From Camelot Vault Wiki

This document is a collage of information from the Camelot Herald, DAoC Necromancer Fan sites and information drawn from the VNBoards page threads dedicated to the Albion Disciple/ Necromancer Class. Most of this information is subjective and based on player opinion of the class and class performance. The information might or might not be player tested.

Thanks to all the Players that spend time playing and helping other people enjoy thisgreat class and by doing so contributed directly or indirectly to this guide.

Race Selection

This choice is almost exclusively cosmetic. Your racial preference will likely have no effect on the performance of your Necromancer as base stats do not transfer to your pet except:

• Your Necromancer and pet shares a power pool and base their damage from the Necromancer shade (hints: intelligence is important)

• Constitution and Hit Points in general, at the time you begin to summon your pet, are factors in determining the hit points your pet will have.

• Dexterity help with shade casting speed.

Pets Hit Points and Casting Speed

• Pet base Hit Points:

About 1740 (abomination, greater necroservant, zombie, and lesser zombie) About 1670 (necroservant and reanimated servant)

• Casting Speed:

You can't "cap" pet casting speed like a normal caster, the pet has 0 base dexterity and is not affected by ToA casting time bonus.

With 101 dexterity from gear and max buffs from a 50 enhance bot... your pet can have 292 dexterity. That means that a 3 second spell can be cast at 1.84 seconds.

4*1.84 = 7.33 seconds for casting

With 25% duration bonus your FP window becomes 6*1.25 = 7.5 seconds

==> if you time it well you could get 4 casts per FP

==> you could do it with better timing and less than 25% duration bonus

==> if you are in a laggy area you're going to struggle.

If you're bot doesn't have the top dex/qui buff then pet can have 273 dexterity. That means that a 3 second spell can be cast at 1.95 seconds.

4*1.95 = 7.85 seconds for casting

==> you can't do it unless you face a very slow swinging opponent

Summoning & Buffing

YOU NEED SEPARATE SUMMONING SUIT & FIGHTING SUITS!!!

Put on your summoning suit before starting to cast your pet. Once you begin your pet cast you can start changing into your fighting suit. Back when summoning took much longer it was important to save all the time you could, so we tested to find out when the servant's hit points were set. They are locked at the start of summoning, not when the servant actually appears.

So fastest approach is to: 1. put on summoning gear 2. Start summoning 3. Switch to fighting gear while summoning spell is in progress.

Summoning suit can be anything you trade from your fighting suit. Consider using sword and shield (after CL 3) and a few other items for easy swapping.

Summoning suitshould give the necromancer:

• 101 Con (w/26 cap increase)
• 400 Hits (w/ 200 cap increase)
• Template Armor Factor has NO transferring benefit to your pet when summoned,

so no need to waist time or gold there

Fighting suit should give the Shade (paper doll):

• Dex 101 (w/ 26 cap increase)
• Int 101 (w/ 26 cap increase)
• 26 to all resists
• 30%+ Power pool
• 5-10% Spell Pierce (Cloud Song Charge can be used to give 5%)
• 25% spell duration (adds to duration of FP as well as other benefits)
• 10% Casting speed (Trying to cap 10% cast speed isn’t necessary unless using the Greater Necroservent.)
• 10% Spell damage
• 10% Spell range (There is currently an issue with +range and tether, the +rangehas to have no restrictions for it to affect the tether range.)
• +11 to skills
• Consider Stealth lore and shape changes when possible if desired
• When you have a pet summoned you will not be able to use item charges the way

other classes do. Skip adding DD’s, Cures and Procs to crafted armor unless you want them to proc or be a /use when you don’t have a pet up.

The summoning suit is easy but the Fighting suit has some difficult goals to achieve. It is possible to get most of them, so keep looking for ways to improve yours.

Item selection and repairs:

Anyone who has played a Necromancer for 30 seconds knows the items we use will be trashed quickly so be smart about how you use them and what you use. When you design your template look for items that do not lose durability or are very easy to replace for your skill bonuses. Items like champion weapon and bounty point items are good examples. I also advise you only repair items that have skill bonuses on them. If you use an expensive item with no skill bonus and repair it when its condition is low the durability will wear out eventually making the item useless. Letting that item stay at 70% condition indefinitely does not remove it’s benefit to you as long as it retains durability, so skip the repairs and keep the durability up unless it has plus to skill.

Proper buffing:

• The Shade gets Dex, Dex/Quick and Acuity (Str & Str/Con if needed to raise encumbrance for loot).
• Pet gets Base AF, Str, Str/Con, Con, Dex, Dex/Quick (Haste and Damage Add are nice).
• No other conic/stat buffs effect combat for damage or survivability and waste conic

RvR Spec

• 50 Sight 16 Pain, 12 Servant (best non-bot chain puller for PvE and has the best AF de-buff so it’s nice for RvR as well)
• 48 Sight, 22 Pain, 11 Servant (Better for RvR because of AoE Snare and AoE DoT)
• 41 Sight, 35 Pain, 3 Servant (Nice support spec in groups with survivability/DPSfor clean ups)

Regardless of my preference or anyone else telling you how to play your toon, Necromancers have a lot of choices. We can spec Deathsight for Life Taps, Painworking for DoTs or Deathservent for DDs or any combination of those lines. This gives our class an incredible range of diversity for play style and group utility. Experimentation will help you find your niche in RvR.

Realm Abilities

My recommendations in order are:

• Long Wind 1 + endurance pots (now useable in shade form) for sprinting.
• Purge 2-3 – I would recommend Purge 3 over damage RA’s, unless you’re low enough RR to limit access to it, because stuns can equal death.
• Mastery of Focus - Increases the level of all spells cast by the listed mount for out-right resistance purposes. (caps at level 50) Take this as high as you choose or until your primary spec line + MoF equals 50.
• Mastery of Magery - Additional effectiveness of magical damage by listed percentage.
• Augmented Acuity - Increases primary casting stat by the listed amount per level. (Adds to Power Pool and Magic Damage from Shade and Pet casted spells.) * Wild Power - Increases chance to deal a critical hit with all spells that do damage, including DoTs, by listed percentage.
• Ichor of the Deep - Spirit-based root plus direct damage spell. 1875 range with 500 radius. Damage and duration as listed. Two second non-interruptible cast time.
• Negative Maelstrom - A 2 second non-interruptible cast time cold based pulsing GTAoE storm with 350 radius. Ground target range is 1500. The damage of the storm grows with each pulse.
• Toughness - Increases hit points by the listed amount. (Good place to store unused points till you can put them somewhere more beneficial).
• The Empty Mind – Grants the user 45 seconds of increased resistances to all magical damage by the percentage listed. This only works on damage and does not affect the duration of crowd control spell. (Necro version transfers to pet.)
• Mystic Crystal Lore - Grants a refresh of power based on the percentages listed. Cannot be used when in combat. (Shorter timer then Raging Power but have to drop damage shield and stop all attacks for 10 seconds.)
• Raging Power - Grants a refresh of power based on the percentages listed. Can be used when in combat.

When considering RA’s that increase damage, players (including myself) believe that a combination of Aug Acuity and MoM are better then taking just one very high alone. This means Aug Acuity 3 and MoM 3 are better then MoM 4 alone would be. I try to never let Real Skill Points idol unused. I suggest using them where they can be most effective until a realm respect would make an upgrade possible.

Master Level Path

Stormlord:

• ML2 Vacuum Vortex - Ground targeted effect that pushes any storms near the ground target directly away from that point. 350 radius.
• ML10 Arcing Power - Self buff that grants the next non-area effect direct damage spell cast a radius, or increases the radius of an area effect damage spell. Turn that into an AoE LT…REAL nice!

Convoker:

• ML2 Prescience Node - Ground targeted ward (1000 radius) that can make enemy stealthers visible, without removing their stealth. Very nice to see stealthers if your camping an area or stopping to check a bridge…etc.
• ML3 Power Trap - Rune that drains power from enemies when it detonates (works only on enemies that have a power pool).
• ML4 Speedwarp - Ward that negates the effects of speed boosts for enemies who pass through it.
• ML7 Dissonance Trap - Rune that does 40% essence damage to the enemy when it detonates. Nice trap to pop stealthers or use in an area your camping.
• ML8 Brittle Guard - Summon a guardian who will intercept incoming melee attacks for you. Only one brittle guard can be summoned at a time. Closest thing we’ll get to blade turn, can be used to stop first melee blow or second arrow from an archer.
• ML9 Summoning Mastery - Boosts effective level of pets to determine enemy damage variance for spells and melee. Effects one targeted pet that you control. This ability is not a lot of use to Necro’s as we cannot use it on our pets, but it will effect our Crystal Titan to make it more resilient
• ML10 Crystal Titan - Ground targeted pet summon that has to grow to full strength before pummeling enemies. Hits for 1200 per swing. Useful in NF while sieging and for keeping new enemy players busy.

Champion Level Abilities

• Consider Spec Buffs. Especially on classic or if you run the lab or other areas where you’re likely to lose your pet between fights.
• Acolyte resists are nice and a group heal can help your group recover after a fight if you lack heals. The melee resist from that line is suppose to work on pet if you target your pet when you cast the spell (instant cast so not much time involved except changing targets), but it has a one minute duration and you can cast more important spells during combat IMO.
• Depending on your spec you might consider a damage shield (DS). I know, I know, but hear me out. The level 12 DS from the servant line is 5 DPS, the CL DS available to necro’s is also low DPS but it lasts 10 minutes and can be cast well before you’re in combat wanting to cast other spells. You can also cast it on group mates along with your ABS buff. /wink /wink
• I like the 5.0 Damage Add (DA) for the same reasons I choose the CL DS, you can share it, and it does not hurt to have.
• The CL Disease might be nice if you’re running in a support roll or have time during combat. IT is also helpful for people that try to kite you, if you can get it one them, maybe after your snare.
• CL Dot’s? With the ability to stack CL DoTs with your Spec DoT’s and both causing interrupts on every tic, it can make casters scream IRL

RvR Tactics

• Make quickbinds for attack and passive at least. The pet reacts slow enough as it is to commands and clicking pet window commands makes it worse.

• Try using Lesser Zombie Servant (level 4) instead of higher level summoning spells. Regardless of the pet you choose, your melee damage/pet shield defense probably won’t win a fight unless your opponent is afk. The Lesser Zombie Servant has a Stun proc that can be handy in limiting kiting and QC stuns/LTs. The Lesser Zombie Servant also has mezz and snare immunity. Keep in mind that this stun does start a stun immunity timer and your tanks will not like losing their Slam against any target you put a weak stun on 30 seconds ago.

• SNARE ON INC!!! When people run at or away from you Baseline snare. Get up to them Unbreakable snare then pet LT. The AoE painworking Spec snares are unbreakable and last long enough to be VERY helpful especially if you have + spell duration in your temp.

• Con & Str/Con Debuff everyone you fight as a first goal after you snare them. Also AF debuff tanks.

• Timing on Facilitate Painworking (FP) is very important! FP has a timer that allows for 2-4 pet casted spells during melee combat (depending on the spell duration percentage you built into your template) but that time can be wasted if you activate it too early or fail to fill your pet’s spell queue. If you know how many spells your pet will cast during FP (and you SHOULD…) wait for him to start casting the last pet lifetap/power tap, then resume casting shade lifetaps. When your FP is down and your pet is engaged in melee combat, you can shade Lifetap twice every time your pet swings. The trick to getting FP to work right is to ensure your pet’s spell queue is clear (this can be ensured by tell your pet to engage in melee combat). When you are ready to use FP wait till your pet swings, hit FP and wait for 1 second (a real one second matters but don’t waste time…practice is important to get the timing down), then cast your base (Pet casted) LT/PT. If you’re still having trouble with FP please refer to an explanation I found by Xavokal posted at the bottom of this page.

• Don't send the pet into melee if you can help it unless you need it for timing on FP or when fighting someone that is kiting you. Shade LT is the lowest delve spell you'll be using. Stick with Pet LTs and PTs if you can. However if your pet is getting beat on, you might as well let him fight and use FP/LT’s as stated above.

• AE unbreakable snare (from your spec painworking line) targets if you can.

• Use your Painworking DoTs and Champion DoTs on healing classes and other casters. They interrupt on every tic, unlike the other classes DoTs. Of course getting positioned to use the AoE CL ToT is best, it’s sometimes possible to use the single target CL DoT from slightly greater range for interrupts in casters you can’t get close to.

• Casters - When fighting multiple casters, if you can get on top of them, cast your PBAEDoT if at all possible, and then Con & Str/Con debuff them. If the damage you take will be too much before you can get there, use FP with passive and target one target then the other, while running with the shade to them, then have the pet catch up. As soon as you are within melee range, cast instant DoTs. Your shade spells 500 range. This means practically melee, so you might as well have the pet beating on a caster as well unless he is free to cast pet LT/PT’s for some reason. If they get the drop on you, open up with FP and LT them a few times while you edge up with the shade. Hopefully you'll be able to close the Shade LT range and keep them interrupted while the pet closes in.

• Melees – AF debuff the tank you’re attacking first. Multiple melees can become a problem, but it depends on what you are facing. Start with Con & Str/Con debuffs. Target the weakest opponent first, and that’s usually the lower levels or the non heavy tanks unless one is already low health. Reducing their DPS ASAP is your first priority here. Dedicate all your DPS on one target at a time. Use your FP-LTs and Purge stuns as soon as you can. After you cast your pet LT’s, start casting several instants and you can often get a large 'burst' of DPS on the target.

• Kiters – LW1 + endurance and invigoration pots, and you can win. Pay attention to your environment, this means knowing where your enemies are leading you. First spell you should cast is your base line snare, Con and Str/Con debuffs. Allow your pet to melee the target as he kites. It's not going to kill them as fast as casting, but if they're running, they're not attacking you. Keeping them in combat will impact their health, endurance and power regeneration rates. If they stop to turn on you, cast your FP and LT. Once their life is at 50% or so, depending on the target, stop and cast your AE snare and then cast your LT as much as you can. Keeping your opponent in combat is crucial here. Once the target has reached 30% or lower, they have reached a speed that they can not sufficiently run from you at full speed.

• Duo’s + can be hard.

• Archer’s count as casters unless they are stupid enough to melee us. Use DoTs to interrupt casters, use AoE root to limit kiting and debuff str/con + con in each fight.

• If one can heal and the healer's foolish enough to stay near the tank or caster, walk the shade towards the healer while the pet stays on the Tank/caster and hit him with a Shade DoT from PW. FP+Spec AoE Snare followed by a LT or two, then close to melee. Our Snare is unbreakable, so you should be able to get to melee. Once at melee, pray for a stun Proc from Lesser Zombie then Shade LT a couple of times. If it’s a caster and healer, interrupt both and determine if you can kill either fast (healer might be harder unless you can’t keep the caster from getting heals).

• If both are tanks use standard tactics killing the easiest one first.

• If both are casters interrupt the first one and FP/AoE Root then LT second one or use shade cast LT/DoT to interrupt second if you’re close enough then LT second one down. Return to first one and finish him using standard tactics

PETS

Where the notes say "resistant to Root and Mesmerize spells" they mean 100% immunity. They're not even interrupted. That makes these optimal choices IMHO.

From the Patch note found on the Camelot Herald for patch 1.87 http://support.darkageofcamelot.com/kb/article.php?id=902

Necromancers

- The level cap on each of the Necromancer's pets has been removed. All of the summon spells should now summon a pet at 88% of the casters level, so that the Necromancer may use any pet they wish at any level like other pet casters. The one exception is the level 1 version of the summon, as it will summon a 100% pet with a cap of level 2. This is being left in place so that the Necromancer is viable until level 4 when they receive the second summoning spell.

- All Necromancer pets are now one level higher when summoned. This means that they cap out now at level 45 instead of level 44.

- All Necromancer pets have gained a new PvE taunt ability called Enrage. This functions as an offensive proc buff that is cast by the pet when commanded via keyword or menu options.

- All Necromancer pet summons have had their cast time reduced by half.

- All Necromancer pet cast buffs are able to be cast while moving.

- The following elixirs can now be used while in shade form: Elixir of Strength, Elixir of Dexterity, Elixir of Fortitude, Elixir of Enlightenment, Elixir of Deftness and Elixir of Might.

- Endurance and Invigoration potions will now be useable in shadeform.

The following changes have been made to the Lesser Zombie servant:

- Has a chance to double swing.

- Has had its attack speed slowed slightly.

- Has a chance to proc a short duration stun that triggers immunity.

- Has had its defense and hit point values increased slightly.

- Is resistant to Root and Mesmerize spells.

The following changes have been made to the Zombie Servant:

- Has a chance to double swing.

- Has had its attack speed slowed slightly.

- Has a chance to proc an absorption Debuff.

- Has had its defense and hit point values increased slightly.

- Is resistant to Root and Mesmerize spells.

The following changes have been made to the Reanimated Servant:

- It can now evade.

- It has had its defense value increased slightly.

- It can now use thrust styles.

The following changes have been made to the Necroservant:

- It has had its defense and offensive value increased slightly.

- It can now use slash styles.

- It can now use shield styles.

The following changes have been made to the Greater Necroservant:

-Abominations have had their inherent built in penalties to hit points and defense removed.

- It has had its offensive and hit point value increased slightly.

- It now has a chance to evade.

- It can now use critical styles.

- On spawn and via keyword command it will cast a Strength and Dexterity Buff on itself.

- Necromancers will now be able to choose which weapon type and proc type their

Abomination wields.

- When summoning the pet, the owner will see a prompt to target and talk to their pet by saying a particular key word - Arawn. This will bring up a menu that displays the various weapon/proc choices via key words. The choices are: fiery sword, icy sword, poisonous sword, flaming mace, frozen mace and venomous mace.

There are two base weapons:

- Two-handed sword and two-handed mace. The three other choices are a fire proc, cold proc and poison (body damage) proc and the weapons have appropriate glow effects representing their damage proc. Primary weapon damage is slash and crush.

Facilitate Painworking explained by Xavokal

http://vnboards.ign.com/albion_disciple_discussion/b22324/92364984/p1/?9

Here is how Facilitate Pain works:

Your pet has 2 spell queue slots, and one swing slot open. We will name them Q1 for Queue 1, Q2 for queue 2, and simply swing for its swing slot.

First, let’s tackle passive and defensive modes. It is important to note, that except for timing the pet swing it makes no difference as to what mode your pet is in for purposes of getting FP to work.

While on passive mode your pet WILL swing if the following three conditions have been met:

1) A monster/player had attacked your pet, or holds some form of "aggro" with pet.

2) The entity who holds aggro is within melee range of your pet