Nekros Re-Work

[Nhemin]

Prepare your eyeballs for a long read and grab some apricot jelly for potential butthurt.

 

I've been wanting this rework forever even back when it was the derpy flavour of the month.  Why? Because its become a derp caster that's been left in the horrible wake that is new, end-game content.  All people want you for is your Despoil/Desecrate to loot corpses and have a "chance" of getting health orbs/loot.  However with large team supply nodes and the new air drop call-ins, healing supports have taken a back seat.  So all you're there for is getting some extra materials and hitting enemies with slash damage to increase chance for drops (if the enemy splits into pieces, you get loot for each dismembered body part). This works with bosses and event enemies too which have a chance to drop loot (ie Stalker).

 

There's almost no need for heal frames that support now when a) players can heal themselves and b) there's group consumables that heal for quite a lot.  Same with ammo drops because you have a consumable for that too.

 

Also, wtf is up with these energy costs on Nekros?  He's a weak frame with no defensive abilities aside from a crappy augment called Shield of Shadows later which is hard to keep up and sustain energy (compared to most other frames).  Why can I just sit there and spam my ult as Frost/Rhino and CC everything AND do dmg?  Meanwhile my poor Nekros ults, takes forever to do so and spends 3x as much energy to pull it off.  To top it off I have to HOPE my minions attack. Wut in the literal F***?!  

 

Nekros was truly a unique frame as it was the ONLY frame before Atlas to have minions that were kinda tanking/doing some damage.  Loki and Nyx don't really count for obvious reasons.  Also the theming was pretty good and meant well, but the implementation was horribly misplaced.  Allow me to explain...

 

 

Soul Punch:

Nekros lunges (shoots a projectile) with telekinetic force, dealing 100 / 200 / 350 / 500 Impact damage to a single target within 20 / 30 / 40 / 50 meters.

 

This ability needs an AoE so badly it hurts me in my nether regions.  It has one 'somewhat', sure.  But its not reliable and as it deals impact damage, it doesn't do much versus armoured targets later in the game. Also spamming this drains energy fast even with efficiency.

Possible change:

Change Soul Punch to extend off of what its augment does.  If it targets an enemy, the same as above occurs.  However if it targets a corpse/downed Tenno, it explodes dealing "x" dmg in a decent aoe to enemies around it.  Consumes the corpse so you can't Desecrate it.  The Tenno only gets revived if they have the current syndicate augment like normal.  But change the "drains all energy" as that is kinda dumb.  Maybe half the energy or 75% of it.

 

Terrify:

Nekros releases a psychic blast that causes up to 7 / 12 / 15 / 20 enemies within 5 / 10 / 12 / 15 meters to enter a state of panic for 10 / 15 / 20 / 25 seconds. While panicked, enemies will not attack and will haphazardly flee, exposing themselves and reducing their armor by 5% / 10% / 15% / 20%.

 

This skill is BS and has a crappy range until you buff it.  And, OH LOOK, the enemies RUN THE F*** AWAY FROM YOU SO NOW YOU CAN'T SHOOT THEM WHILE THEY HAVE REDUCED ARMOUR.  Yay! Also your summons can't catch up to them as they run away faster than your summons can run.  They don't "haphazardly" do anything, they book it for the hills as far away from you as possible and then charge back in a big group after it wears off.  Not a good thing in high tier Survival or end game content.  

 

Possible change:

Just take out the Desecrate ability already so we're no longer sitting there spamming 3 all day.  Its boring.  Instead incorporate Desecrate with Terrify.  When an enemy is inflicted with 'fear' status, they have a % chance to drop loot or health/energy orbs.  This frees up an entire ability so we can introduce a new one to make Nekros more viable. Also either a) change the armour reduction and make it so enemies are slowed while running away or b) make them feared in place so you can actually shoot them.  You can't even spam this skill anyway, so its not like its going to be OP.

 

Desecrate:

Nekros casts his dark power on every corpse within a radius of 10 / 15 / 20 / 25 meters. Each corpse has a 30% / 40% / 50% / 60% chance to be converted into a Health Orb. If successful, then there is a 75% / 80% / 85% / 90% chance to roll the dead enemy's drop table again to produce additional loot. The cast time for Desecrate is 1.8 seconds.

 

Just remove this already as I can't stand being asked "hey can you bring your Nekros so you can spam 3 all day so I can get loot?".  Seriously, no.  Its so not fun I don't even know where to begin.  This is an action game shooter with ninjas and Jedi powers.  Why am I stuck spamming 3 so people can have fun shooting and doing active things?  Integrate this skill with Terrify as noted above for all that is unholy and dark and emo.

Possible change:

New skill: Soul/bone shield. Much like the one from Diablo 2 necro.  You buff yourself with it to give a shield that has a separate health bar or gives reduced damage taken.  It wouldn't matter if this had a duration or because if it did, it would give Nekros another reason to equip increased duration mods.  But yes, ANYTHING to help you survive as this frame has 0 survivability currently.  You could even make an ability augment later that buffs the shield further so it does damage to the enemy when hit (or something like that).  Just get rid of Desecrate as it is pretty much the most detestable skill in the game currently and doesn't actually help Nekros survive as his health pool and armour are so poor.

Shadows of the Dead:

Nekros summons 4 / 5 / 6 / 7 shadow copies of his most recently slain enemies. The copies retain the level and stats of their original selves but will gain 25% / 50% / 75% / 150% damage and 15% / 35% / 65% / 100% health. The copies spawn randomly within a 10 meter radius and fight for Nekros until they die or 15 / 20 / 25 / 30 seconds elapse.

 

...Probably the dumbest ult/#4 ability in the game.  It has potential and it is pretty fun, but its so lackluster compared to Ember, Mag, Oberon, Frost, Hydroid, Zephyr, Rhino, Mesa, Nova, Saryn (insert every other frame here).  Simply because every other frame, for the most part, has an ultimate they can spam pretty decently.  YOU CANNOT SPAM SHADOWS OF THE DEAD.  You MUST keep killing enemies to refresh your supply of corpses.  Dumbest thing ever.

Possible change:

Reduce the energy cost HEAVILY as this skill is already lackluster and cannot be spammed or deal out heavy burst damage.  Increase the move speed so that the minions can get to their targets faster and increase the duration as it expires before they can really do anything.  Make them stick to the Nekros more and maybe even focus targets afflicted by any of your abilities.  ****ALSO, make it summon the maximum amount of shadows ALWAYS but it randomly summons monsters from the tile set you are on****  No more having to kill monsters first to keep up your pool of summons.  Could make an augment or buff so that you get life per hit (small amount regained cuz you don't want it to be OP) when a shadow attacks something.  Maybe if they hit a terrified enemy or an enemy hit by the new soul punch corpse explosion.  Lots of room for improvement here.

TLDR:  Nekros needs changes/buff BADLY and these are just some meager suggestions on my part in hopes to spur the community to push devs to change this class.  Hydros needs love too but at least he can CC enemies with hentai tentacles.  Focus of the Nekros needs to be that he has more offensive/defensive capabilities in future changes.  Currently he's stuck as the Desecrate janitor.  

 

Thanks for reading.  QQ Nekros underpowered.  Pressure devs to make changes pronto.

Edited December 15, 2015 by Nhemin

[Burnthesteak87]

Fan Concepts.

[noveltyhero]

Shadows of the Dead dumb? Sorry, do you even Nekros? This guy can be the king of melee, Equilibrium+various other mods, alongside desecrate means he cannot die. Add in Shadows of the Dead Augment, he never solos, Nekros is never alone. Not only that but get some nulls on your side and you are set for whatever mission you do.

 

Terrify needs buffs, true. First ability needs some re-thinking I agree. But Nekros is not in that bad of a place right now, not when we have Oberon, Mag (albeit shes great vs Corpus) and Zephyr needing some serious look overs.

[Him_Who_Is_Clem]

Shadows of the Dead dumb? Sorry, do you even Nekros? This guy can be the king of melee, Equilibrium+various other mods, alongside desecrate means he cannot die. Add in Shadows of the Dead Augment, he never solos, Nekros is never alone. Not only that but get some nulls on your side and you are set for whatever mission you do.

 

Terrify needs buffs, true. First ability needs some re-thinking I agree. But Nekros is not in that bad of a place right now, not when we have Oberon, Mag (albeit shes great vs Corpus) and Zephyr needing some serious look overs.

+1

[xFrostKnightx]

This guy is just trolling people, another post with misleading evidence.