DE Necro on Yelinak - Stat Distribution

So I have a question about stat distribution. Generally every time I play any caster, I always max INT. However, I have noticed that INT is really easy to cap as a Caster for example, my 66 DE Mage on another TLP literally has 51 INT over current cap with non-raid level bought gear. While my STR is my lowest score at only 124.

Obviously over the long haul with decent gear dropping 24 INT at creation isn't much of an issue because of hitting caps or a least it doesn't seem so but what I am curious about is how much do you think it would me to drop my INT on my upcoming DE Necro down to 110 (vs 134) and put those 24 points into STR for carrying capacity?

Is that just dumb when starting out in classic considering I strongly doubt I can cap INT before Velious? Also if I decided to play up to much higher levels, would it come back to bite me at say level 85? 100?

Note: I realize that if I do go all in on INT at creation and end up caping out my INT, I can always go for gear with STR or based on its focus effect rather than having INT, is this just a better way to go?

Your total int only matters in events where you are burning from FM to 0 within that encounter - which is to say, as a necro, you'll be stat capped long before it matters.

Stats don't matter. People who tell you they do matter are a meme.

Having max INT will only help you for like the first couple expansions. Even then, for the most part mana regen is what limit you, not the size of mana pool for most content. Int beyond 200 has an even lower impact at early TLPs.

If you plan on buying one or more of the fancy 100% wt reduce bags, then STR will be pretty irrellevant, you could put points into STA, but even that will barely make a difference. Personally, i'd probably just go with INT and buy bags.

The worst thing about DE Necro is being 3 zones deep to train. I made DE Necro 2 times and last time I made a Human and it was a lot less headache. Also at launch Neriak/Nek forest crash and shut down sometimes. Erudite wasn't bad either. Just sucks being in the boonies.

Truth be told DE's are my favorite race so I know their city and starting area like the back of my hand. I also like having easy access to the EC tunnel. Also it is about the only Necro race I might be able to resist doing a race change to Iksar on. I got the money but $25 seems a bit ridiculous to pay for a race change. I mean I could buy nearly 2 kr for that which at least would be useful.

Yah I hate having to race change. That is why I'd like a kunark start someday. But that isn't business smart.

If you don’t buy the weightless bags, then strength is really good, followed by stamina for hitpoints.

I usually dump into sta on my necro's as +int from gear gets you capped pretty fast.
Something like 25 sta and then the rest goes back into int or put it into str but tbh just ask a mage/camp wr bags.
When you start to consider things like Lich and how it works, hp is gonna be really nice.

Also keep in mind race changes was mentioned down side with that is you get default stats so if your interested in min/maxing even a little, you don't get a choice.
When I checked character creation on live servers, it defaulted necro as sta/int so its not so bad I for some reason was expecting worse. I don't know why though I guess I would have preferred more Sta to compliment their regen.

Yeah race change is a factor which makes things even harder. I really want to main a Necro but the reality is that Iksar really are better Necros. If I wait for Kunark to start an Iksar Necro then I am having to play 8 weeks of catch up in order to Main the Necro. However if I start now, whelp I am pretty much wasting $25 if I want to race change. Then if I am going to race change anyway, it would probably be better to go Gnome than DE just for ease of travel in classic. Really if I am going to race change anyway, like you said stats aren't going to matter. What a pain.

I'd just roll a druid or something to PL the necro, a throw away account of sorts. Or make one to farm gear and twink. But either way catching up in Kunark is not the worst. It's not the worst idea to wait either. I am considering to make a iksar shaman (if my friend doesn't play) I've always wanted one but I don't really benefit from being one.

Assuming you aren't krono-ing, paying for 2 months of a sub a "throw-away account" is more expensive than paying for a race change. Imma go out on a limb and say that someone asking about initial stat distro on a necro (and planning on moving those points to Str and not to Sta.) isn't someone who has been playing enough to be rolling in krono. I could be wrong though.

Honestly I am not a fan of boxing. My biggest consideration is that I am joining a guild right out of the gate this time and don't want to try to play catch up by losing 2 months waiting for Kunark to come out. My choices are play a Necro day one and possibly face a race change or pick another class that doesn't require an Iksar and use that as my main. Biggest issue is that most of the other classes I would consider, kind of fit better as an Iksar (Monk, Shaman). I could roll a DE Chanter again to farm stuff for my Iksar but I am ran a Chanter twice and wanted something different for a main.

Actually I expect I will be playing quite a bit. I just realized that carry capacity has always been an issue with my Dark Elf casters I have played in the past. STR tends to be the lowest of my stats with them by far. I think my 66 mage on another TLP has like 124 strength and runs into carry weight issue. However that same mage has about 51 INT above cap as even focusing on +Mana, gear for casters tends to have INT on it to some degree or another. Also Iksar Necros start with 110 INT and it doesn't appear to really them. So I thought maybe it would be better to dump most of my points into STR to make it easier but wasn't sure if that would actually make my life easier or harder since I would be giving up mana.

As far as the money, $25 isn't going to break me and honestly I will probably end up buying several Krono to flesh out my equipment eventually once the prices on gear become more reasonable. It just seems a waste of money to spend $25 on a race change so I was going to try to stick with the Dark Elf unless I found myself enjoying the class less as a Dark Elf than a Iksar. That is where the Stat decision comes in.

Honestly I just think I am going to max INT and buy some weight reduction bags to solve the STR issue, then try to regulate the stat imbalance with gear selection down the road.

I have no idea how you have weight issues on a level 66 anything. My level 65 mage in garbage gear has 250 str+.

Probably because I generally haven't raided in the past and my gear was generally bought in the EC Tunnel or Bazaar. I also didn't pay attention and tried to make sure my gear always had INT on it. I am sure I could have added more STR/STA if I geared a bit differently.

You want to cap int so you can free up slots for varrying gear choices later on. For instance, the chardok questline in Kunark rewards you with a multislot +150 hp item. The sooner you cap your int , the sooner you can get more HP/resists/etc etc etc.

The extra 5 points after that....doesn't matter that much. I'd put it in stam probably.

If you don't mash your points into int, you're gonna be finding yourself being short a little at least really early in the games life cycle. You could argue putting points in stam is worth, but honestly you're gonna be able to get more survivability from big +HP items.

At least they added a parcel to Paineel.

Yeah this honestly was what I ended up concluding and you bring up a really good point for why I might not want to race change my Necro to an Iksar when Kunark comes out. The regen is nice, very nice but Iksar do have a 24 point deficit in INT vs a Dark Elf which means I could devote 2-3 item slots to non-INT items to get significantly more +HP or other stats I might need/want. I don't really think that offsets the regen difference but it does make it more palatable not having the regen and from what I am told, at much higher levels, eventually the regen stops being all that useful.

There is a certain point where you can't really just say "I haven't raided" because there is a lot of group gear that solves a lot of gear issues. Once aa's are unlocked it's less important.

Erudite is a dark horse for sure, I've always liked that when I min/max'd them (mostly possible with twinking) I didn't have to touch INT for my mages. Even with just quest gear/easiest camps 5 slots off the top of my head is like 166 int

I mean Iksar is absolutely worth it until AA's come out, might still be worth it then.

Not only do you get regen you get forage and extra armor class lmao.

There regen is really nice, I would imagine even with AA's the regen will stay a head. Plus a pre-nerf Fungus Staff

Non-Iksar with Lich (lvl)60 (standing)-18 (FD) -17 (Sit)-15
Iksar with Lich 60 -10 -8 -4