Well the point in Simulacrum benefiting from enforcer is not DR, but the damage multipiler. If Simulacrum would have damage multipiler from enforcer than DR from enforcer could be applied to golem.
Besides Simulacrum is only immortal with the set and what about LoD builds. Haunt of Vaxo could have more uses than simply one set. however if enforcer gem doesn’t work on simulacrums then they might get wasted outside the set on higher GR, wich begs the question of using them outside the set in the first place.
I see Haunt of Vaxo bugged anyway, since it clearly says that Instead of Skeletal Mage, Simulacrums should cast Grim Styche while wearing Haunt Of Vaxo. That means while wearing haunt of Vaxo Simulacrum shouldn’t cast mages (at least Haunt of Vaxo’s description says so).
After testing the new set for a while I feel like the new set is under-powered.
At GR100 I find that it takes a while to kill trash units where other classes (at the same level, with approximately equal quality gear) can one shot them without even slowing down. Either the damage isn’t being applied properly or it’s just not enough. Some times I will see the unit taking hits from Bone Spears and taking almost no damage and then all of a sudden they pop instantly… I am not sure what is happening here. If there is no bug with the damage, then it’s just not nearly enough to be even close to equal to other classes/builds.
On the Damage Reduction side: the numbers, on paper anyways, look like this should be a pretty tough character but it seems more fragile than other characters with a lot less DR. I stacked a lot of Armor and AR in addition the the DR, and for a lot of the time it’s good and then all of a sudden life starts dropping like there is no DR.
Haunted Visions, not Haunt of Vaxo. And yes, IF Simulacrums benefit from the Enforcer gem, it is an obvious pick for this set, regardless of if you wanted to include a golem or skeletons or whatever.
Well stacking pet damage would be a good idea for this set if:
if it would actually work for simulacrum (as now it probably doesn’t)
if simulacrum casts were not bugged:
obsticales of any kind stop their bone spears dead.
awkward targeting multiple issues depending on rune chosen. eigther low dmg, single target only the exploding one explodes on first enemy it comes to conact with (which rarely turns out to be the targeted mob).
The build I used went full CDR 70.1% and used reduction ring as well. with reapers and 10sec or less down time on Land of the Dead it felt very fluid.
I found the golem prevented grouping so I dropped it since it actually tanks too much to let enemies run in at me.
I went defensive passives with life regen and Gizzards. At P105 I could stand in beams/lightning and poison without dying. So this set is ridiculously tanky.
Even at p1800 in all ancient (no cals) I don’t have enough damage to finish a 110. IM not dying at all, but I can’t group effectively to beat the timer on trash or kill Elites fast enough.
I will be trying different setups for more damage.
Oh god no, another LotD set… as long as this set does not restrict that skill, any change they make is useless, 'cause LotD is just a stupid mechanic that should be adressed AASP
that’s what I’m saying … like you stated 10k + 30k + 30k should be melting everything in 2 shots max especially at paragon 1900…instead it takes me ages to clear GR90 including the other buffs (700% for BS alone + 400% on secondary skills) it’s just very weak dmg atm…also I think set should be changed 4 pieces bonus should only give the dmr buff and they damage dealth should not be reduced…
4 piece bonus should look like: “While simulacrum is active your damage taken is split with your simulacrums” imo
This seems like it would be something that would overshadow everything else. A monopoly on secondary skills for necro would mean gg to pestilence, rathma, and most LOD sets at this point - not to say that pestilence and rathma were good, but they do rely on secondary skills.
I really like this idea, I think bone spirit is a great skill that needs some damage items and maybe a retooling of the skill itself - charges on skills like this seem a bit weird.
A thought occurs to me that a synergizing effect between bone spirit and bone spear would be a natural way to take advantage of this skill in the set build without overpowering the skill for LOD builds. For example, spamming bone spear reduces the cooldown of bone spirit or give extra charges when you kill enemies and then you can hit with triple bone spirits per charge with sims, which gives freecasting of bone spear or something., I really dont like that bone spear is part of pestilence build instead of poison nova or something, makes no sense in that build, more sense in this one.
If I were to incorporate Bone Spirit into this set, I think a good method would be to make casting Bone Spirit increase all damage you do for a certain number of seconds, stacking (but not refreshing) with additional casts. So, aside from the obvious making Simulacra duplicate your Bone Spirits, and giving them the same damage bonus as the Bone Spears, which on its own would position them as good nukes on the presumption that the set is otherwise going to focus on crowds, if you got 200% added damage per Bone Spirit “stack” for instance, it could make for an interesting dynamic regarding how you used the skills, especially in higher GRs where you won’t get corpses nearly as quickly to help you burn through Bone Spirit cooldowns.
Unfortunately the set is too weak. I played three hours but properly 100 in GR is the limit for the set. Bone Speer need at least 30.000% damage. Hope Blizzard increases the damage otherwise you can forget Necro again in the Season
Hey all, I tried to go through every PTR thread on the new necro set and build/playstyle to get a consensus of thoughts, and I have some new ones to add from more playing. This post will be a scattershot of issues related to the set, so skip around and i’d like to hear replies to the items here. NOT claiming that these are all my original points, only ones which I saw or observed, just reporting. Simulacrum Issues
both sims are dying with the self sacrifice rune. This makes our damage useless and we lose the bulk of our DR, and as someone pointed out its better off just to die in this case. It also annoyingly recalls the frustration of the Typhon’s Veil hydra wizard set, and reminds me why no one plays it.
odd behavor: sims get stuck on walls, both the environment and from waller elites, they lag behind rather than staying near you - i have a screenshot of a Corvus rift where my minions are standing in the last room and I am by myself, they are firing at a random wall.
Cooldown management of simulacrum is insufficient and almost pointless with just the on-death effect. Yes, it helps you get the momentum going if you die, but the REASON you die has to do with mostly the aforementioned point of the buggy self sacrifice effect making you vulnerable and weak. I don’t think that this build would be best served by making CD a gearing necessity for optimization, which only lends itself to revolving around CDs like LotD, which the perma-sim buff of the set seems bent against encouraging. Suggested changes for better CD management could include cutting the remaining CD when you cast BS or kill an enemy (2piece bonus), or when a sim dies reset the cooldown right then - this would replace the on-death effect for you or work with it somehow, but when you die your sims die, sooo…
Simulacrum reservoir rune doubles your essence pool, but does not generate any essence on its own. Especially against bosses, essence is a big challenge, and the available options are 1) take a generator, 2) save corpses and use devour, or 3) some usage of LotD, like the invigoration rune. There are big drawbacks and downfalls to each of these options, so perhaps the set could give an essence regen property to the sims or to bonespear.
Simulacrum mimics your skills, but does not seem to proc effects of those skills the same way. I noticed that bone prison seems not to proc nearly as often as I had anticipated, and also your generators are copied but do NOT generate essence. For abuild struggling to get essence on boss fights, this is one way to make a generator a better choice - though I’d appreciate some more damage-based incentive to take one. Most builds try to avoid a generator for more support or buff skills, but giving sims the ability to generate essence when you cast would triple essence gain and be a huge boost.
Sims as potential pets is putting us in a weird double bind right now. On the one hand, stand alone is diminished in effectiveness if sims count as pets, though on the other hand enforcer seems not to affect sims at the moment. I think the best strategy here is to NOT count sims as pets and to allow us to use stand alone here.
Can we get a sim counter/follower icon in the top near our merc, similar to the call of the ancients display for barbs? This will help us see how many sims we have alive, especially since they currently dont always follow us.
Bone Spear and optimal range
The modifications to the serration passive skill suggests that distance away from target is a way to maximize damage. Currently it looks like the explosion rune and the blighted marrow rune are the ways to go for maximizing damage, but both require density to be effective. There are ways to group mobs currently, such as brigg’s wrath using a curse, dual scythes, golem, or ess of johan, but each of these is a big sacrifice for damage and survivability, or just playstyle effectiveness. The dual scythe particularly seems like a potential option to group enemies, but this means you’d be close, and lose the serration passive bonus. Considering that the passives are designed to maximize certain skills, and this one works for bone spear and spirit, it seems logical that the function of these skills in any build would capitalize on raange from target being the best bet for damage and survivability. One thought I had for this issue would be to make bone spear function like a reverse of the barb’s ancient spear skill, essentially piercing targets and pinning them on the spear, driving them backwards until they hit a certain amount of monsters. This would create distance and create packs of mobs for max damage, and be knockback cc. I worry about CC immunity in this option, but cc immunity is a whole other conversation.
Related point, but i’d also find some way to buff the damage from the bone prison and serration passives, either on the passive itself or through the set if you choose the passive.
Skill complimenting with bone spear: the logical choice for many people seems to be bone spirit, which hearkens back to the classic D2 poison and bone necro using these two iconic skills in tandem. I personally love this option and think it is the strongest, especially since bone spear is a secondary skill and would naturally be in competition with, rather than harmonize with, other secondary skills like nova or mages. Bone spirit by contrast is in the blood and bone family, and functions off charges and CD versus essence - and we should not wish to have skill competition for essence on this build or any other. My hope would be that some skill synergy is added, perhaps along the lines of the Valor Sader with FotH and HF working to buff each other, or at least one buffing the other. Considering how dynamic and powerful the valor build is, this should be something to aspire to for any class set.
General issues and fixes
Spelling issue on the chest piece, it currently reads “sophistocated vest” when it should read “sophisticated vest” - change the o to and i.
Give more damage and dr please
Thats all I have for now guys, let me know your thoughts and keep feedback coming.
this is a potential synergy, and since bone spirit charges are non-competitive with the essence pool for bone spear it could work. I think that bone spirit will end up being the bigger nuke, and that bone spears will charge the spirit and cause a big explosion, etc. Seems to be the way the skill, runes, and gear slots work.
A few thoughts on bone spirit to consider, if it has potential for this build
Con: the skill dmg role for bone spear and bone spirit take up the same slots on items (chest, shoulder), so you wont be able to buff both skills effectively. This means one skill is going to be a charge-up skill and the other the damage dealer, similar to valor sader.
Pro: non-competitive synergy between bone spirit charges and essence consumption of bone spear. As I see it, bone spear could be a damager/grouper skill (if certain changes were made to have bone spear impale and drag targets into a pile, as I suggested earlier) and the bone spirit is the blower upper skill. This seems obvious, though a case could be made for the reverse. Either way, one skill should help us lay down fire on a group while the other blows them up.
Don’t have time myself but anybody testing this new biuld use reilena shadow hook instead of bone spear 2 hander cuz as I recall It gives 700%additive damage to spear and reilena is multiplicative somebody correct me if I am wrong
I played around with it more this morning, and have some more thoughts. I know that we all groaned when we saw Bone Spear as the damage dealer again, but with this set it actually… works? Is fun? I think it’s fun. The Sims give you so much essence that you don’t burn through it quickly, and with them casting Grim Scythe when you do, you refill very quickly. So resource management isn’t a headache at all.
Bone Spears love Brigg’s Wrath. I had forgotten how powerful a grouping effect that is.
I did notice the Sims shooting into walls when walls were in the way, but I don’t think that’s really a bug or anything. You just need to move or recast them to get them into position. Anyone who’s ever played a Garg build with Witch Doctor already does this by second nature. It would be nice though if the Sims benefited from Enforcer, and maybe teleported with you when you use Blood Rush.
The set, roughly, seems to work pretty well! Compare it to the Demon Hunter set which has you pulling in opposite directions constantly, and Carnival seems pretty coherent. It just needs more damage and more skills incorporated/interacted with.
