Harbinger of Souls is clearly lacking, with Master of Death being the superior choice for almost every build.
Master of Death is obviously primarily meant for pet builds, and fulfills its’ role well. However it also boasts a whopping 12% OA and 75 flat DA on top of 26% Vitality Resist to the player.
It seems to me that Harbinger of Souls was designed for vitality/aether autoattackers (% Attack Damage Converted to health) and casters (% Cast speed). The % damage values and Vitality Decay is in line with other classes’ exclusive skills. Vitality/aether autoattackers tend to have plenty of different ADCTH sources through gear, devotion and other skills. An additional 12% isn’t all that significant when you already have ~20% without it. The % damage boosts aren’t substantial enough to rival 12% OA and 75 DA. For casters, unless they are very dependent on cast speed (like Drain Essence, which could warrant a post of its own) % OA trumps 135% damage any day of the week.
It seems to me that HoS needs a buff and/or MoD a nerf to its’ % OA. I propose that the cast speed % on HoS is changed to % total speed, in order to provide autoattackers with a stat that can somewhat rival % OA. Maybe some resists to further increase it’s appeal, mirroring the Vitality Resist on MoD - maybe give HoS 25% Aether Resist?
It’s weird to see an Exclusive skill mainly flavoured to pets outperforming one solely focused on the player. Thoughts?
I don’t even get why Master of Death has OA. Is it meant for hybrid pet builds? Those aren’t exactly very well supported but i guess this is supposed to make them better, but hybrid builds need much more than a single exclusive skill.
But add a OA/DA bonus to Harbinger of Souls instead as this would benefit both casters and auto attackers. Switching cast speed with total speed does not do all that much for casters and the ADCTH is already not that useful for casters.
Considering the necromancer is a caster mastery both exclusive skills should give a good boost to spell casters.
Buff Harbinger of Souls, No need to nerf Master of Death it’s fine as it is.
It’s likely the main Exclusive for Reaper/Defiler will choose, even if they use no pets. Taking OA away from it will be the death of very limited Reaper/Defiler build(s).
Also add increase vitality decay duration to Harbinger of Souls would be a good start for vitality decay. Then they can add more vitality decay sources to devotion and items.
I agree with this. Currently vitality decay casters lack a true identity, they rely on conversion to work like using Blood Orb or Conduits. There exists Drain Essence but that skill needs a lot of help to be worth the point investment
At skill level 26 It has 300% weapon damage with AoE that alone makes it decent.
The reaper Deathguard set is also build around it. With the set it should be pretty good as primary damage skill looking at the huge damage bonuses + conversion to acid it gives.
I completely agree with the OP, the Cast Speed % on Harbingers is out of place on a skill clearly meant for weapon builds. Since only weapon skills can take advantage of the ADCtH, vitality conversion, and the flat damage, really the only build that would use the skill is a caster weapon build of which there are like 4???
Yes I know, a skill can be used by casters OR weapon builds…those are called skills that are trying to do too much and never get picked as there are better alternatives that don’t as is the OP’s point.
used harbinger for levelling with my reaper. was ok. the life steal is decent enough. swtched to MoD later, though (after getting a soulrend that conveniently comes with 12% lifesteal )
not seeing what’s wrong with bone harvest, though. using it in a cold damage reaper build. the transmuter makes it really strong. 300% weapon damage at 16/16 and 20% total damage. oneshots most trash groups right away.
I agree, Harbinger of Souls seems to be very lacking indeed.b:(
Even with the build that use vitality+aether+vitdecay is better off using any other exclusive skills like possession(for chaos&skill desruption&damage resistance) or Menhir’s Bulwark(for HP generation & damage resistance)
Why should it be retooled for melee builds only? Most mastery skills buff multiple builds so this is nothing new. Its not that different from reckless power really. Though now that I look at that skill again, it is also quite weak for casters for a arcanist exclusive skill. Though a lot has to do how casters are hosed due lacking weapon damage on most skills.
The necromancer is clearly a caster mastery so its exclusive skills should buff spell casters too. If you remove the cast Speed(or transforms it into total speed as that would likely mean a smaller bonus) from it would become nearly worthless for number of casters builds, say a drain essence build.
I propose that it should be buffed in a way that both caster and melee builds can take advantage off.
Arcanist tree doesn’t have any melee-only skills (i.e. skills that scale with attack speed) in the tree though so cast speed is more appropriate. The necro has 2 caster exclusive skills and 1 is clearly weaker and not chosen, hence this post, I’m proposing making 1 melee and 1 caster/pet, I think that’s reasonable. I wouldn’t say Necro is “clearly” caster only as it has 2 WPS skills. It’s funny you bring up Reckless Power as a lot of people have asked to buff that skill as well in a similar way for Aether melee builds. I’m in the camp of buffing the skill by making it Total Speed % instead or just do the same clunky thing they do with gear and add Attack and Cast speed % (going way back I’m in the camp of not distinguishing between attack and cast speed but that’s a different argument).
How does the addition of cast speed make it a caster exclusive skill:confused:.
Using that logic I could argue that most of the exclusive skills are melee skills cause they either have bonus flat damage and/or physical conversion in it.
I agree the skill is too weak currently but I disagree that the solution is to nerf it for caster builds while buffing it for melee builds.
Not all necro caster builds are pet builds and the damage types it boost is perfect for both AAR and drain essence builds who also deserve a good exclusive skill.
It should add DA or OA or something similar that is good for all builds.
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