Being a Necro pre-Kunark?
 

I've read that Necros and Mages are the two best classes to play / farm money with in short 1-2 hour play sessions. I've also heard that Necros are not really worth playing until Kunark because Iksar is super super good for Necros.

I was just wondering, for those of you who are currently playing Necros now on Teal and Green. How has it been so far? Do you feel like you could do much more, or be much more stronger if you had the Iksar Regen?

Aren’t Necros actually stronger relative to other classes pre Kunark? I thought the Necro class began to fall behind starting in Kunark and continuing on into Velious.

It's mostly that Iksar regen is just really great with the Nec tools. My gnome nec is chugging along like a champ solo.

Yup. Ikis are the best in my book.
You just have to keep in mind, nobody likes you. You have to earn faction everywhere except iki town.
Later in game, the litch line of spells along with your regeneration and life tap spells are a nice cheat. You get to take their hp and add it to yours, use that hp to make mana to take more of their hp.

To answer the op, anytime I see a tier list of class strength by expansion/era, Necromancers always starts high in classic and falls to lower tiers in Kunark and then again lower in Velious. I would think this means there is no reason not to roll a Necro now if all you are worried about is their strength pre-Kunark.

I’ve leveled a gnome necro and a iksar necro, the regen is super nice no doubt, but being able to bank in almost all city’s is nice also. The exp is noticeable in the hell lvl’s between the two. I liked gaining more exp as a gnome while lvling, but which ever flavor you like I guess. They both have there Cons and advantages. In classic at the moment no problems here lvling, I’m super casual only about 3-4hrs of play time since working 6 days a week. Level 29 using the lvl 24 pet doing just fine. Going to skip 29 pet most likely, have lvl 34 pet and CoB bought already.

This game is not difficult so minmaxing with an iksar and looking like a dumb lizard is not necessary

I currently have a L50 necro that I will reroll iksar.

Wow, I'm surprised Iksar isn't considered a must. I remember reading before people saying it wasn't even worth making a Necro if not Iksar and that you'd be better off as a Mage than a non-Iksar Necro. Happy to see that not everyone agrees with that though haha.

Alright then, if not Iksar... I guess its between Erudite, Gnome, and Dark Elf?

Gnome has wallhacks. Solid #2.

Pet classes in general are wildly OP in Classic. Ench and Necro are powerful regardless of race. Mage will be too once they get all their pets. Druids charming can be stupid powerful... hell even the Shaman doggo is relatively strong. NPC scaling vs Player scaling is total whack.

A lot of this is just because Melees before Kunark are pretty bad. Hence, while Iksar will stand far above other races for Necro - it's in an era where melee are able to compete because of gear and those extra bits of toolkit they get 50+.