The dev team stated they would continue to work on Sacrificial Bones but never did.

CameraBeardThePirate · January 21

Besides making it so that you can cast it outside of combat (which i almost don't even count as a change since it was asinine that a buff couldn't be cast outside of combat to begin with), nothing has been changed with Sacrificial Bones in a year.

The dev team very clearly stated that they would keep an eye on it to continue to tweak it, yet the ability is still clearly unfinished, as shown by the fact that the pet is still labeled Stalking Blastbones.

GLS/Sac Bones feels awful to use in any content, and the most interesting part of it (the self corpse aspect) was removed for seemingly no reason before it even hit live. The ability simply doesn't do enough to warrant slotting, and even if you were determined to make it work, is extremely clunky to use. Most notably, it is a self buff that can be denied by your enemies or line of sight, which is ridiculous.

At the very least add the self corpse aspect back, because this ability is, simply put, garbage.

Markytous · January 21

I think Sac Bones should be a toggle or even a Slottable that procs the Class Skill Line Passives (Undead Confederate) at all times. Possibly make the animation a skeleton on your back holding on or something idk. 2.5 seconds to activate an unnamed damage buff seems like a bit much - if the activation must remain, make the effect happen near-instantly while the animation plays as normal. I believe the skeleton can be stunned/nulled by certain area CC which denies the player the buff.

As for the Blastbones morph that persists, perhaps have it change effect and cost based on dominant stat (Stamina or Magicka). Disease on the Stamina, Magic Damage on the Magicka with the appropriate bonuses.

I agree that something should be done, even as someone who only used Blighted Blastbones. I see potential for GLS but theres an opportunity for the original Blastbones to be reworked so players don't lose a previously available skill for it (outside of simply not morphing it).

YandereGirlfriend · January 21

This is exactly what I thought of when they've said, essentially, "Just trust us, we'll balance the classes in the future...."

We're well beyond that now. They have to start actually following through on these promises.

They need to show us with actions rather than simply telling us with words.

Remember also that the Sacrificial Bones morph was implemented after literal years of the Stalking Blastbones morph being broken on Live (e.g. it never "stalked"; only spawned and jumped, thus wasting most of its power in PvP). So its current status is like a broken promise on top of a broken promise. And it needs to be remedied ASAP.

Alaztor91 · January 22

One of the most unreliable ''offensive'' skills they have implemented. ZOS specifically mentioned that they would ''keep an eye on it'', yet nothing has been done in a year.

Did allowing the skill to be casted out of combat really count as a change? Making it behave like every other single buff skill in the game? Seriously?

They could easily make the % damage buff be applied on cast and not rely on the Skeleton jumping to you(leaving that part for the Corpse spawn only) and maybe make the Skeleton ''invulnerable'' like Skeletal Mage/Spirit Mender so you only have to deal with pathing AI/LoS and not CC.

Guess that they were too busy with the other Combat Changes that surely are missing from the PTS Notes for some reason...right?

IncultaWolf · January 22

@ZOS_Kevin Are there any plans to tweak this ability any further? It would go a long way if this morph buffed class heals as well. It also still says "Stalking blastbones" when you cast it in-game

Deimus · January 22

They admitted It was unfinished a year ago and it's still the same today with radio silence there's honestly no excuse for it. So many better directions they could have gone to appease the casting Blastbones every 3 seconds is too demanding claim, but they land on one of the worst "solutions".

Necromancer can't afford to give up its burst damage for a pure buff. They could have made it buff class skills by 5% and turned it into a DoT with a debuff, or kept the self corpse mechanic and made Blastbones jumping on you turn you into a pulsing AoE Banshee's scream that did damage and snared enemies around you letting you use the tether or Boneyard on yourself to deal more damage.

It'd be nice if they just came out with a useful alternative instead of bandaging GLS until they have something that passes inspection. U46 is really going to have to knock it out of the park with combat changes and balance.

Finedaible · January 22

Alchemy rework... lol.

Estin · January 22

GLS should be scrapped or moved elsewhere that's more fitting.

In Vengeance, Skeletal Mage is no longer a pet, and actually works more like Blastbones. It spawns, and then after 1 second runs towards the target and does about 18k damage over 4 seconds. This is a great skill IMO, and is what they should've done when reworking Blastbones, at least for stamina. ZOS needs to bring this over to live to replace stamina BB and revert magicka BB back to stalking. This new skill would work well with Rapid Rot, and it would give necro the option for a short and strong dot, or a strong direct damage attack.

Soundinfinite · January 23

The problem with Blastbones was that it was a subpar version of Shalks since launch. Many proclaimed as much when it premeired. Shalks was AOE that did burst damage and you cast it between every 2 skills. This is exactly the way blast bones operates, burst cast between 2 skills, but shalks cant be stunned, killed, or subject to any crowd control while Blastbones is subject to all of it.

Initially to make this up for Blastbones on PTS, when Necro first launched, it hit like a frieght train. The damage was amazing. However, many testers and general players who were on pts, not all but a large enough number, lamented in forums and everywhere that it was far too overpowered, it would break the game, on and on...and so before the Necro launched it was hard nerfed...and what we got on live has always been kinda a weak second child clunky skill that underperforms.

Due to all this, when they launched, it became an exclusive stamina dps class. Becuase stamina could hit higher weapon damage to make the passive finisher soar, as well as slot a weapon finisher ontop that benifited from the crit passive soar while having all the aoe of basically a magicka character since everything had stamina morphs. First Godslayer was a team of all stam necro dps. Magnecro was dead for all intents and purposes on arrival.

However, Zos continued to work on the class and nerph and buff here and there and change things eventually making the stam necro become nothing special. But the playerbase worked around it and turned Necros into buffbots that ran a total DOT rotation. Magnecros took back being the dps cause of elemental catalyst and magnecros using all 3 elemental damages which gave good uptimes. This worked, but kept necros in a niche pve roll. In pvp, they are cluncky and require the player to be a master at the class to be effective. Sharp curve.

But Zos recognized....finally...that they had 2 classes that for all intents and purposes worked and played the same...Warden and Necro...and they set their sights to finally differentiate the two class playstyles. They changed shalks to be sorta like the sorcs haunting curse with double delays over 10 seconds. With one morph being shorter than the other...again like sorcs curse.

On the Necro, they chose to lean into HOW THE PLAYERBASE used the necro. They buffed the DOT rotation of creating an all dot Necro and did this to the MAG side which is how the all dot rotation necro was played. It also made the roation simpler which again THE PLAYERBASE asked for...they then kept the stamina necro a burst damage every 2 seconds click rotation...making different playstiles between the two....and by all means the necro is by far the strongest dot class of the game...

However, they all but killed ele Catalyst in group content making the need for this in a group to plummet to virtually zero...they hybradized everything making the stam vs mag builds obsolete, so every class is 1 playstyle only at all times now (boring as hell) resulting in the necro just being weaker as the burst damage morph left was the lower damage version...and the necro no longer carries a unique buff for groups...

Pvp the necro is in the same place its always been which is a steep learning curve and low usage...though id argue a ranged dot necro is by far the best pvp build now for dps...but its not used heavily as its not as quick and effective as quick burst damage combo kills.

Thus, here we are with a class that is funny enough kinda dead (necrotic) to the game. With very little utility and purpose. But everyone is still complaining about 1 skill...the blastbones...fix it, fix it, make balstbones great again....you promised...

When the necro has major problems overall as a class and as a role to fill in game. It has an identity issue and lackluster overall skills and playstyles...

Blastbones shouldnt carry the class...and changing blasbones wont make the class suddenly awesome. Necros need a good overall look at their toolkits and be designed so the necro feel of the class (and not elementalist) becomes strong and the class has a role in the game that is both fun in pvp and pve and also useful to groups.

Edited for @Reginald_leBlem corrections....Thank you.

Reginald_leBlem · January 23

Soundinfinite wrote: »

The problem with Blastbones was that it was a subpar version of Shalks since launch. Many proclaimed as much when it premeired. Shalks was AOE that did burst damage and you cast it between every 2 skills. This is exactly the way blast bones operates, burst cast between 2 skills, but shalks cant be stunned, killed, or subject to any crowd control while Blastbones is subject to all of it.

Initially to make this up for Blastbones on PTS, when Necro first launched, it hit like a frieght train. The damage was amazing. However, many testers and general players who were on pts, not all but a large enough number, lamented in forums and everywhere that it was far too overpowered, it would break the game, on and on...and so before the Necro launched it was hard nerfed...and what we got on live has always been kinda a weak second child clunky skill that underperforms.

Due to all this, when they launched, it became an exclusive stamina dps class. Becuase stamina could hit higher weapon damage to make the passive finisher soar, as well as slot a weapon finisher ontop that benifited from the crit passive soar while having all the aoe of basically a magicka character since everything had stamina morphs. First Godslayer was a team of all stam necro dps. Magnecro was dead for all intinsive purposes on arrival.

However, Zos continued to work on the class and nerph and buff here and there and change things eventually making the stam necro become nothing special. But the playerbase worked around it and turned Necros into buffbots that ran a total DOT rotation. Magnecros took back being the dps cause of elemental catalyst and magnecros using all 3 elemental damages which gave good uptimes. This worked, but kept necros in a niche pve roll. In pvp, they are cluncky and require the player to be a master at the class to be effective. Sharp curve.

But Zos recognized....finally...that they had 2 classes that for all intensive purposes worked and played the same...Warden and Necro...and they set their sights to finally differentiate the two class playstyles. They changed shalks to be sorta like the sorcs haunting curse with double delays over 10 seconds. With one morph being shorter than the other...again like sorcs curse.

On the Necro, they chose to lean into HOW THE PLAYERBASE used the necro. They buffed the DOT rotation of creating an all dot Necro and did this to the MAG side which is how the all dot rotation necro was played. It also made the roation simpler which again THE PLAYERBASE asked for...they then kept the stamina necro a burst damage every 2 seconds click rotation...making different playstiles between the two....and by all means the necro is by far the strongest dot class of the game...

However, they all but killed ele Catalyst in group content making the need for this in a group to plummet to virtually zero...they hybradized everything making the stam vs mag builds obsolete, so every class is 1 playstyle only at all times now (boring as hell) resulting in the necro just being weaker as the burst damage morph left was the lower damage version...and the necro no longer carries a unique buff for groups...

Pvp the necro is in the same place its always been which is steep learning curve and low usage...though id argue a ranged dot necro is by far the best pvp build now for dps...but its not used heavily as its not as quick and effective as quick burst damage combo kills.

Thus, here we are with a class the funny enough is kinda dead to the game. With very little utility and purpose. But everyone is still complaining about 1 skill...the blastbones...fix it, fix it, make balstbones great again....you promised...

When the necro has major problems overall as a class and as a role to fill in game. It has an identity issue and lackluster overall skills and playstyles...

Blastbones shouldnt carry the class...and changing blasbones wont make the class suddenly awesome. Necros need a good overall look at their toolkits and be designed so the necro feel of the class (and not elementalist) becomes strong and the class has a role in the game that is both fun in pvp and pve and also useful to groups.

I agree with much of what you said, however perhaps for future reference you might like to be aware that it's not "for intensive purposes" , it's "for all intents and purpose"

Soundinfinite · January 23

Reginald_leBlem wrote: »

Soundinfinite wrote: »

The problem with Blastbones was that it was a subpar version of Shalks since launch. Many proclaimed as much when it premeired. Shalks was AOE that did burst damage and you cast it between every 2 skills. This is exactly the way blast bones operates, burst cast between 2 skills, but shalks cant be stunned, killed, or subject to any crowd control while Blastbones is subject to all of it.

Initially to make this up for Blastbones on PTS, when Necro first launched, it hit like a frieght train. The damage was amazing. However, many testers and general players who were on pts, not all but a large enough number, lamented in forums and everywhere that it was far too overpowered, it would break the game, on and on...and so before the Necro launched it was hard nerfed...and what we got on live has always been kinda a weak second child clunky skill that underperforms.

Due to all this, when they launched, it became an exclusive stamina dps class. Becuase stamina could hit higher weapon damage to make the passive finisher soar, as well as slot a weapon finisher ontop that benifited from the crit passive soar while having all the aoe of basically a magicka character since everything had stamina morphs. First Godslayer was a team of all stam necro dps. Magnecro was dead for all intinsive purposes on arrival.

However, Zos continued to work on the class and nerph and buff here and there and change things eventually making the stam necro become nothing special. But the playerbase worked around it and turned Necros into buffbots that ran a total DOT rotation. Magnecros took back being the dps cause of elemental catalyst and magnecros using all 3 elemental damages which gave good uptimes. This worked, but kept necros in a niche pve roll. In pvp, they are cluncky and require the player to be a master at the class to be effective. Sharp curve.

But Zos recognized....finally...that they had 2 classes that for all intensive purposes worked and played the same...Warden and Necro...and they set their sights to finally differentiate the two class playstyles. They changed shalks to be sorta like the sorcs haunting curse with double delays over 10 seconds. With one morph being shorter than the other...again like sorcs curse.

On the Necro, they chose to lean into HOW THE PLAYERBASE used the necro. They buffed the DOT rotation of creating an all dot Necro and did this to the MAG side which is how the all dot rotation necro was played. It also made the roation simpler which again THE PLAYERBASE asked for...they then kept the stamina necro a burst damage every 2 seconds click rotation...making different playstiles between the two....and by all means the necro is by far the strongest dot class of the game...

However, they all but killed ele Catalyst in group content making the need for this in a group to plummet to virtually zero...they hybradized everything making the stam vs mag builds obsolete, so every class is 1 playstyle only at all times now (boring as hell) resulting in the necro just being weaker as the burst damage morph left was the lower damage version...and the necro no longer carries a unique buff for groups...

Pvp the necro is in the same place its always been which is steep learning curve and low usage...though id argue a ranged dot necro is by far the best pvp build now for dps...but its not used heavily as its not as quick and effective as quick burst damage combo kills.

Thus, here we are with a class the funny enough is kinda dead to the game. With very little utility and purpose. But everyone is still complaining about 1 skill...the blastbones...fix it, fix it, make balstbones great again....you promised...

When the necro has major problems overall as a class and as a role to fill in game. It has an identity issue and lackluster overall skills and playstyles...

Blastbones shouldnt carry the class...and changing blasbones wont make the class suddenly awesome. Necros need a good overall look at their toolkits and be designed so the necro feel of the class (and not elementalist) becomes strong and the class has a role in the game that is both fun in pvp and pve and also useful to groups.

I agree with much of what you said, however perhaps for future reference you might like to be aware that it's not "for intensive purposes" , it's "for all intents and purpose"

Fixed it...sorry

guarstompemoji · January 23

I love 'cro.

It feels clunky in content due to siphoning skills being a bit narrow and going everywhere. I'd rather play templar, dk, arcanist in most content than 'cro.

It feels great on a dummy.

Its damaging ultimate relies on bashweaving, which I can do but it's not enjoyable. It's also (quite) niche and doesn't really say "necromancer." Give me a field of summoned, grasping, exploding corpses any day.

I love the little summoned skeleton field. Throwing skulls. Making corpses explode. The rattling bones sound effects. Things like that.

That's it. That's...my feedback.

CameraBeardThePirate · January 23

Soundinfinite wrote: »

The problem with Blastbones was that it was a subpar version of Shalks since launch. Many proclaimed as much when it premeired. Shalks was AOE that did burst damage and you cast it between every 2 skills. This is exactly the way blast bones operates, burst cast between 2 skills, but shalks cant be stunned, killed, or subject to any crowd control while Blastbones is subject to all of it.

Initially to make this up for Blastbones on PTS, when Necro first launched, it hit like a frieght train. The damage was amazing. However, many testers and general players who were on pts, not all but a large enough number, lamented in forums and everywhere that it was far too overpowered, it would break the game, on and on...and so before the Necro launched it was hard nerfed...and what we got on live has always been kinda a weak second child clunky skill that underperforms.

Due to all this, when they launched, it became an exclusive stamina dps class. Becuase stamina could hit higher weapon damage to make the passive finisher soar, as well as slot a weapon finisher ontop that benifited from the crit passive soar while having all the aoe of basically a magicka character since everything had stamina morphs. First Godslayer was a team of all stam necro dps. Magnecro was dead for all intents and purposes on arrival.

However, Zos continued to work on the class and nerph and buff here and there and change things eventually making the stam necro become nothing special. But the playerbase worked around it and turned Necros into buffbots that ran a total DOT rotation. Magnecros took back being the dps cause of elemental catalyst and magnecros using all 3 elemental damages which gave good uptimes. This worked, but kept necros in a niche pve roll. In pvp, they are cluncky and require the player to be a master at the class to be effective. Sharp curve.

But Zos recognized....finally...that they had 2 classes that for all intents and purposes worked and played the same...Warden and Necro...and they set their sights to finally differentiate the two class playstyles. They changed shalks to be sorta like the sorcs haunting curse with double delays over 10 seconds. With one morph being shorter than the other...again like sorcs curse.

On the Necro, they chose to lean into HOW THE PLAYERBASE used the necro. They buffed the DOT rotation of creating an all dot Necro and did this to the MAG side which is how the all dot rotation necro was played. It also made the roation simpler which again THE PLAYERBASE asked for...they then kept the stamina necro a burst damage every 2 seconds click rotation...making different playstiles between the two....and by all means the necro is by far the strongest dot class of the game...

However, they all but killed ele Catalyst in group content making the need for this in a group to plummet to virtually zero...they hybradized everything making the stam vs mag builds obsolete, so every class is 1 playstyle only at all times now (boring as hell) resulting in the necro just being weaker as the burst damage morph left was the lower damage version...and the necro no longer carries a unique buff for groups...

Pvp the necro is in the same place its always been which is a steep learning curve and low usage...though id argue a ranged dot necro is by far the best pvp build now for dps...but its not used heavily as its not as quick and effective as quick burst damage combo kills.

Thus, here we are with a class that is funny enough kinda dead (necrotic) to the game. With very little utility and purpose. But everyone is still complaining about 1 skill...the blastbones...fix it, fix it, make balstbones great again....you promised...

When the necro has major problems overall as a class and as a role to fill in game. It has an identity issue and lackluster overall skills and playstyles...

Blastbones shouldnt carry the class...and changing blasbones wont make the class suddenly awesome. Necros need a good overall look at their toolkits and be designed so the necro feel of the class (and not elementalist) becomes strong and the class has a role in the game that is both fun in pvp and pve and also useful to groups.

Edited for @Reginald_leBlem corrections....Thank you.

You're right that blastbones shouldn't carry the class, but it definitely wasn't a "worse shalks". Stalking hit far harder than Shalks.

And at the end of the day, it was ridiculous to take a struggling class and replace their best skill with one of the most poorly designed buffs in the game, regardless of whether the class should or shouldn't be carried by 1 skill.

sans-culottes · January 23

CameraBeardThePirate wrote: »

Besides making it so that you can cast it outside of combat (which i almost don't even count as a change since it was asinine that a buff couldn't be cast outside of combat to begin with), nothing has been changed with Sacrificial Bones in a year.

The dev team very clearly stated that they would keep an eye on it to continue to tweak it, yet the ability is still clearly unfinished, as shown by the fact that the pet is still labeled Stalking Blastbones.

GLS/Sac Bones feels awful to use in any content, and the most interesting part of it (the self corpse aspect) was removed for seemingly no reason before it even hit live. The ability simply doesn't do enough to warrant slotting, and even if you were determined to make it work, is extremely clunky to use. Most notably, it is a self buff that can be denied by your enemies or line of sight, which is ridiculous.

At the very least add the self corpse aspect back, because this ability is, simply put, garbage.

Well said. Sacrificial Bones/Grave Lord’s Sacrifice has been dead in the water for over a year. That this has not been a priority at all, despite @ZOS_Kevin asserting that they’d be keeping an eye on it and making adjustments and so on, is a real shame.

BasP · January 23

Yeah, I really hope that Sacrificial Bones and GLS get reworked - or at least adjusted somewhat - soon.

Given that Necromancers have a passive buff to DoTs, it would make so much sense, in my opinion, to turn Sacrificial Bones into a strong DoT instead of just a self-buff. That said, even smaller adjustments could go a long way toward improving it I suppose.

Udrath · January 23

Blast bones in general isn’t a bad skill, it’s just a terrible animation. The animations need a total rework alongside most of necromancers abilities. The class needs a complete overhaul lol

IncultaWolf · January 23

BasP wrote: »

Yeah, I really hope that Sacrificial Bones and GLS get reworked - or at least adjusted somewhat - soon.

Given that Necromancers have a passive buff to DoTs, it would make so much sense, in my opinion, to turn Sacrificial Bones into a strong DoT instead of just a self-buff. That said, even smaller adjustments could go a long way toward improving it I suppose.

An actual good idea. They could just make it target the enemy and do a 20 second DoT and buff your class abilities by 5-10%. The worst part about GLS is that it jumps AT YOU and explodes. It looks really really bad. It can also still get negated, denying you the buff

VixxVexx · January 24

I don't think GLS should be a dot, there's plenty of room for that elsewhere.

Blastbones morphs should be:

A targeted and delayed explosion with increased %dmg based on distance traveled.
A self-targeted delayed explosion that explodes on you.

This way you have a ranged and melee option. And the self explosion allows you to control the position which makes it more reliable in pvp and/or melee.

IncultaWolf · January 24

VixxVexx wrote: »

I don't think GLS should be a dot, there's plenty of room for that elsewhere.

Blastbones morphs should be:
A targeted and delayed explosion with increased %dmg based on distance traveled.

A self-targeted delayed explosion that explodes on you.

This way you have a ranged and melee option. And the self explosion allows you to control the position which makes it more reliable in pvp and/or melee.

The entire point of reworking stalking blastbones was to give players an easier option that struggled with complex rotations, since keeping up blighted blastbones every 3 seconds could be difficult for certain and new players. I agree but they the way they did it was the worst possible method.

YandereGirlfriend · January 24

IncultaWolf wrote: »

VixxVexx wrote: »

I don't think GLS should be a dot, there's plenty of room for that elsewhere.

Blastbones morphs should be:
A targeted and delayed explosion with increased %dmg based on distance traveled.

A self-targeted delayed explosion that explodes on you.

This way you have a ranged and melee option. And the self explosion allows you to control the position which makes it more reliable in pvp and/or melee.

The entire point of reworking stalking blastbones was to give players an easier option that struggled with complex rotations, since keeping up blighted blastbones every 3 seconds could be difficult for certain and new players. I agree but they the way they did it was the worst possible method.

I'm sorry, but precisely WHO was asking to nerf Blastbones like that? I've literally never seen a single person ask for it in any context, either in-game or in related forum/media. That was entirely a solution in search of a problem to solve and we all ended up poorer because of it.

Estin · January 24

VixxVexx wrote: »

I don't think GLS should be a dot, there's plenty of room for that elsewhere.

Blastbones morphs should be:
A targeted and delayed explosion with increased %dmg based on distance traveled.

A self-targeted delayed explosion that explodes on you.

This way you have a ranged and melee option. And the self explosion allows you to control the position which makes it more reliable in pvp and/or melee.

That doesn't really provide enough variety for the class. Making one morph a dot allows you to either deal strong burst damage or have offensive dot pressure.

It's clear they're experimenting a bit with necro with vengeance, and I really hope they take the idea of skeletal mage and put it on Blighted BB and revert SB/GLS back to original BB/Stalking BB because vengeance skeletal mage is a great skill. It's a strong 5 second dot like talons, and it spawns on the target so it can be cast from any range. It's exactly what necro needs implemented with its current live skills. I just hope they improve the animation because it does look a bit wonky.

SB/GLS is a glorified passive turned into a skill. I don't think there's any other skill in the game that works like it outside of the new banner scribing skill. Its buff can be moved elsewhere, probably between dismember, rapid rot, or both.

Alaztor91 · January 24

Estin wrote: »

That doesn't really provide enough variety for the class. Making one morph a dot allows you to either deal strong burst damage or have offensive dot pressure.

It's clear they're experimenting a bit with necro with vengeance, and I really hope they take the idea of skeletal mage and put it on Blighted BB and revert SB/GLS back to original BB/Stalking BB because vengeance skeletal mage is a great skill. It's a strong 5 second dot like talons, and it spawns on the target so it can be cast from any range. It's exactly what necro needs implemented with its current live skills. I just hope they improve the animation because it does look a bit wonky.

SB/GLS is a glorified passive turned into a skill. I don't think there's any other skill in the game that works like it outside of the new banner scribing skill. Its buff can be moved elsewhere, probably between dismember, rapid rot, or both.

I noticed some of the changes in the Vengeance skills like Skeletal Mage(this is how Blastbones should be imo) as you mentioned. It seems that every pet skill like Spirit Mender/Sacrificial Bones and also the Sorc and Warden pets are no longer ''true pet'' skills in that Campaign, and function in a way more akin to something like Scorch(where the pet is just the visual effect of the skill), there were even some cases where the ''pet visual'' component was completely removed like Twilight/Storm Atro/NB Shade.

I also really like what they did with Siphons and Grave Grasp, hopefully some of those new mechanics are incorporated into the Live Server, but I hope they improve some of the animations because Sacrificial Bones and Skeletal Mage looked really basic when compared to something like Spirit Mender animation.

CameraBeardThePirate · January 24

Alaztor91 wrote: »

Estin wrote: »

That doesn't really provide enough variety for the class. Making one morph a dot allows you to either deal strong burst damage or have offensive dot pressure.

It's clear they're experimenting a bit with necro with vengeance, and I really hope they take the idea of skeletal mage and put it on Blighted BB and revert SB/GLS back to original BB/Stalking BB because vengeance skeletal mage is a great skill. It's a strong 5 second dot like talons, and it spawns on the target so it can be cast from any range. It's exactly what necro needs implemented with its current live skills. I just hope they improve the animation because it does look a bit wonky.

SB/GLS is a glorified passive turned into a skill. I don't think there's any other skill in the game that works like it outside of the new banner scribing skill. Its buff can be moved elsewhere, probably between dismember, rapid rot, or both.

I noticed some of the changes in the Vengeance skills like Skeletal Mage(this is how Blastbones should be imo) as you mentioned. It seems that every pet skill like Spirit Mender/Sacrificial Bones and also the Sorc and Warden pets are no longer ''true pet'' skills in that Campaign, and function in a way more akin to something like Scorch(where the pet is just the visual effect of the skill), there were even some cases where the ''pet visual'' component was completely removed like Twilight/Storm Atro/NB Shade.

I also really like what they did with Siphons and Grave Grasp, hopefully some of those new mechanics are incorporated into the Live Server, but I hope they improve some of the animations because Sacrificial Bones and Skeletal Mage looked really basic when compared to something like Spirit Mender animation.

The other issues I have with the specific abilities you mentioned is ZOS' apparent attachment to tiny ability radii. 5m for the new "tethers" feels rather small. Even 6m would feel much better.

YandereGirlfriend · January 24

CameraBeardThePirate wrote: »

Alaztor91 wrote: »

Estin wrote: »

That doesn't really provide enough variety for the class. Making one morph a dot allows you to either deal strong burst damage or have offensive dot pressure.

It's clear they're experimenting a bit with necro with vengeance, and I really hope they take the idea of skeletal mage and put it on Blighted BB and revert SB/GLS back to original BB/Stalking BB because vengeance skeletal mage is a great skill. It's a strong 5 second dot like talons, and it spawns on the target so it can be cast from any range. It's exactly what necro needs implemented with its current live skills. I just hope they improve the animation because it does look a bit wonky.

SB/GLS is a glorified passive turned into a skill. I don't think there's any other skill in the game that works like it outside of the new banner scribing skill. Its buff can be moved elsewhere, probably between dismember, rapid rot, or both.

I noticed some of the changes in the Vengeance skills like Skeletal Mage(this is how Blastbones should be imo) as you mentioned. It seems that every pet skill like Spirit Mender/Sacrificial Bones and also the Sorc and Warden pets are no longer ''true pet'' skills in that Campaign, and function in a way more akin to something like Scorch(where the pet is just the visual effect of the skill), there were even some cases where the ''pet visual'' component was completely removed like Twilight/Storm Atro/NB Shade.

I also really like what they did with Siphons and Grave Grasp, hopefully some of those new mechanics are incorporated into the Live Server, but I hope they improve some of the animations because Sacrificial Bones and Skeletal Mage looked really basic when compared to something like Spirit Mender animation.

The other issues I have with the specific abilities you mentioned is ZOS' apparent attachment to tiny ability radii. 5m for the new "tethers" feels rather small. Even 6m would feel much better.

IMO, 5m is unusably small for any abilities in a dynamic PvP environment. 6m needs to be the absolute minimum.

And to get any reliability out of the Vengeance tether "delayed burst" ability it really needs to be more like 8m. Particularly, since the class has zero access whatsoever to a working Stun.

sans-culottes · January 24

CameraBeardThePirate wrote: »

The other issues I have with the specific abilities you mentioned is ZOS' apparent attachment to tiny ability radii. 5m for the new "tethers" feels rather small. Even 6m would feel much better.

The tethers and Boneyard have never worked well. Corpses are not fun to interact with. Furthermore, stationary damage sources like tethers and, to a lesser extent, Boneyard actively contradict the “core combat values.”

necro_the_crafter · January 25

u43 necro was so good for pvp, and all thanks to bugged grave grasp that used to ingnore any damage modifiers
While it couldnt crit and benefit from berserk/vulnerability it also ignored % resistant modifiers such as protection and most importantly it ignored battle spirit and blocking mitigation.

So my melle brawler build didnt even have a spammable, i just went with blighted/ulfsilds/gravegrasp/det siphon/RaT with thrive in caos and crushed any bg and or small scale pvp. And it wasnt blighted clunkines that caused any issues, it was a corpse gen. Most annoying thing was - that I had no way to place a corpse where i want it.

Grave grasp dealing 4-12k fixed damage that cant be mitigated, blighted criting for 14k, det siphon critting for 6-8k(buffed with ulfsilds warriors opportunity), corpsebuster hitting for 6-8k, it was really unique and fun build. Not quite bombing, but an insane chaotic hard hitting AoE spammer. And packing lots of cc capabilities such as root from ulfsilds and slow/root/stun from gravegrasp.

And my damage was also spread between a corpseburts, corpse dets, thirve in chaos DoT, blighted and gravegrasp? and not in blighted+dawnbraker combo that you can see coming 2.5 secs before blighted decides to run, and can be avoided by simply oneshoting/ccing blighted.

But after gravegrasp fix, its again a mediocre melee brawler with arterial bursts that heavily relies on dawnbraker+blighted combo again.

And where is a GLS in that picture? its nowhere, and i never bothered with after a few dummy tests. Even in a full dot builds with dot procsets and whatever, blighted is outperforming DPS-wise for me.

My U43 build made me think that necro actualy needs a power redistribution, and skill redisign. I actually liked the Idea of AoE as main spammable, it felt really unique, since no other class have it this way, and necro had it for a brief period.
What i would like to see is for ZoS to swap GLS/BB and gravegrasp, making gravegrasp into DPS skill and GLS/BB into support skill.

If gravegrasp could be made into bigger single patch, that you can target on the area (like volley or pulsar targeting), that slows on initial cast , and after 0.5-0.8 sec delay deals a single target spammable damage in its AoE and creates a corpse if target was hit, it would solve multiple necro issues - we would have a way to generate corpses both in melee and range in a place we want them to be!

And GLS/BB can delegate their damage between skeletal arcanist/archer and new gravegrasp, and instead become a meatshield(or a bone shield).

What if it we make its biggest weakness into its main function? What if we make it like that- summon a skeleton that redirects ranged projectiles from you? Make it like sorcs ball of lightning but without mobility, and instead make it drop a corpse when it dies and have some secondary utility like detonating in area around it when it dies, or healing you when it dies etc.

With those skills swaped necros finally would have two types of corpse-on-deamnd skills, wich would develop its offensive and defensive capabilities in all of combat scenarios for every role. It would be handy in pvp to avoid occsional frags with summoned bone shield, and then use it to cast renewing undeath at yours feet without waiting for ghost or bonearmor to timeout, it would be nice to cast summoned boneshield into gravegrasp in melee to then suddendly have 2 corpses that you can burst with corpsebuster and siphot det. Necro suddenly becomes more wieldy defence-wise and threatening offence-wise. Instead of heavy signalig to your opponents: "THE BURST IS COMING" with blighetd long spawn, you place a few corpses around that you can either use for burst OR for defence, which is gonna create unique class combat dynamics.

And it also solves for necros kiting vulnerability. DKS have reflective plate and take flight to deal with ranged pokes, wardens have shimmering shield and templars have toppling charge while necros are just big beefy target that simply can be worn down with kiting and range pokes. And when fighting with builds that mostly kite like NBS and Sorcs (2 most popupalr PvP classes) you simply w8 until they slip, make a mistake for to capitalise on. While they can play you around almost indefinitly, yours only way of fighting them is either to run away or go full defence until they get bored and start making mistakes.

o_Primate_o · January 26

name me one necromancer, real or fiction, who raises dead only for the raised body fall useless at their feet? Sacrificial Bones is complete trash for content.

Finedaible · January 26

o_Primate_o wrote: »

name me one necromancer, real or fiction, who raises dead only for the raised body fall useless at their feet? Sacrificial Bones is complete trash for content.

I think the dumbest thing about the roleplay flavoring is you are "sacrificing" something that is already dead, lol. That's not what sacrifice means.