So I tried the new and improved Needleflare Aspect on my Thorns Minion build. From my testing, it’s not working as I originally thought it would. Instead of proccing from ANY Thorns damage, it only procs from Thorns damage from YOU only. If your minions do any Thorns damage, it does NOT proc.
Can anyone else confirm that minions don’t proc the Needleflare Aspect?
Are you sure that your minions are proccing the Needleflare Aspect and not just you? It’s really hard to test Thorns with minions as you can’t prevent them from actively attacking.
This was actually an aspect and setup I wanted to play with a lot, but anyone else who can test this and see if it’s not working certainly do so to help confirm if this is bugged so players know and reports can get in to get it fixed. It would really suck if it’s a bugged aspect that ruins some build options due to not functioning right now.
I’m not sure if they’re in any hurry to fix this as Thorns builds for Necromancers aren’t as popular as the Barb ones. It works fine for the Barb so it’s good enough for the devs right now.
It also may not be an easy fix with the way they programmed the Aspect to work. It was originally designed to work only when you get hit, and it needs to be reworked to get it to proc if the Minions get hit.
So the Needleflare Aspect seems to be working correctly now. I started seeing the Needleflare animations all over my screen yesterday for the first time. Minions are able to proc the Aspect now. I’m guessing they did an unpublicized hotfix to make the Aspect work correctly.
Can anyone else confirm that the Needleflare Aspect is working correctly with Minions now?
Yes you’re correct. It was my Bone Golem spikes. I paid very close attention yesterday, and the animations were definitely coming from my Bone Golem. The Needflare Aspect is still not working unfortunately.
I finally gave up using the Needleflare Aspect and removed it from my build for all of my end of the season activities including my final The Pit level pushes and Echo of Lilith.
My Thorns Minions build performance actually improved once I gave up on using the Needleflare Aspect. My build is being held back by not having a reliable AoE option that the Needleflare was supposed to provide, but as it’s not working correctly, I actually managed to break through my performance ceiling once I gave up on it.
This thread explains a lot. I’m leveling a necro now and tried thorns cause I found a Razorplate chest. I felt like it was underperforming though I didn’t realize why, so thanks for pointing out the bug! I hope they fix this.
I gave up on thorns too. Took several trial and errors but I’ve settled on a shadow home brew build that’s feeling pretty legit. Cleared pit 80 at level 97 in mediocre gear. Definitely wouldn’t have been able to do that with thorns in it’s bugged state.
Thorns with Minions is bugged in only a few areas, but it’s working overall. It’s bugged with the Needleflare Aspect and the +% Summoning Damage doesn’t work with Thorns from Minions.
I think the non-Shadowblight Thorns Minions build will be more popular next season with Minionmancer players after all Shadow Minions builds get nerfed in Season 5.
Those “only few areas” are big areas. If the Needleflare Aspect is still only triggering off your thorns trigger that’s a HUGE deal.
This doesn’t sound like a good thing. A bugged semi ok spec will be necros go to build cause the power builds got nerfed? Guess I’m definitely rolling a different class for season 5.