Quote:
Originally Posted by Bardp1999
[You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]
I also charmed a lot starting pretty early (20s). In a group setting where you are only focusing on DPS, charming is fine. I was more referring to the HS basement style of solo/duo play where at 45 you are going to struggle to keep mana and life up due to not having all the tools in the tool bag.
|
I had exactly the opposite experience.
Enchanters' multiple AE stun/mez lines, tash, and charisma work much better in a group than Necromancers' ST, DA, and Feign Death, which usually involve a rude surprise for some other party member. Solo the Necro toolkit is clearly better.
The animation is weak in a group while the skeleton is quite reasonable. Troxx posted some parses and the skeleton was perhaps half of the dps of the charmed pet. Throw in the nukes/dots you'll get off without having to waste mana on runes and recharms and skip one wipe every 4-5 hours (impossible to avoid with the limited necro toolkit unless your groupmates are on the ball) and you aren't so far behind. This is especially true before L50, when you can't reliably charm L40+ NPCs which get huge increases in DA/DW skills.
Charm interferes with everything else a Necromancer does. You can't FD split (and Necromancers are surprisingly good here) because charm will break, and you have to be careful funneling your health to someone else because the last thing you want is a charm break at 50% hp without cleric buffs.
Put it all together and I don't think charm is an obvious play for the grouping Necromancer at any point. If you have solid support from your group or geometry that you can exploit, great. If not, the skeleton works reasonably well. I actually had the best luck with charm playing 'bard style' where I would pull multiple mobs in KC/Guk and charm two against each other while the group killed the other ones. Most groups will require a bit of a mental adjustment to play around a Necromancer, but sometimes you get twinks of 60 Necros who enjoy it.
On the other hand, I charm soloed easily and effectively basically as soon as I got Screaming Terror at L24. I definitely agree that 49 is a huge level here due to increased Lich/Bond of Death efficiency and increasing mana pool size, but everything works fine as long as you are conservative about area selection and engaging with decent HP/mana levels (I never was). There is some downtime involved, but it's still way faster than anything else.