PvP Bone Necromancer Guide | Diablo 2 Guides

Bone Necromancer Guide for PvP and PvM

PvP Rank: S Class / PvM Rank: B Class

Introduction

Bone Spirit and Bone Spear Necromancers have synergies to their primary damage spells that also increase their physical damage negating Bone Armor with every point spent. Bone Necromancers are great for team duels because of their curses, can stack absorb easily without sacrificing too much damage, and can fight with powerful ranged attacking Bone Spirits and Bone Spears.

Bone Necromancer Skills

Bone Necromancers use Bone Spear which is a fast moving projectile to deal damage against ranged attackers and Bone Spirit which is slower moving for close up targets. The Bone Necromancer is currently one of the strongest builds in the game.

Recommendation: Bone Necromancer

Stats: 156 Strength (enough for equipment), no Dexterity (you will have Bone Armor for taking physical damage), all remaining points in Vitality, and 0 Energy.

Skill Points:

20 Bone Spear

20 Bone Prison (synergy for Bone Spear, Bone Spirit, and Bone Armor)

20 Bone Wall (synergy for Bone Spear, Bone Spirit, and Bone Armor)

20 Bone Spirit

20 Teeth

1 Bone Armor

1 Clay Golem

1 Corpse Explosion

1 Golem Mastery

1 Summon Resist

1 Amplify (for PvP team dueling and PvM)

All Remaining points in Bone Armor to negate a higher amount of physical damage.

Bone Necromancer Gear

Weapon

White Runeword Wand (Dol Io) - Gives +3 to Poison and Bone Skills, 20% faster cast rate, up to +5 to Bone Spear, up to +3 to Bone Spirit, +3 to Bone Armor, +4 to Skeleton Mastery, vitality, and reduced magic damage taken. Trading for a +3 Bone Spear/+3 Bone Spirit base is the best option but you can also get a budget +3 Bone Spear base shopping from Drognan in Act 2 normal difficulty.

Shield

Spirit Monarch (Tal Thul Ort Amn) with 35% faster cast rate - This shield has +2 to all skills, up to 35% faster cast rate, 55% faster hit recovery, vitality, mana, magic absorb, 35% cold resistance, 35% lightning resistance, and 35% poison resistances. With this shield, the White runeword weapon, and Trang-Oul's gloves you will reach the 75% faster cast rate breakpoint for Necromancers.

Weapon Switch

Call to Arms (Amn Ral Mal Ist Ohm) - This weapon is used for up to +7 to Battle Orders combined with a Spirit Monarch Shield (Tal Thul Ort Amn) for +2 to all skills.

Helmet

Harlequin Crest (aka Shako) (Um'd) - Gives +2 to all skills, 10% physical damage taken reduction, life and mana, and 50% magic find.

Body

Enigma (Jah Ith Ber) - Gives +2 to all skills, 45% faster run walk, strength per level, 5% to maximum life, 8% physical damage taken reduction, Teleport which is very important for this build, and magic find per level.

Gloves

Trang-Oul's Gloves - Gives 20% faster cast rate, +2 to Curse Skills, 25% increased poison damage, and 30% cold resistance.

Belt

Verdungo's Hearty Cord - This belt gives 10% faster hit recovery, up to 40 vitality, 15% physical damage taken reduction, and replenish life +13. The faster hit recovery takes you to the next faster hit recovery breakpoint when combined with a Spirit Shield.

Belt Vs. Lightning Builds

Thundergod's Vigor - This belt should be used against lightning builds for +10% to maximum lightning resistance, 20 lightning absorb, 20 strength, 20 vitality, and a 5% chance to cast level 7 Fist of Heaven when struck.

Feet

Aldur's Boots - Gives 40% faster run walk, up to 50% fire resistance, and 50 life. These boots are recommended to fill out your fire resistances because the recommended Spirit Shield has lightning, cold, and poison resistance but doesn't have fire resistance.

Feet Vs. Fire Builds

Hotspur (Up'd) - Use these boots when fighting fire damage builds for 45% fire resistance, 15 life, and 15% to maximum fire resistance. Hotspur boots can be Up'd to Demonhide Boots in the Horadric Cube using a Perfect Diamond, Shael rune, and Tal rune. They can also be Up'd a second time to Wyrmhide Boots in the Horadric Cube with a Perfect Diamond, Lem rune, and Ko rune.

Amulet

Mara's Kaleidoscope - Gives +2 all skills, 5 to all attributes, and up to 30% all resistances.

Ring

Nature's Peace - This ring is used for its level 5 Oak Sage which greatly increases your life and has up to 30% poison resistance, 11 reduced damage taken, prevent monster heal, and slain monsters rest in peace.

Ring 2

Bul-Kathos' Wedding Band - This ring should be used for its +1 to all skills and added life per level. The life you get from Bul-Kathos' Wedding Band is better than the mana you get from a Stone of Jordan for this build.

Ring (Absorb)

Your rings should be switched to two Raven Frosts which each give 20% cold absorb when dueling cold damage builds, you can switch to one or two Wisp Projector which has up to 20% lightning absorb when dueling lightning damage builds, and one or two rings can be switched to a Dwarf Star when fighting fire damage builds. Keep in mind that it's considered bad manners to use more than two absorb items in PvP and Thundergod's Vigor and Hotspur boots count as absorb items.

Charms

Hellfire Torch for +3 Necromancer skills, Annihilus for +1 to all skills, 1 Black Cleft when playing PvM (Magic Sunder Charm), and +1 Poison and Bone Skills Grand Charms with life. The rest of your charms should be small charms with life and resistances.

Mercenary Type

Act 2 Defiance Mercenary - Gives high defense which helps you and your mercenary stay alive in PvM. Holy Freeze shouldn't be used in PvM because it shatters corpses which leaves less corpses for Corpse Explosion.

Mercenary Weapon

Ethereal Insight (Ral Tir Tal Sol) - Gives up to level 17 Meditation which provides high mana regeneration.

Mercenary Armor

Ethereal Fortitude (El Sol Dol Lo) - Gives 300% enhanced damage, all resistances +30%, high life per level, 5% to maximum lightning resistance, and a 20% chance to cast level 15 Chilling Armor when struck.

Mercenary Helmet

Ethereal Andariel's Visage (Ral'd) - Gives +2 to all skills, 10% life leech, -30% fire resistance, and 30 strength. Ral gives 30% fire resistance but you can also use a 30% fire resistance jewel with other great modifiers.

Budget Mercenary Weapon

Insight (Ral Tir Tal Sol) - Gives up to level 17 Meditation which provides high mana regeneration.

Budget Mercenary Armor

Duriel's Shell - Gives 20% all resistances, 50% cold resistance, 15 strength, life per level, and cannot be frozen.

Budget Mercenary Helmet

Tal Rasha's Helmet - Gives 10% life leech, 15% to all resistances, and 60 life.

Note: Ethereal items don't lose durability on mercenaries.

Bone Necromancer Strategy

Bone Necromancers are one of the highest tier builds for both PvM and PvP. When fighting melee builds you can cast Bone Spirits which are hard to dodge for melee and against ranged attackers you can use Bone Spears for a much faster attack. You can still sometimes be beat by strong Bowazons and Trap Assassins but the Bone Necromancer is still one of the most powerful PvP builds in the game. Bone Necromancers deal high damage in PvP, can stack absorb easily for fighting elemental builds, have Bone Armor to absorb physical damage, and have Corpse Explosion in PvM which can clear full screens of enemies once you create corpses.

Bone Necromancer Leveling Items

You can start by purchasing a wand from Akara with plus skills to Skeletons and Skeleton Mastery and you can also use a shield with plus skills to Skeletons and Skeleton Mastery. These should carry you in the early levels. A Spirit Crystal Sword (Tal Thul Ort Amn) can be used at level 25 for up to +2 to all skills, 35% faster cast rate, 55% faster hit recovery, vitality, and mana. An Ancient's Pledge Shield (Ral Ort Tal) is a great shield at an early level for filling out your resistances. You can also switch to a Skin of the Vipermagi armor at level 29 for +1 to all skills, 30% faster cast rate, up to magic damage taken reduced by 15, and up to all resistances +35%.

And that's all for the Bone Necromancer Guide. You can also check out the most popular crafted items here Crafting Guide.