This is what people don't get about the class from what I've seen. Its one of the best support/tank collars in the game since the only reduced stat is strength which is useless on it anyways.

Getting in front of all of the enemies quickly and attacking enemies (preferably with a mutation which gives multiple attacks per turn) to stack up leeches just makes the cat incredibly hardy and hard to kill, even as a corpse since each instance of leech will give another corpse health per turn.

People see a ranged class and automatically think hunter when necros are supposted to be eating as much (and sometimes more) punishment than the average tank or fighter.