Necromancer Questions:

[Kich867]

Just getting into necro again, currently balling out on Fire Beetle Eye / Snake item quests to shoot up the levels in Neriak.

My question is, how often do you all just lean on your pet destroying things and taking the 50% xp hit? It sucks to lose the XP but right now the pet can basically solo mobs with very little assistance from me and I can't easily/consistently/mana efficiently out damage him, I'm sure this gets easier though later on when your DoTs do a lot? At low levels does it make sense to just let this guy go nuts and kill twice as many mobs to level just because I have like no downtime?

And a little later on, are there any tricks you do to be fairly confident, when you're fear kiting, to make sure the pet doesn't take half the XP? Do you snare -> fear -> fully DoT targets up? Or is that just mana inefficient to do?

[zelld52]

At level 8? I think? You get an undead nuke which is great for out DPSing pet.

Fear kiting is super easy once your DoTs get a little better… Snare, dot up, fear. Repeat until mob is near 50%, send pet. Repeat fears / snares. Pet won’t steal any exp. The trick is to make sure you’ve done close to 50% damage before you send pet — it’s hard to do with the early DoTs though - they’re pretty inefficient.

At level 16 you get access to Banshee aura - with this + vampiric embrace you can drain tank. You’ll easily out dps your pet if you have something like a smoldering brand and melee attack. It’s my favorite and has basically 0 downtime because melee will be your damage.

In a few more level you get better DoTs and Snare, so no need to rely on pet to do the damage and steal your exp. For now, just get through those early levels however you can. If you can kill 2x the mobs with the pet doing most of the damage it’s worth it.

[LordVictor]

At low levels, I usually allow my pet to kill stuff and take all XP if I"m meditating and sit down, otherwise I just let my pet deal a bit of damage and click in "back" but he still steal my xp some times

However, your pet OutDPSing you will not be a concern once you grind a bit more levels.

For e,g having a pet that deals 12 damage while the caster's poison bolt deals 5 damage per tik at lv 4 makes pretty hard to outDPS you pet. When you are lv 59, Emissary of Thule deals 60 damage and is lv 47 while any DoT, including snares like Devouring Darkness deals 100+ damage per tik, that is not a big concern. Since I'm human necro, I started in Qeynos and did the Gnoll Fang quest. So I could let my pet take the XP, I don't care. Most of my XP would be by questing.

I just wish that I could worship Inny or be Agnostic, but East Commonlands is a atrocious place to level up IMO.

At moment, I'm lv 26 and I only suffer with my pet outDPSing me when I'm using charmed undeads. But believe that at lv 29 when I get better DoTS, I would be able to outDPS even charmed pets in no problem.

In a few more level you get better DoTs and Snare, so no need to rely on pet to do the damage and steal your exp. For now, just get through those early levels however you can. If you can kill 2x the mobs with the pet doing most of the damage it’s worth it.
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Yep. At lv 12, necros get Engulfing Darkness, Heat blood and Leech. SAdly the DoTS only improve significantly at lv 29. Shock of Poison(24) is quite good if I need to quickly finish a mob

[Kich867]

Thanks all, followup question:

Once I can charm undead, is it worth trying to do that without an insta-break clickie? I'm a DE, so I can try hide, if that fails I can mash Gather Shadows.

And I've heard to do so in Unrest -> Kaesora, whereabouts do you start doing that in Unrest?

[PatChapp]

You don't need an instant break, you just need to keep the other mob rooted.
When you want to break,reroot the other mob and then back your pet off
Then you can cast invis to break and not worry about either mob dieing while you cast.

[Kich867]

You don't need an instant break, you just need to keep the other mob rooted.
When you want to break,reroot the other mob and then back your pet off
Then you can cast invis to break and not worry about either mob dieing while you cast.

Thanks!

[unsunghero]

Thanks!

I’ve been using invis to break charms on enc for 53 levs now, it’s no big deal as long as you make sure you refresh root on the other target before breaking charm

What you can do to give yourself more space and avoid hits from the pet after charm breaks is tell it to “guard here” with the pet command then run a bit away from it before breaking charm

Goblin gazugi ring is in my opinion highly overrated and only really useful in the situation where you are sending your pet into a clump of mobs, or charming a mob in a clump of mobs then quickly breaking charm before it dies. Of course in that situation you’ll want the clump to be rooted before breaking charm. But in this situation it’s unlikely you will even be able to pull the pet back, much less get off an invis, before it dies to the mobs. So GGR is extremely useful here

[PatChapp]

I’ve been using invis to break charms on enc for 53 levs now, it’s no big deal as long as you make sure you refresh root on the other target before breaking charm

What you can do to give yourself more space and avoid hits from the pet after charm breaks is tell it to “guard here” with the pet command then run a bit away from it before breaking charm

Goblin gazugi ring is in my opinion highly overrated and only really useful in the situation where you are sending your pet into a clump of mobs, or charming a mob in a clump of mobs then quickly breaking charm before it dies. Of course in that situation you’ll want the clump to be rooted before breaking charm. But in this situation it’s unlikely you will even be able to pull the pet back, much less get off an invis, before it dies to the mobs. So GGR is extremely useful here

It's also very nice as it saves a spell slot,which enchanters need many of. Completely optional, but a big convenience item.

[Elizondo]

CoS is a must have necro item

Even if you have to be naked with some hp rings

CoS >

If you've never owned one you just don't know. It does more than insta invis. I'll leave it at that.

[Rick Sanchez]

CoS is a must have necro item

Even if you have to be naked with some hp rings

CoS >

If you've never owned one you just don't know. It does more than insta invis. I'll leave it at that.

[Crede]

Being able to break charm at 1-2% is huge for mana saving. I pretty much only used Hungry earth to kill my pet until I got deflux. It gains efficiency as you level, and the added root is nice. Occasionally I would throw in an expulse undead if needed. Pre-Nerf CoS is nice too since you don't have to target yourself and insta invis when flopping around is the double benefit. But if you can't afford it, GGR will get the job done.

[zelld52]

Being able to break charm at 1-2% is huge for mana saving. I pretty much only used Hungry earth to kill my pet until I got deflux. It gains efficiency as you level, and the added root is nice. Occasionally I would throw in an expulse undead if needed. Pre-Nerf CoS is nice too since you don't have to target yourself and insta invis when flopping around is the double benefit. But if you can't afford it, GGR will get the job done.

Especially when charming skeletal warders in Kaesora -- much less chance of them getting a heal off if you break charm with the warder already targeted, so you can click CoS right into casting Hungry Earth / Expel undead

[unsunghero]

yeah that's a fair point I guess, esp since for druid mana is probably more of an issue. I have always pulled the pet back when it's below the lower half of the first bubble of health, to where a single anarchy can kill it

I will say there another risk to trying to pull back charmed caster mobs at low health. Once a caster mob pet starts casting a spell, they plant their feet and try to finish the spell no matter what commands you give them. Maybe there's a command that will make them stop but I don't know of it

This means that pulling a charmed caster mob back at super low health is very risky. I learned the hard way there's a chance they will start a cast right then, plant their feet in range of the enemy mob and ignore your pet back off commands, killing themselves while casting

[Encroaching Death]

I was lucky enough to buy a pre-nerf CoS back when it was cheaper.

I feel like I bought Bitcoin at $10 now.

It's just nice for so many reasons. It has also saved my ass countless times when a high level mob decides to spawn right near me and I'm quick enough to tap my CoS before the AI wakes up and aggros me.

[Tewaz]

Stealthy ring of travel is like 11k and has a 2 second cast time.

Goblin ring is 7k and is instant but you have to get used to targeting yourself. (Save for this, do not, I repeat, do not try to camp it for more than like 4 hours, it will drive you insane.)

CoS is nice but getting to 60k to buy one is a tall task for most players even if they hoard money and take the best plat making routes.

[Encroaching Death]

Stealthy ring of travel is like 11k and has a 2 second cast time.

Goblin ring is 7k and is instant but you have to get used to targeting yourself. (Save for this, do not, I repeat, do not try to camp it for more than like 4 hours, it will drive you insane.)

CoS is nice but getting to 60k to buy one is a tall task for most players even if they hoard money and take the best plat making routes.

I agree 100%.

I'd recommend the Ring of Stealthy Travel to a new Necro today. 2 seconds is quick enough. The only other downside is you have to equip it, but at least it has some stats on it.