Introduced in Build 104, the Necromancer is a long-range fighter who uses a staff and wears robe armor, making him very similar to the Wizard. His ability targets enemies, dealing damage and converting that into health for him and his allies. To unlock the Necromancer you must reach level 20 with the Priest and the Wizard. See his stat gains, caps, and averages here.
Tiered staves are the bread and butter of any staff class.
The Staff of the Cosmic Whole, Staff of the Vital Unity, and Staff of the Fundamental Core have excellent range and great damage, making them ideal weapons to farm gods and bosses alike. There are few UT staves that have comparable damage. Cosmic Whole and Vital Unity are tradable, while T14 is a soulbound Oryx’s Sancturary drop.
These staves only really work in specific scenarios, but have extremely high damage.
The Staff of Extreme Prejudice (EP) fires 10 shots in a circle, dealing absurd DPS in its effective range of zero. On enemies that you can safely stand on, such as Pentaract Towers or a staggered O3, there is simply no competition. It drops from a common dungeon - Sprite World, to boot.
The Staff of Unholy Sacrifice might not have the same damage, but it still outdamages just about any other staff while piercing enemies. The catch is that it fires backwards, meaning you have to aim the opposite of your cursor (thus, skull). It also has a fairly poor range, though still having many more applications than EP. It is also a late-game drop, from Malus of the Cultist Hideout. This staff may be less useful for the Necromancer, whom depends on his general aim in order to deal consistent damage and effectively heal using his ability.
These staves provide an arrayment of utility to the Necromancer.
Tezcacoatl’s Tail from the aptly named Tezcacoatl the Great Basilisk is the only staff that can armor pierce. This allows the Necromancer some utility in fighting enemies with high DEF. Meanwhile, the Staff of Esben drops from Esben the Unwilling, and is one of the few staves that can hit multiple targets. They can be useful, but their medicore DPS in general situations make them swapouts. The inclusion of spellblades, which provide both armor piercing and piercing multiple targets at the same time, can also nullify the need for these two UT staves in particular.
Superior, from Chancellor Dammah, is a very powerful staff, with only the T14 staff (another Oryx’s Sancturary drop) competing in damage. The staff shoots out 4 shots that deal lots of damage when combined, even though it has less range. Necromancer is better at approaching enemies, healing if he gets too low.
The Robe of the Grand Sorcerer, Robe of the Star Mother, and Robe of the Ancient Intellect are solid tiered robes for the Necromancer. The WIS bonuses help amplify the Necromancer’s ability, along with the MP increasing the class’s utility. The ATT boosts also add to the Necromancer’s DPS, and the robes provide decent defensive stats. The T15 robe is of course the hardest to obtain, being a soulbound drop from O3.
The Water Dragon Silk Robe is a great robe for the Necromancer, providing great offense and defenses alike. Using your ability when under 75% HP will give health, which only adds to the Necromancer’s healing ability, albeit as more of a safety cushion.
The Robe of the Mad Scientist from Dr. Terrible and Ritual Robe from Malus are amazing robes for increasing the Necromancer’s healing capabilities. The former gives +7 WIS and discounts ability costs, allowing Necromancers to heal more often. The Ritual robe might have lower DEF, but gives an obscene +20 WIS to greatly improve the Skull’s damage (and maybe healing), though it also drops from a harder dungeon.
The Diplomatic Robe and the Vesture of Duality sacrifice DEF, MP, and WIS for a massive DPS stat increase. Diplo creates a portal that deals single-target damage to enemies in its range. The portal’s cooldown and duration are both 4 seconds, though you have to take 50+ damage to activate it. The Vesture increases Attack by +20 by using your ability but also reduces DEF by 6, making it a very risky robe to use. However, the Necromancer’s healing may negate some of the defense loss.
Skulls give moderate damage, which ignore a small amount of defense. Along with the healing and the damage/range of staves, Necromancers are very good at acting independently in the godlands.
Bloodsucker and Mindwaster are standard tiered skulls, giving you a large HP bonus and the best healing for almost any situation.
The Sealed Crystal Skull sports a greater radius, making it easier to hit large groups. It heals less, but also costs less than tiered skulls. It drops from El Dorado in the Secluded Thicket.
These skulls all have less bonus HP and healing compared to tiered skulls, but they boost your damage significantly. The Demon Lord’s Skull is a skull that has slightly less bonus HP than T5 but completely forgoes all healing in exchange for better WIS mod and a 70% chance to summon a powerful minion. This skull works wonders for DPS on builds without much DEX or ATK or in groups where you can already get a damaging buff.
When you can’t get damaging easily, Memento Mori fills a similar niche, sacrificing all healing for pure damage. However, Mori’s damage primarily comes from its 
Damaging buff on self and its ability’s 400 piercing damage. Its enormous +10 ATK on equip also makes it powerful even with Paladins. However, it gives no HP bonus, and is therefore riskier than other options. Despite this, its sheer strength and ease of farming (since it drops from Ghost Kings) make it worthwhile to farm for.
The Skull of Corrupted Souls is much less extreme; it has reduced ability radius, base damage, and heal in exchange for stronger wisdom scaling, lower cost, and applying 
Curse. Curse is a nice way to increase DPS for yourself or a group without Mystics, and it still gives a respectable amount of HP on equip. Its balanced strength and relative ease to farm (from Cultist Hideouts) make it a nice skull to go for.
The Skull of Endless Torment is an interesting skull that revolves around purifying yourself or the group. While inconsistent, this skull can be a godsend in status-heavy (and minion-heavy) dungeons such as Fungal Caverns, and ironically, its drop location, Lair of Shaitans. It scales well with wisdom as well and has nice stat bonuses on equip, but its inconsistency and rarity as a drop from a Court dungeon make it rather undesirable.
The Skullish Remains of Esben is a UT skull that’s weaker than T6, but inflicts 
Slowed and gives a nice ATK boost. The Slowing effect is instant and on your cursor, making it reliable despite its relatively short duration. However, the radius of this skull is very small (3 tiles) and its -3 SPD and inferior HP bonus can be uncomfortable to use.
The Perennial Cranium is a strange skull that does a small amount of damage and healing on use, but spawns a plant that leaches health in a small radius. The total damage is quite good, but it’s spread over time and its healing only applies if YOU are also in the radius, making it a risky to utilise fully. Strangely, the heal seems to work even with no enemy in its radius. Even with this extra quirk, its rarity as a drop from a seasonal event dungeon means it may not be worth the effort to get.
Accessories can greatly increase the Necromancer’s stats, from utility, to survivability, to mobility, to damage.
HP boosting rings are great for boosting general survivability. Both the Ring of Unbound Health and Ring of Decades provide large increases to HP. The Ring of Decades only provides 10 more HP and is rarer. While DEF is typically seen as inferior to HP, the Ring of Unbound Defense is still decent considering Necromancer’s low defense.
These rings are focused on increasing the usability of the Necromancer’s ability.
The Ring of Unbound Magic is purely for increasing the usage of the Necromancer’s skull, allowing roughly a couple more uses.
Meanwhile, The Twilight Gemstone not only increases the Necromancer’s MP, allowing for more usage of his skull, but it also has a proc that reduces MP cost, further allowing the spammability of the skull. Plus, the small WIS bonus is nice.
Finally, the Sourcestone provides a balance between utility and survivability, along with a bit of mobility, all of which the Necromancer can greatly benefit from.
These rings are great for increasing the effectiveness of the Necromancer’s ability, rather than getting more uses. Geb’s Ring of Wisdom not only gives +10 WIS, but also gives small boosts to HP, MP, and VIT. On the other hand, the Bloodshed Ring gives less WIS but more HP and DEF, balancing effectiveness with survivability.
These rings are the best for increasing the Necromancer’s general DPS output. Since both DEX and ATT are high for the class, having a balance of both helps to steadily increase his DPS. The Forgotten Crown and Magical Lodestone both give the same amount of DEX and ATT, with Crown giving HP and Lodestone giving both DEF and SPD. The Chrysalis of Eternity is essentially a better Crown, although it is much harder to obtain, plus some may prefer Lodestone’s SPD and DEF bonuses. However, all of these are beneficial, as the Necromancer has low defensive and mobility stats.
These rings are great for general boosts to the Necromancer’s stats. The Omnipotence Ring gives small increases to every single stat. The Bracer of the Guardian meanwhile is more focused on balancing survivability, utility, and DPS. Finally, the Divine Coronation focuses more on survivability and offense, giving more HP and more DPS stats.
The Necromancer, along with other robe classes, is one of the more fragile classes in the game. However, the Necromancer’s powerful healing makes it second in durability only to the Priest, and is capable of taking a lot of damage. Still, he is rather weak to shotguns and can easily pop if you aren’t careful.
An ummaxed Necromancer can farm fairly well; its range and stats are enough to easily farm gods and their dungeons solo. When maxed, the Necromancer can take on even tougher enemies and dungeons without needing to rely on a group. However, silence is more dangerous for the necromancer than other classes due to its reliance on its ability for heals, not just damage or utility.
In Godlands, try to keep your healing to a minimum if there are decent priests or paladins around. Save your mana for when someone pulls several gods at the same time and leads them towards the group, and heal when people start taking a lot of damage from the cluster of gods. Focus mostly on dodging and killing gods as fast as you can. Constructs and Sprite Gods (only useful if they have sprite children with them) are very useful for a quick heal after losing some health.
In dungeons, Necromancers are typically similar to priests, though their healing is not nearly as reliable - especially when there’s few enemies to drain the life of. If you want to do Event Bosses, get your defense up before you do. Event bosses have many minions which aid your healing, but you can run to a nearby construct to heal as well.
The Necromancer is a powerful class in the right hands, able to accomplish a lot by himself with utility in every situation, even capable of doing some tanking with his very powerful heals. In addition, the Necromancer has been long renowned as a master farmer for pots in the godlands. He can be one of the most satisfying classes to play well. Necro gaaaaaang
