[Potus]

Originally Posted by Uteunayr [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

See, when you write like this, I don't honestly understand. I am sorry, but I must be missing something. Whne you say "your pet can compensate whenever you have resists or trains or adds...", it sounds as if you intentionally throw your pet in to absorb damage for you... That's not a Necro pet. Skeletons are brittle, weak. If a pull goes bad, or you get resists, you pop your mage clickie and Feign Death out of the situation. I have never, at any point in my EQ career, felt I needed to throw my pet at something, to have it tank something, to compensate for me. That's something I have always seen as a Mage tactic.

I have never, once, felt gimped by the fact that the rogue and monk pet die quickly. Yes, they die quickly, but they shouldn't be taking damage in the first place if you're doing it right. Instead of scaling up HP (which is NOT what necro pets are, or ever were, for), they scaled up their damage by adding some nice variety to it with the backstabbing pet, and a cool looking warrior pet.

The stun bash does is brief, and the DPS it does is minor relative to the backstab. Warriors Bash, Monks Flying Kick, Rogues Backstab. I'll take the Backstab over a Bash any day of the week. My DPS with a Rogue backstab is much higher than an EoT with Bash.

Sorry, there's some major disconnect happening between us. I have never, nor can I ever imagine, a situation in which I feel it would fall on my pet to need to take hits for me. They are not tanks, they should not be tanks, they are another DoT effect. That's it. So, you are obviously doing something very different from how I have been playing the class since back in the day as well for the crux of your argument to be relevant. I am not saying you're wrong, just that for your argument to stand, I believe you're playing Necromancer in a strange way.

How exactly are you soloing? Are you root rotting or fear kiting? Because with fear kiting adds happen. It's just a part of the game; you'll never play from 1-60 and not have another mob aggro on your pet, or your snare wear off while you're trying to reapply it and the monster runs into an area it shouldn't, or you get a series of resists and your pet ends up tanking briefly. 1-49 the pet is great at dealing damage and staying alive so you can keep soloing. Post 50 the pets don't do enough damage to outweigh them dying instantly from adds. Verant knew this, that's why they tried to sell the monk and rogue as being really awesome, and then when people summoned them they felt duped.

Convergence is the rez, and yes, it uses an EE. But, just as on P1999, just as back on live, you did not have to delevel a person, as you could EE a level 60 through some janky mechanics. Even back in Kunark you were capable of getting EEs without something sacrificing their levels. Further, I do not buy "it wasn't really a rez.", it's a 93% rez at any point that I want without a Cleric or Paladin. Yes, you have to pay dearly for the component to do it, but that's the cost of convenience. How much would you be paying a Cleric or Paladin to run all the way out to City of Mist to grab you? How much would it cost to use one of your EEs? The convenience makes a Necromancer independent, and the rez is a part of that. So, I disagree and believe you undervalue the necro rez here, and overemphasize the losses.

How are you sacrificing people and they're not losing experience? Getting to level 60 on live was a ton of work, just as it is here. Lots of hours of play time. People wouldn't sell sacrifices without you coughing up A LOT of platinum up front. I recall the only people willing to do it were at the lowest level possible for a sac because they could (I presume through pretty dubious means) level back up quickly.

Again, it really was a gimmick. Sure you can rez, sure it made you more independent. But at a huge cost that wasn't really practical. You hear rez and you're excited for the expansion, and then you learn that you have to pay tons of money to convince people to eat exp loss. You're not going to replace a cleric or a paladin except in very, very, very limited situations, like when a raid wipes and you feign death. That's great, but like I said previously, it only makes Necromancers more well-rounded and gimmicky, not powerful.