Diablo II Necromancer Guide V.0.70 By: Shishio_Makoto (rhleex@wm.edu) ************************************************************************************************* ****INTRODUCTION****************************************************************************** ***************************************************************************************** *********************************************************************************** This is not a walkthrough. Really, do you need hints here? Kill things, get funny items when quest log button appears. Return to town for reward. Come on, its not a difficult thing to do. This is a guide for how to use the necromancer well for acts 1-3, act 4 forthcoming. Feel free to e-mail non threatening rants, unless you want to spend three weeks in traction and get skin grafts after I teach you a lesson about manners. Remember, not all computer players are geeky, I happen to be able to thoroughly kick some butt when I want to, so don't piss me off. Be courteous, and I will represent you at the end of this Guide. I also promise to use the words didactic and perspicacity somewhere in this guide, so watch for 'em. You can always find the latest version of this guide at www.gamefaqs.com. Fo' real. I am on battle.net as Shishio_Makoto and sometimes open as Shishio. Talk! I'll be listening. ************************************************************************************************* _TABLE OF CONTENTS_ I. Revisions II. Why a necromancer? III. Character training and focus IV. Skills V. Tips VI. Tricks ***Bonus section***: How to play a good necro info. VII. Thanks ************************************************************************************************* ***********Part the First: Revisions************************************************************* ************************************************************************************************* 7/31/00- No revision since this is the first edition of this guide. 8/7/00- Ver. 0.70: OKAY! Lots of new stuff, I think you can all enjoy it, too. 1. Added new belt tips. 2. Added a "how do you make a good necro?" part, (forgive the bias As it is very similar to my method) 3. Added Information and tips from several other people, all with Their names in this faq, and also in the thanks list. 4. Added great information about the golem, taken from an expert, Which you will see noted in the summoning section. I don't Know how much of an expert he is, but he sounds professional. 5. Added an unsettling reference to Hiroshima. 6. Added poison dagger, corpse explosion, and teeth revisions. That's was all for today, but hell, that's a lot of work!!!! ************************************************************************************************* ***********Part the Second: Why a Necromancer?*************************************************** ************************************************************************************************* The necromancer is a very unique character; with the ability to create minions from the fallen corpses of his adversaries, he is the only character who doesn't have to participate in combat more than a simple spell casting. This premise is what makes a necromancer player. The ability to watch things unfold as your men overrun the enemy, and the drive to master even better monsters and spells will cause you to choose the necromancer. Good choice! I think you have chosen the most powerful and in depth character in the game. ************************************************************************************************* ***********Part the Third: Character training and focus****************************************** ************************************************************************************************* You are going to want to train this man like a barbarian. Specifically, concentrate on strength for a good while, while periodically putting points into mana as well as dexterity. The main stat until you reach about 60-70 is strength. This will become vitally important as you continue further into the game. The reason I say this is that bosses and uniques will be very difficult, and in fact impossible for your golems and skeletons to defeat starting from the boss of act I. In fact, I found that skeletons and skeleton mages are useless after act II because they die instantly. However, a good golem is strong, fast, and has prodigious amounts of hit points, so he can become the catalyst for your corpse explosions. Still, If you have enough strength, just run into the fray and whack left and right with your weapon, then corpse explosions will do the rest. As for wands, I found them useless except at the beginning levels. Yay, a skill increase. Yet, when I am attacked by a swarm, I am helpless. Oh god, I died. Wands suck. They cost a lot, maintenance is high, and they are virtually ineffective in the later levels. You are gonna want to stick with the melee weapons. Specifically, find a nice big axe. Preferably magic, doing around 16-60 damage. Now wear a ring that steals mana and/or life. Wear a couple. Now hit enemies, and watch your mana go up after you used a couple corpse explosions. You should cast that spell, then hit a few guys to steal some mana and cast again. It is a pretty simple concept, and makes the wands useless. Also, because of the high strength, you will be able to wear massive armor and gain lots of defensive points. I don't think I need to express the importance of this ability, as the enemies will overrun your golem in sheer numbers in the later acts of the game. Besides, nothing is more fun than making an ally, crushing some baddies with your axe, then blowing the rest away with magic. I can literally clear a room full of bad guys in about 3-4 seconds. And you know what follows that? Lots of maniacal laughter. Oh and treasure picking. Hee hee. *************Left and Right mouse click********************************************************** I think the left and right mouse click options is a very important part of the game. Since I believe this wholeheartedly, I'm gonna tell you what I believe you should have set up as hotkeys. Later, expect a revision. **************THE BELT*************************************************************************** The Belt. Here is the best way to make a belt that I know of. This has worked many, many times, and is a holdover from the first Diablo, in any case. TP=Town Portal Scroll H=Healing/Light healing M=Mana/Light Mana GH/GM=Greater Healing/Greater Mana SH/SM=Super Healing/Super Mana Slot: 1 2 3 4 Have: TP H H M GH/SH GH/SH GH/SH GM/SM | | | \ / So on up the belt. This technique is important because you can town portal instantly by pressing 1. Nice, huh? Plus, the greater healing potions behind the TP scroll only means you use em when you are desperate, so you just go 1,1,1,etc. That means TP, GH, GH, GH. Compared to the slots 2,3,4 which have light healing or minor or whatever. Makes sense, I'm a genius, I know, thank you thank you, The book comes out tommorow, no I am not married, etc. Save the Full rejuvenation or simple rejuvenations for boss fights. XvSquallXv@aol.com brought up a interesting point, which I say makes sense. ******************************************************* I was reading in your Diablo 2 Faq about the belt setup for items and I noticed that you had 2 greater potions behind the Town Portal. Well as I was playing I noticed that when you use a Rejuvination (the purple ones) it fills up the amount of life/mana instantly and not gradualy and if your in a Jam and need to use the portal and all behind it the slow fill up with greater healings probably won't help much. But an instant boost from the rejuvinations will leave you alive. I know it would be wasting a rejuvination potion but thats alot better than dying right? ******************************************************* Here are some tips from "john huttley" john@mwk.co.nz Enjoy, as these are good for any necromancer. Hi I've just read your guide. An interesting slant on things. I would add the following. In the beginning get a socketed sword and stick a sapphire in it as soon as you can. Being able to freeze the monster is great, particularly when shamen are trying to raise them. Raise that pile of mush then! Same with a socketed cap. I try for a skull there. If you want to level up, the two best places are The canyon of the magi. Zillion of monsters who mob your golem. Pity about the IM! Blam Blam Blam And the River of Fire. To the hell forge and back. Lots of goodies, room to run and to manuevre. I'm at level 44 (single player) doing Nightmare. This starts with a -20 resistance penalty. Ghoul lords and lightning enchanted uniques are utterly deadly. Ultimately I got a gothic socketed shield, with a big diamond, ruby and Topaz on it. Even if it had no defensive bonus at all, I could not survive without it. Also I have golem resistance at about 47%. I do not recommend combat for a necro, though its the only way to get Andarial! In Nightmare, when you die you Lose Experience! Personal Combat is way too risky! Fire Golem/Mastery and revived do very well with IM. Mastery juices up the golem without. making it too expensive to cast. my Fire Golem is now at 100Mana to cast, which is getting a bit high. There is a limit to the effectiveness of revive. Champions and Uniques cannot be revived! So I just necro-mage them. They help a bit, especially with icebolts to slow the enemy. In addition the AI of the revived is just terrible! With 7 revived, they get in each others way, get lost, or just wander off. Dont underestimate teeth. I killed mephisto with L2 Teeth and Mana Regen bonuses. It took about a hour.. I wish I had bone spear then! Regards John RECOMMENDED EQUIPMENT SEPARATED BY ACT. _________________________________________________________________________________________________ +---------------+ | ACT 1 | +---------------+ Head: Any unique cap or helm that is actually good. Screw defense, who's gonna hit you in this act anyways? Body: Yer gonna want to wear some decent armor. If you are lucky, you'll find Twitchthroe (I did). If not, go with the most powerful studded leather you can find. Defense isn't that important. Shield:Get a large shield with sockets. Get three diamonds. Do my gem perfection trick. Enjoy huge resistance to magic. Laugh in face of death. Go to hospital when laughing causes heart attack. Spend rest of life on respirator, swearing never to laugh again. Rings:Any rings which offer stealing life or mana. Or any uniques, its up to you. At this point, rings don't really matter that much. Amulet:Same deal as the rings, although you should look for an amulet of the ox for strength bonuses. Belt:Any belt that provides good defense and some magical plusses is good. Weapon:Go with a wand for now. Pick a wand that is useful, and DO NOT attack stuff unless you really have to. Wands are expensive to fix and money becomes handy in act II. Preferably, get a wand that provides a plus to skeleton and golem mastery, or some bonus to clay golem. Or corpse explosion. General Act I eq tips: Get uniques if you can through my uniques trick. Wear em, or sell em if they aren't any good. Defense shouldn't be that important as the fighters are gonna be your golem and your skeleton mages. Make sure you have enough strength for a two handed sword, I think 30-40. You are gonna need it for Anduriel. _________________________________________________________________________________________________ +---------------+ | ACT 2 | +---------------+ Head: sell the crap you are wearing if it is crap and get a superior or magic full helm (Defense around 24+). Yeah yeah, you lose some bonuses or whatever, but frankly, it won't really matter. You are gonna get hit by stuff, and you are not gonna like it that much, so screw the +hp or +mp and go with defense, to minimize the damage you take. Body:Two words. Splint mail. Magic if possible, although if you have unique(gold letters) armor here, it is probably worth the bonuses to resistance, attack speed, recovery, etc. to keep it instead. But if you don't, a 92 defense splint mail compared to a 20-30ish normal, rare, or set piece just doesn't add up; go with the splint mail for now. Shield:Same as before. Hopefully, muscular therapy and sad movies like "Old Yeller" have restored your health after the heart attack, and also made you want to not laugh. Either that or technology has progressed to anime technology while you were in the hospital, so you are now playing in a full body robotic cybernetics suit with brain jack etc. Or......maybe not. Rings:Same as before. Gee, this is pretty comprehensive isn't it? Amulets:Guess. Actually, the chances of getting some rare/set/unique accessories is pretty high now, so switch when you are ready to do so. Belt:Go with the biggest magical belt you can find. You are gonna want a lot of potions. Weapon:The most deadly and powerful one handed sword you can find. If you find a two handed sword of good quality and extra damage, put it in the stash. It'll come in handy against Duriel. General Act II tips: Defense becomes more important, so go with the higher defense for eq for the most part. Remember uniques usually provide bonuses that make up for any defense loss, but in some cases it just isn't enough, It may be hard to part with that unique, but do it anyway for the good of the group. _________________________________________________________________________________________________ +---------------+ | ACT 3 | +---------------+ Head:Gemmed Crown. Stick in a diamond and a skull. Both perfect. Crowns defense should be around 42+. Body:Imbue that Plate mail. Just Alt+tab, retry to get what you want. Go for high defense, +stats, etc. Shield:Don't use one. Rings:The best you can find, go for a rare or unique. Amulet:Same as the rings. Belt:Plated belts are good, especially if you get Sigon's wrap. Resistance, Plus to Health, and a huge number of potions fit in that thing. (How does it work? Is it like a coin dispenser or something? Clearly, Blizzard defies logic. Actually, the idea of magic spells, Diablo and all that defies logic. So really, this was just a rant. Hmm.) Weapon:Two handed axe, 15-60 damage base, + to attack rating if you can get it. All of that plus vicarious bloodlust= one murder conviction in real life, first degree manslaughter, one bloody axe from sears, and 20 to life in jail or possibly the death penalty in certain states. I really hope that isn't prophetic, please! Anyone who reads this needs to realize that was a joke. Seriously, lets not kill anyone in real life, because they don't respawn. Except for those shifty government stooges.......... Secondary should be a gemmed heavy crossbow, put in two perfect amythsts and a sapphire. Carry around 2 quivers of bolts for the flayer jungle. General Act III tips: You want a high defense without a shield, which is why you get that plate imbued. You want a brutal weapon with a plus to attack rating, so you can hit the baddies easier. Now, when you hit for 50 damage, you drain 5-6 mana and hp each time with the appropriate rings. That means potions become pretty much worthless unless you get swarmed hardcore by flayers. I hate those guys. In any case, with a brutal weapon and good armor, summon an iron golem with resistance at level two or three skill level, and he does thorns damage too. A good man to back you up. Look for armor that increases resistances, since magic from enemies becomes brutal as all git out. That was a horrible cultural reference, so please excuse me. As I have not beaten Act IV yet, I'll save those tips for the revision. ************************************************************************************************* *****************Part the Fourth: Skills********************************************************* ************************************************************************************************* These are the skills I reccommend for the necromancer. The amount which you decide to put into each of these skills is entirely up to you, but you will probably want to focus on the A graded skills. +----------+ #############################| Curses |######################################################## +----------+ Curses. I don't have much good to say about this whole tree of skills, because I think they are fairly useless unless you decide to play multiplayer. The mana spent for the duration of time for most of the curses is well balanced, but many of the spells themselves seem pretty useless in single player. There are some exceptions to this rule, which will be shown below. Curses are a very unique idea that hold strong multiplayer potential, but, in my opinion are better left out of single player. Name: Amplify Damage Lvl: 1 Effect: Doubles Damage caused by you and/or minions during short duration of time. Cost: 4 radius:2 yards duration: 8 sec Skill level up -------------- radius +.6/.7 duration +3 sec Grade/Explanation: A This skill is very effective. You will probably get this at the beginning of the game, and it is a good skill to pop maybe one or two skill points into . Basically, you will cast this, then let your minions do hellish damage to the enemy while you sit back and relax. It comes in handy when you fight uniques. A good skill that you will use throughout the entire game. Name: Dim Vision Lvl: 6 Effect: enemies have a hard time seeing you. Cost:9 radius:2.6 yards duration: 7 seconds Skill level up -------------- radius +.6/.7 duration +2 sec Grade/Explanation: D Okay, I found this skill to be useless. Your minions aren't going to sit back and watch the enemy stuble around. Nor are you going to be able to target all those ranged enemies who are off screen. Basically, I didn't waste a point in this skill, and just put another point in my skeleton mastery. Name: Weaken Lvl: 6 Effect: enemies do much less damage to you. Cost:4 radius: 2 yards duration: 8 seconds Skill level up -------------- radius +.6/.7 duration +3 sec Grade/Explanation: C Again, another curse that is straight useless. You are better off putting points in something good like golems or skeletons. Personally, although the effect of this skill is very balanced it isn't worth the trouble to cast or even learn it. Name: Iron Maiden/ prereq: Amplify Damage Lvl: 12 Effect: Enemies hit you, then they take back the damage they do. Or more. Cost: 5 radius: 4.6 duration: 12 Skill level up -------------- duration +2.4 damage starts at 200% return, +25% per skill level Grade/Explanation: A My god is this one useful. Ever see a paladin clear a room using thorns? This is just like that skill. I think that you will probably want to put some skill points in this one, especially for those tough bosses. Just cast it, let him kill you while taking around 200% at level one and town portal back in. Ha ha. ah hahahahahahahaha MWA HAHAHAHAHA.... sorry. In any case, I likey likey. Name: Terror / prereq: weaken lvl: 12 Effect: Enemy runs like little girl from big man Cost: 7 radius: 2.6 duration: 8 Skill level up -------------- duration +1 Grade/Explanation: B It's not great, its not bad, its....eh......its Terror. I mean, how many times are you gonna use this one? It's.........man, I'm trying to think of something good to say about it but its not coming. its an okay skill to drop a point into if you are afraid of being swamped, but against boss characters with magic resistance, I don't think it's gonna help all that much. Name: Confuse / prereq: Dim Vision lvl: 18 Effect: Enemies apparently drank too much coffee and attack themselves Cost: 13 radius: 4 duration: 10 Skill level up -------------- radius +.6/.7 duration +2 Grade/Explanation: B It is kinda useful to make enemies attack each other, but sometimes they attack you or your minions. You might want to put a single point into it to weaken you enemies if they are in another room or inaccessible area. Examples being Act 2 harem area, Act 3 riverbanks, there's some good places to use this. Name: Life Tap / prereq: Iron Maiden lvl: 18 Effect: enemies when hit give back 50% damage to attacker's health(i.e. you) Cost: 9 radius: 2.6 duration: 16 Skill level up -------------- radius +.6/.7 duration +2.4 Grade/Explanation: B A fairly useful skill, your minions will heal as they whack the baddies. Personally, I think you will probably be using iron maiden a lot more, so this might actually be useful. Hmm.. Iron Maiden/Life tap combo. In any case, I didn't get this skill, but you might want to. It has some potential. Name: Attract / prereq: Dim Vision lvl: 24 Effect: Enemies focus attacks on a single enemy you target. "Ha Ha" as Nelson says on the Simpsons Cost: 17 radius: 6 duration: 12 Skill Level up -------------- duration +3.6 G/E: C This doesn't work on Super Uniques or Bosses. Sooo....what the hell is the point? That's like giving you a gun during world war two which doesn't work on people. What, you want to waste 17 mana on a normal Unique baddie? HAHAHAHA......actually, maybe, that might be good, so that's why I didn't grade this skill as a D. Name: Decrepify/ prereq: Weaken lvl: 24 Effect: Enemies become slow, like "Corky". Sorry, joke not intended to offend, I'm really sorry please don't sue or flame me because of that bad reference. Cost:11 radius: 2.6 duration: 2 Skill level up -------------- radius +.6/.7 duration +.2 G/E: D Useless skill in single player. But wait! Also useless in multiplayer! You get two useless skills for the price of one!!!!! OKAY!!! I don't think that was a joke, sadly enough. Lower Resist / prereq: Umm.....Everything lvl: 30 Effect: lowers enemy resistance to magic. Cool, yes? Cost: 22 radius: 4.6 duration: 20 Skill level up -------------- radius +.6/.7 duration +2 resistance lowered by a lot, then a little as more points put in. Max -62% G/E: B It's useful in some cases, but mostly in multiplayer. Because of the multiplayer use, I'd say it's a decent skill. But the skills you need to learn to learn it are almost worthless. Thus, I'd say don't go for it unless you have a thing for the curse spells that I don't know about. Really, the only use in single player is the poison explosion spells and stuff, but that's something we'll get to in time. Not what I expect from a 30th level curse. +-------------------+ #########################| Poison & Bone |################################################### +-------------------+ Poison and Bone. This Skill set has the most powerful spell in the entire game. It also has a lot of useless skill that I'm pretty sure you are not going to use except if you become level 1 billion, which is impossible. I think this is a cool skill set in theory, but in practice it becomes pretty damn useless for the most part. Still, It's worth putting some points into this skill set. Name: Teeth Lvl: 1 Effect: You throw magic teeth which go through enemies. Cost: 3 damage: 2-4 number of teeth: 2 Skill level up -------------- #teeth +1 damage +1 to max/min G/E: D This skill is fairly useless. Put a point in, forget about it. You are done. Pretend you no have this skill at all. If people ask, say "what? What's teeth? never heard of it." Try to use it to kill something, and fail miserably. Revision: Read above. Mephisto killed with teeth lvl2? HAHAHA that is great. I'm A gonna grade ye' up a graed ya kilt snaetchin' crrrroooouuten eayten' Bahstard. New Grade: C Why? Mephisto. LORD OF WHATEVER. Killed by teeth. That is Damn funny. Name: Bone Armor Lvl: 1 Effect: Cool lookin bones swirl around you and absorb damage. Kinda neat. Cost: 11 damage taken: 20 Skill level up -------------- damage taken +10 mana cost +1 G/E: C You can do this skill, and be able to absorb around 200 hp, or you can avoid it and just avoid getting hit some other way. It's up to you, its an average skill so it warrants the C grade in my opinion. Name: Poison Dagger Lvl: 6 Effect: makes your dagger do poison damage. Cost: 3 damage: 7-15 Attack rating: +15% Skill level up -------------- cost +.2/.3 max damage 168-217 duration +1 attack rating bonus +10% G/E: D This skill sucks. how many times are you gonna use a dagger? It does decent poison damage, but who cares, really? If there is someone who uses this effectively and thinks it deserves better than a D, let me know. Really, the attack rating bonus just isn't worth it. ***************************************************** From: "Skyler Brown" skyjis6@hotmail.com the Only Thing Ive found that a levl. 6 poison dagger hit can kill a lvl. 15 barbarian. Use it only for duelz, thats it I think it deserves an A in duelz, but overall, your right, A C ***************************************************** In retrospect, I don't duel so I never used it, but if he says it works, try it! With that, I'll regrade it as a C, because it is fairly useful against human players. New Grade: C Look up there for why. Name: Corpse Explosion / prereq: Teeth Lvl: 6 Effect: Does 60-100 % of the targets health damage to surrounding enemies in radius Cost:15 damage: Look up there radius:2.6 Skill level up -------------- radius +.6/.7 every couple of levels cost +1 G/E: A+++++ AHAHAHAHAHAHA I love this skill. Kill someone. Then chain a bunch of these spells together. The room is cleared in about 4 seconds or so. HAHA. Ahhh......that's all I need to say. Put a lot of points in this one when you get a chance. time:4 sec Revision: Blizzard sucks. They made corpse explosion have a much smaller Radius, and I Im gonna say is, it still kicks some butt, but not as much. As much as I hate to do this, I'm gonna hafta grade it down. New Grade: A+++ P.S. It still destroys the enemy like a stripper does to a bible reading. Name: Bone Wall / prereq: Bone Armor Lvl: 12 Effect: Makes a wall of bones. Read the title, come on. Cost: 17 duration: 48 health: 19 Skill level up -------------- health +4/5 G/E: D This spell is useless. It sucks. Leave it alone. That's all I'm going to say, except that it may be vaguely useful to escape enemies long enough to town portal home and ask "Dear god, why didn't I put a point in something useful?" Name: Poison Explosion / prereq: Poison Dagger, Corpse Explosion Lvl: 18 Effect: Corpse Explodes in poison Cost: 8 damage:25-50 duration: 4 Skill level up -------------- damage +5 min +10 max time +.8 G/E: B Not very great. Personally, I think poison damage is bad because it takes time to kill the enemy. Still, this skill may be somewhat useful, I don't know, use it if you feel like killing with poison. It is entirely up to you. Can be pretty useful in some circumstances; i.e. poison enemies, let them wander to other enemies, die, then coprse explosion. Name: Bone Spear / prereq: Corpse Explosion Lvl: 18 Effect: You shoot a bone spear at enemies Cost: 7 damage: 16-24 Skill level up -------------- cost +.2/.3 damage +8 min/max G/E: B this isn't that great of a spell, it is kind of useful against range attack enemies. Still, it's effectiveness will go drastically down as you enter nightmare and hell level difficulties. It is convenient against those Flayers in Act 3, or also to kill a single Vampire Lord to set off a chain reaction of C.E. Overall, isn't worth more than one or two allocated points. Name: Bone Prison / prereq: Bone Wall Lvl: 24 Effect: Creates a circular prison of bone Cost: 27 Health: 19 Skill level up -------------- Cost -2 health +4/5 G/E: C Could be used to trap enemies and then peg em with your handy gemmed crossbow. Could also be considered worthless, and not much good in any situation whatsoever. it's all up to the individual necromancer. Name: Poison Nova / prereq: Poison and Corpse Explosions Lvl: 30 effect: Ring of Poison expands outwards in flashy graphics Cost: 25 damage: 50-75 duration:4 Skill level up -------------- damage +5 min/ +7/8 max duration: +.8 G/E: C Again, I find poison spells to be pretty useless, but this might be effective against a group of enemies that have surrounded you. I think that you are better off putting skills in summons. Name: Bone Spirit / prereq: Bone Spear Lvl: 30 Effect: Cool looking spirit tracks down and kill enemy. Cost:12 damage:20-30 Skill level up -------------- cost +1 damage +16 min/max G/E: B This spell is pretty cool if you max it out. Otherwise, spend the points elsewhere. +------------------------+ ########################| Summoning Abilities |############################################### +------------------------+ Summoning Spells will make up the crux of your attack. I love em. Your father loves em. Your grandmother watches the tapes in the VCR. (Another Bad cultural reference.) Basically, you create an ally, sit back, and watch it kill things. At the beginning, you will want to balance your skeletons with your corpse explosions, but later on skeletons become rather obsolete. ++++++++Did You Know?++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ |From: Briareos Kerensky | | | | Hi, I was searching infos how to get into the Secret Cow Level while I | | stubled over your walkthru. Well done, really, though I have a lv.29 | | necromancer and I almost finished the game (found the "pit" where are | | the five gems you have to destroy to get to Diablo, but the enemis are | | too much...oh well, the Chaos Santuary IS hard :P) and just want to | | point out that the Golem is created by assembling mud and a death body, | | and animated by writing "emeth" (life, renaissance) on their foreheads, | | and they can be killed only by erasing the first from emeth, turning it | | to "meth" (death); the original ritual is jewish, and it is relatively | | simple. Bof, stopped to write useless things :P. Keep up the good work. | | | +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Name: Raise skeletions Lvl: 1 Cost: 6 number: 1 Skill level up -------------- Cost +1 Number +1 G/E: B+ This is a great skill to have at the beginning of the game. You can make a minion, and if you put points in, you can make lots of minions. This will probably become pretty important for the first few levels, and will be the best skill you have until around level 6. Name: Skeleton Mastery / prereq: Raise Skeleton Lvl: 1 Effect: Gives bonus to skeletons and raised creatures damage mod for skeletons: +2 life of skeletons: +7 damage mod for revived: +2% life of revived: +7% Skill level up -------------- dmg mod for skeletons: +2 life mod for skeletons: +7 dmg mod for revived: +2% life mod for revived: +7% G/E: A This skill is great because it pumps up life and damage for skeletons and the revived creatures you are going to want to make at level 30. There is nothing bad to say about this skill; it simply is a great passive skill to put some points in when you are in those intermediate levels. It also affects your revived creatures, so if you want to prepare for lvl 30, you can do so; however I think you are really better off putting points into golem mastery as well. Name: Clay Golem Lvl: 6 Effect: you make a golem out of clay. Not Glay, the somewhat famous Japanese alterna rock band, but Clay. Like Gumby, but not so wussy lookin, although Pokey did have a brutal name. Cost: 15 damage: 2-5 health: 100 Skill level up -------------- cost +3 damage + small amount min/max life +35 G/E: A This is the best skill to learn at level 6-7 besides corpse explosion. The golems are surprisingly effective, as they really can take quite a beating and have a high attack rating for the level at which you acquire the skill. Overall, all the summons are gonna get A or higher ratings. Name: Golem Mastery / prereq: Clay Golem Lvl: 12 Effect: Gives added bonuses to your golems. Life mod +20% speed +6% Skill level up -------------- Life mod +20% speed mod +small amount % G/E: B Fairly useful, but not that much. It's best to put most of your skill points into the golems themselves, as that increases the damage done as well as the hitpoints. Still, one or two points in this skill aren't bad. It just depends on what you want to master. Name: Raise Skeletal Mage / prereq: Raise Skeleton Lvl: 12 Effect: Self-explanatory Cost: 8 Number: 1 Skill level up -------------- Cost +1 Number +1 G/E: A Skeletal Mages are effective until act 3. They are able to use elemental magic including cold, which becomes very useful in the tombs of Tal rasha, or really, anywhere. They die fairly quickly, but their low cost makes it ok. Name: Blood Golem / prereq: Clay Golem Lvl: 18 Effect: You make a Golem out of Blood. Ewwwww.... I hated seeing blood during dissection, I don't think I could take seeing this in real life. Looks kinda like the previews for Hollow Man which I personally think is a horrible movie because of the name. Come on, he's not hollow, he's invisible! Cost: 25 damage: 6-16 life: 201 damage converted: 31% Skill level up -------------- damage +min/max a small amount damage converted +1%, max is 38% G/E: A The blood golem is a very good spell for level 18. Again, it doesn't die too quickly, is fairly powerful, and is a useful minion to drag along on your quest. The blood golem's sharing of health is fairly effective, as you will mostly be healed from his attacks when you stay in the back of the battle. A nice effect. he looks really cool, too. Name: Summon Resist / prereq: Clay Golem, Golem Mastery Lvl: 24 Effect: All summoned minions get magic resistance. Resistance: 24% Skill level up -------------- Resistance +some amount, max is 66% G/E: C Not all that useful, the fact that your minions die from lightning doesn't matter since it doesn't take much to make another one anyway. It's good to put one or two points here, but don't go overboard. You should just save the points for something better, if you have extras. Name: Iron Golem / prereq: Clay, Blood Golems Lvl: 24 Cost: 35 Effect: Makes a brutal Iron Golem. Mwa haha. It is metal and large, like the terminator. damage: 7-19 life: 306 Thorns at level 2 150% Skill level up -------------- Thorns from level 2 up +15% G/E: A The ability to give your golem the abilities of magical weapons is first class. Ici-Ban! Anyhow, it is a great golem to have, cast it on any metal item, and they don't dievery fast. Also, the Thorns Aura will cause many a bad guy to die from damage they take themselves. I personally like the Iron golem because of the thorns. Name: Fire Golem / prereq: All golems Lvl: 30 Effect: Oh, it burns! it Burns!!!!! makes a fiery golem who apparently is too hot to handle, (And now you all think too cold to hold). Cost: 50 damage: 10-27 life: 313 fire damage converted: 36% Skill level up -------------- damage +max/min small amount fire damage converted +percent small amount nana cost +10 G/E: A+ This guy is awesome because he does fire damage, he absorbs fire damage, and he is cool. This spell is well worth the mana cost, even in the higher skill levels where he will require quite a bit of mana to be summoned. Still, A great skill especially in hell where everything uses fire on you and your minions. Name: Revive / prereq: Raise Skeletal Mage Lvl: 30 effect: You now control the enemy for a short period of time. You will send your revived minions like uniques( oh ho my friend, yes indeed) and others into battle to destroy the enemy. Ultimate power is now in your hands. Cost: 45 Life: 200% predeath number: 1 Skill level up -------------- life +20% G/E: A+ You control your enemies after they die for three minutes. Go find something and kill it. This is one of the best skills you can learn, as you spend a tough time killing a unique, then send it against the baddies in retaliation. I love it. Revive a vampire lord, and watch him mercilessly kill the enemy with his sorceress like spells. GHAHAHAHAH HOO HOO HAA HAA MWA MWA HAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA... hack... cough.....arrrghhhh... heimleich...please..... ************************************************************************************************* *****************Part the Fifth: Tips************************************************************ ************************************************************************************************* I only have a few tips for the necromancer player, some of these tips actually work for anyone as well. 1. As I have stressed before, you should choose to specialize in one field, probably summoning. Doing this allows you to pump points into your golems, which will give you more time to regenerate mana, cast spells, etc. Curses, while important for multiplayer support, need only be superficially studied by a successful necromancer. The main attack power will come from your golems, your melee or range weapon of choice, and the most powerful spell in the game. Corpse Explosion. 2. Corpse Explosion. My god is this spell insanely powerful. Uniques tremble at the sight of a necromancer for this reason. You should probably dump a few points into this skill, as it will become the mainstay of your attack. It is important to get as large a radius as you can while still maximizing the abilities of your golems so that they can survive and do decent damage. Still, a corpse explosion at level four is effective enough to clear a room even on Act III. 3. When fighting uniques the strategy is quite simple. Create a golem. Attack distracted minion. Corpse explosion. Corpse explosion. Corpse explosion. Until all the bad guys are dead. And there you have it! This technique will be the one you employ for a loooooong time. However, there are some important things to remember about this......... 4. Bosses are hell. You need to get a good melee weapon, and smack the crap out of them while they are distracted (for about a second) by your relatively weak golem. If possible, perform corpse explosions to weaken the boss, then do the rest by yourself. Stock up on potions. You'll need them. ************************************************************************************************* *****************Part the sixth: Tricks********************************************************** ************************************************************************************************* 1. The Perfect Gems-------------CHEAP TRICK(not the band) This is really simple. You get some gems, probably chipped/flawed. Now, take the waypoint to the Rogue waypoint in Act I. In the Blood Moor, there are usually around 4-5 shrines pretty close to each other. Run to each of em, avoiding enemies. One or two will be gem shrines every once in a while. Save, exit, repeat until all gems are perfect. Takes about and hour or two to make 3-5 perfect gems from chipped gems. 2. The Rare/Unique items--------CHEAP TRICK This is also really simple. Whenever there is a building with a chest inside, there is like a 99.999 percent chance that there is a magic item inside. So, for example, in the blood moor there is is almost always a building with a chest right inside. Open the chest, get the magic item, save and exit. Every once in a while, the item is unique/rare/set, but with a much higher probability than normal. For example, in act III in lower Kurast I opened a chest with Three rare items in it. Total, I collected 20 rare items in all of Lower Kurast in a single game, including a rare crown, unique great axe, etc etc. This trick works! Also, if you stay alive for a long time (about two to three hours) then search a chest in a building, you are almost GUARANTEED a rare item, at least. (I don't know if this holds for everyone, but it did for me.) I don't know if this works on b.net, so someone please find out if it does. In any case, I found tons of rares, and lots of uniques I just threw away because they sucked too hard for my tastes. (Ha Ha, all the guys are thinking one thing "Sucked too hard...heh heh...*snort*", and all the girls are going "This guy is an ass and a sexist pig! Its such a shame he's a hottie!" Damned if they aren't right.) HOW DOES A GOOD NECROMANCER PLAY? Well, thanks to "Nicolas Vu" redphoenixone@hotmail.com, we can see. Interestingly, I play almost exactly like this guy, and would have beaten The damn game last weekend if my computer hadn't bombed like hiroshima, 1945. Anyway, (Horrible reference, please, I'm quite sorry, haha, erm, excuse me) Read Below______________________________________________________________ I just read your Necromancer FAQ on Gamefaqs.com and I loved it! Great info inside. I have a different playing style and I have some info that I think you might find interesting. 1) At the start, I play the game like you, pumping only Energy and Strength (no Dexterity). I also buy the biggest and baddest weapons that I can. 2) I do NOT take Raise Skeleton or Raise Skeleton Mage or Skeleton Mastery. (It takes too many points for them to become good.) Just read on, you'll see why I do this later. 3) I pump Amplify Damage and Corpse Explosion up. Corp Exp has to be at LEAST at lvl 6 (since 6 yards is pretty good and 20 mana isn't so steep later in the game). 4) I don't know if you already know this, but you can Amplify Damage before using Corpse Explosion. This will ensure you that you kill all the monsters of the same type in one blast. (E.g., you just killed a Skeleton and five more are coming, if you Amplify then Corpse Exp, then all five will die [as opposed to using two corpse explosions]). This trick is great against uniques/bosses! Kill one of his minions (minions have tons of Life [4x as much as a standard version of that monster]), this means that they are GREAT at detonating! You can easily use all of a boss's minions as dynamite and kill him in less than 2 seconds! (In fact, I after I killed a zombie unique, I used HIM as a Corpse Explosion against Andariel and killed her in no time at all!!!) 5) I master Golems all the way. They are best used as walls to place between monsters and yourself, giving you the time to snipe at them then use the Corpse Explosion trick mentioned above. 6) Bone Spear is an essential skill. It starts weak (16-24), but each level will increase its power by 8 (lower AND upper bound damage) and its cost by only 0.25 mana. Bone Spear is good because the damage range is so tight (lower damage and upper damage will ALWAYS differ by only 8), it increases in power quickly without mana cost rising to fast and IT GOES THROUGH MANY ENEMIES! Think of it like a super charged lightning bolt: it travels in a straight line and never stops (even after hitting an enemy). It's best used when many monsters are lined up. You can usually take down 3-5 guys in one shot! I use the golem as a distraction tool. While the monsters are rushing towards him, I just line myself up and fire away. At lvl 6, I do 56-64! Anyhow, I only use Bone Spear to get one corpse so that I can use the Corpse Explosion trick mentioned above. Yes, its damage isn't really good enough for Nightmare or Hell; that's why I use the trick bellow. 7) Attract is a fantastic skill because monsters will immediately turn on one another (the Attracted one will IMMEDIATELY start attacking his buddies and vice versa, both parties COMPLETELY IGNORING YOU!). Sure it doesn't work against Uniques, but who cares? Use it on all of his Minions. Once at least one of them is killed by his peers, use Amplify Damage on the rest, then use Corpse Explosion a few times (this is the trick mentioned above) and BOOM!!! The unique and all of his minions are dead. THIS IS AN EXTREMELY USEFUL TRICK FOR ME IRRELEVANT OF WHAT LEVEL OF DIFFICULTY I AM PLAYING. I hope this info helps you. ************************************************************************************************* *****************Part the Seventh: Thanks******************************************************** ************************************************************************************************* Okay, new THANKS!!! Here go the shout outs to all my homeys. Werd. First, to "john huttley" john@mwk.co.nz, leading the pack in his stylish new Polo sports coat. It is perfect for indoor or outdoor wear. Made from the finest imported silk, it is guaranteed to be cool and breezy no matter where you go. Next in line is "Nicolas Vu" redphoenixone@hotmail.com, wearing the fabulous New polyurethane shoulder shirt design from Gucci. Coupled with the brilliant Rolex gold design, the combination of disparate textures is sure to draw the Eye of any woman in the crowd. Coming up as center is Briareos Kerensky briareos@inwind.it, sporting his Fly look in this gorgeous Tommy jacket. A more undercut design, the Jacket is desgined to let you lay low while it does all the attracting. Yes people, that is suede. "Skyler Brown" skyjis6@hotmail.com is keeping up appearances, in his new Givenchy tailored suit, light cream color with a fine cut on both the arms and sides. Very nice. And last but not least is XvSquallxV@aol.com, working the crowd in that Flashy new suit design from Brooks Brothers. Yes, the ladies will be all Over this man, or more specifically, his beautiful suit. Made from the Most carefully cultivated silk/cotton blend, the smooth texture and Brilliant highlights will make you more popular than a woman at ladies Night. OKAY, That is all for today, I will update whenever I feel I need to. Hmm....I want to thank a couple people. One being the importers of fine Florentine white truffles. No, just kidding. I do want to thank Blizzard for a great game. I also want to thank myself for looking so damn good even though I play a lot of video games. (Natural good looks, nice bod, perfect smile, etc.) I want to thank God for the giant and crushing ego and almost narcissistic vanity, as well as Webster for creating such wonderful words as perspicacity and didactic, which I said I would use in this Guide and did right now. I also want to thank Rurouni Kenshin's creator Watsuki Nobuhiro for giving me a great name for a necromancer: Shishio Makoto! I love that guy. Not literally though. I also want to thank the new b.net for not sucking and making cheating uncool. YEAH!!! Last, to draw attention to this one, I want to thank the IGN game guide for the technical info on Necromancer Skills. I didn't want to bother with em, but lots of people want to know. /----------------------+ -+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+| Legal Stuff |-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+ +-----------------------+ This is copyright Rich Lee 2000. Any plagarism etc of this material will force my alter ego of death and destruction out of retirement to kill you and your immediate family. Either that, or I'll send some sad lookin kids to your house to cry and make you feel guilty. Unless you buy little Susie a pony. Pony? Yep.