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Sesserdrix's All in One Necromancer Strategy Guide
Section 1: NOTE FROM THE AUTHOR (8/15/2023)
Hey all! Sesserdrix here. I wanted to let everyone know that I am currently working on revising this guide. For the next few weeks or months, you may find sections out of place, entries being moved around, section headers without any information, etc. Please be patient! This is a huge document and I've got a lot of stuff to revise! I'll continue to update this first section with any updates I have as to the progress.
-Sesserdrix Daudsormr, Necromancer of Rodcet Nife, the Prime Healer
Section 2: Introduction
Welcome fellow necromancers to Sesserdrix's All in One Necromancer Strategy Guide! It's my goal with this guide to provide you with the tools necessary to have a fun and engaging experience with your time playing a necromancer on Project1999. However, there are a few important notes:
This is not a quick glance guide. This guide is meant to be fairly expansive, to cover as much detail as possible on as many things as I can so you're as prepared as possible for whatever situation you end up in. If you want to uncover the secrets of playing a necromancer by yourself, this might not be the place for you!
This is a learning guide. The goal of this guide is to provide you with a solid foundation upon which to experience Norrath as a necromancer. I'll be introducing you to the various core fundamental mechanics of the class and the strategies we can employ as we level up and expand our spellcasting toolkit.
This is not an exhaustive guide. This guide includes many of the important pieces of information I learned as a necromancer while leveling them. It's my hope that by sharing them, it helps you get the most out of your path. As such, there will be more to learn than what is in this guide. In the same vein, this guide's list of camps isn't exhaustive either. The camps here are camps I've done and enjoyed doing in the past. Your personal mileage may vary. For example, you'll notice I have a bit of a bias in my guide toward lower levels in Antonica and later levels in Kunark. I assure you there are spots out there in Faydwer, Odus, Kunark, and now Velious that can also provide a solid leveling experience. Nevertheless, the information in this guide will hopefully prove valuable to you regardless of where you travel.
This is not a speed run guide. This guide isn't going to get you to 60 in the fastest way possible. Some camps and some strategies will be shorter or longer than others. My goal here is to arm you for facing Norrath, not give you an express ride to max level.
This is a Kunark-era guide. This guide is built upon my experiences leveling up as a necromancer in the Kunark era of Project1999's Blue server. I don't have much experience leveling in the Velious era, so some of the information in this guide may well be out of date.
Section 3: Creating Your Necromancer
In this section, we're going to discuss the reasons why you might want to make a necromancer, why you might want to choose one race or another, what you should consider when allocating your starting ability score points, and what kind of gear you should be looking out for. Please be aware that once you choose your class, race, and starting ability scores, those decisions are locked in. The only way to change them after creating your character is to make a new character.
Why Necromancer?
Before we look into why you might want to play a necromancer, lets first go over what a necromancer is. Necromancy is a type of magic presented in various fantasy settings and mythologies, although the representation of necromancy varies significantly. A lot of early mythology treats necromancy as a type of divination, gathering information by consulting with the spirits of the dead. In modern times, I think it's fair to say most people who know the term would associate it with mastery over the dead or undeath. However, with regards to necromancers in EverQuest, it's a bit more nuanced.
Ages ago, the dragon goddess Veeshan founded a massive floating chunk of rock, a planet that would one day become known as Norrath. It wasn't long before other gods followed Veeshan to this world, seeking to lay claim to their own portions of it. The natural world took root, the various races were created and propagated across the surface of the planet. This energy that we call life is inherently a natural and divine force, something that is created by those attuned to the natural world or to divinity. Clerics, druids, paladins, rangers, and so on are all either naturalistic or divine, and as such they have the power to create new life from raw mana.
There is a third kind of magic that stands apart from naturalistic and divine based magics called arcane magic. Arcane magic comes from conscious intellect, from study and the exertion of will to alter reality. It's a magic of ambition, of drive, of desire to see the world be different than what it is when left to the devices of nature and the gods. However, since arcane magic isn't natural or divine, it can't create life.
Necromancers are arcane casters who see the force of life as something that we should be able to control and manipulate. We don't respect that the gods and nature should have sovereign control over this energy of life. Just as a wizard or magician might channel elemental power, we are those who seek to usurp this power of the gods and channel life energy itself. We are conduits of life energy, sapping life from some and granting it to others. We burn our own flesh into raw mana to fuel our magic and replenish ourselves with the life of our foes. So great is our power to redistribute life that we can even take the life of one person to resurrect another. We tap into the power of the gods directly but we don't do it through them.
As a result, a necromancy is scary to many people. You will be hated across Norrath because of your chosen magical field. The power over life is seductive and has been a tool used by many an evil villain in the past. But it isn't the power that is evil, but the person who becomes corrupted by it. One of the most infamous necromancers in Norrath's history is Miragul, but Miragul was also a wizard, a magician, and an enchanter. Miragul utilized the powers of a necromancer to fuel his own ambitions and drive, but that was him. It's totally possible for someone to wield these powers not to pursue selfish ambition, but to right wrongs they see in the world. A necromancer that sees an evil creature wounding an innocent can sap the life from that evil creature and return it to the victim. We can strike down evil creatures just as other adventurers can, but where they destroy life, we redistribute it.
You have a great power in your hands as a necromancer... It's up to you to decide how you want to use it. Use it well.
That's the fluffy side of a necromancer, but in terms of practicality, there are quite a few reasons to play a necromancer on Project1999! As a necromancer, you have great solo potential without really needing any gear. Your ability to level up isn't hindered by a lack of available groups or by not having key pieces that unlock soloing potential. You could go from level 1 to 60 totally naked and alone if you really wanted to. In addition, necromancers have a wide variety of soloing strategies so that way you can switch up how you're playing if you ever get too bored of one playstyle. These various strategies also help in different parts of the game world, so you almost always have something to handle the situation you find yourself in.
As a necromancer, you also have a rich toolkit. You can Feign Death to avoid being killed by enemies on a bad pull. You can Harmshield to make yourself immune to damage for a time if that fails. You can Levant to quickly move across zones. You can burn your own life energy into more mana so you have less downtime between fights. You can burn your own mana to twitch other spellcasters, providing them with much needed mana. You can also burn your life into healing other creatures, albeit to a lesser degree than a Cleric, Druid, Shaman, etc. You can summon corpses to zone lines for people who died deep in a dungeon and can't easily get their body out. You can provide CCs, snares, self-heals, and pets for additional damage. Your toolkit is absolutely massive as a necromancer.
Pick a necromancer if you want to spend a majority of your time soloing, but would still like to offer strong support tools to a group or raid, even if you don't get to stretch those muscles too often.
Your Necromancer's Race
If you have only played some of the more modern MMORPGs, you may be under the impression that race selection doesn't really matter all that much. That's not quite the case in EverQuest. Some racial benefits are significant for certain classes. Before talking about that with necromancer, lets go through the list:
Human is a fairly general race. As a human, you will lack any low-light vision, making the nights particularly dark relative to other races. This can be offset through some necromancer spells. You'll also have moderate ability scores, so you'll be well rounded.
Gnome is a favorite choice for a lot of necromancers. Gnomes have quite good ability scores for a necromaner and they get access to Tinkering. Tinker is a gnome-only trade skill that lets them craft a number of useful items, like Stalking Probe. These probes are handy if you need to lifetap something in a hurry to get some health back but you don't have a nearby creature to tap off of. Anyone can buy these probes though and in the Velious expansion, Holgresh Elder Beads will provide an unlimited supply of probes. That said, Elder Beads are quickly nerfed after the release of Velious which results in their price skyrocketing, bringing value back to being able to make probes. Another neat perk to being a gnome is that you can often go first person and face a wall to see through it.
Erudite offers an interesting advantage through some race unique high level quests in Paineel, their city. Like human, erudites also lack low-light vision. The major boon and flaw with an erudite is their high Intelligence. While this helps in early game, by later in the game when you have gear, you may well hit the 255 Intelligence cap and no longer benefit from Intelligence on items. More on that in the next section.
Dark Elf offers the ability to Hide. Early on in the timeline, this provides both Invisibility and Invisibility vs Undead, however that does end up getting nerfed. Dark elves get access to the best darkvision in the game, Ultravision, although some necromancer spells make this redundant. Dark elves also get access to questing for Reaper of the Dead , which can sell reasonably well at mid-levels.
Iksar has the single best racial trait for a traditional necromancer: Regeneration. While an iksar also gets extra AC and the ability to forage, regeneration is the trait that makes iksar the optimal race choice. The quickest way I can put it is that while most racial traits supplement what a necromancer does, regeneration directly enhances the core of the necromancer class in a significant way. However, to understand the value of regeneration, we first need to discuss arguably the most important spell line in a necromancer's arsenal: the Lich spells.
The Value of Regeneration
Necromancers are all about burning their own life (HP) into mana to fuel their powerful spells. This is done through the Lich spells. In order you acquire them, they are Dark Pact (8), Allure of Death (20), Call of Bones (34), Lich (49), Demi Lich (60), and Arch Lich (60). These spells provide a short duration buff which gradually drains your HP and increases how much mana you regain. Generally necromancers will offset this HP loss through the use of drain spells, either the Lifetap or Leach spell lines. The rub is that Lifetap and Leach spells have rather low damage per mana, meaning you'll be spending a lot of mana to heal yourself back, which cuts into the advantage the Lich spell line provides. Regeneration offsets the HP loss of the Lich spells, so you burn your HP slower, so you don't need to use as many mana inefficient Lifetaps and Leaches to stay alive, freeing up more mana to be used on our better spells.
See below for a table from the Iksar wiki page. Look at how the HP per tick increases across level for both iksar and non-iksar. When you're level 60 and you have the spell Demi Lich, you're going to be taking -32 HP for +31 mana every 6 second tick. A non-iksar offsets that by +7 HP, for a net of -25 HP per 6 second tick. An iksar offsets that by +18 per tick, for a net of -14 HP per 6 second tick.
| Other Races | Iksar/Troll | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Standing | Feigned | Sitting | Level Range | Standing | Feigned | Sitting |
| 1 | 1 | 2 | 1-19 | 2 | 2 | 4 |
| 1 | 1 | 3 | 20-49 | 2 | 2 | 6 |
| 1 | 1 | 4 | 50 | 2 | 2 | 8 |
| 2 | 3 | 5 | 51-55 | 6 | 8 | 12 |
| 3 | 4 | 6 | 56-59 | 10 | 12 | 16 |
| 4 | 5 | 7 | 60 | 12 | 14 | 18 |
To put that into a practical example, lets imagine two level 60 necromancers, one that isn't an iksar and one that is. Lets look at how they both do using the final leach spell, Vexing Mordinia to offset the HP loss of Demi Lich:
Non-Iksar:
- Demi Lich generates +31 mana for -32 HP.
- Non-iksar regenerate +7 HP while sitting at level 60.
- Demi Lich produces this character a net of +31 mana for -25 HP while sitting.
- Vexing Mordinia is 495 mana for 1,220 HP.
- Demi Lich's -25 HP ticks will eat up the HP generated by Vexing Mordinia in 48.8 ticks.
- In those 48.8 ticks, Demi Lich will generate 1,512.8 mana at +31 a tick.
- However, since Vexing Mordinia costs 495 mana, this character really nets +1,017.8 mana per required Vexing Mordinia.
Iksar:
- Demi Lich generates +31 mana for -32 HP.
- Iksar regenerate +18 HP while sitting at level 60.
- Demi Lich produces this character a net of +31 mana for -14 HP while sitting.
- Vexing Mordinia is 495 mana for 1,220 HP.
- Demi Lich's -14 HP ticks will eat up the HP generated by Vexing Mordinia in 87.14 ticks.
- In those 87.14 ticks, Demi Lich will generate 2,701.43 mana at +31 a tick.
- However, since Vexing Mordinia costs 495 mana, this character really nets +2,206.43 mana per required Vexing Mordinia.
See the difference here? Both necromancers need to counteract their health loss through the leach spell, Vexing Mordinia, but the iksar doesn't have to do so nearly as often, giving them more flexible mana to use on more mana efficient dots or spells to keep their enemies under control like roots, fears, and snares. To be clear though, this doesn't mean the iksar generates more mana than the non-iksar, it just means that significantly more of their mana is freed up to be used for other things than maintaining their health loss from the Lich spell line.
Now then, I'd be remiss if I didn't bring up some ways to offset Demi Lich other than iksar regeneration:
- In Velious, there is a lengthy quest line called the Coldain Ring Quests. The final reward is Ring of Dain Frostreaver IV which gives you a self-buff for +10 HP a tick. You will need to have a raid force to complete this quest line and get this ring. This is often considered to be one of the best items for a necromancer to get in the Velious expansion.
- Also in Velious, there is an item that drops from the raid boss Zlandicar called Zlandicar's Heart. This item provides a passive +5 HP per tick while held in your Primary slot. While this is a raid drop, it can be traded, so it's possible to buy this item even if you don't raid. At the time of writing this, this item is valued around 160,000pp to 180,000pp on Green server.
- There are a few items which provide a stackable passive buff called Aura of Battle that provides +2 HP per tick. Most of these are locked behind raid mobs or lengthy quests, making them difficult to acquire. There are 3 available to necromancers in Velious: Spirit Wracked Cord, Belt of Dwarf Slaying, and Boots of Deep Thought.
- Assuming you have Ring Ring 10, Zlandi's Heart, and one Aura of Battle item, a non-iksar is at +24 HP per 6 second tick while sitting and +21 per 6 second tick while standing. They still lose -8 and -11 HP respectively from Demi Lich.
- A comparable iksar with the same gear is at +35 HP per 6 second tick while sitting and +29 HP per 6 second tick while standing. Iksar gain +3 HP per tick while sitting and lose -3 HP per tick while standing from Demi Lich. At this point, there's really not much need to worry about offsetting Demi Lich's HP loss!
- There are a pair of staffs which drop in the Kunark end-game raiding zone Veeshan's Peak. They are the Shissar Deathspeaker Staff and the Shissar Seance Staff. Both have a click effect with a 13.5 second cast time called Soul Well which drains increasingly more HP from an enemy over the course of a minute. If you always have targets to use this on, this will completely nullify the HP loss from Demi Lich for any race. These items are each casually referred to as the "real necro epic" because of how great the clickie effect is. However, these items are difficult to attain. You'll need to go through a lengthy quest line just to get the Key to Veeshan's Peak and then you'll need to be in one of the raiding guilds that goes to Veeshan's Peak.
Alright, so I hope I've impressed upon you just how significant HP regeneration is to us necromancers. I should also let you know that regeneration is so damn strong, that it comes with a 20% XP penalty, meaning your journey to level 60 will require 20% more XP per level as an iksar than as a non-iksar. This extra XP requirement is somewhat offset by an iksar necromancer not needing to reserve so much mana on damage inefficient spells like Lifetaps and Leaches, permitting them to kill more efficiently. Additionally, all necromancers can end up being 60, but only iksar will have this regeneration advantage.
Conclusion on Race Choice
Although I've said a lot in the last section about the value of regeneration, make the choice you will be happiest with. This is a decades old elf and dragon simulator: min-maxing really isn't necessary here. The most important thing is that you make a character you're going to have fun playing and enjoy exploring the world with. If you like the aesthetic of another race, the roleplay of another race, if you value remaking your Classic EQ character's race, or whatever your reason, make that other race!
I just want to make sure that you know about this stuff here, at the start of your journey in Norrath. Too many players come from other MMOs, assume that race doesn't have any significant mechanical impact, they devote dozens or hundreds of hours to a character before realizing far too late what they missed out on. I know this has happened to other people as I've met quite a few of them. Also, it happened to me! My first character on Project1999-Blue was a dark elf necromancer named Uteunayr. After devoting so much time to leveling him up, I learned about the value of regeneration to necromancers and I started to regret the choice I had made. I tried to justify it to myself, say regeneration isn't that good, that DE hide made up for it (and this was back when DE hide worked against both living and undead creatures), and so on. In the end though, I scrapped my 60 DE necromancer and started anew. I'm glad I did, but I'd much rather have known from the start. My hope is that now that you know, you can make an informed choice about what's right for you!
Ability Score Allocation
After choosing your class and race, there's another big choice to be made during character creation: Allocating your ability scores. Before going into recommended allocation, we should discuss what each does for us.
Traditionally necromancers are concerned with optimizing two things: HP (Stamina) and mana (Intelligence). There are other abilities scores like Agility and Strength which offer some limited benefits, but they are usually overshadowed by having a larger battery for spells (mana) and a greater buffer between you and dying (HP). Maximizing your mana is handy because it gives us a greater capacity to cast more spells in a short period of time. Although we are constantly getting mana back through our Lich spells, it's a gradual process. The more mana you have at the start of the fight, the more spells you're able to use before needing to wait for Lich and meditate to replenish your mana. Maximizing your HP is particularly important for a necromancer because of the Lich spell line. Since we are constantly draining our HP into our mana pool, it means it's not uncommon to be in a vulnerable position at 60-90% of our maximum HP before using a Lifetap or Leach spell to replenish our HP. If one of our spells that controls an enemy breaks (charm, fear, roots, etc.), it takes fewer hits for that enemy to kill us than it would if we were at max HP. By stacking HP, we are afforded a smoother and more relaxed play style that is less likely to crumble due to a series of bad resists.
With that in mind, lets turn to the big two ability scores, Stamina and Intelligence, which increase HP and mana respectively. Both ability scores have a soft cap of 200, which means that you get less HP and mana per point above 200 than you would up to 200. They also have a hard cap of 255, after which you gain no more Stamina or Intelligence. For a level 60 necromancer, you gain the following per point of Stamina or Intelligence:
- 1) When under the soft cap, 1 Intelligence = ~11.29 mana.
- 2) When over the soft cap, 1 Intelligence = ~5.65 mana.
- 3) When under the soft cap, 1 Stamina = ~2.4 HP.
Next we need to consider gear. In general, necromancers aim to gear heavily toward HP. It alleviates pressure on the constant HP drain of the Lich spell line. In Classic and Kunark era, most items provide either good mana or good HP, so a necromancer has a lot of ways of trading off one to get the other. However in Velious era, many of the high end items for HP are also the high end items for mana, making it difficult to trade off one for the other. On the plus side, this means that by high end Velious gear, this choice of ability scores becomes largely inconsequential.
At this point, it's worth discussing a third ability score that has some good value for necromancer ahead of the others: Dexterity. Dexterity effects your chance to proc the combat effects of weapons like
MAGIC ITEM LORE ITEM NO DROP
Slot: PRIMARY
Skill: 1H Blunt Atk Delay: 18
DMG: 15
STA: +10 INT: +10 HP: +75 MANA: +100
SV FIRE: +10 SV DISEASE: +10 SV COLD: +10 SV MAGIC: +10 SV POISON: +10
Effect: Flames of Ro (Combat, Casting Time: Instant)
WT: 0.0 Size: TINY
Class: NEC WIZ MAG ENC
Race: ALL
MAGIC ITEM
Slot: PRIMARY SECONDARY
Skill: 1H Blunt Atk Delay: 21
DMG: 9
STR: -5 STA: -5 WIS: +2 INT: +2
Effect: Frost Strike (Combat, Casting Time: Instant) at Level 1
WT: 5.5 Size: TINY
Class: CLR MNK NEC WIZ MAG ENC
Race: ALL
MAGIC ITEM LORE ITEM NO DROP
Slot: PRIMARY
Skill: Piercing Atk Delay: 20
DMG: 13 AC: 9
HP: +35
Effect: Energy Sap (Combat, Casting Time: Instant) at Level 50
WT: 1.9 Size: SMALL
Class: ALL except CLR DRU MNK
Race: ALL
MAGIC ITEM LORE ITEM
Slot: PRIMARY SECONDARY
Skill: 1H Blunt Atk Delay: 22
DMG: 9
Effect: Burn (Combat, Casting Time: Instant)
STR: +3
WT: 5.0 Size: SMALL
Class: WAR CLR PAL RNG SHD DRU MNK BRD ROG SHM NEC
WIZ MAG ENC
Race: ALL
MAGIC ITEM LORE ITEM NO DROP
Slot: PRIMARY
Skill: Piercing Atk Delay: 20
DMG: 13 AC: 9
HP: +35
Effect: Energy Sap (Combat, Casting Time: Instant) at Level 50
WT: 1.9 Size: SMALL
Class: ALL except CLR DRU MNK
Race: ALL
MAGIC ITEM LORE ITEM NO DROP
Slot: PRIMARY
Skill: 2H Blunt Atk Delay: 44
DMG: 45 AC: 17
STR: +8 DEX: +8 STA: +8 CHA: +8 WIS: +8 INT: +8 AGI: +8 HP: +75 MANA: +75
SV FIRE: +8 SV DISEASE: +8 SV COLD: +8 SV MAGIC: +8 SV POISON: +8
Effect: Avatar (Combat, Casting Time: Instant)
WT: 2.5 Size: MEDIUM
Class: ALL except BRD ROG
Race: ALL
MAGIC ITEM LORE ITEM
Slot: PRIMARY SECONDARY
Skill: Piercing Atk Delay: 23
DMG: 6
Effect: Blood Claw (Combat, Casting Time: Instant) at Level 18
WT: 3.5 Size: MEDIUM
Class: SHD ROG NEC
Race: ALL
MAGIC ITEM LORE ITEM
Slot: PRIMARY SECONDARY
Skill: 1H Blunt Atk Delay: 22
DMG: 9
Effect: Burn (Combat, Casting Time: Instant)
STR: +3
WT: 5.0 Size: SMALL
Class: WAR CLR PAL RNG SHD DRU MNK BRD ROG SHM NEC
WIZ MAG ENC
Race: ALL
MAGIC ITEM
Slot: PRIMARY SECONDARY
Skill: 1H Blunt Atk Delay: 21
DMG: 9
STR: -5 STA: -5 WIS: +2 INT: +2
Effect: Frost Strike (Combat, Casting Time: Instant) at Level 1
WT: 5.5 Size: TINY
Class: CLR MNK NEC WIZ MAG ENC
Race: ALL
MAGIC ITEM LORE ITEM NO DROP
Slot: PRIMARY
Skill: 1H Blunt Atk Delay: 18
DMG: 15
STA: +10 INT: +10 HP: +75 MANA: +100
SV FIRE: +10 SV DISEASE: +10 SV COLD: +10 SV MAGIC: +10 SV POISON: +10
Effect: Flames of Ro (Combat, Casting Time: Instant)
WT: 0.0 Size: TINY
Class: NEC WIZ MAG ENC
Race: ALL
Now then, with all that said, here are my general recommendations for starting stats:
- 1) If this is your first character and you're not going to have much gear, I recommend starting with +25 Intelligence and +5 Stamina. If you're an Erudite, moving +5 from one of these into Agility, as being under 75 Agility conveys an AC and minor movement speed penalty. I suggest going this route because it'll make sure you have a reasonably sized mana pool even when you're low on gear, which makes the leveling experience a lot smoother. It also means you can wear low level HP gear without leaving your mana pool entirely behind. Additionally if you go Iksar, they have lower starting Intelligence which means that by the time you're forced into hitting the 255 Intelligence cap, you'll be so well geared that this choice no longer matters.
- 2) If this is a twinked alt that you don't expect to get high end Velious gear or if you just really want to stack as much HP as possible for leveling, try +25 Stamina and +5 Intelligence (again, if you're an Erudite, move +5 into Agility). Most class pages have this recommendation of +25 Stamina, however I'll point out two important things: First, the difference of 20 Stamina is around ~48 HP at level 60. That's not nothing, but it's also not game breaking. Second, if you get to the point where your gear hard caps your Intelligence, your Stamina is probably also going to be hard capped. Many of the best +HP/Mana/INT items will also have +STA.
- 3) If this is a twinked alt and you expect to get high end Velious gear, do whatever you want (+5 Agility on Erudites always)! It isn't that consequential. Your twinked gear will do the heavy lifting stats wise while leveling and by late game, high end Velious gear can make up for whatever stat deficiency you have. Maybe consider adding +STR so you have a higher carrying capacity just for ease of play.
- 4) If this is a twinked alt and you want to try something different than a pure caster necromancer, try +25 Dexterity and +5 Stamina (or +5 Agility for Erudites). You'll want to twink yourself with proc weapons and fight in melee alongside your pet while leveling up.
If you're in doubt, you can't go wrong with +25 Intelligence and +5 Stamina. Unless you're an Erudite with crazy high starting Intelligence, by the time your gear is forcing you into the 255 Intelligence hard cap, you should be geared enough to handle just about anything. If you're really concerned over this, look up the gear list on the wiki (look at the sidebar to the left, click Equipment, go into gear by class, look at necro gear by slot). Find your ideal items for each slot and add up the stats you get from each, then subtract that number from 255. The remaining amount is what you need to start with to make sure you hit 255 when wearing that gear.
Ultimately, don't stress yourself out over this choice. Although you are locked into the choice when you make your character, the impact is fairly minimal by late game thanks to gearing.
Picking The Right Gear
When it comes to gearing your necromancer, you'll want to think about the net gain each item gives your character based on the rest of their gear.
Consider two items:
MAGIC ITEM LORE ITEM
Slot: PRIMARY SECONDARY
Charges: 3
DEX: +5 INT: +10 HP: +10
SV DISEASE: +25
Effect: Light Healing (Any Slot, Casting Time: Instant)
WT: 2.5 Size: SMALL
Class: ALL
Race: ALL
MAGIC ITEM LORE ITEM
Slot: PRIMARY
AC: 5
WIS: +5 INT: +5 MANA: +50
WT: 0.1 Size: SMALL
Class: ALL
Race: ALL
Now lets consider that scenario again, but lets say we are above the Intelligence soft cap (200). Now the stein's +10 Intelligence nets us 56.5 mana (10 * 5.65) + flat 10 HP for a total of +66.5 net increase. The cone gives us +5 Intelligence which nets us 28.25 mana (5 * 5.65) + flat 50 mana for a total of +78.25 net increase.
See how being over the soft cap changes which item nets us more overall HP and mana? You'll want to be cognizant of that when picking out gear.
As a lower level character though, Intelligence and Stamina provide less mana and HP than they will at level 60. For a lower level character who isn't getting as much mana out of Intelligence as a level 60, the cone's flat +50 mana is likely going to provide a greater overall increase than the stein. When you're leveling up, you should look for items that have sizable flat bonuses rather than Intelligence and Stamina.
Here's a quick story from my gearing past. For a while, I was wearing a
MAGIC ITEM NO DROP
Slot: HEAD
AC: 5
WIS: +7 INT: +8 HP: +10 MANA: +20
SV MAGIC: +10
WT: 0.3 Size: SMALL
Class: NEC
Race: HUM ERU DEF GNM IKS
MAGIC ITEM LORE ITEM
Slot: SECONDARY
AC: 5
CHA: -30 INT: +15 MANA: +20
SV MAGIC: +10
WT: 0.4 Size: TINY
Class: NEC
Race: ALL
MAGIC ITEM
Slot: FACE
WIS: +15 INT: +15
Effect: See Invisible (Worn)
WT: 0.1 Size: TINY
Class: ALL
Race: ALL
MAGIC ITEM LORE ITEM
Slot: HEAD
AC: 3
HP: +35 MANA: +50
WT: 1.2 Size: SMALL
Class: CLR DRU BRD SHM NEC WIZ MAG ENC
Race: ALL
MAGIC ITEM NO DROP
Slot: HEAD
AC: 5
WIS: +7 INT: +8 HP: +10 MANA: +20
SV MAGIC: +10
WT: 0.3 Size: SMALL
Class: NEC
Race: HUM ERU DEF GNM IKS
MAGIC ITEM
Slot: CHEST
AC: 14
INT: +8
Effect: Mana Conversion (Must Equip, Casting Time: 3.0) at Level 50
WT: 3.5 Size: MEDIUM
Class: NEC WIZ MAG ENC
Race: ALL
As a final thought before I go into some item recommendations, I've always found that I favor HP significantly more than mana when I'm lower level. The survival benefit is just too good to pass up on. As I get closer to 60 though, my spell toolkit expands and I'm able to put more focus on mana. Mana still ends up being secondary to HP for me, but to a lesser degree than in the early levels.
With all that general info aside, here are some particularly good lower level items for a new necromancer:
- 1) Velium Fire Wedding Ring,Velium Fire Wedding Ring
Slot: FINGER
AC: 6
HP: +65
WT: 0.1 Size: TINY
Class: ALL
Race: ALL
Platinum Fire Wedding Ring, orPlatinum Fire Wedding RingSlot: FINGER
AC: 5
HP: +55
WT: 0.1 Size: TINY
Class: ALL
Race: ALL
Adamantite Band(Pick any two)Adamantite Band
MAGIC ITEM
Slot: FINGER
HP: +75
SV MAGIC: -10
WT: 0.1 Size: TINY
Class: ALL
Race: ALL
- 2) Bracelet of Woven GrassBracelet of Woven Grass
MAGIC ITEM
Slot: WRIST
AC: 1
INT: +3 HP: +12
WT: 0.2 Size: TINY
Class: ALL
Race: ALL
- 3) ShadowBound Boots,ShadowBound Boots
MAGIC ITEM LORE ITEM
Slot: FEET
AC: 5
HP: +15 MANA: +15
WT: 1.2 Size: SMALL
Class: NEC
Race: HUM ERU DEF GNM IKS
Spider Fur-Lined Boots, orSpider Fur-Lined Boots
MAGIC ITEM LORE ITEM
Slot: FEET
AC: 6
CHA: +5 HP: +45
WT: 0.0 Size: TINY
Class: NEC WIZ MAG ENC
Race: ALL
Grave Sandals. ShadowBound and Spider Fur are better overall, but Grave Sandals have nice +DEX if you're going Bone Knight.Grave Sandals
MAGIC ITEM LORE ITEM
Slot: FEET
AC: 5
DEX: +10 CHA: -5 INT: +2 MANA: +10
SV FIRE: -2
WT: 0.5 Size: MEDIUM
Class: NEC
Race: ALL
- 4) Festering CloakFestering Cloak
MAGIC ITEM
Slot: BACK
AC: 5
HP: +10 MANA: +10
SV DISEASE: -10 SV POISON: -10
WT: 0.5 Size: MEDIUM
Class: NEC
Race: HUM ERU DEF GNM IKS
- 5) Embroidered Black Cape.Embroidered Black Cape
MAGIC ITEM
Slot: SHOULDERS
AC: 4
HP: +15 MANA: +20
WT: 0.3 Size: SMALL
Class: CLR DRU BRD SHM NEC WIZ MAG ENC
Race: ALL
What follows is a list of some general items that I have felt are worth using at some point. Just remember, their value is based on the other gear you're wearing. Some of these might not be good choices for you given what else you are wearing.
- Earrings: Black Sapphire Electrum Earring,Black Sapphire Electrum Earring
Slot: EAR
AC: 2
HP: +35 MANA: +25
WT: 0.1 Size: TINY
Class: ALL
Race: ALL
Batskull Earring,Batskull Earring
MAGIC ITEM
Slot: EAR
INT: +5
WT: 0.2 Size: TINY
Class: ALL
Race: ALL
Golden Sapphire Earring,Golden Sapphire EarringSlot: EAR
STR: +2 INT: +4
WT: 0.1 Size: TINY
Class: ALL
Race: ALL
Ivandyr's Hoop,Ivandyr's Hoop
MAGIC ITEM LORE ITEM
Slot: EAR
Charges: 6
AC: 6
WIS: +6 INT: +6 HP: +6
Effect: Spirit Tap (Any Slot, Casting Time: Instant)
WT: 0.1 Size: TINY
Class: ALL except DRU MNK BRD
Race: ALL except BAR ELF HIE DWF HFL
Twisted Bone Earring,Twisted Bone Earring
MAGIC ITEM LORE ITEM
Slot: EAR
AC: 5
DEX: +5 INT: +6 HP: +20
WT: 0.2 Size: TINY
Class: ALL
Race: HUM BAR ERU ELF HIE DEF TRL OGR HFL IKS
Earring of Essence.Earring of EssenceMAGIC ITEM LORE ITEM
Slot: EAR
HP: +30
SV MAGIC: +10
WT: 0.1 Size: TINY
Class: ALL
Race: ALL
- Fingers - Velium Fire Wedding Ring,Velium Fire Wedding Ring
Slot: FINGER
AC: 6
HP: +65
WT: 0.1 Size: TINY
Class: ALL
Race: ALL
Djarns Amethyst Ring,Djarns Amethyst Ring
MAGIC ITEM LORE ITEM
Slot: FINGER
AGI: +9 HP: +80
WT: 0.1 Size: TINY
Class: ALL
Race: ALL
Band of Eternal Flame,Band of Eternal Flame
MAGIC ITEM LORE ITEM
Slot: FINGER
AC: 5
STR: +4 INT: +4 HP: +25 MANA: +35
SV FIRE: +10 SV COLD: -10
WT: 0.1 Size: TINY
Class: ALL
Race: ALL
Platinum Fire Wedding Ring,Platinum Fire Wedding RingSlot: FINGER
AC: 5
HP: +55
WT: 0.1 Size: TINY
Class: ALL
Race: ALL
Adamantite Band,Adamantite BandMAGIC ITEM
Slot: FINGER
HP: +75
SV MAGIC: -10
WT: 0.1 Size: TINY
Class: ALL
Race: ALL
Platinum Skull Ring,Platinum Skull Ring
MAGIC ITEM
Slot: FINGER
CHA: -5 HP: +30 MANA: +20
WT: 0.1 Size: TINY
Class: ALL
Race: ALL
Rose Platinum Engagement Ring.Rose Platinum Engagement Ring
Slot: FINGER
INT: +4
WT: 0.1 Size: TINY
Class: ALL
Race: ALL
- Head - Iksar Hide Cap,Iksar Hide Cap
MAGIC ITEM
Slot: HEAD
AC: 10
WIS: +7 INT: +7 HP: +25
WT: 1.0 Size: SMALL
Class: ALL
Race: ALL
Platinum Tiara,Platinum TiaraMAGIC ITEM LORE ITEM
Slot: HEAD
AC: 3
HP: +35 MANA: +50
WT: 1.2 Size: SMALL
Class: CLR DRU BRD SHM NEC WIZ MAG ENC
Race: ALL
Runed Cowl,Runed Cowl
MAGIC ITEM
Slot: HEAD
AC: 2
WIS: +5 INT: +9
WT: 0.3 Size: SMALL
Class: BRD NEC WIZ MAG ENC
Race: ALL
Runed Circlet,Runed CircletSlot: HEAD
AC: 4
WIS: +4 INT: +4
WT: 1.0 Size: SMALL
Class: ALL
Race: ALL
Circlet of Shadow,Circlet of ShadowMAGIC ITEM LORE ITEM
Slot: HEAD
AC: 5
MANA: +10
SV DISEASE: +10 SV POISON: +10
Effect: Gather Shadows (Any Slot/Can Equip, Casting Time: Instant) at Level 20
WT: 1.0 Size: SMALL
Class: SHD NEC
Race: ALL
Dark Circlet.Dark Circlet
MAGIC ITEM LORE ITEM NO DROP
Slot: HEAD
AC: 4
CHA: -2 INT: +4 HP: +10
WT: 0.2 Size: SMALL
Class: NEC
Race: HUM ERU DEF GNM IKS
- Chest - Tolapumj's Robe,Tolapumj's Robe
MAGIC ITEM LORE ITEM
Slot: CHEST
AC: 14
STR: +5 WIS: +5 INT: +10 MANA: +50
Haste: +36%
WT: 3.5 Size: MEDIUM
Class: NEC WIZ MAG ENC
Race: ALL
Loam Encrusted Robe,Loam Encrusted RobeMAGIC ITEM LORE ITEM
Slot: CHEST
AC: 9
DEX: +10 INT: +5 AGI: +10 MANA: +80
SV MAGIC: +10
WT: 1.0 Size: MEDIUM
Class: NEC WIZ MAG ENC
Race: HUM ERU HIE DEF GNM IKS
Froglok Bonecaster's Robe,Froglok Bonecaster's Robe
MAGIC ITEM LORE ITEM
Slot: CHEST
AC: 10
STR: +8 INT: +8 MANA: +40
SV FIRE: +10 SV MAGIC: +10
WT: 3.5 Size: MEDIUM
Class: NEC WIZ MAG ENC
Race: ALL
Tattered Tomb Shroud,Tattered Tomb Shroud
MAGIC ITEM LORE ITEM
Slot: CHEST
AC: 5
CHA: -10 INT: +2 HP: +30
SV FIRE: -2
WT: 1.0 Size: MEDIUM
Class: NEC
Race: ALL
Advisor Robe,Advisor RobeMAGIC ITEM LORE ITEM
Slot: CHEST
AC: 8
INT: +5 AGI: +2 MANA: +20
SV MAGIC: +5
WT: 3.5 Size: MEDIUM
Class: MNK NEC WIZ MAG ENC
Race: HUM ERU HIE DEF GNM IKS
Robe of the Oracle,Robe of the OracleMAGIC ITEM LORE ITEM
Slot: CHEST
AC: 9
WIS: +5 INT: +5 MANA: +25
WT: 2.0 Size: MEDIUM
Class: MNK NEC WIZ MAG ENC
Race: HUM ERU HIE DEF GNM IKS
Crimson Robe of Alendine,Crimson Robe of Alendine
MAGIC ITEM
Slot: CHEST
AC: 12
DEX: +15 INT: +15 HP: +50 MANA: +50
WT: 1.0 Size: MEDIUM
Class: NEC WIZ MAG ENC
Race: HUM ERU HIE DEF GNM IKS
Robe of the Kedge.Robe of the Kedge
MAGIC ITEM NO DROP
Slot: CHEST
AC: 8
STA: +10 MANA: +100
WT: 1.5 Size: MEDIUM
Class: NEC WIZ MAG ENC
Race: HUM ERU HIE DEF GNM IKS
- Arms - Gatorscale Sleeves,Gatorscale Sleeves
MAGIC ITEM
Slot: ARMS
AC: 6
INT: +4 HP: +15
WT: 0.3 Size: SMALL
Class: ALL
Race: ALL
Embroidered Black Sleeves.Embroidered Black Sleeves
MAGIC ITEM
Slot: ARMS
AC: 4
HP: +10 MANA: +25
WT: 0.4 Size: SMALL
Class: CLR DRU BRD SHM NEC WIZ MAG ENC
Race: ALL
- Legs - Giant Scalemail Leggings,Giant Scalemail Leggings
MAGIC ITEM
Slot: LEGS
AC: 11
WIS: -3 INT: +3 HP: +20
WT: 11.0 Size: MEDIUM
Class: ALL except MNK
Race: ALL except DWF HFL GNM
Astral Leggings of the Titans,Astral Leggings of the Titans
MAGIC ITEM LORE ITEM
Slot: LEGS
AC: 5
INT: +10 AGI: +8
SV MAGIC: -5
WT: 3.0 Size: MEDIUM
Class: NEC WIZ MAG ENC
Race: ALL
Loam Encrusted Pantaloons,Loam Encrusted PantaloonsMAGIC ITEM LORE ITEM
Slot: LEGS
AC: 5
INT: +3 AGI: +8 HP: +10 MANA: +5
SV DISEASE: +10
WT: 0.7 Size: MEDIUM
Class: NEC WIZ MAG ENC
Race: HUM ERU HIE DEF GNM IKS
Feathered Leggings, Non-Iksar:Feathered LeggingsMAGIC ITEM
Slot: LEGS
AC: 4
STA: +7
WT: 2.0 Size: MEDIUM
Class: ALL
Race: ALL
Black Chitin Leggings, Dark Elf:Black Chitin LeggingsMAGIC ITEM
Slot: LEGS
AC: 7
HP: +10 MANA: +10
WT: 7.5 Size: LARGE
Class: ALL
Race: ALL except IKS
Imbued Teir`Dal Chain Leggings.Imbued Teir`Dal Chain LeggingsSlot: LEGS
AC: 8
WIS: +3 INT: +3 AGI: +2
SV MAGIC: +4
WT: 1.0 Size: MEDIUM
Class: WAR CLR SHD BRD ROG NEC WIZ MAG ENC
Race: DEF HEF
Deity: Innoruuk
- Hands - Coldain Skin Gloves,Coldain Skin Gloves
MAGIC ITEM
Slot: HANDS
AC: 12
STA: +9 WIS: +6 INT: +6 HP: +20 MANA: +20
WT: 1.5 Size: SMALL
Class: ALL
Race: ALL
Impskin Gloves,Impskin GlovesMAGIC ITEM
Slot: HANDS
AC: 2
INT: +5 MANA: +10
WT: 1.5 Size: SMALL
Class: ALL
Race: ALL
ShadowBound Gloves.ShadowBound GlovesMAGIC ITEM LORE ITEM
Slot: HANDS
AC: 6
STR: +3 DEX: +3 INT: +3 MANA: +3
WT: 0.7 Size: SMALL
Class: NEC
Race: HUM ERU DEF GNM IKS
- Feet - Coldain Skin Boots,Coldain Skin Boots
MAGIC ITEM
Slot: FEET
AC: 3
WIS: +8 INT: +8 MANA: +35
WT: 2.5 Size: SMALL
Class: ALL
Race: ALL
ShadowBound Boots,ShadowBound BootsMAGIC ITEM LORE ITEM
Slot: FEET
AC: 5
HP: +15 MANA: +15
WT: 1.2 Size: SMALL
Class: NEC
Race: HUM ERU DEF GNM IKS
Grave Sandals,Grave SandalsMAGIC ITEM LORE ITEM
Slot: FEET
AC: 5
DEX: +10 CHA: -5 INT: +2 MANA: +10
SV FIRE: -2
WT: 0.5 Size: MEDIUM
Class: NEC
Race: ALL
Polished Stone Anklet, and non-Iksar (edit by Vermarion),Polished Stone Anklet
MAGIC ITEM
Slot: FEET
AC: 5
DEX: +2 INT: +2
WT: 2.0 Size: SMALL
Class: ALL
Race: ALL
Golden Efreeti Boots(Edit by Vermarion.Golden Efreeti Boots
MAGIC ITEM
Slot: FEET
AC: 5
WIS: +9 INT: +9
WT: 2.5 Size: MEDIUM
Class: ALL
Race: HUM BAR ERU ELF HIE DEF HEF DWF TRL OGR HFL GNM
- Primary (2h) - Staff of the Waterwalker.Staff of the Waterwalker
MAGIC ITEM
Slot: PRIMARY
Skill: 2H Blunt Atk Delay: 38
DMG: 18
WIS: +10 INT: +10 HP: +100
Effect: Enduring Breath (Worn)
WT: 7.5 Size: LARGE
Class: ALL
Race: ALL
- Primary (1h) - Sorcerous Bowl,Sorcerous Bowl
MAGIC ITEM LORE ITEM
Slot: PRIMARY
Skill: 1H Blunt Atk Delay: 25
DMG: 1
CHA: -5 WIS: +7 INT: +7 HP: +50 MANA: +10
SV FIRE: +5 SV COLD: +5 SV MAGIC: +5
WT: 0.5 Size: SMALL
Class: NEC WIZ MAG ENC
Race: HUM ERU HIE DEF HEF GNM IKS
Tome of Miragul,Tome of Miragul
MAGIC ITEM LORE ITEM
Slot: PRIMARY SECONDARY
STR: -5 DEX: -5 STA: -5 CHA: -25 WIS: +6 INT: +6 HP: +50 MANA: +50
SV DISEASE: -10
WT: 4.0 Size: SMALL
Class: NEC MAG ENC
Race: ALL except IKS
Stein of Moggok,Stein of MoggokMAGIC ITEM LORE ITEM
Slot: PRIMARY SECONDARY
Charges: 3
DEX: +5 INT: +10 HP: +10
SV DISEASE: +25
Effect: Light Healing (Any Slot, Casting Time: Instant)
WT: 2.5 Size: SMALL
Class: ALL
Race: ALL
Cone of the Mystics,Cone of the MysticsMAGIC ITEM LORE ITEM
Slot: PRIMARY
AC: 5
WIS: +5 INT: +5 MANA: +50
WT: 0.1 Size: SMALL
Class: ALL
Race: ALL
Gnoll Hide Tome,Gnoll Hide TomeMAGIC ITEM LORE ITEM
Slot: PRIMARY
STR: -10 WIS: +5 INT: +10 HP: +15
SV POISON: +10
WT: 1.0 Size: TINY
Class: NEC WIZ MAG ENC
Race: HUM ERU HIE DEF GNM IKS
A Glowing Black Stone,A Glowing Black Stone
LORE ITEM
Slot: PRIMARY SECONDARY
INT: +9
SV MAGIC: +10
WT: 0.4 Size: TINY
Class: ALL
Race: ALL
Black Tome with Silver Runes.Black Tome with Silver Runes
MAGIC ITEM
Slot: PRIMARY
INT: +4 MANA: +30
WT: 0.0 Size: TINY
Class: NEC WIZ MAG ENC
Race: ALL
- Secondary (1h) - Rokyls Channelling Crystal,Rokyls Channelling Crystal
MAGIC ITEM LORE ITEM
Slot: SECONDARY
AC: 10
HP: +50 MANA: +50
WT: 0.2 Size: TINY
Class: BRD NEC WIZ MAG ENC
Race: ALL
Stein of Moggok,Stein of MoggokMAGIC ITEM LORE ITEM
Slot: PRIMARY SECONDARY
Charges: 3
DEX: +5 INT: +10 HP: +10
SV DISEASE: +25
Effect: Light Healing (Any Slot, Casting Time: Instant)
WT: 2.5 Size: SMALL
Class: ALL
Race: ALL
Book of Obulus,Book of ObulusMAGIC ITEM LORE ITEM
Slot: SECONDARY
WIS: +8 INT: +8 MANA: +45
SV FIRE: +5 SV MAGIC: +5
WT: 5.0 Size: TINY
Class: CLR DRU SHM NEC WIZ MAG ENC
Race: ALL
A Glowing Black Stone,A Glowing Black StoneLORE ITEM
Slot: PRIMARY SECONDARY
INT: +9
SV MAGIC: +10
WT: 0.4 Size: TINY
Class: ALL
Race: ALL
Hand of the ReaperHand of the ReaperMAGIC ITEM LORE ITEM
Slot: SECONDARY
AC: 5
CHA: -30 INT: +15 MANA: +20
SV MAGIC: +10
WT: 0.4 Size: TINY
Class: NEC
Race: ALL
- Range - Sandwich of Foul Smelling Herbs,Sandwich of Foul Smelling Herbs
MAGIC ITEM
Slot: RANGE
STA: +5 HP: +50
This is a miraculous meal!
WT: 3.0 Size: SMALL
Class: ALL
Race: ALL
Dagger of Marnek,Dagger of Marnek
MAGIC ITEM LORE ITEM
Slot: RANGE PRIMARY
Skill: Piercing Atk Delay: 30
DMG: 3
INT: +3 MANA: +15
WT: 2.0 Range: 40 Size: SMALL
Class: NEC
Race: ALL
Idol of the UnderkingIdol of the Underking
MAGIC ITEM LORE ITEM
Slot: RANGE PRIMARY SECONDARY
STR: +3 HP: +20 MANA: +20
WT: 2.5 Size: TINY
Class: ALL
Race: ALL
- Neck - Black Sapphire Platinum Necklace,Black Sapphire Platinum Necklace
Slot: NECK
HP: +55 MANA: +55
WT: 0.1 Size: TINY
Class: ALL
Race: ALL
Sarnak Arcane Fetish,Sarnak Arcane FetishLORE ITEM
Slot: NECK
DEX: +2 CHA: +5 INT: +6
WT: 0.1 Size: TINY
Class: ALL
Race: ALL
Sapphire Platinum NecklaceSapphire Platinum NecklaceSlot: NECK
STR: +7 INT: +7
WT: 0.1 Size: TINY
Class: ALL
Race: ALL
- Face - Enshrouded Veil,Enshrouded Veil
MAGIC ITEM LORE ITEM
Slot: FACE
AC: 7
WIS: +2 INT: +2 HP: +30 MANA: +30
SV FIRE: +10
WT: 0.1 Size: SMALL
Class: ALL
Race: ALL
Mask of Wurms,Mask of Wurms
MAGIC ITEM
Slot: FACE
AC: 5
STR: +4 AGI: +4 HP: +10 MANA: +20
WT: 0.9 Size: SMALL
Class: ALL
Race: ALL
Sheer Bone Mask,Sheer Bone MaskMAGIC ITEM
Slot: FACE
AC: 3
INT: +3
WT: 1.5 Size: SMALL
Class: ALL
Race: ALL
Tobrin's Mystical EyepatchTobrin's Mystical EyepatchMAGIC ITEM
Slot: FACE
WIS: +15 INT: +15
Effect: See Invisible (Worn)
WT: 0.1 Size: TINY
Class: ALL
Race: ALL
- Back - Iksar Hide Cape,Iksar Hide Cape
MAGIC ITEM LORE ITEM
Slot: BACK
AC: 10
HP: +75 MANA: +75
SV DISEASE: +15 SV POISON: +15
WT: 3.0 Size: SMALL
Class: ALL
Race: ALL
Hierophant's Cloak,Hierophant's Cloak
MAGIC ITEM LORE ITEM
Slot: BACK
AC: 10
STR: +4 DEX: +4 STA: +4 CHA: +4 WIS: +4 INT: +4 AGI: +4 HP: +75 MANA: +75
WT: 1.0 Size: MEDIUM
Class: ALL
Race: ALL
Hooded Black Cloak,Hooded Black Cloak
MAGIC ITEM LORE ITEM
Slot: BACK
AC: 10
STR: +5 HP: +45
WT: 2.5 Size: MEDIUM
Class: ALL
Race: ALL
Festering Cloak,Festering CloakMAGIC ITEM
Slot: BACK
AC: 5
HP: +10 MANA: +10
SV DISEASE: -10 SV POISON: -10
WT: 0.5 Size: MEDIUM
Class: NEC
Race: HUM ERU DEF GNM IKS
Molten Cloak,Molten Cloak
Slot: BACK
AC: 4
WIS: +4 INT: +4
WT: 2.5 Size: MEDIUM
Class: ALL
Race: ALL
Kunzar Cloak,Kunzar CloakMAGIC ITEM LORE ITEM
Slot: BACK
AC: 7
WIS: +2 INT: +2
SV FIRE: +10
WT: 0.1 Size: SMALL
Class: ALL
Race: ALL except HUM ERU HEF
Loam Encrusted Cloak.Loam Encrusted CloakMAGIC ITEM LORE ITEM
Slot: BACK
AC: 5
STR: +2 CHA: +3 INT: +1 AGI: +8 MANA: +5
SV FIRE: +3 SV DISEASE: +3 SV COLD: +3 SV MAGIC: +3 SV POISON: +3
WT: 0.5 Size: MEDIUM
Class: NEC WIZ MAG ENC
Race: HUM ERU HIE DEF GNM IKS
- Waist - Braided Cinch Cord,Braided Cinch Cord
MAGIC ITEM
Slot: WAIST
AC: 2
INT: +4 HP: +8
WT: 0.2 Size: SMALL
Class: NEC WIZ MAG ENC
Race: HUM ERU HIE DEF GNM IKS
Brell's GirdleBrell's Girdle
MAGIC ITEM LORE ITEM
Slot: WAIST
AC: 10
STR: +10 DEX: -5 STA: +10 AGI: -5 MANA: +50
WT: 0.1 Size: SMALL
Class: ALL
Race: ALL
- Shoulders - Embroidered Black Cape,Embroidered Black Cape
MAGIC ITEM
Slot: SHOULDERS
AC: 4
HP: +15 MANA: +20
WT: 0.3 Size: SMALL
Class: CLR DRU BRD SHM NEC WIZ MAG ENC
Race: ALL
Loam Encrusted AmiceLoam Encrusted Amice
MAGIC ITEM LORE ITEM
Slot: SHOULDERS
AC: 4
INT: +3 AGI: +8 MANA: +10
SV FIRE: +2 SV DISEASE: +2 SV COLD: +2 SV MAGIC: +2 SV POISON: +2
WT: 0.3 Size: SMALL
Class: NEC WIZ MAG ENC
Race: HUM ERU HIE DEF GNM IKS
- Wrists - Bracelet of Woven Grass,Bracelet of Woven Grass
MAGIC ITEM
Slot: WRIST
AC: 1
INT: +3 HP: +12
WT: 0.2 Size: TINY
Class: ALL
Race: ALL
Golden Chitin BracerGolden Chitin Bracer
MAGIC ITEM
Slot: WRIST
AC: 5
INT: +5 AGI: +5
WT: 3.0 Size: SMALL
Class: ALL
Race: ALL except IKS
Section 4: Necromancer Mechanics
Welcome to the longest portion of the guide. This section is going to go over as many details about the necromancer class as I can think of. We'll go over game mechanics, soloing and grouping strategies, the types of spells we use and in which circumstances, and so on. Please don't feel you need to have an encyclopedic understanding of this section before starting your character. My hope is that by reading through this section, you'll get a foundation of information that will click into place as you play.
The Basics
In this section, I want to simply run down a list of miscellaneous but useful pieces of information. These are items that I think are worth knowing but I couldn't find any other spot in this guide to put them down.
- If your pet deals over 50% of an enemy's HP in a kill, you will receive only half of the experience. This means you can't rely entirely on your pet to deal damage if you still want to get full XP for a kill. This is only applicable while you're soloing. If you're in a group, your pet won't steal any XP no matter how much damage they deal. If you're at a camp which supports it, consider duoing with another player! It alleviates the pressure on you to burn mana to out-damage your pet. This is a great option with other necromancers and magicians, as you can start letting your pets do almost all of the work!
- Every 6 seconds there is something referred to as a 'tick'. This tick is when the game updates certain properties about the game. One easy way to see this is to just watch your hit points and mana. You'll see that every 6 seconds, your character will regain some hit points and some mana based on your state (standing, sitting, feigned) at the time of the tick. What's neat about this is that the game doesn't care about what state you're in between ticks, just at the tick. For example: Say you're meditating to get back mana in the middle of a fight. After a med tick happens, you could stand up and cast a spell, and so long as the casting time of the spell is short enough that you can be sitting by the next tick, you will have regained the exact same amount of mana as you would have if you were sitting the entire time.
- A creature in motion when a tick occurs will take only 66% of damage from Damage over Time (DoT) effects. It doesn't matter if the creature is moving between ticks, just that they are moving when the tick happens. This can lead to some lucky scenarios where your pet bashes an enemy, stunning them at the exact moment of the tick, so your DoTs tick for full damage.
- The previous note about DoT damage doesn't apply when a creature is moving because of a Fear effect.
- Root spells (Hungry Earth, Root, Paralyzing Earth, Enstill, & Immobilize) have a chance to break when the enemy takes damage from attacks or from the direct damage component of spells. Roots will also sometimes just break randomly. On the plus side, a rooted enemy is immobilized so they can't move and you can stay out of their melee range. Since they aren't moving, they will take full damage from DoTs and since DoT ticks aren't direct damage, they don't have a chance of breaking roots early! That said, please be aware that DoTs which have a direct damage component, like Venom of the Snake, will have a chance to break roots when the direct damage occurs (but not on the DoT ticks which follow)
- Lifetap DoTs (Leach, Vampiric Curse, Bond of Death, & Vexing Mordinia) apply a DoT to your enemy and a Heal over Time (HoT) to you called a Recourse. These effects are independent of one another, meaning that the healing of the recourse isn't contingent upon the damage dealt. If your enemy dies before the spell finishes or if the DoT is dispelled or any other scenario plays out where the damage stops, so long as the recourse effect is on you, you'll get the healing.
- When your HP falls below 20%, you'll get what is commonly called "Low HP Aggro". This is basically the enemy going, "I've almost killed that person! Lets get 'em!". While you're this low, enemies are much more likely to go after you than someone else. You will take aggro from your pet, from your party's tank, whoever. Be very reluctant to let yourself get anywhere near 20%, lest you fall under it and suffer a swift demise.
- Respawn timers begin as soon as the enemy dies. When you're camping an area with multiple spawns, you can scale up and down your damage to adjust their respawn timers. For example, say we have 2 enemies that both respawn in 6 minutes and 40 seconds. We kill the first one at T = 0s, meaning it will respawn at T = 6m40s. For our second kill, we take 1 minute to kill it, so it dies at T = 1m, and respawns at T = 7m40s. If we want to put a bigger gap between the mobs, we can kill the second one slower so it dies at T = 1m30s and respawns at T = 8m10s. Alternatively, we can kill it much faster to reduce the gap between the spawns, such as killing at at T = 30s so it respawns at T = 7m10s. Learning to manage your spawn timers at a camp will help you avoid having two mobs spawn on top of you at the same time, giving you room to kill them without unnecessary complication.
- If you need to cancel a spell you're casting, use your duck hotkey. Ducking while you cast will automatically interrupt your cast.
- A B M: Always Be Meditating. You just finished casting a spell? Fantastic. Sit back down. Get comfortable sitting back down as often as you can unless circumstances require you to be standing. I bind my X key to sit and Z key to duck, so I am always hitting X after I cast a spell to sit back down or hit Z to interrupt my spell. Even if you sit for only a few seconds, you might be sitting when the meditate tick occurs, giving you more mana than if you were standing. If you're incredibly focused on the game, you can even time your spellcasts between meditate ticks (if the spell has a casting time of less than 6 seconds) to increase your mana sustainability. This can save you a lot of mana in the long term, but it can also be tedious.
- Be friendly to your fellow players. You never know when you'll need a cleric to rez you, a druid or wizard to port you, a magician to COTH you or summon you items, etc. Being polite and friendly can go a long way in a game as socially driven as EverQuest.
- Learn camp etiquette. Review the Play Nice Policy to understand the rules about camps. Remember when dealing with camp disputes, most folks are totally reasonable and willing to work out conflicts so long as it doesn't start from a place of hostility.
- Please don't put on /anon or /roleplay when you're at a high traffic camp spot. This allows players to do a /who <zone> to see if there is someone in the zone who is likely at the camp they are interested in. For example, instead of running to Oasis of Marr to kill spectres, one could do /who all oasis and see if there is someone in the upper 30s/lower 40s and avoid a needless run. It also helps avoid camp conflicts before they even begin. It's just good courtesy for your fellow players. Wizards and druids will often do this as people will just randomly send them tells for ports, but that doesn't really happen to us necromancers.
- In this guide, I will refer to "Active Camp" and "AFK Camp". When I refer to an "Active Camp", I'm talking about a camp in which you will always have another target to kill, so your only downtime is how quickly you can get back your mana. By contrast, an "AFK Camp" is one where you'll probably kill the mobs at the camp before they respawn, giving you a window of time to step away from the keyboard. It doesn't mean a camp where you just sit AFK and your pet automatically kills stuff for you to farm XP. That's against the rules of the server and will get you banned.
Necromancer Strategies
In this section, we'll be discussing the various methods that we as necromancers use when fighting creatures on Norrath. There are probably some other styles out there not covered in this section, but these ones tend to be the bread and butter of your combat arsenal.
However, keep in mind that through each of these, you have 2 major goals. First, at level 4 you gain access to the skill Meditate on your trainer. You always want to meditate to regain mana.
Second, and this is exclusive to being a necromancer, you need to use your Lich spell line. At level 8, you get Dark Pact, followed by Allure of Death at 20, Call of Bones at 34, Lich at 49, and Demi Lich at 60. This spell is a large part of why necromancer is such a great class. You want to keep this spell line up on you at all times, and handle the HP loss. In return for the HP loss, you gain incredible amounts of mana that lets you play far more actively than your other spellcasting counterparts. Keep your Lich machine running, and you can go far, no matter what strategy you're using.
The only times you don't want to Lich is if you're working at maximum capacity and have 100% mana, which is rare, or when you need to not lose any more health.
Fear Kiting
Fear Kiting is one of the most widely used strategies for necromancers, as we gain access to the key pieces early on. You fear kite, in the simplest way, by placing down your level's version of a Magical Snare (Darkness), which will snare the target's movement speed, as well as tick for some damage. Then, you fear the target to keep yourself from getting killed. Remember, the DoTs you place will do full damage so long as the target is feared.
Your first Fear will last for 3 ticks, and then drop. So cast Fear on the target, and it will run. Your DoTs will provide you with feedback about how many ticks have passed. After the third tick of Darkness since your fear was applied, you should reapply fear to keep it locked down.
When you pull an enemy, you want to cast your spells like:
Darkness -> Other DoT -> Fear -> Other DoTs.
Now, if you've casted these, these will be your ticks that pop up in your log. <-- (UPDATE 5/27/2020) This is no longer true on p99. The devs say DOT damage showing up in the chat window "isn't classic," so they removed it. You can no longer see the ticked damage of DOTs. -Vermarion Mortis, 40 Iksar Necromancer) (END UPDATE) --> They were applied in that order, that means on the 4th tick when Fear would break, Darkness and the first first Other DoT will do full damage (as the target will still be feared), but the DoT that was placed after the Fear will tick for only 2/3rds damage because it was applied after fear, and ticks when the creature is no longer feared.
If you feel mana starved, let the fear drop before reapplying. If you are not, reapply Fear between the 3rd and 4th tick since fear to reapply it before it drops off for consistent damage.
If you feel you are getting resisted, reapply Fear often to make sure you force the Fear through and keep it going.
Remember that you will lose XP if you don't do over half the DPS on the target. For this reason, buffing your pet is not incredibly vital at this stage. Think of your pet as simply another DoT. You need to make sure you pile on enough DoTs or damage to do half. The best way to test is to look up the enemy's health, or to do a test run without your pet. Figure out just how much you need to push to reach 50%.
In the section following these strategies, you'll read more about strength of different DoT types. The strength of Fear kiting as a strategy is that you have freedom to use any type of DoT you want. Direct damage does not break fear, like it does with rooting. Additionally, you are able to utilize your pet better than in the other two styles. This allows your pet to do a large chunk of damage, and puts less of a DPS burden on your mana pool.
Pet Taunt while fear kiting
(Algea) By default your pet "Taunts" the mob it's attacking. When Fear wears off, the mob will usually stop moving and attack your pet. If you turn Taunt off and you are doing more than 50% damage (like you should be) then the mob will come after you. This is a useful mechanic for controlling where a the mob paths to and how far away it get's. Fear kiting in a small area and don't want adds? Turn off taunt and the mob comes back to you, you fear it again when it get's close. It's similar to calling your pet back off the mob, but doing it this way keeps the pet hitting the mob the entire time. All of these tools can be used to control where a fight happens, so keep them all in your bag of evil tricks.
Root Rotting
Root Rotting is incredibly simple. You apply root to a mob to limit their movement, and then you apply DoTs to the enemy. This is very useful when dealing with enemies indoors, or really anytime when you have limited space in which to work.
The risks of root rotting are numerous, however. Some of your DoTs come with a direct damage component, which makes them risky choices. These spells are risky choices because direct damage has a chance to break your roots. Roots are simply fair inconsistent in how long they want to hold until Paralyzing Earth at 49, which is a fairly stable 3 minute root. However, you can mitigate root breaks by casting your snare dot, which now stacks with root and will give you some time to run away and re-root in the case of a root break.
Additionally, root rotting means all the damage comes from your DoTs. You cannot use a pet, as your pet will take melee hits, and skeletons are frail. This puts a heavy strain on your mana pool, and so root rotting becomes increasingly effective the stronger versions of the Lich spell line you have.
While root rotting, be certain you keep a close watch on DoT ticks so that roots don't break. Unlike with fear kiting, if roots breaks (unless you're constantly keeping the snare dot active on the mob) the mob will not be snared. For this reason, it also becomes worth it to start investing in the material components for your Skin spells like Diamondskin, Leatherskin, and Manaskin, which give you a protective absorption barrier.
Your best DoTs for Root Rotting will be Magical DPS, Fire DPS, and Magical Leech. See the next section for more on DoTs. Since you do not get a Magical DPS DoT until 51, nor a strong Roots spell until 49, and a strong Lich spell until 49, you probably will not do too much root rotting at earlier levels.
This strategy is very strong for situations in which you need complete control over where the mob is, and where it is going. Fear kiting is more efficient, as your pet is dealing just under 50% of the damage when done well, and Charm killing is more efficient as you get a pet to do 95% of the damage needed, but it is limited to undead.
Velious Update: Just a note that apparently now, snare and root will stack. So while root rotting, you should keep a darkness spell going. The Darkness line is not terribly efficient for damage though, so if you're higher level you should probably just aim for Dooming Darkness which is a solid snare for a good duration. The higher versions have an inflated cost for more damage and I believe only a modest increase to the snare. If you have excess mana, by all means use a higher one.
Charming
Charming as a means of killing enemies is something that will be very familiar to those of you who have played an enchanter or a druid before. The idea behind charming is to make your enemies kill each other, and letting you reap the experience from their hard work.
At level 20 we get our first undead charm spell, Dominate Undead. Using it, we gain control of the enemy as a pet, and can order him or her to do things for us. Then, we'd have our enemy weaken the other, possibly kill it, and we get the reward.
Now, there are a few ways you can do this. The first way is that you can just let your charm pet do everything. It is a NPC, so it is much stronger than any skeleton you can summon. However, it will still steal experience from you.
The second way is what I will recommend in this guide. In this, you charm an enemy, and make it fight a similarly powerful enemy. Keeping the non-charmed one rooted, you then break your charm using invisibility (from Circlet of Shadow) and quickly use a direct damage spell to kill your previous pet. Then, you do the same to the one that was not charmed. This lets you kill both, and get full experience for both.
Charms, like roots, will randomly break. But they do not break because of a DoT type, but just due to random chance. So they are inconsistent. For this reason, when charming, be certain to set your pet to guard further away from you. Try to use pathing complexity to your advantage so that enemies have to run complex paths to get to you. But yeah, I can't emphasize this enough: stay away from your pet. This isn't a necromancer pet summon, this is a charmed mob. The charmed mob will obliterate you.
Screaming Terror is a mezmerize spell. It breaks when damage is done to the target, or after 3 ticks. Even dot ticks will break this mez. But this spell will be your best friend when charming, as it lets you stun an enemy that has broken out, and give you the time to re-cast your charm. Unlike roots, it will not hold for a long time, so you can get your pet back into action.
This makes charming far more efficient after level 24. However, you also need a strong Skin spell, and the last one is the only particularly strong one is at 52. You also want a quick execution spell. You have plenty of fast lifetaps at low level, but they become increasingly rougher to cast until you get Deflux at 54. So, charming can be done at earlier levels, but it becomes significantly better as time goes on.
The determining factor for Charm to not be resisted is level and Magic Resistance. For Necromancers, Charisma does nothing to affect this and. Charm duration is random though is slightly increased based on level spread.
This is the most efficient you'll get when it comes to killing things, but you are limited to places where there are undead of comparable levels to what you want to kill.
Duoing
In a duo, your goal is going to be to find out how to best compliment your duo partner. Figure out the strengths of your partner, and then play to those strengths.
A handy chart that gives you an idea of the ideal duoing classes can be found here. This is a site that takes votes to give you an idea of popular perception of the best duoing partners. On the whole, it is pretty accurate. Everyone will have their own particular line up of best to worst duo, but this should give you some idea of the general order.
Grouping
You will find as a Necromancer, that people often do not want you for groups, but most of the time this is because of bad past experiences. You cannot solo while in a group. Just like with a duo, you need to find out how to compliment your group comp. It does not mean, however, that you will never end up grouping. When grouping, if the Necromancer knows how to do it, the Necromancer will be nothing short of an invaluable asset to his or her group. It is my goal to offer some thoughts and a general strategy while playing a Necromancer in a group that can help make you stand out, and show people just how good Necromancers can be when played right.
- 1) You are not Soloing while in a group. Break this mindset. Your tactics, your training for soloing are nothing anymore.
- 2) You are not a DPS, you are a Support. Your DoTs are very inefficient when they drop off early, and your fastest DoT (Envenomed Bolt) takes 8 ticks to tick to fruition. The vast majority of the time, the enemy will be dead before your spells reach their full effect.
- 3) Understand your CC. As a Necromancer, you have access to three big ones: Screaming Terror, Roots, and Fear. Unless specifically asked, do not Fear. In tight situations in a dungeon, Fear will only let the enemy get his friends. Roots is often desirable, but not if your group desires more snares than roots. Screaming Terror is good in a pinch, but remember it is a short term mez. It will break if damage is done to it.
- 4) You are a Snarer. One of the main jobs a Necromancer falls into is in applying Darkness, which is among the strongest snares in the game, and it comes with some damage on top of it. It is generally best to stick to Dooming Darkness, even if you have a higher level version, because the later Darkness spells do not increase the snare by enough to make the greater mana and cast time worth it when in a fast pulling group.
- 5) Inform your healer to not heal you unless you're in threat of death. Use your lifetaps to return health, as it is a lot easier for you to get mana than your healer.
- 6) You are a Mana Battery. As a Necromancer, by and large your job in a group is as a Mana Generator. You will going to have Lich on, burning your Health into Mana, and casting the "Subversion" spell line to restore mana to the part of the group that needs it most. Cleric is at 30m? Twitch him! Enchanter at 20m? Twitch him! Do everything you can to make sure mana is flowing so there is less downtime. Avoid twitching immediately as mana permits, and instead twitch when the healer/enchanter needs it, or when you're about to cap mana, so this way you have stores of mana to unload in an emergency. You are the battery of the group, you are the grease on the wheels of your team. You make the CC and the Heals flow faster, then you'll see that the puller needs to stop for mana breaks less, and the experience flows faster. Be sure to never be at 100% mana, and at the same time, try to always have some stored in case of emergency.
- 7) You are a patch-healer. Use spells like Shadowbond and Shadow Compact to deliver a smooth flow of heals onto the target. This spell line costs very little mana, and can help alleviate the amount of healing the Healer must do. If you keep your first Buff Slot open, you can even Cancel Magic the negative recourse of the spell, creating some very mana efficient patch healing.
When you tie all of this together, you get a picture of Necromancer truly being a support, rather than a DPS. Since our spells are very inefficient if they do not run their own course, in most group cases, enemies will die too fast for our DPS to be efficient. What we do instead is to channel Mana into Clerics/Enchanters as needed to keep the group working, channel our Health into group members who are hurt, and burn our own health to make us do all this more efficiently. We get that health back through periodic lifetaps.
Remember... You're not soloing. Your job is to make the group more efficient.
Understanding Your Dots
This section is here to give you an overview of your main way of dealing damage: the DoT. A DoT refers to a spell that deals Damage over Time. They come in a wide variety of styles, they each behave and serve different purposes. This is important to understand, even if you don't have all of these DoTs at the moment.
When judging a DoT, you need to look at a few aspects of the DoT:
- 1) What is the DoT's Damage Per Mana (DPM)?
- 2) How many ticks does the DoT have?
- 3) Does it provide a specific utility?
- 4) How many ticks do you expect to get off in the situation you're encountering?
Necromancers have 7 different DoT lines, each with its own unique advantages. To talk about each, I am going to use the highest level version of those DoTs. Even at lower levels, though, the conclusions we can draw from the higher level versions will remain true. So for example, the damage per mana of the highest level spell isn't what you'll have with lower level spells, but the idea that the heat blood line is more efficient than the lifetap DoT line remains true throughout. The DoTs are as follows:
Magical Leech - This spell line starts with Leach, Vampiric Curse, Bond of Death, and then finally Vexing Mordinia. Unlike the other DoTs, this spell line's damage converts into Health, and does so more efficiently than with Lifetap spells.
- 1) DPM: Vexing will do 1110 damage for 495 mana, producing 2.24 DPM.
- 2) Ticks: It ticks 10 times.
- 3) Utility: It heals you every tick of damage it does. Comparable Direct Damage Lifetaps, this will provide better healing for your mana, but it will take time to get the healing. Additionally, it is incredibly difficult to resist (-200 MR).
- 4) Best Use: This DoT is best used when you are not in immediate pressure situations that require a burst heal. Strong for when you're slowly dying and trying not to.
Magical Snare - This spell line is one that is fundamental to fear kiting. It begins with Clinging Darkness, and then Engulfing Darkness, Dooming Darkness, Cascading Darkness, and finally Devouring Darkness.
- 1) DPM: Devouring Darkness will do 1498 damage for 400 mana, producing 3.745 DPM.
- 2) Ticks: It ticks 14 times.
- 3) Utility: It provides a Snare.
- 4) Best Use: This DoT is best used to snare the enemy, rather than to deal damage. Strong for grouping and fear kiting.
Magical DPS - There is only one spell in this line on Project 1999, and that is Splurt. This is also the best damn DoT in the game.
- 1) DPM: This singular spell does 1819 damage for 240 mana, producing 7.5792 DPM.
- 2) Ticks: It ticks 17 times, increasing in damage each tick.
- 3) Utility: It is difficult to resist (-100 MR).
- 4) Best Use: This DoT is best used in long, drawn out fights. Strong for root rotting and fear kiting.
Fire DPS - This spell line is vital to efficient damage. It starts with Heat Blood, into Boil Blood, to Ignite Blood, and lastly into Pyrocruor. This DoT is Fire based, if you didn't catch that yet.
- 1) DPM: Pyrocruor will do 2109 damage for 400 mana, producing 5.273 DPM.heat blood
- 2) Ticks: It ticks 19 times.
- 3) Utility: It is difficult to resist (-100 FR).
- 4) Best Use: This DoT is best used in long, drawn out fights. Strong for root rotting and fear kiting.
Poison DPS - This line is defined by powerful ticks over a short duration with a DD element that can break roots. It begins with Poison Bolt, then Venom of the Snake and lastly Envenomed Bolt.
- 1) DPM: Envenomed Bolt deals 1278 damage for 320 mana, producing 3.994 DPM.
- 2) Ticks: It ticks 8 times.
- 3) Utility: No utility is provided.
- 4) Best Use: This DoT is best used in short, quick fights. Strong for fear kiting and grouping.
Disease DPS - This spell line begins early with Disease Cloud, Infectious Cloud, Scourge, and finally Plague. It will deal a Direct Damage component as it is placed, with the ability to break roots.
- 1) DPM: Plague deals 1270 damage for 300 mana, producing 4.23 DPM.
- 2) Ticks: It ticks 22 times.
- 3) Utility: It provides no utility.
- 4) Best Use: This DoT is best used in long, drawn out fights. Strong for fear kiting.
Disease Debuff - This spell line is a disease spell that also applies an AC and Strength debuff on your enemy. It begins with Heart Flutter, then Asystole, and finally Cessation of Cor.
- 1) DPM: Cessation of Cor will do 1100 damage for 250 mana, producing 4.4 DPM.
- 2) Ticks: It ticks 11 times.
- 3) Utility: It provides a Strength and AC debuff, so the enemy will not hit as hard, and will have a lowered defense.
- 4) Best Use: This DoT is best used when you need a moderate chunk of damage in a moderate length fight. Strong for root rotting, fear kiting, or grouping.
Putting It All Together: Efficiency and You
So what does all this information mean? Why should you care about understanding the differences between these DoTs? How does this understanding shape your behavior when soloing? That is the point of this section. This section will be very convoluted with math, numbers, and a good bit of theory. I apologize if it comes across difficult to understand, I am trying to make this as clear as possible, but it's fairly complex stuff.
I will be referring to the higher level versions of these spells for simplicity.
When you approach a given solo situation, you need to consider the relative benefit of your DoTs to the situation. The name of the game is picking the right DoTs for the right situation. When I say that using your most efficient DoTs is better, that is not a universal rule to be held to at all times. There are times when you want to use DoTs with more burst, times when you want to use direct damage, and time when you want to use efficient DoTs. So lets think through when you want to use each type of DoT.
I am going to split this up into 3 categories: Efficient DoTs, Inefficient DoTs, and Lifetaps/DDs.
In the first case, you have your efficient DoTs. These are the spells under the Heat Blood line, ultimately being Pyrocruor, the single spell Splurt, and the disease line that ends with Plague. These spells will do a good amount of damage for a relatively high DPM, but they take a long time to tick to fruition. As I said in the last section, you want to use these DoTs when they will be able to tick the full time.
Lets think about Splurt. It ticks for 11, 23, 35, 47, 59, 71, 83, 95, 107, 119, 131, 143, 155, 167, 179, and 191. This totals 1616 damage over 16 ticks for 240 mana. If we assume all 16 ticks go off, that means it was 6.733 DPM. That is incredibly efficient. However, lets say the mob dies at the 179 tick. That means the total was (1616 - 191), or 1425. But the mana cost is still 240, meaning 5.9375 DPM. It's less efficient now. If you lose not just the final tick, but also the second to final tick so the mob dies with the 167 tick, it goes down to 5.19 DPM. In other words, the more the DoT is clipped off, the less efficient you are with your mana by using that particular spell for dealing damage.
The same is true of Pyrocruor (and every other DoT). It ticks for 111 for 19 ticks for a total of 2109 damage at 400 mana, being 5.273 DPM. But lets say it doesn't reach the last two ticks, and instead deals just 1887 damage for 400 mana. Now, it is only 4.7175 DPM.
In other words, you don't want these DoTs to clip, as then the entire point of using them is gone. This is true of pretty much every DoT. However, if we are to truly understand the benefit of using these efficient DoTs situationally, we need to look at the next type of DoT: The inefficient DoT.
Lets look at the bread and butter of the "inefficient DoTs", Envenomed Bolt. This spell is a Poison spell, and is at the end of the Poison Bolt and Venom of the Snake line. It does a total of 1278 damage over 8 ticks for 320 mana, for a total DPM of 3.994. If you lose a tick, it drops to 3.5375. Lose 2 ticks? 3.0813 DPM. Luckily it only takes 8 ticks to tick to fruition.
You also have the debuff DoT, Cessation of Cor, or Asystole and Heart Flutter. On Cessation, you do 100 damage every tick for 11 ticks for 250 mana. This nets a 4.4 DPM.
Inefficient DoT Hypothetical
What if we were in a situation where a mob who has 5,000 life is at 20%. This means it has 1,000 HP left. What DoT do we use to maximize our mana and time efficiency? We know it dies when it takes 1000 damage, so lets look at our DoTs! Since the mob will regenerate as we hurt it, we want slightly more than 1000 damage.
Splurt? Splurt will deal 1079 damage on its 13th tick. This means it will do 1079 damage for 240 mana, or 4.496 DPM.
Pyrocruor will tick 10 times to deal 1110 damage for a total of 2.775 DPM.
But what about your inefficient DoTs? Envenomed Bolt will tick up to 1278 damage over 8 ticks, but since the mob will die one tick early, it will actually do 1132 damage over 7 ticks. This means the Envenomed Bolt will be doing 3.5375 DPM.
Lastly, you have Cessation of Cor which will do 1100 for 250 mana for 4.4 DPM, with only 1 tick getting clipped.
What do we see happening here? Clearly, Pyrocruor is not the way to go. The mob may die in 10 ticks, but you're getting 2.775 DPM from it. Really not that great. However, you then have Splurt, Envenomed Bolt, and Cessation of Cor all offering some relatively decent efficiency, even when counting clipping of damage. So the difference is time. Envenomed Bolt is 3.5375 DPM over 7 ticks, Cessation of Cor is 4.4 for 11 ticks, and Splurt is 4.496 DPM for 13 ticks.
Lets think through this now. How long do you want to wait for the mob to die? If you're capping your mana, you can lose some efficiency to use a fast DoT. So, lets say you have 100% mana, you might not care that using Envenomed Bolt is offering .96 less damage per mana, because it is saving you 6 ticks worth of time. But then there's another dimension: Your CC! Lets say you have a mob rooted, and you're root rotting it. You've gone through 19 ticks, and roots will drop in 11 ticks. That means the 3 strongest ticks of Splurt will be when the mob has no CC. If the mob is free running, you lose 1/3rd of the damage. If the mob you're killing is living, maybe it will death walk instead of charge you, so you don't mind waiting those 3 ticks with it being not CCed. Or, maybe you decide that since roots drops in 10 ticks, you don't want roots to break, so you re-cast Paralyzing Earth (or you can spellbook swap to a shorter duration roots, but for simplicity, lets say you keep your bar the way it is). When you do this, it means that choosing to use Splurt wasn't just a choice to do 1079 damage for 240 mana, but 1079 damage for 340 mana because now you need to count the roots as a part of choosing the Splurt option. Suddenly, Splurt is 3.1735 DPM.
Lets assume you decide that you must re-roots if you choose to Splurt. Instead, maybe you should use Envenomed Bolt? In this situation, with roots breaking in 11 ticks, your Envenomed Bolt would kill the target 6 ticks faster than Splurt. After 7 ticks, the enemy would die. But also note that Envenomed Bolt can break roots, but it doesn't necessarily break roots. That means sometimes it will be 1132 damage for 420 mana, or 2.695 DPM. If roots doesn't break when you use Envenomed Bolt, then you get the 3.5375 DPM. You know that Splurt will be 3.1735 DPM no matter what due to needing to redo roots, but Envenomed Bolt may be 3.5375 DPM (if roots doesn't break), or 2.695 DPM (if roots does break). But also note that Envenomed Bolt will kill the target 6 ticks faster, so it may be in your favor to choose Envenomed Bolt over Splurt if you know you want to keep the mob locked down with Paralyzing Earth to the very end.
But of course, that's not really the best answer. You have a 3rd option: Cessation of Cor. Cessation will never break roots, as it doesn't have a DD component. Over 11 ticks, it will deal 1100 damage for 4.4 DPM. Roots breaks in 11 ticks, so you will not need to reapply roots, and the spell itself wont break roots, so there's no need to wonder if you will have to reapply roots like with Envenomed Bolt. It will deal 1100 damage to kill the mob for 4.4 DPM. So while you can think over and over about the relative benefit of Splurt and Envenomed Bolt in this situation, Cessation of Cor, because it doesn't get clipped, because there is no chance of roots breaking, it shines as the best DoT to use in the situation.
What if you are in a situation where you don't have to reroots on Splurt? Now it is 4.496 DPM from Splurt versus the 4.4 DPM from Cessation of Cor. Just as before, you're losing .096 DPM, but you're gaining 2 ticks worth of time since Cessation of Cor kills in 11 ticks instead of Splurt's 13. That's an incredibly minor DPM loss for 2 ticks worth of time which could be spent starting a new enemy to kill.
In other words, using the most efficient DoTs (Splurt, Pyrocruor) is not always the best call. If they cannot tick to fruition, then you'd be better off using a shorter DoT.
Efficient DoT Hypothetical
Now, lets look at the other side. If you're going against that same 5000 health mob, and he is at 100% health, what DoT do you use? The answer should be clear: Splurt. However, to kill a 5000 health mob with just Splurt, you're looking at 3 full cycles of 16 ticks (48 ticks) to do 4,848 damage, leaving 152 damage to be done. That's 4.5 minutes on a single enemy... That's slow. That is so slow, you need to start considering the enemy's HP regen as counteracting your DoT damage. This is how many Shamans solo. They maintain roots on a large number of mobs, and use their epic clickie effect which does a Splurt without the final damaging tick. Since the click is free, the only mana involved is the mana to keep them rooted.
Necromancers though, we have some other options. Rather than just using Splurt (1616 over 16), you can use Pyrocruor as well (2109 over 19). This is a total of 3725 damage over 16/19 ticks. Since both tick to fruition, you're getting the full DPM of each spell. It's 3725 damage for 640 mana, or 5.82 DPM using them both together. That leaves you needing to do 1275 damage. You can do this with another Splurt (with 341 overkill to counteract any regeneration), or you can do this with a Pyrocruor and lose a bit of efficiency from Splurt. This is rather similar to the situation in the Inefficient DoT Hypothetical. If you're impatient, you can use something like a Cessation of Cor to do 1.1k damage, and then add on a Direct Damage spell such as Ignite Bones to do 500 damage for 210 damage (2.38 DPM). Or, if you want to roll the dice on the chance of Paralyzing Earth breaking, you can use Envenomed Bolt which deals 1278 damage, 3 more than the HP remaining... But that doesn't give you much wiggle room on regeneration.
For this case, it would likely be best to stick with Splurt.
If you can get the full ticks out of a long duration, high damage DoT, use it. This is true no matter what level you are. If you are lower level and all you have is Heat Blood, but know you can get it to tick to its entirety, use it!
Direct Damage Hypothetical
This should help indicate to you that the last category (Lifetaps/DDs) are the most inefficient ways of dealing damage. You have lifetaps, which sap your mana for relatively crappy damage (but used just for the utility of the heal), and Ignite Bones which has a whopping 2.38 DPM. These are the absolute last priority, and should only be used when you need immediate damage and can't afford to let ticks do the work.
Also keep in mind that the numbers I am using here are based on if you were doing 100% of the damage. So, root rotting. If you were, lets say, charm killing, where the goal is to only do 5% damage to each mob, by making the charmed mobs kill each other. In this case, if you only have to do 5% of a mob with 5000 health, you're looking at doing just 250 damage. You don't want to even consider using Splurt there. Instead, you could use Deflux or Chill Bones for example, as the direct damage's inefficiency isn't as much a hindrance due to the low ceiling of HP you're trying to overcome. If you are Fear kiting a 5000 health enemy, you only want to do 2501 damage yourself, and let your pet do the other 2499 damage, so you want to use the best DoTs to reach that 2501 marker before your pet does. Splurt and Pyrocruor may not be the best options for getting to it fast enough, but you can also counteract that by handling your pet well.
Lets say you're under pressure and you need to kill something fast. Don't use Splurt or Pyrocruor. You want to use your faster, burstier DoTs. If you are not, you can be slower and more efficient. The slower and more efficient you are, the more you can do overall. The more bursty you are, the more AFK medding time you have to do. So when you're at an AFK camp where you're going to meditate for 5 minutes between spawns, go bursty if you want. If you're at an active camp where you always have new mobs, consider being more efficient, as slow and steady wins the race.
It's all about the situation. Hopefully this section has given you a way to think about how your DoT selection impacts your efficiency as a soloer. It would be far too time consuming for me to try to predict every possible situation, so what is important is to understand the way to think about your soloing efficiency. Most of the time, I doubt you'll be doing this math. You'll be making a judgment call. The better you make these calls, the better a soloer you will be. While you don't need to do the math that I do here, if you come away from this section realizing to not overkill, to aim to use just enough so that you have more to spread around, you'll be streets ahead.
Pet Management and Control
The Necromancer Toolbox
Feign Death
This is perhaps one of your most useful spells. Once you get this at level 16, there has never been a case in which I felt it should be dropped from my spell bar. This spell is your 'Oh shit!' button. It is the way you prevent yourself from dying in horrible ways while other people have to run for zone lines. It is the way in which you can pull off some neat splits and pulls.
Alright, so I have hyped this spell enough, what can you really do with it? Well, feign death is an aggro drop/wipe mechanic. When you're in your early levels, every time you feign death, all enemies are going to forget you. However, as you get up into the higher levels (around mid-30s), you will notice that if you stand up immediately, enemies will not necessarily automatically forget you. When you're in these higher levels, there is a progressive mem-wipe mechanic on Project1999 in which each feign death increases the probability of a memory-wipe occurring with the feign death. This means that with a single enemy, you can flop (feign death), and stand up. If they come back at you, you can flop again, and stand up again. Do this enough times, and they will forget you. Note, this is still based on statistical chance, and it is possible to roll 1s over and over... So be patient.
An alternative route you can go is that once you feign death, if the enemy is a stationary enemy, once they get back to their normal static position, they will mem-wipe themselves. So you can FD and then just wait.
Now there's a fun trick with the Circlet of Shadow. If you FD, then stand up and immediately click your CoS, enemies that don't see invis but do have aggro on you will not reengage. For see invis enemies, you just need to use the aforementioned strategies. For undead enemies, you need to use an instant clickie Invis vs Undead (Cloak of the Undead Eye). Sometimes, this invis will keep you covered until the memory-wipe... However, other times dropping your invis will re-engage aggro the same way it would be if you stood up. There are probabilities on top of probabilities here, so just be careful if you're under threat of death. In the words of Han Solo, don't get cocky, kid.
Perhaps the biggest thing to learn is how to safely FD. If you are hit with a spell while you are FD, it will break your flop immediately. In other words, watch your log... While you're running away, did something start to cast a spell at you? If so, wait for the spell to land (if you can), and then flop over right afterwards. Timing is key in tight situations, knowing how to predict when the enemy spell will land so you can pre-cast your flop. Additionally, any AoE effect like a Dragon's Roar (in raids) or a Pillar spell from an enemy wizard will knock you out of your flop.
Though this is more relevant for monks, if you have auto-attack on when Feign Death resolves, your Feign Death is an assured fail. Make sure you don't have auto-attack on. This isn't too big an issue for our spellcasting necromancers, but it isn't unheard of either.
This type of aggro manipulation is an incredible tool for a necromancer. For example: Lets say you have 2 enemies. They are too close to one another to pull alone, but you want to kill them. You could take them 2v1, but that would be a large mana investment and not worth the cost. So instead, you decide you want to "split" them. Cast Darkness on one (creating a snare), and both will run at you. Run away, let them get distance from their spawn point. Flop (Feign Death) and then the one that wasn't darknessed will walk home. The one that is afflicted by darkness will be snared, and so as they 'walk' home, they will stand still because they can't walk. Once the other one gets home, stand up, and murder the one that is afflicted by darkness.
You can also do stuff with your pet and his aggro. Lets say you don't have access to a long term root, and you don't want to use Darkness to split from a pack. You could instead use Screaming Terror or Root to keep one target in one place, aggroing the others. When this happens, you will have aggro on both. When the one that wasn't afflicted by your spell gets close, get your pet to engage that target (giving your pet aggro on the un-afflicted one). Then Feign Death to wipe your aggro from the memory of the one you afflicted with ST or Root. Once you stand up, you now have the other one all alone.
Learn to play with Feign Death. It is possibly the most invaluable skill you have available to you.
Harmshield/Quivering Veil
This is an interesting ability. For 18 seconds, you are made invulnerable to virtually all forms of damage from virtually all sources. You can hold back hundreds of mobs at once... However, the second it drops off, you're splatted. So the trick to using Harmshield efficiently is to make those 18 seconds count. If you can't get far enough away (ZL or otherwise) from enemies in these 18 seconds, you're just delaying death. If you can get away, use your Feign Death and all is set. This ability can also soak harm touches from high level undead enemies.
Note that Harmshield does not prevent DoT damage from ticking on you. If you're hit by a big AoE which has a ticking DoT, the Harmshield will only prevent new sources of damage, not the ticks.
Also note that Quivering Veil can only be used at night time, like Levant.
Levant
Levant is a fantastic spell you get at level 55. It acts as a necromancer version of the spells Evacuate and Succor. The basic idea is that it zones you to a different part of the zone. In doing so, you lose all aggro (as you do technically zone), and are teleported to a specific designated area. This area is not always safe, nor is it always where you'd expect it to be. Check the later sections of this guide for a list of confirmed Levant locations.
The only major restriction on this spell is that it must be used during night time hours, generally the same times as the undead in Kithicor are up. More detailed times will be edited in after more thorough testing.
Subversion
This is a spell line we get that allows us to burn our own mana to deliver to another person a percentage of the mana spent. In groups and raids, this is sort of the focus of many necromancers, though it is far from the only thing we do. When your group's cleric gets low mana in the middle of a big fight, the necromancer is the 'mana battery' which recharges the clerics and makes the fight possible. Your enchanter is almost OOM and he or she is holding down 3 mobs? This is where a necromancer shines. This is how a necromancer is the grease on the wheels of a well functioning group. A great necromancer in groups and raids is hardly noticed... Until they are missing.
Through the massive mana generation of the Lich spell line, we are able to quickly generate and distribute mana where it is needed on demand. Other means of mana production, such as an Enchanter's Clarity or a Bard's mana song are excellent for sustained mana gain, but the Subversion line (referred to as "twitching" due to the log emote that the target twitches) is the best for burst, on demand dumps of mana.
Do not underestimate this ability.
Bonds
Similar to how the Subversion spells allow you to give your mana to another player (though at a loss), the Bond spell line allows you to give your health to another player (usually at a net gain). You can regain your HP through lifetaps, feeding into the necromancer's machine.
Fun note: With Shadowbond, you generate a large sum of extra HP. So the heal gives +125 hp, but the necromancer loses around half that. So if you duo with another necromancer, you can both Shadowbond each other, and the heal from each of your shadowbonds will out-heal the negative recourse of the shadowbond, and the excess will go to healing the other person. It's like super regen, though it requires constant attention.
Circlet of Shadow
Perhaps one of the most essential items in the Necromancer Arsenal is the Circlet of Shadow. During Velious, this item will be nerfed to a Circlet of Shadows. If you're reading this and Velious is out, be sure to keep an eye out for that S. A Circlet of Shadows isn't all that useful. You want Circlet of Shadow.
This item is clickable from inventory and provides an instant-cast invisibility. This item is perhaps the most valuable clickable item a Necromancer has besides Journeyman's Boots. The boots are a close second, but the Circlet is still more important. I know it is tough to find the funds if you are new, but do whatever you can.
There are so many useful things you can do with this item. Perhaps the single most important use of this item is simply mobility. Never fear walking through dangerous territory ever again. Invis going to break? Just click it again. There's no limit to the number of times! There's no cooldown. Keep yourself blanketed in invisibility, and never worry about a giant walking up on you, a guard getting you when your invisibility breaks.
Second thing this item lets you do is helpful in bad situations. Lets say you pull three mobs by accident, and you're getting beaten down. Your reaction will be to Feign Death, of course, but then what... You sit there... And you wait. And you wait. And finally, after a while, the enemies will return from whence they came. But, with the power of Circlet of Shadow, you can stand up immediately after Feign Death, click your cap, and sit down and meditate. Note, if your enemies can see through invisibility, you cannot do this, as they will re-aggro you.
This item will also make it so you don't have to memorize Gather Shadows again to go invisible, and can instead use those spell gems for other spells. So you can be invisible at all times without needing to re-cast it over and over. This saves mana, time, and a gem slot.
Journeyman's Boots
Journeyman's Boots are an excellent item to keep a hold of while you play on Project 1999. This item allows you to buff yourself, from inventory, with a movement speed buff. Note, it is not as fast as SoW is. SoW wins out over the speed of 'Jboots' as they are commonly called, but the boots are always available to you. This item can be clicked at any level, so start planning to get one now.
This item is often something that is MQed, or multiquested. A multiquest refers to a way EQ game mechanics work with no drop items for quest turn ins. Say, for example, there is a quest where NPC Bob wants Items 1, 2, 3, and 4. Item 3 and 4 are both No Drop items, so they can't be traded. The intent here is that the person who wants to complete the quest must go get those items themselves. However, multiquesting allows someone to avoid that. If someone turns in Item 3 and 4 to a quest mob who accepts MQs (note: not all mobs do accept MQing), then the player who wants to complete it can turn in Items 1 and 2. Once all 4 items are turned in, the reward is given to the person who turned in the last item.
Getting jboots is fairly easy. The hardest part is the Ring of the Ancients which drops off Ancient Cyclops. Upper 30s, low 40s and you should be able to solo the one in Ocean of Tears. Often, people will sell that part of the quest as a MQ. Now be warned, the staff does not reimburse people for stolen MQs. Do not buy a MQ from someone you don't trust. Usually people in the higher end guilds on the server wont risk their guild membership to cheat a MQ. Most high end guilds are quick to distance themselves and kick out people who cheat others, because regardless of whether the server staff enforce MQ scamming, players still look down on it a great deal. If they are not of a guild you can trust, work out who trades first. You can end up paying after receiving the boots.
Stein of Ulissa
This item has a clickie effect to cast Reclaim Energy. It is really good if you need to drop your pet instantly and want to get the mana back instead of just telling it to go away. No major utility, just a good item to have in case you screw up a pull, and want to end it. Kill your pet with the clickie, feign death. When you stand back up, you can recast your pet for no mana lost (so long as it had full HP when you reclaimed it).
In the Temple of Solusek Ro, there are a number of class drive quests. The Necromancer quests are useful if you are still gearing up, but they are not the main focus. At this point, you can begin to do the quests from Vira. She is a Magician quest giver, but anyone can do these quests. All four quests reward an item that can be clicked from inventory to Reclaim Energy on your pet instantly. This saves you time from memorizing it repeatedly. This is not as essential as the Circlet of Shadow or Journeyman's Boots, but if you have some time, and feel like getting it, I recommend it. To look at each of the quests, go to Vira's page by clicking on her name, and look at the four quests she offers. No one of the items is any better than the other, so look for the quest that requires items you can get the easiest.
Leatherfoot Raider Skullcap
Another key item that every necromancer... Well, every player should have is a Leatherfoot Raider Skullcap. This item can be clicked from inventory to send you to the West Commonlands Druid Rings. It is instant click, so it can save your life if you're fast enough on pulling the trigger. On top of this, although it has only 1 charge, it can be recharged with the help of someone who has a charged cap.
What is recharging? Well, when a merchant has an item on him or her, the first item becomes the template for all further items sold. All other items sold simply increase the quantity of the first item sold. So this means, if someone sells their Leatherfoot Raider Skullcap with 1 charge to a merchant with room for it (always check to be sure there is room for the item), and someone else then sells their Leatherfoot Raider Skullcap with 0 charges, the merchant will now have 2 caps with 1 charge each. The same works in reverse, though you wouldn't want to do it: You could sell a 0 charge cap first, and then a 1 charge cap after it, and the merchant would now have 2 caps with 0 charges. It costs about 95pp to re-buy your cap, so around 190pp for your and your friend's re-buy. However, that's 190pp to save your life in an instant, or to get you to WC in a flash.
When it comes to getting the cap, it is a bit trickier. You'll want to look at the Leatherfoot Raiders quest page for extra detail. Basically, you need to get:
- 1x Shark Skin - Found from a shark, or some variation of a shark. Usually near Sister Isle in the Ocean of Tears, but there are other spots too.
- 1x Grizzly Bear Skin - Found in North Karana near the Gypsy Camp north of the wizard spires. Kill a grizzly bear until you get one. These are rare drops, so it will take a while.
- 1x Polar Bear Skin - Found on a glacier bear, a polar bear, or a polar bear cub (you monster) in Everfrost Peaks.
- 1x Alligator Skin - Found in Innothule Swamp or The Feerrott on some variation of an alligator.
- 1x Dragoon Dirk - Located by killing a Dark Elf Dragoon type character (hurting your Neriak faction), like Ambassador DVinn, Dorn B`Dynn, Ambassador K`Ryn, Dragoon Zytl, Dragoon Tsanne, or Dragoon X'Lottl.
Most of these items can be found on vendors. So be sure to dumpster dive for these items a bit. Low level characters can also have these for sale, so keep an eye out. The dagger comes with a Neriak faction hit, so you may want to just pay a small price or get a goodie goodie friend to help and just Feign Death to avoid the faction hit.
You can skip all this and just buy a cap. Check EC, they are not too expensive. However, if you want to save money and do this quest, gather the items with your necromancer (or other character), and then deliver them to a low level halfling character. Do the turn ins on your halfling character, and then transfer the completed Leatherfoot Raider Skullcap back to your necromancer.
Note: This isn't one big turn in. First, you turn in all the skins and you complete the first quest. Then, return the cap with the Dragoon Dirk to have it upgraded to the Leatherfoot Raider Skullcap. Be sure you read the quest page to avoid any mistakes.
Spell Clickie
Spellbook Organization
Understanding Camps
There's a lot of confusion that happens in EverQuest because of the idea of "camps". With so many players in the game, and a limited, non-instanced game world, there will invariably be camp disputes over limited mobs.
Camps were never something that Verant/SoE recognized, and still to this day do not recognize them. However, back in Classic, and on Live today, it is seen as courteous to respect camp etiquette. Unlike on live, the GMs of Project 1999 -do- recognize a general list of camp rules. Note, these rules do not bind them, as these are open guidelines. They will take every case on a case by case basis, and interpret to the best of their ability how to resolve the conflict in the way best for the server.
First, I recommend you read the Project 1999 Play Nice Policy. This will tell you what the GMs are aiming for from player interaction.
Now, I'll offer the best explanation I can of how camp rules work on the server.
What is a Camp?
- 1) What exactly a camp is is up to interpretation by the staff. They will always interpret things on a case-by-case basis. Source.
- 2) A camp is held when someone is clearing (killing) the mob which is claimed as camped. So if you are killing the Ancient Cyclops, or anything else that spawns at its specific spawn point, you can claim camp. Source.
How do you hold a Camp?
- 3) You can camp something without being nearby. So if you kill a mob, and then run off to go vendor, this is fine so long as you are uncontested. Once the camp is contested, and someone else wants to take the camp, you must stay by the mob to keep it camped. Source.
- 4) You can camp multiple things. So if there's a place where you have two mobs, and it takes a run to get from one to the other, you can camp both of these. However, if you are contested, and someone wants a camp, you must maintain presence at the camp you choose. So, you will have to give up one of your camps and stick to the other. Since you were holding both, you have the choice of which to surrender to the contesting player. Source.
- 5) You automatically lose the right to claim camp if you should, for any reason, zone out or camp out. This means if you die at a camp, you have technically surrendered the camp. If you have to log out for a few minutes, you have surrendered the camp. If you have to train to zone to survive, you have surrendered the camp. Source.
- 6) Often people will camp mobs not for experience, but for a specific item. Think of the Ancient Cyclops which drops the Ring of the Ancients, used in the Journeyman's Boots Quest. In the past, when people got the specific Lore item, they would kill themselves, and respawn. Then, they would loot their corpse of everything except the Lore item, allowing that corpse to act as a bag. This is commonly called Corpsing. Players can no longer corpse Lore items and continue claiming camp. Source.
- 7) You may not place a pet at a spawn point, and then AFK allowing your pet to kill for you. Additionally, you are not allowed to generate XP while you are AFK in any way. In other words, if you're camping something and someone sends you a tell, you need to be at your computer and able to respond to them. Source
How do camps move from person to person?
- 8) The person holding camp has the choice of who is to take over camp when they are done with that camp. However, that person must be at the camp before the camp owner leaves. If the camp owner leaves claiming someone else will be along to take over the camp, they have abandoned presence at the camp, and it is no longer theirs to determine. Source.
- 9) The person holding camp must be communicative about who is to take over the camp. If you show up at a camp, and someone is there, talk to them. Find out if anyone is in line. If no one is, ask them to have you in line. The camp holder cannot lie to you, say you're next up in line and then later say they are passing it to a friend. Additionally, the camp owner cannot just ignore you. If you are holding a camp, you must communicate with people who want the camp. Source.
If You're Having A Dispute
You should always try to work out camp disputes with other players in a reasonable fashion. You should never skip this step. GMs will be hostile if you do not attempt to work things about between each other.
If the conflict cannot be resolved, then use /petition. Keep in mind that petitions tend to end in lose-lose scenarios, and should only be used for real problems. GMs like to see that you've been reasonable, and tried to work things out in a decent way. If you run your mouth, act like a fool, and then put in a petition, they are likely to not be sympathetic to you. The ultimate goal of the GM staff is to nurture a healthy, fun gaming environment for all players. If you're detrimental to that, they are probably not going to support you.
If you've done your best to be reasonable and understanding but the problem persists, then do not fear sending in a petition.
One of the best ways to have evidence is to have your logs running. You can do this either by typing "/log on" while you're in game, or going to your EverQuest folder, finding the file "eqclient.ini", and then finding the line "Log=False" and changing it to "Log=True". This will make your game automatically create a text file of your chat log and save it in your EQ Folder under the "Logs" folder. By having logs, you can show the GM how you and the other person have interacted so far, your attempts to compromise, and the nature of the problem. Note, a horrible, painful death awaits any who is caught manipulating logs. They treat this severely. Do not do it. Just copy and paste.
UPDATE: /list
It is my understanding that the GMs added a /list command to help manage loot camp transitions. Please review project1999's website and forums for more information. As I don't play much anymore, I am not aware of the ins and outs of it so it would be wrong of me to do anything more than make you aware that it is a thing. If someone can edit this section to give a thorough overview of how the /list system works and provide sources, it would be much appreciated!
Section 5: Leveling Locations
The First 12 Levels
Many of the creatures at this level are not sufficiently strong to destroy you that fast, nor do they have multiple attacks. For this reason, it is possible to lifetap tank. By this, I mean that you can simply take melee attacks while spamming Lifetap abilities. By lifetap, I refer to the spell line that deals damage and heals you for the damage done.
The other style is close, but you basically will let your pet fight the mob until the pet is low health, and then you step in and tank the mob until your pet is healed. Be wary, you risk losing XP to Necro Note 1's rule.
If you already have some platinum to your name, you can get these levels with relative ease by pumping out quest turn ins. Quest turn ins like Deathfist Slashed Belts, Orc Scalp Collecting, Bone Chips Quests will help you immensely get through these levels, however, you'll probably need Wolf Form from your druid friend to do these.
These levels are slow and grueling, and there is really no perfect spot. I suggest finding whatever way through this you can. If you have access to power leveling, these are the levels to push through. You do not have the mana sustainability to effectively fear kite, you do not have roots, nor a charm. You're going to be blundering around getting any experience you can.
These levels just suck. Just push through the best you can.
Addendum by CupcakeValkyrie (Levels 1-12)
Depending on where you start your necromancer career, these are some helpful guides to lessen the pain of these initial levels. I won't be writing anything about Erudite necromancers as I've never played one and don't know anything about Paineel or its newbie zone.
Iksar: There's not much need for a guide for beginning Iksar, as the Field of Bone provides an excellent leveling gradient all the way from 1-12, and as the name implies, it's full of skeletons, so you'll have plenty of bone chips for pet summoning and targets for your undead-based spells. Iksar really lucked out with their newbie area.
Levels 1-3
Levels 1-3 will primarily involve lifetap tanking as described above, though if you happen across enough money the level 1 pet is at least helpful in adding some damage output to your toolbox. However, at this level the odds of your pet outdamaging you are good, and thus its chance of robbing you of 50% of the XP from kills. This is definitely a risk vs. reward option. This goes without saying: Prioritize your pet at level 4. If you can only afford to buy one spell at level 4, make it your pet!
Dark Elf: In Nektulos, stick around the entrance to Neriak and the large fallen tree known as the "newbie log" in this area. Remember to kill decaying skeletons as often as possible so you have an ample supply of bone chips. If you get lucky with cloth armor drops, you can wear them or sell the extras for the money you'll need to buy your spells at level 4. Sell. Everything.
Gnome: Steamfont is arguably the least forgiving newbie zone for a newbie necromancer. There is nowhere you can hunt that won't have either social or hostile mobs. From the Ak'anon entrance, head straight until you see the guard, then turn left. This area is where you'll spend your first 8 levels. Focus on skeletons and rogue clockworks, but be wary that the skeletons are social, and after only a kill or two you'll become KOS to the rogue clockworks. You'll also have to be wary of small coyotes, which are hostile and are level 2-3, so they can be a serious threat. Essentially, because all of the newbie mobs in this area are social, you need to be extremely cautious when pulling. As always, loot and sell everything you get your hands on.
Human: Both Freeport and Qeynos have good low-level hunting right outside their gates, though you'll occasionally run into hostile orcs (Freeport) or gnolls (Qeynos), but these tend to hover around level 1-2 so you'll usually be able to defeat or outrun them. Freeport's newbie areas tend to have more skeletons than Qeynos, so bone chips are easier to come by. Same routine applies here: Kill everything that cons white or below and sell everything you loot.
Levels 4-7
Dark Elf: Once you have your pet at level 4, you can move into East Commonlands. Here, you'll fight anything that cons white or lower. Note that the innkeepers won't do business with a dark elf necro, however the Freeport militia also won't attack you on sight, so you can safely rely on the guards for protection. One huge advantage to EC is that it's a main trade hub, so you'll almost always be able to acquire buffs that should speed these four levels along quickly. Also, there are merchants in the tunnel itself that will buy from pretty much anyone, such as the Shady Swashbuckler.
Gnome: At this point, you'll be eating a steady diet of kobolds. Just west of the newbie area are several kobold camps inhabited primarily by kobold scouts. These are almost always level 4, and are static spawns on 6.5 minute respawn timers. Several of these kobolds can be single-pulled without difficulty, just make sure you pull them far enough from the camp that they won't flee back into it. I highly recommend getting your hands on a rusty 2HS weapon like a two-handed sword or halberd, which are dropped by mobs in this area. Your pet will be able to hit for 19-21 damage with these weapons. While this does increase the odds of your pet stealing XP from its damage, the rate at which you'll be able to kill will easily offset this. Once you're around level 6, you should be strong enough that you can take on two or even three kobolds at once if your pet is armed with a 2HS weapon, and breaking entire camps should become possible, especially if you have Poison Bolt. The kobold camps should be enough to carry you all the way to level 8, and the nearby druid circle has a neutral vendor you can sell loot to without having to run back to Ak'Anon.
Human: Freeport necros can proceed to East Commonlands, and for them the advice is identical to Dark Elf necros, except as a human you can actually trade with innkeepers. For Qeynos necros, Qeynos hills has an abundance of mobs you can kill, but be wary of Holly Windstalker (Level 27 ranger) who will not only pose a threat to you directly, but is also social to wolves and bears and will assist them. You can also head over to the Blackburrow entrance and try to snipe the gnoll scouts and watchers in this area. There are several static spawns near the trees outside of Blackburrow where you can camp the gnolls for XP. Best of all, they drop fangs you can turn in for extra XP.
Levels 8-11
Dark Elf: At level 8, I recommend heading into North Ro. Here, you'll find scarabs, tarantulas, snakes, and some undead at the ruins depending on what spawns. Like East Commons, there's a guard here that won't kill you on sight that you can run to if you need help, though unlike EC there are no neutral vendors to sell stuff to.
Gnome: At this level, you have a few options. If you prefer to stay in Steamfont, you can hunt the skeletons at the dragon skeleton which provide bone chips and XP, or you can head north of the kobold camps and fight pumas, brittle skeletons, regular skeletons, and giant rats. If you choose to fight undead, I highly recommend getting Ward Undead as soon as possible, as it is a very mana-efficient nuke for undead targets. Otherwise, you can move to North Ro or even Blackburrow. I've known gnome necros that did Crushbone at this level too, though they sold their belts to other players rather than turning them in since Kaladim is very dangerous for a necromancer. Also, while Crushbone is very good XP at this level, you'll have difficulty selling junk with no nearby vendors.
Human: Again, Freeport humans can follow the same advice I gave for Dark Elves, or you can relocate to Qeynos Hills at this time, giving you access to Blackburrow, which gives dungeon XP and access to gnoll fangs for additional bonus XP. Also, it's important to remember that most necromancers like to camp Misty Storyswapper starting at level 12, and she's in Qeynos Hills, so you'll be in a good spot to start that camp when the time comes.
The Long Road to 60
Locations
- 12-16 - Misty Storyswapper (AFK), Oasis of Marr (Active), Sisters (Active).
- 16-20 - Kurns Tower (Active), Orc Alley (Active).
- 20-24 - Crag Spiders (Active), Aviak Guards (AFK).
- 24-31 - Cordelia Minster (AFK), Stronger Bards (AFK), Aviak Fortress (Active), Splitpaw Exterior (Active), Treants (AFK), Sister's Isle (AFK).
- 31-34 - Halfling Guards(Active).
- 34-37 - Toll Booth (AFK), WC Druid Rings (AFK), EC Druids (AFK), Dwarves (AFK).
- 37-44 - Oasis Specres (Active), Feerrott Spectres (Active).
- 44-51 - City of Mist (Active), Oggok Guards (Active), Bloodgills (Active).
- 51-55 - Felwithe Guards (Active), Neriak Guards (Active), Lower Guk (Active), Nobles (AFK), Bards (AFK)
- 55-60 - City of Mist: Cloud Stairs (AFK), City of Mist: Ramparts (Active), Howling Stones: Entrance (Active), Howling Stones: Basement (Active).
Locations Explanations
All locations will offer the following information:
Name: <Camp Name>
- This is generally what the camp is called, or what the mob is called at the camp.
Camp Type: <AFK/Active Camp>
- An AFK camp refers to a camp in which the player will be able to out-kill the mobs of the camp. So you will kill mobs, and then have time to meditate back to full. During this time, you can watch TV, play another game on your computer, read a book, and so on. But remember, even when at what I call an "AFK Camp", you still need to be active in killing the mobs as they spawn, and you need to be there to respond to tells that happen during the downtime.
- An Active camp refers to a camp in which the player will generally not be able to out-kill the mobs of the camp before they respawn. So you will always have something to pull, something to kill. All of your attention can be on the game.
Camp Strengths: <Why here? Experience? Money?>
Strategy: <Fear Kiting/Root Rotting/Charming>
Zone: <Zone name> (</who code>)
Description: An overview of the camp.
12-16
This is the beginning of a fantastic adventure! For the first twelve levels, you have just blundered around, whacked stuff with a stick, stabbed it with a dagger, thrown pet after pet at enemies... but you got through it! Now, finally, you can begin playing with style.
At this point, you'll have a few key spells you'll want to focus on using:
- 1- Lifedraw
- 2- Engulfing Darkness
- 3- Heat Blood
- 4- Leach
- 5- Fear
- 6- Poison Bolt
- 7- Dark Pact
- 8- Gate
Engulfing Darkness is your new, and the first truly effective snare you get. You want to aim to use Engulfing Darkness with Fear to control enemies, and keep damage off of you and your pet. Heat Blood is a new DoT you have at level 12... It does a good bit of damage over a long period of time, but it has a relatively high mana cost when you first hit level 12. Don't let your pet kill the mob until this DoT has ticked to fruition, and you shouldn't have much of a problem with the pet taking experience, especially when tied with the damage off of Engulfing Darkness. Use Leach over Lifedraw, as you'll get more overall efficiency from the DoT than the DD. Use Poison Bolt only to add small bits of damage, because as with all poison spells, it is quite inefficient, especially relative to the Fire DoT line (Heat Blood).
Use Gate as your escape button. If something starts to wail on you, and you think you're screwed: Gate. Just do it. You can't Feign Death yet, so you need to learn to use Gate as your get out of jail free card. Last thing to keep in mind is that you will want to use Dark Pact as often as possible. Keep Dark Pact rolling at all times. It has a short buff duration, so it is cumbersome to continually recast, but get used to it. It will get easier.
Oasis of Marr
Name: Oasis of Marr
Camp Type: Active Camp
Camp Strengths: Experience.
Strategy: Fear Kiting.
Zone: Oasis of Marr (oasis)
Description: The Oasis of Marr is situated on the eastern shores of Antonica. It is between North and South Ro, north of Innothule Swamp and Grobb, and south of Freeport and Neriak.
The Oasis is filled with many low health crocodiles that wander around the beach. If you head to the southern end of the shore, near the large mountainous walls, their numbers will thin out enough that you can sit down and meditate without too many patrolling enemies getting in your way. Additionally, the aggro range of many of the creatures here are low.
There is a huge danger here though, and his name is Cazel. Be careful of him. He will wreck you. He will one shot you. Apart from Cazel, you'll be dealing with some resist issues. If you truly are not comfortable, or can't find enough mobs that are not red to you, you can go back up to Northern Desert of Ro and kill some patrolling enemies.
Overall, just grab a mob, and fear kite it. Take this time, reflect upon how to maximize your outputs with fear kiting. Start to learn the way the enemies path, the way they run one direction, and will often turn. You want to get a feeling for how things move in the game while feared, and in the Oasis of Marr, the risk is very low. Focus on this, because understanding and getting a feeling for how mobs path will be essential to leveling up.
Misty Storyswapper & Guard Gregor
Name: Misty Storyswapper & Guard Gregor
Camp Type: AFK Camp
Camp Strengths: Experience, moderate money.
Strategy: Fear Kiting
Zone: Western Karana (qey2hh1)
Description: Misty is a bard in the north-western village in Western Karana. She is outside of one of the buildings underneath an awning. Outside of the building next door is Guard Gregor. She is a level 13-15 bard, while Gregor always spawns at level 12. Bards have remarkably low HP, but they can still hurt you. It will not be unusual for you to be fighting Misty when she is a red con.
She will be rough when you first get there, but you can kill her. You may decide that instead of pulling with Darkness to start the fear kite, that you send in your pet to let him get a bit of aggro. Just note that she will rock your pet. If you find yourself having too much trouble with Misty, you can stick to killing Gregor repeatedly until you're level 13. Both Misty and Gregor are on six minute respawn timers.
I suggest sitting and pulling to the hill to the north of the village. This will give you plenty of room to fear kite. Now, you may ask why I suggest you go to the north, when there is so much room down in the village. The answer is that there is a guard (Guard McCluskey) that regularly visits the village that you want to avoid. You avoid him by not sitting out in the open.
(CupcakeValkyrie): However, this guard is a member of the corrupt Qeynos guards, so depending on your race and deity, you may not be KOS initially. Either way, killing Gregor will quickly make you non-KOS to McCluskey.
Additionally, there is a merchant behind Misty's building which will sell to you at night. There is a separate vendor during the day and during the night.
Update: Her's and Guard Gregor's respawn times are confirmed to be exactly 6 minutes as of June 8th, 2021. I took the liberty of adding Gregor to the camp information, since he can also be pulled both independently of Misty and safely without agroing anything else. -CupcakeValkyrie
Aviaks
Name: Aviaks.
Camp Type: Active Camp.
Camp Strengths: Experience.
Strategy: Fear Kiting.
Zone: Ocean of Tears.
Description: When you're on the boat from Freeport to Butcherblock, you will pass by the Siren Rocks, and then dock at Reigh Island. After that, the boat will sail out toward Sister Isle. Before that, when you're nearing the second set of rocks, jump off the boat and swim north. You're seeking the Aviak Island that is there.
This is a neat camp, but you wont get too much money. Further, you will run into issues of higher level mobs spawning in the place of the lower level mobs you can kill. For this reason, I don't recommend this place until you're 13, 14, or even 15, so you can clear more place holders.
This is a place to go if you really want to be out of the way and isolated.
Sisters
Name: Jayla Nybright and her Sisters.
Camp Type: Active.
Camp Strengths: Experience, money.
Strategy: Fear Kiting.
Zone: Lesser Faydark (lfaydark)
Description: These sisters are a great place to go for new players. You can single pull them without social aggro, they drop bronze weaponry, you are near a zone line, and you can go over to Steamfont Mountains to vendor at the druid rings (note that this is also true of the WC druid rings, but NOT of the North Karana ones). However, at the time of this being added in, it is already a contested camp. Many people go to this camp for all the great advantages it offers.
Simply pull one out, fear her, and DoT her up. If you get overwhelmed, zone to Mistmoore which is to your south-west from the camp.
Levels 16-20
Kurn's Tower
Name: Kurn's Tower.
Camp Type: Active Camp.
Camp Strengths: Experience, Bone Chips, All Undead.
Strategy: Fear Kiting, Root Rotting, Pet Tanking.
Zone: Kurn's Tower (kurns).
Description: Kurn's Tower is simply a playground for necromancers. To truly abuse this zone, be sure you're using your anti-undead spells. Make sure you have researched "Hungry Earth", not only for root rotting, but also to keep the enemy off of you. Additionally, you can let your pet tank.
When you have hit 16, you also have Shieldskin. Many people overlook these spells at low levels because they have a material component... Do not listen to this reflex! Use these spells. It will save your life and help you get off the spells you need at times.
Spook the Dead is a cheap Fear spell that will hit undead. Fear kiting indoors is always a pretty shaky proposition. You can use Hungry Earth to stop the feared undead from going too far and grabbing adds. Remember that Hungry Earth roots the target, and will cause him to fight your pet. So, if you can, instead use Numb the Dead to prevent other undead from aggroing onto your feared enemy.
[Edit by Jabiku on 6 Feb 2021: On Green, skeletons do not social aggro. They will aggro your pet, but you can dot them up, fear, then just sit and wait for them to return to refear. From 12-17ish the secret room is great as your pet can help while it is in the room, then you can just call it back before it leaves and let your target wither. At 17 or 18, move to the lowest basement level. 20+ you can charm kill and just Spook the Dead on charm break if you don’t have Hungry Earth]
Orc Alley
Name: Orc Alley
Camp Type: Active Camp.
Camp Strengths: Experience.
Strategy: Fear Kiting.
Zone: Oasis of Marr (oasis).
Description: This camp is found on the far western part of the Oasis of Marr. Often, groups will camp at the invisible wall, but the area to the north and the south of the alley itself are generally jam packed with orcs. There is no truly "safe" spot to sit that I have ever been able to find, so you must be constantly aware of your surroundings while tagging and soloing down these orcs. Be wary of "a orc warrior", as that enemy is around level 20, whereas "an orc warrior" is closer to level 15.
Spell School Specialization
Congratulations on Level 20! Now that you're level 20, when you cast spells, you're going to notice that you gain Specialization skill ups in the various schools of magic. This enhances your skill in that magic to reduce fizzle chance.(Note that this statement is contradicted in the p99 wiki article on Specialization)
You get specialization in every magic school, but the first one of these to reach 51 will grow upwards of 200, while the rest will remain at 50. Only one school can go above 50.
Naturally, you want this school to be the school that most of your spells are.
I recommend you specialize in Alteration. Your twitch spells, your roots, your fears, your lifetaps, and most of your DoTs (but not all) are all Alteration, and so it is my belief that this spell path will provide you the best advantage in the long run.
Choose wisely. You cannot change this once it has been set. As soon as one of the spell lines hits 51, that is your Specialization.
Temple of Solusek Ro offers a quest Respecialization to reset specializations.
Levels 20-24
Crag Spiders
Name: Crag Spiders.
Camp Type: Active Camp.
Camp Strengths: Experience, moderate money.
Strategy: Fear Kiting.
Zone: Eastern Plains of Karana.
Description: In Eastern Karana, a crag spiders spawn at the bottom of the ramp that leads up to Highpass. These spiders drop an abundant amount of Spider Silk, allowing for you to stock up and sell out. This is not as profitable as being able to vendor bronze, but it is valuable.
The basic idea here is to sit on the ramp, or around the ramp, and to run out and grab a crag spider, pull it back and out of the area where the most of them patrol, and fear kite it. These guys do poison, so if they hit you, you will lose some health, and they can do some damage to your pet. There's truly nothing complicated about this camp. It's fairly standard and easy.
Squire Wimbley
Name: Squire Wimbley
Camp Type: AFK Camp.
Camp Strengths: Experience.
Strategy: Fear Kiting.
Zone: Eastern Plains of Karana.
Description: This cleric can be found at the end of the bridge in the Eastern Plains of Karana. He is a cleric, and so he will cast a DD spell that hits for about 50 damage. He punches for 20-40. The best thing to do here is to initiate with a Fear, and then grab him with a Darkness spell to snare his movement. This will keep him running and not casting.
As with many mobs at this level, it is entirely possible that you will hit a chain of resists. Another benefit to this camp is that you're at the bridge which leads to Northern Plains of Karana and can easily zone your aggro to avoid the spellcaster difficulties in Feign Death.
Breaking this camp will be harder than holding it. As a cleric, he buffs himself. So when you first attack him, he will have some wards on him, making him difficult to kill. But when he repops, he will start casting his buffs. So long as you catch him before he buffs up, you'll find he is much easier to kill.
Thanks to Necromancer Throssi for referring this camp and providing the information for it to be added.
Aviak Guards
Name: Aviak Guards.
Camp Type: AFK Camp.
Camp Strengths: Experience, Money.
Strategy: Fear Kiting.
Zone: Lake Rathetear (lakerathe)
Description: Lake Rathetear hosts a number of islands and banks alongside a huge water zone. Adjacent to this zone is The Arena, and outside of this are two Aviak Guards. These guards are a popular, and very good spot. You will need to struggle a bit at first in breaking these guys. The best advice I can offer is to send in your pet, fear one of them, and quickly burn down the second. Once one is dead, zone into The Arena quickly to clear your aggro. Head back, and now you have a split camp. This will be much easier when you have Screaming Terror.
This is a great spot because if anything goes wrong, you can simply run into The Arena to escape combat. Further, across the lake, on the north-east side of the zone, is a group of ogre merchants who tend to sell to you. I can confirm that both Iksar and Dark Elves can vendor to the ogre merchants there. Once you have stocked up on bronze weapons from the guards, sell them to these guys, and swim back. This is a great way to get your swim skill up, line your pockets, and gain experience. Alternatively, you can bind at the ogres and just gate to vendor and then swim back. Additionally, you can buy back a bronze weapon, as this will clear out your copper/silver/gold before platinum, and then sell it right back to convert your change into platinum. This is a really helpful way to bank while in the wilds.
Always try to position yourself so you're pulling them into The Arena zone line cave, to avoid the water banks. There are additional aviaks, as well as one of the locations Prince Kyrmt Keroppi patrols to. If you pull them into the zone line cave to The Arena, you're pretty safe.
Gargoyles
Name: A Gargoyle.
Camp Type: Active Camp.
Camp Strengths: Money.
Strategy: Fear Kiting.
Zone: Ocean of Tears.
Description: Take the boat from Freeport and head to Butcherblock Mountains. When you get to Sister Isle, jump off into the water, and swim to the south-west. You'll find a large grey island with a mountain. At the center, on top of the mountain is a spire with numerous spectres. Around the outer edge of the island patrol Gargoyles. Gargoyles are level 19(~) warriors that drop Gargoyle Eyes. They are stackable, light weight, and sell for a good chunk. This is a great way to fund yourself early on.
Goblin Bridge
Name:
Camp Type: Active Camp.
Camp Strengths: Experience.
Strategy: Fear Kiting.
Zone: Warsliks Wood.
Description: In the center of the northern part of Warsliks Woods, you'll find a bridge that goes from one end of the canyon to the other. On the west side, there is a camp. In this camp, you have a variety of different goblins. These will mostly be white/blue, but as you get up to level 22, you'll notice some becoming light blue (actually con green, but still give experience).
Now this camp is assaulted by roamers, so you need to be careful. If you stay on the path, you'll definitely encounter roaming Soothsayers (spellcasters). Stay instead to the north, or to the south along the ravine edge. Pull enemies down that way, and fear kite them near the edge to avoid aggro.
There are 2 mobs to the south of the camp which can be split with no additional difficulty. There are 2 within the west part of the camp, which must be split. And there are 2 next to each other guarding the bridge, which must be split. To split them, just darkness one to pull, run them away, and feign death. The one that isn't snared will path home, and the one with darkness will be rooted. Stand up, and engage when the other one has abandoned its friend.
Be careful about the bridge. Pit Fighter Dob can spawn and path across it and interfere if you're not careful.
Levels 24-31
Weaker Bard
Name: Cordelia Minster.
Camp Type: AFK Camp.
Camp Strengths: Experience.
Strategy: Fear Kiting.
Zone: North Karana.
Description: Cordelia Minster spawns near the North Karana Wizard Spires. She spawns and then after some time, patrols north to the Gypsy Camp, and to a house near the zone line to West Karana. When first breaking this camp, you must find her, kill her, and then camp the Spires where she spawns. There are guards nearby. So you must pull her away from the Spires and into the fields to the west of the spires before fear kiting her. Specifically, a guard does patrol from the bridge up toward the north end of the spires. Do not let this guard see you, as he is a red con to you at 24.
Remember that if you need to run away, you have a zoneline directly to the south over the bridge. Just be certain to use your Circlet of Shadow before running over the bridge, otherwise you'll get immediate aggro on the guards of the bridge. Better to go through invisible and let them aggro when your train follows you.
Update: According to some reports and some recent alterations to a source used for this section of the guide, the spawn timers for many of the bards have changed. It used to be 6 mins 40 seconds per respawn, but now it appears to be different. I cannot currently confirm the new respawn time, and I recommend you examine the 6-Minute Bard Diet page for further information on camping these bards. If you get accurate information, please feel free to message me in game, on the Project1999 boards, or on reddit as /u/SurrealSage. Thanks!
Update 5/21/2020: I confirmed the Bard spawn time at \\6:00// on Blue server around 6:45am. (Zugaikotsu - DE Necro)
This camp is "lower" for this range. If you wish a harder bard, look into:
Stronger Bards
Name: Travis Two Tone, Drizda Tunesinger, Dark Deathsinger.
Camp Type: AFK Camps.
Camp Strengths: Experience.
Strategy: Fear Kiting.
Zone: Nektulos Forest, The Feerrott, Innothule Swamp (respectively).
Description: Travis Two Tone in Nektulos Forest is somewhat near a DE Guard that pats toward the EC Zone line. Pull him West and over the hill next to him, and then fear, and he will path in the ditch. This keeps him secure, and you safe.
Dark Deathsinger is near Grobb, so be careful of Troll Guards if you are KOS, and in case they decide to KS you.
Drizda Tunesinger is well out of the way in The Feerrott. Fear kite with ease of mind and disregard for your surroundings.
Update: According to some reports and some recent alterations to a source used for this section of the guide, the spawn timers for many of the bards have changed. It used to be 6 mins 40 seconds per respawn, but now it appears to be different. I cannot currently confirm the new respawn time, and I recommend you examine the 6-Minute Bard Diet page for further information on camping these bards. If you get accurate information, please feel free to message me in game, on the Project1999 boards, or on reddit as /u/SurrealSage. Thanks!
Update(6/23/2018): I have confirmed that Drizda Tunesinger's spawn timer is exactly 22 minutes. I timed it on a stop watch. I haven't confirmed it for the other bards, but I've been camping her and Dark Deathsinger for the past two levels, and they seem to have the same spawn timer, so it is my guess that all three bards have a 22 minute timer. -Vermarion Mortis, 25 Iksar Necromancer
Aviak Fortress
Name: Aviak egret, Aviak rook, Aviak darter, Aviak avocet.
Camp Type: Active Camp.
Camp Strengths: Experience.
Strategy: Fear Kiting.
Zone: Southern Plains of Karana.
Description: Aviak Fortress, also referred to as KFC, is in . This camp is not an AFK Camp, as Cordelia Minster is, but rather, it is quite active. There are a great number of enemies, and they vary across a wide range of levels. Coming here at 24, you'll run into greens, light blues, blues, whites, yellows, and reds, all from the same camp.
First thing to know is that these things are indifferent to you, so you are free to run around them and near them all you like. However, they will help each other out in combat if they see you killing them. This makes your main difficulty in this camp being the ability to weave in and out of the red mobs and yellow mobs (unless you want to kill the yellows) to successfully fear kite without drawing their ire. Doing this is simply a process of looking at where the Avocets (the reds) are, and avoiding them to the best of your ability. Do not engage something in immediate proximity to an Avocet, and be ready to FD if you are testing out the aggro range.
Further, note that the reds, and indeed, greens, blues, whites, and the rest, will patrol around the outside of KFC, up in the hills and the plains. Each of the bird outposts surrounding KFC will have an Avocet on top of them, so be careful around those. Just watch your back, and keep your eyes open. Your feared mob will run wild, and you need to handle that well.
When you first get here at around level 24, you will see some enemies are green (Egrets, which you may often have to kill just to open up their spawn point), all the way to red, as I mentioned. As you level up, around 27, you'll see Avocets become Yellow/Red, so by 28, they should be White/Yellow. This means that this camp can remain more than reasonable for a decent amount of time.
Additional Points on Aviaks:
First: In my video guide, I refer to a Feign Death pull, and say I will show one. And then I forget about it. I remember after the next kill, and I forget about it again. So instead of redo an entire video, just accept I have shitty memory and read this:
If you Darkness an enemy, and you feel your Fear is too inconsistent on them (such as with a Yellow) to rely upon, you can Feign Death right after the Darkness. This will drop your aggro, and make it attack your pet. So, you can then stand back up, and cast Fear in safety.
Second: If you climb up KFC, and run around the outside of the central fort, you can find Krak Windchaser. He is an Indifferent to everyone merchant. Even Iksar Necromancers can vendor here. Sell off whatever you need.
Splitpaw Exterior
Name: A Tesch Mas Gnoll.
Camp Type: AFK Camp.
Camp Strengths: Experience.
Strategy: Fear Kiting.
Zone: Southern Plains of Karana.
Description: If you want more consistent experience without weeding through the different cons of Aviak Fortress, directly to the north of the Aviak Fortress is Splitpaw, with 3 talons jutting out of the ground. The gnolls will range from level 26-28. There are 4 outside: one by each talon, and one that patrols from the southern most to the middle talon. In pulling these guys, grab the patrolling enemy while he is between spires, and drag him away. Once he is dead, move through the pillars themselves.
Treants
Name: A Treant.
Camp Type: AFK Camp.
Camp Strengths: Money.
Strategy: Fear Kiting.
Zone: Southern Plains of Karana.
Description: These mobs spawn in the far north-east corner of South Karana. These two mobs stand near each other, but are not within social aggro of one another. You can more than easily pull and start a fear kite, but you'll run into one issue: they are spellcasters. Quite nasty spellcasters, in fact. So you may find some trouble in the camp at first. Trust me, this camp can have some nasty resists. These guys start out at around level 27-28, and when you fail to land a spell, they get to nuke the crap out of you. You may also consider casting Fear before Darkness, so that way the Treants do not get to cast on you at all.
But, they drop gems. According to Necromancer Pexsum, he earned 10k leveling from 26 to 32 at this camp in under a week (results will vary with amount of play). Should give you an idea of just how good the money is.
You lose some reps here, but you gain some really solid loot. This is a great cash camp, but it is a rough one to hold due to them being spellcasters.
"You can buy & sell nearby at the Centaur ranch. Buying a gold pendant for 15p from the vendor will eat up your excess gold and can be sold back for about 14p." -Nomster
"Binding at the centaur camp, and if the other items "to buy" are not available on the centaur merchant, bronze weapons are also a good choice to buy, and then sell back to convert your gold > to > platinum." - Seawalk
"The vendor Nomster mentioned above, Ulan Meadowgreen, does not naturally sell a gold pendant, but they will typically have large numbers of Great Staffs sold from people who camp the treants. You can buy them for 18p and sell back for 17p to convert all that heavy gold to platinum. Just don't buy them all, leave at least one on the vendor, or they'll drop off the list." -Otherperson
"Respawn time is 4 minutes, so if you attempt this at the lower end of levels expect it to be an active camp. Very little downtime trying to hold the camp down levels 26-28." -Gibanerer
Sister Isle
Name: Sisters
Camp Type: AFK Camp.
Camp Strengths: Experience, Money.
Strategy: Fear Kiting.
Zone: Ocean of Tears.
Description: Sisters are located on one of the islands your boat stops at on the way from East Freeport to Butcherblock Mountains. You will notice it has wood elves on it, which should tell you you're there. Jump off the boat, cast invisibility on yourself, and find a nice spot on the island away from others. Simply pull them one at a time, and fear kite them away from the rest. These are solid experience and can earn you a good bit of monetary income. On TLP servers these mobs are much lower level and not worth the trip to OOT.
2021 Update (Raolador): Be aware of the 2021 changes/bug to merchant aggro - the merchant in the main hut will social aggro onto you, and gives no xp. There are 3 named sisters which are easily solo pulled outside of the hut, it's best not to mess with the hut unless your kill rate is high enough. The merchant can be mezed while your pet tanks the other sister from inside.
Dalnir Caverns
Name: a skulking brute
Camp Type: AFK Camp
Camp Strengths: Experience, Money
Strategy: Fear Kiting.
Zone: Warsliks Woods.
Description: In the far north-west corner of Warsliks Woods, there is a cave system which leads down to the entrance of Dalnir. There are 5 static spawns of "a skulking brute" inside -- a trio and a duo. They con as "scowling" but will never aggro, not even social aggro. Safe and simple to fear kite when you're in the tunnels. They range in level from 22 to 25. This is a very popular camp, rare to find either of them open.
Levels 31-34
Halfling Guards
Name: Halfling Guards
Camp Type: AFK Camp.
Camp Strengths: Experience, Money.
Strategy: Fear Kiting.
Zone: Misty Thicket.
Description: The first big thing to know is that this camp is smack dab in the center of the zone, and a level 50 druid named Ella Foodcrafter runs past you often. The challenge is to work around her. She will destroy you.
The two guards of interest are located on the southern part of the wall. Approaching the wall from Rivervale, you'll see it stretches all the way north and south. When you approach it, turn left and head south down the wall. Take note of the guard tower to the left of the small archway in the wall. This tower has one of the spawns. While walking south along the wall, note also the ramp that leads up to the top of the wall. Lastly, near the southern zone wall, you'll see another guard house.
Once you've seen these two spawns, head up the ramp onto the wall overlooking the first guard tower. On top, you'll see a guard. Send in your pet to engage, and then back it off. Sprint down the ramp, and all the way south to the Zone Wall. Once you're up against the wall, snare him, and fear kite him. However, you should not keep him feared 100% of the time, lest he path into the way of Ella. Instead, let fear drop, let him run back to kill you, and then re-fear when he gets near you.
Once he is dead, he drops a spear which can be sold nicely. You may have to run as far back as West Commonlands to vendor to the Druid Rings merchant. Nevertheless, now that the first is dead, position your camera so you can look inside the guard tower you were fear kiting near. Target the guy inside, and pull him out with your pet again. Darkness and fear him as close to the zone wall as you can, and kill him.
2021 Update (Raolador): This camp is kind of abysmal. One guard can be gotten safely solo near the south end of the wall - the tower that is mentioned has a lvl 39 guard in it as well that will resist any attempt of Screaming Terror to split them. The 3 deputies at the center arch are constantly buffed by the lvl 50 wandering druid.
Splitpaw Exterior
Name: A Tesch Mas Gnoll.
Camp Type: AFK Camp.
Camp Strengths: Experience.
Strategy: Fear Kiting.
Zone: Southern Plains of Karana.
Description: This is identical to the 27-31 camp. Basically, you can stay there for longer if you like.
Vhalen Nostrolo
Name: Vhalen Nostrolo.
Camp Type: AFK Camp.
Camp Strengths: Experience.
Strategy: Fear Kiting.
Zone: Southern Plains of Karana.
Description: He's a bard. You kill him like every other bard. Just keep your eyes out for Cyclops pathers, and Grizzleknot, and you should be fine.
Update: According to some reports and some recent alterations to a source used for this section of the guide, the spawn timers for many of the bards have changed. It used to be 6 mins 40 seconds per respawn, but now it appears to be different. [Confirmed 6 minute respawn on Green 4/25/2021] I cannot currently confirm the new respawn time, and I recommend you examine the 6-Minute Bard Diet page for further information on camping these bards. If you get accurate information, please feel free to message me in game, on the Project1999 boards, or on reddit as /u/SurrealSage. Thanks!
Call of Bones
Congratulations on being of level to use Call of Bones! Unlike the previous versions of the Lich spells, this one will make you into a skeleton. The skeleton illusion modifies your faction with different NPCs around the game world. Generally, this will not help you with good people. However, it is strong enough to take an Iksar that is KOS in Neriak up to Amiable with most factions in Neriak.
Be sure to play it safe and spy out what areas are safe for you while using Call of Bones. It is just worth knowing that this spell does provide you with the ability to open up some merchants and areas.
Levels 34-37
Toll Booth Guards
Name: Freeport Toll Booth that you totally can't walk around.
Camp Type: AFK Camp.
Camp Strengths: Experience.
Strategy: Fear Kiting.
Zone: West Commonlands
Timer: 00:06:00
Description: This is perhaps the most relaxing camp for the XP payout. Basically, you have two guards side by side. Now begins more advanced necro pulling tactics. Not that much harder, but more advanced than just casting Darkness.
On one of the guards, you're going to cast "Screaming Terror". This spell stuns and mezes a target for 3 ticks. Casting Screaming Terror will pull the other guard to you. You will want to wait until the guard that is charging you is out of range of the other guard, and then engage him with your pet. Once your pet has engaged, you need to Feign Death before the Screaming Terror ends. The mob, still being on his spawn point, will reset his hate list so you are not on it when you Feign Death. Then, you can stand up, and then save your pet from getting destroyed.
Then, just Fear Kite the one guard. Once the first guard is dead, wait about 2 minutes. Doing this spreads out their respawn timers. From this point on, whenever one pops, kill it immediately and you wont need to fear for getting adds.
WC Druids
Name: Druids
Camp Type: AFK Camp.
Camp Strengths: Experience, Money.
Strategy: Fear Kiting.
Zone: West Commonlands.
Timer: 00:06:40
Description: Located at the West Commonland Druid Rings are 2 druids. You can split these in the exact same way I describe Toll Booth Guards, but you need to work around a few more complications.
First off, these druids are slightly lower level, so they are not as solid as Toll Booth.
Secondly, they are spellcasters. So when you Feign Death to wipe aggro on the second druid that you hit with Screaming Terror, you need to stand up quickly or else they will land a spell. It is best to watch the druid you pull, and Feign Death immediately after you get hit with a spell.
Third, they are spellcasters. In the past, you could organize your buff list to let you control what buffs/debuffs you dispel. Since this is no longer the case, you may want to fear first, and darkness second. This will be a bit of a headache, but it will prevent their DoTs from landing on you.
I highly recommend that when you Screaming Terror to pull, you run over the hill toward the wizard spires, and get the druid you pulled over that hill before Feign Deathing. This will provide you line of sight from the other druid, so if your Feign Death break goes wrong, you wont get attacked immediately by the second druid, as they can't see you to cast.
Luckily, once you get one feared, they are cake. The advantage to this camp over the others is the money. The druid at the rings will sell to you, and you can vendor the druid's fine steel and crap. Solid money income with modest EXP relative to tollbooth.
Be wary of patrolling griffins and giants. They are rare, but they can catch you by surprise because they are so rare.
Edit: this got to be the best / chillest camp for a necro in game, it's taking me all the way from 34 to 42! Decent cash too.
EC Druids
Name: Druids
Camp Type: AFK Camp.
Camp Strengths: Experience, Money.
Strategy: Fear Kiting.
Zone: East Commonlands.
Description: You can find these druids around (420, 3800) near the West Commonlands zone line. They are very similar, if not identical to, the druids in WC. So, read that description, and use it. The disadvantage of these druids is that you do not have a friendly merchant three feet away from you. But hey, they are still good money, and good experience.
Edit: Same experience as the druids in WC, however its on a hill, and their drops are way worse, they drop eventually some FS, but far and few between. Only do these if WC is taken.
Dwarven Travelers
Name: Dwarves
Camp Type: AFK Camp.
Camp Strengths: Experience.
Strategy: Fear Kiting.
Zone: West Commonlands.
Description: These guys are standing in front of the inn near the Toll Booth often called the Dwarf Inn because of these two enemies. It is the same procedure. Screaming Terror one, pull the other, Feign Death, and then fear kite. Do note that these guys will hurt your merchant reputation, if you had any. You're going to lose a lot of faction, a lot of reputation, while you're leveling. These guys are no different.
WK Cyclops
Camp Type: AFK Camp.
Camp Strengths: Experience.
Strategy: Fear Kiting.
Zone: Western Plains of Karana.
Description: Toward the middle of the zone, on top of a mountain, you can find Froon and Choon. They are two cyclops that are level 30. Any further description is forthcoming. You can single pull these, but note that they have a great deal of health (as they are cyclops) and are fairly resistant.
Note that they do have a longer respawn timer, so this will be an AFK camp.
Levels 37-44
Oasis Spectres
Name: Specs
Camp Type: Active Camp.
Camp Strengths: Experience, Money, All Undead.
Strategy: Fear Kiting, Charming.
Zone: Oasis of Marr (oasis).
Description: When engaging Spectres, you need to keep in mind that they are instant-cast spellcasters, able to fling lifetaps. So, your goal will be to keep them locked down with fear as much as possible. However, when you're at the Oasis Camp, you will approach them from a ramp. Send your pet in to engage the spectre, and then back the pet off to get the spectre over the edge of the ramp. Then, Darkness to snap aggro, pull him as close to the bottom of the ramp as you can, and cast your undead fear, Panic the Dead.
Since these guys are undead, you can do some considerable damage with your undead direct-damage spells for relatively cheap mana. This will also help you work on your Evocation if you do not have it trained. Additionally, you want to use short, hard hitting dots, primarily Venom of the Snake.
Simply move in a circle around the island, killing one after the other. Once the camp is broken, and all four are dead, you don't need to pull down the ramp anymore, you can just kill them up top. However, if you find that you can't quite push all 4 down, just keep pulling down the hill for safety.
Spectres are on a 16 minute respawn timer. This means if you can kill 1 spectre every 4 minutes, and meditate back the mana and sustain health, you can take all 4.
If you find you're not pulling enough, you can pull tower. To pull tower, move up the tower to the door, look inside (dont move inside or move in front of the door, be next to it and turn camera) and target the spectre by the firepot just inside the door. Send in your pet and have your pet pull for you. Back it off, darkness, fear, and all that fun stuff..
If you really want to kill the upstairs ones, you can target them by their scythes that stick out of the top of the tower. Using this, you can cast Rest the Dead to lull them, and then use either Cancel Magic or your pet to pull him to you.
Feerrott Spectres
Name: Specs
Camp Type: Active Camp, Charming.
Camp Strengths: Experience, Money, All Undead.
Strategy: Fear Kiting, Charming.
Zone: The Feerrott.
Description: These are located in the far south-western corner of the zone. Near a small tree on the southern zone wall, there is a fake wall that you can walk through. Inside will be two spectres, and a long cave system that leads to the portal to the Plane of Fear in which Cazic-Thule resides. You can screaming terror to split these two, or rest the dead, or however you like. The execution is the same as Oasis spectres, although these are not on the same long respawn timer, and should come back faster.
I was informed that these spectres are lower level than the Oasis Spectres. This seems reasonable given that Oasis Spectres are on a 16 minute respawn timer. I cannot confirm this, but be aware that these specs might be even easier to kill than Oasis ones. Also note that you don't have as much room to run in the Feerrott caverns, so you wont be able to kite and get out your spells as easily after chain resists. You should be ready to flop aggro onto your pet while trying to get your spells to stick when you hit a resist chain.
[Vokz] I was able to comfortably ride spectres from 38 to 47 or so before some started turning light blue. Charming is significantly more efficient than fear kiting here; charm one, run it into another, break when low, nuke both down. I was able to hold down specs 1-6 at the end, occasionally stopping to sell scythes to merchants (11p each).
Levels 44-51
City of Mist
Name: Arena.
Camp Type: Active Camp.
Camp Strengths: Experience.
Strategy: Charming.
Zone: City of Mist (citymist)
Description: In the center of the City of Mist is an arena. On each side is a door into the arena itself. Around the arena are a number of enemies. You can try to Rest the Dead to have an easy break, but it can be resisted and end up pulling a bunch of them.
You will have a far easier time doing this at 49, but it is conceivable to do earlier than that. Use your charm spell to grab one of the undead inside, and back it out. He will likely aggro others around him. While backing out, root the mobs that are attacking your charm. Rest the Dead will help significantly in making this easier, due to the inconsistency of Root.
Then you just charm kill until they are low, break it with your Circlet of Shadow, and then last-hit them with a lifetap.
Ogguk Guards
Name: Ogguk Bashers.
Camp Type: Active Camp.
Camp Strengths: Experience, Money, Crude Steins.
Strategy: Fear Kiting, Root Rotting.
Zone: Ogguk (oggok)
Description: Killing these is simple enough. They are warriors. Darkness, pull to the zone line until you know where they all are, and fear kite them. When you're 49, you can root rot them in place. These guys vary in level significantly, drop Fine Steel, and Crude Steins.
Bloodgills
Name: a bloodgill goblin.
Camp Type: Active Camp.
Camp Strengths: Experience.
Strategy: Fear Kiting, Root Rotting.
Zone: Lake of Ill Omen (lakeofillomen)
Description: You now have Dead Man Floating, which allows you to breath underwater, levitate, and have massive poison resistance. Use this to swim under the water of the lake of ill omen to fight Bloodgills.
There is really no trick here. These guys have the exact same health as Spectres, except now you need to use Invoke Fear rather than Panic the Dead, and you cannot use your undead only direct damage spells. However, with Asystole and Venom of the Snake, you should have no issue beating out the pet for XP.
Simply grab one with Darkness, dot it up, fear it, and sit back and laugh. There are four by the front door (on the western side of the building), as well as more on top of the structure, 2 at each corner. This gives you more than enough to kill to be constantly engaged. For the 2 on the corners, you will need to screaming terror pull some of them.
At level 49, you'll be able to start root rotting them more effectively than you could before. Additionally, you'll have Ignite Blood to do a lot of push over a long time, so you no longer need to worry about using a spell like Venom of the Snake which can break roots with its direct damage component.
Malman here to add some extra info:
Be careful about the barracudas, they are on the same faction as bloodgills and wander around the dome, the ruin top and near the beach. Barracudas have like twice the health of a bloodgill as well. Also southeast and southwest require splitting, preferably screaming terror and FD trick then snare. The entrance to veksar has 4 that don't need splitting, and you also have an 8 hour timer of the marauder, who drops a key piece for Veeshan's Peak.
Malman OUT!!!
[Vokz] As noted, Asystole and Venom together is enough to do more than 50%; I had a lot of success starting with Venom to pull, then Root, then Asystole, and just let it rot and send pet in around 60%. Most of the time this would result in the mob getting to 20% around when root broke, which meant it fled and no further root was required. Back pet off if needed to ensure DoTs go to duration. At 48, I could comfortably clear about 7 spawns. At 49 I became basically able to hold all 12 spawns down; I'd generally use Cascading Darkness and Root (twice), then send pet when Darkness was almost done - or substitute Darkness with Bond of Death + Drain Spirit if I had Liched low enough.
Levels 51-54
Felwithe Guards
Name: Felwithe Paladins and Clerics.
Camp Type: Active Camp.
Camp Strengths: Experience, Money.
Strategy: Fear kiting, root rotting.
Zone: Northern Felwithe (felwithea)
Description: Felwithe guards are a great source of experience for you, and a way for you to continue to use your necromancer abilities. There are a few ways in which you can do this, but first it is important to understand that you're fighting paladins and clerics, and so your enemies heal. So, you will want to be fear kiting. However, you can also root rot if you're careful.
For fear kiting, simply pull the guard to the zone line, line of sight them quickly so they path to you, and then engage with your pet. Darkness, fear, and kill them. You may wish to use your short duration fear so you can keep control of the enemy, and have him reset back to you near the zone line. Once it is broken, this wont be as big of an issue, but your first Fear gives you a lot more control, even if it is more upkeep.
For root rotting, you rot just like you would any other mob, but now, you need to do one of two things. First is you need to have Screaming Terror ready. When you see the blue lights fall from their hands, cast Screaming Terror fast. This will stun the target, and stop their spellcasting. However, your DoT will knock them out of it, so you'll need to be ready again. This is not a very effective strategy, and you should try to use your pet in fear kiting more than this.
The second thing is that once you root and load up DoTs on a guard, you can move out of line of sight of the rooted guard, and it wont cast its heals. However, this might be a bug (as only offensive spells should be limited by line of sight), and so could get patched out at any points. Do this with caution at first. If I hear that it does not work, I'll remove this section.
The Guards only heal if something is in melee range, so you only need to worry about line of sight if you're concerned about being Rooted or, rarely, dispelled.
(Malman here) i want to add a addendum to this line: You can also use walls for LOS to avoid paladins, and beware legver and mystup. Legver will walk to the zoneline, giving you more time to kill him, while mystup will walk past the bridge and stop. This distance that mystup stops at is enough to actually not aggro both bridge guards and kill him. Also to note: You can in fact root 1 guy past the bridge and not aggro, due to there being enough range to not aggro the other, but if root breaks and he runs down the bridge, he will aggro the other guy, and if he runs the other way, he will aggro the paladins and vendors, so i recommend to snare the ones past the bridge.
Lastly: everything here is on about 6 minute timer, so you might want to remember how long you are killing stuff, or bridge guard might aggro you like it did for me while rotting legver.(Malman OUT!!!)
---
Zone: Southern Felwithe (felwitheb)
In total, there are seven easy Guard spawns here:
- Guard Plage spawns just in front of the bridge going up to the tower, and will path into the tower before returning to his spawn.
- Guard Tynthal and Guard Psape guard the central tower on either side of the door. These are the only two Guards that need to be split.
- Guard Mystan is upstairs in the central tower.
- Guard Tistan spawns in the Enchanter guild to the east, then paths to the water's edge @ +480, -685.
- Guard Spioko spawns in the Magician guild to the north, then paths to the water's edge @ +565, -610. He'll be directly on top of Merchant Jewyln, but she is not social.
- Guard Golyn spawns in the Wizard guild to the west, then paths not quite to the water's edge @ +520, -510.
All Guards are on a 24-minute respawn timer. At 54, this camp is about 2%/cycle, or 5%/hr.
The raw cash drops aren't much to write home about, maxing out around 5pp but averaging closer to 1pp. However, the guaranteed Two Handed Sword each Guard always drops sells for 22pp, and they occasionally drop expensive gems (e.g. Emerald) as well.
Ice Giants
Name: Perma Ice Giants
Camp Type: AFK Camp.
Camp Strengths: Experience, Money.
Strategy: Fear kiting, root rotting.
Zone: EverFrost Peaks (everfrost)
Description: These guys are located in the far east of EverFrost Peaks. Inside the gates are two guard houses on the left and the right. Then, in front of you is a tunnel going into the mountain side. Down that tunnel is a patrolling enemy, as well as one in the alcove.
Each of these have ~4k hp, which is why I recommend this spot for this level range. Whether you decide to root rot, or fear kite, you will want the damage that Splurt puts out to really make this camp work to your benefit.
At this point, there's no real complexity to this camp. It is all very standard. You root the mob, you dot it up, and kill it, or you darkness it, drag it out of the castle area, then fear and dot it.
Neriak Guards
Name: Guards with Overly Complicated Names
Camp Type: Active.
Camp Strengths: Experience, Money.
Strategy: Fear kiting, root rotting.
Zone: Neriak Commons (neriakb)
Description: There are a number of guards in Neriak just past the Priest of Discord. Your goal will be to grab them, and pull one back to the zone line. They will path up the spiral stairs, and then you can use short duration fears to fear kite indoors. Alternatively, once they are up there, you can root rot.
The challenge you will face is that there are a number of guards all in a small area, so you will need to get more creative with your pulls. Lets say you invis in, you'll see the three in the guardhouse. You will need to root, FD, wait, stand, root, FD, stand, and run the third back to the zone line, root, FD, stand and then kill the 3rd guy you pulled. This is a large mana investment. Duoing with a Monk helps, as they can peel these guys a lot smoother than you ever could as a necromancer.
These guys are awesome experience more than anything else due to experience bonus the zone offers.
Lower Guk
Name: Undead Frogloks
Camp Type: Active Camp.
Camp Strengths: Experience, Money.
Strategy: Charming.
Zone: Lower Guk (gukbottom)
Description: To be honest, I personally abhor Guk. I just do not like the zone. I didn't back in 1999, and I still don't now in 2015. I've been down there a few times, but by and large, I never went there to study the camps. So, this is here to let you know that Lower Guk is a common place that necromancers like to go to level up. However, I can't offer you any advice on how to break camps, etc. Use the skills you have gathered leveling up, and you'll be fine. If you want more detail, talk to your fellow necromancers!
Nobles
Name: Nobles
Camp Type: AFK.
Camp Strengths: Experience.
Strategy: Root rotting.
Zone: High Keep (highkeep)
Description: On the second floor of High Keep you will find 2 nobles inside of a gambling room. Your goal here will be to avoid guards, root rot the nobles, and not get caught unawares by Isabella. Isabella patrols from the room with two bards opposite, to the Noble's room. So, look at the two doorways into the gambling room, and in the main hallway outside, you'll see a small dresser. Sit by that, or on top of that, with your vision looking at the two nobles, as well as down the hall. When Isabella comes around that corner, you stop everything and cast Paralyzing Earth.
The main way of breaking will be similar to screaming terror, but using root. Paralyzing Earth one of the two, and the other will charge you. Feign death and let him reset. And once reset, stand up. Since Roots doesn't do damage, it won't reengage when you stand up. Root the other, and then start rotting the one you rooted first using Splurt, Ignite Blood, and Bond of Death as needed.
Isabella is slightly lower level. Just root her and kill her as well.
These start to light blue out at 54, so you should probably move on to a different camp. Keep in mind when comparing EXP, that 54 is a double hell level, so it will feel very stagnant, wherever you go.
Getting Your Keys
There are 2 big dungeons at the end of Kunark era which require keys. The first is the Key to Charasis and the other is Trakanon Idol. The Key to Charasis will be easy enough to obtain for you as a necromancer, but the Trakanon Idol will (most likely) require the help of a druid, ranger, or bard buddy to be done in a decent amount of time. Since Trakanon's Idol is pretty simple, but not something your necromancer abilities generally helps you with, I'll just describe the Key to Charasis, which is also the more important key for us.
To get your Key to Charasis, you need to kill two particular mobs for a drop from Kaesora and Lake of Ill Omen.
When going into Kaesora to fight Xalgoz, you will find that he is surrounded by undead friends. I would be lying to say that this fight is an absolute roflstomp, so it is worth using some strategy, as Xalgoz dishes out some poisons, and can wreck your pet. However, this isn't a fight that will be too painful for you if you're careful.
First thing to note is that you are seeking a dagger from him. He will dual wield these, and have 2. You can find a partner to help you, without either of you being left out. You should utilize Numb the Dead to stifle the aggression of the surrounding enemies. I killed those outside of Xalgoz's temple with Paralyzing Roots and some standard DoTs for level 54. Once all these were cleared, including those a decent distance away (as healers can heal through walls), use [Numb the Dead] on the enemies in his room, and engage Xalgoz. Pull him out to you, and then have your Warrior pet engage. Your Warrior pet is going to get his shit pushed in. The goal right now is to Paralyzing Roots Xalgoz, stack up as many DoTs as you can, and then find the best place to hide outside of line of sight. This will prevent his spellcasting from hitting you while your DoTs burn him down. When your pet drops, and you're hidden, summon another and send it out. The more you clear before engaging Xalgoz, the safer, and easier it is to line of sight him. All around not too difficult if you are patient.
Loot one of Xalgoz's daggers for the first piece.
When in Lake of Ill Omen to earn your Prod, the second required piece, you will want to head to the Sarnak Fortress near the Frontier Mountains zone line. Go in through the main gate, up the ramp, and on the main platform, there is a doorway you can go into. Go into this, and down the hall, weaving through various turns, until you come to a large room with what seems like hundreds of Sarnaks. The enemy you want will be standing by the Throne at the center of the wall opposite your entrance (2 hour respawn timer on the dot, 100% drop chance). Invisibility up to near him, and get into a corner. From here, you're going to engage some of the surrounding Sarnaks to lighten the burden on the pull.
Kill whatever Sarnaks you can, taking careful note to root. When you engage the named, be certain to root him, and engage with your pet. Again, your pet will likely die tanking this guy, as you will probably get additional adds fighting in his room. Use this time to root up everything you have engaged, and apply DoTs to the main target. Your primary goal is to knock out the main target, loot his spear, and then Feign Death. Once you're Feigned, stand up and use CoS, and get out of there however you wish.
Additionally, while you wait, you can kill the sarnaks for a chance at a Bracer of the Hidden, which is a valuable clickie item, but also very useful for a necromancer, allowing you to keep your top buff slot filled with the clickie effect which can be easily removed for necromancer healing, or for dispelling offensive DoTs against spellcasters.
Levels 54-60
City of Mist: Cloud Stairs
Name: City of Mist.
Camp Type: AFK Camp.
Camp Strengths: Experience.
Strategy: Root rotting.
Zone: City of Mist (cityofmist)
Description: This camp is found on the second floor of City of Mist, and it leads up to the third floor. To get to it, you need to do some levitation tricks. Go into the City, through the main gate, and go to the right. Find the "temple" area. When you're there, you'll see a blocky pyramid, with a way to go inside. Go down the ramp and open the door, and go through the door directly in front of you. Go up the ramps, and you'll end up on top of the pyramid with two undead mobs. Use your undead lull spell to get past them.
Once on the top, look to your right. You'll see the supports of the roof are angled. Step up onto them, and look to the banner hanging off the wall. Levitate over onto the banner while invisible. Click off Dead Man Floating, and when looking at the wall, near the door, jump up onto it. Then, get Dead Man Floating up again, and levitate on top of the pyramid's roof. You'll see it has a spire. Run up it, and then get on top of the structure that the Pyramid is pushed up against. On the other side of it, you'll see a cloudy staircase.
On this staircase are 3 oozes. One is always at the bend, one patrols from the top stairs, all the way up, down to half way along the bottom stairs. The other goes all the way down the bottom stairs, and a bit up the top. Simply root these guys, and burn them down with your DoTs. The more you can stack, the better, as the faster these die, the less regen they get to counteract your DoTs. So stack up Asystole (or Cessation of Cor), Bond of Death, Ignite and Splurt to push them down.
Once all 3 are done, you can go to the bottom of the stairs, and walk through the fake wall. Inside is 1 stationary enemy, usually an ooze, and two patrolling enemies will come through. One will come from the door (behind you), and one from the ramp (in front of you). So, while root rotting, keep an eye out. You need to be paranoid here. But once they are dead, go up the cloud stairs, levitate back to the top of the building, and meditate to full before respawns.
City of Mist: Ramparts
Name: City of Mist.
Camp Type: Active Camp.
Camp Strengths: Experience.
Strategy: Charming.
Zone: City of Mist (cityofmist)
Description: Just as with the previous camp, this one is also on the 2nd floor of City of Mist. So, just as I described in the previous entry, get up on top of the house on 2nd floor. However, instead of killing the oozes, you're going to charm and kill your way across the ramparts. You see the door below you, that goes into the building you're standing on? There are others like that all around this second floor, and connecting them are walkways on the top of walls. A large square is the shape the center of these walls take. Your goal is to charm the undead on the wall, and kill the living creatures with them. Again, burn them down equally, and one shot them to finish them off.
A large number of enemies will patrol through the buildings, in an outer square that goes through the buildings. Always keep your eyes open, and on the doors. Always have Screaming Terror ready, and be trigger happy with it. Always use levitate to your advantage to make them path. However, it is *very* easy to cause a train in this zone. If you ever levitate away, Feign Death immediately. Once you're feign deathed, type /q to quit out. This will reset all of your aggro. It is reasonable for you to want to survive, but your survival cannot come at the destruction of everyone else in the zone. So, Feign Death immediately after levitating.
This camp is a lot more forgiving than Charasis, as you wont have to deal with harm touches. But at the same time, you wont get as much experience as you would from Charasis in this camp.
Howling Stones: Entrance
Name: Charasis Entrance.
Camp Type: Active Camp.
Camp Strengths: Experience.
Strategy: Root rotting.
Zone: Howling Stones (charasis)
Description: Howling Stones is a zone that we as necromancers do very well in. However, it does have some very dangerous challenges that are worth being noted. The first thing to be aware of is that you will lose Venril Sathir faction. This is the faction which the Overthere Outpost runs on. So, being in Charasis, you will end up becoming KOS to the Outpost. However, note that you can bank there while FD, and you are not in range of anything KOS when you hammer in using your Workers Sledgehammer. It is my recommendation that you surrender the faction due to the leveling efficiency you can achieve charming in Charasis, but the choice is yours.
When you enter Charasis, you will have 2 mobs patrolling around the entrance. These can be skeletons, or they can be living creatures. Please note:
SKELETONS HARM TOUCH
SKELETONS HARM TOUCH
SKELETONS HARM TOUCH
SKELETONS HARM TOUCH
SKELETONS HARM TOUCH
SKELETONS HARM TOUCH
SKELETONS HARM TOUCH
SKELETONS HARM TOUCH
SKELETONS HARM TOUCH
SKELETONS HARM TOUCH
SKELETONS HARM TOUCH
By the way, did I mention that skeletons harm touch? These will hit you for a heavy amount, and two will be enough to kill an unprepared necromancer. It is recommended that you enter with Shield of the Magi and Manaskin on. Clear out these two, and then you will be able to examine camp better.
From the center, there are 4 staircases. The East staircase is mostly fake, and you will fall through. Additionally, the East wing has a helot skeleton patrol out onto its' platform. This is an incredibly strong enemy, and not one to mess with right now. So, most of your time will be on the North, West, and South platform. Near each door are two golems. You want to Screaming Terror to pull them, splitting them, and then root rot. I have noticed that I get the best chances of wiping them out in one set of ticks if I apply Plague first, and then reroot as needed, followed by Ignite Blood, Splurt, Asystole/Cessation of Cor. Kill two, and sit on that platform, and do the same to the next two.
Watch the timers from the center so the two patrolling enemies don't pop on you.
Howling Stones: Basement
Name: Charasis Basement.
Camp Type: Active Camp.
Camp Strengths: Experience.
Strategy: Charming.
Zone: Howling Stones (charasis)
Youtube Video Link: Sesserdrix @ level 56
Description: Once again, this camp is in Charasis (Howling Stones). For this reason, be aware that you will lose Venril Sathir faction, and become KOS to the Outpost. Please read the first paragraph under the Howling Stones: Entrance section for more detail.
This camp is a bit nuts, but it is sort of the pinnacle of our soloing style. You need to blend clever root rotting with aggressive charm killing to keep down the camp, all the while random chaos will ensue from charm breaks, low HP, and repops.
First thing to know is that the far north wall, on the hill of dirt, if you are pressed up to the wall, you are 100% safe from aggro. Mobs will patrol near you, but never attack you if you are sitting against the north wall.
You need to be good at utilizing your resources for this camp. For example, if 2 of the patrols are undead, and the other 3 adds are living, you have a situation to handle. First off, you need to recognize that you are in a weaker position. You cannot charm the living ones, only the dead ones. Additionally, you need one dead one if you want the safest means of engaging the wings once the center is clear. So, you have 1 undead to push you through 3 living, and you need to avoid the undead. Be sure to root, to stack DoTs on the enemy of your charmed pet to make sure your charmed pet survives the fight.
Additionally, you can, after a kill, memblur your pet with Rest The Dead, or by Screaming Terror and then Feign Death. Do this, and the pet will regenerate 5% health per tick. Then you can recharm it, and continue on.
Every time you charm a creature, remember that it has a Harm Touch that it needs to expend. Always be ready to engage it. Do not charm a mob if you can't make it blow it's Harm Touch on a mob immediately. You do not want it to break and Harm Touch your face.
In Howling Stones basement, the magic number to look for is 6%. For the vast majority of enemies, if their health total hits 6%, one Deflux will kill them. So when you see your pet and its' target both reach low health, break with Circlet and cast Deflux to finish off your pet.
Lets say you charm a second pet, and engage a mob with only 20% left. Now, if your new charmed pet deals 50% of the 20% (lets just say the charmed mob brings the enemy down to 9%), the charmed pet will take 50% experience unless you break it. However, if you use an undead direct damage, and do over half at the time of the new pet, you will have the greater than half, and get full.
When going into the wings, you want to slide up to the sides of the archway without passing through, and click at the sides. There are enemies just inside each arch way that you can click. Select one, send you pet, and back your pet off.
(edit: Alt+O Target settings and change Tab to be "Cycle through nearest NPCs" which will help quickly cycle to root. If it is 4 mobs vs your Charm Pet, it will die before you can get 4 Paralyzing Earth completed. Sometimes use Immobilize instead and then reapply with Paralyzing Earth after. Or keep an additional root on Gems to use during Para Earth CD) Depending on the composition of the enemies, you can do one of two things. If you have plenty of undead, root all the mobs you get on top of one another This will allow for every enemy to attack your charmed pet, making them die faster so you clear the wing faster. The faster you clear the wing, the sooner you can engage the wing on a respawn without getting only a half-popped wing.
If you don't have a lot of undead in the pack, but a lot of living stuff, you may want to form a conga line. While backing your pet off, root an undead. Back off, and reengage another enemy quickly. You want to cause a small space to separate the enemies. Root a living, and do the back off and reengage again. This will cause them to form a conga line, letting your pet tank one at a time. This lets you keep your undead mob up for a good bit longer, as it isn't getting plowed by the swarm of them. It's all about judging what you can get away with when you engage a wing.
Lets say you approach a wing and you don't have a pet to pull. You can target a skeleton that is inside the room, and charm it. Now, the spell will grab threat before the skeleton you charmed will. This means that the adds in the room are going for you first, and their HTs are aimed at you. In this case, back off, use Quivering Veil of Xarn/Harmshield to soak any HTs, and use the 18 seconds to make your pet hit them all. Click it off and apply Roots as needed.
Alrighty, well... I think that's about it for basement. Take it slow. Start on just the main room... Then add a wing... Then the second. Work your way into it. As you get better and better at it, start going deeper into the wings and take up more and more of the basement.
This is an incredibly dangerous place that requires 100% focus at all times, as things can go bad very quickly. You can curb the chances with clever planning. Always be ready to break your pet and Screaming Terror (if >6% HP) or Deflux (if =<6% hp) him so that you get full XP for each kill.
Remember that the essence of charming is that your charm is doing 95% of the damage for very little mana, and then you get to kill your own pet and the enemy for 2 kills for very little mana cost.
Conclusion
Congratulations! You're level 60! You may ask, "Well Sesserdrix, now what? I'm 60, what is there to do?" Tons! If you haven't already, look into joining a guild. Work on reputation and do some of the great quests in this game. Learn tradeskills and give stuff away to new players. Find other necromancers and help them out. Heck, roll another necromancer! Might find it even more fun the second time now that you have a much more thorough grasp on the class. I sure did! You could also try new camp locations.
The next section will offer a detailed description of what it is that we necromancers can bring to a grouping environment. After that, the following sections of this guide will offer miscellaneous information about necromancers, resources that you will hopefully find useful!
Section 6: Additional Information
This section is for additional information... Anything that I can think of that can help you out. Feel free to offer suggestions!
Reputation Repair
Now you're level 60. You've spent 60 levels prancing through Norrath on the wings of not giving a shit about your reputation. Everything to you was experience, and everything to you was a source of health to drain. Looking at a guard, you did not think "Wow, look at that badass guard that just saved me from this griffin!", you thought "Wow, look at that experience pinata carrying 20pp of Fine Steel." Truly, this is one of the best parts about being a Necromancer.
And while this is truly great fun, and by no means has to end when you're 60, you may decide that now that you're level 60, you don't need to look at everything as potential experience... You have access to new ways of making money and maybe you don't care about that fine steel any longer. Maybe you'd like to have the reputation to do some important quest-lines. Or maybe you just want to walk around cities without getting pestered by annoying weak citizens thinking that they can take you out, and you really just don't want to expend the time or mana killing them.
Whatever your reason, you may want to repair your reputation. What I offer here is a basic layout of some ways to repair certain reputations without shafting your Evil reputations that you've come to know and love.
Freeport, HighPass, & Qeynos
Repairing these reps are quite fundamental to some important quest lines that you may find beneficial, such as questing out your own SoulFire to have some Complete Heals in your inventory. There are a number of ways you can repair the reputation, and many ways cause you to lose reputation with other reps. So, what I offer here is a path that will result in Max Warmly in North Freeport, West/East Freeport, Highkeep, Karana Residents, Qeynos Guards, Corrupt Qeynos Guards, Qeynos Cleric/Paladin Guild, Good Freeport merchants, and Qeynos Merchants. Your reputation with Bloodsabers (the Qeynos Evil guild) will be preserved, as well as the Freeport Evil guild.
Sir Lucan
This will repair your rep with North Freeport.
Kill Sir Lucan D'Lere three times or so. This gives you a huge faction hit to the North Freeport Paladins/Clerics, and will destroy your West/East Freeport reputation, in addition to some evil merchants. Lucan spawns every 12 hours, you might need some friends, but generally you can just tag the guy for the faction while others kill him for the SoulFire piece. Just keep helping until you can't go any higher. It doesn't take too long.
Brandy
This will repair your rep with Qeynos Guards, Qeynos Merchants, and Freeport Merchants.
If you're like me, a lot of merchants don't like you. Luckily, there's a solution! Grab a druid buddy with Group Wolf Form, and travel to Qeynos. In Qeynos, go to the docks on the southern side. Get wolf formed in the zone, and then go invisible. There are guild masters of the Order of Three (the Qeynos casters guild) who do not like you at all, even with wolf form, that patrol around the docks area. Have your druid friend to go the tavern near the docks and purchase you an insane amount of Brandy. I'm talking 30 stacks. Then, once stocked, you're going to do Rohand's Brandy.
You want to stand at the top of the steps inside Rohand's building while in wolf form. An Enchanter guild master (level 61) patrols around outside of the inn, but if you're at the top of the steps, just inside tradin range with Rohand, you will be safe. Be sure to bind nearby and be prepared in case you don't position well.
Then, turn in Brandy. You can only do it one at a time. Turn in more, and more, until you're out. When you run out, invis up, go to the nearby tavern, and buy more. You may have to turn in an insane amount of brandy. When you're Amiable to Rohand in Wolf Form, you should be free to drop wolf form and continue without your druid friend. Once you are capped on Coalition Tradefolk reputation, you're set.
Silver Bars
This will repair your rep with Qeynos Clerics, Qeynos Paladins, and Karana Residents.
This rep is tricky. If you want to get this rep up easily, you can give Lashun Novashine 2 gold over and over. But you will lose Bloodsabers reputation. I did not want to lose Bloodsabers, because I believe they have the coolest evil lair in all of Norrath. So, I had to find another way.
In North Karana is a man named Fixxin Followig. First, get your trusty Druid friend, and wolf form up in North Karana. Find Fixxin in the north of the zone patrolling in a rectangle across the northern side of the zone. Be wary of the two very high level treants that may or may not want you dead. When you find Fixxin, find out your reputation. Fixxin is on Karana Residents, and for me, he was Threatening con.
Once that's done, you head back toward the Qeynos area. Moonstones is a quest and an item that is associated with the Gnoll Fang questline in Qeynos. The basic rundown is that new players like to kill gnolls in Blackburrow, and loot Gnoll Fang. They then turn them in, and from their turn in, they get an insane amount of experience all the way up to level 20. However, once turned in, they receive a Moonstone. The Moonstone turns in to McNeal Jocub for negligible experience, and more importantly, reputation. Since McNeal is a merchant, he can never con lower than dubious, so you can always do turn ins.
Most low level players are not attached to their Moonstones, and for good reason: The experience is crap, and the pay out is crap. If you offer them 1-2pp a piece, you can turn them in, and get reputation with Qeynos Guards/Priests of Life/Knights of Thunder/Karana Residents. I turned in about 80 for safety. You can turn these in 4 at a time.
I then stocked up on literally thousands of Silver Bars, at 10pp a stack. I was ported by my Druid buddy out to North Karana, wolf formed up, and I conned apprehensive. I turned in about 1000 Silver Bars, and was able to turn them in without wolf form. I ended up turning in around 2500 Silver Bars to cap my Priests of Life/Knights of Thunder reputation, which was at absolute 0 at the start. You can only turn these in 1 at a time, and you get a book that is lore for doing so. Keep the book in your inventory so you do not have to keep deleting the book.
Further, Fixxin walks really fast, and he can be annoying. I recommend casting Paralyzing Earth on him, and then Feign Deathing, and standing up immediately to refresh your con. Then you get 3 minutes of turn ins (about 50) before needing to redo the roots.
Orc Scalps
This will fix up your West and East Freeport, your Corrupt Qeynos Guards, and your Highpass Merchants and Guard rep.
I have not done this yet on Uteunayr, so I do not know how my reputation looks in Wolf Form to the quest giver, but the basics of this is to do the Orc Scalp Collecting quest. Orc Scalps generally sell for 10pp a pop in EC, and are a great source of income for new players. Collect these, and turn them in to Captain Ashlan to gain nothing but positive rep with the evil/corrupt guards/merchants in Qeynos, Highpass, and Freeport.
Vendor Locations
Being a necromancer, a lot of places you go you are going to be hated. So, knowing the world is extremely important to learn. Knowing where things are ultimately help you have a better EverQuest experience. The frustration of imagining needing to go back to Cabilis every time you want to vendor is horrible. However, if you know the world, you'll find places to vendor no matter what.
Also keep in mind that using Call of Bones, Lich, or Demi Lich will make you a skeleton and modify your faction standing.
The following table can be sorted by pressing on the column you wish to sort by. Merchant Type refers to the faction limitations: Do you need skeleton form? Do you have to do faction work beyond? Or are they neutral (no faction)?
| Name | Merchant Type | Continent | Zone | Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Toxdil | No Faction | Antonica | West Freeport | Located in the far north east corner of the yard through an invisible wall. |
| Druid Rings | No Faction | Antonica | Lavastorm Mountains | North-West corner of the zone, just West of the big lava pit. |
| Gypsy Camp | No Faction | Antonica | Lavastorm Mountains | Center of the West side of the zone, just south of the Druid Rings. |
| A Shady Swashbuckler | No Faction* | Antonica | East Commonlands | Can be found inside the tunnel which leads to North Ro. Entrance is found in the South-Eastern part of the zone. |
| Druid Rings | No Faction | Antonica | West Commonlands | Found along the East side of the zone. It is just east of the Wizard Spires. Be wary of the two other druids on the south-west side of the Rings, as they are not neutral like the merchant. |
| Druid Rings | No Faction | Antonica | Northern Plains of Karana | Dangerous! Like other druid merchants, this one is neutral. Unlike other druid merchants, this one is surrounded by Treants, spellcasting druids, and even a Druid Class Trainer (level 61). Be wary. |
| Gypsy Camp | No Faction | Antonica | Northern Plains of Karana | Center of the zone where most of the paths converge. Be wary of random moving enemies. |
| Silna Weaver | No Faction | Antonica | Western Plains of Karana | This merchant only spawns at night in the far North-West of the zone. She is behind the building Misty Storyswapper stands by. The daytime counterpart does care about faction. |
| Ulan Meadowgreen | No Faction | Antonica | Southern Plains of Karana | In the North-West corner of the zone you'll find a set of unique huts in a small village. Inside the western most hut you'll find Ulan. |
| Krak Windchaser | No Faction | Antonica | Southern Plains of Karana | On the Southern edge of the zone you'll find the Aviak Treehouse. On the top level of it, on the north side of that platforms, you'll find Krak. |
| Turga | No Faction | Antonica | Lake Rathetear | Along the far North-East side of the zone near the zone line to Rathe Mountains you'll see a small collection of ogres and stone huts. In the northern most hut is Turga. |
| Gypsy Camp | No Faction | Antonica | Rathe Mountains | In the North-East of the zone, near the zone line to Lake Rathetear, you'll find another Gypsy Camp near the giant skeletons near (4000, 1400). |
| Troll Camp | Faction | Antonica | Rathe Mountains | On the West side of the zone you'll find a small camp of three trolls. All are merchants, but they are on some form of evil faction. |
| Qeynos Evil Guild | Bloodsabers** | Antonica | Qeynos Aqueducts | This place can be tough to find, so pay close attention to the map. Note: Though on a faction, this place is friendly by default to necromancers, even Iksar. |
| Innkeep Morpa | Merchants of Ogguk*** | Antonica | Feerrott | Can be found on the second hut to the east of the shrine in the north-central part of the zone. Just down the road from Bup. |
| Innkeep Gub | Merchants of Ogguk*** | Antonica | Feerrott | Can be found just to the south-west of Oggok by the river. |
| Bup | No Faction | Antonica | Feerrott | Can be found just to the east of the shrine in the north-central part of the zone. |
| Kogg | No Faction | Antonica | Feerrott | Can be found just south-west of Oggok nearby Innkeep Gub at the water's edge. |
| Rathmana Allin | Temple of Solusek Ro** | Antonica | South Ro | This merchant can be found in the far north west corner of the Southern Desert of Ro, along with an Orc named Ortallius. This orc is on the same faction. |
| Gypsy Camp | No Faction | Antonica | Oasis of Marr | Located in the center of the zone along the north edge of the Oasis itself. Be wary of Cazel and a Sand Giant. |
| Druid Rings | No Faction | Odus | Toxxulia Forest | This merchant can be found at the druid rings found around (1000, -400). |
| Druid Rings | No Faction | Faydwer | Butcherblock Mountains | On the North side of the central tilted stone of the druid rings you'll see Ellona, the merchant. |
| Druid Rings | No Faction | Faydwer | Steamfont Mountains | On the West side of the central stone of the druid rings you'll see Crisyn the merchant. |
| Klok G`rshai | No Faction* | Kunark | The Overthere | On the far east side of the zone by a small pond near the Warsliks Wood zone line. |
- * = Greedy Merchant - Doesn't pay as much for loot, and charges more for sales.
- ** = Although this area does have a faction, they are friendly to all necromancers unless you lose that faction. Even Iksar.
- *** = Call of Bones, Lich, and Demi Lich will let you use this/these merchant(s).
Buying Things in EC
Before you buy anything in EC, you will want to have an idea what the item is worth, right?
Well, lucky for you, there is a bot which records the auction channel in East Commonlands, and dumps the log file onto a website that you can search! If you go here to ahungry.com/eqauctions, you will see a search bar, followed by a bunch of green text. Type in the name of an item you're looking for, and it will pull up all auction lines which include the item name you state. So if you're looking for a Circlet of Shadow, type in Circlet of Shadow. Now note, some people in their /auc will say "WTS CoS", so for that, you need to look up CoS.
Levant Locations
This section is here because I have found from my personal experience that other evac guides tend to point to different locations as being the destination of the evac spell. Since it is possible that this is because Levant is actually different than Succor and has different locations, this list is one that I can say I have personally tested on Project 1999. I went to each of these zones, and collected this data, so this list is as completely accurate for Necromancer Levant on Project 1999. I cannot say this will be accurate for other classes with other spells.
Be aware: You can only Levant at night.
| Zone | Continent | Loc | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Befallen | Antonica | -75, 35 | At the zone line. Be wary of an undead mob that sometimes patrols here. But you're at least 55. You should be fine. |
| Blackburrow | Antonica | -158, 38 | At the Qeynos Hills zone line. |
| East Freeport | Antonica | -1097, -648 | Outside town near the Northern Desert of Ro zone line. You're facing towards town when you exit the load screen. |
| East Commonlands | Antonica | 9, -1485 | On the desert near West Freeport. |
| Eastern Plains of Karana | Antonica | 0, 0 | At the crossroads, to the East of the bridge from Northern Plains of Karana. |
| Everfrost Peaks | Antonica | 3139, 682 | Near the ramp up into Halas. Can see guards, but not in aggro range. |
| Gorge of King Xorbb | Antonica | -512, -21 | Just north of the zone line to Eastern Plains of Karana. |
| Grobb | Antonica | -100, 0 | Near the entrance to Innothule Swamp. |
| Halas | Antonica | 0, 0 | Right next to the Halas sign by two guards. You will aggro these guards. Level 40. Have Feign Death ready. |
| High Keep | Antonica | -16, 88 | Between the two zone lines to Highpass Hold. |
| Highpass Hold | Antonica | -14, -104 | Between the two zone lines to High Keep. You are in aggro range of the guards. |
| Splitpaw Lair | Antonica | -79, -7 | At the entrance. There are some mobs nearby. |
| Innothule Swamp | Antonica | -2192, -588 | Just north of Grobb, towards Upper Guk. Within sight of Grobb. |
| Kithicor Forest | Antonica | 1889, 3828 | Just outside of the hobbit hole that leads to Rivervale. Potentially dangerous at night. |
| Lavastorm Mountains | Antonica | -1843, 153 | Near the zone line to Nektulos Forest. |
| Lake Rathetear | Antonica | 4183, 1213 | Right at the Southern Plains of Karana zone line. |
| Cazic Thule | Antonica | 80, -80 | At the entrance to The Feerrott. |
| Misty Thicket | Antonica | 0, 0 | On the Clan Runnyeye side of the wall, just north of the gate. |
| Nagafen's Lair | Antonica | -424, -263 | At the zone line to Lavastorm Mountains. Be careful of enemies. None patrol, just a dangerous place. |
| Najena | Antonica | -13, 856 | At the zone line to Lavastorm Mountains. |
| Nektulos Forest | Antonica | 2055, -701 | Near the newbie log that is closer to the entrance of Neriak. |
| Neriak Foreign Quarter | Antonica | -3, 157 | At the entrance, near the zone line to Nektulos Forest. |
| Neriak Commons | Antonica | 3, -500 | Up the cliff from the Priest of Discord at the zone in. |
| Neriak Third Gate | Antonica | 892, 969 | Near the Innoruuk's eye symbol between Cleric guild and the city proper. |
| North Freeport | Antonica | -296, 221 | Just up the hill from West Freeport near the jewelcrafter building. Guards patrol at Levant point. |
| North Qeynos | Antonica | 678, 114 | Just outside of the gates. Some guards nearby, don't patrol to the spot. |
| Northern Desert of Ro | Antonica | 3538, 299 | Right at the start of the path in front of the Inn. Guards are nearby, and can aggro onto you. |
| Northern Plains of Karana | Antonica | -284, -382 | Near the Gypsy camp north of the wizard spires. |
| Oasis of Marr | Antonica | 490, 904 | Near Orc Alley, west of the Gypsy camp. |
| Oggok | Antonica | -345, -99 | At the entrance from The Feerrott. |
| Permafrost | Antonica | 0, 0 | There are adds that aggro. Be sure you have mana or FD to handle them. Weak adds, but sucks. Follow the South-East tunnel to get to the exit. |
| Qeynos Aqueducts | Antonica | 214, -315 | Inside the Shrine of the Plaguebringer, next to the zone line to South Qeynos. The zone line is to the east. |
| Qeynos Hills | Antonica | 508, 83 | At the crossroads in the middle of the zone. Higher level guard patrols here. |
| Rathe Mountains | Antonica | 3825, 1831 | Near the gypsy camp around the Lake Rathetear zoneline. |
| Rivervale | Antonica | 2, 45 | At the zone line to Misty Thicket. You are near guards, but almost near the guards. |
| Lower Guk | Antonica | 1197, -217 | Central zone line to Upper Guk. |
| Runnyeye Citadel | Antonica | -109, -22 | At the zone line to Gorge of King Xorbb. |
| Solusek's Eye | Antonica | -476, -486 | At the zone line to Lavastorm Mountains. Be careful of enemies here. |
| South Qeynos | Antonica | 14, 186 | By the hanging fish on the docks the boat pulls up to. |
| Southern Desert of Ro | Antonica | 1265, 286 | Just south of the zone line to Oasis of Marr |
| Southern Plains of Karana | Antonica | 2346, 1293 | Near the bridge to the Northern Plains of Karana. |
| Surefall Glade | Antonica | -66, 137 | At the mouth of the cave that opens up into the Glade. There is a guard around the corner. |
| The Temple of Solusek Ro | Antonica | 269, 8 | At the zone line to Lavastorm Mountains. |
| The Arena | Antonica | -41, 461 | Center of the arena, on the platform. |
| The Feerrott | Antonica | 1091, 902 | Just south of the zone line to Oggok. |
| Upper Guk | Antonica | -36, 7 | Innothule Swamp zone line. |
| West Commonlands | Antonica | 209, -1334 | Next to the path from the East Commonlands zone line. |
| West Freeport | Antonica | 335, 181 | Outside the gates, towards Toxdil's Tunnel. |
| Western Plains of Karana | Antonica | 12, -638 | At the zone line to Qeynos Hills. The zone line is to the west. Be wary, a guard and a werewolf patrol through this point. |
| Ak'Anon | Faydwer | 47, -35 | At the zone line to Steamfont Mountains. |
| Butcherblock Mountains | Faydwer | 2550, -700 | To the south east of Kaladim, over the hill. |
| Castle Mistmoore | Faydwer | -295, 123 | At the zone line to Lesser Faydark. |
| Crushbone | Faydwer | -644, 158 | At the zone line to Greater Faydark. |
| Dagnor's Cauldron | Faydwer | 2815, 320 | Near the zone line to Butcherblock Mountains. |
| Estate of Unrest | Faydwer | -38, 52 | Near the zone line to Dagnor's Cauldron. Head west to find the zone line. |
| Greater Faydark | Faydwer | -20, 10 | Near the bottom of a lift to Kelethin. A guard is out of range for a level 60. A second lift is over the hill to the north-west. |
| Kedge Keep | Faydwer | 14, 100 | In a caged room a decent distance from the entrance. You are underwater, obviously. There can be patrols. To get to the exit, open the gate, swim out, and straight up, and the exit is to the North. |
| Lesser Faydark | Faydwer | -108, -1768 | Near the Shadow Men camp. The closest zone wall is to the East, and you can get to the Steamfont Mountains & Greater Faydark zone line by heading north. |
| North Kaladim | Faydwer | 414, -267 | Just around the bend from the zone line. There is a guard between you and the zone line. He is not near enough to aggro at 60. |
| South Kaladim | Faydwer | -18, -2 | At the zone line to Butcherblock Mountains. Be wary that two guards patrol near the Levant point. |
| North Felwithe | Faydwer | -25, 94 | Near the zone line to Greater Faydark. Guards patrol here. |
| South Felwithe | Faydwer | 320, -790 | Just outside the cave with the zone line to North Felwithe. You are in aggro range of a guard patrol. |
| Steamfont Mountains | Faydwer | 160, -273 | Near the windmills. Ak'anon is to the south-west. |
| Erudin | Odus | 109, -309 | On the docks. Guard patrols here, but guards are weak. |
| Erudin Palace | Odus | 712, 807 | On the entrance pad. |
| Kerra Isle | Odus | 474, -859 | At the entrance. |
| Paineel | Odus | 800, 200 | At the exit to Toxxulia Forest. |
| The Hole | Odus | 640, -1049 | At the entrance from Paineel, on the platform before the elementals. |
| Toxxulia Forest | Odus | 2295, 203 | At Erudin's doorstep, within aggro range of the lowbie, high level guards. They can very easily aggro you when you land. Have Feign Death/Harmshield ready. |
| Burning Wood | Kunark | -4942, -821 | At the Dreadlands zone line. The zone line is to the south, and you drop out facing north. |
| Charasis | Kunark | 0, 0 | At the zone in. Two enemies patrol. Random between living/undead. Undead Harm Touch. Be prepared, ideally have Manaskin up. |
| Chardok | Kunark | 120, 860 | Between two enemies next to the zone out. This is a risky zone to Levant in. |
| City of Mist | Kunark | ||
| Crypt of Dalnir | Kunark | ||
| Dreadlands | Kunark | 2806, 9565 | Just south-east of the wizard spires, and west of the druid rings. |
| Droga | Kunark | 1375, 290 | In the first room near the exit to Frontier Mountains. There are adds nearby. |
| East Cabilis | Kunark | 1362, -417 | At a zone line to Field of Bone. |
| Emerald Jungle | Kunark | -1223, 4648 | Just outside of the Field of Bone zone line if you turn around and head West. |
| Field of Bone | Kunark | -1684, 1617 | At the entrance of the pit, North side of the newbie yard. Patrolling Newbie guard south of here, be careful if not an Iksar, invis or in skeleton form. |
| Firiona Vie | Kunark | -2392, 1440 | Standing on a hill overlooking Firiona Vie. No guards. |
| Frontier Mountains | Kunark | -633, -4286 | Near the Lake of Ill Omen zone line, facing it. Also directly south in the corner of the map is the Dreadlands zone line. |
| Kaesora | Kunark | ||
| Karnor's Castle | Kunark | 18, 302 | Next to the zone out points. Be wary of enemies. |
| Kurn's Tower | Kunark | ||
| Lake of Ill Omen | Kunark | 5747, -5383 | Outside of the Cabilis stone patio area. Within eyeshot of Cabilis. |
| Mines of Nurga | Kunark | -2000, -1762 | At the Frontier Mountains zone line. Zone line is to the East. |
| Old Sebilis | Kunark | ||
| Overthere | Kunark | -3500, 1450 | North of the Frontier Mountains zone line, overlooking the field. |
| Skyfire | Kunark | -1140, -4290 | At the zone line to The Overthere. |
| Swamp of No Hope | Kunark | 2761, 2945 | Directly in front of the East Cabilis gates. Be careful if you're KOS. |
| Trakanon's Teeth | Kunark | 3868, 1486 | In the far north of the zone, just south of the zone line to Emerald Jungle. |
| Warsliks Wood | Kunark | -1429, -568 | Down the path from West Cabilis. Seems safe from guard patrols. West Cabilis is to your south. |
| West Cabilis | Kunark | -783, 767 | At the Lake of Ill Omen zone line. |
| Erud's Crossing | Oceanic | -1766, 795 | Near the kerran village and kerran docks. |
| Ocean of Tears | Oceanic | 390, -9200 | At the foot of the dock on Sister Isle, right next to one of the sisters. |
| Timorous Deep | Oceanic | -5392, 2194 | Chessboard island. Safe landing spot. You're about 7000 north of the firepots. |
| Plane of Fear | Planar | -1139, 1282 | Near the south-west wall. |
| Plane of Hate | Planar | -375, -353 | At the zone in house. |
Words To Look For
The words listed here are the Words that create spells that can only be researched. This means that these Words are required for the spell. These are important to gather up, and save for yourself and your fellow Necromancers.
Additionally, player Smallpox created this spreadsheet for keeping track of your research components. Be sure to download it to your computer rather than trying to edit the version at the link. You can download it by selecting File and then Download As.
- Words of Abatement
- Words of Absorption
- Words of Acquisition (Azia)
- Words of Acquisition (Beza)
- Words of Allure
- Words of Burnishing
- Words of Cazic-Thule
- Words of Dark Paths
- Words of Detachment
- Words of Efficacy
- Words of Endurance
- Words of the Ethereal
- Words of Grappling
- Words of Haunting
- Words of the Incorporeal
- Words of Materials
- Words of Motion
- Words of Neglect
- Words of Odus
- Words of Possession
- Words of the Psyche
- Words of Purification
- Words of Radiance
- Words of Recluse
- Words of Refuge
- Words of Requisition
- Words of the Sentient (Beza)
- Words of Spirit
- Words of The Spoken
- Words of the Suffering
Section 6: Conclusion
That is everything! While there are certainly different places to go at each level range, these spots are the spots I have always gone to, and that I most prefer to go to. This guide will be outdated with Velious, which adds a variety of great locations. However, if you want a solid leveling progression that maximizes your experience, by letting you experience many different styles of playing your necromancer, than you will not go wrong by following this guide.
For those of you that do use this guide, I hope it worked out well. I hope the detail I offered has helped save you a vast number of deaths, and made the game all the more rewarding. I hope I'll end up seeing you all out there in the fields and dungeons killing all varieties of awesome things, because as necromancers, we are close to the most independent class out there. Enjoy it. Master it.
Good hunting!
