Necros in Velius

[Uteunayr]

Also keep in mind that Twitch and Clarity/Mana Song are different types of mana flow.

If your cleric is totally OOM, and you're mid-fight, the answer isn't "Quick! Get the bard over there!", or "Get that cleric Clarity, quickly!".

There tend to be two ways stuff can go, it can either be smooth and efficient, or bursty and inefficient. Necro DoTs for example are smooth, consistent, and efficient DPS. A Wizard's nukes are jagged, but bursty DPS. If you have to kill a 16k hp boss in 30 seconds, you don't want to call in a Necro to DPS, lol. Wizards shine because they can burst sick damage in a short period of time. It may not be efficient, but not every situation demands efficiency.

What a necromancer brings is the same thing a Wizard brings, but instead toward mana pools. Twitch is mana on demand, it is burst mana. Clarity and Bard Song are efficient, steady mana.

If you're sitting and waiting to engage a boss with no pressure: a necromancer probably isn't what you need. If you're at king camp, a pull goes bad, 5 adds come in, and the enchanter is heavily mana tapped, then a necromancer is what you could use. I believe the last time I ran the numbers, I can twitch a bit over 1k mana to someone in less than half a minute. That type of burst mana isn't matched anywhere else.

Additionally, you should also consider the fact that although Necromancers only deliver mana to a single person, there is no limit to the number of necromancers that can provide their mana benefit. Once you have a single enchanter, everyone has clarity, so each additional enchanter cannot provide any further mana benefit to the group. As far as I know, this is still true for bards, in that you cannot have the same bard song on twice. Once a group has one bard, each additional bard cannot add advantage to that group. Each additional necromancer doesn't interfere with other necromancer's ability to provide burst mana in a tight situation.

A strong team of coordinated and smart Necromancers is not something to be dismissed so easily. There are plenty of uses for burst mana.

In other words: There is always a place where Burst is needed, and always a time when Efficiency is needed. Necromancers offer burst mana, not efficient mana. It's apples to oranges.

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

*gasp* Ute endorsing the Fear Stick? Why I never. [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

One of the biggest things I'm worried about with Velious that hasn't been pointed out is the dearth of undead available in Velious. Aside from Icewell Keep, Dragon Necropolis, TOFS, and Velks, there just aren't many undead mobs that we can perform our quasi-enchanter antics on, like lull and charm. Not to mention that aside from DN and TOFS, these undead mobs are sequestered away somewhere out of the way and usually mixed in with a disproportionate number of live mobs. Oh, and the DN undead are bellycasters, so hope you have hp/ac stacked hard if you want to charm those. [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Melee gets some insane gear in Velious, and mobs also get a huge boost to HP (among other stats), so sustained mana-free DPS becomes the name of the game for raid encounters. Necros are a caster's best friend though, since even now if I'm being lazy and only doing one twitch every minute I can contribute 15 mana/tick to my raid, and over a long Velious boss fight this can be quite a boon. We also get an awesome new FD at 60, a new lich with spectre illusion (come on, that's f'ing awesome), and plenty of hp regen loot we can take back to old content and play with.

So necros get sort of pigeonholed into doing CRs and mana batterying in Velious, at least in a raid setting. Like Tecmos said, not the most glamorous jobs but someone has to do them, and we get the toys to do them well. Plus, we can go back to Kunark and old world content with powerful new Velious gear and have fun solo or in group. While we may not be powerful enough to do a lot of super impressive stuff in Velious, we do get more powerful while other more necro-friendly content stays the same.

So yes, I'm looking forward to Velious as a necro. Personally, I'd make a monk and level up with your friend, because it never hurts to have another character leveled up and you won't know if you like it more until you try it.

http://wiki.project1999.com/Nightshade_Scented_Staff
http://wiki.project1999.com/Staff_of_the_Dreaded_Gaze
http://wiki.project1999.com/Shissar_Deathspeaker_Staff

These are the clicky staves that Ute was mentioning. As you can see, they are all 2HB and must be equipped to use.

http://wiki.project1999.com/Ring_of_Dain_Frostreaver_IV

This doesn't have to be equipped though! Although I would right now if Sirken handed me one.

Summoners should always scare you. [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.] Unless you can effectively fearkite them.

Only experience I have with necro/shaman duo is levelling up, and it is a great duo for that. I'm trying to think what necro would bring to the table for a shaman in a high end duo though. Our DPS is never really that stellar, but we can do the old vexing/dispel trick for the best healing efficiency outside of a Donals BP, we can twitch, and we can certainly provide some respectable (although not stellar) DPS. Maybe a debuff if you can get one of the 'Scent of' spells to land (which I have never been able to do reliably).

Melee dps mop the floor with our dps already. [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

I get a decent number of lifetap resists on highish end mobs now, and it will probably only get worse in Velious, where mobs have more MR.

I don't endorse the fear stick right now, because removing your weaponry is often more of a gimp than an advantage for such a shitty cast time. However, come Velious, when you have a lot of reason to swap weapon, the variety of sticks you listed, the benefit of weapon swapping becomes incredible. The free damage you get out of it makes up for the time you spend standing and casting the long cast clickies.

Additionally, Death Peace is a SK only spell to try and put SK FD on the same level of Monk. Necros don't get it. Sad panda.

Also, the new Lich form fucking sucks until Luclin when Demi Lich is knocked down to 56. Get comfy with Demi Lich.