“...gameplay is layered, thrilling and, most important, a blast.”
June 28, 2017 2:43 PM   Subscribe

Diablo III's Necromancer Is The Best Spellcaster Yet [Kotaku] “The Necromancer [YouTube] [Trailer], which launched yesterday as a standalone purchasable class for $15, is an avatar of Diablo 3’s signature darkness. The dungeon-crawler’s gore and corruption are assets of the 20-year-old franchise that, when you’re grinding for levels on end, can fade into the background. After a few hours on Diablo 3, I’ve gone into unthinking destruction mode, killing monster upon monster as if I were a kid stomping on anthills. Diablo 3’s Necromancer lets you embody and manipulate D3’s darkness, and by becoming a part of D3’s morbid world, I felt more connected to it.”

• Deadly Roots: The Lore of the Necromancer [Blizzard]
“Where do Necromancers come from? What is the Balance, and why do they care so much about it? And when exactly did these mysterious figures first begin practicing their dark arts? Whether you’ve played a Necromancer in Diablo II or are simply looking forward to playing one in Diablo III, you might have pondered the answers to the above! [...] A star has fallen on Tristram Cathedral [You Tube] [Opening Cinematic], and the Necromancers will answer the call. You have been asked by your Master to bring rest to the dead and restore the Balance. What untold powers will you discover to aid you? What challenges will you face, and how will you overcome them? What new insights will you gain when you revisit parts of the campaign, especially when it comes to matters of life and death? Your journey begins, Necromancer. . . To all who oppose you: beware!
• Diablo 3's Necromancer brings back the most satisfying ability in the series. [PC Gamer]
“To give you an idea of how the Necromancer operates, here are five things he might do to you should you run into him in a dungeon:
1. The Necromancer sucks out all of your blood. He blows up your corpse to kill your friends nearby.
2. A twelve-foot tall flesh golem belly-flops onto you and collapses into a pile of corpse bits, which the Necromancer then blows up to kill you.
3. The Necromancer impales your friend with a bone spike. A homing spike of ribs then explodes out of your friend's body and kills you.
4. The Necromancer points at you and seven skeletons with broadswords run over and kill you.
5. The Necromancer just hangs around nearby and all your flesh falls off. This kills you.”
• Diablo 3's Necromancer is great, but it can't raise Diablo 2 from the dead. [Eurogamer]
“Based on the beta, much more committed players than me have declared themselves broadly satisfied by the Necromancer; it currently has two viable endgame builds, apparently, which is could be better but is just about good enough, and certainly offers plenty for the community to get their teeth into. Charging £13 for just the class and little else might seem steep from an outside perspective, but in Diablo 3 the classes are the only content that really matters. Besides, Blizzard are the unmatched virtuosos of character class design, unfailingly offering interesting, layered and high-impact twists on familiar archetypes across all their games. The Necromancer is no different; just another masterclass in a game that can boast several, from a studio that has dozens more to its name. There's one thing it can't do, though, and that's bring Diablo 2 back from the dead. But perhaps it's more just that, at this late stage in the game's life, it should instead remind us of everything that is great about Diablo 3.”
posted by Fizz (19 comments total) 6 users marked this as a favorite
 
Rise of the Necropantser?
posted by GuyZero at 2:48 PM on June 28, 2017


Crypt of the Necrodancer!

I've been on a Diablo 3 binge recently; the game sure has changed a lot since I stopped playing a couple of years ago. They've really done a nice job extending the leveling and power curve and emphasized the silly fun of hundreds of mobs dying around you. I've only played a couple of hours of the new D3 Necromancer but I can report that using corpses as fuel is good clean bloody chunky fun.

So far my favorite combo is to point my finger at one mob so my seven skeletons run over and kill it. Then I blow it up, animating it with a brief burst of life so it can home in on a pack of mobs and kill them. That creates more corpses, which I then reanimate to make a horde of the dead that swarms the enemy and creates yet more corpses. Corpses! Corpses for the Corpse God!
posted by Nelson at 2:56 PM on June 28, 2017 [11 favorites]


Holding for Season 11. Then playing hell out of Necromancer.
posted by Abehammerb Lincoln at 2:59 PM on June 28, 2017 [2 favorites]


[pacino]They keep pulling me back in.[\pacino]
posted by Halloween Jack at 3:00 PM on June 28, 2017 [6 favorites]


I played for about 2 hours yesterday and it was an absolute blast. Using the corpse blast skill is a delightful joy.
posted by Fizz at 3:10 PM on June 28, 2017


So far my favorite combo is to point my finger at one mob so my seven skeletons run over and kill it. Then I blow it up, animating it with a brief burst of life so it can home in on a pack of mobs and kill them. That creates more corpses, which I then reanimate to make a horde of the dead that swarms the enemy and creates yet more corpses. Corpses! Corpses for the Corpse God!

I cannot reiterate how delightful the experience that Nelson described up above is.
posted by Fizz at 3:30 PM on June 28, 2017 [2 favorites]


It sounds like Stardust the Super Wizard got coded in.
posted by delfin at 3:30 PM on June 28, 2017 [1 favorite]


The half-formed golem pet sounds like a chihuahua, and is the same weird combination of ugly and cute...
posted by Sing Or Swim at 3:31 PM on June 28, 2017


half-formed golem pet sounds like a chihuahua, and is the same weird combination of ugly and cute...

I think I might have to update my Tinder profile.
posted by Fizz at 3:44 PM on June 28, 2017 [3 favorites]


Alert, not sure if sale is still active, but both D3 and D3 Battlechest were half price yesterday.
posted by Beholder at 4:10 PM on June 28, 2017


I haven't played Diablo since D2. If I buy D3, do I get the new Necromancer included or is it only available as a standalone purchase? Also, yes, it's still on sale for 9.99.
posted by New England Cultist at 5:42 PM on June 28, 2017


I played Necromancer to about 45 in the beta and the loop of casting Corpse Explosion to make more corpses to cast Corpse Explosion on is amazingly satisfying. Also there's a golem with a rune that lets it collapse into a pile of corpses at a particular location, allowing you to get the Corpse Explosion chaining off with a bang!

I haven't played Diablo since D2. If I buy D3, do I get the new Necromancer included or is it only available as a standalone purchase? Also, yes, it's still on sale for 9.99.

The Necromancer costs $15 and you already need to have D3 and D3:ROS (available together for $20) to use it. So right this very second getting up to date from scratch is $35.
posted by Pope Guilty at 6:03 PM on June 28, 2017 [6 favorites]


Thank you for the notification! Last I checked there wasn't even a release date for it. Came in hot from my perspective.
posted by Caduceus at 7:34 PM on June 28, 2017


If you want to become part of D3's morbid world, you have t[lost connection]
posted by adept256 at 8:15 PM on June 28, 2017


15 rats? Fuck that.
posted by GallonOfAlan at 12:22 AM on June 29, 2017


I played Necromancer to about 45 in the beta and the loop of casting Corpse Explosion to make more corpses to cast Corpse Explosion on is amazingly satisfying. Also there's a golem with a rune that lets it collapse into a pile of corpses at a particular location, allowing you to get the Corpse Explosion chaining off with a bang!

This is the Very Best, yes. It's hard to describe just how viscerally satisfying it is to watch the chain of explosions as you tear through giant packs of mobs with that effect.
posted by mordax at 12:28 AM on June 29, 2017 [3 favorites]


It's hard to describe just how viscerally satisfying it is to watch the chain of explosions as you tear through giant packs of mobs with that effect.

I haven't played a Necro yet, though I will certainly fix that this weekend, but I can say that D3 does chain explosions incredibly well. My Exploding Palms Monk build was probably the most fun I ever had playing the game, even if not the most efficient damage dealer for the class.
posted by The Bellman at 11:08 AM on June 29, 2017


Hm. Played D2 back in the day on PC, and just a little D3 when it first came out. But my PC is dust covered and creaky these days, and I like my couch.

What I'm saying is, should I switch to PS4 for this? Or is the PC version still way better?
posted by telepanda at 11:50 AM on June 29, 2017


@telepanda: the game was designed for console support from the start, and lots of quality of life improvements have made their way down to console (seasons, too). So PS4 is a pretty good way to play it.
posted by isauteikisa at 12:40 PM on June 29, 2017


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