Recently I got my Warrior to 50 and now looking to make something that can solo to play around with. I was going to do Necro but they actually look pretty weak. I know they used to be very strong but it seems like they got nerfed or something. Necros were always a DoT class with a weaker pet which basically acts like another DoT. However Im looking at the spells on ZAM and compared to to the Shaman and even Druid DoTs they dont really do that much more damage. I mean the level 47 necro DoT Ignite Blood actually does less damage than the level 40 Druid DoT Drifting Death. How can a class thats based around DoTs actually be worse than a Druid? So are Necros not a good solo class anymore?
a well played necro is a powerhouse in classic. they get so many tools to work with they never got their dot lines revamped like druids did, so you still need to stack multiple dots from the same line to get the same returns. especially if you are just looking to solo, thats not a huge deal. just takes another spell gem.
That might as well be a Shaman spell. In Kunark once Necro and Shaman dont share spells its even worse. Pox of Bertox and Bane of Nife completely smoke the 50+ Necro spells. Pyrocruor is complete trash compared to those. Honestly I dont know how to calculate the damage for Splurt so it might be better. However, every other DoT is garbage. Lvl 53 druid DoT Winged Death doing more damage than a level 58 Necro DoT is lughable.
I made a necro for the first time on Selo and gotta say it's been very underwhelming. I am boxing a shaman along with it and that character has felt like the main engine that lets me accomplish things efficiently with the necro. At level 39 I already have so many 'must have' spells to mem that managing spell slots is a huge pain in the , feels much worse than enchanter even. The highlights of the class for me have been charm undead and the heat blood line. Part of my issue might be I am stuck using a very weak Lich spell, looking at the level 60 ancient lich it's 44 mana a tick which sounds pretty amazing to me. The class is definitely capable of soloing, you just have to load up one or more mob with tons of dots and aggro kite. It's simple and pretty fun. Anywhere they can charm undead they will be solo gods (you'll want to bring your own negative magic resist pet gear though).
Necros didn't lose power in not being revamped, they remain as they were. Weave your dots on appropriate targets, use your toolkit and you are very capable solo. Yes other classes gained power and ease of play with their revamps. The two shaman-shared dots you get by the level 50s make you other spells seem very weak --just means you kill some things with snare and envenomed bolt instead of stacking 4-5 dots on it. You save the stack for the really hard stuff. Yes, necro is suffering in the raid game due to no dot revamp (debuff slot stacking issues, the need to spell set swap, other classes are easier to play and stack more damage efficiently thanks to their revamp). Arguably becoming endangered species in fact. Yes, necro can be lost in the group game because they aren't efficiently bursty and most groups are killing most content super-bursty (fast). A Dot revamp won't necessarily help with this. On progression, group XP bonus impacts your perception of solo viability because you are often better off being the 6th wheel in a group. Many won't grab a necro for a group unless it is an area with undead (you have tools including charm). One workaround is make friends and/or form the groups (many players are not group leaders). --signed, a longterm multiple progression server mostly solo necro player
I don't know druids but for the specific examples you list, the fire line has the benefit of stacking with all the other fire dots you get, additionally the fire dots are alteration which synergizes with an alteration spec necro and the fire line dots, invoke fear, insidious retro, duration lifetap, lifetap, and undead dot all have a -100 resist check so they are almost irresistable to the point of landing 99% of the time on red cons. The revamped poison/disease dots that are shared with shamans have the unfortunate side effect of the new stackinng system of the later expansions. You can only cast the highest versions of them. Cessation of Cor line is very mana effficient but only worth using if many things are melee'ing the target so its a group dot. Splurt takes too long to pay off and if you aren't an alteration necro spec then splurt isn't even remotely useful to use. I personally am a conjuration spec necro so I use the darkness snares and I use my lowest level scent and land disease and poison dots on everything. You actually save alot more mana if you spec conjure cause snare is used alot and the conjure spells all cost more mana than the alteration ones do.
Play what you like. Druids lose appeal to some once porting is mostly done by the PoK books. But as a druid, you still have the self-portability. Druids get track and can solo many things just fine. Lots of players for many years have solo mained druids. Enchanters have ruled pretty much every progression server classic to OoW (when the OoW charm change hits). They don't have much to do in most raiding or even group situations (if not charming) because players are so powerful that crowd control, debuffs aren't absolutely needed and chanter dots and slow casting nukes don't let you contribute much when kills are fast, but lots of people have a pocket enchanter (whether for buffs, farming, etc.).
I was going to reroll melee for OOW anyways since with the addition of 2.0s they began to rule the DPS meters.
Necros are not very well balanced during classic. They have these weird massive level gaps between updated DoTs and mana regen. Your poison DoT is level 4, then upgraded at 34 lol. Disease DoT is 13, upgraded at 35. It's not fun being level 32 using level 4 and 13 dot's. Your level 18 mana regen is 4 per ticket, then you don't get a better than clarity regen until 48, when it jumps to 20 mana per tick. Honestly they seem really badly designed during classic.
Ench is good as long as there is a good pet to charm and carries a lot more risk. I'd go with mage/sham if you want to gear/plat farm. In the later expansions/AAs the duo gets stronger and stronger. (and can to back to trivial zones and mow through them, whereas an ench is still stuck with their lousy sword pet or low level charm pet)
To be quite honest, don't bother playing a necro untill they perform the revamp. It is a waste of time. you would be happier playing just about every other class, except maybe rogue.
What makes you think there ever will be a revamp? It's been two years since they have even made a post about the possibility.
Revamp or not, if your gonna play a necro, play on Mangler and play a necro through Velious because those are the expansions they are best in. Once Luclin hits Necros just take a nose dive and continually get worse till I don't even know when.
Forever more or less. I'd pull a number out of my *** and say 99% of Necros currently playing on Live are what I'd call 'legacy' players - they've stuck it out through all the years despite being miserable. In reality - no one main changes to a Necro. No one makes Necro alts. They are more or less a niche class that may fill some weird, random purpose you are personally working on but no one is leveling one for actual play. The majority of vet players (again - talking about Live but it starts A LONG time back before where we are at) either main change or just quit. Soloing though it might seem great because you're not actually comparing yourself to anything else. If you plan to go long term or raid though... eh... Edit: PS. If you make it to OOW and don't want to do your epic 2.0 you probably should just retire the Necro then.
