So I have a lvl 37 skele necro. I noticed that I got completely demolished by baal and had a hell of a time against Diablo before him. Are they viable for solo'ing NM and beyond? My current talent distribution is as follows:

Summoning:

lvl (+'s)
20(25) SM
18(20) RS
1(3) RSM
0(4) Clay Golem

Poison/Bone:

1(3) Teeth
1(3) CE

Curses:

0(5) Terror
0(4) Decrepify

So can he be saved or even useful at later levels? If not, is there a good necro build (or hell, any other class) that I can solo well as? bone, poison, dagger? etc...

Thanks guys!

i can't really remember much as i have just started playing again but you should get Amp curse as it doubles?? 50%? on mellee skeles? which helps alot

the melee skeles become useless in later nm and hell. I would stay with bone spells

i had a bone nec that could almost solo hell.. well that was with a ton of items though..
like merc had defense aura.. forgot what it was called, equipped with that item that had the might aura... heh... the the iron golem.. i have no clue.. but i know i used him.
i put one into amp dmg, and another into corpse explosion. corpse explosion + amp = ultimate killing machine. haha. alot of revives would help.

I have a single player summon necro that it currently at nm baal and is beating @$$ at /players8. I would suggest the following:

Curses:
Amplify is your main curse. Add 1 point and let your +skills do the rest. Amp adds Tremendous damage to your skeletons. Additionally, it can remove physical immune from almost every monster.

Decrepify should be your curse against bosses. It slows them down (keeps your minions alive) and still lowers their physical resistance. Decrepify can also be handy for running away too. Again add 1 point.

Poisen and Bone Spells:
Corpse Explosion is a skill that I beleive every summon necro should have. It gets STRONGER as your enemies get stronger, and is pretty much all your should cast once you've maxed out your minions. Also, it's 50/50 physical and fire damage. That means it both benefits from your curses somewhat, and also helps against the rare immunities that can't be broken by Amplify. For me, my minions slowly grind through the areas, but if I want to speed through areas I just cast CE and mow monsters down. I'd add 20 to this and that's it.

Summoning:
I'd max Raise Skeleton, Skeleton Mastery.

The main golem I use is clay golem because it slows down bosses (very, very important). This only has a few skill points (under 5). I also dropped a few in golem mastery, and I think I dropped 1 (maybe 2 I forget) into summon restistance. Also, add at least 1 to Revive, and let your +skills do the rest. At this point, after you add these you can try to max Revive or Mage Skeleton. I prefer Revive (mana intensive though) because again it gets stronger the tougher your enemies. Also, an Act2 Offensive Mercenary with the Might aura really powers up the minions.


There are two important ideas to keep in mind when playing a summoner. First, you have to spread your skills out to various areas while still maxing certain skills, meaning that you really need your +skills equipment a lot for the skills you only add a few to.

Second, I personally view the summoner as the ideal soloing character because of skills that are scaled to the enemies' toughness. Corpse Explosion and Revive should always be as strong as you need them to be. Skeletons and curses are still powerful constants though, and are essential to the summoner. Hope this helped.