Attribute Guide for Necromancers

submitted by lifebane on Feb 19th, 2007

Why does he run faster than me? He gains his energy back quicker then me! Why can't I score a critical spell hit as often as Necrobob over there! all these things have you a bit confused I see. Well never fear fellow Necromancers, for within Vanguard: Saga of Heroes all of this can be explained by means of your attributes and the aspects which they can influence.

Your necromancer will have 6 attributes that help define his strengths and weaknesses. These attributes are: Strength, Constitution, Dexterity, Vitality, Intelligence, and Wisdom. As a necromancer you will have the following base Attribute scores when you are first created:

These base attribute scores will vary from necromancer to necromancer depending on your chosen race. You can check here for descriptions and attribute bonuses for the various races that can become necromancers in Telon.

Each attribute influences certain aspects of your game play and it is in your best interests to know the benefits and drawbacks of having low or exceptional scores in these attributes. Below is a detailed description of each of the attributes:

• Increases your melee damage output. This would be great for all those melee fights that necromancers get into.. err.. wait a minute.. we Don't Melee!!! A definite stat to disregard as a necromancer.
  ( Look at me! I am pumped and buff and er.. wear a dress!? Don't do it! Just don't! )
• Increases the maximum amount of weight that you can carry before you become encumbered. NO where near reason enough to waste precious points in to increase carrying capacity. Int / Wis / Vit are by far more valuable. get encumbered? Make your local neighborhood tank carry your heavy stuff til you find a bank or vendor hehe. Why else would you bother grouping with them after all, you are a necromancer right?
  ( oof.. ungh... hey you, the big stupid guy with the over-sized sword.. carry this bag!! )
  

Constitution:

• Increases your hit points / health the higher the attribute is. This initially sounds like a real winner, more health equals less dead right? Unfortunately the return you get for investing points into constitution is very little so the recommendation is to put them elsewhere. This goes against traditional logic carried over from other MMO's like EQ.  NOTE:  PvP servers may find the extra Health more valuable than in combat regen since your typical pvp encounter is very short.
  ( Fear me for I have popped my Virtual Viagra and have much lasting power! err.. NOT! )
• Increases your resistance to the various types of magics and damage types. While definitely a good thing, the return on investment does not outweigh the potential benefit of placing those precious attribute points into your INT / Wis / Vit.
  ( Evil orc says to the other orc: "Woul ja look at dat! Da dum humie resisted one of my mojo's finalee!" )

Dexterity:

• Increases your chance to score a critical hit with your melee attacks. ummm... Melee attacks? are you daft man! You are NOT a necro tank! Those went out of style with EQ1. The only melee you should be doing is stabbing your knife into corpses looking for good parts (aka grafts).
  ( Necrobob says: "Take that! And that! Have at thee knaive! ACK!" *Necro falls down with a large axe embedded in his forehead.. oddly enough no brain matter seems to ooze out since he had so little of it to begin with* )
• Increases your ranged weapon bonus to hit. Once again, the last thing you are as a necromancer is a master of any form of hand held or ranged weapon. You may as well toss a femur at the enemy.. it may actually be more effective.
  ( *Necrobob tosses a blood dripping deformed heart at his enemy* fear me for I am the mighty ranged attack necro! )
• Increases your chance to dodge an attack from your enemy. While this is obviously a great thing, putting points into this stat would mean not putting them into Int / Wis / Vit.. not at all recommended.
  ( Necrobob says: "Ooo ya missed me! ya missed again!" *HACK* ack... Moral of this story, you only need to get hit one good time to croak when you are a dress wearing panzy caster. )
  
• Increases your chance to completely resist an enemy's spell. This is definitely beneficial but again like with increased chance to dodge, the points needed to make this effect at all a viable investment of attribute points would not offset the need to dump those same points into Int / Wis /Vit.
  ( Necrobob says: ""Woohoo! I resisted that spell.. now if I only had enough energy to fire a spell back... shoulda put more points into Wisdom! argh!" )
• Increases your chance to avoid attacks with your defensive abilities. Since a necromancer practically has no such thing as defensive abilities this is generally a non factor. Dump those points elsewhere where they will do more good.
  ( Necrobob says: "Oh no, he is attacking me... I will Parry" *whack* ow! I will block *kick* oof! I'll riposte *stab* ack! *Necrobob falls down, skewered by an enemy blade* Moral of this story, hope your dodge actually works because you have nothing else to rely on. )
• Increases your chance to recognize your enemy's abilities and react appropriately with your own special abilities. This would be great if you as a necromancer actually had special melee abilities. Sadly we have none, then again we can make corpse walk around and whack people for us.. so it's not all bad.
  ( Necrobob says: "Oh no! he is using his Supreme Stab ability, I will counter it with my umm... just a sec here... I can't do anything about it! aieeee!" *THUD* )
  

Vitality:

• Increases your in-combat hit point / health regeneration rate. This is a definite plus since regeneration in combat is slower than out of combat. Also, this will help offset the health draining effects of Transmogrify, the necromancer's health to energy conversion ability.
  ( Woohoo! I am regenin here like Wolverine! Now if I only had some sharp metal claws in my hands... )
• Increases your energy regeneration rate. This is also very useful since it means you recover your energy quicker. For a necromancer this means you are recovering energy quicker while your Transmorgify spell is feeding off of you to give you even more energy recovering ability. The fact that this attribute increases hit point / health regeneration makes it that much better.
  ( I can keep shooting these bone spikes all day long with this energy recovery rate... I rock! )
• Increases your unmounted movement speed.. aka RUN speed. The ability to outrun your enemy as he chases you with a rather large axe can never be scoffed at. While the Rate of speed increase is small, every little bit counts versus those pesky melee mobs chasing you. Against caster mobs though.. .well good luck.
  ( Woohoo! I just outran yet another self created train of Cyclops! Wonder if anyone got trampled because of it.. oops. )

Intelligence:

• Increases your spell damage overall. More damage per hit is always good, more so if you score a crit too.. high Int and high Wis equals big numbers for crits and higher sustained damage!
  ( Holy bajeepers! That bone spike must have been the size of a tree trunk to cause that much damage! )
• Increases your chance to identify enemy spells and recognize enemy spell tactics. This would seem to be factored together with Wisdom since both stats effect this.
  ( OMG! OMG! The Lich King is about to cast "Nuke-Of-Doom" on us! Counterspell it quick quick! )
  
• Increases your chance to detect hidden enemies and perceive what they are doing in combat. This would seem to be factored together with Wisdom since both stats effect this.
  ( Is that n assassin sneaking around in your pocket or are you just happy to see me? )
  
• Increases your chance to successfully counter an enemy's spells.
  ( Try and blast me !?!? I don't think so!! )
• Increases your chance to resist having your own spells countered / negated by your enemies.
  ( Bwahaha! You should have seen the look on his face when I blasted him right through his counterspell attempt! )

Wisdom:

• Increases your spells chance to score a critical hit.
  ( The higher this goes, the more often you crit, the more often you crit, the more often you can use Spell Finishing spells like Sealed Fate.. necro goodness for sure! )
• Increases the size of your energy pool. You can never have enough energy... the more energy you have, the more spells you can cast before running out of energy.
  ( Once again... I can keep shooting these bone spikes all day long with this energy recovery rate... I rock! )
  
• Increases your chance to identify enemy spells and recognize their spell tactics.
  ( Once again.....OMG! OMG! The Lich King is about to cast "Nuke-Of-Doom" on us! Counterspell it quick quick! )
  
• Increases your chance to detect hidden enemies and perceive what they are doing in combat.
  ( Once again... Is that n assassin sneaking around in your pocket or are you just happy to see me? )
• Increases your chance to resist having your own spells countered / negated by your enemies.
  ( Once again... Bwahaha! You should have seen the look on his face when I blasted him right through his counterspell attempt! )
  

If after reading through the previous list of attribute descriptions you find yourself still unsure as to what attributes are valuable to a vanguard necromancer than you are likely related to Necrobob!!

There will be some differences in opinion over what is preferred, Intelligence or Wisdom. Both have their place and their benefits for certain. Ultimately it will come down to personal preference and play style differences. Check out this thread for some actual necromancer debates regarding wisdom and intelligence points and how to spend them the most wisely.

Attribute Debate Thread

Lifebane
www.vgnecro.com

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