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Diablo 4's Necromancer class fails the only test that must be passed in any game with a Necromancer class – whether or not you can command a deadly army of skeletons. Minions in Diablo 4 are weaker than the free spider pet that everyone gets as part of Season 3. They're so bad that you can pick up every minion based skill and deal more damage by Not even summoning them
That could change Diablo 4 mid-season patch next Tuesday. The damage and health of all Necromancer Skeletons are boosted, and complementary skills, such as Corpse Explosion, are improved as well. Blizzard said via a live stream yesterday that these changes will be the first step toward a bigger rework of the Minions game coming in Season 4.
Season 3 highlighted issues with necromancers compared to the other four classes and the new patch notes seem intended to address them head-on. Aside from the lack of good minions, necromancers had no ways to increase their movement speed – which had become mandatory for clearing dungeons with any kind of efficiency – outside of gear.
That won't be as much of a problem next week when their passive skill, Death's Approach (formerly Death's Reach), is boosted to give you up to 12% extra movement speed before any gear adds more than that.
There are a lot of buffs in the patch notes, and it will likely take a few days for players to discover them. But the highlights for me are:
- Minions will finally deal more damage and survive longer
- The increased damage dealt by Corpse Explosion helps it reach more builds
- The new armor bonus for Spiked Armor allows you to equip more offensive equipment
- Increased survivability makes defensive skills less important
- Blight and Sever buffs loosen Bone Spear's grip on powerful mid- to long-range builds
I haven't done the math – although I'm sure someone will – but many Necromancer builds should have better damage and smoother rotations with a better selection of good skills to choose from. Even if Barbarians and Rogues continue to dominate the game in terms of speed, Necromancers won't be far behind.
The challenge will be the real test. It will be released on the same day as the patch and will give endgame players a fixed weekly dungeon with a scoring system and leaderboards. Blizzard has designed it to be more accessible to casual players, and will reward you with a stash of legendary items for beating their set times each week regardless of your rank. It would be wishful thinking to assume that Necromancers will get the best scores, but the gap between them and other classes may be smaller than you think with the help of patching.
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