First off, well-written guide! Every point was laid out nicely and explained very well.
I'd agree with your skill set-up:
Teeth- 1
Corpse Explosion- 1
Amp- 1
Skeleton Mastery- 20
Raise Skeleton- 20
Raise Skeletal Mage- 20
Revive-1
Clay Golem- 1
Iron Golem- 1
Golem Mastery-20
Blood Golem- 1+ <--interesting
Summon Resist- 1+ <--except for this bit.
Summon resist caps out easily and gets diminishing returns. One point is plenty.
If I added up correctly, you have used only 84 ish skill points (I'm assuming dump the rest into blood golem, still putting you at 103). That means your build is finished at lvl 93.
A lot of your gear options were good, but aren't my own personal tastes.
3/20/2 os circulet is kick-ass if going for some fcr. I use a golemlord's circlet of the whale for life that's bo'able, but I'll prolly replace mine for some fcr.
Nigma- SHITTY ARMOR IMO. Absolute junk on a summoner...
...wait wtf am I saying? *Uninstalls D2 for noobiness*
Arach- +1 skill 20 fcr what's not to like?
soj's- these or bk's. Bk would be better if the life was bo'able, but it's not. Sojs for mana
ammulet- just about any good summoner ammulet will work (like you said). +3/100 or 2/xx fcr/str/res/life/etc.
But here's what I don't like:
*Darkforce
*Bloodfists
*Wizzy
*treks
*Switch items (demon limb + rando shield)
Darkforce is gg w/ it's fcr, but quite frankly, there are no other useful mods on this item. Boneflame gives a very sexy amount of resistance and the same +3 skills. It also has 15% chance
of casting terror when struck. Really, you're trading res for fcr. If you want fcr that bad, go spirit. I don't think any of the necro unique heads or spirit or any other shield beat out a 2 os rare/magic w/ +2~3 summoning skills, 3x +skills (golem, skeles, mages, revive, curses, etc.). Although quite rare, 2 os opens up a lot of room for some crazy resistance. Obviously, you need at least 75 for reducing elemental damage (primarily against souls and vipers). Rare heads can also get the deflecting mod for some slight block (I agree a summoner doesn't need it, but if you get a bonus bit, don't ignore it) as well as up to 17% fhr.
Bloodfists do have that nice fhr and life, but trangs gives fcr and cold res (!). With that, you can get your fcr covered, and have even more res.
Treks have very nice mods. A lot of good mods, actually. I use marrowalks cuz I like that +skill and the str to wear spirit switch (has quite a bit more than treks). It's just personal preference here.
Wizzy...-15 req/15 res jewel I'm assuming? I didn't see any +dex items there besides torch and anni (maybe I read wrong) Otherwise, you're wasting points on dex. I hate when people bring up beast...skeles dont need the ias, neither does your merc. For the same reason, I don't think you need faith. Before I get to that, Arm of King Leornic is probably the best wand you can get besides another rare/magic (Golemlord's wand of the Magus w/ 2 os and +3 skele, mastery, and another skill would be ideal). A 7fhr/15 res jewel is awesome. If you can get a rare/magic wand, 2x is better (just watch your breakpoints). Wizzy has the res and fcr, but lacks the +skills (you're losing out on 10 skill points from Leornic). What you said earlier about sojs over fcr rings contradicts why you would use wizzy over Leornic. Leornic + 2x fcr rings has more +skills than wizzy + 2x sojs. Unless you want +skills for bo and tele, and I suppose amp + ce, achieving max fcr is better w/ leornic in my opinion.
Suicide and succubus is a good back-up i suppse, but it's really hard to beat a wand.
Quote
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.
If we want a build on speed...why fuss around with this? Replacing a single infinity is one thing, but having to constantly maintain a ton of gear in case you do have to resummon is another. I thought the point of the build was to play with what you have on, no switching? Having to remake a golem and xfer items between mules is inefficient. If you randomly lose your golem half way through baal runs for some weird reason, you have to stop, find some1 trustworthy, xfer, recast, then xfer again. Or your stash is all cluttered. Just no...
Also, frigid highlands is much easier to create an army, since there aren't minions with charge.
I think I missed it, but there's no reason for demon limb here. Spirit + cta on switch doubles your life...how can you go wrong with that? In addition, you get a very sexy +1 skill from bc. You don't even need a random barb to do this for you.
Clay golem, btw, has 10k life w/ a lvl 40+ mastery and 1 point in golem. It also slows bosses. It tanks. It slows. Iron golem just gives a neat aura.
As I said earlier, skeles really don't need ias. They do enough damage already with a curse. That said, you don't need faith and you don't need beast.
What it comes down to is whether or not you care about losing your merc in chaos. And yet, you say Seis is the number #1 iron golem killer? This just seems contradictory to what you're trying to do.
Once you have an army going, you shouldn't need a merc to do chaos. Monsters are grouped close enough that you can CE the fuck out of them. You also have revives, which are much more powerful than skeles. A mix of 20 summons is enough to clear chaos. However, it's still going to lag the game. Be warned.
The highlights of your guide seem to be:
*125% fcr
*Good fhr
*Originality
*Good points made about A1 merc w/ Faith.
The downside (just in my opinion):
*Inconsistencies of what the build
really wants to do (i.e. ultimate pvm char w/ as much speed as any other).
*Loss of life and +skills.
*Disregard of the viability of might merc w/ infinity because it's "unoriginal," despite it doing the jobs of both the iron golem and the a1 merc.
-> want something original? Then go off the wall...a3 merc using hoj, dual dragon, and a 15/15 fire helm to kill things, while casting lower resist.
Well-written, but it still has some kinks in it.