Arcane Wonders Forum
Mage Wars => General Discussion => Topic started by: phillipsjr2 on December 27, 2013, 12:24:41 PM
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Not to be too sensationalist, but he is powerful. In his base spellbook with no modifications he tore my finely tuned beastmaster to shreds. Suffice it to say having the facebook equipped, plus a graveyard, using the meditation crystal to generate mana while using your spawn points to generate creatures, feeding zombies to the ever-growing zombie who gets to 10 attack + bloodthirsty 1 immune to non critical attacks 24 health... I know it's 6 turns to set up, but while you hang back and turn him into an unbeatable machine for almost no resources (1 mana a turn to summon a 4 point zombie after the engine is set up)... you also build up the rest of your unfathomably powerful army.
In my opinion the sheer power resides in one rule: resilience. Every zombie in that book has effectively an armor stat of infinite, and are NOT overpriced by any stretch of the imagination for what they do. I'd love to be argued against here: it was a little disheartening to so rend my opponent to shreds with this mage!
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First I am going to saw that the necros base spell book is one of the most strait forward book to run- its (And this is a technical term) RARW ZOMBIES!!!
But seriously, I have noticed that the base necro book is a good one, and its hard to go wrong when playing it.
For the overall necro- Yes, he is powerful- but in my many, many matchups with him, I have found many tricks that shut him down.
First off- he is stretched thin for mana- those hoards dont cast themselves! Since the necro spends most of his mana (And actions) summoning and getting out his spawnpoints; in the early game, he is offten left unequiped, and even twords the late game, he is usually very unenchanted when compared to most mages. And this is not a side effect of play style, its something that comes from swarming with the necros medium costed creatures. (You can supper equip/enchant the necro just fine- but his swarms will suffer)
Another thing is that the necro can really easly be "The odd man out" or targeted easily. Its not hard to separate him from his creatures. And I would say that the best chance that a forcemaster would have it to push everything else away, and keep the necro held with something like force crush.
Cast tangle vine, teleport, force crush, ANYTHING to keep the necro away from his creatures. A necro with Alter of the Iron Guard and zombies poping up all around him is a VERY tough opponent indeed.
Another way that he is easily targeted is by a Wizard. IMO the wizard is the perfect Necro counter. He can just blast spells from afar and keep pressure on the necro- causing the necro to change his plans and really mess with his strategy. Wizards tower can even flank him, causing his zombies to slowly shamble in different directions, which makes them much easer to pick off.
And with the beastmaster- He can enchant his creatures; the necro cant. Buff a bear with Bear Strenth and lions savagery, eagle wings and maybe a defence and have it hover over the necro for the game, and even with skeletal archers and attack spells- you should have one dead necro on your hands.
TL;DR- the necros creatures are slow (Lumbering!) if they are resilient and he can be easily "Sniped" by mages with attck spells.
The necro focuses so much time and mana of getting those swarms; he often leaves himself unequipped and unenchanted.
The necro cannot enchant his undead creatures.
Really its hard to confront the necro head on- but with some range, and lots of tricks, he should be defeated with a little effort.
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I like your feedback! The only thing I'll comment on immediately is that I didn't find the lumbering rule limiting enough. I've played a lot of Mage wars and I can count on two hands the number of times I've actually needed to double move a creature. This being the only restriction on lumbering is a minor one! I guess too in my group of casual players we always have a normal start up to our games- both players will spend a few turns building up their little army before they move in to engage. The necromancer seemed to be outpacing their foe here pretty hard. Between ring of undeath, graveyard, facebook, and the meditation amulet, that's 6-7 free bonus mana a turn at a cost of 30(ish)- doesn't take long for him to recoup this and go majorly into the action economy super mana zone!
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And your right- I have said many times (And its even been said Im worng...) but I think the meditation amulet was just a perfect fit for the necro- he doesn't need to use his full action with his spawn points, and yeah, I have seen his mana go off the board.
I think that with a little economy set up, and then just go directly for that necro is the best action.
I would say that the necro is in this special (As of now) niche, where he is VERY strong against certain mages and play styles and very weak against others. (Which every mage has a sort of "Counter mage")
Try a game with a wizard using a little mana economy set up with lots of attack spells and see how that works for you in fighting the necro. I have a 12 win streak of beating the necro with a wizard (This was in playtesting) but with little set up and constant attack spells, the necro should go down.
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How does the necro fare in a 2v2?
Me and my play group are trying it tomorrow for the first time, any advice?
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I think teammates should cover each other's weaknesses. A Druid build with Fellela and battle forge would be good for enchanting your creatures, and giving you equipment. Plus, the vine markers will hinder enemy creatures, which is the same thing that lumbering does to your zombies.
Send your eternal savant to guard the Druid while she sets up all her vine markers. Once all the zones have vine markers in them, use Force Wave on your Horde, then zombie frenzy!
If your opponents are also swarming, you'll want to teleport an enemy mage to your side of the board, then your Druid teammate should cast tangle/stranglevine on that enemy mage
If the Druid is using Bloodspine walls, make sure that she only walls in herself and your savant and not you.
Alternatively, the Druid can set up Bloodspine walls and thornlashers down the middle of the arena, then snatch the enemy mages into your swarm. This strategy would probably be better with some skeleton archers and knights to protect the middle line of the arena.
Of course since I haven't gotten to play much multiplayer yet, this likely is only a little more than educated guesswork.
Also, the Druid would do well by summoning Togorah to guard you, since it has intercept to protect you from ranged attacks. Rouse the beast can be helpful for the Druid to run if she wants Togorah to guard you a second time in a round.
There are probably a bunch of other strategies you could use that I'm not thinking of.
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Also, the Druid would do well by summoning Togorah to guard you, since it has intercept to protect you from ranged attacks. Rouse the beast can be helpful for the Druid to run if she wants Togorah to guard you a second time in a round.
Rousing Togorah wouldn't allow him to guard a second time, unless you're using the Promo card Altar of the Iron Guard. Vigilant only lets the creature add a guard marker at the of its action phase, so it wouldn't have one unless it was Roused the turn it came into play. I don't think it would be legal for both teammates to cast Rouse on Togorah the round it came into play since the card says "you may cast this one time per round on the same creature" and in team battles each team is considered to be one player.
That said, you should focus on covering each others weaknesses as Imaginator said. If you use Zombies you'll have a bit of a penalty to mobility, so if your teammate can focus on bringing and keeping an enemy in your horde you won't have to worry so much about board control and they won't have to focus on killing. A good teammage for the Necromancer I think would be the Druid or the Wizard since they both have excellent board control. On the other hand, if you went with Skeletons I think a good teammate would actually be the Warlord. Fortified Position, Battle Standard, and Veteran tokens would all add to the survivability of your Skeleton soldiers. The Warlord's Battle Orders ability would also buff most of your Skeletons as well, and it would be cheap for that player to include many Power Strikes, Charges, Whirling Strikes, or Battle Furies to buff your undead minions. Thorg could also provide some board control and if you brought along some Vampirism it would increase Thorg's survivability a lot. If you two think that the Warlord could get enough mana to cast Akiro's Battle Cry that could be a very powerful finisher as well (since all your Skeletons would gain fast and Charge +2).
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But if you qc rouse the beast on Togorah, doesn't it get another action phase that round? I mean, flipping over a used action marker is the same as giving a creature another action, and therefore action phase, isn't it? And therefore vigilant would activate again at the end of Togorah's second action phase in the round.
And Altar of the iron guard only places a guard marker on a creature when it comes into play.
What's preventing rouse the beast from letting Vigilant work again in the same round? I'm confused.
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But if you qc rouse the beast on Togorah, doesn't it get another action phase that round? I mean, flipping over a used action marker is the same as giving a creature another action, and therefore action phase, isn't it?
Right, but since creatures are summoned to the arena inactive (p. 9 of the rulebook), casting Rouse the Beast increases the number of actions that creature has from 0 to 1 that round. Rouse also cannot target a creature that was not summoned this round, so it is impossible to use Rouse the Beast to give a creature more than one action in a round.
Btw, Altar of the iron guard only places a guard marker on a creature when it comes into play.
Yes. If you were using Altar of the Iron Guard it would come into play with a Guard Marker. If it guarded against a melee attack or intercepted a ranged attack that round, you could then cast Rouse the Beast on it, which would allow it to potentially guard a second time in one round. But I know of no other way to achieve two guards in one round.
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But if you qc rouse the beast on Togorah, doesn't it get another action phase that round? I mean, flipping over a used action marker is the same as giving a creature another action, and therefore action phase, isn't it?
Right, but since creatures are summoned to the arena inactive (p. 9 of the rulebook), casting Rouse the Beast increases the number of actions that creature has from 0 to 1 that round. Rouse also cannot target a creature that was not summoned this round, so it is impossible to use Rouse the Beast to give a creature more than one action in a round.
Btw, Altar of the iron guard only places a guard marker on a creature when it comes into play.
Yes. If you were using Altar of the Iron Guard it would come into play with a Guard Marker. If it guarded against a melee attack or intercepted a ranged attack that round, you could then cast Rouse the Beast on it, which would allow it to potentially guard a second time in one round. But I know of no other way to achieve two guards in one round.
What's preventing rouse the beast from letting Vigilant work again in the same round? I'm confused.
The restriction is on the number of possible actions in one round.
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Oh. You're right. I can't believe I missed that. It would be nice if that were in the target line of the card...
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Oh. You're right. I can't believe I missed that. It would be nice if that were in the target line of the card...
Same for Harmonize. It just seems odd that some cards have partial targeting information in separate places.
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Since guard stays in play until you activate a creature you can easily accomplish two guards in one round without any trickery can't you?
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Since guard stays in play until you activate a creature you can easily accomplish two guards in one round without any trickery can't you?
Yes.
Example:
Creature A guards during round 3.
During round 4 (before it is activated) it is attacked and counter attacks.
When creature A is activated in round 4 it may guard again. (and could counter attack again in that round)
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Since guard stays in play until you activate a creature you can easily accomplish two guards in one round without any trickery can't you?
You're right. I should have been clearer and specified that I was referring to placing more than one guard token on a creature in one round.
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In my opinion the sheer power resides in one rule: resilience. Every zombie in that book has effectively an armor stat of infinite, and are NOT overpriced by any stretch of the imagination for what they do. I'd love to be argued against here: it was a little disheartening to so rend my opponent to shreds with this mage!
Personally, I think Percing +X trait should have been "Transform X non-critical damage into critical damage" instead of reducing target armor by X. It would have made high Armored creature less indestructible and by the same way allow Piercing to affect Resilient.
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Personally, I think Percing +X trait should have been "Transform X non-critical damage into critical damage" instead of reducing target armor by X. It would have made high Armored creature less indestructible and by the same way allow Piercing to affect Resilient.
That's both a major upgrade to piercing, and a really interesting bit of game design. Tell me more?
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Resilient makes the zombie horde very hard to kill. Maybe if resilient had an errata saying: "Piercing X attacks may convert X normal damage to critical when attacking a resilient object."
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So, I hear this a lot about resilient, non-Ethereal attacks against Ethereal targets. Only two sides of the die can cause damage and even worse it is just 1 point at a time.
Dice are needed here to kill them, very simple. I have some theories, when I get them test I will post more.
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Resilient has a "Counter"...... its Critical Damage.
just give it time. Its a damage type and not just a side of a die for a reason.
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Also, Resilient creatures were given less health than similar tier creatures, so that when damage does get through it clears more of their health.
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So, I hear this a lot about resilient, non-Ethereal attacks against Ethereal targets. Only two sides of the die can cause damage and even worse it is just 1 point at a time.
Dice are needed here to kill them, very simple. I have some theories, when I get them test I will post more.
But ethereal has a counter. You can use ethereal attacks.
Resilient has no counter.
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Yes, but they also have no Armor. So while there is Ethereal attacks to counter to Incorporeal, Resilient creatures have no armor and typically lower life than equivalent level creatures. So that is the built in counter to Resilient. I know, I know Incorporeal creatures also have no armor (remember I do all of the data entry for the sets in OCTGN). So I think in the end the comparison holds up.
Here is where I agree with others (you know whom you are), more dice, more dice, and more dice.
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How to beat Resilient?
Officially anything that adds Burn (many Fire/Dark spells, ideally via point-saving Tower or Thoughtspore)
And rare highly situational spells (Chains of Agony, Force Crush, Hawkeye Psyloks, Demonhide Armour etc)
The Priest is great with his access to Light sources (Staff, Angel, Temple, attacks, basic melee) and Burn
In my very limited experience, the reality is you either
(1) fight Nonliving with better Nonliving
Devouring Jelly and Golems beat Zombies
(2) avoid the fight
Vinewhip Staff on that 6 Growth Shaggoth Zora?
Steel Wall with Hawkeye Sniper on an Archer Tower? (with Regrowth vs. Pestilence) - just like Zombieland
Eagleclaw Wings
Suppression Orb + Mordok's Obelisk as far away from the source
Fast (and Elusive if Brutes) and Teleport Wand works until they Frenzy...
(3) distract them
Plants are very cheap to vine pop-up, guard to trigger Bloodthirsty (yeah, I know, think of it as Viciousness)
Hydra (with 1 damage from Pestilence taken after its Regen!) with Rhino Hide and Bear Strength, perhaps in a Sacred Fortified zone
In reality, I believe only the 5 non-Pest Zombies (4 Brutes, 1 Shaggoth) are good
Maybe 1 Plague Servant + Sacrificial Altar to leverage Eternal Servant and Plague Master
Otherwise the concept of a Slow/Lumbering Pest Swarm is flawed vs. competitive builds
I am sure there are lots of other innovative ways to beat the Zombies.
I've only played against them once, with them once with above non-Swarm build, so very limited "proper" play recently.
But despite this lack of experience, I thought I'd chime in with some practical ideas.
Anyone else want to add their solutions to help the OP?
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Resilient has no counter.
Kill it with fire.
Edit: Damn. Beaten to it.
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Wand of Force Wave?
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Has anyone tried:
Psylock's? - Psychic Immune
Screech Harpy - Psychic Immune
Oscada - Poison Immune
All of these thoughts went down the drain.
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I have never noticed that Psyloks are psychic...
Then again they are in that place where I keep Gate to Hell
Great, I've learnt something, Forcemaster is even more stuffed than I realised
Still, the theme you mention above is good old idea of Royal Archer + Eagleclaw Wings
But that's more points than Samandriel and almost the same cost
Lucky you, sIKE, with your Priest preference as Holy rightly has the best answers...
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Has anyone tried:
Psylock's? - Psychic Immune
Screech Harpy - Psychic Immune
Oscada - Poison Immune
All of these thoughts went down the drain.
Ironically, Oscuda is more useful to the Necromancer himself than nature mages.
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So, I hear this a lot about resilient, non-Ethereal attacks against Ethereal targets. Only two sides of the die can cause damage and even worse it is just 1 point at a time.
Dice are needed here to kill them, very simple. I have some theories, when I get them test I will post more.
But ethereal has a counter. You can use ethereal attacks.
Resilient has no counter.
Resilient has a counter- its critical damage. Just because there isn't a card out right now that deals all critical damage, or converts normal damage into critical damage (As normal damage can be converted into Ethereal damage), or any variation of that, doesn't mean there wont be and it doesn't mean that its somehow not a counter.
Ethereal is to Incorporeal as Critical is to Resilient.
Again, its not just a side on a die- its a type of damage.
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How does Necromancer cope with the Beastmaster Swarm build stickied?
6 Falcons + 4 Rajan's Fury = dead Necromancer
Etherian Lifetree and Renewing Rain for Pestilence delay.
Then there are those Thorns my Foxes move fast through.
You wanna damage race me? First you have to catch me!
Cheetah Speed + Mongoose Agility, watch as I move 2, summon another Falcon and cast another Fury...
The more I think about it, the more I think fears that Resilient is too powerful are totally unfounded.
If Cervere was Resilient, now that would be SICK!
You need to treat Resilient as part of a package of Slow/Lumbering + Bloodthirsty + Nonliving + often Pest
That's a lot of generally debilitating traits to offset.
4 Brutes by turn 5 all summoned from Near Centre with 14 Channel for Frenzies etc is simply awesome.
Shaggoth Zora is good value just as is, even without its ability to eat a doomed Brute who has attacked.
But all the other Pests? Meh. Just cleverly designed Fool's Gold ("ooh infinite armour!") with fatal flaws.
Despite my hopes (see Etherian Lifetree & Corrode thread), Swarm is still a nice idea not fully realised.
Both "Me And My Buddy" and "Send Forth The Elites!" (Raptor Vines, Brutes) are sadly still more viable.
On the positive side, the gap is narrowing and Swarm is stronger now. And it sure is fun in casual play.
I have high hopes this will all change very shortly.
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In reality, I believe only the 5 non-Pest Zombies (4 Brutes, 1 Shaggoth) are good
Maybe 1 Plague Servant + Sacrificial Altar to leverage Eternal Servant and Plague Master
Otherwise the concept of a Slow/Lumbering Pest Swarm is flawed vs. competitive builds
I just thought I'd comment: the Necromancer has become my third-favourite mage (after Beastmaster and Priestess), and I agree with most of what you posted DB--except for a few minor points:
--I actually rather like the Zombie Minion. 7 mana for a 7 (un)Life Resilient zombie with 3 base attack and 1 bloodthirsty. Uses: first attack on my opponent's target creature, to hopefully damage it and trigger the Brutes' Bloodthirsty (also to remove Guards); Pest is a non-issue because you usually don't/can't guard with your zombies anyway; they help reduce the heat on your Brutes; and they're better sacrifices to Shaggoth when wounded.
--A few Zombie Crawlers can be good to include to pump up Shaggoth as well. Low in spellbook cost and good to cast when you don't have mana for anything else.
--One Plague Zombie is insanely good, even better with Sacrificial Altar, particularly considering it's only three spellbook points! It's a late-game play though, when many of your other undead are already on the table and you don't have terribly urgent uses for that nine mana you have to save. Both cards are auto-includes in any Necro book I build.
--If you're intending to guard, add some skeletons. Or better yet, drop zombie entirely and specialize in skeleton.
My current zombie build includes four each Crawlers, Minions, and Brutes, and one each Adramelech, Shaggoth, and Plague. I'm using a modified version of the starter I think you originally posted somewhere: Crystal/Double-Move, Ring/Brute, Crystal/Brute, Crystal/Brute, Crystal/Brute, fuzzy. I've had a lot of success with it, so far.
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Indy, the main problem with Pest is that Pest creatures don't hinder.
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Hi Indy
I think your points are perfectly valid
And I defer to your experience with the Necromancer as I've only played him once!
I think we are approaching the Necromancer with 2 different archetypes
Your build seems more Swarm and from your Crawler comments, uses at least 1 Spawnpoint?
Because of Orb and Obelisk (surely must haves for any Wizard or Forcemaster), I avoid Swarm
That's not to say that Swarm cannot just overwhelm
The one time I did play Necromancer (a rare vanilla game without playtest cards), I had just
4 Brutes
1 Shaggoth (because he's good value)
1 Plague Zombie (for Eternal Servant + Sacrificial Altar, as you say)
No spawnpoints
Cloak of Shadows with Nullify on top (important as I was playing against Fire Wizard, popular with DvN out)
The rest was all move spells (Frenzies, Teleports, Force Push) and debuffs (acid ball, marked for death etc)
It was this build, probably with a few last minute changes (I'm a tinkerer)
http://forum.arcanewonders.com/index.php?topic=13497.msg28645#msg28645
I Eternal Servant my vanguard Brute as I knew he would be damaged by Wizard's Tower
When he died, I recast it and saved Eternal Servant for Plague Zombie + Altar shenanigans
But they played no part as the opponent was dead by then! I was shocked at the efficiency.
The ability to Frenzy, which cannot be countered by any means, is incredible, even if a full action.
To truly abuse it, you ensure you do not injure any other creature except enemy mage: Kill the King.
I had Cloak and Nullify protection against Teleport, safely 2 away from Tower.
I think the speed of
4 Brutes + 14 Channel by turn 5
Force Push guard/enemy (whichever has no Nullify) + Frenzy
Rinse and repeat
(Sometimes just simple Marked to Death to trigger any Nullify then Teleport)
It was just obscene...
I truly get you what you mean about Minions being good against guards
But I avoid wounding guards (Pestilence only comes out once enemy mage is wounded beyond healing)
I play the Necromancer like somaddict plays the Forcemaster Grizzlies
And just from that one game, I just found this approach too fast - the Wizard was brutalised
I now understand why somaddict's Forcemaster plus Grizzlies build is such a dangerous build
But this seemed to be an upgrade
I think it's upgrade but it may not be...
Because it was recently ruled that Forcemaster's Force Pull is an untyped spell
This was very important as it further weakens Nullify
Still Cloak of Shadows + Nullify gave me the protection to focus solely on the attack
Anyway, I have only played one game as Necromancer and played him different to how he was designed
So I really do defer to your greater experience when playing him
Also the Wizard could have been played a bit better, mistakes were made
But from that one game, I am surprised anybody bothers with a longer game strategy
You only need to do 32-40 damage maximum in a game usually, anything else is Win More
I was just sharing that insight
I think what you wrote, Indy, is totally true for a more traditional Zombie Swarm build
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It sounds like you think you can ignore guards when there is a wounded target in the same zone.
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Yes, but they also have no Armor. So while there is Ethereal attacks to counter to Incorporeal, Resilient creatures have no armor and typically lower life than equivalent level creatures. So that is the built in counter to Resilient. I know, I know Incorporeal creatures also have no armor (remember I do all of the data entry for the sets in OCTGN). So I think in the end the comparison holds up.
Here is where I agree with others (you know whom you are), more dice, more dice, and more dice.
Resilient is equivalent of infinite armor.
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It sounds like you think you can ignore guards when there is a wounded target in the same zone.
No, I know Bloodthirsty doesn't allow that (it would be an awesome positive trait)
I just Force Push the guard away before the first attack to maul the Wizard
This Fire Wizard put Nullify on himself but not the Hydra or Jelly
He made a big mistake by casting a Jelly first over a Hydra second
Because the Jelly has no counterstrike and I'm not distracted by it
I see his logic (he expected Pestilence, Deathlock etc) in that my Zombies would be neutered by it
But I wasn't playing Board Control, I ignored his Tower mana sink etc
Why attack the monkey when you can attack the organ grinder?
But I don't think the mistake would have changed the result, just lengthened game
Yes I had to attack the Hydra once (Agony helped minimise hurt there)
But this was after the Wizard was wounded
So Hydra being wounded didn't distract the remainder of the Brutes attacking the Wizard in that zone
Other mages will not be as constrained as Wizard who uses Slow guards
And that's where Indy's use Minions to distract Guards (like Butterfly) is indeed sound advice
However other Mages would be less prone to having Nullify protection
So you would assume you can move them more often with Force Push
So with Wizard you move the guard, with other Non-Dark Mages (no Cloak) you Force Pull the Mage
All I am saying is that I never appreciated the power of Frenzy until I played it
Especially if you have a QC (and mana) left to Force Push a wounded blocker out of the way
I'm starting to think we are not giving AW enough credit here about reacting to the meta
I think both the Druid and the Necromancer have the tools to beat the dominant Wizard
We're just learning the new cards, trying to understand how they work in practice
I know I'm far behind on the curve on that
And that's why I'm more than happy to be told I'm wrong because I probably am wrong
I have to say my opponent could have played better (I have to take my few games where I find them)
But then I feel I made some new-to-these-cards mistakes that I wouldn't in future
Did we play it suboptimal? Most definitely
Did we play it wrong? I don't think so
The Brutes/Shaggoth hinder once they attack you and this is huge
Leave without Teleporting and you cannot double move to escape
There was often 2 paths to the Wizard along a diagonal with 1 blocked
Oh look what I cast - Frenzy - no matter where I am in the arena!
I don't know, jack, I may be totally wrong here
But my first impressions were "this can be fine tuned to be even more brutal"
I wish I had the opportunity to test it more like I did before finally unveiling Golem Pit
Potential 4x 7dice Fast is absolutely disgusting (once softened by Acid Ball, maybe buffed by Marked to Death on top)
Is 44 mana Brutes + 9 mana Frenzy (simplistic, I know) with Channeling 14 too fast for such pain?
Certainly not. Compare to 4+ Falcons + 4 Furies Beastmaster Swarm. It's about right for Super Aggro.
So I am not saying there's anything broken here.
All am I saying is if Necromancer has this perfectly viable Super Aggro option, why go slower?
The slower you play, the more Control takes control
And the more you summon, the more vulnerable you are to Epic Control pieces
Necromancer was obviously designed to be played Mid Range Spawnpoint
But I suspect he'll actually end up being played Super Aggro (that 10 Channelling is better than +1 Melee)
That's all I'm saying: nothing broken here, nothing all that controversial either
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Just realised what I should have done in that game!
I should be using the Eternal Plague Zombie as my guard distractor! Doh!
(Just like Indy does with his Minions)
Let's compare Sacrificial Altar and Frenzy
9 mana to cast Frenzy: Fast + 4x +1 Melee
9 mana to recast Eternal Plague, Rot all enemies in zone and add +2 Melee / +2 Piercing to 1 attack
Even without Graveyard synergy, I think Plague Zombie may be better only because it's a free action
But sometimes you just need Z-style Fast Zombie Frenzy...
This is what I mean: we both played sub-optimally
We are all still learning to play these new mages
But I just don't see the point of Necromancer going Mid Range Spawnpoint