Re: Summoner HELP!
One point in clay golem. Lvl 1 clay golem with +skills, difficulty bonus, lvl 1 golem mastery with + skills and lvl 1 summon resist with +skills really is enough. It will hardly ever die. And dim vision, amplify damage and decreptify will mostly be the only curses you'll be using, so one point each. No curse, except in some builds, deserves more than one point, since all curses except lower resist and iron maiden only recieve radius and duration when you get them to a higher lvl, and lvl 1 with +skills really is enough. 1 point in revives. They aren't as useful as your skeletons, and have a timer, so 1 point with +skills will do it. No fire golem, it does pitiful damage and is only useful for pvp poisonmancer builds or some very few unique builds who specialize in elemental damage. So my basic skill setup would be:
20 raise skeleton
20 skeleton mastery
1 point in all other summoning skills except fire golem
1 point in amplify damage, weaken, terror, decreptify and dim vision
1 point in teeth and corpse explosion
Now that's the basic build. It takes 54 skill points. You now have 56 skill points left. There are these skills to consider:
1. More in corpse explosion
2. 1 point in bone armor and then put points into its synergies
3. More points in golem mastery
4. More points in skeleton mages
1 is very popular and it is quite needed, since corpse explosion is a skill that almost all necromancer use, and for a good reason. I wouldn't max it though. You can put a couple of points here early put I wouldn't say more than 10 until you're done with everything else.
2. I don't like this one. The thing about a summonancer is to not get hit. The minions are the ones who are supposed to get hit. Also, it takes way too many skill points to be effective.
3. Now this is only if you want to make an aura golem (an iron golem out of a runeword that has an aura. Pride, for example). Aura golems are expensive, so you don't want them to die. And this skill prevents them from dying. Iron golems can poof though, so this is only suggested for the rich. Iron golems stay after logging out if you didn't know that. If you're using clay golem, don't put more than 1 point into this skill. If you're going to make an aura golem, try to experiment first with golems made out of daggers to see how often they die. If they easily survive when you only have 5 points in golem mastery, then keep it at 5. Experiment until you've found the right value to be sure the golem doesn't die.
4. Skeleton mages are controversial. Some people hate them, some people love them. I wouldn't suggest them if you don't have enigma and infinity. If you only have 1 of them, or none of them, don't put points here. They need both of those items to reach their full potential. If you want to get them, max them. Personally I like them. It's always good to have an addition to your army.
My prefered build is:
20 rs
20 sm
20 skeletal mages
1 decreptify, dim vision, revive, summon resist, corpse explosion and all prerequisites
Split the rest into corpse explosion and golem mastery. If you're satisfied with both skills without maxing them, you can get lower resist too (in case you want to help your mages, or to power up corpse explosion against physical immunes). But only get lower resist if you're sure you're done with the other 5 main skills.
Also, get more + to summoning skills. Resists,life and defence aren't important at all. Your army is protecting you, remember? Your firs tpriority in equipment is beneficial auras (might from merc, and make him wield an infinity, while you wield a beast axe, and if you want to, an iron golem out of pride). Your priority after auras is +skills, and after that defence (don't go for max block. If an enemy hits you, most of your army is probably gone. And if your army is gone you have to flee. And full vita builds have lower chances to get in both blocklocks or stunlocks). Offence doesn't matter at all, since you won't be fighting yourself. Except in some builds. But they don't focus on physical damage, they focus on crushing blow, and tehey're mostly for fun