Hey y’all! I’m back with another build guide. The full, in-depth guide is in video form over here.
Also, here’s the Grimcalc link.
As per the title, this was a Necromancer-themed build. The inspiration came from the “Raise the dead” constellation, plus some other really cool bits of gear. Essentially, this is a pet build with one BIG difference: a lot of the pet summoning relies on us killing stuff (hence the “necromancer” vibe). This means the build isn’t stacked towards pure pet support, it also relies on the player having the ability to kill.
Even though this is much more of a thematic/role-play style build it’s still really effective. Not only that, it’s really fun to play 
Skill Selection
Summon Hellhound + Hellfire
Our main tank AND dps pet. He’s super awesome, basically. No Ember Claw or Infernal Breath, in my opinion - the points need to be spent carefully. Plus Hellfire benefits all the other beasties we summon.
Bonds of Bysmiel + Manipulation
Really sweet pet buffs. Even at one point each it’s really great, due to all the +skills we get from gear.
Blood of Dreeg + Aspect of the Guardian
Of course, the healing spell for everyone!
Solael’s Witchfire + Second Rite
Our personal DPS buff - we need to be able to kill things too!
Possession
A really awesome skill. A heap of damage boost, plus damage absorption. Super handy all around!
Summon Familiar + Mend Flesh + Lightning Strike
Arguably not necessary. I personally like having the extra pet, and those skills do come in handy from time-to-time.
Flame Touched + Temper
An AOE buff for everyone! Primarily useful due to the extra offensive ability and has some nice defensive boosts as well
Blast Shield
Much tank. Many Shield. Wow. At 12/12 this does so much! Our character isn’t the toughest, so this is super beneficial for helping us stay alive while our minions do the heavy lifting
Fire Strike Line
This is mainly our vehicle for “Raise the Dead”. The available skills to bind this to are sorely limited, so I found this works best. It’s pretty decent damage though, which you’d be able to pump more points into if you were so inclined.
Flash Bang + Searing Light
In my opinion, compulsory for almost all Demo builds. Really great all-round debuff, keeping enemies on the back-foot and easier to kill.
Vindictive Flame + Ulzuin’s Wrath
Lots of great defensive benefits with this skill, again to help alleviate our squishiness. The %total speed is of particular usefulness.
Item-based Gear
There’s also a few skills that come from gear choices, which I’ll mention here.
Solael’s Flame from the Symbol of Solael component
Decent damage dealer, but a great debuff! Especially when coupled with Devotion skills (see below)
Chaos Strike from the Riftstone component
Again, a really nice damage dealer that lets us pick off weak or support targets. The movement speed is hugely helpful for darting around the battlefield and staying alive
Conjure Black Scourge from the Black Scourge weapon
Our main hand weapon, of course! This is a passive skill, but is worth mention. It’s an integral part of the build (compulsory, in fact if you want these exact minions). Kill stuff with it and you’ll get Scourge summoned from the void to do your bidding. Wikkid!
Invocation to Chaos from the Will of Bysmiel amulet
Temporarily summon three Voidfiends to do your bidding. They’re nasty, and can be summoned pretty frequently. And most importantly, they suit the build thematically!
Ancestral Bond from the Ancestor Relic
Basically just a really effective passive buff for all our minions.
Devotions
The initial focus with Devotion is to obtain “Raise the Dead” (bound to Fire Strike), requiring 8 Chaos affinity. Getting this ASAP is important because essentially, the skeletons are pretty weak to start with. So leveling that constellation is key, as they become a lot better later on. This was obtained through:
- Jackal
- Fiend (Flame Torrent bound to Hellhound)
- Viper
After that, I (in no particular order) obtained:
- Hawk
- Empty Throne
- Bysmiel’s Bonds (Bysmiel’s Command bound to Flash Bang)
- Solael’s Witchblade (Eldritch Fire bound to Solael’s Flame)
- Raven
I’ll take a moment to talk about Eldritch Fire + Solael’s Flame. This skill is super spammy (no cooldown) and has a decent radius on it. In of itself, it’s got a decent debuff. When couple with Eldritch Fire, this becomes a debuff machine! I basically spam this skill as much as possible. It makes killing and surviving MUCH easier.
My final goal with Devotion would be to grab Meteor Shower, mostly so I can see how silly I can make the damage. But you could easily spend the points in a more defensive capacity, too (e.g. Sailor’s Guide, Eel, Giant’s Blood).
Gear
The only “compulsory” gear to execute the build as I did are mentioned above, as they grant skills that form it’s core.
Aside from that, gear selection is a balance between buffing your pets and keeping yourself at a reasonable DPS level. Fortunately, many of the items I suggested above give both us (the player) and the pets benefits. But aside from that, I generally focused more on giving the pets as much help as possible (because you’ll have so many) and keeping player DPS just good enough to allow us to keep killing (and therefore summoning). This is a bit of a feel thing, if you think you’re ability to kill is suffering too much then tweak as needed 
The Rhowari gear from the Rovers is a really good/easy way to obtain items for pet builds, so I’d recommend that. Other really cool pieces of gear for “honorable mention” go to Beastcaller’s Cowl and Voidsteel Gauntlents.
And there you have it! Give this one a go, and I hope you enjoy. As always, there’s much more detail in the video if you have the time to watch it. Feel free to send any questions my way.
Cheers!
Attachment: Witching hour.png
