Ok, so here's my take on the Necrosets:
Grace of Inarius: The set to build when you're not sure what build you want. Just all-around useful. Grants damage reduction and an aura of damage boost that follows the Necromancer around (like the Monk's Sweeping Wind skill). Most useful for tanking/melee, I suppose. Probably also meant for those who want to use 2H scythes like
Trag'Oul's Corroded Fang but also pairs very well with shield +
Scythe of the Cycle or the Jesseth set. Also the
Wisdom of Kalan is practically mandatory.
Bones of Rathma: The Necromancer's "Pet Set." Works extremely well when paired with the 2-piece Jesseth Arms set which further boosts the effectiveness of Command Skeletons (but
not Skeletal Mage). Raise as many minions as you can, but the key is to keep as many summoned skeletal mages running as possible in order to maximize damage, so that means also equipping skills/items that make it easier to summon mages, makes mages last longer, etc. It's extremely satisfying to have the frenzy rune active on skeletons and the archer rune active on mages, then sic your skeletons on one thing while popping archer mages and watch them dart from single target to single target just obliterating things once the full +55% attack speed boost kicks in plus
another 50% speed bonus from the Tasker and Theo gauntlets which you OF COURSE have equipped/active in the cube. This hyper-boosted attack speed means you get to cast a big Army of the Dead
much more frequently.
Trag'Oul's Avatar: This set is a weird duck. A relative handful of Necromancer skills boost their power by adding a life requirement to their essence cost, and this set seeks to capitalize on that. Be careful about spamming skills, though, since it's not too difficult to blow your entire health pool before you realize what's happened. The set tries to mitigate this by increasing your health and healing by up to 100% (meaning it's not that hard to get 2-3
million health), but since all the life costs are based on a
percentage of your maximum health your globe will still empty the same proportion every time you mash the skill button. Managed carefully, it almost amounts to a flat 50% damage reduction. This set just
begs to be combined with
Lornelle's Sunstone to keep you alive when your health is low. Works best with skills or items that heal you for a flat percentage of maximum health (
Simplicity's Strength, for instance) but I believe there's also a good case for combining it with
Shi Mizu's Haori since it's easy to push and hold your life low enough to trigger that armor's effect. This set offers the largest damage boost (+3300%) but requires dedicated management of your chosen skills and resources (i.e., your life pool), it is definitely not an "equip and forget" set.
Pestilence Master's Shroud: If you've read all the above and you're still not sure which set to equip, then equip this one. It is the easiest to manage, and equipping the Devouring Aura rune and a golem minion while wearing
Moribund Gauntlets means you basically get free essence and auto-attacks every second. There are plenty of items which further boost the damage of corpse skills (I especially recommend
Corpsewhisper Pauldrons,
Maltorius' Petrified Spike, and
The Johnstone) and it's relatively easy to start doing 1-2 billion worth of AOE with a few more careful skill/equipment choices.
--Patrick