I'm noticing that Necromancer DoTs, once you start hitting 70+ group content and raid-tier content, are really, really suffering. It's not really due to a lack of damage, though. It's due to their resistance mod. Necros, quite simply, can't land most of their DoTs (and indeed, most of their debuffs) against high-level foes.
This is most noticeable with debuffs and magic-based DoTs. A prime example would be Ancient: Curse of Mori and its predecessor, Dark Nightmare. Notice the resistance mods on these spells: -75 for Curse of Mori, and -30 for Dark Nightmare. Once you hit T4/T5, these spells can almost never land reliably unless you can debuff the resistance of enemies in some way. These are the best magic-damage DoTs available prior to T8 and Curse of Undeath.
Well, you might be thinking, "don't you have a spell for that?" And yeah, Necros do - the Scent line, such as Scent of Midnight. The problem here is no Scent-line spell debuffs magic resistance, and oftentimes raid-bosses are flat-out immune to it. I know I couldn't get it to land at all against Xegony. Scent of Midnight is particularly bad because unlike the previous spell in the series, it doesn't debuff Fire resistance.
As you likely know, DoTs are a big, if not the biggest, part of Necromancer DPS, and the class's mana is such that they really only have enough to fully DoT maybe one or two mobs per fight and keep them that way without going OOM. Necromancers simply can't afford to keep constantly recasting their spells in hopes that one finally sticks. Necros need their DoTs to be like wizard DDs - first time, every time, no exceptions.
Necromancers already get snubbed for DPS work due to the fact that their spells work slowly; a wizard can barf up (without any modifications) 12.5k damage instantly on 7 seconds of notice with a single spell, whereas Necros are stuck waiting 24-30 seconds for one of our spells to do the same. Wizards also have an easier time getting damage focuses and can modify their spells with Mana Flare, whereas damage focuses for long-term deterimental spells, particularly poison and disease spells, are pretty much unheard-of on gear that isn't class-specific to Necromancers. The only way that Necros deal comparable DPS is to stack all of our DoTs onto a target at once (and personally I don't mind that; Necros are Necros, that's the way it should be), but they can't do that if they can't land them reliably.
Here's a couple suggestions for solutions. Any one of the following would likely resolve the problem:
- Provide class-specific alternatives for T3 through T7 generic caster gear that provides focuses tuned towards Necromancers, including coveted focuses like "reduces the chance of targets resisting long term detrimental spells" and "increases the damage of long-term detrimental spells"
- Re-itemize T3 through T7 generic caster gear to include Necromancer-friendly focuses, as pointed out above.
- Remove any restrictions/immunities that might prevent Scent-series spells from landing on raid-tier enemies, expand the Scent line to debuff all four major Necro resistances (Magic, Fire, Poison, Disease), and give Necromancers a raid-tier-appropriate addition to the Scent line. Personally speaking, I don't mind making Scent a part of my rotation, so long as I know it's gonna land and I'm not wasting time and mana trying to slap it on something.
