The Raiding Necro

Cassiera <Silent Redemption>

Note: This is always a work in progress. Feel free to direct any constructive criticism to @Cassiera on Discord, and/or join the Necro Discord.

Basic Do’s and Don’ts

• Swift DoTs are not for raids (honestly, they aren’t for anywhere, but definitely not for raids). The main reason for this is a lovely AA called Enhanced Ruin, which will not apply to 12-second DoTs.

This is a huge pre-crit damage increase.

On top of that, swift DoTs generally are NOT more mana-efficient than their slower counterparts, require separate AA focus lines, and decrease the number of DoTs we can keep on mobs simultaneously – the true strength of a well-played necro.

• Use your Spell Shield in raids (currently Shield of Inevitability). Make yourself a GINA or in-game trigger to remind you when it falls.
• Always be casting. Always be burning. Always be recovering mana (if mana is a concern).
• Again, ALWAYS be casting. If you are unsure of what to cast at a particular moment, cast your 30s Pyre (currently Pyre of Illandrin) or your synergy nuke (Decree for Blood). Or use something to recover some mana, again, so you can do more casting.
• Debuff with your Scent of Thule AA, especially if you are one of the first people engaging a newly spawned mob.
• Try not to hold burns longer than necessary. There are some exceptions (see the section on Burning), but most times you leave a burn up, it simply means you burn less…which is bad.
• It’s still worth getting your Anguish robe. The Bifold Focus of the Evil Eye, and the Rod of Dark Rites are also helpful.
• Don’t have the Flesh to Venom buff on during a twincast burn. If you don’t think you will remember to remove it, block the buff to prevent reapplication with Heretic’s Unity. It will eat your twincast charges.
• Make sure your pet always has pet haste. If your pet tends to live for more than an hour or two, make a trigger to notify you of its fading.
• Use Restless/Spectral Focus potions for extra DPS with every cast.
• Use your Death Peace AA early and often. Fast refresh, drops you down the aggro list, doesn’t drain 2% of your mana. What’s not to love?

Care and Feeding of Necro Pets

• Always use the “assassin” type pets in raid scenarios. They do significantly more damage, with little or no survivability downside.
• Ensure that your pet always has Sigil of Undeath (pet haste). If necessary, create an audible trigger to remind you when it fades.
• Don’t forget Frenzy of the Dead, an AA burn ability that increases your pet’s damage for 1 min.
• For DPS purposes, try to give your pet a mage mask or player-made belt (for worn haste), a pair of player-made pants with a Ferocity focus (Dimensional Warrior Greaves or Overlord’s Conflagrant Greaves are good options), and non-proccing weapons (mage summoned, vendor bought, or player made).

💥 Pet procs are a net LOSS to DPS. Pets swing dramatically less when their weapons have a proc. The same applies to procs from belts (ie, overdrive punch) and innate or buff-triggered spell casts from the pet (Inspire Ally, buffs from shaman/bards/etc, and even the pet’s innate lifetap). Use any 1HPierce or 1HBlunt weapon with NO proc.

To avoid the procs from innate abilities and buffs, I suggest making a hotkey with the following for raids:

/pet spellhold on

/blockspell add pet 54184 54096 65384 63035 63065 61568 61427 63189 48792 53369 48931

Table 1: LvL 120 Spell Reference - Base Damage, Duration, and Mana Efficiency

(this table uses ToL values for AAs/etc)

💥 As of NoS, the combination spell Fleshrot’s Grip of Decay can be used to apply Fleshrot’s Decay and Grip of Quietus with a single cast.

Developing a Rotation

The durations of your spells are increased by your cloak focus (values listed are for ToL raid items):

A look back at Table 1 will show that Pyre of Va Xakra (36s) is your highest damage per-tick spell by a wide margin. It also is unlikely to be resisted. Your second and third highest damage spells (per-tick) are also 30-42s in base duration.

💥 Keeping all of that in mind, for maximum output, you’ll want to construct a rotation that keeps 30-42s DoTs on your target(s) as much as possible, concentrating on other spells in order of damage per tick. You will also need to consider your current AA/worn focuses when deciding which spells to prioritize. You will also want as close to 100% uptime on synergy as possible.

You very quickly run into a situation where even with a single mob, under ideal conditions, casting certain lower damage spells will interfere with your ability to keep higher damage spells on target(s) and synergy on your group.

• There is generally no reason to use ANY non-synergy, non-lifetap direct damage spell in a raid setting.
• DD lifetaps are used mainly for survivability. Maraud Essence is the current best choice when needed. Note: I don’t personally use or recommend using a DD lifetap in raids. Instead, make use of your Shield of Inevitability, Dying Grasp AA lifetap, Harmshield, Embalmer’s Carapace, Geomantra, Valia’s Unyielding Bravery, self rune, and duration lifetaps. Many of these are near-instant, mana-free, can be applied in advance, and/or do not occupy a spell gem.
• The choice between some combination of your lower damage spells will depend on:

• your current gear/AA focuses,
• the resists of the mob in question,
• how long your target is expected to live,
• your need to supplement healing for yourself and your group,
• the number of available targets,
• conflicting debuffs (for Grip of Quietus) cast by others

For multiple-target fights where the adds must die to advance the raid (and are not being CC’d), your first job is to keep Pyre of Va Xakra on as many mobs as mana and time permits. Then, work your way down the list doing the same with Hemorrhagic Venom. As you become familiar with events, you will start to anticipate when add waves will occur, refreshing long duration dots on the boss prior to spawns, and preparing burn combinations to coincide with target-rich phases. You will also get a feel for how many dots you can keep on a particular number of mobs. These things will come with experience.

💥 This is the moment where necros truly shine. If you cast a lot of 30-42s DoTs, and strategically time the use of certain abilities (such as Twincast, Blood Magic, Hand of Death, Spire of Necromancy, etc), you can put out enormous numbers, and come out of a burn/add phase with 100% mana. See Burns.

Mana Management

Mana shouldn’t be the governing factor for your baseline spell choices. Cast your 30 second Pyre, early and often, even if it hurts. Necros have a reputation (and a responsibility) for managing their own mana pools. The support of enchanters, and bards should further enhance mana recovery in raids.

If you find yourself running low on mana, double check that you are using your mana recovery abilities to their fullest potential:

• Lich - The most fundamental necro ability. Make sure that you buff with Mortifier’s Unity (which also includes a useful HP/AC boost, and a situationally useful damage proc). Make a trigger for Lunaside fading.
• Blood Magic - Casts spells directly from your hitpoints, rather than your mana pool. Try to use when you are most likely to cast a large number of high-mana-cost spells. Usually this means add waves. It has a slightly longer re-cast than our main burns, so keep that in mind when considering timing. If in doubt, like most abilities, it is better to use this early and often.
• Death Bloom - A super lich, with a quick refresh, that should be used every single time it is up. Including in the first minute or so of a fight. If your mana bar is not 100%, and this button exists, click it. Yes, it drains HP, but a single LT DoT can easily compensate. You shouldn’t notice it in most raids due to AE healing.
• Unity - Get a Feather and a Horn during the next Anniversary event, if you don’t already have them. They do not stack, but are on separate timers. Make a GINA or in-game trigger to tell you when you already have the buff. It is a waste to overlap with other group member casts.
• Rod of Dark Rites - A mini-Blood Magic, purchased with RoF raid currency. Worth farming if you can gather some friends to knock out these relatively-easy retro raids.
• Mod Rods - Make sure to pester your local mage between events! A trigger reminding you to use charges on cooldown may also be helpful.

You might also consider farming Alteration and Conjuration skill mod augs for significant, passive mana savings. Start with Alteration, as Pyre spells are Alteration based. (and generally the most mana intensive)
        

• Alteration -  Tome of Manipulation
• Conjuration - Bixie Summoner’s Stone

Many necros use mana return spells such as Mind Atrophy. I am of the opinion that this is usually not the best  use of our spell gems/casting time during raids, but it is an option if you and your group are constantly out of mana.

Burns

(this section is a work in progress :)

Yes, necros are capable of doing decent DPS without properly managing their burns. That is not an excuse for failing to make use of our considerable burn capabilities. We are a nearly-pure DPS class, and so have a responsibility to the raid that supports us to do our absolute best damage.

Most of the basic information you need is available in Sancus’ very good Caster ADPS Guide. (seriously, read this…there is a lot of good info in this guide that I do not rehash here!) Not only will reading that make YOU a better player, but it will help you understand what to ask for from your local ADPS.

The main things to keep in mind for burn rotations are

• Twincast
• Crit Chance
• Base-Damage and Crit-Damage Boosters

Crit Chance is especially important to watch, since it caps out at 100% (if you think about it - you can’t crit more than all the time). Our base DoT crit chance is 62% (assuming you’ve gained the 1% from finishing DoN progression). So, it is important to space out crit chance modifiers so as not to exceed 100% for no reason. (once again, see page 12 of the ADPS guide for a detailed breakdown)

💥 However, even avoiding a crit chance greater than 100% is not a hard and fast rule. Some effects that have a crit modifier are still best used during burns (when your crit chance should be 100%) because they also modify crit damage, or base damage.Glyphs and Spire are some examples.

Running Kizant’s EQLogParser with the damage overlay on is one way to keep track of your total current crit chance modifiers: Download Here

💥 Make sure to read and understand the descriptions of your AAs if you haven’t, or haven’t refreshed yourself in a while.

A basic, highly effective burn sequence is as follows:

You will especially want to pair Hand of Death and Spire of Necromancy, despite HoD’s slightly longer refresh timer. Both are often available for a second use between Twincast burns, depending on event length.

Squeezing extra burns in toward the end of an event is a judgment call you’ll have to make, once you understand how quickly your raid force completes events and handles loot (you’ll likely want them available near the beginning of the next event).

Abilities outside the “main” burn rotation – such as The Bifold Focus of the Evil Eye (1 charge twincast/5 min), Anguish Robe, chest click, and Gathering Dusk should be used as often as possible. Make sure to read their descriptions and understand what they do (and where they are best applied).

💥The Anguish Robe (Blightbringer’s Tunic of the Grave) will max out your crit chance by itself (+40%). Make sure to use this in between your main burns, when your crit rate is at a low point. Using the EQLogParser overlay is a great way to track your crit rate.

There is much more to say on this topic, but simply making sure you regularly use your burns is most of the battle.