Because being evil is fun: Necromancer Thoughts?

[Fireheart]

This is a post for all suggestions dealing with and about Necros--any insights, ideas, or thoughts on what changes might work well for the Necro based on your experience are welcome. Whether its spells, summons, or skill ideas, post them.

[Desocupado]

Could there be a random curse... I mean you cast it and some enmyes get affected by one curse (amplify damage for exemple) and others by another (weaken)... It would be cool to random curse a group of enemyes...

[Fireheart]

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmm. That'd be an interesting idea and might be possible in 1.10. It makes skills much more plastic. Hmmmm.....

[Horazon]

Well, I think the Confuse skill need to be changed.

Confuse should have a fixed radius at all skill levels (the current radius at skill level 1 is good.) The problem with this skill is that it actually becomes harder to use as the spell radius becomes larger. So, in NM and Hell it is useless because either the duration is too short (low slvl) or the duration is good, but the radius is too large (higher slvls) Since most necros have tons of skill bonuses at high enough levels, it just makes it useless. (OK, Attract is a much better skill overall, BUT there are times when Confuse is better.)

I would also like to see Poison nova reinstated in place of Bone Nova. (I am itching to try PN, I've never used it yet, and I don't play standard D2X) Bone Nova is of limited use anyway, since Terror is much better for crowd control (it disrupts the monster AI, unlike BN, where the critters will still converge on your position after the spell. And the damage of BN is weaker than the other big bone spells.)
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[the daeth of rats]

inprove skelitons- make mastery better and give them bonusus with each point put into skeliton it self- they quiqly become nothiung but cannon fodder & l;eave you with nothing for an act. when 1.10 comes out and you have synergystic skills, make bonuses to skelitons via higer lvl skills like revive better

[Desocupado]

Necro minions should be very sturdy in my opinion...
Thwy are undead... They should be hard to kill as for they are alredy dead.
Maybe a high block rate and a really increase in atack rating would do the job.

[Fireheart]

We'll have to see what the overall opinion is on Bone Nova--and I may go back and start a Necro character to check on it. As to minions do people agree / disagree? To what degree should the necro have to fight?

[Horazon]

I've been playing with Seasons After a bit, mostly the druid, but I did like the change to the necromancer poison dagger skill.

The skill was renamed "posion blade" and works with swords and daggers, and the poision damage is fixed at 2 seconds. That change could make a melee necromancer easier (I did play one once but did not use PD - it's useless now for melee. However quicker poision & sword class weapons would make the skill very useful.)

I have no opinion about the minion debate - I've always switched to revives as soon as they become available. I would think though that if skellies get a life boost on each difficulty level, similiar to the Druid pets, that would fix any problems.

[SaTaN]

less minion skillz watching ur monsters fight quickly gets boring but cool looking spells are great lets say like 20 cool spells hehe id kill 2 see the necro be a better caster than the sorc HINT HINT sumbody needs 2 realy change sumthin about the necro and that would do the trick lol

[Unbathed]

I like platoons of skeleton warriors & mages. I like the tactical problems of combining a unit that delays, but does not damage (the warrior) with one that damages, but is so very frail.

There's a poem I heard recited on BNet:

Code: Select all

Skeleton mages make me sad
Look so cool and suck so bad

The suck is important, because it gives the Necromancer something to do besides "watch his minions fight." He needs to

1. control the odds ratio, using the AI spells (Dim, Confuse, Attract, Terror)
2. attempt to prolong the delay, using Weaken and Decrepify
3. both 1 & 2 with bone walls and prisons

If the warriors become too sturdy, the need to cast Weaken and Decrepify diminishes, leaving the player with less to do.

There are two things I have found that make the Way Too Many Skeletons build possible:

• Teleport charges
• Prayer

Teleporting a squadron of mages causes them to synchronize, which produces a pleasing Whoosh sound. Teleporting forty minions to within a yard of a potentially deadly enemy such as Diablo or Stormtree provides a high risk / high reward experience. The player's action is to teleport, then run away. It feels like dropping a burning paper bag on the doorstop and pressing the bell. The enemy may wipe everything out with a single blast of a piercing attack, or the enemy may decide to swat at the skeletons one at a time, giving the mages time for multiple volleys. It is devastating when it fails and exhilarating when it works.

Neither skeletons nor revives heal. With revives, the lack of healing is mitigated:

• Revives have substantial life
• They can hit things, so they can benefit from Life Tap
• They are doomed to expire with the timer anyway

Not so skeletons. The player who wishes to keep his skeleton army healthy must resort to visiting the act's Healer. Since the warrior platoon's delay-capability degrades rapidly as the numbers drop, the player must consider visiting the Healer in the middle of battles. This provides the player very little sense of accomplishment. Teaming up with a (rare) Paladin who has made a substantial investment in Prayer, or In LoD, hiring a Prayer mercenary, reduces the tedium of town visits without making the warriors invulnerable.

It would be nice if, after a combined investment of fifty skill points in mastery, warriors, and mages, Teleport and Prayer became available.

[Fireheart]

You mean Teleport and Prayer would be made to apply to skellies?

[Unbathed]

Yes. Teleport already carries the skeletons with it, and Prayer heals them. I want a specialist's bonus, a new skill that becomes available only after a full 20 points have been invested in the appropriate pre-reqs.

[Myhrginoc]

I thinks skeletons heal themselves in 1.10. I started a necro tonight and with his one lowly skeleton, it would take damage but then the life bar would move itself back up to full.

[Unbathed]

Skeletons do heal in 1.10. Alas. I prefer them weaker and more numerous. The Druid is the character with few, powerul pets.

[Fireheart]

I agree. I like the Necro with a proverbial undead army as compared to the Druids few wolves or single bear.