Necromancer (BTDB2)

BTDB2

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“	Reanimate recently popped enemies as servants to destroy the bloons.	”
	^{~ BTDB2 description}

Necromancer btdb2 action 2 — Necromancer with undead bloons

Necromancer is the 4th upgrade of Path 3 for the Wizard Monkey in Bloons TD Battles 2. Functionally very similar to its BTD6 counterpart, in that it summons Undead Bloons to fight against the bloons, scaling in power with higher graveyard count, except the name is shortened to just Necromancer (instead of Necromancer: Unpopped Army) to compensate for the lack of space in the upgrade panel in the monkey section.

Its power is similar to the BTD6 post-30.0 counterpart but with many differences. Undead Bloons last longer in general, and the spawn location can be relocated with Manual Targeting if given 1-0-4 crosspath. Necromancer's max graveyard count, however, is 450, rather than 500. Also, Wall of Fire is no longer affected by Necro's damage scaling. Produces 1-4 Undead Bloons per send, 2-11 pierce deviation, each Undead Bloon send consuming number of Undead Bloons multiplied by pierce. Range of the Necromancer is still 40.

The upgrade costs $2,800 while the total path costs $5,675, and is unlocked with the purchase of Wizard Monkey.

Strategy[]

Summary[]

Necromancer's undead bloons excel at cleaning up bloons, and its dynamic scaling of damage, pierce, and attack speed all greatly enhance its power. Paired with towers that deal a lot of damage, Necromancer is a powerful choice that combines camo popping with a source of strong cleanup. Its undead bloons are capable of damaging every bloon type, and is very useful for significantly decreasing the danger of rushes. However, its undead bloons can also be inconsistent, as their pierce fluctuates by random deviation, making it somewhat unreliable for defending against masses of Grouped Purples, especially layered rushes with Grouped Zebras and similar.

Tips[]

0-1-4 and 0-2-4 usually offers the better results for Necromancer, as its undead bloons already ignore walls, and because damage scaling also affects spawned Fireballs. Despite not affecting Wall of Fire, the Wall of Fire is nice cleanup and yet still does more damage than increased bolt damage.
- Additionally, besides 1-0-4 manual targeting of Undead Bloons, the only thing that 2-0-4 adds is 2 damage (totaling 3) to the base bolt projectile, and letting the projectile seek, which isn't very useful as the bolt is already dwarfed by the strength of the undead bloons.
Going from a 0-0-2 Wizard, it costs $4400 to go upgrade instantly towards Necromancer.
Since the Necromancer's undead bloons follow Spactory's Smart targeting and always follow the sends lane(s), try to optimize it for cleanup while also making use of any additional attacks.
- For 0-2-4 in particular, set the Wall of Fire attack close to the front so it can reduce some rushes. Ensure the Undead Bloons spawn further away from the Wall of Fire attack, however. Note that 0-2-4's Wall of Fire is equivalent to 0-2-2, however, since it can't receive damage buffs from Necro's damage scaling.
Against Necromancer, you can punish a late-bought Necromancer on R11 with masses of Purples.
It can be viable to send lots of Grouped Black sends in combination with several Purples to mess up a pure Necromancer that lacks extra support of other towers, even if using the 0-1-4 or 0-2-4 Necromancer. Black Bloons block Fireball's explosions, as opposed to White Bloons which can be damaged by explosives, in addition to clogging up pierce of the Undead Bloons. The Purples are added to intermittently block Wall of Fire from 0-2-4 Necromancers.

Bugs[]

Current

None (so far)

Patched

[1.0.6, discovered on 1.0.6 but likely on initial release] Setting a Necromancer on Close causes all undead bloons to concentrate on a specific spot, causing the projectiles to last permanently and stack near-indefinitely. Patched on Version 1.1.0.

Version History[]

Necromancer's popularity truly risen in Season 12 with the popularity of the meta Tack-Wizard-Farm loadout alongside Jericho for offense. However, Necromancer got some nerfs in order to reduce its maximum power, even with slight cost reductions to Shimmer. In particular is a nerf to 0-2-4 crosspath no longer scaling damage for Wall of Fire; this was used to place close to the front of tracks so it can destroy heavy RBE sends such as sustained Grouped Blacks so the undead bloons don't get eaten up so easily.

Initial release (compared to BTD6 during Version 28.0)

Released
Name changed from Necromancer: Unpopped Army to Necromancer due to space
1-0-4 Necromancer now gives +50% lifespan to Undead Bloons

1.5.0

Fixed bug where Necromancer's Undead Bloons had 1 less pierce than usual
No longer requires 10,000 XP to unlock. Players who have unlocked this upgrade before the update will not receive a full refund.

1.7.0

Gains Camo Prioritization.

1.8.0

Undead Bloons will now follow “smart” targeting, similar to Spike Factory.

1.10

Necromancer max graveyard capacity decreased (500 -> 450)

1.10.3

“	On reflection, the previous nerf to Necromancer was not impactful enough, because the graveyard capacity mostly remains at/near full capacity, meaning that the nerf did not change too much. A lot of Necromancer’s strength also comes from the wall of fire, so we have decided to weaken that attack.	”
	^{~ Ninja Kiwi}

0-2-4 Necromancer's Wall of Fire no longer is affected by Necromancer's damage scaling

2.0

1-0-4 Necromancer now allows manual targeting of the spawn point of the Undead Bloons

“	Wizard remains a dominant force in all arenas with its fireball being one of its early-game strengths, [...]. Additionally, allowing manual targeting for zombie bloons was a popular change in BTD6 so we are implementing it here too, except with 1xx required for this targeting option. Both of these changes should make choosing between Necromancer’s crosspaths a more meaningful decision.	”
	^{~ Ninja Kiwi}