Necromancer Poll and Survery; My Suggestions

Warhammer: Vermintide 2 Gameplay Feedback
1

I think most people seem to like Necromancer, but some were hoping for more necromancy and summoning while some just didn’t want a Necromancer at all.

For those that have Necromancer, what do you think? Genuinely curious. Please reply and elaborate if necessary.

Do you want changes to Necro, do you like Necro?

  • Necromancer would be perfect with a few tweaks.
  • I don’t enjoy playing Necromancer, not fun; and needs huge changes.
  • Necromancer is perfect as is! How dare anyone say otherwise!
  • More undead and summons, please!
  • Awkward to use, too much micromanaging with the skull.
  • Talents need some changes.
  • Weapons need some changes.
  • Career Ability (Ult) needs some changes.
  • Other changes needed.
0 voters

Here’s a little suggestion survey pick whichever options you think would be fun or improve the Necromancer. I think Necromancer’s overall talent tree and abilities are fine, but the Raise Dead talents at level 30 and the Skull of Command could definitely be improved or reworked. Also, I really like the idea of having a more summoner-centric playstyle as opposed to DPS, and I think summoning staves might be a great way to sacrifice your damage for some extra summoning capabilities.

Undead Summoning Staves

The idea here is that instead of using a fiery staff if you want to play a more supportive role as a summoner, something like these could offer a few extra summons that can take on different roles. How many and their summon duration would depend on the specific stats of each one. In order to have some way of dealing with specials, I think they’d need the summon to like a charged alternate fire and mouse1 would simply fire a weak projectile for staggering/killing specials.
I think besides Sienna’s career ability skeletons, these might be best as much more temporary summons. For example, zombies being slow wouldn’t necessarily be aggressive or fast or do much damage, but they could act as a temporary shield and take some aggro, but not follow the team around.

  • Staff to summon 2-3 zombies at a time (Fodder for taking aggro and staving off enemies)
  • Staff to summon a skeleton (Just like Sienna’s ability skeletons)
  • Staff to summon Cairn Wraiths (DPS / Special Seeker role)
  • Staff to summon Grave Guard (DPS/Tank Role)
  • Staff to summon Ghouls (DPS/Fodder)
  • I don’t like the idea of summoning staves.
  • Other
0 voters

‘Army of the Dead’ Talent Suggestions

Obviously, choosing all the options below would be a bit much, but honestly, I think any one of these options would be an improvement to how it currently works. Personally, I lean towards making the old skellies linger longer than 20 seconds and providing some extra cooldown reduction. Most people seem to agree Army of the Dead is a weaker talent and a bit disappointing.

  • Raise Dead should summon more skeletons, like say, 12 at at time.
  • Double uses of the Raise Dead or something similar to Sister of the Thorn’s Radience granting an extra use every 60 seconds.
  • Skeletons should last longer than 20 seconds after using Raise Dead again.
  • Give Raise Dead extra ability cooldown reduction.
  • ‘Army of the Dead’ is fine as is.
  • Other
0 voters

‘Barrow Blades’ Talent Suggestion

I think skeletons in general could benefit from benefit from a little more health, but if I could I’d try seeing what choosing all three of the options below would do, if done in moderation. Again, I think most people agree this talent is a bit weak.

  • Give the Skeletons better DPS
  • Add a few more skeletons
  • Give them a little more health.
  • ‘Barrow Blades’ is fine as is.
  • Other
0 voters

‘Dread Seneschal’ Talent Suggestion

This is just an idea that I had when I realized that there are more powerful skeletons in Warhammer, that look pretty cool. This is just a cosmetic change, but they do look neat as they are. I think this talent is fine as is

  • Make them look like Grave Guard!
  • Nah.
  • Actually, I think the talent could use some other tweaking…
0 voters

Skull of Command Feedback/Suggestions

I heard an idea that the skull could be equipped on using the ability button, ‘F’ and I like that idea, but I also think having to constantly refresh the attack command is bad design too. They should just continue attacking for some time when the attack is issued instead of resetting after the target is gone. Pick either of the suggestions or feedback options you agree with.

  • Instead of making the Skull of Command tied to the potion slot, equip it by pressing ‘F’, while equipped, pressing ‘F’ will use the Raise Dead Ability when it is ready.
  • Instead of having the attack command expire after the target is gone, have skeletons automatically acquire new nearby targets prioritizing monsters, elites, and specials for for ~20 seconds after using the command.
  • The Skull of Command is awkward to use and needs to be changed.
  • The Skull of Command is fine as is.
  • Other.
0 voters

In summary, (all the weirdness of a Myrmida worshipping Necromancer in the U5 aside) I like Necromancer, but Sienna’s other three careers are fairly DPS-centric, and so is Necromancer which to me feels a bit disappointing so I don’t use her often. I was hoping for more focus on summoning skeletons. As a Necromancer, I feel my role is relegated to being a second-rate Pyromancer who micromanages a pitiful six skeletons. She is okay, but I think some changes are needed.

2 Likes
2

Unique bind for Skull.

A way to spam heal Skeletons, so they don’t instantly die with Conflag. This build has the most potential for a unique playstyle. Would happily take a nerf to damage for this.

As I’ve said in my other feedback, the Skeletons are the only unique part of her, she’s staff spam part 4: different colour fire edition. When the Skeletons die, there’s no difference to playing her other Careers.

Crit melee build works fine for Cata+ (with Barrow Blades- general CDR from meleeing), but I want to use the Skeletons.

It’s the reason I haven’t really bothered filling in my guide for her tbh. I got bored of it quite quickly. Accidentally using a Pot while trying to send Dread Seneschals to stun, and it causing me to get hit is :zzz: .

3

To me, the biggest issue is that she plays like another wiz, but with a measly handful of skeletons I really think this game could benefit from more summons, but as you say, the only unique thing about her playstyle is her skeletons.

Well, if the idea of alternate staves for summoning, perhaps it would help if there was some room to add some alternative talents around summoning like having a chance to create temporary undead on kill.

Wraiths, Ghouls, Zombies, and more skeletons. That’s what I want some way somehow. More diverse summons and more of them.

1 Like
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More summoning would be a bit annoying for other players. Also the they do already good horde tanking, more of them would trivialize any situation.
but summoning maybe 1-2 dps creatures by sacrificing your staff would be ok i guess.

5

The biggest issue with necromancer imo is the lack of focus on summons despite that being the defining feature and identity of being a Necromancer.

There’s a career skill and the talents at 30 and… that’s it. Every other talents and abilities have nothing to do with skeletons. Skeleton summons should be the class’s bread and butter and proper Micro of the skeletons should be mandatory to success with necromancer

1 Like
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Micromanaging just 6 skeletons gets annoying when they’re not there for more than a bit of a distraction and to take aggro, or in some cases to stagger and do a little damage.

I agree that the summoning thing has got to be a bigger part of her kit than it currently is. The only way I see that happening is via more summons and more effective summons.

The current state of things, six skeletons and a damage-dealing staff seems like it would be the extreme DPS fire-focused version of a necromancer build. I would’ve imagined there would be at least one staff that could add to your summons or some talent to increase summons or that there would be more than just skeletons and just 6 at that. I’ve personally never found the skeletons to be that annoying, but surely anyone can see their utility is worth whatever minor visual disruption they cause when they rush past. I’d be ecstatic if they actually made Army of the Dead worth using by giving it some kind of buff to the cooldown and increasing the duration of the leftover skeletons even if they never add any other types of undead allies to summon. I don’t think more summons would be OP if you’re sacrificing some damage and those factors can be controlled for via their duration, damage, health, and behavior.

7

Alternatively, her talents goes between summoning 1-2 elite skeletons, an army of weaker skeletons, and a third one that keeps the current amount but boosts them in another way.

1 Like
8

As i said if there would be a staff to summon 1-2 elite creatures that would be nice. Or for a short time a larger army like intended with “army of dead” (but sadly the talent doesnt really work in a useful way). But overall i am fine with it and bumbing them permanently is imo not necessary.

9

Barrow blade is nigh-mandatory if you want to use the soulsteal staff. I don’t choose it for the DPS (although that’s not too bad either), I choose it to apply the curse of Nagash.
I’ve complained a bit about the fact that the restricted staff is the worst for her, synergy wise (it would be fine if it applied fire DOT more and more easily).

10

I actually quite like Necromancer how it is atm, honestly might be my new favourite class :sweat_smile:

11

That’s a good point, and even with Barrow Blades, Curse of Nagash isn’t applied as often as with, say Fireball Staff, and if you wanted the ability to snipe enemies, I think many would argue that Bolt Staff is more effective since it’s fairly easy to aim and you can throw around 4-6 fully charged bolts that one-shot all specials and black rats whereas the Soulstealer Staff will only get about 3-4 bursts, and at least the Bolt Staff will apply the Nagash curse.

Perhaps if a talent or weapon trait granted Soulstealer the ability to light nearby enemies on fire after a killing burst could help.

12

As you are someone who likes Necromancer, are you happy with the Army of the Dead talent?

Many find it to be the least useful of the three end talents by far. I haven’t played Necromancer in the Chaos Wastes yet, but it’s not hard to stack cooldown reduction boons, so I would imagine it might get better use there.

1 Like
13

I agree with everything you said, especially the issue of a staff that summons zombies, that would be really cool.
but I had a balancing idea that I made on the same day that the Siena class was launched… as I already did, I’ll send the link

14

I don’t use army of the dead, I prefer to use barrow blades myself, but I can see how it might be underwhelming and inferior to the other two talents. Haven’t used her in chaos wastes yet, as I only really play CW when my friends or online, so maybe it’s useful there? A fun gimmick at most, could maybe use a tweak.

I’ve found a set of talents that work for me and don’t really stray from them: 1,3,2,2,1,2

Happy to answer any more questions if you have them :smiley: