you renew your golem as soon as it dies, and if it's behind you and you come on a pack of enemies, cast it in! front of you. use iron maiden with the creeps your golem fights and bone spear away. well, that's my basic strategy. simple, but can get complicated with allot of magic casters, but trust me, if a shitty guy like me can handle a bunch of Abyss Knights at level 30 with only a few hundred HP, so can you

Alex

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hello to all necros out there, i just want to tell all of u that u have chosen the best class in d2!! i mean it too, for example in act 3, the little fetish guys were slaughtering my level 25 barbarian buddies, but i was only level 20 and i used bone spear and blood golem. I tell u bone spear rocks and i suggest u put a decent amount of points there(10-20), because the skill does a godd amount of damage and can go through lots of enemies. The fetish in act 3 were easy using bone spear, i just kept firing away in all directions, and they died, but my buddies could only kill one at a time, so it was really hard for them. dont waste points inot those poison spells because they suck. put 1 point into teeth for blood raven, and at level 18 just start putting a lot into bone spear. put at least 2 inot bone spirit once u get it, but dont waste them. i prefer bone spear because it can wipe out enemies alot faster, but if u like the bone spirit's damage then go ahead. now to summoning. dont waste points into skeletons beacause they die quickly in act 3 and 4. my blood golem was not hurt and my skelton mage already died. only put 1 point into skeleton mage, trust me save ur points for golems. also, put only 2-3 points into clay golem, since u will need a lot of help in act 1, and u will not get blood golem for a fair amount of time. after u get blood golem, put no more then 2 points inot it. use blood golem with iron maiden, it is very effective. though u may be tempted by the high damage if u put 20 points inot blood golem, my advice is DONT!!! fire golem has way more health, and iron golem is only 6 levels away. only put 2-4 points into iron golem though. once u get fire golem and revive be sure u put a fat lot of points into them since they r super effective. also, spare points should go into golem mastery(8-10 skill points into it). now onto curses. so, the only curses i find effective r iron maiden and life tap. try to max out iron maiden if u can, but only put 2-4 points into life tap.
now onto armor and weapons. i suggest u keep ur starting wand until level 6. then get a nice mace or sword. u do not have enough money to buy a good wand, and the wans all suck in act 1 and 2. get a good large shield, as soon as u can, ans then upgrade to a rare gothic or tower shield in act 3-4. use rings and amulets that give mana or life steal, and that give + to necro skills. after u get blood golem, u dont really nedd life steal anymore, because the golem just does it for u. u should get a good skull cap or helm, in the first acts, ans then get a crown or great helm. if possible, get wormskull or the undead crown. as for armor, get some hard or studded leather armor as soon as possible. if u got a ring mail then wear it in act 1 all the way through half-way in act 2. upgrade to splint and plate mail in acts 2 and 3. in act 4 get some good gothic plates. try to save imbue when u get a plate mail or full plate. if u get ancient armor, dont imbue in normal mode, dont imbue that because u will never get enough strength in normal. use nightmare's imbue for the ancient armor. as for boots and gloves, get some leather gloves and large boots as soon as possible. then upgrade to chain boots and gloves, finally to greaves and gautlets, like vedala's fetlock(+150 stamina) and frostburns. if u get deaths hand in act 1, use it until about half-way thrrough act 2. andariel and mummies attack largely with poison. try to get a good sash in act 1, then get a good heavy belt. in act 3, try to get ur strentgh to 60 so u can wear plated belts(very useful).
so now to attributes. early on, u might want to put ur points into energy and strentgh, saving some for vitality. uu dont really need dexerity. u will be using wands later on so dont put too much into dex. strength and energy r the most important attributes for a necro. u can just get + life items, and blood golem will have life steal. so, thats all, and dont kill urself(in real life) if u get killed(in d2). yes, barbarians r going to kill ASS in the early acts, but just be patient and u will rock in acts 3 and 4, while ur barb and amazon friends look to u for help. try to team up with a paladin, a paladin-necro team is just invincinble. oh well, have fun, necros, and BE PATIENT!!!!!!!!!!!

goths_thebeast

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I have a lvl 24 Necro that is currently having no problems down in hell. Necros are easily the best class in the game but can be the worst if you misplace your skills - Mine are as followss:

8 Skill points - Golem Mastery
The key to having a successful Necro is high Golem mastery. This allows you to have a Golem for every situation. Only put one point into Clay in order to get Blood - 1 point into Blood - 2 into Iron to get thorns and a few into Fire.
8 Skill points - Iron Maiden
It does not really matter what Golem you use when you have a high level Iron Maiden. Invest in it early to gain latter on.
4 Skill points - Bone Spear
Extremely useful in defeating Shamans and other resurrecting monsters.


With this kind of layout you should find your Necro having no problem clearing whole levels easily. It may be difficult at first but hang in there and the pay off will be great.
Boss Strategies
Andarial - Use a Clay Golem and Iron Maiden
Duriel - Blood Golem and Iron Maiden (Easy!)
Mephisto - Blood (Or Iron if you have it) Iron Maiden combined with Bone Spear
Diablo - Figure it out for yourself!!!

Put your stats into Energy mostly - Strength to keep up with the latest armour - A decent amount of Vitality - Dex is not really an issue
Basic Points
-Try not to get surrounded by monsters, leave that part to your Golem
-Don't worry about Poison Dagger unless you are going to use a dagger
-Ignore Skells all together at the start, they are worthless latter on
-Save imbune until you are in Hell =)

Grim Death

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Though the game will be difficult early on, invest all your skill points into iron maiden, corpse explosion, and blood golem. Saving a few for bone spear, golem mastery, and summon resist. My favorite little trick is to create a blood golem and cast iron maiden on any enemies that come close to your golem. Not only will your golem drain life from his own attacks but he'll also drain life from the damage that iron maiden does to the enemies that hit him. If iron maiden is a high enough level, it will make your blood golem impervious to meelee attacks. It's especially funny to use this trick when fighting Duriel. Everytime he hits the blood golem he almost kills it, but when iron maiden returns the damage, the blood golem's life maxes out again. One time in the arcane sanctuary, my necro died after casting iron maiden on some enemies that were attacking my blood golem. in the middle of my death frame my life maxed out thanx to the golems drain life ability. My character got back up but was stuck in some sort of limbo where i couldn't move or attack yet the monsters couldn't see me.

-Mathias BlackWolf
(who's never actually had a character over level 30. Just has about 30 characters between levels 10 and 28)

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I have played the game single player with 2 types so far. And have found an easy way to take out any boss monster. This should work for any class, a little differently for the fighters but still effectively making it quite easy to drop even diablo and Duriel. It just takes a tome of Town Portal. As soon as you get near (not at) the boss monster. For diablo I would run down the West side corridor, for Duriel I would use the room right before you enter his lair, Cast a town portal spell. Then with my necro I would simply run into the area where the boss is and wail on him with Bone Spear (grab a golem to keep him distracted) until I am totally out of mana. Then pop a potion and wail some more. Eventually the golem and you will get mangled and die. No big deal, you are now in whatever camp area with full health and mana and most importantly a town portal that leads down to the area you just left. Just jump in it and cast another Town portal in case you die again and start wailing away again, the boss might have regenerated a bit, but not much. And you are fresh and ready for battle. The only thing I really do differently with the barbarian was I had 2 sets of armor and weapons because of the toe to toe nature of the fighters it really helps to have a weapon. Just leave the extra equipment in the town area to pick up after you die. Then be aware where your corpses are so that when you reengage the boss you can put some distance between the previous corps. After you die you the boss will be centered on your body giving you the time to pick up your gear and jump on him again.
Another tip for the necro is when you are faced with resurrecting groups. Use Skeleton to destroy the corpses of the fallen enemy. The spell doesn't cost much but once you cast the spell on the dead enemy that's one more that cannot be raised. Let your golem and skeletons do the work of killing them, just stand back and animate any enemy that dies. (really saves alot of time and life against the fetishes). Corpse explosion would work too but has a drawback. It costs a lot more mana. And you don't start out with it. :)
Hope it helps.

Steel

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Here's how to defeat Duriel if you are a Necromancer. Get as many minions as you can (the Blood Golem is totally indespensible here) , use a powerful weapon (e.g. giant sword (gemmed if possible) or a maul) and try to get a weapon that drains life (a ring will do as well). As soon as you get in, go straight over to him. He can hit you all he wants because if you get to drain his life (which is the Blood Golem's specialty) , your life will be almost totally (if not totally) restored. Just keep WHACKIN' HIM

dr j.

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Listen up Necro's. I am a lvl 48 Necro and just killed Diablo in Hell level. This is the best strategy to use along the way. Do Not put any points into skeletons or skeleton mastery. These are a complete waste of skill points because once you get to lvl 30, your skeletons will die from one hit from a monster. You will spend all your time and mana recasting skeletons. I realized this and then started over with this strategy. Put all of your points into Golem Mastery, Iron Maiden and Corpse Explosion. Initially it will be tough, but I have one point in each Golem and the rest fall into the three skills i talked about. A high golem mastery is key because you will use different Golems depending on the monsters you will fight. My golem mastery is at 17 and my Fire Golem has over 1000 hp. My Iron Maiden is at 19 and it does 675%return damage. My golem goes into a room and all the monsters attack him, killing themselves. After one goes down, I cast Corpse Exlosion and the rest fall. You can go through entire dungeons without getting touched. My corpse explosion is up to 12 and it will damage anything within 8 yards, which is basically an entire room. After I hit lvl 35, i started putting some points into Bone Spear and now have it up to 10. It does about 100 damage. These are important to use when you are killing the summoners. Diablo is easy because you cast Iron Maiden on him and he attacks your golem, killing himself. Just recast your golem and Diablo keeps taking damage from his own attacks. Do not forget to put one point into Golem Resistances. It is a passive skill so put at least one point. I can't stress enough that Corpse Explosion is the most important skill in the game. Have fun and don't be afraid to restart your necro if your aren't too far along. It paid off for me. My brother and best friend use a barbarian and palidin. they are frustrated in hell level because they can't fight alone because they take too much damage. I struggled early when they were flying along, now I can walk through hell level without getting touched and have to help them get experience. At high levels, Necro's are the top class.

Necro Advisor.
--- Garrett

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This strategy works early in the game but ain't that good later(it's still good to use it). I started by getting 2 skeletons(without the wand). later when u level up, save those magic points until u are level 6. Use a magic point for skeleton mastery and another for the claygolem (If you click on the golem icon when you have 2 spell selections, you won't get 2 golems so just save a point). And don't forget the bone armor(poison and bone section). Later, it helps if you can get the bone wall and some skeleton mages(about 4). The skeleton mages are best when they shoot poison or ice. Later, u SHOULD get the blood golem. It is a hell of a lot more useful than the clay golem. And as if you don't know this. Get the Fire and Iron Golems when you can. One more thing.......if you don't plan on using daggers don't get the poison dagger.

Necrodude
King of Necromancers

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When you are starting a new necro, only use 1 point on Skele warrior's and use yer +1 to skele wand, which you start with then when u get level 6 get golem and get skele mastery and then get golem mastery only put 1-2 points on Clay Golem, then when u get 12 get like 3-6 skele mages =) i have 5 plus a +3 to skel mage wand, and when u hit 18 GET blood Golem! Don't try to beat andariel without a blood golem, she takes everything out, constantly use blood golems thru out the battle and have heal potions do to the damage you receive from yer golem getting hit, and you should be good from there

Speedy2227

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I'll give you one of my hints/tips for defeating Diablo using a Necromancer. Conjure up as many skeleton as your mana and spell level will allow, also summon a golem too. I found this helps to distract Diablo when you unlock all five gates and his first blast will destroy most of not all of your mage skeleton's. If your lucky one or more of these mage skeleton's will still be around and even better they will be capable of cold blasts which will slow down Diablo too. I found the best spell to use against Diablo with this character is the Bone Spear and hopefully your character has some of those nice items that increase both mana and vitality.

John - AKA de Phantom of Spam

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Right now, I have three running characters, a Necromancer, a Sorceress, and a Barbarian. With the Necromancer, the easiest thing to do is to get really good at Skeletals, Magi, and Skeleton Mastery, and then have a great Army of Darkness advance on the enemy. You can open a door and wait for the magi to start on the room in some of the tighter spots in cellars. Of course, this is kind of tough when you have really tight spots. It also gets a little hairy when you zap back into town with 30 skeletons and a hiree, and you have to fight just to get to an NPC. Of course, when you are in multiplayer, perfect your curses, since they work for everyone's advantage (and everyone else's disadvantage,) and you only have to have line-of sight with some enemy, not a specific one. A level 15 Amplify Damage curse will effect a *radius* larger than your screen, if centered on you.

Anyway, that's my story and I'm sticking to it,

Necropolitan the Necromancer
Bub the Barbarian
Volante the Sorceress

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When I'm fighting the bosses with a new necromancer, I seem to follow this strategy. But this is for someone who has possible stuffed up their order of skills and is probably dead no prob. First hire one of those crappy people and raise the fav Golem. If you have lots in Raise Skeleton or mage then raise to the max. Next as soon as you see you target, open a portal. By this time your men / women are probably hacking into him. Stand next to ( don't enter ) the portal and fire off as much bonespear as possible. When your mana is out or your the last target on the Demons mind, enter the portal back to town. Hire and raise some more to max and go back down. Open a portal and repeat...
After 2-4 times of this you should have won. Celebrations! Congratulate yourself! You killed the damn thing with a stuffed up ( but wanted to keep ) Necro. This does not work on Diablo though I'll tell you that now!

James ( Necro )
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