The Ultimate Guide to Bone Knights!

[Jibartik]

Ivory invented this strat so she gets to name it! And she identifies as a gnome, so cute name like bone knight it is.

[magnetaress]

The str debuffs line all seemed to stack and let me tank lvl 40s mobs fairly well at 50 despite being capped defense and dodge wise. Strategy does work. Great for splitting cuz you root or mez and tank, tap one down, then fd.

If someone slows, necros, err bone knights near perpetual Immortality.

~lillia, 51 necro, red99

[Taiku]

Even if it's not all that it's claimed to be, it's a very fun playstyle, and so many people have adopted it and are decked out in dex gear and whacking their way through the lower levels at least! Everyone hating on it for not being the min/max best of the best dragon slaying FTE DKP way to play are taking it potentially too seriously.

Either way, I'm enjoying this second run through the leveling of my necromancer as a BONE KNIGHT!

[Gustoo]

At low levels you should melee as much as you possibly can to keep those skills up, when you still have a chance to take a hit without dying instantly.

No one is a pure caster until later in their career.

[pirate23]

Iksars get 100 swim to begin, can't beat that

[Anxarcule]

Now that Kunark is out for awhile, how feasible is this build in the high level dungeons crawling with undead?

[Noselacri]

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

Now that Kunark is out for awhile, how feasible is this build in the high level dungeons crawling with undead?

You can do some ok DPS if you have Annie orb or undead legions staff. You can't really tank. If you get a bunch of Velious BiS gear with crazy AC/HP, maybe you could think about meleeing solo, but right now the available gear gives you like 650 AC buffed and 1300 HP or something like that, with 75 dodge and no parry. Not gonna cut it in any high-level dungeon.

[Ivory]

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

Now that Kunark is out for awhile, how feasible is this build in the high level dungeons crawling with undead?

I'm 56 now, and still goin strong.

I can solo bears in the permafrost bear pits by tanking them and pet meleeing. Then pulling back to let pet take some hits before going in when it gets half life again (so we trade off recovering hps). But less work is just root rotting things really since splurt is soooo efficient / safe).

Tanking straight up in a group for high things isn't the best idea though with mobs that are hitting 120+ unless there is someone to slow. I mean, you can do it, but it just drains the mana so isn't that efficient for chain pulls.

But if you have a shaman or enchanter, can tank all day long without resting (I have duoed in bear pits with both, and also city of mist).

Otherwise teaming up with a better mitigating tank can be a good idea, and then using heals on them while meleeing with them. I also duoed in bear pits with a monk and I was able to keep him healed fine while we both dished out damage.

As normal, my DPS is way above anyone elses when you combine mine + pets DPS. 70-100 dps is normal. But a hasted enchanter pet in chardok or something will go higher (unhasted won't be higher dps)..... just my experience is that hasted high DPS pets that can go past my DPS also bring a HUGEEE risk to the team.

Sebilis and chardok i've had enchanters get splatted by their pets too many times that then went on to really cause problems and recovery for the team.

I'd MUUUCHHHH rather have a bone knight or mage DPSing than dealing with that. Just from all my parses, it isn't high enough DPS to really warrant the extra deaths.

For bone knight, I think the biggest problem is lower HPs. But with some cleric buffs that isn't much of a problem anymore.

Yup yup, overall bone knight is holding up pretty good. Top DPSer, that can heal, and duos bananas good with shamans and enchanters and beefier tanks.

[Vivitron]

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

I'm 56 now, and still goin strong.

I can solo bears in the permafrost bear pits by tanking them and pet meleeing. Then pulling back to let pet take some hits before going in when it gets half life again (so we trade off recovering hps). But less work is just root rotting things really since splurt is soooo efficient / safe).

Tanking straight up in a group for high things isn't the best idea though with mobs that are hitting 120+ unless there is someone to slow. I mean, you can do it, but it just drains the mana so isn't that efficient for chain pulls.

But if you have a shaman or enchanter, can tank all day long without resting (I have duoed in bear pits with both, and also city of mist).

Otherwise teaming up with a better mitigating tank can be a good idea, and then using heals on them while meleeing with them. I also duoed in bear pits with a monk and I was able to keep him healed fine while we both dished out damage.

As normal, my DPS is way above anyone elses when you combine mine + pets DPS. 70-100 dps is normal. But a hasted enchanter pet in chardok or something will go higher (unhasted won't be higher dps)..... just my experience is that hasted high DPS pets that can go past my DPS also bring a HUGEEE risk to the team.

Sebilis and chardok i've had enchanters get splatted by their pets too many times that then went on to really cause problems and recovery for the team.

I'd MUUUCHHHH rather have a bone knight or mage DPSing than dealing with that. Just from all my parses, it isn't high enough DPS to really warrant the extra deaths.

For bone knight, I think the biggest problem is lower HPs. But with some cleric buffs that isn't much of a problem anymore.

Yup yup, overall bone knight is holding up pretty good. Top DPSer, that can heal, and duos bananas good with shamans and enchanters and beefier tanks.

I wonder how much dps mages tend to do from nukes & ds. I grouped with a mage in chardok and their focused max summon 55 water pet was doing 55ish dps*, which I thought was impressive. In my experience when considered from a class balance or build choice angle there is a bias of damage parsing towards the person parsing -- when I am parsing I have quick feedback to keep my dps where I expect it to be, and sometimes will go to extra lengths to maximize my damage.

I think when choosing a charm pet it's important to reflect not only on the risks the pet increases and reduces, but also on the costs of failure. When a failure is going to be a long corpse recovery for a full group, you have to have a lower risk tolerance than when you are soloing near a zone line frequented by clerics. I've found that charm pets are a significant net benefit to groups, speaking as an enchanter[You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

I'm tempted to roll a necro some day, it looks fun.

*My parser currently only shows dps for the latest fight, so that's a very rough estimate.

[Gwaihir]

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

I'm 56 now, and still goin strong.

I can solo bears in the permafrost bear pits by tanking them and pet meleeing. Then pulling back to let pet take some hits before going in when it gets half life again (so we trade off recovering hps). But less work is just root rotting things really since splurt is soooo efficient / safe).

Tanking straight up in a group for high things isn't the best idea though with mobs that are hitting 120+ unless there is someone to slow. I mean, you can do it, but it just drains the mana so isn't that efficient for chain pulls.

But if you have a shaman or enchanter, can tank all day long without resting (I have duoed in bear pits with both, and also city of mist).

Otherwise teaming up with a better mitigating tank can be a good idea, and then using heals on them while meleeing with them. I also duoed in bear pits with a monk and I was able to keep him healed fine while we both dished out damage.

As normal, my DPS is way above anyone elses when you combine mine + pets DPS. 70-100 dps is normal. But a hasted enchanter pet in chardok or something will go higher (unhasted won't be higher dps)..... just my experience is that hasted high DPS pets that can go past my DPS also bring a HUGEEE risk to the team.

Sebilis and chardok i've had enchanters get splatted by their pets too many times that then went on to really cause problems and recovery for the team.

I'd MUUUCHHHH rather have a bone knight or mage DPSing than dealing with that. Just from all my parses, it isn't high enough DPS to really warrant the extra deaths.

For bone knight, I think the biggest problem is lower HPs. But with some cleric buffs that isn't much of a problem anymore.

Yup yup, overall bone knight is holding up pretty good. Top DPSer, that can heal, and duos bananas good with shamans and enchanters and beefier tanks.

I would duo my chanter with ya and roll a max hasted sword pet + melee with you. These guys don't know shit.