The real reason that Necros were given the new spells was largely to make
them more viable for groups, not to compensate for pet nerfing. Necros were
correct (whining or not) that all they did in most groups was send in the
pet and Pact of Shadows people who were low in HPs. Their DoTs are too slow
for most situations where they're in a well-balanced group. They needed a
boost to be more group-friendly (especially on the Planes) and I feel like
they got it (although not the Group Feign Death my friend wanted :). Verant
has replaced the manastone with other players guys - this is a very cagey
move on their part if you ask me. They gave magicians the ability to summon
Modulating Rods (Mod Rods) that are basically manastones, and they gave
Necros the ability to convert their own HPs to mana for someone else

This is smart - they took a class that needed to be more valuable to a group
and gave them the ability to behave like an item that got nerfed out of the
planes and the expansion. Whether or not we agree with the manastone nerf
is really rather irrelevant.

[45 Bard] Crier (Half Elf) <Seekers of Norrath> ZONE: work

PS: IMO, the ultimate whiny brat fiasco was Warriors getting critical hits
and naturaly increasing MR a few months back.

> From: jhenders@...
>
> To be completely cynical for a minute, I'd argue that the only way to
> get results from Verant is to be a whiny brat. At least that's the
> impression I'm getting from the recent necro nerf. Can you name one
> other class that Verant has taken something away from then give 6 new
> spells or abilities to to compensate? No one could possibly claim that
> the necros presented their case in an adult manner.