Beastlord - Mage - Necro - who's better?Follow

Who's better? Shaman by far :)

Seriously, I think it all depends on your style of play. Each class has strengths and weaknesses that need to be taken into account.

Beastlords suck at soloing

Both the necromancer and magician have their strengths and weaknesses. Both classes tend to level fairly quickly, due to both the power of their offensive spells and their pets. Like any class which one you decide to play is more along the lines of personal preferences. As a necromancer faction and being KOS may be a problem.

Magician's main strength is through their pets, however, from a DPS standpoint at higher levels they are close to par with Wizards (although the magician spells have a tendancy to be more mana intensive). Magicians are almost purely an offensive class and have very few defensive capabilities other than their damage shields and pets. Most magican offensive spells are fire based in nature. It should be noted that the magician does not have any healing capabilites other than healing their pet. The magician can also summon a wide variety of useful No Rent items.

The true power of a magician comes in the form of their pets which can take one of 4 forms: earth, fire, water, and air. Each pet has the capability to dual wield and the magician has a large assortment of summoned items that he can give the pet in order to buff it. All elementals have some form of spell capabililty that can be very useful: earth elemental = Root, fire elemental = damange shield & fire strike, water elemental = ice strike, air elemental = invisibility & air strike. The native ability of the earth elemental (to be able to root a mob) is a very powerful feature, and almost always welcomed in any group.

The biggest problem in playing a magician is the reliance on the pet. The pet is one of their biggest defensive components, and once you get past the pet the magician is pretty much open to attack. With no healing abilities the magician had better quickly summon a new pet or nuke as most efficiently as possible.

The necromancer has the great advantage of having some of the most powerful damage over time spells in the game. When this is used in conjuntion with fear kiting, multiple opponents can be practically liquified in a very mana efficient process. Necromancers have the defensive abilitiy to be able to heal, and even generate mana that can be given to other players. As masters of death the necromancer does not need to fear undead, and are absolutely necessary at times for corpse recovery.

The necromancer's main weakness is at early the levels, for they can find it difficult to solo and break camps. Because they do not have any Lull or Root capabilities, breaking a camp of mobs by yourself can be quite dangerous. The necromancer's pet is fairly weak and is more useful for defense (or when using fear kiting). Very rarely would a necro send the pet out to kill a mob without issuing a few DOTs as well. As an evil based class faction can be a serious problem, and in some areas you may be KOS.

No, for 1, the mage epic is one of the best! It would wipe out a necro in pvp. The original question I thin was what is the best pet class. The answer is mage! We get DDs, and AOEs, and the ability to summon armor and weapons for our pets! We even get to summon a pet only item that give +500 hp! We get Monster summoning too which can be considered a weakend version of epic pet minus a few abilitys. Also we get the best DS in the game! We get pet heals too, and the cost to summon our pet is like 1sp! It is alot cheaper than buying bonechips in the bazaar. Mages I think aree one of the best classes in the game because of our epic, and summond items, and Ds, and Aoes and DDs. We also get pet haste buffs like burnout, and summon 100 percent wd bags which make us MLs in ldon very often! Just my 2cp!

I play a Beastlord as my main, and I really enjoy it. I tend to prefer hybrids over pure casters or pure melee, so this was a natural choice for a pet class. A Beastlord has some pretty nice weapon skills, and although they aren't really good tanks, being limited in their armor choices, with their pets at their side they are serious dps in a fight. And I think that they are pretty good soloers actually...their pet heals are much better than the mage versions, almost compareable to cleric spells of the same level. Usually the heal spell of the same level as the pet spell heals 35-45% of the pet's damage. And they can normal heal about as well as a Ranger or a Paladin, at least up to a point.

But I think, like others said, it will depend on your personal playing style more than anything else.

Game on,

The Oneiromancer

I played a mage but switched to a Necro because it is just more survivable. Fear is very powerful, as is the ability to heal, and the best Mana Regeneration. Add FD and it has got to be the most survivable class.

Root is nice but the Mob fights when rooted. Snare and Fear is more than a trade-off I think. We get a few passable DD, to go along with it all.

I can buy that +500 hp item for 10-15 pp in the bazaar. Just the opinion of someone who likes playing a Necro over a Mage.

<----------- must be a fool ---------

I retired my 65 mage a month ago, it saddens me but I would go with BL or necro over mage. Both of them solo better, have higher DPS, and more utility than a mage. Although mage pets are fairly good thoughout much of the game, in the end they just aren't that great and mobs tear them apart.... unless the monster is slowed. BL can slow any mobs and necro get a nice undead slow (or snare + fear) so they both survive much better in the end and bring more to the table at the end.

There is a very large disparity in the end game with mage & wiz nukes-- wiz crit ALOT for 6-7k while a mage crits less often from 4kish max. Also, Necro can FD to drop spell aggro and wizards get concussion to drop aggro-- mages can die to drop aggro but that's about it.

I love my mage friends but the class just is not very good right now. For a "DPS" class they don't bring that much DPS to the game-- talking about lvl 65 here.

However they are fun to play so give them a whirl if you don't plan on raiding high end or getting to 65 + 100 aa's

Tarv, you know we have an immunity to fear spell for our pets, right?

To answer the original question, "who's better?", the answer is really so simple. The one you enjoy the most is the best class for you.

I have a Necro, Mage and Wiz so I pretty much cover the caster grid iron. I stop playing the Wiz, I either could not figure out the stategy or at the early life of a Wiz they are simply to suseptible (PVP but then who isn't). My Mage and Necro are at the same level which are still young in nature and weak in my opinion. I am just getting to the point I feel that they are starting to show some signs of being strong.

My Mage has a greater effect on direct hit spells. The earth pet rooting ability is great and the fire pet rocks when you are fighting undead. I spend a lot of time getting mana and soloing is a bit tough at a decent pace. With a cleric it is good because I can melee and stay healed.

My Necro as an overall charecter seems to be the best well rounded. I can heal during a fight which has created a great usefullness. I saved a SK last night that was at 2 percent by transfering enough HP to him to keep him alive and still kill the NCP. I can regen with DD and increase the speed of my mana from my HP. This allows me to stay in the fight longer. I have come to terms with the fact I will never melee as a Necro. Healer and detrimental spell caster is my classes specialty. Solo has been easy cause the pet holds things off but in a group with a good Tank leveling is extremely quick.

Sorry I have no idea about BL, and honestly can't tell you which is better just which one seems to work best with me. That is the Necro due to the usefullness of healing, regenerating, fear/kiting and resurection. I feel like I contribute more as a Necro.

I have a 65 mage and a 55 necro. I find that necros are way better at soloing because of the snare/fear spells. HOWEVER...
Try finding a group as a necro. People tend to not grouping with necros because in a group they don't offer much DPS. Although they get DoTs, usually the mob dies before the DoT has a full effect. Mages get picked up very quickly in groups because of the DPS of both the pet and nukes. My 61 pet parses at 65 avg. which is better than the BLs 55 and necro is even less than that same level pet. I like to solo with necro because it is not very mana intensive. And PvP I have dueled a necro with my mage and we come out about equal. Mages have anti-fear for their pets and the weapons are great because they can not be dispelled like buffs. But trying to go against a necro DoT is next to impossible. If you are a mage and duel a necro, my suggestion to you is to use an air pet and nuke as fast as you can, you may kill the necro but chances are you'll die too.
As far as BLs go, I love to duo with Bls with my mage because of their slows and heals and buffs compared to grouping with a necro.
And I also REALLY REALLY like all-pet groups. They offer a crap load of dps and when i do it in BoT or PoV, the pets just tear mobs to pieces, and FAST.
To sum it all up, if you like grouping, choose a mage for fast group pick-ups. If you like to solo, play a necro.

65 Mage of Innoruuk

Edited, Wed Jan 14 09:06:01 2004 by masterjedi

Back to the original question, my choice would be the necro. Sure mages have uber pets and DD spells, and BLs get heals, slows, and a (pathetic) form of crack, but the necro is the second best solo class in the game. And whoever said that necro's aren't feared in PvP probably doesn't play on a PvP server (Vallon Zek here). Necro's may not get the absolute best spells, but if they use the spells they do have in the right combination, they can be very deadly.

Maybe the necro just appeals to me more because I'm evil though -=)

To reply to this guy's statement, when I was comparing damage of necro vs. mage I was comparing at level 65, not 65 to 55. I am an officer in my guild and have access to 4 different level 65 necros as well so I know the ins and outs of a necro. You can't honestly tell me that a necro puts out more damage than a mage simply because of mana regen. What if I have a lot of FT items along with mana buffs? What if I have mana conservation items. Unless you are chain pulling like 1 every minute in a zone that has got tons and tons of mobs with very high HP, don't compare. Yes mages are very mana intensive, but they offer more punch in thier spells, hands down. Not a knock on the necros though, because I love necros and they do some pretty nasty crits of their own of almost 3k. Both classes are pansies when it comes to defenses except that the mage gets a DS and necro gets FD, I'd rather have the FD, lol.
But you go to BoT or to PoV and you'll always see necros lfg, lfg, lfg. Because they are solo classes and will probably kill any other class 1 on 1. If you honestly think that necros are better than everyone else thinks they are (group-wise) then maybe we need to educate more folks on the truth. =)
I love ALL pet classes, so let's just group with each other and put the tanks out of work. =)
J/K tanks we love you too.

Edited, Wed Jan 14 15:19:56 2004 by masterjedi

Well, maybe that's been your experience, but mine has been quite different. As a level 65 necro, I get solicited to join groups to provide DPS. When I match up with a equivalent mage (same level, comparable gear, similar number of AAs), the mage usually has a small DPS advantage in non-undead zones, and I usually have a small DPS advantage in undead zones. Sure, there are still people out there who don't regard necromancers as a DPS class (I occasionally still encounter clerics who think necros are supposed to twitch them), but that's a dying breed.

It's important to focus on the "apples to apples" comparison. Necromancers are a much more popular class than mages, so there are a lot more necromancers in the game than mages. If you compare Joe Bob Necro who just reached 65 to the average level 65 mage, you'll get a misleading picture.



Oh, really? I'll grant you that Veksar does not match up with the top PoP XP zones, but the XP is pretty good if you get deep in the zone. If your standard for "non-crap" XP is Sol Ro or Plane of Earth, then even a lot of PoP zones are "utter crap."



Necros can equip FT items, too, you know. Necros can equip mana conservation items, too, you know. If you stick to an apples to apples comparison (comparable gear, comparable buffs, comparable AAs), a necro will outregen a mage by about 30 mana per tick.

That doesn't necessarily mean that a necro has higher DPS. Mage nukes are larger and more efficient. If a mage and a necro had equal mana regen, the mage would blow away the necro in terms of DPS. The necro's advantage in mana regen (and ability to control aggro) simply evens things up.



That hasn't been my experience, but I'd guess that what you are seeing is due to the fact that necromancers vastly outnumber mages.