A possible solution for minion targeting

Necromancer
1

Hopefully one of the devs gives this a read cause it took me a while to type this on a phone.

Summoners need a core ability.
There are 2 blood, 2 shadow and 1 bone.
Blizzard should consider changing one of them (preferably blight and all its aspects as blight is visually inferior to sever lol) to be a summoner specific ability, similar to command skeletons from d3.

It would honestly be amazing to have a button that made my skeletons target a specific enemy… the biggest problem they might have is controller support regarding adding a new button cause, unlike a keyboard, we have very few buttons that can be mapped.

So changing 1 core ability would fix that issue and in the same process give summoners a “minion” core ability that could benefit from paragon nodes that increased core abilities.

I suggest that blight is the best candidate for the change. Its visually lackluster, its damage is incredibly low when paired against other darkness abilities (sever, corpse explosion) so it rarely makes a place in any endgame shadow/summoner build. That would also give blizzard room to change any aspect involving blight.

A prime example of why ive suggested blight is “of the void” aspect.
Essentially the aspect pulls enemies in … which requires you have the skill and also the aspect (duh) thats 2 slots, 1 gear / 1 ability.
Well compare it to the “grasping veins” aspect with the corpse tendrils ability.
Besides the fact that tendrils can cause vulnerability (which is in itself reason enough to be considered superior) it has a much larger aoe which effectively pulls huge groups, still inflicts damage, doesnt actually consume a corspe AND IT STUNS. 1 gear 1 ability.

Just the utility of corpse tendril outweighs blight. all blight has going for it is the lack of a cooldown. It can be spammed but why would you ever want to spam blight when you could instead use nearly any other core ability and just be better.

The only aspect that in my opinion makes blight remotely useful is the “plunging darkness” aspect… but if you go this route you wont actually be using blight on your bar. Instead you’ve swapped it for bone prison… so now you’re right back to not having a meanigful core ability.

You could even keep this aspect if you wanted to after removing the blight skill by changing the description of the “plunging darkness” aspect.

Such as “converts bone prison to a darkness ability that now applies a pool of darkness within dealing damage over time.”
See solutions lol.

Blizzard you said you wanted us to give you possible solutions not just complaints… well heres both.

P.S. when i used an emote shrine (the greet death shrine) it made my summoner invisible and let me tell you what a game changer it is when enemies actually target your skeletons for once.

Why cant my minions have more aggro. If my skeleton is the first thing an enemy sees… why not make the enemy target them first.

Sure some enemies should actively hunt me down in a fight… up to a certain point. If my minions are just beating on an enemy… at some point that enemy should change their priorities, right? Lol just a thought.

I cant tell you how many times ive trapped the butcher in the middle of my minions and he just stands there taking all that punishment, not once attempting to attack my minions.(unless you count the aoe knockback he does) Which also really hurts the idea of thorns on minions.

Maybe introduce an aggro vs damage recieved priorty meter just for player minions. Or line of sight vs obstacles/ minion aggro/ priority response.

Im not a code guy by any means but i did use your star craft editor to make some sick custom games way back in the day lol. So even with that outdated technology i could create very specific “triggers” which essentially is what aggro can be reduced to.

So i have no doubts your team can think of something probably miles better than any thing ive suggested regarding this. Maybe youre already in the process of fixing the aggro and if thats the case, thank you.

And to anyone that read all of this, leave a suggestion or maybe even a counter argument for blight.

1 Like
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I was just saying this to my bf. having something to instruct what the minions would focus would solve a ton of problems. especially the garbage ai that they currently are using. we could even get an enhancement that make minions do a small cleave/aoe with their attack whenever this ability is used. and if blight isn’t an option for replacement they could also replace decompose who uses that ability anyways!?

3 Likes
3

I dont want another forced minion skill on my bar.

4

it doesn’t have to be forced they could just have the automatic engage ai but also have something for pure minion builds to help manage minions.

5

Its not necessarily forced. Its an option because currently we don’t have one, atleast not for a summoner based build.
In any case the summon skill does more than just summon, it heals and increases their damage.

What i’m suggesting is a new core ability that not only directs your minions to a specific target but also changes/buffs their attack pattern in the process. Not necessarily just attack speed increase but also an alternate version of their normal attacks that A. Either do more damage or B. Provide some type of utility like inflicting vulnerability on all targets attacked by your minions for the next 3 seconds. Or C. Both of these things.

6

I use a controller. Right thumb stick isnt really used. Would be nice to control the whole pack with that. Don’t need a spell. It just needs to mimic what id do if i had a mouse.

Because having them go off screen and pull crazy aggro when im face tanking 3 elites and their mob packs solo doesn’t help.

1 Like
7

How about if you click on corpse with skeleton skill, it functions as it currently does. If you click on enemy with skeleton skill it targets them with the skeletons. It may be a bit awkward for controller users, myself included, to get used to. But it’s a viable option that doesn’t take up any more bar space.

1 Like
8

i like this idea but knowing how bad blizz can be at making stuff happen plus corpses usually spawning under large mobs anyways. it would be kind of a pain if you wanted to summon the priest. another thought would be to make it so that the pets just inherently focuses the target we have moused over during our last attack skill. idk how it would work on controller though. then again i doubt blizz would be able to handle the implementation on this idea as well

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Oh, derp. Click vs long press. . Just click for priest, press for target. You would need to have your mouse in the general area, or be looking at the general area with controller like how targeting enemies/corpses already works

1 Like
10

–Make blight void aspect one of the skill point options for it. skel warriors go to target pulling in all mobs around and then vommit miasma.
–replace all blood core/basic with summon skills. We have bone, shadow, and summons, don’t need blood also it spread things to thin. And it’s necromancer, not vampire. Class shouldn’t be a 4 in 1. It should be a summoner that specializes in physical or shadow dmg or pure summons builds.
–Change blood mist to spirit walk, you become unstoppable and mobs can’t target you for 3 sec and you leave a trail of miasma or corpses as options.
–Get rid of minion perma sacrifice. If you don’t want minions, play sorc.
–Change blood wave to shadow wave, i.e make it the aspect version.
–Bone could also be made more necromancer like. Casting bone spear would actually cause all mages to throw a bone at the target, rather than having shards and it still pierces. Wouldn’t that look awesome? more skellies, more dmg.
–Bone prison → Bone barrier? All of your skeleton warriors surround the target (yourself or mob or party member), forming a barrier. If cast on Monsters, it works like bone prison. If cast on you or party member, it works like bone shield and tosses monsters out of the barrier. Most monsters and their abilities can not cross the barrier.
–Bone spirit should have an option to make it shadow using a skill point. And maybe not use all of your essence. Maybe consumes 5 corpses instead or sacrifice skeletons. So make it CE+Howl From Below+Black River or make so all of you mages run at the target and explode. More mages means more dmg.

I could go on, but Blizzard would need to pay me

11

Im just saying that command skeletons would be great as a core skill.

Heres a skill example

Command skeletons - commands all of your skeleton minions to attack the designated target with 5/10/15/20/25% more damage and 15/30/45/60/75% more attack speed for 3 seconds
Cost 35 essence.

1st passive - your minions deal 20% more Vulnerable damage.

Choice passives

1st choice - command skeletons now also summons a corpse bowman that will fire once.
Returning 5 essence per enemy killed up to 15.

2nd choice - during command skeletons your minions deal shadow damage instead and inflict a spreading curse that deals damage over time for 5 seconds.

12

I just made a thread talking about that. Press Rise minions on an enemy target to be their focus, is really annoying to have 11 or 12 minions already attacking mobs on Helltides, then a defender comes, and they become useless. Pressing Raise Skeletons on an enemy should be enough to command them.

No need to change a specific skill to target the enemies that hits, that would force to have it. Also, I know C++ (+) Unity (a bit) and adding that Raise Skeleton enemy target costs just 1 more function to the skill. Should not affect other code lines…unless they attack so random that already exists a “target change” function, like, attacking a mob, and then randomly starts attacking another, which…makes no sense.

I hope they hear us and add a “please attack this mob” function :slight_smile:

13

Mhh, yeah, turning it into a skill would be nice, the thing is that they already have a passive skill, 2 to choose 1 sacrifice…making it into a skill might be a bit OP, just command minions to attack specicif target would be enough, we already have the priest to boost them a bit and heal them.

But I agree with you that we, necromancers, need something to make them target 1 specific enemy, and 1 more passive (example, adding to the Book of Death a 2nd and 3rd passive based on the previous one, being able to choose 1 between those 2.

Let’s make some noise so @blizzard can hear us :smiley:

14

First and foremost, they should auto-focus on the Necromancer’s target always.

Unless →

When you trigger their skill in the skill bar, they should focus on whatever the current target is, even if it’s different from the one the Necromancer is targeting, until it’s dead. Then return to focus on the Necromancer’s target.

15

Or, and I know this crazy talk, just make it exactly like Diablo 3. Buff the damage they do to that specific target 500%. Kill 2 birds with one stone. More damage and s focus. Remove the heal or leave, but make it also target a mob. This doesn’t require reinventing the wheel. The skill already exists.