Powerful Hardcore Necromancer

Introduction:
As a Diablo 2 player I have always wanted to build a POE summoner equivalent to the necromancer in Diablo 2. I feel that with this build I not only reached that goal but passed it in a blur of light.

UPDATE
Main weapon does not need spell damage. I have varafied that it does not effect the raging skulls like I had thought. So go for: Cast Speed, Mana, Resists, Life, Manaregen ect...

Key Features:
1: Very tanky and survivable
2: Minion Damage and AOE is fantastic
3: Inexpensive Build - can be made on a small budget
4: Easily breeze through merciless
5: Eventually setting up magic find is easier compared to builds that are gear dependent
6: if you need help understanding why the tank is so epic - refer to ZiggyD's EK MOM tank

My preference is to go raging spirit with your 6L because their dps is extremely high and does not require you to constantly replace them by going elsewhere like spectres. I use spectres primarily as suppport rather than as my main dps and it works pretty great.

Skill KeyNotes: Either go 6L with your raging skull and add faster attacks and faster casting or do the typical Spectre 6L (The skulls are EPIC AS F***, and are highly recommended for this build)



Bandit Rewards:
Normal Oak
Cruel Kill All
Merciless Kill All



While Leveling:
Earily game it is extremely helpful to have a Rejuvenation Totem (lvl 19) untill around lvl 40 or so (Then its kind of useless in my opinion)

Raging sprits are easily the most powerful things you will have for a majority of your characters life (Expect this)

Do not try to be summon greedy, follow the skill tree order so your tanky enough

If needed: diverge a little from tree and grab resistance nodes some times, but be ready to revert them eventually. There are also 3 20% mena regen nodes under sentinel but Eventually you will be able to have proper mana regen gear so they are not needed

If you dont have the sockets to run all the gems you need to run than consider spending a chaos on a crap 6s to hold in offhand and level gems in.


If you are trying this build shoot me a message. I'd like to see how many people are using it :)

My skill bar looks like
Left Mouse = Walk Only
Middle Mouse = Raging Spirit
Right Mouse = Skeleton Totem

Skill 1 = Zombies
Skill 2 = Desecrate
Skill 3 = Sprectres
Skill 4 = Artic Armor
Since this does not actually need to be turned off/on I could replace this slot around level 57
Skill 5 = Flesh Offering


Feed Back is Extremely Welcome: Private Message me and I will look at and consider revisions as well as suggested explanations for spicific things

I cant do animate weapon and guardian because there simply are not enough sockets on my gear later on. Same with skeleton and blind - I eventually move skeleton and spell totem to a simple 2L kitchen sink support gem holding item (with desecrate and flesh offering - unlinked)
I have been playing this game religiously since open beta and have tested the crap out of a lot of different builds: This is an attempt at my own.

Badass build

I've seen this build in action actually... stupidly OP.
Who thought "Safe" and "Fun" could be one and the same.

DEFINITELY gona be my main sugar-dadday champion in Invasion.

Gotta say, looks pretty tough ^^


Just a couple of things ...
- The 3 Increased Skill Duration passives (below right of Sentinel)
- Animate Weapon / Animate Guardian
- Spell Totem + Skelly + Blind

Did you give these a thought ? If so, why didn't they make the cut ?

very good idea, I like the spell duration and had not noticed it before. The skill tree now reflects that change. This is a very good improvement, Thanks a ton!

I cant however do annimate weapon and guardian because there simply are not enough sockets on my gear later on. Same with skeleton and blind - I eventually move skeleton and totem to a simple 2l kitchen sink support gem holding item

What spectres do you use?

I am pretty lazy with spectre selection.
Here are my prefrences:
Queens
Shield guys from secptre of god
Flame sentinel
burned miscreations are pretty awesome, but die pretty fast

GCP
Minion Life
Minion damage (if you have the 4th slot)

If you are going for 5L+ with spectres you can easily find a good link combo

Happy to help :)

I checked your gear, and agree that you're a bit short of links for now.

That's a pity, because you could add the 2 Animate skills quite easily :
- Animate Weapon + Summon Raging Spirit + [Support Gems]
- Animate Guardian + Raise Zombie + [Support Gems]

You could consider using a Staff in that setup.

Edit : Link your Burned Miscreations with Life Gain On Hit :p

My skill bar looks like
Left Mouse = Walk Only
Middle Mouse = Raging Spirit
Right Mouse = Skeleton Totem

Skill 1 = Zombies
Skill 2 = Desecrate
Skill 3 = Sprectres
Skill 4 = Artic Armor
Skill 5 = Flesh Offering

I think that as of now, The build is pretty busy to run (making sure zombies stay up and keeping flesh offering up when fighting While also summoning Skulls) Feels like adding another task to keep track of while fighting would make the build too busy. This is only "My" Preference though, there is a bit of wiggle room between what My final build looks like and what someone else who is using this build might implement.

I also have not see animate guardian and weapon in high level play testing so if we would meet up in game some time so I can see the true power behind these skills I'd appreciate it.

IGN - Soknorb

Dump one of the life nodes north of Iron reflexes to pick up Holy Strength just north of Grave Expectations.

Very nice build. Does just what it's meant to do.