Thing is, I love the roleplay aspect of the necromancer, but I'm primarily a group player. I'll solo when I have nothing better to do, usually only when I'm harvesting resources, but far prefer groups. Now so far (still a summoner) I haven't really noticed any big advantage in a necro for solo'ing anyway, at least compared to my shaman. Most people I've talked to, at least up to their 20's, say they can solo real well anyway themselves. Yeah, I can maybe kill a bigger target with my necro (maybe), but if I get an add, I have bigger problems. Point is, I think the necro this time was designed primarily to be a group class, just like every other class in the game -- solo ability was given to everyone fairly equally for the most part, with maybe a few exceptions -- but we're getting a bit of a bad rap, at least with some people. After all, most of our pet spells are not tanks, but rather are dps, suiting the mage role. Throw in our other spells, and it seems we're a whole lot of damage, not with the big hits of a sorcerer, but over time equivalent (although someone would need to verify this with parsed logs I guess). However, I'm really too low level to say anything definitive about this, as I'm not even a necro yet. My concern is that I'll get there, and find out I'm wrong. Basically, that we bring something to a group, but only something that you'd be better off getting elsewhere -- also, how do we do in groups with enchanters? Right now, enchanters are rare, but over time, they might become fundamental to higher-level groups. I actually almost went wizard given that there seemed to be a huge glut of low-level summoners, but since at higher levels it thinned out to be on par with sorcerers, I figured I'd go with what I wanted roleplay wise. Anyway, thanks for any responses.
In my experiances so far, getting my Necro to 24, I'd say all the classes are really pretty much even when it comes to soloing. My necro can solo mobs up to about lvl 29-30 at lvl 24 but your absolutly, correct; If I get adds I pretty much have to run. As far as grouping goes, I group mostly with the same group from my guild and as a general rule, on XP mobs they mob doesn't last long enough for me to put up a good DoT stack, get the pet in the fight and get a few nukes off. When soloing, my combat is generally something like this Send in the pet and let him fight the mob down about 1/2 a bub of health Swarm of Rats (only on really tough mobs) Bludgeoning Earth Static Burst Siesm Blight Start an HO Chain Dust Blast Complete HO Chain (Dust Blast, Petrify depending which chain pops) In a group its more like Send in the pet bludgeoning earth Static Pulse Dust Blast (chain till the mobs dead) In groups with an enchanter you have to be really careful. Most of our DPS is in the form of DoTs and a lot fo that DPS comes from AE DoT's. Chanters hate AE's lol. Supposedly, if you cast an AE DoT on a mob after the mob has been mezed the DoT won't stick and therefor won't wake him up. If the DoT lands to early though or while the mob is not mezed and then a mez lands, the DoT will break the mez every tick. If I'm grouped with a chanter I gennerally just put away teh AE's unless the chanter tells me to use them and deal with the fact that I'm gimping my DPS =/
I group with the same guys everday. I find necro's are great in groups for sustained damage, when other casters are oom, we're not. Level 44 Necromancer Guk Server Alethia
I find the big difficulty with grouping is that enchanters and necro's don't exactly work well togather. Cutting out AOE dots really cut our damage output, and even then the pet can break mezzes if you aren't constantly jamming the attack button, especially when fighting casters. It would be a huge help if there could be some kind of aggressiveness setting for the pet. Its default behavior of attacing the last guy to hit its master is great solo, but in groups it would be nice to tell it to stick with its target no matter what.
How would you rate the trade-off for sustained damage Alethia? I find I have to empty my power 2 or 3 times to match the damage of a wizard of equal level (28 in my case). Does it get better once we stop relying on old summoner spells? Message Edited by Prionic Hamburger on 12-12-2004 09:04 PM
