Warhammer: Vermintide 2

Warhammer: Vermintide 2

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Necromancer DLC Guide
By Royale w/ Cheese
Guide for Necromancer mechanic/talent, two DLC weapons, and some build theory.
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Career General Overview
Career Orientation
A hybrid career with multiple ways to deal damage and interact with enemies.

Pros: Has consistent crowd control tools. Has good damage against all types of enemies. Has access one of the best extreme long distance sniping weapon.
Cons: Low burst damage. Fairly low mobility. Low Health/Damage Reduction.

Basic Stats
Base HP: 100
Career Skill Cooldown: 110 sec
Unusable Weapons: Flamestorm Staff

Perks
Mistress of Death
Sienna can command her servants to Attack or Defend. She can also Release them to ventilate Overcharge.

Command function can only be accessed by using Icon of Death.
Lifetaker
Killing an enemy grants 2% crit for 4 second. Max stacks 5.

Increases crit chance.
Can be triggered by any form of kill.
Skeleton Warriors kill also contribute to this Perk
Cold Flames
Sienna’s damage over time effects last 100% longer

Doubles the fire DoT effect duration from weapons/talents/firebomb direct hit, but also half their tickrate.
Also increases friendly fire DoT duration.

Career Skill & Passive
Raise Dead
Sienna raises a company of Skeleton Warriors to ravage the enemy ranks.
Summon 6 Skeleton Warriors. The summon area can stagger all units in the game. The skull icons(≤6) and number at bottom right of the screen indicates the number of Skeletons existing.
Skeleton Warriors armour type is Infantry, race is Undead, but Hunter trait cannot trigger on them. Their Health and Damage scales with game difficulty, does not scale with player's Hero Power. Does not benefit from player buff, however enemy debuff like Witch Hunter Captain Witch-Hunt and Sister of the Thorn Blackvenom Blades do increase their damage dealt.
Skeleton Warriors has infinite duration, but can be damaged and killed by enemy units, though they are immune to gas.
Skeleton Warriors from previous Raise Dead will also decay immediately when Raise Dead is used again.
Skeleton Warriors do fairly low damage, but their attacks can chain stagger elites consistently.
Skeletons will teleport back to the player if player is too far away from them.
All enemies except specials/monsters/lord can agro onto Skeleton Warriors, and Skeleton Warriors cannot be disabled by disabler. Most enemies do prefer players more than Skeleton Warriors. Monsters do not agro onto Skeleton Warriors, but if they are on its way they will try to sweep Skeleton Warriors away.
When Skeleton Warriors received certain high stagger attacks or after when they got thrown out by blightstorm, they will get scattered and disabled for a while. When Necromancer is disabled(e.g downed/disabled/ledged), all Skeleton Warriors are disabled too.
Skeleton Warriors do not replenish Necromancer's health when killing enemies, even with Deathdealer, but they do trigger certain other on kill interactions.
Malediction of Nagash
Sienna’s flames now burn with a cold, unearthly light that saps enemy vigour, causing them to suffer 20% additional damage from Sienna and her Servants.
Increase only Necromancer and Skeleton Warriors' all damage against targets that received fire DoT from Necromancer.
Only fire DoT from Skeleton's or Necromancer's weapons/talents/firebomb and explosive barrel direct hit works. Fire DoT from other careers/torch/firebomb ground fire/lamp oil ground fire do not apply this effect.
First attack that applies the fire DoT does not benefit from the damage increase effect.

Icon of Death (Command Item)
Icon of Death Description
Sienna uses the Icon of Death to command her Skeletons. Pressing the Potion keybind once will select the Icon of Death. Pressing it twice selects her carried Potion(if any).
Attack Command
Orders your skeletons to attack target enemy and increases their damage by 100% for 8 seconds.

Use Attack key to order this command.
If skeletons are under the effect of Attack Command damage increase, their icon at bottom right will glow blue.
Skeletons will try to close gap and attack tagged enemy until it dies.
Defend Command
Orders your skeletons to defend target area reducing the damage they take by 12%.

Hold Defend/Charge/Zoom key to choose defend position, and then press Attack key at the same time to order this command.
Click Defend/Charge/Zoom key again or click Special Attack(default key: Mouse 5) to cancel Defend Command.
While in defend position, skeletons will automatically go out attack nearby enemies, but will not go out too far away.
Skeletons will teleport back to the player if player is too far away from their defend position.
Death's Release
Release a skeleton from its servitude, instantly ventilating 70% overcharge.

Use Reload key to order this command.
Ventilate 70% max overcharge immediately.
Can target which skeleton you choose to release by pointing it with crosshair. Other will release a random skeleton.
The chosen skeleton has a unique outline.

Skeleton Warrior Health Stats
Compare to players, all Skeletons take 75% less damage.
Talent
Recruit
Veteran
Champion
Legend
Cataclysm 1/2/3
No Talent/Army of the Dead/Barrow Blades
16.75
24.75
29.25
45
67.5
Dread Seneschal
20.75
31
36.5
56.25
84.5
Talent Mechanic & General Usage (Part I)
LeveL 5 Row
Corpsemaker
Damaging multiple enemies in one swing with a melee weapon grants temporary health. Max 5 enemies.
Should be used most of the time.
Deathdealer
Melee killing blows restore temporary health based on the health of the slain enemy.
Should be used if you melee weapon has strong elites killing power and not building towards strong cleave ability.
Life Leeching
Healing yourself with a First Aid Kit or a Healing Draught also heals your nearby allies for 20.0% of their maximum health. Clears any wounds.
Should be avoided most of the time, as Necromancer is fairly squishy.

LeveL 10 Row
Vanhel's Danse Macabre
12% attack speed when 4 skeletons are alive.
Fairly consistent boost suited for all builds
Since your skeleton last indefinitely, this talent has very good uptime as long as you don't Release skeletons too often. Although on higher difficulty skeletons are fairly easy to kill, so usually you want to pair this talent along with Spirit Leech and/or Dread Seneschal.
It's also a fairly good talent for Soulstealer Staff focus build if you reached all important Breakpoints, since Soulstealer charge attack charge speed is affected by attack speed.
Death Ascendent
Casting spells grants 5% ranged power for 6 seconds. Max stacks 5.
Good range damage boost with medium uptime
Increases Ranged Power, increases range attack direct damage and stagger, does not affect DoT damage or range attack cleave.
All regular staff spell cast actions can trigger this talent. For Beam Staff beam attack, press and release left click once will add one stack; for all charged spell including Soulstealer Staff, charge and successfully release the attack add one stack.
The damage applies immediately to the attack that triggers this talent, except Soulstealer Staff charge attack and Conflagration Staff charge attack.
A good talent to go with range weapons that focus on impact damage and can spam fairly quick, like Beam staff/Bolt staff/Soulstealer staff.
Although Necromancer doesn't generate THP very fast on her own, you can get more overcharge to proc this talent by releasing skeletons and using Spirit Leech to summon more of them. Lost Souls can also help, but due to its mechanic is not as consistent, especially if you are playing on a difficulty where you can find elites easily.
Reaping
Critical attacks have 25% power and unlimited cleave.
All rounding talent that requires picking other Talent/Trait for good result
Increases the Damage and Stagger Power of all critical attack by 25%, but only gives melee critical attack cleave boost and makes it infinite.
It also allows melee critical attacks to cleave through cleave resistance units like Armoured enemies/Monster and hit through shields, but does not work for range attacks.
Thanks to her perk Lifetaker, Necromancer has decent crit chance out of back to trigger this talent, and can be boosted further by using Soul Harvest and use weapons that synergy with that talent.
This talent not only boots build horde clear ability, but also makes dealing with mixed horde with melee weapon much easier, and allows the player to generate more THP with Corpsemaker
Talent Mechanic & General Usage (Part II)
LeveL 15 Row
Mainstay
Deal 40% more damage to staggered enemies. Each hit against a staggered enemy adds another count of stagger. Bonus damage is increased to 60% against enemies afflicted by more than one stagger effect.
Increases your horde clear DPS. However, Necromancer already has more efficient horde clear options from range weapons. Should avoided most of time.
Smiter
The first enemy hit always counts as staggered. Deal 20% more damage to staggered enemies. Each hit against a staggered enemy adds another count of stagger. Bonus damage is increased to 40% against enemies afflicted by more than one stagger effect.
Increases your single target DPS. Should be picked most of time when all important range breakpoints are reached.
Enhanced Power
Increases total Power Level by 7%. This is calculated before other buffs are applied.
Increase both your melee/range/DoT damage. For certain Necromancer build, you relies on range weapon or DoT for most of your damage and/or for most of your single target DPS, plus the potential of better breakpoints, Enhanced Power suits those builds better. Otherwise pick Smiter to boost your melee damage against important target.

LeveL 20 Row
Cursed Blood
Critical attacks against enemies afflicted by the Malediction of Nagash cause them to burst, damaging nearby enemies based on the damage of the attack.
High DPS skill that requires investment and optimization
Require enemies to be applied by Malediction of Nagash to trigger.
Explosion has a radius of 3.5 unit, has no damage fall off. It deals 25% the attack that triggers the explosion as damage. Damage does not change because of the explosion affected target armour type.
Explosion attacks(AoE part of the Flaming Flail Heavy 1, AoE part of the Fireball Staff charged fireball, Conflagration Staff charge attack), Soulstealer Staff Primary Attack bounced projectile and Alternative Attack first 4 ticks of damage cannot trigger this talent. Ensorcelled Reaper special attack(inconsistent) and Beam Staff Blast attack can trigger multiple times per attack;Coruscation Staff shotgun attack can trigger one explosion per pellet. All other attacks can only trigger the explosion on first target. The explosion does not deal damage to the target that triggers the explosion.
Only Necromancer's critical attack can trigger the explosion. Can be triggered on any target, including teammates. Explosion itself does not cause friendly fire, causes damage and moderate stagger.
Just on its own this talent is not out standing, as it requires mass DoT application and high crit per second weapons to be utilized. However, the damage potential on high density enemies is huge, making picking this talent along with weapons like Coruscation Staff or using talent Barrow Blades worth while.
Soul Harvest
The Malediction of Nagash rips the soul from targets that die. Harvesting 8 souls causes the next attack to be a guaranteed Critical Hit.
Good damage and utility skill that requires investment and optimization
For melee/skeleton kill, require enemies to be applied by Malediction of Nagash to trigger. Range attack kill always drop souls.
Killing teammates or teammates killing enemies do not drop souls under any condition. Teammates also can't pickup souls.
The guaranteed crit can be stacked infinite times. If your attack missed, it will still consume the stack. However, under this effect push will be guaranteed crit too, and does not consume the stack.
After the soul drops, the player would need to get to 3.5 units within the soul to absorb it and gain stacks.
Due to its trigger condition, builds that focused on close range high uptime casting or mass DoT apply plus melee hybrid style to be utilized. But when paired with correct build and Heat Sink trait on range weapon or talent Reaping for melee, it can provide very good damage potential.
Withering Touch
On releasing a Skeleton, all Sienna's attacks for the next 15 seconds ignite enemies, causing damage over time.
Low use case Utility
Only triggers when manually Release skeletons with Icon of Death. Skeleton decay due to taking damage or casting new Raise Dead do not trigger this effect.
All Sienna's attacks, melee or range, will apply a weak fire DoT on enemies. Does not overwrite original DoT if attacks have one.
The DoT triggers Malediction of Nagash, lasts 8 seconds with Cold Flames, has a max stack of 3. It shares damage, max stack count and current stacks with the DoT from Barrow Blades.
The addition of extra DoT is welcome on Necromancer, as she has the Malediction of Nagashhowever passive and can be triggered by this talent. However, the DoT itself is very weak, and all the other strong DoT synergy talents are on the same row as Withering Touch, making this talent very underwhelming overall.
Talent Mechanic & General Usage (Part III)
LeveL 25 Row
Spirit Leech
Killing an elite enemy restore 15% cooldown.
Good utility skill that requires specific build or difficulty
Triggers when Necromancer or skeletons killing elites. Does not trigger on specials.
With high elite killing potential build like Bolt Staff/Soulstealer Staff build, you can use your range weapon to kill elites, reduce cooldown to summon more skeleton, and Release skeleton for more overcharge to use your staff, creating a positive loop. Percentage cooldown reduction is also just genially useful for a long cooldown AoE stagger career skill, and help you maintain your skeleton numbers when you are using Barrow Blades for DoT application. However, this talent does require to play on higher difficulty where there are plenty elites for you to kill, and even with her best weapon there are quite bit careers can out snipe/out elite kill Necromancer, so your uptime of this talent can change quite a bit depends on the specific game you had.
Curse of the Undeath
Casting Raise Dead reduces damage inflicted on Sienna by 80% for the next 3 hits.
Utility skill for high melee uptime build
Cannot be stacked over 3 stacks.
Damage reduction stacks can be consumed by self damage(venting), friendly fire, and environment damage(acid pool).
Although 80% damage reduction is very high, due to long base cooldown and venting removes stacks, this talent can only really be utilized by some melee focus build that doesn't require the player to vent often.
Lost Souls
Venting 12% overcharge unleashes a soul that steals health from a nearby enemy restoring 2 temporary health.
Utility skill for high range uptime build
Unleashes a soul after ventilate 12% max overcharge. Does not need to ventilate 12% at one instance.
Can be triggered by natural overcharge dissipate, manual overcharge venting, Release skeleton with Icon of Death.
Cannot be triggered by Heat Sink, overcharge explode.
After unleashed, the soul will automatically seek out enemies and critters. It deals impact damage and apply DoT.
The soul cannot crit, and does not consume Soul Harvest stacks.
Only when impact on an enemy/critter, the soul will gives Necromancer 2 temporary health.
The more overcharge you generate, the more THP you can get from this talent. And since it requires the soul to seek out and contact an enemy/critter, it does make the regen bit inconsistent. It also requires the user to constantly generate overcharge to make value of this talent, thus requires a high range uptime build to utilize it. However, at current patch 12% threshold, if all souls land on target, it can provide enough temporary health to completely negate venting damage, allowing you to spam range attack as much as you want.

LeveL 30 Row
Army of the Dead
Raise Dead reanimates 6 additional Skeletons that decay after 20 seconds.
Low use case utility
After using Raise Dead, raise 12 Skeletons, 6 of them last indefinitely and 6 of them decay after 20 seconds.
If Raise Dead is used again, the 6 indefinitely lasting Skeletons will be resummon, with another 6 Skeletons that will decay after 20 seconds, without destroy previous summoned decaying Skeletons.
Since Raise Dead has 110 sec cooldown, unless playing on Vanguard deed on high difficulty and use Spirit Leech, or drink a Concentration potion with Decanter trait, this talent will rarely provide good value. Even then, baseline Skeletons do way less compare to other options on level 30, making this talent a very niche choice.
Barrow Blades
Skeletons now carry two cursed blades. When raised, and when attacking, they ignite enemies, causing damage over time.
Good Skeleton DPS and synergy talent
All enemies inside Raise Dead will receive a weak fire DoT when career skill is casted.
All Skeletons now are able to apply a weak fire DoT.
The DoT triggers Malediction of Nagash, lasts 8 seconds under the effect of Cold Flames, has a max stack of 3. It shares damage, max stack count and current stacks with the DoT from Withering Touch.
Although the fire DoT damage isn't very high at grand scale, consider the amount of DoT they can apply and Skeleton's base damage is fairly low, it is the big DPS increase talent for Skeletons percentage wise. But the biggest strength of this talent comes from DoT synergy, specifically with Cursed Blood and Soul Harvest, as both talents requires enemies to be affected by Necromancer or her minion's fire DoT as part of the trigger condition. By picking this talent, you no longer requires to bring fast fire DoT apply melee/range weapon to utilize that two talents well, as Skeletons alone can do that efficiently.
Dread Seneschal
Increase Skeleton health and damage by 25%. Command Attack now orders a charge. Command Defend can be issued simultaneously.
Strong universal Utility that requires micro
Necromancer now summons 3 hammer skeletons and 3 shield skeletons.
When Attack and Defend Command are ordered simultaneously, shield skeletons will remain in defend position, and hammer skeletons will carry out Attack Command. However if no hammer skeletons remain, shield skeletons will only carry out Defend Command.
When under Attack Command, skeletons will charge into the target enemies. The charge has 2 second cooldown, apply stagger to all enemies on that patch, can interrupt all types of elites movement, including Chaos Warrior overhead, but cannot stagger Monster or Hookrat.
The health increase alone is worth while for skeletons uptime on higher difficulty, and the charge ability provides them some of the best short term crowd control. Issue Attack Command on enemies at the end of a horde can stagger pretty much all enemies on the straight line, or clear a path for the player to move. The only down side is in order to carry out the most potential of this talent, it requires player's extra attention and micromanagement on skeleton's movement.
New Weapons Overview - Ensorcelled Reaper






Career Accessibility
Battle Wizard, Pyromancer, Unchained, Necromancer
Basic Stats
Stamina:
6 stamina/3 shields
Dodge:
100% dodge distance, 2 dodge count
Block/Push ability:
Same as normal weapons.
Crit chance:
Light Attack 2 has 5% extra crit chance.
Mass modifier:
Heavy Attack 1 and 2 have Linesman.
Additional notes:
Heavy Attack 1 and 2 do not get stopped by cleave resistant units(e.g Armoured units).
Light Attack 2 and Push Attack apply fire DoT.
Has an AoE special attack, apply stagger and damage to enemies in front of you.
Special attack damage and stagger power are affected by Melee Power(e.g Unchained Perk).
Special attack can trigger all lvl5 temporary health talent, and bypass cleave temporary health target limit of 5.

Ensorcelled Reaper is the only two-handed melee weapon in Sienna's weaponry. It inherits many two-handed weapon characteristics, most noticeably all its heavy attacks have good stagger power, and especially the special attack. The special attack slam only deal little damage, and only affect enemies in front of you in a cone shape area, but its stagger power is enough to stagger all elites move except Chaos Warrior overhead attack on Cataclysm without any additional investment. When compared to other character's heavy weapons, the closest one is Kruber/Saltzpyre Greatsword, as Ensorcelled Reaper Heavy Attack 1/2 share base cleave with Greatsword Heavy Attacks. However, Reaper only has Linesman instead of Heavy Lines, meaning it can cleave way less armoured enemies than Greatsword. Instead Reaper has access to a much stronger single target combo, but still falls behind compared to other heavy weapons like Great Hammer/Halberd, and rest of Ensorcelled Reaper's cleave attacks(Light Attack 3/4, Heavy Attack 3) doesn't cleave well enough. Plus the overall slow speed and low dodge count, it requires the users to be precise with their attack timing and/or invest many melee boosts talents to utilize this weapon well.

Pros: Special attack has high stagger power.
Cons: Low dodge(though same as other two-handed weapon). Fairly slow. Neither horde clear nor single target DPS are outstanding for two-handed weapon.

Recommended Weapon Combo:
Special attack:
Ensorcelled Reaper special attack(default key: Mouse 5) is a ground slam AoE attack. Only hit enemies in front of the player. Does little damage, but can stagger all elites moves except Chaos Warrior overhead at close range.
Use combo special attack - heavy attack to control mixed horde/multiple elites.
You can start with special attack to stagger the target, then loop into single target combo light attack - heavy attack.

Against horde:
When fighting horde, use combo heavy attack - heavy attack - block cancel.

Against elite:
When fighting elites, use combo light attack - light attack - heavy attack - block cancel.

Against monster:
When fighting monster, use combo light attack - light attack - heavy attack - block cancel.
New Weapons Overview - Soulstealer Staff






Career Accessibility
Necromancer
Basic Stats
Dodge:
100% dodge distance, 2 dodge count
Armor Piercing:
Primary attack pierce all armour types.
Alternative attack first 4 ticks of damage does not pierce Super Armour, 5th tick of damage pierce all armour type.
Crit chance:
No extra crit chance.
Mass modifier:
No mass modifier.
Additional notes:
    Primary Attack Mechanic
  • Does not use regular cleave mechanic, bounce twice onto nearby enemies after hitting first target, hitting up to 3 times. Targets need to be within 5 units. One target cannot be attacked twice with one use of Primary Attack.
  • Both main projectile and bounced projectiles apply fire DoT. But only the main projectile of primary attack can trigger none overcharge related Traits and cooldown on hit.
  • Have extreme long range no damage drop off.
    Alternative Attack Properties
  • Cannot score headshot.
  • Charge speed is affected by attack speed.
  • Requires LoS to lock on enemies, after lock on it no longer requires LoS but still need to keep the target at certain FoV range.
  • All 5 damage ticks of Alternative Attack apply stagger to the target. Last tick pierce through shield. Only last tick of alternative attack can trigger cooldown on hit or any Traits.
  • Holding right click then click special attack(default key: Mouse 5) can zoom in.
  • Have extreme long range and no damage drop off.

Soulstealer Staff is a unique weapon that only Necromancer has access to it. Its Primary Attack deal fairly low damage, but serves as a good utility tool, synergy very well with Necromancer's passive ability that increases her damage dealt to enemies suffer from her DoT. The Alternative Attack is where most of its damage coming from. The Soul Rip attack can reach the breakpoints to oneshot all specials and regular armoured elites across all official difficulties, and with breakpoints and/or with Primary Attack apply DoT first, oneshot all the other man-size elites. Combine with the long range lock-on mechanic and with no requirement of LoS after lock-on making this weapon's sniping ability extremely consistently. However, the Monster and Super Armour damage is not on the super high end, and fairly long charge time plus unable to pre charge the spell making it hard to compete with other sniping careers when they have decent aim or breakpoints.

Pros: Easy to use. Good special breakpoints. High Armour damage. Long range.
Cons: Slow charge speed. Fairly low Monster/Super Armour damage.

Primary Attack(left-click):
Left click and release 1 projectile, projectile can bounce up to 2 more times.
Should be used to stagger few close range trash or proc Necromancer Passive for damage boost.

Alternative Attack(right-click):
Right click to select a target with the outline, then hold left click to charge the soul rip. Holding right click then click special attack(default key: Mouse 5) can zoom in.
Should be used against single target elite/special.
After selecting target, no longer requires direct LoS, but still needs to keep target in certain FoV range.
80 Comments
Royale w/ Cheese  [author] 7 Mar @ 3:13pm 
They don't. They deal good monster damage mostly because they don't attract monster aggro and have super high uptime on hitting them. Barrow Blades also increases their boss dmg quite a bit but that's just how fire DoT works. If you abuse Lost Souls or you have decent teammates they won't outshine players.
Ferrorum 7 Mar @ 2:13pm 
I played a lot of nerco on fow, and I always had a lot of monster dmg like 4k or more. (I use your necro build with 1h sword and soulstaff) I always wondered where that damage came from, then I played a round where I didn't attack at all, just letting the skellis deal all the damage (we only manage to fight against the first 2 monster) and I got 3k dmg.

So I am curious to know if the skellis get like extra monster damage or something cause they seems to deal quite the respectable damage aginst them
Royale w/ Cheese  [author] 21 Jun, 2024 @ 7:37am 
chaos inf staff + inf on charm, you can use Smiter.
Xaveth 21 Jun, 2024 @ 7:25am 
Okay, may I ask what's the optimal properties for the Soulstealer Staff and charm? And do I use Smiter or Enhanced Power?
Royale w/ Cheese  [author] 19 Jun, 2024 @ 7:48am 
Huh seems they stealth fixed it, changed now thx.
You can use cata properties for legend, it will work fine but won't be optimal.
Xaveth 19 Jun, 2024 @ 5:40am 
Also, will there be Necromancer builds for Legend or can the properties you listed on Cataclysm for the range weapon and charm be applied on Legend too?
Xaveth 19 Jun, 2024 @ 5:40am 
Curse of the Undeath's no THP decay doesn't seem to be true anymore.
https://youtu.be/ziCSYmRVujE?si=5qI71fkiGWzIaC88&t=425
https://youtu.be/ziCSYmRVujE?si=QzDh-6i10papS-O5&t=480
Malarraenaepcaleac'h 14 Mar, 2024 @ 8:48am 
Conflagration staff with flame sword could be a pretty interesting horde cleaving build but definitely doesn't sound optimal then. Thanks for the info
Royale w/ Cheese  [author] 14 Mar, 2024 @ 8:45am 
And for weapon like firesword, enhanced power would be better for horde clear, as your heavy 1 doesn't really do damage just apply DoT.
Royale w/ Cheese  [author] 14 Mar, 2024 @ 8:42am 
That would depends on your own skill. You can beat cataclysm games without picking any talents.