Choosing an INT caster

[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.