Stalking Blast Bones ...

KRBMMO · April 2019

Criminal Act
Summon a flaming skeleton from the ground after 2.5 seconds. The skeleton runs after the target and explodes when it gets close to them, dealing 1269 flame damage to all enemies nearby.
Every second the skeleton spends chasing its target increases the damage of the explosion by 10%, up to a maximum of 50% more damage. Creates a corpse on death.
The skeleton deals more damage the longer it chases the target.

This sounds like a hilarious troll skill. Is it spammable? (Multiple skeletons chasing another player)? It doesn't say only one is active at a time. I have visions of a 4-man Necromancer premade battleground group sending in wave after wave of skeletons.

SammyFable · April 2019

You can't cast it again, before it explodes.

KRBMMO · April 2019

SammyFable wrote: »

You can't cast it again, before it explodes.

That makes sense that it isn't. So not a big deal in battlegrounds then because 4 won't be terribly bad. But I think we will hear complaints abut how this skill might be used creatively in Cyrodil. "Kamakazi Shock Troops"

Iskiab · April 2019

Are they targetable? I could see a group spamming them and hiding behind them.

Zevrro · April 2019

Iskiab wrote: »

Are they targetable? I could see a group spamming them and hiding behind them.

You can't spam them. Each necromancer can have 1 active so hiding behind them works as well as any pet that already exists.

wheem_ESO · April 2019

Iskiab wrote: »

Are they targetable? I could see a group spamming them and hiding behind them.

They can be targeted, snared, rooted, stunned, feared, etc...and each Necromancer can only have 1 up at a time. They also have some problems with pathfinding and lack of speed right now, and it's impossible to summon another until the first one times out - you can't "refresh" or un-summon it. If you can control a (Magicka) Necromancer's Blastbones, his damage will be reduced to light attack + spammable (and if you can't control the Blastbones you'll need to block it for sure, since the damage is currently pretty extreme - moreso than it will be on live I'm sure).

KRBMMO · April 2019

Zevrro wrote: »

Iskiab wrote: »

Are they targetable? I could see a group spamming them and hiding behind them.

You can't spam them. Each necromancer can have 1 active so hiding behind them works as well as any pet that already exists.

Also it seems that they "chase", not hover around the caster.

I wasn't thinking about blocking. I was thinking about when there are two groups lets say 10 v 10 or so lined up against each other pretty much a stalemate and one guy comes out and beats his chest to draw opponents out, then runs back to his group to safety when people attack him. This skill cast would cause him to bring several bombs back with him to his buddies, lol.

Or a 1vX situation where you have one person being chased by 10 or more skeletons and not able to break with los like with other attacks. How long will they chase him I wonder?

Zevrro · April 2019

KRBMMO wrote: »

Zevrro wrote: »

Iskiab wrote: »

Are they targetable? I could see a group spamming them and hiding behind them.

You can't spam them. Each necromancer can have 1 active so hiding behind them works as well as any pet that already exists.

Also it seems that they "chase", not hover around the caster.

I wasn't thinking about blocking. I was thinking about when there are two groups lets say 10 v 10 or so lined up against each other pretty much a stalemate and one guy comes out and beats his chest to draw opponents out, then runs back to his group to safety when people attack him. This skill cast would cause him to bring several bombs back with him to his buddies, lol.

Or a 1vX situation where you have one person being chased by 10 or more skeletons and not able to break with los like with other attacks. How long will they chase him I wonder?

You'd need to hop on the PTS to see exactly how they work but the scenarios you're describing are extremely specific. It's definitely possible for someone to get people killed by drawing the pets into the group but its very easy to counter. Would be funny to try though lol

KRBMMO · April 2019

Zevrro wrote: »

KRBMMO wrote: »

Zevrro wrote: »

Iskiab wrote: »

Are they targetable? I could see a group spamming them and hiding behind them.

You can't spam them. Each necromancer can have 1 active so hiding behind them works as well as any pet that already exists.

Also it seems that they "chase", not hover around the caster.

I wasn't thinking about blocking. I was thinking about when there are two groups lets say 10 v 10 or so lined up against each other pretty much a stalemate and one guy comes out and beats his chest to draw opponents out, then runs back to his group to safety when people attack him. This skill cast would cause him to bring several bombs back with him to his buddies, lol.

Or a 1vX situation where you have one person being chased by 10 or more skeletons and not able to break with los like with other attacks. How long will they chase him I wonder?

You'd need to hop on the PTS to see exactly how they work but the scenarios you're describing are extremely specific. It's definitely possible for someone to get people killed by drawing the pets into the group but its very easy to counter. Would be funny to try though lol

I'll try downloading the PTS this weekend on my new computer

Iskiab · April 2019

wheem_ESO wrote: »

Iskiab wrote: »

Are they targetable? I could see a group spamming them and hiding behind them.

They can be targeted, snared, rooted, stunned, feared, etc...and each Necromancer can only have 1 up at a time. They also have some problems with pathfinding and lack of speed right now, and it's impossible to summon another until the first one times out - you can't "refresh" or un-summon it. If you can control a (Magicka) Necromancer's Blastbones, his damage will be reduced to light attack + spammable (and if you can't control the Blastbones you'll need to block it for sure, since the damage is currently pretty extreme - moreso than it will be on live I'm sure).

How do they interact with cloak? Another question, how fast are they? Possible to outrun?

I did some BGs but can’t recall them being used on me.

Ankael07 · April 2019

Blastbones can be rooted, snared or stunned. For example it'll only take 1 sorcerer to encase 6 stalkbones

KRBMMO · April 2019

Ankael07 wrote: »

Blastbones can be rooted, snared or stunned. For example it'll only take 1 sorcerer to encase 6 stalkbones

I'll try to get on and test it myself - but wouldn't that just delay the blast (which is what the necro wants to make it stronger)

Alucardo · April 2019

Ankael07 wrote: »

Blastbones can be rooted, snared or stunned. For example it'll only take 1 sorcerer to encase 6 stalkbones

Now we just have to convince sorcerers to run encase

Ankael07 · April 2019

KRBMMO wrote: »

Ankael07 wrote: »

Blastbones can be rooted, snared or stunned. For example it'll only take 1 sorcerer to encase 6 stalkbones

I'll try to get on and test it myself - but wouldn't that just delay the blast (which is what the necro wants to make it stronger)

No because theres a cooldown on how long a blastbone can stay alive and its 5.5 seconds.

Zevrro · April 2019

KRBMMO wrote: »

Ankael07 wrote: »

Blastbones can be rooted, snared or stunned. For example it'll only take 1 sorcerer to encase 6 stalkbones

I'll try to get on and test it myself - but wouldn't that just delay the blast (which is what the necro wants to make it stronger)

I think if you can delay it long enough the skeleton will just die. The ability has a duration so its not like you can cast it whenever and wherever and guarantee the skeleton will hit your target.

wheem_ESO · April 2019

Iskiab wrote: »

wheem_ESO wrote: »

Iskiab wrote: »

Are they targetable? I could see a group spamming them and hiding behind them.

They can be targeted, snared, rooted, stunned, feared, etc...and each Necromancer can only have 1 up at a time. They also have some problems with pathfinding and lack of speed right now, and it's impossible to summon another until the first one times out - you can't "refresh" or un-summon it. If you can control a (Magicka) Necromancer's Blastbones, his damage will be reduced to light attack + spammable (and if you can't control the Blastbones you'll need to block it for sure, since the damage is currently pretty extreme - moreso than it will be on live I'm sure).

How do they interact with cloak? Another question, how fast are they? Possible to outrun?

I did some BGs but can’t recall them being used on me.

I'm not entirely sure how they interact with Cloak right now, but my suspicion would be that the ultimate intent is that they'd re-target to something else (which is what they'll do when their original target dies now). Speed wise...I dunno exactly, but it's probably in the ballpark of standard run speed, with a somewhat inconsistent (for PvP, at least) gap closer.

As I mentioned in the thread I started about Necromancers the other day, there was an incident in Foyada Quarry where I stood flat-footed and watched an enemy Blastbones slowly navigate terrain for so long that it despawned before reaching me. I've since seen claims that you can't cast Blastbones at people who are above or below you, so it's possible that he actually cast at me before I jumped down from the platform, but the physical distance between us was quite minimal. But due to the way the Blastbones works, he wouldn't have even been able to re-target and fight someone else that jumped on him until the one chasing me (while I wasn't moving) eventually despawned (I'm not 100% sure what that timer is, but it'd have to be > 5 seconds for the Magicka Morph's tooltip to make sense, and fextralife lists the duration as 8 seconds).

If someone sends a Blastbones your way at relatively close range, you may not be able to outrun the gap closer without some type of CC usage, but at long range (and/or with some LOS), it shouldn't be too much of an issue.

KRBMMO · April 2019

Ankael07 wrote: »

KRBMMO wrote: »

Ankael07 wrote: »

Blastbones can be rooted, snared or stunned. For example it'll only take 1 sorcerer to encase 6 stalkbones

I'll try to get on and test it myself - but wouldn't that just delay the blast (which is what the necro wants to make it stronger)

No because theres a cooldown on how long a blastbone can stay alive and its 5.5 seconds.

That's pretty short duration and pretty much makes the skill almost useless.

Zevrro · April 2019

KRBMMO wrote: »

Ankael07 wrote: »

KRBMMO wrote: »

Ankael07 wrote: »

Blastbones can be rooted, snared or stunned. For example it'll only take 1 sorcerer to encase 6 stalkbones

I'll try to get on and test it myself - but wouldn't that just delay the blast (which is what the necro wants to make it stronger)

No because theres a cooldown on how long a blastbone can stay alive and its 5.5 seconds.

That's pretty short duration and pretty much makes the skill almost useless.

Not at all. I've played magicka necromancer a lot on the PTS and it's a really strong skill. Even if it doesn't always connect with the target when it does it hits really hard and the delay allows you to time it with other skills for really strong burst. It's a lot like shalks on the warden except you don't have to aim once you've casted as it follows your target.

Ankael07 · April 2019

KRBMMO wrote: »

Ankael07 wrote: »

KRBMMO wrote: »

Ankael07 wrote: »

Blastbones can be rooted, snared or stunned. For example it'll only take 1 sorcerer to encase 6 stalkbones

I'll try to get on and test it myself - but wouldn't that just delay the blast (which is what the necro wants to make it stronger)

No because theres a cooldown on how long a blastbone can stay alive and its 5.5 seconds.

That's pretty short duration and pretty much makes the skill almost useless.

For the record the actual duration is 8 seconds but the skeleton takes 2.5 seconds to assemble itself. During which time it could be targeted and crowd controlled.

wheem_ESO · April 2019

Zevrro wrote: »

KRBMMO wrote: »

Ankael07 wrote: »

KRBMMO wrote: »

Ankael07 wrote: »

Blastbones can be rooted, snared or stunned. For example it'll only take 1 sorcerer to encase 6 stalkbones

I'll try to get on and test it myself - but wouldn't that just delay the blast (which is what the necro wants to make it stronger)

No because theres a cooldown on how long a blastbone can stay alive and its 5.5 seconds.

That's pretty short duration and pretty much makes the skill almost useless.

Not at all. I've played magicka necromancer a lot on the PTS and it's a really strong skill. Even if it doesn't always connect with the target when it does it hits really hard and the delay allows you to time it with other skills for really strong burst. It's a lot like shalks on the warden except you don't have to aim once you've casted as it follows your target.

While it's true that you don't have to aim it - which is a giant problem with Shalks against people that aren't bad at the game - it has its own set of issues (ie, bad pathfinding, being able to be snared/CC'd, and not having any other good damage to line up with it other than 1 spammable).

wheem_ESO wrote: »

Iskiab wrote: »

wheem_ESO wrote: »

Iskiab wrote: »

Are they targetable? I could see a group spamming them and hiding behind them.

They can be targeted, snared, rooted, stunned, feared, etc...and each Necromancer can only have 1 up at a time. They also have some problems with pathfinding and lack of speed right now, and it's impossible to summon another until the first one times out - you can't "refresh" or un-summon it. If you can control a (Magicka) Necromancer's Blastbones, his damage will be reduced to light attack + spammable (and if you can't control the Blastbones you'll need to block it for sure, since the damage is currently pretty extreme - moreso than it will be on live I'm sure).

How do they interact with cloak? Another question, how fast are they? Possible to outrun?

I did some BGs but can’t recall them being used on me.

I'm not entirely sure how they interact with Cloak right now, but my suspicion would be that the ultimate intent is that they'd re-target to something else (which is what they'll do when their original target dies now). Speed wise...I dunno exactly, but it's probably in the ballpark of standard run speed, with a somewhat inconsistent (for PvP, at least) gap closer.

As I mentioned in the thread I started about Necromancers the other day, there was an incident in Foyada Quarry where I stood flat-footed and watched an enemy Blastbones slowly navigate terrain for so long that it despawned before reaching me. I've since seen claims that you can't cast Blastbones at people who are above or below you, so it's possible that he actually cast at me before I jumped down from the platform, but the physical distance between us was quite minimal. But due to the way the Blastbones works, he wouldn't have even been able to re-target and fight someone else that jumped on him until the one chasing me (while I wasn't moving) eventually despawned (I'm not 100% sure what that timer is, but it'd have to be > 5 seconds for the Magicka Morph's tooltip to make sense, and fextralife lists the duration as 8 seconds).

If someone sends a Blastbones your way at relatively close range, you may not be able to outrun the gap closer without some type of CC usage, but at long range (and/or with some LOS), it shouldn't be too much of an issue.

To correct myself a little: I've confirmed that you actually can target Blastbones at both players and NPCs that are below you, contrary to some claims I've seen on the forum, but the pathing is still an issue...sometimes. I used Blastbones from my spawn in Deeping Drome twice; the first time it ran off down the path to my right, never to be seen again, and the second time it actually jumped down and hit the player that was attacking me from below. The speed also does seem faster than basic run speed (as long as it isn't snared), but it's hard to test that in PvE since the gap closer seems to always work there.

Juhasow · April 2019

Actually You can have 3 of those summoned at once with the help of one of the morphs or resurection ulti.

wheem_ESO · April 2019

Juhasow wrote: »

Actually You can have 3 of those summoned at once with the help of one of the morphs or resurection ulti.

In theory, yes. But there's no realistic way to get 3 usable corpses in the Ultimate's targetable area for PvP unless you're zerging in Cyrodiil or something.