My useless Necromancer.

[Turniphead23]

Hi,

I'm doing a tac run with all phys--

a 2H crit; 1h CC; a rogue; pure necromancer
Onslaught does massive damage esp on my 80% crit 2H and my rogue.
I'm considering making my necromancer an archer as he only has a few damage skills: grasped: infect:mosqueto: blood rain;decay. Corpse explosion is pretty useless as it's so situational and grasped does 1/2 damage of a non-crit onslaught

Am I missing something here? I know bloodstorm will help, but a pure summoner or ranger would be better than this guy.

Lvl 15.

Any thoughts? TYVM

[Stabbey]

As you seem to have noticed, a pure necromancer isn't very good. The same also applies to a pure Polymorph character. Both of those classes are excellent supports, but their skills are overall too much of niche skills, and not enough general use ones - they don't have the right tools to stand alone.

A pure Summoner might not be better at that point, since their power pretty much peaks once they hit Summoning 10 because it doesn't get attribute bonuses.

[Tiberius]

you may want to use this mod to make necro/summon build viable

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1502424642

[Turniphead23]

Thanks for that - I beat the game on honour with a pure summoner. I'll change to that. necro really sux :)

[JaSzczur]

Maybe a stupid question but did you max Warfare on necromancer? Because that is what scales your damage.

[Gabumon]

I found a "Death Knight" build works incredibly well where you dip heavily into Frost/Necro with some decent Fighter abilities. You basically become an unstoppable tank who has mass CC potential, single target support, a ton of mitigation and self healing that allows them to wade into the thick of things and come out relatively unharmed even on big boss fights. This build becomes game breakingly powerful when combined with a DPS Hydro and/or a class that can tear open armor. If you're doing all melee I'd suggest this since it's a heavy support with high damage, don't be afraid to use your characters to strip away weak magical defenses, otherwise you're relying very heavily on skills like Battle Stomp and Bull rush (which in all melee your team should have 2-3 people with both skills since preventing a turn for your enemy can make a fight into a joke or a butt clencher).

[Commander Gorda]

The damage comes from warfare not necro. You can also get a shield and shieldthrow from warfare to have another skill that does physical damage.

[Chaoslink]

Many people will argue that necro is the most powerful build. You're seeing exactly why it isn't. You do need to pump Warfare, but even then, Grasp and blood storm are all it has and you need apotheosis and skin graft to spam these spells. This is why necro is weak, no other skill requires you to spam one or two spells to be good.

[gregfromthepeg]

Would adding one other magic school help? I ask because I am starting a Necromancer now and would prefer a magic user rather than a fighter. I don't have any geo on my other members. I realize warfare won't help that but geo would give him some options.

[baggybaf]

Originally posted by Chaoslink:

Many people will argue that necro is the most powerful build. You're seeing exactly why it isn't. You do need to pump Warfare, but even then, Grasp and blood storm are all it has and you need apotheosis and skin graft to spam these spells. This is why necro is weak, no other skill requires you to spam one or two spells to be good.

Sorry but I don’t understand your arguments: there are spells that are effective from the start and others that requires more AP to prepare the damage but if in the end you kill faster is that the build is better (I don't say the necro is stronger)
and skin graft or apotheosis are spells of the game: using them is not cheesing
same with the technique to do two turns in a row (3 with fane): it's not cheesing either

it is obvious:
if you don’t use a source to attack, not several skills, no teleportation, no Chameleon Cloak etc your build will be the best if you choose the one who needs it the least
and it's easy to say that those who use it are weak.

but I may not have understood you.

Originally posted by gregfromthepeg:

Would adding one other magic school help? I ask because I am starting a Necromancer now and would prefer a magic user rather than a fighter. I don't have any geo on my other members. I realize warfare won't help that but geo would give him some options.

it's a good idea because you don't need to invest a lot of points in the magic abilities to make good damage and geo can use hybrid spells with physical damage.
but you need to master the game a little to be efficient

[Chaoslink]

Originally posted by gregfromthepeg:

Would adding one other magic school help? I ask because I am starting a Necromancer now and would prefer a magic user rather than a fighter. I don't have any geo on my other members. I realize warfare won't help that but geo would give him some options.

It can, but I wouldn't really call necro a "magic" user as they deal physical damage. Geo is good and it works well with a physical team.

[Godwoken Dovahkiin]

You're pretty much locked into a few things as a pure necromancer IMO.

1- Int necromancer, Decay Touch, Mosquito Swarm, Infect, Grasp, Blood storm, Bouncing Shield, skin graft due to the lack of offensive necromancer spells and necromancer spell scrolls (Decay Touch, Grasp and Infect) and apotheosis.

2- Support Summon Necromancer with necro support spells and blood incarnate (Wish he had Decay Touch instead of Mosquito Swarm), blood totems, bloated corpse (Does a lot of damage with super charge), bone widow, Totems of the necromancer? (Never used it). Later on it can be branched into int necro if you want.

Shackles of Pain + Corpse Explosion does a ton of damage apparently.

Corrosive Touch + Corrosive Spray don't seem that good but hey, extra spells. Don't know if they scale with warfare though (They should but, maybe destroy is different?).

Necro with bow seems kinda meh, would rather have a shield.

Talents: Elemental Affinity, Torturer, Savage Sortilege, Hothead.

[Turniphead23]

I've played many many builds and necro is horrendous as @chaos says - you only have a few spells. IKN - I might go ranger as I've stacked warfare.
The above skill sonly kick in at 16 I guess as I've not seen them. Decaying touch is useless. Infect and I suppose bloodstorm are the only good offensive skills; grasped is hugely overrated.

[Chaoslink]

Originally posted by Turniphead23:

I've played many many builds and necro is horrendous as @chaos says - you only have a few spells. IKN - I might go ranger as I've stacked warfare.

It can be good. Grasp and blood storm are incredibly powerful. However, that’s about 80% of the power necro has. If those abilities don’t do the job and you can’t spam them anymore, necro has little else to follow up with. Until you have those spells, it’s little more than a support skill that should be taken secondary to another main skill. Death wish and living on the edge are fantastic spells. But they don’t do anything without a different skill to use them.

[baggybaf]

Originally posted by Chaoslink:

It can be good. Grasp and blood storm are incredibly powerful. However, that’s about 80% of the power necro has. If those abilities don’t do the job and you can’t spam them anymore, necro has little else to follow up with. Until you have those spells, it’s little more than a support skill that should be taken secondary to another main skill. Death wish and living on the edge are fantastic spells. But they don’t do anything without a different skill to use them.

I didn't understand what you said, you're right.
if you want to play it in the main skill, it is rather at the end of the game.
You forget the totems which well used increase much the damage of graps or blood storm
mainly with fane you have plenty of AP to combine everything