Just came back as i do most seasons hoping there is something new and fun, my main go to is always necro pet. Im a big fan of enjoying the perfect dmg for pet output and rathma was one of my favorites that to my surprise has been destroyed…like, blizzard…i know im late to the party on this one but normally game companies add to stuff not destroy awesome things. My necro is now summoning pathetic skeletons and laughable corpses all to empower some stupid spell.
imagine if you could have a pet build like in D2, that has always been my dream. its depressing that a necromancer, the literal definition of SUMMONING is now less about what is summoned and more about buffing 1 single spell that sometimes gets a cd reduction from the weakest summons ever. I have no faith in D4 because you shredded necromancers
It was bad when the set included bone spirit. When they ninja-removed bone spirit, the set became beyond bad. I was lost for words. Especially because of how long I waited for this set to be fixed.
I wouldn’t call AoTD a stupid spell. The set’s theme should be about ‘army’ aka ‘minions’. Therefore, it fits right in. Most set empowers more than one skill so Rathma set should’ve focus on increasing damages for minions and AoTD. The frustration on the direction that they’re taking with rathma is real.
Biggest problem with a pure pet based set is really AI. Helltooth Garg is probably the best example of a pure pet set, and its minions even cleave for aoe damage. Even with that, there are issues getting them where they are needed. Look at the Firebird MI posts about getting them to do what is needed. The Necromancer being released with more of an “activated” pet style is no accident, nor is the focus on pets mirroring abilities. A set that solely buffs pets in the sense of the perms pets meleeing for damage is just challenging.
I like what they did with Rathma in all honesty, though finetuning damage would be welcome. I do feel there should be another skill included. Bone spirit makes sense (and i am disappoinred it was dropped for whatever reason), but i think even something boosting skeletons could be welcome even just to help while assembling the set. Its awkward having the set revolve around a 2 minute cooldown skill without a great deal more support.
What gets me more is the fact they didn’t take the time to add AotD enchants like 10-15% to Army of the Dead damage like other builds. It makes the build hard to upgrade except through Ranks, Aug and Paragon, A couple plus 15% damage would be nice, but like ever time they do a new build they forget the enchants.
To be honest i was one of those few people that liked the bone spirit during the ptr, and it came to me as a surpise when they removed it completely. I think i have an explanation. The LoTD is a skill that hits for 12k damage and if you add the unconventional warfare rune that is 50k more damage so we are talking about an ability that hits for 62k weapon damage. Most used spells in the game hit for 500, 600, 700 % maybe a little bit more, but still they average way less than 62 thousand. Therefore it would be hard to balance a set that buffs 2 different skills where one of them hits 100 times harder than the other… You 'd have to add many legendary items wtih multipliers to bring the damage on the same level. Maybe i 'm wrong, it’s just my thoughts, but i feel a set that buffs land of the dead is doomed to not have a second or a third skill working for that set…
As for the set in the current state, i 've given it a lot of trying to like it. The visuals are really nice but that’s the only thing for me that is fun… I’d prefer if this was a pure pet build, where pets are also the damage source, and more specifically skeletons and golem. Golem is a different topic but think how nice the golem would be. It’s even great for proccing the krysbin sentence so you wouldn’t rely on bone armor dislocation and that would be a unique trait of that build…Both skeletons and golem already have 2 legendary items, one for each ( Bloodsong Mail and Golemsin Breeches) so all that remains is to rework them to have a damage multiplier and this could be a skeleton+golem build just like the wd gargs+zombie dogs only better in our case, since we can aim them.