Necromancer Decision

[zoso]

Is it worth it to play a DE Necro?

What I mean is: When Kunark drops, am I going to feel compelled to re-roll an Iksar and level it 1-60 because the Iksar regen overpowers Dark Elf?

From what I've read, it's not just an issue of "min-max"; it's an issue of necessity.

Does anyone have any insight beyond the Sesserdix guide that basically says, "If you aren't Iksar, you're doing it wrong mathematically"?

[Indecisive]

This is an entirely personal question. Iksars are, hands down, the best racial choice for Necromancer. It's arguably the best class/race combination in the game. Does that mean a Dark Elf is not worth rolling? Certainly not. It's your character, and everyone has their own flavor. You'll still be able to do everything an Iksar can do, you'll just be less efficient in doing it.

[Endorra]

I've played both to 50+.

Sesserdrix is unequivocally correct from a hard math perspective. However, there are dimensions to your evaluation of worth that may change your perception.

The reason Iksar are so favored is because their regen offsets the loss of hp from Lich. There is no other solid, significant mathematical difference. INT and STA/HP gear is almost identically available across races. You can have capped int along with huge HP pools regardless of race at the endgame. Clickies and effects are not racially limited with any significant differences.

What does that mean? It means that, over time and without any compensating factors, the Iksar will exceed other races in efficiency. The total mana gain will be the same. The COST of that mana gain will be different. When you're considering an hours-long session, the regen gains will add up more and more. You'll end up needing to feed less to keep that mana regen going.

In terms of practicality, I would argue that the significance of this difference is not as big as some players tend to believe.

In classic and kunark, fights are very fast. Even VP fights either end in a dead dragon or a dead raid in <2-3 minutes max. When you're soloing or grouped, you have access to mobs to tap an overwhelming majority of the time. You'll need to tap more often, yes, but it's not like that cripples you.

In velious, fights slow down significantly, but there's still the availability of taps. You also end up having much more large-group fights where regen is readily available and doesn't frankly cost all that much.

In raids, you will likely always have access to regen. What do necros do in raids? They pull, train, CR, mana dump, use clickies/dispel, and minorly contribute to damage. Almost none of that is dependent up on your regen efficiency. If you're a mana dump, you're still going to gain mana at the same rate as the lizard next to you, you just need a regen on you to keep it up as efficiently. Not that big a deal. If you're CR summoning bodies, same situation.

There are also workarounds. Zlandi's heart, summoned eyeballs, potions, and the VP lifetap staff.

The iksar regen is powerful, it's most powerful at endgame, and it's a very very good quality of life boost. Sesserdrix is not "wrong." But the benefit is a matter of perspective, gear, and what you intend to do with your necro.

The biggest iksar benefit: recovery from a solo CR or bad pull will take less time. In a group setting or a raid setting, the skills of other players will really make the difference moreso than the necromancer.

Edit: I feel that I should point out that, on blue, the most effective necromancer of all time was a gnome. That being said, the sheer amount of gear that he had available is unlikely to be so concentrated on Green due to the timeline constraints. We did farm an awful lot of VP staves and Zlandi hearts on blue that won't be there on green. I still think my evaluation stands.

[GinnasP99]

It's worth noting there are a few very good HP items that iksars cannot wear. Iksars also can't wear golden efreeti armor if that's up your alley. Also, while hp regeneration is a big boon to an iksar necro, it's not like they're casting more powerful spells.

DE necros can also do this quest http://wiki.project1999.com/Reaper_of_the_Dead
Iksar cannot, at least not without insane faction work

[branamil]

Liking your character is more important than stats. It's an RPG not a math test.

[Vexenu]

Also worth pointing out that if your primary purpose for rolling the Necro is just as a farmer/first toon then regen is even less of a factor. Regen doesn't really start taking off until the 50s, and particularly 55+. A non-Iksar Necro isn't missing out on much until then. So if you don't intend to level the Necro all the way to 60 anyway then it's really not a concern at all.

[Crede]

There's no doubt that iksar's make the best necros. But from an xp perspective, you really have to be grinding hard for hours at a time and killing enough mobs for your highest level lich to be needed for regen to trump the 20% xp penalty. And from a raid perspective, you'd have to be running demi lich for a long time where you constantly need that mana for twiches. And if your raid is that reliant on inefficient necro twitch, then you should probably just roll a cleric to add to the CH chain.

The fact that this is an RPG game seems to be commonly ignored by the pro-iksar necros in every necro race threads.

Roll what race you will like staring at the most IMO and/or satisfies for RPG fantasies. You're not going to be a skeleton 100% of the time. If you honestly don't care about race, then yea it would probably make sense at that point to just be an iksar.

[ChooChoo Train]

Human necro with prenerf fungi staff and Ring 10 in full golden efreeti armor with DE mask is what people should really be striving for.

[GnomeCaptain]

This game isn't a tax return, it's not to be optimized mathematically.

Have fun, play whatever you want, race means literally nothing beyond what you like seeing.

[Tnair]

As someone who's never played a necromancer past the teens, obviously Dark Elf is the only choice. Innoruuk created necromancy ffs!