Necromancer thoughts

[Klaleara]

Just my thoughts on how I'd like to see a Necromancer played.

TLDR: A couple gauges. You cast debuff/drain spells that build up Necromantic Energy which you spend on spawning/buffing minions. Then as minions die, you gain bones, which you spend on direct attacks.

Gauge 1: Necromantic Energy
Gauge 2: Bones

Life Drain: Cast this DoT on an enemy that drains their life essence, turning it into Necromantic Energy.

Necrotic Spike: Cause Life Drain to flare up, dealing a % damage of Life Drains total damage instantly. Provides a quick boost for Necrotic Energy, the less you have the more it provides.

Essence Sap: A small DoT that also reduces the damage dealt by the enemies normal attacks. Also grants Necrotic Energy (Maybe also make it so Spike also effects his).

Raise Undead Warrior : Raise a skeletal minion that charges after the enemy, attacking them in melee. Raising an Undead Warrior costs more for each Undead Warrior active. Only lasts for a specified duration. When an Undead Warrior expires/dies, it adds to your Bones meter. (Cost Necromantic Energy)

Raise Undead Archer: Raise a skeletal minion that charges after the enemy, attacking them in melee. Raising an Undead Archer costs more for each Undead Archer active. Only lasts for a specified duration. When an Undead Archer expires/dies, it adds to your Bones meter. (Cost Necromantic Energy)

Raise Bloated Corpse: Raise a corpse that charges into the enemy, belly flops, and explodes doing AoE damage. Also provides bones. (Cost Necromantic Energy)

Raise Ultimate: I'd like some neat ultimate after summoning so many undead minions. Either a big bad undead, like a Lich or Death Knight, or maybe the choice between the two. A giant hand comes up and slams down on the enemy. Something flashy and cool.

Bone Spears: Create two portals into the abyss, each spawning a Bone Spear that launches towards your enemy. Chance on hit to refresh "Drain Life". (Costs Bones)

Bone Barrage: Create multiple small portals into the abyss, sending out multiple bone spurs at the enemy. Chance to debuff enemy with bleeds, and slow. (Costs Bones)

Bone Graveyard: Cause a multitude of bone spikes to shoot out of the ground in an area. For each enemy hit, there is a chance to proc a free + instant cast Bloated Corpse. (Costs Bones)

I would like to add a few extra actual debuffs to the enemy that could have the Necromancer be kind of a reverse Bard. Instead of buffs, they debuff the enemy. I just can't think of any off-hand.

LIMITED PLAY: The Necromancer can create a permanent Undead Minion from certain enemies they have killed. Only one can be active at a time. And only can be active where Chocobo's can be active. Basically adds a collection akin to the Blue Mage, and some limited playstyle to it, while still being a full class for dungeons/raids.

[SamRF]

Sounds cool from gameplay perspective. For some reason though I don't really see the bones theme fit in FFXIV. I can see undead creatures like those zombie-like mobs in this game but when it comes to bones and skeletons and such, maybe I'm just not used to it in this art style. I think we'd just see void magic of sorts instead of bones for necromancers.

[Klaleara]

Sounds cool from gameplay perspective. For some reason though I don't really see the bones theme fit in FFXIV. I can see undead creatures like those zombie-like mobs in this game but when it comes to bones and skeletons and such, maybe I'm just not used to it in this art style. I think we'd just see void magic of sorts instead of bones for necromancers.

/shrug Already bones and skeletons in the game. Don't see why not?

I'm personally big into skeletons, zombies less so. Personal preference really.

As for the actual attacks, kind of whatever there. Could be void magic instead of bone. I just wanted to add in flare for when your minions die, you still utilize their bodies. I would prefer if you could use corpse explosion, corpse lance, etc. But I don't see that working well in this game.

Appreciate the feedback though.

[CKNovel]

Necromancer is not a job you often see in a Final Fantasy.

We first need to identify its... Identity

It appeared in V with the additionnal content in the remakes and... As an ennemy.

They use Dark Arts such as Drain Touch, Dark Flare, Deep Freeze, Hellwind and so on. The problem I can already see, is that these abilities fits on Dark Knight and Black mage.
The other problem I see is that they use Death and Zombie. Death is a Blue Spell, Zombie can't exist as a usable spell for obvious reasons.

Another problem is tied to the lore and the world. You're the Warrior of light fightning against evil and for the weak, yet you summon the corpse of the deceased...?

In short, Necromancer should actually be a "Void mage", it's a recurrent theme and different enough from Black Mage/DRK. You could exploit existing spells such as Meteor or Black Hole. On top of that, it's already tied with Necromancy. Neat!

Then you have to look at the design.

You mainly want to keep the Dark Arts theme while not making the job a duplicate of Dark Knight and Black mage.
The other thing(s) you want to avoid are pets. They're badly designed or badly implemented, either a glorified dot (MCH, DRK) or a laggy extension of your character (SMN/SCH).
According to your design, you don't interact with a pet, you just let it do its own thing until it dies and they gives you resources.

You are going to use Dots that deals damage on their own. You are going to summon skeletons that deals damage on their own. To fuel a gauge that summons a bigger skeleton to deal damage on its own. I'm not exactly sure if XIV players wants to play cookie clicker.

"Bone-magic" also sounds... off. Unless it's Undertale, but doesn't fit in XIV. I don't think there was ever use of Bones as magic in past FF titles.

Limited play
Forget that.
Blue mage reception was so terrible they canceled/post-poned plans to implement Beast Master as a limited job.
Plus you'd have to design and balance all of this just for fluff. Too much resources to spend in a single job, you'd have to select the specific monsters to be used as pet, you'd have to manage a specific IA for that, unless you want it to aggro any monsters within range.

Overrall
It's a cool suggestion but it's more a design you want and not a design that would fit in the game, that the community would actually want.
One of its problem is that it takes a lot from existing jobs: Pets and dots (SMN), Life Drain and Dark Arts (DRK). Bone magic is unique, but there is no such thing as "Bone element". Ice or Void would fit much more, but I don't see how the WoL could actually use the Void, maybe like Exdeath to empower its attacks.
The first task when you design something for a game, is to ask yourself how much resources it will need and if it is feasible in a reasonable amount of time. The design also has to make sense in the World and you can't use the excuse "It's magic".

[AnotherPerson]

Limited play
Forget that.
Blue mage reception was so terrible they canceled/post-poned plans to implement Beast Master as a limited job.

Is that true? Can you link to where they said this? Feeling disappointed now - been hoping for a Beast Master job since I started exploring SB content. Especially now since Arcanists and SMN/SCH are no longer a real 'pet' class - one just has a reskinned fairy that does the exact same thing and the other is transitioning into big trance summons. Both classes have a pet hotbar but I don't see any real usage of interacting with it anymore since pets lost their HP bars.

[MirronTulaxia]

I mean, honestly I can't see Necromancer working in this game. It just doesn't seem like something that fits the game style much, and of the possible options for a Caster DPS (which is really the only option we will see) there are just more reasonable ones to point at. I suppose if they keep reworking Summoner we could see them steal that gameplay style, but I'd imagine they'd give that to Onmyouji given Mystic is all about debuffs in FFT.

[ReiMakoto]

Is that true? Can you link to where they said this? Feeling disappointed now - been hoping for a Beast Master job since I started exploring SB content. Especially now since Arcanists and SMN/SCH are no longer a real 'pet' class - one just has a reskinned fairy that does the exact same thing and the other is transitioning into big trance summons. Both classes have a pet hotbar but I don't see any real usage of interacting with it anymore since pets lost their HP bars.

They mentioned BST and pup along with blue mage when first announcing limited jobs 2 years ago ish. Theres a theory that theyve cancelled BST as a limited job however as the Bozja Resistance npcs talk about a beast master in the empire, and other bits of BST lore, which is leading some to think "Beast Master" will be the Bozja verion of Logos actions. This also lines up with a Famitsu interview a few months back where yoshi p said 5.3 with have "Ranch-like content".

[Gula]

/shrug Already bones and skeletons in the game. Don't see why not?

I'm personally big into skeletons, zombies less so. Personal preference really.

As for the actual attacks, kind of whatever there. Could be void magic instead of bone. I just wanted to add in flare for when your minions die, you still utilize their bodies. I would prefer if you could use corpse explosion, corpse lance, etc. But I don't see that working well in this game.

Appreciate the feedback though.

That's a no go in China. It's a common form of censorship, because showing skeletons goes against their ancestral culture. They have their own client, and I'm sure that bone enemies have been replaced or modified. Also, it's a massive affront to the lore. Necromancy is punishable by death in every single form of government in game. Especially Ul'dah.

Cool concept but this isn't the universe for it unless its an antagonist.

[Klaleara]

That's a no go in China. It's a common form of censorship, because showing skeletons goes against their ancestral culture. They have their own client, and I'm sure that bone enemies have been replaced or modified. Also, it's a massive affront to the lore. Necromancy is punishable by death in every single form of government in game. Especially Ul'dah.

Cool concept but this isn't the universe for it unless its an antagonist.

I mean, skeletons are in the game currently as you realize. Just replace any Necromancy minions with zombies, or whatever is normal for China. Wouldn't be the first case of this happening. Nor would it be difficult.

Also, in the thaumaturge questline they talk about using Necromancy in Ul'dah, and its the cowardly brothers, can't be THAT bad. Also things can change, as it happens so often. When things get desperate enough, the enemy of your enemy is your friend no matter who it is.

[Tulzscha]

I've been working on a Necro design myself and I couldn't get it to fit in the lore. I mean you can come up with an excuse for anything but some things are just too much of a stretch and Necros I think are one of them. So I reskinned everything to a Void Mage which worked pretty well, the design is kind of similar to yours in a way. The only aspect I couldn't really get to fit is the tankiness which is one of my favorite aspects of the class so meh. But expendable minions and dots, no problem.