HC - Summon Necro build (Noob here)

Necromancer
1

I play HC of course - as the title indicates.
Haven’t played D2 in a long long time - just started with D2R. Played some D3 (HC, but its so much easier), but also a good year or two the last time - and just occasionally. So I am more of a beginner more or less, knowledge wise.

Also I’m playing online and season character - if that matters (aside from my horrible ping of almost 200ms - not sure why it (or I lol) selected US server region when I am in Asia…but too late now…I don’t want to restart again).

I currently struggle pretty hard on Act 2 on Normal at Level 18 - especially against lightning in the desert - my skeletons and golem keep on dying in seconds.

I died yesterday already when my dog distracted me for a second. I am freaking afraid to go forward - just found the Cube.

Any tips on how to get better gear in Act 1/2 on normal?

Or should I focus on leveling and make runs in Act 1? Totally unsure what to do. With SC character I wouldn’t care…but with HC…you know :smiley:

You need any more infos or screenshots?

2

Normal is generally the hardest part for a Summoner. Here are a few of my tips to get through it.

All pts into Skellies, only get clay golem, amp, Iron Maiden and 1 pt into skelly mastery. Don’t bother with anything else until you max skellies. By lvl 24 you have maxed skellies and they are shredding things nicely.

Prayer Merc - he’s good to help you stay alive and for HC that’s what you need. If you can make a malice for him, it helps in the boss killing and prayer will keep him healed. Swap him to might when you get to nightmare but stick with him in normal.

Gear wise: You don’t need much it’s all skill pts. But…Farm up a stealth armor, aside from that just shop for a wand if you have the gold and take the best shrunken head you can find. In nightmare you will make a spirit, lore and rhyme, those can all be made/farmed from nightmare countess. You just kill her over and over till she coughs up the runes and then look for the bases you need to make the items.

At this point just dump every new skill pt into skellys, don’t do anything else till it is maxed. It’s probably worth leveling a little so you and mercy boy are stronger.

If your stuck in the maggot layer, un-summon everyone, run in there with just your merc and you. When you find monsters to kill, run back behind your merc and let him kill things. If you lose him and he isn’t next to you, pop a town portal, go in and come back…low budget telly.

For Dury, IM him, don’t amp him. When he kills everyone either go to town and re-summon or keep casting your clay golem as fast as he kills him. Generally keep a TP open during the fight so you can run to town when things go bad.

Diablo fight: he will wipe all your minions, you need to run away! Cast IM on him, cast a clay golem near him and run. Don’t die you can basically fight him while he is off your screen. It’s a slow but cheap way to beat him but it works.

2 Likes
3

Thanks a lot. I will re-skill him and do as you say.

I am not sure what that means, but I think I will see ingame what you mean by that. I assume IM is a curse like amplify?

4

IM = Iron Maiden, the curse under Amp Damage in the skill tree. At lvl 1 it returns 200% of damage dealt. Use it in normal especially for boss fights. Be careful, stay alive.