The Demon Hunter Unveiled
... For the fifth class.
Today at Blizzcon, the Demon Hunter was revealed to us all. A bow slinging, demon hunting, trap setting conventional ranged character has been given to us.
-Development-
During development dual daggers were tried out, but Blizzard felt this really took away from the ranged feel, thus they made the move to dual wielding crossbows. At first, the Demon Hunter wasn't even human. It started out as a full demon, and more recently, a demon/human hybrid. Now, with the released version, the Demon Hunter is fully human. A sleek medieval look has been settled upon, with a signature scarf and arm guard present on all concept models shown.
-The Lore-
Abd al-Hazir has brought us yet another class story, with a dark, demonic flavor to it. The Demon Hunters are essentially nomads, having lost all they knew and loved to the hells, they chose to pursue a life of vengeance above all else. They number in the hundreds, and choose to make their home in the Dreadlands. All demon hunters have an innate ability to resist the demonic taint present in the Dreadlands, allowing them to use demonic magics against their enemies while retaining their sanity.
But what could this mean? From the sounds of it, the Demon Hunters will use anything and everything at their disposal to take the fight to their sworn enemies. In one of the panels on the Demon Hunter, Jay Wilson briefly talked about using demonic organs as weaponry. Whether this was a definite "yes, you can craft with demonic organs" or not, is yet to be seen. However, in the release video the Demon Hunter is shown as using an arrow crafted from the tooth of a demon, thus, I personally believe we will be able to use demonic trophies to enhance our skills and items. I can expect this to take the form of special crafting recipes.
-The Skills-
Currently, the Demon Hunter has traps & gadgets, shadow magic, and various bow skills at her disposal. We've been shown several skills so far, and here they are.
Molten Arrow
The Demon Hunter shoots a crossbow bolt infused with flame which passes through enemies, and leaves behind a flaming wake, dealing damage to all enemies to try to cross it. Essentially, it's a fire wall that you can shoot.
Grenade
Seems to function similarily to the Witch Doctor's Skull of Flame. The video shows the Demon Hunter throwing out 3 small globes, which bounce briefly, then explode, dealing AOE to all nearby enemies. It was also shown to break a shield skeletons shield, which suggests AOE damage dealt from behind the shield can disarm them, giving this skill a spot as a sort of "combat utility" skill.
Bola
This skill allows the Demon Hunter to shoot a bola arrow, which wraps around whatever it hits. The enemies are not slowed however, but several seconds after being hit they exploded. AOE damage was dealt to everything nearby.
Vault
The obligatory movement skill. The Demon Hunter performs an acrobatic roll to reach new locations, or to escape from enemies. I can definitely see this skill being combined with Molten Arrow, allowing the Demon Hunter to quickly set up a wall, and retreat behind it before being in the line of fire.
Spike Trap
Taking a hint from the Assassin, the Demon Hunter sets up a trap that lies in wait for enemies. Upon being walked over, the trap opens up and enemies above it.
Fan of Knives
The Demon Hunter twirls in place, sending knives in all directions around her. AOE damage is dealt to all nearby enemies. This skill was shown being used with Vault, the Demon Hunter would roll into position, and release knives directly into a mob of enemies.
Entangling Shot
The Demon Hunter shoots out an arrow that bounces between several enemies, linking them with a blackish purplish line, slowing each down. The linking seemed to have to affect, though perhaps the slowing affect is made more serious based on how many enemies are linked to the same arrow?
-Tactical Considerations-
From the sounds of it, this character will take some planning to use effectively. With the theme of traps in mind, Demon Hunter players will no doubt benefit from careful planning and preparation. Jay Wilson himself said in one of the panels that this was the feel they were going for, as a bounty hunter they wanted the Demon Hunter to be prepared for battle. With the various skills she has at her disposal, she will be able to dictate the flow and pace of combat on her own terms.
Things to keep in mind, are the ways the skills functioned. If you watch the Bola video, you will notice the bola wrapping around a pillar, then exploding soon after. Tactics like this would allow the Demon Hunter to preemptively shoot a Bola, and run away while her enemies drew closer to the "trapped" environment. This skill may even be able to bring down walls after a delayed timer, allowing for more tactical use of the environment than other characters.
Don't worry, you can play both :whistling:
This.
I mean, is it a debate as to what class you want to play first or what class is better?
It somehow manages to get worse. "Imagine, a headstrong nineteen-year-old youth, able to warp time itself to her will!" There's no such thing as a headstrong nineteen year old. It's like, the thing that's supposed to be most remarkable about this class is that she's running around acting like an immature selfish bitch. Is this Blizzard's idea of inspiring? Or is this just like a demographic thing? I'm sure teens everywhere are just DYING to play as the Wizard cause like, totally!
He's going to be such a mischievous lil' scamp.
To me, it almost takes away from the immersion of it all. Just doesn't make sense that you'd have people fighting demons and trying to save the world who have barely had time to live and grow.
In some way, the Wizard's background story seems all too similar to the Sorceress, just minus all the nobility. They are both trying to prove themselves, but the Wizard is more just trying to prove herself individually cause screw Masterson back at the magic school for giving her an A-. But the Sorceress is trying to prove not just herself, but that elemental magic is the supreme form of magic in Sanctuary. Like, she's trying to score one for her team.
Consider a class like the Necromancer. They're not just out there adventuring for the sake of killing shit. They're more like investigators and they seek knowledge while ultimately striving to maintain a balance between good and evil.
Or an Assassin. They have assignments, they wait for orders, they are a bit more calculating about their methods and motives.
But with the Dark Hunters, if I was writing their lore I would've come up with a good reason that she was so young. And that could've been that because of their reckless quest for revenge, many do not live beyond so many years. And that would've made them more interesting. She didn't have to be young just cause she happened to be, but because her profession does not contribute to a long healthy lifespan. And the motive of revenge means that you're just out to kill whenever and wherever you can. And THAT'S perhaps why the Demon Hunter was at a young age. Because finding one who lived into their thirties or forties would be pretty rare. I'm just saying, that's a detail I would've included in writing her lore just to make her more interesting.
I would say it's a recurrent theme for all chars. At least that's what I felt when they were revealed.
WD is so badass he'll use people he beats up as sacrifices for rituals
Barb is so badass that when you click on him, he spits to the side.(I seriously wanted to bash his face each time that happened. Glad they took it off)
Wiz and DH are so badass...well you already explained it well enough
Monk is so badass he sees god in everything and he kicks people's and demon's asses in taverns to reveal his epic skillz.
I think people are missing a knight mostly because of the nobility associated with one. I mean even a dark knight would have to possess some nobility and perhaps some very-hard--to-find humility which is an attribute that blizz developers want to stay far away from. Maybe due to the lack of badassness associated with such a thing.
D3 is definitely a game aimed at teens- at least anybody with the mental predisposition of one.
Really? I didn't know that. But yeah it's good they got rid of it. Just cause he's a Barbarian it doesn't mean has to be so low brow and redneckish.
Well the point I was trying to make about the Wizard was that her motivations were not something I could really relate to at all. And the point I was trying to make about the Demon Hunter's age was that it could've been interesting if the lore had just pointed out in a few sentences how their profession and need for revenge tends to shorten their lifespan. Occupational hazard sort of stuff. Obviously each class will go looking for evil cause you're playing the character and looking for stuff to kill. But sometimes killing should maybe be the consequence of another thing that's driving you. Questing for one thing should just consequently result in people getting killed.
See and the Monk could be bound by a covenant to wander alone and destroy evil where he finds it. This in a way makes him similar to the DH, but he's allowed just to wander as he is as a vagabond until the need of his skills are apparent. I guess I'm just trying to find justifications for why they do what they do even though when I'm playing the game I won't feel I need any of that stuff.
That and people just wanted something more familiar I think.
Do you really think that was their philosophy on character design? Surely the Paladin seemed pretty badass in all his calm and humble slaying of evil. I think it was his very humility that made him so badass. He was so badass simply cause he wasn't trying to be.
I'd like to think games like Diablo 3 are intended for a somewhat more mentally mature audience though. I mean, I've played a lot of hours of multiplayer Halo. And while I can admit that there are shitloads of trolls and generic assholes on Battle.net, playing Halo with other strangers is far worse when it comes to dealing with mature people.
The thing is I'll be playing D3 single player A LOT. So lore and character background is a big deal for me(not saying that people playing MP or online won't care). Obviously all of this can change once we start interacting with NPCs. But it doesn't look promising at all with the direction they are taking. Like Zhar previously said- it takes away the immersion.
Ah Necromancer, how I miss you. He was a cheeky bastard with his in-game speech sequences but his background was among the coolest.
That was one D2 char who had an actual purpose and reason to 'save' the whole of Sanctuary.
When the game is released, we shall see. I still have hope.
Like, seriously, wielding two crossbows? Isn't that a bit ridiculous? I don't think that's something that would have ever fit into a Diablo game before.
Besides that, I like the design, despite the whole thing being too over-the-top trying to be 'cool'.
First, but y'all are right. I need not worry about it.
Someone hit the nail on the head: Diablo version of Laura Croft. I might add that she seems like a female Diablo version of The Punisher (Frank Castle): a dark vigilante anti-hero, out for revenge against those that killed her family, using all manner of crossbows and explosives.
My problem with this is that it seems like all the other characters have a primary weapon/attack skill, which is supplemented with a vast array of other dynamic attacks that fit the character. The Demon Hunter has two crossbows (which in-and-of-itself is pretty silly, how do you reload two crossbows?) and with these two crossbows she can shoot single arrows, fiery arrows, explosive arrows, entangling arrows, a shotgun blast of... you got it, arrows, you can spin around and throw out lots of knives (which look like arrows), oh yeah and you can throw grenades and do cartwheels.
All the other characters have a well thought out and designed cohesion between their backstory, visual design, and all of their attacks and skills. The Demon Hunter is just a random assortment of technology based attacks almost entirely focused on the dual crossbows. Even the currently proposed armor doesn't match the design of the character. Why does a fast-moving gun-wielding assassin have armor like a six ton Juggernaut? (Ninjas in plate mail.)
I'll give the benefit of the doubt to the designers over at Blizzard, that there is more to know about the Demon Hunter,. Hopefully we'll get some more information that will fill in the (huge) blanks and lack of depth. As of right now, the Demon Hunter is clearly the least dynamic character of the bunch.
Yes, on the second part. I totally agree. However, as to the first part, no, not exactly. While it is important for the characters to be visually pleasing and have a great 'silhouette' as the developers repeatedly pointed out throughout all the panels. It doesn't make sense for a character to be wearing heavy plate mail and be dancing all around. I think most people would scoff at seeing that and point out the ridiculousness.
Although know that I think about it, I think there are examples of every class doing that. I would assume though that they are using some kind of skill/spell in order to achieve it. The Barbarian gets away with it though because he's the human incarnation of Atlas.