106 replies to this topic

[Courtnehh]

I like to build my necro primarily on virulence and I've been getting increasingly frustrated with horror and trying to spread panic across enemies, due to the duration ending as soon as the enemy is attacked.

I was looking over our lord and saviour's posts on balance changes to date and flashfire's 400% weapon damage caught my eye.

 

I decided to drop horror for flashfire and I'm loving it, so my favourite build is:

 

Walking bomb (aim for a group) (remember to detonate early to spread WB faster)

Winters grasp (200% weapon damage, 266% with WG ring) (freeze the mob/freeze the most dangerous enemy)

Flashfire (400% weapon damage) (panic the mob/counter the charging druffalo/Gurn/Bogfisher)

Spirit mark (interchangeable with whatever you like)

 

The general idea of the build is to land the finishing blow using either winters grasp to spread freeze or flashfire to spread fear to all enemies within 10 meters. Then throwing walking bomb whenever you get the chance to hit a crowd or detonate WB to knock enemies down. You can use spirit mark whenever you are able to keep a constant spirit to help/give you HP upon killing it; I find so many bugs with trying to resurrect yourself using the mark that this skill can be pretty worthless at times and is therefore interchangeable with whatever you prefer.

 

Things to note:

• You don't have to kill an enemy using the skill for virulence to spread, for example you can freeze an enemy with winters grasp and so long as you land the finishing blow while the enemy is still frozen the effects will spread. As I have said this is more tricky with fear due to the mechanics which is why I use FF to land the final hit.
• Spreading freeze and panic is easiest by using WG or FF on spirits/ deepstalkers/ due to their low HP. You must pick your targets carefully always aiming to hit close to the center of a mob trying to pick off whatever enemy is low on health.
• Some enemies are immune to being frozen, you will learn which enemies are immune but just off the top of my head venatori mages/ red templar assassins/ red templar knights/ fear demons/ pride demons cannot be frozen. Pride demons can be feared however.
• Virulence can spead allies status effects to the enemy. For example killing a paralyzed enemy within a static cage will paralyze any nearby enemy within 10 meters if the enemy is effected by this effect.
• Whilst in spirit form (Simulacrum) you can revive yourself by throwing a WB at a crowd just before spirit form ends. As long as one enemy dies when you bleed out/are faded after this you will revive yourself so long as you have some heal on kill equipment.
• Some enemies take increased damage from fire making them perfect targets for spreading fear via flashfire, off the top of my head these include red templar assassins, red templar knights, red templar horrors, frost wraiths (not that many of them survive FF anyway) and most animals including druffalos (the reason I started using fear).

My preferred equipment:

Staff of the dragon (burn effects will spread with virulence) Your highest DPS staff will be the best

Cooldown amulet (lets you use all the above skills more frequently)

Superb belt of health

Enhanced winters grasp ring (increases damage from 200% to 266% 

Enhanced walking bomb ring. (adds 30% damage to WB)

Mortalitasi Raiment (Soulbinder) (red and black is sexy as hell) +12 willpower +16% fire resistance (resistance can be changed for anything you like)

 

I used to find that the necromancer wouldn't shine until she was a higher level like most classes which is annoying. I now find the necro can start to be effective at spreading freeze and fear at level 5/6 if the skills are unlocked in this order:

 

1. Blinding terror

2. Conductive current

3. Virulence

4. Flashfire

5. Hastened Demise

6. Simulacrum

7. Walking Bomb

8. Virulent

9. Death siphon

10. Gathering storm

11. Clean burn

12. Winter's chill

13. Unsullied victim

14. Power of the dead

15. Tricks of the trade

16. Frost mastery

17. Winter stillness

18. Ice armour

 

I was going to make a video but the DVR on the xbox one is awful and will only let you record 5 minutes worth of gameplay. Anyway have fun with the build if you like it and sorry it's so long

[nibyl]

Nice build, will definitely give it a try. I do have one question:

 

How does ice armor fit in with this build? It seems like you'd want to be standing still at range most of the time. How/when is it useful?

[Courtnehh]

Nice build, will definitely give it a try. I do have one question:

 

How does ice armor fit in with this build? It seems like you'd want to be standing still at range most of the time. How/when is it useful?

Good question, I mostly choose ice armour because the necro tends to draw a lot of aggro. Because you tend to multi freeze the enemies that are running at you I usually find a frozen enemy near me. It's also handy for the frost dragon

[Drasca]

Good question, I mostly choose ice armour because the necro tends to draw a lot of aggro. Because you tend to multi freeze the enemies that are running at you I usually find a frozen enemy near me. It's also handy for the frost dragon

 

Pro tip: Ice Armor procs even when you're the one who's chilled out, dude.

[Yumi]

Spirit mark fixed yet?

[Drasca]

Spirit mark fixed yet?

 

Its not broken. What do you think needs 'fixing'?

[Courtnehh]

 

Pro tip: Ice Armor procs even when you're the one who's chilled out, dude.

I probably should have expanded more on that small sentence about the frost dragon XD That's what I meant.

 

Spirit mark fixed yet?

I wish, the amount of times I have a spirit up and it just carries on fighting when I go down is just stupid I don't use it very often because of this.

[Yumi]

Its not broken. What do you think needs 'fixing'?

The bad AI?

[BreakJohn]

very interesting i'll give it a try, if anything just to test out if flashfire is worth having nowadays. spirit mark can go back to where it came from though. 

[Gya]

I stopped reading after you said you used flashfire. Uuuuuuuuugh. Just... uuuuuugh. Flashfire is worse than a fungal infestation of the scrotum. Why not just have an empty ability slot?

[ottffsse]

Yeah nice build. I think the new improved energy barrage is quite decent and can be taken on this necro instead of spirit mark because it is a nice way to kill a single target quickly should you need quicker fire power to kill an enemy once it was frozen or panicked. Also it works remarkably well with heal on hit and simulacrum.

[Courtnehh]

Yeah nice build. I think the new improved energy barrage is quite decent and can be taken on this necro instead of spirit mark because it is a nice way to kill a single target quickly should you need quicker fire power to kill an enemy once it was frozen or panicked. Also it works remarkably well with heal on hit and simulacrum.

I was thinking this to spread paralyze with an electric staff but I use the dragon staff which already spreads burn and I don't have a decent electric staff. :/

 

I stopped reading after you said you used flashfire. Uuuuuuuuugh. Just... uuuuuugh. Flashfire is worse than a fungal infestation of the scrotum. Why not just have an empty ability slot?

It works surprisingly well with the necro can take out despairs then panic them if it doesn't finish. It's quite nice after the buff 

 

very interesting i'll give it a try, if anything just to test out if flashfire is worth having nowadays. spirit mark can go back to where it came from though. 

I'm not a big fan of it if I'm honest, I'd much rather use energy barrage and spread paralyze but I don't have a good electric staff. Lightning bolt would be nice on the necro.

 

Edit: my bad electric staves don't paralyze, they can sleep nightmare with energy barrage (neither of which can be spread) due to shock, shock can be spread as a primary detonator to set up possible sleeps and such

[Theghostof_timmy]

Congratulations Luke, you did it! Somebody uses flashfire!

[Courtnehh]

Congratulations Luke, you did it! Somebody uses flashfire!

Hahaha I knew I'd get banter for using it, you'd be surpised how well it works on the necro for spreading fear does more damage than winters grasp 400% weapon damage - 266% with a ring XD and that's saying something

[FRZN]

Yeah nice build. I think the new improved energy barrage is quite decent and can be taken on this necro instead of spirit mark because it is a nice way to kill a single target quickly should you need quicker fire power to kill an enemy once it was frozen or panicked. Also it works remarkably well with heal on hit and simulacrum.

It's multi-hit and a detonator though so I wouldn't think it would be very good for spreading fear, freeze, or paralyze as it would break them on the first attack without doing enough damage to kill the enemy.

[Theghostof_timmy]

Hahaha I knew I'd get banter for using it, you'd be surrpised how well it works on the necro for spreading fear does more damage than winters grasp 400% weapon damage - 266% with a ring XD and that's saying something

Well why not, I'll give this idea a try too. Maybe I won't die as much

[Courtnehh]

It's multi-hit and a detonator though so I wouldn't think it would be very good for spreading fear, freeze, or paralyze as it would break them on the first attack without doing enough damage to kill the enemy.

Very true :/

 

Well why not, I'll give this idea a try too. Maybe I won't die as much

Haha good luck  

[Luke Barrett]

Congratulations Luke, you did it! Somebody uses flashfire!

I'm so proud *single tear*

[kea_spicy]

I don't play Necro a lot but I'll give this build a shot when I promote her again. 

I kept wracking my brain trying to remember what Flashfire looked like, broke down and just googled it. :[

[yarpenthemad21]

I will try this build for sure, still I have some questions:

1. Is upgrade for flashfire needed? Fear duration does not feel that needed IMO.
2. Winter chill upgrade from my experience change spell to hit twice the same target. Why not take it?

[jerky]

Sounds fun, my necro is close to a promotion, I'll run this one next.

[Courtnehh]

I will try this build for sure, still I have some questions:

1. Is upgrade for flashfire needed? Fear duration does not feel that needed IMO.
2. Winter chill upgrade from my experience change spell to hit twice the same target. Why not take it?

1 - I don't really find it's needed personally, when an enemy is attacked at all fear is broken so any AOE abilities will cancel it out, I like spreading fear to deal with many problematic enemies at once/ there's multiple dispair demons ice mining me through walls (biowar pls), there's 3 OP pride demons coming to stunlock me into the fade (biowar pls), pesky blocking venatori swordsmen, shielded red templar soldiers, red templar horrors, charging animals, archer firing squads. It stops them dead in their tracks while your team have a chance to recuperate and dispatch them. 6 seconds doesn't seem like much but if you're do it probably once every 15-20 seconds due to your cooldown passives it adds up

2 - You can try it with this build, I stopped using it because the chilled effect kept getting spread instead of freeze, I feel freeze is more beneficial to the party with the frost mastery passive which extends the freeze period from 4 seconds to 5, giving you more time to get the finishing kill and spreading it. I didn't notice it double hitting but then again I stopped taking the upgrade, I'll try it out again and get back to you.

 

Edit: damage seems to be higher, rather inaccurate tooltip The damage hit's in a 3 meter AOE and spreads chilled and freeze upon killing the enemy in time, I'll edit the order to take the passives to reflect this, thanks for pointing that out

[ALTBOULI]

Scrub Build!

[Courtnehh]

Scrub Build!

As soon as I saw you'd commented I started laughing, knew exactly what you'd say. 

[HeroicMass]

I feel bad for all the randoms you play with when you forget to release your spirit mark for 20 seconds at the end of a zone