I always see these threads crop up (Ironic i’m doing it i know) And the first argument against it i always see is “We have death knights.” which while valid we have another example that could be give if this was an alternate things.
Why have priests when we have paladins?"
Now i know we have Spriests and all but what if this was before they where even added? People wouldn’t think about shadow priests at the time and would just expect holy only and ask what is the point if the paladin has a holy spec. (Mirror DK Unholy spec)
Now the issue is when it comes to necromancy they only think “raise dead.” You do know there are other disciplines of necromancy right? You’ve seen it in diablo and such.
Ossomancy, Sanguimancy are the best two examples
One of these can even be a support specs can be support like. Sanguimancy can do blood infusions/transfusions. Ossomancy can form bone walls enemies and players can walk through but enemy projectiles impact (avoids trolls blocking things)
Sorry for the mess i needed to get this out of my head so I can focus on other things. Sorry for adding to the pile. I’m tired i’m gonna go put my head down.
EDIT: No one seems to have read my thread. You’re all focused on the raising dead part far to much.
Warlocks are already on some pretty Shakey ethical grounds with using the fel and binding demons.
But raising the dead and binding them to your will is pretty clearly an evil thing to do. Why would the alliance and horde tolerate such practices within their ranks?
It’s one of those classes that’s too similar to others we have (DK and Warlock for the summoning parts, and a bit of Frost Mage) and also there isn’t much story justification right now to add them.
There’s also a lack of teachers, but that could easily be fixed/retconned.
The best opportunity would’ve been Shadowlands.
There’s many player-desired classes that we’ll likely never see, like Orc Blademasters, Necromancers like Kel’Thuzad, Kul’Tiran Tidesages, another big one is Elven Spellbreakers like in the RTS games, Night Elven Wardens like Maiev, Tinkers, and so on.
They share “faith” and heals, and that’s about it. That’s about the same as saying “Why have Shaman when we have Mages”.
In the case of Death Knights, however…
Necromancers were used to “create” Death Knights, along with some other class concepts. Death Knights were (mostly) inspired by Necromancers and a lot of what they are came from the concept of a Necromancer. Blizzard wanted create a mythos where they could include Arthas and Death Knight was a better “fit” for what he was and what he would become.
This is really just “reading the bones” for divining the future. Not really useful as a set of abilities in WoW. Besides that, Death Knights do have a few “bone” spells already, most notably, their bone shields.
Blood Death Knights encompass this nicely I’d think. They use a lot of blood magic spells to attack and keep themselves alive.
Never said no to necromancers, but I do say either give demo a cosmetic glyph or give dk a heavy minion centric spec (unholy is for diseases. Pestilence upon your house.)
It does not need it’s own class when DK is right there. People just want a classical caster Necro fantasy that Unholy is so close to, but not quite there.
Not against the idea of necromancers. I just dont know how to have them play differently than what we have available atm. Just feels like someone would have to get cannibalized to make it work.
The problem with necromancers is more structural than anything else. You’d be yoinking bits of DK and Warlock kit to load them up. Unless they can think of novel ways for necros to do their thing … but I have a hard time making myself believe that.
Have their abilities command their minions to do stuff. AFAIK, there’s only one ability like that in the game exclusive to Hunters. Imagine an entire rotation based around commanding your minions.
Every single game that has necromancer in it that I have played a necromancer controls undead and and usually uses rot or disease spells to kill people.
Blizzard’s team has a weird approach thinking only one spec, class etc can have something that summons the dead and so on and so forth. So I think it’s just not happening 'cause they’ll remove stuff from DK and potentially other classes. It’s weird, I know.
I’d love to see a WoW version of necromancer. I was a die hard diablo fan back in the day and loved the necromancer. I think WoW could do it up nicely. Imagine revendreth etc… shudders when thinking about SL
It is possible to make some cool, skeleton raising, bone shield wielding necromancer.
frost mage is basically a bone mage, just with more blue. If anything mages could fit a iconic necromancy 4th spec. Warlocks could probably dabble into blood magic but just the same they could probably work around dark shamanism and earth magic as well. Death knights already have as much necromancy as they deserve, blood and unholy fit the themes and even an argument can be made for frost mechanics and bone magic skins.
