GameBanshee Forums

hi all,
i play classic d2 and i'm trying out a necro but i dont want skeletons so what type of melee necro is there, i need to know stats, skills can someone help me.

there really isnt a melee necro. they just dont have the build to take that much damage. if you dont want to try the skele route (i personally hate skelies) try a combonation of curses and golems. if you have access to high lvl items, use an iron golem, the resistance reduction curse and poison nova. seems to work fairly well, especially if you have a sorc in your party. add an act2 thorns merc and you'll own.

If you don't want any summons at all for your nec there are really only the poinson skills left. A maxed poison nova can do quite some damage in conjunction with a good Lower resist curse. Bone spear with amplify dmg can also do some damage. You should howver not expect to do any real damage once you get into hell. If you do go for poison nova then make sure to max all synergies as otherwise you won't even notice the damage in hell...

I myself would suggest you to use bone spear combined with golem summons.The golems just take all the hits and you can shoot the final blows to the monsters.And skeleton summons are pointless,that`s true.Put no points into them and save for golems.Fire is the best but iron is pretty good too.

Consider a necro that utilizes the poison skills. If you want to fight melee style, then use the poison dagger skill. I did a quick check of the damage you would get from the poison skills and here is what I came up with;

Poison dagger - Skill Level 20
Poison Damage: 4860-5231 over 9.6 seconds
Attack Rating: +410 percent
Mana Cost: 7.7

Poison Explosion - Skill Level 20
Poison Damage: 8190-9870 over 9.6 seconds
Mana Cost: 8

Poison Nova - Skill Level: 20
Poison Damage: 1781-1953 over 2 seconds
Mana Cost: 20

These numbers are for maxed out skills and synergies, but without any +skill items like an amulet or wand. The damage listed also does not take into account a curse like lower resist being cast. You would need to be around lvl 50 to attain these numbers since it would use at least 62 skill points to get these 3 skills maxed, and you likely would want to consider using a golem and/or revives.

I read some good strategies at Diabloplanet, where you can find a full guide to a Necromancer build that focuses on curses and melee fighting. You might want to check it out