bone spear or bone spirit?

[piccolo38]

basically i'm building my all-able necro right now, and i dunno which skill i should invest on, bone spear or bone spirit? Bone spear is supposedly half the damage and half the mana cost of bone spirit, but it pierces. bone spirit, however, homes. so which one is better in the end? Also i would like to kno if Bone spear is actually 50% dmg of Bone Spirit, or is it actually less? I'm talking about when both are Slvl 32,

[Baajikiil]

Spear is very nearly exactly half damage and mana as spirit, at all lvls. The pros and cons are fairly obvious-

Pros
Spear: pierces= more hits per cast, ease of mob fighting. very low mana cost. travels across the screen slightly faster.

Spirit: more base damage = more damage to individuals in same amount ot time. possible stunlock. seeks target( so you can cast them around walls).

Cons
Spear: significantly slower in killing leaders/act bosses(takes twice as long)

Spirit: Twice the damage = twice the mana; if you don't have enough mana to spam enough of them, you will end up moving just as slow as if you had spear instead. less affective vs mobs than spear.

Personally I usually go with spirit just because of act bosses and phys immune leaders. It takes long enough to kill them with spirit, using spear would take twice as long. Also, you can use mana potions to overcome spirit's high mana cost if you don't have enough mana.

Spear is certainly much better if you willing to take your time with individual leaders/act bosses, because it does help alot vs mobs. It is just amazing in the right circumstances(example maggot lair with itches).

[Vash]

I've used spirit exclusively on my necros because necros usually have crowd control but lack big damage against single targets. But I've been thinking about trying out spear. If used correctly (such that each spear hits multiple targets), spear's performance can easily surpass that of spirit's.

[Logic_X]

Depending on your skills....you may be able to max both (which has its uses) - I usually recommend spirit first though if you're doing the quests....because it's the better of the 2 for boss killing......*tries to remember the name of the necro that maxxed them both back in classic....it was somethin like combat necro back then....probably classifies as an arty now*