It’s been more than five years since the launch of one of the most anticipated games ever. Although the proceeds did not disappoint the expectations, the third, and perhaps last chapter of Blizzard’s Hack and Slash, did not manage to thrill the players as the previous chapters.
Between a problematic launch, the memorable mistake 37, and the controversial auction house with real money transactions, the game immediately ran into an endgame lacking consistency.
To stem these defects, an expansion was released, Reaper of Souls, which had managed to lengthen the story, insert a new character and, above all, introduce new modes for those who had finished the game’s story ad nauseam. Between new seasons and rifts of various kinds, fans of the series were able to appreciate the good but slow evolution of the game. After a brief parenthesis in which it was possible to play the first Diablo to celebrate its anniversary, we come to the introduction of the necromancer.
So let’s go back to Tristram and discover together if this new class, the seventh playable, will be able to lift the fate of a game crushed by the weight of the name it bears.
THE GAME – Or rather … The new class
The Necromancer, for those who were able to try it even in the beta, arrives in its final version without too many changes. Certainly updates will be released to refine some aspects, but at the moment the new class is certainly fun and versatile. This is in fact very effective both on single targets and on groups of enemies, guaranteeing various methods of approach. For those who have played the beta will be able to notice some nerfs and additional costs on the essence, the mana used to summon undead and not, but the basic mechanisms have remained unchanged.
We had no problems from the very first sessions playing at higher difficulty levels as an expert or master. The reasons are two, on the one hand the new class unquestionably has a lot of potential, on the other hand having all the characters at 70 level allows you to dress the new character in the best possible way right away (for those who wisely did not throw away valuables of various levels ).
To better enjoy the new class, we preferred a mixed approach between story and adventure mode with other players when there was the possibility. In this way you can climb quickly without losing the taste of exploring the new class by adopting different tactics if you are alone or in company.
During our sessions many players have asked to be “towed” up to the level cap which we do not recommend for a simple reason: the expansion costs 15 € and they are almost all for the new class, don’t we want to enjoy it a little?
After about six hours of play we were able to play without too many worries at torment level four without incurring accidental deaths. All without cannibalizing other characters to get better sets and go to higher difficulty levels. The choice to build a new character was determined by the fact that the specific sets for the class arrived which, absent during the beta, are fundamental for the construction of an optimal build for the character.
With the launch of the new class, four sets have arrived but, as usual, these will be extended shortly with the next season which will certainly be dedicated to the class in question.
Specifically, the sets released are the following: Avatar of Trag’Oul, Grace of Inarius, Mantle of the Master of Pestilence and Bones of Rathma.
Each set is specific to the style you want to adopt: Avatar of Trag’Oul, grants excellent bonuses to the “Flow of Blood” skill, while allowing a good regeneration of life points. Grace of Inarius is instead a set dedicated to melee while Mantle of the Pestilence Master is indicated for a build with skills related to the use of enemy corpses. Closes Bones of Rathma is the build for those who could not wait to exhume a lot of corpses in an industrial way.
There are also thirty legendary equipment unique to the class and an offensive set called “Jesseth’s Armaments”.
As far as skills are concerned, these guarantee a wide choice, effectively breaking the conception of a game that restricted the class to a specific role. The necromancer, as can be understood from the previously described sets, offers a truly wide range of possibilities. For lovers of skeletons, golems or various zombies we will be able to summon a number of monsters to make the witch doctor pale. For those who love characters with pure “DPS” we will have a set of active and passive skills that will allow us to easily replace the classic wizard by stealing blood or using huge bone thorns to inflict large amounts of damage. Of course, the “distance” of fire is not comparable to that of the magician or demon hunter but the damage caused will be considerable, guaranteeing a certain physical resistance.
If you are not happy with summoning undead or draining life we can devote ourselves to a build that is based on armor and therefore become a sort of tank from which it is better to stay away since it will be almost impossible to take down and will constantly inflict damage.
At the moment, as far as we have been able to test and deepen the new class, we can say that it is a 3 + 1 with that 1 that can be considered a mixture since it is not mandatory to specialize 100% in a certain style. Furthermore, we are sure that other players will soon be able to find new solutions, very effective hybrids in order to expand the game possibilities of this new class.
THAT’S ALL?
Patch 2.6.0 also comes with the necromancer, introducing two new and unreleased explorable zones: the Dark Moor and the Temple of the Firstborn. It goes without saying that in a way the new locations very much recall the theme of the new class with gloomy and gloomy settings. Gateways also receive an update with new types such as Challenge Rifts. Here we will be able to face tests in which we do not use a character created by us, but a random and predefined one, of which it is not possible to change equipment or build. The aim of the mini-game is to beat a certain time record to get the usual loots to improve our characters.
This mode allows you to play all the classes in a causal way and, if on the one hand it can push the player to try new classes, on the other hand we deeply doubt that the historical players of the game do not have all the classes at 70 level with 400-500 annexes. comparative levels
For those like us who have also enjoyed the game in hardcore mode, with relative paragon levels, these Challenge Gates do not seem to essentially give anything more than what has already been seen. Round and round the game endgame remains that unsolved problem despite Blizzard’s attempts to revitalize the game periodically.
CONCLUDING
The question arises and it is useless to go around it: is the expansion, the new class, worth € 15?
There are two answers, if you are a longtime fan and have played Diablo 3 without missing any seasons the answer is yes. The class is very fun and versatile and worth playing without rushing to reach the level cap. However, if you quit the game after finishing the story once and glimpsing the first expansion, the answer is no. Invest the money in something more modern and suited to your tastes since in fact € 14 is entirely dedicated to the new class while the 99 cents are for side contents such as a new mascot, a coat of arms and similar objects; nothing really relevant in terms of gameplay.
Personally I was pleased to play the necromancer and I will certainly throw a few more hours on it with the knowledge that within a month I will already have migrated to other more modern and content-rich shores.
