Best Necromancer Build in Last Epoch

The Acolyte is a fun starting class in Last EPoch that wields powerful death magic and can summon a veritable army of undead at her disposal. The Necromancer only enhances her dark magic as she can now summon more powerful undead with Shades and Wraiths that can dish out some hefty damage. We will talk about some builds that can bring out the full might of the Necromancer’s arsenal and clear some of the hardest Monolith timelines.

Wraithlord Helmet Build

This build is centered around the most powerful Unique item for the Necromancer, called the Wraithlord’s Harbour. This item states that casting Summon Wraith will replace the regular minion with a Wraithlord, which deals significantly more damage with its necrotic beams and will consume all other minions for more base damage. The idea behind this build is to let the Wraithlord do all the damage for you while you feed it with minions for as much DPS uptime as possible.

Skill Specializations

• Dread Shade
  • 4 points in Lingering Doom: 32% reduced health decay and +12 necro damage
  • 1 point in Blind Fury: 40% attack and cast speed but blinds minions
  • 1 point in All for One: 40% damage in exchange for no aura buffs
  • 2 points in Spectral Presence: 50% area multiplier
  • 1 point in Lone Watcher: No longer drains minion health and increases shade duration but only allows one shade with increased damage vulnerability
  • 1 point in Egoism: Minions will guarantee crits but sets 18 seconds cooldown
  • 3 points in Dying Coven; 40% increased attack and cast speed
  • 3 points in Duskheart: Grant affected minions with chance to inflict Damned status on hit
  • 4 points in Grim Fate: 100% increased area and damage for 100% more health decay

• Infernal Shade
  • 3 points in Influence: 75% increased area
  • 2 points in Torment Beacon: 80% chance to ignite per second
  • 1 point in Baneful: 20% fire penetration when ignited
  • 2 points in Ignition: Reduces mana cost and increases cast speed by 14%
  • 1 point in Devour in Flames: Only allows minions to be casted with Infernal Shade while dealing damage to affected minion
  • 1 point in Burn Trail: Minions gain haste when afflicted with Infernal Shade
  • 1 point in Subjugation: Deals 10% more direct damage pers second and gains 180% maximum damage
  • 1 point in Soulfire: Gives unlimited duration on minions
  • 3 points in Manic Fire: Increases, movement, attack and cast speed by 12%
  • 1 point in Blood Shade: Converts the skill’s fire damage and ignite chance into physical damage and bleed chance.
  • 4 points in Corrosion: Adds 200% armor shred chance

• Summon Wraith
  • 5 points in Reapers: Wraiths deal 20 more base damage
  • 3 points in Necrotic Hunger: Increases minion necrotic damage by 60% and adds 15% health leech for minions
  • 1 point in Wraith Bringer: Adds 10% cast speed and mana efficiency
  • 1 point in Spirit Link: Wraiths have 3% more crit chance and even more crit chance based on the spell’s mana cost
  • 2 points in Dawn of the Fall; Adds 4% more crit chance and leeches 4% of the crit damage dealt
  • 3 points in Dusk of the Living: Adds 90% more crit damage multiplier
  • 1 point in Locus of Resurrection: Wraiths will now be summoned on a targeted area but costs 20% more mana
  • 2 points in Haunting: Wraiths are given 40% more health
  • 1 point in Twin Spirits: Wraith health no longer decays but only allows 2 Wraiths maximum
  • 3 points in Sequel of Avarice: Wraiths are 30% larger, given 90% more melee area, 180% more damage and 90% bonus health

• Transplant
  • 3 points in Acolyte’s Fervor; Casting grants 3 seconds of Haste and Frenzy
  • 3 points in Fleeting Form: Increases cast speed and cooldown recovery by 15%
  • 2 points in Anemia: Reduces health cost of spell by 16%
  • 3 points in Bone Armor: Grants 300 armor and 12% damage reduction on cast
  • 2 points in Plated Bone: Adds 20% more effectiveness to Bone Armor’s values
  • 3 points in Apostasy: Adds 3 more seconds to Bone Armor’s effect
  • 1 point in Simulacrum: Leaves behind a bone mInion on the original area but removes the detonation effect
  • 1 point in Scarlet Rain: Increases area by 20%
  • 1 point in Ethereal Body: Converts the explosion damage to necrotic and scales with necrotic damage bonuses
  • 1 point in Squeamish: Spell inflict Fear on nearby enemies when cast

• Aura of Decay
  • 4 points in Absence of Life: Heals you and all allies by 8% of missing health per second
  • 4 points in Undertow: Adds 48% chance to slow enemies
  • 4 points in Inoculation: Lets you take 20% less poison damage from spell
  • 4 points in Plague Rat: Adds 60% area to spell
  • 4 points in Respite: Grants 60% poison resistance to allies in spell and begins 200% health regeneration on spell deactivation

Dread Shade and Infernal Shade are all buff spells needed to give as much power to your Summon Wraith skill tree as Dread Shade provides a passive bonus to the Wraithlord’s necrotic damage while the Infernal Shade radiates a significant of fire damage around the Wraithlord once you cast it on the minion. Transplant and Aura of Decay are more like utility spells for this build, as Transplant provides a quick escape with plenty of crowd control and extra tank stats for emergencies, while the Aura of Decay widens the gap between you and the enemy with

Passive Point Allocation

Acolyte Tree

• 8 points in Bone Armor: Gives 160 armor to you and your minions
• 8 points in Forbidden Knowledge; Adds +8 Intelligence and 40% necrotic resistance
• 7 points in Stolen Vitality: Adds 7 Vitality and 63% increased minion health
• 5 points in Dark Rituals: Buffs minions with 20% extra attack and cast speed and applies same buff to you when casting a minion spell
• 1 point in Soul Aegis: Minions are given 3 armor per your character level

Necromancer Tree

• 8 points in Risen Army; Increases minion damage by 32% and minion attack / cast speed by 16%
• 5 points in Cursed Blood: Increases your character’s and minions physical / necrotic damage by 30%
• 1 point in Blood Armor: Increases health regen by 10% and minion health regen by +2
• 3 points in Mortal Tether: Increases minion health by 45%
• 8 points in Aegisfall: Gives minions 200% chance to shred armor on hit
• 5 points in Frantic Summons; Increases attack and cast speed by 20% for you and minions
• 8 points in Tyrant: Increases your health by 24% but reduces minion health by the same amount
• 1 point in River of Bones: Minions are given the following: 20% increased crit chance, leeched crit damage by 4%, health leech by 20% and freeze rate multiplier by 20%.
• 10 points in Moonlight Pyre: Adds 10 base fire and necrotic to minion attacks
• 10 points in Rite of Undeath; Adds 30% elemental and necrotic damage resistance to you and minions
• 10 points in Blades of the Forlorn: Minions are granted 70% crit damage multiplier, freeze rate and cold damage

Lich Tree

• 10 points in Apocrypha: Adds 10 Intelligence to you and grants 20% increased mana regen

All the passives chosen in this tree are direct stat scaling bonuses for both you and your minion that straight up increases both damage and defensive stats. As an Acolyte base, you will need as much defensive stats as possible since Necromancers primarily scale to Intelligence.

Equipment Affix Priorities

For your helmet, the Wraithlord’s Harbour is the core piece of your build. If the weapon has Legendary Potential, infuse it with an Exalted item that has good resistances or any defensive stat of your choice.

For your chest, use the Revenant Plate as the base. Prioritize slotting in a Level of Summon Wraith affix for more points into that skill tree. For the rest, put in more defensive stats like armor, elemental resist or other damage mitigation bonuses.

For gloves, use Julra’s Obsession at it has great elemental resistances that also apply to your minions. If it has Legendary Potential, slot in Cast Speed for it.

For the belt, use the Divine Girdle item with the same defensive stats as mentioned for the chest piece.

The boots should be the Vanguard Boots with its extra movement speed and Haste bonus. For affixes, get the Experimental Minions Transported with Traversal Skills and a movement speed affix. The rest are defensive affixes again.

The relic should be Runed Bones to further augment your necrotic damage. Prioritize the healing effectiveness affix first then continue with the previous defensive.

Your main hand weapon should be the Soul Harvester class weapon with the minion melee and spell damage affix, as well the necrotic penetration and minion necrotic penetration affix. If you need extra QoL, you may put cast speed on it but feel free to choose an affix that you need.

For the offhand weapon, take the Irongalss Shield with the increased Healing Effectiveness affix and the same defensive stats as previously mentioned.

For the ring slots, take the Turquoise Ring for even more intrinsic minion damage and minion crit damage multipliers. The affixes on this should be Critical Strike Avoidance to prevent getting one shotted on higher difficulties and Minion Health to keep your summons alive much longer.

Finally for the amulet, use the Oracle Amulet for the base to stem DoTs inflicted on you and slot in Increased Healing Effectiveness with other defensive affixes.

Idol Setups

The idols called “Adorned Immortal Idol” should be the only ones occupying your Idol slots. Make sure they have Chance for Summon Wraith To Summon A Flame Wraith and Minion Chance To Apply Mark For Death On Hit affixes to synergize with this build.

Monoliths of Fate Blessings

When selecting a blessing after a Monolith run, these will permanently buff you even outside the activity. Choose the following for each Timeline

• The Black Sun: Grand Memory of Light
  • Adds 40 to 70 health

• Ending the Storm: Grand Rhythm of the Tide
  • 120% to 200% health regen and 12 to 20 base health regen

• Reign of Dragons: Grand Survival of Might
  • 50% to 70% crit damage avoidance

• The Age of Winter: Grand Bulwark of the Tundra
  • 25% to 55% increased armor

• Spirits of Fire: Grand Body of Obsidian
  • 200 to 320 base armor

The rest of the timeline blessings are up to your discretion.