To be honest, I can’t say I was surprised. As the opening ceremony revealed the Necromancer as the newest Nephalem to join Diablo 3, many fans took a trip down memory lane, thinking back fondly on the D2 days of Bone Wall, Bone Armor, and just about anything related to blood and bones. As most people remember him, the Necromancer was a fashionable master of dark arts.

Although the iteration of the Necromancer available on this year’s BlizzCon show floor closely resembles the one from D2, playing him made me yearn for a somewhat different take on the concept. I guess it’s like running into your ex and hoping he or she has gotten better and happier since. Likewise, I recall the Necromancer never being considered a mainstream cookie-cutter class—instead, it was a niche character played by a handful of dedicated players.

As soon as the announcement ended, I rushed to get my hands on the Necromancer. Since it was an early build, I could not swap skills or use runes, but for what it’s worth, here’s my first impression.

Old fans of Diablo will feel nostalgic seeing familiar skills like Bone Spear and Summon Skeletons transition well into the new game. Oh, then there’s Corpse Explosion. A lot of Corpse Explosions.

In the playtest version, there was a total of six skills available. Blood Siphon is a medium-range primary skill that replenishes Necromancer’s resource called Essence. He can have a maximum of 200 Essence which can only be generated by using a primary skill. Bone Spear was assigned as a secondary skill and pierces enemies in a straight line and deals decent damage.

Summon Skeletons has a passive aspect, which summons skeletal warriors, and an active aspect that allows the Necromancer to target commanding warriors and mages to attack enemies. Skeletons are automatically respawned, with a limit of seven warriors and three mages.

Decrepify is a curse that does an area-of-effect slow and is valuable for the Necromancer who fights using a horde of undead warriors. Blood Rush is a utility skill that lets him get out of a jam, teleporting a short distance while becoming invulnerable. The last usable skill is his signature Corpse Explosion, which has no cooldown or cost. Faithful to its name, Corpse Explosion targets a small area and explodes corpses in the vicinity, dealing massive damage.

Many of Necromancer’s skills are from the previous title, with a couple of new ones sprinkled in. I was especially impressed with how his trademark skills like Summon Skeletons, Bone Spear, and Corpse Explosions looked and felt. Necromancer’s playstyle was twofold: Use Decrepify and skeletons to weaken foes, then blow them up with Corpse Explosion as the corpses pile up.

One of the strongest impressions I got was how stylish he became over the years. That isn’t to say he was boring back in the day, but this version felt incredibly polished and good enough to satisfy both old and new players. Unfortunately I couldn’t try out different Runes, but I imagine that players could supplement Summon Skeletons to fit their playstyles by changing composition, number, or attack patterns.

Another point of interest was how the Necromancer will compensate for requiring corpses to use his one of his most powerful abilities. Perhaps that’s why Corpse Explosion had no cooldown or cost, but I’m not sure if the pros outweigh the cons in this case. Also, the Necromancer I playtested was a summoner archetype with a group of skeletons by my side, and I wondered how Blizzard will accommodate other trees, such as poison.

To sum it all up, I feel that the development team did a great job of bringing together all of the elements that make Necromancer unique. However, I’m concerned as to how he will perform in practice because the Necromancer shares certain similarities to Witch Doctor, and the effectiveness of each class fluctuates widely between Seasons. I guess it’s inevitable to feel this way about him in a game which already has very well-defined characters.

Considering Necromancer is slated to release some time next year and his development is still at an early stage, my worries may be unfounded. I do hope that he will offer something new to the game instead of rehashing old ideas. Whatever the case, I can’t wait to restore the balance of life and death in the Sanctuary with my bone-clad armor and shield, probably forgoing many nights of sleep in the process.

Diablo3 Necromancer Play(Off-Screen)

Source article by Inven Sawual