Necromancer

"Mastery over life and death was chief among my early pursuits. I began in humility, but my ambition was limitless. Who could have divined the prophetic import of something as unremarkable... as a twitch in the leg of a dead rat?

I entertained a delegation of experts from overseas, eager to plumb the depths of their knowledge and share with them certain techniques and alchemical processes I had found to yield wondrous and terrifying results. Having learned all I could from my visiting guests, I murdered them as they slept.

I brought my colleagues back with much of their intellect intact - a remarkable triumph for even the most experienced necromancer. Freed from the trappings of their humanity, they plied their terrible trade anew: the dead reviving the dead, on and on, down the years. Forever.

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- The Ancestor

The Necromancer is an Unholy/Eldritch boss that appears in the Ruins. He is one of the reanimated scholars that collaborated with the Ancestor, murdered and then brought back with much of his intellect intact, but with little to no humanity remaining. After the Ancestor's death, the Necromancer and his Apprentices took over the Ruins, using their magic to bring the corpses buried there back to life as their servants, continuing their unholy experiments with necromancy.

Behavior
The Necromancer will always start in position 1. Each time he uses an attack, he creates a Skeleton enemy in rank 1, steadily pushing himself back until he is in position 4, where his attacks no longer spawn anything. His attacks do not have to hit a hero in order to trigger this ability - therefore the only way to stop him summoning a minion in a turn is either to stun him, or for there to be 3 of them existing already. Corpses do not block this ability either, they will simply be replaced by newly summoned Skeletons.

The Necromancer notably has no weighted skill selection or targeting, making his series of attacks effectively random.

On higher difficulties, the Bone Soldiers summoned by the Necromancer have Stealth for 2 rounds. As of The Color of Madness patch, all of the Necromancer's summoned minions are life-linked to him and will expire when he does.

Strategy
Unlike most undead, the Necromancer can easily bleed (perhaps because he is also eldritch). The skeletons he spawns however still have high bleed resist, along with regular enemies in the ruins. This means that bleed skills are still less ideal to bring than blight. Regardless of the dot type used, he only has 1 action per round, which limits their effectiveness vs other bosses with 2-3 actions per round. Stuns would be more effective for the same reason, but he has a fairly high stun resist to protect this potential weakness. For a boss, he is quite susceptible to being moved, although his constant retreats limit their effectiveness too. Marks and debuffs persist for a long time however, making them quite effective. Since he has no PROT, he is left totally vulnerable if his dodge is stripped off. What's most effective is simply being able to hit the 4th slot, since this is where he prefers to stay.

The Crusader is by far one of the best heroes to take on the Necromancer, as he deals extra damage to undead. The Hellion can easily reach the Necromancer anywhere, but her bleed skills are ineffective in the ruins. Other classes such as the Leper and Abomination have no trouble smashing undead, but will be unable to target the Necromancer in the backline. The Occultist has a damage bonus vs the Necromancer (eldritch), but is ineffective vs all the other undead, making the Vestal a better choice.

The Shieldbreaker excels at this fight, especially on higher levels. Her Pierce can reach the Necromancer in any rank, while Expose can be used to deal with the Stealth on the summoned Bone Soldiers. Impale will ignore Stealth altogether, and Puncture can be used to break Guard on the Necromancer. She can also apply Blight damage (especially with trinkets like Venomous Vial or Obsidian Dagger) with Captivate.

If you prefer dots, it would be better to bring blight skills. The plague doctor and grave robber can quickly drown the Necromancer in blight at any position. Either would combine well with the abomination. Alternately, you could use marks. With only 1 action per round, marks are highly effective. The arbalest in particular can snipe the backline with a big damage bonus to marked targets.

When it comes to his minions, Bone Soldiers and Bone Defenders should be killed quickly to mitigate damage, or to prevent the Necromancer from being guarded. Minions that apply guard are difficult to ignore as they will redirect attacks to themselves. You may safely ignore any Bone Rabble as they are weak enemies. Leaving up weaker undead may be ideal because the Necromancer could replace them with more threatening undead after they're killed. If you wish to ignore all the skeletons, consider bringing the Man At Arms, which excels at soaking enemy attacks. With his guard/prot combo, he will help control incoming damage while the rest of your party can focus on dealing with the Necromancer.

Preferred Heroes

 * Crusader - Bonus damage against Unholy lets him cleave through the Necromancer's HP and the undead horde he summons.
 * Plague Doctor, Grave Robber - Blight-based synergy that can shred the undead.
 * Vestal - Healing to keep the party fresh; combat-based Vestals also shine in this fight.
 * Shieldbreaker - Wide-area Blight and long reach to keep pressure on the Necromancer.

Reasonable Choices

 * Arbalest/Musketeer - Good long-range damage to snipe the Necromancer once he's hit the back. Can also repeatedly clear Stealth from his minions at higher difficulties.
 * Occultist - Bonus damage against the Necromancer, and can also pull him forward for your melee classes to hit.
 * Abomination - Good stuns and area Blight when untransformed; if transformed he can tear through enemy front ranks or shove units until the Necromancer's in range.

Discouraged Heroes

 * Houndmaster - His bleeds are less useful against the undead horde, and the Necromancer eventually slips out of Blackjack range. Cry Havoc can, however, counter the effects of its wide-range Stress.
 * Flagellant - Although he boasts some powerful stress heals and speed buffs, a more optimal choice would be the Jester for his buffs and his stress heals. The Flagellant specializes in Bleed and while the Necromancer has low Bleed resistance, he won't be too useful against the skeletons that the Necromancer spawns. In general, Bleed is ineffective in the ruins.

Trophy
After completing the Necromancer's champion quest, he will drop his collar as a Trophy.

Abilities
Apprentice =

Veteran =

Champion =

The Necromancer's summoning will occur regardless of if the attack hits a hero or not. The exact enemies summoned vary and depend on the boss's difficulty:

Barks
Every base game hero (and Musketeer) has a unique bark as a reaction on each of Necromancer's attacks. The two DLC heroes—Flagellant and Shieldbreaker—don't have unique reactions and can use only generic barks. Some heroes share their unique and generic barks.

The Flesh Is Willing = The Crawling Dead = Six Feet Under =