I agree. Mag necro dps is only competitive when you can use blastbones every third gcd, which basically means only when you're in melee and the pathing works how it's supposed to. Even competitive might be a stretch though, I believe mag necro is probably already the worst magicka dps even when in melee range, so once you start getting a blastbones every fourth or fifth gcd (or sixth or seventh as it disappears into the void), you might as well just play another class if you want competitive DPS. It's not necessarily poorly designed, just very poorly implemented in the sense that the damage isn't nearly as high as it should be to justify the issues and inconsistency with blastbones.

If you expected mag necro to be good because you had to pay for it, prepare to be extremely disappointed.

I agree a cold down of 3 seconds would be ideal so you would do blast bones ability ability blastbones.

Blastbones is for all intensive purposes the same skill as Shalk's. But MUCH less effective.

Someone said it isn't poor design, just poor implementation...And I disagree whole heartedly.

1) Shalk's deals damage to everything in it's path and along its path.
Blastbones ONLY deals damage to the targeted enemy and whoever or whatever happens to be close to it when it explodes.

This means it will literally run past enemies doing nothing to them to get to who you targeted.

2)Shalk's has instant cast but 3 second throttle to gate its insane burst damage.
Balstbone's is instant cast, but has a 2.5 second throttle to gate its burst damage.

However, Blastbones can be snared, stunned, immobilized, AND KILLED, while Shalks can not. Since it again only does damage at the END (And not along its path) the damage can be delayed FAR longer than its 2.5 second throttle unless you are in CLOSE melee range. In fact, Blastbones can be completely incapacitated until it de-spawns meaning you have completely lost the use of the skill and the resource used to call it. That is if its not just simply killed before it reaches the target.

Also Shalk's can be used in a timed and organized rotation due to how it delivers it's damage. However, Blastbones is dependent on distance to enemy and what other skills are in play (Snares etc.) On how long it will take to deliver its damage. Thus, working it into a rotation is almost impossible. Unless you are face to face with the enemy, (Not even the 5-7 meters melee allows but seriously right on top) it is impossible not to lose GCD rotation times.

3) Shalk's can be PRE-LOADED meaning you can negate its 3 second throttle by loading it before engaging in the fight causing instant burst damage.
Blastbones CAN NOT BE PRE-LOADED. Since it is target based, it requires a target BEFORE activation.

This is a large problem. In PVE open-world, most targets will be dead before the Blastbones even spawns. In PVE Dungeon/Trials, it still has use due to enemies lasting longer, but if you have a strong enough group with enough DPS only boss fights will ever really use the skill. In PVP it is a huge drawback, as you cannot burst down your enemy, instead you always have to OPEN with Blastbones and then try to keep the target close or in-line for it to go off. The Necro has no other skills on a delayed burst, meaning there is nothing to specifically line up with the skill for burst down damage. It will just happen or not.

Stamancers have the freedom in their toolkit, with weapon skill line options to fill the void, to drop Blastbones entirely, and still get great DPS.

Magmancers depend on it without having any substitute from anywhere else, unless they build straight melee. And Magmancers do much less dps.

It is a bad design. It is a poor skill. It is even broken and not delivering its intended damage currently on live.

To fix it, I'd say it should be UNKillable, and Immune to Crowd Control. Everything else can stay as it is...maybe up its Gate time to 3 seconds from 2.5.

Or go the entire opposite route, remove the gate time entirely and keep everything else. Thus it becomes a truly instant skill you call it it jumps up from the ground (Like the Ghost or the Skeletal Mage/Archer) and immediately starts running at full sprint.

Either would make it possible for rotations, less clunky, and better Burst Damage.

spacebandit wrote: »

My take on bb after messing with it a little is this: bb needs to be programmed so that as soon as the chase begins a new bb can be summoned.

I think you got the solution for the PvE part of the skill.

Iskiab wrote: »

If they reduce the cool down they’ll have to reduce the damage.

I think maybe change it to 2 seconds instead of 2.5 and make them a bit faster. If magnecro is weaker then maybe change the magicka morph so the longer it runs the more damage it does and the faster it gets.

As for the bones being targetable and able to be killed... I have a different perspective. I don’t mind that at all, they’re like pet sorc pets and you can hide behind them. Let someone kill it, thanks for the corpse. If they’re attacking the blast bones they aren’t attacking me. As long as the blast bones don’t die to passive aoe I don’t mind.

A lot of times as a stamnecro I try to have them lead the charge if the situation allows.

Well the damage isn't that incredible when you are in melee range and when your at range its a straight dps loss.

Killing BB take 1 weave so basicaly if they hit your BB sure they are not hitting you but you've spent the same time not hitting them (since BB is gone) and the corps is not that usefull for a magnec in PvP.

actualy it seems the class is balanced around having the max/min travel time and corps usage. But doing a perfect usage of time and corps do not make you a god, your just doing normal damage and your totaly gimped if your casting BB at range or if your target is wise enough to not be standing beside a dead corps.

I feel magnec will be as bad as magwarden and stamnec will be the go to spec. So its warden all over again.

The way I see it, Blastbones should:

1. Absolutely NOT require a target. If Shalk doesn't, why does this? And you're a summoner. What's keeping you from priming this ability and having a duration of 10-12 seconds? I see absolutely 0 reason why you can't just presummon one before a fight.
2. It should move faster the more it's coming at a target. I think it should have the counterplay of snares and CC but it should certainly punish players that don't catch it fast enough.
3. Killing it should cause it to explode, preferably do less damage if it dies this way, but melee targets shouldn't be able to freely kill it while it stands there and figures out what to do. I don't trust ZOS will get the AI down properly, so that's my solution for it.

I want to love the idea of this ability. But it doesn't induce any anxiety or threat in its current form and there's plenty of games that can making walking bomb abilities well. In its current form I would never slot it.

david_m_18b16_ESO wrote: »

The way it works now hurt your dps of your not in melee range. For a stamnec its ok but for a magnec its a bit disapointing.

Beeing further away makes the travel time taking more time preventing you from re-casting it.

Its just weird to be a magcika character with a destro staff and having to be in melee range to do a top dps rotation.

MagDK has the same problem of being forced into melee range, but thankfully, the new trial doesn't discriminate based on melee or ranged positions like most other trials. But yeah, they need to make the skeleton less indecisive and faster.

idk wrote: »

I agree there is an issue with using the skill at range but the idea is a CD will not fly.

It should be extremely obvious Zos doesn’t want CDs in this game and that have specifically stated as much. So another solution needs to be figured out.

the best way to fix blastbones is to get rid of it having to run to the enemy. right when it spawns have it leap right at the target. this solves two issues. the time it takes for it to reach the target. which is one reason magcros are stuck in melee. the 2nd is the pathfinding issue this ability has. kite some enemies and have them chase you in the open world. every once in a while BB will slow akin to walking through quick sand. it really screws up the rotation.

2.5 sec charge up, some flight time like any other spell (which the mag morph should negate, due to the damage being increased by distance traveled) should literally solve the issue with this spell. other than instead of having running skeletons you have leaping frog skeletons.

It really needs something done, even casting it in melee, if a boss or player just keeps moving a little for some reason, BB can just keep walking beside them and never exploding or anything either till they stand still. I have noticed this both with mag and stam. It's just such a buggy broken ability. Even when it does hit there have been instances of it doing zero dmg as well.

It definitely is a lot of work to output damage that other classes have a much easier time doing. ie. crystal frags, shalks, dark flare.

For pvp, I can only get the range for BB occasionally against a ranged opponent. Forget ever trying to use the range bonus against any opponent that uses a gap closer. They did this to warden too with cliff racer. Not a fan of having bonus damage you have almost no control over.

There's also an inconsistency in target priority. BB benefits from hitting someone far away but Skeletal Arcanist hits the closests target. From what I've seen he does hit a closer target than the one I'm attacking at range. The only Grave Lord skill you can really use in conjunction with BB is Ricochet Skull. The rest of the necromancers limited offensive arsenal benefits more from being closer range.