The first thing I thought of when I saw this skill was: Kulle's rocks drop. Who can forget how annoying it is for him to cast that on you while you are time warped?
So Kulle is a barbarian then.
Also, I thought how much they advertised Crusader as the ranged-melee class and they also add a ranged attack casted by Barbarian the Wizard? Now it looks like a range-melee class like Crusader. Crusader casts lightning and Barb can now drop rocks on enemies.
I was hoping for a sick melee skill, avalanche seems lame. I mean it's okay, maybe if they made it seem more powerful from the caster's end. Aside from it being cast with a shout, there needs to be some kind of echoing effect that makes it seem like the shout was so loud that it caused an avalanche... right now it's just too light. But what we saw was the alpha build so maybe they will make additions.
The way I imagined it would be a huge shock wave around the Barb that shows the power of the sound that it knocks away projectiles and monsters near him, and then the screen shakes and rocks pour from above. The rocks they got down pretty nicely, but I think the cast animation should be more than the default shout animation.
Here's what I imagined would fit the Barbarian better:
I think a more dramatic skill instead of avalanche that comes from the ground itself and makes it more like the Barb is making use of the ground, than just spawning rocks from the sky or assuming they somehow came from a mountain above, is a Volcanic Eruption (or just Eruption) maybe, have rocks and lava erupt from under after he stomps the ground creating a split in the ground.
It's sort of like Earthquake because the graphics on that look like a volcanic fissures somewhat, but Earthquake is only AoE under you, while a long volcanic fissure can actually be a ranged attack. You can do that for a long-ranged attack even, making a huge rift in front of you spewing lava, doing damage in a line that stays like a wall. This even gives it a tactical usage, you can run around the wall to avoid enemies or bait them into it.
A second way to do it, the Barb stomps the ground so hard it cracks the ground around him, one of the cracks where you cast it starts to actually spawn a volcano from underground, not under you, but somewhere in front of you unlike Earthquake. You see the ground rise like a growing volcano from flat ground, the earth rises and you can see smoke and fumes coming from underneath, and then the tip explodes creating rocks, ash, and lava falling from the sky burning and melting everything around. Who wouldn't like to fight under raining lava and rocks? This one since it's delayed you can cast it and lure monsters to it.
And another way is, rather than a volcano growing out of the ground as I first imagined it, just a plain eruption of lava from the ground in front of you that casts radius AoE damage rather than a line, a much more explosive method. How you can make this look completely melee rather than cast, you can make him slam his weapon into the ground so hard, you see a crack to where you cast it, and then the eruption at the point. It's kind of like the Barbarian version of all the ranged AoE spells like Meteor or the lightning of the Crusader, but using a melee style to create it.
These could be the variations for the different runes possible.
Avalanche is an okay idea but the animation looks lame, it's just a bunch of Meteors that hit the ground and instantly vanish. An avalanche of rocks should cause a lot of rumbling, bounce around and break up, etc.
So Kulle is a barbarian then.
Also, I thought how much they advertised Crusader as the ranged-melee class and they also add a ranged attack casted by Barbarian the Wizard? Now it looks like a range-melee class like Crusader. Crusader casts lightning and Barb can now drop rocks on enemies.
I was hoping for a sick melee skill, avalanche seems lame. I mean it's okay, maybe if they made it seem more powerful from the caster's end. Aside from it being cast with a shout, there needs to be some kind of echoing effect that makes it seem like the shout was so loud that it caused an avalanche... right now it's just too light. But what we saw was the alpha build so maybe they will make additions.
The way I imagined it would be a huge shock wave around the Barb that shows the power of the sound that it knocks away projectiles and monsters near him, and then the screen shakes and rocks pour from above. The rocks they got down pretty nicely, but I think the cast animation should be more than the default shout animation.
Here's what I imagined would fit the Barbarian better:
I think a more dramatic skill instead of avalanche that comes from the ground itself and makes it more like the Barb is making use of the ground, than just spawning rocks from the sky or assuming they somehow came from a mountain above, is a Volcanic Eruption (or just Eruption) maybe, have rocks and lava erupt from under after he stomps the ground creating a split in the ground.
It's sort of like Earthquake because the graphics on that look like a volcanic fissures somewhat, but Earthquake is only AoE under you, while a long volcanic fissure can actually be a ranged attack. You can do that for a long-ranged attack even, making a huge rift in front of you spewing lava, doing damage in a line that stays like a wall. This even gives it a tactical usage, you can run around the wall to avoid enemies or bait them into it.
For example. http://upload.wikime...4/Volcano_q.jpg
A second way to do it, the Barb stomps the ground so hard it cracks the ground around him, one of the cracks where you cast it starts to actually spawn a volcano from underground, not under you, but somewhere in front of you unlike Earthquake. You see the ground rise like a growing volcano from flat ground, the earth rises and you can see smoke and fumes coming from underneath, and then the tip explodes creating rocks, ash, and lava falling from the sky burning and melting everything around. Who wouldn't like to fight under raining lava and rocks? This one since it's delayed you can cast it and lure monsters to it.
And another way is, rather than a volcano growing out of the ground as I first imagined it, just a plain eruption of lava from the ground in front of you that casts radius AoE damage rather than a line, a much more explosive method. How you can make this look completely melee rather than cast, you can make him slam his weapon into the ground so hard, you see a crack to where you cast it, and then the eruption at the point. It's kind of like the Barbarian version of all the ranged AoE spells like Meteor or the lightning of the Crusader, but using a melee style to create it.
These could be the variations for the different runes possible.
http://us.battle.net...pic/10573407345
Unless maybe Avalanche made a mountain rise from the ground, block the enemies path and made the rocks fall on them. Then I'd dig it