I played an Iksar Necro to 35 then switched to a mage which just dinged 20 last night so here is my experience playing both classes.
It should be noted that I highly enjoy grouping, yes I know I picked solo classes but they both offer benefits to a group and I enjoy utilizing that aspect of the classes more so then soloing.
As a necro, Soloing was more taxing in terms of play style as well as resist begin to cause much more problems. Mob resisting darkness snare would add a good amount of time to the kill rate, same with fear resists. As I stated I will always chose to group over soloing, even if the xp is slower... As a necro I was FORCED to solo, people do not want to group with necros, simple as that. Sad fact is too many necros play the class exactly the same in a group situation and that gives us a bad rap. I loved playing my necro in groups, the support you give can truly speed up any group composition if you know what your doing and the ability to basically become a battery for the group can really push a sub par group into a killing machine.
Cleric running out of mana? take over spot healing and dump some mana his way
Have a camp with a mix of weak/strong mobs, you heal the tank during weak mobs and let the healer handle the hard hitting stuff
Casters? ST them to stop heals/nukes
All the above taken care of... pump the wizard full of mana and let him rain hellfire down on the mobs
the list goes on and on, a well played necro in a group is truly an asset. The problem is you will hardly ever get a chance to show that side of the class as people see necro LFG and the "lawl go solo nub" spam starts flowing.
I could also be a lot more reckless with my necro cause I had FD and ST to fall back on, so I would try more things and harder pulls without fully thinking them through and I enjoyed playing the class more as a "I'll figure it out what to do in XXX situation should it arise" Overall it's a fun class, I still have the naked character which I do plan to re gear and play with once I find a good group of people that know I can play the game and will openly invite me into groups.
As a mage, never had trouble finding a group, ever... Your role in the group is much more DPS focused, with a small side role of support in terms of summoning throwing daggers/arrows for pullers, Damage shielding the tank, and using pet to help with mez breaks/offtanking mobs hitting the healer before tank can pick them up. Since you have a much more simple role in groups compared to necros you should be expected to control your pet better and use it to more full of an advantage IE: buff it, equip it etc. As a mage in a group you can expect to:
Summon supplies as people need, often times I do a supply check ever hour or so.
Learn when to nuke casters. especially healing mobs, to cause them to run instead of starting a heal spell, this is big if you use the water pet in groups like I do for the increased DPS. Note you do have the air pet stun if the majority of pulls will involve casters its much better to use the air pet for the stun.
Keep up damage shield on the tank, it surprises me how many mages seem to forget this aspect of the class.
It's a much more simple role in grouping but it does have a skill aspect to it and the skills transfer fairly well into playing a wizard if you decide to make one down the line. Necro in a group is more akin to a bard(which I also have a level 20 bard) in a group it's a very active playstyle that can get tiresome and groups can quickly overload you with responsibility if they are lacking in too many departments. You must be able to prioritize what the group needs the most from you on the fly and most the times in the worst of pulls your responsibilities and what is needed from you changes as the situation changes... You will not have enough spell gems to do everything you need to sometimes so spell choices change with the group/camp.
I love my necro and I love my mage, if the group situation wasn't what it was on this server I would probably have kept on playing my necro. But, if you want to play in groups and you don't have a good stable of friends that know you know how to play prepare to be turned down a lot as a necro. If you do decide to go necro and you do get in a group... PLEASE do us a favor and learn to play the class like it should be played in a group, it will go a long way in turning the stigma people have around!
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