Diablo 2 Necromancer Starter Build

Diablo 2 Resurrected is a coming back to good old classics. You will need to play much to achieve meaningful results. Some of the best Diablo 2 builds are described in our post here. As for this post, you will find the best starter build for Necromance in Diablo 2. It will let you have a cheap and smooth start.

Summoner (Fishymancer)

One of the least demanding builds that allows you to solo Hell Difficulty. A huge army of skeletons has good damage and protects its summoner, and Curses help bypass immune monsters.

Skills

• Primary Skills: Raise Skeleton, Corpse Explosion.
• Useful Skills: Golems and Curses.
• All Skills:
  • Summoning Skills: Raise Skeleton (20), Skeleton Mastery (20), Clay Golem (1), Skeletal Mage (1), Golem Mastery (1), Blood Golem (1), Summon Resist (1), Iron Golem (1), Fire Golem (1), Revive (1).
  • Poison and Bone Skills: Teeth (1), Corpse Explosion (20).
  • Curses: Amplify Damage (1), Weaken (1), Terror (1), Decrepify (1).

The gameplay is quite simple – at the beginning you call your army. This is easiest to do in a low-level location to shorten the time the golem and mercenary kill mobs. After that, as soon as your skeletons or mercenary kill the first mob, use Corpse Explosion to finish off the remaining monsters.

Clay Golem is the optimal choice for leveling and farming, Fire Golem is well suited for fighting Diablo and against physical immune monsters. If you manage to find a good weapon, you can donate it to summon Iron Golem, but if the golem dies, the item will be lost. Curses: Amplify Damage will be the main curse for killing mobs, and Decrepify for bosses or difficult Unique monsters.

Skills Progression

New skills are unlocked at 1, 6,12,18, 24 and 30 levels. Invest one point at a time in the skills recommended below as they become available, and then max out the primary skills. After the basic build is completed, the remaining points can be distributed in any skills you like.

• Level 1: Raise Skeleton, Skeleton Mastery, Amplify Damage, Teeth.
• Level 6: Clay Golem, Corpse Explosion, Weaken.
• Level 12: Skeletal Mage, Golem Mastery, Terror.
• Level 18: Blood Golem.
• Level 24: Summon Resist, Decrepify, Iron Golem.
• Level 30: Fire Golem, Revive.
• Order of Maxing Skills: Raise Skeleton, Skeleton Mastery, Corpse Explosion.
• Rest Points: Amplify Damage, Golem Mastery, Summon Resist or Revive.

Attributes

Most players level up Strength and Dexterity in order to be able to wear suitable equipment. Energy is ignored (at high levels due to equipment and the increase in mana per level, there are no problems with mana), and the remaining points are invested in Vitality to increase the maximum amount of health.

• Strength: 100-150 (depends on your equipment)
• Dexterity: 0-100 (ignore it or put some points for 50%+ chance to block)
• Vitality: 200+ (all remaining points)
• Energy: 0-50 (putting some points early in the game helps with mana)
• Progression: At low levels put points in Strength to be able to use better equipment and Energy (if you have mana problems). Remaining points put in Vitality. Later in the game you can put some points in Dexterity for better blocking.

Equipment

Considering that this is a starter build, it is implied that the player will not have any good items or Uniques/Runewords, but only equipment that was obtained during leveling. Therefore, there will be only recommendations on what will be most useful for this build.

• Recommended Stats: + to Skills, Life, Mana, Resistances, Faster Cast Rate, Faster Run/Walk.
• Weapon and Shield: Wand with +3 to Raise Skeleton or +X to Necromancer Skills (or +X to Summoning Skills). For shield slot optimal will be Shrunken Head with +to Skills (any of primary of useful ones) or Unique shield with +to All Skills.
• Armor: High Defense stat, Life, Resistances and Mana. +to All Skills or +to Summoning Skills will be great. For Boots Faster Walk/Run is a good bonus.
• Jewelry: Amulets with +1-3 to Summoning Skills and other good stats. For rings – Resistances and Faster Cast Rate.
• Charms: Grand Charms with +1 to Summoning Skills, other Charms with Life, Resistances or Attributes (if you need more Strength).
• Magic Find: X% Better Chance of Getting Magic Items (MF) on items would be a nice bonus. This will help you get good Rare or Unique equipment faster.

Recommended Uniques: Arm of King Leoric (Wand), Homunculus (Shield), Harlequin Crest (Helm), Skin of the Vipermagi (Body Armor), Arachnid Mesh (Belt), Marrowwalk (Boots).

Recommended Runewords: Spirit (Weapon/Shield), Stealth (Body Armor), Lore (Helm). Full Starter Runewords list here.

Mercenary

Optimal for this build would be Act 2 Offense Mercenary (Might). He can be recruited in the city in Act 2 (Difficulty – Nightmare). Try to equip your mercenary as you level up, so he does not die so often and be useful. Another important feature is that the equipment your mercenary uses does not break, so ethereal items will be perfect.

Recommended for casters: Insight Runeword (Ral + Tir + Tal + Sol) Polearm. Cheap RW, provides Meditation aura that greatly boosts mana regeneration at low-mid levels.

Good stats for mercenary equipment: damage, life leech, high defense, resistances and damage reduction.
Weapon example: Tomb Reaver
Armor example: Shaftstop
Helm example: Guillaume’s Face

With this Diablo 2 Necromancer Starter Build you will have a chance to complete the game. If you want to see more complicated and better builds read Diablo 2 Resurrected Classes’ Builds or check directly Diablo 2 Necromancer Builds.