your thoughts on the necromancer class?

Knockmaker

Low class identity and extremely buggy. Something always bugs out or is really clunky. Spirit bugs out, blastbones bugs out or get really clunky etc.

I have both stam and mag variants. Stam is too clunky overall and mag is too hard to sustain.

Massacre_Wurm

Stamina necro is very fun to play in pvp and dungeons as tank/dd. I like corpse mechanic and ultimatums. Collossus is impactful, transforming into goliaf with 2h sword and smacking people in BGs also nice.

Sure its not a TES necro because TES necro is just a sorc focused on conjuration school. And some skills too childish and cartoonish. For example skull and graveyard (bleh ). But you definetely can have some fun playing it.

Lumenn

WhereArtThouVampires wrote: »

Lumenn wrote: »

I like them. Everyone has a different play style and they don't seem clunky to me. I DONT like the fact that I'm always wondering if some random or even quest npc will trigger a bounty. A permanent summons WOULD have been cool, and more traditional, but death is all around us, not focused on one summons. The spirit of death can help ward damage, maybe appear from nowhere to attack you then fade back to the other side. Summon the ancient dead buried at your feet to weaken you. Having the dead cross the veil from all around to aid me and hinder you just to fade back is kinda cool too.

The issue is what you just described in the latter half of your statement isn't present in the necromancer at all, though.

You don't summon any ancient dead buried anywhere because none of your abilities raise corpses.

Read again, I said dead, not corpses(although I think bb might qualify). Spirit, bb, gravestones, (even the crappy "snare" we have) I DID also say necromancer doesn't have the permanent summons that's more traditional, but many of our skills do in fact, involve the dead.

Scardan

I am playing Necro for 5 months minimal, no bugs seen, design is better then in Single Player TES games before and i do enjoy that corpses mini game.

WhereArtThouVampires

Lumenn wrote: »

WhereArtThouVampires wrote: »

Lumenn wrote: »

I like them. Everyone has a different play style and they don't seem clunky to me. I DONT like the fact that I'm always wondering if some random or even quest npc will trigger a bounty. A permanent summons WOULD have been cool, and more traditional, but death is all around us, not focused on one summons. The spirit of death can help ward damage, maybe appear from nowhere to attack you then fade back to the other side. Summon the ancient dead buried at your feet to weaken you. Having the dead cross the veil from all around to aid me and hinder you just to fade back is kinda cool too.

The issue is what you just described in the latter half of your statement isn't present in the necromancer at all, though.

You don't summon any ancient dead buried anywhere because none of your abilities raise corpses.

Read again, I said dead, not corpses(although I think bb might qualify). Spirit, bb, gravestones, (even the crappy "snare" we have) I DID also say necromancer doesn't have the permanent summons that's more traditional, but many of our skills do in fact, involve the dead.

I'll be honest I got lost in your wack mumbo jumbo second part of that statement talking about ancient dead beneath feet and death being all around us.

Lumenn

WhereArtThouVampires wrote: »

Lumenn wrote: »

WhereArtThouVampires wrote: »

Lumenn wrote: »

I like them. Everyone has a different play style and they don't seem clunky to me. I DONT like the fact that I'm always wondering if some random or even quest npc will trigger a bounty. A permanent summons WOULD have been cool, and more traditional, but death is all around us, not focused on one summons. The spirit of death can help ward damage, maybe appear from nowhere to attack you then fade back to the other side. Summon the ancient dead buried at your feet to weaken you. Having the dead cross the veil from all around to aid me and hinder you just to fade back is kinda cool too.

The issue is what you just described in the latter half of your statement isn't present in the necromancer at all, though.

You don't summon any ancient dead buried anywhere because none of your abilities raise corpses.

Read again, I said dead, not corpses(although I think bb might qualify). Spirit, bb, gravestones, (even the crappy "snare" we have) I DID also say necromancer doesn't have the permanent summons that's more traditional, but many of our skills do in fact, involve the dead.

I'll be honest I got lost in your wack mumbo jumbo second part of that statement talking about ancient dead beneath feet and death being all around us.

Awfully big of you to admit you commented without processing(or thinking) about what you're saying. Takes guts and maturity. I'll even help you out. A thread about necromancers involves... death. Spirits, buried dead, etc.

Orion_89

I waited with bated breath for the Necromancer class and I'm not really happy about how it represent now. Here's my thoughts:
— Ice magic skill line was given to the Warden for some reason, while poison magic is better fits him. (One of if not the only ZOS's decision I really hate)
— I have no problems with summoning undeads instead of rising them, but do it for a few seconds? That's frustrating.
— Bone dragon ultimate replaced with flesh atronach while flesh magic and necromancy are relevant disciplines but not the same.
— No "Lich crystals" spell as Nerien'eth and other npc-necromancers have. (Not sure if alive necromancers have it. If it's only lich's feature so be it)
— Summoning of gravestones looks cheap and buggy. It wood be better if it was just an aura effect.
— "Death Scythe" animation looks cheap
— The rest is just fine, I think.

P.S. Summarizing, class looks different then it is represent among the npc.

Faulgor

Clunky skills, yes, but I think in terms of design it is the best class, because the corpse mechanic differentiates it from other classes (besides Templar's Repentance). Corpses can be useful for all roles - tanking, healing, and dps -, and I wish they would do more cool stuff with them (I don't really like the tethers).

Other classes don't have a unifying mechanic or theme like that. E.g., as a DK DD you might want to focus on procing burn for sustain, but how does that effect DK tanks? Or healers? As a Templar DD, the Burning Light passive is kind of important for your damage, but that theme is not carried over into other skill trees and roles. Wardens are all over the place even thematically. I think the next best thing are Sorcerers' pets, which are useful for all roles in some fashion.

WhereArtThouVampires

Lumenn wrote: »

WhereArtThouVampires wrote: »

Lumenn wrote: »

WhereArtThouVampires wrote: »

Lumenn wrote: »

I like them. Everyone has a different play style and they don't seem clunky to me. I DONT like the fact that I'm always wondering if some random or even quest npc will trigger a bounty. A permanent summons WOULD have been cool, and more traditional, but death is all around us, not focused on one summons. The spirit of death can help ward damage, maybe appear from nowhere to attack you then fade back to the other side. Summon the ancient dead buried at your feet to weaken you. Having the dead cross the veil from all around to aid me and hinder you just to fade back is kinda cool too.

The issue is what you just described in the latter half of your statement isn't present in the necromancer at all, though.

You don't summon any ancient dead buried anywhere because none of your abilities raise corpses.

Read again, I said dead, not corpses(although I think bb might qualify). Spirit, bb, gravestones, (even the crappy "snare" we have) I DID also say necromancer doesn't have the permanent summons that's more traditional, but many of our skills do in fact, involve the dead.

I'll be honest I got lost in your wack mumbo jumbo second part of that statement talking about ancient dead beneath feet and death being all around us.

Awfully big of you to admit you commented without processing(or thinking) about what you're saying. Takes guts and maturity. I'll even help you out. A thread about necromancers involves... death. Spirits, buried dead, etc.

Yeah, I guess I just expected some normal conversation. Nobody else here is talking about death, spirits, buried dead. We're talking about the gameplay and the class.

Misty

Very good class. I was getting in a lot of trouble at first from the local fuzz. Seems that they don't dig skeletons.

Lumenn

WhereArtThouVampires wrote: »

Lumenn wrote: »

WhereArtThouVampires wrote: »

Lumenn wrote: »

WhereArtThouVampires wrote: »

Lumenn wrote: »

I like them. Everyone has a different play style and they don't seem clunky to me. I DONT like the fact that I'm always wondering if some random or even quest npc will trigger a bounty. A permanent summons WOULD have been cool, and more traditional, but death is all around us, not focused on one summons. The spirit of death can help ward damage, maybe appear from nowhere to attack you then fade back to the other side. Summon the ancient dead buried at your feet to weaken you. Having the dead cross the veil from all around to aid me and hinder you just to fade back is kinda cool too.

The issue is what you just described in the latter half of your statement isn't present in the necromancer at all, though.

You don't summon any ancient dead buried anywhere because none of your abilities raise corpses.

Read again, I said dead, not corpses(although I think bb might qualify). Spirit, bb, gravestones, (even the crappy "snare" we have) I DID also say necromancer doesn't have the permanent summons that's more traditional, but many of our skills do in fact, involve the dead.

I'll be honest I got lost in your wack mumbo jumbo second part of that statement talking about ancient dead beneath feet and death being all around us.

Awfully big of you to admit you commented without processing(or thinking) about what you're saying. Takes guts and maturity. I'll even help you out. A thread about necromancers involves... death. Spirits, buried dead, etc.

Yeah, I guess I just expected some normal conversation. Nobody else here is talking about death, spirits, buried dead. We're talking about the gameplay and the class.

Must've gotten lost on your very own words in this thread in regards to another game getting "summoning spirits of your fallen enemies" right. But that's ok, you've already admitted to getting lost and commenting without processing my words, just didn't think you'd forget your own....

Now if you only wished to speak on mechanics cool, pass my, (your own) and any other post saying it's cliche etc by. As another poster(in this thread) has ALREADY had to tell you not posting to argue, just posting a perspective. Take it or leave it.

Iccotak

WhereArtThouVampires wrote: »

Iccotak wrote: »

@WhereArtThouVampires

they removed the skeletal dragon because they didn't want all players running around summoning undead dragons. I agree with that design choice.

Temporarily summoning a thing that looks like a skeletal dragon for 3 seconds isn't the end of the world in terms of lore.

And no, that isn't why they got rid of it. They got rid of it because initially they had model issues and were afraid of it cluttering small spaces. It used to be a lot bigger in development more than likely.

We already walk around with mini skeletal dragons anyways. How do they spin this? It's simply necrotic energy using bones to give it a shape of a dragon. The same exact thing could have been done for the ultimate and you know this.

From what I remember in a stream, lore reasons were absolutely one of the reasons why they did not go with Dragons.
It made Zumogfum and Fang Lair more unique encounters, if everyone could summon undead dragons than that would have made those encounters not special.

Dragons are supposed to be rare beasts in Tamriel that inspire awe and fear. The appearance of even one bone dragon in Fang Lair was supposed to be nuts. If every other player could just pull a dragon skeleton out of the ground, that would greatly diminish their wow factor, and not really fit with their place in ES lore.

There is already a "Dragon themed class" let the necromancer have all the undead stuff - a Flesh colossus makes Way more sense than conjuring Dragon Bones.

tuxon

Necro who?

GreenhaloX

I enjoy necro as much as I enjoy any of the other classes. It just how you make good use of the skillset and gear set. I just have toons in all variations from staves mag to 2h/bow stam, DW and hybrid tank; all the same with necro. Definitely enjoy having the Skeletal Mage out; it is like having a battling companion. Haaa. However, as in all other nerfs, I despise that the Blast Bone was nerfed down . Yet, it still takes down mobs fairly quick. Also, enjoy messing around and dropping Agony Totem and/or the Boneyard on group of players just standing around. Ha ha. Love the sound effect and animation of both the Totem and Boneyard.

Yamenstein

Ahh necromancer where to start. I can only really talk from a Magicka perspective. I've put a lot of time into it, after playing DK from when the game came out I switched over cause necro love. I also love switching gear, skills and CP around so I can tank, heal and dps on my own class. And also PvP as well! Am I the best player no. I'm not going to talk about skills that need to be buffed or nerfed all that much. But more from the perspective of gameplay.

- the corpse mechanic on its own is good. It's different and fun
Gravelord:
- glacial colossus should stun earlier This won't make a difference in pve but would be great in PvP. Whats the point in stunning at the end when people already dodge roll out of it and it has such a tell when being executed? It looks good. But I'm waiting for zos to sell skill animation changes so we can hopefully get the original dragon idea back
- ricochet skull, so so slow and boring. It's a boring skill that's all there is to it. Damage is great yeah but bleh. Hopefully it can be sped up one day.
- stalking blastbones is a mess. I still see it breaking apart mid jump if the player runs off so no damage done. If the player decides to fight then it does nothing extra because this morph is nothing different to the base skill. You might as well have the base morph and save the skill point as you'll either get it doing the same damage or breaking up in the chase. Maybe change the morph so it gets summoned near the target, attaching on and doing X damage after Y time frame. But the damage scales off the number of enemies there.
- boneyard, works fine. Looks alright. Nothing spectacular about the animation. Just fine. Would be cool if there were arms sticking out of the grown and stuff to make it more atmospheric. Something more interesting.
- skeletal arcanist, it's alright. I wish it did more damage for PvP but I feel like it's just not meant to be used for it. Pet targetting isn't that great in general.
- mystic syphon, I've found recently that I keep pressing this skill but nothing happens even when the corpse is in front of me. It's an okay skill. I don't see what's so great about returning like 1200 Magicka over 12 seconds but I'm sure it's balanced so you don't gain too much Magicka. It is a free cast. The morph itself is meh. I feel like because all the base skills are Magicka based when they made the morphs they put more effort in making the stamina version something different, while the Magicka morph just got the crumbs

Bone Tyrant:
- ravenous Goliath. When it came out, the transform was AWESOME. I wish it could stay for longer and maybe alter abilities slightly. But that's fine. I feel like that will never happen. When the vampire changes occured though, I don't see much of a difference between the two Ults. They operate the same way. Basically a reset button with increased stats to provide increased damage for X period of time. Still looks great! I wish you could at least still gain ultimate while in this form and for vampires to keep the skill active for longer but maybe after a certain period of time what it offers drastically lowers/changes. So maybe you have to think about hey instead of wasting my ult consumption on keeping this form I should try the other ult I have.
- hungry scythe, good aoe heal for niche builds but is it really ever used ? Should just get rid of this skill and introduce a new summon. Maybe something that causes a minion to stay close by to you, does some low AMT of damage but also heals you at the same time.
- beckoning armour. Great skill. Probably the only skill I love. It makes pulling in mobs easier and both morphs provide good uses
- bitter harvest morphs, great skills again. One morph good for tanking and the other dps/heal. Heck you can still switch between the two if you decide you need more ult gain than protection
- agony totem, only took it for the synergy it gives. Can't complain about it. Does its job. Looks alright.
- grave grasp. I hardly ever use it. I do now with my healer to buff light attZchs for my allies. But ita mediocre. I think to bring in that summoner feel again maybe have the animation spawn zombies that rush forward. Damage whoever it hits, not by much, but still apply some of those same buffs as they go past allies.

Living Death
- reanimate. Great ult. Animate blastbones is kind of meh because the targetting is choppy and blastbones themselves are choppy as well but still a great ult
- render flesh morphs. Fine to me. Maybe change the animation so it looks like you're ripping off and throwing your flesh onto your allies. Doesn't need to literally throw the flesh. But make it more obvious that you're ripping you own and just have the same healing affect on allies
- expunge. Works fine for me in PvP when I mostly use it. Nothing much to add to this one
- life amid death. Functionally they work great. Wish the animations were better. I don't need to summon heaps of undead but getting the feeling of the undead being on my side would be great. Maybe this morph could have the zombie arms sticking out as well. Or something.
- spirit mender. Works good. Because targetting is a lot simpler I don't see the same issues as with arcanist
- restoring tether. Just targetting issues like with mystic syphon. I dont get the measly stamina return on mortal coil but I figured it's just a balanced number so you aren't regaining a
Stamina too fast. It is a free cast.

I say all of this but the chance of animation changes occurring is very very very slim. They don't gain much from that. Hopefully blastbones gets liked at so stalking blastbones gets and actually morph though

Neiska

I have mixed feelings about them.

Positives - I like the lore and feel about them, and I actually like the "criminal" aspect of it. Its engaging! I do wish there were more styles of homes/clothes and such for them, as options seem fairly limited. Style wise, I do like that it can be semi durable even as a full magica setup.

Negatives - Play-wise, it feels a little awkward and unwieldly. In speed groups we move so fast mostly I am limited to starting off with blast bones and spamming skull, because if I try to sneak in a siphon or graveyard, well its already too late and most of the enemies are dead. Necros definitely have a bit of "wind up" time to achieve their greatest potential.

I am also disappointed like many others with the lack of even a single perma-pet. Even if all it was, was a single one like the wardens bear, or something more in line with the sorc's pets, it would feel much more like an actual necromancer.

But the biggest disappointment is aside from the Colossus Ultimate, the class brings nothing to the table that others can't do sooner and better. This more or less forces most builds to use Colossus, regardless of build, just to bring their one trick pony feature to bear.

I love necros/dark characters in games, but I do wish there was at least an option/build to have even a single perma-pet, even if all it was, was a meatshield. Even if it took an ultimate slot, I would use it, but thats just me.

But I have to agree with some others in this topic when they say this doesn't really "feel" like a necromancer. Our summons aren't really summons, they feel more like dots/hots with models. I am fine with dots, but the lack of pets and the windup time required to make corpses each fight slow the class down compared to other DD which is much more bursty. Which makes necros bad for trash but okay for bosses, I would suppose?

My two cents on necromancers as a newb!

MinnesotaKid

Pretty disappointed in this class due to all the reasons already stated in this thread.
tbh, they're barely fit for running 1 night in cyro to get a geode....
I almost deleted my mag necro last night as they are just that worthless in combat and have none of the trappings that a necro should have.

Needs a re-work from the ground up IMHO.

Alinhbo_Tyaka

I don't care for the class. While I haven't hit any of the reported bugs I find the skills clunky to use. I've pretty much left that character behind and pretty much only use it for crafting writs.

FrancisCrawford

Netheniel wrote: »

I would much rather have seen this skill do something unique, like create a "Death Sentence" DoT and/or debilitating effect on the enemy. Something cool and yet dangerous.

Finger of Death
No saving throw

ealdwin

Completely unfiltered opinion?

Necromancy should have been a new World skill line focused on undead summons rather than a new class trying to turn a singular discipline within a school of magic into an entire theme for a class.

Just saying...

Eldain333

Necro was not at all what i expected it to be... So i made him a Werewolf instead, but they are even worse.

Guild Wars 2 have far better necromancer "feeling".

This is what i expected:

*Ability to raise the ones that you kill for a duration... so if you kill an archer, you would resurrect an archer that follows you
and attacks your target for some time... if you kill a bear, you resurrect a bear... etc etc.
Of course, i did not expect to be able to resurrect dragons, or big monsters or bosses... (would be awesome though!!).

*Ability to summon permanent undead servants... Zombies, Skeletons, Animals, Monsters, etc.. more options = more fun.
*Ability to weaken and harm enemies by placing runes on the ground.
*Ability to weaken and harm enemies by casting plagues and poisons.
*Ability to temporarily increase the functions of servants... buffing them.

The Actual normal Necromancer stuff.

The one thing i DID like, is when you use the ultimate to transform into a giant undead Lich with a swirling dmg aura.
THAT is awesome!!!!

And i for sure did not expect them to be healers!!!.

ealdwin

WhereArtThouVampires wrote: »

This is bad. The line being split up evenly among tank/heal/dps is not good design. Why? Because you run into the issue of the abilities behaving basically almost identically like other abilities from other classes that were meant to add flavor over 'it's a tank/dps/heal skill'. Take the damage line from Necromancer, for example. You have: Single target spammable, Delayed fireball, generic AoE skill, glorified dot, and generic but somehow worse AoE skill. Admittedly the very few skill interactions with corpses is what makes this line unique, but the corpse interactions are either very underwhelming or simply uninspired. Where as if we received a variety of minion-summoning from corpses? That'd be completely unlike anything a class has ever gotten before. You can go down each line in necromancer and do the same. There is no class flavor.

Agreed. This kind of design for classes is only suited for making sure that each class has the basic tools to perform each role, and certainly not for good class identity.

It also ends up creating a lack of diversity within the class itself. When there's only one line that is focused on dealing damage, it means that the mag and stam variants of dealing damage are going to functionally look the same. For Necromancer, this means that there is very little difference between a magicka focused necromancer and a stamina focused one in terms of identity. The player isn't choosing a playstyle, but rather which flavor of energy they want to use.

Just take a look at Warden, another class with the damage/defense/healing class line design. Both the mag and stam variants focus heavily on the Animal Companions skill line. Even the level up advisor's builds for each sound the same in their descriptions: "calling on great beasts" vs. "use savage beasts". Which sounds like a Warden using potent magicka? A warden focused on physical prowess? Warden is the only class with a strong focus on frost magic. So why is the magicka variant of Warden not more of a cryomancer? (Because it doesn't work in the design).

Hopefully, when a new class does come, ZOS will focus more on satisfying a theme for each skill line and providing interesting tools that lend to a playstyle, instead of trying to fill out a template of basic tools and then squeezing a theme into that.

Massacre_Wurm

ealdwin wrote: »

Hopefully, when a new class does come, ZOS will focus more on satisfying a theme for each skill line and providing interesting tools that lend to a playstyle, instead of trying to fill out a template of basic tools and then squeezing a theme into that.

I dont think it will happen. We got this new design approach because people were like " I want play as healer on my dragonknight but cant get into trials." They want each class to be unique , have "identity" and be absolutely interchangeable / with identical performance. Thats simply impossible.

WhereArtThouVampires

Iccotak wrote: »

WhereArtThouVampires wrote: »

Iccotak wrote: »

@WhereArtThouVampires

they removed the skeletal dragon because they didn't want all players running around summoning undead dragons. I agree with that design choice.

Temporarily summoning a thing that looks like a skeletal dragon for 3 seconds isn't the end of the world in terms of lore.

And no, that isn't why they got rid of it. They got rid of it because initially they had model issues and were afraid of it cluttering small spaces. It used to be a lot bigger in development more than likely.

We already walk around with mini skeletal dragons anyways. How do they spin this? It's simply necrotic energy using bones to give it a shape of a dragon. The same exact thing could have been done for the ultimate and you know this.

From what I remember in a stream, lore reasons were absolutely one of the reasons why they did not go with Dragons.
It made Zumogfum and Fang Lair more unique encounters, if everyone could summon undead dragons than that would have made those encounters not special.

Dragons are supposed to be rare beasts in Tamriel that inspire awe and fear. The appearance of even one bone dragon in Fang Lair was supposed to be nuts. If every other player could just pull a dragon skeleton out of the ground, that would greatly diminish their wow factor, and not really fit with their place in ES lore.

There is already a "Dragon themed class" let the necromancer have all the undead stuff - a Flesh colossus makes Way more sense than conjuring Dragon Bones.

But it isn't an actual skeletal dragon. Much like the skeletal dragon pets running around, it was simply going to be a collection of bones animated in the shape of a dragon.

The zumogfum encounter is already not special cause he dies in 10 seconds, most times before he can even cast the dragon ability.

There is no wow factor.

"This construct resembles a great and fearsome Bone Dragon in miniature, but it's actually a product of the Necromancer's art, assembled from modern bird and reptile bones and then reanimated. And no, you can't teach it to play “fetch."

That's the description of the pet. It's silly to assume the breath ability with the skeletal dragon couldn't work in a similar manner.

If they really want to preserve 'dragons' then they should also get rid of the skeletal dragon pet and bones you can put up in your house since they're so rare.

Misty

A very interesting class that I am still experimenting with. But it does seem to be a very versatile class only held back by your imagination.

Misty

I am not a fan of the throw a skeleton at someone as I'm not a fan of throwing and pig or duck at someone when playing the warden class.
I think it's a cheap spell depicting the class. Try harder.

Starlight_Whisper

The concept is ingenious, but summons still have issues

poodlemasterb16_ESO

Its fun. I can play a Stam or Mag Sorc in my sleep, and my StamDK is good too. Something different is welcome.

StarOfElyon

People always say the class is so tanky but I'm wearing fortified brass and still getting melted. ^^;

amm7sb14_ESO

WhereArtThouVampires wrote: »

Starlock wrote: »

WhereArtThouVampires wrote: »

I'm just trying to explain that those of us who wanted a traditional Elder Scrolls necromancer (like how we've been shown in game) got really shafted with the design of this class.

That's a fair assessment. Looking at the design of the game thus far, I guess I never really expected that personally. None of the classes in ESO really conform to "traditional" Elder Scrolls when I think about it. There are many types of spells and abilities that don't have much (or any) precedent prior to ESO as far as I'm aware. That's probably because this game is fundamentally an MMO and the design philosophy was different than for any other Elder Scrolls game. If they'd gone with a classless system I think we could have seen something closer to what you wanted - we could have all the actual schools of magic properly represented instead of weirdly sort of kind of not really represented in the various class/skill lines. I'm still annoyed there's no alteration staves when that would have made so much more sense for a tanking staff than refitting frost staves.

That's fair. I guess the issue with the "traditional" elder scrolls experience is that in ESO the current Necromancer's aren't even like the NPCs in their own game. That's the problem, it's not that they aren't like ES necros from Skyrim or wherever. The game is actively telling and showing us what Necromancers are and the player class is just so different from that.

If Necromancers in this game were portrayed like their class counter part, everything would be chill because then the lived experience would be the same as the world experience.

At the moment there is some heavy cognitive dissonance between PC Necromancers and NPC Necromancers unlike any other class. Because at least they can fit into their npc archetypes. But Necromancers? Enemies outside of Elsweyr don't even use your skills.

A classless system with schools of magic and weapons to specialize in would have been amazing, yes. Then they could have just opened up the NPC spells to the players and just categorize them by school.

I still hate that magic users only have 2 options to choose from when they could easily at the very least toss a staff in for Alteration (tanking) illusion (support/utility) and conjuration (damage through summons).

Responding to the bold:

An Alteration staff is *exactly* how staff tanking should work in this game, not that ice staff non-sense.

As far as the thread in general goes:

I am a fan of necromancers, in any RPG or fantasy game I play. My very first MMO was EverQuest, and my very first character was a Druid, but I also created a Necromancer alt, because I loved the pet dynamic. Later, it became a Shadow Knight. Diablo 2; Necromancer. Magic: The Gathering; a green / black reanimation deck that was necro-druidic themed. Morrowind; necro-assassin. Oblivion; 2 handed necro-warrior. Skyrim; dual-wielding necro-warrior. Give me an RPG to play, and I will play the necro style character. Necromancers are my favorite RPG class forever and always.

When ESO first came out, I was disappointed that there was no necromancer class (or that there were only desto and resto staves, and no Alteration or Conjuration or Illusion, as you pointed out), so I ended up with the Nightblade, as their sap and drain abilities, cloaking, and shade abilities were the closest thing in the game to a necromancer (and in some ways, still more of a true necromancer than the actual necromancer). I played ESO off and on until Elsweyr came out with an actual Necromancer class, and I came back at the end of 2019 to make my necro and test it out.

The first thing I will say is that the Necromancer *is* my favorite class...

The next this I will say is that... it's kinda by default.

For one, I don't really like the class system in this game to begin with. The way the game is designed, even with the "open" class system, if you're doing group content, all builds end up pretty much the same anyways. You are expected to run specific effects based on your role, and whatever your class doesn't have, you just supplement with weapon abilities. So outside of the graphics effects of the specific class, there is really no variety in builds. For example, my main is a necro tank that I built after Elsweyr, and even if I'm not using the Puncture taunt, I'm still getting the same Breach / Fracture effect from Unnerving Graveyard. I might not use Shield Slash, but I'm getting the same Minor Maim effect from Grave Grasp. I still am using CC, its effect is just a totem. I'm still using Major Resolve, the effect is just bones that come out of my back. I'm still using sustains and self heals and damage mitigation, the effect is just a little ghost floating next to me, or a magical rope from me to a nearby corpse. There might be some minor individual aspects of each class - for example, my Necromancer has a Major Vulnerability debuff, or a massive health buff in the form of Goliath, but again, these really act as generic effects. The only real unique gameplay elements of the necro class is the ult generation from Bitter Harvest and its morphs, or the group res.

All classes suffer from this, so it's not really a Necromancer exclusive complaint. It's my complaint about ESO in general. There is a lot of talk of "open" classes, but really, the openness comes down to cosmetics and aesthetics. In practice, every character within a certain role plays the same way.

As far as the Necromancer itself? Well, it's my favorite class because thematically, I get to be a necromancer. But as has been pointed out, it's a pretty underwhelming incarnation of a necromancer. To this day, I'll never understand how, in a game with permanent pets, Necromancers aren't among those with perma-pets. The summons that we do have, being temporary, are just glorified buff effects, and one is a very underwhelming DOT. Too many of the abilities are taken directly out of Diablo 3 (Scythe, Blast Bones, Bone Armor, corpse mechanics), and as has been said in here many times, so much of the abilities that the class does have resort to very cheesy, corny graphical displays that cheapen the actual aura of darkness of a necromancer.

I don't want a giant colossus. I want an ult that allows me to res fallen enemies to fight for me, even if it's temporary. This would greatly forgive the temporary summons we already have if the Colossus ult was instead an aoe res ability that would res fallen enemies to fight for us, with buffs if you wanted to have the same Major Vulnerability effect of the colossus.

I have 3 necros - a tank (my main character), a healer, and a mag dps. I do enjoy the class, and I do enjoy all 3 of my necromancers, but in the end, not really significantly more than I enjoy any of my other class characters, because at the end of the day, regardless of the graphics effects the abilities have, or the cosmetic aesthetic I give my characters through style pages and motifs, they all end up playing the same with within their roles anyways, and any of the "open" class potential this game claims is ultimately wasted by needing to slot the same stuff in the end anyways.