Healscourge (and support necromancer) suggestions

[FalsePromises.6398]

I think if we’re starting to really scrutinize healscourge for its transfusion, I think we also need to give more attention to its quality of life. Shade radii are tiny and hard to use with spread out formations; boon sources for swiftness, fury, and protection are makeshift and very tight; and stability is a long-standing sore point. I want to throw some of my own suggestions out there, in hopes that we get some love to counterbalance losing transfusion, if healscourge is finally being reconsidered again.

Starting with some of the simpler stuff, I think some of the existing swiftness sources like Speed of Shadows and Locust Swarm ought to be granted to nearby allies too. Swiftness is such a mundane boon and should be granted more liberally. 

I also think some boonage could be added to staff marks to give more breathing room to support necromancers in a natural way. Staff already does regeneration on Mark of Blood, so it’s not too out-there. A chunk of protection on Chillblains and a chunk of fury on Reaper’s Mark would go a long way to improving the upkeep of these boons, as they currently only have one source with very little cushion.

Necromancer also has a sore lack of good stability, but I don’t think we need to focus on Trail of Anguish: instead, stability should be added to another skill. I personally think Flesh Golem’s Charge is the safest pick for adding good stability: just pop five stacks on nearby allies when cast. It’s not only thematic to the skill, but it also has a healthy cooldown and a sizable opportunity cost in competitive modes, which will prevent necromancer’s newfound stability from becoming too powerful in modes where they’re potentially problematic. 

I think we can un-nerf some of the skills that were nerfed due to compounding with Transfusion’s teleport. Well of Blood should bounce back from 2% to 7%. Transfusion itself could also return to 2% revive per pulse as well with scourge specialization. Since compounding these skills isn’t guaranteed without teleports, these skills need to be stronger standalone. 

Here’s the edgy part, saved for last: kill Sand Savant. Get rid of it, merge it into Desert Empowerment and reduce the big shade’s ally target cap to 3. Then, return shades’ 20 second duration. In doing this, alacrity builds are now actually locked to a single shade and thus 6 targets, so using 8 second duration shades to soft cap them to one sustained shade when they have three is no longer necessary. This also makes alacrity builds WAY easier to cover allies with, like how old support scourge builds used to be, and gives breathing room back to Sand Sage upkeep, which is a pretty vital stat bonus. Keeping Sand Savant separate from Desert Empowerment is a massive liability to the entire specialization and every single scourge build, since balancing alacrity target count with three shades by mercilessly shaving shade duration eats into all builds’ quality of life. 

What is everyone else feeling? I know healscourge is in a pretty decent spot even before transfusion teleports (but takes a hit when allies need to do footwork or spread out), but I think it could be way better in ways that don't even really buff its skill set and total capabilities, just make it more user-friendly and reliable.