Necromancer

Skills and Builds for the D2R Necromancer

The Necromancer is a type of Sorcerer, who specializes in raising the dead and summoning creatures to do his bidding. Due to this, many people associate necromancy with evil, and believe that its use attracts the attention of demons. The only Mage Clan who deal in necromancy are the Priests of Rathma. Believed to be one of the oldest clans, they are also largely misunderstood.

Diablo 2 Necromancer
Art by Akila Yuki

The Priests of Rathma reside in a vast underground city beneath the Eastern Jungles, where they study and experiment with their magic. As a result, their years of research has given the Necromancers an understanding of the balance of all things, which they refer to as the Great Cycle of Being. By knowing their place in the world, the Necromancers do not fear death. They are also pragmatists, above temptation. This value of logic is most likely the reason why the Necromancers have not been corrupted by the use of this ‘dark’ magic. Additionally, the Necromancer is able to wield Prime Magic, which means he doesn’t just control the dead. He is also able to manipulate the energy of the living too.

It is their desire to maintain the harmony that has led the Necromancers to leave their remote and isolated home and to destroy the Prime Evils. Ultimately, the Necromancers detest all who would use humans as pawns. They are even willing to join forces with the likes of the Order and the Paladins to achieve their goal of ridding the world of non-mortal intervention.

Necromancer Skills

The Necromancer can reanimate most corpses and control the recently killed. Furthermore, he has a great range of damage spells in his arsenal and is able to control a large number of minions at any one time. His skill trees are:

 

  • Level 1
  • Level 6
  • Level 12
  • Level 18
  • Level 24
  • Level 30

Summoning Spells

  • Raise Skeleton, Skeleton Mastery
  • Clay Golem
  • Golem Mastery, Raise Skeletal Mage
  • Blood Golem
  • Summon Resist, Iron Golem
  • Fire Golem, Revive

Poison and Bone Spells

  • Teeth, Bone Armor
  • Poison Dagger, Corpse Explosion
  • Bone Wall
  • Poison Explosion, Bone Spear
  • Bone Prison
  • Poison Nova, Bone Spirit

Curses

  • Amplify Damage
  • Dim Vision, Weaken
  • Iron Maiden, Terror
  • Confuse, Life Tap
  • Attract, Decrepify
  • Lower Resist

Necromancer Builds

The Necromancer is the most versatile class in Diablo II. The most common Necromancer builds are:

  • Bonemancer: Bone spells. A very popular Necromancer build
  • Daggermancer: A variation of the Novamancer. The main skill is ‘Poison Nova’, complemented by ‘Poison Dagger’.
  • Explosionmancer: The skill ‘Corpse Explosion’. This is the classic Diablo II Necromancer build. This build only really works in multiplayer as it relies on others to make the first kill.
  • Hybridmancer: Combination of Bonemancer and Summonmancer
  • Novamancer: The skill ‘Poison Nova’, normally in combination with ‘Lower Resist’.
  • Summonmancer: Having lots of minions to overwhelm enemies.
  • Ultimancer Build

Trivia about the Necromancer in D2R

  • The Necromancer was originally a sub-class during game development when the team thought to reorganize the classes. Eventually, this was dismissed.
  • After much deliberation, the Necromancer was the final class chosen for the Diablo III expansion.