Necromancer (Warcraft III)

Though they retained their Humanity after making a pact with death, Necromancers became the most terrifying agents of the Scourge. These dark, insidious men were once thought to be aspiring geniuses by the Magocracy of Dalaran. However, their insatiable lust to delve into the secrets of the dark arts drove them to forsake their very souls. Ner'zhul, the Lich King, granted these malevolent sorcerers true power over the dead in exchange for their loyalty and obedience. The shadowy Necromancers have the power to command various types of Undead and even spread the foul undead plague as well.

Necromancers are very popular among experienced undead players as they can raise lots of Skeletons to support your existing troops. If the enemy doesn't have Destroyers or Faerie Dragons (the latter of which can be fatal to Necromancers) then the sheer amount of skeletons can overwhelm enemies, though it is also important to take note of the massive collision as a result.

Necromancers work well with 3-4 Meat Wagons and 2 Obsidian Statues. The Meat Wagons provide fresh corpses for the Necromancers to use, while the Obsidian Statues allow them to contribute to the battle for as long as possible. You may want to add more or less Meat Wagons depending on the amount of Necromancers you use, however.

Keep Necromancers in the back and well protected. Good microing skills can allow Necromancers to survive, especially if they get targeted by heavy air or artillery units, who can easily kill them. Skilled players should instead use Necromancers for the purposes of Unholy Frenzy and Cripple, as these are very powerful when used correctly (and also gives more versatility in the player's army), even moreso with an Orc ally using Shamans.

• Raises 2 Skeletons from a target corpse.

Once the Skeletal Mastery upgrade is researched, Raise Dead will raise 1 Skeleton Warrior and 1 Skeletal Mage per corpse. There's a cap to the amount of skeletons that can be summoned, and excess skeletons will automatically die if it goes over this amount, with the oldest ones taking priority.

This spell is not on by default. This is to prevent the Necromancer from raising Skeletons from the Graveyard after he is created wasting his mana if you happen to build your Graveyard next to the Temple of the Damned. It's recommended to keep the spell set off so he can reserve mana for his more powerful spells.

Skeletons initially last 45 seconds. Research Skeletal Mastery to increase their duration by 20 seconds for a total of 65 seconds.

Tip: Raise Dead yields the same result regardless of what type of corpse it is cast on. If you have a Death Knight on your team, save powerful corpses for Animate Dead. You can kill a critter and get the same result from Raise Dead on its corpse as you would on, say, a Tauren, or an Abomination. Raise Dead prioritizes lower-ranked corpses first; for example, a critter corpse will take priority over a Ghoul's.

Use Dispel. If not available, target the Necromancers if they can't be reached, or use AoE abilities and skills to clear the skeletons.

• Skeleton counters

• Increases the attack rate of target unit by 75%, but drains 2 hit points per second. Lasts 45 seconds.

Unholy Frenzy is very helpful on Heroes (whose health regeneration can make up for the loss of hit points), Abominations, Frost Wyrms, Tauren, Knights, and Bears. For some units, such as low hit point units, it is not a good idea to cast Unholy Frenzy on them because it will make them so weak they will be easily killed. If an ally has brought shamans into the fray, try to stack Unholy Frenzy on bloodlusted units. This makes them attack slightly over twice as fast, and is particularly vital for the slower but more damaging units.

Unholy Frenzy works very well in combination with the Dread Lord's Vampiric Aura on Abominations and other advanced melee units and on melee heroes such as the Dread Lord. The Vampiric Aura will help heal the damage of the Unholy Frenzy.

Cast Unholy Frenzy on retreating enemy Heroes, or even units that are about to die. It may kill them off.

Use Dispel.

• Counters

• Reduces movement speed by 75%, attack rate by 50%, and damage by 50% of a target enemy unit.

Cripple is the uber slow spell with a significant damage reduction added on top of it. It also requires a lot of mana. You should pick your targets carefully when casting Cripple. Cast it on powerful normal units such as Knights, Tauren, Abominations, Frost Wyrms, or Druids of the Claw. Use it on enemy heroes to prevent them from fleeing or to reduce their damage output.

Use Dispel.

• Cripple Counters

• Ncromancer Adept Training
• Increases mana capacity by 100, mana regeneration rate by 30%, hit points by 40, and gives them the ability to cast Unholy Frenzy.

• BTNNecromancerMaster.png
• Ncromancer Master Training
• Further increases mana capacity by 100, mana regeneration rate by 30%, hit points by 40, and gives them the ability to cast Cripple.

! Research Cost !! Researched At !! Requirements !! Upgrade Time !! Effect

• {| class="darktable" style="text-align:center"
• - class="alt"
• 100 150 || Temple of the Damned || Necromancer Adept Training, Black Citadel || 45 sec. || Hit Points: 385 Mana: 400 (Initial 150) Mana Regen Rate: 1.31 Mana/sec. Spell Learned: Cripple
• }

• Skeletal astery
• Causes one of the two skeletons created by Raise Dead to be a Skeletal Mage and increases the duration of raised Skeleton Warriors and Skeletal Mages by 20 seconds.

• See Warcraft III Necromancer quotes

• He's voiced by Michael Bell.

• Necromancer (Reign of Fire), TCG card

Nigromante (Warcraft III)