Choosing an INT caster

[Deckk]

I've had some serious altitis, and I've decided that needs to stop. Ultimately, I'd love to twink out a tank, but I've decided I'd like to pick a class and stick with it.

I like all four int casters.

I have to afk sometimes as I have two children under the age of 2. I'd also like to utilize the Gnoll fang quest (can you do that on a necro?)

I played a wiz on live from 99-02, so there's a comfort level there.

But the three pet classes seem like they could be a ton of fun. Necro and enchanter especially, as the ability to FD and own undead is great. But so does clarity/group ability/charm. Just looking for some experienced folks to chime in here with opinions. I'd really like to utilize the Gnoll fang quest, though, as I've spent a lot of time getting any characters to ten and deleting them rather than focusing on leveling just one. Thanks in advance!

[Samoht]

Enchanter changes drastically after 12 once you get your first charm.

Necros are not desired for groups, and you'll pretty much solo to 60 focusing on charming undead.

Necro requires less gear, but you'll need a Circlet of Shadow (http://wiki.project1999.com/Circlet_of_Shadow) as soon as you can get one (clickable at level 20).

It's highly recommended to be an iksar necro. You don't *have* to, but it's more optimal.

[Deckk]

I don't mind soloing. Just figure that being able to group would be a nice change of pace. I'm most concerned with the ability to do Gnoll fangs + afk-ability. I mean it's rare I afk for more than 5 mins, but I always feel like a goober.

[Tecmos Deception]

Necros are generally not sought for groups, but its because they're undervalued and not enough necros play properly in groups they do get into. Make friends and l2necro and you'll find groups as one.

Necro and ench can both afk pretty safely whenever when solo, necro via feign and ench via knowledge of safe spots/spawn times and the ability to move around anywhere. Ench isn't as easy to afk with in groups without maybe bothering the group, since you are so crucial for cc and your charmed pet can be an annoyance when you need a break.

Wiz is a long, slow trip, imo. Quad kiting playstule and downtime needs to be a good match for you, since you will get the vast majority of your xp that way unless you have friends who pity you and give you groups ;)

Magician are more of a 1 trick pony. No innate invis, ivu, cc, lull, feign... Totally reliant on power of and vulnerable to the weaknesses of their pets. Strong in groups and useful in a niche way in raids though, as much so as necros or ench I guess.

[Tecmos Deception]

It's your choice of course, but to me it seems silly to be so concerned with doing the gnoll fang quest. It's nice, sure. But basing a class choice on being able to turn in fanga for a few easy levels? Doesn't seem sound in the medium run let alone the long run.

Not sure if necros can do it easily but with share wolf or something I assume they can. It will kill your qeynos catacomb faction though, for what that's worth.

[Deckk]

It's your choice of course, but to me it seems silly to be so concerned with doing the gnoll fang quest. It's nice, sure. But basing a class choice on being able to turn in fanga for a few easy levels? Doesn't seem sound in the medium run let alone the long run.

Not sure if necros can do it easily but with share wolf or something I assume they can. It will kill your qeynos catacomb faction though, for what that's worth.

Really, the decision to do Gnoll fang does have a bearing simply because all four classes interest me. If I valued one tremendously more than the others I wouldn't care. As of this moment I'm looking at it in this order: enchanter/necro, wiz, mage

[Tecmos Deception]

Well all four will be able to do the quest if you really want to get it done, I'm pretty confident. So you're still back to having to pick the class based on the class :p

They're all great. Your order is the same I'd consider them personally.

Magicians are neat, but their extreme focus and gimmicky utility (mod rods, COTH, summoned items) don't appeal to me when we're talking about playing the character for hundreds of hours and more, even though their variety of pets coupled with malo line and nukes and utility make them a solid all around class.

Wizards can be a lot of fun. Ports are great (and translocates are better!), they have nice CC via stuns and awesome roots, quadding and AE groups are cool in their own ways, they're top notch DPS in raids besides being important to get everyone together with ports. There IS a bit of an art/science to nuking properly without pulling aggro or leaving some of your potential unused and they get big boosts from their current levels overall in Velious, imo.

Necros have a huge arsenal of spells. Invis, IVU, feign, harmshield (two of them!), a pet, snares, roots, mez, fear, lifetaps... those give you great ability to move through a lot of places and to accomplish difficult pulls whether solo, grouped, or raiding. Necro heals are phenomenal when used correctly in groups, twitch is a very valuable utility. Necros can also summon corpses, rez, nuke (multiple resist types), dot (4 resist types!), charm, summon pets, evac, regen mana like crazy, sacrifice the souls of other players for fun and profit, and more.

Enchanters are simultaneously more specialized than necros while being more versatile. You'd think they're squishier targets because they don't have feign, harmshield, or lifetaps, but rune+bedlam are pretty damn awesome and quick stuns+mezzes+roots give them toughness in an indirect way. They're almost totally reliant on charm to solo, are expected to be charming in most group situations or else aren't considered to be pulling their weight... but charm IS incredibly power. Chanters can move through dungeons more quickly than necros but with more risk because of better lull spells but no feign/harmshield. Haste, slow, tash, c2, and CC make enchanters amazing in groups even if they don't charm. Then they still have illusions, faction spells, cool but not-frequently-used debuffs (enchanters can debuff strength by like 200 points, lol), mem blur, mana taps, the best dispels in the game by miles, and more.

[Deckk]

As OP mentioned, I mained a wiz from 99-02 and I practically only played him. My comfort level with wiz is through the roof. But the grind to get to the interesting stuff scares the piss out of me.

If I go necro, it's not going to be an iksar. I know, min/max folks will crush me, but I find the amount of iknecs to be beyond boring. Probably go gnome, human or erudite for a necro... High elf or gnome for enchanter. Gnome or dark elf for wizard. Erudite or dark elf for Mage.

[Qtip]

Enchanter. Can do it all. Solo, pve, farming, dps and some of the best buffs in game. No group will turn down a good enchanter.

[Raev]

I played a Necromancer up to 52 on red and that has substantially increased my interest in the class. I used to think of Necros purely as weak enchanters (no tash, no slow, no AE mez, undead charm only). And that view isn't totally wrong.

But I think its more accurate to think of Necromancers as the caster version of a monk. It seems no one ever splits camps on a Necro, but I found they were extremely good at it on Red. For low level stuff Screaming Terror or Darkness means you can easily get the mob you want very quickly, and you don't have to take any damage because you sic your pet on it as it enters camp. For higher level stuff, you can aggro with a L1 pet from a distance and harmshield if FD fails. In Velious, you can mem both Death Peace and Feign Death, so with a clicky you get 2 chances in 3 seconds. If FD fails twice in a row, it just wasn't your night. You have Rune for trains and Shadow Vortex to pull out of trains.

If you really look at the Necromancer spell list, I think Nec/Shm is actually better than Mnk/Shm, although I guess with some of this Velious raid gear monks will just be unstoppable.

I'm not sure why no one plays this kind of ninja necromancer on P1999, but I have some theories. In order of decreasing probability:

Everyone and their brother plays monk, leaving 2-3 for every XP group, and monks cry if they can't pull
The average Necromancer is only interested in soloing to L52 so they can twink a monk (see #1)
Sesserdrix and his incomprehensible love affair with twitch bitching have corrupted an entire generation
Somehow its much harder at L60 than L52 and I am just a moron


Anyway, I think all 4 classes are decent, but Enchanter and Necromancer are far more interesting and flexible.

[Danth]

"Shadow Vortex to pull out of trains."

Siphon strength does a fine job of this as well, for less mana and lower aggro.

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Enchanters don't have any special tricks for being AFK--just invis or hide and hope nothing that sees invis walks past. It's also annoying if you have to get rid of a charmed pet, and frequently AFK Enchanters hurt their groups more than some other classes would.

Wizards are a fine class to go AFK on in groups--on the rare occasions they get them--simply because everybody already expects Wizards to be useless and AFK most the time anyway. Of course that's why they practically never get groups in the first place. Least most of the normal quadding locations allow for safe AFK between quads.

Magicians serve allright except for the purpose of a frequently-AFK player the Necromancer generally outshines the Mage. I think of it as the ideal class for a player who likes managing pets and not having to fuss much with other jobs.

Necromancer seems, at least in my judgment, the best for a player who wants to be able to go AFK anytime, anywhere, in complete safety. Feign Death doesn't care if your 5 minute AFK turns into 30 minutes and everything respawns, or if some see-invis monster walks past, or if someone trains by. By mid levels you can summon your own corpse if the unfortunate happens, and eventually rez it. If I had to go AFK all the time I'd pick the Necromancer from among the 4 INT casters; I like tanks so that's why I switched to Shadow Knight when my own daughter was born.

Danth

[Deckk]

If I go necro, is it at all possible to do Gnoll fang quest in Qeynos? More so, I'm wondering if it's possible/worth it to get Qeynos faction up. I know slaughtering gnolls will help... Anyone know how many it takes to get to a decent level with Qeynos?

[Danth]

If it's that crucially important you can just make a human necromancer and start right there in Qeynos and have all the faction you need to do it.

Danth

[Deckk]

It's not so much critical as it is I've leveled so many chars to ten that a little questing aid would be a real boon to my happiness

[HalasHermit]

Iksar Necro + bone chip quest in Field of Bone :)

[webrunner5]

I don't know if you are are of it, but they Nerfed the Hell out of the Gnoll Fang Quest not long ago. :(

It still is not bad but I think Qeynos is a crappy area to start in just to do BB with 50 people doing the same quest.

Not sure, but a Human Necro MAY be able to do turn in but I would not hold your breath.

Necro FD is a Hugh advantage for a person that NEEDS to go AFK quick. Sounds like you are one of those. :p But being Evil does have it's downsides. But that disappears in Velious if you play only there, or do the FoB, Kurn's Iksar progression. :)

[Deckk]

I'm really leaning towards necro... But if I do so I want to be a good grouping necro as well. Which I'll try to find some resources alongside sesserdrix's guide...

Having said that, I'm semi curious. I'm going to go gnome. Why? Because. Is it in my best interest to go 5 into intelligence and 25 into stamina? I ask because if I'm going to be healing and also sitting in lich, I would think that a greater health pool would be an incredibly useful tool. And the gnome has decent int to begin with...

Just thinking out loud here...

[Tuljin]

25 STA and 5 INT is a great roll for a Gnome or Erudite Necro.

[Charlievox]

If i have a Necro that I am going play solo 90% of the time, I go Iksar. If I have a Necro I want to play in groups at least half the time I'd go Dark Elf or Gnome.