Necromancer 2.0

Necromancer
1

I’m a main Necro player who just loves theory-crafting and have been spending quite some time trying to identify some of the problems that haunt the Necromancer class and trying to find what could be one solution to these problems. Seeing as we have some time to kill while waiting for Diablo IV, Diablo Immortal or maybe even a Diablo 2: Ressurected to be released, I hope you will want to take the time to discuss some of my suggestions with me and each other.

My aim with these suggestions is to try to add some new content to the game we love all while trying to respect what I believe to have been the developer team’s intentions with the different sets, items and skills. I have identified 10 problems, of varying sizes and importance, and here are my very personal suggestions on how to fix these:

Problem 1: The Trag’Oul set is dead.

Trag’Oul’s Avatar is a blood themed set that, in its current form, revolves around mobility (Blood Rush), health/healing and life-consuming skills. I like the concept of the Necromancer sacrificing his own blood in order to cast stronger blood magic but the set is sadly too weak both in terms of defense and offense to really be viable. I can also only assume that the set is a nightmare to balance seeing as it boosts all life-consuming skills and therefore can easily become greatly overpowered (like when Blood Lances were a thing) or underpowered as it is today. Instead of simply boosting damage and defense numbers I would like to suggest that the movement and healing aspects of the set serve to further increase the Necromancer’s defensive capabilities while the life-consuming aspects remain what give the Necromancer his offensive power.

2-piece: Blood Rush no longer has any Cooldown and gains the effect of every rune except Hemostasis (Note: Hemostasis can still be manually selected in order to remove the health cost.)
4-piece: The Blood Rush - Potency rune stacks X times and healing from skills is increased by X%.
6-piece: Blood Nova deals X% increased damage. After cumulatively sacrificing X% of maximum life, the Necromancer’s Blood Novas turn into Supernovas for X seconds. Supernovas deal an additional X% damage and gain the bonuses of the Unstable Compound, Tendril Nova and Blight runes on top of the Blood Nova rune.

Problem 2: Build revolving around Death Nova are great for killing trash/groups of enemies but worthless when it comes to Bosses/Rift Guardians

NEW TWO-PIECE SET
BLOOD AND IRON (Blood-Magic Edge + Iron Rose)

BLOOD MAGIC EDGE
Siphon Blood and Blood Nova can be cast while moving. Blood oozes from you.

IRON ROSE
Attacking with Siphon Blood has a 100% chance to cast a Blood Nova. (Note: The Blood Nova is no longer free.)

2-PIECE BONUS
When siphoning blood, all damage generated by Blood Nova is redirected towards the target of your Siphon Blood. (Note: No other enemy than the target of Siphon Blood takes any damage.)

Problem 3: The Rathma set is dead
Problem 4: Command Golem, Army of the Dead and Revive are greatly underpowered/underperforming.

Bones of Rathma is known as the once awesome minions set that was rendered useless with the introduction of LoN/LoD. Skeletal Mages and LoN/LoD make for a great combination and I don’t see why the Rathma set should aim to compete with it and, at best, render its LoN/LoD counterpart obsolete. Instead I would like to propose that this set not focus on Skeletal Mages or Simulacrums at all, since both these skills are already strongly associated with other sets, and instead focus on Reanimation skills which are in dire need of some love. For this suggestion to work, it is however vital that Revive and Land of the Dead switch skill categories, as suggested further below. It is also vital that the devs accept to cut their losses when it comes to the Revive skill, which it is known that they have invested many hours into, and instead make use of the more well functioning Shadow Close concept that was introduced as a seasonal theme in Season 22.

2-piece: The Cooldown of Reanimation skills is reduced by 50%. (Note: Golem and Army of the Dead)
4-piece: The Golem no longer takes damage, absorbs 75% of all damage taken by the Necromancer and gain the Flesh Golem rune on top of any other.
6-piece: Reanimation skills deal X% increased damage for X seconds whenever the Army of the Dead is summoned. (Note: Damage bonus needs to be significantly higher than 10 000% in order for LoD not to be the most competitive option.)

FUNERARY PICK
Corpse generation is doubled while outside Land of the Dead. Revive now consumes all available corpses to raise an Ancient Shadow that deals X% increased damage per corpse. Revive runes no longer grant a bonus but instead determine the class of the Ancient Shadow. (Note: Unruned = Barbarian, Personal Army = Crusader, Horrific Return = Demon Hunter, Purgatory = Monk, Recklessness = Witch Doctor, Oblation = Wizard. The Ancient Shadows are identical to Shadow Clones, but since they are not clones of the Necromancer a name-change seemed in place.)

BONE RINGER
Enemies targeted by your Command Skeletons take X% increased damage from all your minions for every second they are the target of the Necromancer’s command.

CIRCLE OF NAILUJ’S EVOL
Raises and additional Skeletal Mage and Revive with each cast and they last an additional 2-4 seconds.

FATE’S VOW
Casting Army of the Dead while wearing the Convention of Elements grants the effect of the rune associated with each respective element cycle, on top of any other. (Note: Physical = Dead Storm, Poison = Blighted Grasp, Cold = Frozen Army)

Problem 5: With the adding of the Masquerade set there are now two sets revolving around Bone Spear, where the Pestilence set is the inferior one
Problem 6: Land of the Dead (especially with the rune Frozen Lands) is a must for builds that revolve around corpse skills, forcing corpse builds to be centered around Cooldown Reduction
Problem 7: Bone Spirit could be awesome but is unusable in its current state

Pestilence Master’s Shroud is my absolute favorite set and a plague themed set that, in it’s current forum, ironically lacks any plague elements other than its mask obviously being inspired by those worn by medieval plague doctors. I would therefore like to make a suggestion that would not only reinforce the plague theme by turning the Necromancer into a bringer of death and disease, but also switch focus from Bone Spear to what could very well be the most popular Necro skill to never get used.

2-piece: Each corpse consumed by any skill fires a Corpse Lance at a nearby enemy.
4-piece: Each corpse consumed reduces the Necromancer’s damage taken by 3% for 15 seconds, stacking up to 25 times.
6-piece: Land of the Dead gets permanent uptime and gains the effect of the Plaguelands rune on top of any other. Plagues enemies take X% increased damage from Corpse Lance, Corpse Explosion and Bone Spirit.

Bone spirit
With its high base damage, its 3 charges and cooldown to prevent spamming, and its legendary pants that can almost infinitely boost damage, Bone spirit has the word NUKE written all over it. The skill looks absolutely amazing and the base idea of a nuke skill isn’t bad, it’s just completely unplayable in its current forum. I suggest the following changes be made to the skill:

  • Remove the charges and allow it to be cast at will with a huge essence cost (and a life cost if the Possession rune is chosen.)
  • Change the Poltergeist rune to no longer be based around charges.
  • Create a new phylactery:
    WELL OF SOULS
    The damage of your next Bone Spirit increases by X% for every corpse consumed by any skill. Max 1000 stacks. If the Bone Spirit is not released before reaching over the maximum number of stacks, it will implode, damaging the Necromancer instead. (Note: Make it so the implosion damage always removes a high percentage of the Necromancer’s health without ever killing him.)

Land of the Dead
Move Land of the Dead to the Corpses category and Revive to the Reanimation category in order for the suggested Rathma set bonuses to work.

Change Land of the Dead - Plaguelands to “Land of the Dead deals 100% damage as poison per tick to enemies in it’s area. REMOVE This effect can damage a maximum of 10 enemies simultaneously REMOVE”

Change Land of the Dead - Frozen Lands to “Enemies in the Land of the Dead are frozen for 4 seconds”. Frozen Lands in it’s current form is simply overpowered with it’s automatically applied hard CC, making most other CC options seem meek in comparison.

Change Land of the Dead - Invigoration to “Skills cost X% less essence while Land of the Dead is active”. The purpose of this nerf is to prevent the current permanent essence cost removal to be combined with the Captain Crimson’s set in order to become immortal (sorry Lord Fluffy’s Invincilancer).

Problem 8: Krysbin’s Sentence is a must for every Necromancer build
Problem 9: Necromancer weapons are overpowered, making them the only reasonable option for the 4th cube slot

Now this one opens up for a flame war, but this is by far the most important and, what I believe to be, the most necessary change suggested in this post.

KRYSBIN’S SENTENCE
Deal 40-50% increased damage against slowed enemies or double this bonus against enemies afflicted by any other type of control-impairing effect.

When it comes to the Necromancer’s weapons, I would like to suggest that they all be nerfed (except of course the worthless Funerary Pick and Spear of Jairo) and the damage bonus of sets be greatly increased instead.

Problem 10: There is no viable way to use Command Skeletons as an essence spender that deals poison damage

Change the damage type of Command Skeletons - Frenzy or Dark Mending to poison.

OTHER SUGGESTIONS

LORNELLE’S SUNSTONE
Damage reduction is increased by 1% for X seconds for every 1% life lost. Max X stacks.

Change Channeling Pylons to no longer remove the health cost of skills, as it ruins any builds based around self-harm.

Any feedback would be greatly appreciated!

2 Likes
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If the unlimited corpses during LotD remains part of the skill then that change to the 6 piece bonus is too powerful. It would allow you to stack crazy Area Damage and attack speed instead of CDR since CDR becomes a waste.

Since EVERY Necro dps build utilizes Krysbin’s, changing it will require that dps to be added into other parts of all other builds otherwise it would dramatically nerf the entire Necro class.

If the necro was the most powerful class, then nerfing it to be on par with other classes would be possibly warranted (some would suggest to buff other classes to make all of them equally powerful). Necro is powerful in season 22 with the 4th cube slot due to the large multiplier on Necro weapons and the limited pool of them.

3

You make two very valid points.

I get that the unlimited LotD would be too powerful, in the current context, but could the increased damage gained from stacking area damage and attack speed not be balanced by adjusting the 6-piece damage bonus of the set, which I chose to leave as an X? Replacing CDR with attack speed and area damage will also make you lose out on the damage boost from Captain Crimson’s which needs to be taken into account as well. If there is too big a discrepancy between the damage of Corpse Lance and Corpse Explosion, there is also still the option to have the 6-piece bonus not give them the same damage bonus, without even having to touch the Corpsewhisper Pauldrons and Grasps of Essence which would impact the LoD builds.

As for nerfing Krysbin’s, do you believe it’s too late for a Diablo 3 Necromancer that does not have to use the ring? I’m struggling with the answer myself, thinking it might be built in to the game at this point, but would love to hear if you have any suggestion on how to compensate for a Krysbin’s nerf. I get that boosting sets would not solve the nerfing that would occur on LoD sets, but could boosting all base skill damage by a percentage be a viable solution?

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I agree with Khord, Necros are only powerful this season because of the 4th cube. Any balancing should always be base on non-season attributes , never seasonal.

2 Likes
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First, diablo is its own record of class selections. I understand that Rathma, is not a deity, and is a patron for Necromancers, of there devotion. This is a little different than a Necromancer from an earlier edition of Diablo 2, because those rewards are artifact rewards, not a chain of set items.

The reason is that Rathma is a service termed: Priests of Rathma, and this means they where a story arc entered into the main storyline of events. This was a sort of script change to include a player character necromancer, with there own background flaws, sort of like you implied that a Necromancer made a powerful enemy, and they are not just an evil wizard.

Class rings include class information and an update to there stars, is impossible for most of the basic classes. The Necromancer is the abyss map, though so they are not the ‘Necromancer star’ from Diablo 2.

In terms of priests who where sacrificed, and resurrected again, it is not specified if this is because of a dark pharo, or because of the judgement of a prince. The concept fits into the world in those terms, because the princes in that culture are expected to judge the dead. I put some thought into what this kind of message means, I would point out the complex meaning in translation from hieroglyphics.

The time limit involved in established characters, dose not keep spirit anchors in place, sometimes called fetters. The world or domain of a deity that is over watched by there pantheon, is thus not subject to change. However devotions are for any religion.

Claims of blood magic, are termed infernal in the crusade. This is due to the basis of the paladin being the only ‘real’ class, Since they are in control of the only item of power that can create the energy of the inferno. used to cancel out the power or magics of immortals and gods.

Sets that can resurrect a character, are a legendary item set, and there usually missing parts. So we will all be looking for parts from previous expansions.

As far as raising dead, this is one of the skills in Diablo 2 that differs greatly from our current version. There are some problems, with using a nightmare to create resurrections or animate dead. The Necromancer class was the only one who could increase there power by channeling magic into there reanimation. This definitely dose not mean that it is similar to resurrection. A basic skeleton has more to do with the ability to mimic the movements of the living, so that it is only obviously animated by a spot. And there are more complex things about improved reanimation. If the summoner is killed there spells will be broken in almost every instance.

Unless they have a way to resurrect, they are a shard, or fragment. There knowledge is not just lost, but it could be effected, if not supported in some way, (like a x-box one platform.). If no one will create the ability, or if you have to switch skill lines, the problem in that system is about the same as the un-classed (please do not be insulted by mention of the heretic).

I hope this clears up some of the situations, by the time the next versions of the cloak are out for new classes.

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Yes. This is why, instead of having 2 new sets buffing Nova (which is already a top-notch build), you shall be more generic and only buff blood spending.

Alternative proposal :

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That was the original idea but it was then abused with perma-Army of the Dead leading to nearly infinite stacks. The stacks must be capped.

Alternative proposal, with damage based on number of skeletons :

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Interesting.
But stacking 10 shadows as they are powerful now would be overpowered. Like 10 Necro with Corpse Lance activated… :S

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Bone Ringer would then be the old Jesseth Arms.
Why not.

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Nope. There is No mechanic where a skill looks back at an item. The direction is always : item X boost skill Y. Loopbacks are not allowed to avoid recursive effects.

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Buffing those 3 skills at the same level while they have different damage output is risky.

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Alternative suggestion, Bone Spirit as buffing skill :

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Agree. See my Bone Spirit suggestion, it handles this problem.

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Maybe a late response but since I like theory crafting and found your post interesting and I like necro I 'd like to talk about the new rathma now that the patch went live and it is available. First of all, this was the main pet set of necro. I know that tragouls can be played with mages and technically inarius could be played with mages as it buffs everything but this was the true pet set imo. Now this is gone. Pets are there just to proc cooldowns and damage reduction. In my opinion it should be kept a set which revolves around pets. Think of it like the wd gargantuan/zombie dogs equivalent but with so much better mechanics since you can aim them freely wherever you point. Skeletal mages is a thing with lod but this should revolve around making the other 2 pets - skeletons and the golem - damage dealers. They could also rework the golemskin breeches with a damage multiplier so that golem can potentially be the main damage source or at least a big portion of our total damage. All the pets would be up all the time, you could just stand back and enjoy the fireworks, be very well protected by your minions and keep that nice juicy squirts up for ever. Golem is an amazing cc ability apart from the ubiquitous bone armor so that could also be another unique trait of the build, to not need bone armor. This is what a pet build should be imo.

I 've played the new aotd style and no matter how much I wanted to like it, sorry I cannot. I can only give points for the amazing visuals that it has, and watching aotd exploding the screen is one of the most fun things to see in the game. But visuals aside I think this set is an atrocity. First of all it doesn’t have an identity. You need to be ranged but you also need to be melee to apply curses and poison skills and regenerate essence. While pets can be decent meet shields when you get close, it feels almost impossible to avoid all the annoying affixes and projectiles and it feels really exhausting trying to juke 50 millions things on your screen every second. You have an aweful start at the beginning of the rift where you start with zero dmg reduction from the set or when you die and respawn you have very bad recovery. And lastly you heavily rely on cooldowns for yet another necro build that was supposed to be somewhat different that what it was. Also the new rathma shield is now arguably the most useless passive in the game. Since they decided to make this an aotd set and since it blatantly lacks toughness this should be reworked to proc frequently like it did before but instead of making you invulnerable they could have made it a 50% dmg reduction or something like that. The set right now doesn’t seem that much better than it was before and that kills the whole concept of a rework. Even when you execute all these things flawlessly, which is pretty hard, it provides mediocre results at best, and it fails to deliver what the devs proclaimed it would when they said why they reworked it.