Secondary professions for a Necromancer

Necromancer Warrior
The Necromancer Warrior (referred to as N/W or Necro/Warrior) is a rare choice of professions. Players using this combination will most likely die very often until they figure out how to play this character's niche.

The main advantages of being a Warrior include being able to employ shields for extra armor and using Adrenaline based attacks in addition to Energy based attacks. This allows you to continue to deal damage when either are depleted. Mark of Pain and Barbs can also be cast and combined with Flurry to increase damage caused by physical attacks. Direct damage spells are also nice for taking out a Ranger who likes to evade, or for times when you are blinded.

Another good combination to be considered is Spinal Shivers combined with an Icy axe or sword and an attack speed increase skill, such as Flurry. This makes a N/W very effective at interrupting enemy spellcasters.

Necrotic Armor and Tormentor's Armor are recommended for this combination, as they have 10 more than the best armor available for the other spell caster professions. This can make up for some of the fragility that other spell casters have when being attacked in melee combat. Alternatively, Factions Revenant's Armor provides additional health.

Unlike the Warrior Monk, the Necro/Warrior should not immediately run to the front lines of a battle. Necro/Warriors have relatively light armor so they will most likely be killed on the front lines.

See Meleemancer for a complete look at this combination.

Example Builds:
 * Build:N/W Death's Shadow

Necromancer Ranger
The Necromancer Ranger (N/R) is a somewhat common combination that merges the spells of a Necromancer with the pet and nature spirits of the Ranger. Contrary to popular belief, Favorable Winds does not increase the power of Bone Fiends as their projectiles are not arrows.

The N/R combination of skills is very popular among players who want to be dedicated to raising undead minions. The General minion mastery guide has specific advice on this topic.

Another less used build for necromancer/rangers includes using either pet or bow attacks to inflict conditions, such as bleeding or crippled, on enemies, and then hitting the target with the necromancer elite, Virulence.

Example Builds:
 * Build:N/R Explosive Extinction

Necromancer Elementalist
The Necromancer/Elementalist (N/E) can prove a potent combination for both PvP and PvE. The Necromancer's primary Soul Reaping attribute compensates for the lack of Energy Storage, allowing for use of high energy spells. Similarly, the Elementalist has several group-affecting skills that nicely complement animated corpses from the Necromancer's Death Magic skill set.

One effective build for this profession is to focus on a particular element, such as Air Magic and combine a few Blood Magic skills to maintain one's Health from the powerful melee opponents that may target you. This offers a decent mix of life preservation and offensive capability. Another, more unusual build is using Glyph of Renewal to keep Verata's Sacrifice on undead minion, thus keeping them alive for at least 180 seconds with no real effort.

Example Builds:
 * Build:N/E Tainted Warder

Necromancer Mesmer
Necromancer Mesmer (N/Me) is a profession combination usually associated with specialization in status effects like hexes. N/Me is one of the most challenging combinations to play, but is very effective, particularly in PvP.


 * Access to a wide range of hexes from both professions.
 * Access to two effective energy-management attributes (Soul Reaping and Inspiration).

Many of the Necromancer Curses can be combined with Mesmer skills to increase the effects of both spells. Other strategies may make use of the mesmer's Fragility spell along with several necromancer spells to cause conditions.

Example Builds:
 * Build:N/Me FoC Spiker

Necromancer Monk
The Necromancer Monk (N/Mo) is one of the most popular support classes. The combination allows for easy self-healing, Blood Magic and Healing Prayers, and when the combination is used to create a Minion Master build the N/Mo can create longer-lived minions.

The popular Barrage with Pet build for the Tomb of the Primeval Kings uses N/Mo's with Order of Pain to enhance their damage output.

A N/Mo is a classic support player for any PvP group. The N/Mo can easily heal itself when sacrificing for Order of Pain or Order of the Vampire (Sees most of its use in IWAY or Ranger Spike), or completely take over the Protection role with the Soul Reaping energy recharge and Condition transfer, such as the skill Martyr.

Example Builds:
 * Build:Team - Blood Spike.
 * Build:N/Mo New Orders Necromancer

Necromancer Assassin
With the powerful curses of the necromancer and the torrential attack speed of the assassin, this combination is a powerful crowd killer. This combination shares much with the Necromancer Warrior combination.

Mark of Pain with Assassin Dagger chains can inflict massive damage on all nearby foes. Consider Repeating Strike with Rigor Mortis to ensure multiple unstoppable hits.Life stealing skills such as Vampiric Touch can extend the survivability of close quarters melee attackers. Many assassin combinations inflict conditions on the target, making skills like Virulence attractive. With the many curses available to necromancers, skills like Iron Palm and Entangling Asp are easier to complement.

However, without Critical Strikes, several key defensive and healing skills are ineffective. Damage from primary attacks will be much lower then a pure assassin. The toughest necromancer armor is only as good as basic assassin armor, and significantly thinner then basic warrior armor.

Example Builds:
 * Build:N/A Dark Vampire

Necromancer Ritualist
Soul Reaping, the primary attribute of necromancers, triggers on deaths of all creatures, including spirits (Although only half the energy is gained from these creatures). A N/Rt spirit spammer does not have to worry about running out of energy.

Necromancer teleports, unlike shadow stepping, allows one to carry bundles with them. A N/Rt can be a melee bomber by teleporting into a clump of foes when one dies, dropping the Ashes of Cruel Daoshen, and then running away. This strategy works equally well as a Rt/N.

Example Builds:
 * Build:N/Rt Minion Master

Necromancer Paragon
Though a very rare choice it is also very effective. When using combined skills like life siphon and barbed spear they can be a great health drainer. They can also deal lots of damage very quickly and be a great addition to the team. This class is different and will take a little bit to get used to,but once you do you will be killing in no time.

Another useful way to play in PVE is to use a combination of Death Magic to raise minions, while using Paragon's Command to effectively raise their armor and durability with Stand Your Ground! at the beginning of an attack.

Necromancer Dervish
Same as other Necro Fighting builds, learn to use the skills with the Dervish prayers and balance out your attribute points. Should choose ONE main prayer to stick with (either Wind or Earth) and make sure you don't always run into fights with strong opponents or monsters.

Example builds:
 * Build:N/D Heir to the Master