The state of Necromancer

#1 - May 15, 2013, 3:25 p.m.
Blizzard Post

Necromancers right now are a realy rare sight in tpvp, and that has good reasons.
The main reaons is that Necromancer doesnt do anything better than any other class, the key role of Condition pressure in teamfights is already taken by the HGH engi, who does alot better at it. Also Necromancers have no way to mitigate dmg or disengage and are tehrefore the first taregt in every fight if positioning allows it, but here engineer is again better cause of bigger range and access to swiftness in a viable build.

A short breakdown of this misery:

Classes with no access to invulnerability:
-Necromancer
-Thief (but stealth breaks targeting, so still in a better spot)
(-Warrior)
(-Ranger)

Classes with no access to vigor:
-Necromancer

Classes with no disengage mechanic on their weaponsets:
-Necromancer
-Engineer

Classes with no access to swiftness in viable builds:
-Necromancer
-Thief

Classes with no Block/Evade skills:
-Necromancer

Classes that can’t prevent being stomped:
-Necromancer
-Engineer
-Guardian
-Ranger
-Warrior

Well we do ahve a 2nd HP-bar, which seems to balance this all out…………
But even if it owuld balance this out, it’s at 0% at start, you can exploit it to around 20% in some builds if you are fast and ahve the right trait allocation and dont plan on using fleshgolem or SPectral walk (switch to knights amulett, and teh trait that gives lifeforce on use of spectral skills, activate spectralwak, replace spectralwalk by the skill you realy want to take, summon fleshgolem, switch fleshgolem to the elite you realy want to use, change the spectral trait to teh trait you realy want to use and then switch the amulett ot teh amulett you realy want to use…)
So do realy have a 2nd healthbar you have to win the first fight (which you have to do anyway when you bring a necro or he will just be trained down and you lose the game), but with 0 survivability that is not teh easiest thing to do.

#129 - May 20, 2013, 12:27 p.m.
Blizzard Post

Hey all! Just wanted to say thanks for keeping this thread so positive and constructive. The balance guys and I are watching this thread, and we’ve really enjoyed some of the ideas you guys are putting out.

So you know (history lesson incoming): There was a time in balance when Necromancers were the apex class for mulitple specs in the game. They were the best tanks (death shroud building + wells giving protection, while also wiping condies), had some of the best mobility (their old Death Shround #2 was a ground targeted teleport!) and they had insane damage/boon ripping with Axe-based bunker killing hybrid builds.

So while we do want to help the Necro to see more play in competitive builds (both in variety of roles and variety of builds), we are being very careful not to give them too much. We will be adjusting them just like all the other classes, and I just wanted to let you guys know we ARE watching threads like this.

The same can be said for Warriors in TPvP, non shortbow-based Thieves, different specs for Engi that are weak, etc. etc. We want all classes to have multiple options, so that’s what we’ll be looking for in upcoming balance changes. This will happen through number adjustments (the multipliers on specific skills), through skill “toolbox” adjustments (like we did with S/D Thief removing boons) and through trait adjustments (Warrior changes to counter condies + boons).

And as always, we don’t want to do crazy increases followed by large decreases. We are employing metered changes as opposed to a ‘whack-a-mole’ approach.

Sorry for no response until now, been out of the office a few weeks to see family.

-Chap

#132 - May 20, 2013, 1:04 p.m.
Blizzard Post

Hey, Jon, will this month’s patch bring balance changes? I believe some dev has mentioned that they might wait a bit longer to let the meta settle, while changes to underused builds are being worked on, and I wonder if this means we might get one month without balance changes or not.

This month will be focused on bug fixes, with balance coming in later patches!