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Guide to the Necro/Mage

G

Guest

Guest
Alright, I've been a necro/mage since AOS, through thick and thin and I've gotten pretty reasonable with it. Let me give some tricks I've found useful.

A) Mission Statement

The purpose of a necromancer is to cause death and despair, spreading decay and darkness. Note: It is not to KILL. It is to CAUSE DEATH. The difference is subtle, but critical.

B) The Role of the Necromancer

Necromancy offers a range of debuffs and area control attacks. The power of the necromancer is his ability to seize control of an area and hold off the enemy. Let me repeat that. A NECROMANCER'S FUNCTION IS TO SEIZE AND CONTROL TERRITORY.

The best necromancy spells are slow and easy to disrupt. However, because necromancy spells are NOT affected by fast casting, you can use protection to cast them perfectly, at the cost to the mage end of your template. If you understand your role, you will realize that it is not best served by spamming magic arrows, so this is an easy trade to make.

Lastly, all necro/mages should be red. This is so you have the maximum amount of impact with your area effects and so you can hunt down hiders and stealthers with your withers.

C) The Template of a Necromancer

The skills are listed in order of importance: Scroll them up as possible.

1 - Magic Resist - This is without a doubt THE MOST IMPORTANT skill for a necro mage. A necro mage who does not have this skill is a failure and is useless to his team. Why? A necro/mage's role of taking territory requires him to spear head assualts, often through paralyze fields. If you have no resist, you cannot move through paralyze fields. Furthermore, a necromancer/mage SHOULD ALWAYS HAVE PROTECTION ON. This means your resist will be taking a 35 point penalty, thus you will have to have AS HIGH BASE RESIST AS POSSIBLE to compensate for this handicap. 120 base resist = 85 base resist on a necromancer.

2 - Magery - This is the second most important skill for a necro mage. Never neglect the power of the mage end of your template. Magery determines how well you heal, how well you cure, how easily you can field, and lets you drop energy vortexes and raise the dead, which are CORE abilities for controlling an area. Also, with a mage weapon, your magery because your defense against meleers, and because you'll be spearheading most of your team's assaults, you WILL be facing off with meleers ALOT.

3 - Spirit Speak - This is your third skill. It determines the power of your necromancy spells: Duration of strangle and corpse skin, damage of wither, poison strike and painspike, those are determined by Spirit Speak. The higher it is, the better.

4 - Meditation - Fourth skill. Necromancy is VERY mana intensive. VERY. You'll be spamming withers, which will burn your mana pool like you wouldn't believe. Meditation will keep you in the fight.

5 - Evaluating Intelligence - Fifth Skill - You need it so you have SOME kill power with your magery, or you'll be meat whenever you're forced to go one on one with someone (IT WILL HAPPEN). Magery without Eval is limited at best, useless at worst. Get it.

6 - Necromancy - Sixth skill - Obviously, determines the success of your necromancy spells. However, Vampiric Embrace you will not be using as a necro mage. Revenant is limited, I don't favour it for real fights. As long as you have 105 in this (Wither and Strangle), you're alright.

7 - Focus - Seventh skill - More mana is good, stamina for unlimited running is good. This is a good place to dump your spare points while you scroll up the rest of your template.

D) Equipment of the Necromancer

1 - 80+ base physical. Protection drops your physical. 60s and 70s all else. Resists are critical, because you WILL be taking hits. ALOT.

2 - LRC. You will be spearheading assaults and you will die. LRC means you can keep fighting after death.

3 - LMC. You will need to spam withers often. LMC helps you do this.

4 - 2/6 Casting. You can possibly get by with 2/4, but 2/6 enables your wither spam.

5 - SDI 15 - Important for those wither spams, as well as gank support. You can always use more damage.

6 - Ethereal Mount - Ideally, all necromages should have an ethereal mount. This is so you can go into a form when you need to, then get back mounted when you need to chase or run. Also, the way of the necro/mage is death, so it helps to have a mount that won't die when you do.

7 - HPI/+Resist/+Magery - I list these equally as bonuses to your equipment. They're not core but they will help. +Resist, to offset your protection handicap and let you break fields easier. +Magery, so you can use a one handed mage weapon and still chug pots. HPI, so you can take more damage and stay in the fight longer.

E) Skills and Equipment NOT to get.

1 - Weapon skill - Everyone thinks they need this. They don't. Specials are nice for duels, but your purpose isn't to duel, it's to conquer. Damage? Use your spells, you can't fit tactics anyways. Defense? Mage weapons cover that. Leave weapon skill for dexxers and tanks, play to your strengths.

2 - Inscribe - Your purpose is to support and conquer, not kill. SDI is good, but there's other things that are more important and your template is too cramped to squeeze this in.

3 - Poisoning - Poisoning DOES NOT HELP YOUR POISON STRIKES. PERIOD. It helps you lay fields and cast poison. However, Withers are more important than fields and strangles beats poison. Leave fielding and poisoning to nox mages and pure mages. Play to your strengths.

4 - Mana Regen - Sounds good, but not as key. We have lich and we have wraith. HPI beats this.

5 - Mana Increase - Sounds good, but again, not as key. Wraith form will help alleviate your burn rate, and besides, if you're playing your necro/mage right, you'll be dying faster than you can burn your mana.

F) Way of the Necro/Mage

IN A SPAWN - A necro/mage should consider going wraith form. Drop two energy vortexes and then move to a new area. Get as much spawn around you as you can. Wither them down. Wraith form will refill your mana from this. Keep moving around, withering down mass spawn. Sometimes, you'll get too much on you and you'll die, but oh well. This ISN'T 100%. Alot of times, I DON'T go wraith form, because I like the maneuverablity of my horse so I can dodge swarms and so I can chase down scouts that might pop in.

IN A BATTLE - A necro/mage's most important spells when raiding are wither and corpse skin. Is the enemy on a choke point, like the Despise Bridge? Go wraith form, wade through the fields, dropping withers. Withers will push back their meleers and their fielders, inflicting damage. Wraith form makes you hard to target and allows your team to move past you. Thus, the goal is to get into the choke point, disrupt it by either killing or forcing their fielders to heal, and then your team runs over you, into the breach, killing all. Wither is also hider/stealther defense. Thieves? Wither them down. Hider ninjas? Wither them down. The second spell to learn to love is Corpse Skin. This drops an enemies fire and poison resist, which makes them vulnerable to explo/flamestrike ganks, poison strikes, and strangles. Try to make sure every enemy is cursed and corpse skinned, so your mages can run over them. Your goal is to curse and corpse skin, so your team mates can go right for the kill.

IN A DUEL - A necro/mage in a duel will have problems, because most other templates can out heal and out damage him. The key is to develop your offense. Start with blood oath, to buy yourself time to get spells on your enemy. Then, get them corpse skinned, then strangled, then pain spike them. Make sure to keep them corpse skinned and strangled through out the duel. After that, keep hitting them with explo/poison strike comboes, and pray they don't outheal your mana pool.

G) Conclusion

A necro/mage is the most powerful template for assaulting or holding a choke point. It's also extremely powerful at working spawns. It's critical to any red team in Fel working towards shard dominance.
 
C

Chandalir

Guest
Are ya'll trying to say this forum needs a new FAQ?


Two necro-warrior guides and a necro-mage guide in two weeks time.

Would be great if you all could get together and try to construct a proper FAQ too


/me tries to nudge the necro community into finishing the FAQ on top

hehe, don't take this as a request for you - more as a "if anyone wants to see that FAQ done, they ought to contribute" kinda thing
 
G

Guest

Guest
Great post.

My necro mage has 120 tactics (instead of focus) and carries Swords of Prosperity (100% fire damage). The added 7-24 damage I have seen this give is helpful against spawn when I lag out, as well as a little tickle to players who are attempting to raid. I only have 94 med currently, and in wraith I seem to have all the mana I need (34% lmc, 5 mr, 100% lrc, 65-70's across). I can chain wither nonstop, but I'm not wearing fcr.

My tactics have been more as a choke point "halfback" for the pure pvp mages in our spawn guild. IE, wraith form in the middle of our own guildmates para fields, hitting targets with corpse skin, wither ganking anyone who gets part way in, throwing heals at team mates working the front lines and falling back to cover our blues working the champ against any stealthers who might be within.

One thing that has been working really well is putting revenants on those stealther/ninjas, so I personally prefer necroamncy to be 110 or better. Even if stealthers do get their hide off, with a rev on them, the team knows where those wither ganks will hit for full effect.
 
V

Versatile

Guest
here are some additions.

1) protection is quick to cast, toggle it in and out durign duels
2) evil omen is am amazing spell, it adds 25SDI basically to your next attack. this means a corpse skinned and cursed apponent will be completely flatlined by an evil oment, explo, flamestrike. (try it).
3) with this in mind, when peopel are pusshing through your fields, evil omen your apponents and they will be parad for a long time. long enough for any decent defence to competely destroy them.
4) Poison strike. many peopel have appauling posion resist, and corpse skin lowers that further. in many instances corpse skin will outdamage flamestrike. plus its area effect, so it will interupt those surrounding your prey. an extremely powerful spell that is often overlooked. consider it a ranged wither that will be dont twice the damage for whoever your specifically target. if you get 3 peopel comming in, eacho one being targeted by posion strike, they would all die on 2 strikes each, considerign the splash damage. its ranged, did i mention that?
5) as pointed out, revenants are your friend, for hiders they will be feared.
6) Any defending necro who isnt in wraith form needs help! its god like.
7) vampire form makes 1 on 1 fights a dodle. the only mage who can effectively take me down is a paladin mage.
8) Spirit speak is a lifesaver and overlooked as the excelent form of healign that it is. it also stacks magery heals. so precast g-heal. get posioned? SS through it, and even if your getting spammed with lighteing and about to die, the second you are cured jsut release the g-heal and your full health again. in vamp form this makes you practically invinvible. precast g-heal, take damage, ss, vamp cures posion release g-heal. practically 0hp and poisoend to full in a second.
9) you may as well animate some high up spawn when your getting raided. some of the critters love bleedign and mortaling prey, which is never a bad thing. Theres nothign more funny than some fool actign tough killign your banshee only to receive a mortal blow and die seconds later by your hands. they are free, so use them...
10) remember that strangle is poison damage and works off stamina. therefore corpse skin and painspike are made for strangle. plain strangle is 50hp or so. corpse skin and painspike and its now a 150hp spell.
11) hell steeds. these are perfect for spawns if you arent old enough for an ethy. the spawn wont attack it because its red so it will happily follow you round the spawn while your in wraith form. if anyone is foolish enough to attack it during a fight they will be on the receivign end of some pretty nice damage. Ive seen peopel attack my mount as standard practice after i have died and die themselves a second or two later
 
J

Janus69

Guest
Excellent advice here.. I started playing a necro/mage about 2 or 3 months ago and haven't looked back. It can be an extremely powerful template, and is alot of fun to play.

As far as spawns go, a necro/mage is second to none. SDI isn't capped vs. pvm(I want my 45sdi pvp withers back :( ) so you can chew through spawns ridiculously fast.. Want to hone your healing skills? Go do some Oaks spawns as a red necro/mage lol..

While this template has it's weaknesses, it's strengths outweigh them and make it a worthy pvp template..
 
A

Ariath2k

Guest
Great thread all, everything here is good info.

Something else I would recommend, when fighting in the field, always have a dark wolf in tow. These guys don't die in one hit like the other summons, they warp and keep up with you whilst you are running and serve three main purposes;

The extra stamina regen is obviously a nice bonus.
It gets in the way of people which is most useful when being ganked.Note! sometimes it gets in your way too! >.<
It manages to bite your opponent sometimes dealing some damage and acting as another interrupt. Often my wolf has saved me from an ebolt where I have missed a swing or been disarmed


All in all it's rude not to.
 
G

Guest

Guest
Just a couple of notes at random.

1) Familiars... I find I almost never use them on my necro/mage, because I prefer to have the space available to drop energy vortexes, plus my shadow wisps always get rocked by enemy poison fields.

Now, that's a reflection of the fact that I tend to see the hottest action raiding spawns on my red necro/mage. However, in an RP battle, an old guild of mine actually used massed shadow wisps to good effect. We put 10 guys at a choke point in Umbra, all with shadow wisps, and even without LMC we could spam withers and armour ignores.

2) Evil Omen. This is a supremely useful spell. I find I don't bother to use it for the damage -- I have two much nastier uses for it. One, if a noob likes to run around, I'll corpse skin him then evil omen para. That holds him still while a friend and I drop him. The other nasty trick I like to do in duels.. If a mage goes turtle and just spams mini heals and chugs while I burn my mana, I'll wait till I get about 50 mana, evil omen/mana vampire and suck out his mana. This also works real well against armour ignore beasts with no mana regen.

3) Animated Dead. I loath them. Spending 40 mana on a weak monster that stands there uselessly? Bah. Again, that's a reflection of my raiding spawns focus. Animating a rat man into a skeletal knight that just stands there and doesn't attack my enemies makes no sense for me. If they either adapted the energy vortex AI for animates, or made them controllable, maybe I'd use them.

4) Revenants. I actually don't find them to be very useful against hiders, because most of the hiders I find never reveal themselves long enough to get a rev on them. I use it to kill trammies in their houses once in a while and I know alot of other necromancers who swear by them, I prefer to think of them as a specialist spell, something I use when I can't conveinently wither, but nothing I have on a macro.

5) Vampire form. I do 18-21 damage with my swords of prosperity. 20% of that is like 4 HP leeched back. I find that when I do get poisoned, it's usually LP anyways, and I love my garlic spells (heal), so I don't use it.

6) Hellsteeds. I rode one religiously for the longest time, and I love their look. I find my ethy llama is more practical, so I switched, but if I wasn't old enough to ethy, I'd definitely hellsteed.

7) Spirit Speak healing. I've had weird problems with the skill delay, where I can't use spirit speak for way longer than I should be able to. However, this is indeed a life saver. Basically, if I'm above half life, I heal with magic. If I'm in dire straits, or fighting a chain mortal/chain poison geek, I'll use it. One thing to note, Spirit Speak does not target, so you can cast it while you're holding another spell. Also, this is free healing in spawns.. I'm a master of running past a body and spirit speaking for a no mana heal.

8) Protection. I have this on, period. The only time I toggle this is if someone specifically cries about me using it in a duel, in which case I'll toggle it off for the duel alone. I also will NEVER take my protection off while duelling a warrior. EVER. Now, if you ARE duelling without protection, you have to have sharp timing. You can't just cast a necro spell, because anyone with the wits God gave a ham sandwich will weaken you. You have to watch them to cast an explosion, then smack them with the blood oath or the strangle.
 
J

Janus69

Guest
Yes, protection is a must.. If you don't have it on, you might as well forget about getting any necro spells off, whether you're in a fielded choke point or dueling.. If someone waffles, I just tell them to s*t*f*u.. Sometimes in an open field fight involving groups, I'll take protection off but very rarely..

Noxers of any type can give you trouble in a duel, if they don't allow pots, because your mage casting is slowed down and there's no way to keep up w/ cures..(spirit speak helps, but you better have some uber timing to get it off during a harm/magic arrow spam or artied dexxer swings) Then again, I usually duel with 'anything goes' rules, or don't duel at all... I mean if you're not going to simulate real battle conditions to get better, why bother?

And I couldnt' agree more about resisting spells, but I've considered soulstoning it off for wrestling anyhow... I can't use either of the good mage weapons because - 1) I'm a hopeless potwhore 2)The Tome is integral to my suit.. I figure I can use dartboxes to escape paras, and I have never been hit with a mana vampire that I can think of, so I"m thinking about trying it out.. Unless I get a bloodoath off, I'm meat to any dexxer worth his salt.. If need be, I can move it back on easily enough..
 
G

Guest

Guest
Well, if a noxer wants to fight me no pots no protection, I usually say "No specials either, noob." Heh.

Basically, I will not turn protection off for anyone who's strategy relies on disruption. I.E., nox mages who all they do is lp with their weapon and spam harm to break your cures, or 200 + dex bushido warriors who spam lightning strike. I figure, those people are fighting cheap anyways, so out comes the protection.

If someone specifically cries and wants to fight mage v mage, I'll take them up on it and drop pro, because I'm sharp enough with the mage end of my template that even with just the fast necro spells like poison strike, corpse skin and pain spike, I can usually win.

As for pots, what I did was got a set of 2/6 +27 magery, then found a bone harvester spell channelling no penalty -26 magery. That when I get the joy of melee defense and the joy of pots. I strongly recommend that if you can afford it.
 
J

Janus69

Guest
hmmm not a bad idea.. I think I'll start looking around for some jewels and a weapon like that.. One other problem is that I use the Orny(suit is 100lrc, 4mr, 40lmc, 45sdi, 2/6, +20something mana inc, 68/64/70/70/70).. Soo, I'll have to rework the suit a bit, which shouldn't be a prob..
 
C

Colarune

Guest
Wouldn't mind seeing this thread and the necro/warrior thread stickied -- awful lot of good information and advice... Or move the info to the Necro Essay or FAQ...
 
C

Chandalir

Guest
Already too many threads stickied in my opinion - which is why I encourage people to use the FAQ builder thread (afterall, that's why it's there).

Maybe some day someone will pick up where I left off and finish it
 
R

Rakshasa

Guest
You mention Vampiric Embrace, and it's obvious that Horrific Beast is no good on a necromage. However, what about Lich Form? I didn't see it mentioned so may I get your thoughts on that form, both from a raiding standpoint and from a spawnkiller standpoint?
 
K

Kith Kanan

Guest
I use wraith form alot at spawns , aoe spells + mana leech = more or less never ending surply of mana , 3-4 necro mages spamming earth quake or wither + a few disignated healers is VERY effective
 
J

Janus69

Guest
Rarely use lich form.. The mana regen isn't worth the 25% drop in fire resist imo, because I'm usually on the frontline of a grinder and taking alot of fire damage.. But, if you're tasked with healing those at the front, or fielding the grinder, lich form can be a great plus for the regen alone, not to mention the extra poison resist in case someone slips a p-field in behind your grinder. But again, imo, any necro should be at the front and in wraith form..

Another trick I've been using lately, is to put a Rev on any archer or dexxer you are fighting.. It constantly forces them to retarget you, it can't be lost, and usually can't be dispelled by a dexxer/archer. If they aren't good with a mouse, they're gonna have some trouble pinning you down all the time if you're moving..
I love when they cry gimp for using it after I kill them.. "Ummm who's speaking spirit here?" lol
 
J

Jeddak

Guest
I use lich form alot when I need mana regen (vamp form the rest of the time) and it's only 10% in fire reduction (stratics is wrong) and it used to be 5 hp degen and today I realized it's now 2 (not sure if I was just mistaken or it changed at some point and I missed it).
 
G

Guest

Guest
No, it's 5.

However, what you're forgetting is that human's have Toughness, which is base 3 HP regen. If you're human and toss on 2 HPR, you'll be at 0, no movement up or down. Gloves of the Sun work really nice for this, high fire, LMC, LRC, and 2 HPR.
 
R

Rakshasa

Guest
Human toughness is hp regen 3, and elves' is hpr 1, right?
And my necromage is an elf, at the moment. When I read "energy resistance cap", I thought it meant an across-the-board increased cap in nonphysical forms of damage. What they call "energy" resistance, I call "electricity" resistance... DnD habits die slow.
However, I still have a nice chunk of mana to play with. MrWolf, do you find the benefits of Toughness and/or any other human traits to be better for a necromage than an elf? I've been pretty happy with the increased mana, but if I were to, say, die a bit less frequently or something, that might not be half bad either.
 
G

Guest

Guest
It depends on what you need your necro/mage to do for you.

I use mine as my all purpose PvP character and I'm in a big guild, which means I'm in a ton of fights; Spawns, Raids, Idocs, Peerless, drive bys. The perspective I'm going to give you is coming from that.

Humans -

Toughness - 2 HPR. This is essentially junk for main PvP, because 2 hpr is such a small amount is neglible. HPR only becomes impressive when you stack it. (My horrific beast macer has 54 and it's absurd.) Now, if you were in a Roleplay environment where there are equipment limitations, Toughness could actually be good. Toughness + Gloves of the Sun or Totem of the Void = A lich who doesn't lose life and who's fire doesn't suck, without the need for expensive artifacts. So if you wanted to live in lich form 24/7, it could help.

Strong Back - I recommend high strength. My own is 120, which gives me 535 stones capacity as a human. That means that even with my reagents, I can carry out 20k gold when we finish a spawn. 20k is definitely better than a kick in the rear. At one idoc, I grabbed a 350 stone bag and then recalled to safety with it. Is it uber? No. Is it a nice little selling point? I like it.

Jack of All Trades - To me, this is the human's true power and true greatness. So many people overlook this. First off, I previously said, everyone should have 20-30 focus so they can run without stamina loss. Jack of all trades provides this, so I can use those points for main skills. Second, you've got a little bit of anatomy to give you some protection if you get disarmed. Third, you've got a little bit of parry and bushido. Does it help alot? No. But today when I was going 1 v 1 with an archer, he was chain armour ignoring me, had me below half, shot at me and ... clink! Parry. Fluke? Sure. Saved my life though, so I'm not going to complain. Over enough fights and enough swings, you'll get a parry which may make you happy.

The true glory though? Hiding and tracking. My guild just spent more than an hour and a half abusing this other guild at an idoc. We'd hide along the walls of the other buildings. They'd come in. We'd bushwhack them. 20 hiding is enough to hide alongside most buildings. It make take you 3-4 tries, but if you have 30 seconds, YOU CAN HIDE. During a scout run, I got swarmed by dragons in an overspawned Rikky spawn. Invis... Wait a few seconds.. Hide. It worked. I got to sit there at the altar, permanently hidden, feeding info to my guildies.

Tracking? 20 is all you need to grab another player. Granted, you have to be point blank with him to do it. But if you're fighting a dexer who you KNOW will run, get a blood oath up to stall him, track him, dump him. He runs and you can dog him all around Yew (or wherever.)

Also, it's fun to sometimes animal lore a monster just to see how much HP it's got left.

I can't overstate how much I like Jack of All Trades. Versatility is always a good thing. Sure, it'll take a few tries to do alot of things, but I have alot of playtime with my necro mage, so I've got the time to do it.

Elves -

Perception - I honestly don't find perception to be the 'anti stealth archer' boon it was claimed to be. I find for the most part, stealth archers skirt you wide enough that they stay out of your perception. Still, it's definitely a good thing, any stealth archer protection is good.

Hard to track - Doesn't do anything for us,we don't stealth.

+5 Energy Resist - Yah, it's nice. It helps if your in a mage duel, because it knocks the damage of his lightnings to the heals of your mini heals, so he can overflow and kill you like scribe mages used to do. Helps a little vs 4/6 pallies who love to spam holy light. Generally, better than a kick in the ass.

+20 Mana - This is the true power of the elf. 20 mana. An extra two withers, or a free revenant, an extra spell in your dump combo. This is good, I like it, I likes it alot.

So basically, it comes down to this.

If I was using a necro mage for high intensity, low duration fights, I'd want the elf. Like, if all I did was charge bridge grinders in Despise, I'd want elf. Protection from chain lightnings. Protection from EVs. More spells for the wither spam.

If I was using a necro mage for extensively for a variety of things, I'd want the flexibilty of Jack of All Trades. I'd want to ambush my enemies, get a few parries here and there, carry more loot on the way out.

It comes down to this: What do you have problems with? Mana management or overspecialization? If you're saying "Damn it, I don't have a lot of LMC or MR, I need ONE MORE SPELL while I wait for my wraith/lich/wisp to help me out," you want elf. If you're saying "Damn it, I'm only good for wither grinders and bridge busting, I wish I had just a little bit more flexibility so I could be good in more situations," then you want human.

Since my necro mage is my main and I barely ever log in anyone else, I stayed human.
 
R

Rakshasa

Guest
Thank you very much, I wasn't expecting as extensive of a reply. As someone who's only been playing a few months, and tends to play more qualitatively than quantitatively, the input of folks like you is incredibly helpful.
 
K

Kith Kanan

Guest
How does this sound ??? Wont be easy I know that..

115 magery
115 eval
105 necro ( incl sleeves )
115 weapon
105 SS
115 resist
70 med

thats with 720 skill points , you will need a hell of a suit to complement it , and the sleeve slot is taken by necro sleeves
 
G

Grimbjorn

Guest
Do you get the mana leech effect when doing spell damage in wraith form? I don't seem to get any mana back when withering mobs of critters.
 
G

Guest

Guest
Yes, you do.

The amount you get back is dependant on your spirit speak skill though. So if you have no spirit speak, you'll be leeching back a cool 0%.
 
G

Grimbjorn

Guest
Oh, hmmm, with 75 SS then it won't be too noticable then, eh?
 
G

Guest

Guest
You should be getting back something. Whether it's enough to cover the cost of a wither spam, I have no idea.

Oh, another note. LMC does help a lot for wither spam. I have wither spammed on a character with 100 SS and been fine, but run out on my 120 SS character with no LMC, just because the cost was alot higher than the few mobs around me.
 
G

Grimbjorn

Guest
I'll have to try to up my LMC then, this is proving to be an interesting template. It's tough to get used to though, I'm used to playing bards and vampire/sammies.
BTW thanks for all the helpful information.
 
V

VoiceInTheDark

Guest
rtlfc
so, with max lmc, and a little regen on items, if you went wraith form, think you could go without med? I was thinking it would be cool to build a spawn worker but would like to try a unique template rather than the cookie cutter necro mage.
Parry would be sweet for added defense.......
 
G

Guest

Guest
Yes, you could.

You'd probably be wise to get a totem of the void, stay human, and switch between lich form and wraith form as appropriate.

It'd suck being on foot forever though.
 
V

VoiceInTheDark

Guest
I got a charger of fallen I could use too, but that mounting time sucks, and it's interruptible too isn't it?
 
G

Guest

Guest
You can use the charger.

It's interruptable, but I don't really find that's an issue because if I get dismounted in PvP, I'm usually dead anyways unless my friends push the enemy off, in which case I have time to invis/remount.

However, what I meant was, Wraiths, Lichs, and Beasts cannot ride. Period. So, if you're relying on the form for mana leech of regen, while you're in the form, you're going to have to be on foot.

You could do something like, use Charger to transport yourself to where you need to be, go into the form, then form out and mount up when you're done. But if you're reliant on the form for Mana, then you're going to have to be in the form while fighting in raids, which means you'll be dismounted.
 
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genuine_fake

Guest
Hmmm.... can somebody tell me how I'm supposed to fit all those mods onto my suit? I'm having trouble building a 100% LRC suit with decent resists after wraith and protection are on. How do you people do it? Also, without the help of resists on jewels (since I'll be using 1/3s with +magery to use pots), it seems impossible.

If somebody has an ideal suit, can they post it for me? Do you use any artifacts to help get LRC and resists to what you need? Which artifacts?

Thanks for any help... if you feel like donating I'm on chessie.


Forgot to note, I do have access to Kasa of the Ra-Jin and the Pendant of the Magi. If I need another artie, I could save up for it I suppose...
 
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Guest

Guest
Obviously, building 'the perfect suit' is extremely difficult and expensive, especially because there's alot of competition for the best pieces.

Depending on your needs, you might have to surrender one or two properties of the perfect suit and assemble something that's adequate.

Anyways, here's my thoughts.

1) Pendant of the Magi, Ornament of the Magician, Totem of the Void - The Pendant, Ornament and Totem cover 30 out of 40 of your LMC and 50 out of 100 LRC, as well as your FC and 3 of your FCR.

2) Kasa of the Raijin - Makes up a good chunk of your resists and covers your SDI.

3) A ring with 3 FCR and +Magery. You'll be surrendering some magery, but as long as your over 106+ you should be good for most uses.

Now, look at what you have left. If you have sleeves, gloves and legs with monster resists (70+), consider the Armour of Fortune (40 LRC, but terrible resists).

If you don't, then you need to hunt down suit pieces, which I can't really help you with.

Another piece worth considering, Mark of the Travesty. It's a helm with two +10 skills. If you can find one with +10 Magery/+10 Magic Resist, that'll really lighten what you need on your jewelry, provided you can make up resists on your other pieces and you don't mind giving up the SDI of the Kasa.
 
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Guest

Guest
should i sac the hpi & a few resists on tunic in order to get up to 45 dci? bc i use fey legs which have 50 res, 20 dci & 6 hpi medable which aint bad, but should i give up a couple hp & a small amount of lmc to get the 14 dci i need from violet courage to keep up max dci? 60's resists across the board w/prot on, 32 lmc, 20 hpi, 8 mi, 2 stam reg, and 6 mr 2/6 castin set looks great on paper, but would it be a good suit to raid/good for all purpose agrivating the house hiders @ yew?
 
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Guest

Guest
Depends on your PVP environment, really.

Myself, I duel a good amount, I never gate/house fight, and I'm very fast on the blood oath. So for me, HPI is far more important, because I don't often face dexers and archers and when I do, I get them blood oathed and they run off.

Now, if I Was fighting around Yew Gate alot, I could easily see how 45 DCI would become crucial. In fact, I use 45% DCI on my blue noto scribe mage, and there is a noticeable improvement vs archers.

So, preference and environment are important. However, my personal answer is; stick with the HPI. The advantage of 130+ HP is excellent and helps in every situation, where as DCI only helps against dexers.
 
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Guest

Guest
Excellent post.

I'm on a very laggy shard, so I won't be able to pvp much. But for PvM with a little support pvp, I plan on this template (roughly)

115 SS
105 Necro
110 Mage
90 poison
110 med
100 EI
100 Resist
 
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genuine_fake

Guest
Everyone who's posted so far loves Protection... I see how -35 Resist and -10 Physical aren't too bad drawbacks, but I want to know how you guys can stand casting slower. I find that 0 Faster Casting just isn't quick enough for me in PvP. I experimented with having 4 Faster Casting on items on test, but it still set me back to 0 FC.
 
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Guest

Guest
<blockquote><hr>

Everyone who's posted so far loves Protection... I see how -35 Resist and -10 Physical aren't too bad drawbacks, but I want to know how you guys can stand casting slower. I find that 0 Faster Casting just isn't quick enough for me in PvP. I experimented with having 4 Faster Casting on items on test, but it still set me back to 0 FC.

[/ QUOTE ]

Well, this post and most of the replies were actually written BEFORE FC was applied to Necromancy. So back then, Protection had no affect on our cast rates.

Now, you have the option of casting spells fast enough that you can actually get them off without being interrupt 90% of the time, so FC is a viable choice.

However, for most field fights, I still choice protection, because I expect people to be keying off on me relatively fast (archers, poison fields, harm spams), so I just protection and then rock them with blood oath/strangle/pain spike/corpse skin/poison strike.

For duels, I can and will take the protection off and just duel with FC.

Lastly, please note. Necromancy is about conquering and holding territory, so spell cast rate isn't as important as spell effect. Sure, people can run away from me before I can land a kill shot. But ultimately, they run away, and leave me in possession of their champ. Or whatever else we were fighting over.
 
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genuine_fake

Guest
Thanks... the reason I'm not using protection is because I'm mostly gate fighting where I'll get into duels with someone and I have to cast fast enough to stay alive (on test).
 

JJMcClure

Journeyman
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
<blockquote><hr>

This is a good post. I vote that it be made sticky!

[/ QUOTE ]
Second
 
Z

Ziggy Stardust

Guest
Am I the only one who reckons getting 80+ physical resist+60/70s all other resists + LCR + LMC + FC/FCR + SDI in one suit is impossible if not unaffordable?
 
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Guest

Guest
Well, it's definitely not easy, seeing as there's a lot of competition for the best pieces.

What I've list is your dream suit. You could assemble a suit with good resists and reasonable LMC or LRC for 3-5 million.

And yes, there are people out there who DO have dream suits like I've listed.

Remember, unaffordable is a relative concept. Is it necessary to have the best suit? Maybe not. But you will see the difference between the guy with the 10 million gp suit and the guy with the 60 million gp suit. And if you're the guy with the 10 million suit, don't expect to beat the 60 million gp suit guy 1 on 1.
 
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Guest

Guest
<blockquote><hr>

Obviously, building 'the perfect suit' is extremely difficult and expensive, especially because there's alot of competition for the best pieces.

Depending on your needs, you might have to surrender one or two properties of the perfect suit and assemble something that's adequate.

Anyways, here's my thoughts.

1) Pendant of the Magi, Ornament of the Magician, Totem of the Void - The Pendant, Ornament and Totem cover 30 out of 40 of your LMC and 50 out of 100 LRC, as well as your FC and 3 of your FCR.

2) Kasa of the Raijin - Makes up a good chunk of your resists and covers your SDI.

3) A ring with 3 FCR and +Magery. You'll be surrendering some magery, but as long as your over 106+ you should be good for most uses.

Now, look at what you have left. If you have sleeves, gloves and legs with monster resists (70+), consider the Armour of Fortune (40 LRC, but terrible resists).


[/ QUOTE ]

You would consider using the AoF? Even with the no resist of the pendant?

I know with the AoF, pendant, and Orni, you end up with 90% lrc. It has crossed my mind to use it especially since it has the 15%dci also.
 
C

Caleb Troutbane

Guest
Hi everyone,

I have a necromancer with skills as follows (have just trained them and this isnt a real template just a work in progress char)

Necro 100 /need 105 and will get with talisman
SS 110
Magery 120
Resist 120
Meditation 100
Wrestling 120 (in training.. do i even need that much. I just want the disarm to work well)

and i have 120 eval int soulstoned.

This char will be pure pvp char. What skills should i keep and what to drop. Are there some skills i should adjust by lowering raising ?

My stat cap i1 255 and now i have 120, 15, 120 low dex i know.. dont i need 40 to use wrestling decently?

I have all skills mentioned above scrolled 120 and i have arties and jewelry alot so using those wont be a problem.

any help will be appreciated.
 
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Guest

Guest
<blockquote><hr>

No, it's 5.

However, what you're forgetting is that human's have Toughness, which is base 3 HP regen. If you're human and toss on 2 HPR, you'll be at 0, no movement up or down. Gloves of the Sun work really nice for this, high fire, LMC, LRC, and 2 HPR.

[/ QUOTE ]

Ah! There ya go. Sorry about my post in the old FAQ thread
.

Yeah, Void and Gloves of Sun clean up nice on human liches
. But the human bonus is supposed to be +2 HPR, so would that mean all chars have an innate +1 HPR? Ah, yes. Cool. Pays to scroll down some


*Talks to self*
 
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Guest

Guest
Necro Wrestle Mage
Mage
Eval
Resis
Necro
SS
Wrestling 120 em all

hat of magi pendant crsystaline ring is alot of MR and being human and i have a few more mana regen 2 lrc high resis pieces and i dont even miss med in champs i run in wraith with a wisp and i dont run out of mana. same with peerless.
 
R

RandAlThor

Guest
Well that goes without saying you won't run out of mana at a spawn because you leech back insane amounts off of the spawn.PvP is a lot different because you can't always guaruntee that there will be more than one target on a wither spam.
I think Mr.Wolf has it right on and I don't think anyone can challenge the fact that he has the scoop on a necro mage.
I have to say that this is one of the best guides I have seen for a necro and not just for the necro/mage variety.

Of course now Necro is affected by FC but still viable with protection in most situations.
If you have magery never forget that you can toggle buffs and protection with ease.


oh one more thing is that with the right equipment and tactics anything is viable.I like the usage of para and disarm in field fights.It will help with all those bokuto honkies like myself
 
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