As a cleric addict over the past 15 years, i am very disappointed with the animate changes. To be honest, i animated 1 time this wipe, saw how pathetic the animates are now, sold the legend animate rank, and haven't memmed an animate dead since. Corpses were previously way OP, but clerics suck otherwise compared to other curing classes. All that needed to happen is not allow corpses to wield. That takes care of a big part of the problem. But nerfing to 2 corpses and also nerfing to 1 hit per round. Not worth my time. Wahhhh
You also play the game with the most stacked tanks in the game and don't need to mem animate to increase damage output. Congrats, buddy, we're that buff. I'm sure I don't need to remind you that Clerics are far superior to any other healing class pre-legend pound for pound.
To illustrate: We can bring non-legend Nemesis to endgame. Would you ever even consider bringing a non-legend Syug or Zinsandoral to endgame? Of course not.
I'm going to try to tackle the issue of animate and why it was way too OP before and provide a suggestion of how to improve the spell to make it both balanced and useful for all players.
Animate as it was before and still somewhat remains a spell that allows the Cleric (in addition to their Oblits from rapture) to become the single highest direct melee damage dealer in your average group with 0 equipment.
-Last wipe 1-2x annihilating average corpses X3 + Clerics Oblit.
-This wipe 1x annihilating average corpses X2 + Cleric Oblit (I think).
This is/was completely out of wack when your melee specific classes are getting out damaged by run of the mill corpses (and far out damaged by elite corpses).
So here's the proposal:-Recode animate dead
-Make animate dead create a generic animated corpse
-Animate dead should then be changed to land on any corpse, land at a much higher rate (if not 100%)
-Animates limit could remain at 2 at legend (maybe 3)
-Generic animates damage should not exceed low end annihilates on bashed targets (can be tuned to whatever imms think are fair)
-Imms can decide whether corpses can double hit with haste effects like rally/ghostdance but this should play into the damage cap they set for the corpses per hit
-Corpses still can't wield due to abuse of crossbows ignoring shields
What does this fix:-Situational nature of animate (no longer have to ferry in special corpses as all corpses animatable and equal[minus undead which don't leave corpses])
-Caps damage output of animates so people are not secretly discovering double oblitting/mutilating corpses who far outdamage the average melee tank (and in some cases the most stacked melee chars you can find)
-Removes the frustration of continually failing to animate corpses
What could this break:- NPCs that animate a corpse to make a fight more difficult (although many times this can be mitigated by simply looting the corpse)
- the value of Sanctify Corpse/Ground (although lets be honest, who the eff uses these on a consistent basis)
