Leveling till 25 Min-Guide
Don't bother using a dagger, because the damage that Poison Dagget takes is just WAY too long to be effective. Instead, if you have 3 low level uniques (actually pretty hard to find), they are-
Biggin's Bonnet Unique Cap,
Greyform Unique Quilted Armor, and lastly,
Dimoak's Hew Unique Bardiche.
Slap all those on an act 2 defiance merc (which you just happened to be magically rushed to act 2). It's best to be about level 10 when you do this so he can use all the gear right away. Leveling in act 1 is easy, just party up and do trist runs until you are
14. Not 15.
Now comes the tricky part- finding a full game that will stay full, and allow you to go solo as long as you possibly can. Games like these are "Act1 startiing"- Stuff like that, where you will expect only low low levels, and only to be in act 1.
What you will do is- with your defiance merc, and Amplify Damage Curse in hand, is play through act 2- from the Rocky waste all the way to the Clan Viper Altar. In a full game, you can go from about 14 to 20 in only one game. I've done it, it's just great experience. Once you hit 20, get a friend to do about 2
full cow games for you, which should put you at 24.
From here, you can either choose to keep doing cows till you are about 30-34 or so (cows are around that level), or you can do ancients and get to baaling. I suggest you do a few more cow runs, seeing as how the closer you are to the monsters Level, the better the experience. I suggest doing these till you are 28-29 or so (to use any special gear you might have).
A note during Baal runs:
NEVER SPAM NOVA. NEVER EVER. With that in mind, use the necessary curse. If there are alot of melee characters, go with amp damage. You might need to throw in Life tap here and there to save them. If there are more casters than melee people, go with Lower Resist. If there are hammerdins, use Decrepify. If there is another necro in the game, you must (well not really, but it helps) decide what both of you will be doing to make the runs go faster.
Good low level gear for a Novanecro is something like:
(this is what I would use at level 15)
Helm: Biggins Bonnet [Life, Mana- Can't be beat]
Armor: Blinkbat's Form [FHR, FRW- awesome armor.]
Weapon: Hard choice here. I usually have a good low level rare one-handed weapon that I would use here. If not, try for the diggler- ITD will help you hit faster if you don't have any ML for Poison Dagger.
Shield: Umbral Disk [Perfect Stats for the level]
Belt/Gloves: Death's, Hands down.,
Boots: Gorefoot or Hotspur [I would use Gorefoot]
Ring 1: Manald Heal
Ring 2: Manald Heal
Amulet: Eye of Elitch
Try to get +STR, +DEX, and +Life small charms if you can. They will help you on your stats when you're such a low level.