Credits: Special thanks to aeee98 for making this guide. If anyone deserves recognition, then that is aeee98.
Today, I am going to bring to you the first Wizard/Necromancer Guide in the entire server. The reason why I did that, is partly due to a comment made by one of the guys in game, who said that Necromancer literally sucks as a sub, and you shouldn't play it as a subclass. Well, in my opinion this is definitely not true. Necromancer does bring about many plus points, making it worth for players to try the combination.
Pros of the Wizard/Necromancer
1. Best Defensive skill in the game plus the Best offensive skill in the game (Bone Shield and Rejuvenating Prayer) can be used together for bossing.
2. Your cycles without Max SPD have more AoE now with Black Fire
3. You get 3 cute summons for extra damage. (They actually do quite a bit of damage and you don't need to heal them)
4. Cheapest Lifesteal Weapon with the best stats.
5. Come on, the sub skills are flashy enough, right? Lot's of Flashy Skills which do Tons of Damage.
Cons of the Wizard/Necromancer
1. You lose your large SPD buff from Gunslingers early on, which means you need better equipment if you want to cap SPD. (Not Vital)
2. You have no Combo Skills (Not Vital except if you want to PvP)
3. Not as strong in PvP (No real Hard CC unlike the Nightmare Totem from a Sorcerer Sub, and Instant Thunder is just suicide)
4. Quite expensive to make (All Wizards are expensive to make considering they will want the Flokja Accessories to cap SPD for them)
5. Necromancer as a sub meant you won't get the bonus stats from your summons. (Once again, not vital because your objective is to have slightly more final damage)
Like all gear, we need to prepare for the next stage whenever we are going on. I will bring to you the equipment you will need to get, along with optional equipment you will want.
Level 45
Assuming you have a level 60 character since you need it for getting the subclass, I would guess you have somewhere around 2000 Dragon Points in your main character. Hop over to your main, and click on your Adventurer's Encyclopedia. Look at the Scythe's tab and purchase one Dior's Romance for 2000 Dragon Points. Dior's Romance has the best level 45 weapon stats in the entire game, and can be your go-to scythe for the rest of the game if you wish. You don't need to optimise for any stats if you are just starting out, but if you have a whole load of dragon points (I personally need to use dragon points just to get out of the cap) I would optimise a high ATK bonus (Above 135%) on it. You may consider saving the scythes with poor stats on the upcoming Star Fusion system, but more importantly, transfer the Scythe to your Wizard by putting the scythe in the Shared Warehouse.
For Wizard Weapons, just use whatever you have in your level 45 crate. A Flame Glyphed Staff is excellent but unnecessary. But right now, you have 2 bonus damage procs, which is excellent for fast quest clearing.
Level 50
Your first bet is to go to the top right hand corner of the Navea map after you finish both Candeo Marsh and Tratio Highlands. Over there, look for the Master Wizard and buy a Mina's Almighty Staff. Pray that your RNG is good although it doesn't matter. On top of that, you may consider making a full Aria set from the armor crates that you have gotten. It is not necessary but it is good if you want the bonus stats. You still will keep the Dior's Romance. However, start saving up for Level 60 stuff.
Level 55
If you are still using a Divine Grace set, swap to an Elemental Set. Weapons stay as per see. Try to get any level 55 accessories (Either the 3% DMG 4% CRIT DMG ones or the 3%EVA 8% CRIT DMG ones, the former is always preferred). As usual. Don't upgrade your Dior's Romance into a level 55 even if you see it has a better stat.
Level 60
Here is your first big investment (Well not that big, but still). First, head to Analisa, and make your Staff of the Stars. Staff of the Stars provide all the necessary stats you need, the 3% CRIT, a bonus damage proc and the 25% Bonus Crit Dmg to bosses. Ideal cores for that weapon are Deadly (15% CRIT DMG) and Destroyer (10% Chance to reduce target's DEF), but cheap cores like Eagle (2% CRIT), Barbed (2% DMG) are still acceptable.
Make a cheap Revelations Set with any core without the EVA stat. An alternative is to get a Titan's top to boost your survivability and increase your SPD slightly for faster cooldowns on your skills.
I personally hope you still keep your trophy recipes and a base trophy. Craft a Caroline's Intent for bonus lifesteal. Malodnak's Claw can be upgraded or not, it is up to you. I personally like the stats on the Green.
From Level 60 onwards, it is upon you to prepare for all the Level 65 and 70 items already.
Level 65
Start preparing for Nazrudin's Staff of the Siren. While it isn't a Flame element, you don't truly need a Flame element gear until you have a solid 45% SPD and up. The bonus DMG proc makes up for the lack of damage, and you get a massive damage boost to your Ice Storm.
If you have the money, get a flame Glorious Staff of Star Dust which can only be obtained from the Sky Tower. Also, upgrade your Armor Bottom set to the level 65 Lion's Roar set for lots of bonus CRIT DMG you are lacking OR the Lethal Beast set which gives you yet another bonus damage proc.
Once again, your Dior's Romance stays put, unless you have money for a Nocturnal core which you can place into a Scythe of the Evil Eagle.
Prepare to get your Flokja's accessory set ASAP. At the very least, have a 3% DMG, 4% CRIT DMG set with you for easier farming.
Level 70
Massive make over. Swap your Malodnak for a Teda's Immortal Flower (purchasable from the Adventurer's Encyclopedia for 51000 Dragon Points) OR an Ancient Fang of the Fire Dragon, which is better if you have maxed out on your SPD. Your Caroline's Intent stays put.
Get your entire Sniper's set. No, not just the Top set but all. Along with the Flokja's set, you don't need to invest any points in SPD at all. By now, you should prepare for your level 70 weapon, that is, prepare materials to get a Deadly or Destroyer core.
From levels 1-47/48, do not put a single point into any stat. You don't need the bonus stats at all. Save up so you don't need to reset points to respec later.
When you are starting out, you will realise that it is impossible to cap SPD. That is because you aren't a gunslinger sub with a solid SPD buff to aid you. However, that doesn't mean you shouldn't optimise for 30% SPD, which is a good starting point. Get your SPD to 30%, CRIT to about 40% and the rest into DMG. Use this stats until you hit 70, where your damage will suddenly skyrocket with all the bonus items.
In the Defensive Tree, make sure you can hit the 50% DEF mark and invest all other points to HP. IMO you should always aim for a high DEF bonus on all parts so you can spend less points on DEF and ultimately have better defense.
The path of the Wizard is extremely straightforward, regardless of the sub you pick. At level 18, you should be able to get the Cooldown reduction on Meteor Shot the second you get the skill. After that, pace leftwards from the first DMG+1% to get the Shock and Staff Studies. After that, pace downwards from the Fighting Proficiency to get the bonus 6% DMG on staff and the Fire&Lightning proc. Grab the Storm and Ice envoy skill immediately after that. By now, you should be able to roughly guess which points are lacking for the final levels. Grab the DMG and CRIT stats, along with Max HP after you have cleared all of the offensive points.
Masteries are very standard.
General: Either Ablazed Fire Bomb (Stun Effect) or the Terrorizing Black Flame (bonus damage) should be used. You will never use your Icy Curse, ever so don't think about it.
Attack: Fanaticism (better known as Zeal) Bonus Damage on the target. Don't Take Any Other skill, ever.
Advanced Skills: Lava Fire Meteor for extra Crit on the skill, but if you are the weakest member of the party, it is better to just get the Raid Storm Curse for the bonus DEF reduction.
Defense: Iron Wall, or Courage. Courage is excellent if you have your DEF cap already, otherwise it is safer to use Iron Wall.
Tactical Spec. For soloing, Defense Breakthrough. Otherwise, talk to your party/raid for the skill you should be using for maximum effect.
Special Skills: Sinewy Body (Better known as The Best Defense), for easier DEF cap.
Prior to your max SPD, your character is harder than standard SPD wizards. With a bare cooldown of approx 3.5 spells per meteor, your damage comes alot from your other spells.
If you have a guardian friend (or any friend that has tanky hp and doesn't die from low level meteors), ask him if you can duel him for cast training. This is a good way to step up and master wizard as a whole.
The first thing you need to learn, is what many people call Animation Cancellation. For Wizard, there is no way to Animation Cancel any skill to prepare for the next one. However, you can Animation Cancel Autoattacks within your spell casting. This is a technique called jump-casting.
Let your friend stand at a comfortable spot (the center of the guild hall, or a wide open area). With that, you can prepare to start training your jump-casts.
Note: Even if you aren't a Wizard, you can try this too. Unless you are a boring spin-to-win Ravager.
Basic Jump-casting
This is best used to start learning how to jump cast. Press Space (jump key once), and before you reach the peak of the jump height, cast a skill such as Fireball. You will realise that sometimes when you cast a fireball, you shoot an autoattack missle as well. If you see that, you have succeeded in the first basic jump cast. Keep doing this until you are comfortable. At the start, you will realise that sometimes you will not be able to cast because you didn't get the timing right. When you are comfortable, do the same with all other spells.
The tricky thing about this is that the timing for a perfect jump-cast (to cast 2 spells with no delay on the fall of the monster) is not easy. Thankfully, that isn't the most important of the jump-casting training. However, after mastering basic Jump-casting we can't just stop here, right? We have to go to the next segment.
Advanced Jump-casting
Basically this is the same as the Basic Jump-casting, with the exception that you need to move as well! In the later instances such as Sky Tower, Lament of the Thunder Dragon King or any high level dungeon, you are expected to be able to dodge all of those red-carpets because all Bards can't save anyone who gets blasted into bits in 2 nanoseconds. As such, you need to move while jump casting as well.
The advantage of advanced jump-casting is that it improves the mobility of the character and retain the benefits of the basic jumpcast. It also makes it a hundred times easier to kite anything without a gap closer, allowing you to rebuff (with Prayer and Bone Shield, more of the former), stay alive, and give an easier time to the poor bard who is desperate trying to save everyone from Noripan's homing bombs.
While this practice is better done in actual combat, the standard dummy style can still work. Similar to Basic Jump casting, prepare your jump while moving, jump, keep your fingers pressed onto that arrow key, press a skill mid-air. Auto attacks will sometimes come out from these jump casts as well, which shows that you have succeeded.
You need both jump-casts to maximise damage on bosses even when you aren't that geared and to keep yourself alive. This is good practice too prior to max SPD, because if you can jump cast every spell, you can jump cast tons of meteors as well.
IMPORTANT NOTE: The following skills cannot be jump casted: 1) Instant Thunder, 2)Charged Demon Bats. Don't even try, because they don't work.
Necro Battle Tips
1. Bone Shield is a Party Buff as a sub, similar to Rejuvenating Mantra from the Sorcerer (with the exception that the debuff removal part of a sorc sub mantra is single target). Use it before hard bosses if you do not have a necro main in your party, or when you are going solo.
2. Prior to max SPD at 70, Skill Cycles wise, do not use Icy Curse on mobs unless completely necessary. Instant thunder is used for escaping or engaging to mobs. Ghost Summoning is a secondary Meteor which allows more free damage, so make sure you use it every once in a while.
3. Even if you are a Necro Sub, it doesn't mean you should abuse the summons. There are some places you should remove your summons to prevent yourself from trouble. An example is Ozymand Temple (Party), where balls from Helakar which hit the summons do proc the double ball shot. You can remove the summons by clicking on the "Summon Imp" icon and press ok to remove Status.
4. (Note this is somewhat relevant to any Necromancer, be it the main class or not) You can force a monster's aggro to a creep by letting them attack first. There is a Necromancer Skill in which you can command the spirits to attack the target. This is good if the boss keeps on summoning monsters. (Will test this in Cadilla's Secret on the food mobs, and will tell you if it works, but it works for all mobs and sometimes bosses)
Note: Do not attack till they did some damage because the aggro will be cut off from the mobs.
Specific Instance Tips
Note: This assumes you are going to solo the instance (and are geared to do so). This will most likely not take any effect if you are doing in a party, and most party tips are given above.
Infernal Abyss/Whirlpool Abyss Get the entire floor wave to crowd together (preferably as close to the portal to the next floor as possible). Make sure you lock them with Ice Storm before you Meteor/Ghost Summoning. Note that you should command your summons to attack the centermost mob if you are dragging all to the center, and to command to the other side if you decide to lure from one side to another. Zaahir and Nazrudins are quite tricky at the start, but when you get used to it, you shouldn't be getting hit by the carpets unless you get hit by the lag monster.
Landing of the Sky Dragon King: Apart from Meteor spams, you will need an eidolon ult whenever you are stuck at a corner. Clear all Flowertraps ASAP, and keep moving to prevent being hit by the random slow missiles, on the flower queen boss. Flokja is straightforward if you are well geared and won't be harder than mass Sky Tower AoEs.
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