just curious...what class would you prefer??

Spell singers, Howler or Necro?

but it depends on what armor sets & weapon (SA) am I right?

SA of weapon and Armor sets do play a major role, yes.

Spellsingers: The best magic attack speed ingame, decent attack too, and decent resiliance.They also run out of mana the fastest of the three classes, since it doesn't have any quick way to regenerate mana. I guess that isn't much of a problem if you're on a server with mana pots. Gets a few useful debuffs, like cancelation, which removes buffs from your target. You don't have to worry about taking damage too much with this class in PvE because it is capable of slowing down the enemy at a decent rate.
Its a good class for PvP too, because of its high attack speed. And its about the only mage class that can use major arcana effectively. Fo for the usual acumen SA weapons, like homunculus and SoM, and Arcana Mace if you can get one.

Necromancer: Good mage class for PvP, good all around nuker too. Mana isn't much of a problem, because you can just use a skill called Life to mana to regenerate your mana, and then use vampiric claw (or dark vortex as a soultaker) to regenerate all your lost health instantly. Or you can drain corpses. Has anchor... good for PvP as well as PvE: if the target can't move, it doesn't pose much of a threat. Also has gloom, which is good for both pvp and pve (reduces magic defense of the target.) Good for raiding too. Has a couple of summons that I haven't found very useful for anything, except as a good source of health (you can drain their health by using vampiric claw). They can play a decent distraction at times, like a temporary tank. Not very useful over all, IMO.
Best equipment for this class would be a weapon with acumen SA, and an armor set that improves casting speed (like Dark Crystal Robe set.)

Spellhowler: My personal favorite mage class. Great damage, great casting rate, high versatility in both PvP and PvE. Same stratgety of the necromance while leveling: body to mind and vampiric claw/dark vortex/corpse drain. If people tell you that all you have to do with this class is press a single button to launch hurricane with, they don't know what they're saying. Like the necro, sh have a silence skill, which temporarily blocks the target's magic attacks. The land rate isn't garunteed, though, but quite effective never the less. Great for raids, because of the high damage output at low cost.
Acumen SA on weapon preferable, karmian/dark crystal set.

Edited; removed incorrections pointed out by razvek

what a bullshit
endgame pvp sps>shs>necro

shs the best way to get max lvl in short time 2nd place necro 3rd sps ( but if you know good places mobs are on 2 hits and exp is also very effective )

where'd u get this from? only fighters have it



lol, should I suppose u never saw the skill called transfer pain in ur skill window? and btw, the summons can attack, they have great stats, they can drain the enemy and recover YOUR hp, they can stun the enemy and they have a skill that deals huge damage. They are useless, huh? U come with ur necro without summon a nd I come with my necro with summon, we make 100 fights, lets guess who wins most



are u drunk?
1st: only fighters have hex and powerbreak
2nd: hex decreases only pdef

stop saying bullsh1t like this, although the rest was good imo, except that sps is the best pvp mage

Yeah, I actually was a little drunk when I wrote that. I don't really remember why I wrote about hex and powerbreak.
As for the necro summon thing, I stick by it. Transfer pain might be good for PvE, but in PvP, an opponent can better the summon aside before you really have time to tranfer your pain, as it were.
Sps is the best pvp mage according to you. No.
You pointed out the flaws, I appreciate that, and I'd also appreciate you putting your e-penis away. All the "fight against me thing" and "that's bulsh1t" isn't very convincing or impressive.

im not fighting with u and my e-penis has nothing to do with this. I just didnt want the guy to get a bad impression out of the classes. The necro's summoner is very usefull if u kbow how to play with it. Some say necro is for noobs, but thats not true, thats a "rumour", cos many noobs play necro. For a necro to be used at 100% (or almost) of his abilities, u must be a very experienced player. U must know how to use the summon, his skills, when to curse, what curses to use, what skills to use and when, when to drain, when to silence, etc etc U must evaluate the target, watch his movements, and coordinate all ur great debuffs with ur nukes, with ur summon's movement, with ur summon's health and ur summon's skills

sps is the best at pvp, yes, in low rates ofc. In high rates wjere u have all the buffs and (maybe) custom armors/weapons/accessories, weapons +500, in these servers, char with drain> all.
in low rates where u will be most of the times with CH buffs, or just one char buffs (PP buffs or SE buffs etc) and thats the best in pvp

In endgame the sh is above all mages, just because his matk is high -> silence has great chances of landing. Not to mention that the necro is now the worst nuker class when it comes to damage.

The sh is statistically over the sps for 3 simple reasons:
- sps has high cast speed -> sh has shitloads of matk, we'll call it a tie.
1. He has the all important vampiric claw.
2. He has the most important dark vortex (to fuel the claw).
3. He has WIND vortex which, if i'm not mistaking, reduces casting speed by a good amount -> what's a sps with low casting speed?

Now, it also depends on luck. The sh has good odds of landing silence -> sps dead. But the sps can have some luck and resist the silence. Now he just needs some luck to cancel away some critical buffs (empowering echo, empower, acumen).

We forgot about sorcerer.
Just get an arcana mace with vampiric claw augment and u are the best

I love sorcerer, but SH has the most potential to be a pvpmaster.

i think you guys forget that sps also have fear...
which can be a substitute for silence, when it lands at least...

as for sh, the only useful debuff it has against mage imo is silence and fear...
simply because if either fear or silence lands, your mage opponent is considered dead...
i haven't included sleep because its casting speed was veeeeerrrryyy long since interlude...
dark/wind vortex is another thing, they are helpful but are learned only when you are in 3rd class(3rd classes aren't the only ones that likes to pvp)...

and i agree with razveck, in low rate servers and probably in retail servers, sps is the master of pvp among mages...
imo until the sh gets a DC set, it cant win if it faces sps...

@ruidrik: a necro without summon in pvp is like an sps without its cast speed...
necros summon are very helpful, and with transfer pain, any damage aimed at the necro or his summon is cut in half...

this post of mine is for mage vs mage only, so no sh1t talks about necro/sps/sh vs other classes...

The necro can also play as a pure nuker, and I'd prefer playing that way, and ignoring the summons. What you say is quite true; you've got to know in which situation to use what curse, etc, but for PvE there is no real need for it. Even faced with a large group, I know that necro has no problem in dispensing of them by using nothing but vamp claw. Because he/she can. You can say its noob-like to ignore some of the other skills a necro has, ignore the summons, but if I want to play as efficiently I can, I don't mind simplifying things.
Take PvP for example: especially now, when even private servers have moved on to CT1 at the very least, everyone knows never to ignore summons attacking them. The DA made it quite clear, and even after he was nerfed, the pure summoners kept the law enforced: dispose of the summon if you want to win comfortable. So even if you watch your opponent carefully, study his or her movements and coordinate it with your summon, you've got to know they're going to be watching you too. And your summon, most specifically. And that's gonna be their first target. A SS could destroy the summon in a couple of attacks, then wind vortex you to slow your casting speed down and kill you. Rather than use the summon to try to do some damage, I'd rather start with silencing or glooming the opponent and nuking them.
Just my personal opinion, but as good as the necro is in L2, its just a cheap gimic on copying other games' necro. It works; necros are always damage dealers in the end.
About sps being the best nuker in low rate servers; I can't improve on what Icarus said.

look now I am not gona fight with u ill try to explain my position
i think u r wrong
why?
1)in pve its better to use CDL than the summon(i agree with u) but in pvp
forget about the necro without the summon
simple!the summon may be cilled in 2 seconds but those 2 seconds give u the precious time to cast gloom+silence:D
for 2 secs u can cast 2 nukes
2)and what if the attacker does not focus on my summon?lol better for me cuz transfer pain transfers the portions of the damage i take to my summon..lol gg i win again cuz i have shitloadz of hp(if we virtualy add the dmg transfered to my summon)
+since my oponent maybe has NO tp option i use gloom+darkvortex+vamp claw and here i am i again maintained my hp
thats why u use the summon


my opinion:sh>all endgame

I'm going to go up and correct that post of mine... SH> all endgame, agreed.

1) You have a point there. Summon acts like a damage proxy for a couple of seconds and you get to cast your skills. I'll admit, that would be a smart way to use your summon, rather than try to make a complicated attack strategy.
2) Well, not all the damage is ever transfered into the summon... and especially with the major damage you recieve in pvp, the summon would die out quickly again, and not make so much of a difference that your opponet couldn't make up for it easily.
All my opinions, no hostility =)

not the whole dmg is transfered in pvp and ur summon does not die so fast(selftested!!!!!!!!!!!!!)
and u deal high dmg too + u drain ur enemy thats why u have so much "HP" compared to the other mages

but since emp echo is here sh>all endgame
lolz just add there ma set and WTF MATK!!!

Yeah, well, with the m.atk a dark elf has, sh drains are more effective (not by much) against necro, right? And that difference would be made up for by using transfer pain. So the drains are almost equally balanced here, giving the sh one up because of better skills.
And yeah, major arcana would give insane attack, but it would kill the casting speed. Oh, well, good for raiding I guess (though I've never tried it).

Phantom Summoner imo.
Since Gracia they got Death Spike and turned itself into a monster.