Necro Gear Guide for Velious

[Newt]

Outside of Zlandi Heart / CoS what are some items per each slot to get for a Necro twink?

Is it worth it to try and faction up early and get the clickie pants/robe/bracer from thurg or CoV?

I know HP rings/Earrings, and something with reclaim energy is a good to grab.
What else?

Also, is CoS absolutely necessary or is it just a quality of life thing?

[Xaeophi]

You pretty much have the right idea i think.
HP is going to be one of the key stats you can acquire.
Mana and int is important too to a certain degree but with necros HP is your lifeline in a lot of ways
Other then being able to take a bigger beating, you have more mana to funnel with higher HP via lich spells.
Higher HP = Less waste from life taps exceeding a lower max hp.
Specific Items to look for in the future besides the ones you listed..
Theres always the epic of course but something that you should really keep an eye out for is..
https://wiki.project1999.com/Encyclopedia_Necrotheurgia
I think that book stands out the most to me. Look into it.

[tranceminus]

Either CoS or Goblin Gazughi ring is basically essential once you start charming. CoS is better because you don’t have to change targets to use it, plus it’s super useful in a bunch of other situations like FD + instant invis, or guaranteed nonstop invis while running through sketchy areas.

You won’t really be charming much until maybe Kaesora in your late 30s for a couple levels, and then HS 54+. So until then CoS is more nice than necessary.

[Raev]

I was fairly underwhelmed by the z-heart. It's certainly not bad, but considering that it's as expensive than a tstaff/fungi/cof combo pack it's hardly a game changer. On the other hand, the holgresh beads were amazing both for pulls and tapping back HP, and the effect is easily replicable with a 100p bag of stalking probes.

My necro is 52 right now and he's really starting to miss the quest pants. The huge increase in NPC hitpoints that starts at L40 means fights take forever without haste, and it also makes it more likely that one of them will die with the other at 30-40% HP, and having to use a bunch of dots kills your efficiency even with Splurt.

I am not really playing him much at the moment (Necro is just kind of meh once you've played Enchanter) but if I do get back to him I mean to pick up a Staff of the Dreaded Gaze. Fear is an amazing leveling tool IMO, even indoors if you are careful. I regularly finished off undead frogs in Guk with snare/fear since I got tired of root breaking on me. You can also save a lot of damage by fearing at 30-50% or so depending on how much DPS your group has and how much they hate chasing mobs around, and it prevents cleric/shaman mobs from spamming their heals.

[Bardp1999]

Casters in general are not gear dependent, or at least not nearly as much as melee. I leveled my Necromancer to 60 in rags for the most part (had a few hot items). You do basically have all the information it sounds like from your original post but I will offer up some tips from my experience leveling to 60.

Z-Heart is really nice but doesn't make the class into something its not already. With shaman/druid regen at level 60 I don't lose any health while in Demi Lich as an Iksar. Leveling up it helped but I could have done it w/o, just not quite as lazily. Z-Heart also doesn't have an attack/delay so if you use from level 1 you wont be able to auto attack which is important at the very low end.

CoS is very essential for charm killing and is just a super handy utility item in general

Haste pants save you tons and tons of mana. If you can get the HoT (rotting pantaloons) they have baller stats on them also

Stalking Probes/Elder Beads I find to be pretty much wasted on my necro since you cant cast them when you have a pet up. There are rare times when I guess its nice to be able to life tap or whatever for free (as long as you dont have a pet) but it doesn't come up much for me personally and I view these as more of a level 60 thing as opposed to 1-59

J-Boots are a real life saver for many reasons, but mainly because not having them sucks balls.

Staff of Dreaded Gaze is complete garbage due to the cast time

Encyclopedia Necrotheurgia is not really "attainable" w/o a guild that runs Fear a lot or at least trys to contest Cazic Thule (So Aftermath/Tempest/Azure Guard/CoreRMTcrew)

Necromancer spells (in general) are cheaper than other casters spells. You can get every spell you need (including level 60s) for probably 10k-15k total in the current economy. And I mean total, from 1-60 10k-15k should do it no problem.

I never bothered to get a reclaim energy item and I have never felt the need to have one.

Your mana regen is the best in the entire game, stack HPs over mana whenever possible because regening mana is trivial to the necromancer.

At level 49 you become immensely powerful (get a lot of cool spells) compared to 1-48

Necromancers should HEAL others as much as possible via Shadow Pact and Shadowbond. Pro Tip, leave your top spell slot open (can do this with like a grim aura buff then remove it) and you can cast dispell on yourself and remove the recourse, essentially giving free heals and removing the drain mechanic completely. Particularly powerful in CoM (as far as level range - I seem to remember my heals being very effective here before dropping off - but then you get Shadowbond and they pick back up - just part of the natural power curve all casters have)

Twitching is important to the cleric but if you HEAL as much as possible and then use your mana to Tap back to full life you end up saving more mana than just twitching (due to cleric not having to heal as much and the added damage from taps to mobs).

Most important low level spells - Screaming Terror (5 second mez), Harmshield (DA), Feign Death. These are all sub level 20 spells that will nearly always be on your spell bar even at level 60.

Don't be bad and afraid to charm - All the best leveling zones in EQ have undead mobs, don't be the asshole who wont get a pet.

Numb The Dead is a very low level spell that acts as a "lul" or "pacify" for undead mobs. Cool thing about this spell is it doesnt need LoS, so you can get a target and cast it through walls and all kinds of shit. This becomes extremely handy in HS but has other uses as well (CoM 2nd floor, Seb CE, KC, HS, + tons of other places)

Necromancers are more powerful in duos and trios than solo. Best groups are with a Shaman/Monk or at high levels a Enchanter/Cleric. Necro/Shaman/Monk is one of the most potent leveling trios in the entire game. The synergy between the 3 is nearly perfect. Monk/necro is a great duo once you can heal and if the monk is geared. Necro/shaman is a great duo at slightly higher levels when you can heal the shamans canni damage. Do not fall into the trap of trying to be a solo artist fear kiting everything, it is a very boring and vastly overrated form of play. The necromancer is the grease that keeps a group rolling. Super solid DPS, great off heals, twitching mana, pets, FD... Dont over look how potent your group potential is.

Always always always heal your companion shaman, they will become your best friend and keep your regen rolling as well. You feed them health to make mana, they feed you health to make mana. Net result is everyone is bursting at the seams with mana!

The biggest compliments I have got in the game (multiple times) were people telling me "apparently I know nothing about necromancers" or "I had no idea necromancers could do that" after they saw how much I could add to the group through my utility. A well played Necromancer in a small group is as close to an unstoppable force as there is in EQ. I always think of Necromancer DPS as a side effect rather than a focus (or it should be at least, if you want to be good).

/end rant

[Raev]

How do you manage to consistently dispel the recourse? In my experience dispels are nearly random now and it's easy to get buff 8-9 rather than 1.

[Teppler]

I was fairly underwhelmed by the z-heart. It's certainly not bad, but considering that it's as expensive than a tstaff/fungi/cof combo pack it's hardly a game changer. On the other hand, the holgresh beads were amazing both for pulls and tapping back HP, and the effect is easily replicable with a 100p bag of stalking probes.

My necro is 52 right now and he's really starting to miss the quest pants. The huge increase in NPC hitpoints that starts at L40 means fights take forever without haste, and it also makes it more likely that one of them will die with the other at 30-40% HP, and having to use a bunch of dots kills your efficiency even with Splurt.

I am not really playing him much at the moment (Necro is just kind of meh once you've played Enchanter) but if I do get back to him I mean to pick up a Staff of the Dreaded Gaze. Fear is an amazing leveling tool IMO, even indoors if you are careful. I regularly finished off undead frogs in Guk with snare/fear since I got tired of root breaking on me. You can also save a lot of damage by fearing at 30-50% or so depending on how much DPS your group has and how much they hate chasing mobs around, and it prevents cleric/shaman mobs from spamming their heals.

If you think your necro like you do your chanter, it's not gonna be fun. You should be having the most fun from low 50s to 60 on your necro. I don't think there's any faster leveling path than a necro once it gets to mid 50s except maybe swarm kiting with Bard. And if you choose to group necro can do so much stuff, you shouldn't really be getting bored.

[Bardp1999]

The dispell can be a bit janky at time Raev I will agree, it certainly requires an element of timing. I don't do it at level 60 because I usually have more mana than I know what to do with, but leveling I had it down to not strip myself and get only the recourse (given you cast dispell at the right time). I'll do some testing and get back

[Zabbix]

How do you manage to consistently dispel the recourse? In my experience dispels are nearly random now and it's easy to get buff 8-9 rather than 1.

Difficult to manage until level 53 and annul magic. Only method I've found before then is while grouped with an ench taper enchantment can be used to manage your top slot but it's tedious for both of you. edit: this no longer works nvm must have been a bug of some sort when they first patched taper to it's fixed form!

[Troxx]

How do you manage to consistently dispel the recourse? In my experience dispels are nearly random now and it's easy to get buff 8-9 rather than 1.

I personally don’t ever dispel. I just heal through the damage with vexing - works well and isn’t a strain on mana or time.

[Sicc]

The recast time on your shadowbond line off spells is shorter than the duration. You can cast your heal on one person, and while they are still receiving the heal over time, you can cast it on another person as well before it fades. It just refreshes your dot instead of adding an additional dot to you. You can have 2 people receiving your heal for the price of 1.

Always have a mob in camp as a grouped necro, no downtime. Keep those heals flowing non stop. Drain + heal all day. Gauge the damage received/output, adjust your heals accordingly, screaming terror to interrupt nukes, snare fear as an above poster mentioned, aggro kite, etc. Find creative ways to mitigate damage, slowing is not the only way. If your slower takes notice, they'll stop slowing = more mana for dps = faster kills = more xp.

Very contentious, but avoid twitching as much as you can. Twitching = losing. Far too many times have I twitched people only to watch them be completely inefficient with their mana, or waste precious ticks of mana standing for no reason. Once you get a finger on the pulse of the group, you dictate where the resources go. Stand your ground to whiney mana leeches. Don't be rude, offer coaching.

I know this was a gear question but some great play advise was dropped here so here's my 2cp.

[Tortok]

How do you manage to consistently dispel the recourse? In my experience dispels are nearly random now and it's easy to get buff 8-9 rather than 1.

With these 3 rules I made it work quite reliable:
1) Use no insta spell refreshers, they screw up client buff order vs server buff order in my experience
2) Use anull magic and a junk buff in 1st slot leaving 2nd slot empty (more debuff ticks makes it more reliable to not skip buffs)
3) If it stops working that way, click of all buffs (except that aego and alike ofc) and restart buff order from scratch

[fastboy21]

Casting shadowbond x2 per each vexing with demi-lich (or even lower lich running) is usually net gain...so you can do it pretty much forever.

The problem with it usually comes with having a charmed pet at the same time...if you try max your efficiency by holding off on vexing till you are VERY low health (I think when I first got Vexing I could heal myself to full if my health was as low as 25%). If you let yourself get that low trying to max efficiency you eventually get a charm break at really bad time (duel wielding pet that can pretty much one round you at low health).

Other than that the SB + Vexing + Charm pet (easily doable in KC grps) is very over powered. You can keep your heal running and still do a ton of DPS with only the pet.

I generally don't try to dispell...the amount of times you going to do this you end up cutting your own buffs eventually anyways, even if you get lucky/control it 90% of the time. It depends which buffs you are running I guess, but generally I have buffs on me that I really don't want to lose.

[Tortok]

I'd only bother doing it self buffed, wouldn't want to waste an Aego or PotG for it /shiver