Posted by Joshu on April 28, 2000 at 07:11:43:
In Reply to: Necro tips (somewhat long) posted by Uli on April 28, 2000 at 04:36:39:
> A day or two ago someone wanted the necro tips, but I was
> busy and couldn't answer immediately. Here's what I can say.
>
> 1. Lichedom.
> I don't know about liches, so all my tips are for those
> below level 47.
>
> 2. Picking up race.
> I do not recommend you drow. Very low hp gains + very high
> exp penalty + every rager-schoolboy with jewelled broadsword
> in one hand and jewelled dagger in the other hand will make
> it nearly impossible to play.
> If you plan to lich, arial is also bad, because imms will
> give you 3 of 4 items from underwater areas, believe me.
> If you just want to have fun at mid-levels (35-40), arial
> is the best because of fly. Human and half-elf are also nice.
>
> 3. Zombies.
> There are many rumors about how to increase the probability
> of successful animate. I'll speak about what I have seen myself.
> It is level-based. I mean, 25 necro will most likely fail
> animating elite storms. I'd recommend elite dwarven guards or
> rangers from Emerald forest until you are about 35 rank.
> Also, looks like it depends on percentage of spell, so study hard.
> Some people say, it works better if you embalm the corpse before
> animating. I think it is not true, or affects your chances to a
> very little extent. Taking into account that embalm fails
> frequently, I woudldn't recommend to do this.
> Some people say you animate better when naked, but IMHO it's
> ridiculous.
>
> 4. What should be perfected and how to do it.
> Sleep must be perfected. It is easy: get some small creature,
> and cast sleep repeatedly. The same with most maledictions,
> they can be perfected on slept creatures. One more thing is
> dispel magic: since sleep affects its victims as "skill", it won't
> be dispelled. But you don't need all this perfected on low ranks.
> Sleep and blindness are just enough. Blindness may save your life.
> Animate dead doesn't require target, so you can just cast it
> until it is perfected. It takes long time, but it's worth it.
> Do not waste your time perfecting summon: it will be 100% very
> quickly without any special efforts from your side.
> Most important thing is: PERFECT VAMPIRIC TOUCH. With 100 vampiric,
> you're almost as survivable as a healer. It heals you pretty well.
> And don't say it's difficult: look at the invokers.
> Wraithform is also worth perfecting. BTW, last time I checked
> there was a bug in help file. Wraithform starts protecting from
> bash on rank 36, not 37 as written in help.
> Word of recall is best practiced on your inner cabal guardian, and
> should be 100% as soon as you can spend enough time on it.
> Embalm can be practiced, if you want it, in the following way:
> embalm already embalmed corpse until it is destroyed (7-8 times
> usually).
> And don't forget about parry. It helps a lot :-)
>
> 5. Estimating your power.
> Vs mobs: normally, at rank 33, when you get mummy, you must be
> able to kill elite storm without any help from outside. Just
> remember that blindness + weaken + poison + curse make a mob much
> softer. Also, any caster mobs become available to you on very
> low ranks compared to other classes because their spells are
> distributed among all your army. So, mobs are not a problem,
> especially if you're aquainted with wand locations.
> Vs players: ragers are pain in the ass. The main problem is
> their amount. One on one they suck vs a necro, but they count
> all your pets and come in that amount. A ranger, + a fighter,
> + an assassin, + a bard will beat you to nothing unless your
> name is Zorszaul. Also, if your zombies are busy with, say,
> the destructor, you can't do much, so necromancers aren't good
> in solo raids. (Zorszaul is an exception, again, but he doesn't
> need my tips). So, if you find a solo rager, and you have some
> followers, don't be afraid. Beware the bards, however.
> Prefer teleport over recall when possible, because ragers will
> stand on your recall point waiting for you, while others are
> trying to make you scared (they always do that :-).
> Non-rager players are only dangerous in huge amounts. One on one
> they have no chance.
>
> 6. Ranking
> With 600 hp, perfected parry and vampiric you can tank pretty
> well (just have wraithform on and eat stone skin). Wraithform is
> very good, but you will need 100% spellcraft for wraithform to
> last longer. So well, if you know you can tank, it is easier to
> rank. Invoker will be your best companion when he gets shields.
> But yes, normally noone wants a necro as a groupmate. Why so?
>
> Hope that helps...