Can anyone direct me to the summon build that can do hell solo. i see a lot of builds on here for summon. but there a couple different ones. and i dont know which one is actually strong enough to do hell.

even a poor man's summoner can do hell..it just takes more time.

yea any summoner can solo hell main things are your skeletons and decripfy and amplify damage curses

max skelly w/ max mastery+amp damage curse+might merc=good in hell

The only curses I would advise are 1 point into Amplify and 1 into Life Tap (for when you party with melee characters). As for summoning skills; what everyone else said about skeletons and mastery applies. You should also put 20 into skeletal mage. If you're playing hardcore, you should put one point into bone armor and all remaining points into bone prison or bone wall.

Here's a good summoner necromancer on hardcore (defensive build):

20 Skeleton Mastery
20 Skeleton
20 Skeletal Mage
1 Golem
1 Golem Mastery
1 Summon Resist
1 Amplify Damage
1 Bone Armor
All left over points should then go into Bone Wall and Bone prison. If you survive until then, you may max both.

On softcore (offensive build):

20 Skeleton Mastery
20 Skeleton
20 Skeletal Mage
20 Revive
1 Golem
1 Golem Mastery
1 Summon Resist
1 Amplify Damage
1 Bone Armor
Rest into Bone Wall, may have some left over for prison.

well one time i was using this thing an editor or w/e and i had 99 skills to everything and could still only raise like 75 mages and skelleys put together so how many can u raise with the skill at like 25 like 10

rofl

funniest thing ever who created this

Just Tell Your Friends You Were To Stoned to Do Baal Runs!!! Or sumthin like that some one posts it all the time and i laugh

OOOO I remeber

Just Tell Your Friends nvm i dont

was there a point to this post?

xenn, i also use iron maiden once in a while for my summoner too, but you have to have it to get life tap, so even if you dont use its not a waste of point to have. i like to use it on things like duriel that do a lot of melee damage. which golem do you recommend? i usually go fire, but i'm going to stop at clay on my next necro and see how it goes. i think mages are a waste of points personally. they never get that strong and your might aura and amp damage dont help them. also 20 pts into revives is an awful lot...can you even keep track of all like 30 you will have with gear? i just put 1 point in revive and let my + to skills boost it up

Thank you this is what i was looking for

check my suggestions on that build before you make horrific...not saying xenn's "guide" is wrong, i just have a couple different opinions and you can decide which you like more

Would i have to use a merc tho if i wanted to go with yoru build? cuz i dont have th emoney to get good gear for a merc.

either build, you pretty much need a might merc....just give him the best gear you can

hmm ok sorry for all the questions tho. because i built a bone necro back in 1.10 and it totally sucked even with the best gear...well i just didnt like it. so i need a merc eh? ok where do i get a might merc..like which merc is it in. And what would you recommend for the gear?

The might mercenary is in nightmare, act two. I think it's 'combat'.

im currently making a summoner in culmination of all the info ive read about and talked about with ppl in channels. with my left over skil poitns i decided to put some in golem astery and summon resist so my minions can tank longer and rest into blood golem to pump up life of rest of my golems.

now i have a clay golem that can tank insanely with 11k life.

even though im(iron maiden) is good in pvp matches in pvm it sucks cuz most monsters have 10x life as their dmg so it doesnt work jus use amp or life tap

1st off there is no right summoner to many oppinions on builds.

Myself I only play Hard core and have done so for longer then all you would belive and necro is allways a strong character but there seems to be alot of people out there that just dont have a clue how to play one.

Some curses are better then ppl think

For a hell baal running necro you might find the wisps a bit troublesome even with max rez and would you ever think a skill like dim vision could completely stop them cold.. Oh look easy kills now

Amp is a must 1 point all you need with + skills if you are wize 1 point in all the curses is a good idea. 1 point no more needed once you have gear on they will be like lvl 15 each and you dont need more then that on most

Max Mastery Max Skelly

And oh gosh max Corpse Explosion it still is a godly skill if you know how it works.

Seriously though 20 mast 20 skell 1 in mage 5-10 revives nice to have a small army of revives and with + skill gear 5 can turn into 25 so dont put many points in they are more a meat wall and your slow way of killin mages that im your skellys

Next max Corpse Explosion most ppl say one point but seriously 20 points lets u blast the nastyness further and further most ppl just dont have a clue but it's still godly any trapsin knows how good death scentry is and it seems people forgot this gem of a skill's power if you are in a game 1-4 ppl it is the best thing ever 5-8 and its weak so it realy depends on how many ppl you will play with on avarage if you allways in 8 ppl games 1 point if you find you play with a coupple buddies in private games then max it max it max it!.

some ppl like golems some dont i find they cant do much dmg even the uber golems ive made out of big elite eth uniques dont do enough but i did max a few in the past with syn's and by far the most usefull is Clay Golem the slow affect is way cool. So go with it 1 point is good for some some like to see it maxed up to you but with good + skills again one point in it and mastery will make a good golem and 1 point in summon rez a must.

i have made many necro's over time and right now this seems to be the best build necro

20 Corpse Explosion
20 Skelly
20 skelly mast
1 all curses =10 points
1 clay golem
1 golem mast
1 summon rez
1 mage
5 revive
1 teeth
then a point in bone armor is a good bet throw one in wall and prison mabe max one up to you if you want the bone armor big or not

gear i suggest
low lvl 30-70 skin of viper magi +1 skills, soj Soj if you can the skills and mana are the best. good rare +1 amy with teleport if you can get it, trang gloves peasnt crown till you get shako on or trang set and btw few know this but fire mastery works with CE so the set can make the skill real nice in bigger games.
if you can afford it a infinity is the bomb but insight on merk is also a good choice just load on + summon charms or poi bone skill's are a nice addition 6 total is nice i find leaves me with enough room to pick a few choice things up

and if you disagree with my build template try it out in open you might find the cha is nice

but then again if you dont want to do anything but walk arround and pick stuff up then max all summons and one in amp and you can be another noobie necro that cant understand how necro is by far the easyest and hardest cha in the game to play i happen to use alot of hot keys on my necro's more then any other class and i can kill fast in hell faster then any other cha in games 1-4 ppl make me a bodie and ill make a nice mess of it
ok sorry i ramble alot
try it it works but remember one thing the faster you wana go the more you need to micromanage 16 hot keys are not uncomon for me with a necro

punctuate much? wow thats the longest run on sentence i have ever seen. and i doubt you've been playing hardcore for longer than i'd believe cause i have been playing it a long time myself and have had several lvl 90+ chars and more 80+s than i can remember

couple points....about clay golems...they are great tanks and "slows enemy" is extremely useful. definitely go with clay golem. maxing it is a waste of points though

now, about your CE....CE does the same damage regardless of skill lvl. by putting more points into CE all you gain is an increased mana cost and a very slight range increase. i can see putting a couple points in here (i myself put in 1 point and yes i do use the skill often) but maxing it seems a waste of points.

infinity: good for a sorc, waste of runes on a necro. your going to use 2 bers just to boost half the damage from CE a bit? your much better off getting a pride or beast. one of those on a might merc and your minion's damage goes through the roof.(yes i know you cannot have a beast on a might merc because its not a polearm, but you can have it with your merc if you use it yourself)

insight: good for casters, waste of merc for necros. necros do not use that much mana. now, maybe you need it since you are probably spending about 40 mana every time you do CE, but for a normal necro you are much better off getting pride or just a weapon that does high damage.

revives: ONLY PUT 1 PT IN REVIVES. with +to skills 1 will turn into a decent amount, probably more than you can manage. i know i can manage at most 8 revives with all the skellys my necro has. any more than this and you are wasting points because you wont use all the revives

other than that you are on the right track

with all do respect. i wouldn't use your guide. it seems like the 'weaker' version of a summoner build. 20 points in CE? i would you be killing something that 15 yards away when you could teleport?

Also 1 point in revive is suffice if you have the +skills gear and charms. with my stuff i have level 32 revives, having only put one point. I maxed skel master, warriors and magi for the best effect and jsut teleport to on things. It turns 18 skeletons inton 1 b@d@$$ 18hitter and 18magi into bullettime caster.

I use revives only when i lead runs or am in uber games or duellering.

As for the gear, i used the standard issue godly deck with a few alterations. i went for boosting my summon skils so i switched shako and maras. hoto and boneblame on switch. beast and hommy as main with enigma [dusk], summon circlet/ammy, marrows, trang gloves, arachnids, sojs, anni and torch and gc's.

for merc weapon i was aiming for pride, but someone in a run suggested to use infinity becuase it reduces the enemies defence thus increase skels chance to hit. i never had a problem with my minions hitting. With perfect pride, lvl 95 merc= lvl 28 might, beast, and depending on weapon, damage can be upto 7k per skeleton.

Considering how weak the summoenr was b4, i thing that is an welcomed changed lol.