Necro or Mage

[Trojanman]

Hello, I'm returning to p1999 after a hiatus and starting pretty much fresh with no characters over lvl 20.

Looking for a character to solo with no gear but have never played an int caster. I find necro appealing because of feign death and fear. Seems to have high survivability. But obviously mages have the best pets in the game and great nukes.

Another big concern is that I've always played good races so would want to be a gnome, but I'm not sure what kind of faction concerns I would have being a mage vs necro. Is there a resource that lays out what places I would be KOS in as a gnome mage/necro?

I need a good farming character as I will want to gear a melee class later on and need to build up some income. Any advice would be helpful! Thanks!

[smokemon]

Necro, for sure.

[Apostle]

mage for sure, necro pets are very bad and you actually LOSE health from some spells,

[smokemon]

LoL played both, necro can hold harder camps solo > mage, all a round more versed. Fear, Snare, Lifetap, Mana-regen, mana-battery, just versatile.

[Swish]

Is there a resource that lays out what places I would be KOS in as a gnome mage/necro?

Not that I can think of but I'm fairly certain gnome necros aren't KOS in Kelethin or Felwithe (as long as you stay away from the cleric/pally guildmasters), but will have trouble trading there? Mages should be fine however.

Necros can get around all kinds of faction issues though later on. Skeleton form helps a lot of factions to change to non-kos (though this is meant to be a bug I think), and with a Circlet of Shadows you can easily invis up towards banking in Felwithe, Kelethin, North Freeport by hiding behind a wall and scrolling back on your mousewheel to target the bankers on the other side. Bankers will be kos so don't go running in with a "HAIII GUYS!!11!" attitude ;)

[Trojanman]

Thanks Swish, good info.

[Bubbles]

gnome necros are extremely KOS in kelethin and felwithe.

You are basically stuck with Ak Anon, Freeport underground (and NFP after you start killing corrupt FP guards for xp/faction), Neriak (stay the hell away from any non-necro caster guilds, though), and Overthere.

It's still quite a decent amount of options for a necro to bank at (DEs are basically Neriak/FP Underground/OT only.. not sure if Oggok/Grobb are viable for DE or not w/out massive faction work).

The wildcard would be paineel/erudin. I had some decent faction luck on a gnome bertoxx necro in Paineel, but certainly not erudin.

But yeah, for the love of god, don't send a gnome necro anywhere near Kelethin or Felwithe.

[falkun]

Miley sighting.

[Malone88]

Dabbling in the dark arts and feign death, ftw....

Mage just sounds boring to me.

[Trojanman]

feign death has already gotten me out of at least 3 certain death situations.

[Mavric]

Dabbling in the dark arts and feign death, ftw....

Mage just sounds boring to me.

Depends, if you know how to play your mage then it is quite exciting.

[Splorf22]

A well played necro will charm a skeleton for crazy dps, keep 125hp/tick regen up on the MT forever, and CC with Screaming Terror/Paralyzing earth. They will also heal themselves up after charm breaks, regen mana like crazy, and can pull some ninja shit with FD/circlet of shadow (somewhat less when invis pulling gets nerfed, but you can still split most XP camps by casting darkness/FD and snare will prevent your target from resetting).

A well played magician will do 80+ dps forever with a max-level backstabbing water pet (and a tank who is religious about positioning), damage shields, and the Burnt Wood Staff. They will also malo high level mobs to help out with charm/slow and summon a bunch of useful goodies (might as well make that monk bandage during downtime).

I think most Magicians tend to have necro envy (I mean come on, the class doesn't even get root. Hybrids have better CC than mages) and most necros tend to have enchanter envy (no slow/no tash/no stun).

[Bubbles]

Enchanter envy? Orb of Tishan for tash, stuff dies to fast to worry about slow, and ST is enough to annoy the damn CH golems in the crypt.

Necro envy for Enchanters or Mages lies solely in the fact their planar armor drops, like candy to add insult to injury, in Hateplane. :)

[Polyphemous]

When I play a necro I've never envied an enchanter. I envy mages their DD since in a fast group necro dots are often poor dps. I've never been able to play a mage past lvl 8 though, due to looking at the spell lists for something to look forward to and not seeing anything useful except more nukes and pets. Necro has far greater utility, which for me is more fun than single-minded blasting.

[Yukahwa]

As a mage, I hated having zero ability to CC. It was tough to solo and break apart any spawn with more than a few baddies, sometimes even two was too many depending on how tough they were. It just makes the class difficult.

Two mages in a duo is a good way to go. Gets around EXP penalty and makes it easier to handle tougher camps.

Overall the necromancer is way more versatile and less gimped by the pet EXP penality.

[Tecmos Deception]

As a mage, I can actually smash a single target more effectively and for less mana than any other class in the game. I don't envy any other class their time- and mana-costing roots either... I just have to pay about 7pp for highly effective instaroots whenever they're needed, which is nothing. :)

Yeah, cause talking about using burnt wood staff and thousands of pp worth of nets is useful for the OP in his situation :p


OP: mages have great sustained damage in xp groups and they can work very well soloing as well. Necros are a little less damage in groups probably, but in basically every other way they are stronger than a mage; feign, harmshield, lifetaps, mana regen, instant invis, ivu, lulls, snares, roots, mezzes, fears, charm, heals, and more give them sooo much more potential in sooo many more situations than a mage.

I guess you've probably got a character up to like level 10+ already anyways though.

[Valium]

Yeah, cause talking about using burnt wood staff and thousands of pp worth of nets is useful for the OP in his situation :p


OP: mages have great sustained damage in xp groups and they can work very well soloing as well. Necros are a little less damage in groups probably, but in basically every other way they are stronger than a mage; feign, harmshield, lifetaps, mana regen, instant invis, ivu, lulls, snares, roots, mezzes, fears, charm, heals, and more give them sooo much more potential in sooo many more situations than a mage.

I guess you've probably got a character up to like level 10+ already anyways though.

(Why aren't enchanters mentioned here?)

Necros can succor across zones and if we're firepot bound, we feel like wizards/druids. You can even resurrect yourself later with 93% XP returned! We can summon corpses or track corpses and we have insane mana regen so we don't require any other buffs other than our own.

In fact, necros can play entirely alone with almost no interaction - the truest soloer there is. We can just camp what we want for the most part and don't even need to auction! The only time you would have to talk to people is to convince them to sacrifice their inferior souls so you can resurrect yourself later. Nothing selfish here!

We also know how to bone better than anybody. Take that as you will.

[Splorf22]

Enchanters are better soloers than necros, and it's not close. Don't believe me? Check Tecmos' WTS list and Teppler's WTS list.

[Valium]

Enchanters are better soloers than necros, and it's not close. Don't believe me? Check Tecmos' WTS list and Teppler's WTS list.

Agreed Loraen.

I followed up my explanation as a "soloer" meaning necros are more of a loner - needing the least communication with anybody else. We do have more overall utility spells than anybody else though not all of them are that useful and they are almost entirely for selfish reasons. If the guy is casual and doesnt have time to auction or interact with others much, necro may favor him. I've known a lot of casuals such as myself that flew under the radar this way.

Plug: Read over Loraen's enchanter guide before you make a decision on necro/mage. They are another great option! (There ya go!).