What to play? Necro or Demons

[Infeareal]

So been away for a bit. Played retail/live for a long time, had the collectors edition and the first year of the physical comic. Played on and off after CoV launch. Played Homecoming for a bit after it went public. I have always enjoyed the micro with minions and was really big with CC, healing, and pet classes in MMO's. Anyhow I am bringing along my partner who never played and as we do we duo everything together. She will be playing a Brute and I decided to go with a MM.

I have been reading as much as I can but looks like a lot of changes in the realm of MM. I played quite a number of Bots/ back in the day but my first was a necro/dark which was fun but MM always had lots of issues especially at launch of CoV. So while I tried and dug through patch notes and searched the forums it is still kind of hard to get a grasp. Sounds like Necro is probably the way to go (I will create thematic characters many over after our first run through, I want it to be relatively strong so she can have an enjoyable time). Argument for or against each would be awesome.

Secondary's I am even a bit more blank on right now /time /dark /elec all sound good. I know there was some changes to /dark. I know for sure I want a heal (just what I love doing). But maybe some good suggestions with the idea that its not just pets but will be a duo with a Brute (she has not chosen specifics yet as CoH can be overwhelming but brute is deff her playstyle in other games). I am down for other secondary's would just like to hear argument for why. Hopefully I will get some views before tonight. We are starting on my Birthday (Today) as something new to do together.

[Sirrocco]

Necro and Demons are both quite solid.  For necro, though... I'd suggest a test.  Throw together a necro MM real quick - not one to keep, but one to throw away.  Take the attack as your first standard power.  Go get into a fight and use that attack until the wraith shows up.  Do the wraith noises make your ears bleed?  Then you do not want to play a necro.

 

I will say that I found the starting heal on Dark to be satisfyingly chunky, while the starting heal on Time felt a bit anemic, at least at first.  On Time, it's worth noting that it has a very shiny PBAoE aura at level 10... that produces noise of its own.

 

I'll also say that there's two different ways you might be playing this.  You might be saying "These are characters we want to futz around with, and maybe learn the system" and you might be saying "these are characters we intend to take to 50, and possibly to the spaces after that."  If it's the former, I'd suggest you take a look at the guide I recently wrote for just such an occasion (please feel free to post any comments or questions).  If it's the latter, that guide's a lot less useful.

 

Between the three of time/electric/dark...

 

- Electric wants you to manage your buffs and heals.  If you want your minigame to be all about managing the buffs and heals you hand out, then that's what electric is for  Do you like that?  Given what you said about heals, It sounds like you might like that.  If you don't, then pick something else.  (Note: At this point, this is the one that I haven't played)

- Dark is all about dropping debuffs on the enemy.  Like, it does have a nice, chunky PBAoE heal at the beginning, but even that is a debuff that you drop on the enemy.  Among other things, proper debuff usage is going to involve a lot more coordination with your Brute friend on which targets to be hitting when.  How much effort do the two of you want to have to put into coordination like that?

- Time is an excellent default if you don't want to play either of those two minigames heavily.

 

Worth noting on the Brute that the Brute is going to want to move.  They're not going to want to have to slow down and prep before each fight or whatever.  That may well mean a lot of resummoning your henchlings because they got beaten down and fell over, rather than healing them back up.  Basically, for heals you should mostly care about your friend and yourself, and if that means that you head into a fight where your henchlings are at half health from the beginning and die in the middle, then that's what it means.  This is actually a decent argument for Dark, because you can just put Twilight Grasp as part of your standard rotation, make sure that you're close enough in to the battle to catch everyone in the area effect, and at that point the healing is something that just happens.

 

Edit:

 

- Brutes really like it when you feed them endurance, and when you let them grab and keep aggro.  Healing/defensive stuff so that they can afford to grab *more* aggro and not have to pause for breath is also really nice, of course.  Of the three you've mentioned, Electrical is the only one that can be used to feed someone endurance.

- From what I can recall, both demons and undead tend to be resist-based henchlings.  Time is Def-based, while Electric is Resist-based, and you generally want to stack rather than diversifying.  Dark does its own thing.

Edited January 18 by Sirrocco

[Xandyr]

Happy birthday and welcome (back) to the City. 

 

 You didn't mention it, but /Pain is great. My Necro/Pain is very sturdy, and the friends I play with really like it.

 Pain has an AoE heal, single target heal, an aura that increases Regeneration rate (pro tip...slot the Panacea proc in it, and it will have a chance to proc on EVERYONE in the radius). Pain also has a +Resist/+Damage power, a debuff, and then you get Painbringer. It GREATLY increases the target's regen rate, end recovery, and boosts their recharge and damage. Keep Painbringer on your partner's brute.

  I thoroughly enjoy Necro/Pain.