Regardless, that doesn't mean we won't see Necromancers as NPCs. This is not official through the interview, but the city of Ureh is within Necromancer territory, thus inevitable not to see Necromancer NPCs. Richard A. Knaak told me a few days ago "Ureh is an integral part of the game." Two years ago, Knaak also told us during the public Q&A that Blizzard had very special plans for Zayl the Necromancer.
The Necromancer, he said, was simply a victim of his own success. He was just too well crafted as a character, something that Wilson's Blizzard design cohorts, current and former, likely don't mind hearing. Necro fans on the other hand, probably won't be too thrilled to learn of his disappearance, despite the Witch Doctor class's similarities.
barbarian that uses a shield would be awesome.
YAY! This actually makes me a little happy. Granted, there's going to be "new" characters filling in the same old archetypes of "archer" and "spellcaster," I still was kinda hoping for this outcome. If they weren't going to bring back all the old characters (which woulda been kinda unoriginal) I would have wanted all new characters. Honestly, I wish the Barb went the way of the doodoo and they brought in a better pure melee character but eh, I'll live with it. I always liked the Warrior better than the Barb, mainly cuz the Barb really kinda sucked. Ya it's cool to use whirlwind the first 80 times but after that, it gets a wee bit annoying. Spin spin spin...cant do anything till I finish spinning...spin spin...heal up and repeat! Fun eh?
actually, yes, the Bone Spirit was in Diablo 1. It was one of the rarest skill books to drop and frankly, wasn't very useful of a spell because if memory served, it only halved a monster's HP but could never kill it. Also, because there was alot of magic resist in all monsters, it pretty much did nothing to them, especially to boss monsters (Lazerous, Diablo, the Butcher, etc). That and it couldn't target Player Characters in PvP same as with the Apocolypse spell (thank God that didn't come back into Diablo 2 lol)
you're kidding right?
Diablo 1 Classes:
Warrior
Rogue
Sorcerer
Diablo 2 Classes:
Barbarian
Amazon
Paladin
Necromancer
Sorceress
Assassin
Druid
Diablo 3 Classes: (so far)
Barbarian
Witch Doctor
Now no one has an excuse for not knowing the classes...seriously...how could you call yourself a Diablo fan and not know the class names no matter how long ago you played...
i recall a monk class among others in there.
barbarians ought to have new moves after twenty years of battle and journeying.
barbarian should have mercenaries that follow him.
after all he defeated Diablo.
legend like that doesn't die with age.
that is a good new barbarian skill - summon tribal barbarians!
I wonder if and how they'll incorporate the old classes as NPCs. I think it would be cool if you could hire them as mercenaries.
Haha, what a brilliant way of pussyfooting around necro fans. He was so good we COULDN'T use him again. PR genius- considering it appears to have worked.
Necro did rock hard, but witch doctor has some serious potential.
If only blizz would actually release some solid content.
Yes, there was a Hellfire expansion pack; but Hellfire was an authorized version that was created and released by Sierra not Blizzard. Blizzard did not support the expansion in any way that I know of. I have it, but didn't really care all that much for it. It rather took away from the demonic posture that Diablo I possessed.
Other than that, I'm looking forward to seeing what else they come up with for classes. Yes, I'm rather disappointed that the Necro isn't going to be in the original release. No, it doesn't deter me from the new game in any way, though I must admit that it was the Necro's perfection that I so adored. I don't see how they could possibly justify sending the Necromancer away permanently since he is such an integral part of the world of Sanctuary.
The new style of HnS where you actually need to think means that the DIII barb is going to be very different. Old skills just have to be totally rebalanced. He won't be the barb of old. No unlimited pots of health. You have to choose which monsters from a mob to hit. As health orbs have a limited time you also have to choose when and how often to hit a boss's minions.
The boss will pick away at you in DIII compared to big 25% or more HP damage in DII. In DII we'd tolerate a bit of slow HP damage but now we must remember that every little bit of damage actually counts in DIII because we just can't thump the four buttons of our belt any more.
The barb needs to circle his quarry now, to buy a little thinking time or to wait for better positioning of minions. Minions / bosses will try to draw you into a location more conducive to your hero getting swarmed.
The barb needs a complete rejig.
The other classes aren't pure melee. They have always stood back a bit, even the Paladin. The Druid had to choose his moment to charge up and then unleash his rage but mostly his bear took care of attracting the focus of the monsters... The sorceress had to get a little closer to do a one shot 25% damage then back off. The necro would hardly even be able to see any of the battle as it could be off screen yet he'd still rake in the experience points.
The other classes could probably cope as is with DIII. Especially the necro.
Thus no hope of the necro reappearing - Blizzard want to keep things new and fresh.
The barb in DIII is nothing like the barb of DII so he's fresh to go.
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What really excites me is that we have Diablo III - it's the game we love - but everything is new.
I compare that to the massive disappointment of Civ IV. It's basically Civ III with updated graphics. Boring. Same old style of game play. Nothing really fundamental changed.
Yet Blizzard have changed the fundamentals of Diablo but it is still the same Diablo. Go figure.
The remaining classes can only be created in 1 of 2 ways.
They can make a class to fill the positions of amazon and sorcerer leaving the third to be w\e they choose.
OR
They can choose to make 3 completely different classes that fit none of the current archetypes, which is way more risky but also a much more exciting verdict if they can pull it off.
either way cant wait to see what they do