-Wizard appears to be the highest dps at low levels.
-It looks like it's hard to die as the witch doctor, your zombie dogs don't die very quickly and you can spam some spells forever with high mana regen at lower levels
-and the barbarian looks like he will be very gear-dependent(go figure, because melee weapon based characters that are meant to tank damage have never been gear-dependent before, EVER!!)
-Haven't seen much demon hunter, but they seem kinda slow dps before they get AOE spells.
-Monk is similar to barb, sorta. I doubt they get any worse (compared to other classes) as levels unlock new skills/abilities/gear. Once you have enough gear your efficiency exponentially increases. That's just how melee's and weapon damage based classes are folks.
-Wizard appears to be the highest dps at low levels.
-It looks like it's hard to die as the witch doctor, your zombie dogs don't die very quickly and you can spam some spells forever with high mana regen at lower levels
-and the barbarian looks like he will be very gear-dependent(go figure, because melee weapon based characters that are meant to tank damage have never been gear-dependent before, EVER!!)
-Haven't seen much demon hunter, but they seem kinda slow dps before they get AOE spells.
-Monk is similar to barb, sorta. I doubt they get any worse (compared to other classes) as levels unlock new skills/abilities/gear. Once you have enough gear your efficiency exponentially increases. That's just how melee's and weapon damage based classes are folks.
Most games don't scale caster abilities with weapon damage. D3 does. It's not going to be quite as dramatic with the differences between caster and melee gear scaling.
Yeah but it's still going to be there, especially when it comes to taking damage, as some characters will be better at "avoiding" damage being dealt to them (by mobility, crowd control, utility etc). Don't get me wrong, gear is important for everyone but a near naked caster will almost always be stronger than a near naked melee by design.
BARB OWNS.. with a good 2 handed weapon.. i saw the video of the 2h poison mace, that was crazy damage at around level 5 or whatever he was.. he was hitting 40-60s every shot, and 40s AOE with cleave.. whilst i saw a lv 9 barb with 2x 1h weapons fighting the skeleton king and only hitting up to 15-20 off mobs..
There is a passive skill that scales up dual wield to 2h levels later on, worth mentioning. I think it gives something like +20% crit chance and 30% crit damage or something of the sort. That said you're still ultimately trading that slot for whatever else would otherwise be there had you been using a 2h weapon, though it may be worth noting 20% crit +crit damage combined with a +100% crit damage passive would be a serious damage increase as well.
I'm sure blizzard has figured it out by now, that you need to make skills scale with having more than one weapon when dealing with weapon based %'s or the slowest possible weapon with the highest listed damage will normally come out on top as every actual skill will gain full (larger) effect from a weapon with 15 top end 12 average than two weapons with 8 topend and 7 average (if only one weapon is effected/effects skill damage). Traditionally though, auto attack damage (or normal attack) yields higher dmg for dual wield than to two handers for this very reason. So a top of the line 2h mace may have 500 top end and hit harder with abilities, but there will probably be one handers with 325 top end or so that you can dual wield. The normal attack damage will be greater with dual wield, whereas the actual skill damage will hit harder with a 2h. I prefer the concept (visuals) of dual wield, normally, but there's something to be said for pressing a button and seeing an instant hard hitting result. It's much easier to see a massive 56 pop up on your screen and think you're hitting hard, than seeing a faster stream of 21, 21,21 and think you're hitting hard.
I saw a playthrough of a Barbarian using a Two-Handed Sword and he was just silly with power lol. The Wizard looked the most powerful with the insane AOE damage but I think that's how it's suppose to work.
The Witch Doctors Plague of Toads looked really powerful (especially in close quarters) and it made me think of what it would be like in a pvp arena. Ex: (having mass toads on the battlefield while the other player is low on health forces them to take cover thus controlling the battlefield)
The Monk and the Barbarian is a hard call... In my humble opinion I believe the Monk is ever so slightly better just because both damage outputs were about the same but the Monk was faster.
The Demon Hunter didn't really show at all. Could have been that the people playing were not staying at a good distance and using the wrong skill combinations or they could be just slightly underpowered. Either way I think he/she needs a slight power-up.
I haven't seen a ton, but for me it's the Witch Doctor. His zombie dogs tank everything and the grasping hands AoE has a huge radius, snare, keeps him well out of range of aggression, and does a ton of damage nothing seems to survive. Never seen a WD in any danger.
I'm actually least impressed with the Barb- although I haven't seen one outside of the first few zones. His huge hammer ability (one of the early ones) uses a ton of his resource per swing, and it seems like he has the most trouble regenerating rage while every other class I've seen can practically ignore their resource bubble.
From what I saw Wizard...but keep in mind as has been mentioned on here this is the very, very first section of the game so things will be pretty easy!
Wizard is pretty good. Wave of Force, as expected, is ridiculous. Travels 3/4ths of the screen, stuns and knocks everything back, and breaks all barrels/chests/traps/etc in its path. Frost nova is also very very good now. Completely freezing about 1/3rd of the screen is pretty elite. Arcane Orb dominates as well, so much so, that I fully expect it to be the Go-To nuke (which is something I've been saying for a while now, but seeing it in action alongside WoF pretty much confirms it for me).
Barb is a close second, they just dont die. Even in a 4 player game 'Nomsayin' was wandering off all by himself constantly and just handled everything in his way. May not seem like a big deal, but anyone who's seen his stream knows his caliber of "play" They have amazing crowd control capability with all that leaping and stunning.
With not so good gear, the Witch Doctor appeared to be the strongest to me overall. The dogs seem pretty strong and their other abilities seem to be pretty good for their cost. The Wizard seems to have by far the best AoE burst damage, but the cool down on Wave of Force keeps it from being too strong IMO.
When it comes to good gear, particularly a strong weapon, it seems like it'll be a lot harder to tell. Theres some videos and such showing Barbs with a good two hander being really powerful, but that might be the case for any class if they were to find a similar weapon. Bonus damage seems to be a big factor in a weapon's DPS, at least at this early point in the game. Although I'm not sure how bonus damage works for casters in D3.
I know Wizard and WD both can get +X% damage on their weapons, but early on that probably isn't going to account for much damage. If bonus damage, such as +X-Y fire damage works for casters it'll probably be pretty balanced, but if not, there could possibly be a pretty big discrepancy between caster and physical classes early on, until damage modifier %s get to be large enough to be equal to or better than a static bonus.
The DH does seem a bit weak compared to the other classes from the few videos/streams I've looked at so far. I don't think I've seen one with a good weapon yet, so that might be why, but they don't seem to have a lot of base power and their lower abilities don't seem as impressive as what Barbs and Monks have access to. I think it's partly due to the dual resource system as well since it'll probably be more useful with more ability slots and access to more abilities for both resource types.
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-It looks like it's hard to die as the witch doctor, your zombie dogs don't die very quickly and you can spam some spells forever with high mana regen at lower levels
-and the barbarian looks like he will be very gear-dependent(go figure, because melee weapon based characters that are meant to tank damage have never been gear-dependent before, EVER!!)
-Haven't seen much demon hunter, but they seem kinda slow dps before they get AOE spells.
-Monk is similar to barb, sorta. I doubt they get any worse (compared to other classes) as levels unlock new skills/abilities/gear. Once you have enough gear your efficiency exponentially increases. That's just how melee's and weapon damage based classes are folks.
Appears to be the strongest class at this point, but its probably just an illusion.
Most games don't scale caster abilities with weapon damage. D3 does. It's not going to be quite as dramatic with the differences between caster and melee gear scaling.
BARB OWNS.. with a good 2 handed weapon.. i saw the video of the 2h poison mace, that was crazy damage at around level 5 or whatever he was.. he was hitting 40-60s every shot, and 40s AOE with cleave.. whilst i saw a lv 9 barb with 2x 1h weapons fighting the skeleton king and only hitting up to 15-20 off mobs..
I'm sure blizzard has figured it out by now, that you need to make skills scale with having more than one weapon when dealing with weapon based %'s or the slowest possible weapon with the highest listed damage will normally come out on top as every actual skill will gain full (larger) effect from a weapon with 15 top end 12 average than two weapons with 8 topend and 7 average (if only one weapon is effected/effects skill damage). Traditionally though, auto attack damage (or normal attack) yields higher dmg for dual wield than to two handers for this very reason. So a top of the line 2h mace may have 500 top end and hit harder with abilities, but there will probably be one handers with 325 top end or so that you can dual wield. The normal attack damage will be greater with dual wield, whereas the actual skill damage will hit harder with a 2h. I prefer the concept (visuals) of dual wield, normally, but there's something to be said for pressing a button and seeing an instant hard hitting result. It's much easier to see a massive 56 pop up on your screen and think you're hitting hard, than seeing a faster stream of 21, 21,21 and think you're hitting hard.
The Witch Doctors Plague of Toads looked really powerful (especially in close quarters) and it made me think of what it would be like in a pvp arena. Ex: (having mass toads on the battlefield while the other player is low on health forces them to take cover thus controlling the battlefield)
The Monk and the Barbarian is a hard call... In my humble opinion I believe the Monk is ever so slightly better just because both damage outputs were about the same but the Monk was faster.
The Demon Hunter didn't really show at all. Could have been that the people playing were not staying at a good distance and using the wrong skill combinations or they could be just slightly underpowered. Either way I think he/she needs a slight power-up.
I'm actually least impressed with the Barb- although I haven't seen one outside of the first few zones. His huge hammer ability (one of the early ones) uses a ton of his resource per swing, and it seems like he has the most trouble regenerating rage while every other class I've seen can practically ignore their resource bubble.
Barb is a close second, they just dont die. Even in a 4 player game 'Nomsayin' was wandering off all by himself constantly and just handled everything in his way. May not seem like a big deal, but anyone who's seen his stream knows his caliber of "play" They have amazing crowd control capability with all that leaping and stunning.
When it comes to good gear, particularly a strong weapon, it seems like it'll be a lot harder to tell. Theres some videos and such showing Barbs with a good two hander being really powerful, but that might be the case for any class if they were to find a similar weapon. Bonus damage seems to be a big factor in a weapon's DPS, at least at this early point in the game. Although I'm not sure how bonus damage works for casters in D3.
I know Wizard and WD both can get +X% damage on their weapons, but early on that probably isn't going to account for much damage. If bonus damage, such as +X-Y fire damage works for casters it'll probably be pretty balanced, but if not, there could possibly be a pretty big discrepancy between caster and physical classes early on, until damage modifier %s get to be large enough to be equal to or better than a static bonus.
The DH does seem a bit weak compared to the other classes from the few videos/streams I've looked at so far. I don't think I've seen one with a good weapon yet, so that might be why, but they don't seem to have a lot of base power and their lower abilities don't seem as impressive as what Barbs and Monks have access to. I think it's partly due to the dual resource system as well since it'll probably be more useful with more ability slots and access to more abilities for both resource types.