Perhaps in normal mode. But imagine a newbie, nearly naked (compared to someone that is not first time around), trying to do solo diablo even in nightmare.
Bosses are easy enough with a Summon-Necro, without any fancy gear. Don’t forget golem and revives (optional, but helpful for bosses). If you have a hard time, just tp back to town and fetch a bunch of new summons from cold plains. After a few attempts like that you will wear down even the toughest bosses.
I would say there are 2 options depending what your goal is:
If you just want to finish the game - Fishymancer hands down, only problem with it is that it is so easy, that you won’t learn much about the game beside what mobs do what. If you decide to stick around though then this bit of information is good base start.
If you want to stick around - Sorc (orbitaller I would say). Not easiest, but best allrounder for new player. I also like the pace at which it sort of forces you to learn the game (you need insight so you find out about rune words, bases and merc, you teleport, so you find out about breakpoints). On top of that you ending up with one of best MFers in the game.
I think ppl give advice here without realizing how hard it will be for newbie in a game that lacks proper help feature that explains the mechanics. Unless said newbie comes from diablo 3 and has absorbed all info from a site like maxroll, there will be a very hard learning curve.
Rolling sorc or barb while relying on poor gear and weapon will not clear hell difficulty with any way that can be described easy. Cold sorc does fine until first immunites are faced and barb too if he does come by some very nice elite weapon. But facing a mob that cannot be beaten without 10 min dying/grinding will make this said newbie quit and find some other game with better help features and less unfathomable mechanics.
But that was my point in my earlier post: assassin fire + lightning traps, or, necro CE + bone can do it all even with crappy gear and minimal playing skill. It still wont be a walk in the park, but can be done without knowing all the tricks in the game.
1 Point Amplify removes almost all Physical immunities and is something you should at the very least do anyway.
1 Point Decrepiphy also removes Physical Immunity, is less effective for damage but slows those packs which is very solid as well.
1 Point Corpse Explosion will cause heavy physical and fire damage near the corpses.
And the skellies will remain standing for long even against Physical Immunes so you can walk on and your army will teleport to you when your far enough away.
Bone Wall and Bone Prison are great for emergency crowd control.
Summon-Necro is a really solid starter, even for a new player, though I would advice to atleast check on starter build (this however counts for every build, but if someone takes time to ask on the forum I presume that is a giving).
And imo the easiest character for people that are new.
If you planing to play only on normal than easy pick (and you’ll lern much about game due to good paste) is barbarian.
If you want play stright up to hell then pick pally or sorc, those probably easiest to breeze through game with junk gear.
The way breaking the immunities work the physical immune are still at least 80% resistant to damage after AD is cast. So low skill level skellies handling them are touch and go.
I played once this build as a newbie all those years ago. And it happened to me like I described, diablo mowed them all down in nightmare. Havent really tried it since, but I doubt it has much changed. But not going to argue this further since I dont have all the facts of the current state of it. But I say this: the difference what a newbie chooses as gear (like max +3 damage charm or 60 poison damage over 5 secs for summoner) and the play style compared seasoned veteran running the build can be huge.
One more note, not all newbies realize they need the extra help and come here. And nothing guarantees that when they do they get a response here other than stating they must be trolling for asking about poison charms with summon build. Id just like if as few newbie as possible would be discouraged and driven to quit the game because it is just too hard.
I played once this build as a newbie all those years ago. And it happened to me like I described, diablo mowed them all down in nightmare.
Amazing, how this keeps coming up. For a summon-Necro, nightmare is actually the easiest difficulty-mode by far. Skellies (just properly skilled, no gear involved) are almost invincible during nightmare, even for bosses. The hardest part is actually killing the bosses on normal, while summons are yet fairly weak.
Barbarian is the best newbie class for one reason: You constantly upgrade your gear with almost any armor and weapon that drops. Other classes require specific weapons and skills to be viable.
You’ll have more raw health and raw defense leveling up than any other class.
You’ll be a single-target killing machine.
Your only weaknesses will be against magic/elemental damage and a lack of AoE.
Yeah, but would that newbie fare better with a sorceress facing real immunes, or barbarian that without good gear struggles in many areas? 80% is a lot better than 100% immune to your attacks.
Diablo, try Decrep+Clay golem, your skellies will last allot longer.
And yes newbies miss the knowledge, hence the check at least 1 build guide for new players, but I really think Summon Necro is one of the best options for new player, as they are not so gear dependend as most builds, not really technical as most if the time the skellies do their thing, use some curses, use corpse explosion, use some walls and prisons, the build has points to spare so don’t be afraid to check skills.
I have done many Summoner playthroughs as a way of leveling a new necromancer, many of them without starting gear, because I think it is a very relaxing way to level a character.
Not sure if your playthrough was before 1.10, because before that I would agree without you, but since 1.10 skellies have become pretty tanky.
My little cousins played this at 10 and 12 years old. They weren’t always the brightest bulbs in the box. People really DO have the ability to figure out how to play a video game. And Diablo 2 is not that difficult.
