The balance of Sanctuary has been threatened, and the Priests of Rathma have sent an acolyte to help restore it. Wielding the visceral powers of blood and bone (along with a cadre of curses), the Necromancer will soon be joining the battle to protect Sanctuary from the Burning Hells. While we’ve been hard at work putting the various bits and pieces of what makes up a Diablo III class together for the Necromancer, we wanted to pop our heads out of the crypt and share a glimpse of what we’ve been working on.

Skill: Grim Scythe

Grim Scythe summons a huge scythe in a wide arc, dealing damage and restoring Essence. As a generator ability, this will be your bread and butter ability for building up to your more powerful damage dealing spells.

Skill Rune: Death Nova (Blood Nova)

Blood Nova is one of the five skill runes for the base Death Nova skill. Blood Nova does impressive damage, but this comes at a cost—using this rune requires spending both Essence and some of your Health.

Skill Rune: Devour (Cannibalize)

Devour is a resource-regeneration skill, allowing you to regain Essence by consuming the corpses of your slain foes. As one of the runes for Devour, Cannibalize also allows you to regain Health, which is handy for fueling costly spells like Blood Nova!

Skill Rune: Raise Golem (Blood Golem)

We showed a sneak peek of the Blood Golem at BlizzCon, but now he’s outfitted with animations, skills, and clever tricks! The Blood Golem is a burly companion who can sacrifice himself to heal you. Don’t worry—he’ll reconstruct himself right away, and deal sizeable amounts of damage to surrounding foes in the process!

Skill: Leech

Joining Decrepify in the Necromancer’s repertoire of curses, Leech is a dastardly spell that allows you to transfer some of the health of attacked enemies to yourself and your allies. It’s great not only for keeping yourself healthy, but offering support to your party members as well!

Our Party Grows Stronger – Female Necromancer Model

The concept art from BlizzCon comes alive—we’ve completed the female Necromancer model in all her macabre glory.

What’s Next for the Necromancer?

We know you’ve been dying (pun completely intended) to know when you’ll be able to get your hands on the Necromancer. There are a lot of unanswered questions floating around out there, so we’re going to tackle a few of them. If you don’t see your question here, remember we answered quite a few in our original Necromancer overview and more in our Necro Q&A.

Will there be a PTR for the Necromancer?

Yes! The PTR for the Necromancer will be a little different from other PTRs—stay tuned for more information.

Is the Necromancer part of an expansion pack?

No, the Necromancer is part of a content pack which includes the class, an in-game pet, cosmetic wings, two additional character slots, two additional stash tabs (on PC), a portrait frame, pennant, banner, and a banner sigil.

It will, however, launch alongside a free major content patch that includes two new zones, Challenge Rifts, and more. These additional features will be available for all players with Diablo III: Reaper of Souls or the Ultimate Evil Edition.

How much will the pack cost?

We’re not ready to announce a price yet—we know you’re eager to find out, but we have a few more i’s to dot and t’s to cross before we can share.

When is the Necromancer coming to Diablo III?

We are currently aiming for the second half of 2017; when we have an official release date, we’ll certainly share it!