skill advancement

[shadow46x2]

so i've been slowly following the "1-65 solo with pets" guide, while learning a necro class...i've been a pure rogue for my entire EQ career, so learning a caster class is...interesting to say the least...

what i'm curious about, is while the guide is fabulous, and lays out a perfectly workable framework for how to powerlevel yourself with pets....it doesn't list what to do in regards to skills, such as piercing, defense, etc etc...

out of all of the skills(obviously, combat skills, not spellcasting skills), are there ones that can be neglected, are there ones that should be maxxed, how should a rookie "i know nothing about caster classes" noob safely advance these, while powerleveling oneself?

--j

[Schaeffer]

Alteration and Conjuration are your main two. Alteration being lifetaps and conjuration being you big dots.

Evocation is your undead nuke so unless you want to go that route you can skip it. Abjuration I believe is for Feign Death, that and pet haste, but you will want to keep it up for FD'ing.

Divination is for your invisibility spells, not too important to max, but it helps not fizzling 15 times when you need to invis quickly.

[Whispers Quietly]

I'll try and handle this; key word is try. Basically since we don't tank our weapons skills are not important; however getting beat on is, Defense. Cannot cast if your getting the whoop kicked out of you.

Basically you need to get beat on to raise it. but you know that..

So, as a necro; get beat on. It's ok to a point, once you've had enough though. SCREAM, I won't take this no more, and lifetap there butt into oblivion.

Defense really helps cast spells while getting beat on. it is so underestimated. Other folks will also have great advice..

Welcome to the dark side...

[Tuurn]

I agree also that Defense is key. As a necro our base Defense skill only goes to 155 and it is easy to raise early on. If you have a mage friend or another necro friend, ... duel them and let their pet beat on you for a while. make sure the pet they use isnt strong enough to kill you. as long as their pet is light blue to you, your defense will go up.... albeit rather slowly but it will go up.

do this a few times a week when lfg or something and you'll notice the difference.

Secondly having a skill in weapons is beneficial to you as well. personally i would go with 1 hand blunt since that is what our epics are. same thing here... have a pet class friend duel you but THIS TIME make sure they make a high enough level pet that you cannot kill and make damn sure PET HOLD is ON.... otherwise youll be askin for a rez =)

offensive skills go up faster than defensive but imo they are both worth it in tight situations in the long run.

[Zarkh]

Well, yes, max defense... but that's really easy to do though. Just pick spots where mobs hit fast and weak. Needlites in echo caverns for instance, at 20'ish. Just use damage shield and taptank. Also, in the 40's or thereabouts there's an eurudite otw next to the small pool at the top of the caves leading down to the hole entrance. I didn't have to use him with my necro, but I remember using him with other chars long ago. Just wait til he's LB.

Since necro defense is capped very low anyways, it's not hard to max. As for offense... I have 0 in most weapon skills (iirc, maybe like 2 in 2hb). 0 1hb is quite handy for using tash stick, since you will very rarely hit but you'll still proc. Granted, there aren't all that many useful situations where you'd use a tash stick these days, but there are even fewer situations where any type of weapon skill is required so... ;) Been months since I even equipped a weapon.

[Xislaben]

Defense is worth working on, the offensive skills however... Does offensive skill affect proc rate? I honestly don't know.

Almost never melee, but here's reasons to:
1hs
Scythe of Sundering (http://lucy.allakhazam.com/item.html?id=26526)

piercing
Boneshear (http://lucy.allakhazam.com/item.html?id=5774)

some dps procs:
Lilac, Cruel Manipulator (http://lucy.allakhazam.com/item.html?id=83632)
Kelp Hilted Mace (http://lucy.allakhazam.com/item.html?id=22946)
Enspelled Wand (http://lucy.allakhazam.com/item.html?id=89892)

[UsulDaNeriak]

do you guys really step in and tank if oom? or why else?
and do these proc weapons really make a difference? how often do they proc in avg?

i simply go into blood magic mode if oom an cast on my HP bar.

however, max defense makes a lot of sense for a nec, skills and AA plus whatever you get in terms of foci an buffs to protect you to channel a FD after you got summoned or if lifetap tanking.

Usul

[Zandramadass]

Offensive/weap skills do not affect proc's at all. For PC's it is only your dex and any spell/song/CE effects you may have on you. You do not need to hit a mob to have a weap proc go off.

NPC's in the past do need to hit you in order for a proc to go off. (not spells but purely procs) Unsure if this is still true in most recent expansions but up to Luclin it was true.

[hughman]

The hardest skills to max and keep maxed are the defensive ones, Defense and Dodge. Spell skills are a pain to do, but only because they are boring. I usually make a macro to fish and cast with a /vtell loketh 005 at the end, then watch a movie while hitting the macro key everytime I hear the vtell. The defensive skills are HARD because you have to get hit to increase them. And necro's don't take well to getting hit. I helps a lot in skill to keep them reasonably close to maxed at each level. I have noticed a marked decrease in skill up rates, the farther my skill gets from my max for that level. i.e. the greater the distance between my current skill and my current max, the longer (sometimes much longer) between skill ups. So keep them up!

Best way that I have found to work on Defense is in Mistmore entrance in the mid 20s to mid 30s. Mobs should be a low end of Dark blue to Light blue, preferably. Defense seems (to me) to go up faster the more mobs are beating on you. More even that I can account for the greatly higher number of hits. I personally think it has to do with the multiple mobs overpowering dodge, so you get more hits overall.

Get a Temp and a bunch of Heal pots (I use the Heal over Time pots, more healing per potion over all) and clarity pots too. The idea is to pull 3-5 mobs to you where you are just inside the zone line.. if you place yourself perfectly, you just have to step back on step to zone. Then when the mobs come.. melee, and tap, just don't kill them, Spread the damage around to all of them, sprinking your health bar with this occasional Heal Pot. The ideal is to have them all down to under 5% at the same time, and keep them there untill they finally bore you, max your Def skill, or overwhelm your mana bar. Then kill them for the XP, med up and repeat!

This is easier for melee oriented characters, and they will tend to last longer against the mobs, but with fewer mobs (try only 2-3) you should be able to get several skill ups per pull at the least.

Hope this helps!

Loketh on Prexus

[Xelgadis]

Originally posted by Zandramadass@Aug 14 2006, 11:20 AM
NPC's in the past do need to hit you in order for a proc to go off. (not spells but purely procs) Unsure if this is still true in most recent expansions but up to Luclin it was true.
It's still true. The hit has to do physical damage to you, so a rune would prevent proccing as well.