After doing some quick (likely bad) math and am wondering how necro is going to go in TSS. My main concern is mana costs. Everybody thinks necro has no mana problems but with the dot revamp, I'm not so sure. We don't get our really good mana regen AA's for a while yet. Running the numbers on our top 4 dots, it looks like our mana costs go up 220% from level 70 to 75. But our mana pool is likely only going up about 25%. Including more than just the top 4 dots only makes it worse.My mana runs out easily enough already with BiS gear. Anybody have recent experience going into TSS on a TLP? (Yes, I know the dot damage also goes up around 200% too. So the trade off is nice.)
In the group game, it won't matter much, because OOC regen will allow you to refill your full mana bar really quickly and the mobs will wither quite rapidly under the extra damage, making the group game more fun. In the raid game, it'll become even more important to track raid target resistances so you don't waste mana on costly resists. It'd be wise to land scent of thule prior to going into a dot rotation on targets that are resistant. It'll also be wise to wait until other resistance debuffs land before throwing dots as well if there's any question of the dot being resisted by the target. Use dots that are appropriate to the duration of the fight. Get the appropriate specialization augs from LDoN dungeons if you don't already have them. Don't bother dotting during trash kills unless the trash is super beefy and then just use one dot of appropriate strength/duration.
Appreciate the tips. Sounds like it can be managed well enough if you're paying attention. It's nice to hear the group game might actually get more fun. Right now, mobs die so fast to melee dps that dots feel useless.
The rule of thumb for necros is: strike at the tail. This involves dotting up mobs that aren't actively being dpsed by your group or raid. This requires some insight, as it's possibly bad to be dpsing other targets, but if you can avoid that pitfall, then your dots will do more damage this way.
Yeah, that's how I'm doing it too. If a there are two mobs in camp, I'll send my pet on the MA but I'll usually start dotting the second one first. Since my best dot is 40%+ better than my second best dot, I often throw that on the MA target as well - depending on the group DPS. With this approach I parse okay, as long as there is more than 1 mob and we don't have an overzealous chanter trying to mez. I still run OOM pretty fast (15-20 mobs). But the dots never run their course so I may be over dotting. If I don't do that though, I end up pretty low on the parse. I think its probably more damage overall to just smartly blow the mana and then OOC med it back up and start again. But I haven't tested that compared to using fewer dots and medding less often.
In a group with any kind of decent DPS, necros are either going to be wasting a lot of mana, or very low on the parse unfortunately. In groups that I have run with on Aradune (we are in SoF) necros are all complaining about group DPS as a necro, as most of time mobs are dead in about 15 seconds after engage. They do however do VERY well in the raid content this xpac, so I guess its a trade off. In TSS there are a few places you can XP with undead mobs, and you will be more likely to keep up with DPS using your undead nukes in that case. Hang in there a few more expansions and you will see a big jump in your DPS especially in raids. Unless they decide to tweak Necro DoT DPS, which it looks like they might be thinking about doing considering the December patch and the necro nerfs in it. :\
I also recommend pulling when you can. It can give you a head start on doing damage, can be more fun than sitting in and hitting a couple hotkeys, and you have plenty of useful tools for pulling. If your group is fast enough at killing and you are able to keep them locked in combat...whatever dps you do won't matter at all.
I feel like this breaks up into two categories. Grouping and raiding. I'll preface this by saying I think necros are a solid raiding class in TSS and that you can and should top a number of parses if geared correctly. In the group game during this period, mana is a massive concern. Necros are really bad group DPS, and from most things I've read this doesn't really change. Ooc regen helps a bit, but most melee and wizards can sustain much higher DPS for a much longer period of time. Even hunting undead isn't great because you stop getting upgrades to undead nukes. Certain areas you can charm, but it's rarely useful in current content. So yeah, there are situations where you are ok in the group game, but overall you're probably the worst group DPS in the game. Raiding it does depend a bit on your raids DPS. If a fight is too short you can't ramp up and burn through all of your mana. If a fight is too long you have to conserve mana and lose DPS. The main thing, and this can apply to grouping in a sense, is make sure to use all of your tools provided. This means I'm usually using 4 pots as often as I have them on me. Prioritizing mana pres on gear. Putting my tribute into mana. Also, if you have a caster bard communicate with them the importance of a song like crescendo and high uptime on mana song. If you don't have a caster bard you likely aren't topping any parses anyway. I also am surprised by how little tools like blood magic and 6 are used. Be strategic with them, but get at least 2 , maybe 3 blood magics a raid. I used to save 6 every week for lethar 2, but if your raids schedule is different it might be smarter to use it elsewhere.
Does anyone have gina dots for us necros that are at 70 and will be 75 for tss? I cannot find any so on raids i never know what sticks and when they expire
