Hello. This is a guide for a PvM Necromancer, used to pop the seals in the Chaos Sanctuary in the least amount of time possible. At level 97+, your character is going to be needing the experience Diablo gives, and although Necromancers are generally useless besides their curses, they can at least Chaos and have Diablo up before Wave 3, if you know what you're doing.
Table of Contents
1. Stat/Skill allocation
2. Gear
3. Mercenary
4. Chaos
5. The Necromancer & level 99
6. Miscellaneous (Video included)
1. Stat/Skill allocation:
There are the base stats a Necromancer starts out with:
Strength: 15
Dexterity: 25
Vitality: 15
Energy: 25
The Necromancer gets 2 life per point into vitality, and 2 mana per point into energy.
You will not be needing any points into Energy, and little to no points into Strength.
Put enough points into Dex for max block (75%), leave around 5-10 points for Strength, and dump the rest into Vitality
You most likely won't be needing any extra strength, but just leave around a few points just in case. And you can always restat if you find yourself messing up.
Now, for skills: I'll break down each tree individually
1. Summoning:
-1 Point into Summon Clay Golem
-1 Point into Golem Mastery
2. Curses:
-1 Point into Dim Vision
*You might argue that you should get Lower Resist to help players kill in throne. While Lower Resist is a nice help, you cannot afford to get it. It has 7 Pre-requisites, and you need every single skill you have into the bone skills for damage
3. Poison And Bone
- 20 Points into Teeth
- 20 Points into Bone Spear
- 20 Points into Bone Prison
- 20 Points into Bone wall
- 20 Points into Bone Prison
- 1 Point into Corpse Explosion
- 1 Point into Bone armor
*Some people use bone armor, some don't. I personally do not, but you may feel like it helps more and what not.
**After maxing all the bone skills, you will eventually have some skills leftover. Keep in mind that you won't ever have enough skills leftover to get Lower Resist however. But for the extras (3 or 4) Put them wherever you want. Personally, I put any extra skills I have into Dim Vision, for a bigger radius.
2. Gear
This guide is meant to tank as much as possible, while maintaining a very high fcr, fhr, life, and decent damage.
The Necromancer breakpoints are as follows:
FCR: 9-18-30-48-75-125
FHR: 5-10-16-26-39-56-86-152-377
In this build, we will be hitting the 125 fcr breakpoint, and the 86 fhr breakpoint.
Helm: 2/20/life/dex/resist Circlet - Shael'd
+2 necro skills and 20 FCR is a must for the helm, and resists/dex/life would be an excellent bonus
Armor: Mage Plate Enigma - Teleport, and 8% DR
Shield: Ber'd Stormshield- Your main source of Damage Reduction, nice resists, and high block
Weapon: Wizardpike- Socketed with a 9dex/15resist jewel- Your main source for Resists. Also gives a nice bit of mana, which is a nice little bonus.
*You might want to be using Hoto. Hoto is fairly nice and well usable for a CS Necro, but it only gives 40% FCR. You'll have to rearrange the build a nice bit to be able to hit the 125% FCR BP using Hoto. *I have this build written at the end of this guide
Amulet: Maras - Resists, Skills
Belt: Arachnid Mesh- FCR, Skill
Gloves: Trang-oul's - Fcr, 2+ Curses
*You may want to use mages for the % Regenerate Mana. Don't. You have enough mana from Wizardspike, and Trangs gives a nice +2 Curses bonus
Boots: Aldur's Advance- This is the only real item that can be switched around in this build. You might want to use Hotspurs, Waterwalks, or even Treks. Personally, I like Aldur's for the nice life and fire resist.
Rings: 2x 10fcr/dex/life/resist -FCR is the main thing you want on a ring. Anything else is bonus.
This is a fairly cheap build, the only thing that should cost a little extra is the helm.
Now, for your inventory:
17+/17+ Torch
15+/15+/10 Anni
5x 12% FHR PnB Gc's
4x 30+ Life PnB Gc's
2x 5% Fhr sc's
6x 20 Life sc's
1x Tome of Town Portal
As you can see, the only fhr from the gear used in this build is from the shael in the helm, so FHR is very important in your inventory
I realize that this can be fairly expensive, but you are going to need those FHR PnB gc's. You can't really go skimming off the top for this build, you are going to need every advantage you can get to hold your own in Chaos. You can get plain PnB gc's instead of lifers if you have trouble affording them however, but I strongly suggest you try getting lifers as soon as possible.
3. Mercenary
For this build, you will be using a Cold Act 3 Mercenary.
You'll want to put this on him:
Helm: Kira's
Shield: Hel'd Stormshield
Armor: Um'd Guardian Angel
Wep: Lawbringer (use a long sword or crystal sword if possible, for the low strength/dex requirements)
The Merc is pretty cheap, and can tank fairly well in Chaos. The lawbringer gives level 16-18 Sanctuary, which knocks back undead monsters (such as doom knights, storm casters, etc). This is very helpful with De seis.
4. Chaos
As with every character, there is a guide you should follow when doing Chaos. Here's what you should do.
1) Summon Clay Golem and use Battle Command/Battle Order at the River of Flame waypoint.
2) Make sure you switch back to wizzy/stormshield, and begin teleing to Chaos
3) Teleport to the left side of Chaos, hit the innermost seal, and then hit the outermost seal. Basically, hit the seal furthest away, and then hit the one closest. This will spawn Vizier
4) Cast Dim Vision, make sure you aren't standing by any unique/champions, and begin Bone Spearing Vizier. He will die the quickest, and the monsters should still be dim vision'd when he dies
5) Teleport to the middle of Chaos. Teleport to wherever the seal is and hit it. Remember that there is only one seal at De Seis. Now, after you hit the seal, do NOT tele right back down, you must tele very carefully, in short sequences. You do NOT want to tele on top of Seis. As soon as you see the orange glow of fanaticism, cast Dim Vision. In most cases, you should be able to sit back and spear him until he is dead. However, if the space is cluttered with enemies, you might want to Bone Prison a few, to get to a safe spot. Keep in mind that De Seis takes longer to kill than Vizier, and Dim Vision will usually wear off before he dies, so make sure to RECAST it as soon as it wears off. The last thing you want is to be charged by Seis. Also, when the area is very cluttered, you may find it hard to actually FIND seis to spear him. Remember that Dim Vision does not work on Champions/Uniques, so try looking for a monster that has no orange ball on his head. Seis also usually has unique glowing hands, which makes him stand out from the rest of the enemies. If you still cannot find him, try teleporting around a little.
6) Teleport to the right side of Chaos. Hit the furthest seal in, and then hit the seal furthest outside. This part is the most important for Infector, because you don't want to hit the wrong seal, and then accidentally teleport in the middle of him.
As soon as he spawns, cast Dim Vision, and then cast Bone Prison 2-3 times to trap him in. Teleport to wherever there is a safe spot, and begin using Bone Spear. Infector takes the longest to kill, and Dim Vision will wear off before he is dead. You want to make sure that you RECAST it, and if the Bone Prisons fall, recast them as well. Remember that Infector has Mana Burn, so if you let your guard down and do not recast Vision/Prison, you might find yourself out of mana, and dead before you can try to tele away. Infector can be very deadly when he has Conviction.
*There are actually two different Chaos maps in which the seals are in reverse. When the map has just a single walk-in path (map 1), with a seal on the left and right, exactly diagonal to each other; hit the seal furthest back, and then hit the other one. For the Second map, there will be a right angle. A seal at the beginning of the angle, and another one at the end. In this map, click the seal at the beginning first, and then hit the one at the end of the angle (at the wall). In the video, it is map 1
7) Party up, and bring in your topper to kill Diablo. You'll want either a sorc/zon, because Necromancer's do very low damage to Diablo.
5. The Necromancer and level 99
Currently, I do not have a level 99 Necromancer.Mine's only 98 at the moment, but I do have experience with level 99's, and the guide to getting 99 is the same for every character.
1) Top 2 Diablo (Remember to have a sorc/zon killing or helping, because it will take a Necro a few minutes on its own to kill)
2) Top 2 Baal (Same as above)
3) Nith: Nith is also pretty important at 98. Nith Alone gives more experience at 98 than all of throne does. To kill nith on a Necromancer, do the following:
1) Tele to Halls of Vaught
2) Tele up to Nith, and cast Dim Vision on every monster there.
3) Cast a few Bone Prisons, and if there's snakes around, make SURE to cast bone prisons around them
4) Spear Nith 8-10 Times
5) Begin Using Corpse Explosion. Like every other boss, spear takes a nice few hits to kill nith. However, nith can hurt a LOT with his corpse explosion, so that's why you are going to explode them before he does. Not only does this keep you safe from him, but it also kills him much faster than bone itself. Usually, after exploding one corpse, another monster will die, and you can explode that corpse, and the cycle repeats. Often, after one single explosion, you can kill every monster there. If he is still alive after all of the corpses are gone, simply bone spear him until he is finished.
***If there are a lot of snakes around, do NOT risk trying to kill nith. One single snake alone will be able to kill you in a matter of 5 seconds if its close enough. Keep in mind that there's nothing you can do to tank the snakes any better. They are glitched, so do not try to beat them. I have died many many times at 98 at nith from snakes, not just on a necromancer either.
6. Miscellaneous
So that's basically it. In this section, I'm just going to add other information that didn't fit into the other categories
1) Hot Keys: Here's a list of the hot keys that I use. Keep in mind that you should have all of these skills on your hot keys; the key you use is completely up to you. Personally, I use..
F1- Teleport
F2- Summon Clay Golem
F3- Town Portal
F4- Dim Vision
F5- Bone Prison
F6- Corpse Explosion
F7- Battle Command
F8- Battle Orders
2) Belt:For your belt, this is what you should use: 2x Rows of Full Rejuvenation and 2x Rows of Super Mana. You may want to use Super Health potions. You could, but personally, I find that unnecessary. For a fast paced Chaos run, if you need to heal, you aren't going to have time to wait for a healing potion. And in most cases, in the event that you actually have to heal, it'll probably be a life and death situation (seis stomping you for example), so you'll most likely need a rejuvenation potion anyway.
3) The Other Build
So as I mentioned previously, there is a completely different build you may want to try. I've tried both builds before, and both can chaos fine, personally, I like the Stormshield one. If you don't however, this guide is for you.
Again, we will of course be meeting the 125 FCR BP and the 86 FHR BP
FCR: 9-18-30-48-75-125
FHR: 5-10-16-26-39-56-86-152-377
Helm: Crown of Ages - Double Ber'd - (Main source of Damage Reduction; Resist, skill, Fhr)
Armor: Mage Plate Enigma - Teleport, and 8% DR
Shield: 35% FCR Spirit Monarch
Weapon: Hoto (FCR, skill, resists)
Amulet: Maras - Resists, Skills
Belt: Arachnid Mesh- FCR, Skill
Gloves: Trang-oul's - Fcr, 2+ Curses
Boots: Hotspurs
Ring 1: 1x 10fcr/str/life/resist
Ring 2: BK
Inventory:
17+/17+ Torch
15+/15+/10 Anni
9x 30+ Life PnB Gc's
7x 20 Life sc's
1x 5 FHR sc
1x Tome of Town Portal
This build is a little more expensive, but it can also get the job done like previously said. In fact, a lot of people prefer this build.
(This build also uses the same mercenary as the other)
4) Video
This is a video of me doing Chaos AND Nith on my Necromancer. I put both in one, for convenience. Just a couple of facts before watching: Firstly, the video capturing software I used only gave me 30 seconds of video before shutting off, so I had to keep turning it back on after every 30 seconds, so 2 tiny parts of chaos are cut out, like at Vizier. It's only 2-3 seconds cut out, so you'll still catch the drift. I am not using any hacks whatsoever.
I'm pretty sure that's everything you need to know, I can't think of anything else to add. If you do, just message me, and if you have any questions, you can message me them too. Would be nice to know what you guys think of the guide, it only took me a few hours to write (there weren't any baals up)
Oh if you find any typo's or errors, tell me that too, and I'll fix em
THANKS FOR READING!