Blizzard Entertainment has finally confirmed that Necromancers from the previous game, Diablo II, are making a reimagined comeback in a pack for Diablo III due next year. Leaked images that hinted the return of necromancers first made the rounds Wednesday on Blizzard's online store.
Rise Of The Necromancer Pack
During BlizzCon 2016 in California, a massive gathering celebrating Blizzard Entertainment's expansive library of games, the studio confirmed that Diablo III will get its fair share of content in the future.
While Blizzard didn't announce a brand new expansion pack for the title in the same vein as Reaper of Souls released in March 2014, it introduced a couple of major additions for Diablo III that serve as lovely tributes for the 20th anniversary of the entire Diablo series.
The new pack will include The Necromancer, Diablo III's next playable class. The characters specialize in dark arts, magic and death. And yes, there will be exploding corpses.
Those who want to get the Rise of the Necromancer pack must have both Diablo III and the Reaper of Souls expansion. Alternatively, you can access the new content if you have purchased the Ultimate Evil Edition released for Xbox One and PlayStation 4.
As part of the Rise of the Necromancer pack, players will also get an in-game pet, two additional character slots, a portrait frame, a pennant, a banner and a banner sigil. Additionally, PC players will get two additional slash stabs.
While this might seem a full-fledged return of the Necromancers found in Diablo II or a carryover of Xul's character in Heroes of the Storm, another Blizzard title, the studio says the new pack is simply reimagining of that class and it'll feature new Necromancers instead of rehashed characters from previous titles.
"[W[e drew a lot of inspiration from the previous version of the Necromancer and have taken the Diablo III version in a direction we hope you'll love," said Blizzard.
The studio hasn't given proper pricing details yet, but it said that the pack will arrive sometime in 2017.
Recreating The Original Diablo
Fans of the original Diablo title are in for a treat, since Blizzard is recreating the game inside Diablo III, though not in a way that you might expect.
The recreated Diablo will come with The Darkening of Tristram in an upcoming update, which will "send you back into the depths of the Cathedral." The update features a 16-level dungeon shrouding the four main bosses from Diablo.
Blizzard pushed the nostalgia factor up a notch with the recreation, choosing to put an old school, pixelated and grainy filter in a theme which Blizzard calls "glorious retrovision." If that's enough, the player will also be limited to moving in only eight directions, much like the navigation system in the original Diablo.
"It will be a proper old-school Diablo experience," said Frank Pierce, chief development officer for Blizzard.
The Darkening of Tristram comes as a free update for those who already have Diablo III and the Reaper of Souls expansion pack.
Diablo III first came out in 2012 for PC, with versions for Xbox 360 and PS3 released afterward. With the upcoming release of Rise of the Necromancer Expansion pack, it's interesting to see how Blizzard is opting for piecemeal additions for Diablo III instead of full-blown expansion packs.
Next year, Blizzard is also expected to offer two new zones for Diablo III called Shrouded Moors and the Temple of the First Born.
