Known Necro Specialties/Variants
Okay. I've read a bunch of these but am wondering if I've missed anything.
Meleemancer: A Necro that relies on weapons to do the damage while his golems and curses keep the enemy wrapped up. Low demand on mana allows him to crank up the combat attributes.
Commandomancer: Similar to a meleemancer but built to fight alongside a horde of minions rather than relying on only one golem and curses. Built with just enough mana to prepare for battle and replace losses in order to devote more to combat atts. I think Druids suit this style better but I suppose having curses makes makes up the difference in emulating any other class specialty.
Summonancer/Zoomancer: A Necro focused on maxing out summons skills. Typically skeletons which got a lot beefier in the last patch. Golemancer and skelemancer being specialties but golemancer less popular after the last patch. Skelemancer work fantastic in conjunction with the right curses since there can be so many attacking all at once.
Bonemancer: Specializing in bone magic, typically using bonespear as their primary weapon since it is at the center of numerous useful synergies, and is a great general purpose attack spell. Have to build up mana much like a sorceress does but has to rely on items for recharge rather than warmth.
ToxiMancer? PoisonMancer?: Necro devoted to the poison magics. Seems like a bad idea to go exclusively poison magic since some units are immune but I'll bet it's fun. If I'd been in the community early enough to coin a phrase I would've gone with "Medicine Man."
MojoMancer: Necro specialized in curses. I'm skeptical of this one. Only a few curses seem worth putting points into for longer duration and few for radius since curses are both quick and cheap to recast. Most builds incorporate at least one point into all or most of the curses anyway.
Slowamancer: Necro that uses clay golems, decrepify, and perhaps ice melee/range attacks to keep enemies moving slow as mollasses. Very effective on bosses it seems. More a potential component of any strategy since building this wouldn't be very costly in skill points unless you went crazy on the golem mastery and maxing your CG which most people don't seem to think is worthwile.
Dark Ranger?: All I know is that people call Necros that use a bow DRs. If there is a specialized build around a bow, I haven't the foggiest what it is or what it might be. Not worth it to most in the long run I imagine since it kills so many potential item skill mods by occupying both hands but bows are a great weapon for casters building up skills that won't serve them well right off the bat (like bonemancers investing in curses and upper level bone prereqs until the juicy stuff becomes available at lvl 18).