Necro Pet tanking??

Discussion in 'The Newbie Zone' started by hein, May 21, 2018.

  1. hein Augur

    I'm currently looking to starting playing again and I'm narrowing it down to mage and Necro, with the occasional but not always Cleric box, with a couple dps mercs. Silver F2P accounts.

    My question is how well can the necro pet handle tanking? or Do I need to go Mage Pet? I'm worried about runners. Necro can snare, where Mage cannot. I also like the idea of just running a molo and no boxing at all. Just Pet class, plus F2P cleric merc.

    love to hear your thoughts!
  2. moogs Augur

    As you're probably aware, the necro pets come in two flavors: warrior and rogue. The geared warrior pets are quite strong. It sounds like you have multiple Silver accounts, so you can use a mage on one to summon gear for the necro main. If you don't want to box, you can alternate soloing between the accounts and that might help maintain interest.

    You will eventually hit a wall when you have spent the first 1,000 AA points, so try to make wise decisions in order to further delay the inevitable.
  3. Phiyre Augur

    I have a nec in the 80s and a mage mid 90s. Even w/ buffs, the necro pet never seemed to last long as a tank.. No where as good as a mage pet can tank. Mage is more sit back and nuke while your pet tanks and cleric merc heals it. Necro, most success will be dps pet and kite. Maybe w/ enough aa your nec pet could tank but I never had luck w/ it.. They just got eaten up too quickly, even the warrior versions.
  4. Spellfire Augur

    Considered BST? Their pet is between mage and necro, very fun class.
    Yimin likes this.
  5. Sagarmatha Augur

    The Mage pet is one thousand times better than the Necro pet. I know you're not looking at boxing, but Mage/Necro is frighteningly easy. Three or four well planned macros, and you're set.

    I played Mage/Necro for many years, and Mage with tank pet/Necro with rogue pet is amazing.

    As mentioned, Beastlord is a lot of fun to play as well.

    If you insist on not boxing, Mage is the only option unless you want to kite everything. The Necro pet is garbage. Necro nation will vehemently disagree. I've played both at the highest level (including raiding), and it's not even close. The Necro itself brings a LOT to the team (pulling, FD, mana battery, SNARE), but the pet is basically a DoT.
    Adonhiram likes this.
  6. Nekk Augur

    You're right, I disagree. Using the right spells and aa's a nec pet can tank anything up to and including VP trash in RoS. This includes nameds from previous tiers if done properly. With a real healer, usually a clr, I've even had my pet tank VP nameds.
  7. Aurastrider Augur

    Just my two cents and they are probably wooden ones at that since my necro was always just a box but I have seen people play a necro without their pet and just use the swarm pets. I believe there was a nerf to this though? If not the necros I have seen in action did not even need a merc at all they would just swarm pet... dot… dot... dot... swarm pet... dot and keep repeating until the mob was dead. If agro became an issue just FD. They were amazing and being able to stand and cast really fast again to land another dot or another round of swarm pets before they had to FD again. I remember seeing a friend do this and he took down a named I was having difficulties with boxing 5 toons and he just made the guy look like some chump.
  8. hein Augur

    Thank you for your comment. It's very helpful. You mentioned some well planned macros. Do you have time to give me more detail on those? What macros should I make in the event that I decide to box mage/necro. Also what F2P Mercs would you go with? A cleric and Wiz?

    thanks again!
  9. Felicite Augur

    The difference between the warrior pet and the Rogue pet very small (I believe is a few hundred DPS). I used to keep one of each pet summoned and switch when needed, but it's not worth the hassle and you never know when you might want to tank something "now" and the rogue pet is soft.

    Did you raid in Luclin?

    I'm surprised at how buff the Necro warrior pets are now, I learned the Necro when bonechip was just a DoT (as you said) and once they got aggro, a speed bump. Now you, your pet, and your healer merc can tank singles of "current" content all the way to EoK at least*. It's slower than just killing the same mobs solo, but you can.

    I also learned the class when "kiting everything" was the norm, so it's fun, relaxing, and nostalgic for me. But I have to concede you can cast more spells when not running so root rotting and/or swarm tanking is where it's at now baby.

    The Mage is a class designed to pet tank, yes. And I believe they "pet tank better" (a little ;p). But without snare (clickies, sure, my Mage has them and they aren't the same) or FD you find yourself in a "gate or die" situation a lot.

    Beastlord is interesting. Your pet is tough and can be focused. You have a slow. You can keep your pet up well, and have respectable melee (if you're into that, I'm a caster - in the rear with the gear).

    *in fact, at 110 spells, AA and focus.. you heal your own pet really well, actually.. something else I had to unlearn from the old days when your healing spells were junk.

    Anyway, to the OP: you can easily pet tank to max F2P level with all three pet classes. Building a group around a single pet tank seems like it's working fine, until you see a real tank, but it "works". To me the difference between Mage+Clr+dpsmerc+dpsmerc and Necro+Clr+dpsmerc+dpsmerc is pulling options (and at 90+ the Necro can slow nearly all mobs). Bst+Clr+dpsmerc+dpsmerc seems really viable if you like to melee (I don't) - and the Bst can slow (your pet can proc a snare iirc).
    snailish, Quatr, moogs and 1 other person like this.
  10. Yimin Augur

    Having played all three pet class over my 18 years on EQ , all three come with a pet that can tank trash mobs and named with support , right now I play a Bst cause she gets to melle DPS , I missed that part of EQ playing a Mage and Necromancer ...So to answer the OP ,yes for sure a Necro pet can tank ROS content ....But I would rank the pets like this Mage pet is the toughest followed by Bst then Necromancer Pet ..

    Yimin
  11. BadPallyGuildLeader Augur

    EM25 mage pet plus enchanter is basically highly efficient EXP machine. Although I do like the tricks that can be managed with the necro swarm pet vs. the mage swarm pet. Reconsider boxing and go with mage\ench\nec? :)
  12. Spellfire Augur

    I've done this and it was ok, but swapped nec for a druid, and it was even better.
    moogs likes this.
  13. moogs Augur

    EM25 is totally unrealistic for most players. The only way to obtain better than about EM18 as a group player is to play on FV or Brekt with their broken economies. There's the chase item if you want to spend 30 Kronos or some ridiculous price like that. After that, you have to raid current content regularly for months to gain either the DKP or the currency, and that's only if you are with your guild when it beats the event so you can unlock the vendor.
  14. snailish Augur

    Felicite's posts at Allakhazam form a massive pillar of necro knowledge, a trusted source. (often buried deep in the threads under specific necro quests).

    My advice: heed Felicite.
  15. Gnomeland Augur

    Necromancer pets are the worst of the three main pet classes when it comes to tank, this is basically accepted by everyone who's played all three classes, and anyone who thinks differently should put up evidence because it contradicts the experience of everyone I know.

    The comparison between mage pets and beast pets, however, is a lot closer and there is controversy.

    Mage earth pets have the highest health in the game, and the highest base armor. They also have a combat ability that shields them for 10% of damage up to a few hits. On the surface, this is obviously the best tank pet, right? Well, yes and no. The issue is - mage earth pets have garbage damage - even worse than beast pets on defense - and therefore cannot keep up aggro as well. Also, their shield ability can only be used against monsters that aren't immune to root, which rules out 99% of rare monsters in the game. They also compensate for their high armor, with lower avoid. Thus, they actually are, literally, just a ball of health, and to take advantage of it, you need a lot of healing, which mages do not provide.

    Beast pets, on the other hand, have the benefit of the best pet healing in the game. Beast pet healing is an order of magnitude better than mage pet healing. They have four pet healing lines - five when you count the kill monsters one - to the two of mages - three when you count dichotomic, but that's only up every 60 seconds, decreases pet aggro, and is considered the worst dichotomic in the game. Their base pet heal is also better than mages due to the low cast time and higher heal amount. They have a permanent 12% mitigation that works against all monsters, https://spells.eqresource.com/spells.php?id=57360. They have two pet combat ability lines that increase aggro. And they can raise their pet's max health such that it is between mage air pets and earth pets, and they have slow, which isn't that big of a deal these days, but it still does make a difference since mages have no equivalent.

    Beast disadvantages? Well, they can't summon pet equipment, but in my book, that's not a big issue as long as you can obtain that equipment from other sources, and it is especially not a big problem should you use bought equipment.

    So I'd say that I actually consider the beast pet a better tank than the mage pet, except when there is a lot of healing and, perhaps more importantly, a cleric already in the group, at which time the higher health of earth pets make them a slightly better option. Outside of that, beast pets have the advantage of 12% mitigation and better aggro, and even though mages can increase their pets' avoid slightly, that increase is no where close to the difference from 12% mitigation.
    Skewert, Quatr and snailish like this.
  16. Yimin Augur

    The EM 24 Chase loot is on the Yeti in ROS that's where I got one and other have also ...its ultra rare drop so good luck if you go after one ....

    YiMin
  17. Sagarmatha Augur

    You don't need EM25 or EM24 to be OP as a Mage.
  18. IblisTheMage Augur

    Remember to block slow heals on your pet, when using a merc. Slow heals will often kill a pet, also a mage pet.
    Skewert and Quatr like this.
  19. BadPallyGuildLeader Augur

    FV's economy not "broke" at all. Just calibrated to a different ruleset and circumstances involving good ole forces of supply and demand.
  20. BadPallyGuildLeader Augur

    One thinks this is commonly understood but it really always needs to be restated.
    Skewert, Quatr and IblisTheMage like this.