O
old.Wildfire
Guest
So I've bought SI.
So I've levelled my necro to 50.
So I've played him in RvR.
What do I think?
Well the class in principle is very cool - DAoC's first true hybrid tank mage. While the abomination doesn't have quite the same nuking power as a cloth caster, it's a brick in melee as well. Earlier this evening I was the last man standing at AMG, and faced off against a zerker, skald and hunter at the same time. While I didn't win, I did manage to get the zerker down to about 10% health (thought I was gonna get him
), and the fight lasted a good 20-30 seconds. Count it, thats quite a long time.
However, I do have a number of concerns. Information on the necromancer is sparse. No-one really knows how to properly buff one, or why certain problems happen. If anyone could direct me to answers to any of the following it would be appreciated. Also feel free to post bugs you've found with the class as well.
1) Mana draining - You see an enemy, run towards him, and spam your nuke button to try and get the first cast. If you're a cloth caster, you're fine. However, if you do this as a necro, your mana bar drops straight out, and you're left with nothing. As it stands, mana is charged when you press the button, NOT when the spell casts. I've been OOP so many times due to this already, and is perhaps the most frustrating of all the bugs.
2) Buffs - as mentioned before, no-one really knows how to buff a necromancer. Is it worth putting dex buffs on both the pet and the shade? Just on the pet? Just on the shade? I'll stick my neck out here and say that mythic really need to standardise buffing for necros. Whether someone clicks on you, your pet, or your name in a group window, the buff they then cast should land on the pet. This buff should display at the top of the player's screen as if it were in effect on themselves.
3) Heals - linked with #2, there is currently no way for a necromancer's pet to be healed in-combat without directly clicking on it. If you click on the necromancer's name in the group window or mini-group window, the heal will land on the shade. I'm amazed something like this made it into the final release of SI to be honest.
4) Negative Effects - linked with #3, because the pet is usually buffed in RvR, there is currently no way to tell whether you are affected by any negative effects. As with buffs, negative effects should display along the top of the player's screen, so that they can be acted upon.
5) Stay Command - At the moment the pet simply does not stay even if you've told it to. It will run out of spells, then run off to melee. If placed on "stay" mode, the pet should stay put!
5) Pets freezing - This relates to LOS. While at present, the future LOS upgrade is not included in 1.57, you need only take your pet to a dungeon to see how its' LOS can be blocked and cause it to "freeze". You press the spell button, the console reports the spell is being cast, you're charged for mana, but the pet just stands there.
6) Pet pathing in dungeons - The number of times I would run through Avalon, only to pop out of shade form, or turn around to find my pet in the middle of a bunch of aggroing mobs, was insane. Pets will follow you, and then run off at a tangent following frankly insane waypoints. The pet will either follow the new waypoints until it can get off them and follow you again, or it will simply run back and forth along them until you move into a position that allows it to do so.
7) Spells sticking - as mentioned in the necro TL report (way back in december 2002 by the way, whats going on there??) casting a chain of spells too quickly will often cause the pet to become "stuck" in the queue, and stand there gormlessly until you add another spell to it. The pet will then cast both spells. This causes serious issues with heals, and slightly less serious issues with buffs. Either way, my mana is again being wasted.
8) No damage indicators. Simply put, the damage the pet takes and recieves is not reported at all to the player.
9) Invisible walls - around architecture, necromancers in shade form will often find themselves running up against invisible walls, often in doorways. They have to release the pet and re-summon to pass.
10) RvR aggro - Enemy hits pet. Pet registers aggro. Pet goes through aggro list, often running out of its own range (the pet can run considerably faster than the necromancer) to get to a target that it has not been instructed to attack. My suggestion would be that necro pets will only ever attack another player if they are instructed to "attack" them, or if they are told to cast a spell on them. Unless either of these commands are issued, the pet should follow the necromancer or obey other instructions at all times. (note: placing the pet on "passive" can help here, though it opens up a whole new kettle of fish regarding spells not being cast)
11) A small personal request - allow pet commands to be attached to keys in the same way /stick and /face etc were in previous patches. Even with 10 quickbar slots, it's not enough for necromancers who have to have total control over their pets at all times.
So I've levelled my necro to 50.
So I've played him in RvR.
What do I think?
Well the class in principle is very cool - DAoC's first true hybrid tank mage. While the abomination doesn't have quite the same nuking power as a cloth caster, it's a brick in melee as well. Earlier this evening I was the last man standing at AMG, and faced off against a zerker, skald and hunter at the same time. While I didn't win, I did manage to get the zerker down to about 10% health (thought I was gonna get him
), and the fight lasted a good 20-30 seconds. Count it, thats quite a long time.However, I do have a number of concerns. Information on the necromancer is sparse. No-one really knows how to properly buff one, or why certain problems happen. If anyone could direct me to answers to any of the following it would be appreciated. Also feel free to post bugs you've found with the class as well.
1) Mana draining - You see an enemy, run towards him, and spam your nuke button to try and get the first cast. If you're a cloth caster, you're fine. However, if you do this as a necro, your mana bar drops straight out, and you're left with nothing. As it stands, mana is charged when you press the button, NOT when the spell casts. I've been OOP so many times due to this already, and is perhaps the most frustrating of all the bugs.
2) Buffs - as mentioned before, no-one really knows how to buff a necromancer. Is it worth putting dex buffs on both the pet and the shade? Just on the pet? Just on the shade? I'll stick my neck out here and say that mythic really need to standardise buffing for necros. Whether someone clicks on you, your pet, or your name in a group window, the buff they then cast should land on the pet. This buff should display at the top of the player's screen as if it were in effect on themselves.
3) Heals - linked with #2, there is currently no way for a necromancer's pet to be healed in-combat without directly clicking on it. If you click on the necromancer's name in the group window or mini-group window, the heal will land on the shade. I'm amazed something like this made it into the final release of SI to be honest.
4) Negative Effects - linked with #3, because the pet is usually buffed in RvR, there is currently no way to tell whether you are affected by any negative effects. As with buffs, negative effects should display along the top of the player's screen, so that they can be acted upon.
5) Stay Command - At the moment the pet simply does not stay even if you've told it to. It will run out of spells, then run off to melee. If placed on "stay" mode, the pet should stay put!
5) Pets freezing - This relates to LOS. While at present, the future LOS upgrade is not included in 1.57, you need only take your pet to a dungeon to see how its' LOS can be blocked and cause it to "freeze". You press the spell button, the console reports the spell is being cast, you're charged for mana, but the pet just stands there.
6) Pet pathing in dungeons - The number of times I would run through Avalon, only to pop out of shade form, or turn around to find my pet in the middle of a bunch of aggroing mobs, was insane. Pets will follow you, and then run off at a tangent following frankly insane waypoints. The pet will either follow the new waypoints until it can get off them and follow you again, or it will simply run back and forth along them until you move into a position that allows it to do so.
7) Spells sticking - as mentioned in the necro TL report (way back in december 2002 by the way, whats going on there??) casting a chain of spells too quickly will often cause the pet to become "stuck" in the queue, and stand there gormlessly until you add another spell to it. The pet will then cast both spells. This causes serious issues with heals, and slightly less serious issues with buffs. Either way, my mana is again being wasted.
8) No damage indicators. Simply put, the damage the pet takes and recieves is not reported at all to the player.
9) Invisible walls - around architecture, necromancers in shade form will often find themselves running up against invisible walls, often in doorways. They have to release the pet and re-summon to pass.
10) RvR aggro - Enemy hits pet. Pet registers aggro. Pet goes through aggro list, often running out of its own range (the pet can run considerably faster than the necromancer) to get to a target that it has not been instructed to attack. My suggestion would be that necro pets will only ever attack another player if they are instructed to "attack" them, or if they are told to cast a spell on them. Unless either of these commands are issued, the pet should follow the necromancer or obey other instructions at all times. (note: placing the pet on "passive" can help here, though it opens up a whole new kettle of fish regarding spells not being cast)
11) A small personal request - allow pet commands to be attached to keys in the same way /stick and /face etc were in previous patches. Even with 10 quickbar slots, it's not enough for necromancers who have to have total control over their pets at all times.