If you think back to the last Diablo 4 beta and the different classes, most of us probably think of the Necromancer. Until yesterday, many players were looking forward to the strong class. But that changed quickly.
What kind of class is that? The Necromancer is one of five playable classes in the beta. The dark necromancer can raise the dead and have them fight for him. In our overview, you’ll get an insight into the different classes.
This is how strong Necromancers were: With enormous damage, necromancers could easily defeat even the toughest content in their first test. Even when they were several levels above them.
Especially bad was the Necromancer’s ability to literally wipe the entire screen with just one button. Players quickly agreed that the class is extremely strong
Even experts said that Necromancers are overpowered. Even if you weren’t constantly paying attention to the gameplay, you could just mow down hordes of enemies.
What was the plan for the new beta? Based on the insights that the beta in March provided, Blizzard made a few changes. The necromancer was apparently too strong, druids and barbarians too weak. The patch notes for the server slam indicated in advance that the Necromancer class is to be nerfed quite a bit.
Here you see gameplay of the Necromancer:
How weak is the Necromancer now? While in the previous beta you could slaughter everything with the corresponding Necromancer build, you can currently work up a sweat. Because the summoned servants die faster and individual skills deal less damage, fights require good planning.
Alone, the bone shards were nerfed from 22% damage to meager 8%. And that is noticeable.
Necromancer fans are disappointed
How does the community react to the changes? Anything but enthusiastic. Scrolling through the Subreddit of Diablo 4, you’ll find almost exclusively threads from users who feel that Skeletons are useless and weak after the adjustment.
In the threads, users express massive criticism:
- Pa-Curtis: ‘The Necromancer was simply deleted.’
- Hotfartsmanlet: ‘This time I leveled a rogue, and he is much stronger than the Necromancer during the last beta phase.’
- SCTRN: ‘If they don’t fix the servants by the launch, the Necromancer is done.’
- zi3i: ‘How the hell are you supposed to fight the Butcher when the Skeletons can’t even distract him for more than 1 second?’
However, there are also a few users who found the nerf reasonable. ‘Incredible damage and no essence costs. The people posting here are crazy if they thought that was okay,’ writes Business-Donut3270 (via Reddit).
Large groups of enemies and small bosses virtually overwhelmed me, and I was constantly asking myself: Where are my helpers? They died off continuously, so I had to ensure I resurrected them again. Fights felt exhausting and hectic because of this.
I spammed one ability after another, which in my opinion all didn’t do the expected damage. At the same time, I was running out of the necessary essence. One ability (Decay) even caused an annoying bug for me. The beam that was supposed to send the enemies to the other side froze, and I couldn’t move. Only restarting the game and switching the ability helped.
Overall, I sadly didn’t have much fun with my Necromancer. While many players in my environment are currently choosing the wizard, I might try the hunter again. I thought it was quite good in the last beta.
So it remains to be seen whether anything will change regarding the Necromancer class and especially how it will all look at release in June. We will keep you updated. Current information about the server slam can be found in our live ticker.
