Diablo 4 Necromancer review & suggestions.
Since this is based from Beta having only 25 levels, one that is progress & levels independent. One that isn’t.
Level & progress independent:
I hope to see Necromancers looks have new different play styles; Link Staves (Wizard Style) and 2 handed swords (Death Knight style) to the Necromancer would make it a lot nicer. From what I saw from the Beta any kind of weapons can be fixed to characters. But there seems to be some links still. Because most of the Necromancer items I would get were Scythe. Also the Obols npc was allowing the purchase of items similar to what Necromancer had in Diablo II / III. Hence is why I am asking to add Staves and Two Handed Swords to Necromancer linked arsenal. Thank you!
(I think I saw the first Necromancer using a Staff… or am I wrong?)
Decompose needs to also restore the Necromancer’s HP by 2%, maybe +1% per extra skill points used to level it up, instead of creating corpses.
Bone Spirit needs a fixed mana cost. The damage should be changed to +3% per essence remaining as the spell was cast (essence remaining after the cast + the Bone Spirit essence cost). I suggest 20 or 40 but to better imitate the (all essence) cost, maybe 80 essence could be it. But please change it!
NB; if such a change is applied, the ability in skill tree that is per 100 essences used in cast should also be change to “per 100 essence remaining as the spell was cast“ And apply to Bone spirit only.
For many reasons, the essence cost (uses all essence) will make it incompatible with too many abilities or features or equipment bonuses. Hence, such a spell feature will sooner or later make the spell useless or uninteresting. Please fix Bone Spirit for it is an amazing spell!
Bone Spirit is amazing in Diablo IV ! Please make it remain that way by changing the essence cost. I would love to play a Bone Spirit focused Necromancer. I am certain the all essence cost will very highly likely ruin this spell.
Animation:
It is awesome that we can sacrifice the minions for bonuses!
The minions are very strong and very useful. While necromancer spells seemed to be too unreliable to provide enough support to deal nicely without the Undead minions.
To sacrifice them should have nicer, stronger bonuses (probably double or triple what was offered). Especially for the Golem! (While fighting Ashava the minions all died so fast but the Golem was doing great still)
The Skeleton should require 5 essence to cast. (The cost for priest should remain 0)
The Skeleton Mages should require 10 essence to cast. (Free for the priest)
The Golem should require at lest 1 corpse and 20 essence to cast.
I would like to see an option to replace the Golem with a Vampire, a Lich or an Death Knight.
Momento Mori needs to count in the Golem; probably make it where if 2/3 of Skeletons, Skeleton Mages or Golem are sacrificed, the condition is met. Or simply condition is met if all skeletons are sacrificed or the Golem is sacrificed. The Golem is very much stronger than all other minions of the Necromancer.
The AI of the undead seem a bit off; they should protect the Necromancer a bit more, especially by blocking foes from reaching the Necromancer. Also they were quite slow to attack foes that gets in range, especially compared to Diablo III.
Also, when using the Command skeletons ability to rise them when targeting a corpse, or call the priest, when targeting an enemy it should make them attack that enemy. Or else, give us a key to assign them to attack a target , please!?
Finally, as Diablo IV has an absolutely amazing look, its Dark and Gloomy and brings back the feel of the original Diablo. The Undead minions have a very intense white glow that brings too much contrast and kind of ruins the gloomy and dark ambiance of Diablo IV. For that reason I strongly recommend adding colors options to the undead; Dark Bones would be perfect for me but I know some players would complain it looks too much like the skeletons we have to fight. So for that reason there has to be an option to choose their color. Colors options should be;
1- White with glow (as it is)
2- Bone white (yellowish old bones), without glow.
3- Dark bones without glow.
4- Dark bones with dark blue glow.
This section is level and progress dependent so probably not relevant since I saw only 25 levels from Beta ;
Bone Spirit; The recast time should be lowered to 8s or lower. 12s is just too slow and unreliable.
The Necromancer needs a teleportation spells, NEEDS!
Where is Bone armor? Necromancer really needs protective spells such as Bone Armor.
The Core spells were uninteresting, none of them was interesting to me. Please add a Bone Armor and a Shadow Armor to the Core Skills?
Some ideas;
Bone Armor; Adds Armor Bonus and damage reduction per skill points used to level it up.
Shadow Armor; Adds All Resistances bonus and damage reduction. If damage would be taken, absorbs a number of attacks per skill points used to level it up before it is dispelled. (Maybe make the Necromancer invisible to foes?)
Stand Alone is too weak; probably set it to 10/20/30 (%), up to -2 per skeleton warrior, up to -3 per skeleton mage and up to -10 for the golem.
Unliving Energy is too low; change values form 3/6/9 up to 16/32/48 or even 30/60/90. Maybe at higher levels the value should be multiplied. But 3/6/9 just seems way too low.
The ultimate spells don’t feel at all like they are ultimate. A shadow magic Ultimate is missing. Army of the Dead attacks too randomly, and the 2 abilities to boost it in the skill tree are almost pointless. Also, Army of the Dead is lacking magic types (such as bone or macabre)
Curses needs one of their upgrades to set them as an aura.
The Skill Tree needs minor adjustments because it is forcing the players to use points into abilities they do not want. Level 1 should give 1 point. Then if the requirements to unlock further categories is changed as follow, the players can use the points for what they like;
Core 2 –> 1
Corpse & Macabre 6 → 5
Curse 11 → 10
Corpse & Macabre 16 ->15
Ultimate 23 ->20
Last category 33 → 30
Another option could fix it nicely; to add a general category to spend skill points into, once every 3 levels for up to 10 levels each:
Regeneration +1%/second
Resource regeneration +1%/second
Movement Speed +3%
Thank you very much for your time reading this and for considering any of those ideas to make the Necromancer a great class in Diablo IV and maybe further on.
