Too much aggro!

[Teganya]

[FONT=Courier][SIZE=7] I am a lvl 31 DE Necro and I am finding that I always seem to have th MoB aggroing on me. I pull the MoB to where I parked my lvl 29 pet and then apply a couple of DOT`s.
I think I should be able to sit, med, whatever popping up and applying another DOT now and then while my pet fights the MoB. I alwayys seem to have the MoB beating on me with my pet attacking it from behind.
The MoB`s are blue and I am using Boil Blood and Vampire Curse. Should I be using DOT`s that do less damage than my pet or am I missing something here ;)

It is not a problem at the moment as I can do a little melee but at higher level I think it may get quite nasty :o

[DocGonzo]

Originally posted by Teganya@Oct 1 2005, 08:32 AM
[FONT=Courier][SIZE=7] I am a lvl 31 DE Necro and I am finding that I always seem to have th MoB aggroing on me. I pull the MoB to where I parked my lvl 29 pet and then apply a couple of DOT`s.
I think I should be able to sit, med, whatever popping up and applying another DOT now and then while my pet fights the MoB. I alwayys seem to have the MoB beating on me with my pet attacking it from behind.
The MoB`s are blue and I am using Boil Blood and Vampire Curse. Should I be using DOT`s that do less damage than my pet or am I missing something here ;)

It is not a problem at the moment as I can do a little melee but at higher level I think it may get quite nasty :o
First time posting here Teganya (lvl 30 necro -- cazic thule) but I think that after so many dots, the mobs just get a bit ticked off if you know what I mean.

I've been sticking to fear kiting and/or agro kiting. The only other suggestion I can think of (though I know there are others smarter then me here) would be to use fewer dots and let the pet tank (I assume you are fighting somewhere that fear/agro kiting is not pratical) ...

Doc

[Aryse Andenter]

Necros don't really use pet tanking as a method of xping - in fact we may go to quite some effort to keep agro off our pets since they don't have the hp to be great tanks. Even if we do less damage than our pet we can still get agro, especially if taunt is turned off - our spells are designed to give us agro.

Our two primary methods of xping are fear kiting and snare kiting. With fear kiting you snare a mob and then fear it, adding a few dots and sending your pet on it. You can sit and med until fear wears off and the mobs runs back to you, at which point you stand and fear it again. With agro kiting you snare the mob, and then instead of fearing it you run a little ways away, then you can sit and med or cast a few dots while the mob is catching up to you - then run a little farther away and repeat the process. The advanatage to agro kiting is you always have complete control over the pathing of the mob. For both of these you don't want the pet to get agro, so be sure to hit the taunt button after your pet is created to toggle taunting off.

If you are using pet tanking instead of kiting because, as DocGonzo suggests, you are in an area where fear or agro kiting is not feasible, I would suggest you change the area you are xping in rather than trying to master pet tanking. Pet tanking is just very very slow and you can do little more than heal your pet without stealing agro from it soon - and in a few levels you will not even be able to keep your pet healed while most mobs are attacking it. It really just isn't meant to tank.

[DocGonzo]

Aryse Andenter

What should you do in a situation where you cannot fear or agro kite? I've heard of root baking but that doesn't seem all that mana efficiant. Perhaps try and tank it along with the pet (assuming it was rooted and could not summon at least) ...

My assumptions are that if you are hunting in an area where you cannot fear or agro kite it's because you are likely camping something specific, I cannot think of any other reason to do it.

D

[FCseven]

I dont know if will work lvl 30ish but when my pet tanks all I have to do to lose agro is FD.Just FD,cast pet,stand up and cast a couple dots,FD,stand up pet heal...

[Nigyl]

My assumptions are that if you are hunting in an area where you cannot fear or agro kite it's because you are likely camping something specific, I cannot think of any other reason to do it.

Or tanking slowed undead. Not sure where they might be at level 30, but in the 20s I could kill red-con guards in Paineel that way (admittedly I would end up tap-tanking myself if the guard got in a few good hits on the pet :)).

Still, I'm sure I wasn't getting efficient XP there, it was just an easy way to make money at that level in those days without farming greens for tradeskill drops.

[Teganya]

Thank you for the information. I am new to the necro and had no idea that kiting was the main way of killing MoB`s.

The zone I am in is Marus Seru and while there is plenty of room to kite there are also a lot of MoB`s so I had parked my pet near the entrance and was pulling the MoB`s out of the main traffic area. Which seemed like a good idea at the time :)

I may well be totally wrong about this but surely having to kite one way or another must cut down the number of places one can hunt!?


Teganya

lvl 31 DE Necro.

[Birdienumnum]

M Seru is a good place to do both fear- and agro-kiting.
Move off to the Sanctus Seru zoneline. There is a big plain there that is great for running around.
I parked pretty close to the guards for fear kitting. The mob would run back before it got to where other mobs could add.
Be careful on zoning into Sanctus Seru. The guards just around the corner at the zone in are not friendly to most races.

[Nigyl]

I'd go to Dawnshroud Peaks at the Sanctus Seru zone-line instead. The XP multiplier seems to be better, and if you pull Zelniaks and avoid the Lightcrawlers and wolves (there's one 'wolf trap' on the path there which spawns a wolf if you get close) you'll never get an add... in the worst case you can probably zone into SS, but you'll die if you go far enough to aggro the guards inside (guards outside won't attack you).

Also, my Ranger alt was killing the nearby mushrooms and they all single-pulled with snare or a bow even when they were low red cons. So they're probably non-assisting mobs too.

I think the Small Zelniaks and shrooms are around level 25-28: if you stay there for a few levels you can move on to the Zelniaks and Large Zelniaks around the Grieg's End zone-line and then the Stonegrabbers.

[Jebasiz]

Marus Seru is nice to fear and/or agro kite. I'd suggest using both ways to avoid boredom and develop both skills. As a general rule, kiting either way..is going to be the most efficient way of killing anything.

Root rotting would probably be next..but you sacrifice pet dmg that way, as little jabober won't be able to stand up to the dmg done to him, when he gets close to a rooted mob. It is a viable way to kill things, especially when the terrain or mob density dictates that you can't kite. It's definetly not a first choice though.

Necros have alot of versatility, and there are many many ways to hunt. The only time I would even consider pet tanking(solo) is when I'm fighting undead mobs... Even then, it's not "great" but with shackle(undead attack speed debuff, similar to the chanter spell, but not quite as good as the shaman version--turgurs) it's feasible.

Should you want to pet tank, you'll eventually find that with gear and aa advancement that you are a better tank then your pet. At that point, you'll let your pet tank only after you fd and back up to tap some life back, and then you'll step back in and tank again.

Good luck to you, there's lots of nice guides written for you to read here..and questions are normally answered very quickly.

[Teganya]

Many thanks!. That is all very helpful and I am most impressed at how quickly one can get an answer to a question here compared to other message boards I have used.

One more thing if I may :D

I have read somewhere that hit points can be more inportant than high INT because of spells like Allure of Death!. Is that correct?. I have been trying to buy items with HP stats when I can but they do`nt add up to much at the moment.

Oh!, and what weapons skill is it best to max if I do need to do some tanking later on?

Thanks again for all your help.....

[keur]

The beauty of being a necromancer is never having to rely on someone else to provide you the means of filling your mana bar. With the lich line of spells such as Allure of Death, your health bar is directly converted to mana. In this way, you will almost always have a filled mana bar doing a constant amount of work where others would have to sit and wait. HP > all. It keeps you alive, and it keeps your mana bar filled.

As far as weapon skills go, it is mostly just for show. You will not be using any sort of hand to hand combat in the later levels. It will be nowhere near significant to the amount of damage your spells will be doing.

[Xelgadis]

Weapon skill caps for a caster are stupidly low. About the only real reason you'd be meleeing at high levels is to utilize weapon procs, and those aren't weapon skill dependant (my Scythe of Sundering procs just as frequently as my Wand of Temporal Power, and casters have no skill in One Hand Slash).

[Jebasiz]

Blunts do seem to have the better procs associated with them. Our epic line is all 1hb. Some of the daggers however are easier to obtain early on and have some nice stats.

Melee'ing isn't how we do dmg. Lots of time, when I actually do melee..people will tell me to get the F outa the way so they can melee. I'm max on all our weapon skills, and only due to playing alot and for a long time. There's no real point to it, hit your procs and back up imo.

Edit: Hitpoints should be your top priority. It never ceases to amazing me how fast gear becomes antiquated and you need to overhaul yourself to be able to safely raid the newer content.

I wouldn't go completely ALL hitpoints, we are still casters heh. Int and mana items are good, but I would try to get items with hps, mana and int.

I'm not sure if the formula has changed over the years or not, but @ level 50 1 int = 10 mana(up to 200 int, 201-255 was around 6.88 mana per int point). I'm really not sure what it is from 256-415(current max int with all aa's to raise caps)

I think we get somewhere around 2 hps per point of stamina @ level 50. Both are less at levels lower then 50 and the further you are away from level 50(below it) the lower it is.

Practical usage: if you're level thirty and can't decide between 2 items, one of them has 5 stamina and 7 int, another has no stamina and 2 int, 35hps and 65mana..the second one would be better.

[Birdienumnum]

My necro is now lvl 31.
M Seru near the Sanctus Seru zoneline is a good place to learn and become comfortable with both types of kiting. The exp is not very good in M seru, sadly. I can get more exp in N lair than in M seru.

I have been trying out Great Divide (tizmaks), a few visits to Dawnshroud, and did notice that there are blues in Ice Clad. Some of the drops in Ice Clad are worth the visit.

[Jebasiz]

I used to sell cougar claw earrings.

Then move into ToFS and sell the teachers syllabus and the candle thing from the 3rd floor(?).

Great divide wasn't bad either, giant heads and toes for that shawl quest and faction. Velks lab... Wakening lands giants just outside kael were good too. Holgresh(too bad HEBS don't drop anymore).

Crystal caverns soon too.

I liked exploring velious, even though at that point exp was useless(until aa came into the game during luclin). Oddly enough some of the best camps at 60 for aa were in Old Sebilis in Kunark...heh.

[Teganya]

I have found M Seru at the Sanctus Seru good for practicing kiting but at the moment I think I prefer aggro kiting. Fear kiting does work OK sometimes but sometimes the Stonegrabber comes back with a couple of friends and that can get exciting.

I have managed to get past the guards in SS and into DSP but have not done much there yet. One of my problems with a necro is figuring out where it is relatively safe to hunt without being KOS to the inhabitants. I presume from what Birdienumnum says Ice Clad is OK. They certainly do`nt seem to like me in Butcherblock :)

I have been trying to keep up with updating my gear but have been appalled by the increase in prices since my server ( Vazaelle ) merged with Maelin Starpyre.
Getting reasonabaly priced items seems to have gone now and at my level I do`nt have a lot of cash available.

Not done any grouping as a necro either so need to find out about a necro`s roll in a group. Obviously not melee! :D

[Jebasiz]

I think around 34(possible now, for you) I went to rathe mountains and killed every hill giant I saw for like 4 levels. I remember walking outta there with a goodly amount of cash. Giants can drop upto 30pp each, and if you do that for several levels, well..you have several thousand plat. Bind in Oggok if you're a DE and just run back and forth squirreling away your shinies.

In a group you might be asked to pull, fd-split camps etc. You'll almost always be the "snarer" and then dps. People at that level will expect you to pop up a pet, and have them attack. Umm, you don't really get any group taps until well into your 50's..well auspice is earlier, but nothing good until like 58(mind wrack) so you won't be doing that for a bit. Just lifetap, and maybe throw a fast dot or 2 on the mobs, depending on how fast they die, be efficient, and don't grab agro off the tank.

[Nigyl]

I have managed to get past the guards in SS and into DSP but have not done much there yet.

You don't need to go through Sanctus Seru, just Netherbian Lair and then run across DSP while invisible (and avoid the wolf traps).

One of my problems with a necro is figuring out where it is relatively safe to hunt without being KOS to the inhabitants.

Lightcrawlers, shrooms, wolves and the random named mobs are KoS in DSP (possibly the rockhoppers too, not sure). However, if you fight a wolf close to the NPCs in the zone, they will attack you, even if you're just defending yourself... my Mage got slaughtered by a train of wolves and NPCs there one time: stupid bard was training them across the zone while I killed stonegrabbers, wolf attacked me, NPCs aggroed for about 250 a hit and I died in one round.

[Zandramadass]

Kill the walrus and Ulthork warriors/hunters near the Kromrif gaurds in the pit in EW up to mid 30's then can move to the walrus, Ulthork Man o War camp over by the Kael zoneline also in EW. That is steady quick exp with little fear of adds be it agro or fear kiting once you learn the pathing there and you can stay there up to mid 40's no problem. Nice thing about that camp is that your also working faction for othmir so you can sell loot from wyverns/drake in CS if you hunt there which is a good camp for cash/exp/loot.

HP is more important than anything else really at upper lvls. Int, stamina will come with everything you get at upper lvls anyway, and if you get into a raiding guild that gear will also have decent regen for both hp/mana. I've actually been about 30-40int over my cap for 7 lvls or so now and 17 or so over my stamina cap for about 3 lvls. Just last night I bought a skill of planar power which upped my cap for both 5pnts and I didnt even get 10hp from the extra 5sta. I did however get almost 50m from the bump of int from 360-365.

[rukasak]

cough.... forgotten halls..... cough