Necromancers party of 6 your table is red. (AOC)

I've mentioned this elsewhere and got some good feedback but i want to refine it and place it here.

So what do you guys think of this as a team strategy for siege warfare

Let me explain in step format.

1. A team of 6 necromancers speced to corpse explosion sitting in the back line.

2. They summon the max amount of exploding gas bags

3. They advance to the front line and in a chain (read: not at the same time but in succession) send their gas bags in explode them and then corpse explosion. If they could stay alive you would have essentially 12 different waves of explosions. First necro, sends in bags and explodes them and then hits corpse explosion, 2nd necro follows in and the rest on down the line. With enough practice we could probably get this down to a 10-15 second continuious spike before the retreat so that we would only be vulnerable close to the front for a total of 30 seconds.

4. then they retreat behind the lines and buff up again. Or maby pull off a spell weave or 2 depending on the situation they could even summon diff pets and go clean up.

if healing is needed (and i think it will be), perhaps 1 or 2 healers can replace the necros for more survivability with less damage.

if you guys think this is viable, then this is definitely a practicable strategy as the explosion moves do not rely on enemies to be present.

but think really hard if it would work and remember this is only one team of 6 out of 58 so there is plenty of room for other teams doing other things.

and dont tell me about the corpse explosion cap as they arent hitting it at the same time but in sequence so idealy you are hitting the cap 6 times in succession.

It's not a bad theory, but I think what we need to see is how siege PvP will be conducted in this game. Unless it changes in the late game, ally healing is not on par with the ability to do spike damage. I doubt even two PoMs could group heal enough to keep two ToS or two Rangers from decimating a clustered team within half a minute. So I'm not sure exactly how tightly bunched up groups of enemies will be to be affected by this sort of tactic.

It's definitely the kind of strategy you'd have manage, and if used effectively would work very well. Allow the enemy to penetrate the walls at a controlled point, and have a pack of Necros waiting with a frontline of Guardians and a backline of healers. The key, I think, would be to force the enemy into a chokepoint that would keep them bunched enough so that AoEs like this would devastate them.

I've also been thinking about siege PvP, and I'm interested to see what effect Stealth will have in battle. I haven't PvP'd in AoC yet, but I imagine in siege warfare you could stand to benefit greatly from keeping a 3-5 man "gank squad" of Rogue classes that can stealth behind enemy lines and cut down the healers/casters at opportune moments. Even if people respec for strict PvP I'm not sure Perception scores will be on par with Hide abilities - especially on a PvE server. And if people want to use PBAoE abilities to drop stealthed mobs out of Hide to prevent backstabs, then just make your gank squads Rangers. Shattering Stance + Heartseeker FTW.

your post reminded me of something that would be hilarious if it worked, stealth teams behind enemy lines then hop on their mounts (if mounts are viable at that point) and suddenly the enemy has like 10 - 15 mammoths or rhinos behind them lol.

Would that tactic be called "The Rhinoclasm"? Or the "Mammogeddon"?

or just a sandwitch with mam on rhy

I like the Necro theory, but I think people would spread out really fast after the first blast. Testing would be needed, and I still don't totally dismiss the approach. Also, it would be fantastic to use this technique for plugging holes in the walls to keep the enemy from advancing, or keep the opponents pinned in. The other thing is that any AoE can blow up minions pretty quick so timing will be key for the Necros.

You won't need to fill any slots with healers since PoM and ToS cone heals don't need to be in the same group to work. Just bring eight to the party instead of six! Hell, I'll even help be a part of this testing.

Tethis
Mitra's Buddy

i fail to mention 2 key factors to this strategy

1. the game limitations we saw during our stripping event was enough to convince me that 48 minions and their necros wont even be able to be seen on screen at the same time let alone the rest of either team.

2. whether an enemy is in range or not, minions can be targeted to them and can track to them whether the enemy can be seen or not. The tricky part is understanding the range of both explosion spells. Also at least theoretically, the exploding minion corpses leave exploitable or explodable corpses.

edit: i was also wondering if maby having a necro use 1 with death and load up on xtra minion bombs and then run in for a suicide would leave a whole bunch of corpses. rez time is one of the many factors that would have to be considered

Well, since seige PvP is going to be a ticket based system, suiciding may be viable, but you better at least 2 for 1 them or else it's a wash. I'm not sure how rezzing works in PvP yet though, so if we have a rezzer in place to help with that I'm sticking with suicide runs should be a guaranteed AT LEAST 2 for 1.

But we shall see how this shakes out when the time arrives.

Tethis
Master Tactician of Mitra

Ya know ash you can just say your real plan and no one will think less of you. Here's ash's real plan in pvp.

Get all the necro's together and summon all their ump-teen million summons.
Crash the server.
Win by default.

I like to do the thing where you tax the server so badly, you make other people split into their own instances before they crash. It looks like a normal instance, but no one is there, not even the NPCs.

So not only do you win, you inflict bonus "psychological warfare" points by making them feel isolated. Because that's what PvP is all about, right? Inflicting long-lasting emotional scars on people all across the world.

BOOM! HEADSHOT!

Because that's what PvP is all about, right? Inflicting long-lasting emotional scars on people all across the world.

Absolutely, especially while projecting your own issues of inferiority on to others

Chuddox wrote:Absolutely, especially while projecting your own issues of inferiority on to others

Well, maybe other people need to. I personally have a nice car, am really rich, have a hot girlfriend, and a totally huge schlong. And you didn't really kill me - that was lag. If I wasn't lagging, I would have easily pwned you.

Also, you hax. And your class is OP.