(Please read the entire post before commenting: "Well I like the class and absolutely nothing about it could be improved to fit the theme more" Also I want to clarify that ALL SUMMONS I TALK ABOUT are temporary ones, since a lot of people on here like to pull the "no more permanent pets" argument.)
Anyone else feel like the necromancer class just isn't.....well, a necromancer? Taken straight from the Elder Scrolls wiki: "Necromancy particularly deals with enslavement and utilization of involuntary souls and their bodies." ".....animation or control of a deceased's flesh or spirit" Now I don't know about you all, but the present necromancer class doesn't feel anything like this.
NOW don't get me wrong, I actually REALLY like how Necromancer plays. However, the thing is, it doesn't /feel/ like a necromancer. It feels like a standard mage class with necromancer ability affects, honestly. The saddest part about the class is the only 4 abilities that scream necromancer are Ghostly Mender, Skeletal mage, grave grasp and Bitter Harvest. And even then the only 2 "summons" the class has aren't real entities and can't even be targeted/have HP. At least to me and what I expect from an Elder Scrolls necromancer, I find it ABSOLUTELY silly that a necromancer class, in the elder scrolls universe, doesn't have any actual "temporary" pets or a skill line about summoning/buffing said pets. Also perhaps the most important thing: They can't summon a SINGLE zombie. The most novice of necromancy and some how you expect me to believe our guy can turn into a big bone dude, yet cant raise a simple corpse and is supposed to be called a necromancer?
Firstly, I honestly feel like the corpse mechanic is cool, but they tried so hard to shove it into anything that doesnt involve summoning when one of the most unique aspects of necromancers in ES was basically standing there in front of them all along. The mechanic should of been about raising temporary undead minions FROM corpses, let's be honest with ourselves here. Obviously with these abilities they'd be able to affect 1 corpse at a time and maybe 2 if a morph allowed multiple summons of the undead creature. Best part is all of you people that complain about pets cluttering the bank or work stations wouldn't have to worry because they can only be summoned via corpses and don't last too long. Also they'd still be against the law ofc.
Though, skill-wise, my only issue is with the living death skill line and /aspects/ of both the gravelord and bone tyrant line. Basically, does anyone else feel like living death would be much better if it were overhauled into a summoning skill line? Remove the healing from necromancer. Honestly, having an entire skill line about healing in a class that is supposed to be about the undead is.....very weird and off-putting and just OBVIOUSLY feels like they were trying to stretch the theme to fit dps, tank, heal. IMO the necromancer should mainly be dps/tank and has the chance to be an "off support"/healer with restoration staff skills/ a few necro ones. Don't get me wrong, they should still have healing abilities. Just less. Give them like, 1 healing spirit and the ability to use that necrotic energy beam thing most npc necromancers have to heal their summons/allies. A morph could even apply a buff.
As for what I'd change about gravelord and bone tyrant? Make the Skeletal mage an ACTUAL temporary pet, requiring a corpse to be summoned. Extend the duration to 30 seconds and obviously remove the fact that it drops a corpse. Remove the tether skill and replace it with something else. (Perhaps a melee skeleton summon) Make Blast Bones an exploding zombie. And remove the grave stones from boneyard, make it more like they're desecrating the ground with dark magic. Also give the gravelord a SUMMONING ultimate of some kind. Perhaps summon a mini colossus to fight for you for a certain amount of time? Could even taunt.
Bone tyrant? Keep ultimate, they kinda have to since the cinematic has it being used. Completely rework the scythe attack, IMO one of the things I loved about ES necromancers is that they were unique and didn't use scythes at all. I have literally never heard of such a thing from any necromancer in any ES game. If they wanna keep it an AoE short range "swipe" attack, go ahead, but please make it not a scythe. I feel like the animation for bone armor is kinda wack, I dont mind this skill, but the way it's animated just makes me hate it. It should like, "stack" onto your body over a second or something instead of just instantly popping up. (Like a skeleton slowly forming together, hopefully you guys can get what I mean) Could be cool. Keep bitter harvest, it's a cool skill. Rework bone totem into an undead summon that basically does a similar thing as the present skill. It could even be turned into a tanky armored skeleton that taunts and provides the aoe buff around it/the fear on enemies. Could be a slow moving temporary mob. Grave grasp is fine, maybe add a morph that causes 2 VERY WEAK melee skeletons to crawl out of the ground after 5 seconds.
Lastly, for the living death, once again I think it should just be full blown replaced with a skill line about either summoning/supporting undead. Give it 2-3 support corpse summons and whatever skills don't summon something from a corpse make it a support skill without direct blatant healing. You'll have your spirits for that. (Unless it's that necromancer beam the npcs have.) The ultimate could be a mixture of both support/summoning or perhaps it could summon powerful support undead to assist you for a limited time.
Over all, this is my mini-idea/how they could make the class more like an ES necromancer and over all what I was expecting when I thought "Man I can't wait to play a necromancer in ESO". What do you guys think?
(I already know some of you are going to say that having this many temporary summon abilities would be "broken", but I feel like if done well, the fact that corpses are REQUIRED to summon anything could make things interesting and not too busted. And they'd be very killable. It would basically make necromancer a "summoner" class, like it should be. It can deal damage on it's own, but it's heavy hitting stuff comes from what it raises from the dead.)
