Necromancer Beta Test Live now!

[Gallahadd]

Yeah, but I still have this uneasy feeling. Don't know why.

I actually like the other builds more, I always felt pet builds are rather passive and that Blood and Bone theme is nasty.

I was looking at the skills, I'm not sure how the Melee build would work. I'm assuming it'll be a boost to Grim Scythe and maybe curses? Probably Bone Shield too.

Maybe something like the DMO/Shadow set.

2pc Increases the damage of your Grim Scythe by X%.
4pc Duration of bone shield inceased to X and reduces all damage taken by Y%
6pc Increases damage dealt to enemies effected by your curses by X%.

That probably wouldn't work... But something along those lines would be a decent melee set.

The Pet and Blood sets should be obvious.

[Sorshen]

They won't back off from the sets+paragon design. Not addressing legitimate concerns seems to be a trademark of D3 at this point. Necromancer will be a nice touch for 2 weeks of a new season, then the game will fade away again.

[Sergar]

Tbh, this beta looks more like a "PR stunt promotion" than anything else. Most people in it are streamers and YTers, whch most of them have abandoned the game and returned just for necro, while people playing isn't going to get one.

I'm in the beta. I guess it might have something to do with being (mostly) a WD main? Could just be RNG though.

I leveled a Necro to 70 but there isn't much point in playing as there's no Necro items yet. A friend of mine says that most streamers are playing LoN builds but that seems like a quick way to waste the limited mats I have sitting on my copied non-seasonal.

Some of the skills seem pretty fun. Leveling was fairly easy, but it didn't seem as easy as say, WD leveling. Probably the only part that struck me as OP in my leveling run is that one of the curses killed anything at 15% health or lower. The skill rune I was using turned it into a 30s aura debuff where the radius scaled with health globe pick up range and it only cost 10 essence out of your pool of 200. Seems pretty mandatory, and actually pretty godly for support if support necro ends up being a thing.

[Coldkil]

They won't back off from the sets+paragon design. Not addressing legitimate concerns seems to be a trademark of D3 at this point. Necromancer will be a nice touch for 2 weeks of a new season, then the game will fade away again.

Yeah, pretty difficult to get away from that at this point. Though they can rework sets (and they're doing them this way for necro from day 1) so they affect entiure skills type so you can have freedom of choice. Some sets are already like this in D3 and they are way more insteresting than others.

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Probably the only part that struck me as OP in my leveling run is that one of the curses killed anything at 15% health or lower. The skill rune I was using turned it into a 30s aura debuff where the radius scaled with health globe pick up range and it only cost 10 essence out of your pool of 200. Seems pretty mandatory, and actually pretty godly for support if support necro ends up being a thing.

Yeah, i've seen it in a video and it's blatantly OP. Not "crushing blow" levels but it's straight less 15% hp to any monster. I don't see it making to live, either it will be removed or nerfed to the ground.

[Gallahadd]

I'm guessing they'll change it to increased damage against low level enemies or something similar. Even that has a large potential for abuse.

Especially when combined with the Grim Scythe rune that gives 5% chance to decapatate the enemy when below 20% health.

[Coldkil]

I'm guessing they'll change it to increased damage against low level enemies or something similar. Even that has a large potential for abuse.

Especially when combined with the Grim Scythe rune that gives 5% chance to decapatate the enemy when below 20% health.

I missed that, but it's a really low chance on an already low hp mob. Still not seeing this going really live in this form. But then we have Rimeheart

[Gallahadd]

I missed that, but it's a really low chance on an already low hp mob. Still not seeing this going really live in this form. But then we have Rimeheart

Aahhh Rimeheart, I always wanted to make a DMO Ice Build, with Rimeheart, but it just... Doesn't work.

[Andonais]

Anyone got pics of the armor set looks for necro?

[Aeluron Lightsong]

This will help for the big necromancer fans. Unfortunately I think the main problems of D3(If there are any) aren't something they can fix with patches like this.

[Gallahadd]

Anyone got pics of the armor set looks for necro?

Yup, DiabloFans has All three sets nothing in game though. Yet.

[I Push Buttons]

A game that only has an audience for 2 weeks every 3 months is a dead game, no matter how you slice that cake. The formula is bankrupt and I hope Blizzard manages to either reinvigorate it, or design something new that manages to captivate the attention of players for a longer time than 8 weeks/year.

They have no incentive to change it though, they don't stand to make any money doing that. They started that microtransaction stuff in China, but seemed very averse to doing it in the west. And whether people play the game or not anymore is irrelevant to them, they already got the money of their players, after they buy the game they are no longer a revenue stream. So spending a bunch of their own money paying their employees to overhaul the game at this point has no return on investment... They aren't going to get a massive spike in sales on a three year old expansion/five year old game because of a huge patch.

I am guessing the only reason the Necromancer is even a thing is because it was something they already started, perhaps with a second expansion in mind, but never finished, probably due to poor RoS sales (relative to vanilla D3 sales). And rather than waste it they are just selling the class.

[Sergar]

Yeah, pretty difficult to get away from that at this point. Though they can rework sets (and they're doing them this way for necro from day 1) so they affect entiure skills type so you can have freedom of choice. Some sets are already like this in D3 and they are way more insteresting than others.

As a WD I disagree. Helltooth is a great example of why this "here's a bunch of abilities you can choose that this set will buff" actually ends up being boring.

Helltooth first came out as the 3rd WD set, and initially it was a breath of fresh air. It was played as the only WD "caster" set, specializing in zombie wall and acid cloud.

Then blizzard released Short Man's Finger, an item meant to buff the Zunimassa set. One of the skills on Helltooth is Gargantuan, though, and Helltooth's 4 set is less awkward then Zunimassa's by far and Helltooth's damage is better anyway. So Helltooth became the Pet Doctor build and Acid Cloud became a distant memory.

Arachyr came out about the same time, and it buffs a bunch of skills, but not any that were worth using before. Eventually blizzard added enough +damage items to firebats that Arachyr became #1. BUT Helltooth also buffed firebats, so Helltooth Firebats is the #2 build.

So right now WD has 3 viable play styles (Firebats, Pet Doctor, and Jade Harvester) across 5 builds, all because Helltooth does everything. In order for "You can pick the abilities you want and make a build out of them" to actually work in current D3 every single class item has to work across multiple abilities used by different builds (Barb's Band of Might is a good example) or you just end up like WD, where everyone Group DPS/Solo is using 4/6 of the same abilities in every build so we can abuse Sacred Harvester, Lakumba's Ornament and Ring of Emptiness.

[Coldkil]

-snip-

Well, i won't go against you because you're right - also Helltooth is the example of what i think is a bad set; it's literally "your X, Y and Z skills do 2762856% more damage" which i dislike completely. Sets like Inna or Akkhan are what i was thinking about - while focusing son a couple of specific skills (Champion of Akharat and Mystic Ally) they leave you free to choose the other ones defining your playstyle.

However, you also present the other issue plaguing some classes - certain skills or item/skills combo are so strong that they become mandatory. LO+SH+SoH, Archon or Venegance (with 100% uptime) are a big issue. They're so strong you simply cannot pass over them until you like to play a severely gimped build. If stuff like that is considered fine and every build is balanced around having it, then it should be baseline, end of story.

Last, current classes suffer from a desing that originally wasn't made for current itemization system. Sets being so predominant made the entire game revolve around them when it should be the opposite.
With necro, they're going to tailor the class around 4 specific themes - so they can design 4 specific sets. If these sets make all skills in a specific theme viable, then you'll end having way more choice than currently and still be able to have 4 very different playstyles (or possibly more).
Your example with WD is perfect: SMF is so strong that Gargs have a place with any set that buffs them. The error there (imho) is that Zuni should buff all pets (so Gargs are an option) being the "pet set", while Helltooth shouldn't do that at all.

Then you could have a SMF/TMF setup, or only one of them with another ring, and then it's all about balancing stuff. META will always stay because someone will always do the math. But being able to run with more choices is a huge gain in my opinion.

[Adam Jensen]

Revive: I think I'll use it, mostly because of all the hard work that has gone into making this fekking thing work XD.

That and having twenty gazillion dead things following you around and doing your bidding is awesome.

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The only issue I have with the Necro, is killing bosses that don't summon adds. Like, there go half my abilities.

[Gallahadd]

That and having twenty gazillion dead things following you around and doing your bidding is awesome.

Well yeah, there's that too...

The only issue I have with the Necro, is killing bosses that don't summon adds. Like, there go half my abilities.

There are a few skills which create corpses, plus I don't doubtt at LEAST one of the sets will have a corpse spawning mecanism, or maybe a legendary at worst. They've made corpses such a huge part of the necro play style, they HAVE to include some way to generate them mid fight.

[Tharkkun]

Cool meanwhile they still fail at adding a good amount of content frequently while a f2p game called Path of Exile offers a ton more content, frequent actual content updates and doesn't charge for it. I've long since given up on Diablo, granted I long for the day it becomes good again.

POE is there to milk your dollars away while D3 is a B2P versus F2P. Two entirely different models.

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To be honest, I don't disagree with this post.

I just find it annoying is all, I would rather they sell cosmetic stuff but I guess they don't have systems in place for that yet. Me getting it will depend on its price, If its like $5 then sue why not.

I feel like they are testing the waters to see how people react to DLC content in Diablo. If it's successful maybe it will play a part in D4 or some new IP they are creating similar to Diablo. People react differently based on who releases the game.

[Requimortem]

It's really unfortunate that streamers are the ones who get preference. I can guarantee that nobody wants the Necromancer more than me but sadly, possessing an all-consuming desire rewards you nothing.

[Binaris]

Well dont worry. i got an invite, i have no plans to buy it, i log on to play it today and it is unavailable for both story and adventure. testing the selection screen i guess

[Kontinuum]

Necro is removed temporarily from the beta
https://www.reddit.com/r/Diablo/comm...ved_from_beta/

[Coldkil]

The only issue I have with the Necro, is killing bosses that don't summon adds. Like, there go half my abilities.

That is under the lens already - they knew before beta that RG will probably need more adds for necro corpse skills, so it's definitely going to change.

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I feel like they are testing the waters to see how people react to DLC content in Diablo. If it's successful maybe it will play a part in D4 or some new IP they are creating similar to Diablo. People react differently based on who releases the game.

Honestly, they need to do DLC if the want to monetize something from D3 - and sure as hell they're testing the stuff out. Honestly, to me looks a good plan as new classes don't keep you out from content.
They need to do a really good work anyway otherwise it will backfire really hard. D3 is not in a good situation at the moment.