The Necromancer
Summoner Minion build

Beta build for Patch 1.05

A Class Archetype based on summoning hordes of minions is very difficult to balance properly. Often, it will fall into one of the extremes - either it will be overpowered, or almost unusable. In Wolcen, the Minion-Based builds were very underwhelming at first, but now they start to take shape, and with the new (and, hopefully, upcoming) changes they slowly become fun and competitive. If becoming a Necromancer - a master of the dark arts who causes decay and destruction and defies the death itself by rising dead to serve him as mindless minions - the following build is definitely worth a try. 

You can check all the best Wolcen builds made by our team here: Best Wolcen Builds by Odealo

Important note: This is a beta version of our "Necromancer" Summoner Build that we have just recently started working on. It shows quite a lot of promise, especially after the recent ability changes, but it still is somewhat weaker than other, more "standard" builds. Thanks to the ability to summon minions and quickly spread ailments among enemies, the build offers a unique style of gameplay that will appeal to fans of fantasy Necromancers. As mentioned earlier, we have just started this "project" so we are still far away from determining the perfect mix of active and passive abilities (it is possible that we will swap some of them around in the foreseeable future. Moreover, we will definitely try to add new passives as we level up our characters). More passives and gear testing, as well as some further changes on the Wolcen's team side, are required to finetune the build and make it fully end-game viable. Despite lacking in some important aspects, the build offers refreshing gameplay experience and is definitely worth a try. 

1. Gameplay

Our "Necromancer" Summoner Minion Build plays out just like a real Necromancer-type character would. It afflicts enemies with terrible curses and causes them to slowly decay as various DoTs chip their life away. It summons hordes of undead minions that fight at his side - they are fragile but easily-replicable and they are useful even after they get destroyed (they sometimes drop Health Globes). It can create a powerful and vile Golem that serves as a personal Tank and bodyguard. And on top of all this, it has an ability to leech the life out of his enemies. The basic gameplay schematic of the build looks as follows: You summon the Golem if it somehow died and cast Juggernaut to protect yourself from incoming Damage (you can also use Juggernaut to burst down enemies, thanks to its passives). You place the Vortex underneath enemies, you point at the place of the Vortex and cast a Plaguebringer at the same location, and then you jump to the same spot with the Light-Bringer - doing this maximizes the number of applied aliments. In the meantime, you summon Zombie Archers that help with the DPS and re-apply Juggernaut if needed. 

2. Build's PROS & CONS

3. Attributes

For this Minion and Aliment-based build, you want to focus on Ferocity for increased offensive capabilities, mainly the Spell Critical Chance Score. The higher your crit chances are the better. To increase your resilience and supplement some of your passives, you want to take a healthy amount of Toughness as well. If you feel confident in your ability to dodge blows, you can forgo some more Toughness in favor of even higher Ferocity. When it comes to Wisdom and Agility, they are not worth it; you can put some points in if you find it really necessary, but it will be a waste of attribute points. 

4. Passives

Below you will find the recommended Passives for our "Necromancer" Summoner Minion build. As a summon-based build should, it grabs passives that increase damage end resilience of your minions. Moreover, some of the build's Passives are allocated in a way that maximizes Aliment's effectiveness, Casting efficiency, and Survivability. Overall, the build is focused around summons, but it supplements them with powerful curses (because what would a Necromancer be without an ability to afflict his enemies with terrible blight and decay?). 

5. Skills

[PRIMARY SUMMON] Livor Mortis
	Livor Mortis is this build's signature spell that summons a large Poison Golem that will fight at your side and cleave your enemies. If the ability is used again, while the Golem is alive, the Golem will generate a large amount of Threat, which makes him quite a good tank. If properly supported by Passives and Modifications, the Poison Golem is almost unkillable.
	Greed Unleashed increases the Golem's damage, which makes it much more effective as a combat unit.
	Severity provides the Golem with additional Attack Speed which increases its combat effectiveness even further.
	Foul Guardian increases the amount of Threat that the Golem generates. While you have an option to just re-cast the spell and generate the Threat that way, this will still help you keep enemies focused on your summon, which will make your life easier.
	Flesh in all Configurations is a Summon damage increase, which is always nice to take.
	The Gulf Before Us increases the Golem's chance to inflict enemies with Aliments, which fits the build's theme. You can easily swap this Mod for "Hunger Pangs" or some other Modifier of your liking.

[SECONDARY SUMMONS/CANNON FODDER] Hunting Swarm
	Hunting Swarm allows you to summon multiple Zombies, equipped with Bows, that deal damage with ranged attacks. This ability is much more reliable than the "Feeding Swarm" as ranged summons tend to survive for much longer than melee ones. For this Spell, we want to focus on maximizing summon's Damage output, as they will regularly die anyway, even if we increase their survivability.
	Forces of Ruination increases the maximum number of summoned Zombies by 1, which considerably increases their overall DPS.
	Rotten Roots causes Arrows shot by Zombies to explode. This synergizes with the pull-in effect of the "Anomaly" spell - enemies get grouped and then they receive AoE damage from exploding Arrows.
	Armies of the Night converts all damage dealt by your Zombies into Shadow Damage. This has a great synergy with the build, as Cursed enemies take increased Shadow Damage and the build's ability to apply aliments is unparalleled.
	Venomous Points increases the damage dealt by summoned Zombies.
	Chestsplitter increases the damage dealt by summoned Zombies.
	Dead Marksman increases the damage dealt by summoned Zombies.

[PRIMARY DPS/AoE] Anomaly
	Anomaly creates a vortex of anomalous energy that has two separate areas of effect. First (smaller) deals Damage over Time, and the Second (that activates after a short time) pulls enemies into the vortex's center.
	Confluence of All Things is the most important Anomaly Modifier for this build. It makes all Globes pulled into the First (damaging) Vortex explode, dealing AoE Damage. This effect synergizes with our Passives (Undertaker) and our Summons that sometimes drop Globes upon death.
	Dislocating Threads increases the area of effect of the Damaging vortex, which makes the ability much more effective.
	Echoes of Infinity makes the Vortex pull enemies inside multiple times, which increases the ability's effectiveness and Crowd Control potential.
	Temporal Dilation provides two additional seconds to the ability's duration, which makes it more cost-efficient.
	Rending of Matter allows you to cast two Vortexes instead of one. Double the Anomalies, double the fun!

[SECONDARY DPS/AoE] Plagueburst
	Plagueburst creates a plague zone that causes enemies or summons that die within it to explode. When they explode, an area of effect, that deals poison damage, is left behind.
	Disgrace allows you to cast Plagueburst at the location of your cursor. This is very important, as it allows you to stay mobile and cast Anomaly and Plagueburst at the same location.
	Vitiation increases the explosion damage for each Aliment stack an enemy has. Great in an Aliment-based build.
	Metempsychosis gives explosions a chance to drop Health Globes. This effect strongly synergizes with Anomaly's "Confluence of All Things" modifier. More explosions!
	Biohazard provides additional Critical Damage, which is always welcome.
	Mortiferous Guest gives Plaguebringer a chance to summon monsters to fight at your side. This fits in the build's theme but can be swapped for something else, like "Short Range Contaminants" for example.

[UTILITY/SURVIVABILITY] Juggernaut
	Juggernaut is a defensive Skill that gives you a protective shield that absorbs incoming damage. Upon receiving a set amount of damage, it will explode damaging nearby enemies. What makes this ability special is the fact that it is slightly overtuned and allows you to obliterate bosses with its Damage Reflection Modifier (this will most likely change very soon, as Wolcen's team is constantly working on balancing the game).
	Heralded Pavis is a simple modifier that decreases the ability's Rage Cost, making it much more efficient to use.
	Prideful Deflagration converts Juggernaut's Physical Damage into Fire Damage, which is much more flavourful, as Fire is an aliment-type damage source.
	Perpetual Osmosis which increases the maximum possible damage absorption at the cost of emptying the Fore Shield.
	Cold Steel reduces the cooldown, making the ability even more powerful.
	Vibrations Internalized increases the shield's damage absorption.

[MOBILITY] Light-Bringer
	Light-Bringer is a very powerful mobility Spell that also works as an additional source of Aliments in this build (thanks to the "Sudden Dehydration" Modifier). This ability deals AoE Damage and teleports your character to the chosen location.
	Sudden Dehydration makes Light-Bringer apply Shock and Weakness ailments on enemies. This works great in an aliment-based build such as this one. It also gives you access to two additional aliment types, which is huge.
	Blinding Light increases Light-Bringer's chance to inflict enemies with Aliments - this effect is a must-have in an aliment-based build.
	Blinding Lights Stuns enemies upon landing, which adds a solid Crowd Control aspect to the ability.
	Sheen of Hope grants you some Willpower for each enemy hit with the Light-Bringer. This helps a lot with your resource-management a lot.
	Insuppressible Rhapsody grants you a temporary Force Shield for each enemy Hit upon landing. Additional survivability is always welcome.
	Holy Ground leaves an AoE that damages enemies upon landing. This is especially great when used in the center of a Vortex created by your Anomaly spell.

5. Recommended Gear

This section is still in "construction" as we don't have enough data to give you exact item proposals. We can't provide too detailed gear suggestions right now as there aren't many Unique and Legendaries revealed. However, below you can find the recommended Stat priority for items used in this build, which should help you get through the campaign. In the following days, we will try to update this section. 

Note: This build is based on Melee and Catalyst Active Skills, so dual-wielding these two will be necessary. Alternatively, you can replace Juggernaut with a Catalyst/Staff spell and equip a Staff instead of a Melee weapon and a Catalyst (however, this will considerably decrease the build's survivability). 

If you have any other build requests please let us know in the comments section below. We are going to continue our work on Wolcen characters to fill up the list with all major build archetypes in the following weeks. Stay tuned. 

Pictures used in this article are the intellectual property of Wolcen Studio.