Paying a necro doing a hc p8 run currently. Haven't tried a summoner yet in d2r. Are skele mages worth it to max after skele/mastery/ce? Or are points better spent elsewhere like revives?

Mages are improved in d2r but theyre still trash.

In my players 8 walkthrough for summon nec I maxed revive. I dont remember if it was hardcore or not.

For hardcore it might not be a dumb idea to dump a bunch of points into dim vision as a panic button.

With shit gear though maxing revive gives you a lot more mileage in terms of damage for your points. In some of the shittier areas like throneroom minions of destruction or lord de seis in the chaos sanctuary, an edge bow on swap turns a crumbling undead army into a win.

This is great insight. Thank you! I'll try out the revives for now and see how it goes.

Mages are good for summoning just to get the elemental damages; poison for open wounds, and ice to slow monsters.

Otherwise revives are the way to go