Greetings Eden Daoc staff and players,
today I would like to deepen some troubles that concern the necromancer class.
Besides some issues that affect all pets (pathing problems, mainly on steep hills but not only; fall asleep status: no cast, no melee hit; inconsistent cast queue; poor verbose logging) that become big problems on necromancer (as the pet is almost the player itself), there are bugs and/or server decisions that make the necromancer a frustrating and little customizable class to play.
Here's a small (and not complete) personal list of the worst ones:
pet lose contact/stick on target opponent even if it is not snared/diseased (no pet sprint);
object charges that are useful for pet and not for caster (resists buffs, ablatives, healings, aureas, etc.) do not apply to pet (they should always imho);
stats attributes RAs should transfers to pet also (constitution, dexterity), CL HPs too;
not usable charge abilities (above all the "Tempest" charge from "Basalt Buckler of Oblivion, not usable in shade form);
some usable charge abilities do not work (for example: the two abilities of the "Upsilon Necromancer Staff", one offensive and one defensive seems to have no effects at all).
Bottom line: Necromancer has already a lot of unsolvable issues (no way to see buffs, debuffs, effects, immunities and their durations; no armor retro-procs; no los/distance feedback; pet positioning difficulties; blue con pet with all consequent malus; etc.) and pet management intrinsic difficulties, with above problems fixed it would be a more playable and viable (either in solo, small and group) class.
I just wanted to add my two cents. I will preface by saying I am not moaning, just highlighting, and will try to be balanced. Necro is a unique DaoC class that has never been attempted in any other game to my knowledge. The class design is very interesting and I don't criticize the original designers for trying it out in its current form. I echo all of the struggles of the author. The blue pet in particular against any debuff or CC is hilarious. The game calculates damages and resists based on level differences so I wonder what the original designers were thinking on that one. The pet format is seen as "powerful", benefiting in a more profound way from buffs for example, and performing excellent against NPC mobs for the most part. They do not perform nearly as well against players, the primary targets of the game. I mean that in a general sense, in specific match-ups Nec pets can destroy a number of melees who stand and fight (see authors discussion on chasing players who run). They seem to miss more in melee, and well geared necs cast slower than well geared casters of any other type. Some of the cast speed problem was attempted to be fixed by allowing the nec themselves to queue insta cast lifetaps, dots and dds. Sounds good on paper. But again, what if the target moves beyond range (It seems to me the target needs to be within 500 range of both pet and nec to use them, so easy to avoid). 500 range is maybe 3 times melee range. Nec also have a number of unique weaknesses including poor stat growth outside of buffs, and only a very small ability to modify them with gear or RAs. Every other class in the game moves leaps and bounds with good gear, while necs get very marginal boosts and as mentioned, even gear designed for them that just doesn't work. I should mention before the list, that there may need to be a give an take as you'll see by some of the suggestions. This is not a plea to make an overpowered class. Here we go.
My suggestions: Some of these many players consider important.
1. Make the spec nec cast spells need 500 range on zombie and 1500 range on nec (or 1000 or 850, 500 is just soo pathetic). The class is balanced around these abilities being employed and in RvR you don't often get to use them against all but the newest of players unfamiliar with their pathetic range and need for dual contact. Many players would happily trade potency for range or improvements on the dual contact on these if it was necessary for balance.
2. Instead of treating them like a normal pet (they aren't, let's be honest) treat the pet like a player, change their color to yellow and pass ALL stats from race and worn to the pet. Do not treat stats on the zombie like a pet (absorb etc), but rather like a player. Wondering about pet toughness when buffed and another things you have become used to? See 3...
3. Specialize the pets into caster pets with faster cast speed, slower melee and higher magic damage (The two CC resist zombies probably) and Melee pets with styles, avoidance and absorb, HP, and Determination as well as slower casting and less magic damage done.
4. Gear procs activate on the pet striking or being struck, just like every other character. The proc on abom is solid and you can pick from a few, but you should be able to pick the proc you want like all melees on any pet. In addition, charges should be as good for necs as they are for regular classes.
5. Fix the delves on some of the spells. In particular the PBAoE spec needs a small rework. I suggest the Cackle line ( Necro cast queued DD) be moved to a PBAoE line instead with a final delve the same as normal PBAoE casters when the 2 PBAoEs are combined. Still more complicated and less good than a typical bomber, but serviceable and almost there. EDIT: I realized after that Painworking with Concentration is the reason the delves are low on this ability. Near full delve bomber with almost 15 seconds of quickcast is too much. Could the damage of this spell line be reduced under painworking to compensate?
There are a number of conflating issues with using a "pet" as your char. SO much easier on the game systems, balance and design to do some of the above. If I remember correctly some of the game designers have spoken out over the years about how frustrating it was designing and maintaining pet classes. Necro was by far the worst one for them to manage. Could you describe the changes on live and what makes them balanced and why? I'd like to follow your thoughts
