Summoner Necromancer Build for Diablo 2 Resurrected

The Summon Necromancer is a classic build that can raise a large army of Minions through Raise Skeleton, Raise Skeletal Mage, Revive, and a Golem of their choosing. Combined with an array of debilitating Curses, this build is popular both for solo and party play.

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

The following section shows the default skill build for the Summon 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 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

Strength	Dexterity	Vitality	Energy
Enough for gear; around 150 total	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 Summon Necromancer. For a detailed per-slot breakdown of all Summon Necromancer items and alternative builds, refer to the Gear page of this guide.

• Weapon: Ethereal Beast
• Weapon Swap: Call to Arms and Spirit
• Shield: 35% Faster Cast Rate Spirit Monarch Shield
• Body Armor: Enigma
• Helm: Harlequin Crest
• Gloves: Trang-Oul's Clawss or Magefist
• Boots: Marrowwalk
• Belt: 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: 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

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 want an Offensive ( Might) Act 2 Nightmare Mercenary here because you do not want to have any Cold damage that could shatter corpses. The Aura also improves the damage of your Minions.

• Weapon: Ethereal Pride
• Body Armor: Ethereal Fortitude
• Helm: Andariel's Visage socketed with a Ral Rune

The following leveling build is a generic early Summoning progression.

1. 1 point to Raise Skeleton
2. 1 point to Amplify Damage
3. 1 point to Skeleton Mastery
4. 3 points to Raise Skeleton
5. 1 point to Clay Golem
6. All points to Raise Skeleton until level 12
7. 1 point to Golem Mastery at level 12
8. All points to Raise Skeleton until level 24
9. 1 point to Summon Resist at level 24
10. All remaining points to Skeleton Mastery

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