Two more days - Diablo 3!!!?

One other comment on graphics. Not apparently, everything you use and wear is visible on your character. In D2, the only thing that effects appearance is your armor, helm, and weapon (and your shield if you were using one). In D3, the gloves and boots your wearing also affect your appearance. Further, body armor is now broken down into three cateogries. There is the one we're familiar with for the torso, but there is separate shoulder armor and leg armor. And everything changes your character's appearance. (Although they say everything, I doubt they do separate graphics for rings and amulets.) Also weapons have a lot more graphics too. A sword that does lightning damage, for example, will have sparks and lightning dancing along the blade, while and axe that does fire damage will have the head of the axe on fire.

 

Dude, you don't think Blizzard is already rolling in cash? WoW alone makes it the only company that has any chance at all to stand apart from the EA crew.

 

I meant more so then before, implying the game would be a success

 

Watch the playthrough trailer. The graphics are a big step up. There was a lot more detail both to the environment and to the characters. I'm sure we'll see more on the exact details to the graphics as it comes closer to the release and then we can say for certain jsut how much better they are. But after 8 years... They almost have to be better by default reguardless.

I think the game play will be very important and I want to see a lot more on that.

And yes. Blizzard rakes in like Millions a month just from WoW...

 

I'm hoping for a very powerful summoning class to be in the game, akin to the necromancer in D2. Or a revamped version OF the necromancer would do just fine. I really enjoy, in single player especially, being able to amass a large force of minions to do my bidding, while I stand back and direct the action. I'm hoping that the devs have in mind to include a solid summoner. If so, I'm sure that will be my first class choice to play as... followed by the sorceress/nuker type. Melee heavy classes generally are among my last choices in Diablo games.

Odd, I thought I posted this already, but I guess I must not have ever submitted the post.

 

On the note of nuking classes, it will be interesting what they include for this sort of character. The Sorceress from D2 was a member of an only female group. I read that all classes will be gender changable therefore ruling out the Sorceress... Unless they just change up the guidelines of the order. But then again, who really plays Diablo for the world and story details? click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click

 

Witch Doctor is a summoning class. He might have replaced the necromancer, but I'm not sure.

 

Character details state that they have power over the undead, so they are probably the new Necromancers of D3

 

With regards to the witch doctor, based on the short video demo it didn't seem like an overly impressive summoner. It kind of seemed more like of jack of trades class, with some summoning in its repertoire. It reminded me of something closer to a druid replacement. Then again, I'm guessing that it was a fairly low level witch doctor in that video, so who knows.

Looking forward to a better preview of the classes!

 

Depending on your play style. The Necromancer wasn't always played as a primarily summoner either. My Dad still plays the game regularly and he Has a fondness more for the spells and curses much more than the summoning.

The fire does look out of place for what we think of the necromancer after 8 years.


But it's wall of ghouls. The way it summons up it's minions from corpses and the play trailer says that they are just one thing the witch doctor pulls up. I think it even mentions them being the weakest. The Witch Doctor is sounding as perhaps the Necromancer of D3. But we have to accept with only 5 classes in the new game. It may not only be the Necromancer of the D3 game but the Druid as well. Taking aspects from both.

 

Well...this is good news! Fist SC2 got me excited, and now D3!

This will give me a reason to dust off my old D2 CDs and give the game a run-through on my new computer. I love how the announcement of another release in a series always sparks interest in the older games...maybe now there will be some good online gaming opportunities.

 

Funny Kitrax, I have been contemplating reinstalling D2 for another run through too. It may be a few weeks before I actually have a little time to play though .

 

I'm nowhere as excited about this as I am about SC2, but I will probably pick the game at some point after the price drops a bit. I'm no great fan of pure hack and slash games, even less so if everything's randomised, but the Diablo games are probably among the best games in that category and I give them credit for being very competently done, especially compared to the countless clones that have been released since.

 

I'm trying to download the trailer. It's taking a while as my torrent downloader insists on updating itself again...

 

I have to agree with what a few others have said to this point. I agree that the Witch Doctor seems to be some type of hybrid of a necromancer and a druid. That means that neither of those classes are likely to make it in to D3 (in the original - no guarantees about the inevitible expansion).

On Blizzard's site they also make mention of a character called a Knight. That seems to be a lot like the D2 paladin. If they are in keeping with the general setup of D2, there will be two melee characters, two caster characters, and one missile weapon using character.

Here is my prediction - Blizzard has said there will most likely by 5 playable characters in D3 at the time of its release. We already know two for sure - the Barbarian and Witch Doctor, and since they are mentioning the Knight on Blizzard, I'm pretty confident that is going to be the third. That takes care of both melee classes, and one of the casters. The last two classes are almost certain to be some type of elemental caster (perhaps referred to as a mage so it's unisex), and some type of missile using character (they can't use Amazon as that is female - perhaps something like a Ranger?)

 

I was thinking the ranger could be a possible replacement for the paladin, but I was thinking something closer to the D&D version of it, ie wilderness oriented and able to use both melee and ranged weapons.

In fact, the ranger (in later D&D versions) is a good dual wielder, but I'm guessing that ability will still be a barbarian only trait.

 

I think a Ranger character is quite likely as a replacement for the Amazon/Rogue, as it allows for both sex's and their trademark weapon it the longbow.

 

yeah, the only thing rangers dont traditionally do is use spears.

not to say they cant though, but it might be weird for them to have javelin and spear skills.

If there is a ranger, hopefully he has Sword Skills, Bow/Crossbow skills, and Passive and Nature Magic skills. Of course we dont even know if skill tabs will be back in the game, or how they will be handled.

 

I fully expect that the skill trees - in whatever form they ultimately take - will be totally redone, even for classes like the Barbarian that were in D2. In fact, I would be surprised if any skill tree from any class makes it into D3 without some major revisions. I doubt there will be a bow/crossbow skill tree for rangers that is similar to the current amazon's skill tree. I would be quite dissappointed if D3 is basically a replica of D2 with new graphics and basically the same skills with slightly different looking characters.