Spell/DoT shielding, 1% for every bucket of 400 HInt, so it's not particularly useful to spec for those mods specifically, you'd end up with an additional 3% spell/DoT shielding specing HInt over HSta in ToL I believe (a 10-15kish HP value on ToL raid AEs), which is pretty close to the raw HP value you get specing HSta, minus the Melee shielding/Stun resist
Hint does nothing for dps, no idea where you came up with the idea that it provides extra damage. I've never run oom in a raid even on Tantor without running tantorlings away. If mana regen tools provided %age based regen a larger mana pool may make sense but it's a flat return. In my experience there's literally 0 reason to run hint augs on a necromancer. I will gladly take the extra hp any day over some extra mana that I have never needed once while raiding.
Getting the basic aug is easy these days. The entertaining part comes when you start leveling TS 300 - 350 .
Scorn already provided the best / most complete answer in post #9. Unless you're really on the margin of beating / not beating content, you'd likely be perfectly fine without any Type 5s at all TBH. Give it a try!
True, we all get wrapped up in this micro stats, when even fairly large changes, very rarely makes a difference, esp the group game. People spend so much time and money trying to get like one aug and it will probably never make a difference, that will really matter, besides the little dopamine rush seeing your stats go up a tiny bit. Things to really concentrate on are Pet focus, weapons and spell focus. Honestly, I have never run oom in the group game and if I ever did get close, I could sit for a couple mins and be FM again.
Well, if I could do it over again, I would go Hint. I'm almost never low HPs, but can get low mana. Soloing a named etc, the only limiting factor, would be low mana, if there was an issue that you had. Raiding, maybe HPs, if you have huge AEs or something I guess.
I raid buff to approximately 501k HP before banner effects (caster in CoV raid + 1 ToL non-ore item), and have 3200+ hInt and just under 2400 hSta (no Artisan's Prize, no Nasthar's, 3/4 hInt 1/4 hSta slot 5s, 3 slot 7s and maybe 8 slot 5s from optimal). On the FTG raid, when not able to otherwise avoid it, I survive the runaway DoT with ~1-2% health, where many others die. Keeping leech recourse up during this phase may be the difference, not hInt vs hSta though.
So true, lol. It's amazing how people will pay/do so much for like a few more hps or mana etc.. Unless something is just beyond your ability, it doesn't matter. Even large gains in those things, never really seem to matter. But seeing bigger numbers makes you feel happy.
I am pure heroic intelligence, for the fizzle benefit. Fewer fizzles = more DPS, especially mid-burn.
This might be a common misconception, but heroic intelligence does not reduce the chance to fizzle. Specializations reduce chance to fizzle (e.g., specialized alteration, conjuration, evocation). However, you could make the argument that heroic stamina reduces the chance to be stunned, thereby increasing your DPS on stun events/NPCs on average.
I suppose I meant to say just the normal spell skills (abjuration, alteration, conjuration, divination, evocation) that the spell uses. These are easy to max out.
The question is how much would a larger mana pool help in most situation. Full Hint augs over hstam augs would give you how much larger of a mana pool, 21-22kish? That's 2ish dots depending on which ones you cast. In raids your mana regen is pretty much fixed to what your raid setup provides. I have no mana issues in raids unless I die and no matter how large your mana pool is a death will screw up your parse. Even in group game or solo 2 dots won't get you far, especially solo. You won't be pulling more mobs to dot if you can only cast two dots so you'd be stopping to med anyway.
This same faulty logic applies to other heroic stats as well. EQ is a game of incremental advantages, and having an extra 22k mana is worth around 3 dots. If those dots are twincast they will do a lot of damage. Again, what good is having more hitpoints if you're useless on the event because you're out of mana? There's valid arguments to pick hsta over hint and hint over hsta, but do focus on ones which aren't flawed.
I'm not sure how it's faulty logic. Mana is a non issue in raids. On a shorthanded off night 23rd anniversary raid that took just under 31 minutes I still had no mana issues whatsoever. The only way to run oom is if you aren't utilizing your mana regen tools properly or if you die, and if you die a bigger mana pool makes no difference. So if mana is a non issue in raids, and if you aren't pulling more mobs when you can only cast 2-3 dots while solo, then that leaves the group game. Congratulations on casting 2-3 dots (if 3 dots it's not a combination of any of your better dots) on one more mob before needing to med. I can honestly say that not once in my 17 years of experience as a necro could 2-3 more dots have made the difference in a raid being won or lost.
