Introduction
The Cursed Vale finally has a class to that calls that spooky place it’s home, the Tomb Raiser! The communities been asking for a necromancer and we finally got it! Command an army (If you consider 7 an army) of skeleton minions, wield spooky dark powers and if things get dangerous, become a ghost! The Tomb Raiser’s basic attack not only steals health from enemies, but it also heals your minions. Send your minions forth to destroy your foes!
Advantages
- Very high survivability
- Skeleton minions
- Good AOE damage and even better AOE damage when in ghost form
- Ult has a short cooldown; can use it very often
- Steals health
Disadvantages
- Vulnerable when low on energy
- Little to no survivability without minions soaking damage
- Ult requires a lot of minions to be powerful
- Short range
- Relies on minions for a lot
Role of a Tomb Raiser
You have no utility so you want to be doing damage. You’re no tank though, and will want someone to take aggro for you whether it be another player (Hopefully a tank) or your minions. Staying alive shouldn’t be a problem as long as you have minions to spare and energy at your disposal. Your minions will slowly die over time and can be kept alive with just your basic attack but not if they’re pulling mob aggro as well. You’ll want to use Banshee’s Boon as much as possible since it’s your only ability that costs energy. Use it to do damage, to heal yourself and your minions, and to avoid taking some heavy hits. Your job is to do damage.
Tomb Raiser in Solo Play
The Tomb Raiser’s solo play is pretty easy because you’ve got free meat shields at your disposal. You can hold 3 at a time and can summon another one when something dies so getting 6 down (The max) is pretty easy. Keep your minions alive with Banshee’s Boon and heal yourself while you’re at it. Your ult has a very short cooldown but make sure you have a few skellies ready to be sacrificed before you use it, otherwise your golem won’t be very strong! You can’t heal your golem but it lasts for a little while. Just make sure to keep summoning minions after you create one and watch them wipe everything out for you! The minions will do a lot of damage and you can have a lot of them at once. Solo play will be a breeze!
Breakdown of Skills
[Passive] Soul Caller: Periodically attract a restless soul, up to a maximum of 3. Additionally, slaying enemies attracts a soul and your basic attacks return a small amount of damage done as health
It’s free life steal! It’s also how you get “ammo” for your Bonetourage. You get souls pretty easily so make sure you use them! That life steal is also affected by Banshee’s Boon since it increases your basic attack’s damage.
[Active RMB] Bonetourage: Spawn a skeletal minion that will fight by your side until your enemies are dust.
These are your skeleton minions. You can have 6 down at once and you want to summon some whenever you can because you can only carry a max of 3 souls. You use a soul to summon a minion and they’re easy to keep alive with Banshee’s Boon. You’ll also want a few of these minions running around if you plan to have a powerful Grave Golem! These things will pull aggro for you and do some pretty nice damage, just make sure to keep them alive! Make sure you heal them with you main attack as well as with Baneshee’s Boon since without healing they will last only 10 seconds (if not damaged or healed)
[Active 1] Baneshee’s Boon: Use a soul to step into the shadows and channel energies from the afterlife to heal your minions.
You become a spooky ghost with this. It makes you take 90% reduced damage, your basic attack will do more damage and it affects everyone around you in a circle. It drains your energy FAST though so make sure you have a lot of energy regen or use it at appropriate times. Like when your minions are about to die. It also heals you so unless you’re pulling aggro, you won’t really need to use too many flasks.
[Ultimate] Grave Golem: Construct a monstrous minion from the bones of your skeletal subordinates! The more skellies you sacrifice, the larger the burly brute will be.
It has a short cooldown and how powerful it is depends on how many skeletons you sacrificed to make it. Sacrifice 6 and this thing will be a monster. Sacrifice 1 and it’s like a skellie that you can’t heal. This thing is hard to take down and hits HARD. You can use it pretty much every fight but just make sure you have skeletons ready to sacrifice! I’d recommend not summoning one of these if you have less than 4 minions out just because it attacks slow so you’ll be better off with a bunch of little guys running around for you instead.
Gearing Up
Weapon
- Magic Damage
- Energy Regen
- Health Regen/Jump
- Health
Face
- Health
- Health Regen
- Magic Damage
- Movement Speed
Hat
- Health
- Health Regen
- % Health/Jump
- Movement Speed
Ring
- Magic Damage
- Energy Regen
I say Movement Speed because the only other option for that stat would be Attack Speed and that does nothing for your class. For the weapon, If you decide to take Health Regen make sure you get Jump on your hat and vice versa. Don’t get jump or anything else on your ring because you’ll want that energy regen so you can use Banshee’s Boon a lot. I opt in for as much damage as possible because I like to hurt. You won’t really need to try to take tankier stats because your minions will be pulling aggro for you. These stats are just my recommendations so by all means use something else; this is just how I play the Tomb Raiser.
Combat Guidelines
I usually begin fights by Summoning all my skeletons. This way you’ll be available to hold another 3 souls which should come pretty quickly so you want to make sure you’re not wasting any. If you’re fighting and don’t have 6 skeletons out already, summon them as soon as you can until you do have 6. Once you do have 6, I summon a Grave Golem just to make it as strong as I possibly can but if you don’t think the fight will last long enough for the Grave Golem to do anything, don’t bother sacrificing all your minions. Besides managing your skellies, you’ll just be zapping enemies with your dark magic and I usually use Banshee’s Boon as soon as I have enough energy for the extra damage and to keep my skeletons healthy.
It doesn’t really matter but I usually don’t use Banshee’s Boon until I have about half of my energy refilled. As long as your minions haven’t ran off, they should all be in range for the heal. I recommend attacking the same target your minions are just so you can damage the enemy and heal your minion at the same time. Besides summoning skeletons pretty much whenever you can and holding off on your Grave Golem until you have a handful of minions to sacrifice, there isn’t really too much to cover here, just make sure you continue to heal your minions!
Conclusion
Controlling the Undead is pretty awesome and this class does it very well. Whether you’re in a group or adventuring alone, you’ll always make an impact wherever you are. Pulling aggro with one of your many skeletons or melting any enemies that try to stop you, the Tomb Raiser is sure a force to be reckoned with!
It’s not a hard class to play and really all you need to do is keep track of your minions. It’ll be a good class for anyone to pick up especially if they like having dance parties with their Bonetourage! The Grave Golem’s got some moves too, so make sure to include him as well!
