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Necromancer Strategy
Necromancer Skills And Passives
Necromancer Items And Affixes
Tips For Playing Your Necromancer
Necromancers always conjure an image of commanding an undead army to do your every whim, and in Last Epoch, that’s pretty much exactly what you get. In a game that loves giving you pets, Necromancers get golems, wraiths, zombies, shades, and oodles and oodles of skeletons.
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But just because you’ve got an army of undead to command doesn’t mean you get to sit back, relax, and let your minions do all the killing. Necromancers can get their hands just as bloody as the other Acolyte subclasses, they just have a much larger cheering section to encourage their bloody mayhem.
Necromancer Strategy
You can definitely approach the Necromancer as the most hands-off subclass in Last Epoch. By filling every available skill slot with summons, only investing in minion damage and health, and as much Intelligence as you can, you’ll boost your undead army to truly terrifying levels of destruction. You’ll also be incredibly bored.
Instead, this leveling build uses a hybrid strategy of minions and spellcasting. You’ll still have an undead army to command, but you’ll also have a few spells to cast that will deal damage, improve your minions’ damage, and even raise more undead to bolster your forces.
Since Intelligence boosts both your spellcasting and minions, you'll want to prioritize this attribute above all others. After that, things that improve physical damage, spellcasting damage, and physical minion damage will improve your build almost equally.
One thing you'll want to look out for when building your Necromancer is anything that provides a flat value to spell damage. Nearly all Acolyte and Necromancer skills provide percentage-based increases, so boosting your base damage value considerably increases your personal damage output.
We'll talk more about what can provide these boostsin the equipment section later on.
Positioning is key to a Necromancer's survival. You'll want to hang back and let your undead army tank all incoming damage while you cast spells safely from the back line. Your Intelligence provides you with a decent amount of ward, but it's not something you'll want to rely on to avoid becoming a corpse yourself.
One unfortunate factor of being a Necromancer is that your minions will often look exactly the same as the undead enemies you'll find in the Imperial Age. Luckily, there's no friendly fire in Last Epoch, so you can keep slinging spells to support your skeletons until they eventually triumph over the slightly more evil skeletons.
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Necromancer Skills And Passives
Another benefit to this build is that there's no re-speccing required. In fact, you start the game with your main damage spell: Rip Blood. Although this spell might seem anemic to start (pun intended), it'll eventually become a bloody shotgun that can wipe out entire groups of enemies while simultaneously healing you.
The other spell that really makes this build click is Bone Curse. This spell curses enemies to take more damage based on your spell damage, but it doesn't discriminate on where the damage comes from. This means your minions get the same damage boost as you do, essentially letting your minions share your personal spell damage stats.
Summon Skeleton will provide the bulk of your undead army, while Summon Bone Golem provides a very tanky minion that will endure when a boss wipes out your skeletons with a powerful area spell. Finally, Transplant provides you with a positioning and traversal spell to keep you out of danger.
Both Bone Curse and Transplant will eventually add to your undead army, so don't feel too bad about missing out on other summon skills. Your screen will be full of skellies.
This build is intended for leveling only and will only discuss skills, passives, and items until level 60 (about when most people will beat the main campaign). Although each skill is described to level 20, you almost certainly won’t get all of them that high before the end of the campaign.
Blood Rip
Start with getting Eviscerate for the guaranteed blood splatter chance. This will make Rip Blood cost mana, but with even a little bit of mana reduction from a wand, the mana cost won't be too much for you. This turns your little handgun into a bloody shotgun capable of taking down multiple enemies at once.
After that, max out Arcane Absorption for the global spell damage bonus. This is one of the few skills that offer a flat bonus to your base spell attack, so you'll want to max this node before continuing down this tree to Run Dry, which provides a percentage-based damage bonus.
Put two points into Run Dry, then two points into Necrotic Inspiration. Now, the more minions you have, the more damage Rip Blood will do, and you're going to have a lot of minions. After maxing out this node, go back to Run Dry and put the remaining three points into it.
Now head back to the bottom path and put a point into Crimson Flood, and then max out Revile for increased blood splatter damage. And then, go back to put another point into Crimson Flood and finally a point into Blood Infusion to give your melee minions a buff whenever they get covered in blood splatter.
Summon Skeleton
An undead army needs to muster as many soldiers as possible, so the focus here will be on unlocking all the nodes that add skeletons to your summon cap.
Start with two points into Unholy Rage, then grab Marrow Walkers to bring your summon cap to four. Next, two points into Necrotic Conviction and then a point into Hollow Walkers to bring your cap to five. Two points into Unbound Necromancy then leads to Grave Walkers for a cap of six.
With more skeletons to work with, now's the time to improve their damage. Max out Sweeping Strikes, then Unholy Rage, and then improve their durability with Necrotic Conviction. With your Necromancer passives, you'll have a potent army of skeletons to do most of the heavy lifting for you.
Your skeletons might be a little weak early on, but they pick up speed later in the game. Just resummon whatever skellies perish on your way to becoming an all-powerful Necromancer.
Bone Curse
Bone Curse is the perfect spell to pair with Rip Blood. Entreat the Damned gives you three more skeletons, increasing Rip Blood's damage output, and then Ruptured Corpse adds yet more area damage to Rip Blood's blood splatters, making a potent mob-clearing combo.
Start with two points into Iron Maiden, then two more into Brittle Bones, and then Entreat the Damned. You should be able to get this path fully unlocked once you specialize Bone Curse, so you'll see an immediate boost in overall power. Next, get Ruptured Corpse for the aforementioned Rip Blood combo.
You should start every combat encounter with a quick Bone Curse before you start holding down the Rip Blood button. This will vastly improve everyone's damage.
With those key nodes out of the way, max out Brittle Bones and Iron Maiden to improve the damage of Bone Curse, and then it's time to improve your Curse's overall size with Conflation. With four points, even large mobs will all succumb to Bone Curse.
A point into Sigil of Mortality increases Bone Curse's mana cost, but it also provides a brief 25% damage bonus, which can be improved with a few points into Reaper's Mark. After that, Defile Defenses reduces enemy armor, further improving damage output (especially against bosses).
Summon Bone Golem
Bone Golem doesn't get specialized until level 35, but don't worry! Your monstrosity remains plenty tanky before then. After you specialize this ape-like amalgam of bones, it becomes even tankier.
Start with a point into Amalgam of Sentinels, then Tower of Bones, and then Fragments of the Fallen. Since you only have one golem, Fragments of the Fallen immediately provides a 25% damage bonus, and if it ever dies, its replacement gains 9,500 armor for 15 seconds.
After that, a point into Unnatural Speed, then two points into Hunger, and finally, a point into Blood Golem gives your Bone Golem a red coat of paint. Blood Golem provides your golem with a few more interesting tricks that still use physical damage tags.
Once you get your big Blood Golem, focus on making it bigger and meaner. Five points into Amalgam of Rogues improves your golem's lumbering gait and attack speed, while Bladed Fists improves its overall damage. Finally, two points into Amalgam of Primalists helps with both your golem's and your skeleton's armor values.
Transplant
For most of the campaign, Transplant is just a convenience spell to get you out of trouble or to travel faster. Once specialized at level 50, it becomes a buff and yet another source of skeletons.
Start with maxing out Fleeting Form, then one point into Marrow Blades, Simulacrum, Purgatory, and all three points into Ivory Court. Now, Transplant produces four more melee skeletons to add to your armor and further enhance your Rip Blood skill.
After that, max out Acolyte's Fervor and the remaining two points into Marrow Blades for a haste/frenzy buff and a larger damage buff to your minions every time you teleport. Finally, three points into Bone Armor and Apostasy gives you a defensive buff as well.
Acolyte Passives
We're keeping things easy and breezy in the Acolyte tree. First max out Forbidden Knowledge for the Intelligence boost, which helps both your spells and your minions' overall stats. Next, Blood Aura for more damage to all.
Then one point into Mania of Mortality, Stolen Vitality, Crimson Gluttony, and Unnatural Preservation provides a bit of defense that you can improve later on if you feel your Necromancer is dying too often. This will likely get you to where you select your subclass.
If you prefer not to mess with ward stats at all, just get Stolen Vitality and Crimson Gluttony to focus on your health.
Necromancer Passives
Once you become a Necromancer, you immediately get another skeleton to add to your skeletal army. You can then make this army more potent by maxing out Risen Army for more attack speed and damage. Cursed Blood comes next to improve your physical damage and your minion's damage. Put six points here, then put a point into Blood Armour, five points into Mortal Tether, and finally a point into Unbound Necromancy for yet another skeleton.
After that, all eight points unto Unearthed Arms improve your minions’ base damage values. Five points into Frantic Summons improves both your and your minion's overall speed, and five points into River of Bones gives them a decent crit rate.
You'll wind up on Heresy for Intelligence. You'll likely beat the game before maxing this node out, but if by some chance you do, go back and max out Cursed Blood.
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Necromancer Items And Affixes
Necromancers generally hang back and let their minions do most of the tanking, so you'll want to focus on improving your damage while being more balanced with improving your minion's stats. Here are the affixes to look for on your gear.
For more on how to craft items in Last Epoch, check out our crafting guide here.
- Intelligence
- Spell Damage
- Physical Damage
- Cast Speed
- Mana
- Mana Regeneration
- Minion Physical Damage
- Minion Melee and Bow Damage
- Minion Health
- Minion Health Regen
- Movement Speed
- All Resistances
- Armor
- Health
- Health Regen
Intelligence does the most for Necromancers, boosting your spell damage and your minions' damage and health. After that, spell damage and physical damage will both boost Rip Blood and Bone Curse. Cast Speed helps you cast both spells faster, which means more damage.
You'll need a little extra mana and mana regeneration to let you freely cast Rip Blood and Bone Curse. Prioritize getting this on either your jewelry, gloves, relic, or wand/scepter/staff/catalyst.
Necromancers don't get any skills that boost movement speed, so be sure to get the fastest boots you can find. And as always, resistances, armor, and health will keep you alive should an enemy manage to get through your undead minions.
Basic Items
Necromancers should look for these items to craft into powerful gear to help your undead machinations.
Name | Intrinsic Bonuses | Reason |
---|---|---|
Skull Cage |
| Almost no skills provide base spell damage. Even with little armor protection, this helmet should be a priority upgrade. |
Witch Hat |
| Mana regen is useful if you can't find it on any other piece of gear. |
Coven Hate |
| Even better than a Witch Hat, the Coven Hat provides more armor, mana, and mana regeneration. |
Initiate Robes |
| These robes don't give much armor, but they do provide mana. |
Witch Robes |
| Cast speed is a great stat to have. |
Coven Robes |
| Mana regen and cast speed are even better. |
| ||
Leather Gloves |
| A useful source of mana in the early game. |
Noble Gloves |
| An even more useful source of mana regeneration in the mid-game. |
Noble Sash |
| Not a lot of potion slots, but the extra mana is more helpful. |
Oak Sceptre |
| Potentially high spell damage and extra minion damage can be a great combo if you find the right one. |
Vault Scepter |
| A better Oak Scepter, but doesn't drop until much later in the campaign. |
Wands |
| Every wand provides a mana cost discount and extra spell damage. Use whatever wand gives you the most damage. |
Root Staff |
| A good early-game option if you can't find a good wand. Provides the same mana discount as wands. |
Imperial Staff |
| Same as the Root Staff, but way more spell damage. |
Moon Staff |
| An even better Imperial Staff. |
Prophecy Staff |
| Even more spell damage and a bonus to all minion skills. |
Defiled Bones |
| More spell damage means more powerful Rip Bloods and Bone Curses. |
Unique and Named Items
If you're new to Last Epoch, you won't have any of these items to start. But you might come across them in your travels. If you find any of these, hold onto them.
Don't worry if you can't find these items. None of them are required for the build to work, but they can certainly help a lot.
Name | Description |
---|---|
Peak of the Mountain | You won't leech health from crits anyway, and +5 to all attributes is a lot for level 12. |
Doublet of Onus Tull | A useful early-game armor, but you'll grow out of it quickly once you start crafting better armor. |
Avarice | A decent guaranteed drop, although it really just provides mana and resistances. You'll grow out of this one quickly too. |
Swaddling of the Erased | Cast speed, mana, and plus to all attributes is a great early-game option. |
Chains of Uleros | An extra 12% global damage is the best you'll find at level 14, but you'll have to get used to potions providing ward instead of health. |
Advent of the Erased | Haste for you and your minions. |
| |
Reach of the Grave | Good early-game wand, but will quickly be surpassed by better wands due to its low spell damage. |
Ambitions of an Erased Acolyte | Although you're a Necromancer, all your skills are actually Acolyte skills, so this relic effectively provides +1 to all skills. IT does little else, however. |
Orchirian's Petals | This guaranteed drop from The Verdant Lakes provides a massive boost to spell damage and a lot of boosts to resists, mana, and health. A great relic option. |
Cave Druid's Root Staff | Another guaranteed drop, this time from the one-time chest in Welryn Outskirts, this staff provides a big physical spell damage boost, cast speed, and +1 to your physical skills (which are Rip Blood, Bone Curse, and Transplant). If you found this on another character, start using it at 14, and don't look back until level 30 or so. |
Pebbles' Bitemarked Sash | The Pebbles set adds elemental damage to your minions, but it adds so much that it doesn't even matter that your skills mostly enhance physical damage. |
Pebbles' Collar | |
Pebbles' Femur |
Idol Affixes
You'll mostly be looking for the same stats on your idols as you would your main gear. Here are the affixes to keep an eye out for.
- Vitality
- Armour
- Health
- Health Regeneration
- Mana
- All resistances
- Physical Damage
- Minion Physical Damage
- Minion Melee Attack Speed
- Spell Damage
- Minion Spell Damage
- Minion Melee Damage Leeched As Health
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Tips For Playing Your Necromancer
- Don't even bother engaging one or two small enemies. Just let your horde of undead eat them as you run past.
- Boss fights are all about repositioning yourself to avoid damage while re-summoning any fallen minions. Throw in Bone Curse whenever it falls off and hold down the Rip Blood button until they die.
- Use Transplant as your get-out-of-jail-free card. If can help you escape even the scariest of scenarios.
- Your skeletons can be fragile until level 30 or so, but don't be too hard on them. They're doing their best.
- The Imperial Age is the worst for Necromancers since almost every enemy looks like your minions. In situations where it's just a screen full of skeletons, hold down the Rip Blood button until your side emerges from the carnage. There's no friendly fire in Last Epoch.
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