Summoner Necro help / My story so far

[Celebrant]

I'll start out with saying, thank you! This Diablo 2 server is absolutely fantastic. Kudos to everyone who is playing and who is/was involved in making this server great!

I started playing a summoner necro and ended up playing normal up until Act 4, and things were fine til I saw those crazy venom lords there. I made a game called 'act4ishard' and ended up finding someone who helped me get through Norm/NM/Hell and got me some cow runs and going. I greatly appreciated that, but I'm struggling a bit.

I'm currently level 85 and I've been loading some other characters into games to help my exp/drops go, and been running nightmare cows and now doing Hell Chaos Runs/Hell Travincal runs. I am not powerful enough to do hell cows solo yet, just need some guidance on the best places to farm and when to try some end gameish things to get better gear.

Currently my stats are: +enough str to wear stuff, rest in vitality.
My skills: Raise Skeleton (max), Raise Skeleton Archer (max), skeleton mastery (max), Skeletal Lich (max)
Amplify damage (+1), and now working on maxing Summon Mastery (currently +10).

Does this build make sense for what I'm doing or am I missing something?
Could someone point me out to some strategies or tips to help me on my way?
What should be my next destination in the game?

Thanks very much! I am having a blast. Merry Christmas!

[Game]

I'll start out with saying, thank you! This Diablo 2 server is absolutely fantastic. Kudos to everyone who is playing and who is/was involved in making this server great!

I started playing a summoner necro and ended up playing normal up until Act 4, and things were fine til I saw those crazy venom lords there. I made a game called 'act4ishard' and ended up finding someone who helped me get through Norm/NM/Hell and got me some cow runs and going. I greatly appreciated that, but I'm struggling a bit.

I'm currently level 85 and I've been loading some other characters into games to help my exp/drops go, and been running nightmare cows and now doing Hell Chaos Runs/Hell Travincal runs. I am not powerful enough to do hell cows solo yet, just need some guidance on the best places to farm and when to try some end gameish things to get better gear.

Currently my stats are: +enough str to wear stuff, rest in vitality.
My skills: Raise Skeleton (max), Raise Skeleton Archer (max), skeleton mastery (max), Skeletal Lich (max)
Amplify damage (+1), and now working on maxing Summon Mastery (currently +10).

Does this build make sense for what I'm doing or am I missing something?
Could someone point me out to some strategies or tips to help me on my way?
What should be my next destination in the game?

Thanks very much! I am having a blast. Merry Christmas!

Hey there! Glad you're having fun :) As long people are enjoying Annihilus we're going to actively improve and update it, so I hope to see you stick around!

Your build definitely makes sense for the most part, but you can certain clear hell cows, you're missing a single yet very important skill. Corpse Explosion is absurdly strong, I recommend getting just 1 point in it, get 1 cow killed, and go crazy with it. That should help you get some more gear, or at least some high runes to trade for gear. Good luck, and Merry Christmas!

Oh and I recommend getting on the Annihilus Discord, its quite active and you'll likely get a hold of other players for suggestions much easier than the forum.

[Lampogriz]

basically summon nec need physycal char gear with phys pierce and enchanced damage as much as possible. Your skeletons benefit physical pierce and enchanced damage from gear.
act 5 merc for stun/slow with any good sword with aura
So try to find titan/rage essesnses and craft rare rings/amu/weapon with titans, armor/helm with rage.
Boots/shield with rainbow essenses for maxres boost.
Also try to buy armor with ed/+1 teleport from charsi/anya and make guardian runeword (Tor Cham Shael Um)
Farm cows with 7 loaders, plaguelands , keys for ubers, act 1-5 bosses for fragments.
Dreamlands (tristram), lichking (plaguelands), travincal portals (ff8), time rift (a4 river of flame portal) are the best places for farming uniques.

[Celebrant]

Thank you very much for the replies. I'll definitely try this advice.

I was trying to look for time rift yesterday, I've seen different maps with two squares on it, just because it has two squares doesn't mean the portal spawns right?

Merry Christmas!

[Mephisto]

Diablo's Time Rift portal is near the River of Flame waypoint, in the corner Northeast :)
It now allways spawns there, so u dont have to create games and look for these ''squares'', good luck!

[Celebrant]

Very helpful! But I do not yet stand a chance in the time rift. :)

I've been doing "Tristram?" and Plaguelands, and Chaos Runs til I hit 87 then I'll try corpse explosion on cows. Thanks for the tips!

Also, I have yet to find anyone dealing a +1 tp and %ED at Charsi, maybe someday. :)

[Mephisto]

I think u need a certain level to be able to see certain armors on NPC's.. But i do know lvl 90 can see ed/tele pierce/tele armors :)!

I suggest u do hell cows till 90 at least, it gets some good XP till 90 ( Player 8 )

[Celebrant]

The corpse explosion is working really well, I'll get cows til 90. I am also doing plaguelands and tristam? and first boss of dreamlands because its possible for me. Thanks for all the tips, good stuff about the essences too. :)