Curse

Timotheus Amadeus · Sep 23, 2007, 08:01 PM // 20:01

What's best to choose for PVE? To be a Soul Reaping, Cursing, Death Magic or Blood Magic necro? I prefer blood in the begin stadium of my character, it heals and damages. I just got to level 5. On my heroes I use death magic. But what should I use on my PVE character?

Thanks mates! Just give me some advise on what build to get!

Moloch Vein · Sep 23, 2007, 08:45 PM // 20:45

You're level 5. You're a baby. Thus you need to learn the class well.

Do not concentrate on more than one attribute, with the remaining points put in your primary.

Blood is very weak for PvE unless you have Spoil Victor.

Try Curses or Death.

Timotheus Amadeus · Sep 23, 2007, 08:57 PM // 20:57

The death magic build I'm using now is:

Animate Bone Minions
Animate Bone Fiend
Animate Shambling Horror
Blood Of The Master
Signet Of Lost Souls
Taste Of Death
Dark Bond
Resurrection Signet

The Defiled Knight · Sep 23, 2007, 11:50 PM // 23:50

I play a MeleeMancer, invest heavily in blood magic and swordsmanship and then put the rest of your points in soul reaping. Use alot of life steeling skills and use spells like blood ritual to keep up constant regen, then use some good sword attacks for a little bit of extra damage.

Good fun to play and i've gone through all campaigns with mine.

Good luck

Sorry i meant BLOOD RENEWAL not BLOOD RITUAL

kazjun · Sep 24, 2007, 03:03 AM // 03:03

Your easiest way through pve is as curses. A hero can MM very well, but it takes a human to target curses well, like SS for mass effect. You can also just go any other class you want. Put about ten points in soul reaping and bring signet of lost souls. Then play whatever you want. A SF spammer works fine, you can spirit spam, you can play dom mesmer. Whatever. SR is great for any pve caster class. I'd hesitate about diving into melee though. You'd have to jack your health and armour up real high or else all you're good for is deathnova. It can be done, I'm just saying you'd be more effective as something else.

jrk247 · Sep 24, 2007, 10:02 AM // 10:02

Quote:

Originally Posted by The Defiled Knight

I play a MeleeMancer, invest heavily in blood magic and swordsmanship and then put the rest of your points in soul reaping. Use alot of life steeling skills and use spells like blood ritual to keep up constant regen, then use some good sword attacks for a little bit of extra damage.

Good fun to play and i've gone through all campaigns with mine.

Good luck

1st. Necros are spellcasters they aren't a melee class.
2nd. BR doesn't work on yourself.
and 3rd. Use a f#@$ing staff.
_____

For PvE you can go through the game with a general SS curse build, in corpse areas you can go MM (although SS is still great), and SV/Blood is great aswell. Right now I'm using SV with Pain Inverter (Asuran PvE skill) and it's kicking all kinds of ass.

Cebe · Sep 24, 2007, 10:26 AM // 10:26

Quote:

Originally Posted by Timotheus Amadeus

What's best to choose for PVE? To be a Soul Reaping, Cursing, Death Magic or Blood Magic necro? I prefer blood in the begin stadium of my character, it heals and damages. I just got to level 5. On my heroes I use death magic. But what should I use on my PVE character?

Thanks mates! Just give me some advise on what build to get!

I would advise you to play with each different type of magic and decide which one you prefer for yourself. Trying out each type of magic will of course mean that you have a variety of skills, across all magics, and you will be better equipped to switch between magics if requested/required.

It is worth noting that Soul Reaping is not really a "Magic". It is more a support attribute. Soul Reaping has a fantastic passive effect whereby you gain energy when something dies, so Soul Reaping needs to be kept reasonably high at all times, as it in itself does act as your energy management. It has a few useful skills, such as Masochism and Signet of Lost Souls.

Blood Magic is more party support, in my view. It's less offensive, although you can create some effective builds with Vampiric Spirit and Cultist's Ferver. Blood Magic incorporates party support features such as Blood Ritual, Blood is Power, Well of Blood and the awesome Well of Power.

Curses is hex-tastic and works well with the new Eye of the North skill: Hexer's Vigor. Curses hexes generally cause degen, or punish foes when they perform certain actions (eg. Spiteful Spirit deals itls damage when a foe attacks or casts a spell)

Death Magic's primary use in PvE is to create minions. The Minion Master's minions have two main purposes. Firstly, they can deal a lot of damage, and secondly, they can act as a "disposable army" to take the focus of enemy fire. Death Magic isn't all about minions though, Virulence and Toxic Chill are both very potent elites to create builds with.

Pick Me · Sep 24, 2007, 03:43 PM // 15:43

Quote:

Originally Posted by Timotheus Amadeus

What's best to choose for PVE? To be a Soul Reaping, Cursing, Death Magic or Blood Magic necro? I prefer blood in the begin stadium of my character, it heals and damages. I just got to level 5. On my heroes I use death magic. But what should I use on my PVE character?

Thanks mates! Just give me some advise on what build to get!

In the beginning, Blood is possibly the best. 1) it is the attribute you probably get the most skills for at the beginning. 2) it does direct unconditional, armor ignoring damage and it heals you.

As you progress through the game, you should start branching out between death magic and curses. By the time you reach 20th lvl, you should be a good MM or Curser. Blood becomes almost useless by then.

The damage done by curses and by minions out does blood by a lot.

Emik · Sep 24, 2007, 04:43 PM // 16:43

Don't go Death Magic for MM before you reach lvl 14 at least.
The amount of attribute points are waay too low to invest it to get a decent minion army.
My suggestion is to go either Curses or a mixed Blood/Illusion build for mass degen.
Other than that get to know the class, it's strengths and it's weaknesses (not many :P) and go from there.

The Defiled Knight · Sep 24, 2007, 10:53 PM // 22:53

Quote:

Originally Posted by jrk247

1st. Necros are spellcasters they aren't a melee class.
2nd. BR doesn't work on yourself.
and 3rd. Use a f#@$ing staff.

IF i put blood ritual by accident my mistake i meant blood renewal, next point have you ever tried a meleemancer? cause if you have you must've done a real shitty job with it, don't get me wrong it takes alot of practice using one but i tank in FoW and UW now effectively and i've also gone on some DoA runs as a tank. People like you need to actually try something before you go saying crap about it mate.

Moloch Vein · Sep 24, 2007, 11:13 PM // 23:13

Please post the exact build to rival an Elementalist Earth tank in DoA.

jrk247 · Sep 25, 2007, 12:28 AM // 00:28

Quote:

Originally Posted by The Defiled Knight

IF i put blood ritual by accident my mistake i meant blood renewal, next point have you ever tried a meleemancer? cause if you have you must've done a real shitty job with it, don't get me wrong it takes alot of practice using one but i tank in FoW and UW now effectively and i've also gone on some DoA runs as a tank. People like you need to actually try something before you go saying crap about it mate.

I'm not saying it doesn't work, but you can be of way better use to your team by not playing a meleemancer.

The Defiled Knight · Sep 25, 2007, 10:13 AM // 10:13

Yeah well if you noticed in my first thread i stated that it's purely for fun.

Moloch Vein · Sep 25, 2007, 10:35 AM // 10:35

Please, I'm most interested. Give us your Necro build for tank in Domain of Anguish.

System_Crush · Sep 25, 2007, 10:46 AM // 10:46

He's right!
If you can take 3/4 DoA mobs without the need for a ridiculously good monk; The build should allow me to finally find a nice new farming spot in Elona not requiring a 55Hp char.

The Defiled Knight · Sep 25, 2007, 12:49 PM // 12:49

Ok here is my meleemancer for those interested

Attribute points:
Blood Magic: 15
Soul Reaping: 10
Swordsmanship: 11

Skills:
-Blood Renewal
-Demonic Flesh
-Vampiric Bite
-Any two sword attacks of your choice, I basically go for alot of damage with my attacks so dragon slash goes well here.
-Unholy Feast
-Signet of lost souls or Life Siphon
-Rez signet

(this is just a basic template, changes can be made to suit your mood or to make it easier to use, other skills can be worked into there it's just a matter of what your prefer really).

Weapons: I use a max req 9 sword with perfect zealous mod, +5 energy inscription and either a +30hp mod or a enchantment mod.
For the offhand i use a +12 energy grim cesta, anything with +12 energy that requires either blood magic or soul reaping is fine.

Usage: Fairly easy cast any enchantments (blood renewal and demonic flesh), then cast your hex (if you use life siphon), then use your sword attacks and use Unholy feast and Vampiric bite whenever you can and whenever you need to cast Signet of lost souls for a health and energy boost (if you choose to put it in build).

I use this build for tanking anywhere needed, obvious problem is enchantment stripping but with enough energy it's easy enough just to cast the enchantments again, i've died twice doing UW (when going UW it helps to use tactics instead of soul reaping and add Gladiators' stance, Deadly Riposte and Riposte or...... tank with a warrior also helping you), i've never died in FoW it's easy to just tank on your own and the only place i've struggled in the slightest is DoA which does require some practice to get the hang of (died about 7 times or so

).

Just remember to have fun and edit the build where you see fit. PM me if you have any questions or concerns.

draxynnic · Sep 26, 2007, 04:01 AM // 04:01

Quote:

Originally Posted by Emik

Don't go Death Magic for MM before you reach lvl 14 at least.
The amount of attribute points are waay too low to invest it to get a decent minion army.
My suggestion is to go either Curses or a mixed Blood/Illusion build for mass degen.
Other than that get to know the class, it's strengths and it's weaknesses (not many :P) and go from there.

I'm not so sure about that - I found that at lower levels it was actually quite possible to have your minions at a higher level than you are yourself...

Mind you, that was around the time Factions was released, but if you power straight towards putting the majority of your points in Death you can get quite a formidable army compared to what you're using it on. Level 14 was around the time I stopped being able to create minions that were bigger than I was.

Apart from Fleshy, of course...

Coloneh · Sep 26, 2007, 06:25 AM // 06:25

Quote:

Originally Posted by draxynnic

I'm not so sure about that - I found that at lower levels it was actually quite possible to have your minions at a higher level than you are yourself...

Mind you, that was around the time Factions was released, but if you power straight towards putting the majority of your points in Death you can get quite a formidable army compared to what you're using it on. Level 14 was around the time I stopped being able to create minions that were bigger than I was.

Apart from Fleshy, of course...

shut up. NO ONE listen to this. are you on crack? minion mastering is best left to higher levels where you can actually maintain a few minions. lvl 14 was a very low level for someone to start MMing. i wouldnt advise it until lvl 20. please learn to play.....

jrk247 · Sep 26, 2007, 06:33 AM // 06:33

Best thing to use as a low level is blood, it helps you stay alive and deal somewhat good damage. That's what I used up until I capped SS. Then I MM'd only when people wanted a MM, but I still prefer Curses, Blood, or non-minion Death Magic (Toxic Chill spiking is fun).

draxynnic · Sep 26, 2007, 12:23 PM // 12:23

Quote:

Originally Posted by Coloneh

shut up. NO ONE listen to this. are you on crack? minion mastering is best left to higher levels where you can actually maintain a few minions. lvl 14 was a very low level for someone to start MMing. i wouldnt advise it until lvl 20. please learn to play.....

No, I'm remembering what happened when I sent MMs through presearing (just to test it out) and through Shing Jea (the one I actually kept). I may have got the cutoff wrong, but let's go through the numbers and see what we get:

At level 2: you have 5 attribute ranks, which can be split between 2 in Death and 1 in Soul Reaping, giving you level 4 minions if you splurge and get a Death headpiece (only for Factions & Nightfall).

At level 3: your 10 ranks can give you 3 in Death and 2 in Soul Reaping, giving level 5 horrors with headpiece.

At level 4: your 15 ranks can give you 4 in Death and 2 in Soul Reaping, giving level 6 horrors with headpiece.

At level 5: you have 20 ranks, which you can use to get 5 in Death and 2 in SR, or, possibly more efficiently, 4 each in Death and SR.

At level 6: you have 25 ranks, giving 5 in Death and 4 in SR, giving level 7 horrors with headpiece.

At level 7: you have 30 ranks. At this point, to keep the horrors above your level, you need to drop SR to 3.

At level 8: you have 35 ranks, which will get your Death up to 7 with SR 3, giving level 9 horrors

At level 9: you have 40 ranks. At this point you can't get Death up without dropping SR further, so bump it back up to 4. At this point the horrors fall to your level, remaining at level 9. Of course, if you have access to expert salvage kits, you might as well toss a rune in as well...

At level 10, you have 45 ranks. Dropping SR back down to 3 will give you Death at 8.

At level 11, you get up to 55 ranks. You can use this to get Death to 9, or alternatively bump SR to 5. If you do the latter with a headpiece, you've finally beaten your minions in level if you don't have a rune.

At level 12, you have 65, allowing Death 9, SR 5. Without a rune, your horrors are now at level 11 without a rune.

At level 13, you have 75, which will give you Death 10 if you drop SR to 4, and level 12 horrors.

At level 14, you have 85, which will allow SR to climb back to 6. This is the point at which the horrors are below your level even with a minor rune.

At level 15, you have 95, which can be used to get Death at 11 with Soul Reaping at 5.

At level 16, you have 110. You can push Death to 12 with that if you drop some out of SR, or push Soul Reaping to 7.

At level 17, you have 125, whic will give you Death of 12 with Soul Reaping at 7.

At this point, you've got Death at the highest level it will reach - at this point, it's a question of finding yourself a superior rune and filling out Soul Reaping and whatever secondary you're planning to use to support the minion swarm. Your swarm may not be as big as it is for a fully mature MM, and you may end up leaving some corpses behind as you regain energy, but what it may lack in quantity it makes up for in quality - relative to you, and therefor, presumably, relative to your expected opposition, your minions are more powerful than any fully mature MM can be, and from memory, it still wasn't that hard to reach the lower minion cap at lower levels of Death magic. Of course, if you get your attribute quests before level 20 - in other words, if you're not a Prophecies character - this process will be accelerated, or you can use the extra points to invest in a support attribute like Healing for Heal Area earlier.

As a few of disclaimers:

1) I did this before the soul reaping nerf, so a reduced energy flow may prove to be more of a problem nowadays.

2) I did this with a Factions character using Vampiric Horrors and Bone Fiends. The former is 10 energy cheaper now, so that may help offset the nerf to Soul Reaping. It also meant that I was getting healing off the Horrors that could be used to fuel BotM in combat.

3) I was a completionist - I did all the secondary profession quests before committing, and generally completed all the quests in an area before moving to the next mission (at least until I got to the mainland). If you're trying to push to the mainland as quickly as you can, you may well have a different experience.

With all the above disclaimers, however, I did manage to get my necromancer to level 20 without stopping being a MM at any time - it was only afterwards when that character started hitting areas with low numbers of corpses that I started experimenting with other lines. Now, that certainly isn't the only option, and my recommendation would probably be that if you prefer blood you should stick to it - but MMing from the get-go (well, at least from when you get the required skills) can also be a viable option.