But it requires a lot more player skill than a paladin. Trapsin can be very safe - i agree with that. A good bone shield, bone prison and bone wall are way more reliable in the hands of a skilled player than minions. (on a personal note ive always been more succesful with a bonemaner. And the low resistances and life pool mean many hell enemies can easily one- or twoshot you if your teleport goes awry. Bone shield requires a lot of points and synergies to become useful on hell. And teleport is inherently dangerous too, especially for a character like the necro that has no good defense against damage spikes. Without teleport defensive options are few. But most importantly the summonmncer really suffers from the weak pathfinding AI in diablo 2. (especially in a selffound game without anni and a torch). It is exceedingly hard to get to decent resistances with necromancers. People on this subreddit in particular really overvalue the defensive strength of summonmancers. I agree, especially with the second half of your comment. They are certainly more challenging than a pala or sorc. They also have a harder time farming their own equipment. Moving through higher difficulties safely with them requires a lot of tactical thinking and situational awareness.

Trapsins and summon necros can be played extremely safe, but require skill and patience. But both have to do a lot of risk mitigation on hell difficulty to survive reliably. If we were just talking Normal/Nightmare the Summoner Necro and most Druids would also be an option. While the risk with a sorc is a bit higher than with a paladin and she is more susceptible to enemy resistances she can offset that by being more efficient with her farming in general. As long as you have mana you can prevent most of the sudden deaths the game throws at you. The sorcs safety options consist mainly of teleport and her energy shield. Also the best allrounder class in terms of enemy types. Add to that some good options for physical resistance, healing and maxblock. The Paladin can get 75+ in all reisstances with ease and cheap equipment.

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