Good read! You actually touched on something I completely forgot about; DH Strafe.
It's a fun skill, definitely a twist I wasn't expecting. I can't imagine that anyone, before seeing the skill in a video or in-game, could have predicted it would look like that. It's not for me personally though. Strafe is a ranged version of whirlwind. You turn black and scary and spin around firing while slowing gliding in the direction of your cursor. If I were to ever use it I'd have to wait until level 18 to get equilibrium (30% increased rate of fire). Every time I tested it on a room of bad guys it always left big gaps of undamaged area, especially when there were a lot of breakable objects present to absorb shots.
Multishot would appear to be much more consistent.
I was taking your WD review seriously until you said Grasp of the Dead was just an average spell. lol?
Looks like you went into the WD with low expectations, and are now grasping at straws to keep it that way.
It takes a few ticks to kill the targets in the area of effect where most skills one-shot things. I was simply looking ahead to when mobs have more life in later difficulties and seeing that it will be more useful for the snare than the damage. This with the cool-down is where my "average damage" comment came from. I could be completely wrong!
In the beta it's fairly useful as a barrel-buster and one more damage type to stack on crowds while throwing spider jars and other things.
Thanks for all the feedback! When I have more time I'll try to be a bigger part of the conversation. Really looking forward to reading Kankle's post.
Well its not like once you cast it you're unable to do anything else. You cast it on a group and go to town with your other spells. Its a snare with added damage and the CD is very short, by the time it wears off its almost ready to be cast again. Caltrops doesn't do damage does it? In fact it's 1 of only a few skills in the game that does AoE snare + damage. It's amazing and so is it's damage.
I was taking your WD review seriously until you said Grasp of the Dead was just an average spell.
Looks like you went into the WD with low expectations, and are now grasping at straws to keep it that way.
Grasp of the Dead is probably my favorite WD spell at the moment. It's like an AOE DoT that ticks pretty damn hard. I'd say on my WD it does about 70% of the killing during trash and I use it as a suplimental DoT on SK.
this^
GoTD rapes huge groups in mere seconds.
@ OP: the WD frogs arent self targeting. and obviously the WD pets are self targeting. they would be horrible if they werent. i get that you said its not for you and its your opinion but from what you described thats the exact opposite feel the WD has. he has the widest diversity of skills in the game by far so hes the least boring because of that fact (fact that he has the widest diversity not that everyone thinks hes the least boring). i see a lot of people saying this because frankly they dont know how to use him properly at all, they will pick 2-3 skills they dont know how to use, test him for a bit and then say he sucks because they dont know how to properly execute certain skills.
besides that good post. +1
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"once the pretty hardcore gamers we had testing inferno found it fairly difficult, we then we doubled it" -trolololol jay wilson
I was really eager to try the beta mainly because I wanted to get a feel of the characters before making my decision on release so I wouldn't waste the first 2-3 days playing with my mates before deciding to re-roll and being left behind.
This should suffice if I never end up getting one, I've always been a fan of casters classes in D2, WoW, Ragnarok and other MMOs, however the wizard doesn't seem to be all the all powerful glass cannon as I had hoped.
I always felt mage classes should have tons more DPS and damage to compensate for how frail they are, but considering how powerful and mobile the barb and DH are, might as well just choose the beefy and high damage class instead.
@ OP: the WD frogs arent self targeting. and obviously the WD pets are self targeting. they would be horrible if they werent. i get that you said its not for you and its your opinion but from what you described thats the exact opposite feel the WD has. he has the widest diversity of skills in the game by far so hes the least boring because of that fact (fact that he has the widest diversity not that everyone thinks hes the least boring). i see a lot of people saying this because frankly they dont know how to use him properly at all, they will pick 2-3 skills they dont know how to use, test him for a bit and then say he sucks because they dont know how to properly execute certain skills.
besides that good post. +1
Maybe the WD will feel better in the final game, with the full package.
I like the toads, they look like a slow version of Charged Bolt.
And you changed my mind about GoTD, can't wait to try it when I'll have the game
It seems like a good crowd control skill.
I was really eager to try the beta mainly because I wanted to get a feel of the characters before making my decision on release so I wouldn't waste the first 2-3 days playing with my mates before deciding to re-roll and being left behind.
This should suffice if I never end up getting one, I've always been a fan of casters classes in D2, WoW, Ragnarok and other MMOs, however the wizard doesn't seem to be all the all powerful glass cannon as I had hoped.
I always felt mage classes should have tons more DPS and damage to compensate for how frail they are, but considering how powerful and mobile the barb and DH are, might as well just choose the beefy and high damage class instead.
The wizard does a ton of damage, it just isn't aggressive damage. What I mean is, I want my character to be screaming and killing at the same time lol. Wizard is more cool and collected, calmly casting spells with a straight face and giggling about it afterwards (there are several voice-acted lines that trigger after kills and hers are always cocky snarky comments, great way to add character flavor).
Wizard spells are pretty, not scary or threatening looking. I think you'd find the damage to be completely on par. There's even a passive called glass cannon that lowers your armor/resistance and increases your damage.
awesome entertaining review
I'm glad to see the DH is cool, I also plan to use Rapid Fire as my main skill.
Did you try Evasive Fire instead of Vault?
The best part of evasive fire is that it has no travel time. You don't see an arrow fly across the screen, the monster is instead instantly hit like you fired a bullet. The worst part is the single target nature of the skill and flipping when you don't intend to. After using it I got the impression it was made only for situational use and not as a primary attack. Hungering arrow was far superior as a killer (single target and crowd).
@ OP: the WD frogs arent self targeting. and obviously the WD pets are self targeting. they would be horrible if they werent. i get that you said its not for you and its your opinion but from what you described thats the exact opposite feel the WD has. he has the widest diversity of skills in the game by far so hes the least boring because of that fact (fact that he has the widest diversity not that everyone thinks hes the least boring). i see a lot of people saying this because frankly they dont know how to use him properly at all, they will pick 2-3 skills they dont know how to use, test him for a bit and then say he sucks because they dont know how to properly execute certain skills.
besides that good post. +1
Oh there's no question, I know you're right lol. I tested him thoroughly to the level cap and I still felt like I was driving someone else's car. I was just happy to get it home without stripping the clutch!
Only thing that bothered me was you ranked WD as the most boring class
i love WD and now, because of you i start to feel that some of what you said is true.. heh
to be honest i just cant wait for falling zombies rune
Only thing that bothered me was you ranked WD as the most boring class
i love WD and now, because of you i start to feel that some of what you said is true.. heh
to be honest i just cant wait for falling zombies rune
Don't be sad! There are some WD fans here that would probably like to throw me and my sissy crossbow on a GotD zombie patch and ask me if I think it hurts. They're behind you and your WD all the way
Oh there's no question, I know you're right lol. I tested him thoroughly to the level cap and I still felt like I was driving someone else's car. I was just happy to get it home without stripping the clutch!
lmao. awesome analogy. at least your one of the few to admit it. <3
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"once the pretty hardcore gamers we had testing inferno found it fairly difficult, we then we doubled it" -trolololol jay wilson
I think the Monk suffers from three things compared to the other classes.
1) Bad lowlvl Skillchoice - The Skills you get feel... wrong? At least most of them do. You get 3 defensive Speder and 1 movement skill and a defensive Mantra. Your 3 primary Skills are 3 Spirit Generators (more on that later). With all this defensive skills that you dont need.... and dont use during Normal it just feels like you get no skills at all. The only usable skill from those is Dashing Strike (movement) then again the skill feels a little awkward because you often only dash like 3yards Oo. Breah of Heaven (Heal), Blinding Flash (CC), Mantra of Evasion (Defensive Buff) and Tempest Rush (lowdmg Escape) just feel out of place during Normal.
2) Low Spirit generation - Part of the problem is that you oneshot everything with lvl13. So you only get 6 Spirit per Attack... and oneshot large groups with it (if you use Deadly Reach). If you use Fists of Thunder you attack 3 times before your Chainlightning kills the group. But even at the start of the game it feels like Spirit is the slowest of all the resources. Barbs generate Fury when they take damage and generate roughly the same Fury with their attacks as Monks... Wizards/DH/WD all have a pretty decent (or insane if you are a WD/Wiz^^) passive resource regen. Only the Monk sits there with his 6 Spirit per Attack.
3) Combos dont feel "awesome" - Like Kinetic mentioned it can get pretty tedious to keep track of your combos. With fast weapons (and some attackspeed) you have to pay attention to your attacks or you will miss your Combos. For example if you try to chain Fists of Thunder (2x) -> Exploding Palm it happens that you "miss" Exploding Palm and end up casting a 3rd Fist of Thunder. That is because there is no good indication that shows you at which Combo Stage you are... and if the screen is cluttered you quickly lose track of your character (or better the attack animation because that is your only "indication").
Edit: Also because of the low Spirit generation you spend most of your time spaming your Combo Strikes... combine that with 3) and you know why the Monk feels like he isnt awesome. You spend most of your time doing things that arent awesome
100% true.
Dash strike is good for quickly move to the next enemy (it has unlimited range if you cast it on a monster, not in the ground). So it's not a mobility skill like teleport or vault. It is a skill amde to be used on monsters in order move in the battlefield or quickly engage.
However i still think Dash should deal damage in area, like a weak but almost spammable charge. It would be awesome and much more fun to use.
I agree the combo system and the lack of effensive spirit spender skills is annoying as hell. Chain two combos is not fun, specially if it evolves mouse clicks. Also diablo is not the kind of game were one should play attention to your character animation, you should be looking at the monsters and the enviorment most of the time...
In the end i think D2 assassin's combo system was much better o.O Because you could save the combo finisher (third hit not allways unleash the combo).
Congratulations on the post! Very informative... I can't wait till I can play Diablo 3 as well. Considering your D2 past, would you consider the WD as a type of Necromancer?
Congratulations on the post! Very informative... I can't wait till I can play Diablo 3 as well. Considering your D2 past, would you consider the WD as a type of Necromancer?
Yes WD feels very necro like. I never had a super high level necro but I did have one in the 70s late in the game when it started to get boring running every other class. I remember necro having more attack spells, but that could simply be because necro pets were more permanent. You had more time to cast supplemental curses and things while your army fought. WD doesn't have many permanent pets, but instead actively casts most of his pets that last for a short time before dying when the timer runs out.
But really, who needs more than one pet when you have GARGANTUAN
While I can appreciate all of the hard work you put into this, I really hope end-game doesn't look like this. Another blizzard game that's fallen prey to "cookie cutter builds" and theory crafting. I hope that they've put enough randomization in the game to avoid that happening, so everyone can actually show what they're made of rather than looking at parses and squeezing out every last point of damage, coming to some weird realization like that a boring as hell melee DH would be the most economical way to go for damage or something stupid like that.
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Good read! You actually touched on something I completely forgot about; DH Strafe.
It's a fun skill, definitely a twist I wasn't expecting. I can't imagine that anyone, before seeing the skill in a video or in-game, could have predicted it would look like that. It's not for me personally though. Strafe is a ranged version of whirlwind. You turn black and scary and spin around firing while slowing gliding in the direction of your cursor. If I were to ever use it I'd have to wait until level 18 to get equilibrium (30% increased rate of fire). Every time I tested it on a room of bad guys it always left big gaps of undamaged area, especially when there were a lot of breakable objects present to absorb shots.
Multishot would appear to be much more consistent.
Well its not like once you cast it you're unable to do anything else. You cast it on a group and go to town with your other spells. Its a snare with added damage and the CD is very short, by the time it wears off its almost ready to be cast again. Caltrops doesn't do damage does it? In fact it's 1 of only a few skills in the game that does AoE snare + damage. It's amazing and so is it's damage.
this^
GoTD rapes huge groups in mere seconds.
@ OP: the WD frogs arent self targeting. and obviously the WD pets are self targeting. they would be horrible if they werent. i get that you said its not for you and its your opinion but from what you described thats the exact opposite feel the WD has. he has the widest diversity of skills in the game by far so hes the least boring because of that fact (fact that he has the widest diversity not that everyone thinks hes the least boring). i see a lot of people saying this because frankly they dont know how to use him properly at all, they will pick 2-3 skills they dont know how to use, test him for a bit and then say he sucks because they dont know how to properly execute certain skills.
besides that good post. +1
I was really eager to try the beta mainly because I wanted to get a feel of the characters before making my decision on release so I wouldn't waste the first 2-3 days playing with my mates before deciding to re-roll and being left behind.
This should suffice if I never end up getting one, I've always been a fan of casters classes in D2, WoW, Ragnarok and other MMOs, however the wizard doesn't seem to be all the all powerful glass cannon as I had hoped.
I always felt mage classes should have tons more DPS and damage to compensate for how frail they are, but considering how powerful and mobile the barb and DH are, might as well just choose the beefy and high damage class instead.
I'm glad to see the DH is cool, I also plan to use Rapid Fire as my main skill.
Did you try Evasive Fire instead of Vault?
Maybe the WD will feel better in the final game, with the full package.
I like the toads, they look like a slow version of Charged Bolt.
And you changed my mind about GoTD, can't wait to try it when I'll have the game
It seems like a good crowd control skill.
The wizard does a ton of damage, it just isn't aggressive damage. What I mean is, I want my character to be screaming and killing at the same time lol. Wizard is more cool and collected, calmly casting spells with a straight face and giggling about it afterwards (there are several voice-acted lines that trigger after kills and hers are always cocky snarky comments, great way to add character flavor).
Wizard spells are pretty, not scary or threatening looking. I think you'd find the damage to be completely on par. There's even a passive called glass cannon that lowers your armor/resistance and increases your damage.
The best part of evasive fire is that it has no travel time. You don't see an arrow fly across the screen, the monster is instead instantly hit like you fired a bullet. The worst part is the single target nature of the skill and flipping when you don't intend to. After using it I got the impression it was made only for situational use and not as a primary attack. Hungering arrow was far superior as a killer (single target and crowd).
Oh there's no question, I know you're right lol. I tested him thoroughly to the level cap and I still felt like I was driving someone else's car. I was just happy to get it home without stripping the clutch!
Only thing that bothered me was you ranked WD as the most boring class
i love WD and now, because of you i start to feel that some of what you said is true.. heh
to be honest i just cant wait for falling zombies rune
Don't be sad! There are some WD fans here that would probably like to throw me and my sissy crossbow on a GotD zombie patch and ask me if I think it hurts. They're behind you and your WD all the way
lmao. awesome analogy. at least your one of the few to admit it. <3
100% true.
Dash strike is good for quickly move to the next enemy (it has unlimited range if you cast it on a monster, not in the ground). So it's not a mobility skill like teleport or vault. It is a skill amde to be used on monsters in order move in the battlefield or quickly engage.
However i still think Dash should deal damage in area, like a weak but almost spammable charge. It would be awesome and much more fun to use.
I agree the combo system and the lack of effensive spirit spender skills is annoying as hell. Chain two combos is not fun, specially if it evolves mouse clicks. Also diablo is not the kind of game were one should play attention to your character animation, you should be looking at the monsters and the enviorment most of the time...
In the end i think D2 assassin's combo system was much better o.O Because you could save the combo finisher (third hit not allways unleash the combo).
Yes WD feels very necro like. I never had a super high level necro but I did have one in the 70s late in the game when it started to get boring running every other class. I remember necro having more attack spells, but that could simply be because necro pets were more permanent. You had more time to cast supplemental curses and things while your army fought. WD doesn't have many permanent pets, but instead actively casts most of his pets that last for a short time before dying when the timer runs out.
But really, who needs more than one pet when you have GARGANTUAN
gargantuan + 4 zombie dogs + templar = solo ez mode
PS. they reduced his size from that pic. he looks like 6x bigger then your char. now hes only like 2-3x
awwwwwww bummer
lol i hated how big he was. he took up like half the screen man! and if u had 4 WD's all with dogs n garg's....