Necromancer

The Necromancer belongs to the dark brotherhood of the arcane arts, dabbling in death. Through evil spells, he can animate dead bodies and skeletons to do his bidding, as well as cast spells to leach life from his victims. - EverQuest manual

=Description=

Necromancers are masters of life and death, utilizing fire, magic, poison, and disease based spells to overwhelm their foes and assist their allies. Their choice to descend into necromancy has alienated them from most old-world civilizations, being killed on sight by most guards and shunned by many merchants. As such, the Necromancer is very independent; few support classes are able to offer anything that the Necromancer does not already have, and items and gear do not carry the same importance as they do for other classes.

The Necromancer's power comes from a deep understanding of the powers of life and death which grant them a number of abilities, including the ability to mesmerize, snare, and fear their enemies, to transfer mana and health to their allies, and lastly, to assert their dominance over the undead with a number of efficient direct damage, charm, root, and lull spells. The Necromancer is classified as anti-natural and has some unique spells to attack animals and plant based mobs.

Some highlights of the Necromancer include their powerful pets, the most efficient Damage over Time (DoT) spells of any class, along with their snare, fear, and root powers, Necromancers are very powerful soloers. Their ability to charm an even more powerful undead pet at higher levels gives them yet another strong soloing option. Plus, they can combine their Fear and Feign Death powers to "split" individual mobs away from the group ... and of course, Feign Death itself provides a way to survive, even without a group, when things go wrong. Although these spells are slower, doing damage only once every 6 second "tick" for a period of time, they use up far less mana than faster "nukes." DoT spells are significantly more mana efficient than DD (Direct Damage) spells.

Necromancers also have access to one of the most powerful mana regenerating abilities in the game: the "Lich" line of spells. These grant a buff that slowly drains their HP (hit points), but in exchange it provides significantly faster mana regeneration, allowing for even more efficient soloing (while also being useful in other circumstances, as well). The line begins with Dark Pact, and when it reaches Call of Bones the Necromancer's skin melts away, turning them into a skeleton.

In groups, and especially on raids, Necromancers rely on their DoTs less. They still deal damage (mainly through their pet), and also transfer health and mana to teammates and provide other utility functions.

Class Highlights

DoTs and Feign Death: Not only can Necromancers deliver incredible damage by stacking various DoTs, they can do so without fear of taking aggro from the rest of the group through the use of Feign Death. However, if a group is killing too quickly, DoTs become an inefficient damage source. The Necromancers can switch to DD spells or utility which are both valuable.

Spells That Avoid Resists: Another unique attribute of some Necromancer DoT spells is that their Lifetap and Blood Boil spell lines have resistance modifiers that help them land even on highly resistant enemies.

Pulling/Splitting Mobs: While Necromancers are capable pullers, they rarely pull for groups or raids, both because of the long recast time on Feign Death, and because of their inferior cloth armor (Bards, Shadow Knights, Monks, etc. can all pull while taking far more hits). As a result, Necromancers tend to use their splitting abilities far more to separate mobs when soloing.

Undead Specific Powers: Necromancers also utilize abilities to root, nuke, lull, and charm the undead. Although limited to undead targets, these spells are more mana efficient and harder to resist than their non-undead focused alternatives, which allow a Necromancer to solo even more efficiently when facing undead. Also, when raiding, Necromancers can use charm on certain undead enemies to get a pet that deals far greater damage (although, due to level limits, not every undead mob can be charmed).

Pets: Necromancers are one of only two "primary pet classes" and receive solid, summonable pets throughout their career. While Necromancer summons are not quite as good as Mage summons, they remain solidly good. In addition, Necromancers can charm undead for very strong pets at high level.

The Necromancer has three summoned pet varieties as they level up, and all three can be given weapons and armor to make them stronger. At first, only a Warrior pet can be summoned. Later, Necromancers get a Rogue pet which can't tank as well, but deals much more damage (*if* positioned behind a mob to "backstab" it). At later levels Necromancers also get a Monk pet that's in the middle between the other two, but has access to a flying kick (which doesn't require special positioning to do extra damage).

Mana Sharing: Necromancers also have access to a line of spells commonly known as "twitch" spells (because in-game the Necromancer twitches when casting them, such as Rapacious Subversion). These spells are cast to give mana to another player, in essence transferring the Necromancer's mana to that player. In groups this can be handy in a pinch, and on raids Necromancers often become "mana batteries" for Clerics or other classes who need it (leaving the damage dealing to other classes since DoTs are inefficient on raids).

Mastery Over Death: Even at low levels a Necromancer can easily find any player's corpse, including their own. At high levels a Necromancer can sacrifice other players, effectively "stealing their experience" and storing it in a gem. By using these gems Necromancers can resurrect the dead, although this power is far more limited than that of Paladins or Clerics. Because of their feign death powers, Necromancers can sometimes "save raids" by feigning death after the rest of the raid dies, and then using this ability to resurrect a Cleric.

Independence: Necromancers are one of the most independent of all classes, being designed with a number of self-only spells that certain other casters can cast on others (eg. self-only invisibility and self-only evacuation), making it a prime choice for those that plan to solo the majority of their careers. However, because of the wide variety of abilities (many not gained until higher levels), a Necromancer must constantly learn new ways to play their class.

Not Just Soloers: Despite being great soloers, Necromancers are also valuable in groups, and make excellent additions to raiding guilds. They provide excellent DPS over long fights, can both heal and provide mana to others who need it (notably Clerics in Complete Heal chains), and on occasion they can even ensure the recovery of a wiped raid.

Class Titles