Welcome to the mod, glad to hear you are enjoying it.
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What mercenary is recommended for my build? And what kind of gear should I focus on for the mercenary?
I am going to assume this is your first character and is thus going to be providing trickle down gear for future characters. If so, make this character pretty strong and leave the crazy stuff for later builds. For a summon necro, that means get a NM A1 Physical merc and gear her up with lots of dex and damage. She should be able to hit 7-10K dmg pretty easily and combined with your Amp that should really take care of matters. In an odd twist, she will be your main dmg cannon while your summons keep her safe.
Try to find an eth crossbow and put that on her. In this mod, A1 mercs can use xbows and use them to deadly efficiency. I have one with an eth rare Ballista. Since you can punch 4 holes in any rare using 2x quad sockets, I tossed 4x Ko runes in hers. Works beautifully.
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How far should I develop my curse skill tree in order to be useful in party situations?
I am a little odd in that I like to put 5pts in to Amp. Most people will just go 1pt and let +skills do the rest, but since Amp is a curse I am casting so often I like to give it strength earlier in the game.
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Any other tips/information would be greatly appreciated.
If you haven't already, be sure to check out critterkiller.arimyth.com and blue.arimyth.com for the information they have. There are a LOT of new uniques and runewords that are very useful and not all of them super high priced. A simple summon runeword for example:
Graverobber (el, eth) - 2 socket wand
+40-60% Better Chance of Finding Magic Items
+40-60% Gold Find
Drain Life +5
+2-3 to Skeleton Mastery (Necromancer Only)
+1-2 to Raise Skeleton (Necromancer Only)
+1-2 to Raise Skeletal Mage (Necromancer Only)
Level 5 Find Potion (50 Charges)
+1 to Light Radius
+50 to Attack Rating
-25 to Enemy Defense per Hit
20% Enhanced Damage