Last Stand - Necron Overlord

The Necron overlord is a Last Stand Hero of the Necrons.

Overview

As inevitable as death and as tough as living metal, the Necron Overlord is the second of the two DLC heroes in Last Stand. The Necron Overlord has a host of major advantages - tough armor, high health, extremely potent abilities that primarily focus on control and support, and strong damage output, all on one platform. In fact, it's easy to look at the Necron Overlord's extremely high "raw numbers" and think out-of-hand that the he's overpowered. These are things that are easy to read; high number = strong. And let's not beat around the bush, correctly exploited, he is extremely powerful when his weaknesses are kept in mind. Looking past his strengths however, one sees technicalities that add weaknesses in other, more esoteric respects than just "low health/low damage" etc, such as casting times and slow reactivity. To put it another way, he is very powerful, and his advantages are simple to exploit, but he's not idiot-proof.

In summation, he is a relatively balanced character - albeit one who's basically designed for Last Stand, with all that implies.

The Necron Lord does two things superlatively well: Tanking and surviving. He has many options for keeping himself alive and ranks as the toughest character in Last Stand except for one of the toughness-focused Hive Tyrant, Captain, or Shas'O Commander builds. The downside is that while he has many big advantages, he essentially needs these advantages to break even with other classes, and indeed, he loses out to these in other areas; he will consistently be outrun by other heroes, and his means for improving his mobility are limited to a comparatively short-ranged teleport and an upgrade that still sees him outmaneuvered by other heroes. His damage is very high, but is almost entirely single-target; choices that give him abilities on top of this tend to weaken him by removing his fearless ability or are generally inefficient, with the Necron Overlord's abilities being consistently less efficient in terms of power/cost ratio. In general, the Necron Lord will consistently pay more for abilities which just don't match the power of other heroes unless they keep him alive or help tear down single, hardened units, in which case they'll be practically unmatched. Because most builds for the Necron Overlord focus so hard on surviving, builds that focus more on support or offense tend to do comparatively poorly and demand much more attention out of.

The Overlord has other drawbacks as well. Like the Shas'O Commander and Tyranid Hive Tyrant, the Necron Overlord cannot benefit from cover and cannot enter buildings. Whilst the Necron Overlord is unshakable by default, he is not immune to being thrown around - just knocked down - which means he can get jostled away from where he needs to be. This pairs with another weakness of his - that all of his abilities have long activation times. The Necron Overlord often takes several seconds to activate an ability, during which time he can be overwhelmed or be knocked unconscious. Fight smart, or even the Necron Overlord's toughness won't be enough to save you.

Armor

• Overlord's Diadem - Default
  • Armor Rating: 50
    • Default Armor. It kind of sucks, but out the gate, the Necron Lord does not have any armor unless you got the achievement for Monolithic Diadem previously, so it'll generally be a companion for the first three levels whether you like it or not.

• Diadem of the Nemesor - Level 4
  • Armor Rating: 125
  • Traits: Combat Expert (+30% Melee and Ranged damage)
    • Simply put, one of the best armors the Necron Overlord gets. Everything benefits from Diadem of the Nemesor, and the huge damage boost it gives not only your attacks, but your abilities goes a long way. Much like the Farseer's Armor of Idranel, this armor is strong enough that it's extremely hard to justify the later armors the Necron Lord gets outside of specific builds.

• Monolithic Diadem - Achievement Unlock: Revive two allies at the same time using the Res Orb, twice in the same game
  • Armor Rating: 75
  • Traits: Might of the Triarch (Reduces energy cost of abilities)
    • This is amazing. The armor rating isn't all that high by Necron standpoints, but cutting the cost of absolutely everything by 50% is huge. Any of the Diadems can be used with much less risk, making the Necron Overlord that much more able to spam. Any build that particularly loves to abuse the Necron Overlord's abilities can find a use for this, especially builds that love to abuse the Nightbringer or Doomsday Edge. Even better, as an achievement unlock, it makes decent armor available to the Necron Overlord right out the gate when going for elite ranks, making it especially worthwhile.

• Tachyon Diadem - Level 8
  • Armor Rating: 80
  • Grants Ability: Tachyon Arrow (5 Energy; fires an extreme-ranged, armor-piercing energy bolt)
    • A tough sell. Tachyon Arrows gives the Necron Overlord a wrist-crossbow that can fire at given targets. This is extremely useful, firing out (after a short delay) obscenely long-ranged energy bolts that ignore both armor and intervening terrain, making them good for picking at targets of opportunity and generally increasing the ranged DPS of the Necron Overlord, as well as harming enemy vehicles about as much as a shot from a Shas'O's Plasma Rifle. Unfortunately, while the Arrows are very useful, they aren't very strong, meaning they're better for picking off and weakening single targets from extreme range than they are for actually killing tougher foes. Very handy, especially with good positioning and Phase Shifter. Between its low cost and the fact that the cooldown is instantaneous with Glyph of the Tireless Harvest, this little piece of wargear is by no means a powerhouse, but can be extremely useful on long-ranged builds.

• Technomancer's Diadem - Level 9
  • Armor Rating: 65
  • Grants Ability: Voidblast (18 Energy; launch an explosive energy wave that knocks foes back)
    • The Necron Overlord's own version of the Captain' Oath of Merciless Rage, Voidblast is a handy utility tool. The damage is moderate, but the actual blast will hurl foes away from you, making it pretty damned handy. Melee builds can use it for additional disruption or damage, and ranged builds can use it for a "get the hell away from me" button. The downside is that the Technomancer's Diadem has the worst armor available of all the Necron Lord's choices, but it's still possible to get ludicrously solid defenses from the Glyph of the Implacable and Glyph of Living Metal, so the loss isn't as big as it otherwise could be. A gimmicky choice with some possibilities, but really hard to actually engineer into a build.

• Diadem of Reanimation - Level 12
  • Armor Rating: 110
  • Traits: Reanimation Protocols (Self-resurrect after a delay)
    • Good armor rating (only 15 points less than Nemesor), and you get to resurrect automatically without having to wait for teammates to pick you up. Of course, the goal should be to not get incapacitated in the first place, but at least now you won't feel so bad about bringing everyone else down with you. If you're the last guy on your team to fall (which you probably WILL be because nothing is as tanky as a Necron Overlord) the game will end in defeat before you reanimate, so this isn't exactly something you want to be counting on. Additionally, you will revive with significantly less health than you would have if you were revived conventionally, so while a very handy ability, especially with good teammates, it can be hard to justify given that you have other ways to get it, including Phylactery and the Resurrection Orb.

Weapons

IMPORTANT NOTE: The Necron Overlord's weapons fall into one of three categories. Ranged Staves of Light (Staff of the Obelisk, Celestial Staff, Staff of the Phaeron, Lance of Annihilation) do not provide Fearless or Unshakable, since they help the Necron Overlord bypass one of his main downsides (his mobility) but they do hit much harder in melee than would normally be expected from a ranged weapon. The Voidreaper provides both Fearless and Unshakable, but in return has a terrible special ability and really is mostly a beatstick. The Doomsday Edge, Warscythe of Extinction, and Warscythe of the Phalanx provide Unshakable, but not Fearless, since they also give useful abilities. More than any other choice, your choice of what weapon you are using will determine your playstyle. Choose wargear to emphasize your new role and you will find it works quite well for you.

• Staff of Light - Default
  • Two-handed Ranged Weapon
  • 10.8 DPS
  • +25 energy
    • Unlike most default weapons, the Staff of Light you start with is actually pretty good. By no means is it worth taking beyond the most elementary levels, but when first starting out, the combination of halfway-decent ranged damage with a good rate of fire and a decent amount of bonus energy makes it a decent pick. Shelve it once you get better, however.

• Staff of the Obelisk - Level 1
  • Two-handed Ranged Weapon
  • 5.1 DPS
  • Traits: Armor Piercing (Melee attacks ignore 100 points of armor), Area of Effect (Deals damage in a radius)
    • The staff of the Obelisk's low DPS belies its wide area of effect and shotgun-like spread. It's a decent weapon for ranged lords, which remains surprisingly viable for most of the Necron Lord's career (provided you go with Diadem of the Nemesor), as, unlike most Necron Lord weapons, it actually has an area of effect and thus is capable of taking out small groups. Built-in Armor Piercing also means that it's good at taking out tougher medium-armored enemies like Space Marines. It also doubles with a decent amount of close-combat damage. The main drawback: It doesn't have the single-target damage or bonuses of the other staves, making it mostly for killing blobs or single tough targets at close-range.

• Celestial Staff - Level 1
  • Two-handed Ranged Weapon
  • 20.7 DPS
  • Traits: Armor Piercing (Melee attacks ignore 100 points of armor), Rush of Battle (Attacks lower ability cooldowns)
  • +15 Energy
  • +15 Health
    • A decent health and energy bonus pairs with a pretty damned good rate of fire to make this a good ranged weapon against single targets. Though the Staff of the Phaeron is way better against single foes, and the Staff of the Obelisk is way better at crowd control, the Celestial Staff is hardly a bad weapon and Rush of Battle is a halfway-decent ability, especially with good positioning. With good micromanagement and the Glyph of the Tireless Harvest, this can get your cooldowns to an almost hilariously low degree. Worth considering for power-focused builds. Can use force attack to get Rush of Battle as well. With the Glyph of the Tireless Harvest the Nightbringer's cooldown is over almost right after he's done blasting things so you can spam him all game. Played one game on bloodied beat all 20 waves no deaths killing with nothing but the Nightbringer.

• Warscythe of Extinction - Level 1
  • Two-handed Melee Weapon
  • 14.6 DPS
  • Ability: Necrotic Barrier (15 Energy; draws a wall between two points and knocks down units standing where you place it)
  • Traits: Armorbane (Melee attacks ignore 200 armor), Unshakable (Immune to knockback)
  • +1 Energy regeneration
    • Swiss Army Warscythe. This weapon does it all: Gives good passives, has impressive damage, and even has a great ability, all for good measure. The Warscythe of Extinction has a great level of utility, and never stops being useful. Necrotic Barrier is not only a decent choice of weapon with ranged options, and not just an area denial tool, but a potent weapon in its own right, capable of causing significant harm to enemies when it's drawn THROUGH an enemy squad. Mostly useful for tearing apart light infantry, this can even splatter a Marine unit if it gets dragged through the wall's formation too hard. The fact that it gives an energy regen boost is just gravy. Constantly underestimated, this weapon will virtually never let you down.
    • At early levels, the energy regen from this is nearly enough to completely offset nanoscarabs, meaning you can have nearly infinite crazy health regen. By level 16, an accessory comes along that you can combine with this to make Nanoscarabs truly infinite (you can literally turn them on, leave them on all level and still have some energy regen left over to use other abilities, like Necrotic Barrier), but this has great early tanking potential.

• Voidreaper - Level 6
  • Two-handed Melee Weapon
  • 30.0 DPS
  • Ability: Entropic Strike (Removes armor from an enemy, plus any nearby ones)
  • Traits: Armorbane (Melee attacks ignore 200 armor), Unshakable (Immune to knockback), Fearless (Immune to suppression)
  • +1.5 Health regeneration
    • Voidreaper is the most powerful of all the Necron Overlord's weapons in terms of damage-per-second; other warscythes may do more per hit or more aggressively, but none of them have the blend of speed, power, and passives this monster has. No real crowd control, but you'll kill fast enough to deal with small packs and lets be real you're bringing Immortal Reclamation for that anyway. Devastating against single armored targets, and the Entropic Strike will let your buddies hit just as hard. The combination of Unshakable and Fearless gives you some good mobility, but turns your wave 16 clone into a relentless bastard that will chase you right across the map. Still the most OP fucking melee weapon in the game- insane DPS, Unshakable AND Fearless, extra tankiness and completely ignores armour, with only one real rival. Only drawback is that you'll get tarpitted to fuck, but Glyph of the Reclaimer will solve that little problem for you.

• Staff of the Phaeron - Level 11
  • Two-handed Ranged Weapon
  • 37.5 DPS
  • Traits: Armor Piercing
  • +75 Energy
    • The heavy hitter of the Necron Lord's ranged weapons, the Staff of the Phaeron has obscene damage-per-second, plus a massive energy buff for the wielder, making it a premier weapon for caster builds. The downside: It has a relatively slow recycle range, so while every shot does tons of damage, the Necron Lord is more vulnerable to being swarmed. Correctly used, it's devastating, as it can cut the legs out from enemy heavies long before they can get anywhere near you, and the energy buff means additional healing or support is that much easier to come by.

• Lance of Annihilation - Level 15
  • Two-handed Ranged Weapon
  • 16.6 DPS
  • Abilities: Annihilation Barrage (20 energy; Fires a bunch of beams in a line at the target area, like a Dreadnought's Assault Cannon Sweep)
  • Traits: Armor Piercing (Melee attacks ignore 100 points of armor)
  • 1.3 Health Regeneration
    • Single shot damage is even higher than the Staff of the Phaeron, but the rate of fire is laughable. Annihilation Barrage is probably the most destructive ability available to the Overlord short of the Nightbringer and will gib an entire line of weenies, but it's slow to fire and rather narrow, meaning it's easy to miss if the target starts moving while you're starting it up. You could possibly build an ability-based loadout around it, but you'd need Glyph of the Tireless Harvest since the cooldown is irritatingly long and your basic shots are just too damn slow. Still, between the passive health boost and long range, this is a surprisingly utilitarian option, and gives players the option of much more flexible tactics. Just plain effective, even if the recycle rate of the weapon is horrid.

• Warscythe of the Phalanx - Level 17
  • Two-handed Melee Weapon
  • 16.1 DPS
  • Traits: Armorbane (Melee attacks ignore 200 armor), Unshakable (Immune to knockback), Unending Vengeance (Killing blows with the WarScythe cause damage to near by enemies)
  • +100 health
    • This heavy melee choice has abilities that are absolutely amazing. The HP boost alone is the stuff of legends; pair it with any major ability that boosts survivability (Nanoscarabs, Glyph of Living Metal, etc) and you're going to find that this one pays for itself before ever factoring in the thing's offensive capabilities. Thankfully, this weapon is no slouch there, either; though it swings slowly, each attack that kills an enemy triggers an explosion of energy that damages all nearby enemies, resulting in high cleave damage across the squad; seeing a Necron Overlord butcher an entire group of Cultists in 2-3 swings is not unheard of, and it even can help the Necron Overlord avoid being mobbed by high-threat mooks like Banshees and making you the bane of tarpits everywhere. The only real downside is that the damage blast of Unending Vengeance only triggers if you actually kill a target with the swing. Still, the best survivability weapon in the Necron Overlord's armory and a solid weapon through and through.

• Doomsday Edge - Achievement Unlock: Complete 100 total waves as the Overlord
  • Two-handed Melee Weapon
  • 13.5 DPS
  • Ability: Pitiless Strike (20 Energy; Damages all nearby enemies and stuns them.)
  • Traits: Armorbane (Melee attacks ignore 200 armor), Unshakable (Immune to knockback)
  • +30 Energy
    • Like the Warscythe of the Phalanx, the Doomsday Edge swings slowly, but hits hard, if a little weaker. In return, it offers a nifty energy buff and perhaps most notably, a terrifically useful ability in Pitiless Strike, which is a top-notch move for clearing space and obliterating tarpits. It can also be used on enemies that will survive the damage just to stun them, making it useful for peeling melee units off of squishy allies, or extending your own survivability when tanking strong enemies by stopping them from dealing damage to you. If timed well, the effect can be used right after a melee attack to increae DPS and it can help disrupt enemies who would otherwise overwhelm you. The delicious energy buff it also gives you helps you use it (and pretty much everything else) whenever needed, and it has great synergy with the Necron Lord's other attacks. The only downside is that it's a skosh energy-hungry and the casting time is a bit long, so it has to be timed well, especially on enemies that are moving.

Accessories

• Mindshackle Scarabs - Level 1
  • Ability: Mindshackle Scarabs (10 Energy; converts target squad to ally for a duration)
    • Terrible range, terrible duration, long cooldown, long cast time, and takes longer to kick in the stronger the target. So absolutely horrible, right? Not quite. Mindshackle Scarabs are the earliest ability with an actual offensive effect you get that isn't Necrotic Barrier, and it does get better with upgrades. Glyph of the Tireless Harvest makes this actually usable, and it uniquely can turn any unit - from a squad of Guardsman to the Swarmlord - momentarily to the Necron Lord's side. While turned, you can't damage them, but they'll gleefully turn on their allies. Ideally, use it to cause some chaos and provide yourself with a chump or two to distract an enemy while you back off. The duration isn't that long, but the effects are quite useful and there's nothing quite so hilarious as seeing the Great Unclean One turn around and eat a few of his allies, so don't underestimate it despite it being somewhat mediocre.

• Nanoscarabs - Default
  • Ability: Nanoscarab Repairs (10 Energy; After a cast timer, drains energy to restore health)
    • Don't underestimate it, it can keep you alive through a surprising amount of fire. It can heal you from near death to max health in around two seconds, it is a must have at early levels as it can and will save your life. Once you get to higher levels other means of regen are much better. Note that if you use this in conjunction with the Glyph of the Star Gods and Warscythe of Extinction, you will not lose any energy and will slowly regain it, allowing you to still use other abilities.

• Glyph of the Implacable - Level 1
  • +100 Armour
    • Like a beefed up version of the Mekboy's Cybork Parts, it does nothing but give a boost to your armour. The difference is the Necron Overlord is a SHITTON tankier than the Mekboy can even dream of being, even with 'Eavy Armor- you can easily push your Overlord up to well over 200 armour, and when you factor in his other tanking abilities it can make him almost unkillable. A powerful defensive tool that shouldn't be obsoleted until you get Phylactery, and even then is a perfectly viable option.

• Glyph of Tombs - Level 1
  • +85 Energy
    • Mostly useful early on to help out builds going towards elite status, where the combination of halved energy consumption (from Monolith Diadem) and so much extra energy goes a long way towards helping early Necron Lords abuse the hell out of their gear. Warscythe of Extinction and Doomsday Edge both love this damned thing, and bonus repairs at opportune times via Nanoscarabs or Glyphy of the Reclaimer is virtually always an asset. If you're feeling particularly saucy, pair it with Staff of the Phaeron and bask in your massive 210 base energy. Spam ALL the things!

• Glyph of the Wraith - Level 2
  • Trait: Swift (+25% movement speed)
    • Defy the stereotypes, move like you have functional legs. The Overlord has no movement abilities except this and Phase Shifter, and mobility, as ever, is the golden egg of Last Stand. Highly useful, especially when it first becomes available, but it quickly flags as the Necron Overlord is forced to choose between improved speed or even more tankiness.

• Glyph of Living Metal - Level 3
  • +90 health
  • +3.0 Health Regen
    • One of the best accessories available, and being perfectly clear: The Necron Overlord needs this. Virtually no build worth a damn exists that does not make use of this piece of Wargear, so useful and utilitarian are its uses. Survival is always paramount, even in the most fragile Necron builds, and nothing exemplifies it quite like this potent option. Put it on once you get it, and only take it off if you absolutely need to; you'll be glad you did.

• Glyph of the Reclaimer - Level 7
  • Ability: Immortal Reclamation (10 Energy; After a cast timer, drains health from nearby enemies while immobilizing the Necron Overlord. The more enemies nearby to drain, the faster and more intense the health drain effect.)
    • Are you creating a ranged build? Stop. Don't use this item. Glyph of Living Metal as better because it is a constant regeneration boost and you can continue to do what you do best which is shoot things. From far away. All of the Overlord's ranged weapons do considerably more DPS when compared to this ability, even in melee, unless you're facing a strong melee tarpit like Banshees. So if you're looking for regen get a regen item that is working for you all the time, and if you're looking for a DPS item why don't you use that big gun in your hands? Are you creating a melee build lacking any reliable AoE damage? Continue. Most insanely OP bullshit item in all of Last Stand. Just park your fat ass on the ground and watch every enemy around you slowly die, while you regen so much HP that you can literally tank an entire wave single-handed without your health bar even twitching. With this thing you can LITERALLY tank the entire Imperial Guard wave 19 on Anvil of Khorne, all 30 Ogryns, 50 Stormtroopers, both Leman Russ and the motherfucking BANEBLADE without even breaking a sweat. It's not perfect- enemies can stand outside its range and shoot you while you sit there looking stupid with nothing to drain health from, but it's the ULTIMATE anti-tarpit item. The Banshee megawave in wave 9 of the Colosseum can all jump onto you at once and you can just laugh at them. Orks die in droves. Tyranids are a light snack. Take it with an energy boost like Staff of the Phaeron and you can do it for ages. Word to the wise, the more enemies around you the better your health regen will be so don't use if you have one Dreadnaught attacking you because you will die AND you will do more damage against heavily armored enemies, such as Nobs, Warriors, Tac Marines and vehicles, with your weapon you actually brought to do damage with. Also because of their ability to shred your armour down to 0, the Bloodletters in the Anvil of Khorne will still be able to kill you through this if enough of them mob you.

• Phase Shifter - Level 13
  • Ability: Phase Shift (15 Energy; Teleport to target location.)
    • Phase Shifter gives you a major ability; you can teleport. The effect is just as quick as the Mekboy and Chaos Sorcerer's, but is less efficient and has slightly less range. Despite the general inefficiency, this is still an incredible mobility booster, especially for Ranged overlords, giving the Necron Lord the ability to move around and get into better positions. with good use of terrain, it proves almost as handy as the other races' teleporting abilities, but in the end the short range and relatively bad efficiency make it a tougher sell than it would be. Incredibly handy in many builds, but not for everyone, the Phase Shifter is a useful choice.

• Phylactery - Level 14
  • Trait: Impervious
    • Your ridiculous OP get out of jail free card when it comes to being brought to 0 health with some extra effects. You get full life, energy, and a huge armor buff. Once you are down you have to wait for 30 seconds before your hamster ball is back. The difference between this and either the Tau Commander's Stimulant Injector or the Chaos Sorcerer's Robes of the Deathless (aside from the fact that you're really taking Robes of the Deathless for your Demonic Doppelganger) is that the Necron Overlord is a supertanky motherfucker to start with, so forcing the enemy kill to him TWICE is insane and don't forget you also get full energy too which makes it great for caster builds as well. Just don't take this on Colosseum because your clone will go from a bitch to a double-bitch.

• Glyph of the Star Gods - Level 16
  • +1.7 Energy Regeneration
    • The Overlord's only access to energy regeneration, aside from Warscythe of Extinction. Good for offsetting the cost of Nanoscarabs or Immortal Reclamation, useful in specialized caster builds. Combine with the Warscythe of Extinction to keep Nanoscarabs up literally forever.

• Glyph of the Tireless Harvest - Level 18
  • Trait: Awoken
    • Reduces the cooldown time of all of the Overlord abilities. This is a FLAT reduction, meaning it's enough to reduce the cooldowns of Phase Shifter and Tachyon Arrow to literally nothing, which is enough to actually make them usable. Its effect on most other abilties isn't as drastic, but it still goes a long way towards making the Annihilation Lance, Tachyon Diadem, and Technomancer's Diadem viable weapons, and it's a big help if you like the Raiment of the Tesseract (and frankly, who doesn't?).

• Nightmare Shroud - Level 19
  • Ability: Nightmare Shroud (10 Energy; Causes all lower level enemies that enter the range to flee for a short duration.)
    • A lot of potential here in a finicky choice. The Nightmare Shroud immobilizes the Necron Overlord like Immortal Reclamation, though unlike those, the Necron Overlord is free to shoot or melee enemies during the effect). Any enemy crossing the line in the sand it draws will immediately panic and run away, allowing you to drive off enemies that would otherwise corner trap your buddies, and be a constant environmental hazard while the effect lasts. The drain is particularly high, and it is a difficult sell, but it opens up a lot of possibilities. While not as powerful as the Captain's Terror of Xenos, it's still extremely strong and an see a particularly large amount of use if paired with Phase Shifter - or an allied Farseer with Veil of Tears.

Commander Items

• Raiment of the Overlord - Default
  • +50 Armor rating
    • Unlike most default gear, the armor bonus can potentially give a slight advantage over the Level 5 replacement. Actually, the Necron Overlord is the only character to even HAVE a default item in his commander slot rather than just an empty space to be filled, though it mainly exists to slightly soften the blow of having no starting armor, and also to make the ACTUAL commander items a tradeoff, as each provides progressively lower armour.

• Raiment of the Tesseract - Level 5
  • +35 Armor rating
  • Ability: Tesseract Tomb (30 Energy; fires a slow projectile at a location to lock down enemies in a radius)
    • Basically lets you point at some units and suppress the entire group. This is your main crowd control ability, covering the Overlord's biggest weakness. Don't expect it to happen immediately - it takes time to cast the ball, which takes time to travel to the point and only then sets up the AoE control zone. You should spam this at every opportunity to take half the wave out of the fight. This is super-powerful on wave 16 of the Colosseum because you can easily set it up where your clones are going to spawn in advance and they'll start locked down, free for you to butcher. Do it right and you can make one of the biggest asspains in the game into a walkover. Plus even if you screw it up, your clone is oddly reluctant to use it on you (although he will eventually, the bastard).

• Raiment of Resurrection - Level 10
  • +25 Armor rating
  • Ability: Resurrection orb (35 energy; Throws a slow-moving orb that, upon landing, creates a field that prevents you and your allies from taking fatal damage, and revives dead allies (and yourself, if you manage to get incapacitated before the orb lands and puts up the field) once it fully activates). Also heals living allies in the area when the duration finishes (so they don't just get taken down to 1hp while it's up and then die instantly when the effect ends).
    • Very useful, you can even revive yourself and allies and make everyone tanky for a short amount of time. Take note, if all three players are incapacitated at once, even if they are later revived by the orb, the game ends in defeat. In general, though, you're better off with the Raiment of the Tesseract- prevention is always better than cure as they say (or in other words, it's better to lock down and slaughter hapless enemies to keep them from killing you than it is to revive your teammates and yourself from death). It's still useful to have one on a team if you have multiple Overlords. Can be used on Lord General turrets to bypass the one limit as long as they are all in the radius when a new one is called. One game I was in my teammates did this in blooded on the top spawn had something like ten to twenty vanquisher turrets ready to slaughter. Still while the turrets survive it take most of their health away so after you get how many you can make you need something to heal them so they don't die from a glance like the Lords repair and if you don't use the third guy as a tau with energy booster to regain fast it will take a while but have the third guy attack a rock or something so he doesn't kill them and leave one weak gaunt alive in wave two far enough away so the turrets don't kill it when done most of the rest of the game is killing what spawns near them they can't shoot while they slaughter everything else.

• Raiment of the Nightbringer - Level 20
  • +10 Armor rating
  • Ability: Summon Nightbringer (50 Energy; summons the Nightbringer, who remains stationary and spams enormous AOE blasts for a short time.)
    • Despite the middling size of the blasts, it's still possibly one of the better nukes in the game, and certainly the second most reliable after Rocket Run. Unlike Orbital Bombardment, which requires specific positioning to maximize damage, or Roks/Eldritch Storm which are randomized, the Nightbringer applies its damage consistently across its area of effect, and also spits infantry towards its center and not away from it. Additionally, the Nightbringer is one of the most consistent damage dealers across unit types and actually severely threatens armored targets - dropped on top of a stationary full-health Baneblade, the Nightbringer WILL kill it. Also very easy to exploit for shooting builds, as a Nightbringer at your feet means you can dakka with impunity and not worry about melee attackers pretty much at all. Nightbringer is even consistently effective against clones, even 275 armor 290 health phylactery Overlords. Once you hit level 20, you can certainly keep using the Tesseract and Res Orb as they're still good enough, but the Nightbringer is just so delicious you'll be really hard-pressed to use anything else, even with its pretty abysmal armor rating.

Progression

shoot things, cleave things, get bigger cleavers, cleave more things.

Tactics and Strategy

• On Achievements:
  • The Red Harvest (Unlocks the Doomsday Edge) Complete a total of 100 waves as the Necron Overlord.
    • Strategy? Just play the game and you'll get it eventually.
  • Lord of Risen Doom (grab me the paddles: cron edition) (Unlocks Monolithic Diadem) requires the necron to use the Resurrection Orb to revive either two allies, or an ally and himself simultaneously, twice in a single match.
    • This one is a challenge. You'll need to ideally use it when helping newcomer teammates and hope for the best; revive them both with your Res Orb twice and the achievement (and its delicious Monolith Diadem) is yours. You can farm it manually by getting two friends to help you and die on purpose in early waves, since you can all ragequit once the achievement's unlocked.

Builds

Fashion dictates that the best build is a fabulous solid gold immortal robot with light effects of your choice from the army painter.

Build 1: Literally Death Incarnate - Voidreaper, Diadem of the Nemesor, Glyph of Living Metal, Glyph of the Implacable, Glyph of the Reclaimer, Raiment of the Tesseract

Available by: Level 7 (yup)

OK, so. Do you want to never die while killing everything? This is how you never die while killing everything. Sporting a ridiculous 260 armor, 190 health, and 6.5 base health regen, you can take an immense beating before you even factor in your abilities. Voidreaper means you can ignore knockback and suppression, and will absolutely annihilate any hard target up close - you'll one shot Marines and Ogryns, 3 shot wave serpents(You mean fire prisms?), and on Anvil, Entropic Strike + 7 blows will destroy a full health Battlewagon. You are the bane of anything that would seem to be a problem target. Oh, but what's that? No crowd control? Wrong. Immortal Reclamation gives you a RIDICULOUS amount of health regen, and does very very respectable damage - it's like the Hive Tyrant's Poison Cysts or 3-4 layers of teleport fire from the Sorcerer. Turn that sucker on and watch all the squishy targets in a wave evaporate. And if crazy health, armor, regen, single and multi target damage aren't enough, you've got the Tesseract, which lets you shut down enormous chunks of the battlefield at a time. The only mild downside to this build is energy management, but if you budget a wee bit then by Level 7, a team of three Overlords can trivially clear Anvil and at least make it to 20 on BC with ease.

Build 2: God of Cycle of life, Trolls, and Dainty tea cups - Voidreaper, Diadem of the Reanimation, Phylactery, Glyph of the Implacable, Glyph of the Reclaimer, Raiment of Resurrection

Available by: Level 14

Any respectable melee build has Voidreaper just because. While its ability sucks (seems more for those who aren't playing NL, for some reason) you just can't top it. If you throw in your impressive hat you can charge into a horde no matter how large, drop down to one knee, and watch as you just kill half of the map, or at least anything in your area. What's that? You're doing Anvil? You can literally hold a side by yourself no matter what spawns. Your 'reaper means you can easily stroll up to any group or target of your choice without issue. If you somehow have enemies still up afterwards you open to doorway to the Dead Zone, then just finish them off with a few swipes. Tanks and Heavy Infantry? Just hit them with your 'reaper until they die. Your teammates are scrub-tier? Just throw an orb on their dead bodies and let it do the work for you. What about that energy issue 'Crons suffer from? Well your Phylactery has that covered even if, for some reason, you drop to 0 health you're instead brought back with a huge armor bonus, full health and energy meaning you can drain a horde until your hamster ball is back. That still isn't enough and you're dying to something? Well provided your teammates aren't idiots you can live forever, because what self-respecting Necron doesn't have Reanimation Protocols? In about the same time it takes for someone to stand next to you and pick you up, you're standing again and most likely with your hamster ball ready again. I would highly warn against using this build in BC just because the orb ability should make you primary target to let you kill and keep down your enemies, the phylactery means that even if you kill him once he will have energy for a second orb, the hat will make sure that you need to kill him last or risk him standing back up mid fight with another hero, and the 'reaper means that you can not interrupt him easily and stop him from picking some one else up.

Build 3: #1 Stunna - Doomsday Edge, Diadem of the Nemesor, Phylactery, Glyph of the Implacable, Glyph of Living Metal, Raiment of the Tesseract

Available by: Level 14 (lvl 5 w/o Phylactery)

Is it that savage new metal cape or that 10 foot scythe that just keeps people looking? Neither its your super sweet stuna build! Thats right why risk dying when you can just make you enemies stare at you mindlessly as you slaughter them in droves. The Doomsday Edges extra energy lets you utilize Pitiless Strike with reckless abandon stunning anything and everything all the time and if used immediately after you swing it will reset you swing timer and do a great burst of damage to anything. If you do run low on energy just run in the thickest part of the fray let that sweet Phylactery re-up you life and energy. But what happens when you get in real trouble and that second life just isn't enough? Bust out your stuna shades and drop that Tesseract my friend... you earned it. Wave 16 and 20 giving you problems in BC? Throw a preemptive Tesseract at your clones and go to town while they admire you amazing skills and when it wears off just hit em with a Pitiless Strike and keep them wondering "How can this Necron be so amazing?".

Alternative: Swap out the Glyph of Implacable for Gift of the Wraith. You become way more squishy but can potentially up that DPS with more Pitiless Strikes. Since you will be triggering Phylactery more often you should be able to use PS every time it is off cool down just remember you're no longer an uber tank monster and let to smashing continue.

Build 4: Immortal Nuker - Weapon of choice, Diadem of the Nemesor, Glyph of Living Metal, Glyph of the Implacable, Phylactery, Raiment of the Nightbringer

Available by: Level 20

One of the easier builds to challenge the Voidreaper/Reclaimer combo, this build is nice because it is SUPER tanky and puts out good damage regardless of weapon because of the Nightbringer - the basic strat is to just facetank a wave while pewpewing or meleeing in between charges of the Nightbringer, which will demolish anything that's left. Super strong on Anvil, and even good on BC because the Nightbringer does a number on clones. Best weapons to look at are probably Warscythe of the Phalanx for extreme tanking and AoE damage, Voidreaper for mobility and single-target damage, or Staff of the Phaeron for a nice hybrid build with a lot of shooting, yet still having tanking and an answer for swarms at your feet.

Build 5: And Now For Something Completely Different - Lance of Annihilation, Tachyon Diadem, Glyph of the Star Gods, Glyph of the Tireless Harvest, Glyph of Living Metal, Raiment of the Tesseract

Available by: Level 18

What's this? NOT a tanky build? You're goddamn right it isn't.

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Gauss Wizard. Welcome to the rave laser party.

So, in essence, this build is a way of making the best of the Lance of Annihilation. You know how the main drawback to the Lance is its piss-poor RoF and its expensive and slow laser blast? Yeah, we fix that here. Thing is, with Glyph of the Tireless Harvest, Tachyon Arrow recharges INSTANTLY, and with Glyph of the Star Gods the activation windup is long enough that you actually regenerate the 5 energy cost as it fires, which means you can indefinitely spam Tachyon Arrows, which means your RoF is now much faster with a solid long range weapon that doesn't need line of sight. This also incidentally semi-fixes Tachyon Arrows, as when you constantly spit them out it doesn't matter so much if they're a bit shit. Your Annihilation laser lance rave party blast recharges faster. You've got more frequent Tesseracts to pin enemies in place for your lasers. Also don't worry, shit probably won't go south, because you've got the constant and soothing healing of Glyph of Living Metal to keep you in it. This build is WAY less tanky than virtually any other build, sporting an astoundingly shit 190 health and 115 armor, but you make up for it by being so damn FUN to play. You'll always be casting something, controlling the battlefield, and pew-pewing your way to victory. This build actually also fares decently against clones, because firstly, Tesseract, and secondly, your clone won't spam Tachyon at you as fast as you can, which gives you the advantage in single-target damage. You'll also probably out(s)kill melee Necrons.

Build 6: Bane of All Melee Ever - Warscythe of Extinction, Diadem of Reanimation, Glyph of the Reclaimer, Glyph of the Implacable, Glyph of the Star Gods, Raiment of the Nightbringer/Tesseract

Available by: Level 16 (Level 20 with Nightbringer)

Yo yo yo. I hear you like that broken-ass health drain.

Wanna do it forever?

Now you can.

At 3.7 energy regen, you can truly keep Immortal Reclamation on all game if you so chose.

You can LITERALLY park your ass in one corner of the map and against any melee wave in the game, just sit there and laugh as you eat all the damage they can deal while slowly sapping them all to death. This includes Wave 20 of Bloody Colosseum, as you can just sit in front of Araghast and laugh - even his levitation crush won't really move your health.

The only thing that can kill you at ALL is ranged attackers and doing this in front of a single Dreadnaught, but yo, guess what? If they drop you, your ass pops back up after a couple minutes. And then you drop a Nightbringer on their heads. And then you laugh.

Build 7: Devotion to C'Tan - Celestial Staff, Monolithic Diadem, Phylactery, Glyph of the Tireless Harvest, Glyph of Living Metal, Raiment of the Nightbringer

Available by: Level 20

Here it is the all Nightbringer, all the time build. You do two thing: first you summon the Nightbringer, second you shoot things. Rinse. Repeat. Victory. Celestial Staff, Monolithic Diadem and Glyph of the Tireless Harvest combine to vastly reduce the cool down so you can use it multiple time a round. That's right you can summon the bad boy 2 or even 3 times in longer rounds. Once he's summoned just stand beneath him and let melee enemies get crushed while pew pewing to reset the Nightbringer. You have shit armor and are super squishy so don't get too bold but the regen and extra health from Glyph of living metal negate a lot of the damage you'll be seeing. If you get in trouble from ranged guys just kite them toward you big friend. Phylactery is more for when stuff goes south and not so much for the energy gain but the second life and extra armor is crucial for running away. Use Force Attack to get Rush of Battle between waves or when only one guy is left but you need the Nightbringer for the next wave like wave 15 so you can nuke your clones.

Build 8: Nightcrawler - Doomsday Edge, Monolithic Diadem, Phase Shifter, Glyph of the Star Gods, Glyph of the Tireless Harvest, Raiment of the Tesseract

Available by: Level 18

This build is as mobile as possible and offers amazingly fun melee AoE, at the cost of what Necrons are best known for - any semblance of tankiness whatsoever. Tireless Harvest drops Pitiless Strike's cooldown to several seconds, while Monolithic Diadem and Star Gods allow you to spam it as often as you please. Combine with Phase Shifter to wreak as much havoc as Nightcrawler in the opening scene of X2, blinking from one group to the next as you smash face and cause maximum disruption. You'll be wishing you had a fourth accessory slot, because at a base 100 health with no armor bonuses, you're as frail as a walking metal death machine can get. This build takes intense micro to stay alive, let alone excel at. A couple of Ork Shoota squads can wear you down if you're not paying attention, but if you play aggressively, this build is more survivable than it seems. Pitiless Strike's almost non-existent cooldown allows you to stunlock any infantry, and as an added bonus, it throws them back, interrupting melee swings in progress. You're extremely vulnerable to vehicles, but you can drop a Tesseract on anything you can't handle and let your teammates grind them down, while doing acceptable damage yourself. You can kite an Avatar or Great Unclean One with ease, and just like a tanky Overlord, you'll probably still be the last alive. Teleport across the map to lead enemies away, then zip back to raise your allies. Or if the enemy is clustered well, drop a Tesseract on them and blink over to resurrect under their noses!

Build 9: One Man Army - Warscythe of Extinction, Diadem of Reanimation, Glyph of the Reclaimer, Phylactery, Glyph of Living Metal, Raiment of the Nightbringer

Available by: Level 20

This build represents a versatile one man army with no major weakness except mobility. With 190 health 2x with phylactery, health regen and the ability to self revive, you can solo the entire game as long as one other teammate remains alive. Melee kill high value targets, Reclaimer kills mobs close by, Nightbringer nukes and you can also use Extinction to make a attack beam/wall as a ranged backup. This build will see you tanking everything and coming out on top, though self reviving on downs becomes pointless if you are the last one alive. Good micro is helpful to make the most out of you ability's and budget accordingly. Well played this will leave you teamates woundering how you can tank 400 damage while spamming Reclaimer against hoards with the occasional C'tan nukes and get back up after a down and do it all again. I have successfully soloed the last few waves with a teammate either hiding in a building or jet pack kiting.

Build 10: What is dead may never die - Warscythe of the Phalanx, Diadem of Reanimation, Glyph of the Implacable, Phylactery, Glyph of Living Metal, Raiment of the Nightbringer

Available by: Level 20

Have you ever wanted to go full tank enough so your response to being shot by an army is to simply laugh? And when your health gets to zero it resets to max? And when you finally die you simply get back up after a few seconds with your second health bar restored? This build is best exemplified by stats, as you will either be going choppy in mêlée or summoning the nightbringer as a nuke. 600 health, 6 times normal - 290 health x2 with Phylactery, 5 health regen and Phylactery restores every 30 seconds even if downed and self reviving. Only 33% of damage taken - 220 armour giving a 64% damage reduction, mêlée specials can reduce armour or ignore it though. High area of effect damage - In mêlée you can kill everything slowly. Area of effect kills swarms, armour piercing kills high value targets. Everything dies to you reliably but slowly, though you often need to footslog to enemies. Has pet Pokémon God as a nuke - The nightbringer is your nuke. It is best to stay in it to attract enemies to their doom. As this is your only ability, there is no energy management. You can self revive infinitely - This is both the most broken and potentially useless ability. As long as one other teammate is alive, you always get back up after a few seconds. While you being the tank often means you are the last to go down and are on medic duty, the overlord can solo later waves so long as one teammate keeps jet packing around the map hiding or tanking. If all 3 players make use of reanimation protocols, it is almost impossible for the whole to team to be down at the same time, making victory trivial. So there must be a downside right? - Wrong, this one man death machine kills everything in a slow but reliable manner. Its only problem is that on the BC map, your clone is almost impossible to kill. Even if you destroy its buffed health, it will simply get back up even if there are any enemies on the map. This combined with its nuke and armour piercing ability means it needs to be killed last on level 16 and 20, kiting is recommend as it footsloges slowly. Having a chaos heretic douple your clone leads to hilarious results, as it still retains its nuke and second health bar and gets the accompanying chaos buffs, leading to an invincible minion with 3 different health bars each 290 in size.

The heroes of Last Stand
Space Marine Captain - Chaos Sorcerer - Eldar Farseer - Hive Tyrant Lord General - Ork Mekboy - Tau Commander - Necron Overlord