If you listen to Jay Wilson on his tips for the wizard you notice near the end he talks about layering damage. Alot of people completely miss this and assume the wizard has shit single target and weak aoe both of which couldn't be farther from the truth.
There are way too many people that are thinking of this game like it's WoW or something.
There are sooooo many synergies between different skills, runes, passives, weapons and gear choices in this game it's crazy. Alot of people completely limit themselves by only looking at skills/runes/passives/gear through a small dps vacuum instead of putting 2 and 2 together and thinking outside this dps box that so many people get wrapped up in.
That's my initial impression from playing each class at least to lvl 9 and killing SK.
That said gaining even 1 new skill can rapidly change how a class function and/or how effective it is.
The wizard for instance was just making me go yawn and then I got diamond skin and every thing changed. Just from that one skill.
The witch doctor was highly effective so my rating doesn't have anything to do with his performance. I just didn't really like the abilities I had access to up to lvl 9. I know almost for sure that opinion will change with access to more skills and passives.
Overall I felt all the classes felt quite balanced with their differing playstyles.
I'm pretty set on leveling up both a barbarian and demon hunter side by side. I figure I'll complete a phase of each act, switch to the other to also complete it and repeat.
I killed the skeleton king with every class and they were all strong. I honestly didn't really feel like any class was "that" much better than another even at so low a level.
I have to admit that the witch doctor and wizard were my least favorite classes, BUT I also feel that's largely a function of the limited amount of low level skills. A witch doctor with a gargantuan by his side and slinging firebomb and haunting enemies is gonna feel a helluva alot better than what little we had access to.
Same goes for wizard. I was kinda meh at first with the wizard even though it was 1 of my top 3 anticipated characters. Then I hit up a public game, dinged a level and got diamond skin which looks epic. And all of the sudden I could tank for short periods and THEN use frost nova to kite away. Just gaining that one skill completely improved my fun with the class.
The monk has always been on my radar. Started off kinda slow for me, but as soon as I got dashing strike it was ON. Bouncing from side to side like woaw. Monk also has some amazing passives.
Just playing up to 10-13 with every class on the first 1/3 or 1/4 of act 1 on normal and not getting bored says alot to me. I played torchlight for a couple days and honestly by the second day I was bored.
It's gonna be a rough 3 weeks waiting for the game, but I'm glad Blizz gave us the chance to test run it. I'm not disappointed in the slightest and rather pleasantly surprised.
1
There are way too many people that are thinking of this game like it's WoW or something.
There are sooooo many synergies between different skills, runes, passives, weapons and gear choices in this game it's crazy. Alot of people completely limit themselves by only looking at skills/runes/passives/gear through a small dps vacuum instead of putting 2 and 2 together and thinking outside this dps box that so many people get wrapped up in.
1
1
2. Demon Hunter
3. Monk
4. Witch Doctor
5. Wizard
That's my initial impression from playing each class at least to lvl 9 and killing SK.
That said gaining even 1 new skill can rapidly change how a class function and/or how effective it is.
The wizard for instance was just making me go yawn and then I got diamond skin and every thing changed. Just from that one skill.
The witch doctor was highly effective so my rating doesn't have anything to do with his performance. I just didn't really like the abilities I had access to up to lvl 9. I know almost for sure that opinion will change with access to more skills and passives.
Overall I felt all the classes felt quite balanced with their differing playstyles.
1
I killed the skeleton king with every class and they were all strong. I honestly didn't really feel like any class was "that" much better than another even at so low a level.
I have to admit that the witch doctor and wizard were my least favorite classes, BUT I also feel that's largely a function of the limited amount of low level skills. A witch doctor with a gargantuan by his side and slinging firebomb and haunting enemies is gonna feel a helluva alot better than what little we had access to.
Same goes for wizard. I was kinda meh at first with the wizard even though it was 1 of my top 3 anticipated characters. Then I hit up a public game, dinged a level and got diamond skin which looks epic. And all of the sudden I could tank for short periods and THEN use frost nova to kite away. Just gaining that one skill completely improved my fun with the class.
The monk has always been on my radar. Started off kinda slow for me, but as soon as I got dashing strike it was ON. Bouncing from side to side like woaw. Monk also has some amazing passives.
Just playing up to 10-13 with every class on the first 1/3 or 1/4 of act 1 on normal and not getting bored says alot to me. I played torchlight for a couple days and honestly by the second day I was bored.
It's gonna be a rough 3 weeks waiting for the game, but I'm glad Blizz gave us the chance to test run it. I'm not disappointed in the slightest and rather pleasantly surprised.
1
http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/wizard#aZiOPm!bXT!bZbbcb
I think this build provides maximum laser uptime without straying from the theme of spraying lasers every where.
Can't say how effective it would be, but hey it's got frickin laser beams!