Diablo 3: Wie stark wird der Necromancer zum Release?

Next week is the release of the Necromancer in Diablo 3: Will he already be particularly strong at the start? There were many improvements to be made during the beta.

Blizzard’s hack and slash “Diablo III” will be expanded with a new class next week. The Rise of the Necromancer expansion will be available for purchase starting June 27. Will Blizzard follow the usual “procedure” and initially bring the new class in a overpowered state to lure in players?

A “flavor of the month” class, hitting the “taste of the month”, has often proven to be stronger than existing classes in other games.

Will the Necromancer come to the game as “op”?

New classes or characters in video games are often made “somewhat stronger” at release. This attracts players to test the class and to experience the “strong gameplay”. You can see this in games like League of Legends, where a large part of the new characters is first released as overpowered. In a later patch, the character is then hit with the nerf hammer and receives the necessary balance to fit in with the other classes.

The latest example was the “Warden” in The Elder Scrolls Online. Many of the regular players of ESO already considered the new class too strong in advance.

For developers, this method is a good way to make a new class or character popular in the community (at least temporarily). Do you think Blizzard will use this method for the Necro and will bring him into the game stronger at first?

On the test servers, you could already see some “interesting” builds of the Necromancer in Diablo 3. However, he only appeared “overpowered” there due to an exploit.

Necro on the PTR – Plenty of Room for Improvement

Many players in the community were surprised by the “early” release of the Necromancer, as the Necromancer did not seem “ready for launch” to them. While the new class was already visually convincing for many players, the “gameplay” left much to be desired, especially when sets were not played with high Paragon levels. Players wished Blizzard had addressed these issues before release.

Players often point out in feedback forums that the damage reduction mechanics for the Necro feel “unreliable”. To become immune to CCs, one has to wait for long cooldowns.

Complete damage immunity exists for a few seconds after a cooldown of about half a minute. For hardcore players with connection issues, this is likely a “nope” judgment for the Necromancer.

Those who play unfairly will be invulnerable: Besides this critique of too weak damage reducers, there was also the complete opposite during the testing phase. Players exploited to make themselves invulnerable using skills.

This method is definitely “OP” and will hopefully not be found on the live servers. Because reaching the high levels of Greater Nephalem Rifts while being invulnerable is not particularly impressive.

Our Assessment: Unintentionally “op”

We believe that the Necro will still have some issues at launch and may have one or two exploitable set combinations that ease the game. Such strong set or item combinations often emerge after balance changes, but are then toned down with a hotfix or a later patch. Before the release, Blizzard (hopefully) will address the beta feedback from fans and tweak some aspects of passive skills and items of the Necromancer.

In general, one should not expect a perfectly balanced class at the release of the Necromancer in Diablo III. The Necromancer will likely still have many rough edges and will not play as “smoothly” initially as you might be used to from other classes in Diablo 3.

Once the Necromancer is active on the live servers, developers will have a clearer view of where the issues still lie and where they need to make improvements.

Sets and Builds – Potential is Present

On the official website, Blizzard has already introduced the sets of the Necromancer. There are opportunities for interesting builds through the sets – but the numbers must also add up.