What is your oppinion in Jagged Bones and Soul Reaping?

What is your oppinion in Jagged Bones and Soul Reaping? I have some oppinions about the subject myself, but I'd rather listen to a few before I open my big yap.

Imagine a team full of Necros. 8 of them. They have heavy hex pressure, and each has a different build and purpose. You got Discord, Deprevity, Reaper's Mark, or Spoil Victor and a boatload of other really nice hexes. On the defensive side, you have two N/Rt that can throw out spirits and heal pretty darn efficiently with the Restoration Line. And, of course, you have some Jagged Bones cast on some Bone Minions when (or if) the bodies start to fall.

High-end tactics against such heavy hex pressure include creative use of Purge Signet, Convert Hexes, Expel Hexes, and even Deny Hexes. Divert Hexes has more than its fair share in preventing momentum in this kind of setup.

Overall, this build works pretty well. The trick is to be able to make the first few kills early so that the energy train from Jagged Bones and Soul Reaping fuels the entire team.

Now, the questions I pose to you fine folks are:
What do you think about the current state of Soul Reaping?
What do you think about Soul Reaping/Jagged Bones being used as team energy management?
Do you expect a change in the near future?

Potential problems/counters I see:

* A single enemy necromancer "stealing" your corpses with a quick activating and recharging spell like Consume Corpse, Necrotic Traversal or Putrid Explosion can totally spoil your tactic.
* An enemy necromancer with Well of the Profane will not only steal you corpses, but he will also remove the Jagged Bones enchantment from all minions in the well area, and prevent you from re-casting it. Your supply of Jagged Horrors will fall dry quickly.
* If one of your MMs is killed, all his minions turn against you.
* Minions are dumb, and easily defeated. Especially an enemy smiting monk can destroy your minions very fast (probably faster than your supply), and also get rid of the hexes.
* ... several others ....

Overall, I guess the build may work as a "surprise", but it won't become Flavor of the Month. It's too prone to counters.

As for Soul Reaping, I think it's fine. It is mostly powerful in PvE.

If i had my way i'd stop spirits triggering soul reaping, either that or make is so only things that die in aggro range give soul reaping.

1. SR seems fine as it is
-> Builds will have to either completely focus around this or simply ignore it.

2. If a change is to happen, treat undead below lvl 20 as spirits, and give 1/2 energy return. That would make sense, as a fleshgolem will always give u full energy (good payoff i think considering the strength of a FG)

3. No i dont expect a change to happen.

Soul Reaping is ridiculously abusable. It needs a nerf, but anything minor won't be enough and anything major will kill the attribute and I <3 soul reaping, so I don't even want to think about that :P

Jagged Bones: teams just need to counter it. Here's a list of things that will wtfpwn a jagged bones necro:

1. Diversion
2. Banishing strike (insta-kill target minion and all adjacent minions)
3. Thumper/Grenth/Something scary in the jagger's face.
4. Well of Profane
5. Massive aoe - see tombs. Everyone brings sandstorm = nobody brings a jagger.

Things that don't work:
- Corpse control
- Killing minions one by one
- Ignoring minions

1. SR is fine as it is
2. It's a valid tactic and easily stopped by stripping the enchant of the minion and killing it before JB is recast.
3. I hope not.

However, I've seen a lot of PvP'ers arguing to make minions and Spirits stop triggering SR, which would kill the MM Necro in PvE, and possibly cripple the Necros as well in PvE and PvP. The lack of presence of Necros in the last GvG pretty much shows their popularity. Soul Reaping is both their strength and their weakness. They need it to have enough EN for their high costing spells, but they need people/Minions dying enough to trigger SR to get that EN. In the current metagame, which is defensive play mostly, Necros can't get enough bodies to drop to fuel their SR, thus leaving them in need of energy, which explains why they are/were fairly unpopular in GvG. The Jagged Bones method of keeping a minion around to keep fueling their EN is more a flaw of the skill itself, not Soul Reaping. An increased recharge would already reduce the amount of EN gained by the Necros, while leaving them viable for other parts of the game.

The only thing I see wrong with this is that it allows you to completely fuel an entire team of necros with massive amounts of energy once things get rolling. I think I have a solution that would remove that which wouldn't hurt the regular roles of a Necro.

Soul Reaping
When a creature dies, Soul Reaping triggers for the nearest three Necromancers of the same species.

That means, in PvE, it will work basically the same. If you're surrounded by Jade Scarabs and something dies, then the Scarabs won't steal your Soul Reaping because they are not the same type as you. 3 Scarabs will gain Soul Reaping, and up to 3 Necromancers in your team will also gain it.

In PvP, however, it would add some extra layer of tactics. Necros have recieved a pretty nice buff, and this change might give reason to make the buff even stronger. Teams who then desire to take Necromancers with them have to consider "What is the likelyhood there will be Necromancers on the other team?". In that case, positioning and the like come into play. Does the Necro hang back with the Rit to get the spirit Soul Reaping? Or does he get up close and personal to make the kill and get the full benefit? Is it better to bring Bone Minions or Bone Fiends?

Considering the addition of the Signet of Lost Souls, one of the most cleverly devised and useful skills I've ever seen, Necromancers shouldn't have to depend on Soul Reaping alone. If this change is made, it would justify buffs in the direct damage, condition spreading, and support class aspects of Necromancers.

there are WAY too many counters to the jagged bones build, so find the counters