Surviving the Domain of Anguish as a Necro
I spent a lot of time in DoA this weekend. I died many many times but took it in stride and tried to learn from our mistakes. Domain of Anguish is difficult and unforgiving, but not impossible.
We worked on the quest "Breaching The Stygian Veil" for much of that time, and actually completed it last night. In fact, during each expedition, we noticeably improved our performance and lowered our wipe-rate substantially.
I tried a lot of skill variations, most failed utterly. Then I spent a lot of time pouring over the skill listing on GuildWiki searching for something that a Necro could bring that could offer a significant contribution. It's definately NOT a place where Necros shine, but they can still bring something to the mix.
The first thing to remember is that you are VERY VERY SQUISHY! Most creatures can one-hit-kill you with attacks in the 200-800 hit point range. Not Kidding.
General Necromancer Tactics
Turn on your Lightbringer title! It boosts your spell damage and lowers the damage you take.
Death Magic is useless here and Blood is only good for Orders and E-management. (Offering/CF)
Go with Curses. You need AoE everything. No single target spells. AoE hexes, debuffs and damage. Probably NOT degens, since you either die fast or the monsters die fast.
Pay attention! One mistake by ANYONE can literally wipe the entire party in seconds.
Pay attention! Monsters do NOT always do what you think they'll do. An extra second can be a LOT of time if you need to run away or get a defense up.
Stay in the back, stay out of aggro range until the monsters commit to a target.
Since you are support/secondary damage, choose Monk secondary and bring Rebirth. In fact, fit as many Rebirths onto your party build as possible. Not kidding. More than once only one person survived, and Rebirthed the whole squad.
Be prepared to kite all over the place.
Be prepared to draw aggro away from the monks, monsters rarely break aggro, EVER.
DO NOT LEAD MOBS BACK TO YOUR PARTY OR REZZERS!
Try to die in a place where you can be rezzed, not inside a field of monsters.
Working Necromancer Build for Stygian Veil
N/Mo
16 Curses
12 Protection
4 Soul Reaping
Lightbringers Gaze
Desecrate Enchantments
Feast of Corruption {E}
Shadow of Fear
Reckless Haste
Protective Spirit
Spirit Bond
Rebirth
The first three are AoE damage. FoC hits at ~160 for me, with R6 Lightbringer. Desecrate gets a good damage boost also.
You don't have the energy for a long fight. Converge on a target right away after the monsters commit to aggro, and run your spike or hexes.
If aggro breaks, get PS up immediately!!!
Help your teammates! You can use PS and SB on them too!
You are not a tank. But PS+SB will allow you to tank some monsters nearly indefinately. That can be usefull to buy time for the rest of the party.
I'll post more later. Any other necros have suggestions for those wanting to enter DoA?
|