Summonizer is a better-thought-out version of my older summoner, iDamned, since I get stuck in many ways. Here's what I am thinking about:

4 Skeleton
up to 15 Skel. Mastery
1 Death Knight
20 Golem Mastery
15-20 Blood Golem
15-20 Force Golem
1 point in Amplify, Weaken, Iron Maiden, Life Tap (and prereq Terror)
5 Decrepify
1 Lower Resist

The rest will go into Spirit Blades.

Now, considering how much junk I may have to put up with just to get the foundation set up, Skeletons are for early Normal and will be eventually replaced by the Golems and Blades.

I find Weaken to be very good against strong elemental, non-poison entities that could wreak havoc on your summons. It helped me solo-kill Blood Raven and Griswold at this moment.

I will stick with an A1 mercenary since she has a bit of multishot and is a strong attacker that stays out of range. May be replaced in Nightmare for the Guided Arrow (??).

This one will eventually get Chiastics' items since I'm gonna rebuild him (he's a Bonemancer), except for the White wand - it's not really a summoner's kind of wand.

But for the now, I don't know where the hell my Hsarus' set is, but I do have an Angelic set I can slap on him at 17 (very close!) which will give him +3 skills (two extra since the sword's replacing his +1 necro skills wand).

EDIt: I found the Hsarus' set.

Questions:

1) What would be your ideal choice for golem selection? Is this a good golem selection to work with for this kind of character?
2) What kind of other equip should I watch out for to boost his skills, besides Spirit?

Discuss:

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Go and terminate with extreme prejudice
Most people just take steps. I take dubsteps.

you should think about just making a golemancer as that seems to be the route you want to take.

I have one atm in act 4 nm who has been really fun so far. Done every quest in order with TheUtter, including norm sammy right after baal at 64 and norm cows after that. Golems are really good if you invest in them.
Atm his force golem has 15k life, unbuffed in nm. With a 200% oak he is at 45k life. Iron golem is around 12k IIRC, and im working on clay golem now (level 30 atm).

I maxed golem mastery first while getting 1 in all curses, 1 point blades, though I only ever use them on trash. Maxed force golem after golem mastery so by the time I was at diablo I had an almost fully maxed force golem. Iron after that and now im doing clay to provide more slow effect on bosses and to use to hold hell duriel.

Construct forge armour is fantastic if you dont want to do the usual, tele all the time thing. Im waiting for 6 levels until I can use full mancers set but for now I'm using a summon skills circlet, hellmouths, arach and silkweaves. Blackhand key wand is great, 3 skills and +2 curses really helps my amp and golems, javs are ugly.

Early game I used angelic and hsarus for a long time, until I could use ume's wand and heavenly garb.
early norm: heavens and angelic
mid norm: magefist
late norm: ume's wand, heavenly garb, najs circlet with saphs/diamonds, level 40 nec head (20 will do too tbh), summons amulet, nec rings, silkweaves if you have them and lenymo, disciple boots and belt for +1 kill and mana per kill if not.

1 in decrep is all you need, just 1 all the way up to lower res, get the left hand curses if you want, 3 points wont break the build anyway.
invest in corpse explosion, if not drop a golem and max it then put a few in it at leasr. I'm planning on ditching blood golem and maxing ce instead. The only real nasty lightning is from ardual, the guardian and mephisto and it will last against them even 1 pointed.

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Alright. Thankfully I've only two in Blood Golem. Go for mastery first then? It does seem to be a very good route; I can get magefists at 32.

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Go and terminate with extreme prejudice
Most people just take steps. I take dubsteps.

its been solid throughout the whole game so far, alot less minions so alot less counters from bosses. I think i added a couple to blood golem too so i wouldn't worry about it, its kinda flexible.

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As far as 28-30 is concerned:

28: Decrepify
29: Iron Golem
30: Spirit Blades
31-35: Golem Mastery

That's how I'm trying to work it out. At 36 I'll get Force Golem.

As far as everything else is concerned:

I've had my merc die a couple of times, but I've been flawless against bosses except for Leoric (which I ran away from). I'm not going after Juggernaut until I get Decrepify, or if I don't (which is a problem) I'll use Weaken because he has the Cursed modifier.

It's really aggrivating when you can't curse someone and you could find a curse useful against a monster (Maggot Queen). I got rid of her anyhow; this is where I find multiple minions handy despite my onlly 7 weak skeletons and two strong golems.

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Go and terminate with extreme prejudice
Most people just take steps. I take dubsteps.

I'm at 30 and stuck at the Summoner. The problem is that I am having trouble getting rid of the caskets that keep spawning mummies. Maybe this is where I should've 1-pointed Corpse Explosion (!!) to get rid of the extra trash?

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Go and terminate with extreme prejudice
Most people just take steps. I take dubsteps.

1pt ce is a "must" on all necros.

I'm having a little trouble with Duriel on this time. Before I haul in someone who is somewhat capable of killing him, would it be better if I worked slowly towards 36 and get the Force Golem or what? He goes after my merc first, THEN my summons. >_<

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Go and terminate with extreme prejudice
Most people just take steps. I take dubsteps.

feed her a couple of juvs if you need, you can even use lifetap for a sec or 2 to save her if you need. clay golem will hold up well against him.

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I tried to keep her alive but to no avail. A few counters and she's dead. Also, Duriel seems to 1HK my clay golem, despite the fact that he has a lot of life.

(edit) I had teamed up with an underdog who managed to help my clay golem defeat Duriel. Said character was going for a Hydra/Enchant setup! Good thing I had that Decrepify to slow Duriel down and have at least a bit of amp.

Character is now lv.40 with spirit blades, all four golems and death knight. Currently working on building up Force Golem. Or wait, should I build up Clay early too?

_________________
Go and terminate with extreme prejudice
Most people just take steps. I take dubsteps.

There might be a viability break here since I'm going up against Mephisto soon. As far as options go for +skills at this point, when should I start depriving him of Hsarus/Angelic's set? Once I get to 43 (Heavenly Garb)?

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Go and terminate with extreme prejudice
Most people just take steps. I take dubsteps.

switch out once heavenly garb is open to you, use that with a necro head (uniques) lenymo etc. use ume's wand nec rings and a decent summon amu (+1 nec will do for now though). All of that stuff will drop like candy in act 4 and lenymo can be found from blood raven in no time.

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i like to hear more about your adventure with this char

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'may the force be with you' - Yoda??

Right now he's parked at Mephisto. Very sad that I don't have more than one of the same set, as someone is "borrowing" his Hsarus' set atm..

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Go and terminate with extreme prejudice
Most people just take steps. I take dubsteps.