Take a moment to imagine the stereotypical necromancer... What do you see?
For me, i see:
Someone in tattered black cloth robes, Kind of skeletal and old in appearance, symbolizing a kind of.. Closeness to death... Hidden away in a cave away from a society who find the practice abhorrent. In his hiding, he learns, experiments, studies, creates his necromantic craft. His lair is guarded by the living dead; while in the depths, he conducts his most abhorrent experiments (i'm imagining something like the tupilak).
When he fights, he stays at a distance, commanding his undead creations to attack. He is a mastermind you see; he isn't build for close quarters.. He is frail... Using his intelligence and strategy and his control over the living dead. He may also use dark magic that aligns with disease and plague.
But MO2's necromancer gets something VERY wrong with their class fantasy:
So how does the necromancer end up playing in MO2?.. They are someone who is agile, and fights in close quarters... All of their spells are VERY short range... They don't even bother with summoning zombies, and just spam death hand. They're basically just a melee vampire. It just doesn't fit the stereotype at all.
But there is ONE spell that truly ruins the necromancer class fantasy more than all the others, and that is :
Command Undead
This spell is what completely spoils the necromancer fantasy more than all the others; and it is due to the tiny range of 1500.
Just to put that in perspective; Death Hand, a skill considered melee range, is 300.
Spells many would consider mid range are: thunderlash, fulmination and lightning; which are in the 2200-2400 range.
Long range spells would be things like mental projectile and outburst, of which are in the 4000-4500 range.
So for a visual:
_ 0 No Range
I
_ 300 Death hand / Melee range
I
I
I
I
_ 1500 Command Undead (close range)
I
I
I
_ 2400 Thunderlash (mid-range)
I
I
_ 3000 Spurt
I
I
I
_ 4000 Outburst
I
_ 4500 Mental Projectile (max range hitscan)
It is quite literally, just very slightly over halfway to mid-range.... In a game like Mortal, do you understand how small that range is? You quite literally cannot avoid pulling aggro from a PVE mob to cast it; that is how close range it is.
How is the stereotypical necromancer class fantasy, the frail reclusive mastermind in the tattered black robes, supposed to survive in that range???
It just doesn't work. It feels completely wrong; and leads to a playstyle that doesn't fit.
Necromancy should be reworked into a more ranged magic school; and that includes death hand. Death hand should do a fraction of the damage and healing, and should be a long range mini-drain that you can quick fire.. Not this close range nuke... It just doesn't fit the fantasy guys; you need to rework the numbers on this one, and really think about what a necromancer should be.
Also.. Having instantly commanded zombies really spoils the roleplay element of the necromancer.. Having to hide away and set up your zombies.. And it also results in less zombies overall, because of the mana drain. Just put in a spell to cancel all zombies, and remove the timer. Have the zombies automatically stop chasing if they move too far from the caster, so you can't just forever set them on someone without saying in range... But most importantly FIX COMMAND UNDEAD'S RANGE.
For me, i see:
Someone in tattered black cloth robes, Kind of skeletal and old in appearance, symbolizing a kind of.. Closeness to death... Hidden away in a cave away from a society who find the practice abhorrent. In his hiding, he learns, experiments, studies, creates his necromantic craft. His lair is guarded by the living dead; while in the depths, he conducts his most abhorrent experiments (i'm imagining something like the tupilak).
When he fights, he stays at a distance, commanding his undead creations to attack. He is a mastermind you see; he isn't build for close quarters.. He is frail... Using his intelligence and strategy and his control over the living dead. He may also use dark magic that aligns with disease and plague.
But MO2's necromancer gets something VERY wrong with their class fantasy:
So how does the necromancer end up playing in MO2?.. They are someone who is agile, and fights in close quarters... All of their spells are VERY short range... They don't even bother with summoning zombies, and just spam death hand. They're basically just a melee vampire. It just doesn't fit the stereotype at all.
But there is ONE spell that truly ruins the necromancer class fantasy more than all the others, and that is :
Command Undead
This spell is what completely spoils the necromancer fantasy more than all the others; and it is due to the tiny range of 1500.
Just to put that in perspective; Death Hand, a skill considered melee range, is 300.
Spells many would consider mid range are: thunderlash, fulmination and lightning; which are in the 2200-2400 range.
Long range spells would be things like mental projectile and outburst, of which are in the 4000-4500 range.
So for a visual:
_ 0 No Range
I
_ 300 Death hand / Melee range
I
I
I
I
_ 1500 Command Undead (close range)
I
I
I
_ 2400 Thunderlash (mid-range)
I
I
_ 3000 Spurt
I
I
I
_ 4000 Outburst
I
_ 4500 Mental Projectile (max range hitscan)
It is quite literally, just very slightly over halfway to mid-range.... In a game like Mortal, do you understand how small that range is? You quite literally cannot avoid pulling aggro from a PVE mob to cast it; that is how close range it is.
How is the stereotypical necromancer class fantasy, the frail reclusive mastermind in the tattered black robes, supposed to survive in that range???
It just doesn't work. It feels completely wrong; and leads to a playstyle that doesn't fit.
Necromancy should be reworked into a more ranged magic school; and that includes death hand. Death hand should do a fraction of the damage and healing, and should be a long range mini-drain that you can quick fire.. Not this close range nuke... It just doesn't fit the fantasy guys; you need to rework the numbers on this one, and really think about what a necromancer should be.
Also.. Having instantly commanded zombies really spoils the roleplay element of the necromancer.. Having to hide away and set up your zombies.. And it also results in less zombies overall, because of the mana drain. Just put in a spell to cancel all zombies, and remove the timer. Have the zombies automatically stop chasing if they move too far from the caster, so you can't just forever set them on someone without saying in range... But most importantly FIX COMMAND UNDEAD'S RANGE.
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