Age of Undeath Abomination Necromancer Build Guide

Safe playstyle / hardcore viable; does damage without you being close, allowing focus on mechanics.

No item requirements / SSF viable; big pet without needing Wraithlord's Harbour.

Makes use of the Necromancer's capstone skill, without being too finnicky thanks to Age of Undeath 1/1.

Initial setup is slow (should only be a one-time thing per play session, ideally).

Not compatible with Wraithlord's Harbour (discussed further in FAQ).

Abomination AI has 0 IQ. It will sometimes target things that seem non-sensical. Requires 'A' commanding.

TLDR

Gameplay

• Do the setup rotation called out below. Should only need to be done once per play session.
• Use Transplant to move yourself + minions (thanks to our experimental boots; see FAQ for getting this).
• Keep Dread Shade and Bone Curse's Merciless 5/5 up on the abomination.
• Keep Bone Curse on enemies for Marked For Death and Defile Defenses 5/5.

Setup Rotation

• [Re-spec Summon Skeletal Mage for Infernal Shade, getting Cryomancers 1/1 + Pyromancers 1/1]
• [Swap Transplant + Bone Curse for Summon Skeleton + Summon Skeletal Mage]
• Summon Skeletonx9 (or however many you have).
• Summon Skeletal Magex4 (or however many you have).
• Assemble Abomination
• [Re-spec Infernal Shade for Summon Skeletal Mage, getting Manic Pyre 1/3 + Soulfire 1/1]
• Infernal Shade
• Dread Shade
• [Revert swaps]

Setup Explanation

Our abomination setup relies on a very critical note in the Age of Undeath 1/1 description:

"If your maximum number of skeletons or skeletal mages is reduced by respeccing or other methods while you have an active abomination it will start decaying."

The key here is that the decay will only kick in if the maximum number of skeletal minions changes; not the types of skeletal minions we have access to.

We will use this to allow us to get most of the value out of Summon Skeletal Mage, without needing it specialized while we are playing. We'll do this by dropping specialization for Infernal Shade, and picking up specialization for Summon Skeletal Mage (grabbing the Cryomancers 1/1 node, as well as Pyromancers 1/1 node if level 58+). We will then summon all our skeletal minions, followed by assembling our abomination.

This means that, when we use Assemble Abomination and factoring in our Summon Skeleton specialization, we will have 13 minions contributing (9x skeletons, 4x mages - before any Immortal 4/4 procs, which can take us to 20 minions most of the time) across 6 different types (Warriors/Archers/Rogues/Mages/Pyromancers/Cryomancers). This makes our abomination get some pretty insane modifiers (assuming 0x Immortal 4/4 procs; you can resummon to try and get closer to 20 minions and improve the Engorgement number):

• Death in the Family 5/5 = +150% increased attack speed
• Epicurean 5/5 = +180% more damage
• Engorgement 3/3 = +195% more damage minimum (300% cap at 20 minions w/ Immortal 4/4)

After setup, we will be able to re-specialized Infernal Shade back in for Summon Skeletal Mage without triggering decay (because we did not grab the Order of Death node, and thus removing our specialization in summon skeletal mage did not result in our maximum number of skeletal mages getting reduced).

Conveniently, the vast majority of Infernal Shade's value comes from Manic Pyre 1/3 and Soulfire 1/1, which only require minimum skill level 7 (level 50) to realize. Minimum skill level 8 (level 58) will allow Burn Trail 1/1 to also be grabbed, which is almost everything we want from the skill (Corrosion 4/4 is nice-to-have, but secondary, and you'll get it after 1 monolith run).

We will also be removing both Summon Skeleton and Summon Skeletal Mage from our bars, and never need to worry about the Age of Undeath 1/1 decay triggering.

This setup is a bit annoying, due to the need to re-specialize out of and back in to Infernal Shade. But it is relatively quick, and well worth it; while leaving Summon Skeletal Mage specialized would let us take the Order of Death node for an extra +15% on Engorgement 3/3's current 195% minimum, for 210% minimum, we are getting more value out of all of the other skills that we have specialized instead of it. Another thing is that this means that your abomination dying requires re-specialization to summon it again; you will want your abomination to be durable (more on that in the FAQ).

If this re-specialization is not of interest, there is a "No Respec" build in the "Build Variants" section that manages to avoid it (at the cost of some abomination DPS, and other quirks called out in that section).

Levels 1-50

The key component of this build is Assemble Abomination. You won't get this until around 47-48 (depending on how many quest passives you get). But regardless, I recommend against doing this build until you have all 5 specialization slots anyway, as doing the abomination with 4 specialization slots is functional-but-suboptimal. Another perk for level 50 is the fact that your minimum skill level will hit 7 here, which is perfect for Infernal Shade.

You can feel free to do any build you want until you hit 50. This section will give one option aimed to transition as smoothly as possible into it. Reference the "Leveling" variant in the "Build Variants" section for a more detailed view of the leveling skill trees and passives (also linked here).

Hardcore Tips

If you choose to play this leveling variant, you should note that it doesn't have the same power level as the abomination does when it's online; your minions are more frail, and your front line will get broken at times. If you are playing on hardcore, make liberal use of the 'A' command to send minions in vs. faceplanting yourself, as well as to move them out of big damage (such as the avalanches in the ice section of the story). Note that it is okay to move backwards and summon your minions in the frontline. Use 'A' to target down the biggest threat that is killing your minion line if you end up in this situation.

Most importantly, if it looks critically bleak, 'T' to teleport out. Not worth the character loss to push through an incredibly dangerous spot.

Level 1-10

Progress through this early range using Marrow Shards as your primary DPS skill (or Hungering Souls if you're HC). By the time you reach level 10, you'll want this kit:

• Summon Skeleton (Specialized; plan is the +skeleton nodes).
• Bone Curse (Specialized; plan is Defile Defenses 5/5 to help skeleton damage).
• Marrow Shards
• Summon Bone Golem
• Transplant

Game plan here is to hide behind Summon Skeleton and Summon Bone Golem (and keeping them all summoned). Keep Bone Curse up, and Transplant forward. Marrow Shards when you have nothing else to do.

Note that Summon Bone Golem has a huge mana cost; do not cast it recklessly and find yourself locked out of casting for several seconds in critical moments.

Level 16

Swap in Summon Volatile Zombie for Marrow Shards. If you gain access to Summon Wraith before zombie, you can swap that in for marrow shards, and then swap zombie in for wraith once you get it.

Summon Volatile Zombie fills the same filler slot here; our game plan does not change, and the priority is to keep our other stuff up.

Level 20 and 5 points in Necromancer

Once level 20 is hit, specialize Summon Skeletal Mage (if you don't have 5 points in necromancer by this point somehow, you can very temporarily specialize Summon Volatile Zombie instead, and then specialize mage once you unlock it).

The skill tree plan is to rush for Death's Cavalry 3/3; since we don't have our abomination yet, we don't need to prioritize the Cryomancers and Pyromancers nodes.

You will not put Summon Skeletal Mage in your kit yet.

We are waiting for Summon Skeletal Mage to get to level 7, at which point we get Grave Passage 1/1 and it will replace Transplant. Having said that, if you really want to, feel free to swap it in early (either for transplant and accept you have no movement skill for awhile, or for zombie and accept you have no filler skill for awhile, but once Grave Passage is unlocked, Transplant should be the skill that is swapped out).

Level 35

At this point, we will specialize Summon Volatile Zombie, giving us substantial ward generation in Vital Ward 1/1, as well as significant DPS increases through the Ravenous 2/2 and Grave Attunement 3/3 nodes.

Another option, if preferred, is to specialize Summon Bone Golem for a better tank in your party. Grab Tower of Bones 4/4 if you do this to keep aggro off you + your squishy minions.

Level 50+

Level 50

When we hit level 50, we will do a large re-spec. But, before that, what we're going to do is to immediately put Dread Shade into our newly-acquired 5th skill specialization slot. We are going to let that hit level 8 before we re-spec; this should not take long, and will make for a more seamless transition.

Once ready to re-spec, If you were following from the above build, we will be giving up our specialization in Summon Volatile Zombie and Summon Skeletal Mage, and taking specializations in Assemble Abomination and Infernal Shade. We will also want to start steering Bone Curse towards the Merciless node (you can re-spec out of Marrow Thief and Defile Defenses to make this faster, if you want).

During these early levels, your personal damage will be high enough that Infernal Shade is doing a non-negligible about of damage to your abomination, but, if sensibly geared and specialized, it should not be a danger to it.

Please see the "Why Is My Abomination Dying" FAQ section if your abomination is dying to Infernal Shade.

Level 58

Nothing conceptually changes at level 58, but the default build does get better at this point, as it gives us a minimum skill level of 8, which allows us to get both Cryomancers 1/1 and Pyromancers 1/1 when we spec into Summon Skeletal Mage, as well as get Burn Trail 1/1 when we spec back into Infernal Shade. You should re-summon your abomination when you hit this milestone for the extra buff from the 6th minion type.

See the "Endgame" build variant for gear suggestions.

Why Is My Abomination Dying?

Across the many people I've helped with this, it's always one of three things:

• Your personal DPS is too high, and Infernal Shade is killing it. My endgame Necromancer does less than 200 DPS with shade. If you are doing more than that, check for sources of personal damage. Some affixes of interest are any "shared physical" affixes, as, while you might latently want them for their minion physical damage buff, they are also buffing your physical damage (which may become a problem when Blood Shade is online). If this is an issue and you really want to keep the shared physical nodes, consider the Brimstone swap called out below, and forgo the Blood Shade node.
• Your abomination's health is too low. While it doesn't need much, a couple "minion health" affixes are going to go a long way.
• You didn't grab River of Bones 5/5 and your abomination's leech is thus offline; this is how the abomination will sustain itself.

Skill Options

Assemble Abomination

The skill tree is mostly locked here. The Meat Grinder 1/1 node isn't great, as it's "increased" damage, not "more" damage. If you get a solid PrefixLevel of Assemble Abomination roll (T5+), you could consider branching for The Quick and the Dead, but the Unholy Reach node provides a significant source of cleave and gets preference IMO for anything other than boss killing.

Dread Shade

There are several options here that look workable, but most of them are bad. I do not recommend changing this skill.

Doomed Wrath would be amazing, if it wasn't behind Pernicious Pact, which is a deal-breaker node (it will kill our abomination).

If you want a build that is a little more relaxed on Dread Shade's targeting, you could go for Enemy of My Enemies 1/1 instead of Egoism 1/1, All For One 1/1, and Lone Watcher 1/1. This will significantly lower your abominations damage (so much so that I strongly recommend against this), but has the following perks:

• Your abomination is going to take a lot less damage without the Lone Watcher damage taken debuff.
• You no longer need to worry about missing the debuff, as the cooldown is gone since we gave up Egoism.
• It will give some survival utility by inflicting Blind on the target (likely a boss or big elite). Note that Enemy of My Enemies does not give the buff portion of Blind Fury 1/1.

Frenzied Phantom gets such low uptime due to the Egoism 1/1 cooldown, and is too far to reach in the face of the other, more impactful nodes (the only ones we can really flex out are the points in Flesh Harvest 3/3 and Wisdom of the Dead 1/3).

Similarly, Egoism cooldown makes Bane of Death bad.

Martyrdom is a net survivability decrease (with Lone Watcher 1/1).

Infernal Shade

Manic Pyre 1/3, Soulfire 1/1, and Burn Trail 1/1 form the core of this build. Corrosion 4/4 is the next most obvious DPS improvement, but it isn't huge outside of bosses, and if you really wanted to try something else, you could do Brimstone 4/4 (and probably just cap Ignition 5/5) for some enemy Slow de-buffing.

Bone Curse

Spiked Bones and Reaper's Mark are worthwhile options (likely at the cost of Defile Defenses and/or Reaper's Mark points).

Summon Skeleton

We are just here for the rogues, extra skeleton nodes, and Immortal 4/4 (which is effectively adding more skeletons to the abomination). Whatever you take beyond that, makes no difference.

Alternate Skills

After setup, you could also specialize out of Summon Skeleton for Transplant. This is undoubtedly a DPS loss (as you can no longer take any of the + skeleton nodes like Grave Walkers or else you will trigger decay on re-spec; you can still take Skeleton Rogue), but there is some compensation in the Marrow Blades node. What you really gain here though is survivability from Bone Armor + Plated Bone, and more from the Squeamish and Thanatophobia crowd-control nodes.

You could consider taking out Bone Curse or Summon Skeleton for Summon Volatile Zombie. This is also a significant abomination (and overall) DPS decrease, but we get some compensation by grabbing Wisp Weaver and Vital Ward for some ward generation, and Mark of Punishment to keep up Marked For Death on bosses. Would only do this if you need the ward/survivability, or Merciless 5/5 is too much of a strain on your abomination's HP.

Check the "No Respec" build variant for a skillset that keeps Summon Skeletal Mage specialized and avoids re-specialization. It gets used as the movement skill in place of Transplant.

Wraithlord's Harbour

The obvious competitor to this build is wraithlord, provided by Wraithlord's Harbour. It is the other "big pet" Necromancer build, and there's nothing else really in the same league as these two.

I truthfully do not know which does higher DPS between this and Wraithlord's. Wraithlord's definitely has higher burst when you spam zombies (either directly or via PrefixExperimental Volatile Zombie on Potion Use), but the consistent throughput of the abomination is very high, due to having access to more "more" multipliers (such as Merciless 5/5). In either case, both builds are huge damage, and neither will disappoint you on this front.

Putting the DPS race aside, it should be noted that this build does have a couple advantages over Wraithlord's:

• Most notably and perhaps obviously, you don't need to find a Wraithlord's Harbour.
• Wraithlord's beam damage is targeted, whereas the abomination's damage is a melee cleave. This works better for taking out packs of enemies as you'll commonly encounter in monoliths (especially with points in Unholy Reach).

What is, without question, in Wraithlord's favor, is that it doesn't require any of the setup that we have to go through for the abomination (which you will be thankful for if you play this abomination build long enough).