3 to Skeleton Mastedry wand. 3 to Skeleton Mastery shrunken head.
Eye olf Etlich at 15 if you can get it. Tarnhelm at 15 if you can get it or Wormskull at 21.
Gravenspine at 20 if you can get it.
Ume’s Lament at 28. Decrepify very useful against bosses.
That’s all, please yourself what else. With just that stuff you’ll be a powerhouse.
3 points in Raise Skeleton, if having skill level not divisible by 3 take it up to next skeleton. You don’t even need any curses early on. Maybe Dim Vision in act 2. Clay Golem is optional you can leave him until later.
3 in Mage at 12-13-14 if you want mages.
Rest in Mastery. You’ll save tons of mana and your skels will be killers.
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I start all my summoners off in hell (hardcore) with simple runewords like spirit sword, lore helmet, rhyme shield, smoke armor. I personally prioritize resistance then mf then skills. But I play mostly solo not player 8 so I don’t really need all the plus skills to beef my army up.
Don’t sleep on dim vision, especially in hardcore. I put hard points into it until I hit a radius of about 11 yards. Can blind and make an entire room of things that would normally destroy you into harmless punching bags. Even disables some spells, like a shamans ressurect or a gloams teleport.
I’m just a lowly LvL 57 summoner. Until I get to hell level I really don’t spend much time thinking about gear other than runewords. I’m crushing Nightmare but I’m usually really slow going through difficulty levels just because I like runeruns and cow level. I’m in no hurry to get to Hell like some.
Here is what I’m running on my LvL 57 right now and I have no problems in Nightmare at all and I should just go and kill Baal but I want to get some more runes to upgrade my words before moving on.
Wand - White
Gloves - Chance guards - nothing special
Rings - Ravens grasp/Havoc Coil - nothing special
Belt - Soul Cord - nothing special
Boots - Tearhaunch Greaves - 20% faster walk/run is the best attribute on them and +10 resistance
Chest Armor - Stealth rune word - regen mana +15 and faster run/walk speed - you can’t catch me.
Helm - Lore rune word for +1 to skills for now
Amulet - Amulet of the foxes - nothing special
Off hand - Rhyme rune word
Secondary weapon - Gnarled Staff of Teleportation - Act 3 from Ormus - Took about 25 in and out of town before he stocked it.
Follower (act 2 follower) has Insight of course but nothing special in his other slots.
Skills - Most of these are buffed by gear so these are total not base:
Summoning:
SM - 9
RS -13
Clay -2
GM - 2
Summon Resist - 6
Blood - 2
Iron -2
Fire - none
SM - 13 I like the meat shields
Revive - 6
Bone Skills
Teeth - 2
CE - 6
Bone spear -4
Sprit - 2
Curses
Amp Damage - 2
Weaken - 2 (to get to decrepify)
Terror -2 (to get to decrepify)
Iron Maiden - 2
Decrepify - 2
I have not reset my skills etc. yet, I’m waiting for a while so my character stats are wacked out for the moment. I put stat points in where I think I’m weak at that time so after reset these will be more inline with the standard summoner build. I’ve been thinking about resetting since I made the Insight for my follower as my mana problems are behind me.
Strength - 75
Dex - 105
Vitality - 93
Mana - 120 - I really hate popping potions all the time so in the beginning when leveling I put points here so I don’t have to lug around a bunch more potions. This will be the main reason I reset soon.
The one thing I’ve never done in D2 (been playing it since it first came out) was to chase gear like in D3. I like it that you can be deadly in Normal and Nightmare without BiS gear. Hell is a little more gear dependent but I’ve always managed to beat Hell without BiS gear in every slot.
Just keep your reset until you are a high level or need to respec if you get stuck advancing.
A white runeword in a wand with +3 to skeleton mastery shopped at act2 drognan is a surprisingly good weapon to level up a summon necro.
I honestly don’t see the appeal for white over spirit. It’s possible you can get a +2-3 raise skelly 2 socket wand that will get it equal to what spirit does with +2 to all skills, but that’s much harder to find than just a 4 OS sword.
I fully get White for Bone or Poison necy, but spirit is just too easy for a summoner.
+7 to skeleton mastery, +6 to bone armor and +3 to corpse explosion early on, no way a spirit beats that.
I use White primarily for the 20% faster cast rate and +4 to Skelly mastery. As a summoner anything to make my Skellies stronger I try to do as they are most of my damage generators and shields and a +4 to any skill is needed.
I do like the versatility of Spirit as either a sword or shield though
FYI - for a summoner
Using Spirit with +2 to all skills (assuming +8 to all other skills, thus lvl 30/30 mastery warriors) will give you 12 Skellies doing 309-312 damage each. Spirit also has up to 35% FCR.
Using White with the base +4 to mastery will give you (assuming +8 to all other skills, thus 32 mastery 28 warriors) will give you 11 skellies doing 283-286 damage each.
Using white with + 7 mastery (+3 base mastery before white, assuming +8 to all other skills, thus 35 mastery 28 warriors) will give you 11 skellies doing 299-302 damage each.
Using white with + 7 mastery, +3 raise skelly (+3 base mastery/skelly before white, assuming +8 to all other skills, thus 35 mastery 31 warriors) will give you 12 skellies doing 358-361 damage each.
Using white with + 4 mastery, +3 raise skelly (+3 base skelly before white, assuming +8 to all other skills, thus 35 mastery 31 warriors) will give you 12 skellies doing 340-343 damage each.
Thus unless you can find a +3 mastery, +3 Raise Skelly base wand to make white in, you are better off with spirit. Raise skelly does more for your boys than mastery does.
Mastery adds 6 damage and 8 life per level
Raise Skelly adds 19 damage and 21 life per level in addition to more skellies
Nice summery. White is just easier and more accessible especially early in the game than Spirit. That is the main reason I’m using it now. Until I get better gear and respec White works good.
Not having to chase the best gear is one of the reasons I prefer D2 over D3. Chasing gear is boring to me. Yes it’s cool to get a good item but in D2 it’s not necessary to beat the game in Hell.
Funny, I’m still using the same helm that I picked up while still in normal and I’m almost to Baal in Nightmare. Of course it’s got Lore on it.
The none plus ultra would be a +3 raise skeleton, +3 mastery , +3 corpse explosion. Then you can invest divert points somewhere else but not worth it.
I am still looking for a +3 to bone spear/ +3 to bone spirit/ +1-3 to decrepify. I’d reward handsomely whoever is lucky enough to find one.