Thinking of returning with questions.

Because chanter pets aren't really all that and a box of cupcakes. They are nice, but it didn't take an overwhelming effort to match them. On raids I beat epic monks and rogues on a regular basis, without a charm pet. Charm pets actually lowered my raid DPS. Maybe I played with bad monks/rogues, or maybe you play with bad necros. I typically did 30-50% more DPS than the other necros on the raid, so I am going with you played with bad necros. Most necros are bad, it seems.

The only time this is even remotely possible is some classic (mostly Fear (and really just Draco) and some Hate) and maybe a few fights in Kunark and that's only in a raid setting.

Group setting if you ever beat a charming enchanter in DPS consistently (as in not just for 1 fight where you spammed Lifetap) then your enchanter was absolute trash that had a bad pet charmed and clearly wasn't casting haste on their pet. In that case find better friends to group with.

In group a Necro cannot beat a charm pet chanter if the chanter actually plays their class correctly, its just not possible because at the end of the day EQ is just math and mathematically its just not possible - In fact the chanter pet DPS should be rivaling if not beating all the rest of the groups dps combined - if its not, again, drop that chanter and find one who isn't scared to charm and haste their mob.

My point is basically this, it is a game, if you want to have fun, play what you want, by the time you get to the more modern expacs (by TSS ish) the only class that struggles is necros.

If you want to group, any of the priest and tank classes can put together a group almost instantly nearly any time of day or night, if you play a dps class, make friends with a priest or tank.

If you want to solo, necro, druid, shaman are the go-to classess, though a large number of classes well played can solo well, wizards get to shine by TSS as well (screw quad kiting, lets just beam 12 down at once!)

If you want to raid i agree with what has been stated, nothing beats the ADPS for a shaman and a bard, so they will always be in high demand.


Also note, once the server gets past PoP the number of enchanters will drop drastically as they will no longer be able to roflstomp as easily with charm pets (good ones can do this through GoD and OOW but only in certain places, and usually with support, hope you love Vxed if you choose enchanter!).

Necros do well in Velious/Luclin on raids, dps-wise because the fights last so long.

In the ~12-60 game, charmed pets really are all that and a palette of cupcakes. Just about every zone up until Velious has at least a handful of charmable mobs that will easily out DPS any single person in your group, if not the whole group combined. I normally do the latter at disco camp in Seb with the Ilis Wizard.
The OP never asked about raiding, so I don't know why you're bringing it up. Necros are a whole different sack of potatoes in the raid game.

I was doing well on fights throughout classic, and Kunark. Naggy and Talendor were really the only fights I struggled on. Everything else I could easily be top 3, often #1 DPS. You played with bad necros. I see a lot of them. Necro’s only do well on long fights thing is garbage, at least in the early expansions. I was never not the top parse on Vox, the rest I was always in the top 3. Short, burst fights were some of my best parses. They get worse as the expansions progress, but there is no reason why Necro’s can’t be top DPS on almost every single fight Classic - Velious. I’m not some super amazing player either, I just used all the tools a necro got, not just the dots.

Yes, our chanter hasted his pet, yes he charmed the highest level pets he could find. I could match his pet’s DPS. We also didn’t fight mobs that fell over in 5 seconds, so dots were effective. Typically I did have my own charm pet in groups, unless I was feeling lazy, but I hated them on raids because they held me back.

Necro’s are better than people give them credit for, in both the raid game and the group game. Stop playing with bad necros.

Call me close-minded, but having played both raid geared necros and enchanters on TLP I just can't come to terms with this.

I'm probably one of the biggest proponents of Necros - I love the class - but this notion makes my head spin.

The only thought I had was I remember parsing decently in some GE groups with my necro if I would just spam Ancient Lifebane and send my pet. By then, I had AMoD so I could afford to just spam nukes most of the time. Even still, I clearly remember not being able to keep pace with the epic monks - and I remember my epic monk not being able to keep up with most charmed pets.