Not sure what to do next.

[piggybank]

I just came back to D2 and I've started a summoner.

So far I have:

20 skeleton mastery
20 raise skeleton
1 clay golem
1 golem mastery
1 summon resist

1 teeth
20 corpse explosion

1 amplify damage
1 iron maiden
1 lifetap

I'm not quite sure where to put my skill points next. Should I max Mages? Or just pop one in mages and start pumping up revive?

I must say that i have just the gear I've found while leveling up, so this guy is running with very little +skills right now. I'm lvl 65 in act 1 hell (lvl 65 might merc with me) and things are going pretty smooth except my minions couldn't clear tristram, so wondering what the best options for me would be.

Thanks for any info/help/suggestions!

[mrfrost]

If you are a pure summoner, which I am just guessing from glossing over your post, I recommend at least 3 points in Skeleton Mages. Your Skeleton Mastery is already at 20, so your Mages will be fairly tough right from the start.

3 Skeleton Mages will give you not only "meatshields", but some nice elemental damage. Furthermore, if you can somehow obtain a "Thorns" aura, this will help, contrary to popular opinion.

More than just the obligatory 3 points would be a perfectly acceptable option also. Hope this helps.

Concerning Revives, I wouldn't recommend more than 7-9. More than that is just not efficient enough to justify more points. Trust me.

[Doctor Clock]

Do you have a point in Attract? If not, doing so would be a good idea. That curse turns the attention of all nearby monsters towards the cursed monster, and it can't be overwritten by any other curse. In fact, having one point in every curse is useful in Hell as nearly all of them can be used in the right situation.

You could also put one point into Bone Armor and boost its synergies for some extra safety.

[OsTo]

skele mages if cold come will leave u with less corpse they got only 1/10 life of skellie warior and so low dmg.. its good for imune to phisical but that very rare...

i recomend golem mastery for BIG life clay or iron golem from insight..

[Nimbostratus]

skele mages if cold come will leave u with less corpse they got only 1/10 life of skellie warior and so low dmg.. its good for imune to phisical but that very rare...

i recomend golem mastery for BIG life clay or iron golem from insight..

If you already have your army up, you don't really need to worry about running out of corpses. While it's true they aren't as powerful, the damage quickly adds up once you have several of them out, and the effects of cold and poison help as well. Unbreakable phys immunes are rare, true. However, phys immunes that have been broken STILL have very high physical resistance, so the mages will still add on a nice portion of the damage.

Do you really need a clay golem with several thousand HP? I find that a 1-point golem/mastery works just fine. He can be recast as needed. An iron golem presents its own problems with worrying about it disappearing/dying/etc. Yes, insight is cheap, but I would still find it too annoying to keep getting new ones. Besides, mana potions aren't that hard to obtain.