Friday 7 February 2003

Pic of the day: The shade and the servant, bound together in a single fighting unit, comprise the necromancer in the game Dark Age of Camelot.

DAoC necromancing

Not exactly bringing the romance back in necromancer perhaps, but the new necromancer class in Dark Age of Camelot is one of the more interesting I have played. It isn't for everybody, and it isn't as powerful as I originally believed. But it is one of the most original classes in the game so far, probably second only to Animist, and it does have a couple unique strengths.

The necromancer class is one of the new classes in Shrouded Isles, the expansion pack for DAoC. (I wrote about this briefly on January 18.) The expansion pack is good if you have a high-end graphics card, particularly GeForce Titanium 3 or 4. It gives improved performance and the ability to play in windowed mode, so you can change between this and other programs – ideal for checking maps and online guides while playing. Like a cheat, only legal. Recommended if you have the hardware. And incidentally it also introduces a few new places, races and classes. To my surprise, I have found myself playing the necromancer more and more.

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This class is based in the realm of Albion, and is typically played by the new race of Inconnu. Small, white, frail and highly intelligent, they look the part; very goth. But it is also possible to play this class as a Saracen or even a Briton. In practice, you want either Inconnu or Saracen. With Inconnu, you would want to spend points on dexterity; with Saracen, you should spend most of your points on intelligence. Looks don't matter: You will spend almost all of your time as a shade, with a generic transparent look.

The starting class must be disciple. Disciple is really just a junior necromancer, and you will begin necromancing at once. The disciple comes with two spells: A simple zombie summon, and a simple life drain. Once you complete the summon spell (this takes ca 20 seconds, depending on dexterity) an ugly zombie appears, and you transform into a shade. You are now almost invisible, especially at a distance or to enemies, and also invulnerable to both magic and weapons. In effect, you have entered the spiritual realm for the time being, and the zombie is your earthly form. Still, it is a separate entity, a controlled character or "pet" as we say with a loan word from EverQuest. (Pet classes became quite popular in EQ, and also in the younger game DAoC.)

The undead pet (what a mental image) casts all the spells, too. Your only contact with the world is through the zombie. There are basically two types of spells. One is cast by the shade toward the pet. This takes time for the shade to cast, but is instant for the pet. The other is opposite: You order the pet to cast a spell. It is instant for the shade, but takes time for the pet. In this case, the pet cannot cast if it is in combat.

Luckily, the zombies are decent fighters. They fight with more purpose than the ambling undead you meet in nature, and you soon get spells that increase the pet's statistics: Strength and dexterity are mandatory ("baseline") spells, and you can specialize to get more advanced spells that increase constitution and quickness as well as more strength and dexterity. Specialization comes later, from level 5, when you join the temple of Arawn and become a full-fledged necromancer.

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There are 3 lines of specialization. By far the most popular is Deathsight, which is good for a caster-style solo approach. This is the only spell line that lets you buff friends (with an energy field that absorbs a proportion of incoming attack damage) and also allows you to convert enemies' life force to magic power and transfer it to friends. Very nifty in groups. The life drain and power drain spells do massive damage in their own right, and you can damage an enemy dramatically before he even reaches you. If he does come close, no worry. You have a player-cast life drain spell, which is instant for the pet. This means it can be cast during battle, transferring health from the enemy to heal the zombie.

Painworking is the second line. It has a wealth of debuffing (weakening) spells, which cripples the opponent. Also useful in groups if you don't have other debuffers there.

Finally Death Servant has spells to improve your zombie for close-up fighting, and also spells that let you fight many enemies at the same time. For instance, you can cast area effect spells that attack all enemies within a limited area. When they rush in to attack, the pet is covered with a damaging aura, hurting all that land a blow on it. Since the pet is also toughened up with buff spells, you should have a decent chance of surviving and getting heaps of experience points. This way your pet can also be the tank in a group, if you have a healer.

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Pet heal is a baseline spell, so you will always be able to heal your pet. This is important because if the pet dies, you are yanked back to the physical plane with only 10% of your health points, and are an easy target for the enraged enemy. However, unlike other pet classes, you cannot heal instantly. Your heal spells are actually regeneration spells, healing over time. You should start casting as soon as you know that your pet will be hurt. Since the spells are cast by the shade, you can still heal while fighting; in fact, you probably will need to, unless you manage to get enough health from the life drain spell. Life drain spells have a chance of failing against enemies your own level or higher, but heal spells always succeed. Heal and life drain are cumulative, but you cannot cast two heal spells in rapid succession and get double heal. Only the latest will be active.

The nice thing about necromancer healing is that you can heal even if the pet is fighting several enemies. If other pet classes do this, there is a high chance that the monster not currently being attacked will leave the pet and go for the mage, and this tends to mean an early death for the frail and unarmored character. But shades cannot be attacked while their pet still lives. This takes a bit getting used to, it is a whole new play style.

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In a way, the necromancer copies the situation of the player himself (or herself, occasionally). You are an observer, not quite present, invulnerable and ignored, and at the same time you are controlling your "avatar" in the game and are responsible for its success or failure. So when you play a necromancer, you play someone who controls another character and acts through it. It feels kind of weird. But it is fun too. You get a kind of detachment, a more relaxed approached. It is almost like Krishna says to Arjuna in the Bhagavadgita: The body is like a garment that you remove and then put on a new.

In the case of the necromancer, these temporary bodies are not just exchanged over time, they also trade up. At level 4 you get the second zombie, which is a bit tougher but looks and acts much like the first. At level 12 is the first dramatic departure: You now get a undead druid type, which looks tougher and perhaps also is. Later you trade up to a centurion, and armored skeletal warrior. The next version, the wight, is once again green and mostly naked; but its extremely long limbs make it seem far more unnatural and creepy. If you stick it out till level 44, you get an abomination, a demonic warrior with glowing blade and inhuman sounds. A worthy conclusion for a career that started with gooey zombies.

The weapons and armor, where appropriate, come with the pet. You still cannot equip stuff on your pet. In fact, as a necromancer you should never need weapons or armor of any kind. You can buy items that improve your statistics: These improvements will be transferred to the pet, which will be the one improved. And you probably want a Staff of Focus, which lets you cast your spells with less loss of magic energy. You don't need any of these to succeed, but they will definitely make life easier. Overall, this is the class for those who hate shopping. (Or who need all their money to finance their crafting.)

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Necros do have a reputation as overpowered, selfish campers, grabbing all the monsters for themselves. This is a bit unfair. The class has been adjusted down a little bit: There were a couple bugs that made them almost invincible, at the start. They could park the pet inside a building and cast spells through the walls, thus killing without any risk at all. Now both the pet and the shade have to have line of sight to the enemy, so that problem is solved. Still, it is one of the stronger classes in the game for soloing, while being only moderately useful in groups. Also the class concept probably does not attract the most cheerful and outgoing players ...