Another one of these yay! I have a 32 NEC on Phinny and am pretty familiar with how necros operate, and have been mostly kiting + a little foray into charming. When Luclin dropped I made a new BST and just hit lvl 9, moderate gear (couple black pantherskin pieces, SCHW, 10/22 dagger). I prefer to solo or duo [don't have the playtime for super long groups sessions anymore], don't really intend to raid that much, more keen on higher level farming/soloing named camps. I enjoy all the necro utility tools and am worried that BST doesn't have a snare or root or other option when pulls go wrong. But I do like the DPS output on the BST so far and imagine that leveling and finding groups when needed will be easier for him than they were for necro. For the primary purposes of the next few expansions (Luclin/PoP/LoY/LDON), which is the stronger class? Better DPS at higher levels? More capable of soloing/farming? Hoping to get perspective from folks who have leveled one or both to 50+ on Phinny. Thanks!
Play what is fun. You will be able to solo on either for the rest of the game. They're both good dps for the remainder of the servers actual life expectancy. Necro will be better at soloing efficiently, BL can solo slightly harder individual mobs. It will definitely be easier to find groups on the beast because necros are a pretty group class.
As a 10 year nec veteran I will tell you that necro's have better pulling tools, the best mana regeneration in game, better escape tools, and a good necro will cream even the best of the beastlords in DPS any day of the week even on raids, whether in a group or especially when soloing. The less people in your group the more your DPS will shoot up as a necro from what I've seen. I will admit the bst pet does seem to be a tiny bit stronger than ours, but there is literally almost nothing in game that a nec cannot do if you know how to play them right.
You've either been in real bad groups or have no idea what you are talking about. A beast will take a huge dump on a necro in group dps. Between the melee buff and necros being really bad at mobs that die in 30 seconds, beastlords are going to absolutely crush necros in a group long term. That said, shouldn't even be close in raids. Necros should lay the smack down on beast dps in most raid environments.
As a 60 Necro I can attest that our group dps is pretty bad. The only exception is if you can get a decent undead charm pet in the area then it becomes pretty great to go along with pretty good group utility. Beast will 100% provide more sustained DPS in a group with no undead to charm. Like Mwapo said I don't see a beast touching a good necro in dps on raids though. Unless its a highly resistant mob ofc. All that really beats a good necro on most fights is mnk/rog from my experience. Certain fights where all of my dots land with little/no resists I can pull out #1 dmg often.
Or your raids need better necros? Who knows. Every time I tell someone I can pull top dps as nec on some fights someone always says "Your (insert class here) suck then" lol
If you want to get a lot of groups, go beast lord. Necros are horrible DPS in exp groups. I won't group with a necro, unless the necro is exceptional.
On Phinny any player in a group is more efficient than not having that player tbh. So I wouldn't worry too much. Play your preference.
Everytime I see someone act like DPS is the only measure of a necro's success in a group, it makes me cringe. Necro can do so much more... just takes the player putting their mind to it and using their tools. Any necro who is just sending their pet in and lifetapping or dotting while doing nothing else is perpetuating a bad name for necros everywhere... but it's always been that way.
Unless a necro is exceptional and utilizing their full set of tools, I would rather not have them in my group. Most necros don't play to their full capabilities and what I all too often find is i wind up a mediocre DPS class, slowing down my exp. It is hard to justify having a necro in group, because I want to get the full value out of the exp potions I paid for.
What is "horrible dps"? I do 80-120dps per fight depending on procs without even casting spells and no haste buff. That can't be THAT bad.
"You've either been in real bad groups or have no idea what you are talking about. A beast will take a huge dump on a necro in group dps. Between the melee buff and necros being really bad at mobs that die in 30 seconds, beastlords are going to absolutely crush necros in a group long term. That said, shouldn't even be close in raids. Necros should lay the smack down on beast dps in most raid environments." I am on my phone so I just copy/pasted your post as a quote instead to reply. I am an exceptional player, and extremely exceptional at my class. Every single group I'm in I get good comments about how awesome my DPS is, no matter what the group make up, or who is in the group. I have never had a bst out DPS me ever in my life. I outdps fully geared NEC's using to 2's and group gear. I have been able to do things in game that shouldn't have been possible, at least not in group gear. A true necro knows how to play their class. We are not a utility class. The only thing we are required to do is DPs. It's what we do. Yeah a wizard will beat me in a 30s fight. Anything 60-90s and up good luck trying unless you happen to be burning and I'm not. I will not waste my burns on one 90s fight with one mob unless it's the last mob in a mission and it's a named. I have written a couple because starts and shared them with certain people who directly asked me to. NEC's do not like talking about what they can or cannot do in the forums or in game because they know the devs will come swinging with their nerf bat if we do. I'm not saying that you suck at your class or anything, but what I'm saying is that I am very exceptional at mine.
heh so if everyone is telling you the same thing this proves everyone is wrong? Just kidding with you.
2 Words: Mind Wrack. If you use that, and do mediocre DPS, you are an amazing addition to a group. The sky is the limit after that. Just because we do good dps does not take away from the utility a Necromancer can offer, especially now that we are in Luclin. We have several lines of disease debuffs that also buff the group, so a necromancer can give your group: AC, Atk, and other's I cant remember off the top of my head. Being able to boost the output of other classes is always a plus (see: bard) As I mentioned up there, Mind Wrack brings up a whole new level of mana pumping. For 300 mana cost (600 upfront, we get 300 back), we give 300 mana to every single mana user in the group. If you have a caster friendly group, that is a thoroughput that twitching can only dream of. If there are Undead in the area? That is when we really shine. 70% undead slow, efficient undead nukes for burst damage like a wizard, and undead charming. I am an absolute monster in a Ssra mines group, for example. Necromancers who say they are pure DPS are not pushing their class to the proper limit. Your own personal dps is not the only thing a necromancer can do, they can boost the dps of everyone around them.
Again I'm on my phone so please disregard the auto corrects. I meant to say I've written a couple never starts and out DPS better geared NEC's than me while I only have rk 2's and they have rk 3's. I've never been in a good group or don't know what I'm talking about? I don't think you know who you're talking to, sir. Not to be disrespectful or anything, but I have been in multiple top guilds, an uncountable amount of groups and raids over the years, and never got denied any full membership to a guild that felt they had room for me. The only time I left a guild was when I thought I could get in a guild that would place higher in the expansion clearing rankings. The only time I got booted was when I was in the hospital for treatment as an in patient and therefore could not make the required RA. I have been competing for the top DPS on both raids and in groups since the very first guild I got in that actually wanted to raid. That guild is now the top guild on Luclin, top 3 game wide and only raids 3 nights a week. I 3 boxed raids in the initial guild, still making top parses, keeping my group healed and tanking all at the same time manually. The only complaint was that I did not keep the warrior on top of the mob, but he still tanked better than the rest of the tanks while in worse gear. Because of that complaint, they told me I could only box one other toon if needed. The guy above me is right, the sky is the limit. Nothing in this world is impossible to do depending on your beliefs. You just have to figure out what it is you want to do, practice it over and over, go for it and eventually you'll meet that goal. I'm not going to go into a religious speil on here, but feel free to pm me of you want to know more about what I meant there.
Right now on phinny Beastlord pets are top. Later on though it eventually becomes mage > beastlord > necromancer. That said, the beastlord has some awesome utility, slows, hp/mana regen and healing. By the time they reach lv 59 they are healing just as well as shamans and druids were back in Velious era. Also at lv 59 they can get a snare proc aa to throw onto their pets that stacks with the dd proc. Once you reach 51 the pet procs get a stun component and will stun and push mobs making it very hard for them to cast or heal.
This is a progression server locked in luclin at the moment. Nobody cares what you can do on live vs a beastlord. That's a completely different game. Necros lack the tools to be efficient group dpsers in the Luclin->GoD game. Every necro on live can do something stupid their class "shouldn't be able to" because they've been pegged so hard into that hole that the devs don't know how to balance them anymore. On phinigel, a beastlord will crush a necros dreams in group content because necros are built for staying power in this era.
