Debating a Necro (or Mage): A few questions

[serjordanmormont]

I want to create a pet class and am leaning toward necro, but I'm wondering if I may be better off just going with a mage.

I'm partial to a necro based on seemingly better utility options and DoTs which all sound like fun, but am not keen on being evil. I also have no interest in being an Iksar which is apparently the best (and in some opinions, the only) race to be.

Is there any way to be a less hated necro off the bat? Would being a human, gnome, or Erudite help? I don't mind faction farming but would prefer to be at least, less hated.

Additionally, how easy is it to get decent low level gear for either? I'm told the flayed skin for a necro is pretty solid and can take me up through higher levels. Is this gear expensive?

Can anybody confirm if the experience penalty for a necro still in play?

For the mage is the class as straightforward as it seems to be. Send pet in to tank, throw a nuke or two and a damage shield on and sit/med and watch?

[Spyder73]

If you don't want to be an Iskar and you don't want to be viewed as evil by NPC's... then necro is the completely wrong choice for you

[trite]

All robe casters have the same EXP rate I believe.
Iksar have a racial exp penalty


You don't really need a ton of gear for either class, you will be made of paper regardless and your mana regen rate, which is the most important thing when soloing, won't be affected by any gear you can acquire or afford until very late in the game.

Mage soloing can be a little more complicated than you're imagining because sometime after Kunark came out they changed how experience works when you are soloing with a pet. If a single pet that is alive at the end of the fight does the majority of damage it eats half the exp. (should look this up to verify and understand)

Being anything other than an iksar will result in being a less hated necromancer but most factions won't like you off the bat.

Mage spells Coth and Mod rods have historically been more in demand for velious raiding than 93% rez / corpse summon / FD / twitch but necromancer is the better solo class...in the early days of this server mages were amazing soloing to 50 now they are ok i guess and struggle soloing 50-60

Iksar really is the logical necromancer race. If you are interested in playing a mage and definitely don't want to be evil make a mage instead of a necromancer

[jolanar]

Human and Gnome necros are less hated than other races, and should be able to travel in "nuetral" cities without too much of a problem (avoid Paladin/Cleric guild halls). Not too sure on the specifics, but you probably start out threatening to guards in places like Felwithe.

IMO necro is the superior choice unless you just want to be lazy and send pet in while occasionally tossing some nukes. There is almost no utility for mages, whereas necros have more variety than any class.

[trite]

Human and Gnome necros are less hated than other races, and should be able to travel in "nuetral" cities without too much of a problem (avoid Paladin/Cleric guild halls). Not too sure on the specifics, but you probably start out threatening to guards in places like Felwithe.

IMO necro is the superior choice unless you just want to be lazy and send pet in while occasionally tossing some nukes. There is almost no utility for mages, whereas necros have more variety than any class.

Don't want to flame this post but mage is much more utility in the raiding end game. Raids would always be better off if necro players were on a rogue or cleric.

[gildor]

Erudite necros are pretty well liked as well..and have the highest starting INT.

[GinnasP99]

Dark elf necro and don't look back

[NovaSeven]

Erudite necros are pretty well liked as well..and have the highest starting INT.

This is what I play. They look pretty cool with the hoods, and Paineel is a such a great city, thematically. You are well liked in lots of places too, which has been nice.

[serjordanmormont]

mage is much more utility in the raiding end game.

Could you elaborate on this a bit please?

[serjordanmormont]

This is what I play. They look pretty cool with the hoods, and Paineel is a such a great city, thematically. You are well liked in lots of places too, which has been nice.

I was wondering about this. i think Erudite would make a great caster and I'm leaning toward them for both classes realistically unless this forum persuades me otherwise.

[k3vil]

You should start a mage.
2nd best nuker, best pet, clicksticks (mana rod).

I had tons of fun with my mage on live back in the days. The epic is also AWESOME, good stats + uber pet.

[serjordanmormont]

If you don't want to be an Iskar and you don't want to be viewed as evil by NPC's... then necro is the completely wrong choice for you

This is what I am afraid of for necro. Just love the play style...

[serjordanmormont]

You should start a mage.
2nd best nuker, best pet, clicksticks (mana rod).

I had tons of fun with my mage on live back in the days. The epic is also AWESOME, good stats + uber pet.

That all sounds pretty appealing

[k3vil]

Yeah.
If you plan to endgame (raid) a mage is very cool, because of the aformentioned perks.

[Swish]

Mages are just CotH bots in raids... depending on the guild you end up in you'll find you won't always be able to cast your pet.

I made a necro and don't have any regrets (CotH bot vs mana battery lol)

Necros can accomplish more solo... if you like Howling Stones, go necro <3

[kjs86z]

If you're going to solo, necro.

If you're going to want to group / raid, mage.

ez pz

[serjordanmormont]

If you're going to solo, necro.

If you're going to want to group / raid, mage.

ez pz

Mage no good for solo? I don't always want to solo but it's nice to have the option. I always figured they were great at it.

[kjs86z]

Mage no good for solo? I don't always want to solo but it's nice to have the option. I always figured they were great at it.

Sure they can. You won't level as quickly as a necro, but they do fine soloing.

[NegaStoat]

having played both to high level, they both have pros and cons. With a necro, you usually do the routine of send pet in, heat dot, snare dot, Fear, then more damage of some sort, and fear a second time as needed. As you hit higher levels you can mix it up with root rotting (very mana effective, but not especially time effective) or charming undead, break charm, kill two for cheap (extremely effective, limited locations to do this).

With a magician initially you flame up your pet, send it in, and just do 40%-50% damage to the target while assuming the shield's damage (neutral) beats out the pet from scoring more total damage than you. You destroy 3-4 mobs raidly then sit and read a book or watch a movie for 5 minutes while you recover mana. At higher levels you transition into chain pet casting (you can do this earlier in levels too technically) which is more mana efficient and not very expensive.

In my heart, I believe the necromancer to be the stronger of the two classes with a very robust selection of spells and ability in comparison to the Magician, and the necro seems to give up very little to gain this wider range of power. The magician on the other hand doesn't screw around with fear, or wasted DoT damage, or losing respawn time in chain killing because they kill their targets quickly if they want. The magician in a group also isn't constantly hopping around doing things with spells (healing, twitching, rooting, mezzing, etc). They sit on their ass sending in a fat pet that does loads of damage, flame shields the tank every now and then, and conserves mana at about 60-70% for when the crap hits the fan. Then they stand up and bomb things and look like a hero.

Look at both of their spell lists and make your choice.

[serjordanmormont]

having played both to high level, they both have pros and cons. With a necro, you usually do the routine of send pet in, heat dot, snare dot, Fear, then more damage of some sort, and fear a second time as needed. As you hit higher levels you can mix it up with root rotting (very mana effective, but not especially time effective) or charming undead, break charm, kill two for cheap (extremely effective, limited locations to do this).

With a magician initially you flame up your pet, send it in, and just do 40%-50% damage to the target while assuming the shield's damage (neutral) beats out the pet from scoring more total damage than you. You destroy 3-4 mobs raidly then sit and read a book or watch a movie for 5 minutes while you recover mana. At higher levels you transition into chain pet casting (you can do this earlier in levels too technically) which is more mana efficient and not very expensive.

In my heart, I believe the necromancer to be the stronger of the two classes with a very robust selection of spells and ability in comparison to the Magician, and the necro seems to give up very little to gain this wider range of power. The magician on the other hand doesn't screw around with fear, or wasted DoT damage, or losing respawn time in chain killing because they kill their targets quickly if they want. The magician in a group also isn't constantly hopping around doing things with spells (healing, twitching, rooting, mezzing, etc). They sit on their ass sending in a fat pet that does loads of damage, flame shields the tank every now and then, and conserves mana at about 60-70% for when the crap hits the fan. Then they stand up and bomb things and look like a hero.

Look at both of their spell lists and make your choice.

Based on what you are saying here seems like less downtime for a necro, that sound right? I'd like to play whichever is slightly more active.

Too much down time makes Jack a dull boy.

[NegaStoat]

If you want more active, then Necro, hands down, easily.

As for race choice, once you get call of bones you're going to end up looking like a skeleton all the time regardless. I will admit, my Necromancer was a Dark Elf and I liked it a great deal. The higher Int score gave you more options for gear choices in terms of +mana, +hp, and +resist items. The Hide skill was very nice for going AFK for an hour or two and not coming back to a corpse.

Realistically though, that Iksar Regen isn't a myth or fable as to how good it is. It really IS that good. There is one fact to consider about it however. If you are at a camp dealing with a limited amount of spawns and you are NOT able to use that extra mana from the regen conversion, then it's a wasted attribute. If you plan ahead and take on camps with increased targets or you're in an area with free roaming mobs (like Dreadlands) then the Regen blows away the added Racial experience penalty.

The difference between Iksar / Non Iksar is listed on the P1999 wiki under guides. Read it. If your final question of "is a non Iksar race necromancer still a really strong class" is all that's holding you back, the answer is yes. God yes. Necros of any race are powerhouses.

[mgriff02]

Just make both and see which you prefer! :)

[GuRu]

Erudite necros are pretty well liked as well..and have the highest starting INT.

[k3vil]

having played both to high level, they both have pros and cons. With a necro, you usually do the routine of send pet in, heat dot, snare dot, Fear, then more damage of some sort, and fear a second time as needed. As you hit higher levels you can mix it up with root rotting (very mana effective, but not especially time effective) or charming undead, break charm, kill two for cheap (extremely effective, limited locations to do this).

With a magician initially you flame up your pet, send it in, and just do 40%-50% damage to the target while assuming the shield's damage (neutral) beats out the pet from scoring more total damage than you. You destroy 3-4 mobs raidly then sit and read a book or watch a movie for 5 minutes while you recover mana. At higher levels you transition into chain pet casting (you can do this earlier in levels too technically) which is more mana efficient and not very expensive.

In my heart, I believe the necromancer to be the stronger of the two classes with a very robust selection of spells and ability in comparison to the Magician, and the necro seems to give up very little to gain this wider range of power. The magician on the other hand doesn't screw around with fear, or wasted DoT damage, or losing respawn time in chain killing because they kill their targets quickly if they want. The magician in a group also isn't constantly hopping around doing things with spells (healing, twitching, rooting, mezzing, etc). They sit on their ass sending in a fat pet that does loads of damage, flame shields the tank every now and then, and conserves mana at about 60-70% for when the crap hits the fan. Then they stand up and bomb things and look like a hero.

Look at both of their spell lists and make your choice.

Nice post. I think you hold the cards to make a good judgement between the classes, as you played them both.

[Expediency]

Additionally, how easy is it to get decent low level gear for either? I'm told the flayed skin for a necro is pretty solid and can take me up through higher levels. Is this gear expensive?


Flayed skin is only wearable by necro/SK and they must be human/erudite. Because of this limited market, it is very cheap. It drops in KC and most people dont even roll on it. It is dropable. . You can get a suit for 500pp tops, if you are brand new to p99 people will probably just give it to you. Its awesome fashionquest too, bright red.

[serjordanmormont]

The difference between Iksar / Non Iksar is listed on the P1999 wiki under guides. Read it. If your final question of "is a non Iksar race necromancer still a really strong class" is all that's holding you back, the answer is yes. God yes. Necros of any race are powerhouses.

Yeah this is the big thing for me. It's not that I dislike Iksars at all, quite the opposite but my main is an Iksar Shaman and the reason I wanted to create this character was for a change.

I'm glad to know necros of any race are viable.

[serjordanmormont]

Just make both and see which you prefer! :)

This may just be the right answer. I made the mage and got him to 10 yesterday. Maybe I'll do the same with a necro and see who wins out.