Necromancer strategy/builds

[Dwarf_Hammer]

I have a level 37 lich necromancer who went back to the west. The game has gotten much easier, as long as I keep a large number of minions around. Adventurer parties and orc patrols are nearly a non-threat.

I agree with bricks. Minion management is annoying. Your minions are too dumb to navigate corridors without getting stuck somewhere and dying. For example, the Thaloren city is crowded with npcs and narrow roads, so it makes shopping there a hassle (though the city looks very nice). The aura's range might be too restrictive. There's already a limit to the # of minions you have have around. And they tend to get themselves killed quite often (by traps, other minions, etc..).

Anyway, nearly all necromancer talents have a long cooldown, so you'll need a source of metaflow for emergencies. Especially, since Curse of the Meek is unreliable as minion fuel.

Best minions: Archers and ghouls. Archers are like moving turrets and high level ghouls can use retch (your only source of minion healing).

Worse minions: Skeleton mages and armored skeleton warriors. Constant friendly fire. Thankfully, at high levels most minions get bone shields. And probably resurrect/heal themselves, I forgot.

[Aquillion]

The runes thing, while it's probably a bug, sounds incredibly cool conceptually. Perhaps there should be a Necro or Summoner talent that gives some of your summons runes or infusions, with better ones popping up and the chance of getting one increasing as you raise its level? Perhaps it could just be one summoner summon that gets a rune or infusion -- that'd be easier to balance. Golem getting a random rune could work, though it might not need the buff.

[Dwarf_Hammer]

However, getting Melinda out of the dungeon proved too difficult. Did I mention friendly fire?
(please, could Melinda get the escort's option to 'wait a few turns'?)

Saving Melinda was tricky for me. I had to destroy my skeleton mages, and use phase door to move her to safety.

[martinuzz]

Yeah, I did kill all my mages and Runed Bone Giant before heading further through the level. At a certain point I had to summon some back-up, and bad luck got me 2 mages behind the poor girl.

Good that you mention Phase door. I forgot.
- phase door at 5/5 is a great tactical tool for a necromancer. Gets the right summons in the right place.

[edge2054]

I saved melinda on my pre-b32 SVN necromancer. I used phase door to keep her away from my skeletons (and the fighting in general)

Which is exactly what I would do on any character with targeted phase door.

[martinuzz]

I just got cursed, and gained hate rescource.
Guess what. Kill cute bunnies, gain lotsa hate

[Sradac]

here is a powerhouse of a necro

http://te4.org/characters/50/tome/85db1 ... 25900d6212

Only had trouble against wrathroot becaues my powers were not evolved yet, all other bosses were pushovers. Including the mummy in the bottom of the elven ruins everyone claims is so deadly. Nope, wrecked it. Minionless ftw. Just be careful using haze becaues it bugged my game and now its impossible to get to the east. Went from 400k cold damage to unlocked cryo with this necro in 32 levels. I think thats impressive.

there is almost no boss that can stand up against 2 runes of the rift, 2 black robes, 2 impending dooms, 2 displacment shields, and 2 cold flames. Haze is soooo nice when it dosent bug your game. even without it, impending doom and displacement shield are just pure awesome.

[Sradac]

minons are for the weak!

Just had to say it. Minionless necro is soooo much fun I am so bummed that the game got bugged, I was fairly confident this was going to be a win. Circle of death, cold flames, and impending doom all triggering the black robe! It was a massacre. It was...beautiful.

[Sradac]

I had an easy time with my necromancers. I played 3, so far. 1st necro died to insidious poison. 2nd was stopped by a bug. 3rd is doing great. Tips: Max out 'invoke darkness', for self-sufficient killing, and 'create minions' asap. I only used my minions for boss battles, until I max out the aura.

I also tested a few endgame necromancers in debug mode. Here are my results:

- Vampiric Gift is bugged. It has no mana cost, so you basically get free healing.
- Blurred mortality is basically an extra 250 HP, which is nice.
- You will have a lot of spare generic points left.
- The advanced minions tree isn't that great. All I ever got from it were dredges.

@edge2054

You need to max-out invoke darkness now for your minions to be immune.

And these are lies btw. 4/5 in invoke darkness. and Vampiric Gift DEFINATLY has a mana cost, I didnt start using it till around level 28 because I just didnt have the manapool to support the massive sustain of it.
I had no spare generics, use your displacement shield. It is your friend.

[Dwarf_Hammer]

minons are for the weak!

Your necromancer died 3 times already. I'd consider it a failure.

And these are lies btw.

Vampiric gift was bugged in b32 and I discovered it:

http://forums.te4.org/viewtopic.php?f=42&t=28079

It was fixed recently. edge2054 already corrected me on invoke darkness and the other things on the list are true. Feel free to keep calling me a liar.

I had no spare generics, use your displacement shield. It is your friend.

I don't need advice from an adventure mode user who has never won before.

[Sradac]

And I wont take offense to silly comments like that from someone who just joined the forums 4 months ago and only has 60 some odd posts.

BURNED!!!

go ahead, QQ that you dont have enough generic points. Or you can do the smart thing and actually use the points you have. Died 3 times. Sure, first time I played a necro. And actually only 1 of those deaths was a death. 1 was to activate lich form. and 1 was to attempt to fix my bugged game ( OMG IM SO COOL I DISCOVERED THE HAZE BUG GO LOOK FORUM IM KEWL I FIND BUG!) so the staff would get removed, unfortunatly it did not work. 33 levels, 1 death, first necro. All in all I'd say not bad. Not bad at all.

Keep hiding behind those minions. they will decay after years of service. My powers will only grow.

[Sradac]

if you want to toot your horn about stupid things you did before other people, ok. I am the very first player ever to reach the sher'tul fortress and destroy the guardian back when it was MUCH harder. Before air bubbles. Before scaling down the horrors under the lake. Before nerfing the boss. But, you wouldnt know about that. You've only been around for 4 months.

[Dwarf_Hammer]

And I wont take offense to silly comments like that from someone who just joined the forums 4 months ago and only has 60 some odd posts.

BURNED!!!

go ahead, QQ that you dont have enough generic points. Or you can do the smart thing and actually use the points you have. Died 3 times. Sure, first time I played a necro. And actually only 1 of those deaths was a death. 1 was to activate lich form. and 1 was to attempt to fix my bugged game ( OMG IM SO COOL I DISCOVERED THE HAZE BUG GO LOOK FORUM IM KEWL I FIND BUG!) so the staff would get removed, unfortunatly it did not work. 33 levels, 1 death, first necro. All in all I'd say not bad. Not bad at all.

Keep hiding behind those minions. they will decay after years of service. My powers will only grow.

I corrected you, because you called me a liar. Nobody is is bragging about discovering bugs, except you. Again, feel free to keep ignoring the obvious.

Yeah, I have a low post count and a win (on roguelike). You? Playing for over a year and your greatest achievement was getting to the fortress first.

if you want to toot your horn about stupid things you did before other people, ok. I am the very first player ever to reach the sher'tul fortress and destroy the guardian back when it was MUCH harder. Before air bubbles. Before scaling down the horrors under the lake. Before nerfing the boss. But, you wouldnt know about that. You've only been around for 4 months.

I don't care. I already won the game. Keep playing on easy mode and never winning. Your post count is larger than mine. This conversation is silly. I'm won't response to any more of your trollish comments.

[shooth]

Can you two both put your pants back on and stop comparing your peckers? You are both giant dicks. I mean, you both have giant dicks.

[Grey]

Please reserve any silly insults for outside of the forums. All players here are equal, regardless of post count, achievements in the game, time playing or game mode played. You should both be ashamed of yourselves for throwing muck about in an otherwise very clean and civil forum.

Besides, everyone knows that anyone playing necromancers clearly has a small penis :P


[Edit: Bah, ninja'd by shooth, who clearly has a much bigger penis than me :( ]