Choosing an INT caster

[Deckk]

I've had some serious altitis, and I've decided that needs to stop. Ultimately, I'd love to twink out a tank, but I've decided I'd like to pick a class and stick with it.

I like all four int casters.

I have to afk sometimes as I have two children under the age of 2. I'd also like to utilize the Gnoll fang quest (can you do that on a necro?)

I played a wiz on live from 99-02, so there's a comfort level there.

But the three pet classes seem like they could be a ton of fun. Necro and enchanter especially, as the ability to FD and own undead is great. But so does clarity/group ability/charm. Just looking for some experienced folks to chime in here with opinions. I'd really like to utilize the Gnoll fang quest, though, as I've spent a lot of time getting any characters to ten and deleting them rather than focusing on leveling just one. Thanks in advance!

[Samoht]

Enchanter changes drastically after 12 once you get your first charm.

Necros are not desired for groups, and you'll pretty much solo to 60 focusing on charming undead.

Necro requires less gear, but you'll need a Circlet of Shadow as soon as you can get one (clickable at level 20).

It's highly recommended to be an iksar necro. You don't *have* to, but it's more optimal.

[Deckk]

I don't mind soloing. Just figure that being able to group would be a nice change of pace. I'm most concerned with the ability to do Gnoll fangs + afk-ability. I mean it's rare I afk for more than 5 mins, but I always feel like a goober.

[Tecmos Deception]

Necros are generally not sought for groups, but its because they're undervalued and not enough necros play properly in groups they do get into. Make friends and l2necro and you'll find groups as one.

Necro and ench can both afk pretty safely whenever when solo, necro via feign and ench via knowledge of safe spots/spawn times and the ability to move around anywhere. Ench isn't as easy to afk with in groups without maybe bothering the group, since you are so crucial for cc and your charmed pet can be an annoyance when you need a break.

Wiz is a long, slow trip, imo. Quad kiting playstule and downtime needs to be a good match for you, since you will get the vast majority of your xp that way unless you have friends who pity you and give you groups [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Magician are more of a 1 trick pony. No innate invis, ivu, cc, lull, feign... Totally reliant on power of and vulnerable to the weaknesses of their pets. Strong in groups and useful in a niche way in raids though, as much so as necros or ench I guess.

[Tecmos Deception]

It's your choice of course, but to me it seems silly to be so concerned with doing the gnoll fang quest. It's nice, sure. But basing a class choice on being able to turn in fanga for a few easy levels? Doesn't seem sound in the medium run let alone the long run.

Not sure if necros can do it easily but with share wolf or something I assume they can. It will kill your qeynos catacomb faction though, for what that's worth.

[Deckk]

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

It's your choice of course, but to me it seems silly to be so concerned with doing the gnoll fang quest. It's nice, sure. But basing a class choice on being able to turn in fanga for a few easy levels? Doesn't seem sound in the medium run let alone the long run.

Not sure if necros can do it easily but with share wolf or something I assume they can. It will kill your qeynos catacomb faction though, for what that's worth.

Really, the decision to do Gnoll fang does have a bearing simply because all four classes interest me. If I valued one tremendously more than the others I wouldn't care. As of this moment I'm looking at it in this order: enchanter/necro, wiz, mage

[Tecmos Deception]

Well all four will be able to do the quest if you really want to get it done, I'm pretty confident. So you're still back to having to pick the class based on the class [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

They're all great. Your order is the same I'd consider them personally.

Magicians are neat, but their extreme focus and gimmicky utility (mod rods, COTH, summoned items) don't appeal to me when we're talking about playing the character for hundreds of hours and more, even though their variety of pets coupled with malo line and nukes and utility make them a solid all around class.

Wizards can be a lot of fun. Ports are great (and translocates are better!), they have nice CC via stuns and awesome roots, quadding and AE groups are cool in their own ways, they're top notch DPS in raids besides being important to get everyone together with ports. There IS a bit of an art/science to nuking properly without pulling aggro or leaving some of your potential unused and they get big boosts from their current levels overall in Velious, imo.

Necros have a huge arsenal of spells. Invis, IVU, feign, harmshield (two of them!), a pet, snares, roots, mez, fear, lifetaps... those give you great ability to move through a lot of places and to accomplish difficult pulls whether solo, grouped, or raiding. Necro heals are phenomenal when used correctly in groups, twitch is a very valuable utility. Necros can also summon corpses, rez, nuke (multiple resist types), dot (4 resist types!), charm, summon pets, evac, regen mana like crazy, sacrifice the souls of other players for fun and profit, and more.

Enchanters are simultaneously more specialized than necros while being more versatile. You'd think they're squishier targets because they don't have feign, harmshield, or lifetaps, but rune+bedlam are pretty damn awesome and quick stuns+mezzes+roots give them toughness in an indirect way. They're almost totally reliant on charm to solo, are expected to be charming in most group situations or else aren't considered to be pulling their weight... but charm IS incredibly power. Chanters can move through dungeons more quickly than necros but with more risk because of better lull spells but no feign/harmshield. Haste, slow, tash, c2, and CC make enchanters amazing in groups even if they don't charm. Then they still have illusions, faction spells, cool but not-frequently-used debuffs (enchanters can debuff strength by like 200 points, lol), mem blur, mana taps, the best dispels in the game by miles, and more.

[Deckk]

As OP mentioned, I mained a wiz from 99-02 and I practically only played him. My comfort level with wiz is through the roof. But the grind to get to the interesting stuff scares the piss out of me.

If I go necro, it's not going to be an iksar. I know, min/max folks will crush me, but I find the amount of iknecs to be beyond boring. Probably go gnome, human or erudite for a necro... High elf or gnome for enchanter. Gnome or dark elf for wizard. Erudite or dark elf for Mage.

[Qtip]

Enchanter. Can do it all. Solo, pve, farming, dps and some of the best buffs in game. No group will turn down a good enchanter.

[Raev]

I played a Necromancer up to 52 on red and that has substantially increased my interest in the class. I used to think of Necros purely as weak enchanters (no tash, no slow, no AE mez, undead charm only). And that view isn't totally wrong.

But I think its more accurate to think of Necromancers as the caster version of a monk. It seems no one ever splits camps on a Necro, but I found they were extremely good at it on Red. For low level stuff Screaming Terror or Darkness means you can easily get the mob you want very quickly, and you don't have to take any damage because you sic your pet on it as it enters camp. For higher level stuff, you can aggro with a L1 pet from a distance and harmshield if FD fails. In Velious, you can mem both Death Peace and Feign Death, so with a clicky you get 2 chances in 3 seconds. If FD fails twice in a row, it just wasn't your night. You have Rune for trains and Shadow Vortex to pull out of trains.

If you really look at the Necromancer spell list, I think Nec/Shm is actually better than Mnk/Shm, although I guess with some of this Velious raid gear monks will just be unstoppable.

I'm not sure why no one plays this kind of ninja necromancer on P1999, but I have some theories. In order of decreasing probability:

1. Everyone and their brother plays monk, leaving 2-3 for every XP group, and monks cry if they can't pull
2. The average Necromancer is only interested in soloing to L52 so they can twink a monk (see #1)
3. Sesserdrix and his incomprehensible love affair with twitch bitching have corrupted an entire generation
4. Somehow its much harder at L60 than L52 and I am just a moron

Anyway, I think all 4 classes are decent, but Enchanter and Necromancer are far more interesting and flexible.