Necro vs Wizzy. Which brings more to a group?

[Jimjam]

Smoldering brand is a good call. I used Lost Staff of the Scorned. It is something like 11/22 and sells for dirt cheap as it is wiz only with no stats. As a bonus it also is a clicky mana-less port to nek forest (city with bank and wizard trainer/spells, also just off EC) at later levels. I think I got mine for 20pp.

[Vallanor]

Wizards are great for soloing while getting things done around the house. Once you start quadding, you'll kill four mobs in about two minutes, then AFK med for ten minutes (do the dishes, clean the bathroom), then do it all again.

They're also great on raids. I've finally started using GamParse to see how my wizard stacks up on things like Vindi and Halls of Testing trash, and find myself in the top three dps most of the time.

If pulls happen too rapidly though, my efficiency drops pretty fast. For this reason, wizards are pretty bad in groups. On a fresh server where great ratio weapons and haste are hard to come by, wizard dps is fine in groups, but classic EQ itemization is so favorable to melee toons once these items become readily available. Stacking mana regen on a wizard doesn't have nearly the same impact as 100% haste and an uber ratio weapon on a melee toon. Clicky nukes help, but good ones aren't really attainable until level 60.

So... to answer the question, necromancer is much better in groups. They have sustained dps in the form of a pet, they can help pull with FD, they can mez, they can heal. Wizards are better left to soloing and raiding.

[Lhancelot]

One good thing about a wizard though, I doubt many classes can KS them at a named mob camp. [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

[Expediency]

Necros arent the first choice for a lot of groups but they do get opportunities. Wizards are highly discriminated against.

[Loke]

Wizards kind of suck all around imo. You'd think they would be okay since they can quad while LFG, and port to groups easily when they find one, but they're actually pretty horrible at soloing until the early 50s. Their pre-50s quad spells are horribly mana inefficient, and you'll definitely use basically all your mana pool per quad, and thats assuming you have decent gear and a big enough mana pool to actually finish the quad.

They're kind of awesome to play in groups, but that assumes you can actually find a group. Super lazy character to play in groups, even if you're actually contributing with CC and stuff. The only thing they're really good at in groups is burning down pulls that get a bit out of control / poorly timed local repops... but if you're in a decent group neither of those things should happen.

Necro is definitely better solo pre-50s, and arguably on par in the 50s. If played well they're almost always better in groups as well.

[Izmael]

Necro is a far better soloer than wizard post 50 in all or nearly all situations.

[thufir]

[Anything] vs Wizard, who brings more to a group, the answer is "Anything".

It is the sad truth that wizards are not well suited to XP groups in EverQuest. During the Kunark and especially Velious era, sustained DPS is king. Mobs get fatter and fatter and a wizard's best nuke becomes a smaller and smaller percentage of the mob's total HP. Even the largest mana pool is drained in short order from repeated nuking and then the wizard has to sit around for a long, long time.

On a raid, it's great, brings down targeted mobs faster. But wizards are very one-dimensional characters, and their chief dimension of burst damage in the form of nuking is the most inefficient way to spend your mana in the game.

On top of this, necromancers are a very good group class, highly underrated, with a lot of tricks. Hands down they bring more. It isn't even close, unfortunately for the wizard.

[skarlorn]

NEC hands down.

That said, I also find necromancer boring. It's got too much and is too strong. I've played wiz and nec to nine and I way prefer Wizz

[meanhappyguy]

I tend to like classes that don't have a lot of actions per minute. My two highest level characters are cleric and wizard. I don't tend to get burned out on a class where I can chat or afk if needed.

A wizard with clarity is pretty potent, but mostly at the lower levels--and then not any more potent in the nuking department than a cleric vs undead, or a magician, or a druid. I was amazed that my cleric could nuke undead as efficiently as my wizard nearly all the way to lvl 50... plus my cleric could CH!

Like Lhancelot, I have had a hard time sticking with my necro, for some reason I just get really bored. Necros are incredibly powerful, and there is a lot less downtime for a necro than for a wizard, but I tend to use that downtime on things outside of the game, which lets my focus and attention last a little longer in game, than when I am solely focusing on EQ.

Nothing new to say about wizzie vs necros in groups, I think that has pretty much been answered. My wizzie is almost to Seb-level, which is where I would think wizzies would start to shine. Nuke down those gating and casting mobs before they can get their spells off. Not really looking forward to the 10khp mobs, though! I think that is the only situation where a group would prefer a wizard over any other dps class, that or an AE group.

If you are a wizard who often gets non-AE groups, you've probably either lucked out, or have some very nice friends!

[skarlorn]

If you want to level a wiz you and get groups, join Auld Lang syne. We don't have any twinks so Wizz dps is decent