Hi! Necromancer Refresh is quite a whiles away, and while I do agree the class is definitely in the worst spot out of every class, I think it needs even more work when it comes to the art and skill design. I have had a lot of hope with these Class Refresh stuff so far (even though we're only just passed Dragonknight), that I wanted to share my thoughts and ideas!
I love playing necromancers as well as conjuration mages in TES (And necromancers in tabletop games) whenever I get the chance, although ESO has left me a smidge wanting in both those regards, especially with necromancers, as Necromancers only get 3 summons (or well, 4 if you count grave lord's sacrifice, or 5 if you count the janky morph of the resurrection ult.), and 1 ability that looks like a summon in flavor (Flesh colossus). I have been out of the game for some time, so I cant pretend like I know what would be great ideas mechanics wise, but I do know the game servers can apparently struggle with multiple pets. Still, I reckon there is more then enough room for the refresh to give us some new flavor! We dont even have a single fleshy fellow aside from the flesh colossus! I reckon we should at least have 1 zombie summon and one flesh atronach summon too. Perhaps a morph of flesh colossus that gives us a flesh atronach instead that does less immediate damage but more damage over a duration, acting as a 10-20 second pet summon? And maybe Stalking Blastbones can return instead of Grave Lord's Sacrifice (please ZOS im begging, GLS is such a boring skill), and instead, pestilent blastbones is replaced by a zombie summon that doesnt explode but does disease damage over a duration? There are many cool ideas that can be done with necromancer as a theme, and since release it feels like enemy necromancers get way cooler options then the player necromancers. Maybe even if the skill trees are being reworked to not be strictly 'Damage Line, Tank Line, Heal Line' then instead a flesh atronach or zombie summon can be put in a line that isnt the Grave Lord skill line? Maybe each skill line could be themed, one for skeletal related things, one for spirit related things and another for flesh related things? If the worry of pets causing issues with the servers is a problem, the pets being timed, or even just some of the abilities visual design wise looking like your summoning an undead to do the ability (while mechanically not doing so, kind of like many warden abilities or the Flesh Colossus ult) , could be cool too.
Unrelated to creating or summoning undead as skills, but id also like to see some ability, maybe a morph of an ult or a replacement for an ult for necromancers, that summons the lich crystals around enemies. We have the Nerien'eth Set I know, but I think an ult where you can do what the liches do and cause a bunch of lich crystals to pop up underneath enemies would be cooler. Not just liches use them, there are a few non-lich npc's that do (like the final boss of Maelstrom Arena, I think he is a daedra at least? I could be wrong) so maybe its not out of the question for a non lich player to be able to summon them too? (I also wish for playable lich skill tree but I uhh...dont think thats ever going to happen. Gave up on that years ago.)
Overall though, I just wish Necromancer had more....actual undead summoning going on. Instead of just skeletons, a ghost and the upper half of a flesh colossus. I am excited to see what the class will look like after the refresh! Bit sad its like, the second last refresh, but considering the amount of work Necro needs its probably for the best.