Melee Necromancer - a revaluation one year later.

I started playing as a melee necromancer again after the latest update, last time i played was a couple of seasons back. What cought my eye was that Reaper was changed to give Parasite an Area-of-Effect, something i thought could mitigate the weaknesses of the class.

And it certainly did for a time, going from Normal to Hell was a blast, --some ounces of frustration here and there maybe, but par for the course-- but the mechanical failings of the class became all the more apparant as the endgame loomed ever closer, and areas and enemies became ever more dangerous. I did outline my previous gripes with the class in another thread from roughly a year ago, and some of those points had been adressed, but sadly its still a class hounded by the simple fact that you need to stop and attack in order to trigger your abilities, and as soon as you stop to do so, you are ganked and killed immediately.

Dont get me wrong, Melee Necro is a fun class, and a powerful one at that, damage is good,(And coupled with parasite, utterly devastating). You are geared towards good sustainability from the get-go, but the further you get into the late game, the more it seems those strong points fail to add up, even with Death-lord, having around 300.000 defences doesn´t cut it anymore, which sounds kinda silly.

The design philosophy for the later stages are built around having high mobility, and this is a part i dont understand in the context of gameplay. Some people argue that you shouldn´t run, as it halves your block chance and defences (Something like that), but there are moments when you cant afford not to, you need to keep moving, and like i said, having to stop and attack is just setting yourself up for failure. Angel of Death´s recovery is woeful, and having to jump around regardless for the damage boost tells me that Parasite and Carnage are innately weak. You do have Jitans gate, and even a charm to lower the recovery, but then you dont get that needed damage boost. ---Its like you are really trying to work within the confines of the game rules, yet you get penalised for doing so by virtue of game design. Some areas are just hell to get through, and it makes me wonder why there was no "neutral" design for them. You know players regardless of class are gonna play through them for Gear or Exp, and most of those places favour ranged classes over melee builds, unless those builds have Aoe, like earthshaker barabarian. I mean, why would they do that?

Though not a mechanical drawback but a class one, but forcing the player to only use Scythes or Hexblades, which makes thematical sense, makes the grind even more punishing, which forces you to forgo potentially better options because your skills cant be used otherwise. Take the Barbarian for instance, some skills do require Barbarian only weapons, but for the most part is free to use any other means.

If i were to change something about the class, i would probably have Angel of Death be the "movement" skill for jumping, but adding the damage buff to Death-Lord instead, as forcing the player to jump around and potentially land in unfavourable terrain for a damage boost feels redundant and counterintuitive. Otherwise i do really like the class, but as i stated in my earlier thread, i do fear that Median is going in a more PoE-esque direction, ranged classes being objectivly superior and the content surrounding it supporting that idea.

Running doesn't just halve your defences, it completely ignores it. So your 300k is nothing when you are trying to run away from corrupted barbarian.

you have bend the shadows as innate skill, try that for reposition during combat.

not sure how late is your late game referring to, but on my malice nec, without melee devotIon, with 200k ish def, i could tank trash mobs comfortably in scos and low labs, including corrupted barb.

despite on what you believe, like above person mentioned, running makes your def goes zero, huge nono.

sounds like you played the shit version instead of the right one.

heamn wrote:you have bend the shadows as innate skill, try that for reposition during combat.

not sure how late is your late game referring to, but on my malice nec, without melee devotIon, with 200k ish def, i could tank trash mobs comfortably in scos and low labs, including corrupted barb.

despite on what you believe, like above person mentioned, running makes your def goes zero, huge nono.

Currently i am at 125, just like my previous character. And yes, running worsens defences, but its impossible to simply "walk" away from enemies, if you do not run or leap away, they will surround your escape routes and promplty clubber you to death, basically rendering your defences moot regardless.

Likewise, its great that it works for a Malice Necromancer, but i was strictly talking about a pure Melee Necro, so i dont know what that comparison has to do with the thread in question.

BearBearderBarb wrote:Running doesn't just halve your defences, it completely ignores it. So your 300k is nothing when you are trying to run away from corrupted barbarian.

To each their own i guess, but i cant fathom why they would design it in a away that would promote mobility, yet punish players for trying to do so.

MisterSweden wrote:
BearBearderBarb wrote:Running doesn't just halve your defences, it completely ignores it. So your 300k is nothing when you are trying to run away from corrupted barbarian.

To each their own i guess, but i cant fathom why they would design it in a away that would promote mobility, yet punish players for trying to do so.

Isn't that the way Defense in D2 was originally meant to be, zero while running? I know Defense in D2 has been laden with bugs from inception till current, such as the OG bug which gave players 4x defense and has NEVER been fixed to this day, except in MXL.

MisterSweden wrote:
heamn wrote:you have bend the shadows as innate skill, try that for reposition during combat.

not sure how late is your late game referring to, but on my malice nec, without melee devotIon, with 200k ish def, i could tank trash mobs comfortably in scos and low labs, including corrupted barb.

despite on what you believe, like above person mentioned, running makes your def goes zero, huge nono.

Currently i am at 125, just like my previous character. And yes, running worsens defences, but its impossible to simply "walk" away from enemies, if you do not run or leap away, they will surround your escape routes and promplty clubber you to death, basically rendering your defences moot regardless.

Likewise, its great that it works for a Malice Necromancer, but i was strictly talking about a pure Melee Necro, so i dont know what that comparison has to do with the thread in question.

my brother, read again about the innate skill, doesn't matter if its a malice or whatever build, im merely telling you that with less defence, without running, i survived.

i believe you aren't intellectually incapable to comprehend, peace.

melee necro has needed a revamp for late game for quite some time imo. carnage fire conversion makes things awkward as well and if u dont want it, u get forced into a weapon.

The rework of Reaper is on the right way, but just not enough for lategame farming, the same problem for the rework of Queen of Blades.

And that's why ppl do xbow nec with guard tower over melee nec, just to abuse the powerful passives of nec to enjoy huge wpd and take advantage of angelic gears.