What can one necro do to set themselves apart form other necros in a raid as far as dps? Seems like after focus effects and mana pool there isn't much you can do?
Necromancer is one of the most involved classes, with probably the highest skill curve of all dps classes (and only gets more intricate as expansions roll onward). As such, there is a LOT a necromancer can do to set themselves apart. 1) Spell choice. What spells land on each mob? What dots should you use, which spells should you prioritize? Every expansion is different, because sometimes generally one pool is resisted more than others. Fire may be our go to due to having the best negative resistance check, but it does not change that you have Disease, Poison, and come LDoN some awesome Magic dots in your arsenal, and which dots you apply during a fight can make a huge difference. 2) Dot rotation, and maintenance of dots. You need to be great at a priority system, maintaining all of your dots at all times. If a dot fades and is not reapplied within ~5 seconds, you lose a tick of dot damage, and that is something you can never get back. Being able to track generally how long each class of dots lasts (for example- magic shortest duration, followed by poison, then fire, with disease dots lasting the longest) will let you get into a rhythm of when to reapply dots. Depending on mana, its often better to reapply a dot with ~2 seconds left on it, rather than lose a tick of damage. 3) Dot priority. Lets say you have all your dots fall off at the same time. Which dot should you reapply first? Which gets you the most mileage? Good example is Splurt- with the ramp up damage compontent, if your mob is going to die within ~45 seconds, applying Splurt before any other dot is a waste of time since it won't have ramped up to significant damage at that point. 4) Pet management. This includes being sure to get mage items on the pet, making sure the pet is behind the mob if it is a rogue, avoiding unnecessary pet deaths due to AEs. etc. 5) Cooldown management. Wake the Dead, Swarm of the Dead, etc. When to use them, when will be the best effect. Does the mob have an AE that will just instagib your swarm? Is the AE long enough that if you pop the swarm itll last a while and be worthwhile? Just a few things off the top of my head that can differentiate a mediocre necro from an amazing one.
I could not have said it better myself Zanados. Well done. Saves me from having to type all that out.
Note if you are to far away from the mob you can miss pet damage on the parse do some distance experimenting.
your question can be more easily answered, if you can specify what server, among other variables. although Zanados spelled most of the pre-gates era out for you. i can say, outside of a couple events.. due to melee bonus damage and Nuke crit aa's ect, necros are not as great as they were during most of these era's.
Cast your own resist Debuffs (Scent of Terris and later on Scent of Midnight.) They stack, and Scent of Midnight has a -200 resist check, so cast that one first, then Scent of Terris. This cuts down on your resists for Fire, Poison, and Disease. Yell at the Shamans/Magicians to, at the very least, cast Malo, if not the upgraded versions as well. Sometimes they cry about it being resisted, so tell them to cast Malo first and then the 'sinia versions, or to work it out amongst themselves where one casts one and the other casts the other. This not only helps out Necros, but the entire raid. You'd be surprised how often some of these bozos won't cast any form of Malo. Necros have some pretty decent group buff/target debuffs for Mana-Drain/Heal, Attack, Strength, AC. They're useful, but not always necessary or ideal. BUT they will help raid DPS even slightly. On trash clears, you generally want to be assisting offtanks and DoT'ing their mobs rather than assisting the Main Assist, unless there is a reason otherwise. Trash clears are also one of the more legitimate times to use twitch spells. Speaking of twitch spells, don't let anyone use you as their secondary mana pool. If someone sucks and is blowing their mana on nonsense, or blowing their DKP on bad gear choices, shame them in /gu. Lots of Bads play EverQuest and they're honestly asking for it. Don't even feel bad. It cuts into your DPS, wasting your casting time, spell slots, and mana. Also, never end a boss fight with any mana left, even if you end up just chain lifetapping. Just blow all of it unless you have some reason not to.
This, also, try not to EVER be just sitting at full mana. Necro mana regen is one of their biggest advantages, don't waste it by sitting at FM.
basically... spell lineup + clicks/clickies + bard =dps. Knowing when to click them= higher dps than your fellow necros.
1. Don't use drugs. 2. Pet control. 3. Cast spells on the mob. 4. Everything else mentioned above. Our necros have improved on parses markedly in GoD. I expect some pretty decent improvements in OoW and then again by DoDH as well. I think they'll end up pleasantly surprised whenever the revamp ends up hitting.
The problem in Omens is a lot of the raid mobs are immune to certain lines of spells so you won't be able to stack all the junk on them.
Biggest problem with necros is most raid mobs die too fast for necros to show off. They get 1 to 1 1/2 dot rotations before most raid mobs die.
It's better to have a shaman opening with Malo(s) first before Malosinia (which should indeed be taken care of by the mages as the shamans will be busy slowing or debuffing/dotting afterwards) because unlike Malosinia -same spell for mages and shamans- the unresistable one (Mala for mages, Malo(s) for shammies) is better, id est debuffs for a higher value. Mala is only -30 and it is often too weak to really help sticking Malosinia afterwards. That said, once in PoP, your guildmages should have the clicky Malosinia mask from Time and there will be no excuse if they don't cast Malosinia as many times it takes to get it to stick. The benefits of Malosinia for a whole raid outbalance a single mage's dps loss by clicking the mask till sinia sticks. About what you mentionned in the beginning of your post, please don't forget Mala/Malo/Malosinia do NOT lower disease resistance, only magic/fire/cold/poison, so you'll still need to debuff disease resistance by yourself. Last but not least, Malosinia checks against magic resistance ; while there is no resist modifier 'officially', it is common opinion amongst mages and shamans that it is resisted more often than other magic based debuffs or nukes.
