I don't know if any of you ever Low Level Dueled, but it's essentially using Jewels and Charms to make your low level character mega good. To me, it got ruined when Runewords like 'Spirit' were made so a million level 30s suddenly popped up. Prior to that there was nothing funner for me and my brothers in the world. I haven't done it much in years, but countless unique low level builds have popped up, in some cases utilizing inexplicably rare or overlooked mods on items to their advantage. It was a relatively short-lived period for us, and we were on-and-off at best, but man did we ever have a blast making low level duelers. I hope it's viable to do so in Diablo 3.
PvP was never the intention for Diablo 2, but I don't think the creators even envisioned that people would create low level duelers like they did. I hope in Diablo 3 they take it into account and make it competitive and possible.
THE FOLLOWING IS A RANDOM STORY ABOUT ME AND MY BROTHERS' SOMEWHAT LIMITED EXPERIENCE IN THE LOW LEVEL DUELING WORLD OF DIABLO 2. IN OTHER WORDS, YOU DON'T HAVE TO WASTE YOUR TIME READING IT.
Shortly after me and my brothers bought the expansion in 2001 (or whenever it was released) we obsessed over it while we were on a long vacation with our grandparents. The anticipation built up and we couldn't wait until we got home to play as the Assassin and Druid! In hindsight, it probably ruined our last vacation we took with our grandparents. Bad call on our part, should have enjoyed the scenery...I digress.
I'm not sure how long into playing the expansion it was that we discovered Low Level Dueling. I don't know who invented it, but the expansion brought Jewels and Charms, and with those made it possible to beef up your characters to an unhealthy degree at very low levels. My oldest brother was the first of us to discover it firsthand, claiming a level 9 Assassin was completely owning his level 24 Barbarian. Impossible, we thought. No way a level 9 could beat a level 24 unless of course they were HACKING! Little did we know we were about to enter a world in which we could flip the table and be accused of hacking countless times ourselves.
First thing on our minds was revenge. We needed to make an awesome character to beat these stupid "hacking" assassins. There was more than one and apparently they were constantly in the dueling scene. Well, at some point we realized they weren't hacking and realized what they were doing, but something got lost in translation as our first attempt at a Low Level Dueler was, I believe, a level 18 Barbarian who wielded two 6-socket Crystal Swords pumped full of nothing but Perfect Emeralds. You know, for poison damage! No way those little twerp assassins could handle us now! Revenge was imminent!
They continued to completely slaughter us. Perplexed, we didn't know what to do. Oh, max damage jewels? Not gems? Oh, you need CHARMS? That makes sense. The first Low Level Dueler I remember was, the love of my life and long since gone from it: a_ball. That was her name, a_ball. She was my brainchild and I just thought it would be HILARIOUS if it said people were slain by a_ball (I was like 12 at the time, shuddap). She was a level 9 Tiger Strike Assassin, a very common level 9 build especially at the time when LLD was hardly popular. She had 3x 9 max damage jewels in superior 15% enhanced damage 3-socketed Blade Talons. The same in a superior 15% enhanced defense breast plate. And the same 3 jewels in a superior 3-socketed mask. Little did I know it was possible to get 8-minimum damage jewels, which are insanely rare and I've never even owned one. But they are far superior to 9-maxers.
Anyways, the fun we had with her was incredible. Getting constantly accused of hacking was something that never stopped being fun. Charging up Tiger Strike and one-hit killing level 25 to 30 sorceresses. Eventually we cheaped out and made a_ball level 13 for Cow King's boots and the Angelic Rings and Amulet. She was only the first of numerous LLD's we had. Probably our best was my brother's creation, Banana_Berry. A level 18 jabazon. We could never find her ethereal repairing War Javelins, but we had some good rare javelins, Twitchthroe, and really good charms. Prior to whatever patch it was that made life leech no longer work in duels, before that was the prime time for low level dueling. Banana_Berry could hold her own against some really, really good level 24 Concentrate barbarians. They all used the Blood Crescent scimitar since it had crazy life leech. There were also tons of level 27 zealots who used 'Honor' Divine Scepters. They were, in a word, godly. Yet our level 18 could hold her own against them.
Now that I think about it...Mine and my brothers' true favorite was actually one of my own creations. This was still prior to the installment of STUPID DUMB runewords like 'Spirit' that came around and mucked everything up. You were able to find good rare items that could set you apart from the field. Case in point, my brother found a sorceress orb that was, I believe, and it is an absolute TRAVESTY that we allowed this to disappear due to disinterest, but it had +3 Fireball, +1 Sorceress Skills, +1 Fire skills, 20% FCR, around 50-60 mana and some other useful things. So in one orb alone we had +5 to fireball! It had a level 23 requirement so I thought, man, let's just make a level 23 sorceress and use that baby!
I called her P_NutFB or something. No idea why, I think I liked my cat Peanut. My brothers thought it was a stupid idea. They told me she would stink, etc., etc. So we got her rushed and stuff, got her max block, put the rest into Vitality, pumped up fireball and I think we got it doing around 600-700 damage. Now, there are numerous ways even at a low level to nullify fire damage. Nokozan Relic, Hot Spur boots, etc. But we never met a level 18 zealot (very popular at the time) that could beat our little sorc. We could also put down some newb levels 40s no problem. She didn't fit into any of the "guidelines" specified by LLD101.com, what many people went by, but there were few LLD's that even considered a level 23 sorc to be anything but a newb. That's what was so satisfying about her. We had an orb that no one in the entire realm was likely to have, and we made a character that therefore no one else likely could have. Then, at some point, the stupid patch came with all those runewords and we quit playing for whatever reason, lost the LLD's and just moved on I guess. There were countless others, and nothing was much funner than low level dueling. Which is why I hope it's still viable in D3.
Indeed. Hunter/Ranger type. But I still like the idea of a samurai. Eeeeeee
Ha ha, as AWESOME as a Samurai-(or Ninja-)based class would be, I'm not sure I see it fitting in to D3. Samurais would be largely melee-driven characters, and let's face it, the Barbarian probably covers that area in D3. They don't present much flexibility, where the Barbarian has the numerous rage-fueled melee skills, shouts, taunts, and earth-smashing tactical abilities. Also, when you think of a Samurai you envision them wielding a curved katana, and not anything else. Not really enough weapon flexibility, whereas you have the Barbarian who is essentially a master of anything sharp and pointy! Ninjas would be as stealth-driven as the Samurai is melee-driven. I don't see a stealthed, hiding-in-the-shadows character storming through epic landscapes slaughtering the creatures of the Burning Hells. However, ninja stars and poison darts would be AWSHUM! :thumbsup:
WITHOUT A DOUBT: Witch Doctor! The Barbarian is obviously a hands-on bloodbath-making machine, and as fun as that sounds, I think the Witch Doctor's sleuth of diseases, summons, curses, or whatever will make for unlimited fun. Plus, based on the gameplay videos, they get to cause the most visual chaos! Locusts, summoning, imbuing your summons with locusts, and then exploding your summoned creature?! Yes please.
Not that I would want to rip a class straight from WoW and give it similar properties, I think it would transfer well to D3 and offer much-needed versatility. It would also allow TRAPS to make their way back into the game, since the Assassin is not.
I just joined but like many of you I'm ferociously anticipating the release of Diablo III. After hopelessly reading and re-reading all the content on the website. And after drooling over the gory awesomeness of the gameplay videos, I finally started to think about it. There can't really be just four classes, can there? Well of course not, hence the very topic I am now about to discuss.
Bare in mind, this is before I did even a google search of a possible fifth class. So I broke down each class and what I'm speculating they'll bring to the table based on previous classes. Then I'm making my prediction on what the fifth class will be based on said speculations.
> BARBARIAN: The Barbarian is, believe it or not, going to bare a striking resemblance to the "Barbarian" class of Diablo II. I'm fooling of course, the Barbarian needs no explanation, since it's the same class (derr). So check off "Barbarian" on the Diablo II class list. One down, six to go.
> MONK: I'm mostly speculating here, but based on everything I've seen and read about the Monk, they strike me as a definite Assassin/Paladin hybrid. They will probably have the greatest restorative abilities of all the classes, as did the Paladin in D2 with rarely-used skills like Prayer and Meditation. As for the Assassin aspect of the Monk, look no further than their adept martial arts abilities. Barring traps and summoning blessed hammers to cyclically revolve around them, the Monk's similarities to the Assassin and Paladin are hard to deny. Say goodbye, Assassin and Paladin. Four classes to go. EDIT: I forgot to mention, I expect the Monk to have a variety of meditation abilities, which would be similar to the Paladin's auras in D2, which is another possible strong similarity between them.
> WITCH DOCTOR: When you're talking Witch Doctor, the similarity to the Necromancer of D2 literally explodes from him (diseases, summoning, curses probably, etc.). But I think the Witch Doctor is essentially another hybrid of two D2 classes, the other class being the Druid. Now, obviously, Witch Doctors probably won't summon wolves (but they WILL summon some pretty bad ass things I bet) or be able to shape-shift into a werewolf or werebear, but I still sense a strong Druid-like undertone in the Witch Doctor, mainly in that both classes have strong ties to the natural world. Although the Druid may not live on in the form of Witch Doctor skills, I think the Witch Doctor will have a sleuth of nature-based abilities, so the Druid will live on to an extent. Therefore, Druid and Necromancer are covered. Two classes to go.
> WIZARD: Obviously a re-imagined Sorceress (or Sorcerer, for that matter). I envision the Wizard as a class that is skilled in elemental and arcane magics. So yeah. Sorceress from D2 is covered. One class to go. But what? That's all four classes! Whaa?!
So far I've shown; at least to myself; that every class from D2 will live on whether it be in an obvious or symbolic nature in the four announced classes. But there is that one last class that remains un-lived on, so to speak. The AMAZON. It's obvious, yes, obvious, that the fifth class will be some version of an Archer/Hunter/Ranger/Amazon-hybrid.
The announcement will be interesting. If they go with an Archer, that sort of limits it to merely a bow-using class. Ranger could be seen as a dagger-wielding, bow-using rogue-like class. However, my official guess, having done next to no research on the topic, is that the fifth class will be THE HUNTER (or something very, very similar to a Hunter).
Diablo III, whether you like it or not, is going to have many similarities to WoW. This isn't a shocking revelation, it's merely common sense. And it's something I wholeheartedly embrace, as many aspects of WoW such as the elaborate talent system should transfer wonderfully to Diablo 3, even though Diablo 2's skill branches are basically the precursor to the talent trees. Oh well, to my point. I think a Hunter class in Diablo 3 would have many similarities to the Hunter class in WoW. Again, something I would strongly embrace. Let me explain:
As it is, there is no class that will likely utilize ranged weapons. The most prolific of all ranged weapons are bows and crossbows. Therefore, the class needs to be a class that could specialize in these weapons. However, the class also has to be more versatile. A Hunter class would have tons of versatility, depending on what direction Blizzard decides to go. You have the companion pet pathway to go down, you have the ranged weaponry pathway, you have a survivalist path you could go with, not to mention traps. Yes, TRAPS! The Assassin could live on in more ways than martial arts with a trap-using class. You would lose the Javelin/Spear aspect of the Amazon however, but it's not beyond reason that Barbarians will be able to specialize in thrown weapons. After all, they ARE masters of weaponry.
SUMMARY: I've mindlessly droned on far too long. As it is, every class but the Amazon appears to live on in some way with the four announced classes. The Amazon is left basically untouched so the fifth class will touch on some aspects of the Amazon, probably the bow/crossbow. I predict it will be a Hunter since it would cover that base and also allow versatility and a variety of directions to go on. I think it will have many striking similarities to the WoW Hunter class, because, you know, it's obvious. However, the vast similarity to the WoW class probably in itself means I'm dead wrong. They wouldn't want to essentially copy a class from WoW and throw it into a completely different world. But I still believe the fifth class, if not a Hunter, will be strikingly similar to a Hunter.
3
PvP was never the intention for Diablo 2, but I don't think the creators even envisioned that people would create low level duelers like they did. I hope in Diablo 3 they take it into account and make it competitive and possible.
THE FOLLOWING IS A RANDOM STORY ABOUT ME AND MY BROTHERS' SOMEWHAT LIMITED EXPERIENCE IN THE LOW LEVEL DUELING WORLD OF DIABLO 2. IN OTHER WORDS, YOU DON'T HAVE TO WASTE YOUR TIME READING IT.
Shortly after me and my brothers bought the expansion in 2001 (or whenever it was released) we obsessed over it while we were on a long vacation with our grandparents. The anticipation built up and we couldn't wait until we got home to play as the Assassin and Druid! In hindsight, it probably ruined our last vacation we took with our grandparents. Bad call on our part, should have enjoyed the scenery...I digress.
I'm not sure how long into playing the expansion it was that we discovered Low Level Dueling. I don't know who invented it, but the expansion brought Jewels and Charms, and with those made it possible to beef up your characters to an unhealthy degree at very low levels. My oldest brother was the first of us to discover it firsthand, claiming a level 9 Assassin was completely owning his level 24 Barbarian. Impossible, we thought. No way a level 9 could beat a level 24 unless of course they were HACKING! Little did we know we were about to enter a world in which we could flip the table and be accused of hacking countless times ourselves.
First thing on our minds was revenge. We needed to make an awesome character to beat these stupid "hacking" assassins. There was more than one and apparently they were constantly in the dueling scene. Well, at some point we realized they weren't hacking and realized what they were doing, but something got lost in translation as our first attempt at a Low Level Dueler was, I believe, a level 18 Barbarian who wielded two 6-socket Crystal Swords pumped full of nothing but Perfect Emeralds. You know, for poison damage! No way those little twerp assassins could handle us now! Revenge was imminent!
They continued to completely slaughter us. Perplexed, we didn't know what to do. Oh, max damage jewels? Not gems? Oh, you need CHARMS? That makes sense. The first Low Level Dueler I remember was, the love of my life and long since gone from it: a_ball. That was her name, a_ball. She was my brainchild and I just thought it would be HILARIOUS if it said people were slain by a_ball (I was like 12 at the time, shuddap). She was a level 9 Tiger Strike Assassin, a very common level 9 build especially at the time when LLD was hardly popular. She had 3x 9 max damage jewels in superior 15% enhanced damage 3-socketed Blade Talons. The same in a superior 15% enhanced defense breast plate. And the same 3 jewels in a superior 3-socketed mask. Little did I know it was possible to get 8-minimum damage jewels, which are insanely rare and I've never even owned one. But they are far superior to 9-maxers.
Anyways, the fun we had with her was incredible. Getting constantly accused of hacking was something that never stopped being fun. Charging up Tiger Strike and one-hit killing level 25 to 30 sorceresses. Eventually we cheaped out and made a_ball level 13 for Cow King's boots and the Angelic Rings and Amulet. She was only the first of numerous LLD's we had. Probably our best was my brother's creation, Banana_Berry. A level 18 jabazon. We could never find her ethereal repairing War Javelins, but we had some good rare javelins, Twitchthroe, and really good charms. Prior to whatever patch it was that made life leech no longer work in duels, before that was the prime time for low level dueling. Banana_Berry could hold her own against some really, really good level 24 Concentrate barbarians. They all used the Blood Crescent scimitar since it had crazy life leech. There were also tons of level 27 zealots who used 'Honor' Divine Scepters. They were, in a word, godly. Yet our level 18 could hold her own against them.
Now that I think about it...Mine and my brothers' true favorite was actually one of my own creations. This was still prior to the installment of STUPID DUMB runewords like 'Spirit' that came around and mucked everything up. You were able to find good rare items that could set you apart from the field. Case in point, my brother found a sorceress orb that was, I believe, and it is an absolute TRAVESTY that we allowed this to disappear due to disinterest, but it had +3 Fireball, +1 Sorceress Skills, +1 Fire skills, 20% FCR, around 50-60 mana and some other useful things. So in one orb alone we had +5 to fireball! It had a level 23 requirement so I thought, man, let's just make a level 23 sorceress and use that baby!
I called her P_NutFB or something. No idea why, I think I liked my cat Peanut. My brothers thought it was a stupid idea. They told me she would stink, etc., etc. So we got her rushed and stuff, got her max block, put the rest into Vitality, pumped up fireball and I think we got it doing around 600-700 damage. Now, there are numerous ways even at a low level to nullify fire damage. Nokozan Relic, Hot Spur boots, etc. But we never met a level 18 zealot (very popular at the time) that could beat our little sorc. We could also put down some newb levels 40s no problem. She didn't fit into any of the "guidelines" specified by LLD101.com, what many people went by, but there were few LLD's that even considered a level 23 sorc to be anything but a newb. That's what was so satisfying about her. We had an orb that no one in the entire realm was likely to have, and we made a character that therefore no one else likely could have. Then, at some point, the stupid patch came with all those runewords and we quit playing for whatever reason, lost the LLD's and just moved on I guess. There were countless others, and nothing was much funner than low level dueling. Which is why I hope it's still viable in D3.
0
Ha ha, as AWESOME as a Samurai-(or Ninja-)based class would be, I'm not sure I see it fitting in to D3. Samurais would be largely melee-driven characters, and let's face it, the Barbarian probably covers that area in D3. They don't present much flexibility, where the Barbarian has the numerous rage-fueled melee skills, shouts, taunts, and earth-smashing tactical abilities. Also, when you think of a Samurai you envision them wielding a curved katana, and not anything else. Not really enough weapon flexibility, whereas you have the Barbarian who is essentially a master of anything sharp and pointy! Ninjas would be as stealth-driven as the Samurai is melee-driven. I don't see a stealthed, hiding-in-the-shadows character storming through epic landscapes slaughtering the creatures of the Burning Hells. However, ninja stars and poison darts would be AWSHUM! :thumbsup:
0
0
Not that I would want to rip a class straight from WoW and give it similar properties, I think it would transfer well to D3 and offer much-needed versatility. It would also allow TRAPS to make their way back into the game, since the Assassin is not.
0
Bare in mind, this is before I did even a google search of a possible fifth class. So I broke down each class and what I'm speculating they'll bring to the table based on previous classes. Then I'm making my prediction on what the fifth class will be based on said speculations.
> BARBARIAN: The Barbarian is, believe it or not, going to bare a striking resemblance to the "Barbarian" class of Diablo II. I'm fooling of course, the Barbarian needs no explanation, since it's the same class (derr). So check off "Barbarian" on the Diablo II class list. One down, six to go.
> MONK: I'm mostly speculating here, but based on everything I've seen and read about the Monk, they strike me as a definite Assassin/Paladin hybrid. They will probably have the greatest restorative abilities of all the classes, as did the Paladin in D2 with rarely-used skills like Prayer and Meditation. As for the Assassin aspect of the Monk, look no further than their adept martial arts abilities. Barring traps and summoning blessed hammers to cyclically revolve around them, the Monk's similarities to the Assassin and Paladin are hard to deny. Say goodbye, Assassin and Paladin. Four classes to go. EDIT: I forgot to mention, I expect the Monk to have a variety of meditation abilities, which would be similar to the Paladin's auras in D2, which is another possible strong similarity between them.
> WITCH DOCTOR: When you're talking Witch Doctor, the similarity to the Necromancer of D2 literally explodes from him (diseases, summoning, curses probably, etc.). But I think the Witch Doctor is essentially another hybrid of two D2 classes, the other class being the Druid. Now, obviously, Witch Doctors probably won't summon wolves (but they WILL summon some pretty bad ass things I bet) or be able to shape-shift into a werewolf or werebear, but I still sense a strong Druid-like undertone in the Witch Doctor, mainly in that both classes have strong ties to the natural world. Although the Druid may not live on in the form of Witch Doctor skills, I think the Witch Doctor will have a sleuth of nature-based abilities, so the Druid will live on to an extent. Therefore, Druid and Necromancer are covered. Two classes to go.
> WIZARD: Obviously a re-imagined Sorceress (or Sorcerer, for that matter). I envision the Wizard as a class that is skilled in elemental and arcane magics. So yeah. Sorceress from D2 is covered. One class to go. But what? That's all four classes! Whaa?!
So far I've shown; at least to myself; that every class from D2 will live on whether it be in an obvious or symbolic nature in the four announced classes. But there is that one last class that remains un-lived on, so to speak. The AMAZON. It's obvious, yes, obvious, that the fifth class will be some version of an Archer/Hunter/Ranger/Amazon-hybrid.
The announcement will be interesting. If they go with an Archer, that sort of limits it to merely a bow-using class. Ranger could be seen as a dagger-wielding, bow-using rogue-like class. However, my official guess, having done next to no research on the topic, is that the fifth class will be THE HUNTER (or something very, very similar to a Hunter).
Diablo III, whether you like it or not, is going to have many similarities to WoW. This isn't a shocking revelation, it's merely common sense. And it's something I wholeheartedly embrace, as many aspects of WoW such as the elaborate talent system should transfer wonderfully to Diablo 3, even though Diablo 2's skill branches are basically the precursor to the talent trees. Oh well, to my point. I think a Hunter class in Diablo 3 would have many similarities to the Hunter class in WoW. Again, something I would strongly embrace. Let me explain:
As it is, there is no class that will likely utilize ranged weapons. The most prolific of all ranged weapons are bows and crossbows. Therefore, the class needs to be a class that could specialize in these weapons. However, the class also has to be more versatile. A Hunter class would have tons of versatility, depending on what direction Blizzard decides to go. You have the companion pet pathway to go down, you have the ranged weaponry pathway, you have a survivalist path you could go with, not to mention traps. Yes, TRAPS! The Assassin could live on in more ways than martial arts with a trap-using class. You would lose the Javelin/Spear aspect of the Amazon however, but it's not beyond reason that Barbarians will be able to specialize in thrown weapons. After all, they ARE masters of weaponry.
SUMMARY: I've mindlessly droned on far too long. As it is, every class but the Amazon appears to live on in some way with the four announced classes. The Amazon is left basically untouched so the fifth class will touch on some aspects of the Amazon, probably the bow/crossbow. I predict it will be a Hunter since it would cover that base and also allow versatility and a variety of directions to go on. I think it will have many striking similarities to the WoW Hunter class, because, you know, it's obvious. However, the vast similarity to the WoW class probably in itself means I'm dead wrong. They wouldn't want to essentially copy a class from WoW and throw it into a completely different world. But I still believe the fifth class, if not a Hunter, will be strikingly similar to a Hunter.