Necromancer: Leveling Build and Feat Guide (up to level 63)

For leveling (and PvP), Necromancer’s undead minions do a great job, so most of this guide focuses on the Reanimation tree (eight pets!).  Nightfall doesn’t compare to the ease of leveling that Reanimation provides until the higher levels (post 60).  It is common for Necromancers to respec into a Nightfall build post 60, but Reanimation remains a solid choice all the way to 80.

Reanimation is also a very strong PvP build throughout most of the levels.  If you want to build up your PvP experience while you are leveling, your 8 friends can make easy work of most of your opponents.

The next version of this guide will include a Nightfall and Reanimation leveling build for post 60.

Table of Contents

1. Feat calculator overview for every 10 levels
2. Level by level progression
3. Playstyle
4. Feat Information and Review

Feat Calculator Overview for every 10 levels

(back to the Table of Contents)

• Level 20
• Level 30
• Level 40
• Level 50
• Level 60

Level by Level Feat Progression

(back to the Table of Contents)

10-14 Decomposition
15-19 Unholy Power
20-21 Grim Corruptor
22-24 Unholy Fortitude (3 points)
25 Void
26-27 Ruined Blight
28-29 Dread Blight
30 Unholy Hands
30-31 Unholy Fortitude
32-34 Deathly Resilience
35-37 Unnatural Dexterity
38-39 (Save feat points)
40 No Rest for the Dead
40-44 Bone Horde
45 Necrotic Pustule
46-48 Bursting Bomb
49 Brutal Death (1 point)
50 Life Leeches
51-54 Brutal Death
55-59 Corrupted Soul
60-63 Despoil the Soul

Playstyle

(back to the Table of Contents)

Pre Level 30 – When you get your 8 pet points and the Grim Corruptor feat at level 20, combat becomes very smooth and easy.  Send in pets, DoT targets, use Parasitic Soul Swarm (PSS) for AoE damage or your direct nukes.  Use Siphon Unlife freely to keep your health up and Frenzy when combat becomes problematic.

8 Corruptors will be your partners for a significant portion of your leveling.  With the Grim Corruptor feat, Corruptors are the most damaging pets, especially if you liberally use Flesh to Worms (FtW).  Feated Corruptor damage is far greater than any of the other pets now and at higher levels.

Necromancers are a PvP powerhouse at lower and mid levels.  Most people are unable to deal with 8 minions + DoTs and it becomes even easier when you add Blighted Ones with Void/drains to shut down victims.  Send in pets, kite and DoT.  Remember that Frenzy can also act as a snare that does not break on damage.  Along with your normal snare, you can keep victims snared for a very long period of time.

If PvP is less of a focus, still get Void (it’s only 1 point), but skip Ruined Blight and Dread Blight.  If you play on a PvP server, it’s often a good idea to keep at least one Blighted One in your army, so you can use Void.  Save the points for level 40 and you can pick up No Rest for the Dead and Bone Horde all at once.

In groups, it is usually preferred by group members if you stick with mostly mage pets, but keep at least a couple melee pets around for Frenzy and off-tanking.  Aggro can be hard to manage for tanks and a Frenzied minion can be very helpful.

Level 40 – No Rest for the Dead isn’t as vital as it was before now that minions don’t vanish every time you die or zone.  But it’s still a lifesaver for quickly resummoning pets, especially in PvP.

Try incorporating 1 or 2 Necrotic Bombs into your personal army and see if you like them.  They are great when exploded for dishing out a large amount of AoE damage, but they can be clumsy to use and don’t do much damage as pets.  Necrotic Bombs (especially feated) can be horribly effective in PvP as well, but like in PvE, they can be difficult to use effectively.  If you don’t like using Necrotic Bombs, skip the feats and spend them in Nightfall or perhaps picking up Mage Blood.

Level 50 – With Lifestealers, you can now switch up your usual 8 Corruptor army and swap in some Lifestealers.  Many people like running with 8 Lifestealers.  They do significantly less damage than Corruptors, but their life steal makes PvE easier to micromanage.

Level 60 – By level 63, you’ll have a fully feated Despoil the Soul.  Start experimenting with combat focused around DoT’s and nukes, rather than the pets.  It gives you a chance to compare the Reanimation versus Nightfall playstyles and you can decide whether you want to do a full respec into a Nightfall necromancer.

Feat Information and Review

(back to the Table of Contents)

Reanimation

(back to the Table of Contents)

• Decomposition – A good feat that increases the damage of your primary DoT, Flesh to Worms, by 35%.
• Unholy Power – Increases minion damage.
• Silence of the Dead – Reduces minion aggro/hate.  If you have a good tank, aggro is less of a problem.
• Infestation – Flesh to Worms has a chance of spreading a small dot to nearby enemies.  Not worth it.  The area of effect is too small, the damage is minor, doesn’t scale well to level 80 and it doesn’t increase Corruptor damage.
• Grim Corruptor – The reason why Corruptors are so great.  Increases base damage, adds an AoE attack which adds significant DPS and makes Corruptors more powerful against mobs affected by the FtW dot.
• Deathly Resilience – Gives you (+3% magic invulnerabilities) and your pets increased invulnerabilities.
• Unholy Fortitude – Increase minion health.  More importantly, increases the duration (+5 seconds) and reduces the cooldown of Frenzy (-60 seconds).
• Netherworld Deception – Makes the pets physically smaller (which can be useful at times) and provides hate reduction.
• Dread Blight + Ruined Blight – Gives the Blighted Ones a mana and stamina drain.  For necromancers who like disabling victims in PvP, this is quite fun and effective.
• Improved Parasite Souls – Increases the chance of summoning more undead servants.  Unfortunately, the Parasite Soul summons are very weak.
• Grim Hunger – The mage minions curses targets to take more unholy and cold damage.  Also adds a very small lifetap.  The effects are very minor and not worth getting unless you really like the mage minions.
• Void – Massive mana/stamina drain granted to a BO minion.  The reason why Blighted Ones are so hated in PvP.  Since the nerf, it’s no longer overpowered, but can still be helpful in PvP.
• Unnatural Dexterity – Increases the evasion of your pets and your necromancer (+10% evade).
• Unholy Hands – Channeled (10.5s) area damage spell that deals good damage and slows victims.  45s cooldown.
• Bone Horde – Minions curse victims, making them more likely to take additional damage.
• Necrotic Pustule – Exploded necrotic bombs leave behind a corpses that pulses a small radius damage effect.
• Bursting Bomb – Increases the damage and radius of the necrotic bomb explosion.
• No Rest for the Dead – Significantly reduces casting time and mana cost for pet summons.  3 minute cooldown.
• Life Leeches – Increases the health drain of the Lifestealer pets.

---

Possibly related posts: (automatically generated)

• 4e – Minion Creation Rules
• Feeding Your Pet
• Hunter Review Part 2: Synergy
• Warlock Q&A with Ghostcrawler and pals