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

Alaztor91 · February 6

I wasn't expecting any major changes with week 2, but I find it funny that if you look at the PTS notes the Reusable Parts passive apparently still makes reference to a skill that no longer exists.

Makes you wonder how much thought was put into the new Blastbones change.

Twohothardware · February 6

Necromancer needs a lot more skill reworks if this new Blastbones change is going into effect. Like how is Magicka Necro even suppose to work in PvP?

Blastbones is your single source of burst damage and now you're left with the lower damage stamina morph or you go with the new Sacrificial Bones morph that buffs your Gave Lord skills... huh? What Grave Lord skills? The Boneyard AOE that doesn't attach to target and player can just side step out of? The Skeletal Mage that does practically zero damage in PvP? The Shocking Siphon skill that requires a corpose to use and again is majorly lacking in damage? All you have is Ricochet Skull which is nearly the worst spammable in the game for PvP because of the travel time to target.

Necro doesn't even have a source of Major Sorcery for crying out loud. Necro needs way more help than just a single change to a single morph that takes away all of the classes burst damage.

DarkAgentZer0 · February 7

Completely agree, it’s been a minute since I felt the need to come to the forums to share my piece but after seeing the proposed changes to Stalking Blastbones I had to get back on here. I was confused if they were trying to buff the class like they said, because this felt more like them utterly gutting all Magcro’s, ZOS must be out of their minds. Cool the stam version stays the same but that does nothing for my magic build.

20% extra damage on our spam-able and a ult that never hit that hard anyways. WOW so cool. (Colosus had decent damage but its main utility was that it debuffed enemies, not the damage, 20% of “meh” damage is still “meh” numbers. This change feels like it is killing my main class.

dwright09ub17_ESO · March 11

I no longer feel like playing my necro...this is literally the worst change you could make to the only skill in pvp that I could rely on.

Tinkerhorn · March 11

dwright09ub17_ESO wrote: »

I no longer feel like playing my necro...this is literally the worst change you could make to the only skill in pvp that I could rely on.

Gave my necro a whirl with Blighted and it's a very sorry state compared to what it was. Just very underwhelming with a lot to do for nothing worthwhile from it.
Had been running templar last few days but running around on it just I am thinking to myself that I don't particularly want to play it.
So I've unsubscribed and just don't feel much reason to play anymore.

StarOfElyon · March 14

As someone who has played his necro as both a tank and a DD, I wonder - as a DD - how proccing defile is NOT going to be a downgrade from proccing burning in PvE. First, mobs don't heal often. Second, Necros get a DoT passive and burning was good damage.

C_Inside · March 14

StarOfElyon wrote: »

As someone who has played his necro as both a tank and a DD, I wonder - as a DD - how proccing defile is NOT going to be a downgrade from proccing burning in PvE. First, mobs don't heal often. Second, Necros get a DoT passive and burning was good damage.

I already outlined several reasons why SuckBones doesn't work in regards to class passive synergy in a different thread: https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/652497/another-reason-why-sacrificial-bones-doesnt-work-no-synergy-with-class-passives#latest. Naturally it was completely ignored by ZOS just like all the other necro feedback threads.

@ZOS_Kevin You literally replied to a different thread regarding scribing mere minutes after it was created yet you've not provided any form of communication in the dozens of threads that were posted in the past month concerning necro. Are we necro mains second-rate players in your eyes, unworthy of having their concerns addressed? Absolutely shameful.

xDeusEJRx · March 15

Does GLS have any sort of viability at all on any type of builds. As a console pleb I can't access pts or see how it is on live. Is it a skill that you completely pass up on or is there any super niche builds that can complement it?

I wanna know opinions of PC players who've tried it

StarOfElyon · March 15

xDeusEJRx wrote: »

Does GLS have any sort of viability at all on any type of builds. As a console pleb I can't access pts or see how it is on live. Is it a skill that you completely pass up on or is there any super niche builds that can complement it?

I wanna know opinions of PC players who've tried it

I imagine if you wanted to be a proc-set grease lord this would be a good skill to use.

Erikx · March 16

What’s funny is there’s people defending the changes like they are a good thing. I logged on for 5 mins and there’s a dude claiming he’s pulling 200kdps in pve with coral riptide. Like I just don’t believe that and it must be a boring playstyle then. The overwhelming majority of players think these necro changes are terrible.

C_Inside · March 16

StarOfElyon wrote: »

xDeusEJRx wrote: »

Does GLS have any sort of viability at all on any type of builds. As a console pleb I can't access pts or see how it is on live. Is it a skill that you completely pass up on or is there any super niche builds that can complement it?

I wanna know opinions of PC players who've tried it

I imagine if you wanted to be a proc-set grease lord this would be a good skill to use.

Nope, I already tried making a build focusing on proc dot sets with Pillar+Rele+Zaan. The results were pretty much the same as Blighted Blastbones, except with Grave Lord's Suckrifice I had a clunkier rotation and sustain issues. BB didn't have any such issues so it was a straight downgrade.

StarOfElyon · March 25

I was in a dungeon yesterday and two people in the group had no clue about the changes coming to console. Wooo boy. I can't wait to see what happens when more people find out that Stalking Blastbones is gone the hard way. Lol

I'm making an updated version of my Necro ideas thread from 2023 (https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/633137/suggestions-for-necromancer-changes). One thing that ZOS has been doing lately is making skills require less micromanagement and loading them with multiple functions:

Cephaliarch's Flail:
Infuse your arm with abyssal magic to form tentacles that lash out at your foes dealing 1939 Physical Damage, healing yourself for 969, and generating Crux. Enemies are immobilized for 3 seconds and marked with Abyssal Ink for 20 seconds. Deals up to 100% more damage to enemies with less than 50% Health. You deal 5% increased damage to enemies drenched in Abyssal Ink.

Tome-Bearer's Inspiration:
Etch a series of runes onto your weapon that pulse with power once every 5 seconds. Each pulse enhances your class abilities, and striking an enemy with one deals an additional 1161 Magic Damage and generates Crux if you have none. While slotted on either ability bar, gain Major Brutality and Major Sorcery, increasing your Weapon and Spell Damage by 20%.

The Necro needs this same treatment.

Blighted Blastbones: cost determined by the highest resource.
(I have mourned the loss of Stalking Blastbones and I have accepted that fact that I'm just going to have to change my Necro)

Death Scythe:
As I have seen suggested on the forums, both morphs of the Necro scythe should get execute scaling. I agree that this would be a great and very needed addition.
- Hungry Scythe: should also apply life steal to all enemies hit.

Skeletal Arcanist/Archer: grants major sorcery/brutality when slotted on either bar. Increase the damage that their attacks do.

Shocking Siphon: while slotted on either bar grants major prophecy/savagery and increases damage done by 3%. The AOE remains on the ground even if the tether breaks early. *Increase the radius size.
- Mystic Siphon: the increased Health, Magicka, and Stamina Recovery persists even if the tether breaks early.
- Detonating Syphon: the damage AOE now sticks to you.

Flame Skull:
- Riccochet Skull/Venom Skull: applies burning/poisoned status effects. (Increase travel speed)

Spirit Mender: when active, applies minor cowardice to attackers.

Bone Totem: summons an effigy of bones up to 28 meters away. After 1 second, the totem begins fearing nearby enemies every 2 seconds, causing them to cower in place for 4 seconds. (Changed to allow both morphs to be targeted)
- Warding Totem: (Formerly Remote Totem) grants minor protection when standing in the area of effect.
- Agony Totem: afflicts enemies in the area of effect with minor vulnerability.

Restoring Tether: the effects persist on the player even if the tether breaks early.

Render Flesh:
- Resistant Flesh: (remains unchanged)
- Blood Sacrifice: consumes a corpse to grant you Major Courage (or Major Berserk) for 10 seconds.

Expunge: reduces the cost of all your abilities by 3% while slotted on either bar.

Bitter Harvest: when slotted on either bar, reduces your damage taken by 3%.

ULTIMATES:
Frozen Colossus: Unleash a decayed Flesh Colossus to pulverize enemies in the area. The Colossus smashes the ground three times over 3 seconds. Dealing damage applies Major Vulnerability to any enemy hit for 12 seconds.
- Glacial Colossus: does frost damage and stuns enemies on the second hit instead of the third.
- Pestilent Colossus: smashes the ground only once and does disease damage. Afflicts enemies with a pestilence that does damage over time.

Animate Blastbones: instead of resurrecting allies, this ultimate summons up to three blastbones to attack the nearest opponent. Summoned Blastbones are immune to being crowd controlled (other than by another ultimate). Reduce the cost of this ultimate to 200, down from 320, to make it more usable.

(3-15-2024: a video discussing these ideas)

https://youtu.be/s03c5jlZhaQ?si=wZUIjM1YkDQSMqnC

StarOfElyon · March 27

I definitely found myself getting stam-locked more than before in BGs tonight due to using Blighted Blastbones.