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Let me begin by saying that I know there are a hundred of these and speculating on the last class is almost as useless as guessing will the game will come out. But with that in mind, here is my idea for the last class. I will break down ideas into different categories, explain what we do have and explain what we don't. I will then take these conclusions to explain my idea for the fifth class. (color and smilies have been added to avoid the text wall).

Lore -
Lore is very important to Diablo and therefore it is important for the characters to have a wide array of background and lore. The is the big brute out for vengeance. The :wiz:, the cocky know it all. The is holier than thou. The is the strange recluse. What we still need is a character who is looking out for him/her self. This evil on the world is stopping what they do and that is why he/she fights against them. They have joined the fight to look out for only themselves.

Location -
It is important that the last class come from an area where previous classes have not come from yet. is from the north/west area (or at least use to be), the originally hails from Xiansai, the is from Ivgorod which is in the foothills of the sharval wilds (west area). the is from the torajan jungles south/east area. We know the druid from the north is out and the amazon from the isles south is out. This leaves only one distinct place for the last class to come from, the giant area in the middle, the desert area. whether it is lut gholein, caldeum or some nnew place, the desert is huge but homes no hero, yet.

Weapons / Skills -
Most obviously, we still need our ranged melee hero. I find it hard to believe that Blizzard would leave out such a classic archetype. However, there are still a range other skills that need filled (at least looking back at D2). Spears have also not been shown featured on any previous class. Auras have yet to be shown on a particular class. While Blizzard said the obvious choice would be the they also said it might be too obvious, leaving auras for the last class. There is also the popular traps of D2. No class yet has any skills similar to the traps beyond the :monk:'s runes. So I think the last class will be bows/spears, traps and auras. There is also no room left for any type of elemental damage. Blizzard has said that they want each class to be very unique and so far no class has had the same type of damage (excluding the 1-2 fire spells the has).

Looks -
Blizzard has said that they want each class to have a very distinct look. That you instantly know what class that is when you see it. Armor wise, every class will be able to wear any armor but each class is featured with a particular style. the has his heavy metal armor (as barbaric as it looks compared to say a knight). the has her robes. The has his light armor and the has his tribal feathers. One major version of armor that we are missing is a mid-grade style. Someone featured in chain mail. Not as light as cloth but not as heavy as plate. There is also the talk about race of the characters. While real races do not exist in Sanctuary, their looks undoubtedly come from real world ethnicities. the and are both angloid, the is mongloid, and the is negroid. What we don't have is a character is is a bit darker. Such as someone form the middle-east.

Rumors -
Lastly, are the rumors and hearsay about the last class. The biggest one being that they have said that there are no more returning classes from D2. A lot of people speculate a return from the D1 character rogue. I feel that the rogue, by essence of the title, is a quick stealthy character. There is no need for stealth in a game as quick paced as diablo and the has the quick area covered already. There is also the idea that the hero is a character from D2 but not necessarily one of the classes. Another rumor is that the was not supposed to be revealed at last year's Blizzcon. Blizzard said that the last class was being looked at again because they designed it a long time ago and since then, things have changed and they needed to change this character. This means that the class has been thought up of awhile ago and that they really want this character to be in the game. I think that Act 2 and the Desert landscape was meant to be shown with a different class than the monk is hails from a forest area.

Conclusion -
I introduce you to my idea for the last character, the Mercenary. That is right the Act II hireling from Diablo 2. The mercenary hails from the desert, wears chain mail (graphics wise) used pole arms, has auras, and is a character people know form Diablo but is not a returning class. The biggest stretch is the class using a bow. But I see no problems adding the bow to a mercenary class. A mercenary would probably be trained in many different weapon styles. A mercenary could also be in it for himself because he needs people who need protection to continue doing their job. The Mercenary fits very well into the areas we are missing and could easily fill out the line-up of D3 heroes.

I like "Mercenary", while they are usually the lackey of someone else, the name itself represents murder and carnage.

As for traps, I am sure a trained killing machine would be trained in ways of killing people without having to do the grunt work all of the time. If you have to kill eight guys, why not through some sort of trap to kill most of them and then you can pick of the remaining much easier.

I think it would be cool if a class had more of a mechanical approach to traps. Apparently they do exist in the World of Sanctuary. something were blades shout out or trip wire traps where monsters walking across it will set it off. I think that this class could be more modern (in Diablo's terms) than the other classes.

P.C. way of saying white or anglo-saxon.

Most sociologist and historians branch people into angloid - white, mongoloid - Asain, and negroid - black.

I am basically saying we have tow white guys an Asian and a black guy. Looks wise, we need someone different than that, someone with a darker complexion and features.

Just thought of something else to add to the OP. The rumor of the monk not being who they planned on showing at Blizzcon. Maybe the desert set up with act 2 was supposed to match with the desert mercenary.

That's some thorough research you did there Scyber! I have agreed with you on the idea for the fifth class for some time, but I would rename it to desert raider. It makes it much more appealing to use bows this way.

My first Act 2 mercenary was Alhizeer. I will seriously create that guy again, since Alhizeer has been the buddy of my first necromancer for years.

Quote from "maka" »

that's.....seriously wrong. anglo-saxon? i'm white and i don't have a drop of anglo-saxon blood in me. you might want to change it to Caucasoid.

as for the idea.........i like it!

Have you traced your heritage back to people from the Caucasus Mountains?

As for the mercenary idea, I was hoping for it before the monk was even announced. I don't see any reason they couldn't use bows and even have a skill tree devoted to them.

As for lore, it seems easy enough for a mercenary to have left his Lut Gholain job after the events in D2 act 2 to take on the typical travel the world, hunt the bad guy, be a hero role. Of course, they could also have a mercenary come from just about anywhere, but the idea of a former mercenary from Lut Gholain always struck me as being particularly nice.

It doesn;t matter because we are not actually talking about race, just an overall appearance of the characters in reference to real world.

back on topic.

This definitely sounds like it could be legit and you pretty much hit the nail on the head with this idea and I think you might be right. It seems to fit so well together with everything, and he sounds like he would be a badass character to play.

Btw cool sig, Scyber.

I Like the concept for it Scyber, and, as it obviously has lore and has already played somewhat of a role in Diablo, is a very sound theory.

I still like my Geomancer idea, though, and I'll stick to that. If I could ever find that thread and actually be intelligent enough to know how to link it, (I know, my name tag says "I. R. Failmode") I'd show my idea to you guys.

Didn't they also state the last class would be a returning character from the Diablo franchise? This character's already in D2, so that would be a returning character.

they haven't specifically said it is a returning character but exactly, he is a character and not a class (yet).

The Geomancer

Thanks, Scyber! I'd throw more rep your way but I've already done so. Hmm...I have points though...

Also, the concept I thought of would qualify for that "returning class" idea as they are basically druids.

Quote from "maka" »

...Because, seriously, for someone that does Genetics work for a living, what you said just sounds stupid. replacing 'white' with 'anglo-saxon' makes absolutely no sense whatsoever...

It made sense to me, probably because I don't do genetics work for a living. I saw "Angloid" I thought "White."

On topic, Mercenary would be a cool name. Class seems pretty neat

I'd just love to say it. "Man I played my Merc for hours the other day." It just rolls off the tongue.

I doubt Bashiok would respond to any real chance of the fifth class.

OK then, how do you think he'd respond to possible expansion classes? I'm not gonna give up, dang it!

I don't like auras and the titel of the character, but the rest was cool.

Well, they have said auras will be in the game so why not add it to a character that already has them. As far as the name, they can't change it if they are using this character.

Its good if they have auras, but I personally never liked auras. But spear and bow is cool and it probably promoted with some kind of a twist.

Yeah. I like the combination of the two and I think they need someone different enough from the Amazon so people do not associate the new class with it.