Effective Necro Combat Techniques

[knottyb0y]

Hey,

I am looking for some advice some more experienced necro's on this server on how to play the class effectively. Ideally I'm looking for multiple techniques for different situations such as.

Solo - outdoors (plenty of kiting room)
Solo - indoors (such as taking a room in a dungeon) **Most interested in hunting in dungeons
A necro's role in groups (can we fill more than one role? what is the most effective use of our abilities?)

I've found myself doing a lot of tap tanking, but I am pretty sure this technique is going to die off as I level (currently level 14). I know of a few techniques like fear kiting, but quite frankly I really feel like I am not using my necro to his fullest potential. Any suggestions would be great, and they really do not need to be all directed at the toolset a level 14 necro has, as I know I will get many more tools as I level, would love some advice on what to expect and how to do it.

[quellren]

Solo - Outdoors:
2 options- fear kiting, or aggro kiting
Aggro kiting- snag it with a Darkness (and maybe add another DoT) /pet attack, and run in a big circle while it dies.
Pros: good control of where the mob goes, no accidental aggro
Cons: little time to med, Darkness can wear off while you run and you'll get beat on while re-applying. DoTs only do 2/3 damage, killing is slower.

Fear kiting- Snag with Darkness, fear, /pet attack (+2nd Dot) med and watch for fear to wear off.
Pros: efficient, easy.
Cons: can't control where the mob runs, may aggro other mobs in the area, or may lose Line of Sight, etc.

Solo Indoors:
pet tank/root rot
/pet attack, root the mob, DoT it up. If pet gets low HP, call it back and let the DoTs work alone.
Can charm if they're undead mobs (this is unreliable until post 50 and mobs are low Dark blue con or Light Blue. Use charm as pet, see above.
Limited opportunity for fear/aggro kiting. It exists, but it can be dangerous.

Group:
You do everything.
DPS with pet and nukes (mobs dont live long enough for DoTs)
Crowd Control with screaming terror and root (and pet)
Ghetto heal with Pact
mana dump to the healers.
You can even pull in a pinch.

Edit: I can still 'tap-tank' at 55, but only on non-kunark/light blue con mobs. Anything that hits for 100+ is too much.
Pull it to you with Bond of Death, and then use Lifetap/Deflux to stay alive. It works, but it's hard on the mana. you're better off root-parking adds and moving the fight out of range of those you've parked.

[Estu]

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

Solo - Outdoors:
2 options- fear kiting, or aggro kiting
Aggro kiting- snag it with a Darkness (and maybe add another DoT) /pet attack, and run in a big circle while it dies.
Pros: good control of where the mob goes, no accidental aggro
Cons: little time to med, Darkness can wear off while you run and you'll get beat on while re-applying. DoTs only do 2/3 damage, killing is slower.

Fear kiting- Snag with Darkness, fear, /pet attack (+2nd Dot) med and watch for fear to wear off.
Pros: efficient, easy.
Cons: can't control where the mob runs, may aggro other mobs in the area, or may lose Line of Sight, etc.

That's right, DoTs still do full damage on feared mobs. I'd go with this over aggro kiting, then.

[Estu]

I have a lowbie necro and was curious about these questions myself, so I sent some tells to high level necros I found in /who all and asked in IRC. For soloing, the consensus seems to be that you should aggro kite outdoors at low levels before you get root: snare and dot the mob and sic your pet on it while you run away. Fear kiting is also an option, but aggro kiting saves you having to recast fear every three ticks. Once you get root, you move into dungeons and start root-dotting, using the pet sparingly. You can actually do this a bit earlier than you get the 'root' spell itself since you get an undead root before that.

I'm not sure about the grouping question; I was mainly interested in soloing tips.

[knottyb0y]

So by the looks so far.

Solo Outdoor
1. Fear Kiting
2. Aggro Kiting
3. Root n Rot(with pet)

Solo Indoor
1. Root and Rot (with pet)
2. Tap tanking/Pet tanking(until 50+)
1. aggro kite (no room?)

What would be the most mana efficient method. My first bet would be fear kiting because you can meditate after landing fear (40 mana spell lasts 3 ticks?). Indoor seems that root and would be the most mana efficient (hungry earth 30 mana (duration)?) Root (30 mana).

My goal with my character is to have as little down time as possible, but also to do bad ass stuff (such as kick dungeon ass for xp and profit!!). Thanks for the input thus far it seems like I will be able to try out a few of these methods when I log on tonight.

[Polixenes]

Pet tanking without root is also an option if your pet heal over time is more powerful than the mob's damage output. Situational I know.

E.g. Level 49+ on Seafury Island, OOT. The seafuries only hit for 80ish so you pull them to your pet with a level 1 spell, and dot the mob while healing the L49 pet. This was on live years ago, but with Bond of Death (? the pet heal over time) plus Leech and Skele form + dots I could more or less finish a fight with the same mana/hp as I started it. Root adds if necessary.

[TR Spokesman]

at 14 you don't have much potential as a necro. don't have all ur tricks yet.

solo stick to kiting, fear if you can, aggro if you can not.

groups, just do what you can. toss heals/twitch/petdps (lower lvls). when you get higher you can do much more.

dungeons. Well this is depends on the camp in the dungeon really. There are multiple ways to do a camp as a necro. Basically have to talk to other necros that are willing to share how they do a certain camp.


For leveling, i suggest sticking to undead mobs as much as you can until you get invoke fear. Then you can go balls to the wall with fear kiting anything/everything you can think of.

[SupaflyIRL]

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

Pet tanking without root is also an option if your pet heal over time is more powerful than the mob's damage output. Situational I know.

E.g. Level 49+ on Seafury Island, OOT. The seafuries only hit for 80ish so you pull them to your pet with a level 1 spell, and dot the mob while healing the L49 pet. This was on live years ago, but with Bond of Death (? the pet heal over time) plus Leech and Skele form + dots I could more or less finish a fight with the same mana/hp as I started it. Root adds if necessary.

This is a pretty terrible tactic as opposed to pulling with darkness, fearing, doting and leeching when your hp drops and FDing to let pet tank for the rest of the fight while you med. You're standing to cast snare/fear/dots and medding, then standing to FD and medding after that. If you're constantly casting shadow compact to heal pet you're going to be constantly leeching to regain HP which is the least efficient method of damage available to you.

[quellren]

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

This is a pretty terrible tactic as opposed to pulling with darkness, fearing, doting and leeching when your hp drops and FDing to let pet tank for the rest of the fight while you med. You're standing to cast snare/fear/dots and medding, then standing to FD and medding after that. If you're constantly casting shadow compact to heal pet you're going to be constantly leeching to regain HP which is the least efficient method of damage available to you.

Also, Pet aggro is...wonky...on this server. 2 DoTs are pretty much a guarantee that the recipient of those DoTs is coming for you, Pet taunt be-damned. Makes aggro kiting really easy but your pet can't hold aggro as well as we all remember from live.

As Supafly mentions, leeching for pet heals *is* a way, just not the best way by any means unless you simply have no area to kite or fear.

[Bubbles]

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

This is a pretty terrible tactic as opposed to pulling with darkness, fearing, doting and leeching when your hp drops and FDing to let pet tank for the rest of the fight while you med. You're standing to cast snare/fear/dots and medding, then standing to FD and medding after that. If you're constantly casting shadow compact to heal pet you're going to be constantly leeching to regain HP which is the least efficient method of damage available to you.

it's how you kill 4 seafuries at once, while you are root / rotting the other 3. If you are aggro kiting you're running more than you are sitting. If you are fear kiting you lose the 1 key aspect of necro : control over mob. Obviously some places are more conducive to fear kiting than others (factoring in pathing, roamers, etc) but especially at lower levels unless the target is undead you'll drain more mana casting fear than you'd lose tossing an extra dot while aggro kiting to make up for the dps loss of a moved/nonfeared mob.

Probably the main reason pet tanking + tap tanking is being advocated a bit here is the level range of the island we're discussing.. at 44 necros get DMF, pact of shadow, and a pet who can finally take some hits. Pet dmg, heals, , along with taps are unresistable damage/survivability. When your other option is Venom of the Snake and Assy Toes and getting dooming darkness to stick while spamming fear... well.. lets just say we'll have differing opinions on whats 'efficient' for both the seasoned and up'n'coming necro.