My Necromancer class idea (Long)

[Teriz]

The Necromancer




Introduction

The Necromancer is an interesting class in terms of WoW history. Though highly popular, and heavily requested, the class still only exists in Warcraft 3 and Diablo 2, much to the chagrin of Necromancer fans. Blizzard has attempted to remedy this by introducing the Death Knight into the game with some Necromancer abilities, but WoW fans still hunger for a true Necromancer class to play as. The problem is creating a class that is different from Death Knights AND Warlocks.

Always one for a challenge, this is my attempt at creating a Necromancer class that is unique to the game. I will put up a poll where you can vote whether I succeeded or not.

So let's begin.

The Basics

Necromancers are spellcasters who manipulate the dead and the living. They wear mail armor to make themselves more sturdy in combat and utilize undead minions to gain control over the battlefield. This is NOT a hero class. Necromancers begin at level 1.

Races:Horde: Orcs, Forsaken, Blood Elves, Trolls, Goblins/ Alliance: Humans, Dwarves, Gnomes, Worgens
Armor: INT Leather until level 40, then INT Mail
Resource: Mana, Soul Tap, and Corpses
Weapons: 1h swords, Daggers, Staffs, 1h Maces, 1h Axes
Specs: Corruption (Healing), Undeath (DPS), Reaper (DPS)
Roles: Healing and DPS

Justification

Mail armor was an interesting choice since its the only remaining armor in the game that isn't utilized by three different classes. Some may view mail armor as a bit too strong, but if people believe that, they should check out Elemental Shaman; a caster that wears mail armor complete with a shield that has been pretty underpowered for the majority of WoW's history. Weapons and Races were pretty obvious. Originally I planned for Reaper to be a melee spec. In the end, I decided against it and went ahead and made all three specs caster.

Healing was a pretty easy choice, since Necromancers have traditionally been able to manipulate life energies. In an ideal world, the Necromancer healing spec should be highly bloody and extremely twisted. I wanted to make a healing spec that would make allies of the healer just feel dirty and wrong for getting healed by this toon. I also wanted the healing Necromancer to still feel like DPS, even though they are healing. For inspiration I looked at Monk and Disc priest healing.


Shared Abilities

Twilight Bolt: (1.5 sec. cast time) Launches a destructive bolt of shadow energy that damages the target.
Rotting Venom: (instant) Poisons the target, slowing their movement speed, and dealing nature damage every 2 seconds over 12 seconds. If the target dies while Rotting Venom is active, they are re-raised as a skeleton warrior that lasts 15 seconds.
Summon Skeletons: (instant) Raise 2 skeleton warriors from a corpse. Skeletons last 30 seconds. Only 4 skeletal minions can be active at a time. You can place this ability on autocast. 6 second cooldown.
Bone Armor: Encases the caster in bone armor, absorbing damage for up to 30 seconds. While the armor holds, spellcasting cannot be interrupted by Physical attacks. 1 minute CD
Poison Nova: (2.5 sec. cast) Inflicts Nature damage to enemies in an 8 yard radius, and then additional damage every 2 sec. for 10 sec.
Cripple: (3 second cast) Increases the time between an enemies attacks by 100% and slows its movement by 50%, in addition to reducing its Strength by 50%. Only one target can be effected by this spell at one time. Lasts 15 sec. Subsequent Cripples reduce its effectiveness.
Call of the Grave (channeled) (cooldown) Causes buried corpses to rise to the surface in an area around the Necromancer.
Corpse Explosion: (instant) Causes a corpse to explode, dealing damage to nearby targets.
Shallow Grave Restores the target from death. Can be used in combat. Necromancers can cast this on themselves after they have died.
Corpse Throw: Your Meat Wagon launches a corpse at a target location, doing AoE damage, and leaving a corpse at the target location.
Summon Frost Wyrm (CD) Summons a Frost Wyrm to fight for the Necromancer for up to 45 seconds. 10 minute cooldown. Requires 3 corpses.
Crypt Walker: (passive) When you are near a corpse, your HP and MP regenerate at a slightly quicker pace.

Meat Wagon

Meat Wagon is a utility ability that allows Necromancers to store and transport corpses for future use. The Wagon acts similarly to a pet that follows the Necromancer around. The meat wagon can store up to 20 corpses that will be dropped in an area around the caster. These corpses can be reloaded into the Meat Wagon for future use. The corpses vanish once the player logs off from the game. The Meat Wagon can also attack targets with your stored corpses, dealing AoE damage, and leaving a corpse at a location for future use. Players have the option of dismissing the Meat Wagon, but still using its abilities.


The Specs

Corruption



This tree specializes in the manipulation and eventual destruction of life and its energies. Necromancers that specialize in this are capable of taking life from targets and shaping it into a variety of new abilities that benefit the Necromancer and its allies. So potent is this manipulation, that Corruption Necromancers can become viable healers for groups, and raids.

:::::Sample Abilities:::::

+Life/Death Link: Links a target's soul to the Necromancer. If it is a friendly target, the Necromancer heals the target at the cost of the Necromancer's HP. If it is an enemy target, it does damage to the target, healing the Necromancer. If the enemy target moves to far out of range, the enemy is stunned for 2 seconds. Lasts up to 10 seconds on an enemy, but lasts until cancelled on a friendly target, or the Necromancer reaches 10% of health. Up to 2 links can be active at once. Does not work with minions. Other actions can be done while performing Death Link.

+Conversion Beam: (Channeled) Inflicts Shadow damage to an enemy every 2 sec. for up to 6 seconds. This damage increases the spell power of the Necromancer for 15 seconds, and stacks up to 5 times. If Life linked to a friendly target, the damage will increase the healing done by the spell based on the spell power increase.

+Soul Tap: (passive) Your Twilight Bolt steals health from a target. The stolen health orbits the Necromancer for up to 10 minutes and stacks up to three charges. Soul Tap makes your Twilight Bolt an instant cast spell, causing it to have 2 charges before initiating a cooldown.

If an enemy target dies from Soul Tap, the orb changes from blue to red, increasing its healing potential. While these orbs surround the Necromancer, their passive health regeneration is increased by 2% per orb. Red orbs increase it by 4%. Allows the use of Soul Infusion.

+Soul Infusion: Sends a bolt of energy into a target, healing them for twice as much as the damage done (triple if the orb is red). If the target is life linked, the orb will always act as a red orb. When you absorb a Soul Infusion orb, you slow the rate of HP drain from Life Link, but increases its healing amount per tick. A red orb increases this buff. This effect lasts 6 seconds per orb. Requires Soul Tap charge.

+Poison Release: Instantly ends all poison effects in the Necromancer's vision, healing the Necromancer per poisoned target.

+Fountain of Death: (CD) Instantly kills the target, causing their body to burst into a geyser that heals nearby friendly targets, and damages enemy targets. Target must be at 10% health or lower. Cannot be used on players or bosses. 1 minute CD.

+Soul Charge: (CD) Transforms all of your Soul Infusion Orbs red for 10 seconds.

+Blood Bank: (passive) A portion of healing done to yourself is passively stored. When you reach your maximum, the stored healing is distributed to yourself and all of your allies in an AoE heal. Only your self heals can contribute to Blood Bank. In addition, your Skeletal Warriors heal you when they do damage to an enemy target.

+Sacrifice: Kills one of your minions. Their life force instantly heals the most injured member of your party. If the target is life linked, the healing will be increased. If you and your allies are at full health, you gain a red Soul Infusion orb.

+Cradle of Bones: (passive) Allows you to cast Bone Armor on friendly targets. However, its duration is reduced by half.

+Dark Servant: (passive)When you or your minions kill a target, a portion of the damage heals you and your group.


Undeath



This tree specializes in raising the dead and constructing powerful minions to serve the Necromancer. Despite all specs being able to summon Skeleton warriors to fight, only this spec can create more powerful constructs like Lichs and Abominations. They are also the only Necromancer spec that can summon Skeleton Mages. Undeath Necromancers can summon up to six skeleton warriors or mages at at one time.

:::::Sample Abilities:::::

+Skeletal Mastery: (passive) Increases the duration of your skeletons, increases the number of skeletons you can summon at one time, and allows you to also summon Skeletal Mages.

+Twilight Hour: (passive) Your spells and attacks have a chance to cause Twilight Bolt to be instant cast and cost no mana. In addition, when you kill a target with Twilight Bolt, a skeleton warrior arises from its corpse.

+Dark Pact: (cooldown) You sacrifice health points to purge yourself of all negative effects, magical or physical. For the next few seconds, you take 75% less damage, and are immune to all debuffs, physical or magical.

+Shattering Bone: (passive) When your minions are killed by an enemy target, they have a chance to explode, sending shards of bone in all directions, damaging targets in an AoE. Minions who die in this fashion cannot be re-raised.

+Unholy Ground: You target an area with unholy magic. If a target walks over the area, skeletal hands emerge from the ground and hold them in place for up to a minute.

+Retribution: (passive) When hit by a ranged or melee physical attack, you have a chance for your next cripple to be instant and cost no mana.

+Eternal Death: (passive) Your Skeletal Minions have a chance to re-raise after being killed in battle.

+Improved Crypt Walker: (passive) Your Crypt Walker passive now increases your movement speed, and also applies to your Skeleton minions and Abominations as well.

+Summon Abomination: You summon an Abomination that fights for you for up to 1 minute. Abominations require at two corpses to summon, and count as three Skeletal minions. You can summon up to two Abominations at once. 8 second cooldown.

+Slave Drain: You instantly Drain health from your minions, healing you for a small amount. If you cast Slave Drain on a Abomination, or a Frost Wyrm, the health generated is substantially higher.

+Dark Slayer:(passive) During combat, you have a chance to send a bolt of shadow into a target. If the target dies from this attack, they instantly spawn a skeleton warrior. This doesn't effect the maximum number of skeletons you can have at one time.

+Necronomicon (3 minute cooldown) For 10 seconds, you can summon Skeletal minions, Abominations, and Frost Wyrms without corpses. These summons (except Frost Wyrms) don't induce a cooldown. However, the duration of these summons are reduced by 50%.



Reaper



Reapers combine the devastating physical damage of bone attacks, and debilitating effects of poison. This makes Reaper Necromancers highly effective and destructive casters. Though some of their abilities are highly reliant on corpses, Reapers are masters at utilizing their environment to their advantage and devastating enemy targets.

::::::Sample Abilities::::::

+Marrow: (passive) Increases the hit points of your skeleton warriors, increases the damage of your corpse explosion abilities, and causes your Bone Armor to cause damage to enemy attackers.

+Venomancer (passive) Your poison effects stack up to three times per target, increasing their damage over time. In addition, ticks of your poison damage has a chance to make Poison Nova instant cast.

+Poison Breath: Unleashes a wave of poisonous breath that poisons all targets in a cone in front of the caster.

+Blood Poison: (cooldown) Poisons and enrages a target for X seconds, increasing their damage, but also increasing the damage done to them. If they die during Blood Poison, they burst into a cloud of poison that lingers for a few seconds afterwards, poisoning all enemy targets caught within 10 yards.

+Bone Dagger: You throw a dagger of bone at a target dealing damage and placing Rotting Venom on the target.

+Bone Spear: Hurls a spear at a target location. If the spear lands on a target, it will pin them to their location, causing damage, and reducing their armor for 5 seconds.

+Teeth: Throws a spray of teeth at a target, causing damage.

+Sharpened Bone: (passive) Your Bone attacks have a chance to cause your target to bleed for 6 seconds.

+Mass Corpse Explosion: Detonates all corpses in the caster's vision.

+Mental Poison: (passive) Increases the power of your poison effects, and your poison effects increase your target's chance to miss.

+Poisoned Blades: (passive) Your skeleton warriors now inflict poison when they attack a target.

+Bone Trap: You bury a corpse into the ground. When an enemy target walks over the trap, it explodes, dealing poison damage to the target and stunning them for 3 seconds.

Conclusion

Thank you for reading yet another of my class threads. All art showcased in this post are the property of the artists. I claim no ownership to any art in this thread, nor am I making any type of profit from any of this. This is purely for entertainment purposes. I will be constantly updating this thread, so stay tuned for any updates.

Please participate in the poll.

[Joolodoolo7i-44]

Very awesome indeed!

[xZANGEITIx]

Maybe you should be changed just a little with a diffident name because you are kind of picking something between a lock and a DK

[Teriz]

Hmmm The poll numbers thus far are encouraging.

Maybe you should be changed just a little with a diffident name because you are kind of picking something between a lock and a DK

Isn't that exactly where a Necromancer should be?

[Destil]

Huh.

I dislike the entire concept of "Necromancer", but maybe if you renamed the class, I'd be behind it.

The ideas are original to an extent, but still remind me of a Warlock and DK.

Regardless, solid job.

[Frolk]

I love it, i want necro in game naow, NAOW >.<
Id play Reaper spec in this case
Blizzard should just copy/paste the necromancer from Diablo2 to WoW with some tweaking
For necro in wow id like it to be 3specs: Poison, Bone (ranged physical dmg) and Summoner, and have various curses in each spec

[Superman-BladesEdge]

Huh.

I dislike the entire concept of "Necromancer", but maybe if you renamed the class, I'd be behind it.

The ideas are original to an extent, but still remind me of a Warlock and DK.

Regardless, solid job.

Yeah. Change it to Summoner or Puppetmaster.

[Teriz]

Yeah. Change it to Summoner or Puppetmaster.

The problem is that only one spec utilizes a high level of summons and minions.

[Superman-BladesEdge]

The problem is that only one spec utilizes a high level of summons and minions.

and now you see why DKs and Locks pretty much share anything a Necromancer can do. If we had neither locks nor DKs there might be room for them in the WoW universe. As it stands, I never see Necros being a playable class.

[Nordrassil-treehouse]

I like the idea, I'd play a necromancer

[Teriz]

and now you see why DKs and Locks pretty much share anything a Necromancer can do. If we had neither locks nor DKs there might be room for them in the WoW universe. As it stands, I never see Necros being a playable class.

There's actually quite a bit of room for Necromancers in the WoW universe. They just have to be implemented properly.

However, that wasn't the basis of my response. My response was from your notion that the class should be renamed "Summoner" or "Puppetmaster" when only one spec manipulates minions on a high level.

Also why would anyone call a caster class that summons skeletons and uses bones and corpses as weapons anything except a Necromancer?

[Superman-BladesEdge]

Whatever floats your boat. Someone said name change and I agreed. This just smells like another Don Q Shot thread where he too will defend a class he "imagined" and not accept the fact that Blizz doesn't just randomly pluck classes out of fan's pockets. I told Don the same thing. While it might seem original on paper, it's just not something taken from the WC1-3 RTS games, and Blizz is notorius for pulling from those locations for class and race resources.

[Teriz]

Whatever floats your boat. Someone said name change and I agreed. This just smells like another Don Q Shot thread where he too will defend a class he "imagined" and not accept the fact that Blizz doesn't just randomly pluck classes out of fan's pockets. I told Don the same thing. While it might seem original on paper, it's just not something taken from the WC1-3 RTS games, and Blizz is notorius for pulling from those locations for class and race resources.

Actually the majority (about 75%) of the spells in the OP come from WoW, Warcraft 3, and Diablo 2.

[Superman-BladesEdge]

Like I said. Good luck to you. I gave my opinion and I am out.

[Erenax]

I think after how things ended up with the Lich King, the Alliance and Horde would have a hard time justifying the use of Necromancy, especially among the Forsaken.

[Teriz]

I think after how things ended up with the Lich King, the Alliance and Horde would have a hard time justifying the use of Necromancy, especially among the Forsaken.

In any class thread where lore may be an issue for class implementation, I just say that Blizzard's desire to make money trumps any lore concerns. Like Demon Hunters, Necromancers are a highly requested and desired class by players.

[kolston]

I'd much rather see a necromancer 4th spec for DKs. They would be caters with INT plate. That seems more likely to happen than a necromancer class, but good job regardless. Still hoping we see something similar to your Demon Hunter though, that I am on board with.

[Erenax]

Like Demon Hunters, Necromancers are a highly requested and desired class by players.

Any poll data to back that up?

[Superman-BladesEdge]

http://www.wowwiki.com/Class_ideas
http://www.wowwiki.com/Hero_class

If people want their ideas seen, they should put them here. Or, to check popularity of which classes have already been mentioned to Blizz.

[Rhamses]

Surprised this poll is so close. This class idea really doesn't resemble the Death Knight or the Warlock at all.