Kasumei's PvE Necromancer Guide

Oh mighty Vallacre, my king, I call upon you! The ultimate Slaughterer of injustice, who strikes fear into the hearts of all living creatures; it is you who truly liberates the Dark Elves from oppression!
Hear this calling from your humble servant! Through this lowly form, unleash your true majesty upon this world!
I beseech your wrath upon the arrogant Elves, the deceitful Dwarves and even the shameless Dark Elven apostates who desecrate our name! I implore your relentless acrimony, to rain flames of vengeance to the treacherous Human race, and all its filth and corruption!
At last! The army of terror will rise and march forth again, at the summoning of the Great King! All opposing foes shall tremble in the shadow of his might! Prepare yourselves for inescapable despair!
Oh Vallacre, Great King of Terror! Hear my summoning! Ascend from the depths of your oblivion! I am but an instrument of your awesome embrace! Arise from your dank, shallow grave, and possess this body again!
Cursed be to Amora! Glory is the legacy of the Dark Elves!

Index

Section 1 - Skill Analysis

• 1.1 - PvE General Skill Analysis
• 1.2 - Awakening Skills
• 1.3 - EX Skills
• 1.3.1 QP Stat Upgrades
• 1.3.1 Necromancer EX Passives
• 1.3.3 - Necromancer EX Actives

Section 2 - Recommended avatar stats

Section 3 - Recommended PvE Builds

Section 4 - Recommended PvE Gear

• 4.1 - Weapons
• 4.2 - Armor
• 4.3 - Accessories
• 4.3.1 - Bracelets
• 4.3.2 - Necklaces
• 4.3.3 - Rings
• 4.4 - Special equipment
• 4.4.1 - Sub equipment
• 4.4.2 - Magic Stone

Section 5 - Necromancer Showcase

• 5.1 - Normal dungeons
• 5.2 - Ancient/Otherverse dungeons

 Section 1 - Skill Analysis

Section 1.1 - Necromancer PvE Skill Analysis

Dark Soul (Level 5) - You should leave this skill level 5 for the pre-req for Soul Lure if you're deciding on maxing it. The damage of Dark Soul is subpar and you would deal more damage just using your Vallacre swings.

Bone Shield (Level 0) - I haven't personally tested this skill, but it's supposedly worthless. The defense it gives is horrible and the damage it deals is horrible. Don't get any levels of it.

Curse Spear (Level 5) - It's sort of decent at lower levels before you get Vallacre, but after that, it's a terrible skill. Leave it at level 5 for Black Web.

Nicholas Rapport (27 [Max]) - Nicholas is our main source of damage at lower levels, but even then, the utility he provides at higher levels is decent enough to warrant maxing him.

Dark Ritual (20 [Max]) - Max this skill. There's no question about it. It’s Necromancer’s only stat buff that isn’t Ancient Memory.

Dark Nail (27 + cancel [Max]) - This skill decreases the enemy's dark resistance by 21 at max. That's about a 10.5% increase in DPS on your skills that deal Shadow damage. Max this.

Obedient Ghost (1, 18 [Max]) - This skill changes Nicholas's stance, which has a few different effects. When you summon Nicholas, he's in his basic stance. Using this skill once puts him in aggressive stance, which increases both of his defenses by 180%. Using it twice puts him in his passive stance, which increases the damage of his attacks by 36%. Using it three times puts him in master protection stance, which increases both of your defense by 13,440. Get at least 1 level so you can change the stance that Nicholas is in.

Zombie Rapport (1, 26 [Max]) - This skill commands Nicholas to summon five zombies that hold enemies and have a chance of cursing them. If the zombies kill an enemy that's cursed, another zombie is summoned.

Dead Man's Grudge (26 + cancel [Max]) - This skill sends forth a wave of the dead that grab onto enemies and damage them. It has a 59.5% chance of slowing enemies at max, and the slow reduces movement speed by 42%, jump strength by 42%, and attack speed by 33.6%. I strongly recommend maxing this skill. It makes killing things with Vallacre a lot easier when enemies can't even get to you because they're moving so slow.

Black Web (23 [Max]) - This skill makes Nicholas summon a web that deals tick damage to enemies, increases your Shadow damage, and increases Nicholas' Shadow resistance. I strongly recommend maxing this skill and its EX passive. At level 23, the range is 674 pixels and it increases your shadow damage by 30. The EX passive gives it a level 70 hold status, which is useful for holding enemies still while you slash away at them with Vallacre.

Soul Lure (5 + cancel, 21 [Max]) - This skill makes the Necromancer throw an orb that you can either command to explode or let it explode by itself. When it explodes, a flurry of souls damage the enemies and inflict very minor hitstun. The damage is miniscule (110% + 1075 fixed damage at max). However, this is a decent skill for the hitstun it provides. Enemies that aren't in Super Armor will be locked down between this skill's hitstun, Nicholas' skills, and your Vallacre swings.

Black Wave (1, 16 [Max] - This skill commands Nicholas to grab enemies with threads. At level 1, it can grab up to 5 enemies. At level 16, it can grab up to 10. Nicholas also recovers HP from enemies that are grabbed by Black Wave. The damage scales decently (about the same rate as Vallacre's Grasp), but Nicholas has his own hit rate, so it may not hit as often as you would like.

Vallacre the Slaughterer (18 [Max]) - This skill is our bread and butter when it comes to damage. You have to have this skill maxed unless you're using a gimmicky build.

Vallacre's Grasp (16 [Max]) - This skill makes Vallacre summon energy in the shape of a hand. The hand closes together a few seconds after casting, which makes a small explosion that deals damage. Pressing the skill hotkey again closes the fist automatically.

Guillotine (13 [Max]) - This skill makes Vallacre skim his hand across the ground, then swing his sword down, creating an explosion. The first part of the attack puts enemies in fairly lengthy hitstun so they won't stray away and not be hit by the second attack. The damage from this skill is decent. I strongly recommend maxing this skill.

     Section 1.2 - Awakening Skill Analysis

Fear of the Slaughterer (1, 8 [Max]) - This passively gives you a chance of decreasing the attack of an enemy to 1 any time you hit any enemy with Vallacre. This skill is glitched, though; the tooltip states that it decreases both of the enemy's defenses.

Phantom Storm (0, 1) - You've finally awakened! This class is so badass, the awakening must be so amazing, right? Wrong. It leaves you very vulnerable to enemies with super armor or high hit recovery, which leaves you open to tank damage. I wouldn't even recommend getting one level of this skill, but that's up to you to decide.

Section 1.3 - EX Skills

1.3.1 - Stat EX Passives

1.3.1 – QP Stat Upgrade Recommendations

• Intelligence (27 [Max]) – The Intelligence QP upgrade costs 20 QP per level, gives 6 Intelligence per level (162 at max), and maxes out at level 27. You shouldn’t really need to ask why this is completely necessary.
• Vitality/Spirit (0~27 [Max]) – Dumping QP into one of these isn’t a bad idea. Vitality increases the rate at which your HP max, HP regen, and Physical Defense scales. Spirit increases the rate at which your MP max, MP regen, and Magic Defense scales. Personally, I dumped my QP into Vitality.
• Movement Speed (0, 5 [Max]) – Costs 20 QP per level, gives .4% movement speed (2% at max), and maxes at level 5. This is an optional max if you have leftover QP. It’s nice for moving around a bit faster in dungeons.
• Magic Critical Hit (0, 5 [Max]) – Magic critical hit costs 35 QP per level, gives 1% magic crit per level (5% at max), and maxes out at level 5. It’s not completely necessary, but I highly recommend maxing it.
• Hit Rate (20 [Max]) – This costs 35 QP per level, gives .5% hit rate per level (10% at max), and maxes out at level 20. Necromancers don’t have a buff or a weapon mastery to increase hit rate, so you really should max this. On King’s road, you need 20% hit rate to never miss.
• HP Replenish (0~8 [Max]) – Costs 20 QP per level, gives 65 HP regen (scales to your Vitality) per level, maxes at level 8. I maxed this because of Dark Ritual’s 400 HP cost. I maxed this on my Necromancer because I hate how much HP Dark Ritual costs and I had no way to mitigate it other than HP pots that I hate using. However, whether you max this or not remains up to you.
• MP Replenish (8 [Max]) – Costs 20 QP per level, gives 50 MP regen (scales to your Spirit) per level, maxes at level 8. I highly recommend maxing this to counter the MP drain that is known as Vallacre the Slaughterer and Black Web.
• All Elemental Attack (10 [Max]) – The Elemental Attack upgrade costs 70 QP per level, gives +1 damage to every element per level (+10 at max), and maxes out at level 10. It’s essentially a 5% damage increase to all your Shadow-type skills (aka just about every skill you’ll have).

1.3.2 - Necromancer EX Passives
I can't update this yet because the formatting screws up when I paste it over from Microsoft Office.

1.3.3 - Necromancer EX Actives

Dead Man's Obsession (3 [Max]) - This skill summons a wave of enemies that grab and immobilize any enemy that stands on it. It lasts 10 seconds, and it has a 50% chance of immobilizing enemies that stand on it. The damage isn't decent, but its holding utility is amazing. Max this. This skill costs 2 TP per level.

Black Energy Wave (1 [Max]) - This skill functions exactly like Black Wave, but it holds 10 enemies and Nicholas recovers 300 HP per enemy that he holds. That's not why you want it, though; it's another skill that enables us to hold more shit down. This skill costs 3 TP per level.

Section 2 - Recommended PvE avatar/emblem stats
Section 2.1 - PvE avatar stats

Hair/Hat - Casting speed. Vallacre's swing speed is affected by casting speed, NOT attack speed. Face/torso- Abnormal status resist or attack speed. Abnormal status resist comes in handy at Reshpon. Top - Get Vallacre the Slaughterer because it increases the damage of all of his attacks.

Bottom - HP max or MP max; Necromancers will benefit from both, but it comes down to your preference.

Waist - Evasion or Max Weight. I personally use Max Weight because of the amount of gear I carry around, but it comes down to your personal preference.

Shoes - Movement speed or strength. Some people GOTTA GO FAST, some people want to make Dark Ritual give even more intelligence.

Section 2.2 - PvE Emblem stats

Red emblems - Intelligence. Gold int emblems give 25 each for a total of 100. Good luck buying these outside of Emblem Week, though.
Yellow emblems - Casting speed. Faster Vallacre swings = more damage output.
Green emblems - Magic critical hit or intelligence + magic critical hit. I have no strong preference one way or the other, but I use magic crit emblems.
Blue emblems - Hit rate. You can never have enough hit rate in PvE.

Section 3 - Recommended Builds
Section 3.1 - PvE Builds
Cookie cutter build

From here, you can max Zombie Rapport and get Shining Cut cancel. If you don't want Zombie Rapport or Shining Cut's cancel, then dump the leftover SP into Fear of the Slaughterer and Black Wave. Having a higher proc chance on the passive's debuff is always a good thing.

Section 3.2 - PvP Builds

N/A

Section 4 - Recommended Gear
Section 4.1 - Weapons

Magic Sealed level 60-70 wand – Any magic sealed wand that has +shadow damage, +1 to Dark Ritual, Smash, Intelligence, Pixie, or any mix of these will be decent.

Wand of the Black Contract/Powerful Force Vallacre the Slaughterer wand - One of these wands should be your number one priority. It's our biggest damage increase to Vallacre. The Chronicle 2 wand adds 18% damage and Wand of the Black Contracts adds 20% damage. I wouldn't reinforce these weapons unless you don't have a better wand to swap to (i.e. +11 or higher Benitoite, +10 or higher Bells of the Shaman, etc.)

Bells of the Shaman - This is a level 60 pink wand. It's a cheaper alternative to the 65 pink wand, but if you get this to at least +12 or higher, you're set when it comes to weapons.

Skull of Sorcerer - This is a 65 pink wand. It has a proc that reduces a monster's magic defense by 4,000.

Sorcerer's Cursed Wand – The level 68 pink wand that drops from Sorcerer Nazalo in Reshpon. It gives shadow damage, +2 to Vallacre the Slaughterer, +2 to Guillotine, and has a 3% chance of blinding an enemy you attack.

Bells of Hathor - Level 60 epic wand. It adds 8% magic crit damage (3% higher than most wands), 8~14 Shadow damage, and 20% critical damage. If you get lucky and find this wand in Hell Mode, you better start stacking crit. This is one of the best weapons in our current level cap (70).

Floo's Grudge Wand – This is a level 65 epic wand that has a 4% chance of casting Floo’s Soul Scream (the ghost of himself that charges across the map dealing massive damage). The short sword version of this weapon deals physical shadow damage, so this probably does, too. As a result of that, the damage it deals might be a little lackluster. It’s still a decent weapon because of its piercing growth and its base attack, though.

Section 4.2 - Armor

Powerful Force Vallacre set - Absolutely necessary if you want to fuck shit up with your Vallacre swings. The difference between a Necromancer using a Force Vallacre set and a Necromancer not using Force Vallacre is too huge to pass up on this. The best part is that you can swap to seperate armor pieces after casting Vallacre and retain the damage bonuses along with the bonuses (except +Vallacre levels/damage) from your Force Vallacre equipment.

Rattlesnake of Temptation set – Level 60-65 purple armor; If you have the Full Powerful Force Vallacre Set, you can swap to this from it. The skill bonuses are average.

Unlucky Protector set – Level 65-70 purple armor; The skill bonuses on this set are a bit better than Rattlesnake of Temptation’s.

Magic sealed light armor set (60-70) – A set of magic sealed armor with intelligence + pixie will be good enough until you start running OV.

Holy Clay set of Kers - More or less optional, the STR and INT boost is pretty hefty. Only go for this if you're prepared to spend a ton of money potting/buying it. Otherwise, we benefit more from Full Powerful Force Vallacre Set.

Crom's Soaked Vital Coat - This is an excellent top considering our Intelligence buff costs 400 HP per cast. It has a 7% chance when attacking to restore 1,500 HP to you and your party. As far as I know, this restoration can proc from our damage-over-time skills, such as Dead Man's Grudge and Soul Lure.

Crom's Mana Absorbing Pants - Attack with a 7% chance of restoring 1,700 MP. Holy. Shit. These are the pants you should be aiming for if you're absolutely dedicated to maining your Necromancer. These pants enable us to swing with Vallacre 'til the end of time without having to use a mana potion.

Crom's Vampiric Shoulder - Attack with a 15% chance of bleeding enemies. In my opinion, you should only go for this shoulder if you really want the set bonus. The set bonus adds max. HP, 7% attack speed, and increases bleeding levels by 4.

Section 4.3 - Accessories

Bracelets:

Lapis Luzuli Bracelet - This adds to our MAX MP, MP per min, and it adds +1% casting speed. This isn't a bad bracelet to buy if you can't afford to get a pink bracelet.

Magic sealed bracelet – A bracelet with Intelligence + Pixie will be good enough until you start running OV.

Chronicle 3 Bracelet - If you can get two decent enchantments, such as Green Dimensional Aura for Vallacre and another enchantment of your choice, that'll do fine.

Heartneck Mask - Attack with a 15% chance of decreasing enemy's elemental resistance by 6. IIRC it stacks twice, which gives the possibility of -12 to the enemy’s shadow resistance. Not a bad option.

Sorcerer's Glass Beaded Bracelet - This adds 5% casting speed. It’s nice if your casting speed is still pretty low (<50%).

Bracelet of Deadly Screams - +7% Physical & Magical Critical Hit Rate. This is a decent bracelet to get if you can't throw around a lot of money on anything else.

Necklaces

Terra Cotta ID - Increases your Magic Attack Strength by 100 by spending 1 clear cube fragment per minute. This is a pretty good necklace to use until you get a better necklace.

Magic sealed necklace – A necklace with Intelligence + Pixie is decent.

Mani Aruso's Artifact Casting Speed +10%, Light Resistance +10, Shadow Resistance +10. This is a decent necklace for PvE because Vallacre slashes are affected by casting speed. This would obviously be a decent item to get for PvP, too, because casting speed is a necessity.

Siev's Masterpiece - This item adds between 12 and 18 shadow damage. Under certain conditions, this necklace is better to use than Screaming Necklace.

Necklace of Deadly Screams - +8% Physical & Magical Damage. This item needs no explanation.

Rings

Royal Ring - HP Max +170-190, Casting Speed +8%. This is a ring that can be used in PvE as well as PvP; I wouldn't recommend it much for PvE though seeing as how we have other better rings to use.

Morganite Ring HP Max +190-205, Casting Speed +5%. A decent alternative to Royal Ring, also not as expensive.

Magic sealed ring – A ring with Intelligence + Pixie is good.

Black Pearl - Mist – Increases your magic attack counter damage by 20%.

Ancient Elven Ring - Magic attack with a 6% chance of buffing your intelligence by 9% for 30 seconds. This ring is mainly useful in dungeons where you don’t want Dark Spirit Ring’s Stalker summon to proc.

Dark Spirit Ring  – Adds 11~16 Shadow damage, although it costs 450 Radiant Demon Eyes from Grandis’s shop. This is definitely a decent ring to aim for if you're willing to farm Hell Mode.

Section 4.4 - Special equipment

Section 4.4.1 - Sub Equipment

Thief Gloves - Level 60 rare. It gives +22 physical attack and +27 magic attack at superior quality. Not bad if your funds are limited.

Grand Thief Assault - Level 65 rare. Gives +24 physical attack and +29 magic attack at superior. Not much better than Thief Gloves.

Magic sealed subequip – Anything with Intelligence + Pixie is good.

Dread Noose - Level 60 unique. Gives +57 physical attack and +67 magic attack at superior quality. This is definitely what you should spend your money on if The Second Death isn't on the AH or you can't afford it.

The Second Death - Level 65 unique. Gives +72 magic attack at superior. This is obviously the best buyable sub equipment for Necromancers.

Black Fiend – Gives 111 magic attack at superior quality. This is hands down the BEST sub equipment for Necromancer.

Section 4.4.2 - Magic stone

Stalker's Tear - Shadow Damage +11 (Superior quality)

Magic sealed magic stone – Anything with Intelligence + Pixie is good.

Sheyd's Tear - Shadow Damage +30 (Superior quality)

Dead Murker's Tear - Shadow Damage +45 (Superior quality)


Props to Volke for typing all of this up and allowing me to edit it/add things as I please.

Necromancer Showcase

Section 5.1 - Normal dungeons

Section 5.2 - Ancient/Otherverse dungeons