Stalking Blastbones is Necro's BEST damage ability. Please reconsider the change.

Alaztor91

MashmalloMan wrote: »

I'm not a Necro main, so forgive this opinion if it's off base.. but I feel like making 1 of the morphs completely unique is a step in the right direction, just terribly implemented.

Knowing ZOS, they're not going to revert this change, so lets focus on how we can fix the issue. It will take them literal years to reverse something players hate IF they do it at all. Just look at the Necro crit chance execute passive.. It's gone all over the place, I'm pretty sure I've seen 4%, 5%, 8%, and now 10%. Isn't this what it was originally at launch?

So solutions?

Sacrificial Bones:

• Bump that 20% to 30%. With the ability to use this on your class skills and any dot (many of which are coming with Scribing), a Necro can ACTUALLY build as a dot class for the first time ever like they imply the class should be.
• Add a weak aoe dot to the caster for the 20s (Eg. Deadly Cloak/Soul Barrage/Hurricane).

Blighted Blastbones:

• Give the damage bonus that was lost from Stalking Blastbones, keep the Major Defile.
• Make the cost dynamically scale. Whatever Necro mains think is more useful, lowest max resource or highest max resource, my vote would be lowest so Mag Necro has a light Stam dump and vise versa.

This way, you want to play old style Necro, good, Blighted is there. Bursty.

You want to play dot Necro? Great, Sacrifical is there. Sustained pressure over time.

I remember when they wanted to add a 1s cast time to Sorc's Conjured Ward(and the LA shield skill too I think), they reverted that decision because of the massive uproar it caused so I wouldn't completely rule it out.

''We specifically did this to help reduce the intense demand and complex rotation requirement of the class, as Blastbones demands an activation once every 3 seconds minimum, making it very difficult to maximize and play around''

If they want to make Necro rotation ''easier'' they could for example change BB to be a 10s player ''buff'' that starts when you first cast BB on a target and then it will keep summoning a new one every X seconds that will jump to your current target. They should also make BB non-targetable similar to Skeletal Mage so that it can't get stunned/knocked down/pushed/etc(this is imo way more annoying than having to cast every 3s, because it screws with your timing)

This is similar to what they did with Warden's Scorch which is a skill that has many things in common with Blastbones.

Grim_Overlord

MashmalloMan wrote: »

[*] Make the cost dynamically scale. Whatever Necro mains think is more useful, lowest max resource or highest max resource, my vote would be lowest so Mag Necro has a light Stam dump and vise versa.
[/list]

This at least would be a step in the right direction, though I am in favor of having it match the higher of the two resources given it gets cast every 3 skills ideally, which eats up a decent amount of stamina even with the currently reduced cost if you have any other stamina skills.

MashmalloMan

Alaztor91 wrote: »

I remember when they wanted to add a 1s cast time to Sorc's Conjured Ward(and the LA shield skill too I think), they reverted that decision because of the massive uproar it caused so I wouldn't completely rule it out.

Fair, but I'd argue that was a more fundamentally damaging change which is why everyone, including non Sorcs were upset about it, kinda like how everyone is still upset about Wood Elves losing their stealth bonus despite most of us not playing Wood Elf to begin with. It's just common sense.

I think more often than not when it comes to skill reworks, they almost always push it to live. Remember how long it took to get Warden's an on demand stun after they removed it from Scorch? Yeah.. years, and every time they attempted to add a stun back in weird roundabout ways to Arctic Blast.. yeah they're still messing with that skill every few patches.

I think in this case, because they've kept 1 of the morphs almost completely in tact, they will see little reason to revert the new skill change because you can technically still play the same way as before. Although, not entirely, they should at minimum make it dynamically scale and give the % multiplier, than no one can complain and you get a brand new skill to play around with.

Alaztor91 wrote: »

If they want to make Necro rotation ''easier'' they could for example change BB to be a 10s player ''buff'' that starts when you first cast BB on a target and then it will keep summoning a new one every X seconds that will jump to your current target. They should also make BB non-targetable similar to Skeletal Mage so that it can't get stunned/knocked down/pushed/etc(this is imo way more annoying than having to cast every 3s, because it screws with your timing)

This is similar to what they did with Warden's Scorch which is a skill that has many things in common with Blastbones.

That's a pretty good idea, I'd really enjoy a morph like that, but again, I just don't see them popping that out within the next 5 PTS weeks. Long term, that would be really cool.

The other thing you're not considering is the changes they made to Scorch were not a win/win, it heavily nerfed the damage potential to the point where they're about as strong as Dizzy Swing now. As a comparison, Blighted Blastbones deals 39% more damage than Scorch within the same 3s window where as they used to be a lot more similar. Stalking Blastbones damage multiplier brought that differential even farther.

Many Warden's hated that they forced this idea of weak upfront damage for longer term payoff after the 9s because it messes with their rotations to try and get the same burst they had previously, where they were used to the 3s burst combo. They fundamentally messed with Warden's rotations when they did those double proc changes, to this day, I'd argue the upfront 3s proc should be the part that deals more damage, where as the 9s proc should deal less as it's "free". That would create a scenario where you could stick to 3s rotations for the higher burst or 9s for more sustained pressure.

Also, not saying Scorch is a bad skill. It's great as a massive aoe that gives minor/major Breach for 100% uptime, but the changes came with a trade off.

binho

And there was me thinking Necromancer couldn't get any worst... I was wrong!

Aorys

what they have done to my poor necro...

TX12001rwb17_ESO

Aorys wrote: »

what they have done to my poor necro...

APGaming

Many people have already gone over these comments, but I just wanted to post my initial thoughts as well:

Time to delete my necromancer...

The proposed change to the magicka variant of Blastbones is, needless to say, horrible. I have played a magicka necromancer since its release in 2019, but now that they are completely removing the main source of damage from the setup, there is no reason to play it.

And no, blighted blastbones does not fix this.

Blastbones is one of the most satisfying offensive abilities to cast, and they are going to completely remove that feature for magicka users. There goes necromancer-elementalist power fantasy.

Stalking blastbones has needed a unique morph effect for years now, but certainly not this. PLEASE revert this change ZOS, re-evaluate the decision here.

The only reason the rotation is "difficult" is because players cannot freely cast Blastbones without a target. Simply removing that requirement but maintaining the 'one blastbones at any time' would be a preferred solution for many offensive magicka necros.

First you came for the animations on two of my favorite abilities: piercing strikes and flurry. Now they look bad. Now you take my last remaining favorite ability and completely change its use so that mag necros are unable to use it in an offensive capacity.

STOP with the overhauls! Make tweaks not major changes.

Remiem

APGaming wrote: »

STOP with the overhauls! Make tweaks not major changes.

Agree with the entire post except this.
A bunch of necro skills need an overhaul, like Skull or the pile of trash known as Grave Grasp for example, it's just that ZOS decided to do it with the ONE damage skill worth slotting in the entire necro kit under the pretense that it was too hard for some players to keep it up in PvE.
Btw I never want to hear another PvEer cry about nerfs due to PvPers after this change.

Celldweller

I cannot believe they are going to do this. Blighted blastbones does a third of the damage. I do not have any other grave lord skills slotted so the buff will be absolutely useless for me. Please do not do this. You are going to kill our dps and for what? This is ridiculous! I wish i had known about this before I shelled out for gold road. I feel conned. I am so stressed out I actually feel nauseaus.

Estin

Remiem wrote: »

APGaming wrote: »

STOP with the overhauls! Make tweaks not major changes.

Agree with the entire post except this.
A bunch of necro skills need an overhaul, like Skull or the pile of trash known as Grave Grasp for example, it's just that ZOS decided to do it with the ONE damage skill worth slotting in the entire necro kit under the pretense that it was too hard for some players to keep it up in PvE.
Btw I never want to hear another PvEer cry about nerfs due to PvPers after this change.

Overhauls need a lot of player communication/input or else you end up in the situation we have now where they make a completely out of touch change. I'm hoping they either move this proposal to a different skill (because that's easily the best way to help necros both on the bottom and the top) or at the very least revert it back to stalking blastbones and make blighted the new change or give blighted blastbones everything stalking had so nothing changes except the color (I'd rather have it blue though). I'm worried though because ZOS can sometimes be way too headstrong about their changes and not accept any feedback. This change just makes the class more undesirable to play. The original playstyle received a hefty nerf for no reason other than just because despite already underperforming, and the new playstyle is so braindead with uninspiring damage that you're better off spending your money on the arcanist class instead of the necromancer if you wanted an easy class.

Kalle_Demos

Alaztor91 wrote: »

MashmalloMan wrote: »

I'm not a Necro main, so forgive this opinion if it's off base.. but I feel like making 1 of the morphs completely unique is a step in the right direction, just terribly implemented.

Knowing ZOS, they're not going to revert this change, so lets focus on how we can fix the issue. It will take them literal years to reverse something players hate IF they do it at all. Just look at the Necro crit chance execute passive.. It's gone all over the place, I'm pretty sure I've seen 4%, 5%, 8%, and now 10%. Isn't this what it was originally at launch?

So solutions?

Sacrificial Bones:

• Bump that 20% to 30%. With the ability to use this on your class skills and any dot (many of which are coming with Scribing), a Necro can ACTUALLY build as a dot class for the first time ever like they imply the class should be.
• Add a weak aoe dot to the caster for the 20s (Eg. Deadly Cloak/Soul Barrage/Hurricane).

Blighted Blastbones:

• Give the damage bonus that was lost from Stalking Blastbones, keep the Major Defile.
• Make the cost dynamically scale. Whatever Necro mains think is more useful, lowest max resource or highest max resource, my vote would be lowest so Mag Necro has a light Stam dump and vise versa.

This way, you want to play old style Necro, good, Blighted is there. Bursty.

You want to play dot Necro? Great, Sacrifical is there. Sustained pressure over time.

I remember when they wanted to add a 1s cast time to Sorc's Conjured Ward(and the LA shield skill too I think), they reverted that decision because of the massive uproar it caused so I wouldn't completely rule it out.

''We specifically did this to help reduce the intense demand and complex rotation requirement of the class, as Blastbones demands an activation once every 3 seconds minimum, making it very difficult to maximize and play around''

If they want to make Necro rotation ''easier'' they could for example change BB to be a 10s player ''buff'' that starts when you first cast BB on a target and then it will keep summoning a new one every X seconds that will jump to your current target. They should also make BB non-targetable similar to Skeletal Mage so that it can't get stunned/knocked down/pushed/etc(this is imo way more annoying than having to cast every 3s, because it screws with your timing)

This is similar to what they did with Warden's Scorch which is a skill that has many things in common with Blastbones.

They've backtracked before due to backlash. I believe the destruction of Blastbones won't make it to live. As Zos has mentioned themselves multiple times, they're aware of the criticism of frequent sweeping and heavy handed alterations. They don't always listen but know that going too far will hurt their bottom line. Something egregious like this, especially given the community reaction, will certainly warrant a moment of pause.

OtarTheMad

Kalle_Demos wrote: »

Alaztor91 wrote: »

MashmalloMan wrote: »

I'm not a Necro main, so forgive this opinion if it's off base.. but I feel like making 1 of the morphs completely unique is a step in the right direction, just terribly implemented.

Knowing ZOS, they're not going to revert this change, so lets focus on how we can fix the issue. It will take them literal years to reverse something players hate IF they do it at all. Just look at the Necro crit chance execute passive.. It's gone all over the place, I'm pretty sure I've seen 4%, 5%, 8%, and now 10%. Isn't this what it was originally at launch?

So solutions?

Sacrificial Bones:

• Bump that 20% to 30%. With the ability to use this on your class skills and any dot (many of which are coming with Scribing), a Necro can ACTUALLY build as a dot class for the first time ever like they imply the class should be.
• Add a weak aoe dot to the caster for the 20s (Eg. Deadly Cloak/Soul Barrage/Hurricane).

Blighted Blastbones:

• Give the damage bonus that was lost from Stalking Blastbones, keep the Major Defile.
• Make the cost dynamically scale. Whatever Necro mains think is more useful, lowest max resource or highest max resource, my vote would be lowest so Mag Necro has a light Stam dump and vise versa.

This way, you want to play old style Necro, good, Blighted is there. Bursty.

You want to play dot Necro? Great, Sacrifical is there. Sustained pressure over time.

I remember when they wanted to add a 1s cast time to Sorc's Conjured Ward(and the LA shield skill too I think), they reverted that decision because of the massive uproar it caused so I wouldn't completely rule it out.

''We specifically did this to help reduce the intense demand and complex rotation requirement of the class, as Blastbones demands an activation once every 3 seconds minimum, making it very difficult to maximize and play around''

If they want to make Necro rotation ''easier'' they could for example change BB to be a 10s player ''buff'' that starts when you first cast BB on a target and then it will keep summoning a new one every X seconds that will jump to your current target. They should also make BB non-targetable similar to Skeletal Mage so that it can't get stunned/knocked down/pushed/etc(this is imo way more annoying than having to cast every 3s, because it screws with your timing)

This is similar to what they did with Warden's Scorch which is a skill that has many things in common with Blastbones.

They've backtracked before due to backlash. I believe the destruction of Blastbones won't make it to live. As Zos has mentioned themselves multiple times, they're aware of the criticism of frequent sweeping and heavy handed alterations. They don't always listen but know that going too far will hurt their bottom line. Something egregious like this, especially given the community reaction, will certainly warrant a moment of pause.

It depends who they listen to I guess because I’ve watched some streams today, players going over the patch notes, and I actually heard some call this a buff. I don’t know how it is but they said it.

TX12001rwb17_ESO

Well my suspicions were correct, as it happens so many turn to Necromancy because it is easy to do for the unskilled mage, it does not mean it is powerful, how much strength can you really expect a weak corpse to give you? were they powerful they would not be corpses in the first place, I guess gameplay now reflects the lore.

Urvoth

Grim_Overlord wrote: »

MashmalloMan wrote: »

[*] Make the cost dynamically scale. Whatever Necro mains think is more useful, lowest max resource or highest max resource, my vote would be lowest so Mag Necro has a light Stam dump and vise versa.
[/list]

This at least would be a step in the right direction, though I am in favor of having it match the higher of the two resources given it gets cast every 3 skills ideally, which eats up a decent amount of stamina even with the currently reduced cost if you have any other stamina skills.

Yeah, exactly. I don't want to be forced to use a stam spammable type skill on my magcro. Necro is thematically a caster/mage class after all.

Faulgor

I'm confused by their reasoning. Is it really that hard for people to use a skill every 3 seconds? Can't we count to 3 anymore? Has civilization finally fallen?

But, fine. You want to give people an alternative to the usual BB rotation. That's cool. Why not use the less used morph for that, though?

Blighted Blastbones should just apply a disease DoT to all enemies hit by the initial hit, that ramps up over time like DK's Venomous Claw or the Skeletal Archer in the same skill line. That way you'd get the most out of it by only using it every 10-20 seconds, allowing for a simpler rotation, and Necromancer would get another class DoT which is allegedly their niche.
Honestly, I never understood why you'd design a class with a passive buff to DoTs without any worthwhile DoTs, instead giving it massive burst skills like BB.

OtarTheMad

The thing that’s weird to me is the conflicting message. They changed BB because it made rotations kind of complex but nerfed Arcanist beam because they wanted to encourage more complex rotations.

Which is it? What in the world is your vision ZOS?

gariondavey

+1

Kalle_Demos

OtarTheMad wrote: »

The thing that’s weird to me is the conflicting message. They changed BB because it made rotations kind of complex but nerfed Arcanist beam because they wanted to encourage more complex rotations.

Which is it? What in the world is your vision ZOS?

They don't have one. Haven't for a long time. This is more throwing things at the wall and hoping something sticks. Which is why I'm not all too worried about Blastbones. Enough noise and they'll adjust. It is painfully obvious that they aren't especially invested in the fate of the class let alone a single skill.

I will say however that I'm pleased that some moderation has been displayed in the handling of the Arcanist. While I don't agree with and am also frustrated with their contradictory explanations, worse, hasty and reactionary choices on Class balance hasn't done the game or the team favors in the past. The series of adjustments instead of wild hammer swings is a welcome and overdue change of pace. Hopefully this is a sign that they've learned from the past. Now if only they would apply this tactic to the rest of the game. Starting with the Necromancer...

Alaztor91

Another issue that the change to BB and Stalking BB introduces is that apparently you won't generate enough Corpses to consume for other skills. If you use the new Grave Lord’s Sacrifice, Boneyard, Siphon and Skele Mage you will need(assuming that there are no trash mobs dying and providing extra Corpses):

-1 Corpse every 10 seconds for Boneyard's Bonus
-1 Corpse every 20 seconds for Siphon

And you are only generating:
-1 Corpse every 20 seconds from Grave Lord’s Sacrifice(Sacrificial Bones doesn't mentions that it generates Corpses)
-1 Corpse every 20 seconds from Skele Mage

While it's true that you could overcast Grave Lord’s Sacrifice(and Skele Mage) for an easy Corpse that would be basically sacrificing a GCD for a Corpse, also forget about using Detonating Siphon as a semi-spammable. These are issues that afaik the current Necro doesn't face because current BB generates a corpse every 3 seconds in ideal scenarios.

MashmalloMan

Alaztor91 wrote: »

Another issue that the change to BB and Stalking BB introduces is that apparently you won't generate enough Corpses to consume for other skills. If you use the new Grave Lord’s Sacrifice, Boneyard, Siphon and Skele Mage you will need(assuming that there are no trash mobs dying and providing extra Corpses):

-1 Corpse every 10 seconds for Boneyard's Bonus
-1 Corpse every 20 seconds for Siphon

And you are only generating:
-1 Corpse every 20 seconds from Grave Lord’s Sacrifice(Sacrificial Bones doesn't mentions that it generates Corpses)
-1 Corpse every 20 seconds from Skele Mage

While it's true that you could overcast Grave Lord’s Sacrifice(and Skele Mage) for an easy Corpse that would be basically sacrificing a GCD for a Corpse, also forget about using Detonating Siphon as a semi-spammable. These are issues that afaik the current Necro doesn't face because current BB generates a corpse every 3 seconds in ideal scenarios.

This is 1 of the reasons I suggested that 1 of the morphs for Skele Mage should be a short, but strong dot. Like 5s long that reintroduces some of the lost pressure from not having BB

StarOfElyon

Blastbones is Necromancer's class identity. I believe this sacrifice skill can be applied instead to one of the MANY unused skills in the class. I force myself to use the necro class skills but I fully understand that everything it needs comes from outside the class skills lines.

I handicap myself by fussing with tethers during a fight in PVP. I guess I enjoy the looks and feel of them but they're really not practical to use. Same for the Skeletal Mage. No class *sticky* dot, by the way? Why can't both scythe skills apply a dot or at least be an execute? So much to be desired.

StarOfElyon

MashmalloMan wrote: »

Alaztor91 wrote: »

Another issue that the change to BB and Stalking BB introduces is that apparently you won't generate enough Corpses to consume for other skills. If you use the new Grave Lord’s Sacrifice, Boneyard, Siphon and Skele Mage you will need(assuming that there are no trash mobs dying and providing extra Corpses):

-1 Corpse every 10 seconds for Boneyard's Bonus
-1 Corpse every 20 seconds for Siphon

And you are only generating:
-1 Corpse every 20 seconds from Grave Lord’s Sacrifice(Sacrificial Bones doesn't mentions that it generates Corpses)
-1 Corpse every 20 seconds from Skele Mage

While it's true that you could overcast Grave Lord’s Sacrifice(and Skele Mage) for an easy Corpse that would be basically sacrificing a GCD for a Corpse, also forget about using Detonating Siphon as a semi-spammable. These are issues that afaik the current Necro doesn't face because current BB generates a corpse every 3 seconds in ideal scenarios.

This is 1 of the reasons I suggested that 1 of the morphs for Skele Mage should be a short, but strong dot. Like 5s long that reintroduces some of the lost pressure from not having BB

No I love having my little skeleton buddy hang around for a while. How can I be a necro without a skeleton following me around? I would be happy if the skeleton gave major sorcery/brutality buffs while it is active.

MashmalloMan

StarOfElyon wrote: »

MashmalloMan wrote: »

Alaztor91 wrote: »

Another issue that the change to BB and Stalking BB introduces is that apparently you won't generate enough Corpses to consume for other skills. If you use the new Grave Lord’s Sacrifice, Boneyard, Siphon and Skele Mage you will need(assuming that there are no trash mobs dying and providing extra Corpses):

-1 Corpse every 10 seconds for Boneyard's Bonus
-1 Corpse every 20 seconds for Siphon

And you are only generating:
-1 Corpse every 20 seconds from Grave Lord’s Sacrifice(Sacrificial Bones doesn't mentions that it generates Corpses)
-1 Corpse every 20 seconds from Skele Mage

While it's true that you could overcast Grave Lord’s Sacrifice(and Skele Mage) for an easy Corpse that would be basically sacrificing a GCD for a Corpse, also forget about using Detonating Siphon as a semi-spammable. These are issues that afaik the current Necro doesn't face because current BB generates a corpse every 3 seconds in ideal scenarios.

This is 1 of the reasons I suggested that 1 of the morphs for Skele Mage should be a short, but strong dot. Like 5s long that reintroduces some of the lost pressure from not having BB

No I love having my little skeleton buddy hang around for a while. How can I be a necro without a skeleton following me around? I would be happy if the skeleton gave major sorcery/brutality buffs while it is active.

There is 2 morphs, you can keep 1 the same or combine them. Do you really find the current morph choice all that interesting to begin with? Necro's always complain about how terrible Skele mage is.

The point I'm making is a 20% buff to a bunch of skills Necro's don't like for giving up Blastbones doesn't make sense unless there was a decent skill to replace what you give up that also fits the new skills idea of being dot focused.

Jusey1

I'm honestly going to delete my Necromancer character now if this change goes live because it's so horrible that I wouldn't want to play Necromancer. I love my blast boys, they are hilariously fun to use.

Rasande_Robin

I agree with OP 100%.

Stalking needed a change, but not like this... This should've been a morph to skeletal archer.

Please, oh please reconsider!

Urvoth

MashmalloMan wrote: »

StarOfElyon wrote: »

MashmalloMan wrote: »

Alaztor91 wrote: »

Another issue that the change to BB and Stalking BB introduces is that apparently you won't generate enough Corpses to consume for other skills. If you use the new Grave Lord’s Sacrifice, Boneyard, Siphon and Skele Mage you will need(assuming that there are no trash mobs dying and providing extra Corpses):

-1 Corpse every 10 seconds for Boneyard's Bonus
-1 Corpse every 20 seconds for Siphon

And you are only generating:
-1 Corpse every 20 seconds from Grave Lord’s Sacrifice(Sacrificial Bones doesn't mentions that it generates Corpses)
-1 Corpse every 20 seconds from Skele Mage

While it's true that you could overcast Grave Lord’s Sacrifice(and Skele Mage) for an easy Corpse that would be basically sacrificing a GCD for a Corpse, also forget about using Detonating Siphon as a semi-spammable. These are issues that afaik the current Necro doesn't face because current BB generates a corpse every 3 seconds in ideal scenarios.

This is 1 of the reasons I suggested that 1 of the morphs for Skele Mage should be a short, but strong dot. Like 5s long that reintroduces some of the lost pressure from not having BB

No I love having my little skeleton buddy hang around for a while. How can I be a necro without a skeleton following me around? I would be happy if the skeleton gave major sorcery/brutality buffs while it is active.

There is 2 morphs, you can keep 1 the same or combine them. Do you really find the current morph choice all that interesting to begin with? Necro's always complain about how terrible Skele mage is.

The point I'm making is a 20% buff to a bunch of skills Necro's don't like for giving up Blastbones doesn't make sense unless there was a decent skill to replace what you give up that also fits the new skills idea of being dot focused.

Or they could just give the flat 20% as a buff for having the mage up in the first place. Necro is so far behind at this point that it needs something massive on top of keeping blastbones.

RaddlemanNumber7

You mean I have to change Morph from Stalking Blastbones to Blighted Blastbones?

Oh, my aesthetics!

LOL

Rex-Umbra

Blastbones is necros heart and soul and fundamental to it's identity changing blast bones will ruin the fun of necro as nothing is more entertaining than watching them chase down their prey.

CameraBeardThePirate

RaddlemanNumber7 wrote: »

You mean I have to change Morph from Stalking Blastbones to Blighted Blastbones?

Oh, my aesthetics!

LOL

Aesthetics have nothing to do with it - Stalking does 10% more damage in PvE (negligible with the proposed change to the rotation) and about 20-30% more on average in PvP (the opposite of negligible lol)

ilawana

Pvp perspective here. It seems like this change was made solely for pve rotations, yeah? The only benefits I see from a pvp perspective is buffing cheesy dot builds like the good old masters dw and vate destro combo (as if those builds needed a buff) and maybe helping sustain a little bit. So, while the dumbest pvp build is getting buffed, everything else is getting a nerf and losing the only burst they can get from the class. Isn't that why dk whip became such a bursty spam? Because a class relying entirely on slow burning dots wasn't effective in pvp? Why is necro now relying entirely on dots?

Maybe it will help for pve and maybe it will boost some cheesy pvp builds, but I feel like of all the changes that could have been made, this one is the most unhelpful. The other class skills have many bigger problems than blastbone does. Like having to run Dark Convergence in order to get an enemy to take 1 tick of damage from your ultimate, or having a pet that does next to no damage and only targets the enemy closest to you, tethers that break when you walk past a flower, entirely unreliable use of the corpse mechanic, etc.

Some changes that could have been helpful would be things like making the tethers function like Templar's Repentence. Allow the Skeletal Mage/Archer to be forced to target an enemy you heavy attack or allow them to be targeted so you at least get the body blocking aspect of it, increasing the damage radius on Blastbones, reducing the cost of the ultimates, making the Colossus follow the enemy like Arcanist ult. I'm just spitballing, but the point is that Necromancer still has the most horrible class design in the game. It is a cheap knockoff of Warden that isn't even half as good. It is almost entirely useless in pvp and still nothing has happened to change that. Meanwhile, Warden, Dk, and NB are still performing just fine and getting buffed this patch.

I hope this change is reconsidered. Or that the class just gets a complete rework to support this change so that the class can be used effectively in both pve and pvp.