Necromancer Build & Guide | Vermintide 2

[@warmgunproduction4545]

UPDATE ON THE SCYTHE: Heavy - heavy - light - light for horde clear is a bit better than chain heavies. The ideal combo would be Heavy - Heavy - Block cancel, but the recovery on the heavies makes it very hard to do this consistently. The third and fourth heavy have less cleave than the first two heavies, and the light attacks don't have as much cleave either, but they come out a bit faster than the heavies and will still do big damage if you crit.

[@Soundwave1900]

One thing people need to concider is second light on scythe applies fire dot (the rest of them don't), so it might be benificial to do heavy-three lights, especially if you don't run that perk that makes skeletons apply fire.

[@nugger]

after getting to 2nd heavy i like going into light and heavy again, and just keep going, so it makes a horizontal attacks loop that's faster than spamming heavies

[@lemonottheboy8540]

PSA on the Scythe's weapon special: 1) It produces THP On-Hit, On-Kill, On-Stagger 2) It is affected by boosts to attack speed, power, and, most importantly, Opportunist. With this in mind, and at least 20% attack speed (10% from weapon & trinket + Immersive Immolation/One with the Flame/Frenzied Flame/Danse Macabre), the optimal horde combo with Opportunist would be: Weapon Special -> Heavy -> Light, or just Weapon Special -> Heavy. For patrols/Elites: Weapon special -> Light -> Heavy, or just Weapon Special -> Heavy. The Scythe's Weapon Special has such insane stagger with Opportunist, it's basically a AOE shield bash but stronger, ESPECIALLY on Unchained. Keep in mind that to continue the combo, you have to buffer the next attack after the previous attack fully comes out; once the scythe successfully flashbangs, input the next melee attack, and vice versa to repeat the loop. This is now my favorite Unchained melee. Stagger autism for Scythe Weapon Special: Unchained with 4 stacks of Blood Magic (24% Power), Opportunist, and 10% vs Armoured (or Chaos) staggers Chaos Warriors out of overheads on Cata. 1 stack of Blood Magic (6% Power) with Opportunist guarantees a knockdown on Maulers, and just Opportunist alone guarantees a knockdown on Chaos Zerkers out of their flurries. The weapon special also staggers Plague Monks out of their flurries, but I'm not sure on the stagger breakpoint due to how frenetic the monks were in my attempts at testing for an exact point- 4 stacks + 10% vs Skaven should be enough.

[@nugger]

@@lemonottheboy8540 wow i need to test this, never thought its that good

[@j.d.4697]

The reason necros top many dmg charts is because that's the nature of AoEs and DoTs, which the necro has both of. Lots of total damage but not great single-target damage, so slower killing compared to single-target direct damage stuff.

[@theonlymann1485]

nature of sienna's staffs but she doesnt have a mean to spam them reliably without putting herself in danger and/or her being squishy. with skeletons both of those issues dissapate and thus you're free to do as your stuff pleases

[@meejmuas8686]

The charge on the necro staff has massive damage. My damage on bosses rival bounty hunters and grail knights. I usually 1-2 shot chaos warrios

[@Redemptionproject09]

lol idk what build ur using but not really

[@bastait]

i destroy things single target on legend wtf are you talking about.

[@Adalon-]

@@meejmuas8686 This, brain burst on necro staff nukes bosses really hard.

[@James-kq6ws]

Very nice to see an in depth video on this career, I’ve been having a lot of fun with it the past few days but have been wondering what will become the meta.

[@James-kq6ws]

It’s also nice that all the weapons included ended up being decent. I got really excited before buying SoTT to use the included staff, to find out that it’s not that good.

[@moxplaysgames]

glad to see similar thought process and result from theorycrafting. the class isnt the most fun sienna career but when played well, boy does it crush.

[@Rex-qx2ko]

pretty sure Flail heavy 1 does *not* apply splash fire DoT. It does low fire damage which results in a fire death animation , but doesnt apply a DoT(like bolt staff light attacks)... I feel like it used to apply DoT but not anymore

[@theonlymann1485]

it has DoT on direct hit, but not the AoE yes like you said just as all of bolt staff does it lacks any kind of fire DoT

[@Sotanaht01]

6:45 It's worth noting that NONE of Sienna's weapons can do that. The beam staff is probably closest and it will be able to quickly snipe on Legend, but you have to hold it for about 1 second on Cata before using the sniper shot which puts it about on par with Soulstealer but with more aim required. There's simply no reason to use the Coruscation staff at all as necro. The melees just work better especially with flail. Danse Macabre is the Must Have for a Flail build. Having Dance Macabre (and ideally Attack Speed on weapons, I run attack speed+crit chance for explosions, screw BCR I can stagger everything infinitly) Having Dance Macabre allows for much better battlefield control from spamming heavies and keeping things staggered. You feel pretty invincible between that and Curse of Undeath. Smiter is NOT the best choice especially with flail. Flail is going to AOE stagger everything. You want Mainstay to capitalize on that and absolutely destroy Stormvermin packs, Berserker packs and everything else really. You aren't a Monster slayer class, and you probably want to use ranged attacks vs monsters anyway. Smiter only has value on Monsters with melee (because they can't be staggered normally, so it's +20% vs 0) or if you can hit 1-shot breakpoints with your melee. Maybe for Scythe, but you are not 1-shotting things with the flail. More on Smiter: If smiter does not push you over a 1-shot breakpoint then it has zero benefit on a staggerable enemy. The moment you hit them a second time Mainstay is doing equal damage (or much more damage if your first "hit" was actually a push), and if you hit multiple enemies (which includes elites, not just hordes) Mainstay does more. While I do believe the Flail is just better, it's worth noting that the Scythe Heavies CAN cleave through and hit a second Chaos Warrior, their cleave value is just that high. Which brings the value of mainstay up for the Scythe as well. The necro is great at horde clear and great at long ranged specials, but what it is the absolute BEST at is patrols. I could probably fight 100 stormvermin at once without breaking a sweat, shield, poleaxe or a mix doesn't matter. CWs are more deadly but I can still facetank a patrol of them alright.

[@Sotanaht01]

As for skeletons, I mostly just ignore them. Or at least, I mostly never use the skull except to absorb one if my Overcharge is too high. I've made an effort to focus on controlling them in the past, but over time I found it's just not worth the time. Let them do their thing pretty much on their own, they'll always be close to me helping me set things on fire for cursed blood to proc and maybe helping distract/stagger whatever I'm currently fighting. Where it IS important to pay attention is to your stacks of Undeath and the number of skeletons summoned. Dance Macabre is MASSIVE, to the point where basically the only way I die to "being overwhelmed" is because my skeletons died and that buff fell off. So keeping >=4 skeletons "alive" at all times is the most important thing. Followed by keeping the stacks of Undeath up at all times in order to negate any mistakes.

[@JondarKorric]

I'm surprised you didn't mention that the Soul Stealer staggers specials that you're draining, preventing them from moving or attacking for the duration until it kills them.

[@DaemonPrince]

I have minor gripes with necro like the attack command needing to be changed to a area circle to attack in that direction to tell skeletons to line up and charge to attack anything they run into as the attack command only works againts the target you have highlight for 6 seconds as it works like a debuff on the unit, doesnt increase skeletons damage, my other gripe is that its not put in the description text for the necromancer icon of death but their is a recall command for the skeletons and its the special weapon key, same one you use for rapier pistol, this will end attack commands early so a good thing to know. I find fire sword to be best on necro because it has massive inf cleave on first heavy thats far more reliable than dagger and flail while also being much faster, and also sets everything on fire with both heavy attacks. For the staff you just need to dance around your skeletons but corus and soul stealer are the best hands down. Also want to point out Soul stealer staff shots can bounce from enemy corpses. 5. Corpse maker is the most reliable one to gain so I agree. 10. I do agree reaping just sets you up entirely with everything as it also can proc on soul stealers soul rip which practically do shade damage. 15. Mainstay and Smiter are both good choices no argument here. 20. I'm actually infuriated by how bad withering touch is, easily worst pick on the entire tree, Soul harvest is also bad as it only drops a soul on burning enemy's and you can easily get 25% crit chance constantly and it competes with explosive crits on burning enemy's. 25. I agree spirit leech is more situational and should be used for army of the dead, curse of undeath also known as CoU has been a godsend in protecting me from backstabs and even overheads. 30. Dread seneschals I wouldn't recommend, they are entirely a noob trap and are very buggy. The Commands only work when 3 of the skeletons that do the command are alive, the hammers also if they hit some terrain will end their charge early and walk rest of the way to your target, this also includes the defence command with the shield skeletons. The best skeletons to use are barrow blades because they have flaming attacks that have infinite cleave attacks to CC hordes, they actually last longer and better than Dreads. Army of the dead though is better for clutching because you can summon 6 skeletons and get 12 to defend in a line, however they lack the aoe attack of the barrow blade and the health of the dreads.

[@DrTarte]

Sythe, Heavy-Heavy-Light-Light. All of these are perfectly horizontal attacks. Chaining only heavies does not work, the third heavy and every right to left heavy after that is single target.

[@theonlymann1485]

light attacks doesnt have much cleave as the heavy 1/2 so it might be beneficial to blockcancel into first two heavys, heavy 3 has shit cleave so dont bother with that unless you go for elite kills

[@warmgunproduction4545]

Hmmm I didn't know about this, will do some more testing and pin a comment correcting this

[@voidyll5582]

Just want to add with the stagger talents, smiter is only really the best if you want the first enemy you hit to take extra damage, so like for executioners sword on kruber it's really good. If youre using a weapon with really high cleave and stagger, then in this instance mainstay is the much better pick. Especially for a weapon with as high of stagger as the flail, where you can immediately put every horde unit into their second stagger state, and immediately get 60% more damage on a follow up attack, as well as consistently getting the 40% more damage on armored units. Really just if you have a weapon with high cleave or stagger, smiter hurts more than helps as the 20% on first enemy hit doesn't apply to the majority of enemies you are hitting, and then you're getting a much lower damage buff than you could on any staggered enemies after that Other than that, great guide and build, this is almost exactly the build I've been running on necromancer

[@absoluteunit582]

I found that reaping makes sword an absolute beast of melee weapon, those heavy attacks with endless cleave are just oof

[@TiredMoonWitchTrit]

Ngl wish there was an opposite of this, where you can play as listed: Chaos Cultist - Chaos Warrior - Chaos Knight - Rot Knight [empire tree] Savage Orc - Orc big’un - Black Ork - Orc shaman [dwarf tree] Clan Rat - Assassin Rat - Gatling Rat - Storm Skaven [like the elf tree] Skeleton warrior - grave guard - Thrall - Vampire [witch hunter tree] Dark elf spear - dark elf hag - dark elf knight(cold one riders dismounted) - dark elf beast master [fire wizard tree] Each of these[maybe not all] I wish could be implemented so ppl could play on the opposite side, though we have the PvP aspect I just feel if players didn’t just have to play as JUST good aligned they could also play evil of the chaos gods/other factions [or add other forms of chosen of the other 3 chaos gods]

[@michaeljcaboose1152]

With all the necromancers running around, my life has been a living hell. Do you have any idea how hard it is to headshot a chaos warrior when he’s being bobbled around by the skeletons?

[@dementy9]

tag them with T, you will see their outline. Also tag every special so that theres a higher chance your team will kill it before you can

[@michaeljcaboose1152]

@@dementy9 I know how to play the game, I’m just saying the necromancer makes the game worse because it’s too hard to headshot things now.

[@char1137]

Upgrade your skill talent.

[@rafaelcastor2089]

​@@dementy9 The isso is not seeing the head, is getting good shot placement with it moving around in weird angles that often put the head behind the shoulder or back (depending from where you're shooting). Even if you can get a headshot anyway, the extra TTK alone makes sniping CWs and Specials much more of a headache when you're also dealing with a mixed-horde and even a monster

[@raven75257]

That's exactly why Deepwood staff is the best ranged weapon in the game

[@MDLi0n]

That first day was fun, with every game having its necromancer and throughout Halloween was memorable

[@G1ingy]

I'll never understand why people are bothered by the lore of Sienna becoming a Necromancer. She's always leaned towards the darker side of magic what with her obsession with destruction and addiction to magic, she's always been more pragmatic about her casting, and most importantly, it's long been pre-established that good Necromancers can choose to become a necromancer and still remain good, look at Balthazar Gelt.

[@joaogomes9405]

Because there's a huge leap between dabbling in necromancy and turning full necromancer. Necromancy is a form of dhar, or dark magic, which is literally the abuse of winds of magic. Abusing the winds results in you being tainted, and in necromancy's case you damn your soul to oblivion and usually also turn mad with time. Gelt dabbled very lightly in necromancy and raised the dead once to save Karl Franz's life, and that plus everything else he did for the empire was still not enough to keep him from being shunned by the entire church and the college of mages. The Ubersreik 5 may be a tolerant bunch, but there's no way in hell someone as zealous as Saltzpyre, who goes so far as to become a goddamn warrior priest, would tolerate Sienna turning to Necromancy for even a second. And then there's also the fact that unlike other lores of magic, necromancy is expressly said to be impossible to be self-taught, you always need to be an apprentice and it takes dozens of years to become a necromancer (hence why they're all bony old fucks). The Von Carsteins have made it a business out of taking in necromancer apprentices because otherwise there's no way to learn necromancy. So who did Sienna learn from exactly. Even if Sienna was supremely talented, no one's talented enough to self-learn necromancy. Gelt was the patriarch of the college and the most powerful wizard in the empire and he only learned how to raise the dead through Vlad, and after he fled the empire he became Vlad's full time apprentice. Did she learn it from her sister whom she had 2 conversations with and then killed? The trailer seems to imply Sofia just kinda blasted her with some necromancer juice and that just turned her into a necromancer, which is not how magic works. So yeah, the lore is definitely flubbed and then some for Sienna to turn into a necromancer. Not that it matters honestly, it's only a game and it's not paying that close attention anyways to the lore, otherwise we wouldn't have half the stuff we do. Like Kerillian somehow becoming a handmaiden or shade even though she's from a complete different race of elves than those two, or Kruber becoming a foot knight with Sigmar written on his shield, Taal on his shoulder and Myrmidia on his helmet. It's all fun in the end, which is what matters.

[@nrshocks6931]

8:02 you have not tried beam staff necro, you can do an entire mission with only your ranged weapon and getting 0 melee kills and outdamage everyone in the lobby and stay full temp hp. Barrage train on beam staff+ deaths ascendant and enhanced power gives you insane ranged power especially if you crit with cursed blood. Lost souls gives you insane temp hp from venting especially if you have boon of shallya. with this setup you can shotgun the hordes and snipe specials and pretty much do everything.

[@Khorothis]

I play on Legend so this could all be irrelevant for Cata but I wanted to share what I know, see if it can be of value: 1, Soulstealer's left click shots have surprisingly good stagger, and given that the shots bounce between targets and set them on fire, it has pretty good utility. 2, Combined with Death Ascendant, you can ramp it up quickly and then 1-shot Maulers and 2-shot CWs (I've been shooting them to make sure). 3, This in turn sets up Cursed Blood procs before the horde even gets to you. 4, Although this produces a fair bit of Overcharge, I can sacrifice a skeleton and clear most of it. 5, All of the above contributes to me popping elites left and right, which makes Spirit Leech very effective, which in turn allows me to use my staff nearly indiscriminately. I also keep a Concentration Potion in reserve as an "oh shit" button. I started out with a melee focused approach just like you but recently I've been enjoying this ranged approach on Sienna, in no small part thanks to the new staff, the others just feel awkward, unwieldy, and sometimes straight up lame in comparison (like bolt staff's left click).

[@edudcb9989]

did u know that beam staff shotgun mod is able to proc the explosion on crit talen on each pellet? imagine that in a mix horde....bananas.

[@Reaper-J129]

What i do for the reaper: H - H - L - L for crowd clearing with a special attack every other combo For single target: L - L / H - L / H-H with again a special attack every so often. Its definitely more of a crowd clearer but i like that about it

[@archangelofgaming3151]

Reaper does not stagger in a circle it staggers in front of you. That misconception is a quick way to get downed.

[@waffel6892]

Love your vids started the game 3days ago

[@matthewmartinez9835]

I find it cool they call the different character builds or defaults is careers I’m new to this game so I hope I have fun with this

[@neonclouds9295]

1:22 how do you slam your Scythe down like that?

[@lemonottheboy8540]

Opportunist + 10% Power vs Chaos OR Armored guarantees staggering Chaos Warriors out of overheads, including on Cata, on the flail's first Heavy.

[@navelwarfare3247]

You said necro has a relatively low ult cooldown, but iirc it sits at 110 seconds. I haven't really paid attention to how much charge they get for dealing damage, though. Is that where the cd primarily comes from?

[@warmgunproduction4545]

Yeah, Necro's crazy horde clear makes it charge back fairly quick

[@JondarKorric]

Necro can have their ult back super fast, especially with the flail.

[@chrishull9041]

use soul stealer on lords and spam the special sniper part and unsummon a skeleton when the overcharge gets out of hand. this was so useful on spinemangler cus you cant melee with him alot and it does rlly good dmg in you build it right.

[@Shaddarhim]

I play her with full on crit damage. The staff heavy crit will 1 shot a chaos warrior on legend and deal a lot of boss damage. Idk about kata though. And the staff light spam is really good for patrols.

[@ulke4866]

what stats and traits do you use for trinket and necklace?

[@marcx2005]

Hi, is it a bug i can't find the flail to make in red with the craft ?

[@Warrior24842]

1.Reaper is really good on Unchained try ut out! 2.Why u didnt show primary attack of soulcather? Its good against hordes. 3. Crowbill is also pretty funny couse no wories with specials and with tallent: unlimited cleave=No problem against horde!

[@donovanallen9793]

Was the skeleton health and damage reduced to 25% for the last skill?

[@codhankhill7336]

It looks it.

[@jacobaderholdt7233]

I wonder why they did that, seems like weird nerf Edit: I looked it up and based on fatshark forums from people that tested the values it was incorrect telling u the skellies had 50%, the values were always around 25 it just was mistyped in the talent tree

[@chickenator9618]

just a quick question, when you beat all the levels in caticlism, what else is there to do?

[@warmgunproduction4545]

The endgame 'content' is really just playing the hardest game modes and enjoying the challenge while getting better at the game, testing builds, theory crafting, etc. Cata Twitch mode is a ton of fun and if you really feel like challenging yourself you could try the modded difficulties. And there's always Chaos Wastes Cata which can be challenging as well.

[@vinterskog]

I usually played Pyromancer and now going Necromancer, which has a lot of similarities but is not as fast/destructive. Anyway, my flaming flail has always had +20% critical power, +5% attack speed and crits giving attack speed as a trait. Am I doing it wrong? As to the staff, always bolt staff since it is both a gattling gun and a sniper.

[@leapinglizard3937]

How does this guide hold up, after all the nerfs due to the release of the verses mode?

[@Raistlin663]

just picked up the necromancer class, noticed some changes to the talents have happened, have any talents in the video shifted power levels in your opinion? another question i had was your thoughts on the lost souls talent. being able to go net positive on temp HP by venting power with the staff is really good sustain, as well as the skeleton release just shoots your hp back up during heavy soulstealer staff right clicks, and the lost souls can stagger enemies as well, ive killed an assassin with the heat seeking skull, so it does ok damage. i should also mention that i play with my brother, my dad and often another friend, so it would be a more group focused as opposed to soloing build, so im not sure if that would make any talent changes more worth it. thanks for your time, and good video

[@vampiregoat69]

Wait I can't craft a flail so how do I get one?

[@SumDumShnoob]

it’s a dlc item, gotta buy an expansion

[@metinsarkaya6748]

wich one ? @@SumDumShnoob

[@SumDumShnoob]

@@metinsarkaya6748 winds of magic I believe

[@DaemonPrince]

Winds of Magic DLC pack which is $20, honestly bardin has the weakest weapon here compared to the rest due to utility and throwing axes being outclasses by pistol on ranger and dual hammers and axes on slayer.@@metinsarkaya6748

[@Elkesar1]

@@metinsarkaya6748 Wind of magic

[@TheWrongNote]

What traits / rolls do we want for the necklace and trinket?

I still cant summon any skeletons. Can you tell me how please? thanks.

[@maskettaman1488]

Use your career ability

[@Catlover-ww5og]

What's the rolls I have to get in the syths?

[@babyboy7116]

I cant find the flaming flail for the necromancer can someone help ?

[@Michael5029]

It's one of the DLC weapons, pretty sure it's in Winds of Magic

[@PURPMNKYFPS]

YES!

[@archangelofgaming3151]

Also stop moving into chaos warriors, you should keep to your weapons max range against chaos warriors at all times.

[@zeromanity460]

what necro skin is that

[@Balfourism]

I want to use the flail, but I don't wana mess with the Winds of Magic DLC, is there I way I can get the weapons and have the DLC disabled after???

[@robivogler169]

Necromancer because Lore Reasons, but shade is okay as Elve.. lol

[@SumDumShnoob]

been waiting for this

[@saltylemonz258]

After playing with necro, I realized its mid compared to BW honestly. Its just a different flavor running around with Skellies doing 1-2 damage and theres six of them or can be 18 so its honestly fun to play CW with it. Im just sad that theres not much going on with the voicelines of Necro. I was so excited to shoot Sienna while playing Mercenary but its just... nothing. Or maybe I didnt trigger it yet but its been weeks now. Can somebody confirm theres a new voiceline among Siena and everybody else interactions?

[@DaemonPrince]

There is new voice lines and interactions with the characters but none during a game so far, all keep only it seems.

[@archangelofgaming3151]

It's funny you say that because hard carry Cataclysm runs only sniping. Doing nothing but sniping. I allways have the most specials and elites killed by a fat fat margin. I'm sniping so much I might as well not have a melee weapon. Death ascendant, shrapnel and male diction let you do some respectable boss damage.

[@scavenger6268]

Never liked the Sister of Thorn in terms of pub play. I often find said co-player to be more of a burden than a help.

[@DaemonPrince]

fun fact, sister of the thorns walls can block skeletons and the one that shoots to push away enemys will also abduct skeletons.

[@herbertmoon998]

Necromancer to signify the death of vermintide2 with its corpse utilizes the odd micro transaction

[@theonlymann1485]

"plays different" nah fam its a bootleg pyromancer that was buzzfed with adrenaline and then can summon 6 foot knights whereever she pleases

[@Diego000793]

Pretty much on point. Also that goes to show how poorly design is pyromancer atm

[@theonlymann1485]

@@Diego000793 only reason i use pyromancer is that i can run crit flamethrower(and thus stun SVs and other stuff other than high specials, Berserkers/CWs) and use it effectively with health from ult.

[@Luthyen]

pyro is still stronger in melee

[@Diego000793]

​@@Luthyenpyro have extra attack speed and crit chance. Unchained have extra 50% melee power. Necro has unlimited cleave and extra 25% melee power on crits (melee and ranged). The only thing going on at pyro is just flat stats, no mechanics. Is the most vanilla class in the game

[@Diego000793]

​@@theonlymann1485engineer with guaranteed crits might be a better choice for that. Axe and shield for good thp from stagger and extra protection, flamethrower for hordes and stun and a anti elite machine gun for everything else

[@aaron9777]

Character is not S tier. It’s mid at most. Battle wiz is still a better option.

[@Redemptionproject09]

lol ummm no. not only that but BW just got a huge nerf

[@char1137]

The skeletons are literally just mini ironbreakers, they do wonders for distraction, comparing it to battle wizard is such a brainrot take, they have different roles, but I suppose you cant tell because you always need your BW ult to save you in order to play the game

[@Karina-winsmore]

As fun as necromancer sounds, it kinda ruined Sienna as a character for me. Also its first (and only) evil career in the game.

[@thescrambler6354]

The elf is 100% pure evil

[@JondarKorric]

someone doesn't know what a Sister of Thorns is, if they think Necromancer is the only Evil aligned career. also fun fact most Necromancers sided AGAINST the Vermintide during the end times, and willing worked with other factions.

[@Karina-winsmore]

@@JondarKorric because skaven are chaos aligned, and chaos is the enemy to everything.

[@thescrambler6354]

@@JondarKorric I am one of those people what are they?

[@DaemonPrince]

technically in the lore skaven were bullied by Ever chosen into joining the chaos invasion as they were threatened with death, and Necromancer class while considered evil due to its inherent nature, empire "technically" allowed necromancers as the factions of order later on during the end times allied with Nagash forces of death, to take on the everchosen as Nagash wanted to rule the world and didnt want it destroyed and sent into chaotic ruins because of Archaon.@@Karina-winsmore