Necromancer fans: What are you looking for in a Necromancer class?

[Azerate]

People basically want warlocks with more summons and different visuals for them. Nothing that can't be fixed with some cosmetic updates to the warlock class imo

[Big Thanks]

Guild Wars 2 has Necromancer
The good news (if you are interested) is that you can do PvP with it as if you were a max level character...even if you just installed the game on day 1.
You can login right now and try Necromancer PvP as if you were max level.

You dont have ALL customization options with a FREE ACCOUNT (i think), there are extra unqiue builds with the new expansions BUT you can play Vanilla builds.

As a customization nerd, i love this videos, and for research purposes, you can get more info on how a Necromancer can be played.

[Shiza]

I would also add that the Game desperately needs a dark themed healer. There are already multiple darker and brighter themed dps as well as Tanks, but there is not a single Healer with darker themes, all of them are rather bright and either light or nature based.

Which is also why Necromancer would add more diversity to the game than for example Tinkers could. Even if Tinkers would be able to play as healers, with their whole goofy aesthetic they would just be one more rather friendly and bright healer, while Necromancers have the potential to add a dark and more evil healer class.

[Teriz]

To be fair, do you really feel like Frost DK feels death themed at all? When you ask me, he feels more like a frost-specced battle mage.

Uh, the DK is based on the Lich King, who was constantly covered with ice and ruled from Icecrown.

The whole Soul aspect is rather niche to Warlocks. Soul Drain is a talent and otherwise their ressource is just called soul shards, but otherwise? Even Demon Hunter has stronger soul themes than Warlock. And considering that Blizzard just removed all the soul aspects from DKs when canonically their whole shtick was wielding soul-eating runeblades, souls and a bigger reliance on soul themed spells could be something included in the Necromancer.

Yeah, but the Warlock variation of Soul power is extremely close to a Necromancer's, even to the point of using Phylacteries to store souls for future use. I want to know how a Necromancer would operate different given that Blizzard based a lot of the Warlock's soul abilities on Necromancers to begin with.

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Which is also why Necromancer would add more diversity to the game than for example Tinkers could. Even if Tinkers would be able to play as healers, with their whole goofy aesthetic they would just be one more rather friendly and bright healer, while Necromancers have the potential to add a dark and more evil healer class.

Utterly ridiculous.

A class that pretty much swipes Warlock and DK abilities, even to the point of swapping the Blood tanking spec with a blood healing spec would not add diversity to the game.

[Shiza]

Uh, the DK is based on the Lich King, who was constantly covered with ice and ruled from Icecrown.

Yeah, but it doesn't really come off as some harbringer of icy death. There really are not dark or deathly elements, so he comes off like a melee frost mage. The visual design of the class is just plain bad. Even Breath of Sindragosa looks like the frost mages dragon breath.

Yeah, but the Warlock variation of Soul power is extremely close to a Necromancer's, even to the point of using Phylacteries to store souls for future use. I want to know how a Necromancer would operate different given that Blizzard based a lot of the Warlock's soul abilities on Necromancers to begin with.


Utterly ridiculous.

A class that pretty much swipes Warlock and DK abilities, even to the point of swapping the Blood tanking spec with a blood healing spec would not add diversity to the game.

I mean, there isn't that much. His ressources are named soul shards and he has Soul Drain, there isn't any more. The Phylactery could work more like reincarnation or the Priest ability where they turn into a holy spirit and instead of a traditional battle rezz, they could get the DKs old raise allies ability, having a short cooldown mini-battle rezz which basically raises people as Ghouls so that they can do a little bit of damage.

And Necromancer adding no diversity is your personal opinion, others disagree and think that a dark themed healer would add something to the game which isn't there yet. Tinkers on the other hand are just another brighter themed heal, so there isn't much of a difference to for example Mistweaver monks.

Just because you disagree with it subjectively, it doesn't makes it wrong. You have to learn that, people can have different opinions and yours is actually not a fact.

[Triceron]

A class that pretty much swipes Warlock and DK abilities, even to the point of swapping the Blood tanking spec with a blood healing spec would not add diversity to the game.

Sure it would. It works like a Talent system; the more exclusive talents you have available the better you can diverify and customize your build. Same goes with Classes, really.

If you didn't have a Paladin, then Priest would be the only Holy magic user in the game, and that would be a lack of diversity. Same with Warlocks being the only Fel magic user; Demon Hunters diversify that profile and what Warlocks lost with Metamorphosis, they gained with a revamped spec that fulfills their role as a master summoner. Now you have two diverse options to play a Fel-magic user.

[RobertMugabe]

They can spread plague, bestow others the gift of undeath, empower themselves by turning into powerful Liches, and protect themselves from death with phylacteries, raise powerful armies of the dead into powerful monstrosities to help bolster their dark magics or sacrifice them to grant dark boons, as well as draining health from enemies or other allies and redistributing it into themselves, their minions, or allies.

Everything you've listed is what a DK can do (or could do in the past and can do in SL) including turning into a Lichborne.

[Teriz]

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I mean, there isn't that much. His ressources are named soul shards and he has Soul Drain, there isn't any more. The Phylactery could work more like reincarnation or the Priest ability where they turn into a holy spirit and instead of a traditional battle rezz, they could get the DKs old raise allies ability, having a short cooldown mini-battle rezz which basically raises people as Ghouls so that they can do a little bit of damage.

Uh, you mean pretty much exactly what Warlocks do with Soulstone?

And Necromancer adding no diversity is your personal opinion, others disagree and think that a dark themed healer would add something to the game which isn't there yet. Tinkers on the other hand are just another brighter themed heal, so there isn't much of a difference to for example Mistweaver monks.

Except we already have Blood DKs. Do you really think players aren't going to look at a Blood Necromancer and immediately feel like a Blood Necromancer is kind of lazy?

[RobertMugabe]

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All of it still reads like you want a DK that is range and wears cloth.

[matrix123mko]

Just play Unholy DK.

He is melee.

[Teriz]

He is melee.

So in general, necromancer fans just want a ranged DK?

[matrix123mko]

I want a lich form.

Just play Unholy DK.

He is melee.

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All of it still reads like you want a DK that is range and wears cloth.

It would be also nice to have some spammable spells with cast time and delayed AoE spells.

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So in general, necromancer fans just want a ranged DK?

With something else instead of that rune based clunckiness.

[schwank05]

I guess enhancement shamans and balance and resto druids and MW monks can eat shit then?

No, how is that they can do all those things just as 1 class just pick and choose which abilities you want. You could finally be a real battle mage. Or an Enhancement shammy, or resto druid or whatever you can do now just rolled into one class that you pick and choose an abundance of abilities.

[matrix123mko]

I would also add that the Game desperately needs a dark themed healer. There are already multiple darker and brighter themed dps as well as Tanks, but there is not a single Healer with darker themes, all of them are rather bright and either light or nature based.

Which is also why Necromancer would add more diversity to the game than for example Tinkers could. Even if Tinkers would be able to play as healers, with their whole goofy aesthetic they would just be one more rather friendly and bright healer, while Necromancers have the potential to add a dark and more evil healer class.

Dark healer, based on anima and blood, giving allies buffs with downsides would be really awesome.

[schwank05]

Play SW:TOR then. WoW is not that game.

SWTOR is just like wow, but they have never added any classes they didn't need to add.

[Simplejakk]

I’ve mentioned this elsewhere but If I were to make a Necromancer class for WoW it would look something like this. But please forgive the half-finished ideas. This is just off the top of my head:

Class: Necromancer

Armor Type: Cloth

Specializations: Hemomancy (Blood), Reanimation (Bone), Spiritualism (Spirit)

Hemomancy: Ranged DPS role focusing on dealing damage through direct damage spells.

Active Abilities: Blood Bolt, Siphon Blood, Rain of Blood, Blood Pool, Blood Shield, Congeal Blood, Bloodflow, Blood Simulacrum

Passive Abilities: Leech Vitality

Mastery: Improves damage dealt and Leeched Vitality’s leech by X amount.

Descriptions:

Blood Bolt - Basic Nuke like Fireball or Shadowbolt
Siphon Blood - Channeled damage + health drain similar to Drain Life
Rain of Blood - Channeled AoE with no cooldown similar to the original Blizzard spell
Blood Pool - Damage reduction cooldown + movement speed boost similar to Dispersion
Blood Shield - Damage Absorption spell similar to Ice Barrier
Congeal Blood - Channeled cooldown, summons blood droplets that attack the target - similar to Army of the Dead
Bloodflow - Movement ability similar to the Void Dash ability granted to players during the Alliance War Campaign
Blood Simulacrum - Similar effect to Mirror Image
Leech Vitality - passive percentage of leech

Reanimation: Ranged DPS role focusing on dealing damage through a combination of direct damage spells and pets.

Active Abilities: Bone Spike, Siphon Essence, Bone Spray, Essence Transfer, Bone Armor, Animate Patchwerk Horror, Animate Skeletal Archer, Animate Bone Ravager

Passive Abilities: Linked Essence

Mastery: Improves damage dealt, pet damage, and damage reduction from Linked Essence

Descriptions:

Bone Spike - Basic Nuke like Fireball or Shadowbolt
Siphon Essence - Channeled damage + health drain similar to Drain Life
Bone Spray - Channeled Cone aoe damage similar to the Hunter Barrage talent with no cooldown
Essence Transfer - Pet healing ability similar to Health Funnel
Bone Armor - Self only Damage Absorption cooldown similar to Life Cocoon
Animate Patchwerk Horror - Summons a melee focused tanking pet with taunt
Animate Skeletal Archer - Summons a ranged focused dps pet with snare ability
Animate Bone Ravager - Summons a melee focused dps pet with interrupt
Linked Essence - While a pet is summoned, the Necromancer takes X% less damage

Spiritualism: Healing Role that uses a variety of different skills to sustain allies.

Active Abilities: Soul Blast, Spirit Lash, Spirit Drain, Soulmending, Call the Spirit, Call the Souls, Spirit Invigoration, Soul Binding,

Passive Abilities: Spiritual Sustenance

Mastery: Improves damage and healing done

Descriptions:

Soul Blast - Basic Nuke like Fireball or Shadowbolt
Spirit Lash - Direct damage that chains to up to 3 nearby targets, similar to chain lightning, also smart heals up to 3 party members for a percentage of the damage dealt
Spirit Drain - DoT damage similar to Shadow Word: Pain
Soul Mending - Single Target Heal similar to Flash Heal
Call the Spirit - Single Target Resurrection
Call the Souls - Mass Resurrection
Spiritual Invigoration - AoE healing spell similar to Prayer of Healing
Soul Binding - Single target general CC
Spiritual Sustenance - passive ticking heal aura similar to ysera’s gift

This is just a basic idea and yes each spec does have similar stuff from other classes but as a whole I think this concept provides a unique overall class experience. It’s only a pet class as Reanimation Spec and its not super “summon a bunch of dudes” the way Demonology is today. It’s a more mage-like class as Hemomancy spec. And finally unlike mages or warlocks, it has a healing spec. Maybe no one else would, but I’d totally play something like this.

So, you basically want a Warlock that has access to DK abilities and can also be a healer. Glad we could clear that up.

[matrix123mko]

Clothie spellcaster and prune the shit out of Affliction Warlock and Unholy DK to do it.

Especially since unholy is just a rune cooldown extravaganza.

[Alcsaar]

Multiple permanent pets with varying skills and attacks.

For example, a heal spec could potentially utilize undead healers. A DPS spec could utilize undead warriors, casters, and archers. Other options are things like a tank spec that either utilizes a pet to tank or augments the necromancers survivability giving us the possibility of our first cloth based tanking class utilizing a bone armour mechanic for damage reduction.

I'm not personally a fan of "golem" or "amalgamation" style of necromancer pets. Guild Wars 2 is an example of this, the class is basically entirely golem-like amalgamation pets. Not a fan, I want my skeletons alla DAoC Bone dancer.

[kansor]

HAHAHAHAH that's exactly what DK's could do back in wrath.

Great, so bring it back as a necromancer ability.

Also Anima instead of Soul-Shards... WOW, a different name for the same thing and maybe a different colour and boom you have a class that is absolutely not the same as warlock /s

Like I said, lack of imagination. There are endless ways you could take it. Maybe you only get anima only when creatures die, with the ability to sacrifice your undead minions for a temporary anima spike, plus an ability that lets you get a trickle of anima for putting a DOT on yourself or an ally. Maybe certain undead minions like banshees provide you small amounts of anima each time they attack. Maybe different kinds of creatures provide different types of anima when killed or injured, and your Mastery bonus depends on which type of anima you currently have the most of. Maybe you have a certain number of anima orbs that you can use to create undead creatures.

Maybe you have to click to create chains of anima pathways between yourself and your different undead minions, and then your buffs that affect your minions flow through those pathways, with bigger or smaller or divided benefits depending on how far down the chain they are. And so on and so on.

The point is, there are two complaints that get brought up about necromancer: thematic space and mechanical space.

The first complaint is wrong because the themes of blood, frost, unholy, and rune magic give Death Knights a strong thematic and visual identity that will persist even if you pruned Unholy's ghoul pet, army of the dead, etc.

The second complaint is ridiculous, because in a complex game like WOW, which now has only 12 classes and 36 specs, there is endless mechanical space left to explore.

The other thing that gets brought up is "no new class until Blizz can balance all existing classes". But that argument is wrong because Blizzard is never going to be able to do that, and even if they somehow did, it wouldn't last because the game is always changing. They've settled into a maximum ~5% margin of output differential between specs and so you might as well have variety within that.

[matrix123mko]

So, you basically want a Warlock that has access to DK abilities and can also be a healer. Glad we could clear that up.

Warlock healing is my dream.

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People seem tonwant Unholy DK, ranged and in a dress

OR they seem to want Demonology Warlock but deader

+ healer spec.

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The first complaint is wrong because the themes of blood, frost, unholy, and rune magic give Death Knights a strong thematic and visual identity that will persist even if you pruned Unholy's ghoul pet, army of the dead, etc.

Remember that we have plate priests and no one complains.