Fans von Diablo 3 haben schon in der Vergangenheit immer wieder bewiesen, wie viel Ideenreichtum und Kreativität in ihnen steckt. Oft kommen dabei auch besonders schöne, weil vollständig bebilderte, Konzepte heraus, wie zuletzt Jaetch’s Item-Synthese Konzept, reaxxD3’s Idee zur Erweiterung der Uralten Gegenstände oder auch die sehr umfangreichen Konzepte von Edriel und Saya zu neuen, komplexen, teambasierten Spielmodi.

Zwar wurde von Blizzard nur sehr wenig davon umgesetzt, doch zeigen diese, mit vielen Bildern unterlegten, Fan-Ideen sehr gut auf, welches Potential noch in Diablo 3 stecken könnte, sofern die Entwickler gewillt wären, etwas in dieser Richtung zu entwickeln.

Jetzt hat sich Nightcrest87 einmal daran gemacht und seine Idee für eine neue (alte) Klasse – den Totenbeschwörer – in einigen hübschen Bildern verpackt. Darauf zu sehen sind alle aktiven und passiven Fertigkeiten des Totenbeschwörers, inklusive aller Runen. Außerdem gibt es 3 Setitems mit den entsprechenden Set-Boni, sowie ein Nebenhand-Item zu sehen, welches nebenbei noch ein neues Affix trägt, das dem Charakter einen Schild gewährt.

Kenner der Diablo-Reihe werden natürlich wissen, dass der Totenbeschwörer keine neue Klasse ist und dass er schon in Diablo 2 sein Unwesen trieb. Dementsprechend klein dürfte leider auch die Chance sein, dass wir ihn im nächsten Addon zu Diablo 3 sehen werden, welches eventuell auf der BlizzCon im November erstmals angekündigt wird.. Nicht zuletzt auch deshalb, weil es mit dem Hexendoktor bereits eine Beschwörer-Klasse gibt. Trotzdem hat Nightcrest87 damit wieder einmal bewiesen, was einzelne Fans an Kreativität aufbringen können.

Ganz unten befindet sich auch noch ein kleines Q&A, in dem Nightcrest87 auf diverse Dinge eingeht, z. B. warum er sich ausgerechnet für den Totenbeschwörer entschied, warum er Schatten als neues Element eingeführt hat und wie lange er für das alles eigentlich gebraucht hat.

Set-Items

Primary Skills

Secondary Skills

Defensive Skills

Animation

Osteomancy

Maladies

Passives

Necromancer Q&A

Q: Why Necros? Why not Druids or Amazons or Space Monkeys?
With the Aspect of Death vanquished, the essence of death has spread and ran rampant all across Sanctuary. The Necros were called on duty to harness it back into control.

Q: Why Wisdom? Intelligence seems like the right choice for the Necromancer.
As class balance currently stands, there are 2 classes for each attribute. Adding a 3rd one for Intelligence would require two more classes to be added to get into balance once more down the line. However, if a fourth attribute was added, it would only require 1 additional class to get into balance one more. The question I asked myself was: Could Druids use Wisdom? Since the answer to this was a loud yes, then Wisdom for Necromancers seemed like a decent choice as well.

Q: Why Bile?
All classes use as a resource something that comes from within them, either physically or mentally. Bile comes from within, it is thematically linked to the sinister aspects of the Necros and let’s face, it sounds cool.

Q: Why Shadow damage as a new element?
I don’t know… There seems to be some sort of a link between darkness and death but I can’t put my finger on it…

Q: Why is Shadow resistance the same as Cold resistance?
While adding a new elemental damage to give depth into a class is more or less inconsequential, adding an additional damage reduction option to look out and gear up for significantly diminishes the toughness of all classes in the long run.

Q: OMG! Why not use Lightning elemental damage?
I don’t particularly like Frankenstein’s monster, thematically. Besides that’s WD territory, aka Voodoo monster.

Q: OMG! Why not use Fire elemental damage?
Corpses are particularly flammable. I wouldn’t imagine Necros making much out of burning minions and fire in general. Besides, Poison damage and Fire damage does not match well, thematically at least.

Q: OMG! Why not use Arcane elemental damage.
Blizzard pointed out that they wanted arcane damage to be a Wizard only thing. I respected that.

Q: OMG! Why not use Holy elemental damage?
Really?

Q: Why didn’t you add X ability from D2 Necromancers? I R S4D.
Look again! There is not a single ability that was left out. Some are now base spells and some are runes but all of them made it in, some way or another. One major difference is that the Fire Golem is now Ice Golem because my D3 Necro does not use the Fire element.

 

Speaking of…
Raise Skeleton Raise Undead (Base) / Raise Undead (Skeletal Defenders)
(*1) Skeleton Mastery  Well-Constructed (Passive) / Enhanced Guardians (Passive)
Clay Golem  Animate Golem (Base)
(*1) Golem Mastery  Well-Constructed (Passive) / Enhanced Guardians (Passive)
Raise Skeletal Mage  Raise Undead (Skeletal Magi)
Blood Golem  Animate Golem (Blood Golem)
(*1) Summon Resist  Well-Constructed (Passive)
Iron Golem  Animate Golem (Iron Golem)
(*2) Fire Golem  Animate Golem (Ice Golem)
Revive  Amber Horror (Base)
Teeth  Spirit Fangs (Base)
Bone Armor  Ossein Shield (Base)
Poison Dagger  Eviscerate (Slice and Dice)
Corpse Explosion  Corpse Explosion (Base)
Bone Wall  Bone Wall (Base)
Poison Explosion  Corpse Explosion (Fountain of Death)
Bone Spear  Reaping Lance (Base)
Bone Prison  Bone Prison (Base)
Poison Nova  Blight Nova (Poison Nova)
Bone Spirit  Hateful Apparition (Base)
(*3) Amplify Damage  Ruby Fever (Broken Things)
Dim Vision  Sapphire Sickness (Typhlosis)
Weaken  Emerald Plague (Necrosis)
Iron Maiden  Ruby Fever (Retaliation)
Terror  Amethyst Rot (Fear of the Dark)
(*4) Confuse  Amethyst Rot (Base)
Life Tap  Ruby Fever (Base)
(*4) Attract  Amethyst Rot (Base)
Decrepify  Sapphire Sickness (Base)
(*3) Lower Resist  Ruby Fever (Broken Things)

(*1) Passive abilities.
(*2) Fire element not used.
(*3,4) Consolidated abilities.

Q: So… What’s the point of this class? What niche does the Necro fulfill?
He is a tank mage. He has the support qualities of the terrain manipulation and elite monster disabling type and his gameplay revolves approximately 75% around his constructs, structures and his maladies. Everything else is peripheral/optional and simply adds flavor. If this was a real class, I guess a lot of legendaries would exist to specifically point builds towards more variability.

Q: A mage dual-wielding? Really?
Yarly! While barbarians use their strength to dual wield, monks use their finesse and demon hunters use some sort of impressive ammo refilling science-fiction ability that does not require a third hand, necros tap into their malice to attack with both hands, clumsily yet maniacally in order to maximize their effectiveness.

Q: But… Why runeblades?
WDs stole their ceremonial daggers.

Q: What’s the deal with the bone mantles?
All classes have at least one armor class specific item (shields are armor, right? RIGHT? Tell me I R RAIT?!!?!!!), and the shoulder slot does not have too much value and/or diversity as the game currently stands. I knew that I wanted it to be something around bones, so I was between shields (crusader), helms (wd, wizard), chest plates (dh) and shoulder pads. I chose the latter.

Q: Phylacteries? Are you implying that the Necros are actually dead? 
Who said it was *their* phylacteries?

Q: What’s the deal with the maladies? Are they like the curses from D2?
Yes and no… They fill the same role but functionally they work differently. Instead of AoE spells, they are now auras that have both active and passive effects. If anything, they are the D2 curses on roid-rage.

Q: What’s the deal with Shadow Bite? C_c
Just harmless flavor text. Your hardcore heroes would be safe.

Q: What’s the deal with Spirit Plane? O_O!
Spirit Plane was an idea that came along as I was developing the Necro concept. It was too interesting to completely leave out but should I have thought of it from the start, it would be hardcoded into the Necromancer class sort of like DHs have the unique niche of the dual resources. Basically, if I could go back and do it all from scrap, the Necros would use Bile until it gets depleted and have a buff of +damage while they do so, then switch to Essence until it gets depleted and have a buff of +toughness. Think a little bit of Gnar from LoL.

Q: OMG! X ability is completely overpowered/underpowered and can make the Necros immortal/trash! Also, those two abilities together are totally OP! Why?
I didn’t manage to do any particular balance across the entire class as it required me to go deep into statistical analysis and I was lacking the time for that. That being said, there is a decent amount of balance within each spell (spell rune balance) and within each spell category (Primaries balance, Osteomancy balance, etc.)

Q: What sort of marvelous software did you use to create all these? 
… MS Paint…

Q: How long did all this take you?
About 2 months, but I had limited time to work on it per day. If I had to estimate actual time, I’d say it took me around 60-70 hours.