I have played necro all the time in classic. But here in ressurected I see a different. Skeletons die alot on nightmare, they never did before. And they often stay in one group at doors and dont come into the room unless you teleport.
The golem seems complete useless, its more dead than alive both clay and iron golem. I have stopped even use it, only to get a kill to begin summon minions after relog.
And just a side note. The necro dosnt look like a necro anymore, he more looks like a warrior on how he walk, runs, and an old warrior head. Long hair dosnt make it a necro alone.
The worst part are them dying i need to summon 1-3 after each enemy group. And often when i run to next point where i need to be they just die out of nowhere. Running over a map result in 2-4 minions just die instead of follow.
well the clay golem you can recast on bosses to slow em down
if the skells are on different places you can only teleport or make a quick tp in town and back
if you play in a group they survive longer
hope you have maxed mastery aswell
I find when you run around some of them will just disappear and you have to recast. This makes skipping difficult XD.
necro teleport bug is really annoying and a must fix. but my skellies never die. do you skill your necro wrongly? or poor gear? the golem gets useful later in game when youn have enounghn skill points to max out golem mastery and blood golem/or clay golem. a pure clay golem build (not iron golem mix) can easily make it to 20k life.
I did a necro ssf, so far in act 3 hell.
I started by getting about 4 skeletons and a clay golem, then max out mastery first. I see so many guides saying max skeles but I found by maxing mastery first they can better survive bosses.
Clay golem + decrep on bosses is easy mode, albeit can be slow sometimes until you get 10 skeltons and 10 revives.
I also used corpse explosion and amp damage for most other things than bosses.
I originally had a bunch of mages to help me though normal and nightmare, however I respec those out for revives once I unlock it.
Get an act 2 NM might merc also helps.
I played a month or so before release to practice again and I haven’t noticed a difference. I did a necro then too.
In hell they kind of are weak and slower, but once 1 mob dies CE makes them all die fast. I only have level 24 master and 24 skeletons now too.
I haven’t noticed much of a difference with the skeletons. Golem feels like it is dying a bit more but I honestly just chalk this up to me remembering the golem incorrectly and not on changes… I just assume I use to my late game golems more.
The only issue I have with skeletons is they seem to depsawn if you run to far away which I don’t remember happening in D2 LOD other then that they are pretty much as I remember them
i just went through Nightmare last night, this was not my experience. What level are you, what is your build?
100% Max Raise Skeleton before Skeleton Mastery. Maybe put 1 point in Mastery, but no more.
Use corpse explode and amplify damage (just 1 point in CE until you are 20/20 on your skeleton skills). Shop for +3 raise skeleton wand. Craft an Ort+Sol helm. Game should be a cakewalk.
Sorry for the late reply. I have trangoul set but i dont use it because its bugged i think. But I have the another good setup, also buffing them with call to arms. I have maxed skeleton, skeleton mastery and even 10 in summon resist. Im in hell act 1, and one or 2 dies in every group I fight. I had an iron golem made of insight runeword, it just got rekd on the first group i fighted rip. my skills are even level 37 also mastery, so I dont get it. It seems alot weaker then in classic. In classic i could run in act 5 without any of them died with the same gear I use now.
I just got to A5 NM, but im only level 45. I think I’ll probably do baal runs until Hell feels good. Not sure what level you are, but it sounds like you have good gear. Not sure what to say but I guess Ill see how it goes when I reach hell.
NM hasn’t been a problem at all, hardly see my skeletons ever die.
your iron golem died? that never happened to me. do you have golem mastery + blood golem (for synergy)? but thats really weird, your skellies shouldnt die with that skill level. do you use decripify? lower attack frequency would help them survive longer. you can use a teleport staff to gather your minions (that way skellies don’t get singled out by a mob).
For this I just use Fire golem personally. It grabs the attention of all the monsters around it and switch to using Clay golem for bosses. If I come across an elite pack with fanaticism though I cast decrepify instead of amp. Fanat will wreck everything even with fire golem tanking. 
Dim Vision is also a great curse to put some points in. It just makes monsters wonder aimlessly.
I wear enigma so teleport isnt a problem, yes i have maxed out golem mastery aswell, it is a character I startet in classic, might be some sort bug importing my save file maybe. It was not using any mods or something just a normal character. Maybe i should try start over in a character made in the game to begin with. The damage is good and all its just the survival thats an issue.
Your understating it. It turns the monsters off, especially gloams and anything ranged. It also makes dolls stand around like the really are dolls.
I honestly don’t know why Dim or Cloak of shadows isn’t used more.
Maybe i should put next point in that I run amplify damage.
I use cloak of shadows every time its off cooldown on my assassin haha. Its the first button in my rotation every time.
It’s also insane for party play. My friend was dying on his Hammerdin when I left and he couldn’t figure out why lol.
As a necy you shouldn’t ‘run’ one particular curse. You really need to learn what each curse does. Sure Amp and Decrep are going to be your main curses but Dim, Attract, Lower Resist should all be used when appropriate.
Dim Vision bascially makes monster not see anything thus they stand still and do not use ranged attacks. The safest Summoner builds max it and they can just walk around the Worldstone Keep with no gloams frying anyone.
Attract makes the monsters kill the one you attracted. If your skellys are fighting a line of stuff and it’s going slow, attract one of the monsters at the back of the group your dealing with. The monsters will now kill it giving you a body to CE.
Lower resist, most of the time you are probably running with sorcs or trappers etc. You will kill the packs faster if you LR everything rather than Amping it.
Life Tap…Running Ubers anyone? want a necy around?
Meanwhile people just buy Life Tap wands and we cry in our solo games…
Well, if you want strong skellies, then the best way to build is:
Get someone to give you some gold so your level 1 nec can shop for a wand.
Ideally you want a wand with +3 Raise Skeleton and +3 Skeleton Mastery. Mastery is more important, so I usually settle for less on Raise Skeleton.
While Mastery makes stronger skellies at low levels, Raise Skeleton it better at at higher levels. So you really wanna max Raise Skeleton FIRST!
So:
First skill point into Raise Skeleton.
Second Skill Point into Skeleton Mastery.
3-21 into Raise Skeleton. (Maxes Raise Skeleton)
22nd skill point into Clay Golem.
23rd skill point into Golem Mastery.
24th skill point into Summon Resists (The real goal here).
(Use skill shrines if need to inrease Summon resists if needed.)
I usually kill Meph in normal about here.
25th skill point into Amplify Damage. (Useful skill, but strong skellies are better!)
26th skill point into Weaken.
27th skill point into Terror.
28th skill point into Decrepify. (Needed to kill Diablo!)
29-47 skill points into Skeleton Mastery.
This should max Skeleton Mastery.
This can be done by level 44 or before depending how far you get into the game.
You may want to put a point into Amplify Damage much earlier to help with bosses (for example just before Andariel).
Some like to get Corpse Explosion before this to help kill faster. (But if you don’t mind going slow, this can wait!)
Also, USE SKILL SHRINES WHENEVER POSSIBLE TO MAKE YOUR SKELLIES!
Doing this my skellies are strong enough I can start nightmare in the mid 30s (and with just the lame gear I find along the way!).
I then work on getting points into Corpse Explosion (level 10 for now).
And then get Revive (1 point is usually enough if you have plus skill items).
Revives may be needed to help skellies survive in late nightmare and hell (unless you have lots of +skills for you skellies).
Once I get revives I get Lower Resists as a party friendly skill for Hell. (Can do sooner if needed for party play…)
Personally I don’t bother with Attract as I don’t really use it, but it can also help skellies survive. (I prefer Revives as needed.)
Once I get Revives and Lower Resists, I dump points into Raise Skeletal Mage (can be surprisingly good at killing with lots of +skills!).
And then I finish maxing Corpse Explosion (or max this before Mages if you prefer).
While I do play slow (doing ALL quests and getting ALL waypoints along the way…), I never have problems getting through nightmare. And pretty much never die (even though I often just use what lame gear I find).
I seldom do any trading till my nec gets to hell. But once I get to hell I try to trade for some better gear before actually questing in hell.
If you go REALLY slow, hell is doable with lessor gear till act 5, then it can get tough.
Trangs set, while not the best gear, is easy to get, and is good enough to do all of hell (even act 5). (Add 4-5 summoner charms, and a nec torch and hell is no problem!)