Call of the Ancients

Call of the Ancients is a Rage Barbarian skill unlocked at Level 25. The Barbarian summons three ancient protectors to fight for him.

Background

Call of the Ancients in action.

The Barbarian's ancestors aid him by rejoining the battlefield.

Media

SPOILER WARNING

You can see images of all three of the Ancients by clicking the following links. They are not embedded in the page yet since many fans consider higher level skill visuals to be a spoiler. Click at your own risk.

• Talic
• Korlic
• Madawc
• All three.

Skill Rune Effects

The following is a very quick summary. See the Call of the Ancients rune effects page for a more thorough description of rune effects, or any of the individual rune pages for numbers, screenshots, blue quotes, and much more.

Name	Level	Description

<skill subcat="Summon" class="Barbarian">Call of the Ancients</skill> <skill class="Barbarian" rune="The Council Rises">Call of the Ancients</skill> <skill class="Barbarian" rune="Duty to the Clan">Call of the Ancients</skill> <skill class="Barbarian" rune="Korlic's Might">Call of the Ancients</skill> <skill class="Barbarian" rune="Madawc's Madness">Call of the Ancients</skill> <skill class="Barbarian" rune="Talic's Anger">Call of the Ancients</skill>

Skill Design

This skill summons the three ancestors that the player was charged with fighting in act five of Lord of Destruction: Talic, Korlic and Madawc. They deal a percentage of the weapon damage that the Barbarian is capable of inflicting, presumably increasing with level.

Synergies

The following Barbarian passive provides a benefit to Call of the Ancients, runed or not:

• Boon of Bul-Kathos - Reduces the skill's cooldown always.

Development

Call of the Ancients debuted at BlizzCon 2010, although it wasn't seen in anything other than the skill pool. Bashiok made a quick comment on the skill:

It's a top tier skill, so you can't buy it until somewhere around the end of Normal or maybe beginning of Nightmare. They're fairly short lived, at least at their base skill. I will admit it's pretty nutty, especially when it's planned that each of them (probably through runes) will use various barbarian skills themselves. But, I do think the flavor and vibe works. The barbarian calling upon the spiritual protector's of his homeland and people which now lay, along with the majority of barbarian society, in the afterlife, if not simply ash at the bottom of a fiery chasm. It makes good sense that they would be easily summoned to assist in redemption, honor, what have you, of the barbarian people.

Skill tiers were removed for the July 2011 Press Event, allowing skills to unlock steadily from levels 1 to 30. Consequently, all skill levels were adjusted and Call of the Ancients became a level 27 skill.

Beta

The Diablo III Beta started in September 2011, and while it ran, all of the skills continued to undergo extensive iteration. Skill changes varied from changing the levels the skills are unlocked, to changes in resource cost, damage, and even function. A few skills were removed altogether, and a few new ones were added. Also, the entire skill system received an overhaul with the Beta Patch 13 update in February 2012, with physical runes replaced by rune effects that automatically unlock at various levels for the different skills.

Call of the Ancients was moved to level 25 for the beta. With the Patch 13 changes, it was classified as a Rage skill (but stayed at level 25).

In Other Games

Talic, Korlic and Madawc were previously seen in Diablo II: Lord of Destruction. They weren't allies, however; the player had to fight them to gain access to the Ancient's Way.

Media

Call of the Ancients can be seen in action on video here:

• No videos yet.

You can find pictures in the Diablo III screenshot and picture gallery:

• Diablo III screenshots and pictures
• Call of the Ancients specific gallery contents

References

• BlizzCon 2009 Full Barbarian Skill Trees and Stats
• Zediono's translation of JudgeHype's pre-beta report — IncGamers 1st Aug 2011
• Barbarian Active Skills — Blizzard's Official Diablo III Site

Template:Skill navbox Necromancer primary

Template:Skill navbox Necromancer secondary

Template:Skill navbox Necromancer corpses

Template:Skill navbox Necromancer bloodandbone

Template:Skill navbox Necromancer reanimation

Template:Skill navbox Necromancer curses