Nokternl The riddling
minstrel
Posts: 61
(1/29/03 10:57 pm)
Necro Playguide. LONG! (Last updated 11th Feb 2003)
Hi,
I thought that since I was bored, I would write out a quick playguide from my memory of the last 40 Levels.
As I'm a Deathsight spec necro, I can't help with Painwork or Death Servant necros, sorry! I plan on making a 2nd necro shortly, so maybe after then :P
Shortcut Bar -
Once you become a necromancer, set up your shortcut bar. Mine goes as follows.
Bar 1 - HOT Pet (Heal over time), Drain Life (Melee drain), Drain life (Ranged DD drain), Drain Power (Ranged DD drain), Facilitate Painworking. After that, nothing really matters. Add your base snare, Deathsight spec Shield debuff and Power Transfer spell to wherever you want.
Bar 2 (My Buff Bar) - Enhance Dex, Enhance Str, Absorbtion (once you get it). Add any other buffs you might get eventually there.
Facilitate Painworking (Necromancer Quickcast!)
Ok. The MOST important thing about making your necro USEFUL is knowing how to use Facilitate Painworking (FP). Facilitate Painworking lets you cast uninterrupted in melee for 6 seconds, which equates to 2 uninterruptable spells...
It amazes me how many people don't understand or don't even know about this spell/ability.
Anyway. Here it goes. This spell is in the Painworking base line. It's only one version, and is never upgraded. Put it on your quickbar next to your DD drains.
Using FP - You have to understand how a necro works... Spell Queue! You can only ever have 2 spells queued at one time for your pet to cast.
ie. you can tap power DD twice, and the pet will cast it twice. If you tap 3 spells, the 3rd will overwrite the 2nd and cast as soon as the 1st spell is completed. NOTE that you WILL lose mana for all 3 spells, even though your 2nd spell was not even started.
Eg. you hit life DD twice. As you are low on mana, as the 1st life dd is casting, you hit mana dd, too soon! The first life dd casts, drains life, then the mana dd casts. You've just wasted one uncasted life dd worth of mana! (But maybe you got the mana drain off before the mob reached you...)
Once you know and understand how this works, FP is a lot easier to get used to.
Second thing to note is that a necro pet's "Turn". ie. When it starts its next action, whether it be spell, attack, whatever.
When a pet swings (3 second swing time for all except the level 45 pet, which is 5 second) that is the begining of its action. You then have 3 seconds before the next action. This is vitally important for your FP, as you have to cast FP and your spell in the same action.
The most important thing to remember about FP is the 2 spells in a queue rule. This means that -
A) You CANNOT EVER successfully use FP and a spell if there is already a spell in your pet's queue. FP itself is a spell, and must be queued. In order to use FP, you have to cast it and the next spell at the same time (FP is instant and takes no time to cast once it comes up in the queue).
For example, you are trying to cast a lifetap, then decide hastily to use FP. You hit the FP key and your Power drain DD key before your lifetap has completed casting. The queue gets the FP as the 2nd spell (after Lifetap), then overwrites the FP with the Power drain, as you hit it.
Consequently, you finish lifedrain, start casting Powerdrain, waste more mana, and get interrupted. Then you're stuffed, because FP has a 30 second recast timer, and you have no other way to get back power while in combat than using FP with Powerdrain DDs.
B) It means that when you cast FP, even though it's a 6 second timer, which means you get to cast 2 spells, you HAVE to wait until FP has gone off before you can queue your 2nd attack spell.
eg. You want to use FP to cast 2 power drains. (This is what I usually use it for). You do the right thing, and wait till you have no spells queued. You wait till your pet takes a swing, then hit FP, and Powerdrain twice.
This adds FP to the first spot in the queue, which will cast at the beginning of next action (3 seconds after the pet swung in combat). You hit Powerdrain twice too. Both drains overwrite the FP, so FP doesn't go off, and your pet wastes the next 6 seconds getting interrupted trying to cast two powerdrains without FP.
Pet modes and FP
Another important thing to remember about pets is the Modes... Passive, Defense. I never use Aggressive... we have to be careful that our pets don't run out of range, and die, leaving us all but dead.
FP is VERY hard to make work when your pet is on passive. The reason? As far as I can tell, it's much harder only because you don't know when your pets actions are beginning... When in defense mode, and fighting, you always know, because it's when the pet swings in combat.
In passive, while it's just standing there dumbly, you have no idea when to start casting FP and your spell.
OVERVIEW of FP use! -
1 - be in melee, wait for all spells to cast.
2 - wait for necro pet to swing
3 - hit FP key and spell 1.
4 - WAIT for the little explosion noise (FP Cast noise) and the first spell to START casting
5 - immediately hit the 2nd spell key while the first spell is casting.
6 - watch with delight as your pet completes the first spell, uninterrupted, and commences its second uninterruptable spell.
Ok well that just about winds up FP. It WILL take awhile to get used to it, but believe me, when you do, it will save your life more times than you can count, especially in RVR.
Your Pet -
Well, your pet is you. It dies, you die, simple as that. There's a few quick notes about your pet I have decided to add here. The following is just what I have noted while playing, please correct me if I'm wrong.
Your pet receives buffs based on your stats at the time of casting the pet! So, get buffed before you cast! (+Dex and +Int)
If you die, and release / res, any pet you make while res sick WILL be worse than a pet made when not res sick.
What's more, if you cast the pet while sick, and then the res sickness wears off, your pet will still be bad. You should take the time to release and resummon it.
Your Pet AND your spells do NOT automatically update when you level. Every level you should look through your base line and DeathSight spec line for new spells. (Obviously Spec line only shows up once you've trained).
When you increase a level, you should release and resummon your pet, so it increases a level too. Although some levels it won't increase, most it will.
Combat Strategy
Basically I use Power Drain to pull, Life Drain if I'm low on life, and Lifetap whenever I'm in melee combat.
Life Drain actually does more damage than Power Drain, si if you want to be sneaky, and are starting combat with full power, you can try starting pull with a power drain, then life drain as your 2nd spell. As spells take mana before they're cast, this means that if the power drain hits, you will more than likely drain enough power to get back to full power, with the life drain cast being "free" extra damage so to speak.
A typical combat vs an orange or red for me goes like this...
Power Drain, Life Drain, Power Drain, Power Drain, (Mob reaches melee range), Lifetap, Lifetap, Lifetap..... etc.
If the mob is hitting hard and resisting a lot, I may have to cast one Heal over time, between lifetaps.
Now, you ask, "How do I put FP into that?"
Well, if you're against a tough red, and you find yourself running out of mana, Cast Heal over time, then stop lifetapping. The HOT will hopefully lessen more damage from the mob. WAIT until the pet swings twice (usually that means no more spells queued), THEN after the 2nd swing, hit FP and Power Drain or Life Drain, whichever you require more. Wait for the FP to cast and the spell you selected to begin casting, then hit another Power Drain or Life drain. Then just continue on Lifetapping as before....
Mostly I use this to regain power mid melee. You do occasionally get unlucky with Resists, and start to run low on mana. A quick FP and 2 landed power drains will usually see you back up to full power, and more damage on the mob!
A side note to this is that as SOON as the 2nd FP spell begins to be cast, you can begin casting a Shade casted spell, like your melee lifetap or heal over time. If you time it right, you can have the 2nd FP spell hit at the same time as the lifetap, causing lots of damage!!!
In RVR I'm sure you see how useful this is...
For example, you get mezzed, so you can't DD till they reach you in melee range.
They hit you (this is especially relevant VS Shadowblades and Nightshades, with massive initial damaeg) and you cast FP and your Lifedrain DD twice. Suddenly the Shadowblade that thought you would be "ez", finds that your pet which HAD 30% health left after his PA, is casting 2 spells on him, and damaging him while regaining its own life, FAST... Most run as soon as this happens, as they know they have no hope! It's MUCH FUN seeing it...
The following is just a short recount of my own experiences, please skip the coloured area if you want to just keep on with the guide.
When I was a lil tacker, in Thidranki, I solo'd 5 melee Hibs at once with my Necro pet (I was level 24, there were 3 level 24 hibs and 2 blues, so lower than 24 at least).
I did this by DDing the blues as they charged... by the time they reached me, one blue was dead. I targetted the other blue, lifetapped him to death. At this point my health was under 50% from the 3 yellows whacking at me. I waited (Tantalizing wait when you're seeing your life drop...) then cast FP, and Life Drain THEN Power Drain on a yellow. Both hit, I jumped back to 80% health or so, and from 40% power to about 80% too, then started the long Lifetap melee slog on the Yellow (Whom I had nearly killed with the 2 dds). Finished him off, had 2 yellows left. Targetted one, kept lifetapping. I had to throw a heal in there as my life and power was getting low again.... Managed to kill the second last yellow with VERY little life and power left, then lo and behold, my 30 second timer on FP was up. Another uninterruptable Life Drain and Power Drain, and we were just about equal on 30% health each.
Back to the Lifetaps... I killed the final Hib with about 10% of my health remaining.
That was the tensest 1 minute + RVR fight I've had so far. I was exhausted at the end of that fight, but totally ecstatic. I cast another heal on my pet, then went around /military'ing the 5 hibs whom I just killed, laying strewn around me at Mid Bridge. They must have been staring at me unbelievingly, I even laugh now at the thought.
Then, suddenly, *THUD*, a midgard hunter's crit shot arrow hit my already near dead Pet. Pet dies. I turn to face the hunter, who is already drawing his bow at me... I can imagine the laughs eminating from the hibs when that second arrow took me down...
It doesn't matter. I won.
MOB SELECTION -
Make sure you find and fight mobs who are susceptible to SPIRIT damage. All undead (I believe) and most other spirit types are.
Good places to go are....
Mithra at level 7-14 (I guess, if you don't have a minstrel tagalong to sprint you through 1-20 tasks...)
Near Mithra, between it and Prydwen Keep Bridge, is a hill with a stone circle, and a pile of Undead Druids. These have a fast spawnrate, and are orange to level 9 I believe. You should be able to get a good few levels from these.
The Ghostly Paladins/Clerics at Cornwall (Straight through the forest to the ruins behind Cornwall Station, left of Cornwall Hunter spawn) are good for level 13-16 or so, GOOD money too.
The Skeleton Centurions and Legionaries at the broken bridge at Salisbury plains (17-24?)
Between 24-28 try killing the skeletal legionaries in Cornwall, but don't try the ones around the Catacombs till late 20s. Just further towards Lyonesse from Catacombs are some Giant Skeletons. These move slowly so you can get an extra DD in before they reach you. They should be good in the mid 20s.
Kill Dunters in Lyonesse, oranges and reds, till they're mostly blue and yellow. (There's a tougher spawn up the hill near the named dunter COLK (sp?) once you are done with the easier ones)
After dunters, move to the Danaoin Clerks on the other side of Lyonesse (North), which will be good from low-mid 30s through to level 40-43.
Then along the shore East to Danaoin Fishermen, till level 44 or so.
After that, I guess you could try Danaoin Farmers further east till 45-46 and Danaoin Soldiers after that!
All the abovementioned mobs take extra spirit damage. The more damage they take, the less u have to cast to kill one, the quicker you level.
Level 40+
Post 40 - "What do I put these extra Mini Ding points in??"
Well... Truthfully, it doesn't really matter! Whatever you spec Painworking and Death Servant in, you're still going to kick butt with Deathsight.
I'm planning on taking Painworking to 9, and Death Servant to 24. My reasons behind this are as follows.
Painworking 9 gives me the 1st AE Snare and the first Con and Str buff. This snare is uninterruptable with Damage, and holds them for 8 seconds, which happens to nearly be the time for me to cast 3 more spells (9 seconds). Which also happens to be about the number I need to kill a yellow
The Con and Str buff is just useful, however you look at it, even if it only adds +17 to the pet.
23 Death Servant gives me the level 23 PBAE DD spell. Now I hear you saying "Why go DD instead of DOT!??!!"
Well, my reasoning is that the DOT does 37 damage per tick, and starts ticking after you actually cast the spell. The DD does 108 DD damage. Now still, sure, the DOT does more damage over time... but... you will read below that I'm using Wild Power Realm Ability, to help with my other spell's damage. Well, Wild power helps you Crit with DD spells, NOT DOT spells. So, this means I have more of a chance of damaging MORE with a DD.
Also, if you have need of an AE DD, it means you have more than just one melee enemy attacking you. More than one means a very dead pet, rather quickly, and who has time to wait for a DOT to kill off attackers? Not I!
The plan (Untested as of yet) will be that if I get swamped by melee attackers, to use Heal over time, and chain cast AE DDs, therefore damaging a lot of them as much as I can. Casting the Heal over Time is very important, as you have to stop casting your melee lifetap to cast the DDs. So at least you will get a little health back. Doing this will cause a little havoc with their healers with any luck, and hopefully give my friends some time to take them down. I'm not saying you will survive doing this, you more than likely won't. But it's still more useful than the DOT, I believe. By all means use your lower level DOT to hit Casters or Stealthers with to interrupt their casting and stealth, but I'm aiming at higher DD so I can actually do some damage if I get rushed by tanks.
Plus, lots of necros go for the DOT, and I like figuring out reasons to be different....
RVR Tactics...
Ok, I had my first little bout of "real" RVR a few days back.
It was after the Tourney! Great fun, and I managed to rack up nearly 3000RPs in the little time I spent there.
As a level 41 (I think?) All the high 40s-50 level enemies were red to me, so I needed to adjust my playstyle accordingly...
However, there are a lot of things that I've already noticed about playing Necros in RVR you should consider, to ensure continued success.
I will continue to edit these as I get more RVR Experience under my belt, obviously.
These are in no particular order, just as I think of them...
1 ) Don't consider your pet to be a tank. Although we are tougher than basically any other character in melee, we last because of our ability to endure in a 1 on 1 or 2 on 1 fight, not because of how much damage our pet can take.
2 ) You should aim at either supporting the melee classes, with Snares, Debuffs on the enemy tanks, and DDing, OR targetting enemies from range with DDs, and keeping your casters safe.
3 ) You should, and are expected to, help keep your friend's mana high, especially clerics and friars. For us, this is simple, a couple of landed Power Drains, and we have mana spare! If you don't like taking the risk of transferring 1/2 of your max mana to someone, just put a lower level Mana share spell in your shortcut bar. I run on the rough guide that if I have 3/4 mana or more, I can spare 1/2 my max, theoretically taking me down to 1/4 mana, because it's rare to get 4 or 5 power drains resisted in a row, even against red enemies.
4 ) You are the ultimate 1v1 class. If you have a minstrel with you, concentrate on singling out enemy tanks or casters, run them down and take them one at a time. Snare them if you don't have a minstrel, whatever.. Get to them, get in melee, and watch them fall. If they're dumb enough to turn and attack you, Just chain cast lifetap and slowly eat them away. Just hope they don't have backup coming. This works WELL in the middle of a mass battle, just hit the outskirts and pick a target. The only enemies you may hit trouble with here are Bezerkers and Bonedancers. Zerkers have lots of health, and put out SO much damage SO quickly that your healing has a hard time keeping its health high.
5 ) sit back if you want, and just nuke. Staying with casters will help keep them safe. If an assassin tries attacking them, cast a Snare (Painworking Spec, even if it's only 9 second like mine) to let the caster move away, then 3 dds later the assassin should be chewing dirt.
6 ) Keep your Tanks BUFFED with Absorbtion. It's more useful than you probably realise
7 ) Get a cleric to Dex and Dex/Qui buff your Servant. As most of us are Deathsight spec, our Dex/Qui buff is not quite up to scratch . You will find that your servant will cast MUCH quicker with these buffs up, which means more RPs for you, and more mana faster for the cleric! (Indirectly, hehe).
8 ) Wild Power is your friend. With the lack of a decent class Realm Ability for Necros, I have found that Wild Power is very useful. Since we never run out of mana (well, very rarely) MCL and other regen Realm Abilities are pretty useless. We regen mana faster than any other class (I believe) if we hit with our drains.
Wild Power adds a 5% chance to Critical Hit with your DDs for every level! This means your Drain Power DD, your Drain Life DD, and as far as I can tell, your Lifetap too, all get +% to Crit.
Unfortunately if we crit, we currently don't Drain more Power or Life, but it's something that could well be added later (The Necro Team Leader is lobbying this point, I'm not holding my breathe.)
That's all the RVR Tactics I have for you for now... I'll think up some more as my playing progresses!
Anyway I think that's about it for my little Deathsight Necro Guide. I'll add to it if I think I missed anything.
The necro is one of the most fun classes I have played in a long, long time. I hope you have as much fun as I do with one. Please feel free to ask me questions about Necros, I'll be only too happy to help if I can!
Well, that wasn't quite as "quick" as I thought it would be! Sorry !!!!
Best Regards,
Jason
Macros Black (Level 44.2 Necromancer, Stormcrows, Albion Palomides)
What a great guide to FP. It does explain some of the frustrations I have had with FP when it just doesnt seem to work. Necro already leveled faster than any other character I have played and ought to be even more effecient now.
Rhalet-Friar on Palomides and proud member of the Stormcrows
dyslexicdogx Charter Member
Color Blind Pallys
Posts: 1331
(1/30/03 9:55 am)
Re: Deathsight Necros, Playguide. WARNING, LONG!
Yeah great explanations of FP.
One suggestion for lvls 1-5 is to spec death sight every time you lvl. This will cut your damage variance to zero and make the first 5 lvls easier.
Nidalap palomides
Cirelc Palomides
Mombaaaa Friend of the Crows
Posts: 3
(1/30/03 12:03 pm)
Re: Deathsight Necros, Playguide. WARNING, LONG!
OMG I read all that! Thanks for the guide, Thid sounds like a lot of fun for a Necro, well done getting those 5 hibs
Add more to the guide when you get more RvR sessions under your belt please, I would like to know how they do out there.
Nokternl The riddling
minstrel
Posts: 78
(2/10/03 2:07 am)
Re: Necro Playguide. LONG! (Last updated 10th Feb 2003)
Ok everyone, I've updated it and make it a bit friendlier on the eyes....
Any more additions to suggest?
Thanks to DD and Malark (Mynecropet) for some additions.
Regards,
Jason
Macros
ps. Elroth what's the chance of stickying this thread?
Re: Necro Playguide. LONG! (Last updated 10th Feb 2003)
Stats that x-fere to your pet are
Magic resistance (hoping melee will sometime soon)
Int and dex
Hp/con/str and all that jazz is useless.
for those who have SI. Cadely is the place to go 43+. Good numerous drops. Have named mobs there who drop good stuff often. The good thing is alot of undead are there.
Bad news is its far out. Think of it like Lyon but with only 1-5 people in the zone.
Nokternl The riddling
minstrel
Posts: 79
(2/10/03 7:06 pm)
Re: Necro Playguide. LONG! (Last updated 10th Feb 2003)
Yeah I've heard that....
but truthfully, ever since I've been levelling in Lyon, there's been maybe 1 time when I haven't been able to camp any spawn I want solo...
Maybe it's the time I play...
Those resists and stats brought over are right as far as I know Garmoon, thx for that Zemas
Regards,
Jason
Macros (44.2 Necro)
Zemas Frostbane How many 50s!?
Posts: 200
(2/10/03 11:04 pm)
Re: Deathsight Necros, Playguide. WARNING, LONG!
Must be a time difference when u goto lyon. Whenever i went to Lyon it was crowded so i stop going there
Re: Deathsight Necros, Playguide. WARNING, LONG!
afaik only int and dex are being xferd to the pet, i just to buff my pet with gems uber buff and the pet does benefit from the dex and qui/dex buffs as the casting time is significantly reduced.
Nokternl The riddling
minstrel
Posts: 117
(4/17/03 1:11 am)
Re: Necro Playguide. LONG! (Last updated 11th Feb 2003)
Hiyas
I think a lot of people are still using my guide as reference, and I still plan on updating it. Could we please sticky it again till a better necro guide comes along?
Ta!
Jason
Cazznew Friend of the Crows
Posts: 1
(7/27/03 1:02 pm)
Re: Necro Playguide. LONG! (Last updated 11th Feb 2003)
Best class guide I've read in a long time. One big improvement would be to add updated info on Realm Abilities.
Re: Necro Playguide. LONG! (Last updated 11th Feb 2003)
I have been experimenting with this class on a PvP server (Andred). Andred seems like a great place to level a character in relative peace before going to Mordred.
This class seems badly unbalanced as far as leveling is concerned. The deathsight power drain spell allows the necro to chain pull blues, yellows even some oranges endlessly. No wonder necros on Palomides are accused of hogging camps! They can kill continuously with no downtime.
I discovered a few oddities. When you cast the pet it of course appears in front of you. Inside the barrows I did this and the pet appeared inside the wall. I set it to stay, and at that position I was invulnerable from PvP attacks because the pet could not be targeted, not by me or my any other player (being inside a wall). On a regular server, I assume a necro could do this at the mile fort and then drift a ways off. The necro could then sit smack in the middle of the hib zerg laughing at them at there would be nothing they could do about it! LOL!
FP does indeed work as advertised it just takes a while to get the timing right. When I screw it up, the most common cause is not facing the necromancer in the right direction (pet is facing target, but both you and pet must face it for a spell to work.)
Occasionally when fighting a high orange or red the pet will die when the mob has just a sliver of life left. You can survive the encounter by backing off a little from the pet during the battle. The mob will not be able catch you even in your weakened condition.
You can set pet to stay and run in shade form to pick up loot among a big pack of mobs, since shade can't be aggro'd.
When pursuing a fleeing player, remember your pet will chase and if it runs too far from you it will disappear leaving you defenseless. So in 1-on-1 pvp you have to chase after your pet when it is in pursuit. This is hard because a necro seldom has any endurance for sprinting.
Re: Necro Playguide. LONG! (Last updated 11th Feb 2003)
The RvR trick I've been seeing is for the necro to park the pet just inside the keep and then port out to scout the forces outside the keep. They make good ground target /assist finders too, they are standing right there. And of course the forces outside can't do a thing about it.
"The mind is not a vessel to be filled but a fire to be kindled." -Plutarch
_____________________ Folenor, Briton Armsman, Palomides, DAoC
Re: Necro Playguide. LONG! (Last updated 11th Feb 2003)
I have never seen a necro do this but they ought to! When hibs or mids are holding out on a roof or lord room, the shade drifts up there leaving the pet behind and gets a ground target so that room can be bombarded by volley and GTAOE.
. You will find that your servant will cast MUCH quicker with these buffs up, which means more RPs for you, and more mana faster for the cleric! (Indirectly, hehe).
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