CE has a big drawback though: it costs (14 + skill level) mana points, and you only get a .3 yards extra radius per skill point invested.

It certainly is worth investing points in it, but a balance needs to be found.

If he uses ladder runewodrs (i assume he will), the problem is solved with Insight. You need the CE for Nightmare and Hell anyway. For Normal the summons will easily get the job done on their own. Also, by the time you make the Insight, you can also make a Spirit and have a few more +skills gear pieces equiped, plus enough points to spare to increase the CE radius enough to cover most of the screen... It becomes devastating by NM Act 2 and you'll never feel the need to drink a mana potion going forward.

This post was edited by KillingIsMyBusiness on Apr 26 2021 11:11pm

True enough -- I only discovered Insight a few days ago. I have all the runes, now I need to find the weapon with the right number of sockets... Argh.

But still, I don't see the need for a level 20 base CE. I only have +1 to all skills thanks to Lore, my CE is level 10 base (therefore 11 with bonuses) and the radius is plenty enough for my needs.

My main method of killing is still to combine AD + Thorns (I have an Edge bow, TirTalAmn, which grants a lvl 15 Thorns aura) and it is especially efficient in Hell difficulty since at a bare minimum the physical damage dealt is 3 times as much as normal (from +50% to -50%). Even ghosts lose their PI.

I'll try and see whether lower resist + my newer bow (Harmony, TirIthSolKo -- as a second weapon) is a more efficient combo for them... I know that it will be at least more efficient when I encounter a posessed PI, since posessed monsters are immune to curses, those bastards :p

just wanted to let you know that I am trying out your build on single player for fun I was interested in the somewhat different take on the summon necro and decided it would be fun to try it!

I was just going to post that you should try to contact Quorra for some ideas for your build, whether it be improvement(s) or information of the damage output (Note: Quorra always gave me great advice and links to information for my builds, also known as Eywa or earlier as Faelwen... very decent person).

Anyway... I was looking for another user that made a lot of very fun builds, but could not find one stickied, and then I looked at one of my old bowazon guides which is still stickied and noticed one of my comments:

Ammy:
Metalgrid = Resistances, +400 attack rating and Iron Golem charges. (obtaining the thorns aura too) Note: Will test by using Fortitude Phase Blade for Golem.


Now... this was for my Pheonix GMB build in the earlier days... was so much fun re-reading concepts 1.0 +.

Hope you well for your build, I also had to remake some of my old guides because of new found inspiration.

EDIT: oh yup, sorry never got around to testing wearing Metal Grid amulet on my bowazon.

This post was edited by izParagonzi on May 6 2021 06:51pm

I go all points in skeletons with one point in mastery until you max out skeletons. I use amp damage until I get decrepify, one point in each. Once your skeleton army is complete with maxed skeletons and mastery and one point in summon resist and clay golem, I max out corpse explosion. That usually happens in nightmare some time. After that I put my points one point into bone armor and the rest into bone wall for damage absorb increase for bone armor. I dont mess with revives or mages and I find it easy to beat the game this way. Decrep is wonderful for slowing down bosses and packs and corpse explosion makes the rest easy.

I find that for p8 sp you need the extra meat wall that 1pt revives give. Unless you have amazing gear. I am currently end of a2 hell with my summoner and have +7 skills( +3 amu, +2 spirit, +1 lore, +1 soj) and the 8 revives helps a lot. Well actually 9 because i put another point into it. Otherwise i went similar route maxing skells first, then mastery, then CE. rest i split between clay golem, golem mastery and summon resist(currently lvl84). Got really lucky to find guillums face and lem in nm so using treachery and insight on merc. When runs low in life I just life tap. Teleport charges staff on switch otherwise some areas would be too painful when skells doesn't want to let my merc go ahead

Agreed you need that teleport staff the most on a summon necro of all builds. I find the CE much more frustrating on P8

I had to come back and test Necro build after 10+ years on SP / P8 (and I HATE necro btw).

I am currently level 30, I went 10 points Skeleton (5 Skeletons) and 10 points Skeleton Mastery ... now I am increasing my Clay Golem and Golem mastery at the same time... my merc is a Cold Rogue archer.

I am currently heading to Meph (normal) and have NOT had any issues with my 5 Skeleton fodder so far outside of Durial where I had to replace them twice.

Btw, I only use 1 Base Amp casts and have NOT relied on CE (not that I know how to utilize this skill to its' potential because I want corpses just in case one of my fodders die off).

Note: Now that I am 30, I am not going to waste points on other skills and see how far this gets me, as for other summons... I should only need 5 skeles, a clay golem and merc even in Nightmare.

EDIT: oh, by the way, patch 1.11b means that Iron Maiden is still active in Chaos Sanctuary... this is where my 5 fodder skeletons and clay golem die in 1 hit, so my character and Rogue will still be alive... now for more strategy to clear this area (oh w8... just run towads the caster knight so he casts decrepify to cancel out the IM... yay, problem solved ... MAYBE)

This post was edited by izParagonzi on May 7 2021 02:24pm

Well, how things are changed...

The character is now level 78 and my gear has nothing to do thanks to the contributions of a member of this forum whom I cannot recall the name of right now.

What hasn't changed is my two bows (Edge, Harmony -- the latter on a blade bow). The very generous chap I met provided me with some very nice gear which meant that my + to skills went all the way from +2 (I was gifted a shako) to +10: Skin of the Vipermagi, Mara, a torch and an anni and, given the boost in resistances given by all this gear, I was also able to equip the Stone of Jordan that I was able to find, and with the + to attributes, I am also able to equip the Marrowwalk boots that were also given to me...

This same very generous chap whom I cannot thank enough also gave me all the runes needed to complete Brand (I already had the Jah -- an exchange for a pair of Silkweaves). I just have to find the bow now. And thanks to him/her also, my merc has Insight as a weapon -- and Fortitude as an armor (helmet is Peasant Crown).

When I find the bow to put Brand on, I'll change the mercenary for a Thorns one since Brand ignores defense (the reason my merc is currently Blessed Aim is precisely because I wanted to hit; when he's not here I barely am able to reach 50% chances in Hell despite putting 2 points in dex per level vs 75+% with blessed aim). THis means my golem will also hit less often, however... Meh, you can't have it all.

Anyway -- I know d2jsp is a place for trading also, I'll have to look into this. I want to repay the kindness.