by Chris Ware on Apr 25, 2011
Of all the various souls available to a Mage in
style="font-style: italic;">Rift, the
Necromancer
is one of the few that you will want to consider focusing the majority
of your Soul Points on as you level up. Any points spent in the other
two trees with Necromancer as your primary role are truly just
sprinkles on top of an already perfect soul tree sundae.
The Necromancer is a very powerful soul that can be used almost
exclusively as a Mage. In fact, due to the strong synergy between the
caster and pet abilities, youre going to get the most benefit from
your pets by focusing wholly on using Necromancer spells whenever
possible.
The Necromancer soul is exceptionally well suited for solo PvE
gameplay, though lacks the kind of burst DPS needed to down more
difficult mobs before they burn through your pets relatively weak
defenses. Your Charge meter becomes even more important than managing
your mana, as youll constantly need to replenish it to fuel your
primary pet healing spells, Revivify and Soul Purge. Still, unlike many
of the other Mage souls, the Necromancer is an excellent tree for
soloing straight out of the gates, and only gets more powerful the more
points you spend in it. This is doubly true once you cross the 20 point
threshold, as that is when youll gain the optional pet upgrades and
ability to feign death in the branches of the tree, and you only
continue to grow more powerful and self-sufficient from there.
The only potential downside to the Necromancer is that it offers very
little utility in groups until very late in the tree outside of base
DPS, and your tank pets typically lack the defenses needed to properly
off-tank dungeon mobs. If youre looking to provide some solid buffs,
crowd control, or other utility to groups, you may want to consider
swapping to another role in group situations.
Perhaps the best soul to pair with the Necromancer is the Warlock,
mainly for the second tier passive ability, Opportunity. A 10 point
passive ability, Opportunity provides a 10% chance for your next spell
to become instant-cast. This is a huge help with building enough Charge
to fuel your pet healing abilities, and can grant some additional burst
damage.
Along the way youll also gain an additional instant-cast DoT,
Dark Touch, which helps your overall DPS and ability to replenish your
Charge bar.
First tier spells Radiant Spores and Withering Vine can help take some
of the pressure off of constantly needing to build and expend Charge to
heal your pet. Bloom, a relatively cheap spell at only 6 points spent
in the Chloromancer tree, can also provide you with a much needed
direct heal to round out your survivability arsenal.