how would you respond to this PM?

[Jebasiz]

Ok, I didn't read the entire thread, but I'd like to throw something out there. In the posts that I read, no one mentioned our ability to refill our mana incredibly fast through lich. Sometimes, we necros take for granted our abilities to regen mana so quickly. I always get a laugh when I see other group members reporting "40m" or "lom" after a fight, and then I report "80m" or "fm" after only 30 seconds of downtime. And I have my HP regen high enough (as I'm sure most other necros do as well) that I don't lose HP while using lich. This changes the whole name of the game. In my experience, while not in a fight, I have been able to cast twitch on a group member, med while the re-cast timer goes, and by the time I can cast it again, I have regained the mana used to cast the spell in the first place. In this case, I don't mind being a mana battery at all since twitching someone else (for example, the group's cleric during downtime if the cleric needs to med) isn't really costing me any mana at all.

Say my group just got done killing multiple mobs one after another, and the cleric says "LoM". So, pulling is on hold until the cleric has enough mana to heal the tank again. I'm more than happy to twitch that cleric during the downtime in order to reduce said downtime. Less downtime = more kills = more exp for me! And when the cleric is ready to start healing again, I still have greater than 95% of my mana.

Now, usually I do this out of choice. No other group has expected this of me, I just take it upon myself to try and reduce the downtime. I am especially happy to do this after I have used my Lesson of the Devoted, since I wanna kill as much as possible during those 30 minutes. If my twitching can keep the group killing, then I'm happy to do it.

There's only been a few isolated instances when my "job" was to be a mana battery to a cleric. And in those cases, I was bored as hell and thought my mana could be used for much better purposes (like dps). But there are occasions when I'm grateful that I have those abilities, and the group is usually grateful as well.

It's things like this that make the necro class so great. We have great dps in a group (through pet, DoT's, and the occasional DD), our solo abilities are almost unmatched, we can heal in emergencies, decrease downtime through twitching, keep ourselves alive through lifetaps (and also saving the cleric's mana by not having to heal us), save a group from a wipe (using FD, then burning an essence emerald to rez the cleric), and the list goes on. How many other classes are this versatile? From both playing a necro as my main, and grouping with necros on my alts, I think necros are one of (if not THE) most powerful (and underestimated) classes in the game. We could have so much more to complain about (think about those poor warriors who are forced to fight in groups their entire existence!). Complaining about being a mana battery is just whining. Be thankful you have the abilities you do, because we all know how much complaining would go on if SoE decided to take away some of our abilities.

Great dps in groups..Have you parsed other people and compared them against yourself lately? Wizards, rogues, even mages mages do much more damage in the short-sprint type encounters that EQ has made dominant in group play. It's to the point where if a mob lives a full minute, people are looking to leave the group because the kill rate is so low.

Our heals, haven't been upgraded anywhere near the amount they would need to be to be viable. Sorry a 1700hp heal isn't doing much when your tank is getting tripled/quaded for 4k

Mana battery. It's almost sad that this discussion is still brought up. Healers have 20k mana now, and will have probably 20% with SoD. We haven't had a mana xfer upgrade since Velious(3-4kk mana pools were max back then..I had almost that much mana in just augs when I quit). The amount of mana used has increased multiple times over since our last subversion as well. All that and the fact that devs have stated that the role of 'mana xfering' is not one they desire to be in game, nor do they develop content with that ability in mind..should tell you that "twitching" is a waste of time. Load a root in that spell gem and CC that add that would make your cleric "lom or oom" from healing the ranger or zerker instead of the warrior, sk or paladin. If it doesn't summon, solo it while the other 5 people blunder around enough and finally end up killing the other mob.

In groups, if you're supplying more mana to anyone then mind vivisection can provide, your group is playing 'over it's head'. The content is beyond you, if it's an exp grind, go elsewhere. If it's a quest..tough it out, dps and gtfo ASAP, after your quest is done.

Solo'ing- we used to be kings. Some of us might still have a share of that crown, but that's more of a product of 10 veteran AA's and 20k+ hps unbuffed in gear. That doesn't really say much for the class, but for the handful of individuals that have that combination of gear and longevity in the game. Meph, mystiqat..maybe a half-dozen others have that. The rest take a back seat to clerics, sk's, paladin's and mages..while soloing. That shouldn't happen to "kings" of anything. We still pay the price of that perception though, so keep on preaching, so you can pay keep on paying a price for the ability that you 'had' 4 years ago..and probably never will again.

[scrat]

Beeblebrux, I see from another thread that you are 68? Your post makes a lot more sense from that perspective, as necro's really are hot in the power curve v. other classes - and PuG clerics aren't getting nearly 1,000 mana/tick in OOC. You are also getting mad mana/tick compared to non-shaman.

Unfortunately, our class really starts to mellow out compared to others post-70. I don't want to say it's all down-hill from where you are, but you might want to find your rappell gear.

[Lilnecro]

IMU Jeb

[mordeith]

Considering a necro can solo through 99% of CotF and TDS group content, having someone tag along and ask for mana to boot is laughable.

But on the other hand, when i do group it is for the social aspect of the game and not for any desire to achieve anything,...but i prob still wont bother with..

Ahem,.. uh what was that group mana spell called?

[Lilnecro]

this shit is 7 years old buddy.

[Seriiousley]

Now it's 8 hah.
I had an SK tanker around the middle of the Rain of Fear expansion try and get on my shit about twitching. Told him something along the lines of:
"You stupid fuck, necros haven't had an updated twitch since the mid 60's. If you're having mana issues, quit trying to be a fucking dps and hold aggro over me for once. BE A TANK."