MMORPG.com Age of Conan Correspondent Michael DeHart writes this guide to the Necromancer class in Funcom's Age of Conan.

Class Overview:
Archetype: Mage
Permitted Races: Stygian
Weapons: Daggers, crossbows, and thrown weapons
Armor: Cloth and silk armor

The necromancer is the unofficial ‘pet’ class of AoC. They rely on their minions as well as unholy and cold damage to destroy their opponents. The necro also specializes in damage over time (DoT) spells and has a number of important crowd control spells that freeze targets or send them running. A necro’s minions are more than just meat shields. Every pet has specific special abilities such as stealing health/mana, weakening enemies or even exploding on impact. High level necros can even summon powerful liches that do ranged spell damage. The number of pets a necromancer can control depends on his or her pet points. A new character starts out with only two pet points but quickly gains up to eight by level 20. A necromancer’s pets are divided in to three categories:

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Excellent write up, Necros in this game give you that Diablo feeling (Corpse explosion to boot), and are definitely one of the hardest classes to play, especially in PvP.

Do not play this class thinking it plays like other MMO's, you will be in for a wake up call, but they are truly fun to play and require a lot of strategy to employ correctly.

i had alot of fun with my necro. i agree too, invest in perception if at all possible, as stealth classes are problematic at the very least. so being able to see them before they move in on you and 1-2 shot u from stealth itll give u a upperhand to some degree if u see them coming. nightfall is pretty decent but i focused on reanimation as i had a blast using my pets to kill other players lol made for some hilarious moments. not to mention being able to solo people 10+ levels higher then me, or soloing 3:1 using my melee and caster pets. too bad the game is too buggy right now.

They truly are a fun class, only reason I liked the game really I was surprised by the tactics available.   If only the pvp minigames happened more than once a day I'd have had something to do with my necro.

It's an ok guide but I think it's ok to say that necros are an "official" rather than "unofficial" pet class. The guide would be a lot more useful if it covered the pet types and the pro's and con's for them.

He forgot to mention that this Class is so "broken" that is almost impossible to play it!  Damage spells were so pathetic that  players of other classes laught when they started a PvP with us! Imagine  the class of Healers  with more powerful damage spells than a Necro...a Healer! Not a Shaman or other class...a Healer is stronger than a Necro! At one time, during 2 all weeks the pets werent capable to do any damage! That and the constant "crashes"were the"breaking point" to me I leaved to never return to this game!!

Originally posted by LoboMau

He forgot to mention that this Class is so "broken" that is almost impossible to play it!  Damage spells were so pathetic that  players of other classes laught when they started a PvP with us! Imagine  the class of Healers  with more powerful damage spells than a Necro...a Healer! Not a Shaman or other class...a Healer is stronger than a Necro! At one time, during 2 all weeks the pets werent capable to do any damage! That and the constant "crashes"were the"breaking point" to me I leaved to never return to this game!!

You forget to do your research prior to posting. The class was "fixed" 2months or-so ago now, along with many others.

Infact, after reading your entire post it's clear that you don't know the slightest thing about the state of AoC now.

Back on topic.. great guide; thanks for writing and sharing it with us.

To the above poster who says that Necros are "broken",  they were changed and now are stupidly powerful.  Also back when everyone was posting how broken they were I was still slaughtering everyone in sight with it, only class that could stand against me was the tempest of set, and probably still that way. 

I logged on a couple weeks ago to see all the new necro changes, they are scary indeed.

Great guide, well put together :)