Char useless in Hell

[SabreWolfy]

The Necromancer is my favourite character and I've started playing my Level 70 Necro again. He's half-way through Act 3 in Hell. I don't know when last I played the character seriously (probably a few years ago), but he is completely useless in Hell (probably last played seriously with an older patch?). Iron Maiden, Bone Spirit and Corpse Explosion are +-maxed and I use an Iron or Blood Golem. He's just so under-powered that he's unplayable. I have a hireling to help me and I only play single-player. Any suggestions?

[Hello Jim]

Taking in account you're playing the 1.12 patch:

1. Iron Golem sucks. New patches made golems pretty much useless.
2. Bone Spirit maxed alone is weak. You need to max it synegries as well.
3. CE should pretty much do the work. You get 1 monster down and CE 'til they all die. Only real problem you'll have is with Bosses.

IMO? Try to get Amp dmg, Life Tap and Dece curses and Revives.

[LonghornRob]

I'm sure you've noticed the synergies for Bone Spirit now. If not, hover over the skill on your tree and you'll see the skill gains more damage from other skills. This means that Spirit is no longer viable if its synergies aren't pumped up also.

The Iron Golem can still be useful if its made from a runeword item that has an aura attached to it. Also, Clay Golems have been given the ability to slow down enemies, which helps enormously against the Act Bosses. However, he's still weak against regular enemies.

[Phredreeke]

Clay Golem is for tanking, not damage. My Clay Golem has 4k life :D and enemies seems to prefer targetting him over my skeletons. If you have good items, then Iron Golem can be a good choice. There's no point in using Blood Golem, it's useless as a tank and doesn't do much damage.

Iron Maiden was great in the earlier versions, but now there's not much too it. Enemies just have too much life for it to be useful.

Amplify Damage and Decrepify, as Jim above said, are great. I don't care much for Life Tap though (but I mainly use Clay Golem, so if he dies I can just recast him, and with 4k he rarely does. maybe if you use iron golem then Life Tap would be more useful)

[blissfullslayer]

id suggest using a weapon that steals life for your golem so he last longer, then try and get amped damge and lower resist on the go as they will help out. I never really played single player so im not sure if you can go back and do runs, but get some plus to skillz gear to boost ya up, ive always found with necros that they really need at a +5 to really do anything

[SabreWolfy]

Thanks for all the suggestions. I'll give them a try!