A comprehensive guide to the level 30 Bone Necromancer by ShamansEulogyHello, and welcome to my first guide.
Today we will be discussing my personal favorite class in the game be it for lld or hld
The Necromancer.
Not only can this character be very powerful if built properly be it for 1v1 or tvt. It also has a fun play style to it, and remember at the end of the day that's what any game is all about having fun.
In this guide we will discuss everything from a budget build to a high end build in both the 125 and 75 fcr set ups. We will talk about breakpoints and how to achieve them. Gear set ups for budget, high end, 75 and 125 set ups. Stat and skill placement. Then a brief talk about dueling strategies and what to do vs the various classes you will encounter as you pvp.
But first lets learn a little about the char. We will start with the basics.
-Breakpoints: Faster cast rate for a Necro
9/18/30/48/75/125
A lot of people prefer to use 125 fcr set up. Which is optimal for a 30 and very easy to attain. You will however at no time wish to go lower than 75 fcr @ level 30.
-Faster Hit Recovery: 5/10/16/26/39/56/86/152/377
You will want to maintain 86fhr in all your set ups. 56 can work in some situations depending on your play style, however I would highly advise that you aim for the 86 at all times.
-Faster Run Walk:While this has no true break point to speak of I would highly recommend having at least a minimum of 80frw in all your set ups. With you final goal being 100-120. This can be attended through gear or charms which we will discuss momentarily.
Next we will discuss your stats and skill placement. The beauty about this is with the release of patch 1.13 and tokens of absolution you can instantly respec your character at any time. So as you progress in the development of your character and obtain better gear you can respec according to your existing gear available to you
Stats:-Strength- Just enough hard points to wear gear. Be sure to take into consideration how your gear will effect your stats. Especially your strength and dexterity as it can effect your ability to swap your gears out and effect your max block.
-Dexterity- Just enough for max block. This can easily be hit using a Nerco head with the 30/20 deflecting mod or using the rhyme rune word in a 20s head of your choosing. preferably one with +3 to the spear or spirit skills
-Vitality- All your remaining points will go here. You should achieve at least a minimum 780 ife. With proper charms and your life can range from 800-1000. I have personally never been able to get a level 30 Necros life above 1,102 while maintaining proper breakpoints.
-Energy- Leave this at base. All of your mana will be attained via charms and gear.
Skill Placement:Now let's take a look at the Necromancer's skill tree.The left side of the poison and bone tree is all your poison skills, ignore these and focus on your bone spells which consist of
-Teeth - 1 point
-Corpse Explosion - 1 point
-Bone spear - 13 points
-Bone Spirit - 1 point
-Bone Armor - 1 point
-Bone Wall - 19 points
-Bone Prison - 5 points
Now you may ask why put so much into wall and prison and leave teeth at one point. Lets take a closer look at the tree. Teeth while it is an attack spell, only gives a damage bonus to Spear and Spirit. However Wall and Prison give it to teeth, spear and spirit as well as making your bone armor stronger allowing you absorb more damage. Some people may argue that placing a point a into clay golum or amplify damage is advisable. However not only will it make your damage suffer, at the end of the day it's just a waste of points since those skills can easily be attained for free via your head, wand or other gears without using hard points.
Gear: Now we are getting into the fun parts. There are literally limitless options for your various set ups. First we will discuss all the various gear you will be using then go over
how to put these items together to hit all your breakpoints in each set up.
Helmets: -Peasant Crown - socket it with a pskull, 9dex/15res jewel, sheal rune or perfect gem of your choosing.
-A 2pb 20fcr circlet - Try to find one with nice base life/mana, res, rep. Depending on the base mods, you can choose to socket it with a pskull, 9dex/15 res jewel, shael rune, perfect ruby or sapphire. Your options all depend on the existing mods on the item. Just use your best judgement and think about what is right for your character over all.
-A 2pb, 20fcr, 30frw circlet- The same applys for this one. Try to find one with base ife/mana, rep, res, stats etc etc Socket it a pskull, 9dex/15 res jewel, shael rune,
perfect ruby or sapphire. Your options all depend on the existing mods on the item. Just use your best judgement and think about what is right for your character over all.
Weapons:-Spirit sword - You have a little room to play with on this depending on what breakpoint you're trying to hit. However you goal should be a 35fcr, 100x mana, 8sorb one. Be it a long, broad, or crystal. If it item is not ethereal I would recommend using a crystal one because of the requirements.
-a 2pb 20fcr 3 spear or spirit wand - Magic 2pb,20fcr,3skill can be shopped and are very useful if they get 20s on the socket quest giving you lots of room to play with on jewels, which in turn will save you hard stat points increasing your life.
-Rare 2pb, 20fcr, 3 skill wand- while only having 1 socket most of the time can come with very sexy base mods. Such as high mana, stats, res, or best of all free curses or golums. making them a very useful item to have.
-Insight Runeword- Always have one stashed for longer duels, You can use just about anyone you can find under 50 str req, which is the most any bone should ever have while wearing gear. Try to find one with the highest aura your can
Armors:-A Vipermagi - No other choice here. 1all skills, fcr, res, and mdr.30 fcr ones are very common and can be obtained for little to nothing. However your goal should be to have 2 perfect ones being 30fcr, 35 res and 13 mdr socket one with a pskull and the other with a 9-15 res jewel
Gloves:-Magefist - fcr and mana regen
-Bloodfist - life and great fhr (since you are lvl 30 I would recommending upping them to
Sharkskin gloves)
-Frostburns - If you have any issues with mana, this will fix you right up.
Rings:-Stone of Jordan - 1 all skills, great mana boost
-10 Fcr rings - Things to look for on these would be replenish life, mana, life, res, stats, dr, mdr
Ammys:-1 necro, 10fcr- More for the low budget or lvl 29 players. However if you end up needing one for a temp try to find one with very high life, rep life and mana.
-2pb, 10fcr - Mods you want in most cases are rep life, high life and mana. I would also recommend having a second one stashed with all res or high single res like light or cold, for blizz sorcs or foh.
Belts:-String Of Ears - 15%dr and 15mdr good thing to have
-
a 17-24 fhr belt - Things you want to look for are life rep, high life, nice res and mana
-a crafted 5-10 fcr belt - Things you will to look for on it are Fhr, life rep, high mana/ mana regen, res.
Boots:-Sanders - This is what you will use in most duels. Can't be beat for the level. 40frw, str and dex bonus. Nothing more to say.
-Infernostride - 20frw, fire res and increased fire res. I always keep these stashed for fire sorcs as it will be one of the hardest duels for a necro at 30. While not allowed in tournament dueling, Most of the better fire sorcs will actually encourage you to use them as it makes the duel more balanced and fun. However always ask your opponent if they mind before you use. Remember Gm is the way to be
-Rare 30frw, 10fhr boots- These are a good swap boot to have but not really needed. Things to ook for on these would be high fire, cold, and light res. dex and maybe some fun mods such as defense based on char lvl.
Shields (heads)This is arguably your most important item. This is where a majority of those nice free golums and curses I was referring to earlier will come from. It will also be a determining
factor in your necros damage depending on how many plus to skills it has for you main attack spells spear and spirit. You will have lots of room to work with on these so I will just list the ideal mods you want to look for.
-Rhyme runeword - While some necs chose this as their max block shield, I would only recommend you doing so if you are on a budget. Things to look for on this will be 3 to spear or spirit or a combination of the 2 being a 3/3. Also look for things such as fire or clay golum, amplify damage, or nice curses such as lower res if you do a lot tvt. Maybe decrepify to bm those silly hld chars that think they can walk in and 1 hit you because you are level 30. No matter what your final shield will be you will always want a rhyme of some kind for the cannot be frozen mod.
-A rare or magic 1 nec 30/20 3skill - The nice thing about having a magic one is unlike the rare it give you the ablity to have 20s which in turn will help greatly with your stats, res, etc etc
-A rare 2pb, 10-17fhr, 30/20, 3skill- this should be your final goal. While some people have the means and opt out for an .08 Visc I personally feel that nothing beats the mods that a sexy rare head can give you. and in conjunction with a 2-3 wand will allow you to hit max damage for the char at lvl 30. Things to look for on this would be free curses and golums, res, stats, mana etc etc
Keep in mind you will not always need max block on your necro. So if you happen to come across a nice 2pb fhr 3 skiller with res and other useful mods. Kepp it. These however will only be used for cvc duels such as nec vs nec or vs sorc. Often in shields like these you will just want to use and eth rune for the mana regeneration or a nice res jewel to stack against elemental dmg. Never use a shield without a deflection mod to obtain max block on your character, It's just a total waste of stats. Also remember to take into consideration what you socket your head with. Depending on if you do a lot of tvt you may wish to use a 9-15 jewel for example for balanced stats and res. If you do a lot of 1v1 you may chose to go with a eld or shael rune. You may wish to try a combination of them to see what works best for your character based on your existing gear. Remember there is always a hel rune and tp if you decide you wanna change things up.
Charms:One of the most important aspects of any character is inventory. This is where you will have the opportunity to greatly increase the life, mana, res, fhr, and frw of your character giving him the ability to be amazingly strong for the regardless of the level.
-Faster run walk sc: As I stated earlier I would highly recommend using at least 100-120frw frw in all set ups. However if you are lacking in life and can't afford to swap out the lifer sc try to hit at least 80 at minimum. Remember you will have at least 30-40 on your boots and 15 if using a pcrown 30 if your circlet has it, so right there you are already up to 40 - 55/70. Things to look for on these would be mana or res. As I said before you should try to have 75 res in hell setting so here is a good opportunity to stack frw and res all in one. Ideally if you have the means to obtain them pre patch 5frw sc are the way to go even if they are plain. If you happen to luck out and find modded ones with res or mana consider yourself a lucky man.
-Faster hit recovery sc: Depending on if you gear like your heads, or circlets has fhr you may need little to no fhr in your inventory. Remember your goal is the 86 break point so only use enough to hit that. As with the frw sc only use plains if you must. Look for ones with mana or res on them. You may also benefit from using a single fhr grand charm depending on gear. As with the sc look for one with high mana or all res on the gc.
-Lifers: This is where the majority of your life will come from. Use as many as you can while keeping your frw and fhr up to par. If on a budget plain ones will work just fine as tempts and will give you and idea of what your total life will be later on when you upgrade as well. Ideally You will want 14/15- 10/12 life mana sc. if your res is lacking in one area you may also use 15-x single res sc or 15-5's Remember you will also want 75res in hell setting without Ayna quests plan your res charms accordingly.
Now that you know what gear you will be using, based on your budget let's talk about how to put it together to make it the most effective for each combination.
Low Budget - 75/86: Basic damage-Helmet: peasants crown
-Armor: Vipermagi
-Gloves: Bloodfist magefist, frostburns
-Ammy: 1-10/ 2-10 p&b
-Belts: 5-10 fcr belt / soe
-Weapon: Spirit sword, you will have some room to work with on this fcr wise
-Boots Sanders
-Rings 1soj 1 fcr ring
-Shield: a Rhyme shield with 3 to spirit or spear.
This is the most basic combination of gears to hit the minimum break points. While it can be enough to get by, You re not going to be much of a threat to any solid char since your dmg will be so low. Depending on the fcr of your spirit and crafted belt you may be able to use 2sojs to get a bit more damage. However I will only recommend using this set up if you are new to necs and just want to try them out for fun. Or if you have the gear lined up for some serious upgrades in the future. This is also the only build I would skill a hard point into clay golum in as well if you are not able to find a a good/wand head for your switch. You may also want to shop a 3bone armor wand and find a 3 bone armor head for vs melle. Your gloves will depend upon what you socketed your gear with. If you lack fhr and can hit 75 fcr Use bloodfist, for fcr issues uses magefist, and if you are really lacking mana and have fcr and fhr in tact use frostburns.
Low budget - 125/86 basic dmg-Helmet: 2pb, 20fcr circlet
-Armor: Vipermagi
-Gloves: magefist
-Ammy: 1-10 / 2-10 pb ammy
-Belts: 10fcr crafted belts
-Weapon: 35 fcr spirit sword
-Boots sanders
-Rings: 2x soj's
-Shield: Rhyme shield with 3 to spirit or spear
Your basic 125/86 set up. Very versatile and if you play well on the char can be very effective in duels. Remember to take into consideration your frw and life rep.
High budget - 125/86 high dmg-Helmet: 2pb, 20fcr, 30frw circlet
-Armor: Vipermagi
-Gloves: Magefist
-Ammy: 2-10 pb life rep, life, mana, stats, res ammy
-Belt: 10fcr 17-24fhr crafted belt
-Weapon: 35fcr spirit sword
-Boots: Sanders, Inferno, rare 30,10 res
-Rings: 2x sojs
-Sheild: 2pb, 10-17fhr, 30/20 deflecting, 3skill, res, stats head.
This is where the necro truly starts to become a worthy adversary. If you have the means to obtain gear like this then you more than likely will also have a solid inventory of lifer/mana sc and have balanced frw.
High budget 75/86 Max Damage-Helmet: 2pb, 20fcr, 30frw circlet
-Armor: Vipermagi
-Gloves: up'd bloodfist, frostburn
-Ammy: 2-10 pb, life rep, life, mana, res ammy
-Belt: Rare 24fhr blet
-Weapon: 2pb, 20fcr, 3skill 20s magic wand or rare 2pb, 20fcr, 3skill wand
-Boots: Sanders, Inferno, rare 30,10 res
-Rings: 2x sojs
-Sheild: 2pb, 10-17fhr, 30/20 deflecting, 3skill, res, stat, head
In this set up your dmg will be 1,049 - 1111 spear or 997-1086 spirit depending on if you have 2-3 wand and head for both. While a set up like this can be devastating and own many builds keep in mind it always good to have a 125 set up stashed. The great thing about this set up is you can stack massive amounts of res to the point where attacks like foh or blizz vs you is a joke.
Regardless of your budget or set up your chose the 3 things you must always remember:
-Get as much life rep as you can. Do this by using pskulls or getting base on your rares.
-Be sure to always have proper frw amounts in all set ups
-Be gm and have fun
Remember it's just a game.
Speaking of having fun, now that you have your gear plotted out. it's time to duel. Lets take a look at some of the more common builds your necro will be going up against and ways to duel them.
We will start with one of the classes you will be dueling the most. The Paladin.
For Hammerdins:This will be a very tuff duel, even with 1k life it will only take a few hammers to kill you.
NEVER RUN UP ON A HAMMERDIN NOR TRY TO TANK THEM YOU WILL FAIL. The best thing you can do is let them come to you. Use your bonewalls to stop there synch. If they get hung up on one try to tag them spear since spirits will take to long to hit and they will most likely charge away before being hit. Remember Spirits will not begin to track a target until the have reached the spot you placed them at. Use this to your advantage. Stand behind a wall and place spirits at the edge of the screen to catch them as they run up to you. Once they are on the screen tag them with some spears and place some spirits behind them to catch them as they charge away for the next attack. Rinse and repeat. Remember even in the max dmg set up your bone magic dmg will greatly suffer vs them since they have so much sorb from dual spirits and all the md of magi and soe. Get as much rep as you can and predict where your opponent will be.
For Chargers: This duel shouldn't be to hard, but never underestimate a good charger. A good one can break through your bone armor and 1 hit you if you're not careful. watch them as they charge towards you. Place a bone wall in there path and bombard them with spirits. As they charge away for the next assault tag them with some spears. Rinse and repeat. Remember to always walk vs a charger
For Smiters:As long as you don't get to sloppy and stand there like and idiot this duel will be easy. Hit em hard and fast and keep a bit of distance between the two of you and you're good to go. Remember nothing will out tank a good smitter. If you get cornered your dead. Stay out in the open.
For Libby:What's worse than a hammerdin or charger? Both of them coming at you at the same time. As you become more familiar with the game and get to know builds you will be able to judge some chars based on their appearance via the gear they wear. This will give you a small insight to what that char is leaning towards with their main attack spell. In the case of the a Libby for example if you look at the char and see they are wearing a red mage plate of some kind it's a safe bet to think they are more charge heavy on there attacks and have hammers as a secondary assault. While this may not always be the case, the best thing to do in this scenario would be to duel them like a charger. Cast a walk to block there path and place spirits at the edge of the screen. next change your spots leaving a bonewall behind you for them to get hung up on, and tag them with some spears. Be careful not to run into there hammers. Predict there path, be smart about the duel and you should hold your own well.
For Sorcs:We will focus on the one you'll see the most the fireball sorc.
East has got some the best sorcs on any realm and they hit hard. Never stay still for longer than 3 seconds vs a sorc. If you get locked you're dead.
use fire golum as a meat shield as keep it close to you so should they stomp they hit it and not you. Place your spirits in the path of their teleport and tag them with spear when they get close. Try to stay on them as much as possible without getting to sloppy. Remember most sorc have a great deal of replenish life. It will take some getting used to but find the perfect blend of offensive and defense.
For WW Barbs:This can be a tricky duel. You will have to have great amounts of frw. Keep your distance and place bone walls in there path. bombard them with spirits and rinse and repeat. If you happen to find yourself falling under there blade, remember to switch to walk for best block then get outta there and build some distance between you again.
For Bowas:This will be tuff. Keep your distance and outlast. Use spear as much as possible since 9 times out of 10 they will dodge spirits. Keep your bonewalls up and predict there path. If you happen to see a bunch of arrows coming up on you and can't avoid them, switch to walk at the last possible second for your block. it may save you if timed just right.
For NvN:All comes down to 3 things here:
-Your frw
-Your Life rep
-Knowing how to place spirits/spears
Pedict the path of your opponent and place spirits there so when he reaches that point he'll run into them. If you get in a situation where you have a bunch of spirits on you throw up a wall so he'll have to go around and stop casting then use a tree or something to pop the spirits on you. Keep your golum out at al times so the spirits will have more things to attack. Try to use spear as much as you can since a good nec will outrun several spirit attacks.
For Druids:We will focus on the one you'll see the most the Wind druid:
This can be tricky at times. Always stay mobile and avoid getting stomped. Use spear over spirit since you'll only hit the wolves and not them. Make them chase you and use up there teli charges. if you have enough frw you got em. If they run to resummon wolves throw up a train of spirits as a surprise for them when they come back. Remember to use your rhyme so you can't be frozen.
Assassins: Again we will focus on the one you'll se the most: The Trapper.
This duel can just be a pain in the
Especially if the sin just straight up abuses Mb. If you get locked you pretty much done for, avoid it like the plague. Keep your distance
and try to tag em with spears and much as possible since they will outrun most spirits. This is a duel where your really gonna want to utilize your "ninja spirits" Once again heavy amounts of frw is gonna be the way to go along with a hefty amount of replenish life.
Well that about wraps it up. I hope you have found this guide useful in some way and are on your way to making your own Necromancer. Please feel free to comment or pm me any questions you my have.
Alright, I asked Newstyle about being able to edit the post again, said there's no way to fix it so just reference this reply for final copy.
If no one sees anything that should be discussed or added I'll repost for a sticky if you think it's worthy.