[Top 5] Path of Exile Best Necromancer Builds That Wreck Hard!

Updated:

04 Mar 2022

[Top 5] Path of Exile Best Necromancer Builds That Wreck Hard!

Why fight when you can make others do that for you? Summoning hordes of evil critters and spectres alike, the Necromancer is truly the queen of the undead, and she controls armies of undead, skeletons, ghosts, and aberrations to mow down any opposition!

And here are five builds that will do just that!

5 – Kay’s Minion Army Summoner

Necromancer surrounded by her Army of Undead

We all know Summoners are as varied as the number of colors in a kaleidoscope, and Kay condensed many of the archetypes into a cohesive and didactic guide for any to follow and learn. Anything from pure Skellies to Zombies, to Poison Spiders or SRS, he has it all!

What Kay’s Minion Army Summoner Excels in:

Can clear all content
Stress-free builds
Easy mapping and great bossing
League Start, HC, SSF viable

Kay’s Minion Army Summoner full details:

The build uses a whole host of minions to deal damage, buffing each other, debuffing enemies as well as protecting you with either their spells, skills or their life. It’s mostly designed to survive everything and let your minions do the work.
The build is often block capped, due to how Bone Offering works, granting us a massive boost in our block chance, as well as having life gained when blocked.
For our damage, we go with Skeletons and Raging Spirits, with their aggressive AI, they can kill monsters off-screen and since they’re temporary summons, they’re quick to re-cast. Supporting them, we use a golem, some spectres, and a few zombies, to provide buffs and debuffs to enemies.

For the full guide, check here: https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/3179145

4 – 1-Click Stress-Free Bone Zombies

Raise Zombies Horde

One of the most contentious topics surrounding PoE is how intensive it can be on your hands and wrists. Many players (myself included) suffer from anything from carpal tunnel to tendinitis, and as such, they created builds that aren’t harsh on your hands, and while most summoners can be like that, this one makes it a point to be easy and relaxed to play, while watching a TV show or movie in the background, chilling and playing without hurting your hands!

What the 1-Click Stress-Free Bone Zombies Excels in:

Easy to play
Very tanky
Can do all content with proper investment
SSF, League Start, HC viable

1-Click Stress-Free Bone Zombies full details:

Our main form of damage is a duo 5-Link with Summon Skeletons and Raise Zombie setup, where they share the same links. They’re both our damage and our defense because when they aren’t aggressive, they’ll stick around us and protect us with their bodies.
We also have a ton of defenses with Bone Armor, Bone Offering, making us Attack and block capped, with proper gear. We also can reach over 6k HP, giving us plenty of life to withstand a lot of damage.
We use another setup for spectres, the Carnage Chieftains, which grants our minions Power and Frenzy charges, boosting their damage significantly, and we curse everything in order for our Zombies and Skellies to kill everything!

For a full breakdown, check here: https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/3229386

3 – SRS Bomber

Summon Raging Spirits with Ghostflame MTX against Solaris and Lunaris

This build escapes a bit the mold of a common Summoner in which instead of having our minions kill enemies by attacking them, they instead deal damage by killing themselves and exploding dealing massive damage around them, bringing the enemies down with them!

What the SRS Bomber Excels in:

League Start, HC, or SSF viable
Can do all content and all map mods
Quite tanky, with lots of life and capped block
Respectable clear speed
Popcorn sounds!!!

SRS Bomber full details:

This build works by sacrificing our minions by exploding them and dealing a portion of their maximum life as damage and then scaling that damage through support gems and %minion damage. And as such, we scale as much Minion life on gear and tree as possible, so they’ll hit the hardest possible.
In order for the minions to die, we need an amulet called Tavukai, which is very easy to get even in SSF, though up till then, you can use Infernal Legion in the links (less damage) to kill them slowly. And they die when they reach 50% of their life, dealing 33% of maximum life as fire damage, through the Keystone Minion Instability.
We also make use of a few spectres to help with the clearing and buffing the damage our Summon Raging Spirits do. And with Unleash, when we want to do bossing, we can unleash a tiny horde of SRSs at them in just one go, making it the perfect ‘hit and run’ strategy in order to avoid big, telegraphed attacks and spells!

For more information, check here: https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/2995833

2 – Holy Flicker Striker

Holy Nova being used

Now, this is a very unconventional Necromancer build, because its primary form of dealing damage is through a melee attack! This build gives a whole new spin to the old Holy Nova/HoaG/HoP Cyclone build, one I personally played and loved, years ago. And it does that by being a Chad Flicker boi!

What the Holy Flicker Striker Excels in:

Insanely Tanky
League Start, SSF viable
Respectable Single Target Damage (can reach over 4 million DPS with some investment)
Easy to play and has a fantastic clearing speed

Holy Flicker Striker full details:

The way this build works is by utilizing the Holy Relic’s Holy Nova spell when you hit an enemy with an attack. Like I mentioned previously, people usually do this with Cyclone to scale life gained on hit and other goodies, but with Flicker Strike, you get around the map a lot quicker without losing single target possibility.
We also have a secondary attack in the form of Static Strike, which zaps enemies around us, and each zap also counts as an attack, in order to proc the Holy Nova. In Patch 3.17, this build was actually made a lot easier, as the required unique for this build, Geofri’s Crest, because it provides us with an extra Holy Relic Minion, essentially doubling our damage, as well as reducing the cooldown for the Holy Nova.
Our tankiness comes from Aegis Aurora and being fully Block capped, without Glancing Blows, and having a hefty amount of life, and an Animate Guardian to help buff us and debuff the enemies!

For more information, click here: https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/3002453

1 – Cold Animate Weapon

Animate Weapon

A fun and unique build that makes use of weapons on the ground to deal its damage, and that used to be a bad thing in certain maps and arenas, but with a change GGG made a few leagues ago, Animate Weapon can now be cast on lingering blades from Bladefall or Ethereal Knives, making it a fantastic choice from Act 1 to the Uber Endgame, with proper investment!

What the Cold Animate Weapon Excels in:

Safe playstyle
Fantastic Single Target
Quite Tanky
League Start, HC, SSF viable
Can do all content in the game, even Pinnacle bosses, on a budget

Cold Animate Weapon full details:

Animate Weapon is a Summon skill that transforms identified melee weapons (or ranged if you’re using the Threshold Jewel, but don’t, it’s a DPS loss) on the ground into minions with an extremely aggressive AI that will chase down any enemies and murder them.
A simple Bladefall linked to Unleash is more than enough to create Lingering Blades for Animate Weapon to summon instead, as it gains a massive bonus based on the level of Animate Weapon when used on a Lingering Blade.
For our defenses, we scale a lot of life, we are capped block through Bone Offering (or if you’re feeling like dealing more damage, you can forgo that in place of Flesh Offering), and we convert 100% of our damage (which is 100% physical) to Cold, by using the Triad unique gloves with 4 green sockets, in order for our blades to freeze and chill enemies.

For a full breakdown, click here: https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/2780128