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Over 20 years after it was initially released, Diablo II has made its return. This has, of course, led to an influx of players interested in rekindling their love for finding the best synergies and techniques to make in their quest to defeat Baal, Mephisto, and Diablo himself. In the list below, we cover some of the best builds for Necromancer, the only class to be friendly with the dead.

Best Necromancer Builds

Necromancers are the only class that uses its defeated enemies against its undefeated enemies. They are known to turn the tables around and outnumber the mobs in the games with their own minions. They rarely do the fighting themselves, although some of their more effective builds require powerful magic abilities rather than their minions. Necromancers can benefit their team, including distractions, healing, and buffs, making them perhaps the most helpful class for groups.

Equipment

One important thing to note about equipment is that choosing the right kind almost always depends on the player's methods rather than the build itself. Since loot is randomly generated when you slay enemies, it is always best to equip gear that best suits your needs rather than searching for specific items. However, we listed the items below that best suit the Necromancer class overall. If different gear is recommended for a specific build, it will be mentioned in the Additional Notes for that build.

• Helm: Harlequin Crest Shako
• Armor: Enigma
• Gloves: Trang-Oul's Claws
• Belt: Arachnid Mesh
• Boots: Marrowwalk or Sandstorm Trek
• Shield: Boneflame or Homunculus
• Amulet: Mara's Kaleidoscope
• Rings: Raven Frost, Bul-Kathos' Wedding Band, or Stone of Jordan

Bonemancer

Whereas most Necromancers put at least some of their skill points into summons, the Bonemancer is a popular build that almost ignores summons completely. Instead, they focus most of their attention on bone spells. This is not a great build in the early game but becomes one of the most powerful builds later on, especially in PvP environments.

• Skill Points
  • Bone Spear: 20
  • Bone Spirit: 20
  • Teeth: 20
  • Bone Wall: 20
  • Bone Prison: 20
  • Amplify Damage: 1
  • Iron Maiden: 1
  • Summon Resist: 1
  • Golem Mastery: 1
  • Summon Skeleton or Blood Golem: 1
  • Skeleton Mastery or Iron Golem: 1
  • Clay Golem: 1
  • Revive: 1+, if necessary
  • Pierce: 1
• Stat Points
  • Strength: Base level, if possible.
  • Dexterity: Some points if you find yourself taking a lot of melee damage.
  • Energy: Base level.
  • Vitality: Dump almost all points into Vitality.
• Added Notes
  • With this build, make it a primary focus to get White Rune Word. You will want to enchant your wand in one of the following ways:
    • (With Splendor Shrunken Head) +3 Bone Spear, +3 Skeleton Mastery, +1-3 Revie
    • (Without Splendor Shrunken Head) +3 Bone Spear, +1-3 Lower Resistance, +1-3 Decrepify

Summonmancer

This is the most popular build for the Necromancer and is mostly what the Necromancer is known for. Players running a Summonmancer rely on the summons to do all the work, with their Necromancer acting more like a conductor than a combatant. Despite not being in the midst of combat very often, this is an action-intensive that requires you to be aware of several things at once.

• Skill Points
  • Raise Skeleton: 20
  • Skeleton Mastery: 20
  • Corpse Explosion: 20
  • Raise Skeletal Mage: 20
  • Clay Golem: 1
  • Blood Golem: 1
  • Iron Golem: 1
  • Golem Mastery: 1
  • Summon Resist: 1
  • Revive: 1
  • Amplify Damage: 1
  • Terror: 1
  • Dim Vision: 1
  • Decrepify: 1
  • Teeth: 1
• Stat Points
  • Strength: Enough for equipment.
  • Dexterity: Enough for Homunculus with max block (193)
  • Energy: Base level.
  • Vitality: Dump remaining points into Vitality.
• Added Notes
  • The Summonmancer is probably the most effective type of distraction in the game, as once you get to higher levels, you can have over 20 minions running around taking damage.

Related: How to Identify Items in Diablo 2 Resurrected - Pro Game Guides

Novamancer

Novamancers are one of the more balanced Necromancers builds that effectively wipe out large groups of enemies using curses. The Novamancer's survivability relies on their ability to distract their enemies with a Clay Golem. This is also a more passive build, operating as a solid support from the sidelines that makes mobs weaker to teammates' attacks.

• Skill Points
  • Poison Dagger: 20
  • Poison Explosion: 20
  • Poison Nova: 20
  • Clay Golem: 1+
  • Summon Resist: 1+
  • Golem Mastery: 1+
  • All Curses: 1
  • Corpse Explosion: 20 or Bone Wall: 20, Bone Prison: 20
  • Lower Resist: Reach 16 with items
• Stat Points
  • Strength: Enough for equipment.
  • Dexterity: Enough for equipment.
  • Energy: 100-150
  • Vitality: Dump almost all your stat points in Vitality.
• Added Notes
  • Although any Golem will do for your shield, the Clay Golem is recommended because of its potential for high health.
  • Let your Clay Golem distract enemies while you kill them with Lower Resist and Poison Nova. After they have plenty of bodies on the ground, finish them off with Corpse Explosion.
    • This is the best method to kill bosses if you don't have gear that boosts your skills.
    • Alternatively, if you have gear with high skill boosts, you can use Bone Prison instead of a minion.

Related: Best Druid Builds in Diablo II Resurrected - Pro Game Guides

Daggermancer

Like the Novamancer, the Daggermancer uses poison skills. However, whereas Novamancer focuses almost exclusively on poison damage and synergies, this build uses physical damage as an alternative method when poison damage is not as effective.

• Skill Points
  • Poison Dagger: 20
  • Poison Explosion: 20
  • Poison Nova: 20
  • Golem: 10-20 (Clay Golem is best)
  • Golem Mastery: 1-10
  • Lower Resist, Iron Maiden, Life Tap, Weaken, Terror, Bone Armor, Summon Resist: 1 Each
  • Amplify Damage, Decrepify, Bone Prison, Bone Wall, Corpse Explosion: 1-5 Each
• Stat Points
  • Strength: Enough to wear desired items.
  • Dexterity: Enough to have 75% block chance.
  • Energy: Enough to use skills effectively, but this shouldn't be used much.
  • Vitality: Dump almost all stat points into Vitality.
• Added Notes
  • This build is more physical than most other Necromancer builds. Players will want to use gear that improves their damage, attack rating, and resistance. As such, they should use enough Strength stat points to wear heavy armor and larger shields.

Explosionmancer

The Explosionmancer is an extremely fun build that focuses on the Corpse Explosion skill to deal massive damage in a wide range. They boost their Corpse Explosion with Amplify Damage to get more bang for their buck when casting. This is a great build for multiplayer games but is essentially useless in PvP.

• Skill Points
  • Corpse Explosion: 20
  • Amplify Damage: 20
  • Bone Wall: 20
  • Golem Mastery: 20
  • Bone Prison: 10
  • Clay Golem: 1
  • Blood Golem: 1
  • Iron Golem: 1
  • Fire Golem: 2
  • Summon Resist: 3
  • Teeth: 1
  • Bone Armor: 1
  • Bone Spear: 1
• Stat Points
  • Strength: Enough for equipment. Probably best to cap at 35-40.
  • Dexterity: Base level, if possible.
  • Energy: 150-200
  • Vitality: Dump almost all your stat points in Vitality.
• Additional Notes
  • Avoid hiring mercenaries that deal cold damage as they can take away the corpses needed to make this build effective.

Ultimately, the best build for you depends on your play style. However, the builds above are tried and tested by many players with experience in the game. If you have any builds that you think should be mentioned, tell us in the comments below!

Be sure to check out our Diablo 2 Homepage for all the latest news, guides, and information about this classic game!

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