Blizzard Entertainment deployed today a new Necromancer Beta patch. The past week, the Necromancer was disabled, and this new patch reincorporated it with new changes, and new items for testing.

The Necromancer Sets have been given a proper name: Bones of Rathma (Bone set), Trag’Oul’s Avatar (Blood Set), Grace of Inarius (Saint Set), and Pestilence Master’s Shroud (Plague Set). The Set Bonuses were changed slightly.

The items tab shows 32 new Legendary Items exclusive for the Necromancer. These have some insane stats. Check them out:

Necromancer Beta 2.6.0 (45499) Patch Notes

New Feature: Challenge Rifts

  • Explore new builds created by fellow players in a weekly static dungeon. You can access these through the main screen, similar to Adventure Mode and Campaign Mode.

Note: New Challenge Rifts may be available more frequently during the beta.

As a master of the dark arts, you wield the powers of life and death necessary to restore the balance! Necromancers are powerful spell casters who lay waste to their enemies using curses and reanimation - along with an obedient cadre of pets. This new class employes a controlled gameplay style using the raw materials of life: blood and bone.

 

Necromancer Skills

ARMY OF THE DEAD

  • Base Rune: Raise a massive skeletal army to pummel the targeted location dealing 12,000% weapon damage in a 15 yard radius (before: 3000%)

  • Frozen Army: 12,000% and they attack all enemies in a line. (before: 3600%)

  • Dead Storm: Raise a storm of the dead that surround you, damaging enemies for 15,500% weapon damage over 5 sec. (Before: 3600%)

  • Unconventional Warfare: Damage increased to 50,000% total weapon damage.

  • Catatonic Grasp: Has been renamed to Blighted Grasp, and has been redesigned. Skeletal hands raise from the ground damaging enemies within 15 yards for 14,000% total weapon damage as Poison over 5 sec.

 

BONE ARMOR

  • Reap of Anguish: It is now named Harvest of Anguish. Now deals Cold damage instead of Physical.

  • Disclocation: Now deals Poison damage instead of Physical.

  • Limited Immunity: Now begins its cooldown once the immunity effect ends.

 

COMMAND SKELETONS

  • The active ability for this skill now lasts until the target dies or you change the target of your command.

  • Skeletons summoned after issuing the command will also attack the target.

 

CORPSE EXPLOSION

  • Base Rune: Target an area exploding all corpses within 11 yards dealing 250% weapon damage to enemies within 20 yards. (Before: 150%)

  • Close Quarters: Explodes corpses close to you, dealing 325% weapon damage to enemies within 20 yards. (Before: 150%)

 

CORPSE LANCE

  • Base Rune: Target an enemy to summon projectiles from nearby corpses that cause 900% weapon damage to the target. (Before: 750%)

 

LAND OF THE DEAD

  • Base Rune: All corpse skills can be used at will for 10 sec. (Before: 5 sec)

 

PASSIVE SKILLS

  • Blood is Power: It has been redesigned. After cumulatively losing 100% of your max Life, all ability cooldowns are reduced by 20%. This effect cannot reduce an ability's cooldown more than once for each time that ability is used.

  • Final Service: When this passive successfully prevents death, the Necromancer is immune to incoming damage for 4 sec. This passive doesn't require active pets to prevent death and grant immunity. Instead of immediately consuming all pets, this passive will grant 10% health per pet until the Necromancer is at 100% Health.

Mirror Image: The Simulacrum rune has been renamed to "Hard Light."

Editor's Note: One of the Necromancer's Skills is named Simulacrum. I assume the Mirror Image's rune name was changed to avoid confusing both.

DECAY GOLEM

  • Fixed an issue where Decay Golem was not benefiting from the unlimited corpses granted by Land of the Dead.

  • Fixed a bug where the visuals for Army of the Dead: Unconventional Warfare were not being played.

 

Fixed an issue causing phylacteries to roll only the lowest possible damage value.

GENERAL

  • Scythes and Phylacteries are now sold by some of the vendors throughout the world.

 

LEGENDARY ITEMS

  • Funeral Pick: Siphon Blood drains blood from 2 additional targets.

  • Trag'oul's Corroded Fang: The Cursed Scythe rune for Grim Scythe now has a 100% chance to apply a curse.

  • Scythe of the Cycle: Your secondary skills deal 250-300% additional damage while Bone Armor is active but reduce the remaining duration of Bone Armor by 3 sec.

  • Dreadgolem Spike: Bone Spear now costs 40 Essence and deals 125-150% additional damage.

  • Bloodtide Blade: Death Nova deals 125-150% increased damage for every enemy within 10 yards.

  • Reilena's Shadowhook: Bone Spikes generates an additional 2-4 Essence for each enemy hit.

  • Death's Scythe: Each different Poison skill you use increases the damage of your Poison skills by 75-100% for 15 sec.

  • Spear of Jesseth: Your Thorns is increased by 10-15% for every enemy afflicted by one of your curses.

  • Lost Time: Your Cold skills reduce the movement speed of enemies by 30%. In addition, your movement speed is increased by 4-5% for 5 sec. Max 5 stacks.

  • Bone Ringer: The damage bonus of Command Skeletons is increased by 25-30% each second while active.

  • Leger's Disdain: Grim Scythe deals an additional 7-10% damage for each point of essence it restores.

  • Iron Rose: Attacking with Siphon Blood while at full life has a 15-25% chance to cast a free Blood Nova.

  • The Johnstone: Each corpse consumed in Land of the Dead increases your damage by 10% for 8-10 sec after it ends.

  • Haunted Visions: Simulacrum now drains 10-15% of your max life every sec and lasts twice as long.

  • Wisdom of Kalan: Increases the max number of Bone Armor stacks by 5.

  • Bloodsong Mail: While in Land of the Dead, Command Skeletons gains the effect of all runes and deals 100-125% increased damage.

  • Requiem Cereplate: When Devour restores Essence or Life above your max, the excess is granted over 3 sec.

  • Mask of Scarlet Death: Revive consumes all corpses to raise a single minion that does an additional 125-150% damage per corpse.

  • Fate's Vow: After consuming 15-20 corpses you unleash a free Death Nova.

  • Moribund Gauntlets: Your Golem has a 10-15% chance to shed a corpse when it is hit by an enemy.

  • Grasps of Essence: When an exploded corpse damages at least one enemy, your Corpse Explosion deals 75-100% increased damage for 6 sec, stacking up to 5 times.

  • Golemskin Breaches: Your Golem's damage is increased by 100-125% and you take 25% less damage while you are within 18 yards of it.

  • Defiler Cuisses: Your Bone Spirit's damage is increased by 75-100% for every second it is active.

  • Steuart's Greaves: You gain 40-50% increased movement speed for 2 sec after using Blood Rush.

  • Bryner's Journey: Bone Spikes has a 10-15% chance to cast a Bone Nova at the target location.

  • Dayntee's Binding: Decrepify gains an additional 20-30% damage reduction for attacks against you.

  • Razeth's Volition: Skeletal Mage gains the effect of the Gift of Death rune.

  • Circle of Nailuj: You now raise an additional Skeletal Mage with each cast and they last an additional 2-4 sec.

  • Prayer of Briggs: Uncursed enemies are pulled to the target location when a curse is applied to them.

  • Krysbin's Sentence: Bone Spikes, Bone Spear and Bone Spirit deal 125-150% increased damage against enemies that are stunned, frozen, charmed, feared, or blinded.

  • Lornelle's Sunstone: Your damage reduction is increased by 0.75-0.95% for every 1% Life you are missing.

  • Corpsewhisper Pauldrons: Corpse Lance damage is increased by 15-20% for 3 sec each time you consume a corpse. Max 15 stacks.

  • Hellfire Amulet: Necromancer passives have been added for this item.

  • Halcyon's Ascent: Added skills to this item for the Necromancer.

BONES OF RATHMA (Bone)TRAG'OUL'S AVATAR (Blood)GRACE OF INARIUS (Saint)PESTILENCE MASTER'S SHROUD
(2) Set Bonus: Your pets have a chance to reduce the cooldown of Army of the Dead by 1 sec each time they deal damage.(2) Set Bonus: Blood Rush gains the effect of every rune.(2) Set Bonus: Bone Armor's damage is increased by 1000%.(2) Set Bonus: Each corpse you consume fires a corpse fragment at a nearby enemy, dealing 800% weapon damage.
(4) Set Bonus: You gain 1% damage reduction for 5 sec each time your pets deal damage. Max 50 stacks.(4) Set Bonus: While at full life, your healing from skills is added to your max life for 45 sec. Up to 100% more.(4) Set Bonus: Bone Armor stacks are now refreshed. In addition, Bone Armor grants an additional 2% damage reduction per enemy hit.(4) Set Bonus: Each enemy hit by Bone Spear reduces your damage taken by 2% up to a max of 50%. Lasts 15 sec.
(6) Set Bonus: Each active Skeleton Mage increases the damage of your minions and Army of the Dead by 200%.(6) Set Bonus: Spending 10% life grants you a stack of Blood Cascade up to 50 times. each stack of Blood Cascade increases the damage of life-spending attacks by 200% and also increases the life you lose by 10%. Using a skill to heal will consume a stack and heal for an additional 300%. Healing from skills consumes one stack regardless of how many targets are hit. Command Skeletons: Dark Mending and Land of the Dead: Land of Plenty no longer consume stacks or receive increased healing.(6) Set Bonus: Bone Armor also activates a Bone Tornado damaging nearby enemies by 375% weapon damage per sec. Enemies hit by the tornado take 850% additional damage from the Necromancer's abilities and minions.(6) Set Bonus: Each corpse you consume grants you an Empowered Bone Spear charge that increases the damage of your next Bone Spear by 1000%.

 

JAIROAN ARMS

(2) Set Bonus: Army of the Dead gains the effect of the Unconventional Warfare rune.

New Zones: The Moors & The Temple of the Firstborn

  • The fog-enshrouded Moors and the darkened Temple of the Firstborn can be explored in Adventure Mode through a new waypoint on the Act 2 map.

 

Set Dungeons

  • The user interface has been updated to better explain tier completion requirements. With this, the basic completion tier must be finished within the given time limit.

  • The time limit to complete a Set Dungeon has been increased to 5 minutes.

  • Necromancer Set Dungeons have been added to Adventure Mode.

  • Set dungeon monsters are now tracked on the mini-map when the dungeon begins.

  • All Basic Tier monster kill requirements have been lowered.

 

BOUNTIES

  • Four new Waypoints have appeared in Act IV. each one has bounties to complete. These Realms of Fate are the unintended consequences of the battle between the nephalem and Diablo in the High Heavens.

 

GREATER RIFTS

  • Players who die in solo Greater Rifts can now choose to immediately resurrect. When choosing this option, the time remaining on your death timer will be removed from the remaining Greater Rift time and your cooldowns will be advanced by the same amount.

 

BUG FIXES

  • Fixed an issue which sometimes prevented players from completing the "Clear the Forgotten Well" bounty.

 

PTR ONLY: D'jank Miem

  • Players can exchange Blood Shards with this vendor for bags containing gear.

  • The cost per bag has been set to 200.

  • Players will now be able to purchase bags containing new Legendary items in addition to the previous bags containing Set items.