Poison Nova Necromancer Guide

While every Stat in the Desirable Stats column is useful for this build, we highlighted the Priority Stats in Teal so you can easily identify the Most Important Stats on them.

Hover over any Item to see a pop-out with the full Item description.

Gear/Base Notes: Any Items with specialized or niche uses have a superscript that refers here.
1) A White Base with +2-3 to Poison Nova is suitable for this build.
2) Only use Naj's Puzzler, a Staff of Teleportation, or a Teleport Charge Amulet for Teleport Charges if you have not yet acquired Enigma, or if you decide to use Bramble over Enigma for maximum Damage (see the "Damage" Build Variant).

The areas below are efficient farming locations that make use of the build’s strengths. Other farming spots might not be as effective due to Immunities or bad layouts.

Anything that has a ✔ in the "Starter" column can be farmed with the Starter Build Variant.

Act 1

Act 2

Act 3

Act 4

Act 5

Your Mercenary serves an incredibly important role to the overall success of your build. They can be a front line tank, provide a pivotal Aura, and/or deal Physical Damage to kill enemies with Immunity to your Skill set.

Act 2 Desert Mercenary

Infinity, Might

Use a Desert Mercenary with Might Aura to deal with enemies that are Poison Immune and to help provide corpses for Corpse Explosion. Equip him with Infinity to reduce enemy Resistances (with the exception of Poison) and Defense with its Conviction Aura, drastically boosting Corpse Explosion damage. This Aura is also capable of breaking some Immunities.

Mercenary Gear Options

Your Mercenary needs maximum Resistances, Life Leech, a high damage Weapon, and high Defense and/or Damage Reduction to stay alive reliably. Cannot Be Frozen is also a great stat for maintaining Mercenary DPS and leech. Ethereal gear is preferred since it doesn't lose durability. Gear Options at each Gear Level perform equally well in different situations; choose based on Farming Spots and/or personal preference.

The Mercenary is hard to keep alive until you have the minimum gear recommended in this guide. Remember you can drag Healing Potions onto the portrait, or shift + 1/2/3/4 to directly feed them a Healing Potion from your Belt. The Mercenary also gains bonus Resistances from Thawing Potions and Antidote Potions.

If your Mercenary dies in battle, you can revive them from any of the Mercenary NPCs in each Act. This does come with an increasing cost, capping at 50,000 Gold. Keep that in mind and decide if the Mercenary is currently worth the cost.

General

• An Insight Iron Golem, while not required, provides this build with incredible quality of life. Create an Insight (Weapon Base doesn't matter) in town, throw it on the ground, and cast Iron Golem on it to create an Iron Golem with Meditation Aura. So long as neither you nor the Iron Golem dies, you do not need to repeat this (Iron Golem persists between games).
• Before each Magic Find/Experience run, cast Bone Armor and, if you are not using an Iron Golem, Clay Golem. Refresh Bone Armor when you notice that it is completely gone and when encountering dangerous Physical Damage enemies (Dark Archers, Undead Stygian Dolls, Death Lords, etc.). Re-summon your Golem if it dies.
• Upon encountering high monster density, position so that Poison Nova makes contact with as many monsters as possible. If you have Teleport, use it to reposition into an open space surrounded by monsters.
• Use the following Skill Rotation for optimal Damage output: 1-2 casts of Lower Resist into 1-2 casts of Poison Nova into 1-2 casts of Amplify Damage into casting Corpse Explosion until all nearby mobs have been eliminated. This Skill Rotation ensures that monster Poison and Physical Resistances are reduced prior to using Poison Nova and Corpse Explosion respectively; overall, it minimizes the number of Corpse Explosions required to clear a screen.
• After you have flattened all nearby mobs, cast Revive on monster corpses as needed to acquire meat shields for future encounters. Then proceed to seek out additional pockets of high monster density and Elite Packs.
• Optional: Use either Bone Wall or Attract to gather nearby monsters for Corpse Explosion. This can be especially useful when farming The Secret Cow Level.

For Act Bosses:

• This build's fastest method of killing Act Bosses (like Diablo) is to apply Lower Resist and repeatedly cast Poison Nova near the Boss until it dies. It should be noted that Solo-farming Bosses with this build is slow and inefficient. See "For Diablo Clone" just below for a different, more fun method of killing Bosses with this build.

For Diablo Clone:

• Find and kill Urdar-type monsters elsewhere in the game (most often found in Durance of Hate, Palace Cellar, and River of Flame) and Revive 10-15 of them. Then apply Amplify Damage to Diablo Clone, "Telestomp" him, walk away a few steps, and repeatedly cast Poison Nova. The Urdars' Crushing Blow stat does most of the work while Poison Nova prevents him from healing.

For Group Play:

• Because a Poison Nova Necromancer himself benefits from both Lower Resist and Amplify Damage, you can choose which Curse to prioritize depending on your Party composition when playing in a group. If your Party relies more on Elemental Damage, primarily cast Lower Resist before using your Damage Skills; if your party relies more on Physical Damage, primarily cast Amplify Damage.

Immunities

• For Poison Immune mobs: Rotting Fissure sets all Immune to Poison monsters to 95% Poison Resistance, allowing any sources of -x% to Enemy Poison Resistance to take effect (Lower Resist at 1/5th effectiveness). You can additionally cast Amplify Damage before "Telestomping" them with your Mercenary in tow. Your Mercenary deals incredible amounts of Physical Damage with his Jab attack while the Amplify Damage Curse is active. Once your Mercenary kills a monster, start chaining Corpse Explosion. Keep Amplify Damage applied to all nearby Poison Immunes.
• Alternatively for Poison Immunes: Focus down nearby monsters that are not Immune with the standard Skill Rotation and use their corpses to kill the Poison Immune mobs with a combination of Amplify Damage and Corpse Explosion.
• For Fire Immune mobs: Use Flame Rift if you have Infinity equipped on the Mercenary to maximize Corpse Explosion's damage.
• For Physical Immune mobs: Cast Lower Resist before Poison Nova(s), and then transition directly into casting Corpse Explosion if needed. Lower Resist is more effective than Amplify Damage at increasing Corpse Explosion's damage (by boosting the Fire component of its damage) when enemies are Physical Immune. However, if you use Bone Break it is more optimal to cast Amplify Damage and then Corpse Explosion like normal.

Late-Game

• Before starting your Magic Find/Experience run, first cast Battle Command 2 times and then Battle Orders once using Call to Arms. Refresh these buffs as soon as they expire (approx. every 2-3 minutes).
• Use Teleport from Enigma to travel to your Farming Spot; also use it to travel between Elite Packs or from one high monster density area to the next.
• Repositioning with Teleport in-between casts of Skills in the Skill Rotation typically improves coverage of said Skills; this also prevents mobs from dealing damage to you.

Optimal Loot/Experience Farming Strategies

• The Pit with 3-8 Players in the Game or /Players5-7 on Single Player - This Max Area Level Farming Spot with low Life monsters, high mob density, and zero Poison Immunes is perfect for this build. The Poison Nova Necromancer is arguably the fastest High Player Count runner of this top-tier area.
• The Secret Cow Level - Corpse Explosion instantly levels entire tightly-packed herds of Hell Bovines or "Cows". This Farming Spot, especially in High Player Count games or /Players5-7 on Single Player, frequently drops Runes, Charms, Jewels, Jewelry, Gems, and Runeword Bases.
• Worldstone Keep/Throne of Destruction with 3-8 Players in the Game or /Players5-7 on Single Player - While this Farming Spot proves challenging with its highly variable monster Immunities, it is rather ideal for a build with 3 types of damage. Spawning extremely high monster density, this Max Area Level Farming Spot is often fruitful.

Breakpoints in Diablo 2 are the minimum values required to reduce the frames of an action. Below are the important breakpoints considered for this build. For more information on the mechanics involved, check out our in-depth Resource: Breakpoints.

Faster Cast Rate (FCR)

Faster Cast Rate speeds up your casting animation for spells. Aim for either the 75% FCR or 125% FCR Breakpoint. The Standard Build achieves the 125% FCR Breakpoint. Note: FCR only controls the animation speed of the Character, and not any internal Cooldowns spells have.

Faster Hit Recovery (FHR)

Faster Hit Recovery increases survivability. Aim for at least the 39% FHR Breakpoint. The Standard Build achieves the 56% FHR Breakpoint.

For all Hardcore gameplay, your primary focus is increasing your Resistances, Damage Reduction, Chance to Block and Maximum Life. This can mean sacrificing overall power level for a more secure playstyle.

The Poison Nova Necromancer can become Hardcore viable with key changes to Gear, Stat Point allocation, and Skills. Review the changes below before building this character in Hardcore, as some of these changes differ significantly from the Standard Build.

Gear Changes

• Damage Reduction: There are several gear options/setups for achieving a high amount of % Damage Reduction on a Hardcore Poison Nova Necromancer. A setup using Crown of Ages socketed with 2x Ber Runes, Homunculus socketed with a Ber Rune, and Enigma achieves 47% Damage Reduction, maintains high + to Skills, and reaches the 75% Faster Cast Rate Breakpoint. A setup using Venomous Circlet of the Magus socketed with 2x Ber Runes, Verdungo's Hearty Cord, Homunculus socketed with a Ber Rune, and Enigma achieves the same Damage Reduction with more + to Skills, but less Resistances and Faster Hit Recovery. A setup using Harlequin Crest socketed with a Ber Rune, Homunculus socketed with the same, and Enigma only reaches 34% Damage Reduction, but has more Mana, Life, and + to Skills. The pairing of Stormshield socketed with a Ber Rune and Enigma achieves the 50% Damage Reduction maximum and opens up options for Magic Find, but leaves you with less Resistances and + to Skills; socketing a Shael Rune instead allows you to reach the next Faster Block Rate Breakpoint.
• Stacking Resistances: Stack your Fire/Lightning/Cold Resistances beyond the default maximum values of 75 each (175 total in Hell). Stacking 85 additional Resistances in Hell completely negates the Conviction Aura of any Elite Boss or the Oblivion Knight's Lower Resist Curse. Beware of encountering both at the same time! Consider the primary damage type(s) of the monsters in the area you want to farm. Crown of Ages is the best Helmet option for stacking Resistances on this build. Um Runes socketed into gear, Jewelry, and Charms are also ideal sources of Resistances.
• Faster Hit Recovery: Aim for at least the 39% Faster Hit Recovery Breakpoint with Crown of Ages, Boots, and/or Charms. Faster Hit Recovery is not as important when going for maximum Chance to Block (75%). You mainly rely on the Faster Block Rate Breakpoints attained by Homunculus (20%), Homunculus socketed with a Shael Rune (32%), or Stormshield (32%).
• Lightning Absorb: Equip Thundergod's Vigor when farming or Teleporting through an area where Burning Souls are able to spawn such as Worldstone Keep/Throne of Destruction.

Stat Point Changes

• Allocate enough Stat Points into Strength to wear all of your gear. Either Crown of Ages or Stormshield requires the most Strength on a Hardcore setup.
• Allocate enough Stat Points into Dexterity to achieve maximum Chance to Block (75%) while having either Homunculus or Stormshield equipped.
• Put all remaining Stat Points into Vitality.

Skill Point Changes

• There are no required Skill Point changes for a Hardcore Poison Nova Necromancer. However, allocating additional Skill Points into either Bone Armor or Bone Wall improves your ability to tank Physical Damage. Skill Points can be relocated from Lower Resist on the Standard Build.
  
  See the "Hardcore" Build Variant below for additional suggestions and visuals.

• Teleport instantly moves you to a selected square on the visible screen in which you can stand. The game tries to to place you within a small radius around your cursor even if it would be impeded normally.
• Teleport is not obstructed by walls or other impediments but can fail if your cursor is not completely passed those impediments when cast. Your Mercenary, Iron Golem, and Revives travel with you.
• Revives in large quantities can become “stuck” in position after Teleporting. Move/walk away from that position to give them the chance to spread out.
• You can “extend” the visible screen by opening UI-windows like the Inventory or the Character screen. Continuously cast Teleport and drag your mouse to the edge of your screen.
• The Mana cost of Teleport decreases with additional Skill Levels down to 1 Mana per cast.
• You can use “ESC” to open the menu in Single Player to pause the game after a Teleport to determine if you are safe.
• Teleport casting speed is affected by the Faster Cast Rate Breakpoint that you achieve with your gear.

• Cast Poison Nova while surrounded by as many mobs as possible for maximum coverage. This Skill creates a ring of Poison dots emanating from the center of your Necromancer. Poison dots apply Poison Damage to monsters upon making contact, draining their Life over 2 seconds. Monster Poison Resistance is taken into account when calculating Poison Nova's damage.
• This ability does not "Pierce". Once a Poison dot makes contact with a monster it applies Poison Nova's damage tick to it and disappears. Poison dots don't pass through monsters to other monsters behind them. This might often appear to be the case, however, due to the fact that Poison Nova emits such a highly concentrated ring of Poison dots.
• If a Poison dot makes contact with a monster that is still taking damage from a previous Poison Nova, its 2 second damage duration is refreshed. Poison Nova's Poison tick duration can be continually reset by additional applications of Poison Nova. However, the amount of damage dealt per second can never increase or "stack" from additional applications. For this reason, it is best to switch to Amplify Damage and Corpse Explosion as soon as you have a corpse(s) to work with.
• Damage from Poison Nova benefits enormously from the -x% to Enemy Poison Resistance stat on gear and the Lower Resist Curse. Casting Lower Resist and Poison Nova together is optimal. Conviction Aura, such as from Infinity, does NOT affect enemy Poison Resistance and thus does NOT contribute to an increase of Poison Nova's effective damage.
• The cast speed of Poison Nova is affected by Faster Cast Rate (FCR). Aim for either the 75 or 125% FCR Breakpoints on this build for smoother transitions while using this Skill.

• Corpse Explosion can only be cast while your cursor is hovering near an "undefiled" monster corpse. It consumes a corpse, triggering a mixed 50/50 Fire-Physical damage explosion in a radius based on its Level. The explosion deals damage to surrounding mobs based on the monster corpse's Life (70-120% of the monster's original Life). More monster Life = more damage when its corpse is exploded.
• Act Bosses such as Baal and Quest Monsters such as Nihlathak do not leave "explodable" corpses; neither do expired or dead Revives. Corpse Explosion can be cast on virtually every other corpse.
• Certain item stats or Skills can interfere with your ability to use corpses for Corpse Explosion. They may "defile" them, destroy them on kill, or otherwise compete for their use. These stats/Skills include Slain Monsters Rest in Peace, any Cold or Freeze effect, Redemption, Find Item, Summoning Skills such as Revive, along with several others.
• Since 50% of Corpse Explosion's damage is Fire Damage, gear sources of -x% to Enemy Fire Resistance (including Conviction Aura from a Mercenary's Infinity) greatly increases the damage of Corpse Explosion. Applying the Lower Resist Curse also increases the effectiveness of Corpse Explosion's Fire Damage for the same reason.
• Since 50% of Corpse Explosion's damage is Physical Damage, the Amplify Damage Curse greatly boosts the Damage of Corpse Explosion. This is even more so the case than for Lower Resist in most scenarios (Physical Immune monsters being the exception) because Amplify Damage decreases monster Physical Resistance by a full 100%, whereas Lower Resist only debuffs Fire Resistance by near 70% at most.
• Another reason why Amplify Damage is usually favored to precede Corpse Explosion is that with Infinity you already achieve -85% to Enemy Fire Resistance. Monsters with default 0% Fire Resistance already approach the Resistance floor of -100% with Infinity alone. The extra -15% to Enemy Fire Resistance from Lower Resist in many cases can't compete with the full -100% to Enemy Physical Resistance you get using Amplify Damage.
• Corpse Explosion cast speed is affected by Faster Cast Rate (FCR). Aim for either the 75 or 125% FCR Breakpoints on this build for faster Corpse Explosion chains.

• The speed of this Skill is based on Cast Rate.
• Affected monsters have their Fire, Lightning, Cold and Poison Resists reduced by a percentage based on the Skill Level and capped to -70%. The bottom cap or "floor" for a monster's Resistance is -100%. Lower Resist can only reach this cap in rare cases or together with other Resistance reducing effects.
• When a monsters' Immunity is attempted to be broken, the Curse is only 1/5 effective. Resist All -50% is reduced to -10% for the element the monster is Immune to. The other Resistances are reduced by the full amount.
• Can be overwritten by any other Curse.

Scaling:
Lower Resist affects a circular shaped area around the cursor. The radius scales with the Skill Level (slvl).

Resist All -% scales with the Skill Level (slvl) and is capped to -70% at an unreachable slvl = 60.

Formula:

Resist All -% = floor(25 + floor(45 * floor((110 * slvl) / (slvl + 6)) / 100))

Example with slvl = 12:

Resist All -% = floor(25 + floor(45 * floor((110 * 12) / (12 + 6)) / 100))
Resist All -% = floor(25 + floor(45 * floor(1320 / 18) / 100))
Resist All -% = floor(25 + floor(45 * floor(73.33..) / 100))
Resist All -% = floor(25 + floor(45 * 73 / 100))
Resist All -% = floor(25 + floor(32.85))
Resist All -% = floor(25 + 32)
Resist All -% = 57

The affect duration scales with the Skill Level (slvl).

• The speed of this Skill is based on Cast Rate.
• Affected monsters have their "Physical Resistance" reduced by 100% at all Skill Levels (slvl). This effect is reduced to 1/5 on monsters that are Immune to Physical.
• Amplify Damage affects Undead type monsters before Sanctuary.
• Can be overwritten by any other Curse.

Scaling:
Amplify Damage affects a circular shaped area around the cursor. The radius scales with the Skill Level (slvl).

The affect duration scales with the Skill Level (slvl).
Example shown use slvl = 12:

• Revive can be cast while your cursor is hovering near a viable, "undefiled" monster corpse. It summons a monster ally in a gray likeness of the fallen monster with 200% more Life than it had while it was alive. Revive's Skill Level determines the maximum number of revived monsters that can be fielded simultaneously. A monster resurrected by Revive has a 3 minute maximum lifespan.
• 1 Skill Point into Skeleton Mastery grants Revives massive damage and Life buffs.
• A Revive fights using the original monster's native abilities. In practice, Revives tend to not deal significant Damage. This is especially when compared to fully synergized Skeletons using a maxed out Raise Skeleton. These resurrected monsters are extremely tanky, however. For the Poison Nova Necromancer, Revives are mostly used for absorbing damage, distracting, and, in general, shielding your Character, Mercenary, and Iron Golem from incoming attacks.
• Certain item stats or Skills can interfere with your ability to use corpses for Revive. They may "defile" them, destroy them on kill, or otherwise compete for their use. These stats/Skills include Slain Monsters Rest in Peace, Corpse Explosion, any Cold or Freeze effect, Redemption, Find Item, Summoning Skills such as Raise Skeleton, along with several others.
• When facing Act Bosses, Diablo Clone and Uber Bosses (such as Uber Mephisto), Revive Urdar-type monsters including Blunderbores (Act 2 Palace Cellar), Maulers (Act 3 Durance of Hate), and Urdars (Act 4 River of Flame) for their Crushing Blow stat. With about 10-15 of these Revives you can quickly train down any Boss.
• Elite Monsters cannot be Revive'd; this limitation applies to Boss/Quest monsters as well. This is different from Corpse Explosion which can consume Elite corpses. Most other minion and regular monsters can join the ranks of your army.
• Revive cast speed is affected by Faster Cast Rate (FCR). Aim for either the 75 or 125% FCR Breakpoints on this build for more smoother transitions while using this Skill.

• Iron Golem is a Golem Summon that can only be created from a "Metallic Item". An Iron Golem takes on the properties of the item it is created from, including several important stats such as Defense, Weapon Damage, Crushing Blow, Deadly Strike, and Life Leech.
• If an Iron Golem is created from an Aura-granting Runeword, the Iron Golem uses that Aura. As it applies to the Poison Nova Necromancer, an Iron Golem created from an Insight uses its Meditation Aura.
• If an Iron Golem is made from an Ethereal item, it becomes see through just like the Ethereal item itself. This purely "cool" visual effect has no impact on the Golem's survivability or otherwise.
• Iron Golem persists through leaving and creating games. It is saved data on your Character file.
• An Iron Golem's Defense and Thorns damage is based on its Level. However, Skill Points into Golem Mastery and Summon Resist are much more impactful for the Iron Golem's survivability.
• If either your Character or Iron Golem Dies, your Iron Golem needs to be recreated using a new item. Keep both your Character and Iron Golem alive if you don't want to lose your Iron Golem (and, essentially, the item it was made from).
• It is possible to run too far ahead of your Iron Golem and delete it off-screen. For this reason, it is recommended to keep your Iron Golem close using Enigma Teleport.
• An Iron Golem can be recreated by recasting the Skill over a new Metallic Item. Important: You can only have 1 Golem of any kind at any given time. If you have already created a Golem (such as an Iron Golem) and use any Golem Skill to create a new one, it overwrites your previous golem. Avoid using key bindings for any Golem Skills while using an Iron Golem to prevent accidently overwriting it.

• The speed of this Skill is based on Cast Rate.
• While active, this Skill will grand a "shield" which absorbs a set amount of Physical Damage. The absorb is applied before any Damage Reductions.
  • If a hit exceeds the absorb value, the remaining damage is applied after damage reductions.
  • If Physical Damage < Absorb value, the total absorb value is decreased by the damage. Bone Armor stays active with the remaining absorb value.
  • The absorb value can be reset by casting Bone Armor again.
• Stackable with Cyclone Armor and Blade Shield.
• Frozen Armor, Shiver Armor, and Chilling Armor can't be active at the same time. Between these and Bone Armor only the most recently cast Skill is applied.

Scaling:
Mana Cost:
The Mana Cost increases with each Skill Level:

Mana Cost = slvl + 10

Example slvl = 20:
Mana Cost = 20 + 10
Mana Cost = 30

Base Absorb:
The formula for the Physical Damage Absorbed is calculated using this formula:

Physical Damage Absorbed = 10 * slvl + 10

Example slvl = 20:
Physical Damage Absorbed = 10 * 20 + 10
Physical Damage Absorbed = 210

Synergies:
Synergies increase the Physical Damage Absorbed by 15 per Base Level (blvl). They work additive to the Base Absorb.
Note: Skilling the Synergies over the Skill itself adds more Physical Damage Absorbed!

Physical Damage Absorbed = 15 * (Bone Wall.blvl + Bone Prison.blvl)

Example, assuming all Synergies have a blvl = 5:
Physical Damage Absorbed = 15 * (5 + 5)
Physical Damage Absorbed = 150

Total Absorb:
As mentioned above, the Physical Damage Absorbed from Synergies is simply added to the Base Absorb. Taking the values from above we have 210 Physical Damage Absorbed from Bone Armor and 150 from Synergies.

Total Physical Damage Absorbed = 210 + 150
Total Physical Damage Absorbed = 360

Conclusion:
Our slvl 20 Bone Armor with 10 Skill Points in Synergies absorbs 360 Physical Damage in total. Each cast costs 30 Mana.