I’m really liking the game so far, but there are a few things that I find extremely annoying…
Some areas are literally unplayable with a skeleton army. I’m thinking about areas like Maggot Lair or Arcane Sanctuary. Any place that has tight corridors… The skeletons just get stuck and at best only one skelly can actually fight. And getting them to move out (so I can run through and hopefully they will teleport to me) is another challenge. Because it seems like I have to run almost halfway across the map before they teleport back to me…
I’m trying to remember if it was this bad before. I’m pretty sure it wasn’t. Of course this problem is non-existent if you have Enigma, but I did level as a summoner back in the old days and I really don’t recall having problems with skeletons on these zones.
An easy fix would be to just lower their collision hitbox so they can easily pass through each other.
The AI is another thing I’m wondering about. It seems the skeletons are now completely brainless (duh) and I often find them just hanging around instead of fighting, or struggling to find a path to reach me. Also target priority is totally messed up… I think that in the original D2 the skeletons would focus the target that you are focusing (with spells or attacks) but now it feels like they are just doing their own thing, flailing randomly at nearby mobs.
I hope something gets done about this. In the meantime I’ll be looking for a staff with teleport charges because it seems that is the only thing that can fix it for now…
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Yes, skeletons were always terrible in those specific areas.
Typically you get Bone Spear, Amplify Damage and Corpse Explosion to clear it, yes you will likely be around level 16? I think by the time you get to Maggot Lair so you have to go and get 2 more levels, not that hard.
And you CAN tp out and tp back in if you really have to.
get an enigma and you can actually control the summonms pathing way better.
at beginning soumm look weak,also you have act switchimg for minions,that the only manco he have one of the best mf-char,like traps-assa
I don’t have problems with skeles, even on hell. It must be your setup.
soumm easy to play at beginnig but get hard in endgame,with course swith, also when you only play nightmare he rule
also good at beginning erz-rabiner,then switch to tornadostormer
like trap-assa save playing to hc
or a telestaff if you are poor
I have levelled every class to end of Act I before deciding which class to play seriously, and the Summon Necro was by far the hardest when it came to killing Andariel. She killed my summons instantly, and I soon ran out of bodies for making more. How are you supposed to prevent that kind of problem? It took me about half an hour to kill her with level 1 Teeth.
Yeah that’s normal, u can use either Town portals or Teleport to reposition the summons. To get a staff with teleport charges:
Make a cow portal near Akara in NM/Hell Act 1. Then pop-in/pop-out till you get a stave with teleport charges.
If you can’t make the cow portal yet, roll an Act 2 map that has the exit near Drognan. Then u leave the city and talk again with Drognan.
This two methods will reroll the items the merchant is holding.
My very first character back in the days was a Necro and Maggot Lair was just like you described. A skeleton army is nice and all but it fails to that and to bosses. So you kinda need a backup plan just like a cold Sorc needs something for cold immunes.
Just dismiss all skeletons. A mercenary (act 2, better from a nightmare) and a clay golem (tank) are enough to get through these zones (Maggot Lair and Arcane Sanctuary). Corpse Explosion also helps. Use the teleport to the city and back, in cases when the mercenary gets too dumb.
Decrepify with 1 cold skele mage and clay golem will stomp bosses… they hardly move while fighting. I don’t get the issue with andariel, maybe more points in mastery? Duriel is way harder but still pretty do able with the above combo.
Then i seriously have to doubt if you actually played a summoner back in the day. It was always garbage.
I also seem to remember summons/mercs having collision but can’t for the life of me find the patch where they changed that. Maybe i’m remembering it wrong. Imagine maggot lair where everyone of your skellies blocked you…Not that you’d use skellies back then because they sucked.
Arcane is not that bad if you are lucky enough to get the exit on the side with the teleporting portals. Always do that one first with your summoner.
They improved pathfinding in the last patch, but summoner unfortunately only begins to shine after you get Enigma and will be able to tele-stomp with all your army.
Tbh, best you can do is dismiss your army in the worm tunnels. Let the merc to the job, help him with amp and CE.
Worked “well” for me every time.
Edit: bosses weren’t a big thing either. I always max skellies at first, with 1 point CE and 1 in golem.
Life tap, a simple curse with a simple solution.
I always max out revive skeletons as far as possible. In combination with amp dmg and clay golem. Got no problems so far.
Most of the time i’m arround lvl 13-14 at andariel.