Necromancer 21-30 Leveling Guide

By Dalmarus

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This is an interesting time for the necromancer, as you will begin to truly feel like the master of life and death that you are. You've recently acquired the never-overrated Rest of the Dead (Feign Death) spell, and your DoTs are beginning to truly grow in power. Within this level set, you'll see that power grow even more. You will add new DoTs, additional buffs, and see your pet finally begin to grow towards its full potential. This is a great time to be a necromancer, so hang on tight while we break things down a bit further.

Necromancer 21-30 Leveling Guide Levels 21 & 22 Levels 23 & 24 Levels 25 & 26 Levels 27 & 28 Levels 29 & 30 Conclusion

Levels 21 & 22

If you haven't already done so, head towards Donovan's Roost which is in between the Shrideth Mining Camp and Ahgram. Here you can grab a number of quests that are completely soloable if you so choose. The mobs average from level 22-24 in the area, and are only 2 dots. Well why am I hunting 2 dot mobs instead of 3 dots, you ask? Because the amount of xp you can gain from the quests in the area is pretty high, and they can be done quickly. Not only that, but you'll start dealing with more social mobs than you may be used to here, and it's a great time to get into the habit of handling pairs.

Despite the fact that some of the quests you'll receive here are listed for small groups, you can handle them without a lot of problems. The skills you learn here will be invaluable to you as you progress further within the game, so it's worth taking the time to learn them well.

Along with an assortment of soloable quests, Donovan's Roost is also where you'll start the Coterie Infineum Sanctuary quest line. For a detailed rundown of this epic quest line (which could bring you into your late 20's) keep reading Machail's CIS quest line guide series here!

At 22, there are a few new spells we receive, rather than just upgrades. Shadowfeast is a new chain spell that not only does a respectable amount of damage, but also strips 72 constitution points from your target and transfers them to you for a short time. Devour Curse is useful for removing some unwanted DoTs that enemies have dared to cast upon you. Grasp of the Grave is a welcome addition with its high damage and short timer.

The last new spell at 22 can be debatable as to its usefulness. Ritual of the Guardian summons a minion that will pull agro off of you. It cannot be sent to attack, and its hit points are not the greatest. If you get hit, it will pull agro quickly (if not instantly) buying you a few seconds before it perishes against tough mobs. While this sounds great, the debate comes about from the fact that many necromancers feel that you should have more control than to be pulling agro off your pet or fellow players - unless you want to, perhaps for agro-kiting purposes. There are times though when you get that unexpected legendary critical and your pet has no chance of pulling that mob off of you. The only time I tend to use the guardian is when you're fighting in an area with either a lot of wandering mobs, or are fighting in a dungeon. Sometimes that few seconds can make the difference between getting Rest of the Dead off, or not. The choice is yours.

Levels 23 & 24

From 21-24, I stayed within the Donovan Roost and CIS area. You'll find a number of groups either doing the CIS quest line here, or simply grinding away on 4-dot mobs that average in level from 22-27. To keep from getting burned out on grinding, I'd suggest continuing with the CIS quest line and to clean up any other quests within Donovan's Roost you may not have finished up quite yet.

For spells, we get an upgrade to Bone Spike and Devour Life. Nothing really exciting, but hey - every ounce of extra damage we can squeeze out is a good thing!

Levels 25 & 26

Right about here is where you'll need to make a decision if things have gone for you anything close to how they did for me back then. Keep in mind though, I did these levels "pre-merger" so things may be different now. After getting the cloak and the ring from the CIS quests, the groups started to dry up in the area. Part of the reason was simply that there weren't enough people to do some of these quests with, and eventually people get tired of spamming LFG messages in hopes of finishing a quest. For me, I just can't stay in the same area for too long, as some of my fellow players can attest to. It drives them crazy.

At 25, I started to go through the Shrideth Mines. You'll see quite a few players hunting the miners to gain faction with the Vizarians for the panther mask quest. They look like look like dryads, so you don't really want to help them out, do you? You're a necromancer, a giver of life unto the dead! Do you really want to get friendly with a bunch of trees? I didn't think so. Not only would it not fit with our class, but having the miners on your side means there are a number of quests you can complete, have access to not only a mailbox and a broker, but also a general goods vendor.

I spent quite a bit of time in the temple-like room that separates the Shrideth Mines from River Valley grinding away a path of Vizarians. At this level, there's just enough time to wipe the room and the outside patio before the room starts to respawn. If you have an inkling to do so, this is a great grinding pattern. While you're out on the patio though, be sure to watch out for Imirial the Seducer. Not only do you have to be sure not to pull her by accident, but watch out for the numerous people that will accidentally train her on you. She has a pretty potent magic immunity buff that gets a lot of casters in trouble with her. As she runs by chasing them, be aware that she will come back to smack you too. As a quick note, I've killed her now more times than I can count (who says I have revenge issues?) and I can tell you, she doesn't drop anything useful. The only thing I've seen her drop is a lock of siren hair, no different than you can get off any other Vizarian.

At level 26, we get a huge list of new spells along with some upgrades:

Bonemail I - Buff that increases the armor class of both you and your pet by 558. Never go without it!

Death Shroud I - Buff that increases your target's cold resistance by 130 points. While I still haven't been able to determine a mob that uses cold-based abilities, I'm sure they're out there somewhere!

Ritual of Necropotence I- Consumes a corpse, but lowers the energy cost of all your spells to ZERO for the next 12 seconds. It may not sound like much, but 12 seconds is a long time to get off some heavy DPS or get a few free Lifetaps in.

Soul Blight I - Lowers the spiritual resistance of a target by 200 for 60 seconds. It also turns the target into an undead mob, so any undead effects can affect it. Combine this with Dark Rebuke for a powerful combination. The importance of this spell cannot be over stressed. Not only will any clerics or paladins in your group thank you for this, but it also gives us the ability to mez mobs when combined with the seemingly useless Soul Trap spell you received at 18

Ritual of the Slayer - Consumes a corpse, but summons a DPS minion with very few hit points. Let me stress that this minion is not a tank of any sort. One hit is normally enough to take him out. The most effective way to use this minion is to wait until your pet has sufficient agro before sending him in. Think of this spell as a walking DoT.

Along with the new spells noted above, you also receive upgrades to a number of our bread and butter spells such as Plague of Infestation, Torment, Dark Rebuke, Sealed Fate, and more.

Levels 27 & 28

From 27 to 28, it was more of the same for me. I actually spent most of this time doing nothing but grinding a little further into River Valley, to catch up to a friend of mine in the game. This was long before Brotherhoods had been activated again. Most of my time there was spent hunting the trees and lizards.

At 28, you get an upgrade to both Crippling Blight and Detonate Corpse. Crippling Blight is extremely useful in any battle, but your healers will appreciate it even if they don't realize it. The damage reduction of 105 is invaluable. It starts to fade after 35 seconds (with no indicator except the spell description, so recast it from time to time. Detonate Corpse is another one of the spells I very rarely use. There are normally more important uses for a corpse. It is useful when your group is burning through mobs pretty quickly, but be careful of its radius effect so you don't pull more than you bargained for. It's great fun to use this for grinding faction though. If you've found an area of very low-level mobs you need for faction, hit autoattack and start targeting different mobs as you run towards them. After you have 5 or 6, kill one (dark rebuke works well for its instant cast time) and detonate it. Great fun!

Levels 29 & 30

At 29, I started to venture further into River Valley to finish more quests and continue to grind away. I can't say that I would recommend this method, especially with the new populations on the servers. Add into the fact that there are a number of dungeons within your level range now, and I believe that would be a much more enjoyable route to go!

And finally, the big three oh! Congratulations! Yep, when you hit 30, it's a great feeling. Not only do you get your upgraded pet spell (more bone spikes and longer claws, yay!), but you also can start your quest for your undead form!

The only spells that aren't simply upgrades at this level are Poison Burst I and Bone Spear I. Truth be told, I don't think I've ever used either one of these spells. If I need a spear, I cast Bone Spike simply because at this point in your leveling career, it's a cheaper mana cost. This will change as you level further though, as there are no more upgrades to Bone Spike, just to Bone Spear. As for Poison Burst, the day I need to cast an AE poison spell that affects everything within 10 meters has not come yet. The last thing I want to do is agro a pile of mobs when the tank is holding one. In the future, this spell may be viable. If you tend to group a lot and your tank likes to pull multiples and grab all agro, give it a whirl. Be warned though... if things go wrong, you'd better be ready with a quick Rest of the Dead and an apology!

Fear not though, because even though the new spells may not seem like much right now, we get some very important upgrades. First and foremost obviously is your new pet. Since they level with us, I'm not sure there's really a big difference aside from the graphics at this point, but it's very cool nonetheless. Rumor has it the devs may be working on a pet window like our character window, so we can actually see what the pet has for hp, etc. At that time, it will be much easier to gather some hard numbers, so if it comes about, I'll keep you posted!

Along with a pet upgrade, you also get upgrades for the following spells, all of which are extremely useful: Grasp of the Grave, Shadow Feast, Devouring Shadows, Blood Rite, and Power of the Grave.

Conclusion

Well, you've made it to 30. At this point, the game world really opens up for you. There are so many places you can go and explore that it's far too many to name here. You're ready to finish your undead form quest, get a Shadowhound mount, and generally get into more trouble than you should. It's a great time to be a necromancer!

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