After rumours galore, including a recent report from Forbes, Blizzard Entertainment has finally confirmed that Diablo 3: Eternal Collection is heading to the Nintendo Switch. This includes the base game, the Reaper of Souls expansion, and the Rise of the Necromancer pack.

Mike Morhaime, CEO and co-founder of Blizzard Entertainment, said, “The Eternal Collection is the definitive version of Diablo 3, and we’re thrilled to team up with Nintendo to unleash it for Nintendo Switch gamers around the world later this year. Bringing the world together through epic entertainment is core to our mission at Blizzard—we can’t wait to welcome a new generation of demon-slayers to Sanctuary.”

Both the Pro Controller and Joy-Cons are supported, and it’s possible for up to four players to share a single screen to fight together. Alternatively, it’s possible to connect four Switch units together wirelessly, or find players through the Nintendo Switch Online service for co-op.

If that weren’t enough, Blizzard confirmed that exclusive cosmetic armour The Legend of Ganondorf, which takes cues from The Legend of Zelda’s famous villain, will be exclusive to the platform. There’s no release date aside from “later this year”, but Diablo 3: Eternal Collection will be available at retail and through the Nintendo eShop. Those heading to Gamescom 2018, Fan Expo, or PAX West in the near future can get an “early look” at the game as well.

The years come and go but Blizzard Entertainment’s Diablo 3 continues to live on. Season 13 is currently live which means new cosmetics and gear sets for players brave enough to beat the challenges.

The cosmetic rewards this time include new character portraits, the Conqueror Set’s shoulder slot and Blaine’s Bear, a new pet with knives and all manner of blood spatter. Isn’t he cute? Those looking to start their journey through Season 13 will unlock Haedrig’s Gifts for the completion of chapter 2, 3 and 4. These will be enough for one complete set, which are as follows per class:

• Barbarian – Might of the Earth
• Crusader – Thorns of the Invoker
• Demon Hunter – The Shadow’s Mantle
• Monk – Monkey King’s Garb
• Necromancer – Grace of Inarius
• Witch Doctor – Raiment of the Jade Harvester
• Wizard – Firebird’s Finery

You can also look forward to Seasonal Conquests like Sprinter, Speed Racer, Lionhearted, Super Human, Masters of the Universe, Masters of Sets, Stars Align and many more making their return. If you didn’t reach Conqueror status in past seasons and have less than four stash tabs, you’ll be able to unlock one additional tab by completing the following at Conqueror tier:

• Complete a Torment 13 Rift in under 5 minutes
• Complete Greater Rift 60 solo
• Kill Greed on Torment 13
• Kill Cydaea on Torment 13in under 15 seconds
• Reforge a Legendary or Set item
• Augment an Ancient item with a Level 50 or greater Legendary Gem
• Level three Legendary Gems to 55
• Complete two Conquests

What are your thoughts on Diablo 3? How much longer do you feel like waiting for Diablo 4? Let us know in the comments below.

It’s crazy to think that Blizzard Entertainment’s Diablo 3 was first released in 2012 with its follow-up expansion Reaper of Souls releasing in 2014. The game has been supported with a number of free updates including new regions, new Legendaries and new enemies since then. It even saw a new paid class with the Necromancer releasing earlier this year.

However, everyone is waiting for that next big Diablo announcement, whether it’s news on a brand new expansion or a sequel. Unfortunately, if you’ve been holding out for BlizzCon to see any news, you’ll need to wait longer. Blizzard community manager Brandy Camel noted in the official forums that while the developer was “hard at work on the future of Diablo and exploring what’s next for the franchise”, there won’t be any announcements at BlizzCon.

“This year, we want to give you a heads-up that while Diablo will be on the show floor, we won’t be making any new Diablo announcements. There will be a time for that at some point in the future, but that time is not now,” Camel said.

Diablo 3 does currently have a major balance patch on the Public Test Realm which buffs a number of sets, items and classes, thus increasing build diversity for the better. That doesn’t currently have a release date but it’s expected to coincide with the next Season.

Blizzard Entertainment has deployed patch 2.6.1 for Diablo 3 on the Public Test Realm for PC and it brings a number of changes. There are numerous buffs and changes to classes like the Necromancer.

Though this isn’t the final patch, it still shows the direction that Blizzard is aiming for. Those who want to try out the Necromancer changes have to buy the Rise of the Necromancer pack in the base game instead of the PTR.

Among the buffs included are the Barbarian’s Bloodshed now dealing damage that’s equal to 20 percent of recent Critical Hits on enemies within 20 yards in every second; the Crusader’s Limitless effect now increasing Blessed Hammer’s damage to 640 percent and dealing damage within 20 yards; the Necromancer now being able to cast Bone Armour while moving and without consuming Essence; and several changes to class-specific Legendary items and Gear Sets.

You can check out part of the patch notes below or view the full list here for more information.

Diablo III Update 2.6.1 PTR Patch Notes

Classes

• Barbarian Skills
  • Battle Rage
    • Bloodshed
      • Has been redesigned:
      • Deal damage equal to 20% of your recent Critical Hits to enemies within 20 yards every 1 second.
      • Note: Bloodshed caused performance issues when encountering high enemy density, particularly when combined with Whirlwind, Pain Enhancer, and Gem of Efficacious Toxin.
• Crusader Skills
  • Blessed Hammer
    • Limitless
      • Has been redesigned:
      • Increase the damage of Blessed Hammer to 640% weapon damage as Holy and increase its area of effect by 20 yards.
      • Note: The extra projectiles created by this rune were causing performance issues in cases with high enemy density.
• Necromancer Skills
  • Command Skeletons
    • Commanding your Skeletal Warriors will break crowd control effects on them
    • Skeletal Warriors will no longer die after taking too many hits
    • Design Philosophy: When we were first designing Command Skeletons, we wanted to capture the feeling of being an undead commander by having skeletons regularly spawn around the Necromancer and charge into battle during combat. It created a cool visual, but as the class evolved through Set bonuses and Legendary powers, it became clear that this visual began to hinder gameplay for some builds. Skeletal Warriors now have the same defenses as all other pets in the game.
  • Devour
    • Voracious
      • Resource cost reduction stacks granted from this rune will now stack and are no longer overridden from multiple casts.
  • Simulacrum
    • Added a glow to the skill icon to indicate when Simulacrum is active.
  • Skeletal Mage
    • This skill will now display the duration of the oldest mage raised as a buff in addition to the total number of mages active
    • Design Philosophy: This change is largely to provide transparency to players on the duration of their mage armor. This will be especially useful to players using the Bones of Rathma set. It’s our goal that players will no longer feel compelled to refresh their Skeletal Mage counter when they’re already at max.
  • Bone Armor
    • Essence cost removed.
    • Can now be cast while moving.
  • Army of the Dead
    • Frozen Army
      • The pulsing damage from this rune has been spread out
      • Design Philosophy: This was done to ensure enemies within range are evenly hit and to better align with the visual. This will result in more targets being hit more consistently for the stated weapon damage amount.
• Necromancer Passives
  • Fueled By Death
    • The movement speed bonus from this passive can now exceed the 25% cap
• Witch Doctor Skills
  • Soul Harvest
    • Adding a stack or refreshing Soul Harvest now refreshes all stacks of Soul Harvest.
• Bug Fixes
  • Fixed an issue which prevented Army of the Dead from sometimes triggering when the player is immediately afflicted by a monster’s crowd control after casting it
  • Fixed an issue where enemy monsters could heal themselves when striking another monster afflicted by Leech
  • Fixed a bug which caused Skeletal Mages to sometimes spawn up in the air
  • Fixed an issue where the firewall left behind by Arcane Orb – Scorch was not dealing damage
  • Fixed an issue which caused Skeletal Mages to lose their target when players used Command Skeletons to attack the same target
  • Fixed an issue which caused connection issues when players used a channeling skill while attempting to force move at the same time

"In terms of variety, the Necromancer is definitely full of different ways to succeed."

However, while everyone has been comparing the next big looter to Diablo, what’s Diablo 3 been up to? We’ve had a few major updates, buffs to gear sets, new items, Kanai’s Cube, augmenting gems, Empowered Rifts, revamps to Horadric Caches, new areas and so on. There hasn’t really been any major paid DLC, until now with Rise of the Necromancer. Patch 2.6 was also launched and added Challenge Rifts, two new areas and new bounties to complete. That’s free for everyone though so we’re going to focus on the Necromancer DLC for now.

After the trademark cinematic setting up your grim guy (or gal), the Necromancer is yours to control. The Necromancer’s main resource is Essence and you can use causes bone spikes to sprout out of the ground, siphon blood from your enemies or swing a large scythe to generate it. Each of these generators has runes which act as mods. Want your bone spikes to return health or split your giant scythe into two small scythes that gather enemies together? It’s yours. Of course, things are properly mixed up when you’re able to detonate corpses, command a small group of skeletons, summon a half-formed Golem (or Skull Mage) and so on. The Necromancer is also capable of casting curses, like Frailty which can be used to finish off weak enemies or even act as an aura to debuff them.

In terms of variety, the Necromancer is definitely full of different ways to succeed. You could command your skeletons and launch Bone Spears at enemies to create corpses before using corpse lances to attack your foes. You can throw your half-formed Golem into a group of enemies to make some more corpses, detonate them or even consume them to regain health and essence. How about pummeling your enemies with corpse lances with Land of the Dead active while self-healing with each kill? Or bringing an entire swarm of skeletons with Army of the Dead to decimate a group of foes.

"When you combine the many different ways to attack enemies with what’s currently in Diablo 3, the Necromancer becomes yet another class that’s full of opportunities."

Throw in Focus and Restraint which grant 50 percent increased damage each for five seconds when using resource-generating and resource-spending abilities, thus leading to even more carnage in the early going. If there’s one criticism I could have with the Necromancer class, it’s that the passive skills don’t come off as incredibly over-powered at first like, say, the Demon Hunter’s would. Then again, when you min-max your build properly and have the right gear, you’ll quickly find the Necromancer to be a health-sacrificing, self-healing, corpse-detonating machine.

When you combine the many different ways to attack enemies with what’s currently in Diablo 3, the Necromancer becomes yet another class that’s full of opportunities. It’s kind of the essence of what Josh Mosquiera, former game director for Diablo 3, had in mind when revamping everything – making you feel like a bad-ass with awesome action.

Though I haven’t had a chance to spend much time with the new gear sets and Legendary items that come with the Necromancer (since it’s up to RNG at the end of the day), their potency is hard to deny. The Pestilence Master’s Shroud seemed particularly fun with each corpse consumed launching a corpse lance at any enemy. Combine this with Land of the Dead and the Consume rune that heals you and dying seems pretty much out of the question. The Jesseth Arms were useful for increasing the damage done by minions like Skeleton soldiers. There’s five sets in total which includes one weapon set and again, we’ll only know which is the best when more time is spent in the game.

"The problem is that at $15, the only real new addition to the game is the Necromancer along with its associated sets and items"

Here’s the main issue though: The price. At $15, you get the Necromancer, a half-formed Golem as a pet, Wings of the Crypt Guardian as a new pair of cosmetic wings, the Blood Master pennant, a new portrait frame, the Necromancer banner, two stash tabs and two more character slots. The new areas and bounties along with Challenge Rifts are part of patch 2.6. As a side-note, the Moors and Temple of the Firstborn offer some fun adventuring with cool new enemies and it’s always great to have more levels to explore in the Greater Rifts. However, it takes roughly an hour to get through both of them. I can also see the Challenge Rifts as being nothing more than a distraction to attempt when you’re bored even if they offer a neat alternative to collecting crafting materials.

The problem is that at $15, the only real new addition to the game is the Necromancer along with its associated sets and items. It’s a ton of fun to play, don’t get me wrong. But it may be a hard sell for all but fans of the game (and they’re a bit skeptical as to whether the price is worth it). I can applaud Blizzard for keeping the new areas and such free but there could’ve been more paid content. Though I bagged on The Division’s Underground DLC, it did include an entire new area of random dungeons with modifiers, some new story missions, a new Incursion, four new gear sets and new weapons. On the other hand, I had a lot more fun with Rise of the Necromancer than with the Underground DLC.

Honestly, if you’re getting into Diablo 3 for the first time or love the gameplay and wonder if the Necromancer will be a good investment, then by all means pick up Rise of the Necromancer. Though I feel some more value could have been added to the package, the fact that the class offers so much to do, working alongside so many established systems in new and exciting ways, is simply too good to pass up. If you’re trying to get back to the game after a long time, just be aware of what you’re getting beforehand.

This game was reviewed on PC.

It’s time to rise up and get down with the undead. Diablo 3’s Rise of the Necromancer pack is now available digitally at $14.99 for PS4, Xbox One and PC.

Diablo 3 players will have access to a new class, the Necromancer, which can raise skeletons and a Golem to do his/her bidding. The Necromancer can also drain life from enemies, detonate corpses or consume them for health and even sacrifice health for attacks.

Blizzard co-founder and CEO Mike Morhaime said, “We’re excited to continue our celebration of the 20th anniversary of Diablo by reimagining one of the community’s all-time favourite classes in the Rise of the Necromancer pack.

“We look forward to seeing a new generation of necromancers exploring Adventure Mode, discovering new character builds, and exploding corpses in Greater Rifts throughout Sanctuary.”

Along with the new class, players will receive a half-formed Golem as a pet, new wings that can be used for all classes, two more character slots, two more stash tabs (for PC only) and lots of Necromancer cosmetics.

What are your thoughts on the Rise of the Necromancer? Let us know in the comments below.

Though Blizzard is readying some new paid content for Diablo 3: Reaper of Souls with the Rise of the Necromancer pack, it will add a number of new features with patch 2.6.0. This includes new zones to explore, some new items and perhaps one of the cooler new additions to the game: Challenge Rifts.

The video explains what Challenge Rifts are but Blizzard has a more in-depth post here. Basically, Challenge Rifts are a snapshot of a live player’s Rift run with a certain make-up of gear, abilities and so on. The Rift itself is also exactly the same as that cleared by the live player.

This snapshot is then offered to other players to try with the exact same loadout. Completing a Challenge Rift will offer a weekly reward of materials and Blood Shards but you can still play to compete again friends.

Diablo 3’s patch 2.6.0 doesn’t have a release date yet but more information is promised in the coming days. What are your thoughts on Challenge Rifts? Let us know in the comments.

Blizzard Entertainment’s Overwatch isn’t the only game receiving a significant update. For those who have been selected, Diablo 3’s Necromancer has gone live with its closed beta.

The Necromancer Best Test will be available in the launcher from the drop-down menu – if you’ve been selected for the closed beta after opting in that is. It should be noted that if you want to bring your normal Diablo 3 characters into the closed beta, then it’s very much possible. Head here for more information on the same.

The Necromancer was announced at BlizzCon 2016 and is essentially a spell caster that makes use of summons, curses and his or her own health pool to hurt enemies. It’s an interesting play-style and we can’t wait to see how it meshes with the other classes in Diablo 3.

If you’ve already gotten into the closed beta test, then what are your thoughts on the Necromancer? Let us know in the comments below and stay tuned for more information in the coming weeks.

Diablo 3’s upcoming patch 2.5.0 will bring some pretty cool features to the game including the much-awaited Armory. Patch notes are already available via the PTR and they can be viewed here.

The Armory will allow people to store five different builds per characters and this will include their gems, gear, skills and Kanai’s Cube powers. Each time you equip an Armory build it will automatically change items between your character and stash.

Those annoyed about stash space need not worry – crafting materials will now be in a separate tab, thus providing more space for your shared stash. This applies to both materials picked up and those salvaged from junk.

If that’s not enough, Legendary and Set items can now be rolled as Primal Ancients. These are touted as being more rare than Ancients and feature higher stat ranges. Bonus acts in Bounties will no longer be a thing. Instead of Bonus Caches and Horadric Caches, you’ll now earn a Large Horadric Chest with the same loot.

Expect the patch go live soon and let us know what you think of its features.

Following the revelation that Blizzard Entertainment was hiring for a new Diablo-related project, which many posited to be an expansion to Diablo 3, there were some who wondered about the status of Josh Mosqueira. Mosqueira was brought as director for Diablo 3 in 2013 and is often credited for helping turn the game’s fate around with the Reaper of Souls expansion.

As it turns out, Mosqueira is no longer at Blizzard. The developer confirmed the same to Polygon via email.

“With Diablo III in a good place at this point, Josh felt that now was a good time to pursue other opportunities with minimal impact to the team. We’ll be filling the director role either from within Blizzard or externally.”

Mosqueira confirmed his leaving on Twitter when he thanked fans and the development team. Diablo 3 isn’t going anywhere anytime soon with new Torment levels currently in PTR testing. What will the series’ future be like without Mosqueira? Only time will tell so stay tuned.