An iconic building dating back to the beginning of Diablo 2, the Summon Necromancer has a reputation for being the safest building in the entire game thanks to a large army of minions and various control Curses.

1. Introduction

This is going to be one of the best builds for you because it is the easiest build. You can raise a large army of Minions through Raise Skeleton, Raise Skeletal Mage, Revive, and a Golem of their choosing. Combined with a series of debilitating Curses, this build is popular for solo. In the end game, it can actually be a pretty good build overall, it's also great in party play as people are going to love having your summons in the front to help them tank so really great starting build and just a great build overall. This is just your classic summon Necromancer build.

2. Summoner Necromancer Skill Build

1. 1 point to all prerequisites

2. 20 points to Raise Skeleton — Max immediately, required

3. 20 points to Skeleton Mastery — 1 point immediately, then max after Raise Skeleton, required

4. 1 point to Clay Golem — 1 point immediately, required

5. 1+ points to Corpse Explosion — Area of effect damage to support your Minions, required

6. 1 point to Summon Resist — Resistances for Minions, can respec out of points later on, required

7. 1 point to Amplify Damage — Main damage curse for your Minions, required

8. 1 point to Decrepify — Main survivability curse for your Minions, required

3. Summoner Necromancer Attributes

4.  Summoner Necromancer Gear

  The best damage build: You can have this beast give you all minion fanaticism which would be great for you, shako plus skill; mars plus skill and res enigma plus skill and teleportation which is very helpful for you minion spirit shield, it's perfect for that plus the skeleton mastery skill you get here and then you get a very standard FCR.

Enigma

+2 To All Skills
+45% Faster Run/Walk
+1 To Teleport
+750-775 Defense (varies)
Sale [+775 Defense]
+ (0.75 Per Character Level) +0-74 To Strength (Based On Character Level)
Increase Maximum Life 5%
Damage Reduced By 8%
+14 Life After Each Kill
15% Damage Taken Goes To Mana
+ (1 Per Character Level) +1-99% Better Chance of Getting Magic Items (Based On Character Level)

 Stack skills: You can stack summoning skills grand charms all of that stuff very helpful, then on your off-hand, you can have CTA and you would have another Spirit with it because you have enough for the Spirit on the main hand right. Some other options could be if you don't have a Beast, Hodo is nice, you get plus three the skills FCR light dexterity increased max man all that good stuff on it or simply having a white wand.

 You can also get a Teleport Staff from normal Act 3 and beyond when you're level 19 plus, Teleport charges are very helpful for this character to kind of gather up all your summons wherever you need them. So moving forward from that armors stealth is just fantastic to start and can carry you a long way you get FRW; FCR; FHR 6 dexterity whatever all great scolders would be a nice find right to get a magic find the skills smoke is nice. You get a lot of resistance if you need some of that viper magic is fantastic, Hagan's is fantastic plus the skills FCR is great even just Spirit Shroud get the plus one to all skills right we're just looking for skills, and some FCR and some of that other stuff but skills is the main piece we want right now.

•  Rhyme cannot be frozen as much but it has some magic fine which is nice but what about even something like Boneflame plus the Rita skills we like the skills chats. Darkforce Spawn plus three to summon skills, any of these things are great。

•  Those are all great if you do need some resistances and things like that you could maybe look at an Iratha’s Coil Crown and shove that in there, you could get a rock stopper is great gems you know just putting random maroons in there.

• Lore is a great rune word, this is a fantastic one to farm from nightmare countess, you can use Bloodfist for hit recovery and 40 to life.

• Magefist are solid trans gloves are great as well because you do get the added plus to your cold resist, but the fire skills here actually do help corpse explosion because it does fire damage so that'll be plus one to that Frostburn if you want some mana.

The following section shows some of the most important Items for the Summoner Necromancer.

•   Weapon: Ethereal Beast

•   Weapon Swap: Call to Arms and Spirit

•   Gloves: Trang-Oul's Claws or Magefist

•   Boots: Marrowwalk

•   Belt: Arachnid Mesh

•   Shield: 35% Faster Cast Rate Spirit Monarch Shield

•   Body Armor: Enigma

•   Helm: Harlequin Crest

•   Ring 1: The Stone of Jordan or Bul-Kathos' Wedding Band

•   Ring 2: The Stone of Jordan or Bul-Kathos' Wedding Band

•   Amulet: Mara's Kaleidoscope

•   Charm 1: Necromancer Hellfire Torch

•   Charm 2: Annihilus

•   Charm 3: 9x Summoning Skiller Grand Charms with Life or enough Faster Hit Recovery to hit 86% or 152% Faster Hit Recovery

•   Charm 4: 10 Small Charms with Life, Resistances, Mana, or Faster Hit Recovery, depending on needs

Stone of Jordan

Required Level: 29
+1 To All Skills
Increase Maximum Mana 25%*
Adds 1-12 Lightning Damage
+20 To Mana
(Spawns In Any Patch)

5. Summoner Necromancer Mercenary

You want an offensive (Might) Act 2 Nightmare mercenary because you don't want any cold damage that can crush corpses. Aura also increases the damage of minions.

1.     Weapon: Ethereal Pride

2.     Helm: Andariel's Visage socketed with a Ral Rune

3.     Body Armor: Ethereal Fortitude

6. MrLlamaSC’s Summoner Necromancer Video Guide

If you prefer to use it instead of our written guide, or in addition to our written guide, we have a video guide to the build process.