Quick questions

[bojddo]

I haven't played this game in years and years but I've always had this place in my heart for Classic. I was thinking of starting a summoner but I was wondering how people got down the first few bodies to start an army...? And can you get dual leech rings again? I was looking at the affixes for items and is it possible?? Thanks.

[oOmpie]

I myself use a blood golem for the first kills. Just lvl 1.
I am pretty new though and my summoner is only lvl 26 or something, but so far that gives me the quickest first kills. After the first it gets easy and I switch to clay golem to slow down bosses... The clay golem however fails to get me some kills after act 3 or so (normal diff.), that's why I went for BG. You could also hire a merc ofcourse.

Dunno about the rings.

[WarlockCC]

Yes, dual leech rings can drop and you can get them from NPC's as quest reward. Though Akara hogs all the good ones for herself and only gives out +1 max damage rings.

Personally, I would not use a Blood Golem. If the Blood Golem gets pummeled by a group and dies, he will take most of your life with him aswell. Meaning you are then facing a group of strong enemies while on deaths door.
I am a big fan of the Iron Golem, buy yourself a dagger or some cheap metal item in town, toss it on the floor and make it into a Golem. They have built-in thorns, which is the aura that works like Iron Maiden. It returns damage to whichever monster hits it. On top of that you can cast Iron Maiden on the monsters, to have them enjoy every one of their hits even more.
As you are exploding your way to victory, remember to gather two or so new daggers(only 2 squares to save inv space) or rings in case you need a new Golem and there are no items lying around. Iron Golems take the properties of the item you make them of, they vanish when you move between acts or games. If you make it of a item with knockback, the golem will knock back the enemies.

There are those that prefer Fire Golems, though those would have a problem with fire immunes.

[Akukami]

Summoners suck on Classic, but I did manage to make a PNova Melee Summoner Hybrid guide that's in Builds sticky at the top of the page. Check it out of you want.

- Akukami

[Wraithan]

Fire Golems are not used for their damage, they are used for their ability to hit the monsters first and really tick them off so that they go after him and not the Necromancer. :D

[WarlockCC]

I thought golems drew in monsters like magnets, similar to bonewalls. So they'd go for the golem regardles of damage done by them to the monsters.
If a monster is given the choice, it would rather munch on a bonewall then on you.

[Fearlessone]

Up until early Nm you can melee fairly easily and get the first few corpses. Your golem will be distracting most of the mob while you get each kill. Make use of ur curses. Decrep if swarmed and preferably amp if there are only a few monsters. Weapon selection is critical, most of the uniqs that were swell in act1 norm are obsolete: gull is no good, bloodrise can still perform. A nice rare warhammer is often used. Some use the gnasher. As you progress, dex will matter, so ignore-target-defense mod becomes more important.

You also get to make kills using the bone or poison skills. This is how most people do it after act2 Nm, when melee kills become much harder. Bone spirit is #1 in this department, some use the poison skills to either make the kill or keep reheal from happening.

Good melee necro sets:
Infernal - has attackrating boost with each level
Civerbs - has cudgel with dmg boost with each level
Clegs - dmg boost with each level
Deaths - high cold dmg with partial set
Milebrega's - nice attrating boosts

Good uniq weapons:
Diggler, for ITD, but low dmg
Jade Tan Do - nice poison dmg
Rakescar - big damage
Bloodrise - dmg and open wounds +
Generals Flail - dmg and slowdown
Ironstone - the uniq warhammer, dmg
Stormeye scepter - dmg and cold
All the uniq swords, especially -->
Hellplague - dmg, + fire dmg + dual leech

How to get big attack rating:
Angelics ring + one other angelics
Beserkers headgear + one other beserkers
Clegs gloves + one other clegs
Hsaru's boots + one other Hsaru's
Sigons helm + one other sigons

Note: there are other Meleemancer mini-guides, this is just my first attempt...A year ago there was a nice thread posted on this, by Invitus, and eggo had a nice post in that one using 3 of these partial sets along with the civerbs cudgel!!! Its a thread worth reading, just do a search using the keyword: meleemancer.

I get about 2 dual leech rings per year. So dont expect one in the first week. Oddly, my only two this season came in the past week !!! :sunny: