- Detonate Soul now lasts for 9 seconds. If you kill the mob while it's active you will recover a percentage of the mob's maximum health as mana. This is basically like a curse that marks the target for damage absorption upon death. If you don't kill the target within those 9 seconds, it still does its weak explosion.
- All pet levels were fixed. Decided it has to be based off of character level instead of conjuration.
- Bond of Death's cooldown reduced to 40 seconds. This means it's possible to be leeching two different mobs at once.
- Augment Death's animation image now preloads properly.

- It occurred to me that all spell costs are way too high beyond level 50. Back when I was designing these skills I had no idea I was going to implement nightmare and hell at the time. I'm going to fix this today if I can. I am going to tie the spell cost to skill level (alteration, etc) instead of character level.

Good stuff thanks!

Great changes. Does conjugation have any effect on summoning now? Also, is there a way to increase pet level like before with a high conjugation?

Not sure if this was intended or not. My pet used to summon at 2-3 levels higher than me with Conjuration gear. It is now being summoned 8 levels lower than me.

There is a visual glitch with Detonate Soul. When it goes off on a mob, the effect then moves to the top left of the screen pulses in the air. It will go off a second time after 9 seconds in mid air.

I dunno, changes seem pretty lame to me. The pet levels thing sucks, especially since I never used +Conj to try and get better pets (never thought of it =/ ). He was already one of my lower sources of damage, and now my -3/-4 level pet is nerfed to -6. Its been too long to remember how it was in real EQ, but I dont think it was that much of a disparity if you kept up on your spell levels. I agree with the apparent +Conj. nerf so you cant get higher level pets, but being this low seems too much.

Bond of Death I will still only cast if I desperately need extra healing/damage. It already does the lowest DPS of any DoT, or of any spell really. Heck, at 38 it gives me a whopping 8.17 dps - I think I can beat that with my staff. Its basically 2 Drain Soul's spread over a minute for the same cost, so its more mana efficient. But that's only the best case scenario, and it still lags behind on total dmg/heal if you spam it (at 1 minute as BoD ends, you can go through 2 DS cooldowns and be casting your 3rd). And in a perfect case, where it fully ticks on 2 targets, with a 40 sec CD it maxes at 1.333x effectiveness, which isnt too bad. Except that doesnt happen. And Drain Soul can crit...

And then there's Detonate Soul. So without the big explosion, the damage is garbage. It takes 2 seconds to cast, and 9 more to have any effect. In that time, I can pump out 3 Bone Spirits, and do 5x the damage, and each one is more mana-efficient. And the other mode, mana replenish, doesn't do very much for me. Best I saw was a -2 Level Champion mob gave me back 78 mana for my 38 mana DS, so a net of 40 mana, which is ~3% of my mana pool - which is pretty weak on a 30sec CD. So its like flipping a coin, where you have a 50/50 shot of getting crappy damage, or a tiny fraction of mana back. Which side is the winner?


Now I'm only 38 atm, so maybe this all changes at higher levels. If health pools of the mobs outpace the cost of Detonate, I could see that being worth casting, and probably wouldn't kill fast enough for the 30 sec CD to be limiting. I still don't see using Bond of Death though, the damage is just too low. The only reason I used to use the real version of the spell in EQ was because the healing was independent of the damage, so even if the target was dead, you got the full HoT. If it did that I'd probably use it, but that would probably be too good as it would just be a decent sized regen. Especially with 40 sec CD, as you could keep it up indefinite. Maybe balance the numbers around it lasting like 45sec, with potential upside if you can let it tick the full minute.

And sorry for the wall of text, I had just been playing this some today and thinking about these two spells. I've also been watching Top Gear, so all I can think about them is Jeremy Clarkson saying, "Its rubbish!" And please don't think I'm just hating, the rest of the class is pretty solid, and I'm having a lot of fun. I haven't played EQ in years, and this is really all of the fun and nostalgia, without all the annoying pain in the ass reasons I stopped playing in the first place.

Fixing all of this crap in 2 seconds.

Not intended. Didn't have time to implement something better. Just fixed it though. Should be better now. Conjuration was always supposed to have a big effect on pet power.

Hey, welcome to the board. Sorry I didn't really have time today to fully address the necromancer the way I wanted to. I believe you'll find it more strategically interesting now. Bond of Death is a great spell. It's not about the damage at all. It's about the drain. The key is to cast it early because you want to get the most out of it. Especially if you're trying to create chains. I took a close look and it definitely had some problems. The cast time was ridiculously ice comet-esque, so I lowered it to 2.0 seconds. I also removed the cooldown completely, because I realized it's more of a survival spell when you get mobbed by multiples. This way you can cast it on everything and help keep yourself in the fight no matter how many mobs are around. Let me know what you think of this change. I think it's pretty cool because it gives you ambush survivability, but doesn't make you OP against bosses and such.


The detonation is basically a bad joke. I buffed it to something somewhat reasonable, but you're really showing up for the mana absorb. Consider the damage explosion as a consolation prize. Good point about the mana cost of the spell, so I bumped the absorb value, too.



Good points. Thanks for the feedback. I think you'll like the changes I made.

Again, today was kind of busy so I didn't really have the time to make adjustments more quickly. Have fun out there 8)

Testing out the changes to the necro now. I can confirm that the detonate soul bug was fixed. I can see that the pet level is now determined by conjuration as well and they are now going over level 50. Taking away the recast timer on Bond of Death was a great change. Not overpowered, but adds a bit to survivability and gives the class a much better necro type feel when fighting multiple mobs.

As for balancing, the mana cost still seems a bit high. I find my character running out of mana a bit quickly. Detonate soul might be a good way to compensate for this, but the return is still quite low for what is returned. At level 52, I killed a level 51 mob and got 128 mana, which nets 76 mana after casting the spell (4% of my mana pool). This will need a good bit more tweaking before it will be worth casting. But on the plus side, I do have to say the current adjustments are headed in the right direction.

Thanks again for all of the great work.

Np, I know how it goes with games like this. More of a hobby/learning thing rather than any sort of published game, so no biggie if things aren't polished/perfect. I'll have to check out the new changes, they sound great.

When you do find infinite time, I've been keeping a list of other necro-y things. Possible bugs or exploits, little things that irk me, etc. Keep in mind this is my first char, and only 40 so far, so some of these things might be general game things, not necro-specific. Especially the first bits.


edit - also in this part, sometimes my spell damage displays decimals, sometimes not. Always makes me rage for all the times my code ever did that. WHY U NO ROUND PROPERLY!?!?!

My cast bar disappears when I'm casting on a target and another mob dies. i.e. Mob A is running limping off to death with DoT's on, and I'm mid-cast on Mob B when it dies, the bar poofs. Just for that spell though, it comes back on the next one, but can be confusing for a second.

Also with casting, is there any way to interrupt mid-cast? Like, can I duck like I used to be able to do in EQ? Np if its too much to implement, its just annoying to hit the wrong button and be stuck for 3-4 sec.

Reduced Weight - Makes sense to go down one tier (Leather -> Cloth), but Chain and Plate too?

Pet - Kinda unresponsive. I dont know why he switches targets when he does, but I just want him to stick to one target until its dead, especially when I give him a specific target. He seems to switch to higher level targets when they show up, but if I'm chaining, I just want the old one dead before it can do anything else. IMO the threat system isn't reliable enough for him to tank anything, so to my mind hes just a free, but somewhat weak, DoT that occasionally absorbs some damage. Kinda annoying when it goes to attack something I'm just fearing off. Also, would be nice to see buffs/debuffs next to the health bar if possible.

Bone Spirit - Just bugs me that the mana isn't visually deducted from your bar until the bolt actually connects.

Fear - Just as awesome as it was in the real game. Possibly more so.

Howling Terror - Nothing, just that this wasn't a necro ability that I recall, but a mash-up from WoW, with the Warlock's name and Shadow Priest's icon. Not that I mind, its an awesome skill. I just mention in case you meant Screaming Terror from EQ, which was a mez, not fear. Because necro's needed more tools

Darkness/Ignite Blood/Asystole - Main source of damage, and nice to have DoT's in 3 different resists. All really solid on damage, with the snare and the weakness just gravy on top. Only real complaint is the cast time on Asystole, just because if you get caught casting at the wrong time, you can miss a Corpse Explosion.

Corpse Explosion - Basically the perfect spell for chaining mobs together. Not sure if its intentional, but it can be cast while silenced, probably because its physical. Also, if you kill something with a CE, that death wont trigger it (i.e. you can't chain CE down a bunch of stuff. Probably for the best though)

Feign Death - It always seemed OP, but it might actually be in this game. If you use it in battle and fail, it does still leave you in FD mode. This is a mild annoyance when you have to click Battle again and break FD when you dont realize its on, but seems like it might be an exploit - if FD mode is still active while you are in combat fighting, are you going to get unwanted adds? I can't say for sure, but it seems possible.

Arch Shielding - Weren't these always instant in EQ? (serious question, been a long time)

Augment Death - Just want to mention the pet window buff/debuff thing again.

And please add a spellbook/skill list of some sort. Unless I'm missing it, the only way to check combat skills is if you're in combat fighting something, which isn't the best time for reading them. This is also my excuse if anything is mis-named/spelled wrong.

Thanks again for taking the time to make this game, and to read all this. I was afraid that I was just going to ramble on until I hit the 60,000 char limit, and really be sad.

Hey good post. Will respond when I am not on a kindle fire. Can't type worth a damn on this thing.

Ok, I already hate myself for posting this bug, but the adjustment to pet level summons may have gone a tad askew. Casting my pet normally at level 52, I got a pet around the same level...Decking myself out with a ton of conjuration gear (288conj), my new pet level is now 70. I doubt you wanted to high end cap to be that high. That being said, the power level of the pet actually doesn't feel way out of balance. Currently, while pulling multiple light blue mobs, he is doing about 25% of my damage and he is still taking quite a bit of damage.

Small bug in the description text for Detonate Soul. The damage range for me reads 683 to 374.

I dunno, the pet level thing might be okay. After all you did get a ton of conjuration gear to do that.

Sounds good. I do have to have an extra full set of equipment to make that happen.

Found a bug in the Necro shield buff. It adds HP, Cold and Magic resists. It looks like it is adding the HP amount to the Cold resist number, making the cold resist number rather large.

Addendum: Same as above but Poison, not Cold.

I'm getting this too, but a different value. Its supposed to give +34 Poison and +150 Health at my level, but I get +125 Poison when I cast it. Other stats look like they raise the normal amount.

Fixed in 0-5-60

I have played the necro class up to level 82 now. It is a fun class and has several good distinguishing features. That being said, there are some balancing suggestions I would make to the necro class and possibly to the caster classes in general.

- Damage Scaling: This concerns caster classes in general. Currently, the weapon based classes have a large advantage. As weapons become more powerful, their dps consistently gets higher. Casters currently cap out in damage for the most part. As a benchmark, my necro class is currently doing about 150-220 dps per fight. It is roughly the same for higher and lower level mobs. My level 75 Ranger easily does 2-3 times that amount on average. I agree that the necro class should not do the same dps as a fighting class like the Ranger, but it shouldn't be as skewed as this.
- Damage Mitigation: Fear is extremely powerful in the right circumstances, but other than Diamond Skin, there is no other way to mitigate damage or break casting. It is also worth noting that Howling Terror (fear all) seems to have a much higher chance to end early. From my experience, it seems to end twice as fast as the normal fear. The largest issue comes with boss fights. Since necros rely almost completely on fear, the daunting trait is brutal. Currently, I am only can only contain a boss mob for about 1/3-1/4 of the time. And without any ability to interrupt casting, the rest of the time is rough. Diamond skin does help a little in this area, but since it only covers about 500 damage for 9 seconds on a two minute timer, the help is rather minimal.
- Sustainability HP: When I think of the necromancer, I think of a master over life and death. They should constantly be drawing the life force (HP/Mana) from enemies in order to stay vibrant. If this area is good enough, I could see it overcoming the lack in damage mitigation. Currently, necros can gain life with drain soul and bond of death. Drain soul currently gains 440-467 life and does the same in damage and can be cast every 30 seconds. Bond of death currently does 38 dmg every 3 seconds for 1 minute. This comes out to 760 health every minute and can be cast on multiple targets. In comparison, the ranger can cast a heal ever 16 seconds for 275-308HP. Their gains from life leach is where they seem to shine. It is hard to get a firm average for this, but it does seem to overshadow bond of death.
- Sustainability MP: The only MP gain the necro gets is from detonate soul. This normally nets around 100MP (depends on the HP of the mob killed) after a kill if you are able to land it perfectly. In nightmare, I am typically using at least 600mp per blue mob. Even using detonate soul after each fight, I find it is extremely difficult to go beyond 5 or so kills before running out of mana. In comparison, the ranger can stay at full MP through mana leach nearly indefinitely. Granted, this is a poor comparison since rangers don't cast many spells, but the gains from mana leach greatly overshadow what is gained through detonate soul.

Suggestions:
- Have elemental damage affect spell damage. This would go a long way in making the caster classes scale up in damage with the weapon classes.
- Is the duration for Howling Terror the same as Fear? If it is meant to be shorter, it might be good to reduce the cooldown timer to one minute instead of two.
- Damage mitigation could also be enhanced by reducing the cooldown timer on Diamond Skin from two minutes to one minute.
- Allow life/mana leach to affect magic damage.
- Change Detonate Soul to gain a larger amount of mana and possibly HP as well. I would also recommend that you have the area effect damage go off even if it does not cause the killing blow. Currently, it is next to impossible to have it cause the killing blow.

Let me know what you think. Keep up the great work. Really loving the game so far and I hope this helps.