Is this build viable? (Melee Necromancer)

I'm looking for a solo friendly build. The wandering adventurer thing.

Except, I'm obsessed with Necromancy and melee. I'm curious if more veteran players think it is viable for solo play, and if so, what exactly should I take/equip myself with to be successful?

 

The only person I know who has experience with a combo like that is Doctor Shroud. He has used fists and corpse explosion successfully, but I don't know the details of his build. I don't think that combo is as effective as some others, however.

 

ive been wanting to play a dark knight style character in full plate with mace and shield and death and fire, works well but being full mage for pve is just much more efficient atm (for me ). with ring of fire and ice field, i can kite and not worry about taking damage, but for the future, i will be building a shield and mace dark knight with death magic, utilizing life drains and stuns + shield and heavy armor to tank in a group. dunno if there will ever really be a need for tanking atm ( please someone correct me if im wrong, still havent found a need for tanking ) since most things can be kited but im hoping that there will come a day where a group will need someone with a lot more tankiness, the problem there though is that there isnt just physical damage, one needs to build resistances to different types of damage and if its not physical, my build wont be that good. necromancy and melee work very well though since you plan on being up close and personal, death shield and the aoe life drain could be very useful. im at 101 corpse explosion and it is pretty much my go to spell, give me a corpse and I will rain up death

 

Standard melee builds focus on bladed combat with a two-handed sword, utilizing thrust, rend, and whirling blade. As for death I expect, considering the proximity in melee, a lot of corpse explosion and life stealing. You will need to be in light armor due to the fizzle rates on death magic.

 

I've played a bit with a hally / death magic build. This was before 2h weap fizzle chance was increased. Fizzle rate of death spells with hally may be too high now, but 1h blades and wooden shield may work. 1h pole arms is sad dps compared to blades. Bludgeon is ok.

I used chain chest to get heavy armor passives, and cloth elsewhere. Worked OK.

Death magic needs a lot of dev work still, it's not as powerful or versatile as air or fire. It has no range. Pets are completely worthless.

 

You will want carapacian epic cloth armor with int and str except chest, chest normal bronze chain gemmed death, and the near death 10% gem proc and 20% corpse explosion damage. A bronze 2hd weapon with the attunement + gem proc and drain life gem proc, either sword or bludgeon, sword for high dps and bludgeon for crowd control. Ring of lich kind for a ring and death necklace with the drain life bonus gem proc on it.

For a deck (if bludgeon) you will want 1 dash locked, 2 death touch locked, 3 will have 4 death touch 5 knockdown and 5 ground pound or crushing blow, 4 tap soul locked, 5 corpse explosion locked, 6 soothing rain locked, 7 douse locked, 8 death shield locked, 9 defensive stance locked and 10 chaotic feedback locked. You might not need the soothing rain, so you can switch that for glancing blow or bodyslam, and when fighting mages using fireballs, can switch your death shield for ice shield.

For pvp you will want to use the bodyslam, blink or nightstep, and maybe ice field to keep your opponent from getting away and trying to kite you.

 

I agree with most of @Mac2 's suggestions other than the very specific parts.
Quick answer without specifics, yes, I play a bludgeon melee with death and some fire.
Chain chest and epic leather everything else. Death touch is your healing, that is my only skill I have to 80. Corpse explosion is unlocked for me so that I can use 3 times in a row if need be. Fire arrow is my one ranged attack to pull a mob or flame someone running away. I do not kite (ok rarely) because I find it to be 'gaming' the weak AI. (I did not use the 'e' word). Ice shield is nice but fizzle chance can be high.
And eat some wolf and lamb chops early, you need food in a melee build.
Happy hunting! Play with it and make suggestions back to us when you discover a nice method or combo.

 

Thanks, this sounds like something that could be fun.

I far prefer swords over bludgeon. So 2h is still the best to go? Awesome.

Absolutely no use for pets though huh? That truly is disappointing.

 

Swords win in the dps race due to coup de grace and overall speed. 2h is fine, but 1h plus wand is nice for adding in better fizzle rates. A shield is not balanced yet in comparison, but a note from Chris says they are working on that soon.

 

I run a swords/earth/death hybrid most of the time.

Chainmail armor except for cloth gloves to reduce fizzle. Corpse explosion is the best skill in the death tree -I have 1 shot obsidian wolves with it (once you have a few corpses), and theres nice life leech healing options in the tree.

 

Corpse explosion could use some dev attention. I've had mobs standing right next to a corpse I detonate, and the mob takes zero damage.

 

The only problem I have with death, and I do love dead, is that undead are resistant. Problem is there are a ton of undead in the game. How to you all handle that?

As to the death pets, I have found the skeleton to be a tad better than the other magic tree pets if you skill up the passives. You will chew through reagents though.

 

Ranged works great with liches, archers, mages. Aimed shot and rapid fire are great.