Armory for skeleton necromancers?

[Super Sorcerer]

ב"ה
Hello
I've seen that most skeleton Necromancer books posted in this forum don't include an armory. In my local meta an armory is an auto-include for skeleton necromancers. So I ask, Why not an armory?
yes, it is 6 spellbook points, but getting armor +1 (and piercing +1) for all skeleton minions, skeleton sentries, skeleton archers, skeleton knights and Mort is just awesome because they are high health low armor creatures. 
Is it the spellbook point cost?
Or do think that an armory isn't even worth casting?

I know that the meta changes from area to area, but this is a specific change I just don't understand.

[Puddnhead]

In my experience it's the 10 mana that's the problem.  I love the idea of Armory for Skeletons, but the Necromancer is a fragile mage and if you are relying on skeletons you really need a swarm of guards that can gang up and kill the enemy creatures.  The armor costs 10 mana and that is .75-2 skeltons that you don't get to cast.  6 spellbook points is a lot as well, but it's the mana for me that is the biggest issue.

[drmambo23]

I agree with puddin. The mana is the deal breaker in most skelly necros i see or played against.  They have no armor, most of them, but high health.  So they can stick around a bit before you need to reassemble. But 10 mana invested is a lot and you could just cast more skellies for a position, dice, and creature advantage instead

For a skeleton warlord that has comstruction yard it could work bc you wont run a ton of skeletons due to sbps. So after you build up your army you could buff them but as a necro you want to just continually crank them out.

[Coshade]

Dude this is a great topic! Personally I ran armory for awhile in my Skeleton Necro but ended up dropping it for more the SBP. In general I would rather just take more skeletons then the armor and piercing. Here's two reasons why
1 -> There is a lot of piercing 1 in the game that people are running. The more I see it the more armory is meh for Skellies.
2 -> the piercing 1 is very nice but I ultimately decided a marked for death or two would be better for those hard to bring down targets that I want the piercing for.

Hope that gives you some sort of perspective. Also as a side note - eternal servant rocks! Whether its a minion or skellie knight it's all worth while.

[farkas1]

I agree with Coshade, Great topic.  I thought of this too have not really tried it out yet based on similar reasons.  Can't disagree on why people decide not to use it.  Maybe it would work  running it with the intent of really turtling with the necro and using meditation amulet to make up for the lost mana for casting it. Still a lot of mana and you lose the speed to really be aggressive early.    Really want to tru having an undead warlord book sounds really fun. 

[Biblofilter]

The Skeleton Necro i made, is made for 75 min live tourney games.

I don´t think i would have the mana or enough creatures for it to matter. So no Armory.

I did run Fortified Position + Shift Enchantment, because it could benefit the Necro.

Likewise i did not find it worthwhile to keep the Skeletons alive with Reconstructs etc. (even if reconstruct is amazing)

OCTGN is no timelimit atm that should matter when you try to build a book.

[Halewijn]

I include it mostly in my skeleton books. I totally agree with you Super Sorcerer! Some piercing, and especially some armor really makes them a lot more durable and it also makes your "healing" spells more useful.

Armory + Mort + healing spells + cheap skeletons (sentry + minions) really gives a lot of momentum to your skeleton army.

[Powlich]

Dude this is a great topic! Personally I ran armory for awhile in my Skeleton Necro but ended up dropping it for more the SBP. In general I would rather just take more skeletons then the armor and piercing. Here's two reasons why
1 -> There is a lot of piercing 1 in the game that people are running. The more I see it the more armory is meh for Skellies.
2 -> the piercing 1 is very nice but I ultimately decided a marked for death or two would be better for those hard to bring down targets that I want the piercing for.

Hope that gives you some sort of perspective. Also as a side note - eternal servant rocks! Whether its a minion or skellie knight it's all worth while.

This! I remember back in the days when I used to run Armory, I only had time to cast it when the game was more or less over. I prefer fortified position and shift enchantment.(as Biblo mentioned) Protect it with an Arcane ward if you know that you won't need to move it for the rest of the game. Shift enchant can also be used to move rust/marked for death between creatures.

[JasonBourneZombie]

Our local Skelly Necromancer doesn't have much use for it. Armory is a buff that grows with the number of recipients, but she does not carry enough skeletons to make it work.

If you can swarm with enough skeletons, it might be nice, but then you have a book built around the armory and dependent on it.

[Super Sorcerer]

ב"ה

Maybe it would work  running it with the intent of really turtling with the necro and using meditation amulet to make up for the lost mana for casting it.

Are there many necromancers that are not turtling in their starting corner with a meditation amulet?
I mean, I played twice against necromancers who did move one zone in the first round to turtle there (but still had meditation amulets). The first was because I moved to b1 (I start at a1 and he start at c4), and he preferred to turtle in b4 so he could wall me away easily. The second was because he had a battleforge and needed enough room for conjurations. All other Necromancers I faced (and all of those I played) turtled in their starting corner with a meditation amulet.
Even the "suggested book" of the necromancer (the one described in the Druid VS Necromancer expansion) got a meditation amulet (not that suggested book really say much).
The reason meditating in the corner is so popular for necromancers, is that the opponent will eventually have to come to you anyway, otherwise the idol of pestilence will just kill him.
As I understand that my local meta is very different from the meta you play with. What strategy do you have with your necromancer that is better than meditating in the corner?

[I just don't understand how necromancers could work other than meditating in their corners, and by the comments here I understand that my local meta is very unusual.]

[Halewijn]

I've seen multiple non-meditation amulet mages (bow for example or more general support) but only 1 offensive necromancer.

I don't remember who it was but the idea was to utilise his plague master more. I think he cast drain soul in turn 2 or 3 to get the poison condition on there and from there on, curses.

[bigfatchef]

Necro is made for turteling!
And because it is like that I was working on a maximum surprise drain-the-complete-life-away-rush book several times. But sadly it's not working and he shows to simply be a solid turtle.

[Halewijn]

haha  , So apparantly, it was Bigfatchef I was talking about. 

[bigfatchef]

haha  , So apparantly, it was Bigfatchef I was talking about. 

I don't think so halewijn
The only necro I ever posted was with mhgeddon to feed the sacrificial altar wich switched as idea from warlock to necro. But thats not it.

My idea was focusing on drain effects without many curses besides poisoned blood.

[Coshade]

I've got an in your face Necro as well. Usually I'll use Grey Wraith Skellie knights and Zombie Brutes. With Akiros favor the staff isn't terrible and Siphon Soul, Drain Life, Drain Soul on a Mage Wand is great. I think I ran 3 mage wands with at least 1 animate dead just in case I saw an option to do it.

With 10 Channel, melee options (Sectarus or Deathshroud Staff although I think that would change with today's cards) and no spawnpoint you can start having a ton of mana to "waste" on incantations.

The big thing is to try and get that Plaguemaster to do 1 damage a round. I would probably also cast Eye of Baal on my opponent to try and speed up the damage rate.