Item Tip: Necromonicon

Necromonicon is a very misused and misperceived item in public games in my opinion. I will attempt to show that necromonicon is a very powerful item when put in the hands of a good micro manager and a hero that complements the item.

Heroes with stuns, or mass disable, usually intelligence based heroes, seem to work best with a necromonicon. For one, the intelligence from the staff of wizadry greater benefits an intelligence heroes mana pool and damage, and two, the belt of giant strength required for part of the recipe gives much needed hp to generally low hp intelligence heroes. Heroes that fall into this category would be ones such as Lion, Bane Elemental, and Rhasta because their multiple disables allow much more time for the necromancer spawns to deal damage. They aid in solo kills for these heroes where their normal spells usually do not finish the job.

Also the necromonicon spawns have very helpful attack and move speed auras, along with mana burn, and an AOE damage dealt upon the death of one of the spawns. If you upgrade the book to level three, which I think is the only way to go with this item if you choose to get it, one of the necromonicon spawns also gains truesight which is a VERY helpful counter to heroes such as SA, Weaver, and Bone Fletcher and well worth the money of the upgrades. With each level of recipe upgrades (3 is the max) the necromonicons get stronger dealing more damage and enhancing their auras. At level 3 necro book, an intel hero with mass disable such as the ones I mentioned above deals some serious damage with necro spawns and greatly enhances a team with its auras.

However, the downside to a necromonicon is the micromanagement required. One must simultaneously summon the necro spawns, cast the heroes disable spells, and also target attack and cast the necro spawns spells while managing to string together disable spells to keep the hero in range and unable to attack.

With lion, it would look something similar to what follows. One would first summon the necromonicon spawns. Next he/she would either voodoo or impale, while right click auto attacking with the necro spawns. Then, one would mana burn with the proper necro spawn, while casting the other spell that was not used above (voodoo or impale), continue attacking with the hero and spawns, and then hopefully finish the kill with lion's ultimate "finger of death."

With bane elemental, it would look something similar to what follows. To first isolate the enemy hero so you can get close to him and prepare all your moves, usually one nightmares the enemy hero. Once close enough, summon necro spawns and wait for nightmare to almost run out. Then fiends grip him, and start wailing on him with your necro spawns while gripping. At the same time you need to cast mana burn with the proper spawn and continue attacking. After grip is up, if the hero is still alive, then finish him off with a brain sap or a few attacks and a sap.

With rhasta, you summon your necro spawns and voodoo the enemy hero. Then you wail on him with your spawns, cast mana burn with the one spawn, and continue to attack him until voodoo is almost up. Then you have a number of choices depending on his health. You can either ultimate and net while letting your spawns continue to wail on him. Or if he is pretty low health, you can just net him and let your spawns continue to wail on him, saving your ultimate. This combo can be varied depending upon the situation. In a solo situation, this combo will do fine though.

To conclude, micromanaging is crucial with a necromonicon. If you cannot micro, I do not recommend getting a necromonicon because microing is key to bringing out the full effect of the item.