File:1999-august11.jpg

Act One, Wilderness. The Necromancer here in Act One, with a lot of new toys. He's got a high level of Bone Armor working, that's the swirling white-ish effect around him. There is a Clay Golem right in front of him, setting off to murder the Fallen. The interesting part are the two skeletons. These are Reanimated skeletons, summoned by the Necromancer to serve him. That icon, reused from Apocalypse in Diablo, is the icon currently used for Reanimation in Diablo II. However, like all of the skill icons, it is subject to change at any time before the final game.

The most interesting thing here is the fact that the Necromancer has the summoned creatures. At E3 the plan was to have only 1 summoned creature possible at a time. I.E. one golem, one skeleton, etc. However this was not real popular, and possibly this shot is evidence that that has changed by now. Possibly the new limit is two skeletons and one golem? Unknown. It might depend on the level of the Necromancer's skills, or his Clvl, or any number of other things. The likely scenario for this shot is that the Golem killed one or both of the dead Fallen on the screen (one to the right, the other at the top) and as they went down the Necromancer used Reanimate to raise up their skeletons. Disappointingly, in Diablo II there is probably only going to be oine graphic for a Reanimated creature. One size skeleton fits all, which is a good trick in this instance, since the skeletons are larger than the Fallen they came from. But disappointing when you get something huge like a Blunderbore, and you want to see a giant skeleton, and you are not going to get it.

There is probably some insight to monster control here. Both of the skeletons are in a direct line with where the Necromancer is facing, while the Golem appears to be walking directly towards the cursor. Following where it was last clicked? Maybe. That was how you could control a hired merc at E3, but such control was not implemented for golems, at that time. -- 3d-enhanced shot, 8/99."