Army of Dead 3 and Graverobbing 3

[Malis]

I just started working these AA's, I can see them as being totally fun in a 69.1 kite or Lost Gnomes mission. Where do you guys that have these skills find them the most useful/fun? You think they were worth the effort to get?

[Maeryn]

Originally posted by Malis@May 1 2006, 02:47 PM
I just started working these AA's, I can see them as being totally fun in a 69.1 kite or Lost Gnomes mission. Where do you guys that have these skills find them the most useful/fun? You think they were worth the effort to get?
AoTD is worth it for the reaction alone. I've had tanks almost wet their pants thinking they had 5 adds coming at them. Another good use is after your uber raid just killed A BigUberDragon have a friend /duel you. Click your AA then sit back and watch the entire raid freak out.

I guess it's also pretty good dps, although I honestly never paid attention, heh.

[Ewasx]

Army of the Dead makes for a good damage buffer. In a solo situation it allows you to, in a sense, absorb ~25k of damage from a single mob, providing said mob has no AE.

I use it for the same purpose in a group setting, though it gets saved for the 'oh shit' moments when for whatever reason the MT goes down at the wrong time.

It's also good for interupting casters, 5 more pets pushing/bashing.

As for fun... wtd/aotd can scare the crap out of many people when used at the right time. Esp with large mobs that people arn't likely to notice the 'Ewasx's pet' at the top. People seem to get used to it quickly though.

You have a large number of usefull aa already purchased, might as well finish it off and play around with it.

[GnekroeGnomicon]

It is defintely fantastic in areas where you have lots of corpses piling up with worthless trash loots. Hive instance missions come to mind.

Parsing shows to me that it is pretty negligable dps over time (a weak dot), however, the amount of push and stun they appear to do makes quick work of casters and is great when kiting multiples.

I have considered getting graverobbing to be able to use the ability more frequently, and I probably will do so in the next 50 or so aas.

The downsides I see to this ability:

1. If kiting in a small area the cast time/range of the ability makes it difficult to use.

2. If push matters (and you are not kiting) this ability has to be countered by a good tank who knows how to manage the push.

3. Some people get annoyed by it. Some people play sloppy when you cast it. Some people's reactions are down right rofl-able.

4. Every time I group outside of my standard group I have to remind people to leave corpses so that we can make the most of this ability. Some groups do this well, while others want to loot the 5pp off the corpse and let it disappear.

5. Not every camp builds up corpses. To use this ability frequently, you have to have a corpse pile built up. If you are at a camp where mobs frequently drop nothing, you might not have 3-5 corpses constantly at your disposal.

Overall I love this ability and really want to get graverobbing to use it more frequently. I didn't even go into the fact that these help you tap tank named down much easier (ie. each Army mob has what 5-6k hp?)

[Felicite]

Originally posted by Maeryn@May 1 2006, 12:56 PM
I guess it's also pretty good dps, although I honestly never paid attention, heh.
It's like 4 DPS a pet.

More useful for being a bitch (loved that part.. like DoDH mission where the Emperor is waking a mob every 60 seconds.. about half way through pop that and scream "wtf adds!").

And a buffer between you and named that do not Rampage.. like 68.3. I had all 10 pets out on him.. yes he is vaporizing them, but if it even gives you one more tick of all your DoTs running.

[Maeryn]

Originally posted by Felicite@May 1 2006, 03:20 PM
More useful for being a bitch
Yeah, I honestly try to restrict it for situations where it's a last resort, or if I'm kiting. Or, if I want to mess with the tanks for fun. Otherwise it's just too much pet push and they're impossible to control (One instance where they actually pushed our mob out past where we were trying to pin and ended up pulling adds because the tank completely lost control of the mob comes to mind). Thanks for clarifying on the sucky dps =) I have melee filtered off, so I never see what they're doing.

[shraklor]

an idea of DPS, me and another necro regularly do this on Quarm at the end of Time raids, Quarm was hitting me for 16-30.. I save it in 69.1 for the casters to make sure they don't heal in case I can't get out of LOS.

[Xislaben]

AoTD is great for interupting and pushing a little, and they can buy you some time if you're killing a named at the edge of your abilities.

Not much dps though, and I'll buy the time reducing aa after I get a few more things under my belt.

Mostly it's fun to annoy tanks and cc ><

[Felicite]

Originally posted by Xislaben@May 2 2006, 08:58 AM
AoTD is great for interupting{snip}
Yes, since AoTD pets Bash at their level (so 73 corpses are like little 73 warriors with dull bronze swords), they provide a way to possibly interrupt casters that you could not normally. So that's a real use that I should have mentioned.

[Schaeffer]

Originally posted by shraklor@May 2 2006, 11:33 AM
an idea of DPS, me and another necro regularly do this on Quarm at the end of Time raids, Quarm was hitting me for 16-30..
Well, two things here, the DPS is the same no matter what corpses you wake up, iirc it doesn't matter if you wake Quarm or an orc pawn, they still hit the same. The only difference is with WTD, a single corpse will cast spells belonging to the class of the corpse in which you woke. I hated WTDing Druid corpses in HoH while kiting, they will root the mob and kill your real pet. They all have the same max hit, but casters tend to hit less often because they're too busy casting. With AotD this is not the case as they are all warriors.

Second point, I'm pretty sure there is a PvP penalty on blue servers concerning all pet damage, so 16-30 is severly reduced numbers, however the real numbers are not much better.

[Jebasiz]

I think they're actually closer to 10 dps, not 4. They hit around 70s-80s. Pet flurry and pet crit aa's do work on them(and help if you have them). Yes, it will spam you too.

Single time usage comparison, archers seem to be more damage.

I used AOTD shortly after being in RSS the first week OoW launched and woke 5 gelidrans, the druid evac'd. It's comedy right there.

[Fyrelle]

We use AoTD when we need that extra little burst of DPS at the end of a decent mob like Hatchet... Was kinda cool last week when my WTD pet got the KS on Thuuli =)

Also comes in handy when I'm soloing somewhere...

[nethyia]

Haven't done any parses on this, but since the woken pets are same level as mob/PC they are taken from, wouldn't higher level pets have better chance to hit, hit harder on average than lower level pets? Max hit would still be the same, but waking some green mobs to attack a red con would not seem as good as waking some yellow or red cons. (Basically, isn't level difference taken into account on melee combat? Beyond the usefulness of stuns from bash.)

[Xebitikz]

Another fun thing to do with them is get 3 or 4 necros to all use AoTD, and Swarm at the same time on a raid with a mob that does like 4k AE, then hear people bitch and moan about lag...especially when they die! Throw in a couple mages and try and crash a zone yay

[Schaeffer]

Gotta love when necros, mages and shammies all swarm pet at the same time. It looks like the biggest train there is while kiting!

[nethyia]

Hehe, Xeb. My RL banned swarm pets on the AE ramp guy in Tacvi cause of that.

AotD can kind of suck when pulling though. I've scared the crap outta myself a few times when I think I pull a single, and a hoard of mobs is right on my tail! I wish I still had my screenshot of a M'sha in Qvic being covered by 4 necros' armies, a couple shammy puppy swarms, and 2 mage swarms at the same time. And with 2 Ra'tuk and a M'sha being in all the necro swarms, RL yelling at not being able to see what the hell was going on.

[Jebasiz]

and a hoard of mobs is right on my tail!
Nethyia has a tail?

[nethyia]

Stole it from my old raid leader. Which is ironic, I guess, cause he was a monkey leezard, and on raids would just say "inc...fewish"

[Jebasiz]

His tail will grow back, they always grow back. Your tail on the other hand will not grow, it will decay and the scales will fall to the ground. It's not "your tail" unless it comes from you!

[daephyx]

Best use of AotD:

Make a hotkey that says, "OH SHIT!!"

Spam it when you cast your AotD, especially in places where the fighting is thick and adds are possible.

Bonus points if the ENC is boxed.

[Felicite]

Originally posted by daephyx@May 4 2006, 09:41 AM
Best use of AotD:

Make a hotkey that says, "OH SHIT!!"

Spam it when you cast your AotD, especially in places where the fighting is thick and adds are possible.

Bonus points if the ENC is boxed.
And boxing the cleric, so you can hit Divine Arbitration right then.. so everyone's hitpoints go down suddenly.

Laugh at ensuing panic.

[Xislaben]

There's a mob in here somewhere:
http://img256.imageshack.us/img256/2039/aotdpets3aq.jpg

[UsulDaNeriak]

Originally posted by Felicite@May 1 2006, 08:20 PM
It's like 4 DPS a pet.

actually aod pets have been parsed between 10-12 dps. that means about 50-60 dps for a full set of 5 aod pets. but you dont invoke aod pets for dps, you got better aa for that, nec.

these 5 warriors stun/bash like heck, which is one of our shining moments as a nec, if the tank falls shortly before the mob is dead and the group would start to wipe without these pets. now the cler tanks supported by these pets and the nec sends this named to hell. if your cler is no pussy, of course.

did you ever been in RSS 70 camp? where your tank perhaps gets charmed? well, now press aod5 and if these idiots did loot your corpses, they will wipe and never do it again.

other pets are much better dps:

- wtd pet is depending on the spells, which you can just calculate but not parse up to 130 dps
- ranger pets are after nerf still about 100 dps
- our epic pet is now about 200+ dps, after they halfened the duration and doubled the dps.
- our summoned 70 pet was parsed anywhere in between about 80+ dps, afaik

all 10 pets together, with all their special abilities are the mobs nightmare. aod is a part of this nightmare.

just my 2cp. and yes, big fun, 5 dead bazu in wos :lol:

Usul

[Felicite]

Originally posted by UsulDaNeriak+May 8 2006, 12:46 PM--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (UsulDaNeriak @ May 8 2006, 12:46 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'> <!--QuoteBegin-Felicite@May 1 2006, 08:20 PM
It's like 4 DPS a pet.
actually aod pets have been parsed between 10-12 dps. that means about 50-60 dps for a full set of 5 aod pets. but you dont invoke aod pets for dps, you got better aa for that, nec. [/b][/quote]
Ok.. that the DPS was small compared to other things was the point. I should have left numbers out of it, I was being flip with the "4".

Bazu pets are the bestest.. got a picture of one here somewhere.