Minionmancer Feedback after Patch

Necromancer
1

I think that the “Minions will now always engage targets with a cast Curse” is a good start, but still far away from glaring issues.

Current Minion problems;

  1. Aggro. Even though we are now able to command, some what, the Minions to attack mobs through Curses, we still have a problem when the mobs, a lot of times, avoid the Minions and go straight for the Necromancer leading to possible one shots. Suggestion: Give Golems High Threat and Skeletons Warriors Second Tank threat when using Curses for Command or, if you ever add a Single Target Command.

  2. Taunt. This ability from the Bone Golem is either bugged, or working as intended, which is a problem, because once the taunt duration ends, the Mobs go straight for the Necromancer, ignoring the Golem. Also, at times, the taunt doesn’t work, and the mob(s) completely ignore the taunt going straight for the Necromancer. Suggestion: After the duration of taunt is over, the Golem should still have high Aggro. Also, fix the bug, if it is, where Mob(s) are not being affected by Taunt (Broken chains).

  3. Single Target Command. Even though we have the new Curse Command for Minions, which I think should stay, we still have no Single Target Command to deal with special mobs, like the summoner/bubble Elites. I had to deal with Minions still attacking the summoned Mobs, while 1 or 2 Minions are hitting the Summoner, or Mages hitting the outer Bubbler, rather then the Elite. Suggestion: Like in D3, we should be able to command Minions to hit a Specific Target, until they’re Dead. Also, Mages should teleport into the bubble when using this command against those types of Elites. Raise Skeleton should be reworked in such a way similar to D3s’ “Command Skeleton”.

  4. Raise Skeleton Rework. The bugged corpses are one thing, but the Skeleton Priest is another problem. Suggestion: as written in Number 3, change it to D3s’ Command Skeleton design, while still being able to Raise Skeletons from the ground, or have the Necromancer auto Raise Skeletons.

  5. Skeleton Priest. I like this design, but also hate it. The design of being able to Summons a Skeleton Priest to heal and buff is awesome and cool. But, not being able to Summon it through the “Book of the Dead”, and having to spam it through weak heals and constant buffing, becomes annoying. Suggestion: Add Skeleton Priest to the “Book of the Dead” allowing us to have FULL control over the priest. The first option in “Book of the Dead” could be to have High healing, low buffing(Dmg/Resistance/Reduction), Second option could be to have High buffing(Dmg/Resistance/Reduction), low healing, and the sacrifice could be Life Steal/buffing(Dmg/Resistance/Reduction). The healing should auto work when a Minion loses HP.

  6. High Investment, low Reward. I’ve switch over to Bone, with little investment into Paragon, Aspects, and I was able to one or two shot an Elite (40k - 100k + Dmg) at the same tier as a Minionmancer, 20 levels higher. My Minions were hitting for 2-7k per Dmg sitting on an Elite pack for 15 seconds - 40 seconds, if Ring of Mendeln proc. The only time Mobs died was due to the Unique Ring “Ring of Mendeln” proc, or it would taken longer to clear. I have fully invested, ALL, Aspects ( Summon 2 Mages/Warriors, Frenzied Dead, Coldbringer’s for Mages Blizzard, Boneweave for Minion Dmg Reduction, Skeletons gain increase Dmg while alive 20%, Army of the Dead on Neck at 105 Atk Speed, Ring of Mendeln, and Corpse Tendrils Crit chance/Dmg for Minions), all skill points focused on Minions/Curses (both), and Paragon nodes into Cult Leader/Hulking Monstrosity, including Glyphs and my Minions currently sit at 19% Summon Dmg, 96.6 Damage with Minions, 131.2% Damage with Warriors, 307% Damage with Mages, 298% Damage with Golem, yet I’m hitting for 2-7k per hit on Elite mobs. How is this possible? I even changed my Glyph for High Warrior Dmg, and nothing changed, in terms of Dmg. I have 27% Crit, 66%Crit Dmg (I did High Crit Chance/Dmg it didn’t work well), 52.9% Vulnerable Dmg( I had 124% before and there was no difference), 60% all Dmg, 124 % Crowd Control, 47% Close. Before someone say, those are low, its like that on Bone and I shred mobs. Suggestion: Fix Skill Points, Paragon Nodes, and Aspects, because it seems these are not working as intended.

  7. Golem Runs back after Taunt. I had run into many issues where my Golem would taunt, even thought I’m pretty close to the Mob(s) and the Golem would run back to my side avoiding attacking, even when I spam the new Curse Command. Sometimes the Golem would attack, but half the time running back to me, or running around randomly.

  8. Ring of Mendeln. This Ring needs more Minion interaction and not player stacking Lucky Hit to proc said ring for it to be beneficial. Suggestion: Let the ring give or have you choose a Minion to be “the” Commander of the Army you have. Give it a huge Boost in Dmg, Atk Speed, Life, and those around it gain 20% of those buffs. The Commander should glow like how the Purple Elites do, instead green or Skeleton glow they have, and the ones gaining the buff should have similar glows around them, but slightly dem.

  9. Minion Survivability. I have 50.8% Dmg Reduction for Minions that I see in the stats window, and I’m sure its higher. For example, My Paragon claims I have 103.7% Minion Dmg Reductions, after adding it up, along with the 18% from my Aspect giving me around 121.7% Dmg Reduction. So, why is it that Poison, Fire, Explosion, and other AoE abilities as well as Single Target hits destroy my Minions? Its doesn’t make sense. With the amount invested, my Minions should be pretty much invincible.

I Probably have missed some other issues that are reported, or I have forgotten, but this is what I’ve been experiencing at 79.

8 Likes
2

I agree with everything.

Aggro. Even though we are now able to command, some what, the Minions to attack mobs through Curses, we still have a problem when the mobs, a lot of times, avoid the Minions and go straight for the Necromancer leading to possible one shots. Suggestion: Give Golems High Threat and Skeletons Warriors Second Tank threat when using Curses for Command or, if you ever add a Single Target Command.

You don’t command them, curses didn’t turn minions into “agressive mode” before and now they do, minions do the exact same thing once they are in “agressive mode” but somehow people that read the patch believe it’s a command attack; it’s not.

Before you cursed enemies and minions didn’t enter “aggressive mode” and now they do, that’s the difference. You can use any offensive skill to turn your minions into “aggressive mode”, or just being hit, or now applying a curse.

In resume, curse an enemy does the exact same thing than hit an enemy or being hit by an enemy. Once “agressive mode” is engaged, minions won’t prioritize cursed targets.

1 Like
3

Golems each have their job. If you want golems to taunt, use the bone golem. It won’t keep mobs off you forever, but that’s all there is. Anyway, minions in this game aren’t voidwalkers or hunter’s pets from WoW or clay golems from D2. They’re more of an AoE DoT with some special effects.

I’m fine with that. Minion builds can be strong, and there’s a hint in the notes they’ll become stronger, so they shouldn’t also be easy and lazy.

4

Feel a little better to play minion now because of corpse tendril bug fixed and agro for curse fix.

Damage mostly from mendeln and mages. And holding priest button to spam heal…
Curse + prison + tendril + taunt

Will be great if minion is more durable and draw agro more. Currently Lvl 92 at T52, should be able to do higher tier

5

Yup… that’s what I wrote… ----^

Have you played D3 Necromancer Minions or even Witch Doctor Spitters/Parana pet build?

This is false, not only I, but others who have done extensive testing ended with the same result. The only builds that make Minions Strong are not Minions; Bone Spear, Corpse Explosion, and Rings of Mendeln are the core and primary Dmg contributors, not Minions. So, Minions therefore, with 2 nodes, many Aspects, and Skill points directed to them are not strong, Hence why players are complaining. Because the “core” fantasy of a Necromancer is Minions.

Yup, Let us hope this is worth the wait.

:confused:

6

This is probably intended tbh. Mobs generally only attack minions if the player is either too far away or they can’t physically reach them. Kinda sucks on the player’s side, but the tactic is smart. After all, you prefer to kill the Fallen Shaman rather than the Fallen they keep reviving, right? Go after the source of the minions rather than the minions themselves.

7

There are some (Butcher comes to mind, but also potentially a special case - who knows) who will beeline you through every minion from the other side of the screen, even if you are only running the entire fight. They’ll rarely take an odd swing at minions.

Maybe it is intentional, but the lack of a reliable counter to it is pretty nasty. After dash and mist are down its a knife fight. And for some reason default mist slows you down so they’re well rested when they take that swing at you when it wears off.

Its a smart tactic, obviously, but you’d figure some necromancer at some point would come up with some way to get some breathing room too.

1 Like
8

Will have to wait until season 1 patch to see how Blizzard feels. Most of the streamers started Necro and are giving Blizzard a lot of bad press. It doesn’t look good to have your best form of advertisement complaining about your game. I imagine they will remove the 30% scaling and make ring of mendeln scale off minions. If I was in charge of balance I would use Uber Lilith to test and balance them. She is the next capstone so a minion only build should be able to clear it without uniques so they can move to world tier 5.

9

Great, 3 mandatory abilities on the bar instead of 2. Now we only have 3 ability slots we can use for minion builds.

3 Likes
10

While I agree minion build should be able to clear Uber Lilith - if balanced properly all classes should be able to play any of their main specs for this - I’m not following your logic about no uniques. I would think it’s reasonable to expect people acquire some uniques by this point.

As long as they don’t make uniques so rare you’re still looking for that required one 3 months later. So far, it seems like acquiring the uniques is a reasonable amount of time to where people can play the builds they want “properly” (I’m still searching for Black River but ya know - no complaints just yet).

11

i fully agree with all.
problem is, on what button will you bind Single Target Command? I personally need all 6 skill slots. maybe they could combine it with the priest button, i dont know. but its very much needed.

12

Because being required to spec something else before entering world tier 5 would be toxic. I am approaching 200 hours and still don’t have half the uniques for my class. 120 of those hours are in world tier 4 now. The season would be over before I ever found a ring that I can’t target farm.

13

This why I made the post suggesting they make Lock Target the “single mode command”. If you mark a priority target that should be enough to say I want you to attack this. The major upside of this approach is it doesn’t take up one of your 6 action slots.

14

Isnt that a Console / Controller Feature only?

15

I feel like there’s some exaggeration for effect here for sure. I’m only level 81 and I’ve already found all necro uniques except 2.

16

It might be. I play on XBox. When I want to target a mob I push down on the right stick. I can then cycle through the mobs using the right stick. If I want to remove target I just push down the right stick again.

The concept should still work on a PC though. You click a mob with mouse pointer to target a specific mob? They could make where minions attack the selected mob. If people deselect the mob then they go back to attacking whatever.

1 Like
17

They could easily fix this by adding “If skeletal priest ability targets an enemy, a debuff is applied that forces all minions to attack it for 10 seconds, another target is chosen, or the target dies. If a corpse is targeted, the priest buffs/heals as normal.”

3 Likes
18

This concept would be easier for PC users - console users would have to keep un-targeting to heal and re-targeting to say focus. Manageable. Only issue is when we go to target it just picks one, and you might have to cycle through, whereas mouse can just quickly target the elite they were on before healing.

1 Like
19

That’s not how you calculate damage reduction at all.

20

Personally I have not seen the new curse aggro change actually do anything differently

1 Like