All trolling-accusations aside, Diablo 3 does not need a knight or anything resembling a knight, as the Barbarian will be able to take on a shield-using, defensive-minded role using the Juggernaut tier of skills. The Barbarian sufficiently covers the melee/shield-using/death machine categories in spades, so no "Knight" class is needed. I'm hoping for some sort of shape-shifting, ranged-capable Hunter/Druid combination class. My desires have sufficiently changed.
I've done more thinking on the subject. Based on what I've seen on the skill trees of characters (granted, the skill trees that we have seen could drastically change), there doesn't appear to be any branch of skill; or individual skill for that matter; that increases a classes' proficiency with one type of weapon. I may be mistaken however, if there are Two Handed Weaponry skills announced for the Barbarian or something.
Anyways, my point is that contrary to what I previously thought, it's highly doubtful the 5th class will have an entire branch of skills dedicated solely to ranged weaponry. No other class has a skill branch focused on something like that, so it's next to impossible to predict what direction Blizzard will go not only with the final class, but with its skill tiers. I've guessed Hunter before doing much research into the subject, I wanted to analyze from what I thought each of the four classes would bring to the table, but I'm starting to think I'm more and more wrong.
When I thought Hunter, I figured the skill branches would be Ranged Weapons, Traps, and then something like Survivalism, Beast Mastery, or something along those lines. But seeing what direction Blizzard is going with other classes, like the Barbarian's Berserker, Juggernaut, and Battlemaster tiers, who knows what types of skill branches the final class will have. We're sure that the class must be capable of utilizing ranged weaponry in its skills, because if it isn't Blizzard is essentially leaving out an entire category of weaponry, something I find foolish.
I think something like a Bard, Ranger, or re-imagined Hunter are still logical guesses, but it's impossible to predict the direction they're going to put into it. One thing that is interesting is that this final class was the very first class they had planned to be in the game. Since then they've realized it wasn't nearly as exciting as it was before. So perhaps they were thinking along the lines of a Hunter or Rogue before. But now they're trying to spice it up with a lot more creativity, opening up some sort of Druid/Bard/Hunter/Ranger character, Lord knows what they'll call it.
> 7. Character customization. Excuse my ignorance of the subject, but I assume each class and each sex will be able to customize their appearance to a degree? I seem to remember reading things both saying and denying character customization. But I don't see why 5-10 hairstyles, 5-10 faces, 5-10 facial hair/accessories, etc. is that hard to implement for 5 male and 5 female classes.
This would actually take months and months of design time. Just hair styles for example. How will they interact with the many different helmet types in the game? I've seen several games which featured high character customization as a main feature, and even those couldn't avoid certain hair styles to conflict with certain pieces of headgear. Just to say, it's not very simple and takes a lot of time.
It's certainly no deal breaker for me not having customization. That said, many of the helmets may disguise the hair altogether. Surely there are many that don't, but I don't think they have to go as far as developing the subtle nuances of the physics involved in how the hair interacts with each type of helmet. That level of detail is unnecessary. However, I don't myself have experience in 3D graphics, especially not the engine that Blizzard is using for D3 so I can't even begin to speculate on how they would approach such things. The faces thing would be of little importance I guess, as you play the majority of the game from a relatively distant, third-person perspective. Mainly just some hairstyles and hair colors. Faces are also a possibility.
I clearly remember hearing that they will in fact implement character customization, but then it seems more recently I heard that they won't be.
Thinking about it logically, it seems like they would allow at least some degree of character customization. Is every male Barbarian going to be an old man with a gray beard? Is every male Monk going to be a bald man with a beard? This is going to be the most immersive Diablo game yet, so it wouldn't matter much either way. Diablo is a loot-driven game, and since much of the loot will probably disguise the physical features of your character, maybe it won't even be a big deal. Honestly won't matter to me much either way, but the more customization the better.
Edit: It appears there won't be any customization. That's fine by me, really, I was just trying to be picky. It won't even matter if you have bad ass equipment on anyways!
I fully expect there to be hirelings in the game, and I think you'll be able to equip them with items. I also think they'll have their own skill trees, and that there will probably be numerous types. I think you'll be able to edit their AI so they do exactly what you want them to do in specific situations. Maybe they retreat once their health reaches a certain point or something to that effect. I'd be shocked if this weren't the case, but anything is possible. The games going to melt face regardless.
What are you basing that on?
Is it not obvious that it's entirely my own speculation? That's what I expect from Diablo 3. They have hirelings in D2, so it's not beyond reason that they'll be in D3. If so, you could assume the entire hireling system would be much more elaborate and could include what I was speculating.
Bah, I was sold on Witch Doctor, but in reality I don't know. I can see myself enjoying all classes, but I usually tend to stray from primarily spell-using classes. The Witch Doctor seems to be an exception for me given their gameplay variability. I can only rule out Wizard as not being my first class. Depending on the fifth, maybe I'll assign numbers to the other 4 and roll a dye until I get one of their numbers.
Barbarian: Brute force, lots of "smashy-smashy", can spec in pure damage, defensive, or some hybrid of both I'm guessing.
Monk: Challenging to use perhaps, but once mastered probably very powerful. Probably the most visually exciting character to use. Seven-sided strike and Exploding Palm strike? I'll take both, and super-size them please. In fact, I read that they're tough to use at first, but once you figure it out they're really, really powerful. Too powerful in fact, so I'm pretty sure they're nerfing them quite a bit.
Witch Doctor: Where does the visual chaos end? Summoning zombie walls, exploding fire potions, horrifying enemies, casting locusts, imbuing your summons with locusts and exploding them in the middle of mobs? Wowzers!
Unannounced Class: Can it possibly be bad ass enough to make me play it?! I hope so!
How can one choose? Maybe once I own the game, pop it in, one class will call out to me.
Haha nice story I especially loved that all perfect emeralds plan, should have worked dammit! I feel like doing low level dueling now...
I've been meaning to reply to this. Just so everyone knows, here is precisely why the Emeralds plan failed miserably, aside from the fact that we disregarded using a shield and decided to use double swing:
Take a look at Death's Hand, a staple of VLLD's (Very Low Level Duelers) used in combination with Death's Sash, for 30% IAS. And they obliterate poison. The build sucked anyway, don't get me wrong, but those pushed the suck-factor over the top.
its not just the hammerdin, its also the charger with desync, its the auradin that can stack-bug, its the fohdin that just desyncs and fohs, its the joderdin, the smiter, the vt, and even in WoW i hear that the paladin is a very strong pvp class. in D2 the paladin can just about counter every other class in some way or form, which really makes it BS.
Yeah, in WoW everyone thinks Paladins are overpowered, except of course Paladins themselves. They have the nerve to complain about a few builds being able to kill them every now and then, failing to realize they're still massively overpowered as a whole. I for one am glad Paladins appear to be nonexistent in D3. Let's hope they don't join the action in an expansion, given Blizzard's seemingly huge bias towards them.
Well, first of all, I don't think there's anything that will keep me from buying this game, unless Blizzard suddenly releases to the public a bunch of aspects to the gameplay that I find simply, well, retarded.
Since I don't see that happening, there's probably nothing that will keep me from playing the game. But here's some things that might cut short my playing time:
> 1. If it's impossible to Low Level Duel. I wouldn't worry about this for months, if not years, but it's something I ultimately plan on pursuing in Diablo III, so it may eventually cause me to quit. Chances are it will be possible, anyways, rendering this point moot.
> 2. If there are only a few builds per class that are viable to pursue. This is another thing I highly doubt, but I hope that virtually every possible build and skill is viable in both PvM and PvP. Meaning there will be nearly endless combination's of builds to pursue and each of them with their fair share of pro's and con's.
> 3.The game itself better be challenging. I don't want boss fights to be a cinch even once characters have great gear. They should still have to approach major boss fights tactically. Again, this is something that would take months or years to upset me. I think this is a guarantee, seeing as bosses can apparently instant-kill players (epic-awesome that is, by the way).
> 4. In regards to PvP, I hope it takes time to finish out fights. I don't want there to be op'd skills like Blessed Hammer and Smite were. Duels should take a lot of time, and a lot of strategy, in order to be victorious. Fortunately, another thing I see happening.
> 5. If it's pay to play without excellent servers and very, very minimal bot play. Should Diablo 3 cost money each month to play, I better damn well be playing on well-kept, clean servers that are largely free of bots and spam. Once again, something I do see happening, with or without p2p.
> 6. Please, no magic-find. Magic-find, well, it sucks. I never understood it and still don't understand it. Bosses should drop rare items regardless of some stupid mod. Plus in Diablo II it essentially made having a Sorceress as your first character on ladder a necessity, since Sorceresses are the best "mf'ers". So please, none of that. Every class should be able to obtain good loot relatively equally.
> 7. Character customization. Excuse my ignorance of the subject, but I assume each class and each sex will be able to customize their appearance to a degree? I seem to remember reading things both saying and denying character customization. But I don't see why 5-10 hairstyles, 5-10 faces, 5-10 facial hair/accessories, etc. is that hard to implement for 5 male and 5 female classes.
That's about it, and none of them will even prevent me from playing the game for at least a while. I mean, Blizzard would really have to start trying to make this game unappealing to turn me away at this point.
There are too many things that we don't know about the gameplay to determine whether or not LLDing will be viable, however, I don't really see how it won't be. Like I said, as long as you can have a char that can gather the low level items, and maybe even learn the Artisan skills and craft great items or jewels, and be able to transfer these items over to your LLD, than LLDing will exist.
There's too many unknowns at this time about all the nuances of the game to know for sure. As it is, I'm saying it looks pretty good for LLDing. Last year I was nervous that they wouldn't include Jewels and Charms for some reason. How foolish I was! That's as close to a no-brainer as there is, they can add so much to your character.
Barbarians will probably be able to be full-on DPS (berserker), tank/defensive-minded (juggernaut), and sort of a combination of both (battlemaster). I think that Barbarians will be able to fill in that tank-like role, I'm just not sure that they will have shield skills, which was what I was getting at to begin with.
The fifth class will and should be ranged-oriented. Maybe the Paladin or something similar can return in an expansion, but as it is all that is needed is a ranged character to fulfill almost every role between the five classes.
Well, the jury is still out on that. I expect levels to indeed make a difference again, but whether level differential is as extreme as it is in WoW will not be seen until we can play the game. I highly doubt that rushing characters will even be possible, but the LLD community is still going, and I expect many to eventually make some LLDs. They might not be able to take out characters 10 or more levels higher, but even in WoW there are "Twink" duelers who dominate low level Battlegrounds.
As long as it's possible to scavenge for low level jewels, charms, or enchant equipment or something, low level dueling will exist in Diablo 3. At least to an extent. But like you said, perhaps only against characters that are very similar in level.
What will make this game so fun, I believe, is that it's much more visually stimulating than WoW, but also brings with it many attributes of WoW's complex character development. The core of the game-play itself though will be completely different. So I don't think you can automatically assume level differential will be as extreme as it is in WoW, but that probably is the trend of these modern games.
Then it that case owning someone at lvl 20 when you're 10 would be a greater achievement than in D2.
Except for the fact that it's going to be most likely impossible. It's officially stated that each level will greatly increase the power of your character. I will be impressed if people ever decide to duel under 60 because nothing provide more power then level and the PvP in different levels will be utterly frustrating. See WoW.
Let's be clear here, levels make a big difference even in Diablo 2. Levels play a big part in whether or not you can hit people. The thing is, so many people were/are such newbs, that they have no concept of max block or how to use stat points and skill points etc. Level 9 Assassins should not have been able to kill level 25 and 30 characters. But their characters were so god-awfully bad that we could easily. But that doesn't make it any less fun.
If levels were tossed aside and it was based solely on Attack Rating, Defense, and Damage, there would be some level 30 melee characters that could easily kill level 60's. The Attack Rating formula is based on victim's Defense value, Attacker's Attack Rating value, and then multiplied by the attacker's level divided by the victim's level. Therefore higher level characters would have their chance to hit spiked while lower levels would have theirs nullified.
My point is what you stated existed and Diablo 2, and it didn't always prevent low levels from embarrassing higher levels. Hence, I still hope LLDing is still viable. Even if you CAN'T beat higher levels, the funnest part is dueling other LLD's. :thumbsup:
They honestly do need an Amazon-like class. The trouble is "Amazon" only pertains to female persons, so they would have to change the name up and stuff. I know they aren't going to have any classes other than Barbarian return, but an Amazon-like character would fill a lot of the remaining holes in game-play styles.
My best guess is still Hunter, but perhaps some sort of "Beastmaster/Survivalist" Hunter/Amazon hybrid is possible. They could specialize in ranged weaponry (bows/javelins), beast mastery, and traps. There's too many possibilities! But I think we're in the ballpark here. We virtually KNOW ranged weapons have to be involved, but a variety of skill sets are mandatory too.
I just realized there isn't a class that will specialize in the use of shields like the Paladin did. I mean, every class can probably use one, but there is no class with shield-based abilities I assume, unless the Barb has some. I'm not saying I'm going to miss Smite, *shudders*, but seeing how effective shields are for the skeleton warriors in the game-play trailer makes me wonder what role shields will play for characters. I'm guessing they'll be much needed and highly useful.
Completely random idea: by merely having a shield equipped you're able to "slam" it into your enemy for a chance to stun them. Sort of an inherent trait of having a shield, to go along with blocking...
I fully expect there to be hirelings in the game, and I think you'll be able to equip them with items. I also think they'll have their own skill trees, and that there will probably be numerous types. I think you'll be able to edit their AI so they do exactly what you want them to do in specific situations. Maybe they retreat once their health reaches a certain point or something to that effect. I'd be shocked if this weren't the case, but anything is possible. The games going to melt face regardless.
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Anyways, my point is that contrary to what I previously thought, it's highly doubtful the 5th class will have an entire branch of skills dedicated solely to ranged weaponry. No other class has a skill branch focused on something like that, so it's next to impossible to predict what direction Blizzard will go not only with the final class, but with its skill tiers. I've guessed Hunter before doing much research into the subject, I wanted to analyze from what I thought each of the four classes would bring to the table, but I'm starting to think I'm more and more wrong.
When I thought Hunter, I figured the skill branches would be Ranged Weapons, Traps, and then something like Survivalism, Beast Mastery, or something along those lines. But seeing what direction Blizzard is going with other classes, like the Barbarian's Berserker, Juggernaut, and Battlemaster tiers, who knows what types of skill branches the final class will have. We're sure that the class must be capable of utilizing ranged weaponry in its skills, because if it isn't Blizzard is essentially leaving out an entire category of weaponry, something I find foolish.
I think something like a Bard, Ranger, or re-imagined Hunter are still logical guesses, but it's impossible to predict the direction they're going to put into it. One thing that is interesting is that this final class was the very first class they had planned to be in the game. Since then they've realized it wasn't nearly as exciting as it was before. So perhaps they were thinking along the lines of a Hunter or Rogue before. But now they're trying to spice it up with a lot more creativity, opening up some sort of Druid/Bard/Hunter/Ranger character, Lord knows what they'll call it.
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It's certainly no deal breaker for me not having customization. That said, many of the helmets may disguise the hair altogether. Surely there are many that don't, but I don't think they have to go as far as developing the subtle nuances of the physics involved in how the hair interacts with each type of helmet. That level of detail is unnecessary. However, I don't myself have experience in 3D graphics, especially not the engine that Blizzard is using for D3 so I can't even begin to speculate on how they would approach such things. The faces thing would be of little importance I guess, as you play the majority of the game from a relatively distant, third-person perspective. Mainly just some hairstyles and hair colors. Faces are also a possibility.
I clearly remember hearing that they will in fact implement character customization, but then it seems more recently I heard that they won't be.
Thinking about it logically, it seems like they would allow at least some degree of character customization. Is every male Barbarian going to be an old man with a gray beard? Is every male Monk going to be a bald man with a beard? This is going to be the most immersive Diablo game yet, so it wouldn't matter much either way. Diablo is a loot-driven game, and since much of the loot will probably disguise the physical features of your character, maybe it won't even be a big deal. Honestly won't matter to me much either way, but the more customization the better.
Edit: It appears there won't be any customization. That's fine by me, really, I was just trying to be picky. It won't even matter if you have bad ass equipment on anyways!
0
Is it not obvious that it's entirely my own speculation? That's what I expect from Diablo 3. They have hirelings in D2, so it's not beyond reason that they'll be in D3. If so, you could assume the entire hireling system would be much more elaborate and could include what I was speculating.
0
Barbarian: Brute force, lots of "smashy-smashy", can spec in pure damage, defensive, or some hybrid of both I'm guessing.
Monk: Challenging to use perhaps, but once mastered probably very powerful. Probably the most visually exciting character to use. Seven-sided strike and Exploding Palm strike? I'll take both, and super-size them please. In fact, I read that they're tough to use at first, but once you figure it out they're really, really powerful. Too powerful in fact, so I'm pretty sure they're nerfing them quite a bit.
Witch Doctor: Where does the visual chaos end? Summoning zombie walls, exploding fire potions, horrifying enemies, casting locusts, imbuing your summons with locusts and exploding them in the middle of mobs? Wowzers!
Unannounced Class: Can it possibly be bad ass enough to make me play it?! I hope so!
How can one choose? Maybe once I own the game, pop it in, one class will call out to me.
0
I've been meaning to reply to this. Just so everyone knows, here is precisely why the Emeralds plan failed miserably, aside from the fact that we disregarded using a shield and decided to use double swing:
http://classic.battle.net/diablo2exp/items/sets/sets2.shtml#deaths
Take a look at Death's Hand, a staple of VLLD's (Very Low Level Duelers) used in combination with Death's Sash, for 30% IAS. And they obliterate poison. The build sucked anyway, don't get me wrong, but those pushed the suck-factor over the top.
0
Yeah, in WoW everyone thinks Paladins are overpowered, except of course Paladins themselves. They have the nerve to complain about a few builds being able to kill them every now and then, failing to realize they're still massively overpowered as a whole. I for one am glad Paladins appear to be nonexistent in D3. Let's hope they don't join the action in an expansion, given Blizzard's seemingly huge bias towards them.
0
Since I don't see that happening, there's probably nothing that will keep me from playing the game. But here's some things that might cut short my playing time:
> 1. If it's impossible to Low Level Duel. I wouldn't worry about this for months, if not years, but it's something I ultimately plan on pursuing in Diablo III, so it may eventually cause me to quit. Chances are it will be possible, anyways, rendering this point moot.
> 2. If there are only a few builds per class that are viable to pursue. This is another thing I highly doubt, but I hope that virtually every possible build and skill is viable in both PvM and PvP. Meaning there will be nearly endless combination's of builds to pursue and each of them with their fair share of pro's and con's.
> 3.The game itself better be challenging. I don't want boss fights to be a cinch even once characters have great gear. They should still have to approach major boss fights tactically. Again, this is something that would take months or years to upset me. I think this is a guarantee, seeing as bosses can apparently instant-kill players (epic-awesome that is, by the way).
> 4. In regards to PvP, I hope it takes time to finish out fights. I don't want there to be op'd skills like Blessed Hammer and Smite were. Duels should take a lot of time, and a lot of strategy, in order to be victorious. Fortunately, another thing I see happening.
> 5. If it's pay to play without excellent servers and very, very minimal bot play. Should Diablo 3 cost money each month to play, I better damn well be playing on well-kept, clean servers that are largely free of bots and spam. Once again, something I do see happening, with or without p2p.
> 6. Please, no magic-find. Magic-find, well, it sucks. I never understood it and still don't understand it. Bosses should drop rare items regardless of some stupid mod. Plus in Diablo II it essentially made having a Sorceress as your first character on ladder a necessity, since Sorceresses are the best "mf'ers". So please, none of that. Every class should be able to obtain good loot relatively equally.
> 7. Character customization. Excuse my ignorance of the subject, but I assume each class and each sex will be able to customize their appearance to a degree? I seem to remember reading things both saying and denying character customization. But I don't see why 5-10 hairstyles, 5-10 faces, 5-10 facial hair/accessories, etc. is that hard to implement for 5 male and 5 female classes.
That's about it, and none of them will even prevent me from playing the game for at least a while. I mean, Blizzard would really have to start trying to make this game unappealing to turn me away at this point.
0
There's too many unknowns at this time about all the nuances of the game to know for sure. As it is, I'm saying it looks pretty good for LLDing. Last year I was nervous that they wouldn't include Jewels and Charms for some reason. How foolish I was! That's as close to a no-brainer as there is, they can add so much to your character.
0
The fifth class will and should be ranged-oriented. Maybe the Paladin or something similar can return in an expansion, but as it is all that is needed is a ranged character to fulfill almost every role between the five classes.
0
As long as it's possible to scavenge for low level jewels, charms, or enchant equipment or something, low level dueling will exist in Diablo 3. At least to an extent. But like you said, perhaps only against characters that are very similar in level.
What will make this game so fun, I believe, is that it's much more visually stimulating than WoW, but also brings with it many attributes of WoW's complex character development. The core of the game-play itself though will be completely different. So I don't think you can automatically assume level differential will be as extreme as it is in WoW, but that probably is the trend of these modern games.
0
Let's be clear here, levels make a big difference even in Diablo 2. Levels play a big part in whether or not you can hit people. The thing is, so many people were/are such newbs, that they have no concept of max block or how to use stat points and skill points etc. Level 9 Assassins should not have been able to kill level 25 and 30 characters. But their characters were so god-awfully bad that we could easily. But that doesn't make it any less fun.
If levels were tossed aside and it was based solely on Attack Rating, Defense, and Damage, there would be some level 30 melee characters that could easily kill level 60's. The Attack Rating formula is based on victim's Defense value, Attacker's Attack Rating value, and then multiplied by the attacker's level divided by the victim's level. Therefore higher level characters would have their chance to hit spiked while lower levels would have theirs nullified.
My point is what you stated existed and Diablo 2, and it didn't always prevent low levels from embarrassing higher levels. Hence, I still hope LLDing is still viable. Even if you CAN'T beat higher levels, the funnest part is dueling other LLD's. :thumbsup:
0
My best guess is still Hunter, but perhaps some sort of "Beastmaster/Survivalist" Hunter/Amazon hybrid is possible. They could specialize in ranged weaponry (bows/javelins), beast mastery, and traps. There's too many possibilities! But I think we're in the ballpark here. We virtually KNOW ranged weapons have to be involved, but a variety of skill sets are mandatory too.
0
Completely random idea: by merely having a shield equipped you're able to "slam" it into your enemy for a chance to stun them. Sort of an inherent trait of having a shield, to go along with blocking...
0