Have a look at the updated Raise Zombie and Summon Skeletons Skill Gems in 3.8.0!

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Shagsbeard wrote:

Now we really need to see the Necromancer ascendancies. Summoning 3 skeletons was a perk. What's replaced it?

It should be something for us to chose. Like branches for "minion survivability"/"minion damage"/"minion speed"/"caster's bonuses"/"auras"/etc.

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Manoapun wrote:

Having increased damage on the gem makes no sense. Minions already get more damage as you level the gem, and that increase is still invisible to players in game. There is just no basis for knowing what increasing gem level is really doing here.

I believe you're misunderstanding what 'added damage' means. Yes, the base damage of all minions increase with the gem, but what this affects is base damage added to the minion from outside sources.... so say you equip an Abyss Jewel that adds 2-4 physical damage to your minions - this effect will cause the skeletons will get 3-6 physical damage instead.

Basically what this is saying is things like abyss jewels, Wrath Aura, Anger Aura, Added Cold/Lightning/Chaos supports, Immolate support, and the like have 50% more impact on skeletons then to normal minions.

WTB Time machine and speed up league start by 7 days

Will skeletons still wait and do nothing from time to time, if they are not agressive? (i think i won't use this mechanic).

This does not look like a buff to either zombies or skeletons at this point in time. It is possible that it's actually an overwhelming nerf, depending on what happens to the Necromancer tree. A couple of extra zombies or skeletons traded for 100% less zombie aoe, less zombie slam uptime, no zombie caustic ground (only some builds use this), no physical damage reduction, no skeleton 100% accuracy, 100% less skeleton movement speed, and we won't know for quite some time if they nerfed the minions under-the-hood.

It's also very possible they've pointlessly moved some stats to the minion gems only to still have the rest of the stats on ascendancy nodes so you still spend the same exact points on the same exact things. Unfortunately, there just isn't a way to know how much the Necromancer has been gutted to join her sisters until a few months into the new league. If, by some chance, these actually are buffs, then obviously in 3.9 you will be limited to 1 summon raging skull and all other minions will be removed from the game. So in the end, we can only possibly be looking at a drastic annihilation to all minion builds by 4.0. That's too bad, because I enjoyed the stability of a minion build while all the other builds have been buffed and subsequently removed from the game and minion builds are my favorite in this game. They weren't that great at anything really but they were a lot of fun to play even if their AI was garbage.

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Well okay can a summoner tell me if this is groundbreakingly opie opie good.

It should be groundbreakingly good, depending on skill tree changes.

I've spent the last few leagues seeing if non-necro summoners can be viable, and they were not really. So if their goal is diversity of builds, these changes were essential.

See, (regarding skeletons and zombies) summoners used to need to spend about half their points travelling to nodes that increased minion count. (Half the number of minions halved your damage, and no build could survive that) And you could never give non-immortal minions enough life, while staying alive yourself.

If those nodes now appear on the gems themselves, summoners might have a viable option to build defensive stats, utility, or even combine non-summoner skills now. If they can halt the power creep on monsters, we can finally have meaningful decisions on deciding between surivability of minions and minion damage!

Additionally, the necromancer ascendency was the only viable choice for most summoners, as the ascendency buffs had all the quality of life improvements.

Eg. Building skeletons as a necro had the extra 3 summoned at once, extra damage, double movespeed and extra 2 to the max minions, all from 1 ascendency. Matching this with any other class was impossible. Even spending 20 or 30 skill tree nodes couldn't match these stats.

So these changes might make a lot more ascendency/item/skill tree synergies viable for endgame, or they could just be a flat out nerf to necromancers - it depends what the new ascendency nodes offer.

I just wish the Witch didn't get to monopolize all the best minion ascendancies. Some of my favorite Necros have been Templars. ='[.]'=

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DemigodParadox wrote:

couple of extra zombies or skeletons traded for 100% less zombie aoe, 100% less skeleton movement speed

Read the description under the gems
And it is 7 zombies now, was 3 (so its actually a buff for 2)

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DemigodParadox wrote:

less zombie slam uptime

Think it is the same.

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DemigodParadox wrote:

no physical damage reduction, no skeleton 100% accuracy

Thats a nerf

Methinks summoners are gonna be better overall in 3.8, but the Necromancer herself is probably gonna feel more like she's been nerfed. Ah well, I suppose that's a necessary cost of trying to increase summoner diversity, I guess.

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Uoykai wrote:

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DemigodParadox wrote:

couple of extra zombies or skeletons traded for 100% less zombie aoe, 100% less skeleton movement speed

Read the description under the gems
And it is 7 zombies now, was 3 (so its actually a buff for 2)

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DemigodParadox wrote:

less zombie slam uptime

Think it is the same.

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DemigodParadox wrote:

no physical damage reduction, no skeleton 100% accuracy

Thats a nerf

2 more zombies or skeletons is a small buff. That is definitly less zombie slam uptime since it was 100% cool down recovery before. Just because skeletons are faster and zombie slam is bigger doesnt mean it's anywhere near the previous values.

If they did move that much power to the actual gems then there is no reason to pick Necromancer vs Champion and a few other ascendencies and there will be some builds that make 3.7 hh cyclone look like garbage. Aura bot guardian wtf necromancer now says hi.