How to level up necromancer?

[johnolesen77]

How do I level up necromancer, The pets die faster than the skill cooldown, so most of the time im without pets. Necro seems very poor early on?

John

[tqFan]

[1.1.1.2-1.1.6.2] Beginner's vitality Ravenous Earth Oppressor with leveling guide

Welcome to my thread about beginner/budget vitality ravenous earth Opressor! Introduction Oppressor (Oathkeeper + Necromancer) is one of the new class combos in FG. Usually when you create build you check what resistant reduction have in common both classes. Both classes reduce vitality resistance of monsters,so it’s good way to start. And also nice overall synergy, which makes Oppressor premier class for a vitality caster. Furthermore Dark One’s set is farm from specific mobs and is fast…

[Gnomish_Inquisition]

when you take pets you need to to take pet boosting stats on gear
“bonus to all pets”, otherwise pets don’t get any bonuses
skeletons should be the fastest possible way to level necro on normal and elite because they’re like a blender with fire in their butts

[medea_fleecestealer]

Max out skellies base skill and they should carry you a fair way. Add in the Undead Legion maxed for even more of them. And yes, look for pet gear.

[Ricardo]

This is a very good starter for Necro, props to the great @RektbyProtoss

My builds are always necro and always follow this for at least the first ten or so levels and never had an issue

[Ouroboros]

Isn’t the Nighttalon or Tsunami ones better?

Everyone praises flame torrent, but with ranged skeletons tsunami gives more AOE coverage.
If you want to have better single target, Nighttalon gives bleed times number of skeletons.
Can go both, and throw in rend in the leveling phase.

I’ve leveled lots of necros and I think both flametorrent and shepard is overrated (for leveling).

[Stupid_Dragon]

I’d say there are three confirmed ways to level Necromancers that I can vouch for being good:

1. Skeletons
2. Ravenous Earth
3. Blight Fiends with transmuter

They aren’t equivalent because say skeletons are available early and peak early while Blight Fiends require a passive from T40 to be at their best. In that case it makes more sense to make transitions, e. g. start with skeletons and then switch.

Things I tried and failed:

1. Drain Essence. Maybe it becomes decent after level 15-20, but picking DE at level 1 is a silly noob trap.

Things I didn’t try yet:

1. Bone Harvest. Honestly no idea here, can be ok, can be shit, but unlikely great. I only use it as a support skill.
2. Siphon Souls. I think it could be a hidden gem, but didn’t get to trying my theory out.

Controversal:

1. Levelling with Spectral Wrath. We discussed it in another thread. I used it as a supplementary damage to kill white mobs on PB Reaper, for reasons. Otherwise you’d still need a good single target skill to deal with stuff more durable.

[Maya]

shepard is overrated (for leveling).

[Stupid_Dragon]

I almost always get Shepherd early because it’s free %pet damage.

[RektbyProtoss]

• Skeletons
• Ravenous Earth
• Blight Fiends with transmuter

Bone Harvest. Honestly no idea here, can be ok, can be shit, but unlikely great. I only use it as a support skill.

Bone Harvest & Soul Harvest max with transmuter and 1 point into Dread using the Reaping Halberd is really strong aswell imo, I’d personally say it’s better than leveling with skeletons (apart from the first ~20 levels). It’s a little slower than RE, but pretty close tbh. I tried it on a Cabalist recently and it’s my second most favorite way to level a necromancer for sure.

Necro seems very poor early on?

Overall I’d say Necro is one of the strongest leveling classes.

[Stupid_Dragon]

My main gripe with it is you’d really want a Necro hood later, but you can’t grab one unless you pick another mastery first.

[RektbyProtoss]

My main gripe with it is you’d really want a Necro hood later

Yea that does indeed suck quite a bit.

It still felt fine to me even without the hood.

[RektbyProtoss]

Although early FG seems a bit scary on HC.

FG is fine on normal imo, a little harder than act 2, but not that much harder.

Which Hood are you guys talking about?

This one. You can only farm it when sided with Kymon’s Chosen (which you can’t choose as a Necro).

[Stupid_Dragon]

Honestly I think it would had been nice if Benevald or faction vendor just sold a copy or two of it of relevant level. Not a perfect solution but would had made it less silly.

[powbam]

Necro seems very poor early on?

Heh. It’s simple honestly…

1. Make character and jump on in.
2. Level up - drop 2 points in Raise Skeletons, 1 in the bar.
3. Level up - drop 2 points in Raise Skeletons, 1 in the bar.
4. Keep doing that and pretend you are driving a choo-choo train thru every encounter.
5. Keep winning.

The pets die faster than the skill cooldown, so most of the time im without pets.

Follow the above steps for leveling a starting skellie build and they’ll roll thru everything starting out. Sure they’ll die at bosses and the like here and there. Learn how to run around - study sceered chickens for pro-tips on how to perform this maneuver perfectly - until your CD comes back up.

Learn how to effectively use the Pet Move command to keep them out of dangerous shit.

[Maya]

Necro seems very poor early on?

Heh. It’s simple honestly…

1. Make character and jump on in.
2. Level up - drop 2 points in Raise Skeletons, 1 in the bar.
3. Level up - drop 2 points in Raise Skeletons, 1 in the bar.
4. Keep doing that and pretend you are driving a choo-choo train thru every encounter.
5. Keep winning.

That is actually poor advice.
The putting point into mastery bar every level does nothing worthwhile for pet builds. You will be better off getting your skills maxed out as a priority and bother with the mastery bar only when you have enough to get the next pet/rr/buff skill.

[medea_fleecestealer]

Seems some people just don’t listen when they’re told to leave something alone. So - thread closed. Well done.