Necromancer Skill: Stalking Blastbones VS Grave Lord's Sacrifice.

Kalle_Demos · June 26

Stalking Blastbones

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Twohothardware wrote: »

They need to go back to the original release of Necromancer undoing every previous nerf and start from there. With the current state of other classes like Arcanist, DK, and Sorcerer the Necro would not be unbalanced any more.

I'd argue that the Necro was never OP. Necessary adjustments aside, the Necro was like the Arcanist now. The new shiny thing that loud discontents want to tear down. Welp, they got what they wanted and the Necro is firmly behind in the pack. The difference now is that Zos seems to have learned from those mistakes and is making careful adjustments to the Arcanist and ignoring calls for unnecessary hard nerfs. I believe this history will be taken into account when the Necro is revisited.

totzummrdave_ESO · July 5

Stalking Blastbones

ZoS will do what they want. I’ve unsubscribed for now. Might join again if they improve things. BG3 here I come.

This is the way to do it. So far I could go buy a 16 foot boat with the money I didn't give ZOS.
Show your distain for this nerf with your wallet, folks.

OtarTheMad · July 5

Stalking Blastbones

Kind of funny, in a bad way, ZOS took Healing Absorption off Scythe because they claimed it’d be too OP. Then you look at Scribing and see it’s available to put on those.

The state of necro has sucked the fun out of the game for me.

StarOfElyon · July 5

Stalking Blastbones

Every PTS I expect to be disappointed and I will not change that now.

Necromancer suggestions:

I'm making an updated version of my Necro ideas thread from 2023 (https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/633137/suggestions-for-necromancer-changes). One thing that ZOS has been doing lately is making skills require less micromanagement and loading them with multiple functions:

Cephaliarch's Flail:
Infuse your arm with abyssal magic to form tentacles that lash out at your foes dealing 1939 Physical Damage, healing yourself for 969, and generating Crux. Enemies are immobilized for 3 seconds and marked with Abyssal Ink for 20 seconds. Deals up to 100% more damage to enemies with less than 50% Health. You deal 5% increased damage to enemies drenched in Abyssal Ink.

Tome-Bearer's Inspiration:
Etch a series of runes onto your weapon that pulse with power once every 5 seconds. Each pulse enhances your class abilities, and striking an enemy with one deals an additional 1161 Magic Damage and generates Crux if you have none. While slotted on either ability bar, gain Major Brutality and Major Sorcery, increasing your Weapon and Spell Damage by 20%.

The Necro needs this same treatment.

Blighted Blastbones: cost determined by the highest resource.
(I have mourned the loss of Stalking Blastbones and I have accepted that fact that I'm just going to have to change my Necro)

Death Scythe:
As I have seen suggested on the forums, both morphs of the Necro scythe should get execute scaling. I agree that this would be a great and very needed addition.
- Hungry Scythe: should also apply life steal to all enemies hit.

Skeletal Arcanist/Archer: grants major sorcery/brutality when slotted on either bar. Increase the damage that their attacks do.

Shocking Siphon: while slotted on either bar grants major prophecy/savagery and increases damage done by 3%. The AOE remains on the ground even if the tether breaks early. *Increase the radius size.
- Mystic Siphon: the increased Health, Magicka, and Stamina Recovery persists even if the tether breaks early.
- Detonating Syphon: the damage AOE now sticks to you.

Flame Skull:
- Riccochet Skull/Venom Skull: applies burning/poisoned status effects. (Increase travel speed)

Spirit Mender: when active, applies minor cowardice to attackers.

Bone Totem: summons an effigy of bones up to 28 meters away. After 1 second, the totem begins fearing nearby enemies every 2 seconds, causing them to cower in place for 4 seconds. (Changed to allow both morphs to be targeted)
- Warding Totem: (Formerly Remote Totem) grants minor protection when standing in the area of effect.
- Agony Totem: afflicts enemies in the area of effect with minor vulnerability.

Restoring Tether: the effects persist on the player even if the tether breaks early.

Render Flesh:
- Resistant Flesh: (remains unchanged)
- Blood Sacrifice: consumes a corpse to grant you Major Courage (or Major Berserk) for 10 seconds.

Expunge: reduces the cost of all your abilities by 3% while slotted on either bar.

Bitter Harvest: when slotted on either bar, reduces your damage taken by 3%.

ULTIMATES:
Frozen Colossus: Unleash a decayed Flesh Colossus to pulverize enemies in the area. The Colossus smashes the ground three times over 3 seconds. Dealing damage applies Major Vulnerability to any enemy hit for 12 seconds.
- Glacial Colossus: does frost damage and stuns enemies on the second hit instead of the third.
- Pestilent Colossus: smashes the ground only once and does disease damage. Afflicts enemies with a pestilence that does damage over time.

Animate Blastbones: instead of resurrecting allies, this ultimate summons up to three blastbones to attack the nearest opponent. Summoned Blastbones are immune to being crowd controlled (other than by another ultimate). Reduce the cost of this ultimate to 200, down from 320, to make it more usable.

(3-15-2024: a video discussing these ideas)

https://youtu.be/s03c5jlZhaQ?si=wZUIjM1YkDQSMqnC

Other:

StarOfElyon wrote: »

These are some tweaks I would like to see made to the Redguards's passives. Hopefully, they will be seen as reasonable among the devs. They keep in mind the Redguards's reputation for endurance (stamina return) and discipline (reduced ability cost).
"The Redguards of Hammerfell are talented and athletic warriors, born to battle. A desert people, their ancestors migrated to Tamriel from the lost continent of Yokuda. Their culture is based on preserving ancient traditions and defying their harsh environment. They prize honor and dignity above all else, combining a deep reverence for the divine with a suspicion of all things magical. Their capital is the merchant port of Sentinel, but their roots are deep in the sands of the Alik'r Desert. In their youth, Redguards endure a rite of passage in the desolate wastes of Alik'r as a test of endurance and discipline. Only the strongest survive." https://elderscrollsonline.wiki.fextralife.com/Redguard

PASSIVES:

Wayfarer - Increases your experience gain with the One Hand and Shield skill line by 15%. Increases the duration of any eaten food by 15 minutes.

*Martial Training - Reduces the stamina cost of your abilities by 6%. Reduces the effectiveness of snares applied to you by 15%.
Redguards need help as a stamina sustain race. Reduced stamina cost across the board seems fitting.

Conditioning - Increases your Max Stamina by 2000.

*Adrenaline Rush - Increases your stamina recovery by 130. When you deal or take damage, you restore 248 Stamina. This effect can occur once every 3 seconds.
A big problem with the old version of this passive is that it was way too active, requiring you to spend resources to get resources back. It causes problems when you're not in a position to deal damage. No damage; no sustain. This change makes the "adrenaline rush" passive more "passive" and is still tied to being in combat. This also reinforces their reputation for endurance, "the ability to withstand hardship or adversity."

Kalle_Demos · July 7

Stalking Blastbones

totzummrdave_ESO wrote: »

ZoS will do what they want. I’ve unsubscribed for now. Might join again if they improve things. BG3 here I come.

This is the way to do it. So far I could go buy a 16 foot boat with the money I didn't give ZOS.
Show your distain for this nerf with your wallet, folks.

I agree with talking with our wallets. Despite assurances otherwise, Zos in practice seems to never really listens to feedback. Or even utilize the free labor provided by PTS players to fix bugs. But they do pay attention to what we buy. As I've mentioned in other posts, the Necromancer Class that they're trying to sell is regularly mocked by the community. They may not care about what we think, they have our money already. But they do care about prospective customers coming into the game and seeing a potential purchase being used as a punchline. It's in their own interest to change this.

Kalle_Demos · July 9

Stalking Blastbones

Pretty decent Necromancer buffs for Update 43. Credit where credit is due. Feedback was considered.

Necromancer

Added Major and Minor effects to numerous Necromantic abilities to help the class better enfeeble their foes and empower themselves with the taste of death.
The following minions/abilities will now only generate a corpse if their summoner was also in combat, in efforts to reduce the ability to generate Ultimate out of combat:
Sacrificial Bones and Grave Lord’s Sacrifice
Skeletal Mage and its morphs
Bone Armor and its morphs
Spirit Mender and its morphs
Gravelord
Boneyard: This ability and its morphs now also apply Minor Vulnerability to enemies inside the area. The chill of death embraces those in its wake.
Unnerving Boneyard (morph): This ability's Minor Vulnerability and Major Breach now persist on enemies for 4.1 seconds each tick, rather than only while in the area.
Sacrificial Bones:
This ability and the Grave Lord’s Sacrifice morph no longer require you to be in combat in order to cast them.
Fixed an issue where the damage increase from this ability and its morphs did not properly update many ability tooltips.
Shocking Siphon: This ability and its morphs now also grant you Major Prophecy and Savagery for 20 seconds after casting. Such lack of respect for the dead spurs the spreading of more of it.
Detonating Siphon (morph): Fixed an issue where the damage from the explosion of this morph could not be blocked.
Skeletal Mage: This ability and its morphs now also grant you Major Brutality and Sorcery for their active duration. Such audacious manipulation of death fuels your desire for more of it.
Bone Tyrant
Bone Armor: This ability and its morphs now also grant Minor Resolve for their duration. The bones must've belonged to milk drinkers.
Summoner's Armor (morph): This morph now also lasts 30 seconds, up from 20.
Bone Totem: This ability and its morphs now also apply Major Cowardice to enemies inside it. Such horrific sights instill hopelessness to even the mightiest of foes.
Agony Totem: The synergy granted from this morph, Pure Agony, no longer applies Minor Vulnerability, as Boneyard now applies it.
Grave Grasp
Ghostly Embrace (morph): This morph now also deals damage equal to half of a normal area effect spammable attack to enemies in each patch. The ability now ranks up in 1.1% damage per rank, rather than adding .333ms to each negative effect per rank.

Living Death

Spirit Mender
Intensive Mender (morph): This morph now also heals 2 additional allies within 8 meters of the original target, since the morph did not add direct power to the base ability.

Kalle_Demos · July 9

Stalking Blastbones

Lots of good things. I do, however agree with this post below. Not getting away with brushing Stalking Blastbones under the rug.

Twohothardware wrote: »

The changes to Necromancer are most welcome but some of these skills are pretty lacking in damage for PvP. Can we get some more burst damage added back in somewhere? Necro is still pretty gimped from the loss of Stalking Blastbones and the old synergy from Boneyard.

Perashim · July 24

Stalking Blastbones

I really wish I wasn't right about GLS/SacBones only being changed to remove combat only....

Lots of good changes, but that...

Kalle_Demos · July 25

Stalking Blastbones

Perashim wrote: »

I really wish I wasn't right about GLS/SacBones only being changed to remove combat only....

Lots of good changes, but that...

Agree. Big steps in the right direction but as it has been pointed out in other threads - https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/662920/grave-lords-sacrifice-still-being-labeled-as-stalking-blastbones-signals-that-you-dont-care#latest - GLS is still bugged and broken. The in-combat requirement was uninspired but not the skill's biggest issue. Allowing it to remain in such a state is unacceptable.

Kalle_Demos · August 19

Stalking Blastbones

Update 43 has arrived as well as a number of Necro buffs and fixes. Good steps. Glad that feedback was finally considered and hope that constructive dialog can be established.

https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/comment/8169747/#Comment_8169747

OtarTheMad · August 19

Stalking Blastbones

Some of the changes were nice but Siphon and Skeletal are still not worth slotting because they are easily avoidable, easily broken via LOS and damage is similar to tickling.

Outside of some PvE I just don't see them being used that much still.

Kalle_Demos · August 20

Stalking Blastbones

OtarTheMad wrote: »

Some of the changes were nice but Siphon and Skeletal are still not worth slotting because they are easily avoidable, easily broken via LOS and damage is similar to tickling.

Outside of some PvE I just don't see them being used that much still.

I agree. Necro still needs love. And the in/out of combat mech applied to corpses appears to be bugged.