Necro/Archers...?

[Jaimes]

Thought I would run this past some of you guys.

I've been thinking about making a Necro/Archer lately... it sounds pretty uber.

Bless a sweet balanced crossbow (well, getting it is the hard part) and run with Nox Ranger's Heavy Crossbow... gives you conc blow and mortal for combos, moving shot to chase down/finish people, and dismount... not saying that I would use dismount, mind you

Combine those specials with some strangle, pain spike, blood oath, curse weapon... it's only weakness that I can think of would be a sturdy nox/sammy.

What do you guys think... ever played one? Or fought against one? What was your impression?

I'm thinking of going:
Archery
Tactics
Necro
SS
Med
Resist
Chiv for healing/curing/remove curse (yeah the karma juggling thing might suck, but I've never tried it to see if it does. and I don't mind farming monsters)

 

[Masumatek]

Necro archer was the funnest template I've played but I hate a number of things about the necro part, including remove curse items that don't belong in the game, the chiv remove curse spell, and the ability to stack poison resist to make corpse skin worthless.

Plus, it require tactics now and you can't toggle a weapon special while casting.

I played a casting necro with low dex which was fun. I haven't tried a dex necro though.

 

[Guest]

Necro 100
SS 100
Bushido 100
Arch 120
Tact 100
Heal 100
Anat 100

Alternatively
Necro 100
SS 100
Bushido 100
Arch 120
Tact 100
Spell Weave 100
100 in whatever, I liked hiding

Funnest necro/archer template I ran though?
Arch 120
Fence 120
Necro 110
SS 100
Tact 90
80 Poison
100 Bush

 

[Masumatek]

lol. You like bushido huh?

 

[Guest]

You'd be surprised how often to whoop someone just spamming painspike/strangle/pixies and quick strike

 

[Guest]

<blockquote><hr>

just spamming painspike/strangle/pixies and quick strike

[/ QUOTE ]
See how long that lasts without med

 

[Guest]

my template now is:

Elf for more mana

archery
necro
ss
healing
anat
tactics
focus


you time specials after spells you don't have a problem with the no toggle issue

running out of mana is a problem though

 

[Guest]

I had a necro archer... I think the template was:
120 archery
120 spirit speak
120 necromancy
120 meditation
120 resist
120 tactics
_________
720 skill cap

(Also, when I turned elf I dropped med down to 100 and threw 20 focus on for the stamina regeneration, the elf thing didn't last to long though).

 

[Jaimes]

Did you have problems healing with that template? Or was Curse Weapon, pots, and spirit speak enough?

 

[Masumatek]

Idk as much about how it is now since I haven't really truly played a necro-archer in a long time, but back when necros couldn't use FC and back before the tactics changes and the nerfs to necro, I ran with legendary (or as close I can get) focus/med/necro/ss/archery/resist. It worked well. I guess nowadays you'd have to substitute the resist with tactics.

My main problem, something I think is ridiculous, is that, though most do not, some of "the uber" PvPers wear a crapload of resists, and if they stack poison resist high enough, corpse basically becomes worthless, which also hurts PS, which is one of only two direct damage spells, and in fact corpse will become more of a help to your enemy with high poison resist since it will increase their cold and physical, which your wither and your bow uses.

Paladins were a huge problem. They can destroy your spells that cost much more mana and casting time and skill points for much less of all three. The introduction of remove curse apples and talismen also sucked.

That said, I'd wager it can still be a decent template, though I can't say for sure considering all the nerfs and the fact that chiv/stacked poison resist/remove curse items are still significant problems.

To your question though to Gondor about healing...believe it or not, healing wasn't a problem at all for me, and balanced bows didn't exist back then...so no potions. Even without curse weapon, spirit speak at legendary is fine, even though most PvPers will probably tell you otherwise. FINE though is only considering a 1v1 situation. It gets sucky versus ganks, but then so does a lot of things.

I used vamp form to help with poison. And, believe it or not, I still killed the lethal poisoners...protection + blood oathe + offense. Oh, the other problem with necro-mages because of my low fire resist from vamp. Plus nowadays people can poof you out of vamp form with that poof talisman:/.

And of course tamers are a problem for many templates so we don't need to get into them. Another significant disadvantage is that you only get two direct damage spells....and they both can make you toast inside a guard zone.

I used a caster template, which I enjoy much more than a dexxer template. Though a dexxer template relying more on the weapon is probably superior against remove cursers/stacked resists/etc...Also, since you can't toggle specials while casting, I'm not really sure how the timing of weapon specials is now, which is essential to that temp.

For blessing, I usually blessed a rune beetle carp or a good 0/3, though I guess that has changed now. Now I would probably bless a good crossbow, and if possible a good balanced crossbow. If no balanced crossbow, vamp form might still be the best option. Carry protection scrolls to use against lethal poisoners. Even with a balanced weapon, you can still use vamp form and just use a ward removal talisman on yourself against lethalers so you can use cure potions.

 

[Guest]

I was kind of expecting soulstone fragments for Christmas and was going to stone my healing and put resist back on, I guess I'll farm gold for a while to get a stone so I can do that

see how far it can take me with only SS healing

 

[Masumatek]

Well I guess it depends on your template but in most cases healing/anatomy, high fc/fcr chivalry, or magery is probably superior to spirit speak. But spirit speak accompanies necromancy...that's the reason to use it. I wasn't saying SS is superior to alternatives. I was saying, unlike what most people seem to think, you can still rely on it to survive, in one on one situations anyway. Though hey, it's still worth a try, go for it.

 

[Guest]

I just really like resist spells.

 

[Guest]

spirit speak was actually enough for me while I was a necro archer... but at the time I was able to afford 65+ resist armor and wear it unblessed.

I prefered my swords version of that template though, which was more of a DoT template. (bleed, strangle, lesser poison (for huge interupts and to stop healing))
Also with the swords version of it, vamp form gave me auto life leech (I did keep some pots for that just in case senario)

 

[Masumatek]

Btw if you are going to run with a balanced xbow, ninjitsu might be superior to resist, unless you're blue and plan on picking your fights. Animal form for running from the ganks. And shurikens/darts are always very nice...