How are you supposed to play Necromancer?

[danakir]

I'm completely stumped. I look over the cards and there doesn't seem to be any good synergy. The way the resources are balanced you're just one bad encounter away from draining your reserve of resources away at which point you're in very big trouble. Especially since most of the basic offense/cycling cards require more than just the basic Soul resource for some reason. Has anyone been able to make it work? If so, I'd love to hear what you're doing.

I've been able to easily figure out how Arcane/Pyromancer are meant to work but with that last school I'm just baffled.

[123 Casual Player]

They don't work. All 3 books (dead, dread, and shadow) rely heavily on status. So soon as you run into status immune with armor they can't do anything.

[Samseng Yik]

Not every build good VS everything.
The game design with some RPG in the sense that every build got some pros and cos.
About Necromancer, I only used in CIty and some levels in forest, especially to unlock Lich.
Is a bit more passive than other play style, thus I not very like.

[123 Casual Player]

Originally posted by Samseng Yik:

Not every build good VS everything.
The game design with some RPG in the sense that every build got some pros and cos.
About Necromancer, I only used in CIty and some levels in forest, especially to unlock Lich.
Is a bit more passive than other play style, thus I not very like.

Problem is it's a late game class that doesn't work on later maps. By the time you collect all it's items it's already obsolete. You can redo City with it but that's about it.

Meanwhile you can beat everything, even dragons, with book of lightning if you really wanted to. Or just use book of scorching.

Besides, arcane builds up charge, Fire builds up fire (while avoiding 10), but necro? They just use up souls you get from kills. Using necro school with black books do more harm than good. You are better off using book of the dead with pyro.

[Mr. Magnifico]

I had been hoping things would fall into place with the necromantic school for me when I got the Guardian Scrolls, but now that I have them things aren't looking any better. I can see how maybe they'd be good as defense if I weren't trying to unlock the Lich subclass, but as it is souls are too hard to come by.

Originally posted by Samseng Yik:

Is a bit more passive than other play style,

The necromantic attacks are mostly about poisoning or cursing enemies, which suggests that the intended use is tagging enemies and then hanging tough until the effects kill them. The fact that Wraith Collector gives 3 souls a turn over 3 turns reinforces this impression. So I'm trying to play passively. But I don't see how to stay unhurt long enough for the damage over time effects to do their work without spending more souls on defense than I'll get back when my enemies finally give up the ghost. Can you explain a little more how you manage this? Wannabe liches have no way to hide, no way to gain Distance, and precious few ways to stun.

[123 Casual Player]

Well, if you are using book ot the dead, guardian scroll, homunculus, and the level 7 necro upgrade, then both zombies and guardians cost no souls. The only necro upgrade you need is the level 7 one. The rest should focus on energy. Death Ring adds max zombie and guardian count, and the necro robe can be used just before soul drain. But because zombies are consider a status, it is completely worthless vs status immunity. Otherwise it wouldn't be half bad.

Anyway, for the final boss in the city, just zombie + armor or zombie + wrath over and over.
Throw every soul drain at the urn (because it is immune to zombies) and as long as you got 4 soul armor up, you don't have to worry about blocking. Fortunately the lich itself isn't status immune, so it's quite an easy match.

As for book of dread, It's just bad. Chain breaker everywhere, no draw, and just as bad vs status immune. You can't get enough Armor and Wrath up with that.

[Mr. Magnifico]

Turns out the missing piece of the puzzle was the homunculus. I had been holding off on fully exploring the Forest until I had a subclass under my belt, but I went ahead and got it and it made all the difference. Unlocked Lich on the very next run and barely even broke a sweat. The -1 soul cost for spells is huge. Suddenly, souls were not an issue. It became possible to cycle my deck and stack enough Soul Armor to approximate the damage on contact you can get from Lightning Charge/Storm Ring. I was casting Life Drain just for the damage even though I was at full health.

I sort of wonder why you are given the option to use equipment to unlock subclasses that almost guarantees endless frustrating runs instead of the "right" gear. I had a similar issue trying to get the Adventurer. I did lots of runs using the Buckler that ended in tears before finally getting the Cursed Disk and, shortly thereafter, the unlock.

[Galdred]

Actually, I saw the "zombies" stick to some status immune ennemies, but they had no effect on status immune objects (like the cauldron).
Did that change?
It makes the necromancer confusing.
It is a bit weird, but that made clearing the maps much easier.
I like the zombies build up, but it makes every encounter very slow, as you try to keep someone alive while cycling as many wraith collectors as possible.

The book of dread is badly underpowered indeed. the poison cards are dead draws. They should be more expensive, but draw a card (and not break chain).
Everything being chain breaker is a big letdown too.

It makes it even slower than the Book of the dead (because stacking zombies make targets fall pretty quickly, so you don't need that many turns).
Also, every notworthy opponent being immune to stun further cripple the book of dread.

[Cute Tea Goat]

Alright, got this to work and killed Great Modir. Thanks for the tip on Homunculus. That really did glue the whole build together from unplayable to actually extremely effective. The only fight in the finale I took damage in was one where all the enemies started distant, so I couldn't chain revenants into soul armors and wraith collecters like I normally would.

It seems very inconsistent what enemies are immune to revenants. Many things which say "Status Immune" can be hit by them, but dragon eggs, which have no listed defenses at all are completely immune.

Ring of Shielding is also a decent choice for the middle item slot. Since much of the necromancer gameplay revolves around stacking tons of Soul Armor to defend yourself, having +1 armor for 2 turns makes it much easier to get going.

[Galdred]

Originally posted by Sacrificial Toast:

It seems very inconsistent what enemies are immune to revenants. Many things which say "Status Immune" can be hit by them, but dragon eggs, which have no listed defenses at all are completely immune.

That is a good point: the inanimate objects seem to be immune regardless of their traits, while no living creature seems to be, even the status immune ones.

[Cute Tea Goat]

I could hit spider webs, though.

[Cute Tea Goat]

And just got the Lich unlocked. Ultimately, I think this build is extremely effective with the caveat of Homunculus being 100% required. The only areas I'd probably avoid are the northern forest areas with the fairy stones, because dealing with those would be a massive effort.

Here's me beating the Lich:
https://youtu.be/YcDKAbbEy8I