Necromancy Sigil Notes and Tips

[Zujin]

I Have spent a lot of time with the Necromancy Sigil, testing Necro Pets and seeing what they can do, checking their usefulness and generally messing around with them having fun. Necromancy isn’t the ultimate Sigil, it won't really help you get millions of damage and in NG+ may not be as helpful as using a whole other sigil but it is interesting and very varied.

Necromancy has already been discussed quite a lot on the boards but there were a few things I never found answers to.

Below are some notes I have made while testing and playing I thought other players might like to know about.

Necromancy:

-Necro Pets self perpetuate their element. E.g. if a FIRE element Neco Pet kills a marked enemy, the newly raised Necro Pet will also have FIRE element.

-Necro Pets with CONTROL status effects will not reset the status timer if they hit the target while already under said effect.E.g. an ICE - CONTROL Necro Pet hitting a target that is already frozen will not increase the amount of time the target is frozen, the target needs to be free for at least half a second before being frozen again.

-Necro Pets using PHASE element can start ‘Rift Mode’ for the player. E.g. The player (or Necro Pet) puts the target into a Distortion field, the Necro Pet with PHASE - DESTRUCTION status hits the target with enough damage to kill it, the player will enter ‘Rift Mode’.

-Necro Pets can critical hit, when a DELIRIUM - CONTROL status Necro Pet critically hits a target, as long as the player doesn’t already have a pet the target will become the players new pet.

-Necro Pets attack DELIRIUM pets, but DELIRIUM pets rarely attack Necro Pets.

-Necro Pets damage/kills will grant the player‘ Sigil experience’ (i.e count towards ‘Kills’ & ‘Damage’ & ‘Over Kills’) if the target has already been affected by that Sigil, Necromancy Sigil also needs to ‘Tag’ a target to gain the experience.

-Necro Pets with LIGHTNING - DESTRUCTION status will damage the initial target and a nearby target just like the LIGHTING spells ‘chain’ ability.

-Necro Pets damage, control timers, mastery added etc. is taken from the Necromancy Spell stats that were used to tag the target. E.g. Casting a NECROMANCY - DESTRUCTION spell with 5 Points in Destruction stat, then killing the target with a LIGHTING - DESTRUCTION spell with 40 in the destruction stat, will only make the Necro Pet do roughly 100 damage per hit, if the player tagged the target with a NECROMANCY - DESTRUCTION spell of 40 in the Destruction stat, then killed the target with a LIGHTNING DESTRUCTION spell, the Necro Pet could hit for up to 900 damage.
* Please note, as Warrax40 has mentioned: "Those necro pet types you describe have their own crit tables and seems we can do nothing about it. Given the whole mastery mechanics and how it takes a crit to consume it, there is no way to control or guarantee making use of the mastery mechanic with necromancy."
No matter the special attributes the Necromancy spell has that 'tagged' a target, Necro Pets will not inherit those extra traits. E.g. If your NECROMANCY - DESTRUCTION spell has "50% critical chance boost" the Necro Pet raised will NOT get this or any bonus.

-Necro Pets come in 4 varieties,
Sword and Shield: Has an aura shield for immunity to 1 attack, close range only and can miss, high HP
Mace: Has a two handed mace which does a small AOE when attacking, medium HP
Crossbow: Fires 3 shots then has to spend some time reloading, low HP
Staff: Can teleport, casts a lob spell and can use a Ray spell close range, very low HP

-Necro Pets have a range of observation, if they are too far away from any targets they just wander around close to their current location.

-Necro Pets will attack the closest target, even if the player does not ‘Tag’ any targets themselves.

-Necro Pets sometimes change their target even without the player ‘tagging’ new targets.

-Necro Pets can cause virtually all the status effects the player can cause with spells, I have had pets: lift targets, turn them into a pet, stun, freeze, root, cause fear, put targets into distortion fields, cause burning, slowed aura, shock, infect targets with parasites & even made targets attack the players Delirium pet.

[warrax40]

oh a new post... reading now

[warrax40]

yeah nice. It's a good write up on Necromancy. I think any of the cult followers of this game like me know about the mechanics you are describing. For the newcomers this is great.

There is one hard fact about necromancy that i want to highlight which is the determining factor why necromancy falls and becomes the worst sigil by the end of the game. You kinda allude to it.

Originally posted by zujin:

-Necro Pets damage, control timers, mastery added etc. is taken from the Necromancy Spell stats that were used to tag the target. E.g. Casting a NECROMANCY - DESTRUCTION spell with 5 Points in Destruction stat, then killing the target with a LIGHTING - DESTRUCTION spell with 40 in the destruction stat, will only make the Necro Pet do roughly 100 damage per hit, if the player tagged the target with a NECROMANCY - DESTRUCTION spell of 40 in the Destruction stat, then killed the target with a LIGHTNING DESTRUCTION spell, the Necro Pet could hit for up to 900 damage.

While this statement is mostly true, it is actually false when it comes to CRITICAL CHANCE. By end game and when the player gets real comfortable with the crafting system, it's not hard to create spells with 100% crit chance or spells with greater than 60% crit change easily.

Those necro pet types you describe have their own crit tables and seems we can do nothing about it. Given the whole mastery mechanics and how it takes a crit to consume it, there is no way to control or guarantee making use of the mastery mechanic with necromancy. Which is why it is the worse sigil, amazingly if this one thing was changed necromancy would probably be viewed as one of the best sigils.

[Zujin]

- Warrax40
Yes good point, I should have added that in originally, I will update the post.
I was so disappointed when I found out none of the spells 'Prefixes' or 'Affixes' were being added to my Necro Pets, no matter how much I increased my spells 'Critical Chance' or 'Status effect duration' the Necro Pets never improved. :-(
Ah man imagine they could be customised to such a degree as to control their attribute effects....

Cheers.

[warrax40]

Oddly enough the Delirium pet can.... so yeah sucks for necromancy.