I've been trying it out and I've been hoping for a necro since this game first came out. I was really hyped to hear it's finally being released.
Alas, in the current state, it is nowhere near what I'd expect or think of as "fun".

Abilities feel lackluster and not at all fun (except the healing tree, that one isn't all bad).
The lock on only one skeleton of a kind is rediculous and completely ruins the class. Even if I had nothing else on my necro but the ability to spam skeletons, I'd still enjoy it, but as of now, it's just a less fun sorcerer with non-permanent skeleton spam.
The corpse consumming isn't fun. It's a scramble to click abilities on cooldowns. It's the exact opposite of fun. And I bet it'll be something you must execute perfectly to get any reasonable DPS numbers not something that'd reward you for doing well.

My favorite ability was... hell I don't know. Either they're generic as hell or nerfed to oblivion. Favorite one'd be summoning skeletons. That's why we're here. If I wasn't limited to just one. Now it's just... a tease of what fun we could be having. I don't give a sheet about the DPS numbers or the optimally executed rotations. I just want to flod the field with the dead or feel like an actual necromancer, not... whatever this thing on the PTR is. Hell, even the bone colosus is just a health pool buff with a cool effect, and at that rate, what's the point. None of it -feels- good or rewarding to use. You know what was fun? Getting that meaty crystaline frag proc, or getting that lightning proc. It felt right and it made you feel like a proper sorcerer and all that. Sorc's ultimate storm attronarch felt grand. Necromancer's ultimate golem just makes me wonder how exactly I managed to pull this thing out of nowhere and why it's not sticking around for longer before vanishing into the ether.

The visual theme is just annoyingly hard on the eyes. I don't like the teal colouring at all. Maybe more red or making it darker, but now, it's hard to look at. I'd prefer black to it at this rate honestly.

Bone armor looks nice and actually feels rewarding to use with the cost reduction and creating of a corpse. It's one ability that I don't hate in its current state.

The whole corpse generation though... It feels great when you use a fallen foe's corpse to either heal up or use up for ulti generation or something along those lines. It feels like a horrible chore when you feel forced into constantly churning out corpses to fuel your next skill in the rotation as it turns into a plate-juggling excercise alongside positioning to get allies/enemies into your syphon beams and so forth. Tone it way down I feel. So far, it doesn't feel unique. It feels like a downgrade from other magicka users I played.

Criminal Act thing is something I love. You should get bounties and heat for raising the dead in towns. You should also get it for dragging daedra around in the middle of a daedric invasion. Either make both a criminal offense or neither. Either we're trying to go for the feeling of belieavability of guards or we are overlooking it entirely. It feels odd, having it half-way.

As far as lore goes... They don't feel loreful at all. You're pulling a skeleton out of gods know where every 14 seconds because reasons. I'd much rather have you raise a skeleton from your fallen foes, have it use a corpse but then last permanently up to a number of... X If you're worried about the lag, you can't have em in cities. It's a criminal offense.

I was 100% sure I'd play a necro main. I've been playing my werewolf char and my sorc char these past months since the Chapter's announcement exclusively to farm up CP and aquire gear for my new main. Except... now I'm not sure I even want to play the necro in the sad state it's in. And now I'm looking at all this stuff I've hoarded up for him, alongside new store-bought trinkets and whatnot, unsure on what exactly to do with it all.

I'm highly disapointed, luckilly, there's a really easy fix: LET US HAVE MORE SKELETONS if it's too late to change the rest, but at least this change would make it somewhat better. At least let us play the class fantasy. Let us have FUN with it. That's the whole point here, isn't it? (Cyrodil is already a laggy mess, how much worse can it really be.)

Just a brief comment - I'll leave feedback after a some more game play.

So far playing the Necro is fun, however, just the thought of all the grinding necessary to get the new char up to 50 and the mount any decent speed is off-putting.

If there were class change tokens then I'd be there on Day 1.

I'm sure many others have said this already, but the whole Criminal Act thing seems like it it's just a hassle and doesn't add anything. It actually punishes you in all forms of PvE due to friendly quest/dungeon/Trial NPC's being capable of giving bounties, so you can do some overland quest and walk away with a 10k bounty from the NPC follower.

Feels pointless and will see a landslide of complaints about being a pain when the Chapter launches, especially since despite being "bad" in Lore the following are all acceptable in towns:

• Vampires walking around in public and using abilities (except Feeding which is a crime)
• Werewolves transforming and using abilities
• Sorcerors summoning non-Antronach Daedra (we see Antronach-type Daedra all over the place)
• Multiple Nightblade abilities including conjuring dark spirits, draining blood and ravaging souls(??)

It's even worse when you consider the Criminal Act part of Necromancer isn't even lore friendly to itself: the town loses its mind if I conjure a few skeletons, but flaming skulls and bone totems are absolutely fine. Are those meant to be legal bones or something? The concept is good on paper but the current execution is just a mess and does more harm than good: it really just means "I can't use X anywhere in PvE without getting a bounty" so you just don't use them, or are constantly a criminal. There's no minigame in that, you either use them or you don't.

My suggestion would be, if the Criminal Act is to stay it should be limited to IMMORTAL TOWN GUARDS ONLY. You can dodge those and using the abilities as you need them, without playing half a character or getting a massive bounty because the NPC the quest assigned you whines about every undead you summon.

Choosing not to use a Criminal Act ability in front of a Town Guard is one thing: choosing not to do it in front of any NPC ANYWHERE is not much of a choice.

Just another viewpoint.
I'm a newbie to the game, have only been playing about a month - 30'ish sorcerer (and I'm honestly thinking about deleting her and doing a different build, shrug). I've played 'necro' in about every game system out there; some were good some are junk. I any case wanted some background for the comments.

*Note: I have created and deleted several of these testing the builds, I have not played any of them to any real level (so comments are made from a newb and one that is not looking at anything 'end game')

*Note: I do not read "how to level fast" or "best build" or "insert the greatest game spoilers here" type things. If I did that then why play? Not all of those 'builds' work for me to start with.

*Note: too many players forget the "Game" when talking about this stuff. While players that can, and do, play for multi-digit hours per week - most of us do not have that type of time. Every evening I sit down at the computer I choose between quick and easy or "do I really want to try and finish that quest" (this game). On days when it rains and I cant get out to do much, I play this one; most evenings I fire over anthem and quick match, kill it all, and I'm in bed within 30 minutes.

"Criminal Act" - just stupid in my opinion.
I got bounty from NPC's that should have ignored and had others ignore that should have triggered. I saw one other person say "Guard only" and if you are going to keep the system that would help a lot. If the "intent" is to push some RP type element, how does this compare with the Nightblade (thief) ? (I ask because I have not played one to any real level yet) . The mech just acts as a handicap. At worse its just made the class less fun to play.

"Animations" and "Visuals" (just like music - WooHoo (monty python lackluster cheering))
I point out here, that when questing and the NPC starts telling me their life story, I quick click through the whole thing - opps didn't mean to click "xxxx" but oh well. Visuals and animations only serve to indicate my target; and while the first couple of casts of 'that spell' are neat "oh cute look at that" - after that its WooHoo. "Bone Armor" (I think that is what it was called) - Don't get sued by Falling Skies; looks just like the alien from that TV show....

"Class play" - this is the long one. Now I've played necros in other games, EQ was what I expect and NW generally works the same way - and both are what I see a necro as. EQ was more of a NPC-Health-Mana conversion where NW is more of a lifedrain to shield/heal but in the end they work the same. How I mean that is that it is a strong class, some rate it as OP forgetting the -if- it works. A resist in either of these means you have little to no time of recovery; you are dead. This game play is present at low levels and just adds some trickery as you grow into the class.

Now this necro - its not a necro - it is a sorcerer with different named spells and animations (WooHoo) - note again this is not end game its leveling; maybe it changes later I don't know. I will note that both seem more of a "battlemage class" - in that staffs and normal type weapons for the class are useless and get you killed; break out the giant 2H sword and bash-cast through the next mob. Not what I expect, but obvious that 'this' is how it works - shrug. There seems to be a lot of the class built around corpse manipulation / great, but where is the 'corpse' to start the fight? Maybe there needs to be stolen corpses in miniature form (Shrunken heads) that can be an inventory item stolen in battle to get the next round going ? Then again, most of the corpse manipulation stuff is CA and not on my spell bar.

"Will I play one" - No
(caveat: maybe after I can use a main to twink it out, just to claim I have one /shrug)

If there were other questions I spaced them and don't remember. Its dry enough outside now from the little rain we got and I've got other things to do.

Transairion wrote: »

I'm sure many others have said this already, but the whole Criminal Act thing seems like it it's just a hassle and doesn't add anything. It actually punishes you in all forms of PvE due to friendly quest/dungeon/Trial NPC's being capable of giving bounties, so you can do some overland quest and walk away with a 10k bounty from the NPC follower.

Feels pointless and will see a landslide of complaints about being a pain when the Chapter launches, especially since despite being "bad" in Lore the following are all acceptable in towns:

• Vampires walking around in public and using abilities (except Feeding which is a crime)
• Werewolves transforming and using abilities
• Sorcerors summoning non-Antronach Daedra (we see Antronach-type Daedra all over the place)
• Multiple Nightblade abilities including conjuring dark spirits, draining blood and ravaging souls(??)

It's even worse when you consider the Criminal Act part of Necromancer isn't even lore friendly to itself: the town loses its mind if I conjure a few skeletons, but flaming skulls and bone totems are absolutely fine. Are those meant to be legal bones or something? The concept is good on paper but the current execution is just a mess and does more harm than good: it really just means "I can't use X anywhere in PvE without getting a bounty" so you just don't use them, or are constantly a criminal. There's no minigame in that, you either use them or you don't.

My suggestion would be, if the Criminal Act is to stay it should be limited to IMMORTAL TOWN GUARDS ONLY. You can dodge those and using the abilities as you need them, without playing half a character or getting a massive bounty because the NPC the quest assigned you whines about every undead you summon.

Choosing not to use a Criminal Act ability in front of a Town Guard is one thing: choosing not to do it in front of any NPC ANYWHERE is not much of a choice.

I'm glad other people are starting to be vocal about how tedious and annoying this mechanic is. The only place I'd disagree with you is on the bolded part - I think it should just be done away with entirely (or have an option to turn it on or off, so maybe some RPers could use it if they wanted to). Having only one class be affected by such an annoying mechanic, when it should apply to multiple other things as well, just makes it feel lazy and halfhearted.

Charon9 wrote: »

Just another viewpoint.
I'm a newbie to the game, have only been playing about a month - 30'ish sorcerer (and I'm honestly thinking about deleting her and doing a different build, shrug).

Just in case you weren't aware, you can use certain shrines in each faction's capital city to reset your morphs, skill points, and attribute points - there's no need to delete a character that you've sunk a fair number of hours into.

wheem_ESO wrote: »

Transairion wrote: »

Charon9 wrote: »

Just another viewpoint.
I'm a newbie to the game, have only been playing about a month - 30'ish sorcerer (and I'm honestly thinking about deleting her and doing a different build, shrug).

Just in case you weren't aware, you can use certain shrines in each faction's capital city to reset your morphs, skill points, and attribute points - there's no need to delete a character that you've sunk a fair number of hours into.

Wasn't aware of it, but will research that and see if it will work for what I"m doing - thanks.

phileunderx2 wrote: »

Just some impressions from some trial runs today as a necro healer.
1. Really like the healing ghost. It is awesome
2. Skills that require a corpse are difficult to use as a healer. My main focus is on my group. Looking for corpses and keeping up with my group is counter productive. When I needed to cast tether for example often there were no corpses around and when corpses were around I had no need to use the skill. So for me corpse requiring skills were not very useful.
3. But I think there could be potential for a healer to be a source of corpses as we can slot several of the producing skills and have them available for others.

I had the same issue with healer necromancer, especially in a group with all necromancers running a dungeon. Everyone is using corpses so keeping track of corpses to use is going to be an issue. There needs to be some sort of player corpse lock, enemy corpses made are free reign but you can only use the corpses you make.

The class is almost made so no matter what spec you pick, blastbones is a necessity for corpse positioning especially for healers to make the most out of tether, because mage and spirit mender will just drop at your feet unless you're going to melee heal with bone armor and get the heck out.

I levelled a stamina necromancer to level 38 and here is my take on it so far. FYI – I do not have any dps meter ad-ons for PTS, I did not do any PvP, dungeons, or trials. So my thoughts are probably mostly useless to what people care the most about. But here they are regardless.

Unit117 wrote: »

My biggest complaint is not having a perma pet even if it’s just one. How short the summon abilities are. I do not feel like a true necromancer. This one thing really hurts the class for me.

As much as I'd like to have a permanent undead pet running around with me, I know that it would very much conflict with the Justice System changes. Without a reliable way to "turn off" my pet, I'd be attacked by guards EVERYWHERE - roads, towns, cities, etc. It would be irritating to say the least. If they added a way to despawn the summoned pet, then I'd be ok with it.

ZOS_GinaBruno wrote: »

This is the official feedback thread for the Necromancer class. Specific feedback that the team is looking for includes the following:

• What are your favorite and least Necromancer abilities, and why?
• Do the Necromancer’s visuals and themes feel unique compared to other classes?
• Do the Necromancer’s abilities and playstyle feel unique compared to other classes?
• Did you enjoy the Necromancer’s corpse generation/corpse spending gameplay?
• Did you receive a bounty for using “Criminal Act” Necromancer abilities in towns? If so, what are your thoughts on the experience?
• Were you aware certain Necromancer abilities were considered “Criminal Acts” prior to using these abilities in towns?
• Does the Necromancer feel faithful to established lore and themes in The Elder Scrolls?
• Do you plan on playing a Necromancer as your new “main” character when Update 22 goes live?
• Do you have any other general feedback?

1- Generally i do like the necro abilities - they offer 1 core ability to play around much like wardens shalks, which should provide an interesting rotation. The damage and debuffs they provide aswell as the 2 new synergies are quite insane actualy. Even though i think it should be possible to direct the totem more precisely and make the minor vuln-synergie trigger over range aswell because the only use i see is quick-trashadd demolition. The dd specs feel quite nice and provide alot of damage - to much some might say. The heal and tankspec seems mediacore for me so far and so do the 2 ults besides the colossus.
Abilities that i definetly dislike as of now are the summoned archer/mage and the bone armour and the sustain connected to it - the summoned adds have a weird and uncontroable focus and their uptime make them unfit for static rotations (i do play dynamic myself - but lots of player struggle) and right now you have to use bone armour even on a trial dummy to sustain (unless u parse with avid graveyard-100%slayer~) and thats an enviroment where you get perfect synergies and dont have to expend any ressources for dogding/blocking/sprinting/shielding and such.
2- The art and class design teams did make a great job making them feel unique abilitywise yet i think some of the animations are clunky and weird and it often seems like my character is panicing pushing all her/his abilities out.
3- Yes, they do feel quite unique - as i earlier mentioned it is comparable to the warden, which puts those 2 in a different bracket as the other classes.
4- I do like the idea but i cant help but feeling like its overcomplicating things - right now the targeting can be quite difficult and i cant even imagine how bad it must be in pvp where combat is even more unstructured. So great concept poor execution as of now.
5-I dont mind the bounty thing but i dislike that its unique to necromancers. Summoning a massive lightning/fire storm or dropping a solar prison on the floor should as much a danger to common folk and therefore should gather similar punishment.
6- Kind of i just wish to see more actualy "corpse harvesting" than summoning out of thin air - might be just me though.
7- I mainly play as PVE Tank and for now there is just nothing to replace my trusty dragonknight. Dont get me wrong there are good alternatives - but in the end ill be going back to dk no doubt. DD wise i believe theres definetly room for the necro and i might pick him up as my new main stamina dps - as of now its a tie between nb, warden and necro (prolly warden ). For healers i sadly see no point: Templars are the non+ultra followed by both sorc and warden in 2nd place everything beyond that are just inferior healer choices in my opinion. Long Story short - ill be playing it - wont be maining it.
8- As i mentioned before my mayor concerns at this point are the 2 bone tyrant and ressurect i think they are called (didnt use them much apologies) and the animations. I think an interesting take on the dmg morph of the ressurect ultimate would be summoning a different add depending on the consumed corpses in the area that stays for a short duration and deals dmg according to what it is: example 1 corpse= 1zombie, 2 corpse=1fleshcolossus (cleave attack), 3 corpses = bone drake (cleave+chance to apply burning) or smt similar. The bone tyrant should be less powerful but perhaps able to keep it up for an entire fight similar to the werewulf form.
The animation are an overkill - for example does the staff have to dissapear whenever i use the skull attack? Cant it just launch from the tip of my weapon. Same for the blastbones ability - Leave the staff/sword in 1 hand and raise the add 1 handed looks both cooler and perhaps smoother. The before mentioned archer needs a targeting rework - either similar to sorc pets or perhaps with a rule attached to it like "goes for highest health target" of some sort.

PS - My experience might be influenced by my na ping ~ 300ms delay. #EUPTSwhen?
- Schared

MyKillv2.0 wrote: »

I am really happy with Week Three changes, nothing unreasonable. I am actually glad and am really amp'd for the Necro to hit live servers

It was nerfs across the board and they still didn’t fix the game-breaking resurrection skill with some sort of cool down or debuff being applied to resurrected players.

Horrible changes.

Vercingetorix wrote: »

Unit117 wrote: »

My biggest complaint is not having a perma pet even if it’s just one. How short the summon abilities are. I do not feel like a true necromancer. This one thing really hurts the class for me.

As much as I'd like to have a permanent undead pet running around with me, I know that it would very much conflict with the Justice System changes. Without a reliable way to "turn off" my pet, I'd be attacked by guards EVERYWHERE - roads, towns, cities, etc. It would be irritating to say the least. If they added a way to despawn the summoned pet, then I'd be ok with it.

A easy way to address it is have the pet unsummon upon entering a major city. It’s a win win.

Although there are many things I like about mag Necros, there are a couple of skill durations I'd like ZOS to consider changing. I don't know about you all, but one thing I've noticed is that playing a mag Necro requires a lot of bar swapping. I know that some of that is certainly due to the growing pains of me learning a new class. However, I think some of it is also inherently due to the many different, and somewhat odd durations of some of its class skills.

1.) Increase Mystic Siphon to 18 sec: I've noticed that Mystic Siphon is difficult to maintain 100% of the time unless I cast it every time after I refresh Elemental Blockade. This creates a noticeable resource drain and reduces the number of opportunities I have to use my spammable attack. I would greatly appreciate it if ZOS considered increasing the duration of Mystic Siphon from 12 sec to 18 sec. Mag DKs have a similar ground DOT effect, Eruption, that also lasts 18 sec. IMO, this is a convenient, well-balanced skill duration because it means I can refresh it after every second cast of Elemental Blockade. So increasing Mystic Siphon to 18 sec would 1) allow it to be more easily integrated into one's rotation of Blockade 2) allow 100% up time without over-casting as much and 3) reduce the amount of bar-swapping needed to play a mag Necro. (IMO, I always thought that the amount of bar swapping needed to play a mag Warden was one of the things that sucked the fun out of them. I don't want that to happen to mag Necros, too.)

2.) Increase Spirit Guardian to at least 30 sec: When doing solo or small-group content, I've found that this skill is the best option I have for a continuous self-heal. Unfortunately, it only lasts 16 sec. However, Power Surge--a similar self-heal skill used by mag Sorcs--lasts 33 sec. Suffice it to say, mag Necros have to recast their continuous self-heal--and bar swap--more often than mag Sorcs. So I hope ZOS considers adjusting this skill to 1) reduce the number of bar swaps needed and 2) make the duration of Spirit Guardian consistent with other similar skills in the game (e.g., Power Surge).

As a final note, I want to say that I don't think a class heavy on bar swaps is necessarily a bad thing. For example, my mag DK is one of my favorite DPSs. Playing it correctly obviously requires a dynamic rotation with more bar swaps than normal. However, I felt the need to make the above requests for mag Necros because I thought the bar swap demands of the class were a little excessive. Their problems seem similar to those that plague mag Wardens. Perhaps the durations of mag DK and mag sorc skills could serve as good templates for re-designs of the the mag Necro. Otherwise, I think it's an exciting class to play. ZOS really knocked it out of the park with this one, IMO. I really want it to be my main DPS when it goes live.

wheem_ESO wrote: »

mpicklesster wrote: »

2.) Increase Spirit Guardian to at least 30 sec: When doing solo or small-group content, I've found that this skill is the best option I have for a continuous self-heal. Unfortunately, it only lasts 16 sec. However, Power Surge--a similar self-heal skill used by mag Sorcs--lasts 33 sec. Suffice it to say, mag Necros have to recast their continuous self-heal--and bar swap--more often than mag Sorcs. So I hope ZOS considers adjusting this skill to 1) reduce the number of bar swaps needed and 2) make the duration of Spirit Guardian consistent with other similar skills in the game (e.g., Power Surge).

The problem with this idea is that one can generate corpses with the Necromancer "pets" by either waiting for them to expire, or resummoning them once they reach the halfway point of their duration. So the longer the duration, the fewer corpses one can generate, which I don't think ZOS wants to happen.

I completely understand why that might seem like a problem at first glance. However, most mag necro builds currently run 2-3 other skills that generate corpses on a regular basis. Stalking Blastbones, Skeletal Arcanist, and Summoner's Armor all generate corpses. So lengthening the duration of Spirit Guardian really won't interfere too much with the mag necro's current rate of corpse generation.

Regardless of what ZOS does to Spirit Guardian, I think we can all agree that mag Necros need a better, longer-lasting option for a continuous self-heal. Otherwise, difficult solo content--like vMA--will still disproportionately favor mag sorcs. Anyway, thanks for you input .

Did you receive a bounty for using “Criminal Act” Necromancer abilities in towns? If so, what are your thoughts on the experience?
Yes. After a lot more playing with it, I just don't like the " criminal act " at all. it's too much of a hassle. Accept a quest with a criminal act skill active and you're fine. Then move just a few feet and another NPC sees you, bounty. This exact thing happened to me in Auridon. In the area where the queen goes to get the blessing of the spirits. You also have a concurrent quest you can do here to put the spirits at peace. there is a quest giver there with guards about 10 feet away. You can accept the quest with the skill Spirit Mender active for example and no bounty. But take just a few steps with that spirit mender skill active and you get a bounty. I imagine this is going to be a very common problem and is going to make playing a necro very frustrating and hard to do questing on. Make the criminal act just in towns with the immortal guards like others have suggested or remove this feature entirely, please.

Do you have any other general feedback?
The only other feedback I would have would be to make a stamina morph on the healing tree or make one of the abilities scale off the highest stat. Magicka toons have so many options for healing, while stamina has vigor only. Please give necro a stamina class heal option.