It already does this when you cast it into a wall, but I wish the devs would make it always tick 3 times in the same spot. That's the only time the ability feels good to use/hits reliably/competes with other AoEs that do more for less cost.

The 3 months when Ghostly Embrace was good (CC + damage) stacking the circles was the ideal usage of it. Catch the tree, box, tower, or rock runners off guard hit x3 with a stun into your burst. Outside of those 3 months it's been an F tier skill not worth the bar space it would take up.

Without the damage it's the worst cc skill in the game that costs too much for how often it misses, and without the cc it's a meh PvE only damage ability that you will rarely get full utilization of. Both Bone Totem and Grave Grasp are long overdue to be reworked into reliable instant lockdown tools for the Necromancer. It's the only class with 0 mobility, 0 reliable ways to keep enemies near it (Every Necro CC has a delay and is AoE so no targeting and harder to land than Streak, Burning Talons, and Warden Charm with less payoff), and nothing to make up for this serious gap in its toolkit. After all these years you'd think something would have been done we're at the point of willful negligence.

Changes I'd like to see to Necromancer's support lines

Bone Tyrant

• Bone Armor and its morphs turn the player into a corpse instead of dropping a corpse after being active for 10 seconds. This will solve the issues of tethers being unreliable in the highly mobile PvP environments. If I can cast Restoring tether or Shocking Siphon on myself I don't have to worry about it breaking 2 seconds after it's been cast if LoS (Line of Sight) becomes a factor in the fight. Spoiler alert ZOS almost every fight in PvP someone will be using LoS.
  
• Bone Totem Needs to be turned into the Necromancer's domain. This class has the worst cc and worst mobility, with no reliable way to lock things down it needs an area where it holds the advantage. Bone Totem should have a 12 meters radius and last 20 seconds. Enemies in the area are snared by 60% and inflicted with Major Cowardice and Minor LIfesteal while the caster and allies get Minor Protection and increased recoveries. Increases the damage and healing of your pets in the area by 15%. The morphs additions can stay the same Remote Totem able to be placed at a distance, but I'd like to see the Agony Totem morph get the addition to work as a self synergy.
  
• Empowering Grasp to Grasp of the Dead A good AoE hard CC with a 8 meter radius centered on the caster. An instant fear that applies a frost sticky DoT component with guaranteed chilled. If those affected can't be feared they are immobilized instead. (The separating damage and cc from U44 dev notes doesn't hold water when you have skills like Streak, Burning Talons, Crystallized Slab, Artic Wind, Warden Charm, Incap, Crippling Grasp, Abyssal Impact, Rune of Displacement, Piercing Javelin, Focused Charge, Unstable Core, Petrify, and I probably missed some. Point is there are more CC with damage than without so why put more restrictions on the Necromancer CC that isn't even guaranteed to land? Give us a reliable CC we've waited long enough. The combat team has shown they can still make good AoE cc with Warden's Charm time to do the same to Necromancer. You know the class that actually needed a good cc.
  
• Death Gleaning Whenever an enemy you are in combat with within 28 meters of you dies or a summon minion expires restore 666 Magicka and Stamina.
  
• Last Gasp Increase your Max Health by 2412. Whenever you consume a corpse gain Bone Storm for 4 seconds afflicting all enemies withing 6 meters of you with a stack of Hemorrhaging every 2 seconds and Minor Mangle for 4 seconds. This affect can occur every 8 seconds. (Grave Lord should also have a passive that interacts with the corpse system)

Living Death

• Expunge This skill and morphs needs more value. I'd replace the 3% cost reduction with Minor Intellect and Endurance while slotted on either bar. For Expunge and Modify I'd keep the restoring 515 Magicka/Stamina and add Major Expedition for 4 seconds with an additional 4 seconds for each negative effect removed. For Hexproof it still removes up to 4 negative effects and gives Major Evasion for 5 seconds with an additional 5 seconds for each negative effect removed. You never see this cleanse ran compared to its more bang for your buck contemporaries Betty Netch and Extended Ritual. Why is that? In this era of ESO even more now with subclassing people are slotting skills that do multiple things.
  
  Betty Netch a free cast and forget periodic purge with sustain, Major Brut/Sorc, unique 5% damage boost, and a heal when it ends or you recast it is amazing value. It can be spammed cast to get rid of multiple affects and gives you a heal each time you cast it.
  
  Ritual an expensive group purge with a great HoT that last 30 seconds over a large area with a synergy is an amazing tool.
  
  Compared those to Expunge a self purge that costs health and only gives you a slight cost reduction when you are on that bar. That isn't great value, bar space is limited not free real estate, we can't waste time with a one trick pony in this era. Another is the passive vs active benefit. The other two cleanses do things at activation and for a decent duration after you cast them while after you press the button to cast Expunge and its morphs the skill is over.
  
• Render Flesh Time to remove the Minor Defile or boost the healing of this skill and its morphs to make the drawback worthwhile. With the change to Minor Defile it also discourages Necromancers from running shields since the Curative Curse passive doesn't boost shield strength by 12%. Currently you're better off running Healing Soul as you'll always have a negative effect on you and you can get 12% extra healing + Major Vitality
  
• Curative Curse While a Living Death ability is active increase your healing done by 12%
  
• Undead Confederate Increase your Health, Magicka, and Stamina recovery by 150 for each Necromancer minion you have active. (Blastbones, Skeletal Mage, and Spirit Mender)
  
  The recovery for this passive wasn't strong enough to warrant a nerf in U46 especially when there are much stronger recovery passives that were not touched. I've put forth this suggestion in the past and believe it's even more impactful now as it will be a bonus for Necromancers who actually want to play Necromancer instead of NB, Sorc, or Warden. If you subclass into Living death you get a 150 boost to your recoveries which ZOS think is a balanced value for other classes using this line, but if you actually play the class the value compounds rewarding true Necromancers.

IIRC the skill was bugged a bit ago and like bypassed Armor or something. Which is why it had a temporary uptick in popularity. That was definitely a bug, though, not an intended feature.

But this skill has indeed never been good at anything. Closest that it ever was to relevant was being an Empower-bot in PvE back when Empower buffed LAs.

randconfig wrote: »

tsaescishoeshiner wrote: »

I don't think it's ever been a good skill (although I saw some BG builds using the damage morph this year). Due for a rework--there are definitely other necromancer visuals to use, like the bone spikes that Na'ruzz conjures. Or, it could provide many buffs, or conjure a bone shield.

It seems to fill the role of a CC tank skill, but that's sort of already filled by Bone Totem (which could maybe use a buff in that regard, like an immobilize).

I think Bone Totem is my favorite skill in that skill line currently, a remote AoE immobilize with stun every 2 seconds for 10 seconds would probably be too strong in PvP.

Definitely agree with ya that Bone Totem already fills the CC role and you do have to the CC morph of Grave Grasp, I'd be okay with them only adjusting the movement of the DPS morph if tanks really relied on the CC version (though I don't see many using it either sadly).

Bone totem isn't even good in pvp since it has such a small radius that you have to willingly get inside it. Also the fact that you can't control when the enemy will get stunned makes it useless for synchronising it with your burst, it can even be used to get cc immunity for free.

I'd love to see it get deleted and changed to an actually good cc but GLS has shown me that zos can only change things for the worse xD