Necromancer Leveling Build

Introduction

While there may be several viable builds for the Necromancer, it can be overwhelming to create a build. This section aims to help players create a skill build to help with the early to mid game.

Note: During the Early to Mid game, players will not have access to most Legendary Aspects. Freshly made accounts will be able to unlock skill slots at level 2, and 4 more skill slots at level 5.

Corse Explosion + Bloodmist

We recommend this build due to its high AoE damage output and tendency to snowball as more corpses are generated. Bloodmist also applies Immune to your character, allowing you to ignore heavy hitting attacks and heals your missing Health.

Note: This builds NEEDS the required aspect, as it automatically triggers Corpse Explosion and lowers the cooldown of blood mist increasing its uptime.

Aspects

This build is cheap to build, only requiring 1 legendary aspect, while having a lot of potential to be improved upon with other aspects as shown in the images below.

Required:

Glove: This aspect is required for this build as it allows us to automatically trigger Corpse Explosion and lower the cooldown of Blood Mist. We recommend imprinting this Aspect on a 2 Handed Weapon to increase cooldown reduction upon triggering Corpse Explosion.

Recommended:

Ring 1: Makes Blood Mist less clunky to use by removing the Movement Speed penalty, it also has the added bonus of leaving an AoE which damages enemies.

Helm: Grants a barrier when dealing damage to an elite enemy, this aspect is normally combined with the aspect used at the amulet to provide bonus damage.

Amulet: This aspect combined with the aspect above allows for a burst of damage when a barrier is generated.

Chest: We recommend this aspect as Skeletal Warriors (Reaper subclass) is able to generate corpses for Corpse Explosion.

Weapon: This build does not use a lot of resource/essence so we recommend taking advantage of this aspect.

Ring 2: A simple aspect which increases the damage of both your Skeletal Warriors and Skeletal Mages.

Etc:

Skills

This Build does not require several skills to function, allowing for more flexibility when building your character. Because of this we have instead listed skills we recommend taking, you can then adjust the build to fit your playstyle.

Basic Skills

Decompose: Tear the flesh from an enemy, dealing damage per second and forming a usable Corpse with the flesh every 2.5 seconds.

Enhanced Decompose: If an enemy dies while being Decomposed, you gain 10 Essence.
Acolyte’s Decompose: You and your Minions deal 10% increased damage to enemies who are being Decomposed.
Initiate’s Decompose: Decompose Slows enemies by 30%.

Bone Splinters: Fire 3 bone splinters, dealing damage each. Each subsequent time an enemy is hit by the same cast of Bone Splinters, you gain 1 Essence.

Enhanced Bone Splinters: Bone Splinters has a 30% chance to fire 2 additional projectiles if cast while you have 50 or more Essence.
Acolyte’s Bone Splinters: Hitting the same enemy at least 3 times with the same cast of Bone Splinters grants Critical Strike Chance for 4 seconds.
Initiate’s Bone Splinters: Bone Splinters has a 20% chance per hit to make enemies Vulnerable for 2 seconds.

Decompose is a great option for a basic attack as it lets you generate additional corpses while your Blood Mist is on cooldown.

Bone Splinters is another basic attack you can consider due to its upgrade increasing your critical strike chance and its high damage output against a single target (All projectiles must hit the enemy).

Core Skills

We will rarely be using Core skills for this build; however, here are a few viable options.

Bone Spear: Conjure a bone spear from the ground, dealing damage and piercing through enemies.

Enhanced Bone Spear: Bone Spear breaks into 3 shards when it is destroyed, dealing 10 damage each.
Supernatural Bone Spear: Bone Spear makes the first enemy hit Vulnerable for 3 seconds.
Paranormal Bone Spear: Bone Spear has a increased Critical Strike Chance. If Bone Spear’s primary projectile Critically Strikes, it fires 2 additional bone shards upon being destroyed.

Blight: Unleash concentrated blight that deal damage and leaves behind a defiled area, dealing damage over 6 seconds.

Enhanced Blight: Blight Slows enemies by 25%.
Supernatural Blight: You and your Minions deal 10% increased damage to enemies within Blight.
Paranormal Blight: Blight has a 10% chance to Immobilize enemies for 2 seconds on impact.

Bone Spear Deals decent damage and can apply Vulnerable to the first enemy hit.

Blight applies debuffs to the enemy such as Slow and Immobilize, it can also be used to increase the damage enemies take from you or your minions.

Corse and Macabre 1 Skills

This skill tree has the both skills we require for our build Blood Mist and Corpse Explosion.

Blood Mist: Disperse into a bloody mist, becoming Immune for x seconds. Your Movement Speed is reduced by x and you periodically deal x damage to enemies and Healing for x of your Maximum Life.

Enhanced Blood Mist: Casting a Skill that Overpowers reduces the cooldown of Blood Mist by 2 seconds.
Ghastly Blood Mist: Blood Mist leaves behind a Corpse every 0.95 second.
Dreadful Blood Mist: Blood Mist Fortifies you for Base Life each time it hits an enemy

Corpse Explosion: Detonate a Corpse, dealing x damage to surrounding enemies.

Enhanced Corpse Explosion: Corpse Explosion’s radius is increased by 15%.
Blighted Corpse Explosion: Corpse Explosion becomes a Darkness Skill and, instead of exploding, releases a vile miasma dealing Shadow Damage over 6 seconds.
Plagued Corpse Explosion: Corpse Explosion deals increased damage to enemies that are Slowed, Stunned or Vulnerable. These damage bonuses can stack.

Corpse Explosion will be the bulk of your damage output, this skill snowballs with the amount of enemies/corpses on the field.

Blood Mist is the skill we will most often use in our build, provides healing and makes you immune to damage.

Curse Skills

Iron Maiden: Curse the target area. Enemies afflicted by Iron Maiden take 10% damage each time they deal direct damage. Lasts 10 seconds.

Enhanced Iron Maiden: Iron Maiden no longer costs Essence. Instead, gain 5 Essence for each enemy Cursed. Does not work with enemies who are already Cursed with Iron Maiden.
Abhorrent Iron Maiden: Heal for 5% of your Maximum Life when an enemy dies while afflicted with Iron Maiden.
Horrid Iron Maiden: When at least 3 enemies are afflicted by Iron Maiden, its damage is increased by 15%.

Decrepify: Curse the target area. Enemies afflicted by Decrepify are Slowed by 50% and deal 25% less damage for 10 seconds.

Enhanced Decrepify: Lucky Hit: Enemies hit while afflicted with Decrepify have up to a 10% chance to Stun them for 2 seconds.
Abhorrent Decrepify: Lucky Hit: Enemies hit while afflicted with Decrepify have up to a 15% chance to reduce your active Cooldowns by 1.5 second.
Horrid Decrepify: When you or your Minions hit an enemy afflicted with Decrepify below 10% Life, they are instantly killed. Does not work on Bosses.

Iron Maiden is your goto choice if you’re looking for a skill to help with resource/Essence regen.

Decrepify applies several debuffs on an enemy such as Slow, decrease damage dealt and Stun. It can also be used to lower your skill cooldown with its upgrade.

Corse and Macabre 2 Skills

Requires testing but so far not enough skill points to invest skills in this tree

Ultimate Skills

Requires testing but so far not enough skill points to invest skills in this tree