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Necromancer 21-30 Leveling Guide

Necromancer 21-30
Leveling Guide

style="font-style: italic;">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.

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Necromancer
21-30 Leveling Guide

1. Levels 21 & 22
2. Levels 23 & 24
3. Levels 25 & 26
4. Levels 27 & 28
5. Levels 29 & 30
6. 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 href="http://vanguard.tentonhammer.com/index.php?module=ContentExpress&func=display&ceid=769">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 href="http://vanguard.tentonhammer.com/index.php?module=ContentExpress&func=display&ceid=714">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 style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;"> -
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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