User:Athlon/high level necro solo advice

Dentin's guide to running experience on a necromancer only works for so long. As you become more powerful, the mob you fight must increase in power along with you, or you will find that you are not receiving optimal experience for each mob you kill. Enter this article, which might give an aspiring necromancer soloer some hope after about level 31.

Disclaimer: The following is not a hard-coded way to do things as a high level necromancer. These are only suggestions. One of the distinguishing factors between a great player and a merely okay one is the ability of the good player to change his or her strategy to fit a given situation.

Tanking Minion

 * Back when you were a noob: a clay man could tank for you, and things would be ok.
 * Now that you know better: Mobs are hitting harder and you will waste more time remaking extra minions along with your clay men.

Higher level mobs hit harder, but this goes without saying. What is not as obvious is that unfortunately, even though you are leveling your necromancer levels up, your clay man will eventually be unable to cope with hits from mobs. When it dies, your minions will probably be brutalized before being rescued by the new clay man you make to replace it.

Your best bet is to switch your tanking minion. Wood woads strike an extremely nice balance between tank ability and ease of creation. Their hp is extremely high, and all they require is 20 pounds of wood on the ground. Wood is easier to find than you might think, and with the deanimate spell, you can store some woads for emergency situations. Spelling up your woad with sanc, armor, displace and stone skin is generally a smart move, too.

Your next best tank minion is the bone guardian, which is useful in situations with multiple mobs that have already overran a woad. It has a bit more hp than a clay man, but is nearly as easy to make. All you need is a corpse. If you are killing a ton of mobs that like to gang up on your minions, you can quickly replace your bone guardian because there are tons and tons of corpses on the ground, just waiting for you to animate them. Even better, you don't have to worry about losing any equipment in the corpse. The bone guardian drops all its eq on the ground before the spell attaches to the corpse.

metal constructs usually aren't worth the effort of making them for general experience running, especially if you have to remake them, which can be a real hassle. It is true that their endurance is better than that of a woad, but if you want metal, you cannot gather it in the wild, unlike wood.

Other minions

 * Back when you were a noob: Raised ghouls were worth using 13 control points on.
 * now that you know better: 3 skeletal warriors and 3 skeletal mages are probably a better bet.

Skip out on the raised undead; they die too quickly at higher levels, and their control point costs are too high. A better idea is to load up on as many skeletal warriors and mages as you can, then fill up your remaining control points with skeletal spiders. Skeletal minions can be remade instantly, unlike raised undead, which require several hundred mana to be made optimal. Plus, there's not another use for dragon teeth and normal teeth are extremely easy to load up on.

Raised undead aren't practtical, due to the high cost to remake them if they die in battle. Mobs at higher levels tend to incidentally hit raised undead more often, and due to their low damage resistance, the undead are hit hard. Plus, once they are dead, you lose a lot of attack power until they are remade. The sole exception to the no-undead rule is the mummy, because of its high poison, spell saves and armor. Mummies are the best undead tanks, but require far more control points than animated tanking minions.

Your best bet for the demon familiar is either the ebony scaled demon if you are not a cleric, or the energetic green demon if you are. If you are a cleric, casting haven before regenerating is a good idea, because you can regenerate your skeletons and your own hp. And every bit of mana regeneration helps, hence the energetic green demon. Ebony scaled demons will regenerate skeletal minions very slowly, as Dentin wisely pointed out.

equipment

 * Back when you were a noob: you had to bone up because you were squishy.
 * Now that you know better: you will attempt to look for a complete set of necro cast level equipment.

Planning ahead is a good idea here. One thing you can do to decrease the need to rely on bone shields and armor is to train your constitution while it's still easy to do so. By the time you are level 31, it is crucial that you have a full set of necro cast level equipment in your possession. That means 16 pieces. Every piece of equipment will improve the damage and endurance of all your minions. Getting necro cast level with mana regen on it is better than necrocast with mana because the faster you regenerate, the quicker you can get back up and exping. Also switching to a mana regeneration set will severely degrade all your minions, and when you switch back to your experience set, they will all be extremely hurt. You will wait another 2 or 3 slow minutes for the minions to regenerate themselves. Try and find cast level equipment with int and wis on it so that you can cast more powerful spells.

equipment examples
Item: 'black dark cloak necromancer' weight: 12 Size: 4'0"  Total levels: 107 (32 necro) Object is: ARTIFACT ANTI_GOOD NECR  Type: MAGIC   Composition: FABRIC   Defense: 1 ac-apply Wear locations are: ABOUT_BODY  Estimated cost: 41619   Item has other effects: Affects:  NECR_CAST_LEVEL by 1 Affects:  INT by 1 Affects:  WIS by 1 affects:  MANA_REGEN by 3.0

Item: 'touch corruption hand' Weight: 1 Size: 1'0"  Level: 25 Object is: ARTIFACT CURSED NECR  Type: ARMOR   Composition: FABRIC   Defense: 0 ac-apply Wear locations are: HANDS  Estimated cost: 32000   Item has other effects: Affects:  NECR_CAST_LEVEL by 1 Affects:  INT by 1 Affects:  ALIGNMENT by minus 5 Affects:  MANA_REGEN by 2.0 Affects:  MANA by 5 Affects:  WIS by 1

Item: 'necklace black beads red gems fire rubies ruby' Weight: 8 Size: 2'0"  Level: 32 Object is: EVIL ARTIFACT GLOW NECR  Type: MAGIC   Composition: CRYSTAL   Defense: 1 ac-apply Wear locations are: NECK  Estimated cost: 46965   Item has other effects: Affects:  NECR_CAST_LEVEL by 1 br>Affects:  MANA_REGEN by 4.0 Affects:  ABSORB_FIRE by 1 Affects:  SIZE by 2 Affects:  AGE by 10

Areas

 * back when you were a noob: not getting a cap was okay because caps were too hard to get.
 * Now that you know better: caps are the best, and you must find more areas to run to get them

A good place to start finding xp areas for your level is to type area and then your level, plus 1. If you are level 32, try typing area 33 and see what comes up. Necromancers tend to solo stronger stock mobs than other classes due to their tanking minions, so can take on tougher areas more quickly. Areas at the high end on the list might be too hard, though, so be careful. Try to get caps each time you kill a mob because not getting a cap indicates that the mob is too easy for you and the xp for killing it will dent more quickly. Try and switch up your areas so that you do not dent a single area to the point that you get unbearably low xp there.

Combat

 * back when you were a noob: You could just sit back and watch your minions kill the mob
 * Now that you know better: It takes too long for your minions to kill the mob alone.

Stay out of melee combat. Mobs at higher levels can use double attacks and berserking to hit you. Due to the fact that most cast level equipment is low on protection, and you probably have less than 600 hp, you will be hit fairly hard if you are hit.

It is a good idea to help your minions kill the mob. Bloodmist is generally better than rotting sphere unless the enemy is etherial or has normal saves. Use the consider command to see what saves the mob has, if any. If you have soulstones to spare, demonfire is an extremely powerful fire spell that shows enormous differences depending on the power of the soulstone used.

Keep a close eye on your tanking minion. A good idea to make life easier is to type spam minions until you only see your tank. That way when you use the hph or hpa commands you won't get inundated with messages about injured skeletons. If your tank is pretty hurt or awful condition, it is time to leave the area and let it regenerate. Deanimating a woad or bone guardian and reanimating it during combat is also a good option because the reanimated minion will be at full health. However, while it is being reanimated, your hitting minions will get attacked, and it will take time for the newy made tank to rescue them if you are facing multiple mobs. If you have spelled up your tank, you will have to spell it up again after reanimating, however, making this a possibly high-mana sollution. Never use healing spells on your tank unless it took a lot of work to make, like a metal construct with a lot of saves or a mummy with full elemental infusions.

If your skeletons die during the combat, remake them immediately if you have dragon teeth to spare. if your tanking minion dies, make a bone guardian. If a corpse is not readily available, make a clay man. It is never prudent to run without a tanking minion for any length of time.

Constantly check the mob's condition. be prepared to soulsteal as soon as the mob is at awful condition. The dread portant message will warn you when the mob is at about 4 or 5% health, so wait until you see that message to soulsteal. Mobs are generally only stealable at 2% health or less. You can never have too many soulstones. If your container is getting full, soulforge pale blue or lower soulstones to make deep blue soulstones for summoning shadow fiends. Shadow fiends are used very often in necromancer groups.

Other skills
Dentin's advice still holds in this area. Remember that there is a lot of cleanup work you can do after each battle to make sure you are getting the most out of each fight. It is usually a good idea to make an alias for this so you don't forget anything. The order in which the skills are covered is the best order to make your alias if you do decide to make one.

Cry of victory is a skill that every player should know. Put just a single practice into it and you will get free better ats for months. It restores some hp and movement to you; this helps if you have bloodmisted a mob relentlessly and are very hurt. It only works if you got at least a half cap for the kill. You can use it for each mob that dies and gives you a half cap.

Consume helps your skeletons to regenerate a bit of hp after every fight. Raised undead benefit enormously from it though, and the heavier the corpse, the more your undead can consume. It only works once a tick though.

Blood sacrifice helps you to regenerate mana after a fight. this skill is of paramount importance for necros. The more hp and mana you have, the less you need to regen between battles.

Harvest teeth and spellcomps from the gutted corpse. If you are loaded up on teeth, drop some and keep on harvesting. Corpsecutter spellcomps give great xp and can be brewed into potions and poisons. If you don't feel like brewing, just drop and sac them.

Finally, dispose of the corpse. Sacrificing might give you a few gold pieces here and there. Every little bit helps especially in the current mud economy.