he following essay will prove to be of Great Value to any Deathsight-specialized necromancer called to the defense of the realm. It originally appeared in a conversation found elsewhere, and is included here with the kind permission of the author.

The Iron Mage Guide to Necromancer RvR

I'm not by any means an expert on RvR with a necro, but I've learned a few things and as with any class you will either have to learn to play to the class strengths (there are a few) or you will try to make a necro into what it isn't and you will get frustrated and either quit or play another class.

Before I describe what a Necro is, let me tell you what it isn't.

A Necro isn't a ranged caster that can suppress enemy ranged casters. You CAN'T do this, don't even try. You will be CC'd (you take FULL duration and have no immunity timer) or you will simply be blasted into oblivion (even a fully buffed blue mob is STILL a blue mob, and it dies like a blue mob...).

A Necro isn't a tank. You can't 'charge' because you don't have determination, purge, ignore pain...blah blah blah. You get in front of the battle and you will DIE, and someone will take your realm points and buy abilities to kill you and your realm mates even faster.

So, if you are not a caster, not a tank, and (obviously) not a healer/speeder/bubbler...what the heck are you?

You are singularly unique, and that has good and bad points. You can't duke it out with casters, but you can give tanks all they want and then some (one on one vs a tank and the tank WILL die, all other factors such as level and realm rank being approximately equal). You can debuff the armor factor on tanks such that they take double damage from all physical attacks (try assisting a scout sometime with your AF debuff...quite the ranged pair in RvR...a gimp assisting a gimp...). 50 deathsight is a MUST for the serious RvR Necro because a level 50 debuff is resisted MUCH less than a level 39 debuff. Also, it's –250 rather than –200. I can throw this debuff into a one on one encounter (there are many of these in a large battle) and watch the recipient just MELT from the blows of my realmmate. It's perhaps your BEST spell and you should be using it a lot in RvR.

Being somewhat 'detached' from a given battle is also a good thing. Assassin types don't rush to single you out (they get their head handed to them far too often if you are otherwise not engaged) so you can really afford to move off to one side a bit (and not have to deal with the AE centered on the rest of your group) and pick out the engagements within the battle. Scouts have used this technique since sniper/ganking was squashed back in the first few months of release. No Scout will try to act like a tank, and a really good Scout will not try to duel a caster at range either (caster can quickcast and Scout has no way to 'fire thru' an interruption, you do the math...it always adds up to a dead Scout). What you want to do is to debuff anything that is swinging a weapon, LIFETAP (your base lifetap does more damage than your powertap, save powertap for cleanup to get back power to give to your group healer/casters) casters and healers that are otherwise engaged, and in general, be the 'swing man' that moves about the battle adding a debuff here and a bit of extra damage there. If you move to somewhat close range (always keep pet on passive by the way) you can actually throw out a pretty sizable chunk of damage to a target by doing the following:

• Hit your painworking str/con debuff. This is 'instant' to your shade AND your pet, so it will fire off immediately.
• Hit your base lifetap spell (it's the one that pets casts and can be interrupted, so you better not have attracted someone's attention at this point).
• Hit your spec lifetap spell (this is the one that your shade casts, and about the time your pet has cast the base lifetap above, this will fire off right behind).

POW, two hits within seconds for 200-300 damage EACH plus crits (you did get wild power, right? No reason not to as it's about the only worthwhile RA you have...).

Some other utility you have in RvR...

No class is better in keep sieges for controlling guard pops and wall bowmen. You can powertap the bowmen (in essence, you kill em and still are at full power). You can debuff the melee guards then start to nuke them to death, and if you get aggro, you can melee em to death with your combination of debuff and lifetap (they get weaker, you gain back health...what a combo). During keep siege I generally have my pet attack the door, but I bring it back with a 'passive' to start debuffing and nuking guard pops.

Let the other casters do their job of managing enemy casters on the walls, you can't do it well so don't frustrate yourself trying to do a job you'll only do badly. HOWEVER, with all the power you suck up from guard pops, you can keep the casters supplied with power, consider it damage that you are doing vicariously thru others...

Its expensive (10 points) but 'strike the soul' has proven to be a good investment for me. Keep lords resist your debuff to the point that you will burn a full bar of power and STILL may not have landed it, but with 'strike the soul', you can debuff even level 10 keeplords (though, you may have to hit him 4 or 5 times). The rate of health loss for a debuffed lord is truly a wonder to behold...This can also be useful on high level keeps to take out the named guard. I've been able to debuff the named and then solo one of the unnamed purple guards while strike the soul is up. Your lifetaps and such will get decent hits until the timer expires.

One final suggestion...when Albion has DF, you can usually get some really nice RP by making a little 'goodwill tour' to the Hib and Mid entrances, and cleaning up the various hunting spots. You are perhaps one of the few non-stealth classes that can freely travel around DF and go about the distasteful (but overwhelmingly fun) job of removing all enemy lowbies from the dungeon. Sure, folks always ask how you can kill grey and green cons, and the answer you should give is 'simple, you only have to hit em once or twice...'.

To sum this all up...

If you are wanting to make a 'commitment' to being good at RvR with your Necro, you have to understand that being 'good' at RvR with a necro is NOT the same as being good at RvR with an ice wizard (where you get lots of stacked death spam) or an infiltrator (where you get lots of single death spam). You may get NO death spam at all, but you may just tip the battle in favor of your group, and provide your casters with the power to make that last push at a critical moment.

Glory seekers need not apply, the RvR job of the Necro is to win battles, not to win one on one individual engagements. You are the 'ace up the sleeve' for your group but only if you know and play your role to perfection. If you do it right, the enemy may not even realize just what it was that went wrong for them, just that things fell apart on them as their tanks all died, their opposing casters showed unusual endurance, and the dead came to outnumber the living far too quickly.

Meddrwyn, level 50 necro MLF (RR3L5)