Occultist

AVAILABLE ON: Eden, Live (technically, see below)

Though the unsavoury means by which they help the realm was begrudgingly accepted, support for necromancy wavers frequently. In times of victory, thoughts immediately turn to ideas of no longer relying on the dark arts, and during times of strife, voices cry out that the dead are being desecrated for no gain. To ensure victory over Morganna le Fay, the Lord of the Underworld granted his Necromancers new powers and thus the Occultists were born. Eschewing the binding of corpses for more traditional spells, including summoning of death-cursed swords for melee combat, the Occultist instead draws their power from the more unnatural side of death.

Occultist is a class unique to Eden, based on the reworked Necromancer of Live. The Necromancer class on Eden and Blackthorn play as the original Necromancers, prior to the reworked class now available on Live. So, in summary: Occultists play the same as the current Necromancer on Live, but have become a separate class on Eden that is selected by creating a level 1 Necromancer and talking to your Necromancer trainer before advancing to level 2. Occultists are not available on Blackthorn.

Occultist have access to reworked skill lines from the Necromancer.

Deathsight becomes a more traditional damage dealing skill line with high focus on area-of-effect spells.

Death Servant, in addition to its previous focus on pets, gains increased supporting spells, as well as a large focus on power drain.

Painworking becomes the skill line of melee-oriented combat, granting access to combat styles, melee supporting spells and a unique summoned sword.

PvE:

Occultists are strong in solo PvE, especially if specializing in Painworking during the first 30 or so levels.

In groups, they can be either strong support or strong damage-dealers. Death Servant’s power drains and transfers ensure neither you nor your group ever has power issues. Death Sight has strong area-of-effect spells, including a point-blank damage dealing spell, which quickly dispatches many enemies.

RvR:

Occultists are not particularly strong duellists, generally doing better with a partner or a group.

In groups, Occultists are mainly there for the strong supporting spells that the Death Servant skill line provides, with Death Sight being mostly reserved for zerging. Due to lacking a Quick Cast ability, Occultists can be very easily shut down by enemy players, thus requiring a supreme focus on both positioning and communication for assistance in order to be a contributing part of your group.

Character planners:

Eden: https://eden-daoc.net/charplan?c=Occultist

Live: https://daoc.gg/charplanner/overview#c=NECROMANCER

Suggested starting stat point distribution:

15 Dexterity / 10 Intelligence (Spell-caster)

15 Intelligence / 10 Quickness (Painworking)

10 Constitution / 10 Intelligence / 10 Quickness (Painworking variant trading a bit of damage for a bit of survivability)

Suggested class skills:

49 Death Servant, 21 Painworking (Solo / Group / Melee / Support)

44 Death Servant, 31 Painworking (variant trading cast damage-dealing snare for better instant snare)

39 Death Servant, 37 Painworking (variant trading bolt damage for better melee damage)

41 Painworking, 35 Death Servant (variant trading pet focus for more melee damage)

47 Deathsight, 24 Painworking, 11 Death Servant (Caster)

40 Deathsight, 14 Painworking, 14 Death Servant (variant)

50 Painworking, 15 Death Servant, 13 Deathsight (Solo / Group melee)

Suggested realm skills:

Long Wind 1

Purge

Ichor of the Deep

Determination*

Mastery of Concentration**

Wild Power

Mastery of Magery

Passives to fill stat gaps (Augmented Str, Dex, Con, Mastery of Parrying etc.)

*if specializing in the Painworking skill line

*if specializing in the Death Sight or Death Servant skill lines