How did the Necromancer come about?

Wyatt Cheng: One of the things about both Necromancer and the 20th anniversary dungeon is that they started as passion projects for the team. Team members who love the original Diablo wanted to pay tribute in own their way.

Rob Foote: We knew 2017 was going to be huge year for Diablo. For the 20th anniversary of the game, we thought about ways to celebrate the occasion. In brainstorming sessions, one of the most popular ideas was the Necromancer. Although it involved a lot of work, we decided very early on to add him to the Sanctuary.

You said in the opening that the team decided on Necromancer because he was the community’s favorite class. Did you solely go with the community’s opinion or did you push for him internally?

Foote: It’s a little bit of both. We have a very active community, including forums, Reddit, and fan sites, and we listen to them all the time because we believe great ideas can come from anywhere. I think it’s also important to be responsive to the community.

In some ways, our development team is almost like a miniature reflection of the Diablo community. When we talked amongst ourselves about what we wanted to do, the Necromancer was an obvious choice, not to mention a great one.

Why did you make the commemorative dungeon for the original Diablo, not Diablo 2?

Foote: Since it all started with the original Diablo, it just made sense. Again, it was a passion project from one of the designers who wanted make it happen. The actual anniversary of Diablo is December 31st, 1996, but most people got the game in January, so the idea of dedicating the month of January [to it] definitely worked well.

Through the recreated 16 levels of Diablo, you’ll fight four bosses from the original game: Skeleton King, Lazarus, Butcher, and, of course, Diablo himself.

Still, some fans may want D2 styled dungeons.

Cheng: When the team was talking about what else we could do for the anniversary, we felt that Necromancer was a great class to choose for people who love Diablo 2. When you talk to Diablo 2 players, Necromancer is one of the first classes they remember. For 2017, we feel that we have something for everyone.

Were pixelated graphic and classic soundtracks nods to the original series?

Cheng: There’s a lot of detail that went into creating a nostalgic Diablo feel. There’s a shader that makes everything pixelated, as you mentioned. We also cut out some of the animation frames, and you walk instead of running. Your turn is limited to eight directions. Remember what happens when you try to walk at an angle in Diablo? It’s quite hilarious. Then there are sound effects which go through a filter that adds a tinny quality to replicate the original.

Was retro-fitting the game more challenging than creating new content?

Cheng: We’re working in a parallel fashion in which different people are simultaneously working on different projects. It’s challenging to keep everything organized, but we’ve been doing this for a long time. We all work as a team.

My play experience with Necromancer was quite different than what I remember from D2. What’s the design concept behind him?

Cheng: We’re not looking to recreate the old Necromancer. Instead, we’re trying to reimagine him. Take Barbarian for example. When we brought him to Diablo 3, we didn’t copy every skill one-for-one. Instead, we decided how he will play in the game. Sometimes we bring the original skills like Whirlwind because we love the skill. Other times we take an ability like Leap and improve it to Leap Attack. We also create completely new skills like Seismic Slam.

We’re doing the same with Necromancer. We’re bringing back some skills while updating and coming up with new ones. When you think about it, Diablo 3 is a different game than Diablo 2; we have Runes, passive skills, and class-specific legendary items that change how you play. Both the Necromancer in D2 and D3 are Priests of Rathma, but they’re not the same person.

Could we expect to see different playstyles for Necromancer other than a summoner type like a poison build?

Cheng: We’re going to have a full set of skills for Necromancer. Every class has a little over twenty skills. We’re only showcasing six of them on the floor and then we showed two more at the panel, making it eight revealed abilities so far. We have over a dozen left to reveal in the future. So we’ll have many more different playstyles for him.

We’re trying to move away from poison for Necromancer, though. I know some people are concerned that Necromancer and Witch Doctor overlap in some ways, but there’s a lot of design space for them to be unique. One of the ways to do that is by focusing on blood and bone skills for the former. You know—blood, bone, and being a commander of the dead are his things.