Last Epoch: Necromancer Leveling Build Guide (2024)

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

• 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.

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.

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

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.