Let's guess D3 classes!

Meee.

You're my hero for quoting that.

 

We need a Boner Necro on steroids.

 

Actually, it's supposed to be the same hero from D2. And I mean the exact same guy, same person, specific individual. That's what the Blizzard guy was saying at the panel. So if you were a Barb player in D2 and picks one up in D3, lore wise, you're supposed to believe that it's the exact same character that you played as back in D2, who killed Meph, D, Baal, and all the rest. They are definitely pushing for a continuation on D2 lore, at least very strongly with the Barb.

Considering that fact, wouldn't that then mean that the Amazon must make a return? If you look at the seven D2 classes, unlike the other 5 that were like "job types," Barbarians and Amazons are tribes of people with their own lineage, culture, etc. It is hard to believe that while Blizzard want to you wield the same Barb you did back in D2, they're gonna just wipe out the Zons in only 20 years. While you can make the argument that they're still there, just not playable, since a ranger class is pretty much guaranteed, Amazon's have a very high likelihood of making a return IMO.

A caster class is also another that is near guaranteed. While the WD's Firebomb may appear similar to D2 Sorc's Fireball, the WD's Firebomb is actually a physical bomb. Lore wise, the WD is not a heavy magic wielder. He uses magic indirectly, and uses a lot of potions, powders, and the like. So I think we can certainly count on a caster class.

For the last spot, my personal guess would be a holy class. Diablo's very theme is conflict between the forces of Heaven and Hell, good vs evil, holy vs dark. I think it is highly likely that a holy-themed classes would get thrown in there somewhere. Besides, the Paladin is by far the most prevalent and prominent class in Diablo 2. Just for that reason alone, the Pally is very likely to make a return in some way, shape, or form.

While those three are my own logical guesses, I don't see why any of them can't be slapped on with some secondary traits. My guess is, they most likely will. For instance, if the Pally absorbed the Assassin's Martial Arts tree and started kicking like a Monk and what not, it doesn't make the Pally any less holy. Or if the Amazon laid traps, it doesn't make the Zon any less of a ranged class, it would actually compliment her ranged skills quite well. Similarly, I think things like stealth, shapeshifting, and summoning will get slapped onto the 5 classes here as secondary traits. Looking back to D2, 4 out of the 7 classes had some kind of summon, and they all had more than a single type. That never made anyone think that D2 had 4 summoner classes, only the Necro was recognized as the summoner. I think it will be the same deal in D3.

SIDE NOTE: Just to clarify, the Fishynecro is one of the most, if not the most, safe and gear-independent classes viable for hell play. Also, someone mentioned the Amazon as a fighter. While that's true lore wise, in practice, she is a ranger and/or caster.

 

Yeah, I read that in one of the other Diablo threads. That really sucks balls. They should just keep all the heroes separate, in my opinion, as everyone chooses different characters and everyone will choose different characters to the ones they played Diablo2. The transition from Diablo1 to Diablo2 was perfect, with the 'hero', an unnamed hero, potentially being any of the three Diablo1 heroes, basically being overwhelmed while trying to control the soulstone, becoming Diablo himself. No evidence of any prior class, so no damage done to the storyline. But now, with introducing the same Barbarian that succeeded in Diablo2, it just disrupts the whole continuation. In my opinion they'd be better to say... 'The old hero(es) became withered with the trauma of their past experiences, those who were able to keep their sanity growing old and weary. Now, as the threat rises up again, new champions rose to the occasion to prove their strength.' After all, it's not as though they need to keep the same Barbarian. It's not like there's a shortage of them or anything.

I wouldn't really agree about the Amazon having to make a return due to the Barbarian returning. I definitely don't consider the other classes as being 'job-like' and they all have a strong culture backing them up. The Necromancer and Druid with their questionable culture the Paladin with his religious culture, the Assassin with her martial culture and Sorceress with her mystical background, it's only really that you physically see the Amazon and Barbarians that I feel they have the strongest culture. Even given that though, I'd only really say that the Assassin would truly be the only 'job-like' class.

I definitely agree about a spellcaster class, but with the Paladin or other holy class, perhaps the conflict between heaven and hell would be a reason not to include them? We've seen that the Necromancer's been replaced, the Necromancer obviously having a close affinity to hell, so perhaps we can expect the same for the Paladin. The heavens and hell are clashing, and the heroes are just the ones in between.

What build is a Fishynecro? I've never heard that used before.

 

I wouldn't say Amazon 'must' return. Actually I'd question that, can Amazon return? We will now be able to choose gender for every class and you can't really have male Amazon, can you?

 

^LOL^

Either way we need a class that does magic damage like Bone Spear and Bone Spirit did. I'm a necro fanatic, okay?


@Itza: Fishynecro = Summoner necro

 

Good reading Remy, you guesses seems great, espcially the Amazon part.

Ok Meee just destroyed the idea, thank you very much

 

Realistically speaking, there have to be some male members of an Amazonian society, otherwise they'd be gone within a generation. Obviously they would either be rarer or less important, but looking at it realistically, they still have to be there. However, looking at it from a mythological standpoint, then Meee's pretty much just shot that theory to the ground. Then buried it. Then dug it up and shot it a couple of times with arsenic laced rounds. Then buried it again. Then had the burial site mulched, burnt, and thrown into the sea. However! Is there anything actually in Diablo lore that says there aren't male members? Or is that just the stereotypical view?

@ Wlck. I'm fairly sure that the Witch Doctor's pretty much covered the Necromancer in almost every possible way, except for possibly Teeth, Bone Spear and Bone Spirit, which would most likely be covered by the spellcaster, what with Lightning spells and all. They lined up pretty exactly, except for Bone Spirit of course.

Fishymancer's are Summoners? I'd only ever heard of them as Necro Summoners Summonmancer and even Summancer once or twice. Where's the 'Fishy' come from? Also, which elements of Summoning are they using? Golems or Revived?

EDIT: Also Lagmancer.

 

"Culture" tied to a class is irrelevant, as there is obviously lore behind any character class in any game. However, unlike Barbs and Amazons, the other classes are for the most part schools of magic, training, discipline, or order. While D2 lore tries to tie the other 5 classes to certain groups of people, clans, or tribes, they are still job titles. For instance, Nihlathak is a Barbarian by race, yet he is a Necromancer. A person born as a Barbarian can study magic or whatever else to become a Necromancer or another class, but other people can't train to become a Barbarian or Amazon. Rogues also use bows, but they are not Amazons. Barb and Zon are like races, while the other five are what you train to become.

While I agree that Meee has a good point with the gender selection option, I don't think it's an impossibility. Even the all female Amazons gotta make their baby Zons somehow right? It could just be that traditionally, it has been the females doing the hunting and whatnot while the males guard their homeland. Female lions do all the hunting, but that doesn't mean male lions are not capable.

Fishynecro, aka Fishymancer, is not a Summon Necro. The biggest focus of Fishy is Corpse Explosion and max Skellies. Less focus on Revives and Curses, which are usually just used as 1-point wonders. Fishy is like the most cookie cutter Necro build, safest, cheapest, easiest.

 

Arent the WD´s from a tribe, so not just some kind of training-class?
And as far as I know the Amazon culture (it can be an other they use in D3), the mens are looked down at "lower-people", not being worth the same. So they just do all the homework, and dont have the same rights as the women. A bit like 18XX´s women.

 

Ah, k. I see what you mean now. Essentially, they're a race as opposed to a class. Well in that regard, I'd just assume that the playable 'Barbarians', are actually just Barbarian Warriors and playable 'Amazons' are actually just Amazon Marksman. So, Nihlathak, being a Barbarian Necromancer, would, in-game, just be a Necromancer as the 'Barbarian' class refers to Warriors. So yeah, in effect, you'd have to think of the 'Barbarian' class being Warriors, and not just a member of the Barbarian tribe, and the same goes for Amazons.

So how are Fishymancer's supposed to take on the Lesser and Prime Evils? Especially the ones like Duriel and Diablo, even Baal. No corpses to explode, provided that you actually use Corpse Explosion for the damage rather than the buff, and Skeletons would get creamed by any nova's or anything.

 

At first glance, I think like me, anyone would dismiss the WD as a renamed Necromancer. I originally disliked the idea of WD, since the D2 Necro was darker and cooler. However, after listening to the D3 panel and Blizzard's reason's for the character and skills, I changed my mind. I think it goes a little beyond just changing the name for the hell of it, or just to mix it up. Blizzard is putting a very big focus on lore this time(more so than before), and they have a specific direction they they take things.

I like how they are keeping the same specific Barbarian hero from D2. Usually games try to stay vague and not have your character say too many things, they try to stay very safe and keep with the "this character could be anyone" kind of deal. But this time, Blizzard wants to do away with the nameless, faceless, run of the mill heroes. They want the PCs to all have distinct character, strong flavor, and a clear part in the story. They talked about a lot of small details that would help indirectly define your character as you play. They might be taking a small bit of risk doing so, but I commend them for it.

Fishys usually do bosses with full Skellie army, Decrepify on boss mob, and a Golem for tank. You also have a merc. If there are mobs near the area, you can also tag some Revives with you. It's usually not a big deal, act bosses are a very very small part of the game. For players who want to run more bosses, there is always Crushing Blow. Fishy is such that, you can beat the game on hell naked, that's what it's known for. Many people beat the game on hell in hardcore mode untwinked with Fishy. I really hope we get CE back in D3 in some way.

EDIT: What the hell happened to your avatar Hex?

 

Oh hell yeah. If the Witch Doctor isn't the new Necromancer, I'd hate to see what is, though I still tend to think of it as a different character, just one that fills the same role, than a remodelled Necromancer. The one problem I have with it is what is it doing there? The whole idea seems right, but looking at it closely on the official website, or even in the concept art, it just looks like it seriously shouldn't be in this situation to begin with. It seems too distant and, as far as I'm aware, there's no lore tying it in yet. If there is, I'd love to read it, but I haven't found any yet.

I'm definitely against the Barbarian returning as the same character. It just doesn't fit in with the rest of the scene. I mean, if all the characters returned from Diablo2, although I'd still be against it, it would make more sense, but this just seems to be almost limiting the game from the Barbarian's point of view. All the other characters, so far, are new, so why would there be the same Barbarian? It just restricts the character's storyline. For all the other classes, they're brand new heroes rising to the occasion, yada, yada, yada, but with the Barbarian, it's all just deadset. In fact, before I go on, I better clarify, it the Barbarian meant to be just the same character as the Diablo2 Barbarian, not necessarily having killed the Evils or even fought against them, or is he supposed to be the one who physically took them down? If he's just the same character, who didn't necessarily get the opportunity to slay them, then I guess it's ok, but if he's the one who took them down, I'm definitely against it.

Haha, running through hell naked seems like a bit of a challenge. But from that I assume most of their attributes are put into Vitality and Energy?

Corpse Explosion basically has made a return. I can't remember what they called it off the top of my head, but the Witch Doctor can explode his or her Mongrels, dealing what looked like pretty decent damage, keeping in mind that it was actually a demonstration video. It would seem pretty intense and mana inefficient, what with having to raise Mongrels, costing mana, and then explode them when they reach combat, costing more mana. Still, you wouldn't have to blow them up immediately, just wait until they've taken about as much damage as they can, remembering to infuse them with locusts or even fire, as you can see when the female characters come to the rescue.

In another thread, when I was told to clam down, I asked why people always assumed I was angry. furrer suggested it might be my avatar, so I should change it to something a bit happier. It's only temporary though.

EDIT: It seems as though the pet-explosion spell is called 'Dispatch', though I'm not certain. Just the way the guy says it in the demonstration implies that it might be.

EDIT EDIT: Mongrels can definitely be imbued with the Fire Bombs. You can physically see it before the fight with the Treants. That's going to be a really awesome ability. In Diablo2, Golems had a fixed damage type, but now you can change it accordingly. If you're up against something that's immune to fire, you can imbue it with Locusts, if something's immune to poison, you can imbue it with Fire Bomb, if something's immune to physical, they can still deal damage, etc, etc.

 

I think the WD is somethign new, though also a bit on the necro side. It seems like they've mostly moddled him after a necro, but he seems to have his own variety of unique things as well. While I was strognly against them taking away my best and pretty much only class, I have littlr quarall with our schizo, tritchy new character the WD. However, I don't like the fact they introduced a whole other tribe, it made me kinda iffy. Like, how come, even if they were rare, there was no lore about them in the other games. Ofc, I know it's because he's new and they hadn't thought of him, but still. And yes, the WD looks like he's going to have so uber mad skills. When you remember, the mongrel-which it seems like you can imbue with many many spells-is only the first summon in the WD's array of unholy curses and masses.

I would be elated to see the necro return, but I doubt it's going to happen. The WD steals a few of his main, key concepts. There might be an expansion for D3 later, where you get a whole new class, or maybe the old classes again, but right now as much as I want it, the necro seems to be thrown out een if the WD has not stolen all his unholy and otherworldy tactics like bone spirit etc.

And as for the barb remanining the same, I think it gives the game diversity. You can see it from different points of veiws, from all sorts of angles. Besides, they're going to give the other characters ackgrounds, so it's not like they're just throwing new things out to go fight. they're ofc going to provide depth to these characters and make them catch right along with the barb.

 

Same reason we never heard of Druids and the like until Diablo2. They've got to introduce new characters at some point, and it would only really make sense if these new-found races were rare. Otherwise, where would they have been all this time and what would they have been doing?

I think it's safe to dismiss the Necromancer. The Witch Doctor is practically the same concept, what with all the evil magics, etc, and has adopted a lot of his skills as well.

About the Barbarian remaining the same, well if it's alright for all the other characters to be brand new, why is there a problem with having a new Barbarian? All classes will obviously have their own background, so why make that background potentially contradict the whole storyline? There are tonnes of Barbarians to choose from, so it's not like they're aren't any others to choose from, and seeing as they're part of a warrior-based society, how can there not be any other candidates?

 

It's most likely to reserve some nostalgia. I wondered that myself, but to me it seems like an awesome idea.

 

What situation is that?

Hell's invasion that was imminent and should've been, never took place. But that was at the end of D2, 20 years ago. 20 years later, there is obviously some stuff going on. In the cinematic trailer, we see that there is some kind of large scale demonic invasion. The WD's lore(which is of course, currently very limited) speaks of how they believe in selflessness for the greater good of the tribe, maybe it has to do with their tribes being threatened, or even their god's "Unformed Land." Your guess is as good as mine on that one though, we just gotta wait.

About the Barb, I was under the impression that they meant it was THE guy that took down Baal and the rest. But of course, I could be wrong, that was just how I understood the Blizz guy at the panel. Most ones who fought the Evils firsthand, either died or have gone mad. But it's not logical to say that every single one of them have gone mad. And if there is at least one sane one left from the last conflict, I see no reason why the player can't play as him.

In other games, players play as specific characters in the story all the time, especially in story focused games like RPGs or adventure games. Frankly, I think it's a much better approach than going all vague only things keeping the player characters as "one of the guys that fought in the conflict." Even fighting games often have specific characters designated as winners of each tournament, it's much less of a problem in an RPG or adventure title.

The best thing about having the Barb as a returning character LORE WISE, is that, now there is would be a significant difference when you play the game through as different characters. In D2, everything was vague enough that it didn't matter who you were, the lore related play experience was guaranteed to be the same. Now in D3, for folks who really enjoy their lore in games, it can actually means something to playing the game through with different characters.

I think Dispatching Mongrels might be the closest thing we'll get to CE in D3. I watched the demo again and I noticed that bodies disappears after a few seconds. But more than CE, I really wanted Assassin's Death Sentry to be back, it was so badass. I will really miss my Death Sentry CE chains.

I've also gotten the avatar thing before btw, but I ain't changing nothing. Stare into my red eyes and cry sucka~!

EDIT: Hex, why would keeping the same Barb contradict the story? That doesn't make any sense. And it doesn't make sense to think that because some are new, all must be new either.

 

The situation of leaving their tribe, going out, questing for others and slaying daemons. They're given the appearance of an old mystic or spiritual healer who's even an outsider in their own tribe. Essentially, I just didn't feel as though it fit in with the other classes. Talking about the greater good of the tribe certainly does help. It fits and does give a reason for him to be there.

I'm just uneasy if it's the Barbarian who physically took down the Prime Evils. If it's just the same character choice, then I guess it'll work, but if it's the guy, then, I dunno. It seriously just doesn't sit well for me. Also, I'm not even sure if I'm explaining about him being the same character choice or a continuation of the victorious Diablo2 Barbarian correctly. It's times like there where you really need to hear it being said and see all the frantic gestures of flailing arms, etc.

I wouldn't be disappointed with Dispatching pets being the closest you'll get to Corpse Explosion. It's pretty similar and a great substitute in my opinion, though I never did focus on Corpse Explosion. Which is the Death Sentry again? Isn't that the trap with the lightning and fire? Personally I didn't like traps in Diablo2, although they were the most viable option for Assassins. Still, it's the Assassin who's meant to be doing the killing, not the things she just puts on the ground. I hope traps are more utilities in Diablo3 rather than the damage dealers, as Assassins are meant to be... Well... Assassins. My brother got about halfway through Nightmare on a hardcore, non-Traps Assassin... Either Martial Arts or Discipline or whatever it is. It was funny though. He ground his way to level forty before taking on Duriel. He got some pretty decent gear while grinding as well.

 

Death Sentry is a trap that shoots Lighting bolts, but if there are corpses within its range, it will auto-cast Corpse Explosion. So you kill one enemy, put down DS, then you usually have a crazy chain reaction of CE all over the place. You clear entire screens incredibly fast. Flashdancers, which are K/T Sins(kick trap hybrid), are incredibly strong, kill things(mass mobs as well as single bosses) ultra fast, and above all are super fun to play.

I've played the heck out of multiple builds of Amazons and Assassins. MA Sins, while incredibly fun and strong it normal and NM, is very very hard to take through hell without some pretty godly gear. It is usually a frustrating experience for most people.

I disagree with you on Assassins killing with traps. One of the best things about Diablo 2 was that there were so many different ways to play the same character class. Diversity and variability only adds to the game. Besides, using tools and gizmos is part of the Assassin's design. She uses ninja stars and the like, that sort of stuff has traditionally been a major part of assassination in Eastern culture, which the Assassin is modeled after. It's all still part of the Assassin's arsenal, just like how the Necro or Druid can have summons do a lot of the job for them. It's part of the characters' traits, it's what makes them different, because they each get the job done differently.

While I welcome the WD and the Dispatch ability, I really think D3 should hold onto CE. Dealing damage based on the HP of a fallen enemy's corpse is an incredibly unique mechanic. You rarely find a game where they do anything with an enemy corpse, much less use it to deal significant damage. Not just CE though, I think D3 should keep the corpse mechanic, it's very original. Since WD lore mentions human sacrificing, the WD can also make a lot of use out of corpses I think. Using it to regain HP/mana, using it to fuel his spells, or whatever else, possibilities are endless.

We'll see though. D3 is not like SC2, which rely heavily on having excellent balance in competitive play. So I doubt I will do anything but fall in love with whatever Blizz ends up doing with the game. It's gonna rock so hard.

 

I for one never gave a **** about all the D2 lore. Then again, I never played Diablo 1. Badass mother****ers fighting other baddass mother ****ers is enough for me.

I enjoyed D2 for the cool classes that could tear through bigger and badder mobs as you played. Looking more stylish along the way. That's my biggest complaint agasint the WD. Pretty certain the necro is out, a much better looking model.