D3 Team Says No Necromancer in D3

Mtv's Multiplayer Blog continues to milk their recent Jay Wilson interview, and today brings another chunk of conversation with the man, this one about character design ideas and returning characters. Some quotes:

“Our approach for classes in ‘Diablo III’ is that we don’t have a strong desire to bring back classes from the previous game,” Wilson told me. “The goal is to try and give people new gameplay and not just re-hash old gameplay. We’re not just making a ‘Diablo II’ with updated 3D graphics.”

...

“The problem was, we looked at the class and didn’t think that we could really make him a lot better,” he explained. “We could add some new stuff to him but for the most part — curses, corpse explosion, skeleton pets — done. That’s the class. We wanted to create new gameplay, so we chose to do the Witch Doctor as a different kind of class.”

...

“If [the Necromancer] dealt damage, it was through corpses laying around or through his pets,” he said. “The Witch Doctor, his pets are a little more transient. If you watch the gameplay video, you really notice his pets come and go like crazy. There’s a wall of zombies that go away fairly quickly or pets that just kind of blow up willy-nilly. That was intentional — to try and make him different than the Necromancer.”

Remember to check out the Diablo 3 Media Coverage archive for all interviews and previews related to Diablo 3 from all over the net.

Tags: characters, jay wilson, necromancer, witch doctor

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Comments

Kunzaito

14 days ago

Makes a lot of sense...

... So then why bring back the Barbarian?! The melee class should be the absolute easiest to re-conceive, and the Barbarian had the whole LoD expansion dedicated to his story so it's not like there's a lot of unexplored turf there. And as much as I enjoyed playing Barbarians in D2, he never struck me as the ideal warrior for a medieval/gothic fantasy game, and I had no particular desire to revisit him in D3.

I guess all will be revealed in time.

Morannon

14 days ago

Yeah I agree. The barb hangs loose with that reasoning.

Still I think barbs fill the role of melee tank very well.

Leord

14 days ago

I agree on the barbs as well, but only to some extent. He's the "ultimate melee", and over-the-top, closer to Blizzard's style than the old Warrior. D2 brought everything to a new level, and they are hardly stepping back now. We could have "assassin" or something instead, but having this huge big musle-mountain fits as the "main" melee class.

Now, I just hope they bring back the Paladins =P

Animation

14 days ago

From their comments on summing up the essence of the Necromancer, I worry that there may not be many different approaches to characters in Diablo 3. They said that the Necro was summons and corpse explosions and curses, done. They also said that they did damage from summons or corpses lying around. What about Poison Dagger based necros? Melee + Curse + Bone Armor necros? Pure Bone Tree / Spear / Teeth necros? And hey a long time ago before they nerfed them for damage, you could make a rockin' Golem necro.

I'm a little worried that there will be one "accepted" mechanic for killing things with a class, and not a variety of totally different approaches to each class. I'm just basing that on their simplistic view of their own classes from D2. I hope I'm wrong.

Reddimus

14 days ago

This does not bode well! But at least they're highly considering coming back to the old classes with Expansions.

omenworks

14 days ago

First they spoil fantastic and mythical evil mood from Diablo and replace it with puerile textures copyed from World Of Warcraft, and now they take from us one of coolest classes ever. Necro was pure evil - not like this voodoo doll looking Witch Doctor...

I though there still a hope with graphic game enviroment when I saw
http://www.blizzard.com/diablo3/_images/artwork/ss24-hires.jpg
http://www.blizzard.com/diablo3/_images/artwork/ss23-hires.jpg

but NO, when you zoom in D3, you can actually see, screenshot from one of World Of Warcraft new instances - this time in D3!! yeyh! =.=
http://www.blizzard.com/diablo3/_images/screenshots/ss9-hires.jpg

... and Blizz official announcements... it's just getting worse with evry news...

This game is made for 10-13 years old kids?

"Next interview with Jay Wilson - 3 New classes revealed in D3"
1) Gnome Warriors - they are cute and "we want them in OUR game..."

2) Murloc - it so sweet, how can we miss it in evlil D3 ?!
http://www.playthingofthegods.com/DianiusPetsGuide/PetMurlocMurky.jpg

3) Night Elfs - "because every good selling game Blizz can came out with need to have elfs !!" - you think why SC2 is getting late ? They remake textures from WoW, for better playing experience...

"But don't be sad, we have prepared for you bunch of whole new monsters you can smash and tear apart in Diablo 3"
http://www.playthingofthegods.com/DianiusPetsGuide/DianiusPets.jpg

and latest Blizzard invention - pet, that will pick up your drop!! YES !!
http://images.mmosite.com/photo/2007/10/29/kitten_aSv4tn53Qp7.jpg

Sooo cute... I can't wait to see more! =.=

CaptainDingo

13 days ago

This isn't really news, I honestly can't imagine anyone insane enough to think, after seeing the Witch Doctor, that we even need a Necromancer anymore, let alone that they'd put one in. It'd be a Witch Doctor with different graphics for the same spells.