”The Renaimancer”
(The Renaissance Man Necromancer)

Table of Contents
1) Introduction
2) History
3) Leveling
4) Gear
5) Stats
6) Skills
7) Break Points
8) Pre-Buffing
9) Game Play
10) Extras
11) Conclusion


NOTES: DO NOT BRING UP ACT 2 MERC/BEAST Summoner in your Critique of my guide. THIS IS NOT A FISHYMANCER. LAST TIME I WILL SAY IT. PLEASE COMMENT ON THIS BUILD.

If you don’t like the name “RENAIMANCER” please offer alternatives but please critique only the build as it stands. I am done with comparisons to the FISHY. We all are. Let’s think about the development of this character as an independent character. You don't compare straight hammerdins to liberators do you?

PLEASE Donate! I have made 9 editions of this guide and its cost me almost 100 fg so far not to mention all the time to write this. If you use my necro, please donate to the cause and I will be happy to keep writing them.

Thanks for reading!

This post was edited by mephistophilis on Feb 12 2009 12:28pm

Introduction

Before you get bent out of shape on the name let me explain. A renaissance man is a man with skills in anything and everything he tries. He is the fucking man. He can do anything he sets his mind to. The Renaissance Necromancer is an expert in every scenario in Diablo II: Lord of Destruction. He is a summoner but he is NOT a Fishy. I will explain the difference in the “history” section. The Renaissance Necromancer has maximized character potential, effectiveness, and style. This build is PVM but can serve effectively in PVP situations. Overall, he is a PVM character introduced to be your go-to for any and every situation.

My Summoner is a caster. That means he is built for speed not for comfort (yes that is a Vinny Vaughn reference). This build and it has three major attributes: first is its proximity to danger, second is its ability to maneuver fast and stay alive for the duration, and third is its ability to complete the game totally solo with one set of gear or its usefulness to the party as a whole. There are two distinct (potential) draw backs people bring up in regard to this build: kill speed and character involvement; be prepared to leave those traits at home. Not only is this build fast and active, it is also very versatile, lots of fun, very effective, and uniquely useful. I will go over all the key points to build and play this character.

This is the most effective pvm build for all around play in the game. If you are like me and want to focus on a good character for climbing the ladder and be effective in every playing situation with only 1 character, my summoner build is for you. I encourage challenges as I have the answers to your questions so post away.

I will give you my two cents and I look forward to yours… if you are respectful and relevant. I spend a lot of time thinking and writing for you to benefit and I don’t appreciate when you ruin my thread (which costs 10 fg every time) with stuff that doesn’t contribute to the conversation. That being said, enjoy my guide or don’t but only comment if you bring something to the table.

Some sections that were perfect before remain the same. But read through all of it for a refreshment.

Enjoy.

History

This is the 9th version of my summoner guide. The growth this character has undergone from the basis of my first guide has been enormous. When I first looked at the potential of the summoner class I realized there was a tremendous amount of room to develop him into an uncannily powerful giant.

Before my guide, the “fishymancer” summoner existed. This is an unpopular cookie cutter build and it’s only partially effective. The evolution of the Fishy was slow. The gear was simple and straight forward: beast, enigma, spirit, shako, maras, sojs, trangs gloves, arach, and marrows. The variations came when people realized conviction was more effective than concentration (thanks to Bryan) and your act 2 might merc was issued infinity instead of pride. The second innovation was when people started using Iron golem because he could give them meditation aura so no more mana potions were necessary. Clay golem was exchanged for an Insight Iron golem.

The “Fishy” summoner did not synergize Iron Golem so he was able to max out Corpse Explosion and have every curse. He also wore bone armor and built an army that resembled Alexander’s: massive. He created lag in a full game and he offered a great burden to the entire party with the confusion of tons of summons and lag.

When I took the reins for an overhaul of the summoner, I was looking for a way to increase his effectiveness while reducing his burden on the party; I wanted to make him a valuable asset to the party so people wouldn’t shit bricks when they saw a Summoner. I spent weeks on hero editor and at my whiteboard shifting gear and skills around. While the gear on the summoner himself has changed with each version of my guide, one item remains that completely revolutionized the summoning necromancer forever. I issued an Act 1 Fire Mercenary a Faith bow and changed the summoner’s world.

Faith allows for a massive amount of different weapons to be considered when choosing your necromancers gear. Last guide I went into detail about many of these but now I will only offer you a couple options. Your Faith mercenary gives you 6 level higher fanaticism, inner sight (which is absolutely godly), ranged assaults, and a fighting chance against iron maiden. When you are soloing a game you are going to kill everything with such ease it’s a joke. When you are with a party, the melee group loves you for Fanaticism AND Conviction and the Casters and CS Amazons love you for Conviction (keep in mind that conviction lowers defense and resistance not just resistance).

My goal was to create a summoner that could compete with a Hammerdin, Lite Sorc, and Windy Druid in speed. I wanted to be able to run Baal games so that people wouldn’t be annoyed and leave! My first guide accomplished this. I also wanted to create a character resistance to TPPKs because I was getting into hardcore for a while; mission accomplished. Windy TPPKers were not pleased when you own them with summons and corpse explosion. Finally I wanted to make a character that could easily complete every function in the game…with one set of gear. I wanted to be able to rush, chaos and baal friends. I wanted to be able to save their corpse or set up their ubers and retrieve their torch.

By the time I geared up my first summoner on closed battle.net he was the only character capable of completing every task possible in Diablo II: Lord of Destruction with only one set of gear. Many people have said to me, “Well Mephistophilis, what about a Hammerdin/Smiter combination. They can do everything as well.” Oh yeah? That’s not entirely true. Yes, Hammerdin/Smiter Paladins are able to complete every task in the game, however, they are not able to manage this task with one set of gear. Two are required. Different weapons, shields, armor, belts, rings, etc. are all required. The Renaimancer is the only character who can complete the game with absolutely no change in equipment.

So I built a new summoner that met certain breakpoints which no one else has ever met before. He had 125 FCR, 86 FHR, Max Resistance, Massive skills, and inventory room to pick up stuff. He used Hoto, darkforce, crafts and a circlet to accomplish this goal. He was ungodly expensive. Massive FCR amulets and two socket rare circlets are too expensive for the non-elite. He was the most effective pvm character in the game and his cost reflected it.

Since the inception of the Renaimancer, I have been diligently developing the build to bring the cost down. Until the last version of the guide I was uninterested in the culture of the necromancer. I was exclusively interested in his effectiveness and cost. Lately I have been infatuated with bringing characters back to their pre-LOD days in gear selection. People have brought back orbs to sorcs. I want to do the same thing with the necro.

The Necromancer has a long tradition of being a quiet force. He’s got the big dick in the room, knows it, and doesn’t flaunt it. He focuses on other aspects of his life. He doesn’t treat the ladies like shit knowing they will fuck him anyways just because of his penis size. He is cultured, intelligent, and stylish. He drives the women so crazy they are all instantly in love with him. Blizzard created a mystique about the Necromancer. Look at all the artwork for him. He’s a wise, coy individualist. His primary defense is a severed head. His primary offense is a short stick or tiny dagger.

My goal here is to bring the style, sophistication and history back to the necromancer. We need to revive his primary tools. He doesn’t need hoto, or beast, or spirit sword shield to be effective. He needs a tiny butter knife and decapitated head; what a badass.

This guide is decisively my last on this build. I am comfortable with my level of expertise in the character development and I have shared exhausted resources and research with you to bring you the most natural necromancer with the most effective, party friendly and individually beneficial gear, skills and methods of play. I will offer my insight into the best gear possible and you may tweak as you will. But this is 9 generations of feedback and ideas at work and I think you will appreciate where I am going with this.

Leveling

This section is important because no matter which method you use to level your summoner, your help is of tremendous value.

Path 1 Uber-trist:
Clearly the most efficient way to level. Get glitch (or classic) rushed to hell act 5. Whip out your +1 bonewall wand and you have become the star of the show in ubers because you are now the only useful leecher with your capacity to use bonewall for the duration of the uber leveling service. Please reference the Uber Guide for how to use bonewall if you do not already know.

Path 2 Chaos:
So you don't know enough of the right people to run uber-trist and you're forced to chaos. No worries, you are still a very well liked build for chaos games. No other low level character can use corpse explosion(c/e) or cast amp damage. Whoever is chaosing you will appreciate the help in killing waves of monsters with your curses and c/e.

C/e is awesome here because your character level does not determine your damage. Only the monsters determine how much damage you do. If you can find +Corpse Explosion wands and heads early in the game, you can run next to the chaoser and cast C/E with some serious range and impact!

Path 3 Regular:
So you really have no friends and nothing to trade for a glitch rush or classic rush. Well you have just become the best friend of the newbies. Tristing, tombing, cowing, normal and nightmare baaling all benefit greatly from the summoners’ curses and corpse explosion.

Gear

Mephistophilis Recommended Gear

Notice this gear is not nearly as expensive as many classes. You can spend some extra FG and get close to perfect gear here.

Helm: 3 Summons/20 FCR/2 Open Socket Circlet

Armor: Enigma

Amulet: 2 Necro (or Summons)/5+ Faster Cast Rate/Strength if you can get it/Resistance if you can get it. This should be dirt cheap because no one needs this. 5+ FCR shouldn’t be more than 25 fg if it has really good stats.

Weapon: Wizard Spike w/ open socket.

Shield: Darkforce Skull (make sure you have +3 Summons) w/ open socket.

Belt: Arach

Gloves: Bloodfists

Boots: Sandstorm Treks

Rings: Stone of Jordans

Swap:
Weapon-Demon Limb (Has massive high level Enchant Charges. This thing = god)
Shield- Doesn’t Matter

Inventory:
Torch and Anni (as close as perfect as you can get).
6 Summon lifers (Or just plain if you cant afford lifers)
3 FHR Sc (with a mod if you want. With Boots/Gloves/Jewels you only need 15% fhr for breakpoint)
Res All scs as needed or Magic Find Charms if you don’t.

You will notice there is some open space in your inventory. You want that. This is pvm people, dont load up on charms... How are you supposed to pick up anything? You need to accumulate wealth so leave some space! Don’t be the guy who asks his buddies to hold stuff for him because you are full of charms! They don’t like you after about a week and you find yourself needing new friends a lot!
You may notice you only have 55%FHR and low resistance with the gear laid out. You will need jewels. Since 7%fhr/15 Res all jewels are mass duped and cheap, you need at least 3 (that’s 1 for your helm, one for your wiz, and one for your darkforce). If you were lucky enough to get a 2 open socket Circlet, get creative (MF, Life, Mana, Stacked Resistance are all good choices here).

Mercenary

Act 1 Fire Rogue (attacks at a distance, isn't in harm from Iron Maiden in Chaos, won't die in ubers)- You definately want fire though because if you get a cold, she will freeze corpses so you can't summon them.

Bow: Faith (very important) (Mine is Perfect 15 Fanaticism, 2 All Skills Blade Bow)

Helm: Giant Skull - I like this helm for knockback and the CB. Strength doesn’t hurt either for a higher armor Fort. Get an eth one.

Armor: Fortitude. Get eth and high resistance.

Note: Merc gear can really be anything but faith is a must for Fanaticism. The rest of the gear is to maximize your Merc’s potential so she can kill for you to summon when you have to.

You need 2 15% IAS Jewels here. Maybe 40/15’s or 15/15’s, it doesn’t really matter but you want your maximized potential for breakpoints (which is 9 frames). With a level 15 Fanaticism Faith Blade bow (the type of bow is incredibly important) and 2x 15 ias jewels, you are there..

Golem

This section varies from player to player. I use an infinity golem. He’s dope. He offers lower resistance for your mages, and lower defense for your skeletons. Build it in a low damage weapon so he doesn’t get wacked with Iron Maiden.

If you play smart and pay attention, you’ll only need one infinity. If you don’t you may need several. Only make this if you feel comfortable with your wealth level and you don’t really care if he dies. We don’t need anyone committing suicide over one dead golem.

If you can’t afford Infinity golem, I don’t know what to tell you. Pick something else that might be useful. Don’t do anything with holy freeze. Either use Insight for some meditation (which you probably won’t actually need anyways) or just use clay golem and save yourself the hassle.

Discrediting the Alternatives (DTA)

There are so many alternative weapons and shields on your summoner that you could go nuts trying to find the perfect combination. If you wanted to stick with just daggers and wands, Suicide branch is almost perfect for this build, so is Carin Shard if you change a couple other things. With Suicide branch you could use Boneflame and get some FCR rings to make up for the Darkforce.

If you wanted to use other class weapons or rune words, hoto, spirit, or any other fcr weapon would be good. Spirit shield is a popular choice and so it lidless but overall, they are no more effective or have higher skill combinations than the wiz/darkforce weapon set and you’ll need to get creative with the other gear selections.

Basically I am making a stylish, true to form necro with the best possible equipment for my intentions with this Renaimancer. Please give it a shot before you tell me how wrong I am. Try it. Don’t just use hypothetical horse shit. I know all the arguments against my choices. All I ask is that you try it. I think you will be happily surprised.

Now, There is one other alternative to the options listed here. You are going to lose a +1 Skill but you might like the look of a wand better. You could get a Suicide Branch and Boneflame. Then you would need 2 fcr rings with some resistance and a 15% FCR amulet. I think this is more elite and harder to manage but the classiness of your character would make it worth it. I think this would be a dynamite setup if you can afford it. If you can’t, wizzy and darkforce are fine.

Stats

Strength- 0 Seriously, I like to wear Wirefleece Enigma but if you can’t get the strength for a high strength enigma, just wear a low one! It doesn’t matter on this build.
Dexterity- 0 Max Block is useless on a summoner. Hide behind your army. Get the 86% FHR and you can tele even before your enemy gets a second shot at you.
Vitality- Everything
Energy- 0

Skills

This skill set is if you decide to use infinity golem. If not, do whatever you want with the golem section and get more c/e or curses. It doesn’t matter but only follow this if you are using my exact build.

Poison and Bone Skills

Teeth-1
Corpse Explosion-1+ I only use 1 in C/E some people love massive range. Since we are getting about +15 into it from gear, I don’t bother with maxing it out. The range is fine and you cast it fast so just keep clicking it. It gives you something to do when your skeletons are owning everything.
Bone armor- 0!!! It is pretty useless for pvm. You don’t get hit anyways. Don’t bother.

Curses

Put 1 into Amp Damage for sure.

That is all I did. You can do whatever you please but I don’t even use the other ones. I felt they were better placed elsewhere.

Decreptify, Life Tap, Attract, and Lower resist are all cool but it’s completely up to you. Sorc’s usually like lower resist but you are already giving them conviction so they don’t need it. The rest are decent but I kill so fast and I am so safe as a character that I find myself locking C/E, Amp Damage, and Teleport for actual play.

Summon Skills

Skeleton Mastery-20
Raise Skeleton-20
Raise Skeletal Mage- 20*
Revive-1
Clay Golem-1
Iron Golem-1 He just gets defensive bonuses if you add here. Don’t really need.
Golem Mastery-20(Life Synergy for Iron Golem)
Blood Golem-1+ (could do for syngergy) [I Would suggest maxing this. Don’t want infinity golem to die]
Summon Resist- 1+

* If you plan to make my exact build, put 20 into Mages. By that I mean, only do it if you are going to use infinity golem. Maxed out mages are still useless unless you have Conviction to lower enemy resistance. If you do not plan on using Infinity Golem, don’t even bother using mages except as an additional meatshield.

{note: you could do anything you want with the skills I put as 1+. Play around with them. Honestly, each improves your game play some, but not substantially enough to make them 100% mandatory for ultimate build. It depends on how you play. If you want to live longer, perhaps max bone armor synergies. If you want your golem to live longer, synergize him (although I do recommend maxing Golem Mastery because it’s an excellent skill for your golem).}

Break-Points

FCR:

15 - 0%
14 - 9%
13 - 18%
12 - 30%
11 - 48%
10 - 75%
9 - 125% (With the gear I have laid out, you will hit this)

FHR:

13 - 0%
12 - 5%
11 - 10%
10 - 16%
9 - 26%
8 - 39%
7 - 56%
6 - 86% (With the gear I have laid out, you will hit this)
5 - 152%
4 - 377%

Pre-Buffing

AN IMPORTANT NOTE ON SUMMONING!!! Kill Nihlahtak but DO NOT GET HIS WAY POINT!!!!! If you don't get his waypoint, the portal to his temple says open and you can use the corpses inside to summon your skeletons. I use 6 skeletons.

First thing you want to do is craft your Iron golem out of an infinity polarm class weapon. Lower damage is better so he doesn’t die at the hands of iron maiden. As a necro, you take your Iron Golem with you between games. He does not die after each game (thats only if you have the amulet Metal Grid). Stay alive and keep your golem alive and you only need 1 Infinity for your entire experience with your necro.

I have gear in my stash for crafting the golem. Get a barb to give you +1 Battle Command. Wear a +3 Summon Circlet and Amulet. Buy a +3 Summons/+3 Iron Golem/Golem Mastery wand from a vendor. Find a +3 Summons/+3 Golem Mastery/Iron Golem Shrunken Head. Then equip 9 Summons Skills GCs. You can get +Golem mastery up to level 54 which is nuts. Then sell all that stuff to the next necro in need as a “package deal” or keep it if you ever need to remake your golem but save it on another character to save space.

As long as you have maxed out Resistance and solid FCR, you can tele baal games. Once you are level 80 (via chaos leveling) or 92 (via uber leveling), This is what I suggest you do.

Your mercenary should be an act 1 fire arrow archer. Mine is named Fiona (because of Eurotrip). With faith bow, she gives your skeletons fanaticism and she uses inner sight to drop the defense of your enemies.

Game Play

Baal Runs

Summon 6 skeletons in Nihlahtak’s temple, make sure you have your insight iron golem and faith merc. Teleport to baal. Cast amp damage over monsters and as they die one by one, use Corpse explosion to take out the rest of the wave. When you get to baal, cast Amp damage and kill him fast. Don't take any crap from anyone about summoning a small army, if they lag, it’s their connection or their computer. 6 skeletons is not going to make the game lag; if it lags, blame the mass dupers!

If you are in a solo game, make sure you summon a huge army if you want Baal to die quickly. I usually revive Waves 3 and 4 because they do great damage as revives. Then I bring up 10 Mages from waves 1, 2, and 5.

Chaos Runs

These are harder to do than baal runs. I suggest you raise 10 skeletons and 10 revives (made out of pit-lords in chaos sanctuary, or udars along the way) Still cast amplify damage and use corpse explosion. Make sure your golem stays alive though because the knights can be especially brutal to him. This is where it's awesome to have act 1 merc because she basically can't die. Good luck with your act 2 merc in chaos... Personally, I teleport to the seals, pop them then teleport right in the middle of the wave, immediately I take a step back and cast my curse (softcore only. Hardcore, scratch that, be a pussy and you’ll live longer). This may require a potion or two and don't do this if you cry when you die because that might happen. But, I do this to maximize the damage your skeletons do. They kill the monsters in the middle first and when you use c/e it kills the entire wave from the center out with 1-2 c/e's. DO NOT DO THIS FOR LORD. He will kick your ass. You have to be a little bit more careful with Lord de Seis because he has powerful curses and nasty attacks. Approach with caution and c/e the monsters around him to get his life down. He is also the #1 Killer of Iron golem so be extra careful.

Keyfinding

4 Skeletons will do here. Amp damage Summoner and Countess then teleport right on top of them and pick up your keys. Since we don’t get the waypoint at nihlahtak, it takes a little bit longer to teleport to the halls where he dwells but you can still kill him easy. Take 5 skeletons down and cast amp damage. As his creatures die, be sure to use corpse explosion before he does so you, and your army doesn’t die. This is good because there are great drops in here too. I find sweet rares here all the time. Plus you get that extra shot at Pindle.

Uber trist

Scout the game. Make sure there are about 40 udars between the River of Flame and Durance of Hate before you open the portal (this is to make sure you can get a second group of 20 if you die). Also make sure the game is permed before you open it as the summons can cause lag and drops. Summon an army of 15+ Skeletons, 10+ Mages, and 20+ revives. Teleport on durial, lillith, and izzy, cast amp damage and watch 30 second deaths (or less). Once trist is open, Kill Mephesto first because he is the hardest. You want to cast Amp damage on for him for wicked fast death. Teleport right on to him then run away quick. If your merc doesnt walk away quick, keep feeding her potions till she gets the clue. Next I kill diablo. He is MUCH easier than meph (it’s almost a joke), Teleport on to him. Cast amp damage and watch him die in seconds. Last I go for baal. Careful here, if he starts walking all over the place, your army doesn’t stick together and his army picks them off quickly. A complete Trist run has taken me anywhere from 1 minute 28 seconds (record)-8 minutes. Once I employed this method of cleaning it out, I have yet to take more than 5 minutes from walking into trist to leaving with my torch. Make sure you only do this alone though because more people in the game will make the game lag and crash since you have in the neighborhood of 50 summoned army members.

Magic Finding

Trade your +3 Summons/20 fcr circlet in for a 20 fcr/MF (Jewelers/Artisian’s Circlet of the Magus with 3 ists is obviously best). Whatever you do, keep the 20 fcr and add as much mf as you can. Swap out Treks for Travs and eat the extra FHR breakpoint. Same goes for Bloodfists—swap em for Chancies. Then keep MF Weapons and Shields on Swap. 6xist axe and 4xist shield for the rich or ali baba and rhyme/milabregas for the poor.

Extras

Here are the two sites for calculation

Weapon Speed for your Mercenary: http://diablo3.ingame.de/tips/calcs/weaponspeed.php?lang=english

Pet Damage Calculator: http://tph.tuwien.ac.at/~gottwald/necro_pet_calculator.html

Conclusion

PVM, this character is the most diverse and effective. When you run your games, make sure you don’t have a huge army because people won’t stay in your runs very long if you are lagging them like crazy with a ton of summoned army members. If there is another summoner in your game, tell him NOT summon or cast his curses. He's in the wrong game if he wants to be the summoner.

This build is a lot of fun and it makes peoples (even seasoned players) jaws drop when they see a summoner teleing to baal and clearing the throne. The other good thing is if you don’t want to rush the ladder with your summoner, it’s no big deal because you can max what you need very early on. By 88 you are maxed without dropping a lot of skills into Summon resist.

_____

Mephistophilis

i dont think this build can defeat uber
but its nice for pvm

This build crushes ubers almost as fast as a smiter with less chance to die.

Haven't you ever youtubed this? I can complete in under 2 minutes like clockwork.

Very interesting guide, some humerous bits (if a tad pg-13 ^^), the most interesting part being how you sacrificed some effectiveness for flavor (Magic the Gathering, ah trip down memory lane right there), which is something pretty unique, I've never seen a guide writer on JSP do that before, though other sites it is fairly common (I guess we are very PvP oriented as a whole).

Again an excellent guide, and a pleasure to read

EDIT:I liked your guide to quitting d2 as well

This post was edited by Myrddrall9 on Feb 12 2009 12:29pm

link pls^^

Thank you sir, and thank you for the wonderful donation. I really appreciate the hospitality most show on this site for my guides.





I will record one of my runs this weekend when I get home from classes for the week. Then I'll post the link of me doing it. I can't find one on youtube with my faith merc atm.



Yeah I was bored and wrote the guide to how I quit for a while.

This post was edited by mephistophilis on Feb 12 2009 12:38pm

http://forums.d2jsp.org/index.php?showtopic=28111556&f=87
read.

I see this as a basic summoner guide.