A bunch of n00b questions

[Molecular]

I pretty much bought D2 and LoD the same days they were out, but I never ventured into the realms of "progaming" this game as most people who still play it do, but I figured i'd give it a go and being the complete n00b I am I know absolutely nothing about the game and find it kind of hard to manevouver through the diabloii.net website as it seems most the information I found was slightly outdated, so I've got some questions.

1. I hear people talking about some sort of uber keys that drop from the countess or, what? What are the purpose of these?

2. On craftables, I understand a huge bunch of craftables were removed in 1.09 for reasons I cannot understand, however, being a necromancer, which craftables would still be reccomended? Any craftables that are usefull for MF?

3. I understand It's possible to find items that have teleport charges on them, I read in a post (Which might very well be outdated) that gambling for amulets is a good way to find an amulet with teleportation charges, is this correct? If not, what is the easiest way to obtain an item with teleport charges.
Also, do items with charges get affected by + casting speed?

4. I also read that a fishymancer (I.E summoning necromancer) was one of the easiest ways to play the game for a new player, I do agree that so far using pretty crappy gear it's a very good spec, but my skeletons are starting to wear down (lvl 74 in hell act 1) and although corpse explotion and revives make me kill enemies fast, i'm worried how i'm supposed to kill act bosses when there are no available corpses around (Feels like it takes ages to kill diablo / baal on nightmare, don't want to know how it feels like on hell) any tips here?

That's about it for now, thanks for any future replies ^^.

[Nimbostratus]

1. It's part of the Pandemonium event. The Countess, Summoner, and Nihlathak can all drop special keys. Transmute 3 of those keys to open a portal to a mini-uber area, in which you'll fight Uber Izual, Uber Duriel, or Lilith (basically Uber Andariel). Each of those mini-Ubers will drop an organ. Transmute the 3 organs to create a portal to Uber Tristram. This area contains Uber versions of ALL THREE prime evils. Also note that the Ubers have extra powers, the most glaring of which is Mephisto having Conviction and Lightning Enchantment. Once you defeat the last of the Ubers, the last one to die will drop the Hellfire Torch, a large charm with +10-20 all stats, +10-20 all resists, and +3 to a random class' skills.

2. For a summoner, none of the crafted items are really that special. However, crafts to try are Blood gloves (crushing blow, life leech), Blood belts (open wounds, life leech), Caster amulets (up to 20 FCR possible), Caster belts (5-10 FCR) Hitpower gloves (knockback).
You can find all of the crafting recipes here: http://www.battle.net/diablo2exp/items/crafteditems.shtml

3. You can indeed gamble amulets with teleport charges on them. The item level needs to be at least 48 (I think). Just note that since you're looking for one, that automatically makes it much harder to find. :tongue:

4. Get an Act 2 mercenary (Offensive in NM, for the Might aura) and give him some Crushing Blow equipment. Some monsters also have crushing blow, so it can be helpful to revive Urdars, Blunderbores, etc. Also note that poison mages can stop monsters' regeneration (as can a whole troop of mages [not just poison!] contribute to the overall damage as well).

[Molecular]

Thanks for the replies! I'm guessing the uber event is really hard.
Furthermore, does stuff like life leech / open wounds / crushing blow gear on me have any effect on my summons? Or in any other case, what does crushing blows do? extra damage? Ignore armour?

[Mursilis]

The only stats on your equipment that transfer to your summons (skeletons) are Magic Find and +skills (for more summons).

Crushing blow removes a percentage of the monster's life per hit, very good for removing large amounts of life quickly.

Do you have a Clay Golem? If not I'd suggest using one with your skeletons, espeically against bosses. A Clay Golem slows it's target by a certain percentage and makes the bosses deal less damage to your summons.

I'm assuming you're using Amplify Damage or Decrify against the bosses and all normal monsters as well yes?