0
Diablo II Necromancer Guide V.0.70
By: Shishio_Makoto (rhleex@wm.edu)
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****INTRODUCTION******************************************************************
************
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*
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.
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_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
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***********Part the First:
Revisions*************************************************************
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***************
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!!!!
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***********Part the Second: Why a Necromancer?
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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.
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***********Part the Third: Character training and
focus******************************************
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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.
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*****************Part the Fourth:
Skills*********************************************************
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***************
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.
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.
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***************
*****************Part the sixth:
Tricks**********************************************************
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***************
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
|-+-+-
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+-----------------------+
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.