ToME: the Tales of Maj'Eyal

I have some suggestions to make the Necro a bit less awkward and more synergistic, especially given the weird distribution of skills, each requiring a big investment. To that end, here they are:

1. Undeath Link should heal at a reducing ratio akin to Disruption Shield such that at lvl 5 it heals for 150% of minion life while only draining them for 75% of their max life. This, when combined with heal mod stacking, could actually make the shield effect (from EotD) useful.

2. Essence of the Dead should have an effect for Undead Explosion: Chain reaction effect such that for every enemy (or fellow minion) that is killed, there is a 50% chance that they too will explode (each step of the chain reaction would take a turn so enemies would have time to clear out), rinse and repeat ad infinitum.

3. Essence of the Dead should have an effect for Surge of Undeath: add a 5-turn health regen to your minions, affected by heal mod, etc. I'm not sure if this would just be automatic but I figured I'd mention it…

4. Advanced Minion Mastery should reduce minion-on-minion damage as well as damage to minions from Undead Explosion at 20% per talent level. This might make up for the fact that AMN generally makes your minions worse.

- I should note that I'm unfamiliar with the "Through the Crowd" prodigy so maybe that would solve the problem of damaging friendlies.

5. Lichform should grant telepathy: undead

6. Bonus: Lichform should add 0.1 to Necrotic Minion and Advanced Necrotic Minion category… given how stretched a Necro summoner is, this would make a Lich Summoner viable because right now, if you want a summoner, really only the Ghoul is viable.

Thoughts?

Update: Through the Crowds prodigy does not eliminate the damage done from minion-on-minion damage nor from Undead Explosion thus rendering that skill effectively useless. However, it does make the Grave and Ice skills more viable with a summoning necro.

Undeath Link… I gave a little more thought to the talent point distribution, especially on heals. Undeath Link just doesn't make a lot of sense as skill. A massive reduction in life of minions for a quick heal, especially when you have another heal in the Animus tree?

I've already suggested a tweak to create synergy with Essence of Undead but I actually think the function of the skill should be different and more fitting for the name of the skill and the implied nature of it. To that end, here is my new Undeath Link idea:

Undeath Link:

Active skill that creates a link between the life of the Necromancer and minions.

Drain "x%" life from minions in the form of a direct heal at a reducing ratio akin to Disruption Shield (see above). Then, for the next five turns, all damage endured by you will be distributed evenly amongst your minions. Should none remain, you absorb the full brunt of the damage as per normal.

OR

Any damage endured by your or any of your minions is evenly distributed amongst all of you.

This second version would work better with the damage shield bonus from Essence of the Dead and my proposed bonus of adding the EotD regen bonus to Surge of Undeath

This would make you very tanky against singular attacks, no matter how strong, but it wouldn't help much against AoE abilities. Still, I rather like this idea.

Yoinked!

These don't seem very "Minor".

Synergistic abilities and effects are interesting, though.

The Revanchist wrote:These don't seem very "Minor".

Ha! Touche. Initially, I was just going to make two suggestions but then, I decided I'd just toss them all up for criticism and see if any of it caught people's attention.

I keep looking for solutions to the same basic problems with the Necro (I first tried to reorganize it but that went nowhere although I still think there were some good ideas in there) and this is my latest attempt.

To that end, #1 and #3 are the two that I think are most important.

If number one worked like I hope it can, it could work for a pet-Necro the way the Arcane Shield/Bathe in Light/Arcane Reconstruction combo works… just pump up heal mod, summon some Necros, cast Essence of the Dead and then Undeath Link and BAM, heal+shield. Then, you could buff your summons and immediately heal them with suggestion #2. I think that's a fantastic combo that works beautifully with the transitory nature of Necro-pets. More so, it solves a huge problem with survivability with that build and opens it up beyond the ghoul (especially for Lichform with the added resistance caps… I think you could have a potentially very strong pet-based class). More so, it would eliminate the NEED for the Celestial/Light tree (although it would be stronger still with it… it would just add one more turn to the combo so it may not be optimal).

#2 and #5 would be fantastic and thematic. I can understand passing on those two though… but I like them a lot.

#4 might not be needed with the prodigy… I'm really not sure what to do about the fact that AMN generally weakens your minions unless you want to farm for lichs. Someone, maybe Housepet, added it such that it could summon a mummy as well (and I like that) but maybe that would be enough, I'm not really sure...

I legitimately think that a properly supported pet-Necro could be viable into Nightmare and beyond, and I'd like to see that.

Bonus suggestion from my new artifact suggestions:

Belt of Bone: I really like this item and think it would be really valuable for virtually any character, especially in Dreadfell and other undead-heavy areas and one of the prides.

+0.20 spell/necrotic minions
Telepathy: Undead
Heal Mod +100% if, and only if, you're currently inside of the necrotic aura of a necromancer… yours or an enemies.

Active ability: create aura that raises all stats, saves, and resistances +2 for every undead within 10 radius (hence telepathy) of the user for 5 turns. As undead friendlies or enemies come and go into the aura, the stat bonus changes… so, it's not just on casting.

HousePet wrote:Yoinked!

That sounds like you liked my suggestions… yay!