What class gets the Ax?

[Bill Cosby]

So it is said that only 5 classes will be available to start and so far Barbarian and the new Witch Doctor are confirmed. So who gets cut?

My speculation is we will have Barbarian, Amazon, Sorceress, Witch Doctor and 1 more new class to be introduced.

I am sad to see the necro go, but the witch doctor seems to have a lot of similiar spells already (zombie wall which is bone wall but damages opponents) and curses to fear the enemies with...

I could see them not doing Amazon because it is (kind of) similar to barb especially if you can now pick the gender, but I dont know....I think Druid and Azn are both gone for now too but time will tell!

Who is already looking forward to an exp pack? haha i am

[Baal]

I say Amazon out - Male Amazons make no sense - they are by definition female... And they said all the classes can be made male or female.

[Bill Cosby]

Paladins in or out? If they are out will it cause controversy?

What if the sorc and paladin are both out? Holy crow that would be nuts

[konfeta]

Paladins, Necromancers, Druids, Assassins.

From Diablo 1 to 2:

Warriors reflavored into Barbarians.
Sorcerers reflavored into Sorceresses.
Rogues reflavored into Amazons.

So, I am thinking, Diablo 2 to 3:
Barbarians reflavored into Barbarians.
Sorceresses revlavored into <insert pure nuking caster here>.
Amazons reflavorued into <ranged weapon specialist here>.

Melee fighter, ranged fighter, magic nuker seem to be the action RPG base classes. Everything else is gimmicks and alternate gameplay mechanics. I imagine Blizzard will keep the original trio (maybe reflavor it) to represent the three basic gameplay styles, axe the others so they can experiment some more.

Witch Doctor looks like it nukes, debuffs, summons. Kinda like a Necromancer or a Druid, a mix of both it seems. For the other special class, use your imagination. Any sort of gameplay that deviates from the classical 3 and the one we had revealed will do an excellent job as a basis for a totally new character.

[Arkansaw]

Either the Hammerdin or Druid

[Kiroptus]

So I think the design direction of the 2 presented class and even of the world seem to point out to something more neutral and wild. For example: The Witch doctor has dark spirit stuff and evil stuff like poisonous insects but also has more natural stuff like the Fire bomb.

And the world seemed more wild, the guards watching the comet, even Cain look a bit more "barbarish". The whole world seem also more shamanist in nature. That being said I think we dont see the extremist of holyness and righteous that is the paladin. I just cant see the paladin fitting in this new painted setting for the franchise but I have no idea with who they will replace him.

[sicilian]

I think the Assassin is gone, though I can see some of her skills being transferred into a hybrid class.

As someone said, male amazons wouldn't make sense, so why not have something like a hunter. Ranged bow user (amazon), who can lay down traps (assassin), and befriend beasts (druid). Sounds a lot like WoW, but as I mentioned in another thread, I do think blizzard is going to steal a few ideas from WoW, and this one could be easily molded into a Diablo class.

Paladin stays, but I think it will have become more corrupted, using a mixture of holy and dark energies, maybe even having to balance the two?

Sorceress will stay, just might get a name change.

Witch Doctor replaces Necromancer unfortunately. Necro was the first class I ever beat Hell difficulty with :(

[stillman]

I hope they all get removed and replaced with fresh ideas (even if those ideas are remodels). Isn't anyone bored with looking at those same heros of D2 for all these years? I sure am. I'm glad the barb at least has a white beard and white hair to separate him a bit from D2.

Anyway, didn't Padro say they don't intend to move all the old characters over to D3, or do you supose he meant literally no xfering of your D2 chr to D3?

[Jek]

I think it'll go something like:
Barbarian: The GAR melee class, hulk smash!
Witchdoctor: Trickery, summoning and sinister...
Wizard: Offensive caster, extremely very fragile.
Priest: Defensive caster/melee, very group friendly.
Archer: Ranged specialist.

So basicly, WD and Priest are kinda opposites.

[ProfessionalBerg]

As someone said, male amazons wouldn't make sense, so why not have something like a hunter. Ranged bow user (amazon), who can lay down traps (assassin), and befriend beasts (druid). Sounds a lot like WoW, but as I mentioned in another thread, I do think blizzard is going to steal a few ideas from WoW, and this one could be easily molded into a Diablo class.

http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Ranger

[sicilian]

http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Ranger

Haha, well there ya go. I'll never have an original thought in my life :D

But still, it makes sense. Barbarbian becomes... well, Barbarian, Sorceress becomes something similar, Necro becomes Witch Doctor, Paladin gets a revamp but stays, and Druid/Assassin/Amazon merge into a hybrid class.

[Vehementus]

The Witchdoctor is already a Druid/Necro hybrid, (Those summons weren't restricted to Necromancy, it seems like they took the Druid's Summoning focus and the Necro's Curses and merged them, the spells as well - Disease and Fire?)

The Barbarian continues to follow the Melee Archetype, so that's covered.

The Paladin is practically here to stay, despite just being another play on the melee fighter, though I'm hoping that the Paladin's functions got merged with the Barb - that is, Aura's are covered through Warcries - and we already saw the Barb get ranged attacks and the like. I don't really see the intent of keeping a Paladin outside of the symbology of a holy warrior fighting Diablo. HOPEFULLY it's been phased out

Which leaves us with -

The Sorceress, Assassin, and Amazon.

Concerns with the Sorc - unless there's a dynamic naming scheme (Sorcerer/Sorceress) there's not really a solid gender neutral name for this class, I suppose "Mage" or something of the sort works, but I digress, it wouldn't matter to me if we were to forego the whole thing and leave it "Sorceress" reguardless of gender. My MAIN concern is that from what we've been told in the gameplay video, the Witch Doctor already has a domain over the Fire Element. We've seen before that Druid spells often crossed into the Sorc's Elemental domain, but the extent of this hasn't been shown here - we'll have to wait and see.

Amazons need a name change so they're not.. restricted to females.

Assassins should just remain. =D

[TheMadOnion]

I think it's pretty much a given that the Necromancer and Druid are gone, for better or for worse.

I think the Amazon and Assassin will probably be gone as well. I'd expect a more broad class like Ranger that takes up the non-magic Ranged role with some of the Assassin utility.

Sorceress will probably be back under a more general title like Mage or Wizard. Pretty much guaranteed to see a more pure magic class compared to the pet/debuff nature of the Witch Doctor.

Assuming the game launches with 5 classes, that leaves one more class slot. I would wager it's another melee-based class, which probably means Paladin or some new variant that fulfills most of the same class roles as the Paladin did.

[Es Mors]

If the druid is really gone (:weep:), I hope they'll give shapeshifting skills to someone else. I mean, who doesn't love shapeshifting?

[Rashiminos]

Droids* out, Paladins are definitely in, Assasssins get blended into another class...

*misspelling intentional...

[konfeta]

I don't. I'll take my face smashing with sharp, pointy, heavy, and blunt objects, setting stuff on fire, freezing it, electrocuting it, ravaging it with undead minions, turning it into shishkabob with spears, perforating it with arrows, and many other methods of killing before it.

[jmagic]

i dont care what gose aslong as pallys stay

[Raith]

I think it'll go something like:
Barbarian: The GAR melee class, hulk smash!
Witchdoctor: Trickery, summoning and sinister...
Wizard: Offensive caster, extremely very fragile.
Priest: Defensive caster/melee, very group friendly.
Archer: Ranged specialist.

So basicly, WD and Priest are kinda opposites.

somewhere along the way but hunter replaces 'archer' and wizard seems so standard.. id still say sorc is in.

[Omikron8]

it has already been confirmed that the necromancer is NOT being removed unless i am not understanding this quote correctly

http://pc.ign.com/articles/885/885128p1.html

"Jay Wilson, a lead designer on Diablo III, said the witch doctor is not a replacement for Diablo II's necromancer"

[Brother Laz]

That means he does not have the same skills. >.<

Also, I thought we'd already seen druid concept art? The girl with the pelt on her head, red hair and wielding a snake? And I'm not sure but wasn't the rogue also confirmed?

[Kiroptus]

If paladin is back fine. But dont bring hammerdin in again.

[Meenah]

I say Amazon out - Male Amazons make no sense - they are by definition female... And they said all the classes can be made male or female.

Please read the Diablo lore... The more elevated position in the amazon society is male ruled. It is a patriarchal society, not matriarchal. The people are called Philios after the island they come from.. Maybe these troubled times simply has called for the males to take up arms as well?

In the lore, the amazons are "the most skilled warriors of Philios" because in their jungle habitat, they are more adapt to fight in such nature. There ARE male amazon warriors.

However, I agree that the name amazon should be revamped if we could play the male amazons : )

[GUFF]

One thing blizzard has always been good at it has been their ability to expand on previous lore.

To do that in D3 I would think no classes are being left out. They may come back in an expansion later but in the end none would be left out. They could not expand the lore otherwise.

Of course, I could be completely wrong....

Should be interesting how they handle it as alot of people have strong attachments/emotions over the classes from the earlier games...

[konfeta]

Rogues and Vizjerai mages were axed as player characters in a heartbeat. The Generic Warrior Race (made of Generic Warrior Humans) was also given the "gtfo" treatment.

So yeah. There is a precedent, and Blizzard can easily axe D2 characters if they desired. I am sure that people will get over it. Blizzard already included a melee brute, common sense indicates they will have something to emulate the rogue/amazon and the sorcerer/sorceress. The rest of the classes will probably be reshuffles (as Witchdoctor is are reshuffle of a couple Necromancer and Druids features).

[stillman]

Didn't anyone read the Q&A transcript? It includes the following two statements (which I paraphrased here; please go read the real thing):

1-They are going for fresh ideas for character classes.
2-They are for the most part not bringing back old classes.

Obvioulsy, the exception is the barb. It makes sense that they would bring the barb back, as he was the representative of the original Diablo2 game (before they made pallys take over with overpowered skills and all those bonus pally skills thrown on to many uniques). The barb stands in the middle of the bonfire semicircle when you choose a D2 chr, and he was once the most overpowered chr in the game. So they sort of had to keep him in perhaps to satisy the old D2 fans, and of course to keep that Diablo style of melee warrior to the game.

But, other than that one chr, I think there will be NO OTHER D2 heros in D3.
So no amazon, no paladin, no druid, no assassin, no sorceress, no necromancer. I implore you all to read the Q&A transcript; I don't think they would lie about something as important as character classes. I'm guessing classes are something they have had in the works for a long time and they're not going to turn back and redesign them all to resurect D2 classes.

[Arioch]

Yeah, the rogue/amazon and sorcerer seems like a lock, so that means only one slot left. I'd guess some analogue of the Paladin. Which unfortunately means that my beloved necromancer is out. :(

[PFSS]

Yeah, the rogue/amazon and sorcerer seems like a lock, so that means only one slot left. I'd guess some analogue of the Paladin. Which unfortunately means that my beloved necromancer is out. :(

Blizzard have such a hard-on for Paladins I will be shocked if they remove them from the game.

But I don't know why you're worried about the necromancer - isn't the Witch-Doctor more-or-less a Necro?

[lumpor]

I'm almost sure there will be some party-friendly guy who heals and buffs and whatnot. Like a priest or something.

[JadeSelket]

If the druid is really gone (:weep:), I hope they'll give shapeshifting skills to someone else. I mean, who doesn't love shapeshifting?

My very thoughts exactly, my friend :)

I don't see us losing Paladin, Sorc-type and Ranged-type (Rogue : DI, Amazon : DII) Though, another class may get paladin-type auras and fulfill that slot since the Paladin wasn't in the original 3. There are so many things it could be :) I'll just use my imagination for awhile more before i start putting my thoughts on screen.

[Ace_wanderer]

I think the Barbarian will get the Axe. *Ka Ching*

[Oscarius]

I think it'll be something like this:

Barbarian
Witch Doctor
Sorceress/Mage
Ranger/Rogue (not the WoW type rogue, more like the D1 rogue)
Paladin?

Or maybe some sort of shapeshifter/transformer?

[Erwwwd]

The Barbarian gets the axe ofcourse!

Chop chop

[ask_dk]

I cant wait to see what new classes they will come up with, allready seeing the witch doctor and barb we all know.

I think the last 3 will be:

Sorceress/mage - Really hoping for this character :nod:
Rogue/amazon/druid - Natural elements is a must:wink:
and last will be some sort of melee character ala paladin i think.

cheers

[Goddess Belldandy]

So no amazon, no paladin, no druid, no assassin, no sorceress, no necromancer.


Hmmm... an RPG with no: warrior,knight,bow-user,javalin user, ranged user, paladin, holy warrior, crusader, mage, archimage, sorcerer, wizard, nature-user, sage, druid, summoner, curse-user, spell-user, weapon-user...

So uhm if you rule out all those types of character concepts ...what the heck is left?

Stillman, i fail to see your logic. There are no other ways to fight in the world of fantasy. You either use spells, a melee weapon, a ranged weapon, or a curse, or some other form of magic. And you are pretty much ruling out all types of characters when you rule out all of those.

They might not be called amazon, necromancer, paladin, sorceress, anymore, but those type of characters will definitely be back in Diablo 3.

[manibela]

i think someone here mentioned that the witch doctor has control over the fire domain which leaves the sorceress with ice and lightning (*weather witch*?)... that'd be okay i guess...

I think the rogue type character will be merged with a druid type character (the shape shifting "earth" type character)
I think the necromancer got merged with the druid (the witch doctor)
which leaves us with the paladin and assassin...

I'd love to see an assassin/monk type character though... the paladin, not so much.

[lothars]

Didn't anyone read the Q&A transcript? It includes the following two statements (which I paraphrased here; please go read the real thing):

1-They are going for fresh ideas for character classes.
2-They are for the most part not bringing back old classes.

Obvioulsy, the exception is the barb. It makes sense that they would bring the barb back, as he was the representative of the original Diablo2 game (before they made pallys take over with overpowered skills and all those bonus pally skills thrown on to many uniques). The barb stands in the middle of the bonfire semicircle when you choose a D2 chr, and he was once the most overpowered chr in the game. So they sort of had to keep him in perhaps to satisy the old D2 fans, and of course to keep that Diablo style of melee warrior to the game.

But, other than that one chr, I think there will be NO OTHER D2 heros in D3.
So no amazon, no paladin, no druid, no assassin, no sorceress, no necromancer. I implore you all to read the Q&A transcript; I don't think they would lie about something as important as character classes. I'm guessing classes are something they have had in the works for a long time and they're not going to turn back and redesign them all to resurect D2 classes.


Your already wrong, these are from elly who was there
D3 Q&A from WWI (http://forums.diabloii.net/showthread.php?t=668018)
[04:28] havent' settled on final number of classes
[04:29] some more more classes to be added from d2

So it's definitely possible that there will be at least one more class from d2

Plus I have a feeling it will be at least 5 classes but I could see there being more especially when it seems like they haven't finalized how many classes even if it's in the faq. :)

I just think your completely wrong thinking other d2 classes will be in

[Stupi]

With a set of 5 classes, they are probably going to stick to the standard balance of 2 physical damage classes, 2 magical damage classes, and 1 hybrid. Something like

Physical: Barbarian
(Melee devastation, party buffs via shouts, high mobility and toughness)

Physical: Rogue
(Adept at ranged weapons & possibly some melee like daggers, uses traps for crowd control)

Magical: Witch Doctor
(Summons, damage-over-time attacks, fire magic [as stated by the devs, he is a 'master of plague and fire'], unconventional CC)

Magical: Elementalist
(Similar to D2 caster druid spec, uses storm, earth & water as the new elements, he might be the new sorceror-type class...not sure if they would reuse one of the same elements as the Witch Doctor by bringing a straight port of the D2 sorc)

Hybrid: Druid
(It just seems to fit well with the theme of the game and the current artwork, this could possibly be the second 'port character', overhauled to have melee abilities with mobility similar to the barb, spells focusing on aoe rather than high single target damage, and summons less numerous but stronger than the Witch Doctor's)

As much as I would LOVE to have a D3 necro and sorc and see updated versions of golems, Bone Spirit, Meteor and Frozen Orb, I'm not sure if they would recycle such tired content.

[Elric-Logain]

Barbarian (Physical Melee): Offensive dual-wielding fighter

Paladin/Warrior (Physical Melee): Defensive "sword and board" fighter

Rogue/Amazon/Assassin (Physical Ranged): Offensive ranged fighter

Witch Doctor (Magical Semi-Ranged): Summons, Curses, and Miscellaneous Spells

Mage/Sorceress (Magical Ranged): Direct-damage spells

Of which, obviously only the witch doctor and barbarian are confirmed and it is more than likely that the other classes will be most retooled to be based more around playing styles.