D2R Skills & Abilities - Raise Skeletal Mage (Necromancer Summoning)

[@246Rennie]

This skill should have been summon skeletal archer honestly.

[@squoblat]

Solution to Skeleton mages - replace elemental damage with magic damage. Replace their elemental attacks with bone spear and give them some synergies.

[@richardleston5237]

only if lower res also works on magic res

[@greggougeon4422]

That would be quite the screen spam lol.

[@AlekTrev006]

Raise Skeletal Chinchillas !! Now THAT would be a terrifying power 😱 !

[@greggougeon4422]

The mages need to synergize with skeletons and revives like druid summons do.

[@Aliceinchains1234]

Or make a synergy with fire golem. Fire golem and magis should both synergize with each other so an elemental build is actually viable.

[@Barbabonbon]

doesn't really compare since necro has skelly mastery and resists. Necro is just the anti-synergize system. Pretty apparent he was developed before the synergies.

[@flamerollerx01]

We should all push hard for the devs to fix poison so it stacks.

[@bladibla1234]

I know mages are bad. But I still summon them, because they are damn cool.

[@kevinnitta3576]

They seem to have the same AI as the eviil skele mages as they stand there and die as well. Oh and the chinchilla on top of your head was classic! Cute and adorable as he was, the comedic aspect was even better.

[@iamgem]

I think instead of giving them fire ball or ice blast maybe give them the ability to multi shot their bolts. That’d be pretty sick

[@cocomunga]

I forgot mages even exist until this video.

[@Tnegilletni]

Would be nice if they did pure magic dmg using fire dmg as a template for dmg range

[@bobnewkirk7003]

Mages are probably the skill in most need of a reword on the summons tree. As you covered in the video, by having multiple element types means that at least one element of your mages is being lost on immunities they wont be able to damage. additionally, as you covered, there isn't parity between the elements which makes cold and poison less desirable forcing players to burn time organizing their mages. Personally i am of the opinion that all the mages should have one damage type that allows the player to build around that damage type and would allow the developers to build synergies in to make mages a viable element in a build. there are basically 2 camps on this: First re-brand the mages as Archers that deal physical damage which would synergize with the rest of your army using Amp damage. The second camp is to make all mages into Fire mages only, make mage a fire skill, and then build synergies with the underused Fire Golem and potentially Corpse Explosion. I'm so glad you showcased the potential of a Elemental damage Necromancer. As I mentioned above, by making Mage a fire-only skill the necromancer could lean into the Fire Sunder, Lower Rez, and infinity and then the Mage damage could be balanced around that build. Fire golem has a built in Threat generator with the Holy fire aura so the golem would draw a lot of attention away from the mages and be a solid tank. Additionally there could be some interaction with Fire Golem and Corpse Explosion where the fire Golem Triggers its on-death fire damage each time a CE goes off (but that is for the fire golem video). Additionally I would like to see the Trang's set changed to have -Fire rez being the 3pc bonus for the belt or helm, and the fire mastery from the Full set bonus apply to CE, Fire golem, and Mages. Doing so would create a true Pyromancer Necro and simultaneously increase the value of the Trangs set.

[@Forty2de]

yeah let's make corpse explosion stronger, it's such an undertuned skill

[@bobnewkirk7003]

@@Forty2de I posted on his CE vid but I want CE reworked. Personally I think it should target your own summons so the damage scaling evens out and summoners get the most use out of it. Alternatively I proposed that the phys damage stays tied to the skill but split the fire half off to a synergy with Fire Golem at 5% per level so you would have to at least build the golem to get the current power. Basically I want all non summoner builds to get less out of CE because as you indicated it's very overtuned and a nightmare to balance as it is.

[@NuStiuFrate]

You can't make them into archers sadly because the summon necro is already good enough. Making all the damage physical is a huge buff that is not needed. What is needed is a seperate build (thus two builds to play, more fun with the necro).

[@bobnewkirk7003]

@@NuStiuFrate ya, the more time i spend with the idea of fire-only mages the more i like it. Fire golem is under-used, so having a fire-centric necromancer would build out and play totally different than any other necro build. Though personally I think CE needs a rework before mages get one.

[@NuStiuFrate]

​@@bobnewkirk7003 That's not bad indeed. Although i'd rather they change mages to bone damage, to go with bone necro. Then at least someone would have a reason to use them. Either way, there are plenty of suggestions. One thing is clear, they suck so bad right now, they really need a reword.

[@anansi9291]

I will just throw my own 2 cents in here: The door blocking is an issue, but making skeletons incorporeal will highly increase your army’s density. This is just begging for a well placed fireball/firewall to end your entire army. But still better than door blocking I agree. It might be too much to code, but smth like a SC1 mechanic, where units bump other friendlies to make them move out of the way, will be perfect. Concerning not running away from danger and “choosing death”. Well, those are skeletons. They cannot be double dead xD. Yeah, some avoidance AI might be nice, but I am pretty sure that they will end up running to all four corners and will drag monsters with them to all directions. This will also make your melee army follow them, leaving you alone and defenceless in the middle of the field. This will also lower the active time your army doing damage. I am usually fine with them standing there, taking hits “like a man” xD Concerning the DPS issue. If they will be casting fireball, lightning and glacial spike, everyone will be running only the mages. I think a more balanced (in no fun allowed sort of a way) would be to add a chance to pierce to skeleton mastery. In this case, your skelies will serve as a true backline fire support, where they have a chance to double their damage, triple it and so on. And it will prevent them from being used for telestomping unlike increasing their damage. It will also make poison deal more damage and ice be used for crowd control. Concerning poison, I find it kinda useless unless you are constantly using lower resist and even then it is subpar. If you focus on lowering poison, then you might as well run poison nova build, which will make poison mages useless. I would say they either need venom or get their poison duration back as it was before, so they can prevent monster heal. This will do way better job than unsupported poison will do on its own. In this case, you can have one/two mages preventing monster heals, which will be especially useful if you were to add pierce to the skeleton mastery.

[@GCT1990]

They will never patch a "Custom selective" Mage tic box, we're still waiting on a extended inventory and stash box without mods. I feel bad for Console players they have no leeway for a better experience... Maybe the Xbox can I don't really know. I just don't understand how this is a loot based game yet the Inventory/stash Inventory is so frustratingly limited, again Poor consoles can't even carry a H-box in their inventory for a little more space as they can't carry, open and drop a item in... So if they play with charms which you kinda have to, they only realistically get enough space for like what, a armor or pike? Blizzard please increase the inventory space, modders have already done it there's a no way its too hard or at least have a secondary inventory placement below the main inventory superficially for charms only....

[@NuStiuFrate]

I would love to remove skeleton mastery. Make amp damage give warriors those buffs instead. Do the same for lower resist with mages. It's so boring having to waste 20 skills into something that acts like a synergy before synergies existed. As to the skeleton mages themselves, just make it so after a certain skill level, they start using more powerful skills. Like a more toned down version of act 3 mercs. Give those skeli bois some much needed splash damage.

[@allysinlombard]

Choosing your mage armies is FIRE!

[@chrisistocool1]

I agree that there needs to be ALOT more synergys for the summons. Plus I want to summon more then one golem like a fire and a clay or maybe two different iron golums to get more auras

[@thomasmuller8528]

Imagines a lvl 30 poison golem (instead of fire) with lvl 1-9 conviction (3 points hard point for +1 lvl aura) That a thrue last golem for the tree ! You use mage ? You need it for -res You use other ? Need it for -def It's not overpowered because conviction don't reduce poison res 👌

[@Fenrir-Afri]

I thought I was gonna see something about Skeletal Mage about them being actually useful but I see that they are still a hopeless cause xD

[@RandoBox]

Would giving the mages Fireball, Lightning, Glacial Spike, and a poison cloud be too much? They should get these upgrades at like 20 hard points in Mages + Mastery. Edit: haha, right at the end of the video...

[@Garthantula]

I was hoping you would go into how their damage was calculated. That’s something I’ve always been curious about. It’s very frustrating that the RSM tooltip doesn’t state how much damage the mages do.

[@GGMentor]

@@Garthantula check out my video on the Elemental Necromancer, I dive into that there The short story is, poison doesn't stack but can stop regeneration. Cold sucks, Fire and lightning seem to be the best for raw damage

[@lennyghoul]

I know this is really late but I would like if they removed all of the elemental damage and replaced it with "magic damage". Have each of them toss out like tiny bone spears, or teeth or something. That way we won't have to worry about the element and they are less resisted by default.

[@leejordan001]

Hellow Mentor! Sorry for being off but I have a question that burns me and I can't find the answere. You are my most reliable source and you allways responds. My question is: I have an item find barb and trying to farm Travincal. I am lvl76 still leveling. I have pretty good damage but often miss. I use IK hammer with 2 shaels. Is it worth to change shaels to eth runes for - 25% enemy defense? Is it work? Will I hit more often? I know IK hammer has cold damage but I only use 3 peaces so it hasn't yet. Thanks Mentor!

[@GGMentor]

The -25% enemy defense is powerful yes

[@leejordan001]

@@GGMentor thank you Mentor! I will try it then! You are allways responds and with proper information! You are my favorit D2 youtuber by far! In my faworites list youtube brings you first. Please keep up the great work! Be well! Chears!

[@Amaqse]

surely simply reducing poison duration to 0,001s thus removing the non-stacking "feature" of their dmg is much much simpler than creating some weird checkboxes. Realistically if u add checkboxes everyone will use lightning mages only.

[@alfredovadillovelazco2686]

Would be great create mages with a specific element from corpses with specific immunities. Ex: Lighting mages from Soul corpses

[@mickpratt8327]

The fact that you have no control over what element gets summoned really kills this skill. It's kind of a kick in the teeth for Necromancers especially since one of our biggest weaknesses is ranged enemies. With enemy health regen running Hell they do literally no damage individually and if they spawn enemy immune what's the point? It would have been cooler even if they had their own curse tree or shot a useful spell like an actual fire ball or frozen orb.

[@KrisM189]

lol I love the Mage blocking hatred. Playing Necro kind of makes you swear at your summons lol.

[@anansi9291]

You charge into a room to find a megacharged champions with fanatism. You turn around to get away, but you are struck with horror. A bunch of your loyal skeleton mages standing there, in your only doorway, all looking at you with their sad puppy eyes. Your army, trapped on the other side, frantically trying to aid you, but to no avail. And at that moment, when you sombrely accept your fait, you give a last nod to your faithful golem before perishing to the hoard. As your spirit leaves your body, there is only one lasting thought that you have: “Do I have a respec point left?”

[@kernergades]

What they could do. Is give the mages Tele and the imps AI from act 5. That would help with there survivability.. tho posion mages. Can be a good utility. To stop a mob or boss from regening there life.. I remember that from your videos

[@Emperor_x8]

Honestly I summon them for defence ( just Incase I need way to the town portal out ) to send monsters into hit recovery for the other summons to finish them off

[@bbwolf326]

Replace them with skeletal archers using magic arrow and give them all skeletons a durability synergy with bone wall or armor.

[@PedroJPedro]

I honestly think what they need to do to fix them. Is to double their damage for all mages, and give the poison mages the venom treatment where it does it’s damage over the .4 seconds, give them the new rouge mercenary AI, and have them not block the rest of the army. Then all mages will be viable.

[@turbo_brian]

I hear this skill is really good and everyone uses it.

[@Y0sh1no5am]

Wish they could cast Novas only. xD if level 10. From doing a little bot to a blast to a nova. Imagine that running around and they keep casting Frost, Poison novas.

[@E1337Jerk]

Mages and poison need help. Poison needs to stack to some, even if it were 4 stacks per skill with 15% diminishing returns on damage. Mages let's upgrade the skill they use every 7 levels. Fire bolt at lvl7 ball at 17 cast hydra every once in a while at 20. And meteor on death Lighting at 7 chain lighting at 14 and chance to cast static at lvl 20. Nova apon death. Cold does not work with the necro I would replace it with magic teeth at level1 (lvl2or3) At lvl7 teeth (lvl9)at 14 bone spear, at 20 chance to cast bone spirt with corpse exploration upon death. Posin at lvl 7 posin javeskill with out the javelin. At 14 plauge Java no Java at 20 chance to cast posin nova.

[@jcjc5702]

I dont even play diablo but nice to know

[@glittersh4rt162]

Sad to go back and watch this again. Knowing the mages will never get any love

[@frankenstein3163]

How many magi's can you have before they start to handicap a full skeletal warier (no rev) army ? No enigma also. They could keep them fragile but up there damage a bunch or make better tankers if if they don't mod the ai to prevent theme from just siting there and take hits.

[@dustinerickson1253]

skeleton mages not doing bone damage is the biggest missed oppertunity in summoning

[@yasaiasazuke]

Elemental Necromancer Act 3 Merc dragon armor and shield + lawbringer or flickering flame Enchant skill on skeletal warrior Fire sunder + lower resist

[@GGMentor]

Theorycrafted one the other day, kzbin.info/www/bejne/Y6i7aqCtZbmDrKc

[@yasaiasazuke]

​@GGMentor They can beat SW on a 25 point investment. Revive 3 or 4 blood lords with 4 SM. For aiming Terror helps them target who you want or use bone magic to snipe out trash. Spawn golem through doors. They also can help you if you max out poison and and just want extra security preventing 10 archers to catch you by surprise. 😂 Man that video was painful to watch. But yeah my skeletal mage army is finally running smoothly after 20 years.

[@spencertriebull-baireuther3003]

The most damage a Skelly magi ever does is get hit with a thorns.

[@jackcrater9725]

They should add Raise Skeleton Archer as another option to choose from

[@driftordraft]

3 hard points into mage... No more. Max benefit. Also skeleton mages should be fire only to better fit the dragon theme of trang-oul

[@slwong3]

They should just have 5 times more damage than what they currently have now. Then I can live with all the other problems that it has.

[@starvinforGarvin]

I would rather they were archers.

[@unibluffer]

Make the mages fly/float. Might fix a few problems. If you're able to cast magic you should be able to float.

[@unibluffer]

Also make it where only magic or long ranged weapons or spears and polearms can hit them. Would help with survivability.

[@anansi9291]

Ok, just hear me out. Let them fly and swarm around the necromancer like druid’s ravens do. Will be both amusing and terrifying xD

[@haywoodjablomi7375]

I’m just imagining pvp with a necro that has 40 revived dolls

[@Crocosnaps]

If only they were Skeleton Archers with Magic Arrows.

[@morbihan9857]

Skeletal mages should have been changed with skeleton archers, do twice as much damage as the regular skellies but summon only half as many.

[@GGMentor]

that's just a cop out, fix the mages don't change them to something else.

[@morbihan9857]

@@GGMentor Screw the mages, archers are cooler.

[@GGMentor]

@@morbihan9857 screw the archers =}

[@l.m.srensen4559]

Also please make them intelligent enough to know not to shoot the same target to reduced/negated effect, with the poison dudes..

[@wayneberry3453]

I've always considered them shields... nothing more. Unless it's capt murikas shield... why would we expect them to do any good. They're just a distraction, a diversion if you will, you all slap one monster till CE. Than you have more skeles. They skelle tells his two friends, their friends tell their friends... and so on and so on. Not buff needed as you'd be bored out of your brain to run a mage only build lol. I love you chinchilla 💩

[@Grim-iw6ki]

Get a teleport charge staff for dungeons from the act 2 staves seller. It stops door blocking. How else does a summoner get through the maggot lair? I've never seen anyone just use mages alone they are fine as added damage on top of what your melee skeletons and mercenary does. They're not supposed to be OP. Though I wish I could have raise vampire from the Eastern Sun mod. Poison to me has always been there to keep the Regen of monsters in check. Also cold doesn't shatter all corpses. You talked about A.I. algorithm's, revives are the dumbest. And even more...fanatical about blocking doors. I don't know any paladin that put one point on their attack skill then whined it was garbage. Or amazon. Or druid. Or any class, that's stupid. Max out lower resist. Get yourself a good mercenary, doesn't have to be act 2 people need to stop primarily using act two mercs "because shiny aura". Work your way to the runeword with fanaticism and watch 'em all die. OR Use decrepify. I'm fact use decrepify with clay golem and go teleport on Baal as he won't be able to do a thing. Although I might seem harsh I don't intend that at all. I just didn't like the presentation, when one skill is of a greater whole.

[@GGMentor]

lol the mages are basically useless even as part of the whole to be fair. Most people have this reasoning you do, that surely as a part of the whole they are useful. When in truth as part of the whole they are more often hurtful. Cold Mages Remove corpses you can use for CE, The poison mages damage doesn't stack at all so each additional poison mage over the first is a net loss in damage output. The mages are also constantly requiring maintenance for little to no gain. Which means again a loss of corpses probably better used for revives, skeleton warriors, or Corpse Explosions. As For what they offer in return for all of their annoyances like blocking the doors, and worse? Mediocre damage barely even worth the effort of keeping them lol.

[@supernova743]

Skeletal mages are simply there to cause lag damage to other players.

[@gureidens61]

Its very sad blizzard didnt fixed this game's balance 2 years after... And never will...

[@GGMentor]

they tried, they are slightly better and slightly worse than they were before lol

[@smegg9676]

coolest looking golem (fire) is the worst coolest looking skelie (mage) is the worst

[@Azulike777]

just turn into one mage as like a act 3 merc

[@NuStiuFrate]

Or make it 4 mages only. Each with a different and interesting element attack, like fireball.

[@Cornholers]

Eh 😑 honestly each one of these mages should get there own debuff on the enemies if the damage is going to be this damn low

[@lkr_lkr_9891]

sad, it can be fun to play with 16 skeleton

[@JeremyNoblitt]

Honestly the mages should cast curses and bone spear

[@redelfshotthefood8213]

Sigh. I’m so ready for disappointment.

[@gabrielesquaratti5709]

blizzard never fixed mages since the first day...they don't care. just play project diablo or median

[@GGMentor]

They made several attempts, in some ways there are better some worse lol. It's complicated to fix them without #1 changing the. Entirely to something different which they don't want to do. #2 avoid making them super overpowered #3 avoid breaking them further

[@IcapapalotlPopocatepepetl]

Totally useless skill. Quite sad...

[@GGMentor]

Not useless, the poison helps stop regeneration lol 🤣