Guide to Success: Necro

Hey guys, Altur here. To those of you who recognize me, I’ve been a bit inactive the past few months, but my schedule finally starting to lighten up. In my spare time, I thought I’d create a guide for Necro, a class people STILL do not play very often. FYI: this is not a perfect guide; I welcome others to add to it.

I would say Necro is not generally seen as powerful because its abilities/roles are very spread out, much like Elf. Nonetheless, through experience, I’ve found that the reworked Necro (referencing both most recent reworks), unlike the original Necro, has a lot of potential. To unlock that potential, one must know when to play certain roles and use specific strategies.



Necro in General:
For those of you that do not already know, Necro is a class that can spawn monsters to aid him/her and teammates.

Necro can have up to…

• 5 zombies (always unlocked, have high health, deal weakness)
• OR 4 skeletons (unlocked at 5 killstreak, have high damage, deal slowness)
• OR 3 blazes [unlocked at 15 killstreak, superb health, deal fire (which doubles as slowness and extra damage), but cannot move horizontally]

…in the field at one time. Mobs can be buffed with levels that you gain as you hit enemies. Buffs include potion effects, enchantments (I think), and weapons.

Necro also has two weapons: a gold sword for buffs and blocking Assassins, and a diamond pickaxe for utility and damage (deals more damage than the sword due to sharpness).





Support Role:
Necro is excellent as a support unit because the sheer amount of monsters (especially when using zombies) act as body-shields that can help teammates avoid damage and/or escape. It is best to become a support unit when the team is having trouble stealing the flag or when your team’s flagholder is struggling. When playing as a Necro support unit, the most important things are to be aware of your surroundings and predict when danger may arise.

Strategies for Support Role:

• If you see Archers, Mages, or Elves, be prepared to place zombies in the line of fire to protect you or your teammate from being shot (the zombies, rather than the player, take the shot).
• If you see a Ninja (that you know is targeting your teammate) nearby become invisible, place a couple zombies or skeletons (not all of them, just in case you are knocked away from them) and begin blocking to reduce the initial damage of the potential attack. If the Ninja becomes visible nearby again, your monsters will sense the Ninja immediately.
• If your teammate is a flag carrier and running away from flag recoverers, consider the immediate terrain before acting. If the terrain is open, place 2-3 skeletons to slow down the recoverers (skeletons deal slowness I or II) because the skeletons will be able to traverse the terrain more easily than zombies. If the terrain is not open and/or there are tight spaces, the placement of 3-4 zombies would be more effective; your monsters will more actively block the recoverers in this situation, so zombies, with their higher health, would be ideal to spawn.

Midfield/Offense Role:
If you feel more aggressive but do not want to cap, then either the midfield or offense role will be right for you. It is best to play the midfield/offense roles when the enemy has significant control over the midfield. I group them both together mostly because I believe the Necro strategies for the roles are very similar. When playing as a Necro midfield/offense unit, the most important things are to be able to improvise, determine the location of enemy structures and groups, and predict the pathing of enemy players.

Strategies for Midfield/Offense Role:

• Regardless of where you are on the map, make sure to always save at least one monster spawn egg in your hotbar for cases in which you’re ambushed and are away from your other monsters.
• Aside from PvP in general, there are three methods I use to farm XP for big heists:
  • By finding enemy monsters (if any) that are separated from their Necro and beating them up with your fist/steak. You’ll gain large amounts of XP without taking much damage.
  • By finding an enemy exit teleporter that is separated from the turret and its Engineer and ambushing players that appear on the teleporter.
  • By hiding while spawning monsters in areas of high enemy concentration (eg. near enemy turrets, enemy spawn, or enemy flagroom).
• When you are near the center of the map, hide and observe the pathing of enemy players (if you do not already know). Then disrupt that pathing by either
  • Ambushing enemy players (especially low-armor and low-range ones) one at a time. If you are seen, place almost all your zombies/skeletons towards one side of the enemy player, and move towards the other side, effectively flanking the enemy player and greatly reducing the chance of the enemy player’s escape/survival. In ambushing individual enemy players, especially those that are part of a group (making sure that the rest of the group does not notice), you would reduce stress on your defense.
  • Or, if you have Blazes, placing ALL of your Blazes in a straight line perpendicular to the path. This will make the path very hazardous for the enemy team; blazes have very high health, are sometimes too high up in the air to hit, and, if the enemy is not careful, can deal massive damage and slow down enemies with the fire.
• If there are any enemy turrets up, spawn almost all of your zombies so you can approach the turret(s) more safely. Once you destroy an enemy turret, retreat and hide to build up more zombies for another strike at the enemy Engineer. If you kill the Engineer, you must say in the chat “Necros have more swag than Engineers” .
• Regularly raid the enemy flag with almost all of your monsters to keep pressure on enemy defenders, give allies a better chance of stealing the flag, and increase your XP.

Defense Role
Necro is great as a defensive unit because, unlike turrets, monsters can go near the flag and render sneak attacks (from soldiers, ninjas, assassins, etc.) obsolete (especially if the monsters are fast). It is best to become a defensive unit when you do not have skeletons yet (as defending is a great way to get killstreaks) or when your team is winning. When playing as a defensive unit, the most important things are to remain vigilant, cover all entrances, and be mobile.

Strategies for Defense Role

• Prior to entering the ally flagroom, you, as a Necro, should spawn at least one mob at every entrance to the flagroom. If any of the mobs strays (unless the mob is a blaze, because blazes move vertically) or enters the flagroom, that is fine as long as they remain at least 16 blocks away (if the mob is a skeleton) or 40 blocks away (if the mob is a zombie) from the location they were assigned. If mobs stray too much, hold out your mob beacon to encourage the mobs to get closer.
• Obviously, when playing as any class, one must remain vigilant. Position yourself in a location in which you can see most of the room. Change your camera angle every once in a while via “f5”. I personally have the command set to “x” (below the WASD keys) to make it easier and faster to change the angle. Generally, in defense, I play in the third person camera mode until I see someone. Every few seconds, I switch the camera mode to make sure that the defense is not ambushed.
• Of course, there rarely is a single spot in a flagroom in which you can see every part of the flagroom and the entrances. It is important move about the flagroom to check those hidden spots for enemy players and, of course, to check to see if your monsters are behaving and are where they’re supposed to be.

Recovery Role
Last, but not least, Necro makes a decent recoverer because the Necro’s monsters can block/slow down a flag carrier and Necro deals moderately high damage. It is best to become a Necro recoverer when, obviously, someone has your flag. When playing as a recoverer, the most important things are to be quick but not sloppy and work with other teammates.

Strategies for Recovery Role

• Once your flag is stolen and you have begun your pursuit of the enemy flagholder, make sure to be wary of other enemy players coming to the enemy flagholder’s rescue and delay them with ONLY your zombies/skeletons (unless, of course, there is a group of enemy players).
• If an enemy player has just stolen the flag and is running away, skeletons would be the mob of choice to take out the enemy flagholder because skeletons can more easily catch up and can deal slowness I (or slowness II if bow skeleton). Do not directly pursue the enemy flagholder; let the skeletons do that job for you. Instead, pursue the enemy flagholder INDIRECTLY by trying to cut him/her off by moving towards the enemy flag. Do the same above tasks with zombies if you do not have skeletons.
• If each team has the opponent’s flags and the enemy flagholder has successfully escaped and is being protected at the enemy base, do NOT try to recover UNLESS you have either at least 4 levels of XP (equivalent to the amount of skeletons you can have out at a time) or a teammate willing to help you. If you fulfill either of these criteria, use buffed skeletons at first and then zombies in your recovery operation, for they are excellent at taking over rooms.

Conclusion
Hopefully this guide helps you and inspires you to be better at Necro. Please let me know in the comments below what you think of my guide!