Necromancy Slayers

DeadThing5

So, I'm probably beating a dead horse here, but I'm curious about the reasoning behind having Slayer properties on Necromancy Books, but not having the property affect Necromancy Spells. Is there a reason at all? If there is, what is it? If not...well?

PlayerSkillFTW

DeadThing5 said:

So, I'm probably beating a dead horse here, but I'm curious about the reasoning behind having Slayer properties on Necromancy Books, but not having the property affect Necromancy Spells. Is there a reason at all? If there is, what is it? If not...well?

Wither. Wither would be immensely powerful for clearing spawns if Slayer spellbooks affected it. Other than that, the other direct damage Necro spells such as Poison Strike would be fine with Slayer spellbooks. Poison Strike would actually be pretty good with Conduit+Poison Strike cluster bombs if Slayer spellbook also applied to it. As is, Conduit+Poison Strike is most useful for damaging Travesty while destroying her Mirror Image spam.

DeadThing5

Hrm, fair enough I suppose. Wouldn't want to disrupt the Spawn Status Quo. I might roll my eyes a bit, but I genuinely wouldn't want to see them trivialized either. Thanks for the reply!

Arnold7

In the hands of a necro mage necro slayer books are as effective as regular spell books, and  juo’nar’s grimoire books boost necro by 15% and increase spell damage by 15% as well as reducing reagent and mana cost by 10%.

Think necro was always intended as a support skill for mages and fighters.  Except for wither I don’t use the necro direct damage spells. But when you cast evil omen or corpse skill while holding any slayer book, and then cast flame strike on the appropriate foe you will be glad the book had the slayer property.

Arnold7

Thinking back on it strangle and poison strike were probably put in with melee fighters in mind.

PlayerSkillFTW

Poison Strike was actually nerfed shortly after AoS. It used to cast a lot faster, and so was pretty powerful in PvP for awhile.

Honestly though, Slayer spellbooks should apply to Poison Strike. It's the only direct Poison damage spell in game (Poison/Strangle are DoTs, Nether Cyclone can sometimes roll Poison damage). If an opponent's weakest resist is Poison, then casters can't really take advantage of it, even with Corpse Skin.

Arnold7

Yes, poison strike disappointing overall.  Don’t think having the poisoning skill affects the damage it does either.

PlayerSkillFTW

Arnold7 said:

Yes, poison strike disappointing overall.  Don’t think having the poisoning skill affects the damage it does either.

With 60.0+ Poisoning skill, Poison Strike has a 3-9% chance to inflict Poison status. 9% at GM Poisoning skill. My Necromage+PB Dread Spider can sometimes inflict DP with her Poison Strike spell (even the secondary "splash" hits can inflict it).

Conduit+Poison Strike is actually pretty funny against a large group. Conduit causes single target Necro spells to chain to all other targets within the radius, and Poison Strike is technically a "single target" spell, despite having splash damage. Conduit+Poison Strike on a big group, is like a big cluster bomb effect, with a main damage portion hitting them all, and then all of them also getting hit with multiple splash hits.

Arnold7

Thanks for the info.  Will give it another try.