Starting a Necro.. gear advice...Follow

Well for a change I'm bored at work.... Don't know about you guys but when this happens I start flipping through Alla, looking at items, reading the boards and dreaming of what I'd like to do in EQ if I only had the time to actually do it.

So a bright idea dawned on me. Why not start a necro... Only problem is I've never played any caster other than a cleric. So I guess I'm gonna have a few questions.

The first being what are good, relatively low level items I could equip my baby necro with? The second is do I have to research spells? What are good spots for low level necros? I may have more questions later on when I actually start playing him but for now that would be it. At least I'll have more daydreaming til 6pm rolls around.

Dartanicusx
63 Paladin
Povar

Don't go AFK when siphoning life for mana.....

Though this may only affect Necro's at higher levels since mana sieve doesn't last very long.

Go for INT gear and mana preservation.

Also HP gear is good because Necros's need lots of HP to heal pet!

Definately go with HP gear for starters. Stamina won't make too much of a difference until later on sadly. For the first 30 or so levels you'll definately want as many hp as possible though, in all honesty.

That doesn't mean you should let int suffer, of course. +int and +mana gear is great too, and since you'll regen mana faster than just about any other class out there a big mana pool isn't too much of a hinderance.

Probably go for a nice non-level req/rec piercer or 1hb, skip the 2hb staves unless you find something pretty decent (chetari wardstaff, maybe?). Theres a few +int piercers out there that can be had for pretty cheap, and theres always tons of 1hb items. You'll probably be meleeing a lot alongside your pet for the first 30 levels, but hopefully your melee skills will add up and help you a little bit.

A cougar claw earring or other mana preservation 1 item can go a long way. Same with affliction efficiency. You may want to try to find a pair of kobold hide boots - I believe they're burning affliction 2. That'll help a bit with your lower level dots as you level up. Improved Damage 1/2 don't hurt either, but one of the cheaper items with it you can find is the book of tactics if you run across one.

And forget fear kiting. Agro kiting is the way to go.

Here's my magelo...

http://www.magelo.com/eq_view_profile.html?num=714449

This should give you an idea what bazaar loot looks like at 60. My sta is a little lower then I would like but I do ok with this arrangement.

Those are great items. I am typing all this and boom.. there is the perfect shopping list. Also look into the Coldain Military Wristguard quest (https://everquest.allakhazam.com/db/quest.html?quest=1218) for BA III. This can be done young with outside help and will last longer.

If you are going to spend money to equip yourself I would do this:

Stage 1

But yourself a low delay dagger, a set of HP/Mana jewelery (pair Palladium Fire Opal rings, a Velium Black Sapphire necklace, pair of Black Sapphire Palladium earrings, pair of Jaded Palladium Bracelet, and fill every other slot with the most HP/Mana you can get for <100p a slot.

For the first 20ish levels, you are going to melee a lot.. and all the hit points give you an edge. Cast your dots to keep your casting skills up. Alteration and Conjuration will take care of themselves, work on Abjuration (critical for Feign Death line) and to lesser extent Evocation (nuke your pet when you are chatting). Divination is the lowest priority.

Melee next to your pet. Once you get Leech (your first Lifetap over Time) use that to offset the damage (before that, lifetap).

Stage 2

Fear kiting starts to get silly easy when you get Dooming Darkness (27) and Invoke Fear (30). From 30 until the mid 50s is cake. Add to that Shackle of Spirit at 38 and you can pet tank most Undead (on the beach in Gunthak is perfect for this). At this point your gear needs start to change, too. As most of your damage will come from spells, focus effects dominate. If I had nothing but money, I would always have:

* Extended Range - You want to hit angry stuff as far from you as possible
* Affliction Efficiency - yes, you have the best mana regen in the game.. and you use it all
* Affliction Haste - From the edge of extended range to beating on you is the time you get to cast.. cast quickly
* Burning Affliction - Free DPS
* some kind of DoT extention (Extended Torment, etc) - More free DPS - this will likely not be available until later.. but..
* Improved Damage - my lowest priority.. most of my DPS is DoTs, then pet.. DDs are a tiny fraction.

As you near 46, PoP ceramics are a bargin for most of these effects. Or Tribute (I still Tribute AE V).

In this stage you also want to work on your resists. As you shift in your mid-50s from *primarily* Fear kiting (where the mob does nothing but run) to aggro kiting (where the mob does nothing but try and kill you) and you face more and more caster mobs.. you will be hit with a ton of spells. You need to resist most of the roots, fears, snares, dots and nukes that get thrown at you.

This is also the stage where you can start building your worn regen to cover your Lich.

Stage 3

Everything you learned is gone.. time to shift paradigms to Aggro Kiting. The time from mid 50s to your PoP spells can be super frustrating. The mobs got way harder, and your pet went from a multi-round delay that can almost tank to a one-round splinter of bone fragments. Gear wise, time to start thinking about a pet focus (more free DPS) and upgrading my focus items from II and III to IV and V. Also, you can start to really benefit from the higher recommended level Omens gear (and start to add line specific focus effects like "Muram's Anger" that increase your Magic based DoTs and Lifetaps).

**

In the end, I could solo the tables on the Plane of Fire naked.. I would just have more down time (maybe 25% of my mana regen is gear) and more risk if I got hit. As a mature necromancer, I think your gear priorities are: focus effects > all.. they leverage your power.. spells. After that would be health regen (it makes like easy when you cover your Lich), resists and Hit Points (kind of a "resist all"), then lastly FT and mana (you are going to get a ton of this with the gear at this level anyway.. but it's the last factor I would select for). A large mana pool is useful in crisis.. but soloing for a few hours without pausing, you can use as much mana as you regen (but worn FT is a small share of this). Even if your mana pool is 10K, that would be spent in the first few minutes.

So.. final target:

Focus Effects > Regen > Resists > HP > FT > Mana

And justication:

Would I give up 500 HP for an extra tick on all my DoTs, yes. DoTs are most of my DPS.

Would I give up 500 HP for enough regen to stay even with my best Lich, yes. Lifetaps are my least efficient spells on a Damage per Mana basis.. this way I use them only when I need them. Would I give up 20MR for the last 5 regen to cover Lich.. yes (grudingly).

Would I give up 500 HP for 50 Magic Resist, yes. Spells resisted means no damage (or rootings.. or snares)

Would I give up 5 FT for 500 HP, yes. 5 FT is not that much versus extra insurance when hit.

Would I give up 250 mana for 5 FT, yes. More recovered mana is more spells I can cast over time vs one extra cast in a crisis with more down time.

In my opinion.. as a soloer/casual grouper. Raiding would perhaps bias the resists and HPs.. surviving nasty AoEs becomes a larger concern than I face on a day to day basis.

Edit: I would also look at "Pinned: COMPETITION - Design a magelo for a 45 necro" (http://www.necrotalk.com/index.php?showtopic=4284).. pinned at the top of a forum full of "xx necro, gear check please" threads.

Edited, Wed Aug 24 18:05:07 2005 by Felicite

Thanks for the great information. I'll be using this as a guide and will let you all know how it turns out.
Dartanicusx
63 Paladin
Povar

In order, I think importance for necros is:

Hit Points - either raw HP or STA gear

Focus - Burning Affliction, Affliction Haste, Affliction Efficiency, then generals like Mana Pres, Spell Haste, etc.

Int - this stat will come naturally on much of your gear, so don't go out of your way to load up on Int.

Some of the low-level spells that you may not be able to find can be located on Shadowknight spell vendors, like the level 20 pet.

For low-level hunting grounds, Kurn's of course is a great spot. I also soloed Plargs in Paludal since we get Disease cure/resist to take care of the creeping crud.

Etuy, almost.

spell haste 2 does:
1: Increase Spell Haste by 15%
2: Limit: Max Level(44) (lose 5% per level over cap)
3: Limit: Spell(Complete Healing excluded)
4: Limit: Min Casting Time(2.00 sec)
5: Limit: Combat Skills Not Allowed

see?

spell haste one though:

1: Increase Spell Haste by 15%
2: Limit: Max Level(20) (lose 5% per level over cap)
3: Limit: Spell(Complete Healing excluded)
4: Limit: Min Casting Time(1.00 sec)
5: Limit: Combat Skills Not Allowed

so FD with it's casttime of 1.5 secs will only be shortened with SH 1.