Part 1
http://forum.arcanewonders.com/index.php?topic=18092.msg84429#msg84429Equipment: There is not a whole lot to say in regards to the number of dark school equipment. There are 3 pieces of equipment for dark mages only – sectarus, demonhide armor, and cloak of shadows. Likewise, there are only 3 pieces of equipment that are necromancer only – death ring, deathshroud staff, and libro mortuos. That being said, the necromancer can make due with what he has available in school. You have a portable spawnpoint, a ring that provides a discount when you AND a spawnpoint summons an undead or necro spell, a cloak that makes you obscured, a chest piece with a damage barrier, a staff to buff the undead, and a sword to deal damage and put curses on the enemy. Now, the necromancer is not one to typically get in the face of the enemy so leave the sword alone for now. But, looking at his other equipment, you can see that he is meant to stay in the shadows, out of combat, spawn enemies and get a discount while doing so. If the enemy gets close enough you have an in-school chest piece to punish them with a damage barrier that deals critical damage. Similar to my enchantment argument, the limited amount of mage specific equipment allows the necromancer to spend his points elsewhere; he can dip into all other schools of equipment and can take all of the leather if needed. This is another area where the necromancer can really shine as he does not have to spend tons of spell book points on an armor build and only needs to pick the bare minimum items that allow him to execute his strategy.
Incantations: The necromancer is not lacking in this area. Some spells that he does great with are Reassemble and Unholy Resurgence. These 2 cards let you reconstruct skeletons so you can keep you swarm or big buddies going. Zombie Frenzy allows you zombies to gain fast and have extra bloodthirsty. Drain Soul puts tainted conditions on your opponent and allows you to gain life. I would say these 4 cards are a necromancers best in-school incantations. Combined with his creatures, the reconstruct and frenzy spells allow you to keep your hoards of undead alive, keep action advantages, gain a positional advantage, and bring the hate that much more. Drain Soul is perfect in that the necromancers starting life is on the lower side; gaining life is a huge plus but putting 2 tainted markers on the enemy so they lose 6 life is detrimental to them. Not to mention you can use this card over and over, stacking taints, and combo it with the plague master ability.
Going out of school: Every mage does this and the Necromancer is no exception. With training in only 1 school and no training in any subtypes he has to find something out there that is not in the dark school. Like I stated before, because he does not have to worry about a vast majority of holy and nature incantations and enchantments to buff his creatures and that his equipment selection is very limited, he can spend a decent amount of his spell book points out of school. Positional and action advantage cards are where I believe his points should be spent in this area, though. Force wave and force push if you are running zombies, tanglevine, teleport and lesser teleport for board control, seeking dispel to stop your enemies before they can gain an advantage, mage/ elemental wand to recycle spell book points, gravikor to negate flying since he cannot put eagle wings on zombies or skeletons, regrowth belt to stay alive to just name a few.
Strategies: Basic Necromancer tactics that work well
Swarm: Using a graveyard or libro to swarm is a very common tactic. Use the death ring to get your discounts and pop out 2 creatures a turn. I will say that this can be a little more easier said than done. Be wary with the libro. One dissolve or curse item and it becomes a harder game for you. The graveyard is more “durable” but it is much easier to take out than a lair. Whichever you choose, or choose to use both spawnpoints, protect them. Once these go down it can be difficult to recover from. I would recommend with zombies sticking to minions and brutes. It is ok to throw in venomous zombies, plague zombies, and crawlers, but I feel the creatures to give you the best “bang for your buck” are the minions and brutes. Skeletal knights and sentries are fantastic when backed up by a small swarm of skeletal minions. Zombies can stay around for a long time and I will swear by them every chance I get! The zombie swarm will not die fast so pump as many as you can out but remember that they are lumbering and your board advantage is crucial to making that swarm succeed. If they get separated from one another they become a much less gruesome threat. If your mage gets stranded from a well-timed teleport, your zombies are going to take a few turns to get there, no matter how many you have. Board position and control is key to running a zombie swarm.
Posse: Running a buddy build with a necromancer is a dangerous game! I would recommenda mix of 2 to 3 brutes/ knights, a grey wraith, and possibly a blood demon. The plus side to this is your eternal servant ability lets 1 of your buddies stay around the whole game. The down side is that once the others go, unless you have attack spells for days, you are basically SoL. Playing this game requires a finesse. Supporting your buddies is the biggest problem. The best way to help a skeleton is with command incantations or a reconstruct spell. Zombies have zombie frenzy and that’s about it. I believe this makes conjurations the saving grace of a build like this. If you can take the heat off of your buddies by using deathlock, ziggurat of undeath, idol of pestilence, etc then your buddies may be able to stick around long enough to take care of the mage. Chant of rage is also your best friend in this situation.
Super Mage: Making a super mage necromancer is like trying to play Battletoads on an expert difficulty. You don’t have battleskill, you can armor up but what are you going to do then?, your best option for dishing out damage is the deathshroud staff combined with the gauntlets of strength and bear strength - because of the rot condition - but then you are only using half of the cards ability and spending 3 spell book points on it. Sectarus is another option but keeping it around is just as hard as keeping a blue gremlin in a tanglevine. All of the necromancer’s support cards revolve around undead and necro spells. You could make it so you can melee and use multiple drain souls to taint the enemy to death. But there are more contingencies to build in, more counters to worry about, and hoops to jump through to get this running strong. But who knows, someone could make this work someday, who am I to say?
Tools of the Trade:
I thought I would share a few tips I have learned along the way that may help you guys in necromancer play.
Always plan some sort of healing. This seems like common knowledge but I have seen many people just use drain soul - don’t just rely on drain soul. This card can be countered with jinx and nullify. I have had great success with regrowth belt, death link and theft of life. Also, throw in a siphon life or drain life for mirror matches – drain soul will not work on another necromancer. Mend is also a nice option since it is a novice spell.
Cloak of shadows and curse item work really well together. Stay obscured and put the enchantments on instead of running in to dissolve and losing your cloak.
Keep some cards that are beneficial to you but will also work on zombies and skeletons in case of a mirror match. Cards such as marked for death, curse of decay, agony, chains of agony, enfeeble, etc.
Brace yourself and Nullify are a necromancer’s best friend early game. A typical necromancer swarm using the libro will get rushed. Nullify can be baited but make the enemy work that much harder to stop your strategy. If they rush to dissolve you have nullify. If they rush with attacks you have brace yourself.
The more moving parts you have the more contingencies you have to plan for. Deathlock, graveyard, idol of pestilence, creatures and equipment – juggling all of these at once can be a handful. What if my spawnpoint goes down? What if deathlock goes down, do I have poisoned blood? What equipment is essential and do I need multiple copies of? This is crucial for the necromancer because you are trying to do multiple things at a time. Try to keep it simple yet effective.
If you are using zombies, destroy the opponent’s elemental wand with acid ball ASAP!
Lastly, have fun making and playing whichever kind of necromancer build you make!
That’s my write up for the Necromancer, my favorite mage! There is so much to cover for a dark school mage but any questions or comments that you guys have, comment below and I will get to them!
