1.12 Pvm Sempiternity Necromancer - Topic

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Feb 28 2010 04:03am

I actually remember the first time I played Diablo II...
When I was about 17 (9 years ago..) I played in a mediocre metal band, the drummer was my best friend Matt.
I was over at his girlfriend Beth's house and he went off to fool around and what not... Beth recommended that I try out "Diablo 2" whilst I wait.
I'd played the first Diablo a little.. Although it had Trainers by the time I got to it so it was all just Staff of Apocalypse and Plate of the Whale.
So I turned it on.. Naturally chose Necromancer (Because im metal), and got balls deep in Act I.
*ting* "New Skill" it said...
"What's this? Summon skeletons!? Shweeeet! I love skeletons!"
So me and my ragtag group of lowbie skellies went about the den of evil trounsing all in our way... Untill Matt was done and it was time to go...

Quite a few years went by... I've always been a Starcraft player (Top Rankings: B+ PGT, B ICCUP).
As I am a perfectionist, and Starcraft appeases my reward pathways good enough, or so I thought.
But one day, my internet was down for 4-5 days living in New Hampshire during the winter and I found my roommates install disks for Diablo 2....
I played hard for 2 years. Necromancer was the only character I actually played. First I had xNechroniCx which was ladder. Then I made Sempiternity.

Other Builds, Overview, and Why.

The Summoner is easily the most misused class period.
There are so many options to be the best support class in the game. Along with the power to solo efficiently.

Full Pvm Summon Necro Guide -> By: ShadowSnip3rJ
Hardcore Pvm Necro Summoner Hybrid Guide -> By: RewtheBrave

The standard Pride/Beast Necro does put out some damage in solo, But in support play and Chaos runs, it has some major flaws.
Your Pride merc is surrounded by Hammerdins with MUCH better Concentration aura. (It's the most common thing in the game)
You are also completely unable to Chaos without running back for your Merc every 3 minutes.

"the Renaimancer" V.9.0 -> By: mephistophilis

I can't say enough about this guide. He really nailed everything that was wrong with the standard Pride/Beast.
In some ways, my build is just a cross between this and a "Fishymancer" with a neurotic fine-tune..
Much credit goes to mephistophilis in helping to advance this class past its overplayed cookiecutter roots..

So on that note, The key areas of this build are simple.

1. 125% Faster Cast Rate - 86% Faster Hit Recovery
2. All enemy resists reduced to nothing. Infinity Iron Golem + Lower Resist. (Your every magic user's best friend)
3. Mages are switched out for Corpse Explosion (14 yards is literally the size of the screen)

Skills, and Why.

Summon Skills:
Skeleton Mastery - 20
Raise Skeleton - 20
Raise Skeletal Mage - 1 (Pre-Req for Revive)
Revive - 1 (Optional, I only use Revives when solo, so if you don't solo much. These aren't needed)

Clay Golem - 1
Blood Golem - 1
Iron Golem - 1
Golem Mastery - 20 (GG Life on Infinity Iron Golem)
Summon Resist - 7 (Hits extra 1% Resist, Put last 6 points here)

Poison and Bone Skills:
Teeth - 1
Corpse Explosion - 17 (14 yards....)

Curses:
Put 1 into All
11 points lower resist (Hits -66% Resists)

Equipment, and Why.

* Options if your not on East Non-Ladder
Neccesary Stats are Underlined

Helm: Dream Bone Visage
* 2/20/2 with 2 x 7% FHR/15 Resist Jewel.
Why: Holy Shock Aura, Resists, Mf, 30% FHR (Which = More 45 lifers) along with 10 Vitality and 5% Max life.

Weapon: Hoto.
Why: 3 Skills, 40% FCR, Resists, Mana.

Sheild: Darkforce (7% FHR/15 Resist Jewel if possible)
* Homunculus with 7% FHR/15 Resist Jewel
Why: 3 Skills, 30% FCR, Mana.

Armor: Enigma Archon Plate
Why: Because its the best Armor in the game.

Amulet: Storm Circlet
* 2 Necro/15% Fcr is all that's needed for 125% Fcr bp.
Why: 20% FCR + Godlyness. If you can afford it, Its just the best.

Rings: 2 x Stone of Jordan
Why: Choice, Could also use Bul Kathos but I enjoy the extra mana since there's no Insight merc/golem.

Gloves: Trang-Oul's Claws
Why: 20% Fcr, 2 Curses + 11 Lower resist = -66% All Resists.

Boots: Grim Spur
* Just replace with 10% FHR Boots with a extra 12% FHR or 2 x 5/5 Small Charms.
Why: Because they are sexy 20% FHR and save you Res/Fhr that would need to be put in Charms otherwise.

Belt: Arachnid Mesh
Why: What else?

Switch: Either the standard CTA/Spirit switch, or if you want to be fancy you can get Demon Limb on switch for GG Enchants on your Skellies/Merc.
Why: With Battle Command +1 Skill, You hit the Summon Resist Breakpoint, and Lower Resist Breakpoint. If you decide to go Demon Limb,
Subtract 2 points from Corpse explosion and put 1 in Lower Res and Summon Resist.

Torch
Anni
5 x 45 Life Summon Grand Charms
2 x 12% FHR Summon Grand Charms
20/11 Fire Small Charm
20/11 Poison Small Charm
5 FHR/5 Resist Small Charm
3 x Bugged Mana Small Charms (15 life/70 Mana)
* If you use 2/20/2 with 14% FHR in Jewels. Then your going to need to make up the 16% FHR in Charms

Mercenary Weapon: Faith Crusader Bow. (Blade Bow, and Diamond Bow also work)
Explination: Crusader Bow = 100-2k Damage (Like Lightning), Blade Bow = 750-1250 (Similar to Cold),
While the Diamond Bow is consistantly around 1000 (Similar to Fire). Its all preferance.
Why: Hits final IAS breakpoint with 30% IAS which is gotten from GSkull sockets.. Makes a big differance.

Mercenary Helmet: Giant Skull with 2 x 40/15ias Jewels
Why: Knockback + IAS + Crushing Blow, Oh my.

Mercenary Armor: Eth Glitched Fortitude Kraken Shell
Why: Kraken Shell is highest wearable armor, Fortitude is GG, Enough said.

Playstyle, and Why.

First, Ill talk about Infinity Iron Golem...
Always make out of LOWEST damage weapon possible (Voulge is probably the best). He doesn't do any damage anyway,
No point in letting him Iron Maiden himself. Before you summon him, Go out and get a +3 Summon Circlet, +3 Summon Amulet,
and 2x Plain Summon GC's (Could find +5 Golem Mastery Head/Wand if you really cared) The extra 4-5 skills brings him over 10k life...
So that with CTA battle orders is around 18k... So just keep an eye on his health meter below if it gets around 15-20% just bail and regroup. Losing him sucks

Never hotkey any of your golems EVER if you have your Iron Golem up. All it takes is 1 wrong key and you've destroyed a 50-500fg item and need to go buy another.
If you are going to summon your clay golem in Gubers youll want to hotkey so you can summon him on top of bosses. But REMEMBER TO UN-HOTKEY HIM AFTER YOUR DONE!

If your LEVELING I wouldn't recommend a gg stat infinity golem yet.
Get a cheap insight, or use Clay Golem on bosses. Clay Golem + Decrepify slows them down 80-90%

Also you will need to master the crowd control curses.. I mostly use attract because it often packs a bunch together for corpse explosion and it only affects one. Confuse is equally important as attract will only sway smaller packs, Confuse is for larger packs and although it keeps them scattered it keeps more of them out of the fight. Only differance is attract only affects one monster then you can lower resist the rest, while confuse stays the active spell so you have to confuse -> lower res/corpse explosion -> Confuse/repeat. And only purpose of dim vision is pesky archers/souls that you don't have time for yet as sometimes they stand just on the edge of the screen, the only place corpse explosion doesn't reach

Overall Multiplayer Playstyle.

Your purpose is to support, Your not going to do as much damage as a HDin or Lightning Sorc, But you can support them to do their killing 5x faster.
Although the FHR and Resists are appropriate, This character is NOT a tank. You don't need to be right in the fray. So don't be.
Stay a few yards away from the action and sway the battle from there. Every Curse has its place and purpose, and makes all the differance in the world.

Multiplayer Baal Run Playstyle.

Ok first and foremost, SKELETONS ARE USELESS IN BAAL RUNS! Your purpose in these runs is curse and corpse explosion.
Then Decrepify Baal (Unless your with alot of Sorcs/CS Zons/Trappers, where u just Lower Res). I personally recommend if your gunna
baal alot setup your hotkeys so you can do this easily. Also keep "Dim Vision" handy for Souls. It shuts them right up.

Attract - Amp Damage, Wait for one monster to die - Lower Resist - Corpse Explosion (2-3 times tops in most instances 1 will clear screen, Pallys need their corpses too)

What this does, is makes one monster the target of most of the group, Then amp damage the rest of them. As soon as one of them dies cast lower resist and cast corpse explosion 2 or 3 times.
Also if your merc gets low on health put on Life Tap for a few seconds, charges him right up.

Multiplayer Chaos Runs.

This is where Corpse Explosion really shines.. Decrepify on Diablo slows him right down (Unless your with alot of Magic users in which lower resist is worth it instead.)
All I do in chaos runs is Attract -> Lower Resist -> Corpse Explosion x 2 -> ROFL -> Rinse -> Repeat
Confuse and Dim Vision also can make things alot easier sometimes, So keep them handy.

If your team needs a bit of a sheild you can summon 4-5 skellies or 4-5 Urdars if they are around
(I beleive they have a chance of Crushing Blow which is GG vs Diablo)

Solo MF

Goto Niklathak and summon as many skellies as u can. This is your time to summon a good ol Lag-o-Mancer army.
If you have Demon Limb you really only need 7-8.
Just let your skellies engage the groups while standing with your merc 5-6 yards away and wait for the first monster to die,
Then Lower res/Corpse explosion and watch them all fall.
For solo I setup my hotkeys in this order
Amp Damage -> Attract -> Lower Resist -> Corpse Explosion

Ubers.

DONT do this with Infinity Iron Golem. This is for when he dies (or you did). I recommened either Bonesnap.
(40% Crushing Blow) or using Clay Golem if you don't mind taking a few minutes (Clay golem + Decrepify = DEAD SLOW)
First off.. You NEED to be comfortable with Attract/Confuse/Dim Vision to do this. Practice using these often. They will make all the differance.
Always check the Chaos Sanctuary BEFORE setting up portal. You need a chaos with at least a dozen or more Urdards/Pit Lords. VERY important.
Whatever isn't attracted/confused keep amp damage -> lower resist -> corpse explosion -> amp damage ect.
Once your down to one of the bosses teleport right on top of him with all your skellies/urdars and quickly take a few steps away.
Decrepify hard and make sure your merc made it out of the fray as well. Urdars and Bonesnap are the only way to do this quickly because of Crushing Blow.
But if you don't have either you can win the battle slowly with Clay golem + Decrepify. It just takes a while.

Proof that im a perfectionist, and Why.

I did own all this gear a little over a year ago. I gave most of it away to my personal friends.
But I found all these screenshots on my old D2 computer... So I decided to make this guide.
Thought I would pay homage to Sempiternity once more.

Final Notes, and Why.

There is so much power in the Necromancers curses that goes unused more times then not..
Then people wonder why people hate summoners when all they do is summon 15 skellies and lower Concentration level by 15+.
Noone has ever complained about my Necro. Because I make runs faster and know my place.
You aren't going to be the star of the show with this class. Be a Hammerdin if you want all the glory.
Any ideas/comments/questions welcome. Always looking for a way to improve this build...

1.13 Beta Realm Version Coming Soon