Help with skills and game concepts please

Hello, I am very new to median XL and I was having a bit of trouble in-game. I am playing a necromancer focused on summoning and a few totems, its probably a terrible build but I'm still learning. I'm on normal just up to Baal act five but I haven't been able to allocate all my skill points which seemed odd to me. I have 10 skill points in Deaths Fury Totem, 7 in Howling totem and one in all the other totems ( even Storm eye cause I'm dumb), as well as 10 in Skel. Frayers, 9 in Rampagors, 8 in Lamias 1 in Veil King and 6 in Void Archon. I'm level 53 and have 2 skill points remaining to spend but all the summoning skills except Veil King are greyed out as well as Deaths Fury Totem and Howling totem. When I hover over them the writing is red and it says for example 10/10 base level or 6/6 base level. Every so often on a level up they all become availible for some reason. Is this meant to happen? Am I doing everything worng? And what do I do with the 102 stat points I have lying around because I have no idea and am only using them to meet requirements of some items I find?
Any help would be greatly appreciated thanks

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Welcome to MXL!!

1. Summon/totem necros are actually a great beginner char so good choice. I would highly recommend checking out some of the char guides here on forum for things like gearing help and stat/skill alocation.
2. You gain one maximum skill point per each 6 levels.
3. For summoners, generally you are going to use stats for gear, until you have an oskill or skill that gains bonuses based on flat stat points i.e. Psionic Storm only gains damage from flat Energy points.
4. Take advantage of some of the improvements MXL made over cLoD, use a Merc, they are much better improved over D2 Mercs, take advantage of Mystic Orbs, and the host of new cube recipes, that will definitly help improve your char, in your case, MO your gear with +minion life +minion resist and +minion dmg as a start.

Enjoy!

Thanks alot, this really helped cleared things up. Really appreciate the friendliness too :-D

Hey there and welcome to Median XL. I myself am quite new to this mod, but I've managed to pick up a few things in the last month I've played.

First of all, summoner/totem necromancer is a strong build recommended for new players since its safe, easy and with the proper skill plan, can run hatred - destruction in a breeze.

About your skill points, from what I understand every skill has a number of maximum skill point limit allotted to it and it starts at 2. Although the maximum limit is two points you can still only put one point in it the moment you unlock the skill. The second point can be invested in the succeeding level. This limit increases by 1 for every 6 levels your character gains.

For example, you unlock Fire heart Totem at level 12. You invest 1 point in it and it will show you the skill has 1/2. The second point can be put in the skill in the next character level with is 13. Then the following levels would be 6 levels apart in which this case would be 18, 24, 30 and so on.

Regarding your stat points, it's enough to put in just enough for your gear then dedicate this rest for whatever stat you need to increase. For example as a caster or totemancer you would need to increase your spell energy bonus so naturally you would want to invest in energy, while a melee fighter would invest in strength for increased weapon damage or dex in case of dex based weapons.

I wrote a guide for summoner necro. You're free to check it out to get some hints on how to gear up/ where to put skillpoints and how to finish ubers in lategame:

viewtopic.php?f=40&t=5045

It may be a lot of information, but it's definitely worth the read.

btw: didn't you put points into bend the shadows? Because with that skill you can teleport. Your totems will teleport with you and you don't have to recast them all the time. I'm just mentioning that because you didn't say you put a point into it.

And Embalming improves the life of your summons and yourself. It's actually a nice skill to put points into because you and your summons get tankier and your manaregen is increased by a ridiculous amount.

And what "not for keeps" said it correct except point 2: You get 1 maximum skill level on each skill every 6 levels. This was implemented to balance the skills, so you don't put every point into 1 skill and crush everything with it. You're basically made to spread your skillpoints and enjoy a variety of skills in order to not get bored that fast.

Thanks for the help, Bend shadows does sound like a good idea too thanks cause it is annoying to keep making totems. Also does terror griswald only drop the witches challenge scroll, isnt he meant to drop a special box? Ive run him about 5 times and Ive only got the sroll, is it just bad RNG or is it not in the game?

It's not in the game. The patch notes explained that it was removed.

Oh ok thanks.

some guides that were done on old versions of the game are not updated by their authors so they still say there's a special box.