Necromancy

Summary

• Necromancy on Outlands features 10 Necromancy Abilities that are thematically-based on the classic Necromancy Spells, but rebalanced and geared towards extending the toolset of Mage characters
• Players with the Necromancy skill will automatically accumulate Unholy Symbols which are a virtual resource that players will use to pay for Necromancy Abilities
• Players earn a single Unholy Symbol every 5 seconds, and can bank up to 10 Unholy Symbols
• Necromancy Abilities that can be used while hidden, will not play the visual effects while hidden
• Each Necromancy Ability has a Unholy Symbol Cost, ranging from 1 to 5, and activating that ability will consume that number of Unholy Symbols from the player's pool of banked symbols
  • There is a 30 second cooldown in between uses of the same Necromancy ability
  • Using a Necromancy ability does not cost mana nor does it rely on Fame/Karma, only Unholy Symbols
  • Activating a Necromancy Ability is instantaneous, cannot be interrupted, and does not require empty hands
• Undead Followers starting Stats/Skills are slightly higher than normal summons, however they only receive 50% of the normal bonuses to Stats and Skills provided by the Spirit Speaking skill

Acquiring and Increasing Necromancy Skill

• While players do not have to unlock Necromancy Abilities, they do however need to acquire a Book of Necromancy in order to use them
• Players can find Books of Necromancy:
  • As loot on Boss-Type Creatures
  • From Necromancer NPCs by spending 150,000 Gold or sacrificing 750,000 Fame
    • Players can speak to Necromancer NPCs in various world locations by saying "Necromancy", "Necromancer", or "Book" out loud near them
    • Players can Train up to 50 Necromancy skill at a Necromancer NPC in the normal method of training any skill from an NPC
• Players who have a Book of Necromancy in their backpack will automatically gain Necromancy skill while casting Spells, with skill gain rate scaling with the Mana Cost of the spell cast
• Players can reach 101-120 Necromancy skill through use of Skill Scrolls
• Epic Skill Scrolls will NOT increase a player's Necromancy Skill (these are considered unique skills)
• A player's effective Necromancy skill is capped by their Magery skill (but can go above 100 Necromancy freely if they have 100 Magery)

Necromancy Menu

• If a player has a Book of Necromancy in their backpack, they can open the Necromancy Menu by double-clicking it or typing [Necromancy
• In the Necromancy Menu, players can click on Ability Icons to see a description for each ability, including the ability's Unholy Symbol Cost and Minimum Necromancy Skill needed to activate it
• Players can see how many Unholy Symbols they currently have banked up and are available to spend in the middle of the menu
• Players can click the "Activate Ability" button to attempt to activate the currently selected ability (provided they have sufficient Unholy Symbols, enough Necromancy skill, and the ability is not in cooldown)

Necromancy Hotbar

• Players can launch a Necromancy Hotbar by clicking the "Open Hotbar" button in the Necromancy Menu or by typing [NecromancyHotbar

Ability Button Hues

• The top of Necromancy Hotbar shows players how many Unholy Symbols the player has available to spend compared to their Max Symbol Capacity
• Players can Activate a Necromancy ability by single-clicking its corresponding Icon in the hotbar
• Necromancy Ability Icons are displayed in Yellow if the player has enough Unholy Symbols available to activate it
• Necromancy Ability Icons are displayed in Light Grey if the player does not have enough Unholy Symbols available to use it
• Necromancy Ability Icons are displayed in Dark Grey if the player has recently activated the ability and it is currently in its 30 second cooldown
• Necromancy Ability Icons are displayed in Red if the player does not meet the skill requirements to use the ability

Layout Switching

• The small Orb Button at the top of the Necromancy Hotbar allows players to rotate through a variety of different visual layouts for the hotbar including switching between full/condensed mode, vertical/horizontal orientation, single/double rows, or minimalist mode (no icons and only symbol count shown)

Ability Auto-Renew

• Many abilities in the hotbar have a "Auto-Renew" checkbox button next to them, that when toggled, will automatically attempt to activate the ability for the player whenever possible, provided they have enough Symbols available to pay for the ability
• If a player has multiple abilities set to Auto-Renew, it will try to activate the least expensive ones first (i.e. progresses from top to bottom)
• Necromancy Abilities will not attempt to Auto-Renew if the player has been out of combat for more than 30 seconds

Necromancy Commands

• There is a full selection of [Commands players can type to access Necromancy functions, which can be viewed in the Paperdoll -> Help -> Commands -> Necromancy section of the Commands Menu

Each individual Necromancy Ability has its own [Command such as [EvilOmen or [RaiseDead that when typed will attempt to activate the ability

• Players can also use [Necromancy1 [Necromancy2 [Necromancy3 and so on to activate Necromancy Abilties, where the number refers to the ability's position in the Necromancy Hotbar

Necromancy in PvP

• Necromancy Abilities will NOT work in PvP
• Players may be able to activate certain abilities in PvP, but their effects will NOT apply to the player while they are currently flagged as being in PvP
• Instead, having the Necromancy skill during PvP will provide the player with a (10% * (Necromancy Skill / 100)) Supplemental PvP Spell Damage bonus similar to our handling for the Camping, Forensics, Tracking, and Inscription skills in PvP
• Abilities that increase the Health and Damage of Summoned Followers will follow the same handling that bonuses earned from Spirit Speak follow in PvP
• Players are able to accumulate Unholy symbols while flagged in PvP
• Players are able to activate all Necromancy abilities while flagged in PvP with the exception of the Wither ability and Vampiric Embrace ability (as both of these abilities can indirectly effect PvP)
  • Reminder: Individual Necromancy abilities do NOT give bonuses to players in PvP, and players instead receive a flat (10% * (Necromancy / 100)) Supplemental PvP Spell Damage bonus from the Necromancy skill in PvP

Necromancy Ability Descriptions

The list below outlines each Necromancy Ability including its Name, Unholy Symbol Cost, Minimum Necromancy Skill Requirement, Ability Icon, and a Description of the ability:

Name	Unholy Symbol	Min. Skill	Description
Vengeful Spirit	1	50	For next 30 seconds all summon spells cast will instead create an Undead follower that loses 1% health & max health every 10 seconds but has damage increased by (20% * (Necromancy / 100))
Poison Strike	1	55	Target a creature that you have applied Spell Poison or Disease onto to resolve up to 3 Poison ticks and up to 8 Disease ticks remaining at (100% * (Necromancy / 100)) normal damage. The number of ticks resolved is capped by (Poison Ticks Already Resolved + 1) Poison Strike will now consider all ticks resolved from weaker/previous Poison effects a player has already resolved on a creature Poison Aspect Armor's "Chance for Extra Poison Tick" will boost the total number of Poison Ticks resolved with Poison Strike (to a maximum of 5) provided the player has already resolved that total number of ticks on the creature
Evil Omen	2	60	For next 30 seconds Spell Damage is increased by (20% * (Necromancy / 100)) but spells have a 25% chance to inflict (ManaCost / 2) damage on the player
Corpse Skin	2	65	For next 30 seconds any damaging spell will apply a Disease effect dealing damage of (25% * (Necromancy / 100)) over 30 seconds
Vampiric Embrace	3	70	Target a nearby corpse to heal player's Undead followers for (15% * (Necromancy / 100)) of their Maximum Health (You can target an enemy or yourself and it will automatically search the surrounding area for a corpse to trigger the ability)
Mind Rot	3	75	For next 30 seconds any new Poison Spell or spell-based Disease effects will inflict (20% * (Necromancy / 100)) more damage
Blood Oath	4	80	Player takes 5 damage and for next 30 seconds increases damage their Undead followers inflict by (30% * (Necromancy / 100))
Strangle	4	85	For next 30 seconds Spell Damage you inflict will be delayed by 5 seconds but will be increased by (30% * (Necromancy / 100)) damage
Wither	5	90	Player takes 10 damage and for next 30 seconds gains (30 * (Necromancy / 100)) mana that can only be spent on non-damage causing spells (When a spell consumes mana from the Wither mana pool, it will have its chance to proc mana-based trigger effects (such Aspect Spellbook Special Effects) reduced to only the percentage of "real" mana used)
Pain Spike	5	95	Target a nearby corpse to inflict (800 * (Necromancy / 100)) damage divided between 4 creatures within 4 tiles with damage max of (600 * (Necromancy / 100)) per target (You can target an enemy directly and it will automatically search the surrounding area for a corpse to trigger the ability). The amount of damage inflicted on a creature is capped by the total damage previously inflicted on that creature by that player, with a minimum of 100 damage If there are multiple valid creatures in range of a corpse, the ability will select the creatures the player has damaged the most so far

Effective Necromancy Skill

• Each Necromancy Ability has a Minimum Necromancy Skill requirement that must be met in order to activate the ability
• As mentioned prior, a player's Necromancy Skill is also capped based on Magery, so a player with 80 Necromancy and 60 Magery will only be considered to have 60 Necromancy Skill (and therefore could not activate the Raise Dead ability which takes 65 Necromancy)
• Once a player reaches 100 Magery, they can go above 100 Necromancy freely (using Skill Scrolls to increase their Necromancy Skill Cap from 101 to 120 as normal)
• As noted in the descriptions for Necromancy Abilities in the image above, each Necromancy Ability scales in effectiveness and power based on the player's Effective Necromancy skill
• Players are able to increase their Effective Necromancy Skill through other sources, most notably Death Aspect Armor (explained below)
• Any bonuses players gain to Effective Necromancy Skill will increase the power of their Necromancy Abilities, but will NOT count towards them meeting the Skill Requirement of those abilities: players must have both printed Necromancy and Magery skill matching or exceeding the requirement of the ability in order to activate it

Maximum Necromancy Symbols

• The maximum number of symbols is (Effective Necromancy Skill / 10) rounded down

Summoner's Tome

• Players can now use the upgrades from a Summoner's Tome if they have at least 80 Spirit Speak or 80 Necromancy Skill
• The Max Points Unlockable total for a player for Summoner's Tomes is now determined by the higher of a player's Effective Spirit Speaking skill or Effective Necromancy Skill