Poison Necromancer Build for Diablo 2 Resurrected

While this character struggles being built from scratch, after the accumulation of some gear the Poison Necromancer becomes one of the strongest Heroes in the game capable of quickly tearing down most areas even on /players 8 in no time at all. This character also uses way less Skill Points than most characters, leaving a lot of room for options in what to add to the build.

You can check the viability of this build in PvM by consulting our PvM Tier List.

The following section shows the core skills for the Poison Necromancer. For a detailed breakdown of all core and optional skills as well as the recommended order for allocating skill points, refer to the Skills page of this guide.

1. 1 point to all prerequisites
2. 20 points to Poison Dagger — Synergy for Poison Nova, required
3. 20 points to Poison Explosion — Synergy for Poison Nova, required
4. 20 points to Poison Nova — Main damage skill, invest points immediately, required
5. 1-20 points to Corpse Explosion — Supplemental area of effect damage against Poison Immunes, required
6. 1+ points to Lower Resist — Main Curse, 1 point is usually enough with skills bonuses from items, required

Note that since Poison Nova is only available from level 30 onward, playing as a Poison Necromancer from the start of the game is not ideal. For a smoother leveling experience, we recommend using a generic Bone Necromancer build. Upon reaching level 30, you can respec into using Poison Nova. For more information, refer to the Early Leveling section of this guide.

Strength	Dexterity	Vitality	Energy
Enough for Gear	Enough for Gear	Everything Else	None

You can read more details about the Stats and Attribute requirements for this build on our Skills page.

The following section shows some of the most important Items for the Poison Necromancer. For a detailed per-slot breakdown of all Poison Necromancer Items and alternative builds, refer to the Gear page of this guide.

• Weapon: Death's Web socketed with a Poison Rainbow Facet
• Weapon Swap: Call to Arms and Sigon's Guard or Lidless Wall (unless have 156 Strength for Spirit)
• Shield: Trang-Oul's Wing or Homunculus socketed with a Poison Rainbow Facet
• Body Armor: Bramble for Damage or Enigma for speed
• Helm: Harlequin Crest socketed with a Poison Rainbow Facet
• Gloves: Trang-Oul's Clawss
• Boots: Ethereal Sandstorm Treks
• Belt: Trang-Oul's Girth or Arachnid Mesh
• 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: 8x Poison and Bone Skiller Grand Charms with Life or Faster Hit Recovery to hit close breakpoints
• Charm 4: 10 Small Charms with Life, Resistances, Mana, or Faster Hit Recovery, depending on needs
• Charm 5: 1x Poison Sunder Charm

We also have a video guide that goes over the build, if you prefer that instead of or in addition to our written guide.

In Diablo 2, stats that affect action speed (known as frames) for attacking, casting, blocking, and recovering from a hit can almost never be taken literally. For example, gaining 10% Increased Attack Speed from an item will not necessarily translate into 10% faster attacks. To achieve faster actions, certain breakpoints must be reached, which vary for every class. The tables below list how much of a given stat is required to actually improve the action speed of the class for the stated action.

Hit Recovery Breakpoints
Frames to perform action	13	12	11	10	9	8	7	6	5
Faster Hit Recovery required to reach frame	0%	5%	10%	16%	26%	39%	56%	86%	152%

Faster Cast Rate Breakpoints
Frames to perform action	15	14	13	12	11	10	9
Faster Cast Rate required to reach frame	0%	9%	18%	30%	48%	75%	125%

Faster Block Rate Breakpoints
Frames to perform action	11	10	9	8	7	6	5	4
Faster Block Rate required to reach frame	0%	6%	13%	20%	32%	52%	86%	174%

You can either hire a Defensive (Holy Freeze) or Offensive (Might) Desert Guard Mercenary in Act 2, Nightmare difficulty, depending on whether you want to slow monsters for added safety or improve the overall damage of your Mercenary.

• Weapon: Ethereal Insight or The Reaper's Toll
• Body Armor: Ethereal Fortitude
• Helm: Andariel's Visage socketed with a Ral Rune

This is an early leveling progression for the Bone Necromancer

1. 5 points to Teeth
2. 1 point to Clay Golem at level 6
3. 5 points to Teeth between level 6 and 10
4. 1 point to Amplify Damage at level 11
5. 1 point to Iron Maiden at level 12
6. 1 point to Corpse Explosion at level 13
7. All remaining points to Teeth until Level 18
8. Max Bone Spear at level 18 and beyond
9. Respec to Poison Nova and synergies around level 30

For more comprehensive leveling advice, please refer to our Necromancer Fastest Leveling Build.