Necromancer Feedback w. Bugs & QoL (Part 2)

[Zero]

Hi folks, first of all thank you for your interest once again.
If you haven’t done so please read Part 1 first. While it should not be mandatory to follow along it is recommended.

Let’s dive right in!

2. Spell Queue & Where did my FP go?
As we all know regular casters have a straight forward spell queue: They cast one spell and can queue up another one to be casted after the first one has completed. On a Necromancer however this wouldn’t work.

As we previously discussed the Necro has 2 types of spells, namely shade & pet spells. The reason to have those to begin with is a unique feature that allows it to cast 2 spells at the same time, one of each category. But in order to make this work they need to have a different spell queue system.

How this is accomplished seems to vary from server to server but as a result the Necromancer should be able to queue up a shade & pet spell on top of the already casting spells similar to how a regular caster can queue up a spell as well.

On the surface this seems to work on Eden but in detail it shows a multitude of issues and even an old friend from Phoenix resurfaced that got fixed after my discovery. Namely the dreaded instant spell issue which is especially hurtful on Facilitate Painworking, the quickcast for Necromancers.

For the reasoning behind that I have to correct my earlier statement. The necromancer does not have 2 types of spells but actually 3: Shade, Pet & Instants, like Facilitate Painworking.

And here is where the issues begin. There doesn’t seem to be a 3rd category for Necromancer spells on Eden and with that no extra spell queue for instant spells like Phoenix had after the fix.

This leads to the following problem: If a Necro casts a shade & pet spell and queues up another shade & pet spell as follow up then the entire spell queue is full. Now if that player uses an instant like the con debuffs or Facilitate Painworking they will go on cooldown, cost power but due to the already full spell queue will not be casted.

If you are interested why it attempts to cast the spells in the first place instead of just doing nothing I explained this in Part 1.

This means in a typical RvR scenario in which a Necromancer, like any other caster, has spells queued up for maximum DPS they can not use any instant spells whatsoever, or more likely will attempt to use them, burn through their power in the process and have FP on cooldown without any effect leading to a terrible gameplay experience.

However this is not the only issue with the spell queue system for Necromancers on Eden. There is also the issue that if 2 spells from the CL lines with the same cast time, for example “Shield of Soul” and “Shield of the Elements”, are casted at the same time, the first one will not be applied.
Furthermore if the player starts a pet spell with a very long cast time, for example “Intimacy with the Grave” and then queues up a quicker pet spell, for example "Intimacy with Death” then only the second quicker spell gets casted while the longer spell is not applied. Visually the pet continues casting however.
On a side note, I found it very odd that in this case the second spell gets casted before the first spell even though it is queued afterwards, indicating that they are not in the same spell queue or a vastly different system is used altogether.

Without insight to the code I can only speculate why this happens nor can I provide proper solutions. Nonetheless casts should not simply vanish to thin air, especially because as mentioned in Part 1 they always cost power regardless of the actual outcome.

Furthermore instants should have their own spell queue or whatever else is necessary to make sure that Facilitate Painwork always works as this is a vital component to the Necromancer in RvR.

Thank you for reading and once again sorry for the lengthy post, stay tuned for part 3!

[Manobrown]

Keep it up, nice to see some words on our forgotten but beloved class.

So frustrating when I lose FP because of the way spell queue works.

You write well! One thing I'd like for the devs to also look into is finally allowing necromancers to have item charges that transfer to the pet. It is the main source of our power and a very important part of this game. Not being able to use buff charges that transfer to pet (like other players) is such a big let-down.

Also, buff pots really do need to transfer as well as they did in Phoenix and Celestius.

[Warden]

Good work bro I got used to "prevent" the spell queu problem before using QC but it still happens and when you are in the heat of RvR it usualy means death for you.

[Merideath]

I have been playing a necro since 2003 and have always understood all spells to go through the pet's spell queue. All shade spells have to go through the pet's spell queue, otherwise the shade could still cast when the pet is mezzed or stunned.

Because everything goes through the pet's queue, FP is also effected. As far back as 2003 it was known that timing your FP cast was extremely important. ( https://forums.freddyshouse.com/threads ... ng.130841/ ) The discussion details how to use FP to its fullest extent.

As a result of all spells going through the pet, the pet swing speed comes into play. ( http://www.postcount.net/forum/showthre ... ta-Lifetap )

For those interested in visual aids rather than reading, here's a vid that discusses necro casting: https://youtu.be/6ZkACy8PZjY .

And, for some just generic tips and tricks (some may not apply to this patch level but most of them hold true: http://www.postcount.net/forum/showthre ... n-and-Tips

Anyway, from what I've experienced on Eden, the old-school necro is working as intended and learning the timing of the spells, pet swings, and FP makes the class very powerful.