Necromancers: the worst designed enemy in game

Necros are definitely annoying, but they're far from impossible. I once ran into Sawbones with 2 magic necros with a shit ton of magic skeleton casters around me. It took me quite a while, but I managed.

But to make them less annoying, one thing that they need to change is don't allow necros to just walk into another room. That is the mostly annoying thing about them. That's how I ran into the tri-necro bullshit. THIS SHOULD NOT HAPPEN!

Also, your idea of having the summons dying with the necros sounds like a really cool idea.

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KoTao wrote:

- Removing the unlimited mana.

I second this (but not most of the other points). I like how monster npcs basically have their respective passive trees and would love to see this brought to the next level. Make monster summoners have the whole advantages (check) and disadvantages (nope) that players have.

The introduction of a resource system that could simulate player mana behaviour would be just great. Why not make them have a maximum number of corpses raised at the same time, like the player's summon zombie skill? It is great that the monsters get resurrected, though but the skill could behave exactly like a player skill. They would recast the summons, as soon as they died, but could not have more than 3-10 or how many of those the passive skill tree could warrant.

Also, give them totems! How awesome would it be, if they could get around their own mana issues by summoning a totem, that you could kill yourself? Balancing totems would become so much easier that way as well.

So many options and I would love it if monster npcs could feel like actual player characters.

I agree that the necromancers need a little tuning. It's not fun or challenging to fight them when all they do is spam their resurrection spell over and over again. I feel like they should either have some other spells to use if you get closer to them instead of just always running away and then spamming their resurrect yet again. Also...personal preference and please understand I'm not asking for nerfs to make the game easier but it seems like the necros have a bit more health than they should. Add to the fact that they spam their resurrect a lot (kinda like how I spammed that point :p ) they become an exercise in frustration and tedium.

They'd be a little more balanced if they had a bit of a cooldown on their resurrect spell and again had other abilities to use if you get close to them, or try to lead enemies away from them to kill them out of sight of their resurrect skill. They just seem a bit too much like one-trick-ponies to me.

I played the game when it didn't have Necros. Trust me, having Necros is more challenging/interesting than not having them.

They could use some expansion - I would like to see them do other things besides hide in a corner or resurrect undead - but I don't know how much GGG would oppose to giving Necromancers additional skills and abilities.

how about this: when a player cant kill the necromancer for some time, the necromancer will buff/transform all the skeletons under his control to Berserkers that have additional speed, attack speed and casting speed, but explode when killed (alternatively, he could change them to the suicide bomber type of monster, which also helps when the necro is a rare and has allies cant die aura).

this way, the last wave of monsters will be particularly dangerous but wont ressurect anymore. the last wave could also grant experience.


i think a cool skill necromancers could use would be something like brutus hook - maybe a reversed lightning warp that grabs you and ports you on top of the necro after a short delay.

I do like the way the pack leader mobs in the game work in general. Gorillas with their monkey hordes and frenzy buffs, sea witches with their spawn and curses. I would like to see these buffed in some way as well to make them scarier as packs that are really out to get you.

I would definitely like to see necros gain a more interesting and stronger pack leader role. Maybe even allow them to raise undead with an area spell that is slightly slower to cast and has a decent cooldown, during which they could be doing something more interesting. Something directly offensive towards the players, or organizing/buffing the freshy raised undead pack in some way. An example would be a necro coming in to cast an AoE resurrection which at the same time buffs the pack with several seconds of faster actions etc. The necro would then direct them to attack more aggressively and with determination together as a single entity. I'd like that much more than the current resurrect spam and aimless gliding/fleeing they do.

I'd also like to see necros who find themselves without undead to raise to change their behaviour when they feel threatened. Maybe transform (like Merveil) into a second more offensive form.

Right now it's all about the "empty vessels" popping up on the playing field blocking you which you may have to mow down several times in order to get to the pussy necro. I think the only somewhat challenging necro occurence right now is if it's a rare tank necro with haste and/or damage aura resurrecting bone rhoas. But even then you can completely skip these challenges with a press of an extra button after each kill (detonate dead etc.)

My only gripe regarding necromancers is that their minions do not award experience or loot upon subsequent deaths. This is, imo, a significant problem because they are one of the few enemies that continue to provide engaging and fun challenges throughout the entire game, yet when it comes to time vs. reward, there is no incentive to fight them. Consider a challenging scenario where you have to clear a room 10+ times to reach a pack of three necros.. Could be very fun to defeat the encounter, but you gain 1 room worth of experience and loot for 10x the grind.

I can understand why; GGG doesn't want necromancers to facilitate endless grinding on a single pack. But.. it's still a bummer, grinding through a hard pack for thirty minutes.

I like the way they behave differently to other pack leaders, since they hardly are "leaders".

They lurk in the shadows and play foul tricks with unfortunate trespassers, that's unique to PoE!

The only thing appealing to me is to get rid of their endless mana.

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gh0un wrote:

My opinion? You didnt try hard enough to figure out how to best deal with necros with your build.
There are so many ways to go about making necros useless, its not even funny anymore.

I agree. There is a few ways to handle necros. The most popular strategies involve temporal chains, decoy totem or some cold based skill. It's just a matter of learning how to counter them effectively + some tactics.

If the situation is really hopeless (couple of necros surrounded by tons of danger mobs) one can always lure the summons in small packs and down them nearby.

Just kill the necro and its' undead minions.

Not that hard, bro.