So I'm going to start a "feature" now ("feature" is what the people who used to write for newspapers call it), called Wall o' Text. Wall o' Text is what happens when one starts writing down the thoughts one has been mulling over in one's head since one can't actually discuss them with anyone else because they're far too inane. Basically, it's a stream of focused consciousness, a long diatribe about a very small thing. Think of the title as a fair warning, because there are definitely some words up ahead here, in a kind of wall formation built to assault the senses. Wall formations get + 3 to assault, you know.
Let's talk Diablo III.
Yes, Diabo III, that impending juggernaut that prevents any Action RPG from ever achieving true undeniable greatness.
Sorry, Titan Quest: you just didn't have the right online community.
Sorry, Sacred 1 & 2: your point and click action is more like a slow, boring MMO.
Sorry, Loki: you weren't even worth playing, you useless piece of shit.
Asides aside, I'm really looking forward to the revealing of the fifth class. As of this writing, only the first four have been revealed: Barbarian, Witch Doctor, Wizard, and Monk. Blizzard has said they aren't bringing anyone else back (besides the refactored Barb) because the old classes don't really have anything new to bring to the table. I, for one, have to agree with them.
more on this (incredibly boring) topic after the jump.
If one really thinks about it, the 13 iterations of Diablo II (yes, 13, including the 1.0 release through the 1.12 patch) have left 4 of the 5 starting characters ridiculously well-defined. Not counting the Assassin, Barbarian, and Druid, the characters in this mega-blockbuster (which I am still playing, goddammit) have clear roles they can fit and obvious paths to greatness. There's no way you would want to bring back the Sorceress: you would just be redoing the particle effects on her elemental powers. Why revive the Necromancer, when the current one is so perfect that the skill point distribution for any Necro build is intuitive and obvious? The Paladin is so powerful, so well-designed, so integral to multiplayer that most of the items considered best rely on the fact that they grant you one of his mighty auras. Finally, the most-used Amazon builds make the best of her 3 skill trees and are amazingly good at their chosen task, whether it be kill 1 boss-strength enemy, kill all non-bosses on the screen, or survive for freaking ever. Sure, they all have areas they could improve upon (except the Necro, who just needs maybe like 10 more available skill points to be perfect), but the improvements one could do are minor, at best. Paladins could have an Aura slot to free up click space as well as a natural bonus for wearing crap-tons of armor, Sorceresses could be given a single tri-elemental mastery so they could choose the spells that give them the best situational coverage, Amazons could lose the Dodge bug that knocks them out of their melee skills. Still, though, how many more ways could you shoot an arrow, lob an elemental spell, craft an army, tank while improving party effectiveness many times over? They didn't break the mold when they made these characters, but there are few new things to discover and develop with regards to their skills and abilities.
Which brings us to the new guys and my most pointless and probably wrong opinions yet. To me, the reasoning process behind the new classes follows a specific pattern. First, figure out what one of the original 5 was supposed to do in a party, and second, change a core concept of that class and see what happens. "How's that?", you say? Here, I'll show you.
Let's start with the original Barbarian, a fighter who absorbs damage and deals huge physical damage as well as buffing the party. His main mechanics rely on weapons and mana. To change it up, you could make him use the damage he absorbs and dishes out to fuel the character, such that being in the fight is what makes him able to do his job instead of how much mana he has. Congratulations, the old Barbarian is now the new (aged) Barbarian.
Where to next? The Necromancer, of course. He weakens enemies, creates homunculi, revives the dead, and backs up his creations with some ranged spell damage. Well, what if you changed the concept behind his magic source, to a different culture known for reviving the dead? Well, besides Necromancers, there's basically only one type of character that makes the dead come back, and they're found in the fictional (and crazy non-fictional) accounts of Voodoo. Restructure the balance between indirect and direct damage skills to reflect the more hands-on approach of a Voodoo practitioner and you have the Witch Doctor.
Third in line for the remake was the Sorceress, and I'm sure this one was so obvious once someone said it that everyone wished they had thought of it sooner. The basic idea is this: take all that elemental earth mother stuff out of a magic-wielding character, because that defines what their spells look like. Now, what's another source of magic? Why, reality alteration, of course. Just straight up "a wizard did it" shit like distortion fields and death beams. You have to have a magic character that deals damage and causes crazy effects upon the landscape, but no one ever said it has to be Medieval Fantasy magic. Dilating time, shooting laser beams, these are all the purview of the Wizard.
I'm sure the Paladin remake was way harder. In fact, the Monk no longer fits the role the Paladin used to, but he's still a melee-oriented holy warrior who can control crowds and improve everyone else's damage output and defense. The main difference is that they chose a different style of holy man to fit the role, which naturally brings a different stereotype to the table. Whereas traditional paladins are unkillable tanks wreathed in steel, shaolin monks are much more fragile and rely upon reflexes and speed to stay alive.
This leaves us at the burning question: what's the fifth class going to be? Starting from the Amazon, there's many different roads to take. It seems like Blizzard is focusing on changing the mythological source of its characters instead of changing a core mechanic like in the Barbarian example (although I'm sure the new "Old Barbarian" guy used to be a Nordic berzerker instead of the aged version of the Celtic one from D2). In that case, if you want to switch it up from famous Greek Skirmishers (sorry, Spartans would be far too close to the Amazonian warrior women), there's several roads to take. You could do an English Longbowman (a.k.a. Robin Hood), but that's really far too close to elves and their ilk to be worth considering. Really, any European skirmisher is going to seem like a repeat, whether it be Persian, Greek, English, or Nordic (axe throwers), so it might be time to look for skirmishers based on other tales, other cultures. My favorite idea would be to use Samurai, but that's never going to happen (way too cheesy), even though it neatly fits the Bow and Spear idea to a T. My second favorite idea would be to go with a Tinkerer/Artificer/Blacksmith character; basically a crafter who makes their own guns and ammo but also all kinds of esoteric doodads. There's other ideas: Ancient Chinese Archer (Huang Zhong), Native American/Eskimo, Zulu Warrior, Thief/Assassin, Mercenary, the list goes on.
If I had to decide, I'd go with the Artificer, just because it keeps the item-finding element of the Barbarian and the item-crafting element of the Horadric Cube while adding a very flexible and unexplored (in Sanctuary, anyhow) class concept. Plus, how freaking sweet would it be to have a character that enchants ammunition with all kinds of non-magical, non-elemental effects? Problem is, artificers don't have much else to do besides make pets (Witch Doctor territory), enchant weapons (Wizard's domain), and create items (Economy-destablizing), so I don't think that'll happen either. Whatever Blizzard ends up deciding, the reason for the delay is obvious.
I mean, I could have come up with the Wizard, but finding a replacement for the Amazon? Fuuuuuuck.
This is me being glad I'm not the Character Design lead for Diablo III right now. Doesn't happen very often.
:SñrC
Guys, guys, I got it: What. About. A BARD.
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