Necromancer Builds

Summoner Necromancer

The Summoner Necro raises skeletons and dead monsters to fight against his foes. This build goes through endgame items and budget options for those who enjoys summoner builds. The main game gameplay besides raising the dead is running around and cursing your foes and exploding corpses of enemies to do Area Of Effect Damage. Optimizing a Necro Summoner is all about getting as much + To skills as possible on your summoning skills.

Necromancer Gear List
Weapon: Beast Heart of the Oak Spirit	You have to options for endgame weapon, the first is the Beast runeword and the second is the Heart of the Oak runeword. Budget Wands are easy to find as you can even Shop run for blue items with + to skills for the Necro, or you can use the Spirit runeword.
Shield: Spirit Ancient's Pledge	Spirit in a Monarch shield is what you want while, Ancient's Plegde is a great and cheap budget alternative.
Armor: Enigma Stealth	The Stealth runeword is a great budget alternative.
Helm: Harlequin Crest Lore	With a Gem or Rune socketed according to what you need. Lore Helmet is a good budget option.
Gloves: Magefist	The + To Fire Skills affect your Corpse Explosion
Belt: Arachnid Mesh
Boots: Aldur's Advance
Amulet: Mara's Kaleidoscope
Ring: Bul-Kathos' Wedding Band	2x Bul-Kathos' Wedding Band if you need more life
Ring: The Stone of Jordan	2x Stone of Jordan if you need more mana
Weapon Switch: Call to Arms	Crystal Sword or Flail
Offhand Switch: Spirit	Socketed in a Shield
Grand Charm: +1 To Summoning skills and any secondary stat like life, all resistance, strength, etc.
Small Charm: Stats to prioritise: Faster Cast Rate, Faster Hit Recovery, Resistances, Magic Find, + To Mana, + To Life, + To Strength
Small Charm: Annihilus
Large Charm: Hellfire Torch

Act2 Mercenary with Might Aura
Helm: Andariel's Visage	Socketed with 40 Enhanced Damage / 15 Increased Attack Speed Jewel
Weapon: Obedience	Ethereal Cryptic Axe
Armor: Rixot's Keen	A 4 socket Jewleler's Sacred armor with +100 life socketed with one +15 All Resist/15% IAS and three 40% Enhanced Damage/15 IAS Jewels

Stat Point Distribution
Strength	some	Enough to equip gear. Keep this as low as you can and use mostly +str items to reach your goal.
Dexterity	0
Vitality	rest	Spend the rest of your stat points here
Energy	0

Skill Point Distribution
	20	Raise Skeleton	This is the most powerful summon the Necromancer has, its sibling Skeletal Mage however is not and we wont be spending any points there.
	20	Skeleton Mastery	For making your skeletons more powerful
	20	Clay Golem	Easy to use Golem which you can cast many times, making it easy to always have by your side
	1	Summon Resist	Only one point needed, + skills will boost this enough to make it good enough.
	5-10	Revive	The biggest downside of revive is that your summons will only last a maximum of 180 seconds, which is why we do not want to invest many points here.
	1	Corpse Explosion	Deals an extreme amount of damage especially in Nightmare and Hell where monsters hit points are very high.
	1	Amplify Damage	Enables your summons to easily clear any mobs in the game, and also works with Corpse Explostion
	1	Decrepify	Not only does this weaken monsters but it helps your summons stay alive longer as they get slower. The choice between this and Amplify damage as the main curse does in many cases come down to personal preference
	1	Life Tap	Very helpful to restore your armies life, cast it every now and then to ensure that your army stays alive.
	1	Golem Mastery	Prerequisite Skill
	1	Skeletal Mage	Prerequisite Skill
	1	Blood Golem	Prerequisite Skill
	1	Iron Golem	Prerequisite Skill
	1	Teeth	Prerequisite Skill
	1	Weaken	Prerequisite Skill
	1	Terror	Prerequisite Skill
	1	Iron Maiden	Prerequisite Skill

Poison Necromancer

Author: MrLlamaSC

Poison is a fun element to play around with and the Necromancer is the class that best utilizes poison Skills. You will be running/teleporting around poisioning your enemies while your skeletons protect you, even most poison immunes falls to this build due to the Lower Resist curse.

Necromancer Gear List
Weapon: Death's Web Spirit White	Spirit or White is a great budget option
Shield: Homunculus Spirit	Spirit is a great budget option
Armor: Enigma	The Stealth runeword is a great budget alternative.
Helm: Harlequin Crest	With a Gem or Rune socketed according to what you need.
Gloves: Trang-Oul's Claws
Belt: Arachnid Mesh
Boots: Sandstorm Trek War Traveler	War Travelers can be used for MF builds
Amulet: Mara's Kaleidoscope The Eye of Etlich Highlord's Wrath	Eye or Highlords are good budget options that offers +1 To all Skills
Ring: Bul-Kathos' Wedding Band	2x Bul-Kathos' Wedding Band if you need more life, Rare ring with Faster Cast rate also works.
Weapon Switch: Call to Arms	Crystal Sword or Flail
Offhand Switch: Spirit	Socketed in a Shield
Grand Charm: +1 To Poison and Bone skills and any secondary stat like life, all resistance, strength, etc.
Small Charm: Stats to prioritise: Faster Cast Rate, Faster Hit Recovery, Resistances, Magic Find, + To Mana, + To Life, + To Strength
Small Charm: Annihilus
Large Charm: Hellfire Torch

Act2 Mercenary with Might Aura
Helm: Andariel's Visage	Socketed with 40 Enhanced Damage / 15 Increased Attack Speed Jewel
Weapon: Infinity	Socketed in an Ethreal Thresher, note that the Conviction Aura does not lower Poison Resistance, only the other elements. But this helps out a lot for our Corpse Explosion Damage.
Armor: Fortitude

Stat Point Distribution
Strength	some	Enough to equip gear. Keep this as low as you can and use mostly +str items to reach your goal.
Dexterity	0
Vitality	rest	Spend the rest of your stat points here
Energy	0

Skill Point Distribution
	20	Poison Nova	Primary Skill
	8	Corpse Explosion	Primary Skill
	1	Lower Resist	Prerequisite Curse Skill
	20	Raise Skeleton	This is the most powerful summon the Necromancer has, and fits nicely as companions for the Poison Nec
	1	Bone Armor	Great for some extra protection
	20	Poison Explosion	Synergy Skill for more Damage
	20	Poison Dagger	Synergy Skill for more Damage
	1	Skeleton Mastery	For making your skeletons more powerful
	1	Clay Golem	Easy to use Golem which you can cast many times, making it easy to always have by your side
	1	Summon Resist	Only one point needed, + skills will boost this enough to make it good enough.
	1	Revive
	1	Golem Mastery	Prerequisite Skill
	1	Skeletal Mage	Prerequisite Skill
	1	Blood Golem	Optional Golem Skill
	1	Iron Golem	Optional Golem Skill
	1	Amplify Damage	Enables your summons to easily clear any mobs in the game, and also works with Corpse Explostion
	1	Decrepify	Not only does this weaken monsters but it helps your summons stay alive longer as they get slower. The choice between this and Amplify damage as the main curse does in many cases come down to personal preference
	1	Life Tap	Very helpful to restore your armies life, cast it every now and then to ensure that your army stays alive.
	1	Teeth	Prerequisite Skill
	1	Weaken	Prerequisite Skill
	1	Terror	Prerequisite Skill
	1	Iron Maiden	Prerequisite Skill