Summon Necromancer needs a serious buff

Necromancer
1

Dear Blizzard/Developers!

I need your help please! Pleaseeeeeee buff my (our) beloved summoner spec necromancer.

I have reached endgame (nightmare dungeons) on my summoner necromancer and it feels terrible. It is “playable”, but it is complete lackluster (yes, even after the buffs). I am no where near a pro-player but I have my moments. I still would like to play endgame with the class-fantasy provided for us: minions.

I mean, I am really confused here. Considering this suppose to be THE CLASS that fights along side with its minions as you literally put a lot of development time to have it worked out. Skills, items, paragons, etc. You made the necromancer for people like me, who likes the minion play-style. I made this character in hope that it will be all right at least, but its not. So again, I am confused. Why design a class especially from previous games having a class-fantasy that is literally unable to play endgame ? So the main aspect of this class is wasted. Its okay we have viable builds, but if I wanted to play a caster I would play sorc… Don’t get me wrong spirit bomb and bone spear builds are cool too, don’t destroy them, just give our main class fantasy aspect a bit of love (a lot actually).

I am level 71 and I can do most nightmare dungeons around 22-25. But its a real pain. Its really-really hard. Sometimes I even fail them as there is a room with elites that is literally impossible to kill due to the lack of damage, survivability, and “minion AI”.

I have seen videos with other necro specs and other classes and there damage and overall power is light-years ahead of us. Some necromancer build is capable of critting around 2-3millions at level 70-80. My numbers are a joke compared to this, examples below.

Here is some information about my character. Maybe its just me and “I forgot to put on an item, or I am using the wrong paragon board”, who knows, but… :

  • I am level 71 summoner “hybrid-bone spear” necromancer but my focus is on summons.
  • I have most minion legendary power - damage, mitigation, attack speed, +skeletons (melee and mage), I even have the blizzard for mages.
  • I have good items, having the proper rolls mostly. I have a strong weapon its 800 item power upgraded to 5/5 with good rolls.
  • My paragon is focused around minions trees. I have mages, warriors, and the golem covered. I even use runes to empower my minions.
  • I am fully gemmed, and I tried to buff my gear as high as possible so far.
  • Not going to share a specific build for now, as I have tried a lot, since nothing seems to solve the problems, except when you use bone spear/spirit even on the minion build… Well its not a real solution either, as we don’t have full support for these abilities on this build.

So the point is, I have literally everything that supports minions to be a power-house, but instead its still feels useless, miserably underpowered in the endgame.

Issues with minions:

- Lack of survivability
This is pretty much okay until you start doing nightmare dungeons. Even word bosses are cool. But once you start fighting a group of mobs that are a bit nasty, survivability of the skeletons becoming a real problem even having them constantly healed by the priest.
Dots and area attacks are also really-really bad. (don’t forget they are dumb too to avoid these…)

- Lack of damage:
My skeleton warriors hits about 700-2k, mages are like 3.5-5k, and golem is 1-4k, so its nowhere near millions or ever hundredKs overall.
Something like: 6x2k + 6x5k + golem 4k (these are the maximum values - in reality its much less). Somewhere up to 45k/sec on single target. The reality feels more like 20-25k/sec.
Lets say the boon spirit necro needs to fill up there bomb for 20 secs on a boss so there dps is 3m/20 = that is still 150k. I think they don’t need 20 sec tho, but the difference is pretty stupid.
This is just single target, on multi-target minions are simply terrible as there damage is spread.

- Terrible minion “AI”
This a hugeeee problem → Minions are too dumbdumb to do there job: terminate opponents.
This problem peeks at affixes combined with certain mob types. For example anything with a bubble. Mages are just standing and shooting at the bubble… Warriors get melee range but gets terminated soon regardless of constant healing from the priest.

Golem is superdumbdumb. Sometimes it just wandering around hits a mob once or twice, then it goes to another one…

Possible solutions:

- for surv increase the base mitigation against all source of damage by ~25%-35% or so, and then have all the modifiers from all source applied. And have the priest healing frequency from 5 sec to 2.5 sec. So it should tick twice for the priest buff duration.

- for damage give us a flat triple, or even more on every number from our minions. Yes that means +200% to all damage numbers. To achieve this there are multiple ways… one would be to have them inherit our damage modifiers 100%, not 30%… attack speed, crit chance and crit damage, everything. Another way is to add flat increase on there base damage. First one is better because it scales with gear, or maybe combine the too(?) The end result should be 200% (or more) damage increase. We would like to see 3 times bigger numbers on the screen please.

Another solution for this to increase numbers a bit less, but have all attack to be aoe somehow. Just idea don’t know… We still need better dps on bosses, so try to balance out somehow.

- for “AI” it would be the best if we could focus the summons damage on a mob somehow, with curses maybe, I don’t know. But overall make them more protective on us and also be able to go behind bubble etc… Work it out please.

Well that is all for now folks, my overall intention with this post is to have a fun and proper necromancer who uses there minions. I don’t want to be overpowered I just want to be able to play the end game properly.

For people reading this, please share your thoughts, also post your ideas if you have any.
For blizzard, please buff us, make us the necromancer we are suppose to be, PLEASEEEEEEEEEE.

36 Likes
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I just got here to write exactly what you did and I can just approve this so much.

I’m at the same point, level 70 summoner, getting along - somehow. It just is such a pain to fight elites with certain affixes or watch how other builds fly through the game in comparison.
For example fire enhanced elites just melt through minions no matter how many survivability there is from paragon etc. while full spamming heal. I found myself stuck perma casting minions and not being able to keep up so often. And After all of this, main damage source still was bone spear and corpse explosion.
Very often the minions are just a bad meat shield which also doesn’t work reliable because some elites or adds just full on ignore every minion and chase you down.

I was kinda fed up and switched to bone spear and I just can’t believe how weak the minion damage is. Suddenly 1-2 shotting elites that were a big fight on summoner while still having some minion legendary affixes and gear on.

All in all, minion damage and survivability is just pathetic. Mostly against elementary damage they don’t stand any chance. Capping the maximum damage taken at 30% doesn’t do anything when there are like 3-5 >30% damage hits per second.

6 Likes
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I’m for, I’m on world rank 3 where I have exactly the same as you. Everything packed into minions, all dps… And minions beat less than me with bone spear ;x (where I don;t have any dps mods for it, I put all in minions ALL!!!)…

Also minions should have some passiv reduction (it self, not on our tree, it should be in minions at all) and reduce something around 30-40% aoe dps.

It’s so sad, that other classes are much more funny and have more dps than summoner. And If i have to do “spellcaster” build, I think i prefer wizzard, or if I have to do browler build, I think i’ll go with barb not necro. He should be and stay summoner!

5 Likes
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i agree im full legendary etc and my minions get wiped on nightmare bosses instantly and theres rarely many corpses to ressurect so im running in circles waiting for one corpse lol then il die

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Dude I have all in minions, death armmy which resurect my sekls. Dps/hp/resists for minions. And they still die faster than anything else… And has 0 dps!!! Waste of time ;x

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Minions are a utility, why would you want them to be the DPS? The game would practically be playing itself :man_facepalming:t3:

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The summoner archetype is not an archetype fighting for itself, it’s 1. Secondly, why throw in the minions when you can just leave the book of the dead as a passive aspect to choose from???
If there is a skill available, it means that you can build a build around it. And if you can’t, does that mean it’s not needed? After all, there’s no accounting for tastes. And I think I can ask you the same question. Why play Bone spear when you can make a wizzard and play wizzard?

I haven’t come across such a senseless comment even on Reddit.

I don’t know if you’re just here to troll, but I see another pointless post from you (with all due respect). The fact that you like to eat meat does not mean that I will forbid you to eat it or limit your access to it… Because you can eat vegetables and you will be healthier. Build for summons does not mean that the game plays itself. You can make interesting mechanics, but you need to have predispositions that we don’t have.

2 Likes
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I think you have just completely missed the point of my post, not only flown right over your head but you have responded with irrelevant rants that are all over the place… It’s clear your the probable troll here.

Edit: It’s clear that the developers have decided that the precedent in other games of pumping all of your power into an attack that has near enough full automation is not their vision for the Necromancer in Diablo 4. I’ve afk’d several times and my minions have cleared a room in my absence, that is not how the game should be played. If you look at the skills minions have, their aspects, and their unique powers they are clearly intended to be used as utility to support your character, not kill everything in the room while you press 1 button then check for updates on reddit.

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it’s not a utility if you’re a summoner class! This should be one of the core resources for this class. And one of the builds that most necro players fight for. In order to create interesting (like other classes) builds. And that’s what the game is based on.

Now take the barb’s or wizard’s passive and just give them an extra window for an extra spell. And we’ll see if they’re as strong.

@editif you have the ability to summon summons, but you can’t do it because you take a passive skill, and at the same time you limit the ability to generate resources, then I’m sorry but someone designing the class probably forgot something. Because you get little at a high cost. And even playing a different build than summoner, facing the decision to have essences/corpses and you take summons that are supposed to give you that, but they either die quickly or the AI ​​makes them ineffective, you lose 2x more than other classes! Because you have something that doesn’t work!

8 Likes
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It’s fine, stop trying to play the game like Diablo 3 and you will have a better experience.

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The problem with you is that you’re selfish. I have enough empathy and understanding for you. If you can’t put yourself in someone else’s shoes, I’ll be that person and be lenient with you.

So I’m sorry but for now I’ll just ignore you

8 Likes
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Yes, it was me who designed the Necromancer over the last 5 years, I designed it exactly how I want it to be. I never seen what was on the table and adapted to it according, and this makes me selfish.

I don’t care what you do, you have no power here or over me :joy: get that ego in check.

1 Like
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I dont need minions to kill everything in the room solo.
But I do want them to have better survivability than they do now.

I dont need high DPS from them. I just dont want them to die all the time.

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My minions still clear the room with me going afk, even against big boi bosses. If you build the necro the right way the minions are still incredibly OP. I combine curse, minion, shadow and i even have amazing burst and resource management in it.

So i am actually surprised people are crying about it.

1 Like
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This isn’t a competitive game.
Just give minions a huge buff and if it turns out to be OP you can scale it down little by little.

Necromancers aren’t Occultist or Shadowcasters, the whole point is to have an army of the dead.

Why is my core skill doing 40-50% of my total damage when I’m minion specc?
Give us a legendary that reduces the damage from our core skill to zero but gives big buff to minions for X seconds when it hits.

As a minion player my job should be to debuff enemies and buff minions, not to do damage.

7 Likes
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Make a video in tier 4 and let see it then

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I would want to see that… There is no video or streamer with a minion build focus that is reliable in a tier 25+ dungeon. Please share your build/gear/paragon board with us

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I think there are more answers for this. For some people, - like me I just like the play style. I like the idea that my army is owning the place. But yeah this is not for everybody, as most things is life.

Reading further… I agree with you on most things. It would be the best probably if we could use the “A” button as an attack, like this is already done in Last Epoch. You are right, minions are support right now, nothing more or less then that. Minion build is playable until nightmare dungeon ~tier25 or so, but after then the mages are generating resource/slowing/freezing, and the reapers are giving me endless corpses. The golem is still superdumbdumb, but hes a good meat-shield (I use blood with 15% mitigation). I have about 70-80% (above 3/3 Death’s Defense) damage mitigation on my army, they survive most of the time even on tier45. But… there damage has become almost nonexistent. I think for now this is probably the closest minion necro build we can get “working”.

I still really love to have a more minion oriented build where I am not forced to migrate my build to either boon spirit or boon spear…

1 Like
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100% agree. I tried to play summoner up to level 50 (combined with bone spear), and if at the beginning it was not bad, then over time I began to realize that I have no damage at all, each dungeon has to be completed for a long time. And although minions were often a good distraction on bosses, the rest of the time it was a pain. As soon as I gave up minions (and changed the build), it became much easier to play.

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- Lack of survivability
This is pretty much okay until you start doing nightmare dungeons. Even word bosses are cool. But once you start fighting a group of mobs that are a bit nasty, survivability of the skeletons becoming a real problem even having them constantly healed by the priest.
Dots and area attacks are also really-really bad. (don’t forget they are dumb too to avoid these…)

I found a easy solution for this and it’s not quite obvious.

When we have all Skellies alive we can press the “Raise Skeleton” Skill again to buff our Minions dmg 20% and heal them for 10% or 70% with the passive after 5 seconds.

I think most people including me think that u need to let this buff run out so the heal triggers and you buff them again. THIS IS NOT THE CASE. Actually the Dmg buff and the heal buff are seperated, if u press the button “Raise Skeleton” again the dmg buff will get refreshed but!!! the Heal buff won’t. The heal buff keeps it’s timer.

For example if u press the Buff (5s duration) and press it again after half it’s duration (2,5s) the dmg buff will be refreshed to it’s full 100% 5s duration, but u will 2 Heal Timers active running 1. with 2,5s till heal and 2. with 5s to heal. So if u simply spam that buff every 0,5s your minions will get healed 70% every 0,5s.

1 Like