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DIABLO II Necromancer FAQ ver. 1.0

by: Fiefo! (fiefo@hotmail.com)

TABLE OF CONTENTS:
A. Legal Stuff and Where to Find This FAQ
B. Revision History
C. What is This FAQ For?
D. Necromancy 101
1. Curses
2. Poison and Bone Spells
3. Summoning Spells
E. Training Your Necromancer
F. Necromancer Walkthru
1. Act I
2. Act II
3. Act III
4. Act IV
G. Boss Guide
1. Act I Bosses
2. Act II Bosses
3. Act III Bosses
4. Act IV Bosses
H. Tips and Hints
I. Help Me!
J. Credits

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A. Legal Stuff:

All the information here is for public viewing and should not be
used for profit and the expressed permission of the author. Please do
not use the information in here for any personal gain. This FAQ, being
published in the Internet is automatically is protected by international
copyright laws.
In other words, this is mine! Don't remove my name and say, "This
is my FAQ and I'm taking all of the credit for it!" Got it?

This FAQ can only be found in these places for now...
1) www.gamefaqs.com (Lots of faqs here. Duh! The first update
will ALWAYS be here!)
2) DLH.net (European site! Pretty cool design here!)
3) neoseeker.com (More like a host page, but it does got a few
good FAQs as well!)
4) gameadvice.com (Actually has TWO sites within it!)

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B. Revision History

1.0 October 1, 2000
First draft. More to come?
1.1 October 3, 2000
Boss Guide Update. Thanks to Werebear and DragonSlayer2500.
More websites where this FAQ can be found!
1.2 October 8, 2000
MAJOR REFORMAT of borders and spaces. Thanks to Thomas Schuering.
UPDATE on almost everything! Thanks to Ja Mes Kor and Jason
Lane (and the "Lurkers")for the big amount of info.

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C. What is This FAQ For?

First things first, although this FAQ gives hints on how to play
the game as a Necro, you can use a lot of the information, like the
walkthru and the boss guide. But, it shows on how to use a Necromancer
efficiently, because... HE'S TOUGH TO USE!

Anyway, I hope you enjoy my work!

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D. Necromancy 101

This is a general runthrough on the Skill Tree of the Necromancer.
As you know, there are some skills that are useful and some, well,
plain suck. This goes for all of the Classes. But more so for the
Necromancer! A lot of his skills are not useful, but he sure has some
powerful stuff. This is just to make sure you don't get a lemon-like
skill (which he's got a lot of!).


1. CURSES

The weakest part of a Necromancer's Skill Tree. A lot of the stuff
here is plain useless... but there are a few gems here... not much, but
the few that are actually good you'll probably use until the end of the
game.

[FROM: Jason Lane

Curses: You've underestimated the power of this entire tree. You're
not the only one. Various people have played curse-specialized
Necromancers. The curses are so powerful that it does in fact
work - all the way through the higher difficulty levels. This
tree is fully as powerful as the other two, if employed
properly. ]


-Jason Lane

The great thing about curses is that they don't use up a lot of
Mana points.

Skill Name : Amplify Damage
Required : None
Skill Effect : Double damage to a group of enemies in a set radius.
Pros : Makes killing bad guys much, much easier!
Cons : Radius range and time of effect is limited.
Comments : One of the better skills a Necromancer has to him.
You'll probably use this in almost all instances when
fighting.

[FROM: Jason Lane

Amplify Damage: Actually reduces the 'resist physical' attribute.
This is largely irrelevant, but it does mean that
melee attacks against the Insects will do 11 times as
much damage as normal (they have 90% physical
resistance), and similar effects will be seen against
anything with the 'resist physical' attribute -
Wraiths would be an example. Not as powerful as you
think it is, in comparison to other curses. ]


-Jason Lane

Skill Name : Dim Vision
Required : Level SIX (6)
Skill Effect : Cursed monster's light radius is greatly reduced.
Affects a certain area or group of monsters.
Pros : Opponents can't see far ahead, making it easier to do
sneak attacks or just sneak past opponents.
Cons : Once you get close to the bad guys, it becomes pretty
useless.
Comments : Not really that good. It's pretty useful against
monsters with projectile attacks, tho.

[FROM: Jason Lane

Dim Vision: This can completely freeze many monsters in their tracks -
melee attackers as well as ranged. The major trick is
that if it's already targeting something, it will continue
to chase and target it.

If it has to pick another action - ranged attackers do
this for each attack - it'll realize it's blind and stop.
I've noted earlier in this email that BONE WALL and FIRE
GOLEM cause their victims to pick a new action. :) Of
course, if it's attacked melee, it'll just
counterattack... but this can still be used to effectively
immobilize many opponents in many circumstances. ]


-Jason Lane

Skill Name : Weaken
Required : Level SIX (6)
Skill Effect : Casts a curse in a set radius that makes that group of
monsters strike with less strength, thereby reducing the
damage inflicted.
Pros : Hey, damage done to you is reduced! Makes you like
longer, right?
Cons : A whole group of monsters, even while WEAKENed, can
still take you out!
Damage reduced isn't that much, unless you really put
Skill Points here.
Comments : Better off putting the Skill Point into AMPLIFY DAMAGE.
That way, you can kill the monsters before they can even
get a chance to cause damage!

Skill Name : Iron Maiden
Required : Amplify Damage, Level TWELVE (12)
Skill Effect : Casts on a group of monsters, this will cause them to
receive some damage that the cursed ones dish out.
Pros : Opponents can actually kill themselves!
Cons : You can still get killed!
Doesn't seem to work on Elemental attacks.
Comments : Good for fighting against those "Extra Strong" monsters.
Cast it on them and then let your minions take the
damage. Or just cast BONE ARMOR on yourself and let
yourself get attacked and recast BONE ARMOR again and
again until the monster dies!

[FROM: Jason Lane

Iron Maiden: In and of itself, is vastly powerful in combination with
any minions - more so than the minions attacking in and of
themselves. This is the single most commonly cast
Necromancer curse on higher difficulties. It's worth it.]


-Jason Lane

Skill Name : Terror
Required : Weaken, Level TWELVE (12)
Skill Effect : Causes monsters to flee!
Pros : Good when surrounded!
Cons : You'll have to chase your opponent!
Comments : Not that useful. Just try not to get surrounded and you
won't need this skill at all. Besides, CORPSE EXPLOSION
works better in clearing out a room if you are
surrounded!

[FROM: Jason Lane

Terror: A wonderful curse. As I said in the BONE WALL entry, this can
be used to end fights instantly. But wait, there's more!
TERROR sets a bit of information on the monster, called its
'flee flag'. This means that REGARDLESS of whether TERROR is
actually on it, the monster will continue to flee. Yes, this
means that you can effectively stack another curse on TERROR.
Why would you want to? Wait. :) ]


-Jason Lane

Skill Name : Confuse
Required : Dim Vision, Level EIGHTEEN (18)
Skill Effect : Cursed monsters attacks anyone in range, friend or foe!
Pros : Can make the opponent fight one of his partners.
Cons : They still can attack you!
You have to have learned DIM VISION!
Comments : Kinda fun to use... but is it worth getting this skill?
Not really.

[FROM: Jason Lane

Confuse: A beautiful, beautiful curse. Its basic effect is to cause
CONFUSED monsters to attack any non-CONFUSED monster they see.
The first note regarding this is that this only becomes
effective when they decide what to do - ie, a FIRE GOLEM's
aura affects them. So, I just said that TERROR was so useful.
Why?

Because you can stack CONFUSE the fleeing monsters.. and they
will run off at warp speed to find non-CONFUSED monsters to
kill!

Another huge application of this skill comes from the fact
that Uniques, Champions, and Bosses are basically immune to
most curses - including this one. So if you cast a CONFUSE
over the Unique and his army of Minions, all of the Minions
will become CONFUSED... and the Unique won't. CONFUSE makes
CONFUSED monsters attack non-CONFUSED monsters. Poor, poor
Unique. :) ]


-Jason Lane

Skill Name : Life Tap
Required : Iron Maiden, Level EIGHTEEN (18)