The Best Class? Necromancer Changes in Season 4

Necromancers are looking to be the most powerful class in Season 4! With Golems at the top and Skeletons close by, the minions may be in charge this time around. Billion-damage builds aren’t impossible with the new changes, so let’s see what’s happening.

There’s plenty of skill and passive changes, as well as Book of the Dead and Paragon node tweaks, and of course the Unique and Legendary Aspect tuning.


Skills

Enhanced Blight

  • The Tooltip now correctly references the defiled area for the Slow effect.

Blood Mist

  • Removed the movement speed reduction.

Golem

  • This ability can now be activated while crowd controlled. Activating this ability makes the player Unstoppable.

Decompose

  • Reworded description to be more consistent with the use of Corpses.
  • Interval reduced from 1.5 seconds to 1 second.
  • Increased channeling Essence generation from 8 to 10 per second.
  • Upgrades now activate when spawning corpses instead of channeling for 1 second.
  • Enhanced Decompose
    • Decompose now causes an explosion [40% weapon damage] when creating a corpse or when the target dies.
    • Now also generates 10 Essence when creating a corpse.
  • Acolyte’s Decompose
    • Previous – Every 1.5 seconds, Decompose makes Enemies Vulnerable for 4 seconds.
    • Now – Decompose explosions make enemies vulnerable.
  • Initiate’s Decompose
    • Movement Speed bonus is now on Decompose explosions instead of channeling.
    • Bonus Movement Speed duration increased from 5 to 8 seconds.

Army of the Dead

  • Increased spawn rate of Volatile Skeletons by 50%.
  • Supreme Army of the Dead spawn rate adjusted to match Volatile Skeletons.
  • Is now categorized as a Summoning skill.

Passive

Inspiring Leader

  • Previous – After you have been Healthy for at least 2 seconds, you and your Minions gain 4/8/12%[+] Attack Speed.
  • Now – While you are Healthy, you gain 4/8/12%[+] increased critical chance and your Minions gain 6/12/18%[+] increased Critical Strike Chance.

Kalan’s Edict

  • Previous – After you have not taken damage in the last 2 seconds, your Minions gain 15% Attack Speed. This bonus is doubled while you have at least 7 Minions.
  • Now – Your Minions gain 3% Attack Speed for each active Minion.

Book of the Dead

  • Skeletal Warriors will now run ahead of the Necromancer more often, and can initiate combat.
  • Skirmishers – Removed 3 second limit from the second upgrade.
  • Reapers
    • First Upgrade
      • Previous – Reaper attacks against enemies who are Immobilized, Slowed, Stunned, or Vulnerable reduce the cooldown of their powerful wind-up attack by 2 seconds.
      • Now – Wind-up attacks now reduce one of your active Cooldowns by 3 seconds.
  • Defenders
    • Now Taunts in an area around them, instead of negating damage every 6 seconds from the first upgrade.
    • Second upgrade changed from increasing Thorns inherited from the player to Defenders reduce damage taken by 99%.
  • Shadow Mages
    • Attacks now pierce.
    • First upgrade
      • Previous – Shadow Mage attacks have a 10% chance to Stun for 2 seconds. This cannot happen toon the same enemy more than once every 5 seconds.
      • Now – You deal 3%[x] increased damage for each active Shadow Mage.
    • The second upgrade now has an additional Shadow Bolt fired every 3 attacks, down from 4.
  • Cold Mages
    • Attacks now gain 3 Essence from the first upgrade.
    • Attacks now apply Vulnerable without condition.
  • Bone Mages
    • First Upgrade
      • Previous – Reduce the Life cost of your Bone Mages’ Attack from 15% to 10%. After being alive for 5 seconds, Bone mages deal 40%[x] increased damage.
      • Now – Bone Mages now cast Bone Splinters or Bone Spear every 6th attack if it is on your Action bar.
    • Second Upgrade
      • Previous – Each time a Bone Mage dies from its own attack they leave behind a corpse and Fortify you for 20% of your Maximum Life.
      • Now – Bone Mages drop a corpse when they die. Bone Mage attacks will grant 3% of Maximum Life Fortify.
  • Blood Golem
    • Golem now absorbs 30%, up from 15%, from the first upgrade.
    • The second upgrade active ability from Golem also heals the player for 5% of Maximum Life for each enemy drained.
  • Bone Golem
    • First Upgrade
      • Previous – Each time your Bone Golem takes up to 20% of its Maximum Life as damage, it sheds a corpse.
      • Now – Spawn 5 corpses around the Golem where its ability is used.
    • Second Upgrade
      • Previous – Your Bone golem gains 10% Maximum Life and the amount of Thorns it inherits from you is increased from 30% to 50%.
      • Now – Your Bone Golem unleashes Bone Spikes when taking damage.
  • Iron Golem
    • First upgrade
      • Now casts the Shockwave every 2 attacks instead of 4.
      • Shockwave damage increased from 40% to 154%.
    • Second upgrade
      • Now also pulls enemies in instead of applying Vulnerable.

Legendary Aspects

Blood-soaked Aspect

  • Previous – Your movement speed is no longer reduced while Blood Mist is active.
  • Now – While in Blood Mist form, increases movement speed by 20%.

Unyielding Commander Aspect

  • Previous – While Army of the Dead is active, your Minions gain 70-84% Attack Speed and take 90% reduced damage.
  • Now – While Army of the Dead is active, your Minions deal 70-100% increased damage and take 90% reduced damage.

Occult Dominion

  • Also increases the max number of Skeletal Warriors by 2.

Blood Getter’s

  • Previous – Your Maximum number of Skeletal Warriors is increased by 2.
  • Now – Your Skeletal Priests also empower you at 55-70% effectiveness.

Flesh-Rending

  • Previous – When Decompose spawns a Corpse, gain 25-40 Essence.
  • After: When Decompose explodes, gain 25-40 Essence.

Rotting

  • Previous – Decompose can chain and burst up to 2 additional targets. When Decompose spawns a Corpse, it has a 50-100% chance to spawn a Corpse under all afflicted targets.
  • After: Decompose can chain and burst up to 2 additional targets. Explosions from Decompose deals 15-30%[x] increased damage.

of the Damned

  • Previous – You deal 40-50%[x] increased Shadow damage to enemies afflicted by both Decrepify and Iron Maiden.
  • After: You deal 40-50%[x] increased Shadow damage to enemies afflicted by any Curse.

of Untimely Death

  • Previous – Each percent of your Maximum Life you Heal beyond 100% grants you 0.5%[x] bonus Overpower damage on your next Overpowering attack, up to a 30-60%[x] bonus.
  • After: Each percent of your Maximum Life you Heal beyond 100% grants you 0.5%[x] bonus Critical Strike Damage on your next Critical Strike, up to a 30-60%[x] bonus.

of Potent Blood

  • Previous – While Healthy, Blood Orbs grant 10-25 Essence.
  • After: Blood Orbs grant 10-25 Essence.

Unique Items

Ring of Mendeln

  • Previous – Lucky Hit: Up to a 10% chance to empower all of your Minions, causing the next attack from each to explode for X Physical damage.
  • Now – Every 6th attack from each Minion is empowered, exploding for X Physical damage.

Lidless Wall

  • Lucky Hit Chance increased from 5-25% to 15-30%.

Bloodless Scream

  • Essence gain increased from 7-10 to 15-20.

Paragon

Control Glyph

  • Previous – Additional Bonus: You and your Minions deal 10%[X] increased damage to Slowed or Chilled enemies or, instead, 20%[X] increased damage to Stunned or Frozen enemies.
  • Now – Additional Bonus: You and your Minions deal 20%[X] increased damage to Crowd Controlled targets.

Deadraiser Glyph

  • Additional Bonus maximum bonus buffed to 15%[X].

Dominate Glyph

  • Bonus Overpower Damage per 5 Willpower reduced from 39.9% to 14.9% at Glyph level 21.

Cult Leader Paragon Node

  • Previous – Your Minions deal 15%[X] increased damage for each 20%[X] of Attack Speed Bonus they have.
  • Now – Your Minions deal 30%[X] increased damage for each 20%[X] of Attack Speed Bonus they have, up to a maximum of 100% Attack Speed Bonus.


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