[1.4.4] Eternal Darkness - A Full Necromancer Rework v2.21

[Reidan]

I think you should remove the % chance to regain a soul when death vortex hits an enemy. How am I going to gain a soul from something without killing it? And how do you explain getting multiple souls from multiple enemies? I think the damage thats there is good, maybe swap the % chance to get a soul with % slower global speed might be better.

Voldemort.

[malboro_urchin]

just started using this addon, and I'm working on a Cold/Reaping-focused necro. It could be because I only just hit level 10, but I feel like I lack nuking options. I can use Nightfall (4CD), River of Souls, & Chill of the Tomb (unless I"m in an enclosed area, in which case this brings me to ??? health) for nuking, that's it. Another low CD nuke would be very nice for less dead turns.

[Razakai]

I think you should remove the % chance to regain a soul when death vortex hits an enemy. How am I going to gain a soul from something without killing it? And how do you explain getting multiple souls from multiple enemies? I think the damage thats there is good, maybe swap the % chance to get a soul with % slower global speed might be better.

As we can see from the description of Animus Hoarder and Celia's Heart, 'soul' is a slightly misleading term. Rather, it refers to a distinct unit of measurement for soul essence, where whatever a Necromancer can salvage via their aura is a single Soul Unit. Death Vortex strips small fragments of soul essence from those within, which apart from dealing significant spiritual injury, is also capable of recombining said fragments into an entire Soul Unit.
(the real reason is that restoring souls synergizes nicely with River of Souls)

just started using this addon, and I'm working on a Cold/Reaping-focused necro. It could be because I only just hit level 10, but I feel like I lack nuking options. I can use Nightfall (4CD), River of Souls, & Chill of the Tomb (unless I"m in an enclosed area, in which case this brings me to ??? health) for nuking, that's it. Another low CD nuke would be very nice for less dead turns.

Once you hit 20 and gain Lichform, you'll be able to learn a 3 CD beam nuke which fills those turns nicely. In addition, you may consider learning Channel Staff to give a filler for dead turns, or perhaps putting a few points into Drain Life for some extra damage and healing. The design intent is that between Black Ice, River of Souls and Death Vortex you'll be doing an enormous amount of passive damage and can use your turns for mobility and utility.
However, there will be some changes coming in a later version to assist further:
- Meta will be a locked generic tree. This allows you to use CotT without worrying about killing yourself, and you'll gain a large cooldown reduction for your spells. With that and a -CDR pick/boots you could potentially have a 2 CD Invoke Darkness and 4 CD Chill!
- Grave is going to get yet another rework. If you have experimented with Cold Flames and Hungering Cold, could you let me know what you think? I still think Cold Flames is rather weak, and am considering reworking the entire skill into a mid (6-10) cooldown nuke that offers a more reliable way to freeze for the HC synergy, and to make a pure Cold Necromancer viable.

[malboro_urchin]

I have played a bit with Cold Flames, but not Hungering Cold. Cold Flames by itself seems like a poor use of my mana. An okay-ish cold DoT in a random area (it's not fully levelled yet) with a chance to freeze? I'd rather spend my mana on Chill and kill the enemies outright.

Cold Flames feels nice for control, but feels out of place when all my best abilities are very strong, straight-up nukes. It just doesn't line up well with what a blaster necro wants to do. I could wait around and kite enemies through till they get frozen, or I could just kill them.

[joebobjoe]

Death Vortex plus Black Ice is hilariously good. It effectively turns your necromancer into a walking wasteland that is ny impossible to approach without dying. I can just point and laugh as the low grade enemies die in my glorious presence. Heck any melee enemy just gets used for ping pong or swamped with my minions as they can barely advance from the movement penalties.

[Darkgobbo]

i don't know if this is a bug but Huge Bone Giants have a AOE bleeding attack and it can hurt the player
As well as any husks you make always hurt the player with their abilities, it made the first dragon i found very painful
Edit: also husks are not transported with shadow tunnel

[Razakai]

Things to do then:

- Replace Cold Flames with a decent nuke. Current plan is for Frozen Orb, a slow travelling piercing bolt that deals cold damage to adjacent targets, and also gives you an ability to instantly detonate the orb to spread cold flames+freeze at the cost of increasing the cooldown. Provides another low cooldown direct damage cold spell and a way to guarantee a freeze, while still offering the old cold flames dot+aoe.
- Black Ice might get the movement speed penalty reduced a little, and the interaction with Death Vortex looked at. I don't plan on removing it entirely, but dealing high damage+slowing an entire room without even pushing a button is a little too strong.
- I thought Husks and Golems fell under the necrotic minion subcategory and so wouldn't trigger friendly fire, this is a bug and will be fixed. I'll also add Husks to Shadow Tunnel.

[Darkgobbo]

Do the new advance minions get talents when you get the blighted summons prodigy?
i got an error the first time i tried summoning them after getting the prodigy, it worked after that but none of the new summons got anything. for example the mummy lord

[Orangeflame]

I'm having a blast with a minion-heavy necromancer at the moment! Shadow Tunnel is now my main nuking spell
However, there is a small issue with it - it can be targeted on enemies within range 10 regardless of LoS. This even works in vaults (in conjunction with Arcane Eye).

Edit:
Removed stupid question.
It also doesn't get the special effect from Essence of the Dead.

[Razakai]

I'll check and make sure Mummy Lord gets the correct spell for Blighted Summons.

Orangeflame, what is the damage like for Shadow Tunnel? I never really tested it, so I'd be curious to see if it's too high/low. I'll fix the targeting issue too.
As for EotD, that needs some changes as it's using the old tooltip. Many of the new trees lack an effect, so in the next version or 2 I'll modify it. Shadow Tunnel won't be getting it's heal back as Assemble is the EotD spell for ANM, but I plan on significantly improving Surge of Undeath. It will instead frenzy your minions, giving them global speed, +damage dealt, +resist all and a regen effect. Initially I didn't want to provide minion healing, but seeing as you can do it yourself via a Corpselight ego I may as well make it baseline.
Dark Empathy will also grant them an Accuracy bonus and maybe allow them to inherit your Resistance Penetration.
Currently implementing Frozen Orb is challenging, so might not have a new version out this weekend.

[Orangeflame]

The initial hit from shadow tunnel varies from 1-hit KO to laughable, depending on what minions you have, how many you have, and how many can fit around the target. The damage modifier on Shadow Tunnel isn't where most the damage comes from, though. After that first hit of dark damage, your skeleton warriors can stun-lock a single target, or your liches can turn an unopened vault into 'a room with an unusual amount of loot'.

[Razakai]

That sounds pretty overpowered, but fun. And I always err on the side of fun, so I think Shadow Tunnel is going to stay as it is, with the exception of the targeting fix. Enjoy your minion murder machine!

[Razakai]

http://te4.org/node/3828

v1.0 released!
- Meta is now a locked, generic tree available to Necromancers. Note that this will interfere with any Archmage characters you have, so you may want to disable if playing one (or leave it on if you want generic Meta for Archmage too)
- Cold Flames has been entirely reworked. It is now a more straightforward offensive spell that fires an orb that projects cold damage to adjacent targets each turn as it slowly moves forwards. You also learn a second ability that allows you to explode the orb, which freezes, deals additional damage and spreads cold flame patches, at the cost of increasing the cooldown
- Surge of Undeath now provides a small heal over time effect
- Black Ice now deals a % of damage of the initial effect rather than flat damage, and the slow has been slightly reduced
- Essence of the Dead is now instant, and the tooltip has been clarified
- Mummy Lords have been removed
- Husks and Bone Giants no longer inflict friendly fire
- Shadow Tunnel can no longer be used on targets out of your line of sight

Known issues:
- Essence of the Dead is lacking many effects, this will be fixed soon
- Surge of Undeath still requires improvement

[Razakai]

http://te4.org/node/3831

Quick fix for v1.1
- Bone Curse now triggers off all damage types

[Doctornull]

Quote this to see how links work.