Hello Andy, You will probably have different settings for the different types of playstyles you will be using. At level 85 with a heroic toon, I can assume you will have 3 different playstyles. 1 is solo kiting, 2 solo pet tanking, and 3 grouping. For kiting, I would load my spell bar with the minimum required DoTs that it takes to kill a target. This means you will be loading your longer duration DoTs for sure. You will also want to purchase your Encroaching Darkness (Snare) AA asap. As mentioned in another thread, you will be agro kiting with your rogue pet (level 85, and every pet from there in increments of 5 levels) backstabbing the NPC while you keep agro with your dots and running in circles. Once you get used to kiting 1 NPC at a time, try kiting 2, 3, and even 4, all while DoTs are ticking on each of them. A lifetap memmed can help here incase you get hit once or twice. Also, purchase your Whisperwind (leap step) AA. This will help you to stay ahead of NPCs if your snare wears off early. Next is pet tanking. You will use this strategy more in tight places and when NPCs are able to summon you. Your Warrior pet is level 82, and every pet from there in increments of 5 levels). It has more HP than your Rogue pet. Buy the highest level cleric mercenary that you can. There are some spells that you will want to block from your mercenary casting on you and your pet. I forget them at this time but I'll post them in a follow-up post later on. The spells you want to mem for pet tanking are your swarm pet, disease/fire/&lifetap swift DoTs, a few 30 second DoTs like Pyre, Ignite, and the Magic line. I also mem my poison blood DD. Some choose to load pet defensive spells as well. The strategy with pet tanking is to maximize your spell damage with the least amount of casts. Cast your 30 second duration DoTs first, then cast your swift DoTs and your swarm pets, and finish up with a DD or 2. Longest duration to shortest duration spells. Once you become comfortable with killing the NPC, try to reduce the number of spell casts so you can move to the next target more quickly. Finally, grouping as a necro. This will possibly be your most frustrating time as playing a necro. Encounters against an NPC with a full group can last about 20 seconds. Use only your Swift DoTs and Swarm Pets and DDs. Whenever they are all on cooldown, use a pyre or ignite DoT. Some other spells you can mem to provide additional support to your group would be the Mind Wrack (mana tap) line and Convergeance (necro rez). I forget what level you get convergeance as an AA, but it is very useful in a group if someone dies and your healer is spam healing the tank. Other AAs you will want to purchase right away include Innate Run Speed, Death Peace (FD), Death's Effigy (Fade), Scent of Terris (resist debuff), Third Spire (activateable DoT burn), Hand of Death (activateable DoT burn), Embalmer's Carapace (1,000,000 HP rune + DoT burn), and Pet Discipline for greater pet hold command. Don't forget to always buy your passive DoT AAs. Lastly, as a pulling class (despite that some monks on these forums feel we have never been a pulling class but we have always been one), you will learn to split NPCs using your many bag of tricks. An easy starter is to tag the target that you want to split out using Scent of Terris AA, use your leap ability (Whisperwind) and get some distance, use Encroaching Darkness (snare) AA on that 1 target, then use Death's Effigy or Death Peace to FD on the ground. If using Death Peace, stay on the ground for a full 1 minute to clear agro or if the adds return to their spawn point before 1 minute, then stand up. The snared target, if it still has agro on you, will start moving again. Take 1 step towards it to prevent a pathing bug and then move back to where you want to pull your target. If the target lost agro before you stood up, it will act like it is rooted in place until the snare wears off. Just tag the target again with any spell to pull it to your camp. You will get faster at splitting with practice. This is just a starter guide. Use the resources at Necrotalk.com for more information.
Menown gave you some great advice for getting started. I would add pick up and max the AA Pestilent Paralysis, also. You can use that to feign spit a group of 3. Target one, then a second (I use tab to toggle between them). PP the first, toggle to second, snare (higher AA for the insta-cast snare), then back up to separate mobs 2 and 3 and use Death's Effigy and usually lose all the aggro. Sic pet on closest mob and roll the three mob pull, 3, 2, 1. There is a lot of guides at Necrotalk. I hope they are still intact. Build you kiting skill. The Toskirak ramp is a good place to practice with 2 and 3 on the hook at once. The most powerful aspect of dotting is the ability to kill multiple mobs at the same time. Later (level 95 to100 maybe), the Beast's Domain is a fabulous kiting zone, just zone in, hit levant, and go down the hill to find all the root mobs you could ask for.
I am finally getting back to this. The mercenary buffs that you want to block on you AND your pet are the spell lines below: XX Elixir Promised XX XX XX of Vie You will also want to buff block on your pet "Torrent of Misery Recourse", "Torrent of Misery Recourse II", and "Torrent of Misery Recourse III". These three buffs that are cast on you by a Shadowknight will strip your pet's haste spell. To get to your blocked buff window, just click the EQ button, go to Character, and then Blocked Buffs/Blocked Pet Buffs. Type into the field the name of the current level mercenary spells that are landing on you and your pet, then click "Add by name". This will force your cleric mercenary to cast its quicker direct heals on your pet, which are more crucial than these other buffs. Mercs are kind of dumb in that they have their spell priorities all mixed up.
Just got back.... Stopped playing in 2004 with a 65 level DeathDealer. It has taken a level to get back in the swing of things and keep a pet alive lol. Nice write up from Menown and GoneFission. Some of the info reminds me of things I have forgotten and some are good advice moving forward. I just made level 65 and thinking of doing the heroic upgrade. I'm not really into the whole "purchase levels" but on the server I'm playing there are literally NO OTHER TOONS my level. I find myself in Planes zones soloing with no one else in site. Not really too bad but would like to also find some of those made experience camps you can find.
I realize this is an old thread, but I didn't want to make a new thread and not have it include this great guide. My question is, post necro dot revamp, is this post still accurate, or are things much too different and it requires an update? Thanks again Menown.
My 105 necro is an alt, not a main, but ... The general ideas in that post are still sound. The spell lineup might need to be adjusted due to the dot revamp. Pay close attention to the Stacking Group each spell belongs to, I would not use more than one spell from any one Stacking Group. The fast dots are in stacking groups with longer dots, so be aware of them.
