When choosing how to play my necromancer, I wanted him to be a dueler. I also designed for the long term, which meant I would have to conserve my skill points carefully until I hit level 30. I basically soloed to maximize corpse explosion the whole way. After the 1.03 patch, the damage dealt by CE isn't proportional with the number of people in the game and the monsters health, so basically it sucks if there's more then 2 people in a game. I only played with other people to fight pesky bosses, to move through the acts as quickly as possible. Once I'd hit act 4 in each difficulty setting, I'd stop and level in the outer steppes. I'll explain later why I did this. Here's a break down of my Necromancer and his development:

• First 6 levels: The first thing I did was ditch my +1 skeleton wand for a good weapon (in this case a rare club) to become a melee fighter. Everything early in the game is extremely easy so I saw no reason for wasting points on skeletons.
• Clvl 2: 1 point on raise skeleton as a place holder
• Clvl3: 1 point on Amplify damage (to maximize my melee damage and combo with Corpse Explosion; more info on that later)
• Clvl4:1 point on Teeth for a place holder Quest 1 added another skill point which I saved up
• Clvl5: saved my skill point
• Clvl6: Spent a point on Corpse Explosion and Clay Golem I was all set for act 2 with Corpse Explosion so with some help I ruffed up Andariel :)

Only strategy for act1 is to stay melee and don't spend more then 1 point raise skeleton! Use amplify damage and clay golem to get you through the beginning. Level 7-12 Since you'll be fighting some pretty tough monsters in act 2, you'll have to use your abilities to their full potential. Stop playing as a melee character. Now you're to weak to use any good armor or weapons so find a good wand and shield with a high chance to block. Corpse Explosion is you're only effective weapon against all the tough critters in act 2 so use it as your primary weapon. I did all my leveling until 12 by fighting in the sewers. Use your skeletons, golem, amplify damage, teeth and corpse explosion to get by. With a bit of practice and hot keying, it shouldn't be too tough. Just remember to go solo or your corpse explosion will be useless.

• Clvl7: I leveled in the catacombs, and spent a point on skeleton mastery
• Clvl8: having a tough time in the sewers, put another point on Corpse Explosion to ease the pain. When there were to many skeleton archers to deal with, I quit the game and tried again
• Clvl9: still pretty tough, saved my point again
• Clvl10: I got to the 3rd level in the sewers, now I'm hot stuff :) still didn't spend a point
• Clvl11: Finally took out Radament and his skeleton cronies, 2 more skill points which I save up
• Clvl12: went out to find the horadric cube. I got the halls of the dead waypoint from a friend and started working my way to the cube. I spent 1 point on Iron maiden, 1 on Golem Mastery and 1 on Skeletal Mage (they're just to useful to pass up early on). Keep using Amplify damage and Corpse Explosion to clear out entire rooms within seconds. Iron Maiden will only be useful when you're level 18 so don't bother with it yet. Instead of putting more points on clay golem, I stuck them on Golem Mastery since clay golem is useless later on in the game.
• Clvl13: I cleared out the first level of the halls of the dead, spent my skill point on another skeleton mage
• Clvl14: Got the cube, time for Duriel, another point on skeletal mage
• Clvl15: Had some trouble finding Tal Rasha's real tomb, despite fighting Duriel with 5 other people, no one had the symbol. I lvl in one the fake ones and spend my point on another skeletal mage
• Clvl16: still lost in one of the tombs, a point on golem mastery
• Clvl17: Duriel is dead, on to act III. I save my point this time Now that I was in act3, those damn flayers posed a real problem. To help fight them, higher a guide in town who uses ice spells, to freeze the little bastards. As soon as you find the Spider Cavern, spend a little time lvling in there.
• Clvl18: I got lucky and found the Jade Statue early on so quest 1 posed no problem. Spent a point on Blood Golem and another on Bone spear. I found a +1 to all necro skill wands to. From now on, use the Blood Golem/Iron Maiden combo. Keep going solo to maximize Corpse Explosion.

Level 19-24

• Clvl19: Spider Cavern has plenty of stuff to loot and corpse explosion owned all the spiders. Time for Mephisto, I abused the 1.02 bug and ran through the portal without fighting him :) 1 more point on Golem Mastery.
• Clvl20: Finally in act IV, now the real fun begins. I spend my time leveling on the outer steppes and out another point on Iron Maiden to combo with Blood Golem
• Clvl21: 1 point on skeletal mage
• Clvl22: I find Izual and my blood golem takes him out with the power if Iron Maiden, 2 more points on skeletal Mastery. I finally have enough strength to equip my sigons shield and now that I'm lvl 22 and I can use my +1 to all necro skills amulet. Now that you're level 22, start leveling up in 8 player games. From now on Corpse Explosion is useless so make due with Mages, Bone Spear, Blood Golem and Iron Maiden
• Clvl23: 1 more point on Iron Maiden
• Clvl24: 1 point on Iron golem as a point holder. I still use Blood Golem with the Iron Maiden combo

24-30 is the slowest and hardest time to level since you'll be saving all your points and tackling the hardest critters at the same time. I leveled in act 4 until I was 27 then moved on to nightmare. I only did the 1st quest in each act for the skill point reward, after that I moved on to the next one. Once I hit level 30 I spent all my saved up points. 1 on fire golem, 1 on bone spirit and 1 on Revive. After that I boosted up revive and fire golem then focused on revive until it was lvl 6 (10 with all my +1 to necro skills stuff). Since I made my Necro for dueling, I got my Bone Spirit to level 25 when I was level 58. It's really up to you after level 30 with what you do with you're skill points. You can focus on building a devastating golem or pump up you're revived army with more skeletal mastery. I still use all those skeletal mages in hell mode act 4 because they combo well with iron maiden, and they help take the heat off of me. They're like an emergency shield, which I really needed because I usually die in a hit. They're even great in duels when you're playing against melee characters.

Clvl30 or 31: Get to act4 nightmare and solo. Once again, use corpse Explosion to clear out maps within 10 minutes. Round up hordes of creatures, then get them to a body and let the fire works begin. As you get stronger, and it gets harder and harder to level up in act4 nightmare, start playing in 8 player Xp games by relying more on you're revives, iron maiden and fire golem. I don't bother with a golem now that I have lvl 25 Bone spirit. That's about it, Spend you're attribute points on strength and Energy. Completely ignore Vitality and Dexterity! Make sure you always have more Energy then Strength, resurrecting fallen monsters is more important then wearing better armor. The only time I put points into vitality was when I was level 55, because I needed it for dueling. As for equipment this is what I recommend:

• +2 wand
• Sigons shield
• Fast speed boots, with stamina benefits
• Wormskull
• +2 amulet
• Frost burns
• Stone of Jordan or a good resistance ring
• A belt with res, str, or fastest hit recovery

I'll add a break down of all the useful skills sometime soon, so stay posted. Laterz, -------[]BaRrIn[]