Curse

Kaida the Heartless · Sep 29, 2006, 10:18 PM // 22:18

Ritualists are arguably the best minion bombers as far as factions goes. But with Nightfall around the corner, i figured it's about time to release a build to dethrone the Ritualist as the Top Bomber and put the Necromancer back up where they belong.

*Remember, this build is speculated at the moment. By this, I mean the skills can easily change between now and the release of Nightfall.*

Class: Necromancer / X
Purpose: Minion Bomber/AoE Damage Dealer/Degen Pressure

Stats:
Death: 16 (12+1+3)
Soul Reaping: 13 (12+1)

Armor:
Cabalists or Other +Energy Armor

Equip:
+5/20% Recharge Wand
20/20 Death Offhand

Skills:
1) Jagged Bones (e)
2) Animate Bone Minions
3) Death Nova
4) Putrid Flesh
5) Optional
6) Optional
7) Optional
8) Optional

Skill Suggestions:
- Signet of Lost Souls (Energy and Health Mangement)
- Signet of Sorrow (Damage)
- Taste of Death (Lifesaver)
- BotM (Inbetween Fights Longevity for Minions i.e. Don't Spam This)
- Infuse Conditions (Health Management)
- Deathly Swarm (Damage)
Many more in Secondary Classes (Dwayna's Sorrow for Example)

Strategy:
Deal Damage in the beginning of fights until a corpse is present. Raise Bone Minions from the corpse. Select one minion, and cast these spells in order: Jagged Bones, Death Nova, Putrid Flesh. This will sacrifice a minion for AoE Damage, Poison, and Disease. A Jagged Horror will also be risen from the minion's remains. Move to other ressurected minion and repeat.

Jagged Horrors are nice to bomb off as well, since the same tactics can be used with them, but consider the fact that they cause bleeding. Instead of using them to bomb, wait for another corpse and proceed to bomb off minions only. This way, you are leaving a miniature army of Jagged Horrors to inflict bleeding onto your foes.

It's a pretty simple build and I can easily imagine many individual builds comming off of this one.

The Necro-bomber is makin a comeback! Awesome!

Hella Good · Sep 29, 2006, 11:11 PM // 23:11

I used:
Illusion 8
DM 10
SR/BM rest (very low BM, DBond is perfectly fine at a couple of poins in)

1- Conjure Phantasm
2- Shambling Horror
3- Jagged Bones (E)
4- Death Nova
5- Taste of Death
6- Distortion
7- Dark Bond
8- Res

Inbetween ToD, Distortion, and DB, I was very, very hard to kill. I used this in RA actually.

Kaida the Heartless · Sep 29, 2006, 11:49 PM // 23:49

Yea, mine is a little more swung towards the PvE side. It's definitaly the build I am going to run bringing my necro through Nightfall.

kazjun · Oct 02, 2006, 04:47 AM // 04:47

Sweet. Can't wait to try out jagged bones

Do you know if the hero AI uses deathnova on your minions?
I know that they use it on their own minions, but didn't try it while
I was running minions too. Was busy trying out D/P.
If they do, that could free up a slot on your skill bar. If you make your heroes MM. Hmm, can you imagine going MM and having two heroes MM? ~30 minions and nova on all of them

drools...

KlutzySpy · Oct 03, 2006, 08:42 AM // 08:42

you could also a "normal" mm and then one who does all these new spells aswell as some energy and life managment

Kaida the Heartless · Oct 04, 2006, 03:13 AM // 03:13

Yea, I can see the missions being rolled now. MM's got a huge boost with this update. I love it.

Rancour · Oct 04, 2006, 04:57 AM // 04:57

I still think the Ritualist is better... They have Explosive Growth, which will trigger twice if you either use Animate Bones Minions or if you use Animate Shambling Horror w/ Jagged Bones, and they can time the death of all minions at once with Signet of Creation.

Kaida the Heartless · Oct 04, 2006, 06:18 PM // 18:18

I tried that when Factions first came out and it didn't set off the death novas. Plus, if you kill them that way, then you can't use Putrid Flesh. Explosive Growth is nice, but since it does Lightning Damage, it's hardly effective versus the higher level monsters, imo.

Rancour · Oct 04, 2006, 07:32 PM // 19:32

Wow, I didn't believe that when I saw it but I just tried; I had NO idea Signet of Creation wouldn't trigger Death Nova. That sucks, but it gives me a new reason to use my necro.

Thanks Kaida.

Kaida the Heartless · Oct 05, 2006, 05:20 AM // 05:20

No prob. I was practically drooling when I saw that when Factions first came out. My first thought was "Oh my gawd, 10 minion 1k damage nova bomb"! Then i tested it and i was disappointed. Silly game balance. :P

But yea, now exploding those minions has a little more offensive potential than always healing yourself (taste of death). I can even see a meatshield and bomb hybrid combination comming out of this. Ill work on it to see what I can do!

Rancour · Oct 05, 2006, 06:19 AM // 06:19

Perhaps one could shove EoE in there to make the Minions damage each other when they die?
Granted, the damage isn't much but the Minions will always be below the 90% threshold or whatever it is and you'll be setting off your Minions pretty rapidly so I guess the last 5 minions will die at the same time... That sounds pretty mean too.

EDIT: Did you actually test if Putrid Flesh triggers the Death Nova? Because it says "destroy" target undead ally; just like it says destroy in Signet of Creation, which doesn't work.

Hella Good · Oct 05, 2006, 03:22 PM // 15:22

Taste of Death is a much better choice than Putrid Flesh. The novas will kill everything inbetween the spike damage and the poison. And ToD is a wonderful way to keep yourself by massive heals every 5s or so.

Kaida the Heartless · Oct 05, 2006, 07:47 PM // 19:47

I would think Taste of Death to be better in a PvP environment, such as the build you suggested in the second post here. Otherwise, I find the healing I need whilst in a PvE environment to be minimal. Signet of Souls should cover that just fine. Then again, it wouldn't hurt to have that around for emergency situations.

As far as using EoE, I usually explode my minions on a 1-at-a-time basis. I usually boon then kill, switch minion, boon then kill, switch minion, etc. If you are the type that boons all of your minions and waits for them to die, then EoE would be ideal.

I'm not sure about the triggering of Death Nova when using Putrid... that would really stink if it didnt work! You would think it would work since destroying is killing by definition, or close enough to. I'm hoping that the signet doesn't work just for balance issues. Where's Gaile when we need 'em? :P

Rancour · Oct 05, 2006, 08:48 PM // 20:48

Boon? Do you mean Dark Bond or..?

Anyway, even if you kill your 10 Minions one-by-one, each kill will damage them all if EoE is up, so the last 5 will die at the same time once you get to them. That was what I meant

And yeah, if Putrid doesn't work, it's gonna suck. Destroy usually equals death but it doesn't work like that with Signet of Creation. Guess we'll just have to test when NF gets out.

Kaida the Heartless · Oct 06, 2006, 04:00 AM // 04:00

By boon I meant death nova is on all of your minions.

Now that corpses are almost unlimited (jagged bones), maybe well see some necromancers in gvg... ooooooo... ahhhhhhh...

*crosses fingers*

Blackhawk · Oct 06, 2006, 12:13 PM // 12:13

Fingers crossed we'll get the boohooers moaning that MM's are overpowered again....

AuraofMana · Oct 07, 2006, 09:09 PM // 21:09

Don't touch my MM again ><