Some things I have noticed about Skeleton Mages: It seems like Skeleton Archers attack more slowly than the other versions of Skeleton Mages, so that reduction in damage output is something that should be considered (though it is balanced some by the increased attack speed they provide, which boosts their damage per hit). Contagion mages are clearly doing 175% per second, rather than 175% over 6 seconds, though that just makes your assessment of it being really good AoE more valid. Life Support Mages are actually a pretty good deal in an essence per damage sense, when compared to Singularity Mages. Both cost 40 essence to cast, but with Life Support being equivalent to an extra 33% damage, a Singularity Mage would need to be cast with an extra 11 essence (51 total) to do equal damage, and they maintain that edge at least up to 6 Life Support Mages (doing 3588% damage vs 3150% damage for a Singularity Mage created while at 240 essence). Granted, you lose a bit because you are spending more time casting them, but especially in cases where the Singularity mage is doing excessive damage to weaker enemies, you seem likely to get more bang for your buck with Life Support.
Your break down was well thought out although crammed into just one paragraph. But food for thought on the last bit you discussed. The damage difference between 6 life support mages and 1 singularity is based on doing nothing but casting the 6 and the 1. However in the time you spend casting the next 5 life support mages after the first. You could be hammering out more essence and doing damage in the process. If you have a pack of mobs with scythe you would get back to full essence in less than 5 seconds thus having a 2nd singularity by the time you get to 6 life support if not before that time. So life support still loses out there. Not to mention if you are trying to do a "skeleton mage" for handling packs of mobs then the Contagion mage is the only real choice. All other options are futile far as what the mage itself will be doing for aoe. Having multiple contagion mages out at once would be a lot of aoe. On top of that Nova does better aoe than any mage option. Lastly Singularity pairs well with an attack speed/high essence generating build or even a generator build.
You aren't wrong, though Contagion mages will do more damage per essence against individual targets than death nova will, with half the number of casts needed. Really though, the only reason that I see Contagion mages getting used would be pet focused sets that boost Skeleton Mages but not Death Nova. Singularity definitely has really good potential as compared to Life Support for Skeleton Mages, with the likely difference being wasted damage above and beyond that needed to kill an enemy, which will tend to be much higher from Singularity. Singularity will be better for tough, single targets, like Rift Guardians and elite packs, with Life Support tending to be better against trash packs, where they will be able to spread the damage out better, with less waste.
I couldn't agree more. Singularity being the best at boss/elite/champ killing, contagion is the best at aoe, and life support is the best all around out of the mages. One of the things I like about this channel is being able to have constructive interactions like this.
Random thoughts to add: I was looking at ways Skeleton Mage might synergize with other necro skills, and came up with a few comments, and a few areas I wasn't really sure about. When using Devour with the Voracious rune, Singularity will get the least benefit, since it will only save on the actual casting cost. This skill combo could potentially be especially useful when trying to get good AoE coverage with Contagion mages. While pet based builds seem to be focused on using the Scent of Blood rune of the Frailty curse, using the Volatile Death rune (which does 100% weapon damage AoE on death of the target) could be a viable alternative to using Contagion mages for handling larger packs, though how these stack up is going to depend a lot on the effect radius of both the Contagion mage's aura and the AoE explosion on death, neither of which is known at this point. Similarly, high Area Damage percentage gearing could help for the AoE starved pet builds. Any idea if the Leech Curse effect transmits to the necro through his pets, or does it just heal the pets? If it heals the necro, it could be really good for sustain in higher GRs (since there will be a lot of hits per second with how big their army can be), but if it only heals the pets, it would obviously be relegated to use by non-pet builds. I know that Revive targeting the corpses left by a Decay Golem gives you golems, so we can imagine that the damage they do is similar, any idea what you get via Revive targeting the corpses left by Gift of Death Mages? Being able to revive them as mages would be a really strong combo, but even if they just pop up as skeletons or whatever and do damage on par with the Revives from Decay Golems, they could provide an alternative in low corpse environments, letting you use a different Golem, or just skip the Command Golem skill entirely. And finally, Rigor Mortis, the passive that causes Blight abilities to slow and reduce attack speed, would work well with Contagion mages (the only ones that do Poison damage) would let them automatically benefit from Bane of the Trapped, which could be handy, as pet based necros seem unlikely to want to be close enough to use the slowing aura that the gem provides, though they could use the Decrepify Curse to be able to use Bane of the Trapped with non-poison based pets.
Great video as always. One thing I like about not having sets and legendaries specific to the class just yet is the ability to truly come up with neat and fun builds without being shoehorned into specific "fotm" abilities. I had come up with a Death Nova/Devour pet builds using decay golem, revive, command skeletons and frailty.
I like how you are focusing on just one thing at a time. It gives just enough information without overloading our brains. I play it on PS4 so I get the final product after all the bugs are out.
Thank you for the videos! I have to say at start I was not very interested in to the Necromancer class, but this video made me change my mind. They look pretty cool and I will probably get it :)
Can't stand teeth as a bonespear rune myself. It was intended to function different and at high level it would be a 180 degree attack going out. Now its not even close to that and less broad than multishot for the demon hunter. The new look is fine my issue is the mechanical differences.
Would be nice if each of the 5 teeth was its own projectile for better damage against very large targets. Or close range Bone specs but I suppose Bone Nova serves that purpose.
@Rhykker you didn't activate the rune for the death Nova that increases its size, you actually forgot to click it, then you hit cancel. that's why it wasn't working. 12:20 notice how "no rune" stays lit up.
I added the rune after; you didn't see me do it because I edited it, but even with the rune there is no difference in size. I double-checked now to make sure; same thing :)
Thanks for sharing this with us. About the blood runes, I'm pretty they are here because the blood set will trigger them. Something like 6P-set: all your skills have their blood rune active.
I think if you target an enemy when casting Skel Mage, they will attack that target. I did some minor testing with it in the beta myself, but couldn't really confirm with a screen full of enemies. Edit: Confirmed. Target an enemy with the ability and the mage will attack that one until it dies, then go about normal pet things. As for generating corpses out of thin air, the only other skill currently that does that is your golem (first rune or no rune) and that's on a 41-60s cd (41 if you have the Commander of the Dead passive on). Gift of Death is a pretty easy way to generate roughly 10 corpses in about the amount of time that it'd take for your Revives to wear off or your Flesh Consuming Golem to lose his buffs. The first 2 runes on Death Nova don't seem to have their own unique color or animation yet. Unstable Compound may be working as intended, but just doesn't show until it's finalized. If you go over the footage, I think you hit a goatman that wasn't in range of the first cast, but you got him with the second.
The work you put into this series is admirable (I'm assuming this is the case with all of your content, but this is the first time I've come across you :P) honestly though, everything from the smallest edits to the calculations of the skills' damage etc. is super cool to see in one of these types of videos, keep up the amazing work :)
Does the Gift of Death rune also make your other summons drop a corpse when they die? It says "Risen Skeletons," not just skeleton mage. If that's the case, it seems like it would be a lot better.
Either way it's conjuring corpses out of thin air for boss fights, which is really useful. The only way you'd be taking advantage of that with your other skeletons is Kill Command anyway (a rune on Command Skeletons that makes them explode) since you don't want them to die otherwise.
Rhykker, after you finish going through the skill videos, I would love to see a video where you have as many summons as possible summoned at once. Whichever runes allow for the most summons on screen. That'd be awesome!
@rhykker - in regards to Skeleton Mage - the Singularity rune is something that's been done before with Meteor (Star Pact) and now with Seismic Slam (Rumble). i like the breakdown of the skills and the fact that you decided to make it per "Theme". a quick question that you can ask - if you're using your life as a resource, does it double dips on Obsidian Ring of The Zodiac? and if it does, should it?
Very interesting class. Looks like you can play as either AOE melee dps, single target ranged dps and a support role with different runes. Some of them might seem bad but we don't know much about set bonuses and legendary powers yet.
thanks for this update Rhykker, looking forward to the next. guessing all the videos for skills (and one for passives) will be complete by Monday or Tuesday?
Great video! Considering how few and different the main skill choices are, I want to see the runes also have a different feel to how they play. We see hints of it in the attack speed synergy between Bone Spear and Skele Archer runes combined with execute chances from Grim Scythe's one rune. What I really wanna see good diversity in though, is golem functions. Pretty much any necro in D2 had a use for a meat shield that slowed, if nothing else. I will be disappointed if it's 3 different kinds of tank runes, the corpse generating one, one that does something weird and useless, and one that costs 10% hp and is the best. Though, revive synergy is a whole other beast I wanna see before I make myself look like too much of a fool.
In this video, gotta say my favorites were Bone Spear "Teeth" and "Shatter", Skeleton Mage "Contamination" and "Singularity" (if legendary gear gives it an AoE effect, I smell OP), and Death Nova "Blood Nova". "Unstable Compound" is definitely bugged, but that's the PTR for ya, right? To be expected. "Death Nova" seems like it would be halfway useful in an Archon-punch-like situation for Grifts, but still, the reduced radius just...kills it. Increased damage over less space isn't quite as useful as hitting more enemies in a huge group with a slightly weaker attack. 6 enemies at 50 damage each is 300 damage per cast, while 15 enemies at 40 damage each is 600 damage per cast. Individual enemies die slower, but more enemies die all at once, which is what really matters in Grifts. Especially when the latter, better option is without even using a rune.
thanks for making these videos man! I grew up playing this character and the paladin in d2 with my uncle when I was like 5 I has insane shit in my gear haha I remember when zod runes we're fucking insane to get and to make the sword I can't think of name rn, and the enigma chest was amazing. I'm 18 now but played diablo 3 when it came out had like 2k worth of gear then quit for a awhile I came back few months ago watching your videos you made it seem fun again. lot different though without the store and shit. keep up the good vids! if ya ever need someone to rift with I would play!
Do you think Death's Bargain (Legendary Pants with a 1000% weapon damage death aura in exchange for life regen) would be a good choice with some of the life leeching skills on the necromancer? I'm thinking of using them in a necro build.
I would love to hear your opinion on the topic, that Blizz almost only send the invites to streamers, and none to "normal" players. What do you think about that?
Rhykker, how odes your mouse cursor look like that, I have that stupid one that seemed to have arrived in 2.4 that looks like the regular windows cursor
Hey Rhykker, do you think that Blizzard will make a viable set for a potential Blood Mage? It seems that there's a trade off between loosing life and gaining it, so a build like that might both be quite unique and quite exciting to play.
Does singularity have to be summone at full Essence capacity? cause its be great if you can spam many weak minions by refilling essence a little bit then summoning
Could you tell us how the Skeletal Mage rune "Gift of death" works with the revive skill? If my understanding is right Revive will bring back a Skeletal mage, but will the revived mage leave a corpse?
are corpses shared between all necromancers ( so you could play 2 necro, one generating corpses via dmg and skill and another one specialiced to corpse skills)
Well riker I am happy that one of us is happy with the skeleton mage skill I was hope one of the options to be like D2 where you would have a pack of ranged skeletons fallowing you to go with the skeletons and golam.
I feel when leveling & even when you hit 70. I imagine that Bone Spear: Teeth is going to work exactly like Multishot. And personally I think that'll be one of the best skills to have especially for like normal rifts. If you go into greaters you'll probably use the non-pierce AoE one. Maybe not as far, but it seems like Bone Spear: Teeth is going to be a bit smaller in diameter & how far it shoots opposed to Multishot. My only question is, what generator would work well with it. I don't see Blood Siphon being the best option. I think maybe the Bone Spike skill with the rune that either shoots it in a long line or the one were it stuns enemies hit. That gives you a Evasive Fire + Multishot feel I would think.
the 1st rune on skeleton mage says "risen skeletons leave a corpse behind when they die or expire" that makes me think that it affects all summoned skeletons or it is just worded poorly.
Thanks Rhykker. Give us the army summoner stuff, thats where the Necro is truly in his element. In d2 the most fun used a balance of summon/curse/bone, can you identify and show us an equivalent build ?
Blood spear might make Shi Mizu's Haori quite useful in a build around blood skills, bit of a glass canon staying at ridiculously low health but doing insane damage, would love to try something like that. Sadly on PS4 so, I'll have to wait a while I guess.
OK, so it seems to like the devs made more of a push for a ton of skills syncing with each other. It looks like you can be a melee summoner that their summons increases their attack speed. Then you have the ranged full summoner. There seems to be a nice amount of AOE mayhem skills. Of course they have the abundance of the masochistic blood runes that people can hurt themselves while making the enemies wish they never existed. There also seems to be an abundance of pet summon build potential, with corpse production to create more minions to produce more corpses and so on. This COULD be a better summoner than the Witch Doctor. I also love the gruesome gory side I've been wanting, I might need to make like 2-3 of this class to get all the builds I want out of it, also can't wait for female Necromancers :)
watching that CoE rotate through 3 elements only seems to be the strongest thing I have seen about that class so far, not that the other things aren't strong
Umm you do know that the paragon options for demon hunter don't include discipline right? You can only boost max hatred which doesn't help Unhallowed Essence at all.
Thanks for the video Rhykker, but it just seems so pointless to start theorizing what skills will be efficient together- because once the set bonusses come into play our choices will once again be very limited.
I feel like Bone Nova should have a stun with it. And Skeleton Mage's Life Support rune should be "Pay 15% life with each cast. your skeleton mages now last until they die." and drop the cap from 5 mages to 3.
i wouldnt see why not; its probably the only blizzard game that hasnt added anything for cash yet right? other than the highly expected expansion.. starcraft atleast added char skins for outrageous prices and announcer voices!
I personally think you're presenting these skills in a slow manner. I like the way you do your set guides. Showing game play footage while going over the skills/items at the same time. Maybe you should just record gameplay of the skills then go over them as the gameplay plays. I hate having you stop in town and just reading the text, it feels slow. Anyways, thanks for the updates.
So... the teeth of the dragon (den'trag) are just a rune of the talon of the dragon (bone spear)? that's really disappointing. They are very much separate entities in the Necromancer lore.
I'm confused how the blood skills work. It says it costs 10% health, does that mean I die after I cast 10 times in a row (without healing)? Or is it multiplicative, so it costs less health the less health I have?
That's actually a really good question. The way it's worded, I think it'd probably be 10% of your current health (because typically the text always says max health in D3 if that's what it's talking about). Just speculation though, I can't test :(
tested: atm its 10% MAX health, and you cannot cast it when your health is too low (Probably because you dont have the resources to do so at that point)
Maybe that Gift of Death rune should make multiple corpses? I always have mixed feelings about minions that are on timers. To me, the whole idea of a minion is you have something that lasts until it dies. That's the whole point: it's something that your opponents need to kill, which makes them decide between attacking you or destroying your minions (I'm talking about Diablo enemies like they're actual thinking people for some reason). Otherwise, it might as well just be a damage-over-time spell. That said, Skeleton Mage does look cool and useful.
I would prefer if Skeleton Mages would be a rune for Command Skeletons and be permanent, same goes for the Skeleton Archer. Then there could be a legendary of the 2piece bonus on the summoning set could give these runes for free and you could walk around with a giant skeleton army which would be awesome!
poison nova still looked badass. the animation and its form was iconic and they completly replaced it with splashes of random liquids that look lame. they could have just retained the original look but with different elements for each rune with slight change if needed be.
They try their best to not pay too much d2 homage because they know it's better and having it the same will seem like they are admitting with how much is wrong with d3.
I like the necromancer from d2 for it permanent summoned army. I just hate it when they make most of the summon temporary. its like the Crusaders phalanx. I hope they have a set item or rune to buff the summoned skeleton army to permanent.
Der T3rmin4tor maybe yea. That all runes power could be on some leg and set gives us something else. Buffs your minions dmg when your mage does dmg or dmg boost for some time after mage kills someone? Then again riftguardian fight is not so good... lets just hope they give us something awesome!
I would love to see that as well, the necro summons are my favorite part of the necromancer, although I must say the other skills shown are pretty cool as well :)
I do really hope we get some Legendary items that makes Skeletal Mage last forever (or a set bonus) I want to play with all the skeletons and Skeletal Mage/Archers doot doot
compared to your paragon points overall necro looks weak without pets only the mage did deal some real dmg on t6 But ok later when sets come out it might look better but without sets the necro seems kinda useless with what we have seen so far im not hyped at it yet, but time will tell, it needs to be good to wanna buy it tbh :)
"Lets try and line some enemies up here" - Golem immediate devastates the nearest target -- Cuts to new footage-- Hahaha
Really love that your breaking all the skills down and showing footage of it. Can't wait for the next video.
Awesome video! Lots of work. well done.. fun to see the necro options..
Some things I have noticed about Skeleton Mages: It seems like Skeleton Archers attack more slowly than the other versions of Skeleton Mages, so that reduction in damage output is something that should be considered (though it is balanced some by the increased attack speed they provide, which boosts their damage per hit).
Contagion mages are clearly doing 175% per second, rather than 175% over 6 seconds, though that just makes your assessment of it being really good AoE more valid.
Life Support Mages are actually a pretty good deal in an essence per damage sense, when compared to Singularity Mages. Both cost 40 essence to cast, but with Life Support being equivalent to an extra 33% damage, a Singularity Mage would need to be cast with an extra 11 essence (51 total) to do equal damage, and they maintain that edge at least up to 6 Life Support Mages (doing 3588% damage vs 3150% damage for a Singularity Mage created while at 240 essence).
Granted, you lose a bit because you are spending more time casting them, but especially in cases where the Singularity mage is doing excessive damage to weaker enemies, you seem likely to get more bang for your buck with Life Support.
Your break down was well thought out although crammed into just one paragraph. But food for thought on the last bit you discussed.
The damage difference between 6 life support mages and 1 singularity is based on doing nothing but casting the 6 and the 1. However in the time you spend casting the next 5 life support mages after the first. You could be hammering out more essence and doing damage in the process. If you have a pack of mobs with scythe you would get back to full essence in less than 5 seconds thus having a 2nd singularity by the time you get to 6 life support if not before that time. So life support still loses out there.
Not to mention if you are trying to do a "skeleton mage" for handling packs of mobs then the Contagion mage is the only real choice. All other options are futile far as what the mage itself will be doing for aoe. Having multiple contagion mages out at once would be a lot of aoe. On top of that Nova does better aoe than any mage option.
Lastly Singularity pairs well with an attack speed/high essence generating build or even a generator build.
You aren't wrong, though Contagion mages will do more damage per essence against individual targets than death nova will, with half the number of casts needed. Really though, the only reason that I see Contagion mages getting used would be pet focused sets that boost Skeleton Mages but not Death Nova.
Singularity definitely has really good potential as compared to Life Support for Skeleton Mages, with the likely difference being wasted damage above and beyond that needed to kill an enemy, which will tend to be much higher from Singularity. Singularity will be better for tough, single targets, like Rift Guardians and elite packs, with Life Support tending to be better against trash packs, where they will be able to spread the damage out better, with less waste.
I couldn't agree more. Singularity being the best at boss/elite/champ killing, contagion is the best at aoe, and life support is the best all around out of the mages. One of the things I like about this channel is being able to have constructive interactions like this.
Random thoughts to add: I was looking at ways Skeleton Mage might synergize with other necro skills, and came up with a few comments, and a few areas I wasn't really sure about.
When using Devour with the Voracious rune, Singularity will get the least benefit, since it will only save on the actual casting cost. This skill combo could potentially be especially useful when trying to get good AoE coverage with Contagion mages.
While pet based builds seem to be focused on using the Scent of Blood rune of the Frailty curse, using the Volatile Death rune (which does 100% weapon damage AoE on death of the target) could be a viable alternative to using Contagion mages for handling larger packs, though how these stack up is going to depend a lot on the effect radius of both the Contagion mage's aura and the AoE explosion on death, neither of which is known at this point. Similarly, high Area Damage percentage gearing could help for the AoE starved pet builds.
Any idea if the Leech Curse effect transmits to the necro through his pets, or does it just heal the pets? If it heals the necro, it could be really good for sustain in higher GRs (since there will be a lot of hits per second with how big their army can be), but if it only heals the pets, it would obviously be relegated to use by non-pet builds.
I know that Revive targeting the corpses left by a Decay Golem gives you golems, so we can imagine that the damage they do is similar, any idea what you get via Revive targeting the corpses left by Gift of Death Mages? Being able to revive them as mages would be a really strong combo, but even if they just pop up as skeletons or whatever and do damage on par with the Revives from Decay Golems, they could provide an alternative in low corpse environments, letting you use a different Golem, or just skip the Command Golem skill entirely.
And finally, Rigor Mortis, the passive that causes Blight abilities to slow and reduce attack speed, would work well with Contagion mages (the only ones that do Poison damage) would let them automatically benefit from Bane of the Trapped, which could be handy, as pet based necros seem unlikely to want to be close enough to use the slowing aura that the gem provides, though they could use the Decrepify Curse to be able to use Bane of the Trapped with non-poison based pets.
I'm enjoying this format learning about the new class and skills in action. Keep them coming!
Great video as always. One thing I like about not having sets and legendaries specific to the class just yet is the ability to truly come up with neat and fun builds without being shoehorned into specific "fotm" abilities. I had come up with a Death Nova/Devour pet builds using decay golem, revive, command skeletons and frailty.
I like how you are focusing on just one thing at a time. It gives just enough information without overloading our brains. I play it on PS4 so I get the final product after all the bugs are out.
I've watched almost every video you have uploaded....thank you for being a Diablo supporter and please never stop making videos!
Thank you for the videos! I have to say at start I was not very interested in to the Necromancer class, but this video made me change my mind. They look pretty cool and I will probably get it :)
Loved teeth back in D2.
Looking forward to being a Dentist again.
Can't stand teeth as a bonespear rune myself. It was intended to function different and at high level it would be a 180 degree attack going out. Now its not even close to that and less broad than multishot for the demon hunter. The new look is fine my issue is the mechanical differences.
Would be nice if each of the 5 teeth was its own projectile for better damage against very large targets. Or close range Bone specs but I suppose Bone Nova serves that purpose.
@Rhykker you didn't activate the rune for the death Nova that increases its size, you actually forgot to click it, then you hit cancel. that's why it wasn't working. 12:20 notice how "no rune" stays lit up.
I added the rune after; you didn't see me do it because I edited it, but even with the rune there is no difference in size. I double-checked now to make sure; same thing :)
***** oh gotcha. Hmm weird
Thanks for sharing this with us.
About the blood runes, I'm pretty they are here because the blood set will trigger them. Something like 6P-set: all your skills have their blood rune active.
Man, cant wait for the necro to come online. Thanks for doing these showdown of skills. Keep it coming.
What are those items in the backpack on 10:45? Are there necro sets already?
No, you can craft this set, but what is in his Offhand?
Phylactery: necro specific offhand.
I think if you target an enemy when casting Skel Mage, they will attack that target. I did some minor testing with it in the beta myself, but couldn't really confirm with a screen full of enemies. Edit: Confirmed. Target an enemy with the ability and the mage will attack that one until it dies, then go about normal pet things.
As for generating corpses out of thin air, the only other skill currently that does that is your golem (first rune or no rune) and that's on a 41-60s cd (41 if you have the Commander of the Dead passive on). Gift of Death is a pretty easy way to generate roughly 10 corpses in about the amount of time that it'd take for your Revives to wear off or your Flesh Consuming Golem to lose his buffs.
The first 2 runes on Death Nova don't seem to have their own unique color or animation yet. Unstable Compound may be working as intended, but just doesn't show until it's finalized. If you go over the footage, I think you hit a goatman that wasn't in range of the first cast, but you got him with the second.
0:55 "Lets try to line somethin up here" Bloodtitan: NOPE
The work you put into this series is admirable (I'm assuming this is the case with all of your content, but this is the first time I've come across you :P) honestly though, everything from the smallest edits to the calculations of the skills' damage etc. is super cool to see in one of these types of videos, keep up the amazing work :)
Thanks Michael!
so at around 15:45 ish the when you tried to use the health pot on CD, did you male necromancer use a female voice???
Rhykker! I would love to see the armor transmogs or any legendary sets they have so far in the Beta :D Thanks for always making great content !!
Loving these videos Rhykker, keep them coming!
Rhykker, does Tasker&They scale nice on summon necro? That would be my only question and thing to test if i got key.
Does the Gift of Death rune also make your other summons drop a corpse when they die? It says "Risen Skeletons," not just skeleton mage. If that's the case, it seems like it would be a lot better.
Either way it's conjuring corpses out of thin air for boss fights, which is really useful. The only way you'd be taking advantage of that with your other skeletons is Kill Command anyway (a rune on Command Skeletons that makes them explode) since you don't want them to die otherwise.
Sweet Rhykker thanks for high quality info!
Rhykker, after you finish going through the skill videos, I would love to see a video where you have as many summons as possible summoned at once. Whichever runes allow for the most summons on screen. That'd be awesome!
@rhykker - in regards to Skeleton Mage - the Singularity rune is something that's been done before with Meteor (Star Pact) and now with Seismic Slam (Rumble).
i like the breakdown of the skills and the fact that you decided to make it per "Theme".
a quick question that you can ask - if you're using your life as a resource, does it double dips on Obsidian Ring of The Zodiac? and if it does, should it?
Great aesthetic! Wings, pet, gear all on point homles.
Very interesting class. Looks like you can play as either AOE melee dps, single target ranged dps and a support role with different runes. Some of them might seem bad but we don't know much about set bonuses and legendary powers yet.
thanks for this update Rhykker, looking forward to the next. guessing all the videos for skills (and one for passives) will be complete by Monday or Tuesday?
This is the last D3 channel I follow.. for a reason! He is the best Jesse Ventura of RUclips! And those moments of clarity are the fucking best
:)
Soo.....Bone Spear, Shatter + Skeletal Mage, Skeletal Archer = Super Fast Hyper Combo Necromancer Finish?
I assume you mean Crystallize rune instead of Shatter, but yes that means super attack speed (attack speed caps at 5 attacks/s).
@Rhykker your mouse pointer looks a bit different than the standard diablo 3 cursor. How is it done?
Great video! Considering how few and different the main skill choices are, I want to see the runes also have a different feel to how they play.
We see hints of it in the attack speed synergy between Bone Spear and Skele Archer runes combined with execute chances from Grim Scythe's one rune.
What I really wanna see good diversity in though, is golem functions. Pretty much any necro in D2 had a use for a meat shield that slowed, if nothing else. I will be disappointed if it's 3 different kinds of tank runes, the corpse generating one, one that does something weird and useless, and one that costs 10% hp and is the best. Though, revive synergy is a whole other beast I wanna see before I make myself look like too much of a fool.
In this video, gotta say my favorites were Bone Spear "Teeth" and "Shatter", Skeleton Mage "Contamination" and "Singularity" (if legendary gear gives it an AoE effect, I smell OP), and Death Nova "Blood Nova".
"Unstable Compound" is definitely bugged, but that's the PTR for ya, right? To be expected.
"Death Nova" seems like it would be halfway useful in an Archon-punch-like situation for Grifts, but still, the reduced radius just...kills it. Increased damage over less space isn't quite as useful as hitting more enemies in a huge group with a slightly weaker attack. 6 enemies at 50 damage each is 300 damage per cast, while 15 enemies at 40 damage each is 600 damage per cast. Individual enemies die slower, but more enemies die all at once, which is what really matters in Grifts. Especially when the latter, better option is without even using a rune.
thanks for making these videos man! I grew up playing this character and the paladin in d2 with my uncle when I was like 5 I has insane shit in my gear haha I remember when zod runes we're fucking insane to get and to make the sword I can't think of name rn, and the enigma chest was amazing. I'm 18 now but played diablo 3 when it came out had like 2k worth of gear then quit for a awhile I came back few months ago watching your videos you made it seem fun again. lot different though without the store and shit. keep up the good vids! if ya ever need someone to rift with I would play!
Just finished generators video, perfect timing.
Is there coming more videos of skills and also passives???
Yep!
Do you think Death's Bargain (Legendary Pants with a 1000% weapon damage death aura in exchange for life regen) would be a good choice with some of the life leeching skills on the necromancer? I'm thinking of using them in a necro build.
I would love to hear your opinion on the topic, that Blizz almost only send the invites to streamers, and none to "normal" players. What do you think about that?
Plenty of normal players got invites :) But because they don't stream or make youtube videos, you don't hear about that as much.
Ok, fair enough :) Keep up the vids, they are the "only" real source the non-Beta guys can get informations on the class :D
Rhykker, how odes your mouse cursor look like that, I have that stupid one that seemed to have arrived in 2.4 that looks like the regular windows cursor
How do you get the Diablo Pet?
Interested to see the gear sets and legs for the necro. I wonder if it will beat the wiz lightning archon meta.
Hey Rhykker, do you think that Blizzard will make a viable set for a potential Blood Mage? It seems that there's a trade off between loosing life and gaining it, so a build like that might both be quite unique and quite exciting to play.
They will make a blood mage set - we'll see if it'll be viable hahah
did you notice the bug when u were doing blood nova and ran out of essence? pretty sure a female voice said not enough essence
Does singularity have to be summone at full Essence capacity? cause its be great if you can spam many weak minions by refilling essence a little bit then summoning
Could you tell us how the Skeletal Mage rune "Gift of death" works with the revive skill?
If my understanding is right Revive will bring back a Skeletal mage, but will the revived mage leave a corpse?
are corpses shared between all necromancers ( so you could play 2 necro, one generating corpses via dmg and skill and another one specialiced to corpse skills)
On PC, you'll each get your own corpses that only you can see
I laughed so hard at 5:46 love your humor keep it up.
Hey Rhykker, by any chance the necro was your favorite character in D2?
Well riker I am happy that one of us is happy with the skeleton mage skill I was hope one of the options to be like D2 where you would have a pack of ranged skeletons fallowing you to go with the skeletons and golam.
I feel when leveling & even when you hit 70. I imagine that Bone Spear: Teeth is going to work exactly like Multishot. And personally I think that'll be one of the best skills to have especially for like normal rifts. If you go into greaters you'll probably use the non-pierce AoE one. Maybe not as far, but it seems like Bone Spear: Teeth is going to be a bit smaller in diameter & how far it shoots opposed to Multishot. My only question is, what generator would work well with it. I don't see Blood Siphon being the best option. I think maybe the Bone Spike skill with the rune that either shoots it in a long line or the one were it stuns enemies hit. That gives you a Evasive Fire + Multishot feel I would think.
great video but why do they even bother making different runes when they force you to play a specific one that works with BIS-gear anyway...
According to Blizzard's Skill Overview, Tendril Nova does 225% weapon damage. No idea why that doesn't show up in the tooltip in game though.
Saw someone trying a speed build with Skeleton Mages, and they capped out at 10 mages.
Man that bone nova teamed up with a thorns build, and perhaps something that when hit triggers that would be great for a melee build :P
the 1st rune on skeleton mage says "risen skeletons leave a corpse behind when they die or expire" that makes me think that it affects all summoned skeletons or it is just worded poorly.
Thanks Rhykker. Give us the army summoner stuff, thats where the Necro is truly in his element. In d2 the most fun used a balance of summon/curse/bone, can you identify and show us an equivalent build ?
Blood spear might make Shi Mizu's Haori quite useful in a build around blood skills, bit of a glass canon staying at ridiculously low health but doing insane damage, would love to try something like that. Sadly on PS4 so, I'll have to wait a while I guess.
I wonder if skeletons (both normal and mages) can be buffed by certain items like tasker or the legendary gem (forgot the name :p)
A legendary affix that makes the bone spear bigger or shoot more spears would be cool. Or legendary affix that grants blighted marrow or teeth rune.
excited to see what legendarys will be given necro effects.
When is the nerco coming out for everyone to play
OK, so it seems to like the devs made more of a push for a ton of skills syncing with each other. It looks like you can be a melee summoner that their summons increases their attack speed. Then you have the ranged full summoner. There seems to be a nice amount of AOE mayhem skills. Of course they have the abundance of the masochistic blood runes that people can hurt themselves while making the enemies wish they never existed. There also seems to be an abundance of pet summon build potential, with corpse production to create more minions to produce more corpses and so on. This COULD be a better summoner than the Witch Doctor. I also love the gruesome gory side I've been wanting, I might need to make like 2-3 of this class to get all the builds I want out of it, also can't wait for female Necromancers :)
watching that CoE rotate through 3 elements only seems to be the strongest thing I have seen about that class so far, not that the other things aren't strong
When it comes out and what price will it have ?
The Beta in on the PTR, right ?
So you can get a 60% Attack Speed buff from Crystallisation and Skeleton Archers, right?
Umm you do know that the paragon options for demon hunter don't include discipline right? You can only boost max hatred which doesn't help Unhallowed Essence at all.
It'd be cool if the blood-based legendary set cut the health cost of blood skills and buffs blood damage. That'd be a good 4 or 6 piece effect.
Do we have an estimated pricetag?
I wouldn't play it if it came free with my lollypop
Then I hope you'll have loads of fun with your lollypop!
hey rhykker. please dont forget to make a video on the passive skills :)
Does the necro have sets yet?
Thanks for the video Rhykker, but it just seems so pointless to start theorizing what skills will be efficient together- because once the set bonusses come into play our choices will once again be very limited.
So, I can see sets for blood skills and summons in general
I really hope there's a set/legendaries for Bone Spear - Teeth. Best looking secondary and rune IMO.
I feel like Bone Nova should have a stun with it. And Skeleton Mage's Life Support rune should be "Pay 15% life with each cast. your skeleton mages now last until they die." and drop the cap from 5 mages to 3.
if this sells good (and i think it will) i can definitely see blizz adding some more paid content in the future
Please no
Please yes! I would gladly payed reasonable price for some new content.
This is the last new content they are going to release. The game is getting old and its time to move on..
i wouldnt see why not; its probably the only blizzard game that hasnt added anything for cash yet right? other than the highly expected expansion.. starcraft atleast added char skins for outrageous prices and announcer voices!
they need to be careful with the price however, if its reasonable and justify the content i would gladly pay.
I personally think you're presenting these skills in a slow manner.
I like the way you do your set guides. Showing game play footage while going over the skills/items at the same time.
Maybe you should just record gameplay of the skills then go over them as the gameplay plays. I hate having you stop in town and just reading the text, it feels slow.
Anyways, thanks for the updates.
what's their offhand? an urn?
Wil Cals necro offhand like wd mojo :)
ye..wd offhand is called mojo, wizard's are called source. what's the necro offhand called?
Phylactery or something like that xD
So... the teeth of the dragon (den'trag) are just a rune of the talon of the dragon (bone spear)? that's really disappointing.
They are very much separate entities in the Necromancer lore.
I'm confused how the blood skills work. It says it costs 10% health, does that mean I die after I cast 10 times in a row (without healing)? Or is it multiplicative, so it costs less health the less health I have?
That's actually a really good question. The way it's worded, I think it'd probably be 10% of your current health (because typically the text always says max health in D3 if that's what it's talking about). Just speculation though, I can't test :(
tested: atm its 10% MAX health, and you cannot cast it when your health is too low (Probably because you dont have the resources to do so at that point)
what's that off-hand item for Necro?
Maybe that Gift of Death rune should make multiple corpses?
I always have mixed feelings about minions that are on timers. To me, the whole idea of a minion is you have something that lasts until it dies. That's the whole point: it's something that your opponents need to kill, which makes them decide between attacking you or destroying your minions (I'm talking about Diablo enemies like they're actual thinking people for some reason). Otherwise, it might as well just be a damage-over-time spell. That said, Skeleton Mage does look cool and useful.
I would prefer if Skeleton Mages would be a rune for Command Skeletons and be permanent, same goes for the Skeleton Archer. Then there could be a legendary of the 2piece bonus on the summoning set could give these runes for free and you could walk around with a giant skeleton army which would be awesome!
When part 3?
Yeah, still waiting for it. It has been 3 days :S
How much does this pack cost?
poison nova still looked badass. the animation and its form was iconic and they completly replaced it with splashes of random liquids that look lame. they could have just retained the original look but with different elements for each rune with slight change if needed be.
They try their best to not pay too much d2 homage because they know it's better and having it the same will seem like they are admitting with how much is wrong with d3.
I foresee bone spear with the attack speed rune and scythe with the 20% or less hp instant kill chance as a build.
Can you revive skeleton mage?
I like the necromancer from d2 for it permanent summoned army. I just hate it when they make most of the summon temporary. its like the Crusaders phalanx. I hope they have a set item or rune to buff the summoned skeleton army to permanent.
Moses Wong Seng Fu uuuh... But the main summons (Command Skeletons and the Golem) ARE permanent. Only Revive and Skeleton Mages are temporary.
Yeah but the number are so little(less than 8). Doesn't feel like an army. :(
Moses Wong Seng Fu well, that's true. :/ we can all hope for the legendaries now
sooo bone spear - crystalization + scythe - Execute = gg?
13:00 it's not getting any bigger... But it sure is veiny KappaPride
As long as there is a good set that incorporates skeleton mage it could be a good build I think
Mikołaj Błaszczyszyn there will be a Summoner set, you can bet all pet skills will be there.
dose anyone now when dose the necromancer is coming out and whin and the date it is coming out
Can't wait to try out a pet build ft. Taskers & Enforcer!
Where are the other skills?
FINALLY! something to trigger the 100% crit chestpiece :D Hail Bloodskills
a set that gives skeleton mage every rune would be so insanely nice :D
And last forever!!!! :)
well that would be also nice but op, you need a cap
Der T3rmin4tor maybe yea. That all runes power could be on some leg and set gives us something else. Buffs your minions dmg when your mage does dmg or dmg boost for some time after mage kills someone? Then again riftguardian fight is not so good... lets just hope they give us something awesome!
I would love to see that as well, the necro summons are my favorite part of the necromancer, although I must say the other skills shown are pretty cool as well :)
why?
I do really hope we get some Legendary items that makes Skeletal Mage last forever (or a set bonus)
I want to play with all the skeletons and Skeletal Mage/Archers
doot doot
Me too man, shame this isn't D2 and D3 is dead especially with brownecro
i just noticed that the essence jar has ghostly skulls.
5:44 I laughed a bit too much at this XD
compared to your paragon points overall necro looks weak without pets only the mage did deal some real dmg on t6 But ok later when sets come out it might look better but without sets the necro seems kinda useless with what we have seen so far im not hyped at it yet, but time will tell, it needs to be good to wanna buy it tbh :)