Diablo 2 Walkthrough -> Necromancer
The Necromancer's path is to stand peacefully and watch as monsters die under the onslaught of an army of animated skeletons, undead, and golems. Although, no, sometimes you'll have to cast a few curses to cool the enemy's ardor.
The only one who might cause difficulties is Diablo (Duriel is out of the question, a properly developed Necromancer can handle him).
Summoning Skills
All sorts of abilities for summoning golems and reanimating corpses, or turning those corpses into skeletons. Remember that half of your success on the battlefield will be determined by: early game – Skeletons and Skeleton Mages, then the Blood Golem, and later – Reanimated Creatures.
But all these creatures are only viable combat units if you use the Iron Maiden curse. All enemies quickly perish in skirmishes with your creatures (provided they outnumber you, of course). If there are fewer enemies than your creatures, use Amplify Damage. Using this strategy alone, you can survive on higher difficulty levels without any problems.
Some players prefer to use the same golem to get the first corpse, and then they start using the Corpse Explosion spell, which is only justified on Moo Moo Farm or if the game is not patched to version 1.03, in which the capabilities of this skill were significantly reduced.
A rough guide to investing Skill Points: 2-3 (no more, preferably less) into Skeletons and Skeleton Mages, 2-3 into Clay Golem, 4-6 points into Blood Golem, 1-2 into Iron or Fire Golem (their huge downside is that they don't restore life to themselves or you), and 10-12 Revive (meaning you can revive that many corpses). Summon Resist and Golem Mastery are good skills, and should be developed to levels 4-6, with the former being a particular favorite.
Poison & Bone Skills
Teeth is a weak skill even at level one, as its accuracy is too low. It's worth noting that the number of teeth increases as you level up.
Bone Armor - will be very helpful at the beginning of the game, it can and should be used, as it absorbs some of the hits (only melee attacks).
Corpse Explosion is one of the most powerful enemy-destroying weapons, similar in power to the Barbarian's Whirlwind. 5 Skill Points are enough to annihilate small groups of enemies.
Poison Dagger is only worth developing in multiplayer games to create a PK (Player Killer). This applies to a lesser extent to Poison Explosion and Poison Nova. Bone Wall and Bone Prison are decent abilities, but they don't provide any significant benefits in the game and sometimes even cause problems, such as when your units become distracted by these structures in an attempt to destroy them.
As for Bone Spear and Bone Spirit, be careful not to ruin your character by over-leveling one skill (6 max for Bone Spear), as you won't survive on Hell.
Bone Spirit is great for PK due to its homing ability (max it out, at level 20). Single-player players shouldn't invest this skill so heavily, but it's incredibly useful against Diablo. Trust me, you won't be able to reanimate corpses; they'll simply disappear very quickly, and if you set a couple of them on him, they'll die very quickly.
In principle, you can deal with Diablo with the help of Clay/Blood/Iron/Fire Golem + Iron Maiden, you just have to be very careful.
Curses
Curses are somewhat disappointing, as there's a fly in the ointment, so to speak. The best curse is undoubtedly Iron Maiden, which is worth leveling up to level 8 (just keep in mind that curse durations are reduced in Nightmare and Hell). Duriel will fall easily if you use the Blood Golem (Revive) + IM combo. I don't use any other curses at all, except Amplify Damage and Life Tap.
Necromancer Equipment
On Normal and Nightmare, you should try to find unique items like Wormskull (+1 to Necromancer skills), Frostburn Gauntlets (increases mana by 40%, not bad, right?..;), and for armor - Silks of the Victor or Goldskin.
Using swords and clubs is not frowned upon; they can be very helpful initially, as switching to wands, even with good stats, is recommended when your character is able to avoid close combat and win. Therefore, even on Hell, if you can't find a good wand, take a sword (preferably one with +1 to all skills).
For footwear, I recommend Tearhaunch plate armor, which provides bonuses to strength, agility, defense, and walking/running. On Hell difficulty, unique armor offers insufficient protection, so it's worth looking for rare armor with higher defense and (preferably) resistances and bonuses to health and mana.
And also, your goal should be three Perfect Diamonds , having obtained them, you need to run for the Socketed Gothic Shield, insert the stones and get from 50 to 60% resistance to everything.
With a shield like this , you won't even have to worry about Hell. Just for reference, I made a shield like this midway through Nightmare. Like this. Naturally, Wormskull isn't a panacea for all ills, so it's a good idea to find the Grand Crown for the purpose of imbuing it (Imbue, in case anyone missed it).
Regarding rings and amulets , ideally, it would be nice to have The Mahim-Oak Curio (an amulet that provides a ton of bonuses, including mana and life) and Stone of Jordan (a ring that provides +1 Skills and +20 mana, increasing it by 25%). Otherwise, rare rings and amulets with mana and life bonuses will do, and you can also try the Prismatic Amulet (+20% to all resistances).
Overall, the Necromancer is a legitimate contender for the honorable title of "Killing Machine," though he does have a fierce competitor: the Barbarian, who excels in uncompromising melee combat. However, I repeat: the Necromancer is (in my subjective opinion) somewhat more interesting to play.
Source: diablo2.pnz.ru.
See also:
Assassin's Combat Skills
Characters in the game Arcanum
Half-Life 2: Walkthrough