Well I hit lvl 16 with Scarecrows. Yes it was much easier at lvl 14 and 15. Now i need to read up on new set of spells, get them and come back. Feign Death, yeah!

I tried to duo, but there was no interest. (how in the world everyone knows i'm clumsy player?!?) :p

I need to read again through Ivory posts. Hungry Earth is for undead. I need to get this spell. Next week i will be back. I will probably stay with Scarecrows few more levels, then, Hermit in SK or Gargoyles in OOT. Probably gargoyles to gather some platina ;-)

@Ivory Would be very interested to hear how feasible Kunark is for this build... and if you go solo in Seb or other undead dungeons would be amazing if you could stream as that is something I'd love to see

Grats on the rod of annihilation!

from the wiki these are the damage caps by archetype. Are you sure that you can hit for higher than 20 weapon damage + str bonus?

caster

levels 1-9 - weapon damage cap is 6
levels 10-19 - weapon damage cap is 10
Levels 20-29 - weapon damage cap is 12
Levels 30-39 - weapon damage cap is 18
Level 40+ - weapon damage cap is 20

priest

levels 1-9 - weapon damage cap is 9
levels 10-19 - weapon damage cap is 12
Levels 20-29 - weapon damage cap is 20
Levels 30-39 - weapon damage cap is 26
Level 40+ - weapon damage cap is 40

melee & tank

levels 1-9 - weapon damage cap is 10
levels 10-19 - weapon damage cap is 14
Levels 20-29 - weapon damage cap is 30
Levels 30-39 - weapon damage cap is 60
Level 40+ - weapon damage cap is 100

http://wiki.project1999.com/Game_Mec...bat_and_Damage


This makes it seem like even a 40/40 weapon would act as a 20/40 weapon.

Aside from using Staff of Undead Legions, the whole melee necro thing is overrated at high levels. Vampiric Embrace is 124 damage per minute at best, that's not some kind of game-changing thing to make you want to melee instead of medding and casting spells. If you're soloing and need to tank some for your pet, yeah, but otherwise, eh. Venom of the Snake is more efficient in Vanilla era and then in Kunark at 51 you get Envenomed Bolt. Unless your group is killing each individual target ultra fast, those DoT's are fast enough to be efficient.

It's overrated in general, not just at higher levels. I've been trying it since Kunark and it stopped being worth doing around level 20. Even fully twinked with all the AC gear I'm getting crushed by mobs because I'm effectively wearing what amounts to banded, with no dodge or parry.

Also whiffing 75% of my attacks because at level 21 I have the melee skillcaps of a level 15 warrior. I have to fully dot up a mob in order to outdamage my pet, and since I'm not medding during fights, I've got crazy downtime. It worked fine up to level 12 and was acceptable until 18, then it became trash.

Kinda knew that would be the case as well, but everyone was so caught up in this shit that I figured I'd try it. It's garbage. Undead staff is the only way this melee necro fantasy is even worth contemplating. Other than that, it's just Ivory being too excited thinking he found some amazing new strats noone's ever thought of in 20 years.

You're not supposed to outdamage the pet, genius.

If you're soloing and trying to level then you want to be outdamaging your pet, genius.

No, you don't. You simply kill >2x the number of mobs in less time. How many times does Ivory have to spell that out for you in this thread.

No, you don't. You're going to level slower trying to use the melee necro method, once you get to a level range where you're missing too many attacks because of shit weapon skill and the mobs hitting too hard. DPS in melee as an INT class is pathetic and you're just going to be standing there eating damage, and thus need to cast more inefficient lifetaps to heal yourself up. The efficiency of Necro DoT's, and the ability of fear kiting to make the enemy do 0 damage, is far better.