Necro Tank Good and Bads

Lord_Eomer

May be this is too early for me as a Necro Tank (played few days only) but been tanking from Years. Noticed Necro are good enough for Dungeon contents but Vet HM Trials they may not be top dogs (main tank):

Goods:

1. Generate Ultimate Faster
2. Easy access to debuff Major and Minor Vulnerability
3. Damage Reduction Gaining via Passive and Skills
4. 1250 Max Health Stat increase
5. Necromancer summon active grants Magicka and Stamina Recovery increased by 200
6. Healing Done Increase via Passive (while having negative effect)
7. Healing Received by 3% for each Bone Tyrant ability slotted
8. Can use own Synergy (useful in Dungeons runs)
9. Some Skills useful for Tanks giving synergy
10. Can remove negative effects on self
11. Can rez 3 players with an ultimate to save wipe

Bads:

1. Weak Self Sustain Healing (especially where getting lot of harder hits in dungeons or Trails or may have to pull harder enemy solo), healing is much weaker comparing Sorcerer Clanfear or DK Green Blood
2. Not much use of Bone Goliath Transformation if preferring debuff Major Vulnerability
3. Higher cost of skllls on tank especially for Tank useful skills like Bone Totem
4. Not easier resource Management
5. Nothing as strong as Magma Shell (sometime very handy)

Fusozay

Lord_Eomer wrote: »

May be this is too early for me as a Necro Tank (played few days only) but been tanking from Years. Noticed Necro are good enough for Dungeon contents but Vet HM Trials they may not be top dogs (main tank):

Goods:

1. Generate Ultimate Faster
2. Easy access to debuff Major and Minor Vulnerability
3. Damage Reduction Gaining via Passive and Skills
4. 1250 Max Health Stat increase
5. Necromancer summon active grants Magicka and Stamina Recovery increased by 200
6. Healing Done Increase via Passive (while having negative effect)
7. Healing Received by 3% for each Bone Tyrant ability slotted
8. Can use own Synergy (useful in Dungeons runs)
9. Some Skills useful for Tanks giving synergy
10. Can remove negative effects on self

Bads:

1. Weak Self Sustain Healing (especially where getting lot of harder hits in dungeons or Trails or may have to pull harder enemy solo), healing is much weaker comparing Sorcerer Clanfear or DK Green Blood
2. Not much use of Bone Goliath Transformation if preferring debuff Major Vulnerability
3. Higher cost of skllls on tank especially for Tank useful skills like Bone Totem
4. Not easier resource Management
5. Nothing as strong as Magma Shell (sometime very handy)

goods -
1. ~100-150 ult per room in dangeon.
2. yepp
3. fine but not perfect
4. +
5. +
6. miserabily effect.
7. i use only 2 BT skills> so...
8. not needed udner HM vet trials. in trials i was with friend heal so lance have always.
9. +-
10. +. but with healer not actual.

cons
1. scefe spammable self heal - OP. sorc/dk - look PTS patch. all classes will be same.
2. you dont need goliaf in good team with good healer. use bone shield.
3. you dont need them in solo. at the dangeon use healers lance/sphere.
4. yepp. but my soclan friend healer know my builds (twarden/necrotwar) and give me lance+sphere. with pugs - 3stat potion use
5. yepp. DK in this still strong.


with all this i can kill mostly classic world bosses solo and HM VET classic dangeon bosses solo (what have not onepunch abilities). some dlc WB and DB killable to.

today have message in groop chat "O.o 28k DPS tank????" yepp. sometimes have 110k dps

so as i see that - necrotwar tank is good for questing and HM vet classic dangeons. some HM DLC dangeond doable, but needed doctor and ebony. trials normal, vet 50/50, HM vet only support tank.

Grianasteri

When I created my Necromincer tonk, I was extremely happy, it was instantly soloing content I would struggle with using other characters. I leaned more towards damage and do about twice as much as my other tanks, only giving up a little survivability (max health).

Rotating between Sythe and Bone shield, I am virtually invincible if I keep my other buffs up.

For me, my preference is now for my Necrotonk rather than DK, due to the resurrection ultimate. My Necro can do virtually everything a DK can in terms of tanking, but can also save a wipe. And I have now saved several wipes and important stages of dungeons.

I have yet to take my Necrotonk into a trial.

katorga

Well, minor maim, guardian pet and deaden pain is around 46% raw mitigation when lots of mobs are dying. Massive self heals, dual chains. Great class for tanking PUG DLC vet dungeons without a huge investment in gear or perfect tank race, so short queues. Pretty forgiving while learning mechanics, if you want to be a real tank. The res ult is great when you get a wild PUG group.

Mygalomorpea

I was wondering what the pro's and cons were for the Necro tank. Having 3 tanks I have grown used to seeing when each tank would be the preferred choice. Thanks for the explanations

James-Wayne

I agree that Necro tank is perfect for Dungeons (especially PUG ones) but not viable for Trials... at least not viable with the current META team trial setup.

I believe it can work but the whole group dynamic will need to change to accommodate and that's just not ideal for everyone to be changing theirs setups.

Maybe one day the Trial META will change but not right now.

es4eva

My necro tank has become my favorite character since I made him.

The res ultimate, as others have said, is awesome for PUG. It has saved the day several times for me. And ultimate builds quickly, so it's always ready.

I'm not 100% on which self heal I like...I like the AoE heal that clears debuffs, but the scythe is also handy. Having both pets up all the time also helps with that.

I like being able to use my own synergy...helps with damage output. As does the Archer morph of pet.

Currently running Undertaker, Warrior Poet, and Lord Warden...but looking at dropping Warrior Poet for something else because Lord Warden buff is up pretty much 100% of the time, so resistance from WP is overkill. Thinking of keeping Ebon Armory in the bag if the group needs it along with a damage boosting set for solo questing or if the group doesn't need buff from Ebon.

Fwiw, I've run a bunch of vet dungeons, but no trials with this guy.

msalvia

Adding a few cons:

1. The worst possible pull in Beckoning armor. Can't pull stuff when you want to, can pull stuff out of AOE, awful skill.
2. Delayed Root Skill: Bone totem is fine, but the 2 second delay on the root/fear is kinda tough to manage (at least compared to DK's instant talons).
3. Burst Heal debuffs you; DK and Warden self heal buffs you/a teammate.

Nefas

James-Wayne wrote: »

I agree that Necro tank is perfect for Dungeons (especially PUG ones) but not viable for Trials... at least not viable with the current META team trial setup.

I believe it can work but the whole group dynamic will need to change to accommodate and that's just not ideal for everyone to be changing theirs setups.

Maybe one day the Trial META will change but not right now.

It's viable for Trials regardless of composition. Raid composition at the highest level doesn't restrict classes, it restricts players based on their goals as a group. Yes you'd want a DK tank to provide Minor Brutality and a NB tank to provide Minor Savagery to push the DPS and such but if you just want to tank with Necro in Trials, you can do it regardless of raid composition/meta.

For example:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MHwFDiijmXU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BuXVA2ShlBs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aWIvLVaXWRY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BTnEveXEvag

and more. I've pretty much done every Trial as a Necro tank.

In regards to the original post:

1. Weak Self Sustain Healing (especially where getting lot of harder hits in dungeons or Trails or may have to pull harder enemy solo), healing is much weaker comparing Sorcerer Clanfear or DK Green Blood

Scythe is a pretty strong burst heal/HoT. The only downside to is that you have to hit something to make it work, and that's where Vigor or other sources of healing come in.

2. Not much use of Bone Goliath Transformation if preferring debuff Major Vulnerability

I strongly do not recommend using Frozen Colossus/Major Vulnerability. Warhorn still yields better results for your group.

3. Higher cost of skllls on tank especially for Tank useful skills like Bone Totem

You just have to build around the skills

4. Not easier resource Management

Anything compared to a DK tank in the resource department isn't "easier".

5. Nothing as strong as Magma Shell (sometime very handy)

Goliath transformation is...pretty insane and in certain scenarios and aspects better than Magma Shell.

Krayl

Lord_Eomer wrote: »

Bads:

1. Weak Self Sustain Healing (especially where getting lot of harder hits in dungeons or Trails or may have to pull harder enemy solo), healing is much weaker comparing Sorcerer Clanfear or DK Green Blood
2. Not much use of Bone Goliath Transformation if preferring debuff Major Vulnerability
3. Higher cost of skllls on tank especially for Tank useful skills like Bone Totem
4. Not easier resource Management
5. Nothing as strong as Magma Shell (sometime very handy)

I will address these 'bads' just a bit as someone who's necro tanked in VCR as well as vmol/vss clears-

The self healing of hungry scythe is actually very strong. You do need a target to get it off though.

Bone goliath is pretty strong. It's not quite magma shell but if you're dying with that much HP, you've got bigger problems.

Your cost is higher but you should be specializing more into magicka recovery and mag cost reduction glyphs. Theoretically you can have zero stam skills on your bar and tank just fine. Sturdy small pieces and shield should reduce block cost enough to make 1 infused jewelry magicka cost reduction glyph and 1-2 recovery glyphs on harmony or healthy jewelry. (personally as argonian i use 1 harmony/potion cool down 1 harmony/magicka recovery 1 infused/spell cost reduction)

IMHO as far as resource management, the hands-down best race for necro tank is Argonian to help with this. They also get extra mag as a resource which is nice, just slap a stam enchant on your shield to bump it above your mag on your front bar so you can pop synergeis and get stam back to help w/block cost while your mag regens. A health bonus and +healing done - best necro tank race.

I find the biggest weakness for Necro tanking is lack of a damage shield. You have the means to get your health back but your only real mitigation is your spirit guardian.

Iceheart is actually an option as a monster set. You're throwing out enough damaging abilities and attacks to crit and it ends up being up fairly often. Brands of Imperium is another set option. Finally, you can throw a hardening enchant on your infused 1h weap - its not a huge shield but with the resistance changes it's still not nothing, either.

I've tried runnin gbone shield but the cost is too prohibitive.

Fact of the matter is nothing is going to surpass DK tanking because of it's passives. They are too good. But with some work you can make a pretty solid necro tank.

satanio

Lord_Eomer wrote: »

Bads:
5. Nothing as strong as Magma Shell (sometime very handy)

New Immovable skill from Heavy Armor skill line will make you happy next patch then:
Each piece of Heavy Armor worn increases the amount of damage you block and the potency of the snare by 5%.(While active)

Not saying is as strong as shell, but it will definitely help less "tanky" classes with their hard-times - Rakkath ratatata or Fiery breaths in vSS.