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turn and attack the GOLEM.  This makes this GOLEM VERY good at attracting monsters. ]


-Jason Lane

Skill Name   : Revive
Required     : Raise Skeletal Mage, Level THIRTY (30)
Skill Effect : Revived a dead monster to fight for you!
Pros         : Works on all dead baddies!
They get a life boost!
Cons         : Time limit sucks.
Comments     : If it weren't for the time limit, this would be the
Necro's best spell.
Raise a baddie that you had a tough time killing so that the rest of the remaining monsters can feel the hardships that you endured!

[FROM: Jason Lane

Revive: You underestimate the power of Revived.  Revive is unbelievably useful - any conventional Necromancer in NightMare+ difficulty will have a bunch floating around.  Ten at a time isn't at all unusual.  You cannot revive Bosses, Uniques, or Champions, unfortunately.  Mephisto will not get up and follow you around.
Pity. :) ]


-Jason Lane

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E. Training Your Necromancer

Okay, let me get this out first. The Necromancer is very, VERY hard to make effective, seeing that his Skill Tree has a lot of useless stuff in it. But, the useful spells that he can learn are, without a doubt, the most powerful spells in the World of Sanctuary.
Below are the strengths and weaknesses of a Necromancer. They are not really 100% correct for your character because you'll be distributing your stat and skill points the way you think. I'm just basing this on my experience in the game.

WEAKNESSES:

1) He doesn't go to the gym that often.

The Necromancer's starting strength is pretty low. He is on par with the Sorceress strength-wise. Not exactly a young Hercules, is he?
Which brings us to his defense. Seeing that he cannot carry heavy stuff, heavy armor will be a problem!
This is easily remedied by pumping up his strength stats early on in the game, rather than his other abilities. It's easier to get useful items that increase you Attack and Defense Ratings, the amount of Mana and Health you have, rather that equipment that boosts your strength ratings.

[FROM: Jason Lane

Your stat advice fails to take in one major factor.  In higher difficulty levels, defense is basically completely meaningless, unless you're a Barbarian with Shout and Iron Skin so as to achieve 3000+ defense.  The 1k defense my paladin has is just a nice addition to shield blocking.  The basic reason for this is that monster Attack
Rating is a multiple of what it should actually be, and the bug causing it isn't likely to be fixed for game balance reasons.  In Hell difficulty, it's 16 times what it should be.  Defense is useless, especially for spellcasters.  Go for modifiers instead.  Even for melee classes, non-defense equipment is now desirable - check out what
Iceblink, a unique splint mail with low defense, is trading for these days.

This means that Strength, in your strategy, is... kinda useless.
Don't ask me what to go for instead.  I'm still thinking about it. :) ]


-Jason Lane

2) For a Spell-Caster, he doesn't have a lot of Mana.

His Mana is really limited, unlike the Sorceress, who has a
Passive skill that will increase the rate of her Mana recovery.
Thankfully, his Summoning spells are pretty low, and the Curses practically use no Mana. The only problem is his Poison and Bone spells, which are pretty Mana-expensive.
It's a good thing that Mana potions give him a lot of Mana when compared to other classes like the Barbarian.

3) Health Potions are not too effective on him.

Health Potions, when compared to, say, a Barbarian class warrior, doesn't give him much health. Pumping up on his energy is out of the question, because you should be concentrating on putting those Stat
Points to Strength.
To offset this (sorta), the Necromancer has the BLOOD GOLEM, which gives life back to you with each successful attack it does, and the
LIFE TAP Curse. Still, your better off bringing a whole herd of Health and Rejuvenation potions instead.


STRENGTHS:

1) Necromancers got good eyesight!

The initial dexterity is really high for a Necromancer! This means that he has good initial Attack and Defense Ratings. Sadly, this won't be much use for a Necromancer. The reason is...

2) You're almost never gonna fight alone!

With the ability to create minions, you don't have to buy friends like the other classes. You can MAKE friends! They will do most of the fighting for you, while you just concentrate on the baddies that cause the most trouble for you (monsters that heal and ressurect other monsters, enchanted creatures, etc.), or you can just hang back and watch the action!
Still, you shouldn't over-rely on your minions, especially against
Uniques and Bosses. They are generally throw pillows to them. You definitely need to help out in these cases.

3) Dead bodies is the ammunition of your Necromancer.

CORPSE EXPLOSION is super damaging... and it can kill a whole mess of creautes in a hurry... creating more corpses for your CORPSE
EXPLOSION! Also, you need corpses to create your Undead army!

4) The few Curses that are useful are REALLY useful!

AMPLIFY DAMAGE makes baddies easy pickings for your minions and
CORPSE EXPLOSION. IRON MAIDEN is great against bosses because they actually whack the crap out of him or herself! They smash up your minions? Just make some more! They kill them again? Make more! They'll eventually kill themselves! Sneaky, huh?


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F. Necromancer Walkthru:

Although this is for Necromancers, other classes can get ideas for their own battles.

A SPECIAL NOTE! This Section has some spoilers on the storyline.
So, read with caution.

A note before I start with the walkthru. You will eventually find gemstones while defeating the monsters and such and you will find Gem
Shrines, which will give you a gemstone if you don't have one or upgrade a gemstone in your inventory.

I suggest the instant you find a Gem Shrine, try to make sure that you upgrade the Diamond, the Skull and Emerald Gemstones to Perfect if you can. You'll need them when you are in the final Act.

Another note: These are notes for casual players of Diablo II.
That means, no heavy levelling up. Just enough leveling up. No extra levels (like the Moo Moo Farm, Nightmare or Hell levels). Just for the ones who are having a devil of a time with the game.

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1. Act I
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Town/City: Rouge Encampment

People : Akara  - Heals you for free when you talk to her.
Sells specific class weapons (wands for example), potions and scrolls.
Kasha  - Lets you hire Amazon archer warriors.
Charsi - Repairs your equipment.
Sells weapons and armor.
Gheed  - Sells weapons and armor.
Sells unidentified equipment (Gamble option).
Cain   - Identifies items for free (only after Quest III)
Warriv - Brings you to Lut Gholein (only after Quest VI).

QUEST I: Den of Evil
Available when    : after talking to Akara.
Goal of Quest     : Kill all monsters in the Den of Evil.
Reward given      : Free Skill Point.
Recommended Level : 1 - 6

After talking to Warriv (the first person you see), he directs you to talk to the leader of the camp, Akara. Go speak to her (she is located in the east part of the encampment). She tells you that there is a cave that is filled with the minions of evil. If you are truely their friend, you will help them. So, off to the Blood Moor, which is just outside the camp.

I suggest you train a bit so that you can get at least one more
SKELETON WARRIOR or a CLAY GOLEM in the Blood Moor. Oh, and get AMPLIFY
DAMAGE while you're at it. If you can, get TEETH now. It's probably the only time it will be useful in th game.

Anyway, eventually, you'll come across a cave (the Den of Evil) in the Blood Moor. Enter and the quest box will change and say that you must kill all the baddies in here. Well, at least it's not one-on-100.

This is pretty easy. Let your minions do most of the work for you and assist them if they start to get overwhelmed or you encounter
Fallen Shamans which ressurect dead Fallens. You don't get experience from killing raised Fallens again so it's better to kill them off quickly. None of the mosters should give you a terrible time.

After cleaning you the entire cave of monsters, light will shine in, proclaiming that the cave is now pure from evil. Go back to Akara to get your reward or walk around a bit outside to get more experience.

When you return back to the Rouge Encampment, talk to Akara and you will get a free Skill point. Learn anything you like, but remember the recommendations I gave you in Necromancy 101. I recommend getting
BONE ARMOR if you haven't yet or CORPSE EXPLOSION if you are at
Level 6 by now.

Quest II: Sisters Burial Grounds
Available when    : talk to Kasha after Quest I.
Goal of Quest     : Kill Blood Raven.
Reward given      : Free Amazon Warrior.
Recommended Level : 3 - 8

Now, talk to Kasha. She tells you that one of her best warriors,
Blood Raven has been corrupted by the evil and is now fighting against them. She asks for your help.

Go past the Blood Moor and into the Cold Plains. You'll know that you are near the Cold Plains because you'll encounter Flaivie, the
Rouge guarding the entrance to the Blood Moor from the Cold Plains.

This is where it gets tougher because you're not exactly fighting the undead anymore. You're fighting humans that have been converted to the side of evil! They can be tough, even if you have a lot of minions by your side. My advice is to find the Waypoint in the area here as soon as possible and retreat back to the Rouge Encampment via Waypoint if you get in trouble.

Also, there is a cave in this area. While it doesn't really have anything to do with your quest, this would be a good place to get some extra experience points if you want to level up some more.

From the Cold Plains, there will be two paths that you can take.
One will lead to the Burial Grounds and the other will lead to the
Stony Field. Since Blood Raven is at the Burial Grounds, head there if you want to fight her immediately, or go the the Stony Field if you want to level up a bit before you fight her. It's up to you.

This is a small area and the place is just overflowing with the undead. Run around the outer boundary of the area, killing up monsters.
This is just in case you have to make a hasty retreat later if you get overwhelmed in the middle with Blood Raven and her army of Undead
Zombies. Retreat to town if you need to get health up. Don't use the potions in your belt just yet. Save them for Blood Raven.