Last Epoch: Necromancer Minion Build

The Necromancer mastery for the Acolyte in Last Epoch stays true to the class fantasy of summoning an army of the dead. Players can expect to fill the screen with their own monsters that easily rival the numbers and power of enemies.

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The following is a guide on how to build a Necromancer directly from a minion-focused Acolyte leveling build in Last Epoch. The focus on minions here is so great that it might as well turn the game into an auto-battler. Here's how to set it up.

Last Epoch Necromancer Build Skills

Minion build for Acolytes in Last Epoch — Last Epoch Acolyte minion build

This build features a full bar of minion skills for players who really want to live that undead commander fantasy. The lack of defensive abilities elevates the risk of death, but this is compensated for by a number of passive skills and items as well as the sheer number of minions on the screen that will tank damage for their master. The following skill specializations are optimized for characters who have 20 Specialization points to spend for each skill. Max out each passive except for the ones that have been expressly specified.

Summon Skeleton

Specialization Passive	Effect
Unholy Rage	Skeletons have increased attack speed.
Marrow Walkers	Increases maximum skeleton summon limit by 1.
Lone Guardian	Increase skeleton crit chance, but reduce max warrior count by 1.
Mightier than the Sword	Removes warriors from the summon pool.
Fire Arrow	Skeleton Archers use Fire Arrows, dealing Physical and Fire damage, and igniting any enemies hit. Skill has a 6-second cooldown.
Multishot	Fire Arrow deals more damage, and Skeleton Archers shoot more Fire Arrows when they use the ability. Increases the cooldown of Fire Arrow by 1 second per point.
Necrotic Conviction	Skeleton Archers deal more damage.
Hollow Walkers	Increases maximum skeleton summon limit by 1.
Unbound Necromancy (2/4)	Summon Skeletons cost less mana; increases the base crit chance of all skeletons.

The ever-reliable skeleton minion forms the backbone of this build in the same way it does in many other ARPGs with undead summoner classes. We'll be converting this ability to summon only Skeleton Archers, and they'll be the ones doing the brunt of the build's single-target damage. Archers will be the squishiest of all your minions, and expect to re-summon them frequently, especially during boss fights.

Summon Bone Golem

Specialization Passive	Effect
Amalgam of Sentinels	Golem gains extra health and armor.
Tower of Bones	Your golem is larger and generates more threat.
Fragments of the Fallen	Your golem deals more damage and grows even larger when summoned while no other golem is alive. Summoning a golem near the corpse of a different one grants it extra armor.
Bladed Fists	Golems deal more melee damage and have increased stun chance with melee attacks.
Unnatural Speed (1/4)	Golems move faster, and even more so when moving towards other minions.
Hunger (3/5)	Golem hits restore health to you and itself; the effect restores more health based on your Vitality.
Blood Golem	Summon a Blood Golem that casts Sanguine Orb, a spell that deals Physical damage to nearby enemies.

Your golem is your army's main tank. Its strong but slow attacks can demolish large swathes of small enemies, and its large health pool lets it take a ton of punishment before going down. The passive skill setup above doubles down on the golem's tank role — it will turn into a Blood Golem that's significantly bigger, generates more threat, and can heal you and itself with its attacks.

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Summon Wraith

Specialization Passive	Effect
Locus of Resurrection	Wraiths appear at your target location, but cost more mana to summon.
Haunting	Wraiths have more max health.
Twin Spirits	Wraiths no longer decay, but you can only have two summoned at a time.
Sequel of Avarice	Wraiths are larger, deal more damage, have more health and a larger area of effect with their attacks.
Dark Scythe	Wraiths attack faster.
Reapers	Wraith attacks deal extra Necrotic damage.
Grave Reality	All wraiths have more health, but summoning is slower and costs more mana.

Wraiths will fill the role of your Skeletal Warriors. These fast melee fighters normally disappear after a short while, but with the passive setup above, your Wraiths will stay with you until they die to the enemy. They'll also deal more damage, attack faster, and have more health than usual, but you'll only be able to summon two Wraiths at a time.

Summon Skeletal Mage

Specialization Passive	Effect
Leech Life	Mages regain health when hitting enemies.
Death Knights	Adds Death Knights to the summon pool, but removes all other Skeletal Mage types.
Death Blossom	Death Knights cast Hungering Souls with extra projectiles. Hungering Souls has an 8 second cooldown when used by Death Knights.
Shadow Wardens	Mages gain Ward per second and have a chance to avoid critical strikes.
Celer Mortis	Mages move faster and gain increased base critical hit chance.
Order of Death	Increase max mage summon limit by 1.
Grey Merchant	Mages gain increased crit multiplier and gain health whenever they crit.

Skeletal Mages will be converted to Death Knights that help your golem and wraiths fight in melee. With three different kinds of melee minions fighting in the front, your archers will be able to safely pelt targets with arrows for maximum DPS. The Death Knights themselves are no slouches when it comes to dealing damage, though. All passives that Skeleton Mages will apply to Death Knights.

Summon Volatile Zombie

Specalization Passive	Effect
Fervor	Zombies deal more damage and move faster.
Leap Attack (1/4)	Zombies now leap at targets.
Forceful Commander	Summon zombies faster and for less mana.
Daunting Blast (1/4)	Increases stun chance of zombie explosions.
Ravenous	Explosions deal more damage to rare enemies and bosses.
Pull of the Grave (1/2)	Zombie explosions instantly kill enemies below 8% health.
Horrific Vessels	Converts the damage of explosions to Necrotic.
Army of Nightmares	Explosions inflict Fear.
Corpse Bane	Explosions applies Marked For Death, making enemies take 25% more damage.

For all intents and purposes, Summon Volatile Zombie is to be used as your main spammable attack. They are still treated as minions in the game, which means your items and passives that boost anything minion-related will make your Zombies stronger too. By using this skill, you can focus on building minion stats without wasting stats. Specialize this skill last.

Passive Skills

Acolyte passive tree in Last Epoch — Last Epoch Acolyte passives

Acolyte Tree	Necromancer Tree
Blood Aura Bone Aura Stolen Vitality Mania of Mortality (*)	Risen Army Grave Thorns Reclamation of Souls () Cursed Blood Aegisfall Blood Armour (1 point only) Mortal Tether Unbound Necromancy Unearthed Arms Dark Retribution Frantic Summons Effigies () River of Bones Moonlight Pyre Rite of Undeath Blades of the Forlorn Disciples of Necromancy

These passives provide basic offensive and defensive bonuses for you and your minions — get as many passive skill points as you can, and spec at least 5 into each skill when possible, then invest more according to your most immediate need. The ones marked by an asterisk are your main sources of survivability. Mania of Mortality grants a chance for you to gain Ward when a nearby enemy, ally, or minion dies — this counts the deaths of your Volatile Zombies. Likewise, Reclamation of Souls will grant you guaranteed Ward when a minion dies. Meanwhile, Effigies acts as a safety net that heals you when you get hit while at low health, consuming a nearby minion's current health in the process.

Gear and Stat Priorities

Pebble's set effect in Last Epoch — Last Epoch Pebble's set

Main Stats	Offensive	Defensive
Intelligence Vitality Mana	Increased Minion Damage Increased Minion Necrotic Damage Increased Minion Physical Damage Increased Minion Elemental Damage Increased Minion Fire Damage Increased Minion Critical Strike Chance Minion Critical Strike Multiplier	Minion Health Minion Armor Health Ward per Second Ward Retention Resistances

Pay close attention to the scaling tags of your abilities. The majority of your skills will primarily scale off Minion tags, which means multipliers that directly affect you will not affect your army. You must use stats that specifically have the Minion tag on them if you want to make your undead fighters stronger.

As for your own stats, you only need to worry about defense and mana. You'll be getting plenty of Ward from your passive skills, so getting Ward Retention from your gear is a good idea. Armour, Dodge Rating, and Resistance also mitigate the damage taken by Ward. Don't skimp out on these.

There are plenty of unique items in Last Epoch, but not all of them work well with this type of build. Some good minion-focused items include:

Unique/Set Items
- Pebble's Set (Wand, Belt, Relic - Summon Skeleton's attacks and spells deal additional Fire, Lightning, or Ice damage based on your lowest resistance)
- Reach of the Grave (Wand - Minion Bow damage, attack speed, and life leech)
- Doublet of Onos Tull (Chest Armor - Minion Bleed Chance)
Base Items
- Sickle/Soul Harvester (1H Axe - Minion Necrotic Damage)
- Dragonbone Axe (1H Axe - Minion Melee Damage)
- Sanguine Regalia (Chest Armor - Minion Life Leech)
- Immortal Regalia (Chest Armor - Minion Resistance)