Necro, live with it or forget about it?Follow

Currently, I am a lvl 9 and chose to be a summoner and aligned to Freeport, which means I'm a Necromancer. I've been reading over a lot of the post about Necromancer and I'm thinking that I havent made the right choice in class. So far I've heard that Necros are not a good group-type class and pretty much are doomed to be a solo type character. What I want to know is, if I stay Necromancer will I still be able to get a group on a normal basis or will I be stuck being my own private party? I want to know early on before I get too far into the class and decide that I really don't like it. I don't mind traveling the less traveled path just as long as there is some type of meaniful reward at the end of it. If you reply to this thread try not to use too many acronyms(i.e. DSP, AE, DDs, etc.) . I'm new to EQ on the PC and my only real experience with it was EQ for the PS2 (I was a wizard in that one)

You may have to work harder as a Necro to get groups. I'm mostly playing a Fury (can solo well and is also a good healer) and a Wiz (well, he's not one yet, but that's his path). I have zero trouble getting experience groups as those two (even my Fury sometimes can't find the AQ or Armor Quest groups he needs - but that's a very specific thing to quest for).

If you can get in a big guild (how? Ask in a big zone like the Commons using /ooc what the cool guilds are that are recruiting. You may have to try asking, wait a while, and ask again, and again before getting a good answer. Be clear that you don't want a small, somewhat inactive guild (these are often made by a group of RL buddies and are pretty dead usually) - it's okay to say you want an expanding guild that often groups together - see if you can get invited - and try one out - each time you log in you can do "/gu hey what's everyone doing? I'm a lvl 10 Summoner and I'd like to group for exp."). As long as the guild knows and trusts you (and as long as u can make friends), they'll give you grups.

Otherwise, unless you can come in at a set time and meet up w/ "regular" players, you need to learn how to get pickup grps as a necro. I have no idea, but rather than doing "/ooc Necro lvl 22 LFG" to the zone, try something more likely to overcome barriers. "/ooc lvl 22 Necrro looking for experience group. I love grouping and am pretty good at it - I know how to work with mezzers and can even HO - please don't make me solo (I get so bored soloing) - thx much!" While some group leaders won't respond to a message like that if they plain and simple don't want a necro, others will. You can always try it. The point is, you are not going to get magnetically sucked into groups like healers often are - you may have to work at it. If you can handle that, go for it.

Another option is to try, say, a healer. Now that you've played a char up to lvl 1- or so, it'd be really easy to do another. Healers, however, require a very specialized mindset to play. It's actually easy, provided you have the discipline to sit there and watch and respond to health-bars for hours at a time. To be honest it's not everyone's idea of fun - that's why you sometimes can't find a healer - and it's why they are so appreciated (usually). All healers heal roughly equally (some say Clerics heal better, but this may be an old-EQ prejudice).

Btw soloing is not always bad. If you need money and can kill green ^^ mobs, you get *all* the loot. Sometimes I seem in group lottos to only win the "dog spit" (Gnolls drop "canine saliva" - YUCK) and not the adepts and books. So sometimes I solo just out of greed. GL.

I have a 21 necro that I have had sitting for alittle while. He's not sitting because I don't like him. He is sitting because I was doing stupid things and built up a 200+% debt with him. It is tough to get a group with necro. My healer, as said before, is magneticly drawn to groups by some unseen force. My necro has to wait for a group on many occasions. However, it's not a really big problem.

Say for instance you are an 18 summoner in the commonlands LFG. You /ooc that you are and turn your tag on. Then you go to some remote spot with yellow, single pull mobs and start soloing. Every 5 to 10 minutes or so you /ooc for a group again. Within about 30 min to 1 hour you will have a group, probably around 20% xp and some nice loot.

People are prejudice against necros and conjurers because of eq1 where, pets were harder to control and mez was easier to break. In eq2, having my necro pet nuke for 60pts of damage while I DoT and nuke a mob provides a ton of damage per second. Healer getting low on power? How bout I stun the mob for 15 seconds so the healer doesn't have to work anymore. No enchanter, I'll pass out power stones, have my pet tank adds on the side, root, and stun for crowd control. A good necro, has the ability to take control of a situation without a problem. The secret to grouping succesfully is knowing what your role is, communicating that to the group and then fulfilling your duties.

Necros are a good dps type character that has a ton of other abilities to help a group out. Also, I think it's at lvl 26 that a necro can revive other characters.

From the few parsed log data I've read Necros trounce other classes in damage per second on longer or large encounters, even without their pet. I think our place is pretty damn well defined, and sooner or later the Necro class will gain that reputation once people shed preconcieved notions from EQ1.

Not to mention the fact i very rarely catch aggro. I cast every spell i have, and chain cast direct damages, and renew time based spells as needed. All you need is a tank that knows what taunt is for, which generally isn't a problem at 20+.

Link to a surprisingly civil SOE EQ2 forum, with sample data parsing:
http://eqiiforums.station.sony.com/eq2/board/message?board.id=30&message.id=1686

then everyone else. I haven't had trouble finding a group, but of course I've been passed up for a tank and a healer, thats going to happen to every class.

Edited, Wed Jan 5 13:35:05 2005 by JeffPG

Edited, Wed Jan 5 13:31:52 2005 by JeffPG