as the title indicates, 730 stinks. rangers, a semi class, have a much better "companion" spell in their 30th spell slot. and this point itself could be controversial, but shouldn't pures have at least an equally DESIRABLE spell? yes I know 730 is more powerful, you can do more with it (actually animates can't drag, etc). but the point is, which spell would you rather have??

i know time and effort goes into nurturing ranger companion relationships, but as I understand it, beyond that, all you have to do is prep/cast?

the biggest beef with 730 right now is the duration and/or the fact we have to use gems for each cast. does it have to be an expensive gem? no, but then the duration will suck. on the other hand, even 5k gems don't make the cast worthwhile.

and dont even get me started on the components.

keep the component requirements whereas salt must be sprinkled on the body, but remove the gem requirement and make 730 a prep/cast spell.

Please...

~Moredin

> The RP aspect of 730 is awesome, but it is retardedly annoying to use. What if you could just skip the components and such with enough necromancy ranks? ~ Nuadjha, the Briar Fox

The best suggestion that I have seen is to keep the process the way it is now, but allow sorcerers to refresh their animate via using another gem and cast of 730. To avoid having the same animate forever, you could add in a system of diminishing returns, so that you get less duration for every refresh. Necromancy training would offset the diminishing returns, but not completely negate them.

There are literally dozens of ways Animate Dead could be improved, but this one change would instantly make it worthwhile for all sorcerers.