Necromancer Gameplay Video Analysis

Although the video was rather small in size (at least on my system) due to the Bink format, it was still an exceptional sight to behold.  The Necromancer has been one of the most closely-guarded characters of all of Diablo II´s five, and details on his abilities have been vague and he is not a regular feature in screenshots and the like.  It was good to see a gameplay video released for the Necromancer.

The Necromancer casts Bone Wall...The video begins with the Necromancer in one of Act I´s many outdoor areas, summoning a regular Clay Golem to his aid.  The Necromancer also has a Bone Armor spell up to protect him, although no real opposition is in sight  The next scenes takes us to the desert wilderness of Act II, and with the Necromancer facing several Marauders all intent of getting to him.  To combat them the Necromancer summons up the power of the Bone Wall spell, which forms a protective barrier in front of him.  The Bone Wall can be destroyed, of course, but we are pretty sure it is a permanent feature until so destroyed.  It is unknown how many Bone Walls may be cast at one time, but in this section alone the Necromancer casts three of them to block off the Marauders for a time.

The next part brings us into the interior levels of Act II, in the sandy crypts.  The Necromancer is facing up against several Burning Dead archers who are shooting fire arrows at him.  The Necromancer summons a Blood Golem to deal with them, letting it close in to battle them while he seals off their escape towards him with a small Bone Wall.  The Burning Dead archers have a greenish coloration, leading us to believe that they have been poisoned by a prior effect of some sort.

In the next scene we see the Necromancer dealing with several creatures known as Zakarumites in the ruins of Act III.  The Zakarumites are likely the Zakarum cultists of the area, and by the magic they are throwing at the Necromancer, Ice Storms and some sort of magical lightning attack, they are indeed powerful.  The Necromancer is hacking at one of the Zakarumites with his scythe, and they are also wielding scythes it seems.  The Necromancer has a Fire Golem aiding him as well, but he still looks ill-matched.The Necromancer casts Fire Golem...

A transition brings up back to Act II, with the Necromancer casting a Bone Wall to block a Sand Leaper´s approach.  The Leaper attacks the wall once, then decides to circumvent it by leaping over it.  The Bone Wall isn´t a completely unassailable defense after all. 

In the next scene the we actually see the summoning of the Fire Golem as it appears in a burst of flames.  The Golem isn´t spectacular looking, but it backs a powerful attack as it levels some attacking skeletons.  As a Clvl 26 spell it is unlikely you will be using it in Act II regardless.  We would guess it´s attack is fire-based, meaning the appropriate defenses could lessen the damage.  The Necromancer also makes a Bone Wall shield for himself while his summoned help does the dirty work.

The Necromancer makes use of Bone Spear...Next the Necromancers runs afoul of several Burning Dead warriors and archers, an overwhelming army it seems at first glance.  Readying his spell of Bone Spear the Necromancer tears into them, dropping them like flies before his magic.  When the Necromancer finally stops firing the Bone Spears only a few of the Burning Dead remain, most of them situated far from the castings of the Bone Spear.

Our next scene brings us to the Necromancer facing a creature known as a Hollow One, one of the subspecies of the Guardian, a tall, Egyptian-looking mummy wearing a ceremonial headdress and possessing several forms of powerful attack.  This particular Hollow One The Necromancer has been poisoned...makes a show of poisoning the Necromancer with a projectile attack.  The video shows us that when a character is poisoned the screen gains a greenish tinge and the character´s health sphere becomes green in color.  It is unknown if this coloration of the screen is a 3dfx effect or not, but we would say it´s likely.  The Necromancer uses Bone Spears to get rid of the Hollow One, but it takes five of them to down the creature.  Another Hollow One moves to threaten him and he takes it out too, but this one takes seven or so of the Spears before it folds.  In the time it takes to kill the Hollow Ones the poisoning has worn off, the screen and life sphere returning their normal coloration.

A risen Skeletal Mage...Now the Necromancer faces several skeletons, with only his Clay Golem to help him.  The Necromancer slays one of the skeletons and then pulls a good trick, he uses the corpse of the fallen skeleton to Summon a Skeletal Mage to his defense.  The Skeletal Mage immediately turns against his former allies with his poison-based magic.  One of the Necromancer´s key strengths is the ability to use the dead of his enemy´s ranks to his advantage, raising them from the dead to fight for his cause.  Also notice that when the Necromancer summons the Mage he gains another portrait in the upper-left corner of the screen, meaning that like the Golem this creature is friendly to him.

Now we return to Act III and the battle with the Zakarumites, which sad to say isn´t going any better.  The enemies are still using their powerful magic to make things difficult, and this time the Necromancer has put some distance between them to try and select a spell to deal with them better.  After this we return to the previous scene, with the Necromancer´s summoned Skeletal Mage and Clay Golem dealing the monsters of Act II´s underground crypts.  We get to see the Mage use his magic to kill a Dried Corpse and watch it explode into chunks of blue ice. 

The Necromancer views his treasure...The next shot shows us a shield in the Necromancer´s inventory, we believe it is a Gemmed Large Shield.  You can see more details about this shield by paying a quick visit to our Dueling Grounds area.  A Fire Golem is also wandering around.

The next transition brings us to the Necromancer with his Fire Golem fighting several Dried Corpses.  He is also using his Bone Spear to take them out at an accelerated pace.  The next scene brings us to the Necromancer battling an unknown NPC creature with his Bone Spirit spell.  The Necromancer has various kinds of summoned help at his side, including a Fire Golem, a Skeletal Mage, and some type of creature brought back with the Revive spell.  The Bone Spirit dispatches the NPC creature with a graphically beautiful effect.

In this next scene we come back to the Necromancer facing down Hollow Ones, and he has used his Bone Spear to kill yet another.  He is also poisoned by the greenish coloration of the screen, something we believe will happen a lot when you go up against Hollow Ones and other creatures like them.  He uses his scythe to dispatch the other creatures, Dried Corpses, and then we have our transtition.

The Necromancer uses Poison Nova...Now we are treated to the effect of the Poison Nova as it spreads out poisoning and causing death.  The graphic is wonderful, green trails of poison-based magic stabbing its targets and turning them green as poison overwhelms them.  In this sequence the Necromancer casts four Poison Novas but doesn´t kill anything, meaning that he either has a low level in the skill or the Nova isn´t designed to deal massive damage.  Still, being able to poison everything on the screen will serve to help anyone´s battle. 

We venture to Act II again to see the Necromancer use the Iron Maiden curse against several lizard-like creatures.  The magic of the curse causes the monsters to glow a baleful red, marking them as cursed.  In the next scene we return to Act III where we get to see a wonderful example of Perspective Scrolling and Parallax as a large building goes past the Necromancer in perfect perspective.  Even though the engine is 2D-based it still gives the effect of being a 3D game, sculpted by Blizzard´s gifted graphic-designers. 

Now we go to the jungle wilderness of Act III where the Necromancer faces several creatures called Jungle Hunters and a subspecies of the Fetish called the Rat Men.  He takes these out with his Bone Spear, it is proving to be a very useful skill by now.  A Fire Golem lumbers around, looking confused as its opponents have already been laid to waste.

The Necromancer Revives the fallen...The next transtition and we are still in the Act III wilderness, this time with the Necromancer attacking a Thorned Hulk with Bone Spears and accompanied by several revived creatures escorting him.  When the Thorned Hulk is finally felled the Necromancer uses his Revive spell to bring the beast under his control.  Creatures revived in this manner gain a grayish tint to their colors, making them as dead no doubt.  They appear in the Necromancer´s list of friendly creatures lumped together with an ominous marker.  After their dark ressurection they serve the Necromancer unerringly with their borrowed "life."  It is unknown but highly doubtful if the Necromancer can continually revive even those creatures he has already done this to. 

The next scene is a massive combat scene between the Necromancer, a few Dung Soldiers (one of which is casting a strange magic), and a Clay Golem.  The Necromancer and his compatriots seem to be winning the day, though.

A few elements we saw in this movie surprised us.  One of which is that each enemy has a life guage displayed when you place the cursor over it.  This guage will probably only appear when you are familiar with the creature after having killed a dozen or so of them.  Placing the cursor over an item or skill displays a copious amount of information too, more than enough for any hearty adventurer.  Despite its size the video was excellent, and it was good to see more of the reclusive Necromancer.

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Skill of the Week

Iron Maiden
Harkening back to an inquisitional torture, the Iron Maiden curse causes all damage an enemy does to you to be returned to that enemy as well.  Part of the Necromancer´s
Curses, it is a powerful addition to his arsenal.

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