The Ultimate Guide to Bone Knights!

[Donkey Hotay]

Wrong again. You level faster because you kill faster. Duo up and level faster still. Ask anyone who has tried it other than Lawson above who couldn't be bothered to read that you don't dot everything up for max xp, or of course you who can't be bothered to do anything but flame this thread with your whining against anyone trying a strategy you don't like.

[Taiku]

Level 16 bone knight here, so far it seems to be going very well, duo/trio is pretty fun, a new playstyle for sure, like a shadow knight but better spells, if you're wasting mana on DoTs besides leech/lvl1 disease you're doin it wrong! Tap tanking every other mob or so is a great way to relieve the pressure on your groups resources, will report in if it gets worse as I level up!

[Zuranthium]

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

You level faster because you kill faster.

You don't kill faster, LOL. Starting at level 34 with Venom of the Snake, you absolutely do more damage with that DoT alone than trying to melee (speaking of the pre-Kunark weapons available). Once your pet gets fast regen at 39, there's not much reason at all to do this melee approach, aside from a hard fight where you need to take a few hits, or the special undead proc weapon scenario (which isn't pre-Kunark era either). Even with the twinkier weapons available in later expansions, you're absolutely still going to hit a point where melee is no longer the better option.

If you're trying to melee once you have powerful DoT's, you're not only killing slower AND at the same time using mana less efficiently by needing to lifetap more (if you are taking hits from tanking), but also losing 50% exp if not outdamaging your pet when soloing. It's not good. Vampiric Embrace is supposedly the reason why melee Necro is some great thing, and again, that spell doesn't have a ton of impact as you get up there in level.

[Morton Jr]

Caster melee / damage caps dont work right on p99 this was just a drug induced troll thread

[greatdane]

There's pretty much no place in the game where you can just "kill twice as many mobs" to compensate for losing half your xp to your pet, nor would that add up to more total xp/hour than just soloing in an efficient way that gets you full xp per kill. Most places you either have to wait around for respawns or spend significant time looking for mobs.

[Donkey Hotay]

So duo in those places or find places that aren't crowded. If you guys are talking about sitting on your rumps in a static camp at max level like bloated spiders, then why are you even in this thread.


Your mindless whinging is no longer worth my time to refute. Yesterday alone I met three other boneknights and spent over an hour talking to one about playstyle and prospective gear choices. Your attempts to piss on the thread have clearly failed and I have no more time for you.

[greatdane]

You're the one getting hysterically defensive like someone personally insulted you.

Imbecile.

[pivo]

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

You're the one getting hysterically defensive like someone personally insulted you.

Imbecile.

No need for name calling.
Some like this way of playing Necro, some doesn't. I have both Necros and so far I like BoneKnight. If at higher levels i will not like it any more, so be it, no big deal...

[Ivory]

Fellow bonelievers!! I have come to give a progress report on the power of the bone knights.... now that I have traveled to the distant lands and battled many a battle.

I'm only of 53 now, but I am coming to understand the role of the bone knight even more!

First off, is while I can stills tanks, it is the same as it were before... I gotta duck in and out of battle when alone. Sometimes letting mine pet take over for part of the fight while I med or wait for healing.

So, not much changins there. A duo with a druid / shaman / cleric lets us do much much better (a shaman especially! I was duoing with one and we were very very mighty. He never had to heal me, and would just slow...and I would feed him some mana while we battled).

......

Now ! Onto whats is new!! Which is mana-usage and roles at higher levels in groups.

You see, i ventured into the sebilis crypt recently... a place pretty difficult when I was 52. Our team was mighty, but we had no enchanter.

Of course I was meleeing and doing amazin DPS with mine pet and my bone staff.

So found twitching them clerics helped a bunch to make up for the lack of mana regenerations.

But, then later that night, the group shifted a bit and we ended up with an enchanter and everyones mana was fine... so I moved into DPS mode, using envenomed breath (an 8 tick dot of high damage).

I was able to keep doing both of these things each pull without trouble while also meleeing and lifetap dotting now and then to heal myself.

....

Then again later I found myself in a trio group. And it were a shaman + warrior + me.

There it was best to just keep healing the shaman and warrior to take off the healing pressure. While of course meleeing with mine pet.

....

But how is my DPS? With a bone staff, about 15-25 DPS. With pet doing about 40-50 DPS. For a total of 55 - 75 DPS

Top rogues I've been parsing have been around 50-55 dps

Top warriors 40 - 45 DPS

Less top warriors 20-30 DPS

.....

Some other development, which I should make another threat for because people might be curious.... but I've also gotten the rod of annihilation!!!

Where I find my DPS to be 15-25 (but not dependent on fighting undead, and seems to be more even sort of DPS, instead of the bursty type the staff can be sometimes).

I think against undead, the staff is probably better (or at least equal). But the rod is definitely good addition when doing things against living things. Just I wouldn't really count on getting a rod as a bone knight, since it's extra extra extra rare (in velious there are a range of weapons that come pretty close though, and a lot easier to get).

Overall, bone knight in kunark isn't disappointing! I can't main tank for a group (unless it's a duo or trio or something and just expins.... but not really really hard stuff)... but I also find being the top DPS of a group pretty fancy.

Bone knights is the true path of great power for studiers of the bone magics! Anyone saying otherwise don't know nuffin!

[Shourty]

Sounds like a lot more fun that root and rot with no pet to take my exp.