Debating a Necro (or Mage): A few questions

[NegaStoat]

If you want more active, then Necro, hands down, easily.

As for race choice, once you get call of bones you're going to end up looking like a skeleton all the time regardless. I will admit, my Necromancer was a Dark Elf and I liked it a great deal. The higher Int score gave you more options for gear choices in terms of +mana, +hp, and +resist items. The Hide skill was very nice for going AFK for an hour or two and not coming back to a corpse.

Realistically though, that Iksar Regen isn't a myth or fable as to how good it is. It really IS that good. There is one fact to consider about it however. If you are at a camp dealing with a limited amount of spawns and you are NOT able to use that extra mana from the regen conversion, then it's a wasted attribute. If you plan ahead and take on camps with increased targets or you're in an area with free roaming mobs (like Dreadlands) then the Regen blows away the added Racial experience penalty.

The difference between Iksar / Non Iksar is listed on the P1999 wiki under guides. Read it. If your final question of "is a non Iksar race necromancer still a really strong class" is all that's holding you back, the answer is yes. God yes. Necros of any race are powerhouses.

[mgriff02]

Just make both and see which you prefer! [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

[GuRu]

Originally Posted by gildor [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Erudite necros are pretty well liked as well..and have the highest starting INT.

[k3vil]

Originally Posted by NegaStoat [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

having played both to high level, they both have pros and cons. With a necro, you usually do the routine of send pet in, heat dot, snare dot, Fear, then more damage of some sort, and fear a second time as needed. As you hit higher levels you can mix it up with root rotting (very mana effective, but not especially time effective) or charming undead, break charm, kill two for cheap (extremely effective, limited locations to do this).

With a magician initially you flame up your pet, send it in, and just do 40%-50% damage to the target while assuming the shield's damage (neutral) beats out the pet from scoring more total damage than you. You destroy 3-4 mobs raidly then sit and read a book or watch a movie for 5 minutes while you recover mana. At higher levels you transition into chain pet casting (you can do this earlier in levels too technically) which is more mana efficient and not very expensive.

In my heart, I believe the necromancer to be the stronger of the two classes with a very robust selection of spells and ability in comparison to the Magician, and the necro seems to give up very little to gain this wider range of power. The magician on the other hand doesn't screw around with fear, or wasted DoT damage, or losing respawn time in chain killing because they kill their targets quickly if they want. The magician in a group also isn't constantly hopping around doing things with spells (healing, twitching, rooting, mezzing, etc). They sit on their ass sending in a fat pet that does loads of damage, flame shields the tank every now and then, and conserves mana at about 60-70% for when the crap hits the fan. Then they stand up and bomb things and look like a hero.

Look at both of their spell lists and make your choice.

Nice post. I think you hold the cards to make a good judgement between the classes, as you played them both.

[Expediency]

Originally Posted by serjordanmormont [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Additionally, how easy is it to get decent low level gear for either? I'm told the flayed skin for a necro is pretty solid and can take me up through higher levels. Is this gear expensive?

Flayed skin is only wearable by necro/SK and they must be human/erudite. Because of this limited market, it is very cheap. It drops in KC and most people dont even roll on it. It is dropable. . You can get a suit for 500pp tops, if you are brand new to p99 people will probably just give it to you. Its awesome fashionquest too, bright red.

[serjordanmormont]

Originally Posted by NegaStoat [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

The difference between Iksar / Non Iksar is listed on the P1999 wiki under guides. Read it. If your final question of "is a non Iksar race necromancer still a really strong class" is all that's holding you back, the answer is yes. God yes. Necros of any race are powerhouses.

Yeah this is the big thing for me. It's not that I dislike Iksars at all, quite the opposite but my main is an Iksar Shaman and the reason I wanted to create this character was for a change.

I'm glad to know necros of any race are viable.

[serjordanmormont]

Originally Posted by mgriff02 [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Just make both and see which you prefer! [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

This may just be the right answer. I made the mage and got him to 10 yesterday. Maybe I'll do the same with a necro and see who wins out.