Necromancer Minion Movement AI Idea

[Red]

Except one of the big things is that you tend to lead the charge when auto-exploring, or even in controlled out of combat movement, so you'll be taking the first hit from any kind of ranged monster. Anything that happens after you notice a monster is too late, since in that time a powerful rare could've already one-shotted you instead of one-shotting a minion.

[Dao Zeti]

Except one of the big things is that you tend to lead the charge when auto-exploring, or even in controlled out of combat movement, so you'll be taking the first hit from any kind of ranged monster. Anything that happens after you notice a monster is too late, since in that time a powerful rare could've already one-shotted you instead of one-shotting a minion.

How about a sustain, that triggers on hit if no minion is around (inside a 2 or 3 grid radius) and spawns a melee skeleton while displacing 30%-50% of damage on it. This should only trigger, if the source of the damage is a living actor, no trap or something - and have a long internal cooldown or simply result in deactivating the sustain. If the skeleton survives, it auto-charges the source of the attack and maybe even calls into battle the rest of your minions (autoteleporting them towards it). Thus the more minions you have around, but not near you, the more powerful this sustain would be.

Imagine it like a leashed dog guiding you through the unknown - or a mail made of bones, which animates into a guardian.

[Planetus]

Honestly, I think this is more complicated than need be. Like I said, if you manage to save more than, say 5, of the thralls in the Slaver compound, they tend to group around you pretty nicely for as long as they can keep up, even when you're exploring. All of that already exists. I'm just saying use that AI to control out-of-combat movement for minions. Combined with either a movement speed boost or something to keep them in your necrotic aura out of combat (probably a teleport or jump ability, but can only be used when the minion cannot see enemies), I don't see this being a problem.