I started playing the game in Feb '05. In Summer of '06, I discovered that Necromancy was for me and it has been ever since. Probably because of my soloist nature and love of evil themed motifs. Everything was spectacular up through EoF. Then Kunark came in and killed high end soloing, amongst other things. I played through the year of Kunark in hopes that TSO would change things. It did not. I cancelled my subs about a month after (I always pay monthly to leave my options open). I have recently reactivated one of my subs only because I'm bored until TOR releases. Since TSO's disappointing release, I have perused over the necro board once every month or two looking to see if there's been any improvement in how you feel about the class's direction. At first, it was loud voiced with lots of constructive and non-constructiveness. Then it was just non-constructiveness with the occasional fanboi claiming 50K DPS and stating you don't know how to play your class. And now there is nothing but the occasional whisper, presumably because the necro community not only feels ignored but has accepted that writing about it in any form is pointless. Even now, my post is the only one this month, and there are final posts in Page 1 threads that date back 3 months. This is an Everquest Global forum section, right? You'll notice I didn't post any problems that need fixing. Cause I aint talking to Devs that might read or respond to this. They are welcome to ignore me and go back to tweaking whatever alpha classes are their FOTM. No, I'm talking to YOU. You know, someone who actually gives a frak about what's going on. So I look at this board more as a private chat channel now and feel pretty comfortable with that. Normally, I'd tell the trolls to leave me alone since this is flame-worthy, but I suspect it'll be at least a week before even they accidently click on this chat channel
I don't have anything to add really - you are describing exactly what I feel myself. Same as you, I have realized that Necromancy if THE art I would like to play and I occasionally tried every possible class in game. But still, even now I find what to do with my Necro, at lvl 90: Mentoring down and doing quests I missed (there are not many left ) Sometimes (rare though) getting groups for lvl 90 content. I have to admin, my Warlock and SK getting groups much easier. But their soloing abilities are not that good as my Necro's, not matter what "fanboys" say. But I enjoy them too. Errr... hmm... I think that's all Most likely most people play other classes, like me, leaving their Necros on shelf in dust and taking them out only when guildie need a help with something he/she cannot solo. Or when old friend says "Hey, get your Necro here, we are taking down ...". Dunno.
If your looking to solo, the necro is very good. If you are looking to raid/group you may have a problem. Due to the combination of limited raid spots and the fact that the conjuror does everything better from DPS to utility, your gonna have a problem "if" there is a summoner spot open in the raid. Are there a few good necros, of course, however they would be just as good or better conjurors if betrayed. As of right now with all the nice SoF pet gear being utilized much better with the conjuror class (pet is a much larger part of overall DPS than necro pet), as well as powerful (overpowered according to devs at FF) abilities such as Elem. Blast, as well as better overall group utility (grp. stoneskin), the conjuror has a leg up when comes time to fill a DPS raid spot. Necros are too dependant on other classes to survive and do DPS, and other DPS classes are not dependant and actually do more with less. I agree with the above that most necros are guild alts on a raid roster with the exception of a few above average necros that get a raid/group spot. Hopefully you stick with your necro, work hard and become exceptional to earn a spot (if raiding is your thing) and hope that maybe someday devs will give necros another look to improve on some balance and desirability. As for right now the necro boards and the class is basically dead and have been for awhile, with the exception of a few dedicated players supporting the class.
TBH, I really dont care anymore about them trying to fix Necros. I'm one of those folks where, when you've been gone from a game for long enough, you just cant ever come back to the prior flavor. Again, I'm just here killing time until TOR. But in any game I play now, I always try to find the most necro-esque class possible. I did raid a lot, and my guild was kind enough to let my necro remain primary, but they definitely loved my lock and mystic alts more. However, my primary love is soloing group instances. I only raided to get better gear to be able to do this. And up through the end of EoF, times were rocking. It's not that necro's were nerfed per se in Kunark. It's that group instances all became end-tier yellow ^^^ everything, requiring you to stand in multiple places simultaneously for creative killing. And TSO did nothing to change this. I've heard Sentinel's Fate has made what I like to do a little more possible, but there were so few folks doing what I was doing (at that time) that I don't trust grapevine info enough to top off my necro again for another stab at it (She's still 80 and 140 AA's). I've made an SK, and am slowly creeping my way through content to keep things relaxing.
As I keep reading these forums. There is one thing that keeps getting mention. Necromancers don't do damage fast enough and that's right. Necromancers are in the long haul fight. It doesn't matter if you are soloing or grouping we do damage over time. I have a belief that people who create a necromancer character are expecting too much too soon. I have found it hard to get into groups or find raiding guild that will take my main character, which is the necromancer because they the mobs dead now. I would like to recommend take some time to read these forums about being a better necromancer. Despite, the improvements the class needs people still do a lot with the class. Now, I step off of my soapbox.
Trangoul@Antonia Bayle wrote: I do alot with my necro, I raid and get into groups often because i have some cool friends dont dont mind me leeching buffs and my wife plays a fury so she keeps me healed. But necros have not scaled up in damage abilities as well as most other mages. If fights were long and drawn out then the necro could parse well most fights now do not last long enough for a necro to be very usefull. Necros also dont bring much to a group utility wise but they require an ideal group makeup to produce mediocre dps. Most of this problem stems from lack of usefull abilities in the necros rotation.. Soulrot, bloodcoil, Pandemic and bloodcloud being the main usefull necro spells. A few others are pets which die to the slighest breeze. Dont get me wrong a necro can parse seriously high in a ten second fight but ive seen every class parse as high or higher. If our dumbfire pets undead horde, blighted horde, awaken grave and vampireisim were turned into a more usefull form (dots with the same animations) the class would be a bit more well off dps wise. Keep in mind some of the game mechanics dont work very well in the necros favor like ability mod, potency and spell da.
