YAVP: Shalore/Lich Necromancer (Insane/RL)

[Effigy]

Character vault

The revamped Necro is a lot of fun, especially with the Lich prodigy. I'm not that fond of summoning builds, so I played it as a caster with free ghoul and shadow summons. I unlocked Lich at level 26 or 27 and it was pretty much smooth sailing after that. I took Adept second and was considering doing a hybrid caster/summoner, but the points would have been spread a bit thin so I decided to stick with a caster build. Even just having 1 point in Call of the Mausoleum is very strong as a distraction, and the ghoul's Retch heals you as a Lich. I think a Cornac/Lich with Adept could pull off the hybrid summoner better.

The negative life shenanigans seem strong, but I didn't focus too much on transitioning between positive and negative life. Necro spells don't hit super hard individually, but there's a lot of synergy that leads to triggering extra damage, knockbacks, and so forth, usually in an AoE. In addition to lots of status immunities, I also had good armor, defense, and saves. My only death was from killing myself to become a Lich. The final bosses went down easier than I expected and I cleared 500 walls of Sludgenest. Overall, the build felt very powerful. However, I previously had a few promising Necro runs that ended up dying, so I wouldn't call it a free win. It feels like an A-tier class at this point. I plan to try a minion-focused Necro build later on.

[Delmuir]

Congrats.

I just got my first Insane win, also with a Necro. I did a Ghoul-based build that prioritized the Putrescence and... it's a killer. I haven't tried an Insane run with the skeletons but I have tested using the Dread for defense (if you like tunneling, it's a heck of a trick). I think it can be a Madness winner but I haven't tested it yet.

Let us know how it works out.