Definite Iksar Vs. Necro Answer?
 

I'm going to beat an already dead horse with an obviously dead corpse and kick it until someone gives me an answer I can tolerate. Actually, I'm really curious to hear different opinions regarding Iksar vs. other available races ( particularly gnome, DE, or Erudite ).

I really don't want to wait months to start a necromancer, and I've came upon mixed opinions as for whether or not that is necessary. Does anyone have experience on both sides of the race debate - playing as an iksar necro AND any other race up to 60 within this play era?

I have only played as an iksar necromancer, and if it were available at launch that is the route I would go, even though they are ugly with a capital AF. Will guilds need necros that are not of the scaley kind ? Once Kunark is released will I then be cast aside if I don't have a tail to wag ?

Is there any argument to be made for Erudites having a larger mana pool, and potentially not needing to lich as long? or is that a pipe dream hallucination? There is obviously some exhaustive info on the net for min-maxing, but do fights in classic last long enough for this to make an honest difference?

TLDR. halp. I need someone to convince me that its okay to play a non lizard iksar and that I won't hate life once kunark is released.

A Necro is a Necro as far as groups and guilds are concerned. Being scaley only really helps downtime in Solo endeavors, you'll be fine rolling any race.

Yikes.

The definite answer for "Iksar vs Necro" is yes.

Iksars make the best monks and necros, hands down. You can always roll a new necro when Kunark launchs. Vanilla caps at level 50, fairly easy to get level 50...

Necros are super strong in Vanilla EQ...best pet class, hands down. That is reason enough to play necro...but yes you will never be as good as an iksar unless you re-roll one.

At least make either a dark elf or gnome, then you can have hide or wall hacks to go with your sour grapes. And since necros do get lull spells wall hacking is really quite useful.

IMO, you really start to see the difference between an Iksar and another race post-50. So until then it's not AS big of a difference, although it certainly is a difference. As far as guilds/raids go, it's not a huge deal though. Sure, you'll need to get your HP up more frequently than an Iksar while you're being a mana battery, but not enough that a guild would say they don't want you coming along. There's no raid size cap in EQ obviously, so there's no negative to having more mana batteries regardless of whether or not they are Iksar.

There is no arguement, the iksar is a meaningfully better race for monks and necromancers.

However, in raiding and group scenarios, the difference isn't game changing. It really plays out more significantly for min/max psychopaths and for PVP. On green it hardly matters.

If you want to justify being a necro on green launch, play a non KOS race like a gnome or human. Then you can be a necro and still get around the old world in relative eaze.

If you roll evil like dark elf, there is really no advantage.

Same goes for Monk. If you're a human, you can enjoy all of the goodie zones. If you're an iksar your stuck in the jungle. Depends what you want to do and how you want to play. a Min/Maxer wouldn't waste his time. Someone wanting to enjoy necro in the glorious vanilla era should absolutely go with any goodie race necro and enjoy the best game.

TL/DR there is no one thats going to say "oh our group / raid wanted a necro/monk, but we didn't know you were not an iksar, so please take a hike.

In PVP you want every advantage you can possibly give yourself and I would re roll a PVP monk or necro as sad as it is to do that kinda junk due to racial advantages.

In guild situations you'd probably have a crapload of regen buffs going to offset lich anyway. I think just chloroplast and your natural sitting regen will beat out lich damage.

You are certainly going to notice it when you are soloing tho.

Erudites make very good Necros. Super high starting INT + Mantle of Souls give them an insane Mana pool compared to Iksars. That means they can stack HP like crazy to have a huge HP reserve for liching. They aren't as efficient over time, but for something like breaking a hard camp an Erudite is actually better than an Iksar. Why? Because you will have a larger HP and Mana pool to play with. That being said, this advantage is really only meaningful through Kunark. With high end Velious gear the Erudite INT advantage basically disappears.

I wrote more about this here: https://www.project1999.com/forums/s...d.php?t=110930