Necro Death's Malaise Rk1 - Max changed from 75% down to 30% Rk2 - Max changed from 75% down to 35% Rk3 - Max changed from 75% down to 40% Enchanter Dreary Deeds - Max changed from 70% UP to 73% After partial landings, our slow should be 20% now instead of 37.5%. lol... they're calling it an "incorrect cap" instead of what it really is... They changed their mind years after it was released. Those are some serious reductions in effectiveness, and the only thing they were willing to say is a one liner "corrected an incorrect cap" as if it wasn't supposed to be that way for the past few years.
The AA Death's Malaise was supposed to be equal or slightly better then our level 38 spell. The AA always gave the your spell has only landed for a partial effect and wasn't bypassing that. So it appears this is just another nerf to necros for something that yet again wasn't broken. Since we are fixing stuff that isn't broken how about reducing the power of "mind squall" which should not be more base damage then pyre of marnek or increasing the base damage of marnek.
This is funny, people talking about things they know nothing of in hopes of getting someone nerf'd, with Piestro lending a hand in the process ( while saying its impossible for this to happen). Is this another thread designed to get necro's to come here and explain how this class works, so you have more material to twist to your liking? I lol'd at this when I read it. It doesnt even make sense, fd and tob robe will make the pet do more dps, hit for more, faster? Did you just say that? Really? fd is going to make the pet lifetap more therefor decreasing the chances of dying? oh snap, I just lol'd again! /sigh, forget about that robe, it became useless so long ago I cant even remember Any mob that warrants slowing, is going to tear your pet up regardless of what you do. All the aa's in the necro toolbox wont change that. Besides, those aa's you speak of, dont get used like that, if you knew anything necro, youd know what Im talking about. Necro slow was never good enough to be a game changer, though you guys still worked to get it nerf'd anyway. Oh, wait, maybe there is hope after all...until you said this: In a perfect world, this may be an option. However in reality, it never quite works like this. The moment you casted that nuke before you sent your pet in, you greatly reduced your chances of dropping aggro as "quick" as you claim. Besides, if youre so adept to this class and how it works, why is FD even considered? Its not needed, waste of time actually because there is no danger of the necro getting aggro! Better check that toolbox again and get your ducks in a row! Wrong, wrong, wrong. Why swap the nuke? Oh wait, for that other op aa necros get godr? Pfft, you clearly dont understand. Not our nukes, not godr, and definitely not how a necro solos. Heres more proof of why Why ignore nos? If its useless why is it in your list? If this named is sooo uber that it requires all this work to slow or to mitigate slow not landing the first time, why would you have a "useless" spell memmed? Why is cs "extra dps" and nos is crap? Clearly you dont know anything about our aa's or how they work or spells for that matter. You dont understand the basics when it comes to something simple like soloing or fighting a namer. As I said above, you guys need to get better at your attempts to destroy this class- though youre doing a good job so far, managed to pull out some big changes to this class ( none of which did anything remotely close to the reasons for which they were introduced, just like this recent nerf with slow)- because your inability to know anything necro is shameful and insulting. You guys are doing nothing but hurting this game. While necro's seem to get singled out quite a bit lately, other classes are going through it too. Soon your class will suffer the same fate at the hands of others who're doing the same thing youre doing, in the end only killing the longevity of EverQuest. Stick to what you know. If you want better things for your class and the devs arent playing nice, dont get all buthurt and go after another class just because they have snare and you dont.
^this x100 I really hope the Devs look at a posters history when considering their feedback... Sancrotis is the same "necro" that posted this back in september and even better is this gem from the Deathbloom threads:
Sancrotis: After having read the things that you said and your statement reposts, a few things are clear: a) you have raid gear (which anyone can get if they join a raiding guild-raids are not hard today). b) You have a very high opinion of your skill as a necro. c) there's a lot of things you're not doing correctly while playing d) you only seem to be able to see things from your point of vue. ''d'' is your biggest issue. It seems that with raid gear, if you're capable of doing something, your expect EVERYONE to be able to when it doesn't work like that. Doing the group content with raid gear is obviously much easier than doing it with group gear or with non-prestige gear. Considering that the necro is constantly being nerfed and that once again we just got another pretty major nerf (to our slow), I'm not sure why you're trying to make the class sound OP based solely on your game playing experience. All that it can do is lead devs to think that the game is too easy for everyone, that a class is OP and then to nerf...People with raid gear will still be able to do the group content after said nerfs. Those who suffer are the group players. They should not be punished for doing GROUP content in GROUP gear. If you're bored, you can un-equip your raid gear and equip group gear while doing group content. It would prove to be a bit more of a challenge. Also, AA's make a huge difference. Now, everyone will have access to lvl 85 aa's but even then, that's not a huge thing if you want to try your hand at CoTF. The more current AA's you have, the easier content will be. So I'm not sure what you're trying to do here. It's clear that this is a bait thread. Are you trying to get the class nerfed some more because you cannot see anyone else's perspective but your own?
The necro pet is nowhere near as beefy as a mage pet, even with max em (em20 from DH1). In fact I'm sure if you parsed the highest group EM mage pet (em15) vs an em20 nec pet, the mage pet will outtank it everytime. By a longshot. The nec pet absolutely cannot tank two cotf mobs, and it'll get hairy even with 2 rof mobs. Mage pet can probably tank 2-3. That's fine though and as it should be, as necros have a lot of other tools in their arsenal. Raid gear is absolutely not required to tank named, though with the slow nerf + the strength of named mobs in cotf, some of those fights will definitely get a bit hairy. In RoF though, there's very few named in the entire expansion that can't be molo'd by a necro . Generally the ones that can't are due to difficult AEs, such as knockback and fear (feared merc = dead pet), or massive DS, etc. They are pretty few and far between. I know, because I personally camped almost every named myself in hof in full group gear, w/ em 14. In fact I camped it to GET my t4 group gear, so I was mostly in t1 rof group gear for the majority of it. I had my pet AAs maxed, as well as any DPS AAs, but zero raid pieces at the time (~80k hp, 70k mana) You do have to use every tool in your arsenal though, and there's no hope if you don't have your pet defensive AAs maxed (really both passive and activated, passive is not quite enough). For named I pop every pet disc I have (fortify, blessing, frenzy, replenish for emergencies, using AA aegis everytime its up). In RoF, I generally used cascading boneshield as well every time it popped, however it doesn't absorb nearly enough in CoTF, so you'd probably need cascading + phantasmal ward (and subsequently have to sacrifice a dot slot). The important thing with pet tanking named is that you have to prioritize your pet's life before dps - if the pet drops, you have very few options for winning, and likely you'll end up FDing, watching your merc die, then waiting 5 minutes to try again. Essentially the only option is to pull out your suspended pet before you or the merc gets wrecked - a swarm pet sometimes works if you have it in your lineup, but if your merc has already drawn too much heal aggro, then the swarms won't keep the named off the merc. Likely you'll have to pop EC and tank the named yourself while you get your new pet ready. Swarms are also much more effective both for DPS and tanking with cotf, as the extended swarm AA helps a lot. I did this pre-cotf, so swarms were a much smaller part of my lineup then. YMMV may very here, if I were to do these again, I'd likely keep the 100 swarm on the mob perpetually during the fight. Generally, my strategy is something like this: Fortify pet, use aegis AA, pop cascading boneshield, and send pet in. If possible, stay 50' or so away from the named, as you and your merc can avoid a lot of AE this way. While pet is running towards named, I hit my tash orb, then scent immediately after. If you don't have an orb (why don't you? go get one!), then wait for pet to engage named, and then hit scent. Then immediately scintillate bones, followed by a death's malaise. If tash'd and scented, both scintillate and slow should land. At this point I usually recast cascading, pop companions blessing, and then switch scintillate out for vol orb and go straight into my godr burn. I usually cut out the middle dots from my burn (halstors, dissolution, chaotic corruption), and start with the 3 long dots (pernicious, corruscating, forsaken), then hit burns and go marnek through binesa. The entire time though you should be recasting cascading as SOON as it's up, as well as aegis. If your pet really starts taking a beating, use replenish companion when it's low, to give yourself some extra time. Once the burn is going, pop reluctant benevolence (doesn't stack with godr, so make sure it's ready to go before you engage, as you have to pop it after godr), then hit your lifetap swift (which is the only tap and swift I keep loaded in these cases) for a nice quick 3 tick massive burn. You should be able to get it off a second time before your robe fades as well. At this point, it's just a matter of recasting the 5 fast dots as they wear off (pernicious, corruscating probably won't even fade before the named dies), keeping cascading / aegis on as much as you can, and casting orb/impel in between to get a chaotic proc. You want to be casting detrimental spells constantly (watching your own aggro with fd of course) as the reluctant procs will help a bit keeping the pet alive. Sometimes I switch to additional spell sets to stack more dots (nos, naeya, doom usually), but usually I just decide based on how the fight is going. Some named have painful DD/AE, with spiky damage, and in those cases you want to stack up your DPS and kill it faster. Generally though, at this point, the fight is under control, the named is probably at half hp or less, and it's just a matter of keeping the dots rolling and keeping your pet alive until it drops. I usually cast hand of death before engaging, but in many cases I don't even trigger it. If you happen to get hit by a "lucky" AE to drop you below 80 (or if you have a mod rod), then it's a nice bonus, but it's not really required for group content. Do NOT pop EC though - that's your oh #!@$ button, and the extra burn dps is not worth having it on cooldown in case your pet drops. You can definitely win some fights just by riding out EC and finishing off the named. Obviously merc needs to be on reactive, and one important thing to note is that cascading boneshield auto-targets your pet (which is EXTREMELY ANNOYING DEVS!!), so make sure to retarget the named or you'll be casting DOTs on your pet that don't do anything. I've unfortunately done this more times than I'd care to admit. The aegis AA does not target your pet, which is nice, as you can just hit it without worrying. I never use FP. The extra DPS is not worth the loss in duration, as you'll have to be recasting more dots (otherwise you are doing zero dps) which means you may miss a cascading or aegis when it's needed. In fact I need to parse FP some more and see if it's worth using at all...afaik it knocks off ALL extended ticks (6 from lingering, 1 from gear, 1 from pot), for a 35% increase. On corruscating and pernicious, that's probably less than 35% loss, but for your high dps dots - marnek, hazarak, ignite, etc - that's about a 50% duration loss (for a 35% increase in per tick damage). I will admit that I haven't experimented with it too much, so maybe another necro can chime in, but I really don't find it useful at all. Really, the strategy is to balance your dps with your pet's life. If you go all out DPS and lose track of your pets life, you are not going to win. It is definitely not trivial, and you will probably lose sometimes, especially at first. The nec pet is certainly not strong enough to just "send it in and DPS" as it seems some on this thread are imagining; it's actually very squishy, unless it's got proper support. You have to manage your pets life, your mercs life, and your own, as well as keeping the mob DPS'd and watching aggro. You probably need to pop most of your 10 minute activated AAs, so it's not like you can just charge in with a regular lineup - need to be prepared both with pet stuff as well as burn stuff. That turned out to be a bit longer than anticipated, but hopefully someone will find it useful...
To my knowledge from what elidroth said last year during iirc, the part of funeral pyre that "shortens duration" does not work, which is the main reason we have not had an increase in this aa. Other then that this is pretty much spot on
Ok a lot of u dont molo names I see. Here is how I work it my pet has t2 rof focus first off next mem bone shield and mend companion next bring out your full aa healing merc give pet a mage mask and a agro sword and another proc sword silent cast cast chaotic contagion, then scent of terris (these stack and almost nothing will resist even the fire dd) next fire dd to make mob undead then death malaise now cast your dots whatever your strongest 5 and the three swift dots and swarm pet. (always keep swarm pet up and a back up geared pet made and ready with suspend minion) when all dots are on mob hit robe and third spire if that goes before dead mob hit hand of death, life burn, and then dying grasp for next burn. last i hit glyph of courage. Most mobs will be long dead at this point. You should be hitting bone shield on pet whenever its up to help merc keep up with lvl 98 war pets health.
Azrael's explanation is very good. The only thing that I'd like to add is there are several ways to handle mobs. It is true that AA's do and should make a difference in your approach to how you handle these mobs. The mobs themselves, though different, can pose similar problems in how to best attack them. It is important to know the mob you are fighting and get a good plan of attack. Chances are you will find similar mobs in which to employ a similar strategy. Whether you have chosen to purchase Pet AA's or DoT damage AA's first, will certainly effect how it is that you plan/prepare for your fight. The beauty of this class is that there are so many different approaches to how to attack specific mobs. What works for one, may not be the best for the available AA's or your particular style of play. Macros can play an important role in how you chain together spells, if you have the time and patience to create them. If you are boxing toons, it goes without saying that they are invaluable to helping you effectively handle mobs/nameds. I have often heard Necros berated for dying. I find this particularly funny at times coming from toons that wouldn't get a lick in. I have a saying, "...if you ain't dying, you ain't trying...." to remind me to try and get out of my comfort zone and find new ways of attacking my prey. It's okay to die, even if you are a level 100 (top level for now). I would never berate a Necro for how he plays his class, because I find value in the different techniques that people employ in similar situations. I have had the opportunity to play many of the casting classes in the game and I still keep coming back to my Necro. He is the most fun of all of the classes that I've played. Not that other classes aren't fun, or I wouldn't play them, but there is truly something to be said for the art of how a particular Necro manages to kill his prey. I hope this is helpful. I'm sorry I wasn't specific, but I think that many of the MAIN techniques employed by our class have already been discussed. I think most Necros will be helpful on your server if you ask them. Many will take you out and show you how they do what they do and provide you with an invaluable experience. Please take it all with a grain of salt though. There are many successful ways to play our class and you need to decide what is the best way for you to play your character. Have fun and good luck. Mo
