Necromancer character

[Cerbrosyn]

best race, class, stats and attributes for a necromancer?

[JaSzczur]

Race - Elf (take Elemental Affinity talent, create blood under yourself with racial skill Flesh Sacrifice, enjoy the discount on Necromancer spell costs). Of course Fane also works just because he's super strong on his own. If you don't want either of these, Human.
Class - If recruiting a companion, Inquisitor. If choosing own character, you can choose same class but spend all attributes in intelligence and take Battle Stomp instead of Blood Sucker.
Attributes/stats - max intelligence
Abilities - Don't max Necromancer, it's pointless. Necromancer skills damage scales with Warfare so max that instead. Necromancer skills are generally pretty weak early game so you can consider playing Summoning instead through the early game and respecing later.

[Chaoslink]

Yeah, expect your necromancer to be something else until you're in act two. As a standalone skill, necromancer isn't really all that viable in the early game. Even late game its just a one hit wonder class, almost a meme really, where you just spam the same spells over and over. Its powerful, but lackluster at the same time.

[Cerbrosyn]

Originally posted by Chaoslink:

Yeah, expect your necromancer to be something else until you're in act two. As a standalone skill, necromancer isn't really all that viable in the early game. Even late game its just a one hit wonder class, almost a meme really, where you just spam the same spells over and over. Its powerful, but lackluster at the same time.

That's sad, i have never seen a game with a good necromancy system.

[Chaoslink]

The primary role for it is really a support skill, providing passive life steal for users and giving elemental mages a physical damage option. You can go full necromage (basically bloodmage) and use the source spells (kinda like ultimate abilities) to deal massive damage, but its only good when you spam those spells. Beyond that, it really is best as a supporting skill on the side rather than a main focus. Until level 10 or so, you're best off with a different skill entirely as your main focus, only switching to Necro after the fact.

[EchoSON]

Yeah , I'm fairly sure there are necromancer mods in the workshop , give them a spin
Summon skeletons n stuff

:)

[gregfromthepeg]

I liked doing a necro/hydro mage. Take lots of warfare but a decent amount of hydro and you can get lots of hydro from gear since you'll be using INT armour mostly. Not the best mage but fun.

[Pyromus]

Race - definitely elf, for flesh sacrifice elemental affinity.

Class - If recruiting, I actually prefer a cleric, and get up in their face with decaying touch and then heal them for physical damage.

Stats - Start with necro and warfare, and a point in hydro. By level 4, you want 2 in necro. By level 13, you want 3 necro. By level 16 you want 5 poly, and 3 hydro. Aside from those benchmarks, everything else should go into warfare for more damage. Unless you are going lonewolf, warfare should max out pretty close to the end of the game with those guidelines, but if you have extra at the end, scoundrel crit damage helps out late game when you actually have access to more crit chance.

Attributes- Intelligence is your main stat. Put points into it whenever possible. Add memory as needed, if you are using Sebille (since elf is suggested) her act 3 questline can give you +3 memory if you side with the tree. No more spoilers than that. After INT is maxed and you have enough memory for your skills, wits gives crit chance, so go for that. Early on, maybe con for a shield, but flesh sacrifice kinda ruins that.

Stuff not in the OP- Early game, use a melee weapon for battle stomp and battering ram. If you toss it at people before using flesh sacrifice, bouncing shield is reliable damage. Early on you won't have much damage, so dipping into summoning or a jack of all trades buff bot may be needed until level 10 or so. Maybe focus more on hydro damage early game. By level 13, you can get grasp of the starved, which does amazing damage, but only to those on blood. So blood rain becomes pretty good for that. Flesh sacrifice gives you AP and reduces AP costs by 1, so it is honestly your best ability. Also gives 10% bonus damage. Since you are going to lose CON with flesh sacrifice, shields aren't great long term. Finding melee weapons with +Crit is nice, and a few unique melee weapons give +INT and +crit for this build.

Your end game goal is Apotheosis>Flesh Sacrifice>Adrenaline>Blood Storm>Grasp of The starved>(executioner going off)>Skin Graft> Flesh Sacrifice>Adrenaline> Blood Storm>Grasp of the starved>Do what you will with remaining 1 AP.

Now all that is possible in late act 2, but will have a small amount of warfare to boost the damage, but at level 16 that is the most efficient chain of skills. Pre casting apotheosis, haste, and peace of mind will also help, and haste/peace of mind can be learned with just a single point in pyro from gear, or a point their normally and filling the necro/hydro/poly points via gear.

Early game, you do some single target damage and can use battle stomp and battering ram to cc enemies, but you don't feel powerful until you get 3 source points (varies between level 11-15 depending on what all you do and in what order) and you won't be fully optimized until level 16. So before then, don't expect much from a necromancer outside of buffing people and using hydro to freeze people.

On that freeze people point, if you can nab +2 hydro from gear, you can have an ice nuke as well for enemies with lower magic armor, but you may find yourself spread too thin if you spare the memory for that. Hydro powers are more of an early focus for necro mages.

Talents that are top teir for this build: elemental affinity, executioner, and savage sortilege
Talents that are nice for this build: Mnemonic, Hothead, Glass Cannon (if you have high initiative or teammates with anti cc buffs), Far out Man, All Skilled Up (mostly early on), lone wolf
My personal talent picks (in order): Elemental affinity, executioner, mnemonic, savage sortilege, hot head

[Chaoslink]

As you can read in the comment above, there’s a very specific spell rotation you do to optimize damage. However, you can literally mix in just about any combination of source spells in the same way to get the same results, regardless of Necro. Thing is, the other options are also better without what is effectively ultimate spam.

[Pyromus]

Originally posted by Chaoslink:

As you can read in the comment above, there’s a very specific spell rotation you do to optimize damage. However, you can literally mix in just about any combination of source spells in the same way to get the same results, regardless of Necro. Thing is, the other options are also better without what is effectively ultimate spam.

He asked for necro tips, I told him how to optimize necro *shrug*

But yeah, with apotheosis, skin graft, and adrenaline, pretty much any build can become insanely powerful.

[Chaoslink]

Originally posted by Pyromus:

Originally posted by Chaoslink:

As you can read in the comment above, there’s a very specific spell rotation you do to optimize damage. However, you can literally mix in just about any combination of source spells in the same way to get the same results, regardless of Necro. Thing is, the other options are also better without what is effectively ultimate spam.

He asked for necro tips, I told him how to optimize necro *shrug*

But yeah, with apotheosis, skin graft, and adrenaline, pretty much any build can become insanely powerful.

Not trying to say you are wrong or anything. Just pointing out that all of necro is pretty much that one rotation. It’s powerful, but repetitive and quickly gets rather boring if you ask me. It’s fun for a bit, but there’s nothing to adapt to or mix things up with.