Three best/worst Necro spells in PVM

[Ravenspyre]

Animate Dead I feel is one of the worst spells overall. I would gladly lose control slots to be able to control them, and actually have a use for a skeletal mount beyond bank sitting for 5 minutes. this means remove decay and let us control them /php-bin/shared/images/icons/biggrin.gif

Next in line, a few of the transformations. I think some of the penalties associated with vampiric embrace, and lich form are too heavy handed. I would also like the ability to remount in vampire form to. Tone down the penalties a bit, and they would be more useful overall.

And this last one is more of a general category one. Some of the curses really need to be ramped up in duration. High magic resist creatures and some of the curses don't last but about 20 or so seconds, at best. Those are my pet peeves.

 

[Guest]

Least favorite?

Hrmmm let me think.
Only one I dislike Is mindrot.
Due to the reason It doesnt do squat to mages and From what I hear it doesnt up the magic cost by much even at GM ss and necro.
err Kinda iffy on posionstrike-Its a tad slow to use a spell, good that it area hits though reason why its slow I guess.

Animate dead-Ify on this one but there just to clumsy and I dont know if there stupidity is a bug or how they were suoposed to animaate, I find animates most the time a waste of mana to bring up besides as a meat sheild.

My favorites
Strangle-Gotta love that lasting damage and hurt em more if they run
Reverant-I love that guy*easilly dispelled though*
Vampiric embrace-I use it lots lose fire resistances but gain the leech, I just avoid things that try to burn me.

Thanks for putting this here Oaks and if you need any clarification on what I said just ask.

 

[Guest]

I dont think I've *ever* used my necro for PvM, so I cant comment there...

Gah, guess that leaves me out...

How bout a seperate thread fer PvP?

 

[CitizenKane2]

From my necro mage's point of view.

Worst Necromany Spells for PvM:
************************

(a) Blood Oath
(b) Mind Rot (Most monsters have an amazingly large mana pool for this spell to be really useful)
(c) Vampiric Embrace (Immunity to levels 1-4 poison is not really worth the inability to use spells with the garlic component)


Favorite Necromancy Spells
*********************

(a) Animate Dead - extremely useful to "summon" back-up at Fel Champ spawns. True, you don't get credit for the kills the animates do, but then again, you don't flag grey as well to any player the animates attack (unlike other summons).

(b) Strangle

(c) Pain Spike

ADDED : I have a suggestion. In all replies to Oak's questionaire, it may be helpful to state whether you have a necro warrior or a necro mage.

 

[Guest]

OHHH IN PVM hehee

well lets do it again for just PvM

least favs
Mind Rot-Useless sence most monsters got massive mana pools
Reverant-Only in PvM is dispelled by nearly everything worth killing.
Forms-Need balancing
Favs
Strangle-Above posted reasons
Wither-Massive damage and area?=ROCKS
Blood oath-Besides short time it stays Good to give back what you recive...


This is my For PvM not general post.

 

[Guest]

I play a Necro Mage(you may want to add that to your list of "don't consider" since Necro Mages can't use Curse Weapon very effectively, and warrior necros can't use Ven Spirit and Strangle very often).
Worst:
3) Poison Strike- It doesn't do a hella lot of damage, and takes too much mana for something that does so little.

2) Animate Dead- Just not fun with only 3(maybe 4 for GM 5 for 120), that do not listen to commands and are pretty dumb to boot. Also I think you should not be a "given" thing will give you a certain undead, I think it should be random. Like GM has a 5% chance at a Skeletal Dragon off any corpse. 120 has a 1% chance at a Bone Daemon off anything.

1) Mind Rot- Does anyone use this for PvM? PvP wise its ok, not really useful. But Monsters just dump it doesn't really matter if their E Bolt takes 10 more mana. Perhaps make it so it will lower the spell damage(will help with those 50% Spell Damage increase gimps also with monsters like the Abysmal Horrors, and high end magic casters).


Favorite Necro Spells:
3)Lich Form- Got mana?

2)Wither-Great for revealing hidden monsters, and also good for a cold attack.

1)Strangle-Just soooo much fun.


Honorable Mention:
Horrific Beast-I enjoy terroizing my town with my big blue cat.

Vamp Embrace-Can you beat not being able to be poisoned?

Pain Spike- Perfect for Headless and lower.

Ven Spirit-Just fun for the medium level critters(ettins, Trolls etc).

 

[Guest]

I play a Necro/Nox Mage/Scribe...lol so curse weapon is completely usless to me

Least favorites

1) animate dead...for the same reasons said before, the only thing it's worth using on is the newbie necro quest where ya gotta cast it. Fix decay times(escpecially the horses)

2) Mind rot simply pointless in PvM

3) Revenat dies way to quickly or is dispelled by anything I would need to use it on.


Most favorite

1) Pain spike nice finisher when my mana is low and need a decent hit

2) The Forms (ya ya I know more then 1 spell) I like the way everything is set up..though I'd like to be able to get on my horse in vampire form

3) wither Nice fast casting decent damage spell, great for taking out a horde or mongbats.

 

[Al'Djinn]

I play a necrowarrior.

Worst:
1- Mind Rot: Does it really makes a difference if I cast it on a monster? Can't tell. Same thing on a mage.

2- Animate Dead: Aherm.. just create monsters that you can't control and doesn't last long? They don't even give you looting rights! What was the initial purpose of this spell?

3- Vampiric Embrace: The best spell but at the same time the worst one. Nice benefits you get from it but the penalties are just too much considering that fire is the most used elemental damage by spell casting creatures/players. Not mentioning you can't remount a horse while in this form.

There are others spells that I don't like the way they work, like poison strike. Too little damage for so much mana and such a long casting time. Another one is blood oath. Some monsters have such high resists that it lasts little to almost nothing at all. Also familiars, you can't recall with them.

Best:
1- Curse Weapon: It's just awesome. I wish it would give me a message when it runs out.

2- Strangle: Hehehe... is there anything to say?

3- Pain Spike: Who can complain?

4- Evil Omen: Would be nicer if it worked for a certain amount of time or certain amount of hits.

The rest of the spells.

 

[Looker]

I have a PVM only legendary necro/mage on Ches.

3 worst:
corpse skin
horrific beast
wraith form

If corpse sking serves any function I have yet to discover what it is. Horrific beast is ludicous looking and does almost nothing. Wraith form doesn't do much either. Too many necro spells are mostly useless.

3 best:
vengeful spirit
strangle
pain spike

The combination of vengeful spirit and strangle kills blood elementals and daemons easily. Pain spike is a handy slow em down spell. Not a lot of damage but spawn does feel it.

I hope some changes are on the way. Necros need more useful and fewer decorative/frivilous spells.

 

[Ravenspyre]

Corpse skin is good because it lowers a target's fire and poison resistance. Great for those fire based combo spells.

 

[aoskilleduo]

I have a Necro warrior, and a Necro Mage. The three worst spells by far for PvM in my opinion are definetly

Mind rot- Horrible vs most mosters.....
Revenant- Dispelled by most strong monsters.
Poison strike- area effect is nice, but not worth the very little damage for the mana it costs

3 Favorite-
Wither
Strangle
animate dead- Go to Fel and farm White Wyrms for days with it!!!

 

[Guest]

for pvm the 3 worst
mind rot, probably the only necro spell I don't use in either pvm or pvp
evil omen, for pvm doesn't do too much for me
I'll use most any other necro spell in pvm depending on situation, but would probably say lich for or poison strike are the ones I go to least

favorite 3 for pvm
strangle, solid damage over time, not much more to be said
curse weapon, being a necro macer this gives me back a pretty good amount of life in a fight
The third is tough as it varies by critter and mood
Wraith form (when used with a slayer weapon and crushing blow, I end up netting most of the mana back, so good for constant crushes) or animate dead if around critters making skeletal dragons or if I just feel creating an undead army

Of course, familiars are fun and useful, so can't leave without giving them an honorable mention.

 

[thomas3dragon]

Worst Spells for PVM (Necro/Mage)

Blood Oath (I can't afford to be hit at all, much less with added damage)
Curse Weapon (No skill with a weapon, so my hands are usually empty anyway)
Horrific Beast (While the HP regeneration is nice, if you can't hit the monsters...)

-----------------------
Best Spells for PVM (Necro/Mage)

Summon Familiar (Wisp) (It's the only way I can actually keep enough mana to survive)
Wither (Crowd control, and for those pesky things that are impossible for me to target)
Vengeful Spirit (Dispelled easily, but at least I know it will actually go after the right target)

----------------------------------
I didn't include bugs, or the things -everyone- dislikes about the spells, as that seems to be beaten to death, lately. So just tack on the fact that familiars and animates = /php-bin/shared/images/icons/frown.gif But animate dead remains one of my most-cast spells just to give larger critters a target besides -me-.

 

[Guest]

Three worst necro spells for pvm :
Pain - its only good as a finisher, as the damage regens. Not really worth the mana...

Mind Rot - generally useless

evil omen - good in pvp, but for pvm pretty useless imo.

Fave spells :

Curse weapon - this saved me so many times when i was playing my pk, its awesome.

Strangle - Does good damage, and costs what i think to be a fair amount of mana (20)

Wither - excellent for fighting groups of people

Mabye you can tell im a pvp'r, so of course i like the spells which are usefull in pvp /php-bin/shared/images/icons/wink.gif

 

[Guest]

I play a Necro/Nox/Mage

Least liked spells in pvm
Mind Rot- seems to do little to no real damage
Poison Strike- same as mind rot
blood oath- I do damage, hate taking it /php-bin/shared/images/icons/smile.gif

Most used spells in pvm
Evil omen- combined with a poison field is my number one spell
strangle-great spell
raise dead- love them little helpers (will be better when they actually attack a beast attacking me)

 

[Kozmo]

My least three favorite:
Curse Weapon (have no use for it since I dont have any weapon skills since my tamer/necro/mage doesnt use weapons and my necro/warrior uses breath of the dead)

Mind Rot (MAYBE good in pvp... I dont pvp yet... but on monsters... doesnt matter to them)

Horrific Beast (no wep skills and id rather use wraith form to get mana leech)

My three favorite:

Corpse skin (most used spell... good in doom for making all those mages do more damage and for letting my mare do a little bit more damage as well)

Wither (awesome in champ spawns by taking out like 10-15 enemies all around you at once and I dont know if this is a bug or not but how necros use fcr... you can cast wither pretty dang fast so I like this aspect of necros)

Vampiric Embrace (I LOVE this spell on my tamer, while im taming a ww it cant poison me making me have to stop taming to cure myself while its casting at me... right now im currently collecting armor pieces with really high fire resist so I can make a fire suit that will be at 70 while under vamp embrace and or lich form)

 

[Guest]

I have a necro/mage.

The only 3 necro spells i use are:
Pain spike...good as a starter to slow down creatures, or as a finisher.
Strangle...continuous damage. No more need be said.
Summon familiar... I only use a shadow wisp when getting low on mana.

I never use the other spells as i find them fairly useless, and magery is much more powerful anyway imo.

I would like to use animate dead (the reason i made a necro in the first place) but without being able to control them they are useless, unless at a champ spawn where they don't usually last long anyway /php-bin/shared/images/icons/frown.gif

 

[kunma]

3 Least fav for PvM

Revenant : Unlike EV or BS, these create an instant-dispel from the most important creatures (Gauntlet, bone daemon). Need more equity between those spells.

Blood Oath : Needs more duration for PvM.

Poison Strike : This and other poison based attacks are really gutted by your choice to make all of Doom/Gauntlet nearly immune to them. You made in the most important dungeon that the most people would go to most of the time, yet this spell there has no functionality.

3 Fav:
Corpse Skin - opens up a hole
Strangle - widens the hole
Pain spike - finishes the job

 

[Guest]

WORST
1.) Blood Oath - never seemed to last very long to be of much good.

2.) Animate Dead - Although a good spell, and a great idea, it can be very annoying. For example, my newbie friend got owned by a skeletal mage when I made it, because he thought he could attack it (and did). The monsters are also unpredictable and uncontrollable. Not to mention you cant loo their kills!

3.) Mind Rot - Never seems to do anything.


BEST !!

1.) Strangle - Works well with my nox mage. DP the monster, then strangle. Strangle is incurable isnt it?

2.) Horrific Beast/Wraith Form - Great spell for warrior. Armed with other hit point regen gear, and you're untouchable! Wraith form is great too for a mage, recall ability being an added bonus.

3.) Summon Familiar - Hordies are GREAT!! In fact, they all are, but especially hordies! Pick up arrows in doom, carry stuff etc... Added to the fact that the spell itself is really 5 in 1 (take yur pick at familié)

 

[Edmonde]

I always assume there is a purpose for these questions, but of course you won't tell us the purpose. . .

First off, as for the animate issues and not being able to control them, I have played siege for 4 years and if I could control my animates it would be unbalancing in PVP. Even Trammies have to give the nod to the existance of PVP when they demand changes, something that the Devs must have had in mind when they were balancing the spells.

Mindrot, Evil Omen, Corpseskin, 17 mana, 11 mana, 11 mana--why? Why even have these spells? Each of these has the effect of leeching mana away from the caster that could be used to do something useful-- like actually kill something. Corpseskin might have it's uses but compare these three to mage spells that cost 11 mana like say, lightning or greater heal,and 17 mana which might as well be dare we say? Ebolt? Explosion?

Strangle is the best pvm because it will finish something off if you kite it-- i hunt whisps-- poisonstrike, strangle-- 3 regs and i walk off until it dies.
Vengeful spirit is nice for low end things-- 3 regs to kill a drake or a ratman archer is decent, and very handy woth gm hide.
Pain spike 5 mana, what else needs to be said.

I don't pvm much since I'm red and my idea of hunting is those who themselves hunt monsters, so who is the hunter and who is the prey?

*Evil laugh*

 

[goebbels]

I play a necro-archer 120 ss, 110 necro

Top 3 PVM
3)Spirit Speak - the game considers it a spell when you heal yourself - healing is useful.

2)Vampiric Embrace - stamina regen is important for archery - only form in which you can ride a mount -would be nice to be able to remount - and though it's slightly off-topic, the proposed UOA feature to disable personal dismounting would be very useful, as a miscalculated double click when in combat can have the most dire consequences.

1)Strangle - the only effective combat spell (wither is useful when surrounded, but if you're surrounded you're usually being hit and won't be able to cast it and besides, who can afford to be hit these days when anything worth killing, kills you in 2 hits or less. same idea with blood oath)

Worst - Hard to decide SINCE I DON'T USE the other spells. All the other forms are too limiting and face it, without a mount against the fast and heavy-hitting you're going to die. Anyhow here goes:

3)Vengeful Spirit - I can only seem to get this spell to last for five seconds at most before it just gets dispelled. It doesn't hit very hard either.

2)Summon Familiar - Vampire Bat - even if it worked the way it should, against the monsters I fight, it's just going to die. Besides, the prime objective in high-stakes pvm is not to be hit (at least physically). Take into account also the various overlapping abilities to heal oneself on the necro template too, what necro doesn't have SS to heal himself? The life-drain on vampiric embrace and curse weapon add to health. Also, necro mages can just cast greater heal. Some necro-warriors retain the healing skill. I would have been infinitely more pleased with some sort of super wisp (that moved as fast as a fairy - the normal wisp can't keep up and I don't know if that is a bug or not [typical OSI ambiguity?]) or something other than what's offered. perhaps more choices for the various levels would fix this.

1)Animate dead - this could be in the top 3 if your animates were helpful and you actually got credit for that help. Sure I can wait two minutes to be able to loot their kills, but then I have to raise another undead army since they all die too fast. More than often, when I randomly decide to give this spell a try, the animate just stands there, or sometimes wanders around, or sometimes follows me, but doesn't attack anything, and yes sometimes, though rarely, they'll attack something worthwhile.

The rest of the spells are pretty superfluous, these are the worst though since they have so much potential to be improved and made useful, ie they aren't what they ought to be.

Sorry to be so negative, but it's a frustrating ordeal.

 

[Spaga]

Best 3 Spells:

1. Strangle - Disrupt
2. Evil Omen - If used correctly very effective
3. Pain Spike - Nice opener or closer, depending on the opponent

- Added note Wither works nicely for group PvP

Worst 3 Spells:

1. Animate Dead - Whats the point in PvP?
2. Mind Rot - Waste of mana
3. Revenant - Waste of mana - easily dispelled

 

[PizzaDude]

When I was using Necromancy, it was on a Necro/Warrior with:
Necromancy: 110.0
Spirit Speak: 115.0

- My list of "Worst" PvM Spells -

Animate Dead: No control over the animates. Mounts decayed too quickly. Was sort of cool for the novelty of it, but once you get used to it...
Mind Rot: Worthless against most monsters due to their Huge Mana Pools, and High Magic Resist.
"Change Form" Spells: Penalty for each is off balance compaired to their benefits, but Decent for Role Playing purposes. Not enough variety in choosing either -- Needs more options.

- My list of "Best" PvM Spells -

Wither: This was great for killing low level spawn when surrounded, and does 'Ok' damage to mid level monsters. The mana cost was a bit of a downer for a Warrior with limited mana though.
Curse Weapon: Great for refilling some health during difficult fights. Could last longer and have maybe an extra effect based off the Spirit Speak of caster.
Strangle: I thought this was By Far the Best PvM Spell for Necromancy. The only gripe I have with it, is it doesn't work against a lot of creatures. Completely Inaffective against them because of their Immunity to All Poisons.


------------------------------------------------------------------------------
- My list of "Alright" PvM Spells

Blood Oath: This is an "Iffy" spell. The better my Armor Resists got, the less usefull this spell became. But with crappy Resists, "If" a Blood Elemental thwacked me hard enough with this spell in place, I could easily kill it in 2-3 seconds -- "If" I didn't Die first...
Evil Omen: I didn't have much use for this spell, unless I was using a Deadly Poisoned weapon. But then again, most of the creatures I hunted were Immune to All Poisons.
Poison Strike: As with a few of the above, it doesn't do much, if any damage to Poison Immune creatures. And, the mana cost was a bit too much for a warrior to waste for minimal affects.
Pain Spike: Was decent when uses in combination with Strangle, and Bleed Attack, but if the target is Immune to Poison, you're almost out of options. Nice Finisher though.

 

[Guest]

<blockquote><hr>


1) Mind Rot ... Perhaps make it so it will lower the spell damage(will help with those 50% Spell Damage increase gimps also with monsters like the Abysmal Horrors, and high end magic casters).


<hr></blockquote>

I was also thinking Horrific Beast could be changed to have either a reflect physical mod, a lower attack mod, or just a general protection from pyhsical hits. The HP regen is cool in the long run, but anything that can do 35 points of damage three times in a row can easily kill someone, even with 7 HP regen. It is cool to go against Orc Brutes as a Beastie though, looks like a clash of the titans hehe. Though even in 70 physical Orc Brutes will do around 30+ damage a hit.

 

[Guest]

Gonna agree with Ravenspyre on Animate Dead. I feel it's only worth using to get a skeletal mount, and even then it's not that great cuz you gotta cheat to keep it for the duration of your play time. I'd gladly lose a control slot (or 2, or 3) to be able to keep it, train it, and stable it.

Mind Rot kinda sucks cuz it does almost nothing.

Blood oath because I don't have a necro/fighter

3 favorites are corpse skin, strangle, and vampiric embrace. Vampiric Embrace would be a lot better if you could re-mount in vampire form.

 

[Vampyre Xav'ier]

*Climbs out of coffin*

Greeting Dark brothers! First of all I want to thank Designer Oaks for asking our opinion about our beloved Necromancy profession and taking the time to hear our voices.

NECROMANCER SPELLS IN PVM RANKED FROM BEST TO WORST

*BEST*
1 Strangle – 10 Rounds of Pain! Incredible spell.
2 Wither – Very effective at champion spawns while in wraith form (mana leech)
3 Pain spike – a perfect spell! 5 mana? Can’t beat that.

4 Blood oath – Nice for quick kills against mid level monsters (Dread Spider, Rat
mages, liches). Not safe to use against tougher monsters (bloods, dragons).
Wasted on low-level monsters.
5 Curse weapon – Actually a nice amount of health regained per hit.
6 Lich form – Useful for Necro-mages in the gauntlet – quicker mana regen = more
spells = looting rights
7 Wraith form – Mana leech nice for Necro warrior chaining special moves plus the
aforementioned endless withers at champion spawns.
8 Horrific beast – Makes training melee skills easier. Usefulness in the field limited
to Necro warriors with low Int. only, since you can’t cast while in this form.
9 Evil omen – Deadly for Nox mages to increase their poison level. Not that useful
for the rest of us (Sweet in PVP though).
10 Animate dead – Kind of fun to play with but so many drawbacks (can’t control,
no looting rights, they wander, they don’t attack, they decay fast, high mana cost).
The only instance I would consider this spell useful is for killing white wyrms. Animated skeletal dragons tear them up nicely. (and make you feel powerful!)
11 Summon familiar – I’m not a fan of familiars for one reason. Why do they attack?
They just die and now I have to re-summon. No one wants them for combat help (even when they worked). We use them for the special abilities they bestow (carrying capacity, mana regen, stamina regen, snake control, wolf control). Make it so they don’t enter combat at all and I would use them.
12 Poison strike – A so-so spell. There are definitely better uses for your mana.
13 Corpse skin – I just don’t notice this spell having much of an effect on monsters.

*WORST*
14 Vampiric embrace – Too Many Drawbacks (More on this at the end…)
15 Vengeful spirit – Useless against high-level monsters. Against mid –level monsters they are so slow you are better off doing the job yourself.
16 Mind rot – Does this even effect monsters?

A final thought on the Vampiric embrace spell:
This spell was intended to be “the big” Necromancy spell, the signature spell, the essence of our power. It’s only available at Grandmaster status (close enough - 99). I’m sorry but I’m so disappointed in this spell. The drawbacks are great and the rewards slim for the most powerful spell available to a necromancer. The fire penalty is severe as is the garlic penalty. Not being about to mount in this form causes much difficulty. The life drain affect is negligible . The stamina regen is nice but not nearly as desirable as the lich’s mana regen or the beast’s hp regen. The poison resist is the best feature but even that is shortchanged by not resisting lethal poison. That was a huge mistake. The reason vampires were given poison resist in the first place is because they can’t cure with garlic.
I am helpless in PVP when a poisoner/fencer bolas me and lethal poisons me. Now I can’t remount and can’t cure myself….vampires should not be so helpless. If anything letting vampires resist all poison types would make the spell somewhat powerful…but still underpowered in my opinion.

*climbs back in coffin*

 

[AuToPsY]

Ok, here is my necro/mage's template
(well, what its intended to be)
120 Necro
120 Spirit Speak
120 Med
120 Mage
120 Resist
120 Melee

Pretty good template for group PvP (Magery is simply for cross healing, curing, mini heals &amp; keeping the victim poisoned)

Three Worst Necro Spells (PvM)

Evil Omen - What is the point of this in PvM for necro/mage? higher level poison? If you arent Nox pretty much useless. Its not like paralyze will help much either. Considering you can stay away from beasts just by walking away.

Blood Oath - I dont really wanna take that damage unless I can avoid it, considering it would barely damage the beasts I fight

Curse Weapon - This spell really is useless without a large % of damage increase.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Three Favorite Necro Spells (PvM)

Animate Dead - Despite it being buggy raising three of my own undead is pretty much a godsend for someone without melee (well, I've got swords but only for PvP disruption &amp; defense)

Strangle - It keeps going &amp; going &amp; going but not really worth it w/o pain spike seeing as how it works with the victims stamina.

Wither - Fast Area Effect with good range &amp; dmg. Just an overall great spell (not to mention one of the few you can consistently use in PvP.

BUT!

There is always a but...
PvP wise necro/mages are only good if paired up with a mage seeing as how necromancer spells are mainly curses (like setting him up for the spike)
with Mind Rot, Corpse Skin, Strangle, &amp; Evil Omen.

Just felt the need to say that.

 

[Oaks]

Great feedback so far...

 

[imported_sbom]

Best necro spells in PvM:
- animate dead (says my necro-bard)...but only because she can provoke stuff onto them...gotta love those skeleton dragons under control!!
- strangle: nice to finish big monsters or kill small/medium ones with just one spell casted.
- summon familiar: love the wisp for extra mana regeneration.

Worse necro spells in PvM:
- animate dead...and I'm not contradicting myself (says my necro-mage!!)...what's the point of getting those fellow up if you can't control them or use them to gain looting right...only exception is champ spawns where you don't really care about looting and it's nice that they don't make you turn grey.
- summon familiar (all but the wisp): they are not very useful for a necro-mage as you can't tell them what to do really. The snake looks pretty powerful with its mean poison, but it does not seem to attack monsters I cast on, only those I attack with a weapon (or is that a bug?).

 

[Cipher]

Necromage best:

1. Animate dead - Great as a meat shield... just can't use them like provo creatures. You actually have to join in the killing fun to get looting rights (unless you also have provo).
2. Strangle - Best damage to mana ratio for necro spells... works best when supplemented by pain spike though.
3. Wither - Great for champ spawns when dealing with mass hordes or when you need to do damage and it's difficult to target for whatever reason.

Necromage worst:

1. Mind rot - Same thing as mentioned before. Monsters' mana pools are too large for this to have an effect.
2. Poison strike - It's too slow on the casting time and doesn't quite do the damage I would like it to. I'm sure those facts are to ofset the fact that it's an area spell, but being an area spell is nearly useless. I'd rather just use wither if attacking multiple creatures.
3. Evil omen - It just never seems to do enough. Monsters I typically hunt have too many hit points for this to be very effective. It's not good enough along the same lines as Mind rot, just not so bad.

NecroWarrior best:

1. Curse weapon - single handedly allows us to tank the tougher creatures... great spell.
2. Strangle - keeps the damage going when you need to run and heal up a bit.
3. Animate dead - I can stand toe to toe with a White wyrm while it whittles away at my skeletal dragon. I love the meat shields.

NecroWarrior worst:

1. Mind rot - same as above
2. Poison strike - same as above
3. Summon familiar - They are too slow, don't do their jobs well (even when they do their jobs), don't recall with you... there is just so many things they don't do. Decent in the flavor department, just not very effective.

I didn't bother saying horrific beast or curse weapon for the necromage, since those spells are obviously not designed for that type of template.

A lot of the spells are very specialized, but not necessarily bad. I find myself using Corpse skin VERY often either to augment explosion spells, strangle spells, or fire/poison weapons. I even cast it on myself when fighting undead or arctic ogre lords.

I think for the most part the forms are pretty good. I think the constant damage in lich form is a bit much though. The -25% fire resist is enough of a drawback in my opinion. Casting creatures always seem to take advantage of it.

The other spells are, in my opinion, good but not great.

 

[imported_sbom]

Don't the blood elementals dispell your revenants?

 

[Guest]

I play a Necro/Nox/Mage:

Worst:
1) Curse Weapon - useless to me
2) Vamp Embrace - I would use this more often if I was able to re-mount (is this by design or bug?) and if it extended to level 5 poison.
3) Revnant - IMO, very under-powered in PvM. Make him do more damage, more HPs, and swing faster. In PvM, he is pretty worthless next to my other summons. Perhaps, you could just make him take less (or no) control slots (just limit him to 1 at a time... perhaps only against MOBs) as you do not have any "real" control anyway.

Best:
1) Animate Dead - I use a lot of summons (usually 2 earth eles and an EV), so the extra non-slot taking creatures are great for keeping the spawn under control. PLEASE, if you make changes, do not make these creatures take up control slots or at least make it an option (i.e. you must animate them twice to control them). I would like to see "some" sort of additional control though. Perhaps a double-click + cursor for controled attack (like the snakes).
2) Strangle - It's just fun
3) Lich Form - the more mana, the better in heavy PvM spawn (e.g. champs)

 

[Jack the killer]

I got a Necro/Mage 5xElder and Necrowarrior-3xGm.
Best for PvM:
Corpse Skin.
Lich Form(Mana Regen)
Shadow Wisp.
Animate dead - To get @$$holes away from stealing your kill.
Vamp Embrace.
Evil Omen
Strangle

Worst for PvM:
Mind Rot
Pain strike
poison strike.
horrific beast.

 

[sherkborg]

<font color=purple> Worst PvM Necromancy spells:

1. Mind Rot. This does nothing worth while. Should make it percent wise, like each spell takes 5% more mana of your current mana so monsters with huge mana pools are effected in the same degree as creatures with little.

2. Summon Revenant. Why would I summon a weak revenant to just get dispelled by mages and it does very little damage. Maybe scale it with spirit speak for alot more damage and make it do something like life drain?

3. Forms. Wraith form is alright, Lich form sucks. It drains your life and has very little benefit compared to vamp form. Horriffic beast is the worst. You cant cast but you get good hp regen... who would go into this form if they cant cast? Talk about it got its own nerf. Maybe make it so you use more mana in this form? (5% more). Vamp form is pretty stupid, should be able to resist ALL poisons and give it a less of a resist negitive or take away the garlic harm. It has too many negitives to be used effectivly.


Mind rot is just not effective. It has to do something more, and what does it do anyways? 1 mana per spell more?

The forms are too weak and are not useful and I agree with vampire form being the ultimate necro spell, I love it for resist training in a huge fire resist suit (poison immune) but whats the point of the spell if I can eat a petal and im better off then being in that form on my necro? And when you think of it... a vampire should have 100% life leech and added fire damage. That would make this form absolutly ownage if it either had garlic damage OR resists negitives... both are too much. Horrific beast could be awesome with its HP regen.. it just needs something like being able to cast or otherwise it has no use. 10% more damage adn hp regen for no spells? No thanks... I can deal more damage with my spells and out of that form.

I was making a character today and I would love to have a necro fighter, but then I would be nerfing myself since necro is under coded. So hes going chiveraly where the spells actually have no negitives. (They do, but its nothing to worry about).

I have a necro mage and you know what I use him for? gathering leather... hes not useful for pvm or pvp since the necro spells DONT get faster cast (this has to be fixed or necro is useless anyways for pvp) and most spells are too weak and have too many negitives. So I just play my old tamer and archer with chiveraly.

 

[Guest]

Well, my necro doesn't see much PvM action, but ...

Worst 3:
1) Vengeful Spirit : It's great for a fire-and-forget weapon against lesser monsters, but even reapers dispel them.
2) Mind Rot : Useless. Most monsters have such huge mana pools there is no noticeable reduction in their casting.
3) Evil Omen : Half the time I would try to set a monster up with this, the spell would get wasted on something other than I intended.

Iffy spells:

1) Curse weapon : doesn't last long enough
2) Animate Corpse : the steed needs to last much much longer.
3) Vampiric Embrace : the problem with this spell is the underlying problem with elemental resists ... Every casting monster does a lot of fire damage due to the imbalace of fire spells vs other damage types, and fire damage is the hardest resist to enhance due to there being no overwhelmingly fire resistant material aside from dragon scale.

Best 3:
1) Strangle : Against one of the few big monsters not immune to poison, strangle/poison is so, so nice.
2) Corpse Skin : The only thing better than Strangle/Poison is Corpse Skin/Strangle/Poison
3) Poison Strike : Corpse Skin/Strangle/Poison/Poison Strike

 

[Lord Dius Fidus]

Necro/Mage here

Best spells:

#1 Strangle. Really only good in combination with other spells that can lower stamina, like explosion and pain spike but even so, in PVM its what I use most often against the tough monsters, its pretty cool when its ticking off 40+ damage each beat.

#2 Pain Spike. In pvm its good for quick kill of low level creatures but I really only use it in combo with Strangle so strangle can immediately start ticking away with higher damage.

# 3 Wither. This is the most superest awesomest spell for collecting leather in Delucia Fel. War mode attack all the goats cows and bulls and let them surround you, then Wither them all. Also good in champ spawns during lower level moster spawns.


Worst Spells.
#1 MindRot. This is easily the most useless spell in the Necro book. Never used it for pvm or pvp.

#2 Tie between Blood Oath and Curse Weapon. Things I fight I dont want to damage me period let alone increase the damage done. Curse Weapon, dont need, have to use a weapon to be of use.

#3 Tie between All transformations (wraith, vampiric embrace, horrific beast, lich) and Summon Familiar wolf, serpent and bat. Transformations cause too many glaring weaknesses and you can not use mounts with them (technically speaking) Summon Familars wolf, serpent, bat- cant control them and unless you are a melee fighter, they dont involve themselves in your fights, just stand around and do nothing. (Their secondary skills leave a lot to be desired also)


Also in regards to Animate Dead. I would say it could be a great spell but as it is, its crappy. Cant control the animates, cant loot anything the animates kills, cant cross server lines with them (unless your sitting on a the mount) Even the high level ones are two weak and lose hp's too fast. They stand around long enough for half their hitpoints to drain away before they even have the slightest urge to kill something.

 

[Erskyne]

worst first:

Lich form (not useful in PVM or anything else for that matter except to scare newbs in the Haven woods)

Evil Omen(with damage increase weapons and such the effect is nominal)

animate dead(for only than that you can't loot their kills despite the work around)

best for last:

Strangle(I have taken monsters down with this spell alone not too mention inconjuction with my next pick.....)

pain spike(a great starting and finishing touch and a starter for strangle effects)

vampiric embrace( the poison resistance, but you gotta beef that fire resistance, got nailed in PvP once with flamestrike while in VE form, was nasty!!)

 

[Chernabog]

Necro/Fencer here.

Favorite spells

1. Strangle: for all the reasons listed above. Nice to have the damage continue for several rounds
2. Pain Spike: decent damage for the low mana it takes. It does even more damage if the creature is already strangled
3. Curse Wep: for a high-dex fencer, it's great having HP replenishment, though as others have stated it would be nice if it would last longer.

Least Favorite spells

1. Mind Rot: does this even work on monsters?
2. Poison Strike: not enough damage for the mana it takes - though did you know that you can kill a (wild) golem with this??
3. Summon Revent: not worth the mana. Might be better if it was scaled to the caster's necro &amp;/or SS level so a GM+ caster gets a stronger revent

Other Comments

1. Corpse Skin: the only time i use this is to cast it on myself when fighting a high-physical monster (such as ogre lord) to get a little extra protection
2. Blood Oath: maybe I'm blind, but I don't see this working for me in PvM. A great PvP spell but that's not on-topic
3. Evil Omen: I guess this could be used as a finishing move against a tough monster, but who has this much mana left for this kind of gamble at the end of a battle?
4. Transformations: I use HB (for HP regen), vamp (for HP leach) and wraith (for mana leach &amp; recalling). Haven't found a situation appropriate for Lich Form in PvM - only time I'd be tempted to use it would be against a monster that casts FS combos over &amp; over - and therefore wouldn't use it.

 

[Guest]

I play both a necro mage and a necro warrior. The spells complement both in different ways and also depend greatly on play style.

Best for my necro mage (also poisoner):
1) Evil Omen: Gotta love that +1 level boost on poison
Poison field + Evil omen then after it zones on me and walks through the now level 5 poison field I cast strangle. Combined these do quite a bit of damage for little mana.

2) Vampiric Embrace + Shadow Wisp (and Dread Lord karma ) + GM Med = Sweet mana regen.

3) Strangle for the reason mentioned above.


Best for my necro warrior (also has chivalry to be a Death Knight):
1) Vampiric Embrace for poison resistance and mana/stamina regen. This just requires additional fire resistance on armor to compensate for the nasty -25% fire resist. Maybe they should take period damage in day light instead of lowering their fire resist?

2) Curse weapon when I'm not using Breath of the Dead. 50% damage returned to my health every hit is great especially when the damage is increased by consecrate weapon, enemy of one, and some other +damage items such as rings, bracelets or artifacts.

3) Blood Oath. This character being a melee character can take full advantage of this spell and basically get twice as many hits in because the creature just damages itself. It's also fun when a guild mate decides to whack on me in town and i cast it on him when he's at half health. Very unsuspected damage. Hits me which hits himself then I hit him and get life leeched then he says 'ooOOooOOo OOooOO'. That's not really the topic here, it's just fun to brag +GM Spirit Speak should get an Exorcism bonus to banish ghosts...that'll teach them for picking on a necro /php-bin/shared/images/icons/wink.gif

I like the familers too, a summonable klepto pack horse is handy and the shadow wisps mana regen for a dread lord is very nice.


Worst:
1) Animate Dead: I love the idea of animate dead but with my necro mage i get credit for kills only by the energy vortex not the animated dead. It would be nice if animated dead worked like summoned creatures (elementals, demons, animals) or gave credit for the kill like energy vortex.

2) Mind Rot: I don't really see a use for this in PvM due to the huge mana reserves monsters have. How often does a monster live long enough to use up all it's mana even with this spell?

3) I don't really see a third worst skill. Pretty much all the necro spells have their uses in some way depending on play style. Just like magery, how often do people use all 64 magery spells? It really depends on play style and strategy.

 

[Menkare]

Necro/Fencer/Assassin here.

3 Best:

1) Strangle- This is Necromancy's one and only uber-power spell. It is great for taking down the big guys. I am glad it is so powerful, because many of our other spells are very weak.

2) Wither- Good for burning down hoardes of little guys.

3) Pain Spike- If you time it right, it really packs on the extra damage from strangle.

3 Worst:

1) Mind Rot- It's just plain worthless, both in pvm and pvp.

2) Vengeful Spirit- Also just plain worthless, both in pvm and pvp. It's a mana gobbling, slow casting spell that gets dispelled by anything worth killing with it.

3) Summon Familiar- They keep getting lost and keep dieing. I move from one place to another and they get stuck on corners. They also don't have good enough benefits to make them worth the trouble.

 

[SirThomas]

Id kill a man to ride a horse in Lich form

 

[epy]

i think necro is fine how it is =P

 

[Lady Lava]

worst: horrific beast, mind rot, poison strike

best: vengeful spirit, strangle, wither

I enjoy my neco mage. I use her to kill Ophidians a lot. Always enjoy wither when surrounded by a mass of monsters /php-bin/shared/images/icons/smile.gif&gt;.

 

[Kaeros]

I felt my necromancer was lacking in the PvM area so I actually added chivalry onto mine, healing abilities and Enemy of one and consecrate, great combined with some of the necro spells...anyway...

LEAST FAV
1. Animate Dead - I just don't find them useful at all,l agree with lots of the others that say no decay full control would be so much better in exchange for them requiring control slots. If they didn't wanna make them full control, at least give them the same AI familiars had in which they attack whatever you attack. Then at least there is the illusion of control. Being a necromancer who can't control the undead, is pretty silly. I wouldn't even mind a spell that could be used to channel more life into the undead effectively healing it some...perhaps target based spirit speak?

2.Mind Rot...monsters have too big a mana pool for this to be useful, I never use it.

3. Evil Omen, kind of like mind rot in the respect that I never use it.

As an added note I think the life loss when in lich form is kinda silly, I mean in most fiction a mage or such becomes a lich to gain added power, not to go around healing themself every couple moments. With the weakness to fire and undead slayers, I would think there were enough penalties, the loss of life is out of place. One of the reasons I do't use the form all that much.


FAVORITE
1. Summon Familiar ---when it isn't bugged! I loved having my dark wolf or snake following me around helping kill things, was just nice having an animal companion to help fight...wish I could have a familiar on all my other characters....we need druidic magic and an animal companion summon.

2.Strangle - just a very nice spell, the damage over time is nice, and just gives those few extra hits you need

3. Wither - Nice area of effect damage spell

Horrific beast and Vampire have their uses for me as well, I'll do horrific when fighting mid level mosnters like ettins or earthies and things of that sort when I'll be healing up as much as they hit me.

Vampire I use a ton when farming daemon bones in the dark guardian rooms...wish those doors to that room would be fixed buggy buggy!

 

[Kaeros]

<blockquote><hr>

11 Summon familiar – I’m not a fan of familiars for one reason. Why do they attack?
They just die and now I have to re-summon. No one wants them for combat help (even when they worked). We use them for the special abilities they bestow (carrying capacity, mana regen, stamina regen, snake control, wolf control). Make it so they don’t enter combat at all and I would use them.


<hr></blockquote>

I loved that they attacked....well some...the wisp really has no business attacking anything since things tend to smack it once and kill it.

Now the snake and wolf which are the ones I used most were used because of their combat abilities...I'd attack something and they'd start beating on it to with me as their tank, it's the reason I don't use them now...the wisp I'll summon sometimes, but I never get to summon my wolf or snake =[ wish they did join in combat again like they used to.

horde I'd use for carrying stuff, but he does a fair amount of damage with his little claw swipes.

Haven't gotten the bat yet, still some spirit speak to raise.

But I loved the combat abilities of the familiars, it's why I don't use them now since they're bugged.

 

[Du_Hast_Cooper]

Wow, you aren't wasting any time getting back to work are you? /php-bin/shared/images/icons/smile.gif

Welcome back!

 

[Liena_of_LS]

From a non-necro point of view. . .

Most of the necro (and paladin) spells have a BAD tendancy to get their spell effects stuck in the 3d client I use.
Those spells get used around me, and next time I recall anywhere I get the spell effect again on landing.

Animate dead is a pita in pvm. The animated corpses are animated even before you can loot your kill, and then they're left roaming free until they die. If the animater leaves the area they're in for more than 20 seconds or more than 1.5 screens away from the animated corpses, the corpses should decay immediately so as to NOT interfer with other players and their kills.

While we're on semi the same subject. summoned things for mages should have the same out of sight/1.5 screen away limitations on them that the necro animated things need, they too are abused to grief other players with long time outs to loot their things, or jumping into their fights just because the summoned/aminated mobile is coded that way.

Suggestion for an idea to increase the time on the world of both the necro steeds and the mage horses posted in the ideas den.
here

 

[MysteryWombat]

Necro fencer/assassin:

Most favorite:

Curse Weapon - It's been a great help in raising my warrior skills. Wouldn't consider fighting solens without it

Wraith Form - The physical resist boost is nice, being able to recall is nice, the things it does for stealth are nice (It'd be nice if the stealth ones would remain once you cross server lines.) My guy goes everywhere in wraith form.

Pain Spike - Great in combos and a nice finisher. Decent damage, especially for the mana involved, and it seems well balanced.

Least favorite:

Mind Rot - Does anyone actually use this spell?

The other form spells aren't terribly useful to him either, but he's not good enough to cast vampiric embrace yet.

Necro mage:

Favorites:

Lich Form - Wish you could ride a horse while in the form, but the mana regen is awesome.

Corpse Skin - Very handy in the doom gauntlet. About doubles your own damage and the damage that any paladins using consecrate weapon will dish out.

Pain Spike - I just love this spell.

Summon/Shadow Wisp - Combine this with lich form and phenominal focus/med and you will be hard pressed to run out of mana.

Ok that's four, so sue me.

Least favorite:

Mind Rot

Revenant - Easily dispelled, not worth the mana or casting time to summon them.

Horrific Beast - Does anyone actually use this spell other than to increase their necro skill?

Oh and one other thing, I like Vampiric Embrace mainly because it looks cool, but does anyone else think that you look kinda bloated when you've cast it?

 

[Silverbird]

Right now, I do have a trainee necro-warrior (short before gming weaponskill, necro and SS 8*8ed way before)

Worst spells:
- Mind Rot: Maybe better, if it would slows down casting time, too.
- Horrific Beast: Boni compared to strength of cursed weapon useless for me.
- Evil Omen: Too short duration on monsters to be usefull for a warrior.

Best spells:
- Curse weapon: if there only would be a notification of its ending. (Ok, I think, there is a sound like a footstep, when it ends, but its too tiny to get often recognized in the heat of fighting.)
- Wither
- Strangle

I guess some of the other spells could be easily improved ....
- Animate Deads: I ll use them, but looting rights is a problem. Best would be to ignore damage done by animates on the looting rights. Only count damage done not by animates for looting rights.
- Poison Strike: Have i missed something? Why isn't it poisoning something? Let it poison like a poison field.
- Summons: Pls fix them. The bat and the adder are useless while they are not attacking my primary targets. The wolf could/should also add healing abilities to tamed wolfes to make it really interesting. (Wolfes usually have pack instinct, does the dark wolf ad to them? *makes note to himself to get a tamer loring it*)

 

[DancingHammers]

Three Best/Worst Necro Spells in PvM?
To my opinion.....
The most effective seem to be: -Strangle
-Wither
-Pain Spike

The least effective seem to be: -Mind Rot
-Revenant
-Blood Oath

The reasons behind my choices are that strangle does good damage for the mana it costs, plus its damage and stamina relationship are great. Wither is good for vs groups of monsters, or just good cold damage and pain spike is a really good finisher, and good in a combo with strangle, for medium level monsters.
As for the ones that i think are the least effective, mind rot is virtually useless in PvM as monsters usually have stockpiles of spells, and you usually dont see monsters waiting around for spells to be cast like players do. Not useful at all. The revenant is a good idea, but the fact that it is dispelled so easily by anythin with magic makes it mostly useless against the big monsters who it would be most effective against. Blood oath is also pretty useless that it doesn't stay long enough to effective for necro/mages, and well, one goal of fighting something in battle is NOT to get hurt, so you would want to parry as much as possible. And since you can only use it against one monster at a time, it makes it even more worthless. Its like.........a fire field spell, that lasts for a couple of seconds, and only casts it on one tile. Might as well go play Diablo 2 and max out iron maiden. Now thats a good spell if i've ever seen one. yup, at level 25, does about 300-400% damage returned, hehe. Use with a blood golem and you're invincible.

Another spell that isn't as bad, but could use some improvement is Poison strike. Like someone said before, it doesn't do enough damage for the amount of mana it takes. Its really only effective when theres a big gathering of monsters, but wither is more effective anyways. Maybe give poison strike a lasting effect like when the solen warriors and queens venom sack attack. I have no idea what would be best, but that spell is to costly for what it can do. Not only that, but it does poison damage but doesn't poison?? it just seems wierd.