New necro

[greatdane]

The only ones who should care about the size of their mana pool are quad-kiters and clerics. It isn't even so terribly crucial for clerics until they start raiding, but it's not as if there's a whole lot else to focus on stat-wise. You could put points in strength to better carry that plate gear, but I'm not sure I could bring myself to doing that.

For anyone else, and especially those with mana regeneration abilities, the size of your mana pool doesn't really matter. It's so uncommon that you go from full to OOM in one sequence, and if you do, you're probably either doing something wrong or you're fucked no matter how much int/wis you had. For the most part, the vast majority of your playtime should be spent in situations where it doesn't matter how much mana you have because you either don't spend enough to care or you're never near FM anyway. While grouping or soloing, you're probably always hovering between 0% and 60% mana, or if the content is easy, you'll have a mana surplus and never risk going OOM in the first place.

Really the only situation where int/wis/mana matters at all is when you spend a full mana bar in one go and still need more. It can happen to healers and quadders, but for anyone else, this should be so uncommon that you'd be getting better long-term results out of focusing on survivability or some other form of usefulness. On a class specifically known not only for its mana flexibility but also its aptitude for farming shamelessly, strength is a viable choice. I wouldn't personally do it, but if it isn't an alt and every coin counts, that higher strength will put money in your pocket. It's very likely that you'll reroll a more meaningful class anyway once your necro is level 53 or so, and by then you'll have made a reasonable amount of extra money just from being able to carry an extra bag of loot back to the vendor every time.

[Ostros]

Good god the advice in this thread is either pointless or bad.

It doesn't matter if you go str or int. Having a big mana pool from the start means more up time between meds. For that matter it doesn't matter what race you start as. Iksar are made easier only by their regen. This does put them on top of other races, but it's Everquest: It doesn't matter what race you play. Higher base AC won't save you, you're fucking squishy anyway.

Don't kite until you get Engulfing Darkness. Clinging is kinda unreliable. Just don't use it on yellows or reds.

You can start on yellows and barely red cons as soon as you have Engulfing.

Don't use Heart Flutter. Darkness -> Heat Blood -> Fear is all you're going to be using for a while until you start getting poison DoT's.

Be prepared to have Darkness get resists no matter which one it is. It's a fact of Necro soloing that your snare pull will get resisted, and it's the most annoying part. I've had it resist three times in a row and it NUKES your mana pool. This is why I actually argue for bigger mana pools, it leave room for resists and other bad luck. Know how to strafe run. Get SoW if it's available.

You have any questions, you PM me or ask me here. I mained Necro from '03 till Secrets of Faydwer, I'm probably one of the most qualified people to answer your questions on this board.

And Christ's sake: please don't min max in this game. Just don't gear like an idiot and you'll do fine. The mechanics of classic Everquest don't give two shits if you're missing a point in a certain attribute here or there. Min-maxing didn't matter until about GoD when combat stats came into the game. Stack int and +mana, both are important, and +mana gear will end up being more important later on in the game. Any other attribute is useless to you.

[Nirgon]

I know its splitting hairs on a few points of int, but if I had to choose..

And a necro is rather similar to a wizard in my experience (and imo more powerful) killing undead. There'll be suprises on pulls and having an extra nuke or two is great.

[Ostros]

Oh and:

Breaking / splitting multiple mobs solo and twitching healers are the two occasions when I usually wish I had a bigger mana pool.

These are two of many reasons a necro will wish he had a big mana pool. Having Lich is just a bonus. Don't make it the central point of rolling necro. It only strongly helps your sitting mana regen. The extra regen isn't going to help you while you're up and about killing things or splitting or being the raid's mana battery as much as a big mana pool will.

[Nirgon]

Starting Iksar strength with (eventually) weight reducing bags is *fine*, int then stam it is. You'll be very happy with your char.

[Seaweedpimp]

Take all of azeths advice.

Hell i wish i had 20 more points in strength.

Especially if you happen to own a RoA.

[jarshale]

this thread got strangely negative. relax

[Ostros]

You literally don't need strength. Don't buy bags, they're 3.0 stone each. Get Large Sewing Kits [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]. I'm serious. They're 1 plat and change, but worth it to bring your weight down. You won't need more than that as an Iksar from levels 1-50.

[azeth]

iksar's do start off strong, don't they.

i hadn't considered their starting stats tbh.

[Ostros]

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

iksar's do start off strong, don't they.

i hadn't considered their starting stats tbh.

Srsly. I'd agree if we were talking a Dark Elf or something, because they already have large amounts of base INT, but shitty STR. Iksar kinda have it made in the Kunark era.