Brothers of Arms

[Alb]

Oki ... I know it is a bit difficult to say without the exact build and items, but just some impressions I got ...

* I used the same items ... the exception probably was that I but 2 different gems into my helm then on Live ... mainly +cold and +unholy damage.
* Went again for a mainly nightfall build (usually with 4 Life-stealers when I'm solo .. might have been 6 in SH, not sure anymore).
* I did Slaughterhouse and I can't say that I died more then on Live
* My impression wasn't negative, so I haven't done a comparison run in Slaughterhouse on Live since then.

* Some things so:
** MANA ... as it is know they increased the mana costs of spells ... so you run out of mana quicker. I would say that it took me longer to do SH as I had to rest more often.
** Spell Rotation changes as they changed some of the spell fundamentally
** Lifestrike ... gives you some health back ... noticeable. It is not big but then a bit is better then nothing.
** AoE ... I got 2 AoE spells (one is the feated Soul Frost). You can't do too many in a row as you run out of mana quiet quickly. At the moment on Live I can pretty much chain AoE ... not so on TestLive.

That combat was done on the 17/05/2009 ... so it is a bit older.

Parse was done with Urusus AoCStats

Added (edit): Now I didn't use a particular spell rotation (was all too excited to be on TL )... so I would say it can be improved upon .

I'll add what gems I exactly had and what build sometime later.

[Gert]

Could you post the raw log for this?

[Alb]

can try to do that before the Raid ...

[Lyss]

I'm about to do a TL SH run on my necro, be nice to compare; did you clear the entire thing or just the quests?

[Alb]

I did clear except the Main Boss .. where I died a couple of times only (iirc that is).

[Gert]

I'm about to do a TL SH run on my necro, be nice to compare; did you clear the entire thing or just the quests?

If you use pets, you'll need to use the latest beta of Conanstats as that supports the extra info (won't work in real-time mode though as it uses the registry path for AoC - had a chat with the developer about that in my testing of ConanStats) - that's one of the reasons I wanted the raw log (and to do some grouping on TL I am testing ConanStats as well as builds, etc )

[Lyss]

Hmm, is it possible to do SH in Epic Mode on Live? Cause I just noticed it is on TL turning SH into a group instance

Currently using a full NF build on TL, gonna play with the (new) pets later this week.

[Gert]

That's a bug afaik - can do villas in Epic as well

[Lyss]

Oh, too bad

[Gert]

Could try it though when (if ) we get around to doing some group runs on TL...

[Lyss]

Made a little mistake somewhere so 2 separate log files inside

Cleared most of SH including all bosses with this build
Didn't have to use any special tactics for the Elder boss, just nuked him down SW ftw!

Just FYI, Plague Swarm is not worth it.

[Gert]

Not bad

The Necro fatality pet seems to do a nice bit of damage - got it doing 8.5% of the total damage (36.55 DPS, highest burst at 1,338)...be interesting to see what a pet build can do

[Lyss]

Yeah I'd like to give a pet build a try, thing is I have no idea how to play a pet dps necro

[Gert]

Carefully

[Lyss]

Gonna do a villa run with this pet build

Note that the feat planner is not up-to-date, General of the Dead= Slaughter Wraith, a supposedly imba melee pet. I have no idea what I'm doing or supposed to do so this is gonna be fun

Update: The Slaughter Wraith looks cool and packs quite a punch, hitting for 1k+ every few seconds. It's slow tho and usually manages to hit just once before a mob is dead, so not ideal for soloing, am running 5 Corruptors as well fully feated with all fancy stuff, not bad but I'm still much better with a Nightfall spec .

[Alb]

here goes my combat log ....

[Gert]

Right - first run with this build so not that optimal at using it.

Build: clicky

Common spell rotation: Gelid Bones (to pull) - Pestilential Blast - Spam Ice Strike - detonate PB when mob grouped/low on health with Chill. If mobs were close at start, use Soul Frost; if able to do Decay before popping PB with Chill, that was done as well. Blasphemous Ruin used when 2+ mobs surrounded me.

Key with this build is to keep pushing on - the dmg buffs from both Set's Ruin and Embrace Death don't last long so you have to use them to your advantage. Not one for the player who likes to take their time I've played this the same as the demo I run - hit them hard and fast and there's no need to stop unless you're dead...I had no problems with mana either...

Tome of Elrik + Lich Form used for bosses; Elder Pict Chief had no CC used (aside from GB) - 1:13 for him with no SW; Ghostie took 1 Freeze and 1:06; Iron Jaw took 18 secs. Both Elder and Ghostie could be quicker but was a new build for me on Necro.

Used Set's Ruin as the buff over the other 2 for the dmg buff + self buffs.

Was in full T1 (dagger/talisman over Staff).

1 quick run in SH: 17:56 in combat, 317.08 DPS, 11.94 HPS (2 pots used), 0 death; 0 pets used (full Despoil the Soul buff); edit - oh, and no Destiny Quest buffs were selected either...not sure how much a difference they make anyway Did leave a couple of mobs up that were in obscure corners this run.

Stat overview:



Damage breakdown:



Prob re-run this once I've sorted out a better SR
[hr][/hr]
Nice build, can bump dps a bit and use Mark of Devourer (never used that in the run )...definitely something to look at if you feel Necro DPS is low

Combat log:

[Alb]

You're quite right in that sense that you need to push on with the necro due to the temporary buffs that you get. You got a max of 30s between the death of 1 mob and the death of the next mob otherwise you lose parts of the buff. I'm probably nit quite as quick to do that so loose that buff too often.

And also I found the Pict Chief to cause me less problems when compared to the last try I had on Live with a fairly similar build to some of the ones I tested on Live,
With LichKing or without.

One thing that I tried out ... which might be nice for a few mobs around you is (if you got 4 points to spare) Worm Swarm and Plague Swarm.
When I had both swarm what I used sometimes to pull is FoW followed by PestB (either on the same but often on an other incoming mob) and then use Plague Swarm on that same mob once a few where close.

So I most likely go for something similar to your build Gert. One spell I'm not sure so is Decay. Either I wasn't using i right or the timing is difficult to be useful for me. Also I'm a bit yes and no on 'Touch of WInter'. Yes it gives me a 2nd snare, but didn't find it quite as useful ... so not sure if I'm going to take it or not.

Problem with Mark of Devourer I would think is, that it is only something for higher health target. Not sure how useful it is against mobs that get killed easily and come in masses like in SH.

Tome of Elrik .. I use that quite frequently. it is quick cast and you could cast it during one of the longer casting spells. Also the CD is fairly short (1 min?) so you could use it a couple of times in-between bosses.

[Gert]

Touch of Winter's debuff can also be shattered...and I like it as using it to pull as it gives time to get PB on the mobs so it can tick whilst IS is spammed before I detonate it with Chill. 1 point for a 65% snare...not that bad imo

I guess I could hit around 400dps on the build with some tweaks - it's a bit harder on a Necro as they're not as good as high burst single target damage as the Demo is but it is still possible to get high dps esp if you tweak your buffs + spell rotation.

Some of the skills I have on the build don't have much use on a SH test run...GoD and MoD are more suited for longer fights or group fights; there's no way I'd stand there and use GoD on the Elder Pict Chief (same as I wouldn't use Let them Burn on the Demo ).

Set's Ruin is a nice buff now - the protection it gives is nice and the Spell Penetration helps (very roughly, Spell Penetration is the opposite of Immunity - so it reduces the amounts of resists mobs can do) and the detonation via Chill is a nice dmg buff on top of the Embrace Death buff.

As for Soul Frost & Decay, they're are situational - but for 1 point a piece they are handy but I didn't use Decay as much as I did on 1.04. When I do use Decay, I aim to use it when the mob is around 15% which gives enough time to dmg dealt and a small window to do the Chill detonation.

As for being not quick enough, I was normally pulling my next grp to fight before I detonated PB on the first lot - again, the ToW snare helps there as it gives time to finish the first lot and get PB on the 2nd group. It is a lot more intense way of fighting though and have to be careful you don't overextend.

All in all - it's a nice build and does a lot of dmg (not as much as the demo though )...might look at running the necro on Live a bit (also handy given we've got some low 70s coming through )

One other thing - keep the fat pets up during runs...they do a nice amount of dmg on top of what you do and had 3-4 on the go a few times last night.

[Alb]

Most of the time when I use GoD in SH is on groups of mobs as it got a decent AoE ... kind of line them up a bit and aim at the rear most mob (do something similar in AF). Also you can activate Tome of E while you are already in GoD mode.
But granted I don't use didn't use it that often yesterday.

So Without the cold debuffs of Icestrike and GoD not sure how good it is compared to previous state.

[Gert]

GoD is now the same as Let Them Burn on a Conflag Demo - decent AoE channelling spell and that's it; the debuffs have to come from elsewhere

[Gert]

I like Set's Ruin and using Chill to detonate PB:

[03:49] Your Chill (Rank 4) crits Cassandra for 1825 frost damage.

Also got:

[03:46] Your Putrid Rot hits Jealous Prospector for 363 unholy damage.

which is a lot higher than I remember it hitting for...

/edit

and wow:

[03:58] Your Lifestrike (Rank 4) critically heals you for 989.

at my level on Live that's around 20% of my health in 1 heal

--

and

[04:39] Your Ice Strike (Rank 5) crits Devout Nemedian for 2351 frost damage.

lvl 72 mob, had 1 Embrace Death up and the buff from Set's Ruin...

/edit 2

How's this for op - went afk at a node with no pets, came back and was at half health with a dead Zealous Druid at my feet...the Flesh of the Wight and the Necro shield had killed it

[Alb]

Yep .. flesh of Wight is pretty powerful ... actually the necro changes aren't bad

[DDanger]

indeed