At first glance, the Necromancer and Ranger class may seem like an odd
combination.  The Soul Reaping Primary Attribute of a necromancer would have
been useful (natch), but there are still several ways one can combine Ranger
and Necromancer skills.

“Defensive” Cursing
===================
The three curses that come to mind when thinking about the Necromancer are
Enfeeble, Faintheartedness, and Price of Failure.  All three reduce the attacks
from an enemy in some way.  Enfeeble induces Weakness, a useful Condition that
reduces damage from that opponent.  Faintheartedness reduces attack speed (you
can substitute Shadow of Fear if you wish).  Price of Failure adds a 25% miss
chance and does damage if the opponent misses.  All three combined with Ranger
defensive skills make for a very defensive Ranger indeed.

Sample Build:
1. Enfeeble
2. Faintheartedness
3. Price of Failure
4. Bow attack of choice
5. Lightning Reflexes
6. Whirling Defense
7. Throw Dirt
8. Free Slot (Res Signet or Signet of Capture)

Cruelty to Animals
==================
This theme utilizes a pet as a “corpse factory” to generate minions or simply
to reap some damage.  Just send the pet off to his doom, use the corpse, then
revive it with Comfort Animal.  However, when your pet dies, you lose your
skills for 8 seconds… to make your pet useful before (and during) death, you
cast Tainted Flesh (Elite) and Death Nova.

Sample Build:
1. Animate Bone Minion
2. Animate Bone Fiend
3. Death Nova
4. Tainted Flesh (Elite)
5. Well of Suffering
6. Comfort Animal
7. Charm Animal
8. Free Slot (Res Signet or Signet of Capture)

Slings and Arrows of Outrageous Fortune
=======================================
Snipers are always trying to find ways to increase their damage.  Necromancer
Curses provide a useful avenue to increase bow damage against a specific
target. Weaken Armor lowers armor, while Mark of Pain turns your damage against
a target into area effect damage (like a preparation). Rigor Mortis prevents
those pesky warriors from blocking your shots.

Sample Build:
1. Weaken Armor
2. Mark of Pain/Rigor Mortis
3. Penetrating Attack
4. Power Shot
5. Favorable Winds
6. Read the Wind
7. Troll Unguent
8. Free Slot (Res Signet or Signet of Capture)

Massive Minions
===============
Fertile Season isn’t normally a good Nature Ritual, because it gives the enemy
(who generally outnumber you) more of an advantage.  However, what if you
outnumber the enemy?  Fertile Season can increase the toughness of your small
army of minions.  The Pet on top of that is just icing on the cake.

Virulence (Elite)
=================
One option to increase your Damage over Time capabilities comes with the Elite
known as Virulence.  It has a low cost of 5 Energy and has a reasonably fast
cooldown of 10 seconds.  It applies Poison, Weakness, and Disease on an Enemy
that already has a condition.  So all you have to do is cripple or blind an
opponent, then whack it with Virulence.  The only problem with this skill is
that it’s an Elite.  However, you don’t need many points in Death Magic to make
it viable.

Factions: The Touch Ranger
==========================
Expertise reduces the Energy cost of non-spell skills, and the vast majority of
Touch attacks are skills (rather than spells).  With the release of Factions,
the old Vampiric Touch skill is cloned with the Vampiric Bite skill.  By
combining a very high Expertise with Blood Magic, these “vampiric” rangers can
continually spam Vampiric attacks, giving themselves back some life while
dealing armor-ignoring damage.  Best of all, they have access to Awaken the
Blood, which allows them to go above the 12 Attribute limit on secondary
classes.  The main disadvantage of this build is the reliance on touch-based
attacks as its main damage.  The high Expertise allows you to take advantage of
long-duration defensive skills.

Sample Build:
12 + Superior Rune + Mask = 16 Expertise
12 Blood Magic
1. Vampiric Bite - Damage, Steal health
2. Vampiric Touch - Damage, Steal health
3. Strip Enchantment - Enchantment removal
4. Plague Touch - Condition Removal
5. Whirling Defense - Defense
6. Throw Dirt - Defense
7. Awaken the Blood - Increasing Blood Magic damage
8. Free slot

A common variant includes a build that has both Dodge and Zojun’s Haste (to
enhance mobility in certain Alliance Battles and Factions PvP missions).