Okay, so I'm a longtime EQ1 player, and have decided I was gonna go hunting around for something new. At the time I left EQ I had rerolled for the hundredth time and included a necro in my box setup. Fell in love with the DoT style. Problem is, I wanted to just play the necro, but I didn't want to kite. Was a funny situation to me. Decided I was gonna look into the "DoT classes" (namely necro if they had it) of other MMOs I knew. First choice was WoW, remembering locks. Started a lock, got rolling..Affliction (the DoT based spec) has a grand total of 3 DoTs to keep ticking. This..doesn't feel like a DoT class to me, so I got bored. Been screwing around on older toons on WoW I had, but the itch for that perfect DoT class returns. To me, the EQ1 necro was awesome because it actually felt like I was playing something entirely based on DoTs. My pet was another DoT to me, and then I could stack numerous DoTs of various strengths and durations depending on the enemy. Was a nice style, imo, having 6-8+ DoTs rolling. Now, I've played EQ2 once before, a long time ago, as a monk..or..evil monk. Whatever. I found it fun enough back then, but never really messed with a necro. And honestly know very little about the game. So, with my wall of text introduction done, on to the actual questions! How "DoTty" are necros in EQ2? are we talking like 2-3 DoTs or 4-5? more? How well do the pets handle things? I've heard EQ2 is more 'solo-friendly' than EQ1, so gives me some hope that can solo without the annoyance of kiting. Addon to above, do necros handle themselves well in more difficult solo situations? During leveling process, I tend to solo when I have time with work taking up most of my time. But, I recall on my monk going to a couple of the dungeons, which were fun, but difficult for me to solo in some cases until I had outleveled them a little bit (not to triviality, but low end of xp giving).. so to next question - As a necro, how well would I be able to screw around in dungeons as I level, solo? Is it possible? I hear you have mercs now, if I threw a merc in, possible? At the top level, is there much solo content? Or options as far as soloing your gear? Rarely really get into the group game so doubt EQ2 would be an exception. And lastly, considering 9 expansions and 95 levels, I assume that a lot of the old content has become soloable (as in the raids). How's a necro at handling this stuff? I do enjoy going back and seeing raid content when I can, and challenging myself to kill it. It's what I lived for on EQ1/WoW. Guess that's enough questions for a first post. Looking forward to any answers you can give. Thanks!
EQ2 Necros seem to have a lot of dots to me. I think they have at least one direct damage (mine's pretty low level yet), several temporary pets which amount to animated dots, their real pets in tank/scout/mage flavors, some stuns and roots, and some lifetaps, a heal and several dots. It's not hard for any class to solo (imo) in EQ2 in most situations. If you add in a merc, you should have no issues at all. I don't know about soloing old raid content with a necro maybe someone who has a higher necro can let you know =). You can get perfectly acceptable gear solo. There is gear that is quite good from several quests leveling up, there are lots of drops, there is crafted gear you can hire someone to make for you. Soloing is my primary playstyle these days (occassional duo or more rarely a small group, I don't even remember the last full group I was in) and I think I do quite well for myself. I'm not likely ready to jump in on a high end raid atm, but I can do the things I want to do while I'm on.
Necros have 3 main dots. Two singles and an aoe, and one of the singles can be maintained on multiple targets. They get another massive 10 tick dot that takes a chunk of their life away with every tick as well. Then they get a couple debuffs, a single hit lifetap, and an aoe single hit lifetap. They get another aoe single hit from AA, but that's about it. New prestige adds a dot proc with a 5 hit spell based off the proc. Mage pet has 4 or 5 dots as well as single hits. Necro spell rotation is really only 4-6 spells most of the time, easily the least of any EQ2 class. Necros may not have a large number of different dots in this game, but if you watch the numbers appearing over mobs heads, it's basically a blob of orange (and whatever color you set pet damage to, I forget default but I have mine as purple) at endgame.
Soulrot, bloodcoil, pandemic(encounter), vampire bats are the Dots a necro will use for life. DD includes lifetap and bloodcloud. This pretty much all you will ever cast, with the exception of the spells to make tainted heals proc when needed. Temp pets could be considered dots as well, but they dont survive an ants breaking wind. They are useful sometimes for deaggro though. Necros used to be the best soloer in the game, now with mercs all classes can solo and I believe the class has been surpassed by SKs,Inquisitors, Zerkers, and brawlers in terms of solo ability with merc. But, you should be able to do almost all the game with a merc and yourself. Your tank pet can take a lot of punishment at low levels, especially with tainted heals. Eventually as you level up you will move away from the tank pet towards the mage pet for increased damage output and rely on tainted heals and possibly a merc to keep it alive while burning down mobs. The good news is that you do not have to fear kite here.
Sorry for late response, long work hours in prep for holidays makes it fun to keep up with stuff online. Thanks for the answers. The lack of numerous DoTs is a disappointment a bit, though as I recall from ancient memory, EQ2 combat is loads faster than EQ1, so guess that's why I probably won't find a game that involves "Stack a billion and three DoTs, watch mob rot to death" other than EQ1. When current mob takes 1-2 min to kill, guess that sort of is a bonus in the DoT scheme. Interesting to know the pet is better here (and I googled some pics, to find a drachnid pet. Which is..awesome. I always wanted a drachnid pet.) Kind of curious on playing, but guess I'll think it over a bit more.Not gonna be at a computer for a handfull of days, so no real use starting up now. So I'm clear, what you mean by "Do almost all the game with a merc and myself", is response to my "Can I do the old dungeons, etc for a challenge"? If so, more points. Can't say I know much about EQ2, but I do enjoy exploring and all in a world I don't really know. Best part of picking up a new MMO is that time before the world becomes so routine, every corner is something new. Guess will see sometime in the next week or so if I have the time. Any other responses are still appreciated to give any more information, or tips etc. Thanks again
You can do all level appropriate dungeons with a merc. The speed at which you go through will vary depending on class and merc class, but all content under L85 was designed with much lower quality gear than we now have, so it's a lot easier than it used to be.
