The task before you is simple – beat the completion time set before you. You can’t change these powers out, nor can you swap out any equipment, you can only assign the powers to different keys (or buttons should you be tackling the console version). The Challenge Hub tasks you to tackle the completion time set by the selected player, using their specific gear and power loadouts. One of these is selected each Monday and placed into an instanced space called the Challenge Hub. As players tackle Rifts, Blizzard is capturing the creatures we encounter, the gear we have equipped, our power payload, the time it took to clear it, and everything else about that unique instance. Unlike Greater Rifts, these are meant to push the player to try new class builds out and challenge one another for bragging rights and trinkets.

Blizzard has been fairly good about balancing classes post-launch, so they should be able to tune out a few more viable end-game classes over time to keep the endgame-focused fanbase entertained.Ī new feature in Rise of the Necromancer is the addition of Challenge Rifts.

There are debatably several builds / sets that are viable at higher levels, but Bone Storm with the Inarius Legendary Set is widely considered to be the best of them. Crowd control, direct assault, splash area-of-effect, and passive damage are all viable with only the most minor of power adjustments.ĭiablo III has a large following of dedicated players who do frequent Rift runs, collect every piece of gear from Seasons, and min/max every power and Legendary until they’ve squeezed every drop of power from a class possible. At its most basic, the Necromancer fills the space between Wizard and Witch Doctor, with a dash of Crusader curses thrown in for good measure. Similarly, using Revive to raise bodies from the dead creates a continuously refreshed army of fresh corpses. As bodies stack up, they can be detonated (a throwback to D2), unleashing massive chain damage that, of course, generates even more bodies to detonate. Playing through the storyline once more I found that the Necromancer becomes insanely powerful fairly quickly. That said, there’s something oddly satisfying about the casual-focused progression of the class. Instead, it feels like much of the foundation for the Necromancer came from the Witch Doctor – the other pet-based class in Diablo III. What surprised me most about the Necromancer class is just how differently it plays than its old Diablo II counterpart.

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