How do I play my Necromancer? Confused..

[sinnedam]

So I just turned level 8, went and bought my spells and looked on the wiki to see what they did. I noticed 2 things.

1. it seems like my pet gets gradually weaker each time i get a new one. Towards the end game it looks like my pet is close to 10 levels lower than I will be..i dont understand how this can be effective. The way im soloing right now, I let my pet tank and throw DOT's at the mob. My pet at level 8 has a chance to be level 7-9 I believe, so he is still pretty strong with me at level 8.

2. I didnt get new DOT's this time around, so im not doing more damage, only 5 per tick. This was fine at level 4 when I got them but now at level 8 it doesnt seem like its doing much damage.

How are necros supposed to be played? Am I missing something or is my character going to be really weak as the game progresses. I just dont want to play a long time with this character if its going to be crap later on.

Thanks for helping a newb.

[Faron]

The pet isn't a tank. Think of it as a DoT with legs. As far as strats, your bread and butter is to darkness and fear the mob, DoT it up and send in pet.

You're going to be weak in these levels, that just comes with the territory. Around level 29 you'll be a god among men though. Just gotta stick it out.

[Estu]

The most effective way to EXP is to charm undead. You charm one undead, send it at another mob, let them both get low HP, IVU to break charm, then finish off both (if you don't break charm first, you'll lose EXP on the other mob, since your pet did most of the damage to it). Your first charm spell is at level 20.

The lazy way to EXP a necro is to snare and fear the mob, throw on some DoTs, and send your pet at it. Note that DoTs do only 2/3 damage on most moving monsters, but they do full damage on fleeing monsters (hence, fearing is nice). Undead fear is cheaper to cast so you can save some mana targeting undead - this is especially useful in the early levels (you get Spook the Dead at level 12).

The necromancer is one of the most powerful solo classes in the game. Their pet is not amazing but the ability to charm undead is incredibly powerful. They also have great mana regen, DoTs, and feign death. Necros start off kind of weak, actually, because although their pets are powerful early on, they have to deal with the 50% EXP bonus when the pet does over 50% damage. Starting at level 12 with undead fear, they start coming into their own a bit.

[Treefall]

Your pet, relatively speaking, gets weaker - but you get stronger.

The pet will always be great, super mana efficient dps though. Later on you can buff 'em up pretty well too.

[Potus]

Your pet gets somewhat weaker, except at level 49 you get an absolute beast of a pet, perhaps your strongest pet in your career.

As far as the dots, that's a concern early on, I'd argue Necros are the most difficult to play up to level 20, because you're not really fleshed out yet.

You'll notice at level 8 you get Dark Pact, which gives you free mana for HP, this will help with downtime considerably, and you'll use lifetaps on the monster to reheal. At level 8 it is not unheard of to still be meleeing with your pet, basically jumping in to do some damage and pulling back to cast lifetap while the pet tanks. At level 8 your pet should still be able to stand toe-to-toe to most dark blues. Once you level more, you'll be able to fear kite, your pet will take practically 0 damage.

But the biggie is at level 8 you get Ward Undead. That's a huge undead nuke. Put points into Evocation so you don't fizzle constantly, and go murder skeletons. Your pet + Ward Undead should have you mauling a place like Befallen or Kurns Tower. Do this until level 12.

At 12 you will become really more like a necromancer, as you get Engulfing Darkness, Heat Blood (a good dot), Leach (a lifetap dot), and you get Spook the Dead, a very efficient undead fear. You can fear kite lots of skeletons using these, or stick with nuking.

[username17]

Shameless plug for Sesserdrix's guide to Necromancy. It's a good read.
http://wiki.project1999.com/Sesserdrix%27s_All_in_One_Necromancer_Strategy_Gui de

[webrunner5]

Yeah toe to toe melee with you and the pet at level 8 is near the end unless you have some Twink gear on you. Fear Kiting is pretty much going to be your bread and butter from there on out or Charming which is later. Make sure you use Clinging Darkness and be aware of other mobs in the zone so they don't bring friends. :eek: Necro is a great class played well. They get just about every spell in the game except the ability to Port and SoW lol.

[Smyd]

Turn pet taunt off and aggro kite instead of fear kite... its much more controlled and safer imo...

[username17]

Turn pet taunt off and aggro kite instead of fear kite... its much more controlled and safer imo...

It is, but mobs take much less damage from DoTs when moving if not under the effects of fear. That makes fear kiting more efficient than aggro kiting.

[sinnedam]

Wow..apparently I have been totally doing it wrong LOL Thanks for the info guys. So fear is a major component of my ability to solo. I havent even used it since I got it for fear of aggroing other mobs and getting overwhelmed. so should i just fear, DOT, and when fear breaks just cast it again?

[meanhappyguy]

I recently worked on a necromancer to level 14, and here is what I found:

1) at level 8, if you hold out for a level 9 pet, it is going to be hard for you to out-damage your pet--meaning it will take half of the xp. The best work-around for this was to find someone else to duo with. As long as you are in a group, even just one other person, your pet can do 100% of the damage and your group still gets 100% xp. I think my best group at level 8 was a duo with another necro, and we just let our level 9 pets speed through mobs--I chain-pulled for our pets.

2) You're right, at level 8 we don't get a new dot, but at lvl 12 you get 3 or 4 new dots, and you can load them all up on a mob if you want, for some massive DoT damage. From 8-11 I mostly life-tap tanked the mobs, feeling the same as you--that my dots were pretty weak, especially at level 11. At level 12, I was able to pull some even and yellow cons and fear-dot them, with pretty good success.

As far as later down the road, necro pets do get weaker--your pet isn't going to mow through dark blues in your 30s and 40s, like it can at level 8, but Necro spells improve a whole lot. You can heal, cc, dps, fear, feign death, etc.

[polishanarchy]

The first levels are pretty awkward till you can start fear kiting / root rotting, which we're great at. If you're an iksar, take advantage of your undead nukes in Kurns.

[Potus]

Wow..apparently I have been totally doing it wrong LOL Thanks for the info guys. So fear is a major component of my ability to solo. I havent even used it since I got it for fear of aggroing other mobs and getting overwhelmed. so should i just fear, DOT, and when fear breaks just cast it again?

Yes, snare, fear until monster is dead. Hopefully you can meditate back a lot of the mana and keep pulling non-stop.

You'll get good at figuring out where to fear kite and where not to, and getting swarmed by NPCs and dying is part of the learning process.

[Shinko]

tap you heart out, don't bother casting any other spells.

till you get root at like 34?

[Raev]

level to 60 . . . make corpse art in ec while deleveling to 4 . . repeat

Winning

[sinnedam]

It seems like when i fear a mob its taking more damage than normal. Am i crazy or is this true?

[Smyd]

It is, but mobs take much less damage from DoTs when moving if not under the effects of fear. That makes fear kiting more efficient than aggro kiting.

Good point, its been a while for me.... :D