Returning Player: Summoner (Fishmancer?)

[:1]Hey folks... so a little side story: I used to play D2 back in 1.08?/1.09/1.10, necro wasn't really good, but it was always my fave class. Anyway my first char ever was a necro and needless to say they seemed really underpowered in comparison to sorcs and zons. After a while I quit, and stopped playing computer games altogether.

However, just recently I pooled together a LARGE wad of cash and built myself an amazing new gaming rig...and now that I have it the first game I got suckered into ended up being D2. Lol. Luckily I've discovered that Necro's are now A.) Able to beat the entire game untwinked using just summons in hell with a full game, and B.) great for MFing

Thus, I've started a summoner, or fishymancer I believe it's sometimes called, which is the exact character I began playing with years and years ago :P

Getting to the point: I'm just wondering if anyone can give me some tips in regards to some easily obtainable and low level runewords that would be helpful, both for me or my merc. Also, are PGems still semi-valuable on US West? I was on the trading forums a bit ago and every list seemed super long and a bit overwhelming for me after being away from the game so long.

Thanks in advance |||Beginning wealth creation:

1) Pgems. Yes, they are very valuable still.

2) Spirit rune sets. Tal + Thul + Ort + Amn runes. You can add a Hel to each set if you want to increase the trade value, but getting Hels is less common in NM where most people run Countess for these set packs.

3) Whites/Socketables. Even before you get a nice MF set, Fishymancers make great area clearers and find nice white items like Archon Plates, other 3/4 open socket elite armors, elite Polearms, Monarch shields, etc.

As for low lvl runewords, check the Arreat Summit link. Stealth, Smoke, Spirit in a sword and eventually in a shield, Insight, Lore, Rhyme, Treachery, Obediance, Edge, etc. There are a wealth of fairly easy to make runewords now-a-days ;-)

http://classic.battle.net/diablo2exp...ords-110.shtml|||It's been awhile; is the US West community still alive? Back in 2007, I had herded a bunch of hardcore west players over to US East.

(pardon the threadjack)|||As Knarlfist says - pgs are very valuable. In fact, due to the popularity of the pgs rerolling charms formula, you can get a decent trade for pgs. The more you have, the better the deal. Eg 9 for a pul, 15 for an um, 20 for mal etc. I would keep all your rubies, skulls and amethysts separately as these can go for double the price due to their value in crafting and rerolling rares. Eg standard prices are 20 amethysts for an ist.

Some spirit runes are useful as trading too, especially rals.

pgs also allow you a base currency to trade. For a few pgs on ladder, you should be able to get a homonculous, leoric, TO gloves and possibly a shako.

Runewords you should be considering are: spirit sword (+2 sk, FCR and nice mana boost), insight (meditation aura so you never run out of mana) in a polearm for your merc.

The one thing that will change your experience will be enigma - everything you do should be working towards that. Once you have it, mfing becomes a real breeze.|||^ pgs are definitely your first order of the day; area clear in nightmare and start collecting them, or join chaos runs and pick up the leftover gems.

save every jewel you come across - 40 jewels go for an ist rune, same value as 40 random pgems.

also, dont throw away runes, some good low/mid level runes to collect along the way:

ral, tal, thul, ort, amn, tir, sol, hel

all those are used either in item crafting or popular runewords (spirit/insight) and can be sold easily, e.g. 20 rals are worth about an ist, as are 40 tals/amns. hels are much in demand - about 10 for an ist I think.

if you can put together a "pack" of spirit or insight runes (spirit = tal+thul+ort+amn, insight = ral+tir+tal+sol, both worth much more with a hel) its worth your time, too, as some players like to keep remaking runewords until they get a good roll of the random attributes (e.g. the FCR varies on spirit between 25-35 and a 35 is worth a lot, a 25 is worth very little).

Lastly, if you stand to do stuff like this, there are differences in the exchanges between pgs and runes, e.g. on europe bnet 8 puls = 1 ist, but pul = 8-12 pgs, and 40pgs = ist... So you can buy pgs with puls, sell the pgs for ist, then buy about double the puls with the ist, and then repeat a few times. easy money? Yes, but, it can take a lot of time to do the trades.|||Haha am a long time returning player myself and just returned a month ago after 7 years out :P

I started dirt poor and just relied on shopped wands, etc until i hit Hell Act 1 and The Pits - just do the rounds and you'd find something of value to trade for better items!

Now i got Enigma + HOTO and the good stuff and mfing is a breeze|||Appreciate the replies guys, glad to know I can still make a decent start pawning off gems |||http://diablo.incgamers.com/forums/s...d.php?t=758633

I have a mid-level gear section in there.|||Well you can work your way up. That will be the first step on your road to high end gear. Yes save pgems like the other people are saying but that requires alot of muling too. After you make it to hell and get decent gear, I would suggest you to do mf runs while you can. Try to populate anything good or maybe you will find some hrs. Gl with all that.|||You definitely want to give your merc insight ASAP. You'll have unlimited mana then - which you need, because corpse explosion really drains it.

My necro kills so ridiculously fast (as long as it's not a boss) - he can clear out an entire screen of monsters in Chaos Sanctuary in like under 2 seconds.