How to bring back old classes with new touches

[Manovan]

Much can happen with the lore in a twenty year gap. Tyrael destroyed the World Stone and possibly got corrupted in the process. The new evil could very well have rested within him during these twenty years and either waiting to unleash into a new Diablo or merging with Tyrael to something even more sinister and evil. I assume one place where the worst has happened is Mount Arreat and that's why the Barbarian has returned to vanquish the evil once again. I don't really know why the Witch Doctor chooses to fight the new evil in Sanctuary, but I assume he takes the place of the former Necromancer. The Necromancers might very well be in the game in the form of NPC:s, or they could have gone underground together with the assassins. The Amazons could have been forced to protect their homelands from a bigger threat and the Paladin order could be corrupted from within.

It's all speculation, but we can't choose to only look at the already written lore to figure out the new classes.

What if the Paladins will come back with a new and improved warrior, a Zealot, blessed with insane holy magic. I can imagine a Zealot in full plate armors, drawing his flaming hammer and an ethereal holy shield. He could choose to specialize in Holy magic: exorcising evil, casting holy novas or concecrating the earth itself, he could partially transform into somewhat of an angel with glowing wings of light, causing damage to every undead entering his range. He could heal his comrades and bless them with powerful auras. But the Zealot could also specialize in that of a martyr, spilling his own blood to gain amazing combat skills, giving up his own soul to the Demons of Hell to save his world from destruction.

The wizards could have studied the dark threats and trifled with its magic to the extent of falling into corruption of the mere destructive force of demonic magic. While the wizards would still have the archetypical elemental magics, they would also be able to improve their own physical strength and endurance by changing their shape into that of a hellish fiend. They could be called Acolytes, bonding with the evil itself with hope of taming it or understanding how to defeat it.

While the Assassins have gone underground and the Amazons have returned to their homes, a rogue of a more sinister nature will take up the hunt for evil; not because of morality but because of gold. The Shadow Rangers sell their services for gold to fight the evils from Hell. They stealth through the shadows, plant deadly traps that will do much destructive force and specialize in bows, crossbows, javelins or spears - all with a more poisonous touch. They can easily find hidden traps, open locked doors and find the treasures others would miss.

This is my thread of the three remaining classes. Feel free to comment.

[Kaeros]

I certainly believe we'll see a Ranger class, because it'd be the perfect fusion of the amazon, assassin, and druid; none of which I think will be making a come-back in their original forms. Your 'Shadow Ranger' idea is great, but I'd personally prefer a more nature-oriented rogue to pull in some of the aspects the druid had. However, poisons, traps, long-ranged weaponry, and locksmithing definitely fit the bill either way.

I think that the only other returning class besides the Barbarian will be the Sorcerer/Sorceress. In this type of genre, it's almost essential to have a traditional, elemental-based caster .. you simply can't change the formula too much from that and still have a pure caster that the player can relate to. I don't think shapeshifting is an appropriate skill for a mage, really; I'd much rather see that as a new class entirely, or high-level skills for the Witch Doctor.

Your Zealot ideas I could definitely envision, and I think that the lore supports it well. I'd like to see the character art lean more toward that of a monk in chain mail robes than that of a knight in shining armor, however ..

[mjkittredge]

Monk with staves or special knuckles would be awesome! Throw in a holy magic tree, why not.

[yalthar]

I'm sure some sort of true elementalist/sorcerer/wizard class will be available :) I hope tri-elementalists will be feasible in d3 because that's the true beauty of playing a magic user. I hate how the way synergies were implemented in d2 patches forced sorceress builds to concentrate on 1 or 2 elements.

[Pitboss_2000]

I'm expecting a spellcaster class, a ranged class and a class that uses shields. If there are going to be more than five classes, who knows what else will be added...

[flabortast]

Gladiator
specializes in spears, swords and shield skills. Think Gladiator, 300 and Troy. Takes from Amazon and Paladin

Hunter
Can use stealth, bows and traps. Takes from Amazon and Assassin

Beast Lord
Can summon animals, cannibalize enemies and can turn into various were forms.
Mostly takes from Druid.

[smartdot]

i think the zealot sounds cool, but the name needs a change, it sounds a little too much like the zeal would rush in and not care for his own safety at all, hence overzealous. The name goes against the idea of a sheild, and we all know the reckless warrior will be the barb. I think that Templar would be a better name.

And on the topic of monks, i would like to see a class similar to the monk class in D&D, who specialize in wearing no armor, and only specific weapons or no weapons.

[Maedhros]

A wizard who can also shape shift, allowing greater mobility and adaptability.

[Dembol]

And on the topic of monks, i would like to see a class similar to the monk class in D&D, who specialize in wearing no armor, and only specific weapons or no weapons.Monk/Martial artist could be an awesome character if done well. I always wanted such class (I'm a big fan of kung fu movies). He would benefit more if he wore very little or no chest armour, could use only weapons like swords, sticks, halberds, throwing weapons and flying guilotines (flying guilotines are a must:). He could get some of the assassin martial arts skills along with plenty of passives (higher chance to get crushing blows/causing bleeding while fighting barehanded or with class specific weapon, defence/resistance bonuses), somehting like zeal making your hits faster and stun/freeze skills to make up for the lack of armour/weapons. Another crazy idea, maybe he could be making runewords on his body parts (by means of magical tatoos, lol) to give him some bonuses. Having "sockets" where others could use armor/weapon would be a nice way to balance him (although he'd be heavily reliant on gems/runes so I guess the droprates should be a little higher for him).

Paladins should be overzealous inquisitors burning the hearts of infidels with their fiery swords. Fire enchants for weapons (and shields?), maybe even setting them whole on fire in their martyrdom, some holy spells (maybe a tiny bit of healing), good shields and also more pikes and lances should be used (taking some of the skills from the old amazon). They could make a class-specific item: books. While wielded offhand they'd allow the pally to cary a 2H sword in one hand and give him some bonuses or maybe even some of the other class specific offensive spells (like fireballs). Taking their fanaticism into account we could also give them berseker type skill. I'd really like to see auras back, but I think that would be too much for 1 character making him too much of a powerhouse...

Assassin/amazon hybrid which could use bows, poisons, stealth and traps. Maybe we can go for the nature theme and add some foresty summons/shapeshifting.

Just your regular mage with regular spells. Earth could be the 4th element stealing some of the Druid spells? Maybe mixing them up with fire skills, some of which would be "stolen" by Paladin.

[fanharijo]

One problem I wonder about concerning the monk , how will itemization work on him?, will he get robes or will he just not wear nothing at all ie no helm, chest?, this could be pretty ugly if we get something that resembles Enigma. One thing too diablo had contrary to many other games was that there was no items which were totally restricted to one class(as far as I can remember)

[endomorphious]

I really like the idea of "sockets" for the monk idea and the character would be fairly feasible with skills from the paladin and assasin tree. Great idea Dembol. Ouch think of a monk dual wielding ebotd arms and frenzy, yikes.