Necrarch Vampire Lord

Necrarch Vampire Lord
Overview
Faction	Vampire Counts
Category	Lord, melee infantry, spellcaster
Unit size	1

Necrarch Vampire Lord is a lord for the Vampire Counts added in the Aye-Aye! Patch for Total War: Warhammer II.

In campaign mode, they are recruited via the Bloodlines mechanic. He is a lord of the Wizard unit type, described as being of the "Supreme Wizard" focus.

Description

"Forever there shall be cold under the sun, Rivers will run dry and the forests wither, The stars shall grow dim, flicker and die, And death shall reign from forever to forever."

—From the Black Curse of the Necrarchs

The Necrarchs are the most learned of Vampires, more skilled at sorcery than with the blade. These skills have come at a price, however. The appearance of the Necrarchs has grown so hideous and unnatural that an ordinary man cannot bear to look upon them, and many run screaming at the sight. When their great library was burned to the ground by fearful mortals, many Necrarchs remained to burn with it, so strong was their devotion to knowledge.

Abilities

• Dark Protection
• Arcane Conduit (MP)
• Greater Arcane Conduit (Campaign)
• The Hunger
• Magical Animus

Items

• Earthing Rod
• Scroll of Leeching

Spells

Mixed lore from Lore of Vampires, Lore of Beasts, and Lore of Death.

• The Curse of Undeath
• Spirit Leech
• Pann's Impenetrable Pelt
• Raise Dead
• Curse of Anraheir
• The Purple Sun of Xereus

Mounts

• Barded Nightmare
• Hellsteed
• Zombie Dragon

Strategy

This lord is the top spellcaster among the Vampire Counts' lords, so he naturally has weaker combat stats. While he costs 200g less to recruit, he has 20 less Armour (while also not carrying a shield), 20 less Melee Attack, 5 less Melee Defense, 50 less Weapon Strength (30 ordinary and 20 AP) and 5 less Charge Bonus.

His level 10 unique skill tree shows where he really shines:

1. Cynosure (-10% miscast, +10 Winds of Magic Reserve, +5 starting amount)

2. The middle path has two skills, both of which can be taken:

• Wild Heart, passive increase to power reserves and recharge rate available normally to the followers of the Lore of Beasts
• Life-Leeching, increased recharge rate ordinarily available to the followers of the Lore of Death

3. Nehekhara's Noble Blood

• 1st level (-2 Winds of Magic cost for Invocation of Nehek, -10% base miscast, +2 Raise Dead uses)
• 2nd level (-3 Winds of Magic cost for Invocation of Nehek, -20% base miscast, +3 Raise Dead uses)

Being not really a fighter, he has a shortened combat skill tree, having no distinction between base and advances combat skills. Having no access too Blood Lust, he also lacks Devastating Charge, Dark Knight, Master Strike and Blade Shield skills, normally accessible to Vampire Lords. Instead of the final Red Fury skill, he has Dark Protection.

In the magic skill tree, Necrarch Vampire Lords have only the Invocation of Nehek and Raise Dead from his standard lore. The other two thirds of his spells are from the Lore of Beasts and Lore of Death. In the basic tree, he has Spirit Leech and Pann's Impenetrable Pelt, while his advances spell are The Curse of Anraheir and The Purple Sun of Xereus. Finally, he is the only Vampire Lord spellcaster that has Greater Arcane Conduit instead of the ordinary one. With the only mass damage spell he has being The Purple Sun of Xereus, he won't be scoring a large number of kills in battle, but with his healing, buff, and debuff spells, along with his low risk of miscasting and absurdly high magical recharge rate, he can control the battlfield exceptionally well. It is often worthwhile to bring along a a Necromancer on a corpse cart to leverage the high winds recharge rate into more usage of the Winds of Death, and to provide even greater augments to your army, doubling down on the Necrarch's strengths as a buff and debuff caster.

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