Diablo II: More Necromancer Skills Revealed

Spoiler alert: This story contains information and screens of the game's later skills and spells. The following information may ruin some of the game's surprises.

The necromancer's high-level abilities emphasize his power both to summon creatures to do his bidding, and also to debilitate his foes with various curses and poisonous attacks. Although his low-level skills will remain useful if bolstered to higher levels of proficiency, his later skills seem especially powerful.

In addition to his low-level skeleton summoning and clay golem summoning spells, he also gains the ability to summon several other types of golems, such as the life-draining blood golem. Ultimately, the can even raise his enemies from death to fight at his side.

The necromancer also gains several high-level direct damage spells, including the bone spear that can pierce several targets, and the bone spirit that will seek out his foes. Poison nova saturates the area around the necromancer with deadly toxins, while bone prison can trap an opponent until it breaks free.

The necromancer's most powerful curses include lifetap, which lets the necromancer absorb the enemy's health when he strikes it with a melee weapon; confuse, which makes an enemy turn on its allies; and decrepify, which slows and weakens the target. Combined with his summoning spells, the necromancer's curses can help reduce enemy numbers without the necromancer ever having to engage in combat directly. Players will have to take care in considering which of the necromancer's many powerful abilities to acquire. Although the necromancer himself never becomes particularly fast or physically strong, his increasingly potent magic spells should consistently keep the battle in his favor in spite of the odds against him.