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Essay: The Vampire Necro Warrior

A

Argyle

Guest
After mulling over many template threads, I felt the need to make an all inclusive post about the topic of the Necro Warrior. From the beginning of AOS my friend Will X and I worked on finding the "ultimate necro warrior template." We were quite successful, and we both settled on variations of the same basic concept.

In this post I will detail:

Template Choices
Required/Helpful Equipment
Symbiosis of the setup

Bear in mind that this is primarily a focus on template choices, as I play on Siege, and ultra equipment is looted faster than Budweiser at a frat party. That being said, the core concept behind our choices remain the foundation of what makes for an extremely solid template.

TEMPLATE~
____________________________________________________________________

Vampire Necro Warrior(720 pts):

120 Melee (preferably fencing, more on this later)
120 Magic Resist
105 Necro
100 Spirit Speak
100 Tactics
94 Healing
81 Anatomy

125 Dex
70 Str
55 Int
____________________________________________________________________

SKILL CHOICES~

120 Fencing:

Although other melee types can work fine, fencing was the #1 choice, as it allowed for the highest rate of swing speed with a dagger or preferably a kryss, and offered a very solid secondary weapon, the warfork (bleed for mages, disarm for warriors).

120 Magic Resist:

We found that a necro warrior MUST use protection as a key component to being a successful pvper. We also encountered plroblems without resist, as the necro warrior has no way to bless, remove curse, or replenish mana rapidly. 85 resist addresses this problem well. Poison wasnt much of an issue, because vampire form prevented the lower level poison from doing much harm.

105 Necro:

The only spell that must never fail is strangle. 105 Necro covers this requirement. Will X eventually went to 120 necro for the ability to cast revenants and toggle out of vampire form against poisoners.

100 Spirit Speak:

As the core of the template is based on dexterity and melee, we found that the base 100 spirit speak was enough to guarantee heals, and make our necro spells do some damage. 120 wound be ideal on any template besides this one, but it is very cramped and the 20 points is better spent elsewhere.

100 Tactics:

The template relies on weapon damage for many reasons. Tactics and damage increase are very important, because at the heart of a necro warrior, the entire offense and defense is based around hitting with your weapon. Offense is obvious, but the ability to gain mana on this template is a mana leeching weapon (and armor if you have insurance). Also, by keeping the opponent on defense from rapid swings (1 swing per second was the goal, anything less than 1.5 wasnt even considered), you gained the advantage, which turned you back on offense. The weapon also leeches life through vamp form, and combined with curse weapon, you can leach 70% of the damage back in life, allowing you to heal through total offense.

94 Healing:

90.1 healing is all that is required to never fail a heal. We balanced healing and anatomy to the minimum requirements to get the job done. With 94 healing, you cure poison reasonably well (had issues with leathal poison on the RARE occassion).

81 Anatomy:

People ALWAYS ask me, why 81 anatomy? Because it is the minimum to ressurect. The added damage increase for going above 81 is much like the arguement for 120 Spirit Speak. It would be nice, but the 19 points is better spent elsewhere. By minimizing healing and anatomy, we can add 25 points to vital scrolled skills. The hitpoints healed is 32-52 hit points vs. 36-60 at GM Healing and Anatomy.

STAT CHOICES:
Dex:

As mentioned above, high dexterity equates to faster swings, which equates to more mana/life leeched over time. Also, your main defense is dexterity based: Healing. With 140 dex (125+ Greater Agility potion), you can heal with a bandage every 4 seconds. With 160 its, 3 seconds, 180 is 2 seconds, 200 is 1 second!!! (bear in mind, stamina is not dexterity. Stamina affects swing speed, not your healing speed)

Str:

70 Str = 85 hit points. With high speed healing (140+ dex), this is plenty of base hit points if you play conservatively coupled with a Greater Strength potion (95 hit points).

Int:

55 int is just enough to keep you in business. If you open with a strangle, and start hitting with a weapon, you can recoup the mana in a few swings, and begin a combo. If you have a +5 AOS stat bonus, use the points in intelligence. The same goes for bonuses on armor…get the mana bonus over anything else.

Vampire Form:

Possibly the coolest form for any warrior, Vampire form gives MR4, and SR 15, coupled with immunity to poison and the ability to gain 20% of the damage you deal back in hit points. The MR/SR helps with the lack of points spent on either meditation or focus. The only drawback is the inability to use garlic, cure potions (quick heals make this easier), and the –25 fire resists.

Equipment:

I am not going to pretend that I have the ideal setup for shards with insurance. On Siege I used faction blessed runic weapons, a Jackal’s Collar, and a Spirit of the Totem. Will X used the same, but a Hunter’s Headdress instead of the Totem. However, there are some core requirements for this template:

JACKAL’S COLLAR – higher dex & huge fire resists. The best item for this template.
30%+ HCI
A fast Mana Leech Weapon with 30%+ Damage Inc (1.5 swings per second minimum)
Dex Bonus on Jewels is a huge bonus
60’s across the board in resists (curse will put you there if you go above, so 60 works)
Potions, potions, some more potions, and some extra potions

For insurance shards:

LMC, MR, Mana Bonus, HCI/Dex/DI jewels. Again, I am not accustomed to using an entire suit crafted and insured, so there is some flexibility here. I would recommend looking at a Rune Beetle Carapace and Dread Pirates Hat in addition to the above items. Being able to add barbed kit armor (I used faction blessed barbed or horned armor) will help immensely.

Conclusion:

Will X and I are avid solo’ers. Barring any unforeseen nerfs, I believe this setup will continue to be a contender for a long time. Played correctly, you might not be able to overcome every gank that finds you, but most of them will have fits trying to kill you. I have won many a 5vs1 with this template. Also, this template is capable of relentless offense in a 1vs1 situation with fast healing and the leeching effects of Vampire Form and Curse Weapon. I have played this template for a long time now, and I don’t plan on retiring it for quite a while.

I hope this can help anyone with questions about the Necro Warrior. Happy PvPing!
 

Toguro

Sage
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
Very nice essay
Props to you and Will X both

Just wish I had a jackals collar as well
 
B

Bhima LS

Guest
When I saw you list 81 anatomy and not 80 anatomy I knew you really knew your template well, and you do. It's also nice seeing the template described from a siege perilous point of view (where good items are harder to wear).

I hope they never nerf the vampire warrior. It's by far my favorite template. Nice post.
 
A

Argyle

Guest
On Siege, having 255 stat + Jackals Collar + Spirit of the Totem (super rare on Siege) + 40 stats from pots was pretty unfair. I ran with 160+ dex with jewels, 100 str, and 70 int fully buffed.
 
L

Larch

Guest
I disagree with a few things.

For PvP with this template I believe the superior melee skill is mace fighting. You should cast protection, and be in vamp embrace.

How I play mine is mainly on the necro side. Lead off with strangle. Bleed with war axe. Hit your pain spike, now go into chain, and i mean CHAIN poison strikes. Easily 20+ points of damage, and when you find those people who thought there was no poison damage besides dp and didn't try to include much poison resist into their armor, you will be hitting for 30+ on poison strikes. And you also armor ignore with war axe.
I say mace fighting because mace fighting drains targets stamina, as well as pain spike. How I play im not focused at swinging at max or anything close, just well timed bleeds and armor ignores.

You must have 6 recovery, and I suggest protection for this (go buy a protection scroll from a npc mage, you only need to cast it once). Protection because I think reliable chain poison strikes are a must instead of being fizzled. And putting together a suit with vamp embrace and protection cast is tough, but doable.
 
J

Janice_ORC

Guest
What about 120 Swords with an artie such as Breath of the Dead = 100% Life Leech?
 
A

Argyle

Guest
Larch: I dont know how you are getting the mana to do this. If it works for you, have at it, but without high dex, you wont be alive long when ganked. Also, macing lacks fast hits so disrupting can be a challenge. I am going to cover the pure necro soon, so look forward to that, it seems more along your playstyle.

Janice: Lifeleech is fine, and with BotD you can actually leech 170% of the damage you deal in deal with vamp form and curse weapon. However, mana leech is fundamental (unless you can get an insurance suit with 8+ MR).
 
M

maxpot46

Guest
Argyle: You forgot to mention the power of the Hellsteed, the mount that has 250 hp, massive resists, is immune to poison, hits for 50 base damage, breathes poison for 40 base, always follows its master unless someone is fool enough to attack it, will not be attacked by any monsters, and can be instantly remounted even if it's in combat.

Oh, and my decision to go to 120 Necro (dropping Tactics some) was the correct one -- Vengeful Spirit is an amazing spell, and being able to toggle out of Vamp Form at will is absolutely necessary to close that little hole in the defense that makes Vampires vulnerable to level 5 poison. If there was even only 1 poisoner in the game, I wouldn't be satisfied with being vulnerable to him, and in any case, there are a lot more than one :)

Larch: Macing is too slow -- not in the sense that it won't get the job done, but in terms of maximizing this particular template. The war axe and hammer pick are fine weapons but this template, because it gains so much from its drains, has to hit often and consistently. It is difficult to top the kryss/warfork combo (armor ignore, bleed and disarm are obviously very nice), which will swing at or near the swingspeed cap without any ssi, and stay there consistently (that is, when stamina is drained directly following a spell combo or other big attack). Even a 30 ssi war axe barely touches 1.5 seconds per swing, and it doesn't stay there long, so in practice it is a much slower weapon. There is also the fact that the Taskmaster (pre-patched) is a fantastic weapon for necro-dexxers, as it works marvelously with corpseskin and does massive damage (faster and better than a war axe). There is also mortal strike available from the 55 weapon speed shortspear.

In sum, fencing maximizes the template. If you prefer maces, it can still work with a good war axe/hammer pick combo.

Janice: BOTD is not a good choice. It is too slow, and the additional lifeleech has less marginal utility given the already considerable lifedrain granted by vamp form/curse weapon. The bone harvester is a fantastic weapon (along with hammer pick, it's the only other 1-handed mortal strike weapon) but you would be better served using a BH with lots of SSI, and then things like Hit Lower Defense, Mana Leech, HCI and other mods that are superior to those of the BOTD.

Final comment: The template is still very strong, especially at 200 dex with 1 second heals. I think pre-UOSE it was the strongest dexxer template available. However, I currently think that the basic samurai currently has that distinction. The power of Lightning Strike/Achieve Perfection is well-known to anyone who PvPs, but IMO it is Evasion that makes the template so powerful. Evasion with 120/120 Bushido/Parry is amazing (60% chance to parry anything, using a 2-handed weapon). It is particularly useful for solo PvPers who end up fighting a lot of ganks. I have put Bushido and Parry on all my PvP dexxer templates, and I would have to say that my Necro-Samurai is not as powerful as my straight Samurai with 200 dex (something the Necro-Samurai has much more difficulty in achieving because of the resist penalties from Protection and Vamp Form). Additionally, Bushido allows use of Lesser Hiryu, which is very close to being as good as a Hellsteed. In all, I give the basic samurai the slight edge on the vampire dexxer presented here. But it is slight, and if one prefers the feel of a necro template (and also a more varied and ranged offense, which the basic samurai lacks) you can still kick major butt with it.

William X
Scourge the Unconquered
Lady Phoenix
Death Adder
Yi Sunsin
 
V

Versatile

Guest
I dont beleive mace does drain stamina anymore.

It basically draisn the ammount appropriate for the extra damage macing does.

A spear with AIs does a better job of draining stam.
 
G

Ghost of Siege

Guest
I designed my template around the Siege ruleset. It is absolutely not dependent on items. I run a little bit different setup though. Sorry...I've never posted it anywhere in public.
 
S

Sang

Guest
I agree with your main points and would like to make a few additions regarding comboing.

I've ALWAYS started any fight with a blood oath b/c it gives me time to cast other spells while your opponent contemplates whether or not he wants to hurt himself. Which usually translates into me being able to cast strangle. Then I proceed into chasing him while the BO is still in effect and have my bleed special toggled.

My equipment setup with Protection, Magic Resist, and Vampire Form casted allows me to run at:

45 hci
6 MR
2 SR
27 lmc
45 di
+15 magic resist
70/69/60/70/61

Now instead of the anat/heal combo, i choose to take 120 Ninjitsu b/c I found a lot of times I couldnt get the killing hit on a person after I had red-lined them. With my 40 point DS, that's not a problem any longer.

The only problem I have is healing...I always seem to forget to cast curse weapon. And sometimes after big combos, I cant recover stamina as quickly as I would like. I used to use Zyronic Claw but found it to be too slow. Now I use a UBWS warfork with 50 lightning, 48 mana leech, 15 ssi, -27 mage wep.

Any suggestions?
 
L

Lady Phoenix

Guest
If you want to unlock the power of this template, you really need to remember to cast Curse Weapon on a regular basis.

Opening with Blood Oath is interesting. I'll try it one of these days. I personally prefer to open with Vengeful Spirit then lay down a Strangle and a Bleed -- lots of DOT to keep them occupied, interrupted and panicked.

I wonder why you have such problems finishing. I myself use Pain Spike a lot. One of my common finishers is to hold Poison Strike, whack them until they are low, drop Poison Strike (which often kills them) and then finish with Pain Spike if they still live.

William X
Scourge the Unconquered
Lady Phoenix
Death Adder
Yi Sunsin
 
I

imported_Santa Claus

Guest
<blockquote><hr>

Larch: I dont know how you are getting the mana to do this. If it works for you, have at it, but without high dex, you wont be alive long when ganked. Also, macing lacks fast hits so disrupting can be a challenge. I am going to cover the pure necro soon, so look forward to that, it seems more along your playstyle.

Janice: Lifeleech is fine, and with BotD you can actually leech 170% of the damage you deal in deal with vamp form and curse weapon. However, mana leech is fundamental (unless you can get an insurance suit with 8+ MR).

[/ QUOTE ]

Wrong.. you´d leech 90% of your dmg.. 100% ll on a weapon means 20% each hit (like vampireform)
 
B

Bhima LS

Guest
Technically it's a bit more complicated still than either of those formulas.

The VE form leech is 20% of the damage shown on your stat bar and is not affected by resists of target or by enemy of one or slayer weapon effects.

The other leeches as far as I can tell are affected by all that.
 
K

Kith Kanan

Guest
Why a Vamp/samurai is allmost unkillable in large spawn with a good whirlwind weapon :)
 

Toguro

Sage
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
Argyle, could you possibly post your techniques when fighting different classes?
ie
bushido archers
mages
paladins with parry (remove curse+ parry flat out sux!)
 
A

Argyle

Guest
Bushido Archers -

Blood Oath, Strangle/Spike, and flat out weapon offense with staying healed at max. If the oath shot kills you however, they wont take the damage back from it, so play smart. Also, disarm hoses any warrior, so use it both offensively and defensively.

Mages-

This character owns mages. Quick bandies, oath, and relentless offense. The tactics are pretty self-explainitory...strangle, bleed, hit, hit, hit, spike. They run or they die. If you keep them on the defense, you wil eventually win.

Paladins with parry-

Parry is a bane, but remove curse doesnt remove blood oath. You have to stack well against these guys. The main thing is that with super fast swings and great healing, you will eventually wear them thin, and they shouldnt be able to dent you. Disarm them once you get them strangled and you will get hits in. Also, you can drop their stam low with strangle/spike, force them to drop shield to chug a potion, and while the shield is down, hit them with disarm so they cant arm either weapon or shield for 6 seconds.
 
L

Lady Phoenix

Guest
To add to Argyle's response:

In regards to Bushido Archers: The best thing to do is to lay down tons of DOT -- Vengeful then Strangle then Bleed. DOT follows them and minimizes their range advantage. Try to outmanuever them -- get a house between you when you are casting your Poison Strikes, and chase them into a cluttered area where you can get off your Withers, PS's and Pain Spike's. Try to stay healed up with bandies and SS as the lifedrains will be harder to come by.

In regards to Parry Paladins: These guys are tough to kill because of Remove Curse but really don't have enough offense to threaten this template so defeating them is a matter of time and patience. Keep a Vengeful Spirit on them, and Bleeds and Poisons are good to disrupt their healing. You're looking for an opening where your DOT and a good weapon hit will take them down to about 2/5ths life (Blood Oath can help here), then you drop the Poison Strike you've been holding then finish with Pain Spike.

William X
Scourge the Unconquered
Lady Phoenix
Death Adder
Yi Sunsin
 
G

Ghost of Siege

Guest
<blockquote><hr>

bushido archers
mages
paladins with parry

[/ QUOTE ]
Sammys and Mages -
strangle, painstrike, corpse skin, poisonstrike, infectious strike, painstrike
or
strangle, painstrike, bleed, poisonstrike, infectious strike, painstrike
or
strangle, painstrike, wither, infectious strike, poisonstrike, painstrike
NEVER stand in place with a sammy and NEVER blood oath an sdi mage

Paladins -
Rev and then work the combos above as your mana returns...if they're still fighting and going for big hits blood oath them and then finish with something quick with low mana cost like a painstrike and/or infectious strike
 
G

Ghost of Siege

Guest
It's a risky move...take more damage from a big dump...one small mistake and you're done...it's easier to just wear them down.
 
A

Ariath2k

Guest
I oath them too, I just make sure I'm at full health when the combo goes off. Most mages don't seem to realise how much damage they are going to take back. As soon as oath is cast I can usually manage to cast and hold a painspike before the spells hit, whack em with armour ignore and the ps at the same time and its game over pretty much.
 
L

Lady Phoenix

Guest
<blockquote><hr>


NEVER stand in place with a sammy and NEVER blood oath an sdi mage

[/ QUOTE ]

I have to disagree on both here. Keep the sammy blood oathed and the first time he criticals you can finish him with a quick combo. In regards to the mage, the difference is that while he's dumping you both, you are healing with 1/2 sec bandages and he's not. So he ends up taking a lot more damage than you do, and then it's a simple matter matter to finish him. In fact, because of this usually the mage breaks off his attack and tries to heal up, which is a nice time to drop a Poison Strike.
 
M

Masumatek

Guest
Ya but Ghost plays on siege....and i'm sure he doesn't have 1/2 second bandages.
 
A

Argyle

Guest
Pretty much.

Oath always stops heir combo, or they kill themselves. Rarely does it backfire on me...
 
L

Lady Phoenix

Guest
One of my own Siege chars, Scourge, has 2 sec bandages and sometimes 1 sec, so I'm not so quick to say Ghost doesn't. Even a 3 sec bandage is good, and in any case the necro can be regaining life via his lifeleeches. The point is that Blood Oathing an SDI mage can be very effective. When I was sparring with Antioch (the most powerful mage on Siege with Orny, Hat and IR) Blood Oath worked very well. There are other things you can do, though, if you're not in a position to take a lot of damage, but if you can do so I think it is a very effective option.
 
G

Ghost of Siege

Guest
I guess being cursed with mid 50's armor resists is why I don't use bloodoath much...I'll use it sometimes against explosion scroll stackers though...I let them get off the explosions and then wither to disrupt the ebolt and painstrike them. I still prefer my run and gun style of pvp though. I move them around working them down and setting them up the whole time for a quick kill.
 
A

Argyle

Guest
Curse doesnt drop you below 60 resists, so if they are cursing you with mid 50s resists, its only lowering your stats...
 
G

Ghost of Siege

Guest
My armor is usually mid 50's in fire and energy...gm horned with 11+ fire each piece on top of vampiric embrace. My point was that with my strength and an sdi mage casting against 50's fire/energy and usually even lower cold. If I blood oath them the damage is overwhelming.
 
J

Jaimes

Guest
This thread needs a *bump*

Link to it from FAQ at least. I suppose I should post this there, actually...

Nah, too lazy.
 
C

Chandalir

Guest
I figured it was gathering feedback - don't worry, I have an eye on it of sorts. If it falls too far behind, I'll copy/paste the original post into the thread builder FAQ, but if Argyle wants to update with feedback, this thread is excellent for just that
 
A

Ariath2k

Guest
Argyle left quite a while back for pastures greener


Can't see myself lasting much longer with the current UO either =/
 
R

Rakshasa

Guest
Damn! I've been having fun, but I only joined a little bit before ML came out. Is Will X still around?
 
A

Ariath2k

Guest
I havn't seen / heard of him for quite some time, although he doesn't post on the boards much so it's possible he's lurking about somewhere.

Certainly I havn't seen him in game for months.
 
N

nimbus9

Guest
I have something similar, but I have poison. So far I am unsure of what to do. Do I drop it for resist or healing? Any suggestions?
 
A

Ariath2k

Guest
<blockquote><hr>

I have something similar, but I have poison. So far I am unsure of what to do. Do I drop it for resist or healing? Any suggestions?

[/ QUOTE ]

What is your template? Not sure what you have that means you don't have room for heal and resist!! You are most likley going to need both....

If you want to keep poison (which can be v effective) I would dump tactics. You won't need all the damage increase anyway as your primary focus will be on preventing the target from healing using strangle, bleed, lethal and quick swings.

If you are using the kryss though and you want to armour ignore as well, you are going to need to keep tactics somehow... although I don't think a kryss armour ignore is worth the mana cost anyway imo. Cleaver for the win, bleed and poison on a fast one handed weapon is nasty.
 
N

nimbus9

Guest
I have:

110 fencing
100 tactics
100 anatomy
80 poison
110 necromancy
115 spirit speak

the rest of my skillpoints is in an ineffectual mix of healing and resist.

I already have a nox mage with an SC cleaver who does quite well. I dont want too much overlap in skills between the two accounts. Maybe I should consider dropping tactics - but my concern was keeping damage high to both hurt the enemy and heal the vampire.
 
A

Ariath2k

Guest
Well in that case I would drop the poison, lower necro to 105, lower your anatomy, lower SS, take 90 healing, get resist, etc.

Have a re-read of Argyle's initial post for optimum performance, assuming your necro warrior will be relying on melee speed for most of your damage.

Another option is the necro brute, which would use something like a hammer pick, loads of damage increase and mana but much less dex. But this also sacrifices healing speed both with bandies and leeches, but allows much more spells and specials, so just depends on how you want to play really.
 
H

Himkano

Guest
Have a question for the OP. How do you get around? I know wraith form lets you recall, but you can't bring a pet with you, and you won't always be somewhere that you can summon a hell steed.

Do you just use ehty mounts, or do you just use moongates and ride everywhere? I'm asking because I was working on a template similair to yours, but with magery...

NM - I just remembered that you were on Sp, and recalling isn't an option. If you could recall - which points do you think you could give up and fit into your template - if it can be done.
 
R

Rafe4tw

Guest
I now have about 5 characters with no natural recall ability (I don't consider wraith form natural). Just use a charged runebook. Recall scrolls aren't that expensive, and use moongates as much as you can.
 
H

Himkano

Guest
It sounds like you are saying that charged runebooks don't require magery to use, is that they case, cause I didn't realize that.
 
R

Rafe4tw

Guest
Correct, charged runebooks no longer require any magery to use (happened after SE because bush and ninja had no way to recall).
 
G

genuine_fake

Guest
I think with new rules the Necro brute you mentioned is about the only way to go... since we are now capped at 150 dex, 4 second bandages is the most we can get. I have found this healing to just be too slow. Parrying warriors can outdamage me too easily, and even with SS I can't heal fast enough. I can't rely on my hits for heals because I don't hit them often enough with their shield.

We are going to have to throw out either what Argyle recommends on stat settings or needed equipment. If you go with great dex+ equipment, you need to adjust your dex so you dont reach more than 130-140 (and let pots take you to the cap). If you use high dex, try getting equipment that focuses on something else.
 
A

andalusia

Guest
"curse weapon" "confidence" "close wounds" "greater healing potion" "greater healing wands" is my option to get my hp back since they capped dex at 150.

120.0 Bushido
120.0 Mace Fighting
120.0 Parrying
120.0 Spirit Speak
100.0 Meditation
80.0 Chivalry
60.0 Necromancy

STR 120 DEX 80 INT 50

I only cast "curse weapon" "evil omen" "corpse skin" "blood oath" "pain spike" and "Vampiric Embrace" (bracer and +29 jewel set is extra 1800 gp I have to pay when i die..)

only problem I have so far.. I cant rez guild red characters..
 
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