Summonmancer skills/ equipment

[Lehrigen]

ima lvl 64 soummonmancer and ive maxed skele mastery, summon skele, and CE, ive been wondering whether I should put points into skele mage or into golems

Also, ive been wondering about the ideal equipment for a summonmancer. I was thinking along the lines of:

enigma
shako
marrowwalks
Mara's kaledoscope
frostburns
arachnid mesh
Bul kuthos wedding band
heart of oak
homunculus

does any1 have any different ideas?

help would be greatly appreciated, thx

[Thyiad]

You can play a Fishymancer (http://forums.diabloii.net/showthread.php?t=349093) naked. The gear isn't necessary. An amulet with Teleport charges or Naj's would be helpful for boss positioning, though.

Extra points: Golem and GM. Mages are annoyingly useless dying things. Believe me, I have them. Revives are OK.

I have used clay and iron. I only have one hard point in each. Clay ok cheap to recast when dead/in the wrong place. Iron has the possiblity of using some nice items with interesting mods (IE IK mauls crushing blow). Try them at one point and see what you think.

[Lehrigen]

ok, thx, but which golem? Im thinking to put points into clay because of slow, but other ideas would be helpful

[Lehrigen]

so do i max golem mastery?

[krischan]

No. You just need a clay golem to slow enemies, not to cause damage. They are cheap to recast. Perhaps it's worth to invest a single point into it and/or it might be a prereq for something useful anyway.

I suggest to raise skeletons with Arm of King Leoric and then switch to Beast for the fanaticism aura. You will lose a skeleton or two (their strength won't change !), but the fanaticism aura from Beast will outweigh that by far.

Put a single point into each curse. Keep your enemies amped all the time, except strong ones which aren't PI, like act bosses. They are better fought with decrep. If enemies block entries into rooms (so only a single skeleton can attack), use terror or attract to get them away from there. That's not necessary if you can teleport, however.

The best merc weapon (act 2 nightmare offensive, aka might merc) is an eth upped Kelpie snare which will slow down the enemy furtherly. No hell act boss will be a threat with slowing from decrep, clay golem and a Kelpie Snare while a dozen skeletons attack him, benefitting from might and fanaticism). In fact, they won't kill a single skeleton or get a single spell cast.