how do i necro properly?

[snuggleform]

The other 8 classes were relatively instinctual for me to figure out, but with the necro I flopped hard on my face despite knowing how the other 8 worked. I have no idea how to balance keeping minions alive or ethereal (and the game wasn't nice enough to tell me on a tooltip that ethereal creatures decay levels just like live ones do..), trying to juggle promotions and a fae to keep things from decaying but at the same time trying to get a big board of sacrificial creatures to go ultimate mode...I'm super confused on how to sustain, do damage which wasn't as confusing with the other classes.

[TadaceAce]

Summon ethereal faes, go lich practically every turn, power siphon, eerie stare (optional), duplicate, the pew pew card for the rest of your energy.

I dislike necro because that's the only way I really found to make him good and it's not a fun playstyle.

[GTTV]

Ethereal aboms and worms do a lot more damage compared to when they're not - summon, promote and sacrifice them quickly to get the ethereal mode. Go lich mode when able to dish out more damage. Fae will also heal you and ethereal golem will keep barrier up, if needed. Also, aboms do more damage in ethereal mode the more they activate - so activate them in ethereal mode when you can (and sacrifice them at highest levels to maximise activation turns).

You might be trying to combat the decay too much. I found it best to sacrifice the worms and abom early, let things die in ethereal mode, then summoning them again and using the ghouls you get from minion deaths.

[unendingAbattoir]

I agree a lot with GTTV above.
I really enjoyed Necro before the nerfs and still really like it after but it plays with a slightly different pace now. I have easily my most clears with Necro (up to difficulty 6) following the same general strategy. Take golem as your default, take the upgrades that make your minions start at a higher rank whenever possible (phase out the base versions when you can), if all goes well you should be able to keep a solid golem and fae with a spectral abom and worm.
I almost never kill my fae my or golem until I go lich mode or until I have a sacrifice card that does some kind of secondary by killing them (-20 armor, aoe stun, +energy/draw, etc) not just the base ability card. You should really be sacrificing your damage dealers quickly and cycling through them often.
I don't really use lich as much anymore because you don't get free energy for transforming like you did pre-patch, so it's much harder to pull off the mass defense buffs I used to like to do. That said, later it is still very possible to wreck things in lich mode if you get good passives (especially with the level 10 & 20 talents.)
Now that your minions decay so quickly you have to take advantage of using ghouls way more. The 0 cost marking card is a great way to direct the worm, ghoul and abom to focus fire, just like with other casters. Also, if you really need to turtle up: double golem (1 solid, 1 spectral), and double fae can definitely get you through tough turns. And when you're ready to switch to offense you can mass sacrifice and have a lich charging engine ready to go.
I basically never have any direct attacking cards but I do love to pick up the -% maxhp cards, and the -armor or -armor/damage curses.

Overall Necro is still definitely my favorite class. The others are alright, and I've had clears through difficulty 3 with half of them now. But I just really like the feel of Necro, even if the pace is a little more hectic now.

[CrabNicholson]

I'm not an expert by any means, but with the Necromancer I found:

-Abomination and Wyrm do almost no damage when alive. They need to be sacrificed to deal any damage
-When in ghost form they deal okay damage but can't be promoted, and still de-level
-Because your minions are constantly de-levelling, you probably only have a few turns out of them and they won't be that strong
-Wyrm and Abomination both cost 2 energy, which is pricey, especially if you need to spam promotions on them
--Your ultimate is awesome and has nothing to do with your minions

To me, Wyrm and abomination seem just useless. Your ability to build an effective army is just so trash compared to Blood mage and Summoner. It's an uphill battle to keep Abominations and Wyrms on the battlefield and in any state where they are useful. So don't even try. Just remove them from your deck and pick up a second golem and a second or third fae. Sacrifice your Fae the turn you put them down and the ghost Fae will each give you +1 energy and +1 ultimate charge per turn. You can easily ultimate every other turn. When in lich form you can basically do whatever you want... sweep out enemies with AOE, stack up defensive buffs, nuke down the enemy... it's pretty easy. Don't think of the Necromancer as a summoning class in the same vein as the other mages, think of the necro summons as just fodder for your sacrifices to get your ultimate out.

[Grazzok]

I've got a quite similar problem. Especially the wisps with "negate 20/50 damage" tend to be endless fights through getting the armor low enough is tough as hell.

Even in the Lich mode he is more about multiple hits then hard hits. I didn't die until the wisps got about 1500% strength but didn't kill them either. Multiple times. :/ Some tips for that?

[snuggleform]

Originally posted by CrabNicholson:

I'm not an expert by any means, but with the Necromancer I found:

-Abomination and Wyrm do almost no damage when alive. They need to be sacrificed to deal any damage
-When in ghost form they deal okay damage but can't be promoted, and still de-level
-Because your minions are constantly de-levelling, you probably only have a few turns out of them and they won't be that strong
-Wyrm and Abomination both cost 2 energy, which is pricey, especially if you need to spam promotions on them
--Your ultimate is awesome and has nothing to do with your minions

To me, Wyrm and abomination seem just useless. Your ability to build an effective army is just so trash compared to Blood mage and Summoner. It's an uphill battle to keep Abominations and Wyrms on the battlefield and in any state where they are useful. So don't even try. Just remove them from your deck and pick up a second golem and a second or third fae. Sacrifice your Fae the turn you put them down and the ghost Fae will each give you +1 energy and +1 ultimate charge per turn. You can easily ultimate every other turn. When in lich form you can basically do whatever you want... sweep out enemies with AOE, stack up defensive buffs, nuke down the enemy... it's pretty easy. Don't think of the Necromancer as a summoning class in the same vein as the other mages, think of the necro summons as just fodder for your sacrifices to get your ultimate out.

I think you're on to something here, but I'm getting stuck on the details - how many living minions should you have when you hit lich mode? Also it seems best to hit lich mode at the start of your turn when you have full energy rather than say using your last energy to go into it, right?

Also uh...why is lich form so squishy it has like 20 hp!!! It's scary going from your base form of 80 hp down to 20.

[snuggleform]

Ok I've been getting more used to the necro. I still don't really like the feel of the class, but now I'm flopping around less and making progress.

As crabnicolson noted, the class revolves around going into ultimate mode (this is not really true for a lot of the other classes which may rarely ult if you go certain builds). The summons have bad stats relative to the other summoning classes, and they also scale significantly worse at least in mortal form. Not only that but both live and dead minions decay 1 level per turn (and they disappear without giving you a ghoul if they hit level 0). So it's kind of obvious that your goal is to go into necro lord form, and not lean heavily on minions although of course they can do some chip or finishing blows.

The basic rotation in broad strokes is have a live golem out to tank damage so you don't die, have a fae in ethereal form and try to feed it as many rituals (activations) to charge up necro form. Try to calculate so you hit necro form precisely at the beginning of a turn (important! you want full energy when you hit necro form to take full advantage of it) without under or over achieving charges asap. Promotion is rarely used but occasionally is ok to keep a golem alive for another turn (cheaper than summoning a new one).

Don't go into necro form unless you can sacrifice at least 1 live minion with it; if you go in with 0 live minions sacrificed your card selection is significantly punished so it's not even worth it. On the other hand don't go crazy trying to max out live minions to sacrifice either as the bonuses aren't that amazing, it's usually "good enough" to go in with 1 live minion sacrificed.

Necro form requires some attention. First off, it for some reason has 0 armor despite any runes you carry, and despite any minion buffs (golem). Not only that, but it has 20-25 base hp. And if you die in necro form, it counts as you losing the game. And when you hit necro form, don't forget that any golems that you had alive are necessarily sacrificed as part of going necro form, so the conclusion here is be mindful of incoming damage when you hit necro form.

Luckily necro form offers you a wide array of both defensive and offensive tools. The very basic idea is phase 1: use duplicate -> evil gaze to debuff -> energy rays to get barriers up so you don't die, then use new beginning to help get you through your next untransformed phase. Phase 2: now that enemy is debuffed, either consider debuffing them more or this time using damaging moves to progress the fight, while still remembering not to die.

You will adjust your strategy, perhaps using the stun move on an offending target, or using the deal X single target move to finish something asap.

But that's the basics of it.

As to removing cards from the deck, I actually disagree with removing abom/wyrm. They are not great that's for sure, but having them as options to sacrifice as bodies on the board is not bad and when they're ethereal they can offer some important finishing blows passively. I like removing 1 barrier and 1 promotion from the deck first, then see how I feel later. You just don't need 3 barriers in the deck and promotion is of limited use just to extend a golem's life once in a while if you have bad timing. Unlike the summoner, the necro's golem doesn't decay armor when it's attacked so you don't need to barrier spam it like the summoner does. I also think the protection sigil can be removed as you increase your armor through runes and passives since the golem seems to cap out regularly at 75 armor even without it.

As far as picking cards, definitely look for another fae and golem, and other than that you can skip tons of cards for example sigils are really bad as your minions are meant to be sacrifice (at least until you get a certain passive that changes this paradigm), and most of the debuff/attack cards can be skipped as necro form more or less has all that stuff covered.

edit: some more info I learned: you want to sacrifice 2 live minions if you want to draw the whole necro deck, if you sacrifice 1 you will draw all but one card which might mess things up. Also, I don't think it's a smart idea to add necro cards via passives because they aren't very good and make it harder to consistently draw the base necro deck which is already good enough.

even more edits: going into necro form actually counts ethereal units as well as live ones that get sacrificed, and the sweet spot seems to be a total of 3 minions to draw the base necro deck fully on activation.

[Noedens]

English is not my main language, that explains, but not excuses the poor writing.
NECRO MAGE
Necro is the close to a "true" mage you can use in this game. As the other palyers have said the main build is to go "lich" with the ultimate. Things i have learned/tried in my runs with it. NOTE: even if necro is my main character i have no past dificulty lvl 17 yet. Not for the build cant do it but because i have no time/ incentive to go furher
NOTE 2: ive done a run just after the Nerf so it adjust to the new situation.
NORMAL PHASE: you want to empty your deck to have just fae to summon. Normal fae, animated fae are a must. Also fae from "rituals" as the shaman one card are good to have first 1 3 fae in board at least. Second important you want to get in your deck is "sacrifice" cards that give you great bonus( i like the stun one, the 2cards and 1 energy, the 250 dmg to all enemies, and the dmg bonus one) but never took one that sacrifices all minions only one at a time. Normaly count at most 4 sacrificesor lest. you have 4 sacrifices at most each turn worthy, Normaly 2 from ethereals of last turn that are about to consume from low lvl and 2 for the new fae/ annimated fae new invocations as lived ones. Not needed "blue" enchantmets as you rotate your minions quite, neither "lvl up" cards. Activation cards you use in transition till you get the ideal deck.
Your goal is to get 4 etheral faes each turn and at least 6 ultimate charges to get lich each turn
LICH PHASE: So many good cards and so litle mana ( after the pach i could not get more than 11 mana, before i remember to get to 13 or more) You can't erase cards from this deck so dont give more than needed cards. I sometimes get the 2 mana cost debuff (stun and 20)as aditional ( aside from pasives 10-20) cards. Have tried also the one that gives you more damge and the one that gives you 1 more mana if you kill a minion with any of them, but normaly dont worth it. The reforged card are an exception. The "left hand" ones of lvl 10 gives you more flexibility in damage, The "right hand" ones arte lss useful ( the redirect one and the debuff one i have useds sometimes but not a must) We discused "right hand" later. one card overloqued sometimes is the "area damg" card . It also gives you 10 barrier for each minion you hit with it ( so is a great candidate to duplicate if you have a lot of enemies in from) In lich form you only haveto use your mind, strategy and mathematics ;) ( and energy rays, a lot of energy rays)
PASSIVES: you want passives that A) gives you aditional charges for ultimate ( fae gives you 2 mana as activated, sacrifices do one more charge, and the like) B) cards taht gives you bonus for lich form ( +1 mana to lich form, you draw 2 cards if you kill a minion) Sometimes survivality passives as you dont die in lich form bu return to normal form and the like if you have enough charging and lich passives. I dont like aditional lich cards in normal passives as they normaly dont worth it. ( with th exception to the 2 mana stun and not always)
In REFORGED in ussally get " left hand path"in LVL 10 as the cards are really good and the 100% of damage does it better. In lvl 20 i ussually get the " right hand path" more tah anithing for the +2 mana bonus. But the second choice ( i dont remember name is the one tahrt cvost 4 ultimate charges ot go lich ionstead of 6, and gives you dmg bonus) cpould be used as an alternative if you want to ad new cards froin normal passives.
CONSUMABLES: and in any crd game those taht gives you mana ( seeds) and cards ( book) for the piper i ussually get the 2 block for emergencies. Foot in first runs as you get resources could be useful
The wicth: i get the 5 card erase even after the nerf ( you gop to 30 live) and use the rune that gives me aditional live enemy normaly will not touch you as you have the deck properly build in normal phase and it doesnt afect you in lich that is you main phase.
As i said this is my experience and could be alternative aproaches to the character that are equal o better tahn mine but i hope it helps any of you)

[Templer]

Now I know this is an older post but I recently got into this game. I will say my favorite class so far is the Necro and the only class I have been able to collect all the hearts with and summon the "final" boss.

I see a lot of hate for the summons and I feel like that is not warranted. I used my Abomination to carry me through the game and into the final boss fight. After some tinkering I figured out 4-5ish cards that were absolutely required.

1. Golem

2. Fae

3. Abomination

4. Spiritual Guide

5. Lich form Death Mark (or Death Mask card, but in Lich form you can duplicate Death Mark.

6. New Beginnings with as many Lich cards as you can. Do not worry about extra energy unspent

Always try and keep your Golem alive if possible to soak damage. Summon and then Promote > Ritual/Activate > Then on first sacrifice just use your normal 0 cost sacrifice card, on any subsequent sacrifices use Spiritual Guide until it is around 10 for normal fights and 15ish for boss fights. Make sure you have an ethereal Abom up at level 2 atleast before you go Lich. In Lich go Duplicate > Death Mark on highest priority enemy > New Beginnings. This should give your next draw the Spiritual Guide and if lucky enough it is 0 cost. Then activate your Abom as many times as you can WITHOUT sacrificing it. Once you are down to only being able to play Spiritual Guide with or without energy requirement use it on the Abom. I had him hit around 1K max damage before he killed the boss and he had around 12ish activates left to go. Aboms wreck with stacking activates.

If anyone has any other ideas to streamline this feel free to comment and I will test where I can.