PoE Necromancer Build - Zombies Rise Up!

PoE Necromancer build 2019

The Necromancer class is focused on resurrecting dead monsters and using them as some kind of weapon. She is able to resurrect almost every monster and create zombies, skeletons or specters from dead bodies. Her skill tree covers a wide range of different buffs for your summoned friends. Also, skill tree passives give auras that boost you and your allies stats. This class is very newbie friendly. All you have to do is to summon your minions that will fight at your side. She uses scepters and wands combined with shields to fight with opponents. The character itself is not tanky at all, and do not deal high damage. It is all because of the fact that you focus on minion damage.

PoE Necromancer Build for this ascendancy class are rather expensive but very easy to play. If you build Necromancer properly you will be able to clear all of the game content very fast. The necromancer gameplay is very enjoyable because of her passive skill tree. If you like to have an army of zombies or other minions that will fight with enemies instead of you, this ascendancy class is a perfect choice for you. The build is perfect for mapping, has very good damage and at the same time with proper items you can survive even the strongest bosses and minions. Her most useful passive are:

Poe Necromancer passive skills

Invoker - a passive skill which buffs summoned minions with additional hp and damage. It increases minions health regeneration by 2%, their maximum life by 20% and damage dealt by 20%. Additionally, this passive increases convocation skill recovery speed by 50%. Perfect in the endgame when you have all the necessary items that maximize your damage.

Flesh Binder - a passive which is the best option for zombiemancer build. What is most important, it allows you to summon two more maximum zombies which are crucial in zombiemancer build. Also, it boosts you and your minions' damage reduction for each zombie you own. If you have 8 zombies, the damage will be reduced by 8%. Additionally, it boosts damage and cooldown recovery speed of zombie skills.

Bone Sculptor - a passive which is aimed for buffing summoned skeletons. The most important factor is the fact that it allows you to summon 2 more skeletons. Additionally, it makes skeleton attacks unavoidable for enemies. Also, such passive increases skeletons movement speed by 100% and their damage dealt by 40%. It makes skeletons very useful, especially in boss fighting.

Soul Weaver - a passive which is aimed for buffing summoned specters. This passive significantly boosts specters damage and maximum health. It boosts the damage and maximum life by 100%. Perfect for spectremancer build.

Mistress of Sacrifice - a passive which is mainly based on your ability to consume corpses. It boosts the effect of skill duration by 20%. Your offering skills (bone offering, flesh offering, spirit offering) not only buff your minions but also you with 50% power. It means that offering skills give you only 50% of stats when your minions gain 100% of skills effect. Additionally, you gain increased attack damage when you consume a corpse. An attack and casting speed are also buffed for each recently consumed corpse.

Commander of Darkness - this passive increases you and your minions' damage, attacks speed and elemental resistances when using auras. If you and your minions are affected by any aura from your skillset you get increased elemental resistances by 20% and damage dealt by 30%.

Puppet Master - the best passive for any build based on summoning minions. It increases the minion duration by 30%. Additionally, your summoned minions have increased movement speed by 20%. When you use minion skill, your minions deal 30% more damage. Also, you gain 12% of attack and cast speed when you or your minion kill an enemy.

As you can see, every passive skill is characterized by different attributes it gives. Each build will need a different configuration. Bellow, I will introduce the most powerful build for witch Necromancer in Betrayal league. The build chosen by me is 3.5 Zombiemancer build. Such a build is mostly based on lighting and minion damage. The build is pretty expensive because of two mandatory unique items but easy to play, especially for beginners. Classes like raider or slayer can use the same build with some changes in the skill tree. I do not recommend to play this build as a league starter because you will have hard times to afford proper equipment. In this part of the guide, I will talk about the advantages and disadvantages of complete build and show a path of building for Zombiemancer. Enjoy!

necromancer Advantages

Easy to play - the build, as mentioned in the introduction, is based on minions damage. It means that players only job is to resurrect minions and leave them to do the job. Players will find it enjoyable to play because of fast mapping and insane fast killing endgame content. Fighting with bosses like Atziri or Shaper was never that enjoyable. With the proper equipment, you will kill them almost instantly.

Awesome clear speed - because of high minion damage and their movement speed, you will be able to clear maps very fast. Bosses at the end of each map will also not be a problem. This class is amazing when it comes to clear uber lab.

Damage and tankiness- you do not have to be worried about your health or damage output. All you have to care about are your minions. Stay behind them and they will do the job for you.

Amazing currency farmer - the build is quite expensive, but if you get the proper gear, you will be able to afford even the most expensive items very fast.

necromancer Disadvantages

Quite expensive - as I mentioned in the introduction, the build needs many mandatory unique items to gain full power. This might be a disadvantage but at the same time advantage. Since almost full build consists of uniques you don’t have to craft rare items and adjust them to your build.

Minions based - the same situation as above. This is at the same time advantage and disadvantage. Minions kill all poe content but if they die, you will have troubles.

Hard to gain full resistance caps - most of the unique items do not provide buffs to resistances. That means you will need to get rings and shield with a high amount of resists, which may be expensive.

Equipment

Now, I will explain what kind of equipment you should purchase while playing Zombiemancer build. Seeing that path of exile is a typical grinding gear game, you have to keep in mind that you will frequently change your equipment. Below, I will describe every item in detail, show the best path of building the Zombiemancer, proper gems setup and write some tips which might speed up the leveling process.

a) Weapon

The first weapon that should be used is a wand named Lifesprig Driftwood Wand. You can use this magical weapon from the beginning at level one. It boosts your statistics by increasing spell damage and casting speed which is very important attributes, especially at the beginning of your journey with the game. You can wear two weapons of the same kind, in this case, two lifesprigs, or instead of the second weapon you can equip a spirit shield to maximize your damage output.

When you reach level 17, switch your weapon for Aurumvorax Basket Rapier. You will probably wonder why I recommend this item. The answer is resistances. Such rapier can boost your resistances up o 60%. Thanks to that you will be able to survive a lot in the early game. Additionally, you will be able to focus on a more offensive type of rings and the amulet with boosted elemental damage.

On level 35 you have to get Earendel's Embrace Grinning Fetish. Such weapon is amazing, since it increases elemental damage, spell damage and what is the most important - minions damage. It will make your gameplay very enjoyable. Your minions will be unstoppable especially on bosses. You will use this weapon to level 68.

At level 68 you will equip Mon'tregul's Grasp Void Sceptre which is the mandatory weapon for this build. It gives you tons of damage and many buffs for your zombies which is the most important thing here. It boosts zombies life by 5000 making them very tanky. Additionally, it increases their damage and makes them deal AoE fire damage on every kill. There is no better alternative for this build. Finding such a weapon with proper sockets might be a challenge, but unfortunately, it is mandatory. Thanks to this weapon you will be able to clear even t16 maps and farm some currency to make your build better.

b) Helmet

The first helmet which should be used at the beginning is Goldrim Leather Cap. It increases your elemental resistances by 35%. The elemental resistances are very important in the early game. This helmet will allow you to survive the early and mid game. Minions and bosses will be not a problem thanks to this helmet. There is also a possibility of wearing a rare helmet with good elemental damage boost and resistances.

Then at level 28, you should equip Leer Cast Festival Mask. This helmet will boost your minion damage and reduce damage taken. It gives your minion 15% increased damage which is a lot, especially at early levels. Get it as fast, as you gain 28 level. In the late game, you will have to get The Baron Close Helmet which is the second mandatory item for this build. It significantly boosts your zombies' stats. By putting zombie summon gem in it, you will get two levels more to its maximum level. Additionally, this helmet allows you to summon one more zombie per 300 strength. In the late game, you will have around 1200 strength, so you will be able to summon four more zombies. Also, the more strength you have, the more life leech you gain. Damage done by zombies will be converted into life for you. There is no better alternative for this build, especially if you want to kill bosses like Atziri or Shaper.

c) Belt

In the beginning, elemental resistances play a very important role. You should focus on wearing a belt which will boost your basic resistances (cold, fire and lightning) by at least 20%. The perfect example of such a belt is a rare one with increased elemental damage and resistances. On level 16 you will be able to equip The Magnate Studded Belt. Amazing belt since you will focus on having as much strength as possible. Additionally, it gives you damage boost making this belt viable until the late game.

In the late game, you can get Hypnotic Shackle Stygian Vise with at least 30% of each resist and high amount of life. There is also the possibility to buy a rare belt with strength attribute and a high amount of resists like this: Invasion Clasp Heavy Belt. Such a belt will give you more profits than a stygian vise, because of the strength attribute in it. From belt like this, you can increase your strength up to 90 points. With proper armor, the amount will be multiplied.

d) Gloves

When it comes to choosing starter gloves you have two possibilities. The first possibility is buying rare gloves with increased elemental resistances by at least 20% and a good amount of evasion. Thanks to that, your survivability will be increased. In the late game, you have to buy unique gloves with completely different modifiers. The second option is Lochtonial Caress Iron Gauntlets which increase your damage and casting speed.

On level 35, you should switch your gloves for Meginord's Vise Steel Gauntlets. These gloves give you a huge amount of strength which is necessary for this build to work. Additionally, your armor is increased by 49% and at the same time the survivability. You will wear these gloves to 57 level.

When you reach such level you should get Null and Void Legion Gloves. This item gives you rampage skill which increases your damage and movement speed per rampage stack. In the late game, you have to get Shaper's Touch Crusader Gloves. Mandatory gloves if you want to be a real zombiemancer. It gives you tons of energy shield and mana which is very necessary to play this build.

e) Boots

The best starting boots should possess increased elemental resistances by at least 20%, strength attribute, and movement speed. When you reach level 30, switch your boots for Lioneye's Paws Bronzescale Boots. These boots give you strength, movement speed and immunity for stuns and they are perfect for this build. You can wear them until the late game.

On level 49 you will need Alberon's Warpath Soldier Boots which are mandatory for this build. These boots give you up to 18% increased strength. The strength is a key attribute used to summon more zombies. There is also the possibility to get Bones of Ullr Silk Slippers on level 70 to gain one more zombie and increased energy shield. This boots are just cheaper alternative, but not mandatory. I recommend using Alberon’s Warpath since it gives you more benefits in the endgame. Thanks to them you can gain even 200 additional strength.

f) Armor

When it comes to choosing a starter armor, you should focus on the one which will grant you six linked sockets without specified type. It is very important because you need to level up your main gems as fast as it is possible.  The best example of such armor is Tabula Rasa Simple Robe because it has six sockets which are linked and without specified type. Such armor is not so expensive so you will be able to buy it even in the early game.

In the late game, you have two armor options. The first one is Gruthkul's Pelt Wyrmscale Doublet. Amazing armor for doing bosses like shaper or uber atziri. With Meginord's Vise Steel Gauntlets your hp regeneration will be significantly increased. You will get 7% of maximum health per second. Such action makes you literally unkillable, especially on lower levels.

The second option is Geofri's Sanctuary Elegant Ringmail. This armor in the other hand increases your Energy Shield and armor. It is perfect for this build because for every 5 points of strength you gain 2 energy shield. Additionally, this armor gives you 62% more of energy shield you already have. If we combine this armor and Shaper's Touch Crusader Gloves, the character will have something around 4k energy shield which is a lot. There is also a possibility to wear The Queen's Hunger Vaal Regalia to have one extra zombie and bone offering triggered every 5 seconds. The bone offering gives minions a chance to block attack damage and spell damage, so it highly increases their survivability.

g) Amulet

In the early game, you should focus on amulet with increased elemental resistances and a good amount of life. Also remember to focus on the fact that you will need an amulet which will increase all attributes, just to be sure that you will be able to level up your gems. The most problematic attributes will be dexterity and strength to focus on amulets which will increase these attributes.

In the late game, you will need Astramentis Onyx Amulet. This amulet will help you to increase attributes needed to summon zombies, wear the mandatory gear, and level gems. Additionally, it reduces the physical damage taken. The mandatory item for zombiemancer build.

h) Rings

For the first rings, you should choose the one which will increase your elemental damage and elemental resistances. You should also focus on attributes which you need to level your gems. In this build, you often lack intelligence so try to find a ring with such attribute. In the late game, you should get rare rings with a high amount of resistance and strength. You don’t have any resists from other items, so remember to invest hard in rings. Here you have some examples of good rings Chimeric Turn Unset Ring. The price is high but you really need them to survive particular circumstances.

i) Shield

In the early game, you should focus on spirit shield which will increase your elemental damage, some resistances and additionally energy shield. The perfect example is Kaltenhalt Painted Buckler. I recommend to get it straight on 16 level. In the late game, you should buy Victario's Charity Laminated Kite Shield. This shield will give minions power and frenzy charges. It almost doubles your minion damage thanks to its attributes. Also, it gives you some elemental resistances to make up resist gaps. Such a shield is also mandatory for this build. There is no better item to replace it.

J) Potions

Potions are very important parts of the build, especially when it comes to fighting with opponents. They save your life in many situations, give you a significant boost to damage output or increase your elemental alignments. In this part of the guide, I will show you the best one for this build. The build consists of basic and slightly cheap potions. If you will have problems with obtaining particular potions, you should go and look for them on pathofexile market.

For the first potion you should use basic life regenerator which will be responsible for the revivification of your life. Remember to look for potions with mods like Instant Recovery and Immunity for Bleeding. You can buy two potions like this and use them alternately. These potions will be needed because of the low amount of resistances. Minions are your tanks, but sometimes you can get unexpected hit so such potions will save your life.

The Second potion you should have is The Overflowing Chalice Sulphur Flask. One of the best options for this build because of placing consecrated ground when used. The consecrated ground will give additional life regeneration for you and your army of zombies. Also, if minions or bosses will be in a range of consecrated ground, your minions will have 100% increased critical strike chance. It will double your damage.

The third mandatory potion is Quicksilver Flask. It increases your movement speed by ~60% and when your minion deals Critical Hit it recovers flask charge. It will help you to run maps faster and sometimes it will save you when minions get too close because you will be able to escape faster. I recommend buying potion like this: Experimenter's Quicksilver Flask of Adrenaline

The next potion which is very important to have is The Wise Oak Bismuth Flask. This potion increases all of your elemental resistances by 35%. Thanks to this potion you will increase your survivability and at the same time damage. Since we will have problems in making up resistances caps, this potion is mandatory for this build.

The last potion for this build is Taste of Hate Sapphire Flask. Such potion is not that necessary to have and you can replace it with any HP flask, but it will work perfectly with Hatred skill. It converts your Physical Damage as EXTRA Cold Damage. Such potion will significantly boost your minions' damage, especially when you use the rest of the potions mentioned above.

k) list of gems

Armor gems

Armor - 6 linked sockets ( 3 red sockets and 3 blue sockets)

Raise Zombie - basically, your main ability. This gem is responsible for summoning zombies from dead bodies. The zombies will fight on your side and kill enemies. You can summon even 16 zombies with a proper build. Additionally, the gem gives you increased maximum life and movement speed per 1% quality.

Minion Damage Support - supports linked minion skills, in this case, raise zombie gem. It increases damage dealt by minions when fighting with enemies. It is important that the gem increases all types of damage, not only physical damage.

Minion Speed Support - this gem significantly boosts your minions with certain attributes. It increases minions movement speed, attack speed and casting speed by a fixed amount. Always used when you are going to play summoning build.

Melee Physical Damage Support - supports your zombies damage with an additional 50% of physical damage. Perfect to be linked with minion damage support which will maximize your minors damage output.

Multistrike Support - perfect gem used to support your raise zombie skill. It will repeat the skill used by you several times. For example, if you decide to raise a zombie, you will summon 3 zombies at once instead of one.

Empower Support (remember to get the 3rd level of the gem as fast as possible) - this gem increases the level of supported active skill gem. It can boost the raise zombie skill by two levels.

weapon gems

Weapon ( 3 linked sockets - 2 red sockets and one green)

Shield Charge - an active skill which makes a player charge to an enemy with a shield and deals damage. When you hit an enemy with shield charge skill it gets damaged, knocked back and stunned.

Fortify Support - a support gem which gives you fortify skill which reduces received damage by 20%. Additionally, this gem increases melee physical damage from Shield Charge. Without any problems, you will be able to one-shot weaker minions with such skill.

Faster Attacks Support - this gem increases the attack speed of linked skills. Thanks to this gem, you will be able to use your shield charge much faster.

Shield (3 linked sockets - two red sockets and one blue)

Convocation (remember to keep it on level five, don’t think to level it for 6) - this gem is responsible for recalling summoned minions back to the owner. When used, it additionally increases minions life regeneration per second.

Cast When Damage Taken Support (remember to keep it at level 1) - a skill which makes linked spell triggered when the player loses a certain amount of health.

Summon Stone Golem - a minion spell which gives you an ability to summon a stone golem. This golem grants you and our allies increased life regeneration. Additionally, the golem can be used as a tank thanks to his rolling skill that taunts nearby enemies.

Gloves - 4 linked sockets (three blue sockets and one green socket)

Storm Burst - AoE spell which unleashes orbs containing lighting energy. The orbs deals lighting and physical damage to nearby enemies. This skill is quite useful to help minions with clearing enemies faster.

Cast While Channeling Support - support gem which makes linked cast spells channeling other supported skills. Skills triggered by this gem, deal 9% increased damage.

Flesh Offering - skill provided by this gem gives you an ability to consume one or more corpses and because of that, buffing your minions. Such action gives your minions swiftness buff which increases their attack speed, movement speed, and casting speed.

OR

Spirit Offering - skill provided by this gem gives you an ability to consume one or more corpses and because of that, buffing your minions. Such action gives your minions increased physical damage added as chaos damage, life, and elemental resistances.

Desecrate - a type of AoE skill which summons corpses, desecrates the ground and deals chaos damage to all enemies in the area.

Boots 4 linked sockets (two green sockets, one blue socket, and red socket)

Hatred - gem which provides you a buff which increases cold damage for you and your allies. Additional cold damage is based on the physical damage you have. Additionally, it reserves 50% of your mana.

Vaal Haste - an aura gem which increases player and his allies attack, casting and movement speed. Very good buff for your zombies which will increase their damage output a lot.

Enlighten Support - the gem used to support hatred buff skill. It reduces the amount of mana reservation of linked skills. Since hatred reserves 50% of your mana, try to get enlighten as fast as possible.

Generosity Support - a support gem which increases the effectiveness of your auras. In this case, vaal haste will have an increased effect of 39%. Remember that supported aura will give boosted stats only for your allies. The player gets the only basic effect of the aura.

Helmet 4 linked sockets ( two blue sockets and 2 red sockets)

Raise Spectre - a spell which summons the soul of the killed enemy. A summoned soul will fight for you in the battle with enemies. Such souls get boosted stats like increased damage dealt or movement speed.

Minion Life Support - a support gem which increases summoned minions life. It gives up to 49% of maximum minion health. Very good combination with rising specter because it reduces 20% of summoned minions life.

Animate Guardian - a summon gem which animates a warrior from weapons and armors dropped on the ground. Remember that unidentified items cannot be animated. Such a warrior will be fighting by your side.

Blood Magic - this gem makes supported abilities use life instead of mana. If any spells reserves mana, it will start to reserve health. Also, it sets mana to zero.

k) Skill Tree (also viable in Synthesis league)

Skill tree for Zombiemancer Necromancer with the ascendancy

l) Bandits

You have to kill all the bandits in order to maximize your stats and damage. You can also help Alira, but I would rather choose to get 2 skill points which give you a high boost to your minion damage.

m) Pantheon                             

main God - Soul of Lunaris - increased movement speed and reduced damage for each nearby enemy make this pantheon god the best choice for this build. Movement speed will be very useful when mapping and reduced damage will be helpful when fighting with bosses like atziri or shaper.

minor God - Soul of Arakaali - this god gives you a blessing which increases your damage reduction and survivability even more. Also, your health regeneration will be faster and your resistance for chaos damage will be increased.

n) Jewels

There are three suggested jewels for this build:

The first one is Efficient Training Crimson Jewel. The jewel increases your strength and converts intelligence from passive skills into strength. Mandatory for this build since you are mainly basing on the strength attribute.

The second one is Brawn Crimson Jewel. It increases your strength by 4%. In the endgame, it can give you even 50 points of this attribute. Very good for this build.

The third one is Violent Dead Cobalt Jewel. Basically, the main advantage of this jewel is the fact that it increases your minion damage by 15%. It is a lot, especially in the endgame when you have all the required gear.

In the rest of the jewels you should look for such attributes:

increased chaos damage

increased lightning damage

increased maximum life

increased minion damage

resistances if you need to make up caps

In abyssal jewel (you will socket it into your belt) you should look for:

maximum life

increased lightning damage

increased attack damage

increased cast speed

resistances if you need to make up caps

increased minion damage