Necro/Monk advice desired for a newbie

Hi all,

I started playing GW last week and have gone for a Necro/Monk, I'm at level 5 right now. I only saw one N/Mo build in the Builds Directory so I'm guessing it's not a common combination. That's fine, I wanted to try something a little "different".

Could someone offer some advice on what would be a good mix? I see most people concentrate on Blood Magic for Necros but I rather like the look of Death Magic and Curses. Is N/Mo a viable mix?

I play a Monk/Necro, which is nice because I can heal all the stuff that I sacrifice to the neat necro spells ASAP. But with necro primary you could try death magic, with all the summons + soul reaping (you get energy back when you minions die too!). Heal Area would be nice there because it heals all your minons when they are around you after / between battle.

Pretty much any combination of Monk and Necro skill trees are viable, especially in PvE. Death is great later in the game, once you get Bone Minions, Bone Fiends, Death Nova, and Putrid Explosion. Blood has good damage and some great elites. Blood is Power, Blood Ritual, Well of Blood, and Well of Power will make any casters on your team love you, especially Monks. I don't find Curses fun, but it's still strong, although not especially so for PvE. Healing Prayers are great for a secondary Monk. I find that many Protection Prayers spells are subpar without a Monk's Divine Favor bonus. Smiting Prayers has some good AoE skills.

At the moment, being a newbie, I haven't really put my "focused" my points distribution. I've been spreading them over the skills. Is is worth restarting and doing pre-searing again so that I can focus a bit more or will I be able to "correct" my build from this point on (if you see what I mean).

Sorry I'm at work and don't have my exact stats here.

Well, I'm at work so I can't remember the exact names of the skills I used with my N/Mo throughout the PvE campaign but here goes. First and foremost, curses is probably your best attribute. Why ? Because as a support class, it gives you the 2 most devastating anti-melee hexes there are, one is Enfeebling Blood *weakness for up to 17 seconds to foe and all surrounding foes*. The other is Shadow of Fear *slow for up to 39 seconds to foe and all surrounding foes*. PvE mobs are for the most part, stupid and tend to come at your group in one large pack. Casters are dangerous but it is the melee which kill you while you are trying to kill the casters. Making them weak and slow then, as a secondary monk, being able to heal through it while your party kills the casters is very nice.

Towards the end of the game I just made myself pure healing though. Was kinda hard to get a group as a necro unless you were an energy battery or a full healer.

EDIT : Oh, and you can switch your attribute points around as much as you want, of course, you need attribute refund points to do so. Refund points come at 1 point per 250 xp I believe.

There's no reason to go back and start over. The nice thing about this game is that you can change literally everything, except for:

1. Character Name
2. Physical Appearance
3. Primary Profession

Everything else can be changed, most of it instantly and cheaply.

Thank you for the tips. I didn't realise you could chop and change your stats.

Hell, it was only last night after hitting Lvl 5 that I noticed that little green arrow next my level indicator

I was wondering why battles were getting harder and harder and my spells having less and less of an effect

Some differences of opinion I see here. Some like curses, some don't. Some go for Blood Magic, some Death Magic. I can see this is going to be a "just try stuff out and see how you like it" type of game.

I have a lvl 20 Necro/Monk and i've tried diferent builds. I'll give u some start points.
First u gotta decide if u wanna go full support or u actually want to be part of the hack and slash.

For full support, Blood magic and healing prayers work good toguether with a high soul reaping.

Soul reaping gives u 1 energy per level in that attribute, for anything that dies, and that means, monsters, pets, npc's, minions, party members and ranger spirits. Giving u a almost endless supply of energy. I have even gone as only "healer" with a party that could not find a monk (by that time my monk was only level 5) and kept them all in one piece during the Dragons Lair mission. Constantly casting heal party combined con orizon and word of healing.

For another support u can take blood is power that will give ur party caster a larger regen rate of energy for a period of time.

Curses weaken the mobs greatly, if u can pack em in a block, throw a few curses to them and have and elementalist throw a couple of AoE spells on them... they are toasted.

Death magic is great for having tons of meatballs that will block the mobs for u. So death magic and curses can work good, while mobs are busy fighting ur undead army u can curse em, wrap em, and send em.

Well, u can pm me with any doubts u have.

I also have a level 20 N/Mo.

To be perfectly honest, I only use it for Resurrect anymore, but I feel this more than qualifies it.

Many times I've had to resurrect the monk and keep the party going.

I've thought a few times of using some Monk heals to support my health sacrifices to do damage, but that's not so feasible with my current build.

I run Death primary (minionmancer) with Blood for backup and party support (Well of Power, Order of the Vampire, Life Transfer) and Soul Reaping 'cause it's necessary for a spam-casting summoner like myself. I have, I think, 3 attribute points unused.

My alternative build would run Blood primary (16 stat) with healing prayers and soul reaping. I'd keep my health up with healing and vampirism and sacrifice health like there was no tomorrow.

Maybe I'll do just that, but at the moment, minionmancing is just too fun. Blood has the advantage of working on any monster and not just the ones that leave bodies. I get pretty effectively shut down by Azure Shadows and Undead thingies, since they wear down my minions without any means of replenishing them.

-sam

Ya i found myelf that depending on corpses sometimes shuts u down.

:S

also if u go blood or curses, get awaken the blood, if u are on a build that doesnt sacrifice blood... u can get curses or blood up to 18 for 46 secs

I use it and my vampiric gaze goes arround 80 dmg.

and i can cast a well of blood of 8 hp rengen.. i like that skill.

And a tasty skill it is!

Even better'n Glyph of Elemental Power since the effects persist instead of a single cast.

Oh, if only it affected Death magic too.... Putrid Explosion for 150 damage... level 21 Bone Fiends... /sigh.

Good design decision, but so sad.

Most of our Blood skills are, sadly, health sacrifices. An 80-damage Vampiric Gaze and a 30-second Well of Power would go a long way towards counteracting that, though

-sam

ya and with awaken blood enfeeble or suffering curses go like for 30 secs that is more than u need to finish a battle , u can also cast a life siphon or life transfer of amazing amount of hp.

<3 my necro!

It'd be nice to have 3 necro/monks in a party, one death, one blood, and one curses. Give 'em all a respectable Healing skill too.

That's pretty much all you'd need, actually. You all work together to raise a single minion for the Death necro and it just gets easier from there, you don't even need the rest of your usual support structure.

It'd be fun to try sometime!

-sam

I really can't decide at the moment whether I want to be purely support or if I want to summoning a horde of creatures and charging into combat with them. The second option sounds like SO much fun but then so does the whole Blood Magic/Healing myself combo.

I can see I am going to have to create 5 characters

I also play a N/Mo (in fact, I just beat the game with this char) So far I have enjoyed the necro/monk the best for the following reasons:

1) I can suck almost anyone dry (with the right curse/blood magic combo, I can suck 12+ health/sec from most mobs)
2) With Monk being my secondary, I can respec to become a full time healer in parties that are only looking for monks (and I am a darn good healer too)
3) The necro healing/monk skills make you in many cases almost as good as a true monk...

All in all, the N/Mo combo is very nice, and in general you have desired abilities in almost any party.