Well, for me anyway.

I recently purchased a nice quick computer for my hotel room in
Detroit. I've been itching to play Diablo on it, especially as it has a
great 21 inch flat screen. Sadly, my hotel has been getting a wi-fi
installed next month for the last 6 months :(

Having grown tired of the wait, I decided to try something I have never
tried before, namely playing single player. Now, I had the Diablo 2
CDs, but my LoD CDs were still in Florida. This presented a few
problems, namely which char I could play without any twinking and a
char that I could build in D2 and still play in LoD. This of course led
to only one thought, a necro (I bet you all figured that out by now).
In any case, I concluded some time ago that the latest set of runewords
made a necro invincable. Why you ask? Well I am so glad you did. There
are 2 new runewords that make a necro almost impossible to kill,
especially if he has the pick of his gear. The first is Insight. Given
perfect gear (frosties and 2 SOJs) and some decent mana charms, and
given a rabbi with said Insight stick, a necro need put almost no
points into mana. With a pair of Marrowwalks (for the synergies) a
necro could actually walk around with 35 minions, 3000+ life and a 700
point bone armor. The second amore more important is the Splendor
Shield. While this is a great shield for any caster, the necro benefits
most from it, as he can make it in a head that has +3 Skels, +2-3 Skel
Mast, and +2-3 CE and +1 to all skills (from the runeword). I cannot
imagine how anything the game can spawn anything kill this character.

So off I went to test my theory. One problem I quickly encountered was
the tiny litle stash that D2 gave us. Another was the fact that the
method for playing a necro in D2 was COMPLETELY different from LoD. For
those who do not recall, the 1.07 D2 necro made his living with a
golem, Iron Maiden and CE. SO I had to be VERY careful about skill
point distribution and avoid the urge to put points into IM or golem
skills. I had little difficulty getting to Andariel, but even less
inluck in items, finding nothing of note. Just as I was about to face
her, a package arrived from home with my LoD CD. I VERY quickly updated
and then went to visit the large green female. It wasn't quick, but she
went down without too much effort and burped up a pair of Magefists.
OK, I thought, that was profitible. Then I recalled that she has this
increased chance of dropping a ring, so I decided to kill her a few
dozen times, ramping up the number of players as I went. This is MUCH
easier in SP, as you only have to find you way down once, and then you
have the map and can rocket down. This little feature makes leveling up
SO much easier in SP than in MP. On one of my trips to see her, a
random boss dropped an Angelic Halo. She was quite helpful and dropped
an Infernal Cranium and a a Manald heal ring. Off to act 2 our intrepid
hero goes, and on my trip through the sewers to see Ratman, a champion
skeleton archer dropped a white circlet. Perfect, I thought, I will
imbue this when I make a few m ore levels. Ratman was easy, I just blew
up all his friends and them IM'd him and watched him impale himself on
my golem. Back to towm to get me a rabbi, and off to the desserts we
go. Everything went along as easy as pie, with the exception of the
Maggot Lair. I finally figured out that my skeletons were causing my
rabbi a problem in that thety blocked him from the monsters and didn't
do enough damage yet to kill with any speed, so I nuked em all and then
cruised the rest of the way. Things were uneventfull until I reached
Duriel. I almost bought it there, but fast goem casting and IM
eventually did the trick, and the slug dropped a Nightsmoke and an ETH
rune. Perfect!!! Off to act3 and again, not much in the way of an issue
with the exception of SZark the Burning, who ate my rabbi and quite an
impressive collection of golems before FINALLY biting the dust. It was
a fast cruise to Travincal, where the Boys in the Band were kind enough
to drop a shitload of useless by pricey items. I was bloated with gold,
so I went gambling, and here I made my first major hit. A pair of
yellow leather booties:

20% fast run
39%LR
39%FR
32%CR
50%CLR
25%PLR

Now I was feeling godly, so I didn't bother visiting Mephy more than
once, although he did drop me a Grim Ward shield, with all those levely
resists. I charged through act4 and fed Diablo golems until he puked (I
was level 22) and off to act5. Here I was able to power level VERY
quickly, as repeated runs at players 8 at the waypoint (Eldritch the
Rectum Fryer and Shrek) got me levels in a real hurry and 2 more ETH
runes. I then started pumping the minions for a while, and one of them
dropped a 3 socket superior breast plate and now I had a home for my
ETH runes. Now I had some serious mana regen so I offed Baal and hiked
into NM mode. Just before I left, I decided it was time to imbue that
circlet, and once again the gods of LoD smiled upon me. +1 P&B skills,
11 life, 14 energy and 17% resist all. WONDEFRFUL, I said and off to NM
I went. First boss I ran into deposited an Infernal Torch. Now if ONLY
I had the belt.... but just how lucky can one expect to get. SO I
shopped and shopped and finally got a decent wand, and that propelled
me though to act4 in rapid order. I offed Diablo at level 44 (amazing
how fast he goes down with IM and 200 minions around him) and now I am
back in act5 and pumping the fellows at the WP again. I am now level
61, haven't yet died, and my stats look like:

70 STR (10 from the shield)
25 Dex (base)
20 VIT (base)
161 Energy

140 points in the bank.

My adjusted Skills are at

11 Skel mast
15 Skels
12 Revives
8 CE
and one in each of the other relevant skills
and 14 skills in the bank

Now I need to find me a nice head, a nice 2 socket wand and a nice
stick for my rabbi, and I really cannot imagine how this char can
possibly be killed.

Mickey