All New Items and Changes for Necromancers in the Patch 2.1/season 7 PTR

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Necromancers are receiving a lot of changes on the upcoming PTR, mostly to skills and passives. The way summons work in general has also been updated, and there’s the two new Uniques that combine Blood Wave and Bone Spear, so there’s plenty of changes ahead.

The PTR starts today, December 3rd.


New Unique Items, Aspects and Tempering Recipes

Kessime’s Legacy – Unique Pants

  • Affixes
    • Inherent: Casting Blood Wave Fortifies You For 70% of Your Maximum Life
    • 219-300% Ultimate Damage
    • 9.5-14.5% Damage Reduction While Fortified
    • 16-25% Blood Wave Cooldown Reduction
    • 16-25% Chance for Blood Wave to Deal Double Damage
  • Power
    • Blood Wave now forms a wave on each side of you. Both waves converge at your feet, Pulling In surrounding enemies and exploding for damage. Each time an enemy is hit by a wave, they take 5-10% increased damage from your Blood Waves, up to 150-300% in total.

Indira’s Memory – Unique Pants

  • Affixes
    • Inherent: Casting Bone Spear Reduces Blood Wave’s Cooldown by 2 Seconds
    • 16-25% Maximum Life
    • 82.5-105% Overpower Damage
    • 18.5-27.5% Damage Reduction While Injured
    • 2-3 Skill Ranks of Tides of Blood
  • Power
    • Blood Wave is additionally a Bone Skill that spawns a Bone Prison at its end point and increases your Blood Skill damage by 40-80% for 8 seconds when cast. Bone Spear is additionally a Blood Skill and will drain 10% Maximum Life each cast after hitting an enemy to consume a surrounding Corpse and launch one new Bone Spear from it.

Aspect of Distilled Anima – Mobility Aspect

  • While Soulrift is active, you are Unhindered and gain 1% increased Movement Speed per absorbed soul, up to 30-60%. This lasts for 5 seconds after Soulrift ends.

Bone Duster’s – Offensive Apect

  • Bone Spear is guaranteed to Critically Strike enemies within Bone Prison and deals 20-40% increased damage to them.

Dreadful Augments – New Weapon Tempering Recipe

  • +Ranks of Fueled by Death
  • +Ranks of Finality
  • +Ranks of Titan’s Fall

Skills

Blight

  • Essence cost reduced from 25 to 20.

Enhanced Blight

  • Previous: Blight’s radius is increased by 15%.
  • Now: Blight’s radius is increased by 15%, directly hitting an Elite with it doubles the damage of its defile area.

Paranormal Blight

  • Previous: Blight Chills enemies for 15% every second.
  • Now: Blight has a 25% chance to instantly Freeze enemies on impact for 3 seconds and its defiled area also Chills enemies for 15% every second.

Developer’s Note: The impact Freeze works with the smaller projectiles from the Ebonpiercer Unique item.

Bone Spear

  • Damage increased from 85% to 100%.

Supernatural Bone Spear

  • Previous: Bone Spear makes the first enemy hit Vulnerable for 3 seconds.
  • Now: Bone Spear makes the first enemy hit Vulnerable for 3 seconds and deals 30% increased Overpower damage.

Paranormal Bone Spear

  • Previous: Bone Spear has a 5% increased Critical Strike Chance. If Bone Spear’s primary projectile Critically Strikes, it fires 2 additional Bone Shards upon being destroyed.
  • Now: Bone Spear has 5% more Critical Strike Chance. If its main projectile Critically Strikes, 2 more Bone Shards form upon expiration and you gain 10% Maximum Essence for 5 seconds.

Enhanced Sever

  • Previous: Sever damages enemies along its path for 75% of its initial damage.
  • Now: Sever deals 85% of its initial damage along its path and Slows enemies by 40% for 3 seconds.

Paranormal Sever

  • Previous: Every 3rd cast of Sever makes enemies Vulnerable for 3 seconds.
  • Now: Every 3rd cast of Sever Fears enemies and makes them Vulnerable for 3 seconds.

Supernatural Sever

  • Previous: Sever deals 2% increased damage for each Minion you have upon cast.
  • Now: Sever deals 2% increased damage for each Minion you have upon Cast and spawns a Corpse at its end point.

Soulrift

  • New Functionality: While soul draining from a Boss, Soulrift will now additionally also drain up to two other enemies at the same time.
  • Rank 5: Every 30 souls consumed refills 1 of your Healing Potions with the lifeblood of your tortured victims.

Supreme Soulrift

  • Maximum stacks increased from 30 to 100.
  • Damage bonus reduced from 1% to 0.5 per soul absorbed.
  • Maximum damage bonus increased from 30% to 75%.

Prime Soulrift

  • Previous: Enemies with their souls ripped out become Vulnerable for 2 seconds. Damaging enemies affected by Soulrift has a 5% chance for their souls to be ripped out and absorbed.
  • Now: Soulrift extracts twice the souls from enemies and applies Vulnerable to them for 3 seconds. After it ends, all surrounding enemies are Feared and Slowed by 85% for 5 seconds.

Blood Mist

  • Baseline damage increased from 2% to 35%.

Ghastly Blood Mist

  • Previous: Blood Mist leaves behind a Corpse every 1 second.
  • Now: Blood Mist is now a Mobility Skill that grants 30% Movement Speed, spawning a Corpse every second and applying Vulnerable for 5 seconds to enemies it passes through.

Dreadful Blood Mist

  • Previous: You gain 10% Critical Strike Chance for 4 seconds after Blood Mist ends.
  • Now: You gain 15% Critical Strike Chance and 10% Critical Strike Damage for 5 seconds after Blood Mist ends.

Bone Prison

  • Cooldown reduced from 18 to 15 seconds.

Enhanced Bone Prison

  • Previous: Enemies within Bone Prison when cast are made Vulnerable for 8 seconds.
  • Now: Enemies within Bone Prison when it appears are made Vulnerable and take 15% more damage for 8 seconds.

Dreadful Bone Prison

  • Max Cooldown Reduction increased from 3 to 5 seconds.

Ghastly Bone Prison

  • Previous: If an enemy is trapped by Bone Prison, gain 25 Essence, plus another 5 per enemy trapped.
  • Now: Casting Bone Prison grants 40 Essence. Trapping a Boss generates another 25 Essence.

Army of the Dead

  • Damage increased from 90% to 120%.
  • New Functionality: Volatile Skeleton explosions now Stun enemies for 2 seconds.
  • Now has the Summoning tag.
  • Rank 5: Army of the Dead’s damage is increased by 125% of your Skeleton Mage and Golem Damage bonuses.

Blood Wave

  • The Knockback on Blood Wave is now much more consistent and will sweep enemies farther along its course.
  • Rank 5: Blood Wave’s damage is increased by 100% of your Damage While Healthy and Damage While Fortified bonuses.

Bone Storm

  • Rank 5: Bone Storm’s damage is increased by 60% of your Critical Strike Damage bonus.

The following Skills Tree upgrades which directly dealt damage will now scale up their damage with increased Skill Ranks of the base skill.

  • Blighted Corpse Explosion
  • Enhanced Decompose

Passives

Reaper’s Pursuit

  • Previous: Damaging enemies with Darkness Skills increases your Movement Speed by 5% for 3 seconds.
  • Now: For each Darkness Skill on your Skill Bar, gain 2% increased Movement Speed and 2% more damage.

Amplify Damage

  • Previous: You deal 4% increased damage to Cursed enemies.
  • Now: You deal 4% increased damage to Cursed and Feared enemies. These bonuses can stack.

Hellbent Commander

  • Previous: While you control at least 7 Minions, your Minions deal 10% increased damage.
  • Now: While you control at least 7 Minions, gain 10% Summoning Damage.

Coalesced Blood

  • Previous: While Healthy your Blood Skills deal 6% increased damage.
  • Now: You deal 6% increased damage while Healthy.

Spiked Armor

  • Previous: Gain 40 Thorns and 5% additional Armor.
  • Now: Gain 40/80/120 Thorns, 5/10/15% Armor, and 10% Block Chance.

Rathma’s Vigor

  • Now additionally provides 120% Overpower damage.

Affliction

  • Explosion damage scaling based on your Shadow Damage Over Time bonus has been replaced with a Critical Strike Damage bonus.

Legendary Aspects

Numerous Legendary Aspects from Spiritborn are becoming available to the Necromancer which supports its Block archetype:

Developer’s Note: These items are still exclusive to owners of the Vessel of Hatred expansion.

  • Bristleback: When you Dodge or Block an attack you trigger a 100-160% Thorns attack against the attacker.
  • Aspect of Redirected Force: Gain increased Critical Strike Damage equal to 30-70% of your Block Chance. Blocking doubles this bonus for 10 seconds.
  • Aspect of Layered Wards: Your Blocked Damage Reduction is increased by 10-30% while you have a Barrier.

Tidal

  • Previous: Blood Wave fires 2 additional waves, each dealing 100-120% of normal damage.
  • Now: Blood Wave fires 2 additional waves, each dealing 200-240% of normal damage, but you can no longer recast it until the last wave ends.

Of Gore Quills

  • Damage of Blood Lances spawned from Blood Orbs increased from 20-60% of normal damage to 40-80%.

Blood Seeker’s

  • Previous: Blood Lance deals 10-25% increased damage to its primary target per lanced enemy.
  • Now: Blood Lance deals 10-25% increased damage to its primary target per lanced enemy. While Healthy, your Blood Lances deal 25-40% increased Critical Strike Damage.

Cadaverous

  • Previous: Consuming a Corpse increases the damage of your Core Skills by 3.5-7% for 5 seconds, up to 17.5-30%.
  • Now: Consuming a Corpse increases the damage of your Core and Ultimate Skills by 3.5-7% for 5 seconds, up to 17.5-30%.

Of The Void

  • Previous: Blight’s defiled area, when spawned, pulls in enemies around the affected area.
  • Now: Blight’s defiled area Pulls In enemies and has a 35-50% chance to Stun them for 3 seconds when it appears.

Of Plunging Darkness

  • Previous: Bone Prison spawns a pool of Blight that deals 80-140% bonus damage over 6 seconds.
  • Now: Bone Prison is now a Darkness Skill and spawns a pool of Blight that deals 80-140% bonus damage over 6 seconds.

Unyielding Commander

  • Previous: While Army of the Dead is active, your Minions deal 70-110% increased damage and take 90% reduced damage.
  • Now: While Army of the Dead is active, gain 70-110% Summoning Damage and your Minions take 90% reduced damage.

Of the Great Feast

  • Previous: Your Minions deal 30-45%increased damage but each one drains 1 Essence from you per second. If you have no active Minions, this bonus applies to you instead and you lose 7 Essence per second.
  • Now: Gain 30-45% Summoning damage, but each active Minion drains 1 Essence from you per second. If you have no active Minions, you gain 30-45% increased damage instead, and you lose 7 Essence per second.

Unique Items

Blood Moon Breeches

  • New Affixes
    • 9-11% Critical Strike Chance
    • 2-3 Curse Skill Ranks
    • 1-2 Skill Ranks of Golem Mastery
    • 1-2 Skill Ranks of Hellbent Commander
  • Power
    • Previous: Your Minions’ attacks have a 3-7% chance to randomly inflict Decrepify or Iron Maiden. You deal 100-150% increased Overpower damage to enemies affected by your Curses.
    • Now: Your Summoning Skills have a 3-7% chance to randomly inflict Decrepify or Iron Maiden. You deal 20-50% increased Critical Strike Damage to enemies affected by your Curses.
    • Curses can now be applied from all of your Summoning Skills, not just Minion attacks.

Deathless Visage

  • Previous: Bone Spear leaves behind echoes that explode for Physical damage, increased by 5% for every 30% Critical Strike Damage you have.
  • Now: Bone Spear deals 30-50% more Critical Strike Damage and forms echoes that burst for Physical damage, increased by 5% for every 25% of your Critical Strike Damage bonus.

Lidless Wall

  • Previous: Lucky Hit: While you have an active Bone Storm, hitting an enemy outside of a Bone Storm has up to a 15-45% chance to spawn an additional Bone Storm at their location. Each of your active Sacrifice bonuses increases this chance by 25% and the maximum possible Bone Storms by 1.
  • Now: Lucky Hit: While you have an active Bone Storm, hitting an enemy has up to a 15-45% chance to spawn a Bone Storm around their location. Each Sacrifice bonus increases this chance by 25% and allows you to spawn 1 more Bone Storm. Each active Bone Storm grants 10% Critical Strike Damage.

Paragon

Wither – Legendary Node

  • Intelligence cap raised from 1,200 to 2,000.

Bloodbath – Legendary Node

  • Previous: Deal 70% increased Overpower damage.
  • Now: Deal 100% increased Overpower damage. After Overpowering, you deal 25% increased Blood Skill damage for 5 seconds.

Tempering

Profane Cage – Defensive Temper Recipe

  • Removed Ranks of Spiked Armor

Developer’s Note: Spiked Armor can still be found in the Thorn Army recipe.

Summons and Minions Update

All skills that summon entities, such as Necromancer Minions, Druid Companions, Sorcerer Conjurations, are now all tagged as Summon skills for consistency across classes.

  • Added the Summoning Skill Tag to Druid Companion Skills, Sorcerer Conjuration Skills, Rogue Shadow Clone, Barbarian Call of the Ancients, in addition to Necromancer Raise Skeleton, Golem, and Army of the Dead.
  • Units created by these Skills are now collectively referred to as Summons.
  • All damage from Summons is attributed to the player’s character, rather than the Summoned unit.
  • Updated wording on various effects to use the new Summons terminology where appropriate. Many effects still interact only with the class specific version of these Summons.
  • Updated wording on various effects to remove “You and your Summons” where it is now redundant to specifically call out your Summons.

Developer’s Note: Summoning Skills have behaved inconsistently across the Classes, making it hard to know how to scale their damage or what effects would interact with your Summons. This update aims to standardize their interactions across the board by attributing the damage they deal to the player, rather than the Summoned unit. This means that damage from your Summons will be able to trigger all of your Lucky Hit effects, and interact with all of your damage modifiers, multipliers, and triggers. Note that effects such as Ring of Mendeln still properly increase their damage output based on the damage bonuses you have for the specific Minion type that triggered the effect. Additionally, specific changes for Necromancer have been implemented to reflect these changes, which can be seen above in the relevant section.

Bug Fixes

  • Fixed an issue where the Affliction key passive did not always deal 2 instances of Shadow damage from both Decrepify and Iron maiden when the Aspect of the Cursed Aura was equipped.
  • Fixed an issue where the Needleflare Aspect would incorrectly trigger its pulse of damage around the Necromancer rather than around the Minion when the Minion triggered it.
  • Fixed an issue where the Shademist Aspect could trigger Ring of Mendeln.
  • Fixed an issue where the Abyssal Glyph granted 21% bonus damage instead of 10%.
  • Fixed an issue where the free cast from Blood Artisan’s Cuirass scaled off both current and Maximum Life.
  • Fixed an issue where Soulrift could overpower when using the Blood Boiled Aspect.
  • Fixed an issue where Blood Orbs spawned from the Tidal Aspect and Blood Wave could overlap and appear as if the orbs did not spawn.
  • Fixed a bug where Iron Maiden was not being applied by Aspect of the Cursed Aura.
  • Fixed a bug where Aspect of the Cursed Aura would not gain the 50% bonus from amulets.
  • Fixed an issue where movement could become difficult if Corpse Tendrils was assigned to left mouse button.
  • Fixed an issue where Ghastly Bone Prison did not grant additional essence when used on Bosses.