. "Summonmancer"@en . "The Summonmancer build is quite effective thanks to the synergies added in Patch 1.10. Prior to this patch, maxed out skeletons were weak. The Summonmancer frequently relied on revive monster skill because the monster's life scaled with the amount of players in the map. If there were eight players, the summoned monster's life would be eight times greater."@en . . . "The Summonmancer build is quite effective thanks to the synergies added in Patch 1.10. Prior to this patch, maxed out skeletons were weak. The Summonmancer frequently relied on revive monster skill because the monster's life scaled with the amount of players in the map. If there were eight players, the summoned monster's life would be eight times greater. Since version 1.10, skeletons and skeleton magi became much more effective. With an Act II Offensive mercenary from Nightmare giving an aura, the skeleton army became quite powerful. It is even able to last until Hell in Act V, although Hell is generally the point at which having optimized equipment becomes necessary. The Summonmancer had certain complimentary skills. This build can generally get away with no energy, so points will go towards enough strength to use equipment, enough dexterity to use Homunculus for max block (roughly 193), with all remaining points spent on vitality. Even though the Iron Maiden curse might seem good for this build, it will not make his minions last long. In Hell mode Act V, the minions die from enemies, so skeleton mastery and items that give +skill are needed to keep them alive. Decrepify is a great curse for a summoning necromancer when fighting Act bosses because it decreases the boss' damage output by slowing them down and in some cases, allow their attacks to be interrupted. Using a good blocking shield with high dexterity is recommended - the percentage-based block chance scales naturally, unlike skills such as Bone Armor. The Summonmancer provides an excellent meat shield. If the Summonmancer has maxed out skeleton skills, and the proper plus-skill equipment, they can have 13+ skeleton warriors and 13+ skeleton mages (Thirteen is a typical average although up to fifteen has been proven possible). This vast number of minions acts as a multi-faceted tank, absorbing the damage. Since there are so many minions, it is easy for companion players to avoid getting hurt. A drawback in online play of a Summonmancer is the lag, giving it the alternate name of the Lagromancer because of the amount of minions on screen forces all computers synchronized to slow down to the speed of the slowest computer. This is a less of a problem now, for three reasons. First, there were early bugs that caused serious slowdown with lots of minions but they were fixed. Second, computers are much faster now than in Diablo 2's early days. Third, patch 1.10 reduced the number of skeletons by about a third while scaling up their power. Most players do not have problems with the large number of skeletons, as they contribute greatly to the party and in their current numbers, are generally much less than the enemies the party faces. It should also be noted, that too many minions/spells/projectiles at once affects Frame rate, which when low enough, simulates lag."@en . .