Game Mechanics: Necromancer HoT stacking

[playing4peace]

I took a 6 month break from p99 and returned just as chardok 2.0 was about to release.

Prior to my break, necromancer heals were (as I have always known them to be from 2000 forward) stackable on a single target if, and only if, they were cast in ascending order of level.

Shadow Compact, Pact of Shadow, and Shadowbond could all three be stacked on a single target. My warrior friend and I used this many times in PoM to duo the chessboard monkeys. And last time I was on LIVE (5-6 years ago) it was stil this way, necro hot's were stackble in ascending order. Lower level HoTs could NOT be stacked on higher level ones (would not take hold failure) yet higher level ones did NOT OVERWRITE lower ones instead they stacked on top.

We tested and double-checked actual heal amounts before attempting chessboard because it was absolutely necessary for our duo to work and it did... for many months.

But now, sometime after my 6 month break (possibly as recently as the chardok 2.0 patching), this changed. The heals no longer stack. Lower ones still won't take hold (as it should be), but higher ones now OVERWRITE lower ones on the target yet still stack drainage from the caster. Below is my full breakdown of how I know it worked before and how I believe it SHOULD STILL work but doesn't.

Caster can:

Stack progressively increasing level HoTs on a single targe (all three).

Caster cannot:

Cast a lower level HoT on a target with a higher level necro HoT already running. It will fail to take hold, regardless of who the caster of the higher level spell was -

i.e., these are not caster dependent rules, they are absolute - lower level necro HoT will not stack on a higher level one (will not drain from caster - it's a fail absolute).

Caster CAN:

Cast a higher level on one target, followed by a lower level one on a different target (i.e., the stacking rules apply to the targets, not to the caster's buff window effects).

I believe this change probably happened with chardok 2.0 but I cannot be certain due to my long absence prior to the patch and my not discovering this until about a week ago.

I believe the current state of non-stacking to be in error, not only not classic but not even EQ at any time.

[Not_Mikeo]

I don't believe necro dot stacking like that was appropriate for our era if I'm recollecting correctly.