Hey all,

As a huge fan of Necro (my first champ back in 2003), and being tired of AMP/CE, I came up with something that can be both solo and team viable.
Started with Passion + Zeal, but found runs felt slower and less stable (deaths, not smooth experience while playing manual, chickens/deaths when running via kolbot).

Sounds like a meme build, but it’s not - at least not entirely :D. It’s not Hammer-level, but still very cool, especially if you like Necros. Both team- and solo-viable. Tested on P1-P8.
Ran close to 2500 runs using different gear and skillset.
Build was created with a help of Secret Ninja and other good people that were keen to share their knowledge re gear etc.

Griefmancer- a Necro with regular summon skills, Curses, CE but with solid hits from Grief - IAS, CB, AS, OW, DS, and survivability. Death Knight / Ketheric Thorne vibes.
Frontliner. Check it if tired of being a CEAmp bot.

Stats:
Str 156
Dex 136
Vit - rest

Skills

1//Amplify Damage
20//Raise Skeleton
1//Skeleton Mastery
1//Teeth
1//Corpse Explosion
1//Clay Golem
1//Decrepify
1//Summon Resist
1//Revive
20//Corpse Explosion
20//Revive

It works solo and in a team.
In team play this build scales very well with external auras. Both the Necro (Grief hits) and the skeleton army benefit from Concentration, Might, Fanaticism, etc., which improves overall DPS and clear consistency. Because of that, the build fits naturally into most standard PvM team comps.

As usual, Eni is preferred (if doing solo) to make sure summons will stay. In teams/if you have a teleporter - can go with more offensive options.
Use Demon Limb (enchant) if playing manual for higher AR consistency, but it's not mandatory.

Merc - A2 Blessed Aim. A1 Fire Arrow with Faith works as well, but tests showed better stability with A2.








Performance notes (approx from ~2500 runs)

P1:
very smooth
zero survivability issues

P6:
stable
a bit slower, but still solid
P8:
viable
requires Torch + solid AR setup
positioning matters (frontliner playstyle)

Clear speed:
Definitely below top meta (Hammer/Java), but much more active playstyle.

Pros

very fun melee necro playstyle
strong boss presence thanks to CB
works both solo and in team
not gear locked (cheap version playable)

Cons

Needs AR to hit
positioning matters
slower than top meta builds
requires Enigma for best solo experience

How it works?

P1 Run Videohttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5YFejWagQ4E
P6 Run Videohttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=grv_IMlTXNE

P8 viable as well, but in order to do above run safely, and with minimum chickens per 100 runs, it would require Torch.

Open to feedback / theorycrafting:
any better AR solutions without sacrificing too much survivability?

thoughts on swapping Sanctuary for max block setups?

Happy to test suggestions.

If there's interest, I can share Horde build script.
Currently working on Soloplay version.

This post was edited by Velos on Feb 24 2026 10:28am

I like bone bear necros better