Leechstorm.

Temellin

*Gnomalicious*
The Necromancer AA PBAoE Lifetap, Leechstorm, has been discussed many times. The general agreement is that it is not very useful, that any role it would play is replaced by the other lifetap AA (Recession) that does more damage (1510 points versus 715 points, which means basically if Leechstorm is going to heal for the same amount it has to hit 3 targets) is less situational, and is unresistable (Meaning recession will always land, but Leechstorm will not), and that players would like to see it changed to something useful.

So, I suggest that it be changed to a pet-utility AA similar to either:
A) Frenzied Burnout (The Magician AA that "Allows you to cast a spell upon your pet that will cause it to go beserk, doing increased damage.") or Spirit Steed (The Beastlord AA that "grants your pet a 25% over-cap haste that stacks with nearly all other kinds of haste.") To be specific, I think it should be changed to an AA that gives necromancers the ability to have their pets do more damage or gain some additional haste. This would not be out of line based on the AAs that the other pet-oriented classes have to strengthen their minions.
or
B) Elemental Mastery (The Magician AA that "Will allow your pet to gain the full advantage from AA abilities that affect your ability to hit and be hit in combat, as well as score critical blasts with spells.") It could be changed to an AA that follows this same design to allow for the necromancer's minion to do better in combat, this would allow the pets to be more useful, hit more often, and not die as swiftly on raids and in groups.

Or Alternatively C) Change it to a unique AA that improves the survivability of the necromancer's minion, by increasing the damage done/health healed by their lifetap procs, by increasing their saves, by giving them the chance to dodge/mitigate spells, or by simply increasing their health/mitigation.
 
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I agree that the AA is usless (my opinion) and I never bother with it. its on my "oh shit" 2nd page and never gets used unless my finger slips and hits the key.
Normally I dont have problems with the pet unless im two boxing and dont pay enough attention but besides that I wouldnt mind seeing the AA changed to something that would give the pet slightly more HP or mitigation, a life tap for it would be nice and lastly maybe higher attack rating. None of those need to be large increases, something moderate would be just fine.
These are just my opinions from botting a necro. Im sure you full time neecros have better ideas.
 
The worst part of Leach storm in my opinion is using it and then you may not use it again for such a long re use time.

Considering the necromancer relic pet's lifetap combat proc is so little an increase to this would be pretty nice but i'm not sure on overpowering issues. Eitherway i'm all for anything to make this more useful
 
I would like to see it changed to something along the lines of an ultimate blast for DoT spells, something that would say, cause each tick of the dot to critical for its duration and max out mob weakening for the duration of the dot.
 
I would like to see it changed to something along the lines of an ultimate blast for DoT spells, something that would say, cause each tick of the dot to critical for its duration and max out mob weakening for the duration of the dot.

Can we at least try and be realistic this time around?
 
What about a Gate type spell that summons a random powerful Demonic pet that acts about the same as a charmed pet. (IE. it will fight for its master for a random duration, then break free and attempt to kill it).

Some random ideas for pets:

Succubus: Medium damage, low HP, high resists, pulsed AE mez.

Balor: High damage, high HP, low resists, rampage.

Dreadknight: Low damage, high HP, agro proc, pulsed AE fear.

Banshee: Medium damage, low HP, low AE damage.
 
Change it to be a FD other type effect w/ a 30 minute re-use imo.

We have that there is no need for an aa.

Also I don't know about Jose's suggestion considering that would probably take a lot of work and would seem not as much worthy considering necros have the aa pets already.

Something Zorlaft said really doesn't seem to over powering to me. Just give a dot the chance to do say 4x it's regular amount ish and make it about as often as a wizard primal landing. could be

"Soandso's spell strikes a central nerve deep inside"
 
I didn't wanna post here so that this doesn't get ignored but with everyone & anyone bringing his 2cps...
First, I'm all with changing this AA if it isn't made more powerful and really unresistible (at least get the classical -200 adjust all lifetaps have except Tarztu's servant for some reason and maybe some others)

1) to Stope if I get it right, changing the reuse timer isn't an option

2) to Jose I doubt this is really feasible and anyway would be hard to implement if it doesn't depop à la swarmpet. But I kinda remember one of the ideas from long ago where Wiz wanted to replace some AAs ; like he wanted a summoned banshee that could keep a mob mezzed for about 1mn (really don't remember well) , but iirc it was a replacement for Festering Curse, that I'm sure no necro would like to see disappear. It could be interesting instead Leechstorm from my point of view and if it's still an option, unless there are other settings that have to be respected for this AA (must be PBAE like leechstorm ?)

3) If it should be a pet thingie like Temellin suggested, I would tend towards temporary pet survability (saves, +lifetapdmg, mitigation/dodge whatever).
 
I'd like to bring the idea of some consecrate-esque thing back into the discussion. I am all for making our pets a little better via mitigation/avoidance/resists, etc. but I wouldn't mind some anti-undead AA with longish reuse timer either.

1.7k base dmg, PBAE, crittable - any ideas/comments?
 
I think necros should shy away from being a "pet class" our pets are pretty good but we don't need as many pet AA's as mages do

I think my original suggestion wouldn't be overpowered, maybe if it just had each tick critical and not max weaken it would be a little more reasonable, although I'm not sure if it can be changed to something that is passive and not active.

If it has to be a clicky, I would go along the lines of something like a 4 tick -350hp +125 mana per tick conversion, something that would cause your next dot casts to hit 3 targets instead of just 1, or a temporary pet buff (its hard to get away from these lol) that drains large amounts of health, say +750 hp/tick, +100 atk, and a 200 damage proc that heals the group for 100 when it lands, that lasts for 6 ticks and drains 2000 health from the necro.

i think any of these would be more in character for a necro, provide one of several things necromancers are lacking in and wouldn't be overpowered with the right balancing.
 
Woah I thought the dot crit/weakening thing you mentioned was active & temporary...no way it's passive!
Otherwise not sure another conversion is needed and the temporary pet buff with a 1h+ timer doesn't sound very appealing to me.
i think any of these would be more in character for a necro, provide one of several things necromancers are lacking in and wouldn't be overpowered with the right balancing.
Luas's undead PBAE suggestion fits right in here.
 
Increased pet survivability is an okay idea. The +lifetap suggestion of Temellin's was, imho, the best suggestion in the initial post because it would provide necros a way to save their pet, help their group, or just increase damage. Though I do have to agree with Lacey on some level that focusing on pets is probably not the best course of action.

Ideas that make me not happy-
-AoE undead damage. This would almost make the AA worse. Now we're dealing more damage on the same crappy timer but only to specific targets... maybe if the suggested AA gated me to hhk, found me a group, and then did the aforementioned AoE undead damage I'd see the merit. This is basically asking for a Paladin spell on a 36X longer timer.
[I'm not against having an AoE undead damage ability, actually quite the contrary, but I think this is the wrong battlefront- start a "why does cryotoxin suck so bad" thread and take this idea there]
-Random pet... and posted right after Temellin asked us to "at least try and be realistic this time around"
-FD others = I got that, its called endowed death
-Messing with DoT dps, probably a coding nightmare and definitely a balancing one

Now my suggestions for you to tear apart-
-Turn Leechstorm into a more powerful version of mind wrack (Lichstorm?). There is something worthy of the 72 minute timer that is distinctly necro, useful, and worth putting the AA points into. How much of an upgrade? I think (and no, I haven't meditated on this or prayed to Wiz for guidance) 2-2.5X (800-1000) as much mana over the same or slightly longer duration (4-6 ticks).
-Keep Lichstorm, I mean Leechstorm (its just so catchy), the same EXCEPT it heals your entire party and possibly increase the damage/healing. The name does kind of imply HPs would be flying all over the place. If the devs think Leechstorm is just the cat's meow as is this would be the best middle ground imho.
 
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Ah the same thing as Scion drain for 700 dmg would definitely be worth the timer, not uber but less situational than the undead PBAE.
But if it's kept like this, it really should get affected by focii & tomes (and crits...) - wth it's magic based with a resist adjust, only unresistible stuff isn't affected usually.
 
I don't understand, wizards get aa's that allow for their spells to do 4x and 8x damage, but a necro gets an aa that allows one of their spells to do 2x damage and its overpowered?
 
The What-can't-be-done Thread said:
The SOD client is extremely archaic. Almost everything in it is hardcoded, and it seems purposedly built to be as difficult to modify as possible. This means that we cannot do things such as:
- Change the reuse times on skills/class abilities/AAs

Does anyone even read that thread? You can't make the reuse timer different on AAs so whatever replaces Leechstorm will have to have the same reuse.
 
I replied it one hour after Stope mentioned the idea, it's you who doesn't read this thread :tinfoil:
 
Of the ideas mentioned, my necro would personally like the group mana tap most.

That does have some frightening echoes towards the old Live Necro though, and any significant mana boost could be very unbalancing to certain classes in certain circumstances.
 
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