Poison Necromancer Build Skills for Diablo 2 Resurrected

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
7. 1 point to Bone Armor — Physical defense, optional
8. 1+ points to Bone Wall — Optional defense synergy (gives more defense than investing more points into Bone Armor), optional
9. 1+ points to Raise Skeleton — Can be great to max out for hybrid Poison/Summon build, optional
10. 1+ points to Skeleton Mastery — If maxing for Summons, placing points here can help as well, optional
11. 1 point to Clay Golem — Best Golem in the game for PvE due to the Slowing effect on hit, optional
12. 1 point to Golem Mastery — Help increase the survivability of Golems, optional
13. 1 point to Summon Resist — Increases Resistances for summons, optional
14. 1+ points to Revive — More tanky summons and damage, optional

The Poison Necromancer is one of the strongest farmers in the game, although it takes a decent amount of gear to really get the build rolling. Once a few key pieces such as Enigma and Death's Web are obtained, the build can not only burst through many areas in the game, but do so even on Players 8 difficulty.

One interesting benefit about the Poison Necromancer is that he ends up with a lot of leftover skill points, allowing for a variety of options. You can max out Corpse Explosion, invest more points into Lower Resist, or even become a hybrid Summoner to gain additional damage and survivability.

Some of the best places for this character to farm include The Travincal Council, The Secret Cow Level, and many of the area level 85 zones in the game such as The Pit. With its large 360-degree area of effect, the build is amazing at finding Runes, bases, and many items in general. That being said, try to avoid areas with high numbers of Poison Immune monsters and, while it can technically take on Act Bosses, it is relatively slow compared to other characters and generally ill-advised.

The following section discusses how many attribute points should be allocated to each of the primary stats.

Enough for gear — For a Trapsin using a Spirit Monarch, this will be 156 Strength as that is usually the highest Strength requirement for commonly used gear. If choosing to use another shield with lower Strength requirements, then just adjust your Strength to that value. This number always changes based on the gear you are using, though, so make sure to always double check the requirements for each piece of gear you have as well as how much Strength each piece will provide once equipped.

Enough for Gear — Dexterity is great for increasing Block Chance, particularly with Homunculus, but if you are not planning on investing points to max that out, it is often not worth taking any additional Dexterity, as the return on Defense is very low.

Everything else into Vitality — 250+ points. Every excess attribute point should be allocated to Vitality, as long as you can meet the Strength and Dexterity requirements of your items by the time you wish to equip them. Not only does this increase your Life total, but this also increases the chance for Healing Potions to crit, doubling their healing output. Further, additional Life reduces the chance that you will be put into hit recovery.

Nothing — Allocating attribute points to Energy in a final build is universally considered sub-par for almost every character due to the widespread availability of Mana Potions. While leveling, if you find yourself struggling with Mana you can allocate a few points to Energy that you can then remove with a respec later on.