Blizzard tries to breathe new life into Diablo 3 with upcoming Necromancer pack

Front Page Discussion
#1

Originally published at: http://statelyplay.com/2017/06/21/blizzard-tries-to-breathe-new-life-into-diablo-3-with-upcoming-necromancer-pack/

PC/Mac, Consoles •


Ever since the first Diablo appeared on PCs back in the mid-90’s, I’ve been a huge fan of the series. Unlike other RPGs with detailed character creation and gameplay so long that finishing a game felt more like a chore, Diablo was a breath of fresh air. Fast paced, new loot every time you played, and the ability to easily play online with friends, which was kind of mind-blowing back in 1996, Diablo was what my RPG-craving soul desired. Diablo 2 was an even better game, but Diablo 3 kind of lost the way. It was still fun, but it took an expansion pack and a lot of tweaking to get it to the point where it is today: a fun action romp that still falls a bit short of its predecessors.

A few years ago, Blizzard introduced the concepts of Seasons to Diablo 3 and I’ve excitedly jumped in on each one. Season 10 is just wrapping up, however, and I never logged in once. Just couldn’t get too excited about doing the same thing yet again. I think I’ll be getting in on Season 11 whenever it begins, though, as Blizzard has just announced that the release date for the Rise of the Necromancer pack is June 27th.

The Necromancer was one of Diablo 2’s most beloved characters, and they’re making a return in Diablo 3. They have all the skills you’d expect: summoning skeletons, bone spirit, and, of course, corpse explosion. They also mention the ability to directly control your minions. Not sure how that would work, as minions for other characters are autonomous, controlled by the PC. Maybe I’m reading too much into it.

Unfortunately, there’s no new areas or missions included with the pack, making it less an expansion pack and more light DLC. Oh well, we can’t have everything, I suppose, but I’m not sure adding a single new character is going to get me back to playing Diablo 3 on a regular basis past the next Season.

The Rise of the Necromancer pack will be available for PC/Mac, PS4, and Xbox One on June 27 and will cost $15 on each platform. Besides the Necromancer, you also get the usual Blizzard bundle of in-game cosmetic junk (wings, pets, etc.) which can be fun to play around with, I guess. There are also new stash tabs and, best of all, 2 new character slots. Hooray!

#2

Or you could wait a few more weeks (ish) and get 6 new acts in Path of Exile for free! If you’ve played 9 seasons of D3 and haven’t played Path of Exile, you are in for a treat…

#3

As someone who played Necromancer in D2 far more than any other class, I am quite excite about this.

#4

I have been playing the Necro beta for D3 and had a lot of fun with a corpse explosion build. That said, I usually only play about a week at each new season, and playing the necro was fun…for about a week.

@Hardco I have tried Path of Exile, but found it to be a bit overwhelming.

#5

Love to try it, but it’s not out for Mac.

Trying to save up for a windows machine, but money’s tight. Hopefully by the end of 2017.

#6

Do you have a video game console? I don’t know what the game released on, but I’ve been playing on my PS4. It sounded borderline sacrilegious when I first got the notion to move from PC, but honestly, it is even more fun on console.

#7

I have Windows 10 on bootcamp, primarily for Overwatch, but that is how I tried PoE also. I really find bootcamp provides the best of both worlds.

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#8

Technically true, but there is new content coming at the same time:

What about all the other features coming in Patch 2.6.0?
A. Challenge Rifts, The Shrouded Moors zone, Temple of the Firstborn zone, and the Realms of Fate are all free content—if you own the Reaper of Souls expansion pack, they are available for play without any additional purchases.

#9

I always forget that there are people that game on Macs…

@kennfusion if you wanted to give PoE another shot, find yourself a beginner build online to copy. You’ll get to appreciate what the game has to offer without the overwhelming “how do I manage this giant skill tree so I can still kill stuff” part.

As for D3, I haven’t played since RoS came out, and I found hunting for gear boring when every item was the same 3 stats with just slightly bigger numbers. I enjoyed it the most before the original nerf of Inferno. But wasn’t the Witch Hunter already the D3 Necro replacement?

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#10

Witch Hunter never really felt like the Necromancer to me. Yes, they both had summons, but there was something different that I can’t quite quantify. Now I’ve typed myself into a hole and probably need to defend my statement…but I’m not going to. Also, I know nothing at all about the D3 Necromancer and how similar it is to the D2 Necromancer.

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#11

Thank you!

I thought I had heard there was a new zone and more coming, but I didn’t see it in any of the RotN press releases and didn’t think to go look at the general update notes.

#12

For those Mac users that couldn’t try out Path of Exile, it’s out on Xbox One now…
Path of Exile Xbox