Wiki Classes Necromancer

Necromancer

A dark summoner who raises and detonates undead minions, drains life and souls from the living, and rots enemies down with curses and disease.

The Necromancer is an attrition class. It rarely wins a fight in the first few rounds and almost never loses one in the tenth. You raise a small standing army of bone minions, stack curses and diseases that get worse the longer they run, and leech health and spellpoints out of everything you touch until the enemy simply runs out of resources before you do.

Necromancer is a promoted class rather than a starting one. It needs a completed Mage behind it, meaning one taken to level 100, and completions are recorded against your account rather than against a single character, so a Mage finished on one character unlocks Necromancer for another. You must also be level 100 yourself when you join, and a guildmaster has to admit or induct you, since the guild takes no walk-ins. Joining resets you to level 1.

Mechanically it plays as a pet-caster hybrid with an unusual amount of self-sufficiency. Corpses are a resource rather than scenery: you preserve them, puppet them, eat their hearts, explode them and inhabit them. Your own health is a resource too, spendable for SP and for freedom from crowd control. A necromancer who plans two rounds ahead is very hard to kill; one who opens with their biggest spell and hopes for the best is very easy to kill.

One Kit#

A necromancer does not specialise. Every necromancer learns every skill on this page, one a level from 1 to 62, with Dark Bond as the elite skill at 100, so the summoner game, the attrition game and the drain-and-sustain game are all yours at once and the choice is only which to lean on in a given fight.

Resources#

The necromancer spends SP, with a small number of abilities paid for in health instead. There is no separate charge bar or stance to manage.

Master's Blood (level 4) is the one you will lean on. It costs twelve per cent of your maximum health, at least 10, heals your active minions and makes each last a fifth of its lifetime longer. It cannot kill you: it refuses to fire unless it can leave you above a tenth of your maximum health. It still makes you softer at exactly the moment you were already under pressure, so use it while your minions still have the enemy's attention.

Minions are the other resource worth tracking. Nothing heals a minion but your own Master's Blood and Well of Blood: every other heal, a healer's included, does nothing for them. Bone minions decay over time, and you may have three active at once, rising to four at level 20, five at 40 and six at 60. Bone horrors and corpse puppets count towards that cap; the flesh golem sits outside it and has its own one-at-a-time rule. minions lists what you currently have and how it is doing. Every minion is also a stored resource in its own right, since Verata's Gift consumes one outright for a heal and deathnova primes one to explode whenever it finally falls.

Talents give one point every ten levels up to ten, spent with talents spend <tree>. Only Bonecraft, Necromancy, Curses and Soul Magic accept points; the Undead heading below is a registry grouping for the one skill that sits outside those four trees, and it does not appear in the talents display or take points.

Passives are listed by passives rather than in powers. Soul Reaping is yours from level 1 and is always on: it takes no slot. Dark Bond joins it at level 10, also always on and free of a slot: every minion you raise is bonded the moment it stands, just as if you had cast the Dark Bond skill on it. The other five are equipped two at a time: Deathsight at 19, Deathly Vigor at 30, Rotting Touch at 40, Carrion Ward at 50 and Dark Attuned at 60. Once Deathsight is equipped, deathsight switches its display off and on.

Every necromancer is handed a Soul Jar on joining the guild, at level 1, beside the grimoire. It is not a skill and there is nothing to learn or do: it is bound to you, cannot be dropped, sold, stolen or lost on death, and anyone who looks at you sees it. Each soul your Soul Reaping draws in goes into it, and looking at the jar, or typing souls, tells you how many it holds. The souls do not stay when you quit.

The grimoire is handed to you the same way. It is your book of the dead, not a skill: it is bound to you like the jar, grimoire name <text> and grimoire color <color> change how it reads to others, and bare grimoire calls it back to your hands for 5 SP if you are ever without it. Looking at it lists what a member of the guild can type.

Grave Walk is yours from the day you join as well, and is not a skill either. Standing outdoors in a graveyard or cemetery, gravewalk sinks you into a hollow beneath the soil where only necromancers may tread, for 10 SP, and gravewalk again brings you back up where you went down; the earth then needs two minutes to settle. At the gate of Aurin Cemetery it carries you straight to the door of the Necromancer's Guild, and back again from the door, for nothing.

Talent Trees#

Bonecraft#

Summoning and skeletal construction. Raising bone minions and later bone horrors, the bone armour, walls and locks, the totem, the skeletal mount, and the two abilities that turn a minion into a burst of value: Verata's Gift consumes one outright, while Death Nova primes one so that it explodes when it dies. If you intend to play the class as a summoner rather than a debuffer, this is where your points go.

Necromancy#

The core dark-magic line. Direct dark and void damage from deathbolt upward, the whole corpse toolkit, and the movement and scouting utility that corpses enable. It ends in decay, the class's signature strike, which lands one enormous hit and leaves the target dealing a fifth less damage for 30 seconds.

Curses#

Debuffs and disease. Marks, healing prevention, withering, disease and haunting, plus the food-corrupting rot and the purely descriptive blight, up to a plague that sickens every enemy in the room at once, up to six of them, and an enervate that leaves a caster's spells and cooldowns half again as slow. Curses is slow but relentless, and it is what makes the necromancer dangerous against things far above its own level.

Soul Magic#

Life and soul drain: the health drains, the healing well, the armour-binding soulbound ritual and the blood rites. This is the sustain tree.

Undead#

The higher-tier construction line, home to the flesh golem, a slow but devastating heavy summon.

Skills#

Bonecraft#

Level	Skill	Type	Cost	Cooldown	Effect
1	Raise Bone Minion	Combat	10 SP	-	Animate a bone minion from a corpse in the room; the corpse is consumed and the minion decays over time.
3	Minions	Utility	-	-	List your active undead and their condition.
4	Master's Blood	Support	Health	20s	Sacrifice your own blood to heal every active minion and make it last longer. Every cast adds a fifth of the time the minion was raised for, however old it is when the blood lands, and a minion can hold up to one whole lifetime of borrowed time. The cast also turns back its decay: about half of its age when learnt, easing to 40% by level 100.
6	Stasis	Utility	10 SP	-	Still your dead where they stand so they stop rotting while you step away. It holds for as long as you stay exactly where you are; any movement of yours, or a fight, breaks it. Cannot be begun in combat.
8	Bone Armor	Buff	30 SP	2m	Bone plating that raises your armour class for five minutes when learnt, rising to ten minutes at level 100.
9	Vampiric Call	Combat	15 SP	8s	Every minion with you bites your foe; each bite deals damage and heals you, so a bigger army hits harder and heals more.
17	Death Nova	Combat	40 SP	2m	A four second cast, made outside a fight, that primes one bone minion, bone horror or flesh golem with volatile death energy: the one you name, or the first not yet primed. It explodes when it dies, or at once with `deathnova detonate`, whatever its health. The blast hurts every creature in the room, but never another player, a pet, a squire, a fan, another minion, a collector or a townsman who cannot be attacked.
20	Verata's Gift	Support	10 SP	20s	Destroy one of your minions in the room to restore health and SP to every ally present.
22	Raise Mount	Utility	25 SP	1m	Raise a skeletal steed to ride, which walks behind you when you are not riding it; only one at a time.
26	Bone Totem	Aura	15 SP	30s	Plant a bone totem that pulses a slowing aura.
28	Minion Envelop	Combat	30 SP	5m	Give up one of your dead to seal a creature in a cage of its bones. Until the cage falls away the one inside cannot act or speak, and nothing can reach it. Great foes and players break out far sooner.
29	Bone Horror	Combat	40 SP	-	A larger, tougher, slower-decaying front-line summon.
36	Bone Lock	Utility	10 SP	10s	Seal a closed, unlocked door with a lattice of bone; only you can release it early.
43	Bone Craft	Utility	25 SP	-	Craft rings, amulets, necklaces and bracelets from harvested remains.
46	Bone Wall	Utility	20 SP	3m	A wall of femurs and skulls sealing one exit for 20 seconds; it collapses at once if you leave the room.
50	Carrion Ward	Passive	-	-	Incoming damage is reduced while a corpse lies in the room with you.

Necromancy#

Level	Skill	Type	Cost	Cooldown	Effect
2	Death Bolt	Combat	10 SP	-	Reliable single-target dark damage; your spam attack.
5	Grave Maggots	Utility	5 SP	3s	Gather maggots from any corpse, fresh or rotten, then clean a wound with them (stops bleeding and poison, heals a little), eat them, or throw them at someone, who may be too disgusted to fight for a moment.
7	Dark Vision	Utility	10 SP	-	Toggle sight that lets you see clearly in pitch-dark rooms and through magical concealment.
10	Dark Bond	Passive	-	-	Always on, no slot. Every minion you raise is bonded as it stands, as the Dark Bond skill would bond it, so a large share of the damage you take is carried by your army.
12	Trophy Skull	Support	30 SP	2m	Mount a corpse's skull for five minutes. Enemies here miss more, and those weaker than the dead may cower; your group gains a little to every stat. One per room. You can lift your own skull and stand it somewhere else; it does nothing while carried.
13	Heart Corpse	Support	20 SP	8s	Tear out and absorb a corpse's heart to restore a little health: the creature's level, or twice its level for a boss. Health only.
14	Preserve Corpse	Utility	10 SP	5s	Halt a corpse's decay, up to three preserved at once. A preserved corpse you set down stays where you left it: it does not rot and is never cleared away.
15	Corpse Walk	Utility	30 SP	2m	Inhabit a corpse and use it as a temporary scouting body.
16	Talking Skull	Utility	20 SP	1m	Take the skull from the corpse of a creature that had one (not a slime, an insect, a plant or a ghost) and wake it with your blood. It is named for what it came from and is seen on you by anyone who looks. It goes everywhere with you, has opinions, speaks for you, and can read a corpse. One per necromancer.
19	Corpse Puppet	Utility	20 SP	1m	Raise a corpse as a puppet that follows your orders until dismissed.
24	Void Burst	Combat	35 SP	30s	Heavy single-target void damage on a long cooldown.
30	Deathly Vigor	Passive	-	-	Your maximum health is a tenth higher.
33	Undead Camouflage	Utility	30 SP	1m	Wear death for ten minutes so the undead will not attack you. Healing on you is halved, and joining any fight ends it.
41	Inhalation	Combat	45 SP	1m	A six second channel that rips the life essence from a single target for heavy void damage; the channel breaks if you move or the victim leaves.
42	Corpse Explosion	Combat	45 SP	8s	Detonate a corpse in the room for area dark damage, destroying it. The blast hurts what you or your dead are fighting, other players outside your group included, and never your group, a pet, a squire, a fan, another minion, a collector or a townsman who cannot be attacked.
49	Grasp of the Dead	Combat	45 SP	1m 30s	Skeletal hands erupt from the ground to hold your target in place and claw at what you are fighting.
50	Decay	Combat	45 SP	2m	A ten second channel landing one heavy hit of void damage, then leaving the target dealing a fifth less damage for 30 seconds.
100	Dark Bond	Elite	25 SP	10s	The necromancer's elite skill. Tether yourself to your minions so that a large share of the damage you take is carried by them instead.

Curses#

Level	Skill	Type	Cost	Cooldown	Effect
10	Detect Poison	Utility	5 SP	5s	Inspect food, drink and weapons for poison, venom or taint.
18	Mark of Pain	Combat	15 SP	12s	Mark a target so every subsequent hit on it deals bonus shadow damage.
27	Blight	Utility	20 SP	2m	Blight the ground so enemies entering it take ongoing damage.
30	Dark Curse	Combat	30 SP	1m 30s	Laid before a fight, never during one. The target cannot be healed by any spell or skill; food and drink still work.
31	Rot	Utility	10 SP	5s	Corrupt a food item so its healing becomes damage and any poison in it is doubled.
34	Death Mask	Utility	25 SP	3m	Wear the face of the dead. The living who look on it lose their nerve, their grip and their stomach.
35	Wither	Combat	30 SP	30s	Rot the target's flesh for 60 seconds, dealing void damage every combat round.
37	Haunt	Combat	30 SP	5m	Torment a target for 15 to 30 minutes with a random effect about every half minute: phantom arrivals, whispers, dropped items, a stumble into the next room, spectral clawing, sudden darkness or forced speech.
38	Infect	Combat	-	8s	Infect a target with a contagious disease that spreads to nearby enemies. Each casting spends a diseased poppy, and learning Infect teaches you to grow them: `preparepoppy`, twenty seconds standing still and 25 SP for each.
40	Rotting Touch	Passive	-	-	Your weapon is permanently envenomed with rot, dealing bonus damage on a hit.
44	Plague	Combat	95 SP	5m	Engulf up to six enemies in the room in pestilence for two minutes, damaging them, cutting the damage they deal and the healing they receive.
47	Enervate	Combat	125 SP	30m	Curse a target for five minutes so its cast times and cooldowns run half again as long. It can fail outright, and higher-level targets resist it more often.

Soul Magic#

Level	Skill	Type	Cost	Cooldown	Effect
1	Soul Reaping	Passive	-	-	Always on, no slot. Whenever anything dies in the room with you, friend or foe, you draw in its soul and gain spell points equal to twice your level, and your Soul Jar takes the soul. Your own raised dead give nothing.
21	Vampiric Gaze	Combat	15 SP	30s	Instant drain that heals you for the amount dealt.
23	Speak with Dead	Utility	15 SP	30s	Call to the spirits of the last creatures to die in this room, learning who they were, who killed them and how long ago.
32	Soul Bound	Utility	200 SP	-	A long ritual binding a carried piece of armor to your soul. Worn, it adds a little armor class, for good.
39	Well of Blood	Support	35 SP	30s	Consume a corpse to open a healing well that mends every ally standing in it.
40	Unholy Feast	Combat	45 SP	1m	A two second gathering that drains every hostile in the room and heals nothing, sparing your group, companions and minions; the stolen vitality hardens you for 50 armour class per foe caught for 30 seconds, and re-casting replaces that ward rather than adding to it.
48	Strip Enchantment	Combat	45 SP	2m	Tear up to two buffs or enchantments off a target.
60	Dark Attuned	Passive	-	-	All void damage you deal is a tenth higher.

Undead#

Level	Skill	Type	Cost	Cooldown	Effect
45	Flesh Golem	Summon	60 SP	-	A five second ritual that consumes remains in the room to raise the toughest and hardest hitting minion available to you; it detonates when it falls, and you may only have one at a time.

Rites#

The rites are learnt after the rest of the kit, from level 51. Every one of them gives something up: a servant's health, a servant outright, or your own hands.

Level	Skill	Type	Cost	Cooldown	Effect
51	Minion Tackle	Combat	20 SP	1m 30s	One of your dead crashes into a foe and holds it down: it cannot act, leave or flee for three rounds when you first learn this, five by level 100. A foe of great power is held for as long but not knocked flat. The servant loses a good part of its health.
52	Chilling Grasp	Combat	25 SP	45s	Draw the warmth out of a foe with your bare hand. For a short while it cannot strike, leave or flee. Your own hands go numb and cannot swing a weapon for longer than the foe is held; your spells and your dead are untouched.
53	Undead Sermon	Combat	20 SP	30s	One of your dead stops fighting and whispers of what waits below. While it speaks, none of your enemies in the room can leave or flee. It goes on until you tell it to stop or it falls.
54	Onslaught	Combat	40 SP	1m 30s	Drive your dead to strike faster than their frames can bear. For a short while each strikes a second time every round, and each round tears a share of its health from it.
55	Sacrificial Lamb	Combat	40 SP	5m	A ritual that marks a living creature for the knife. It is much harder to kill and strikes a little harder, and any servant you raise from its corpse stands up larger and stronger. One lamb at a time; not on people or foes of great power.
56	Name Thy Fate	Combat	30 SP	1m	Speak a name to the underworld to learn what its owner shrugs off and fears, or bargain to lay a weakness to one kind of harm on a foe or a ward against it on a friend. Each asking is paid for with woven blood, or one of your dead sent below, or your own blood.
57	Bloodweave	Ritual	60 SP	10m	A chant that draws a quarter of the health of everyone in your own group who stands with you, yourself included, and hangs the blood woven above you for ten minutes. One measure for each person drawn from. It asks no one's leave and will not take a last drop. `blood` tells you how many measures hang above you.
58	Blood Scry	Blood rite	20 SP, 1 measure	10s	See where someone is, the place and everyone in it, as clearly as standing there. They taste blood and feel watched.
59	Wasting Curse	Blood rite	40 SP, 2 measures	5m	Lay a sickness on someone from anywhere in the world. It starts as nothing, lasts twenty minutes and takes more every minute, to the edge of death but no further. Any cleansing lifts it.
60	Carrion Madness	Blood rite	50 SP, 2 measures	10m	Feed blood to a beast or one of the unowned dead. It goes mad, attacks whoever it meets, wanders within its own lands and passes the madness on to others of its kind for a few minutes.
61	Faceless of the Void	Blood rite	80 SP, 4 measures	30m	Call up a tall, silent servant with no face that turns aside much of what strikes it and hits very hard. It needs no corpse and takes one place in your army. Later, hirelings refuse you and anyone who stood in your group for a while.
62	Unsanctified Resurrection	Blood rite	80 SP, 3 measures	10m	Drag a dead player back into their corpse, alive with what they carried. Something comes back with them and takes more of them every minute until it is cleansed.

Playing a Necromancer#

You get animateboneminion at level 1, but you do not start with a minion already at your side. Every raise needs a corpse in the room and consumes it, so your first kill of a fight is the one that arms you. Bring something down, raise a minion from the body, then let it engage the next pull while you cast deathbolt from behind it. Three minions is the cap early on, and at 10 SP a raise the whole pack costs 30 SP, which buys three things soaking hits that would otherwise land on you.

The mid-game rotation is: raise, engage, debuff, drain. markofpain before your minions go in makes everything they do hurt more. vampiricgaze keeps you topped up. deathnova is not a panic button: it primes a minion in advance, which then keeps fighting as normal until it falls, at which point it bursts for area damage whether it was cut down or simply decayed. Learn to spend minions deliberately: a minion about to expire is worth more detonated than left standing.

Corpses are a second battlefield. Preserve the good ones, since a preserved corpse is a future corpseexplosion, a future heart for a free resource top-up, a future wellofblood, or the raw material for a minion, a puppet or a piece of bone jewellery. Clearing a room and then walking away from six corpses is leaving value behind.

Talent points are recorded by talents spend and shown in the talents display, but nothing in the game reads them yet, so it makes no mechanical difference today whether you favour Bonecraft, Curses or Soul Magic. Watch your health as a second resource rather than as a safety margin.

In a group the necromancer is sustained damage plus a debuff engine plus extra bodies. Your minions can hold a secondary target while the tank holds the main one, darkcurse shutting off enemy magical healing changes some boss fights entirely, and decay on a big target blunts a fifth of the damage it deals back at the party for thirty seconds. You are not a burst class, so do not expect to top a short fight's damage; expect to win the long ones.