Which DoTs to use on Necro?

[Allizia]

I would probably just group or kill undead until level 29 when you get dooming darkness and fear doesn't cost so much mana

I haven't played a necro in like 10 years, but I remember most of the lower level dots etc being pretty crappy with the exception if the ignite blood series and VoS to an extent

ignite was almost unresistable(with the exception of lavastorm/solusk areas) and caused like 0 agro
poison line was easily resisted
asytole line was easily resisted and caused HUGE agro on live
disease wasn't really worth it due to duration and lack of upgrades in classic for necros
nukes didn't exist until like 44 iirc

so basically I would either group or send pet on a skeleton/undead and ward undead/ignite with lifetaps as needed

[Bubbles]

You will spend a lot more time using the dark compact line of heals and having your pet tank than you realize. The actual pet heal is pretty lolbad, so just give the pet your health for 0 mana and tap your health back from the mobs.

Most of your fearkite mobs later on (giants, seafuries, specs, etc) are way overcamped so you will spend a lot more time dungeon crawling than you think right now. Also don't be afraid to duo. You can bring a ton of utility (heals, lull, mes, fear, root, snare, etc) to almost any duo. I spent a lot of time duoing with mages, wizards, necros, druids, clerics, monks, etc. Soloing is good xp, but duoing is generally even faster (and far safer) xp, and can be done almost anywhere, not just outdoor zones (like fear kiting is used to). You can really tear up unrest, befallen, najena and such with a duo, places you'd be way overwhelmed in solo.

If you do choose to go this method, be warned that you will likely Specialize in Alteration by default, which could turn this into a 10 page debate over what you *want* to be spec'd in. For those who dream of spec'n in conjuration, duoing/grouping is going to make it very hard to make that dream come true.

Just remember there's 800 people here on peak times, and all the good "solo" spots are quite busy. Don't be afraid to group up with someone else and share in the xp and lewtz.

As for what Allizia said, I'll expand:

Boil Blood and Scourge lines are excellent for actual fear kiting, since they last for a zillion ticks. Blood draws little aggro, scourge (being disease based) causes lots of aggro, so be ready.

Darkness is a mixed bag, high level cascading causes incredible damage and lasts for a lot of ticks, but you're dot stacking so hard at 49+ that nothing short of a planar mob/fire giant is going to last long enough for it to run it's course. Also it draws insane aggro, many use the dooming version to keep a mob snared without drawing as much heat onto the necro.

VoS/poison line is fast-acting high dmg high mana cost, it's one of the few dots you can use effectively in a grouping situation, altho i've always had more trouble sticking it on mobs than any other dot.

Assy Toes is a great debuff and huge taunt, when I'm kiting sea furries i like stacking Asy and cascading to go along with....

Bond of Death. Ya, the vamp curse upgrade, way mana efficient when you consider it will continue to heal you even after the mob is dead, and it's a fairly low taunt and does 80 a tick dmg/heal. This spell will always he on a high hotkey for you once you reach the level. At low levels, Leach is nice, although it loses its potency FAR before you get your vamp curse upgrade.

At your level, expect to do a lot of tanking for pet, jousting in and out of combat to keep pet alive, then tapping to heal yourself.

meh, there's probably more I'm forgetting but oh well. feel free to pm me any additional questions. I'm not the best necro out there (heh by far) but I know a few tricks.

[Allizia]

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

Darkness is a mixed bag, high level cascading causes incredible damage and lasts for a lot of ticks, but you're dot stacking so hard at 49+ that nothing short of a planar mob/fire giant is going to last long enough for it to run it's course. Also it draws insane aggro, many use the dooming version to keep a mob snared without drawing as much heat onto the necro.

Good info, I'd like to comment on the darkness line though

The reason I stopped with dooming darkness is because that is the first snare line that will slow mobs down to walking speed

The darkness line does good damage, however it has a pretty bad mana/damage ratio and you will start having issues with the casting time not to mention high mana fizzles etc.

I literally used dooming darkness from 29 through planes of power without ever using an upgrade more then once or twice for testing, there are other dots more suited for damage etc.

Basically, the darkness line is used to snare and nothing else, you want it to be as cheap/reliable/fast casting as possible