Parties welcome summon necros, as the army will act as a meat shield for the whole party, and Lower Resists or Amplify Damage are both beneficial curses for damage output. For Mobs, most of the damage dealt will come from your Corpse Explosion skill, but for single targets, your main source of damage will be your mercenary. By teleporting on a boss, the whole army will be attacking it. Having an Enigma greatly improves your mobility and movement speed, and by teleporting you drag your entire army with you. Their mob clear speed is decent, but single target damage is not super high. The main curse you should be using is Amplify Damage, but Attract comes handy on the Cow level, and Lower Resists can be very effective in parties. The main attacking skill is Corpse Explosion, but most of the damage will be dealt by your army. Summoners can clear the whole game as the summons deal all kinds of elemental and physical damage.

While necromancers are usually fragile, this build is a good fit for hardcore as the summons act as a “Meat Shield”. Summonmancers are amongst the most popular ladder starter builds, as they are very effective in budget gear and allow for a wide variety of skills and items to be utilized.

Diablo 2 summon necro merc gear