The time has come for Magic fans and MMO Action RPG fans alike to become Planeswalkers and save the multiverse from its greatest threat. Players will explore some of the franchise’s most iconic planes, collect mana-based spells and gather the power needed to overtake their enemies during combat.

An ancient force moves in darkness, posing an ever-growing threat to the entire multiverse. Players will experience the power of becoming a Planeswalker as they discover exciting mana-based spells and strategically build out the perfect hand of balanced attacks to control the chaos of the battlefield. While openly exploring the vast planes from Magic: The Gathering, players will fight alongside iconic characters and legendary creatures made popular by the original card game.

Among the longtime fans of Magic: The Gathering is the development team at Cryptic Studios, who have been working on the game behind-the-scenes since 2017. Development of this MMO action RPG is an extension of a licensing partnership between Wizards of the Coast and Cryptic Studios following the success of Neverwinter, the critically acclaimed MMO based on the tabletop adventure, Dungeons & Dragons. The team currently developing Magic: Legends is helmed by executive producer, Stephen Ricossa, former executive producer behind the popular MMORPG, Star Trek Online.

Perfect World Entertainment and Cryptic Studios have officially announced that the Necromancer will be one of the five starting Planeswalker classes available for Magic: Legends players at launch. Themed around the core purpose of black mana from Magic: The Gathering, Necromancers personify power at any cost—even death.

Players who choose the Necromancer class will find themselves in a constant balancing act between life and death. Summoning creatures, sacrificing them for benefits, and whittling down opponents over time will be key to a Necromancer’s success. Key abilities for the Necromancer include Grim Siphon, a mid-range lashing attack that drains life from foes over time; Grave Upheaval, a damage-dealing secondary ability that targets foes and summons two skeletons; and Soul Wither, a utility ability that applies slows and damage over time effects to nearby enemies.

The best Necromancers will walk a razor-fine edge between tremendous gain and devastating loss. Players can spend their own life force to summon powerful creatures, while saving just enough health to siphon life away from foes and friendly units alike as their undead army grows ever stronger.

For more information on the Necromancer and his black mana-themed machinations read on ...

The Necromancer is themed on the core values of black mana from Magic: the Gathering, personifying sheer power and embracing death and decay.

The Necromancer is incredibly resourceful and focused on acquiring might however they can. They use the potency of darkness to raise minions from the dead, manipulate the flow of life energy, and make sacrifices in order to benefit their party during combat encounters. Thematically, Liliana Vess, one of the strongest and most popular Planeswalkers of all time, served as an inspiration for the power design.

Like our other classes, the primary goal of the Necromancer’s design was to make sure it delivered on the black mana Planeswalker fantasy. Therefore, the first step was to understand the traits that define black mana in the card game source material and translate it into a unique set of abilities. Mechanics that speak to the extreme power of black mana include reanimating the dead, debuffing curses, and the sacrifice of allied creatures for various benefits, many of which players can expect to see at play in the Necromancer’s abilities, perks, and starter deck.

The core gameplay of the Necromancer is focused on maintaining a constant balance between life and death, loss and gain. Between summoning creatures and sacrificing them for benefits, they gain massive power that reinforces their individual and team efforts. Necromancers deal damage by gradually siphoning the life of their foes via Damage-over-Time (DoT) effects, and receiving Healing-over-Time (HoT) effects in return.

The Necromancer’s primary ability is Grim Siphon, a mid-range lashing attack that deals damage and applies a DoT effect to the foes it hits while applying a HoT to the player. Grave Upheaval, their secondary ability, deals damage to target foes and summons two skeletons to aid the Necromancer at that location. Soul Wither, their utility ability, rounds out their abilities in a truly spectacular way. Skull-shaped clouds of black mana emanate from the player in a circle, applying a slow effect and a DoT effect to nearby enemies. Players are able to move through the slowed enemies while they are healed for a percentage of the damage dealt by the DoT effect.

Playing the Necromancer gets interesting when the player finds the perfect balance of gain and loss to sustain their pendulous cycle of decay and rebirth. For example, a player can summon several creatures, spend life to draw a spell, and then sacrifice one of their creatures as fodder to simultaneously heal the player and buff another of their summoned creatures. The Necromancer can sacrifice a stronger creature for even greater effect, then expend life to summon something even stronger. They can then siphon health from an enemy to top off their health and start the cycle anew. Maintaining balance is a dangerous game, but it positions the Necromancer to unleash uniquely devastating attacks on their foes.

When we started work on the Necromancer’s visual presentation, we wanted to capture the intensity of black mana. Black mana focuses on the acquisition of strength through the manipulation of life forces, so we wanted to make sure they looked imposing yet refined. We wanted their capacity for power to stand center stage in a fashionable way, so we put them in an expertly tailored outfit made of the finest silks and leathers. The Necromancer wields a censer, a unique weapon which is shaped like a skull and imbued with the power to curse foes or drain the life essence of creatures that threaten their allies. We added pitted black metal adornments to their back to give them an edge, and a gothic, almost crownlike headpiece that speaks their might. These were designed to add a bit of eeriness and a hint back towards death itself. We took cues from old gothic cemetery fences and crypt gates to give them a distinctive vibe.

The VFX and animations for the Necromancer speak to their power source, making it look as though souls are being pulled up from the ground. The censer gets whipped and dragged along the ground dramatically to create vicious strikes as dark purplish fumes billow out from the black mana held within. Thick smokes and ethereal skulls further reinforce a formidable presence while the physicality of zombies and skeletons bursting through the ground plainly displays the Necromancer’s overwhelming power.

The resulting character is a mid-range damage dealer who manipulates the forces of life and death through their summoned creatures and foes to great effect. They masterfully obliterate enemies through strategic power play involving the life forces around them. They are equally capable solo or in a party and can be customized to devastating effect via the Loadout and Deckbuilding features.

Key Features:

• Become a Planeswalker – Players can choose from five diverse classes and switch between different Planeswalkers at any time.
• Walk Your Own Path – Players will need to cross various planes to save the multiverse, but how they weave their path is up to them.
• Control the Chaos – Control the chaos in real-time combat. Choosing what spells go into each hand requires strategy, as they will be drawn at random during attacks.
• Collect and Upgrade – Players will discover a myriad of spells and collect spell fragments to make them more powerful.
• Fight Together –The planes in Magic: Legends can be traversed alone or with up to two other Planeswalkers.

Magic: Legends will make its worldwide debut on PC in 2020, Xbox One and PS4 in 2021.