Seems like it was just yesterday we were watching Blizzard’s teaser website to see the company officially unveil its mystery project: Diablo III. Since its May 2012 release, the lifetime sales of Blizzard’s action/RPG mammoth have hit more then 30 million units across the various platforms. It even became the fastest-selling game on PC with 3.5 million copies sold within its first 24 hours of availability. Now with numerous changes, patches, and an expansion pack later, Blizzard is still rolling out new content.
Currently unconfirmed, Diablo III may soon see the addition of a new playable Necromancer class. The information arrives by way of the same Blizzard Gear servers that played host to secret Overwatch Sombra art earlier this year. The discovered concept art for the secret Necromancer class was spotted using an internet address consisting of the word “necromancer,” verifying the main character shown within the image.
Of course, in typical Blizzard fashion, the concept art was quickly removed, but not before it was grabbed and thrown up on Imgur for all the world to see. As shown above, the Necromancer dons long, white hair and stands over what appears to be an army of the undead. He’s holding up an enchanted dagger and wielding a scythe-type weapon in the other hand. A female Necromancer stands behind him.
In the bottom, left-hand corner is Blizzard art director John Mueller’s autograph. He joined Blizzard in January 2016, and still serves as studio art director at Vigil Games. His prior experience includes serving as Art Director and co-owner of Skyshine Games, working as Principal Artist at Crytek, as Art Director at NCSoft, and more. However, his Blizzard listing doesn’t mention anything regarding his current projects at the company, which isn’t surprising.
The Reaper of Souls expansion arrived during March 2014 … over two years ago. It added an additional Act, an increased level cap of 70, improvements to loot drops, and more. It also added the playable Crusader class, adding to Diablo III’s base roster that consists of the Demon Hunter, the Monk, the Wizard, the Barbarian, and the Witch Doctor.
Given that Blizzard added only one additional class through Reaper of Souls, Blizzard may be brewing up another expansion pack that will add the Necromancer. Of course, the leaked concept art could be related to World of Warcraft or Heroes of the Storm, but the image depicts both male and female versions of this unannounced class. Plus, the Necromancer was a playable class in 2000’s Diablo II, so Blizzard could be resurrecting the character for the third installment.
“Necromancers have the ability to reanimate corpses of most entities and to control the recently dead. The dead release spiritual energies that haunt the mortal realms,” reads an old description on Blizzard’s classic website. “The Necromancer can focus these energies, giving them manifestation in the corporal world. Practitioners of necromancy can curse the very fate of a victim by manipulating the Prime energies flowing through all living things.”
Even more, look at the Necromancer character in the Diablo II description (added below) and compare it to the recent concept art: the characters have similar daggers and armor. Heck, the Necromancer was originally planned for Diablo III, but the team signed on the Witch Doctor instead. Maybe now it’s time for the Necromancer to shine again in an upcoming, unannounced expansion pack, or perhaps Diablo IV instead.
Guess we’ll find out during BlizzCon 2016 later this week.
