What is NEEDED for a Summoner?

[remsy]

I've just started my summoner and like most, I'm gonna max mastery first, max skellies and then skelly mages.

I put one point in clay golem because the thing helps even though its damage is laughable.

Anyway, I'll obviously be done with this really soon and will have a lot of points to screw around with.

Let me ask this, when it comes right down to it, are revives worth it or is it better to invest points in bonespirit, corpse explosion and single points in decrepify and lower resist?

Also, what curses are a must for summoners?

I want to mf with this guy aswell as try uber trist.

My gear will be shako, trang armor, homunculus, arm of king leoric, haven't a clue on belt, haven't a clue on gloves(probably frosties), haven't a clue on boots either, some rare fcr rings with hopes of soj.

Please help me out with gear suggestions and some skills.
Plus honest opinion about dex. Do necros need to max block? Or just have the ability to block should the need arise?

*remsy
*remsee

[waflob]

I've just started my summoner and like most, I'm gonna max mastery first, max skellies and then skelly mages.

I would be inclined to max skellies first, then mastery. More skellies, rather than one super-skellie.

I put one point in clay golem because the thing helps even though its damage is laughable.

You don't get a gumby for the damage. It's used for slowing bosses and being a durable target for monsters.

Let me ask this, when it comes right down to it, are revives worth it or is it better to invest points in bonespirit, corpse explosion and single points in decrepify and lower resist?

If you've got mages, one point in revives won't hurt you. That is usually enough to provide enough revives with your plus skill items.

Also, what curses are a must for summoners?

Initially, I put one in each. Later, I up amp damage, to increase the radius and corpse explosion, again for radius. I usually try to keep these two matched in terms of radius.

Please help me out with gear suggestions and some skills.
Plus honest opinion about dex. Do necros need to max block? Or just have the ability to block should the need arise?

I've recently become a fan of max block, for various reasons. One big reason is spear cats. You do need a good blocking shield for this, which you do have. Not only that, but you only get 2 life per vitality point. A +20 life small charm is the same as 10 character points.

Look up the summoner guide in the stickies - good information there as well.

Have fun

DelBoy

[elmek]

haven't a clue on belt, haven't a clue on gloves(probably frosties), haven't a clue on boots either, some rare fcr rings with hopes of soj.


For a belt I'd suggest goldwrap (for mf) or Arachnid (for +1 skills). Don't use frosties, total waste imo for a sumoner. Stick to Chance guards for good mf or take Trang gloves (cold resist, +2 to curses). For boots I'd suggest War travellers and 2x30% nagels (or sojs if you can afford them). :thumbsup:


My gear will be shako, trang armor


Loose trang armour and take Enigma. You MUST have teleport if you want to try the Uber Trist, even in general pvm mf it's very useful having all of those minions grouped together (especially for controlling those stupid revives).

-elmek

[remsy]

One of my choices unfortunately is not enigma at the moment barring a visit to ebay :)
My choices are:
Trangs armor
Eth Skullders
Fortitude

Eventually, I'll get enigma but for now I have to run it. :o

I have a left over ist so I'll prolly use that for the gear I need as my stormlash barb just isn't going to cut it it seems(no freakin stormlashes in sight!)

Oh well.

[Luckymofo]

For a belt I'd suggest goldwrap (for mf) or Arachnid (for +1 skills). Don't use frosties, total waste imo for a sumoner. Stick to Chance guards for good mf or take Trang gloves (cold resist, +2 to curses). For boots I'd suggest War travellers and 2x30% nagels (or sojs if you can afford them). :thumbsup:



Loose trang armour and take Enigma. You MUST have teleport if you want to try the Uber Trist, even in general pvm mf it's very useful having all of those minions grouped together (especially for controlling those stupid revives).

-elmek

Not everyone has an enigma ya know :mad:

To the OP, you can use naj's staff which has tele charges or ammies with tele charges...

[elmek]

Not everyone has an enigma ya know :mad:


Yup, I know that. Don't have it either :hanky: Using Viper atm.
Therefore I'm not going for Uber Trist without it. :)

For teleport (before enigma) you can also use amulet with charges or spellsteel.
-elmek

[cotton]

Alot of this will echo the above posts, but:

A point in Amp and a point in Decrep are very useful, and the Amp is a necessity at higher levels. Also consider at least some of the AI curses (Dim is a standard,) and many people put a point in every cuse.

At least a single point in Revive and CE are also standard, with most people putting more into CE. After that, the choice between spending your extra points between Revives, Mages, and the bone armor synergies really depend on playstyle, I think.

I personally would not recommend adding points to Bone Spirit not that Marrowalk has been debugged, as I don't think you'll get enough firepower to warrant the expense without being able to pump BS's synergies.

Good hunting!

[khiamal]

I run a lvl 77 summon necro in hell with max mastery, skellies, and mages. No revives, one point in CG, GM, and resist. Curses - enough DV for 8 seconds in hell, gives enough time to spot curse with decrep for the active combat targets, enough decrep for a comfortable duration (YMMV), lower resist to approx. -50%. After that, probably CE/Amp.

Not the fastest killer by any means, but there's no place I can't go and eventually grind my way through. People love hiding behind my wall of skellies. Nothing special about the equipment, all bought or gambled. I'm using a +2 wand, a +1 rare +11/all res ammy, a 3-D shield, and gambled rares for armor, boots, gloves, helm, and rings. Res's are approx. 55-65% in hell, and he does okay with fairly low-level gear. My merc has most of the MF, and an Insight polearm for spamming curses as needed.

Str - 156 - trying for a 4-socket shield, since I doubt I'll find an Homunculus if I'm actually counting on getting one - Murphy's Law.....

Life - all the rest, no dex or mana.

The point is, you don't need a lot of high-level gear to survive and run well in Hell as a summon necro. Just a few basics that are fairly easy to come by, either bought or gambled. Be creative with your curses, and use a little patience.

[Thynqikan]

What is NEEDED for a summoner?
-The game installed on a fast machine

You dont need equipment, ( try playing the game naked and you will see. )

:)

*thynqikan

[AnimeCraze]

What is NEEDED for a summoner?
-The game installed on a fast machineDirect2D is your friend.

[Kuryakyn]

I have a godly summoning necro that can solo Lilith, Uber Diablo, Uber Izzy, and Uber Dury with no prob. I have tried trist 4 times and its not happening. From my experiences with my summoner CORPSE EXPLOSION is a must have skill and your merc must be kick a$$!

[kuafu]

I have a godly summoning necro that can solo Lilith, Uber Diablo, Uber Izzy, and Uber Dury with no prob. I have tried trist 4 times and its not happening. From my experiences with my summoner CORPSE EXPLOSION is a must have skill and your merc must be kick a$$!

Does lifetap help your skellies survive? (Sorry if this is a dumb question. I've never played necro and I'm just curious, 'coz I might build one for my next char). Thanks!

[Remlin]

Does lifetap help your skellies survive? (Sorry if this is a dumb question. I've never played necro and I'm just curious, 'coz I might build one for my next char). Thanks!
Yes, LifeTap does help your skeles stay alive, BUT, it is not better than AmpDam. Amp helps your skeles kill twice as fast. Amp + Might Merc = very fast killing.

[newerest]

Yes, LifeTap does help your skeles stay alive, BUT, it is not better than AmpDam. Amp helps your skeles kill twice as fast. Amp + Might Merc = very fast killing.
...life tap is just as necessary to a summoner as is amp.

Ever tried soloing trist with just amp? It doesn't happen.

[Painman]

I'll just suggest one thing. If you like using CE, get a pair of Magefist. They'll add a point to the skill and help regenerate mana. Very nice if you don't use Insight on the merc - which I don't - I use Obedience to speed up the first corpse/Baal killing processes.

[Navanod]

Hi,

I agree with most of the others but since I've built my Summoner with the intention of helping my team take on the Uber Big 3, I guess I'll share my results here

Skills

20 Skelly Mastery
20 Summon Skelly
1 Summon Boney Mages
1 Revive Mindless Grey Matters
20 Golem Mastery
1-10 Summon Muddy
1 Summon Bloody
1 Summon Rusty
1 Summon Resist

1 Amp Damage
1 Iron Maiden
1 Life Tap

1 Teeth
1-15 Corpse Boom Boom
1 Bone Spinny Armour
1 Bone Wall
1-15 Bone Prison

One thing to note is that the in-game Hit points shown for Skeletons are grossly underrated. Please use the Necro pets calculator to find out the actual HP.

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

Sadly, Boney Mages hardly have more than 1K of life even when you're fully maxed & decked out in L337 gears. They also block the melee troops from getting to their targets, on top of lagging the game & doing pitiful damage.
It is highly irritating to use Boney mages since they die alot & choke up the fight. I would not advocate putting 20 (or any more than 1) points for this.
They get wiped out in Uber Trist faster than you can say "Run! Its Meph!".

I leveled Muddy (& GM) for 2 reasons. I don't use Decrepify (so I need him to slow things down) & he's the only Golem to gain life when leveled directly.
I stopped when Muddy hits 60% slow target & 15000 Life. This allows him to tank one of the Ubers quite well.
Rusty is for normal play & fun...Insight golem anyone? :lol:

For curses, I've realised that the only 2 curses I've used are Amp & Tap. These are 1 point wonders that needed little prereq.
AI curses are almost useless in Hell & Uber Trist & you can hardly afford to use Lower Resist or Decrep since Tap is almost a must in Uber Trist.
Amp would be the most commonly used curse since it helps all your minions & corpse boom boom.
Tap is for Ubers & when trying to save your Merc.

Forget direct damage spells. I have a maxed out BoneNecro who cannot even scratch the minions in Uber Trist, let alone hurt the Prime Evils themselves.
Corpse Boom Boom is the way to go. Aim for at least a 12 yard CE & you'll clear out the WSK faster than you could ever do with Spears & Spirits.
This is also good for taking out Nilly by out-booming him from a safe distance.

Lastly, Bone Prison is a must for Uber Trist. Most of the minions will attack or be trapped by the prison & this takes alot of heat off you & your team so you can concentrate on the Prime Evils. Aim for a 3+K life Prison with less than 4 mana casting cost.
It also gives you a half decent synergy bone armour for extra protection.

Merc

No debates here. Act 2 Might merc. I've armed him with a +4 skills eth Arioc Needle & an eth Andy's Visage for a level 26 might. Cheaper equipments that boost skills or adds an extra aura is also good. Armour doesn't really matter, whatever adds to skills or damage/extra aura would be good.

Equipment

Trang's set
Mara's
SOJ
Wisp Projector (for an extra spirit with aura) or another SOJ
Leoric's Arm
Marrow walk

As many Summoning/P&B GCs as possible
Anni or Hellfire Torch is a plus

Trang's set is wonderful for the 20% damage reduction, huge resist, crazy plus skills & fast "floating" speed.
In fact, the speed stays the same whether you're walking or running, so you can walk all the time & get your full defensive bonus.
Even if something got through 14 skellies, hordes of revives, bone prison & Muddy, Trang's will help prevent those nasty 1 hit deaths (esp from Souls).
The slow cast rate bug doesn't really affect a Summoner & the firewall damage can hit 1.5K per sec with just a Maras & an SOJ. Not too bad for an oSkill.

I've written in another post about all the bad things about a Summoner build. After building one myself to find out, I realised alot of the old 1.09 bugs & problems are no longer valid, although some of the other non-bug weaknesses are still there. Still, its much more relaxing to play since most of the time, its spam Amp & wait to CE...

[AnimeCraze]

How often do you get killed by souls by not having dim vision? Also, not having decrepify makes it an absolute pain to do Baal. You know his AI is bugged, and won't tele and cold attack if you clay + decrepify him, right?

Just wondering, people still do ubers as a team? Especially after everyone figured out that a half decently built cheap zealot/zmiter/smiter can solo uber trist within minutes...... I guess it's good for safer runs, but there might be some bickering about who gets the torch.

Edit: Cheap means anything that has good CB, dracs, and stacked resist.

[Navanod]

How often do you get killed by souls by not having dim vision? Also, not having decrepify makes it an absolute pain to do Baal. You know his AI is bugged, and won't tele and cold attack if you clay + decrepify him, right?

Just wondering, people still do ubers as a team? Especially after everyone figured out that a half decently built cheap zealot/zmiter/smiter can solo uber trist within minutes...... I guess it's good for safer runs, but there might be some bickering about who gets the torch.

Edit: Cheap means anything that has good CB, dracs, and stacked resist.

Actually, Souls were never able to kill my Necro...for some funny reason, I've survived very concentrated bolts (by more than 5 souls stacked together).
I suspect that the 20% damage reduction is helping to nullify the Soul bug. Max 75% lite resist helps of cos.

Even the bugged poison vipers in Nilly's Halls only scored 1 instant kill so far (& its dued to lag...). I hardly die & is almost always able to run away in time to heal. Once my minions are fully summoned, Souls & Vipers would mostly attack them. Only the pesky spear cats insisted on attacking me...but those goons would need more than 20 hits to kill.

One sweet thing about CE is that Souls & vipers are VERY weak against it, as are those feet dragging, self-reviving friends of Pindle.

Mostly deaths are in Uber Trist, or from lag...

As for Baal, thats why I leveled Muddy till he does 60% slow, cos that's when I notice that Baal goes into the "hopping" animation, where his attacks mostly miss. My old Bone Necro used to decrep him, but its soooooo slow.
Now, with Might merc & minions, Amp would speed things up so much more while still remaining as safe.

I Trist with a Hammerdin & a Smiter...I provide the cover, the Hammerdin clears the minions & once the Smiter reaches the Prime Evils, I trap the Evil with him in a prison & Tap the bugger so it becomes a one on one fight.

Once, the Smiter died at the last moment against Meph so I switched to Amp damage in the hope that my minions can slow down Meph's regen till the Smiter gets back. To our surprise, Meph went down...

I suspect that its one of the uber pit lords I revived in Trist...darn heavy hitting

[khiamal]

I run in hardcore, and find that Dim Vision (if you don't have max block) is an absolute necessity in Hell Diff for a great many things, but espceially for spear cats, blowdart flayers, and the various lightning tossers, particularly boss packs, which can have might, amp and extra strong all at once (my nightmare that came true last night... got VERY lucky and survived the first hit). Decrepify is great for the reason that it makes things SLOW!!! Fast is dangerous, slow is safe.