Revisiting the Abomination (necromancer skill, not the boss)

[Zarono]

so after getting up a bunch of side classes like shaman and forge guard, i decided to go back to my necromancer to try and finish the push to 100. and from level 66 to 75 i noticed something important, i still have assemble abomination on my bars from when i had initially tested it (on release, and after the first wave of hotfixes) and i had used it maybe 3 times in 9 levels. i pondered at this for a few minuets, since my testing showed that it was a decent skill that could considerably raise your dps for the period it was alive (at least, once you got your army back up and running) and ultimately what i realized the greatest flaw in the abomination skill is:
it’s too dangerous to use.
the amount of danger i put myself in to summon the abomination is twofold:
1: i have to stand still for an increasingly long period of time based on my army size.
2: my army, which constitutes my toughness as a necromancer, goes away as i’m forming the abomination.

there simply isn’t a scenario outside of the once in a while chance you end up safely next to the boss of a monolith without having aggro’d them yet to actually summon the thing, and usually by the time it’s finished summoning, i could have just killed the boss by then.

How to fix

so the easy solution (that we probably won’t get) is just make the abomination summon instantly, consuming all of the minions in its summon area in one go, this would require a change in the talents which affect summoning speed, but not much else.

the fix that feels more likely to me: The skill no longer requires us to personally channel it (although it would still require time to summon).
what i’m envisioning here is you cast the spell, and it “tethers” all of the minions in it’s summon area, consuming them at the same rate it would have if channeled over the same period of time, but during that time we can still move around, and even re-summon our minions as they’re being consumed (since they wouldn’t be tethered to the skill, this would not create an infinite feed loop). and for this change, no talents would have to be altered, and i could use this skill basically on CD.

[VapingNeckbeard]

i like that idea. i haven’t even tried abomination on my necro because i saw it on stream and it just looked horrible to use. the idea of tethering the existing minions to it is great as well.

i think if the devs want to maintain some of the risk/cost element that it currently has too much of, they could even keep the skill as a channeled skill but instead of absorbing minions at a fixed rate, let you “draw” the tether area with your cursor. that way you could (theoretically) be more selective with which minions get pulled into it. it would still require you to stand still for a time, but it would give it more flexibility.

[vargath]

The concept of the skill is brilliant but the application is just awful.

-Too long to summon
-Too slow to move around
-At the back of the queue behind your minions
-Make you re-cast your minions, and losing precious dps while doing so

I reckon it shouldn’t sacrifice your minions and it should move way faster to make it at a better place and probably the possibility to move while channeling also

[Jojo_fr]

Very good points guys.

Another problems with Abomination:

• It’s difficult, very difficulty, to target it with a Dread Shade spell if you have lots of minion around it. Dread Shade with Always critics node can be essential for your build, but if you can’t target your Abomination, there is an interface problem.

• I think there should be some sort of way to make your abomination able to aborb minions while fighting. Players can like to channel few seconds, but not more. It’s not fun to incitate players to absorb minions for a long moment.