D2R Skills & Abilities - Raise Skeleton (Necromancer Summoning)

[@PenSlaps]

Love the song!!

[@douglasbaker4562]

And here I presumed that this would just be a "bare bones" level of coverage. Then you "Raised" the bar and delivered a video of "Grave" importance to every Necromancer. I am glad that you have a bone to pick with ignorance and gave us such an "animated" guide. Thank you!

[@GGMentor]

lol my videos are always detailed, too detailed for some

[@gamermike24]

Bloody hell😂

[@randychristensen1028]

My Summon Necro wields a Beast while my act 2 Might merc holds a Pride. With the 3 auras stacked, my army shreds through everything. I love the skeleton army Also Ging, I loved the song at the intro

[@danielgloyd4529]

Now you need an infinity iron golem.

[@redstrike0]

I believe the variations in skeleton's "gear" is based on your levels in Skeleton Mastery with higher levels unlocking new types, same with Mages their helmets will change.

[@Leukodystrophy]

Very informative video! One minor thing you didn't go over is how the skeletons/summons snapshot their skill level when you summon them. So you can put a bunch of +skills on and summon your army, then swap off to some aura items or w/e you fancy. The skeletons will still retain their strength from the +skills you had on before. You will lose the extra skeletons when swapping items however, but you lose them anyway when BO'ing with CTA (if you have it). Thanks again for the video.

[@LetsPlayBojangles]

You can avoid losing 1-2 skellys depending on your total + skills if you use a +3 skelly splendor for your BO swap. Effectively keeping +4 levels on the shield slot.

[@Spartan120]

"These are the tales of the Skeleton Warriors." 90s guitar riffs always play in my mind when I raise skeletons.

[@leon--osseusii4664]

SKELETON WARRIORS DA NA NA NA NA NA NAAA.... kzbin.info/www/bejne/mpaQcqV6f8-Iers

[@beardedassailant3732]

I was actually looking around for some info on other mercs for necro since 2.4. The reason I love necro is cos there are almost infinite possibilities on how you wanna set him up for different parts of the game etc. Great vid, thanks man! Oh and btw the intro was awesome lol

[@lennyghoul]

Nice Idea on the enchant merc. I just ran some numbers and that's huge! Will definitely try. Subbed!👍

[@brianwilhelm3777]

I couldn't enchant my army with demon Limb😐

[@Twitch_Moderator]

*12 skellie warriors is the way to go!! Great job. I've been playing with a skel. warrior necro since day 1. Fighting bosses can suck if you can't cast a few deadly spells, though.*

[@sadist2core]

Great work buddy . Dedication 👏🏼

[@moonboy5851]

Best intro of all time for the GOAT skill

[@stofsk]

'I mean what am I gonna do, wade in here with my wand and start whacking something?' Hello Commandomancer...

[@Icytouched1337]

I just started a Summon Necro as my second offline char. It's so satisfying sitting in the back and watching all my minions do all the work :) even me being only level 24 atm. I also managed to find a 2 sockets' +3 Bone Spear Bone Wand, so I have a nice +8 to Bone Spear "White" waiting for me

[@GGMentor]

Nice, remember though bone spear requires a lot of points to do well later in the game it's an all or nothing build

[@Icytouched1337]

@@GGMentor yeah, I was mostly bragging about it for in case I wanna make a Bone Spear Necro at some point. I still gotta find an Arm of King Leoric. Guess I'll swap in my Spirit for the time being until I find the damn wand lol

[@JamesDM4]

They do get better armor and weapon with every few lvl, it's a very nice and subtle detail.

[@supernova743]

Skeleton mastery increases the equipment. Raise skeleton just increases the number you can summon.

[@Paulie-276]

Ive always gone for the act 2 might merc , didnt even know about the enchant merc , will defiantly help with the arcane sanctuary.

[@GGMentor]

aye, having an additional element can help a lot vs the physical immune monsters.

[@stofsk]

2.4 has been a nice shake up of the meta

[@LetsPlayBojangles]

Came here to say that you can shop a +3RS and +3 SM wand from akara, just do it early before other skills come into play on the wands. Also shrunken heads that can have those skills can drop off of Blood raven, Rakaneshu, Grizwold and the smith at about a 1:10 chance each with 7+players. Meaning trist running full games is a great way to find a shrunken head early with some skelly skills. I ran trist about 20 times before i found a +3 RS +1 SM head off rakaneshu. With about 4 other +1-2 RS heads before that. If you socket these from larzuk you can get 2 dockets and make rhyme/splendor

[@gabes7356]

Raise skeleton is the best. Skeletons have break points 2 ironically 21(9) 24(10) 27(11) 30(12) 33(13) and the pattern continues from their if you work your plus to skills around the break point it makes a big difference Also the higher your level of raise skeleton and Skeleton mastery is when you initially cast them stays until they break so having a wand and shield that’s specialized in skeletons on swap can make a huge difference I even prebuff my skeletons if I plan to be in one game for a while . They get exponentially more powerful level 40+

[@maximos905]

One of the best setups in the game 40 points into skeleton and mastery then 1 point into summon resistance for better survivability. And the reason to me is because they help keep you and your merc alive

[@GGMentor]

The Merc certainly does have it easy wading through a pack of skeletons.

[@maximos905]

@@GGMentor my sorc's merc dies all of the time with elite gear on while my necros's merc never dies and wearing budget gear at that

[@GC_Rallo]

I always thought people were full of it when they claimed skele's were no good, they are brittle until you get some points in them, then they can actually hold up pretty well. Personally I love playing non-meta builds and one of my favorites(that I'm running right now on Ladder actually) is a Warmancer with skeletons and a golem. Definitely not great, but it's cool to charge in to a fight with an army of skeletons behind you. So far on this playthrough I'm only to Act 3 NM, but after getting some points in Summon Resist and getting my Raise Skele/Mastery up a bit, my skeles rarely die to anything under Act Bosses. Doing NM Duriel I didn't lose a single skele, I had Decrepify and The General's Tan Do Li Ga slowing him 100% of the time and he died before dropping a single minion.

[@GGMentor]

cap on slow is 80% and it builds non additively so a 50% slow and a 50% slow don't = 100% or even 80% they equal 75%. Think about it like this 100 speed - 50% = 50 50 speed minus 50% = 25 so the speed of the monster is 25% or 75% slowed.

[@R3dux7933]

Decrepify + weapon + clay golem?

[@danielgloyd4529]

Holy freeze merc, with some slows enemy gear, with decrep cast and a clay golem. I am not sure how the math works from all the different slow sources. I have seen mobs take multiple seconds to advance 1 frame of an animation.

[@GC_Rallo]

​@@GGMentor Oh I was meaning like 100% of the time, not 100% reduction in speed. Good to know how the slows stack though, appreciate the info!

[@RedmayneDeadmayne]

Thanks for another banger, GGM

[@ZugzugZugzugson]

btw another smart thing you can do as a summonomancer is to equip a "beast" yourself, put an "edge" on an act 1 merc (who also further reduces mob defense with her inner sight, just make sure you get the fire-version of it, because the cold version will nuke all the corpses which gimps you) and that way you get 2 auras for your skellies, which combined with the merc's debuff makes amplify damage a whole lot better since that 100% damage increase now almost completely bypasses enemy mob defense, and mobs take damage themselves every time they hit your skellies/golem - damage which is further increased by amp+inner sight. aside from the "beast" runeword this is very easily obtainable in late normal/early nightmare depending on your luck with rune drops, and let me tell you, the bosses are essentially killing themselves every time they hit your skeletons using this setup, and if you got 8-9 skellies at that point in the game, you're pretty much set as long as you have a single point in amp damage and perhaps corpse explosion to speed trash clearing up. personally, i'm about to go kill diablo on nightmare, and my build focuses on my act 1 merc with the thorns aura (edge) + my skeletons (no mages) which are maxed out, along with a golem + corpse explosion and amp damage. if diablo murders my skeletons (which i doubt he will) its really not a big deal because i can just spam fire golem and amp damage on him and watch him commit sudoku while my merc just fires gattling gun explosive arrows at him as i feed her health pots.

[@lynskeyti9940]

So I played around with a a3 fire merc, in short it works pretty well. The sunders are here so on my ladder Summon nec I used fire sunder and bone break, skills are 43 mastery and skeleton, 41 mage, 38 revive. It wasn't as powerful as act2 might merc with pride but it wasn't bad, especially given as its like the cheapest boost for your army. I tested it by running chaos in hell and killing diablo. Didn't notice a hugh difference when killing random monsters but fighting diablo it was noticeable.

[@GGMentor]

I would imagine fire sunder with lower res would be interesting. Not something that was even known about when I made this video. Could make the mages more interesting too

[@lynskeyti9940]

@@GGMentor I didn't think about lower resist. But yeah it works well, if you put say a bramble and flickering flame on the merc you could go anywhere with ease

[@yosoyhansolo]

I wonder if the act 3 Merc enchant trick works for druid pets as well?

[@anggvoagg7881]

Nope

[@anggvoagg7881]

Don't trust me lol I just said it didn't even think about if it actually works or not nvm try it or look for info

[@GGMentor]

yes just to a lesser degree, max minions for a summon druid is 3+5+1+1 = 10 where as max minions for a Necro is like 15+15+40+1+1 =72 So as you can see enchant would have a much greater impact on a necro army then a druid army.

[@stofsk]

@@GGMentor Enchant does nothing for Skeleton mages tho.

[@squoblat]

Aura stacking on skeletons is where it's at. Might merc with infinity, heart of the wolverine from wisp projector and thorns from bramble. Stack amp damage on top and it tears through anything in hell. You could probably top thorns, but I run a poison/summon hybrid necro and bramble works nicely in that respect. Aura of choice from iron golem can take it even further, but I usually run insight for mana as that's infinite corpse explosion spam. The big trick for focusing skeleton damage is teleporting, as you said. Find yourself an amulet with +necro skills and teleport charges if you can. Edit: I only ever put 1 point into summon resistance and let the +skill gear fill the gap there, you really don't need to waste points in it. Edit 2: infinity is the superior choice, but not just because it increases the hit rate, it's a good thing to factor into corpse explosion.

[@GGMentor]

As I said during the video 1 point in Summon resistance later. But leveling up a fresh summon necro you need 7 or Diablo will one shot your entire army. Same goes for Baal.

[@squoblat]

@@GGMentor Yeah, not disagreeing with you, just thinking out loud. Interesting idea about the enchant, I'd never thought about that before. If you can keep the heart of the wolverine alive, it is worth having a go with if you fancy doing some testing. Seems to stack nicely and the AR boost always helps. It would be a nice buff if they patched in off weapon damage bonuses from the necromancer equipment to affect the skeletons. It would be hilarious to be wearing something like fortitude and have a 300% bonus to skeleton damage. I really think that could open up the gates for some more interesting summon necro builds.

[@Forty2de]

Just a correction: Since mobs have 50% physical resistance on Hell difficulty, using Amplify Damage doesn't just double their damage, it triples it. 50% - 100% = -50%. You'll be doing 3 times higher damage to a mob with -50% resistance than one with 50% resistance.

[@GGMentor]

Depending on the monster some have less, some have more. 50% is more or less the average. This can be demonstrated easily by monsters that have the stone skin Mechanic which is +50%. If all monsters in hell were 50% or higher then all monsters with stone skin would be physically immune but they aren't.

[@Forty2de]

@@GGMentor oh, fair enough. But Amplify Damage is extremely important nonetheless.

[@MsGhoulz]

I remember when the game was new and skeletons couldn't even do normal difficulty.

[@tokopaaisen2927]

Skelei works well with act 1 merc with faith

[@chadpunte1731]

enchant is a full blown blessed aim worth of accuracy, and roughly a might bonus of damage. That said, I think infinity and might merc at higher levels will outperform it when including skeletal mages.

[@cocorain6549]

I am still trying to figure out how you went from walking to floating in the air, as a necromancer EXPLAIN this to me please. Please I am kind of new to this please reply in basic terms

[@GGMentor]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/Y3-XlGWmjd6Gg5ofeature=shared

[@jackcrater9725]

I have never thought about using an Act 3 Merc with my Skeleton Army for the enchant effect. I've always just used Act 2 Merc with Might lol

[@ermini3]

Can’t wait for the mage video

[@Chiefs_fan1595]

I loved using a hero editor to bump all my skills to 99 and summoning so many skeletons the game would lag until it crashed

[@andrewcooks1]

Using enchant merc with lower resist would be awesome with a poison/summoning hybrid

[@GGMentor]

Synergies well, could even todd in mages

[@andrewcooks1]

@@GGMentor I wonder how well cold duration would work on the mages, especially if only boosting them with+ skills? I usually use attract both for bunching them up and for crowd control.

[@jarredcarlson2479]

What about using obedience on your merc, will that enchant work on skeles?

[@frankenstein3163]

I personally like having lower res wand and head/shield to save points. Does the enchant merc recast on enchanted skelly's or is it only on non enchanted skelly's ? Do magi benefit from enchant or only ias(fanaticism) ?

[@bluebarrymore5442]

i love skeletons in diablo. i only wish they randomized the wepaos at lvl 20 they always have swords. i want the axes and flails.

[@vjspectron]

Yeah and they need a real block-chance, they have something like a

[@skones5445]

Any confirmation if graphics settings would change the the looks outside of just skele mastery points?

[@bluebarrymore5442]

@@skones5445 .... what?

[@TicklesTrout]

Summon necro was the easiest class for me in d2r. I had no issues just cruising through the whole game. I found a pole that had like 40% slow, plus clay golem and decrepify, the bosses barely got a swing in literally lol.

[@iceix2118]

Where can I find a weapon that way I could raise my skeletons I've only ever been able to have 9

[@flibbernodgets7018]

These skellybois always remind me of Ray Harryhausen's animation in, I think it was Jason and the argonauts. I wonder if the devil were thinking that when they made them.

[@jasonantes6015]

so for hell would the might be better becuase of the many mobs that have fire res

[@GGMentor]

So Enchant isn't just about the added fire damage a lot of people make that mistake. It's also about the massive Attack rating increase. 400% Bonus Attack rating has a huge effect on the speed of your army because they land hits more often on monsters with higher Defense. Also if your damage is Primarily physical it's nice to have an alternative element. Theoretically you could eventually have Might on an Act 3 merc if you got yourself a Last wish, and Thorns with a Bramble Armor, Resist Fire with Flickering Flame Then you would have Enchant + Thorns + Might + Resist Fire all on one merc lol

[@jasonantes6015]

@@GGMentor holy cow thats crazy, i have alot of work to do lol. And thank you for the very detailed reply.

[@manfredhoudek2385]

I am liking your summoning necro analysist. I find the only sustainable summons is the clay golem, paired with a cold paladin and decrepify slows everything down

[@redelfshotthefood8213]

I went for RS to get 4 skeletons. Then SM. It provides damage and life points. Damage and sustainability. I’m guessing the skeletons regenerate life points on a percent basis. Because my skeletons just don’t die.

[@joeyholthusen6495]

Act 3 merc double dragon?

[@adamboyd5190]

Anyone happen to know if your summons get any benefit from charms in your inventory?

[@GGMentor]

they have said that they will in an official statement. The 2.5 patch notes.

[@generaladvance5812]

19:01 Necro wand whacking to hell challenge run when?

[@hunkyiankoh]

Hi GGM, I was wondering why in guides that skellies won't survive diablo and baal in normal, but they say nothing about nightmare and hell? Do they scale up HP according to difficulty?

[@JosephMagicFlower]

Yes

[@CYota91]

How do you take out skill points? Diablo wasn't easy but I did it with maxed skel, almost maxed mastery, 10 pts to Golem, 5 pts to golem mastery, 5 pts to mage. , rest of the prime evils were easy. Now in nightmare I have 4 pts in summon reaist and 1 2 pts in amplified damage. ... this is with + 2 summons and + 1 necromancer skills... I have 130% MF trying to get good drops, so I'm having to be cautious and hang back while my merc and army take down what's infromt od me.

[@CYota91]

Oh and my xbox, max skeleton army is 9, ... with wears I'm maxed at lev 23

[@ZugzugZugzugson]

i got a question; sometimes when i raise my skellies (at the exact same level of raise/mastery) some of them will raise with round shields, and some will raise with kite shields. does this make a difference or is it solely for graphical variety?

[@JosephMagicFlower]

If i remember right, skeletons with shield havel 10% chance to block

[@ice_fox]

My skel and mast is at 38, I do quick hell Baal, cows, chaos runs regularly, Uber D whenever he spawns. I have yet to lose 1 single skeleton.. they are so beefy it's nuts.

[@Demortixx]

What is “off weapon ED”

[@GGMentor]

@@Demortixx take a look at my video on the might aura I explain it in detail there

[@darviniusb]

Just finished the game on normal with my necromancer whitout dying oance. Using some rares i found that give me resistence overall to 75+, hired a merc in act III, Myram i think is called that gives defense buff, and i gone trough all the game and killed Diablo and Ball with iron maiden and flesh golem without dying oance with character lvl 32. Started the game again on nightmare and now is a bit more ballanced and the fact that you drop everything + money and experience makeit more fun to play. And the rare drops is a bit better. On normal play even with magic drop gear is crazy low but the game is awesome and necro class is fantastic and fun to play. You are more like a general that plans before going in, specially in nightmare mode.

[@GGMentor]

Hell difficulty is the real challenge, good luck my friend

[@g-lix7702]

I feel like the damage output increase more with skeleton mastery, and i think it is because it adds flat damage increase while the base skill gives only %

[@TouristAarchie]

wrong

[@jalefar8247]

Easy way to deal with normal diablo as a necro summoner is to put few points into clay golem (3-5 points is good enough and +1 golem mastery) and then u buy iron maiden wand and just keep resummoning your clay golem while casting iron maiden on diablo. This can be done at lvl 24 easily or even sooner.

[@GGMentor]

Yes everyone uses that silly trick. My problem with the trick is it doesn't fix the underlying issue. A summoner Necro needs to figure out how to make his army strong. You don't do that by using the clay golem trick. Which is why in my SSF summon necro series I kill normal diablo with just skeleton warriors and show how to do it

[@jalefar8247]

@@GGMentor You can put your first point into summon resist at lvl 24 which means u have to be level 29-30 to kill diablo your way.

[@GGMentor]

@@jalefar8247 Chaos Sanctuary is area level 28 in normal difficulty and Diablo is Monster level: 40. Being lvl 30 when you kill diablo is perfectly acceptable.

[@JosephMagicFlower]

​@@GGMentorin Normal difficulty monster level is not equal to area level.

[@CornyCF]

What is better a might or thorn's Merc?

[@CornyCF]

I mean for a Summoner necromancer

[@game_jinx]

thx ggm!

[@CornyCF]

That's a great idea to use act 3 mercs.

[@larslinebarger6712]

how the hell do you have 675 skill points remaining?

[@GGMentor]

Test character

[@DrAlex-wd9sw]

675 Skill Points Remaining?

[@GGMentor]

Offline Test Character

[@allysinlombard]

I think Skeleton’s weapons/shields are based on the level of skeletal mastery.

[@redelfshotthefood8213]

For leveling up a Necro I tend to get 4 skeletons. Then I turn those 4 into tanks. Why? Because bone shield #6 is a horrible name. No. What I raise, stays raised. Skeleton Mastery in the leveling process adds 1 to 2 damage to the skeletons. And a bunch more “life” points. Laughable damage. Right? Wrong. RS adds 7%. 7% of 2 is 0.14. 1 to 2 damage is 7x to 14x more damage. Per hit. That’s why I like to get 4 skeletons. And I like to beef them up. I don’t want to lose any. So I could afford to name them (if I ever could tell them apart). I recall trying my new method out leveling to Duriel. And wondering if he’d ruin my day. And he didn’t. Even the nightmare ancients were no big deal. Raise Skeleton and Skeleton Mastery are a slippery pair. In my limited experience, If a skill has mastery in the name, there’s a reason for it.

[@crispybacon556]

That 1 life bug???

[@aurelionsolph]

I have one problem in raise skeleton... "WHY THE F, THERE IS NO SKELETON ARCHER" 😑😑😑😑😑

[@-Prestoned-]

Dam could only watch for 3secs in

[@adamboyd5190]

Just letting you know this video is not in the appropriate playlist.

[@GGMentor]

Thanks I will fix it when I get to my pc

[@RiotforPeacePlz]

I disagree with the twenty skeleton first terrible idea. Before you even make it to rescue Cain your skeletons won't do enough damage lol

[@GGMentor]

The numbers have been worked out, and 20 skele first is the higher damage output over 20 skeleton mastery first. The skeletons hit for less damage but you have more skeletons and the quantity of lower damage skeletons out dpses the stronger lower quantity skeletons by far.

[@Demortixx]

Bone spear is terrible

[@Defectordrunkzone]

I can only summon 4 skeletons max and three skeleton mages wtf