TBH I’d prefer if they added a “theme” to each class rather than clasification, i.e. one super strong thing that other won’t have but isn’t classified as melee or ranged or spellcast or physical, for example
Barb: Each target killed has chance to drop extra potion
Sorc: Comboing spells of different type gets extra bonuses|
This one may be a bit complicated but kinda like the idea behind though:
Druid: Each form has it’s own resource pool/resource (for ex. Viciousness in Wolf form, Mana in Human form and Rage in Bear form, extra mana gives more spellcasting power, extra viciousness gives extra bonuses to WW form attacks, and extra Rage generate extra movement/CC duration bonuses in Bear form), fighting in one form effectively fills the other two faster (could add a slight decay to really reward those that are good at doing so)
Hunter: Hitting one same target repeatedly of the bunch gains damage bonuses (this may be a bit annoying in greater fights but think ppl would appreciate if the bonus can be impactful enough IMO, really emphasizing the “surgical precision” playstyle approach)
The opposite.
And again, there is no upper limit on how many skills a class can have.
Instead of having the 15 classes you mentioned earlier, each having 30 skills, you can have 7 classes with 60 skills each. => better.
Nope, it work great in class-based games too. Such as; most classic CRPGs like D&D, Pathfinder etc.
The hero archetype should not be all about casting spells. And has not been in the past. Neither in nor outside Diablo.
Same for barb “spellcaster”.
Which is basically the class systems; Arsenal, Enhancement etc. of which I am a huge fan, in theory anyway, since we obviously havent tried/seen them all.
Also a big fan of each class having their own resource system, again in theory at least.
Likewise, their skills and passives might bring unique stuff not seen in other classes.
Those are what should separate the classes primarily. And create their uniqueness. Their identity.
Other than that, all classes should, to varying degrees, offer all kinds of skills and abilities, including melee, ranged, spells etc.
Each through different skills of course. A melee skill for Barb should not be exactly the same as as a melee skill for a druid.
But you should never have a “this class can only do melee weapon attacks”, “this class can only use bows”, “this class can only cast ranged dmg spells” etc. That is just mindblowingly boring and bad RPG design.
Well there are barbarian spell casters both in game (Diablo 2) and in lore, so it makes plenty of sense to me.
Honestly, you could make just about anything look like a meme. A person could make a barbarian that focuses solely on strength look like a muscle headed buffoon.
And my int barb. I have said it a bunch of times before, but if you cant make a viable int barb in D4, the attribute system is a failure and might as well be removed.
No I mean as I said, not skill-related, sure, each class should have a melee/ranged/AoE/single-target/utility skill and whatnot, but I’m simply saying a “passive bonus” that other class wouldn’t have, though the Druid one feels a bit complicated think the others are good
Barb: Targets killed have a chance to drop extra potion
Sorc: Targets suffer more damage by combined spells/effects (or comboes)
Hunter: Hitting same target increases hit-effect chance percentages for X seconds
Those aren’t skills nor builds, arguably could be classified as talents, but overall can be a baseline feature to simply let the player know what/how the class benefits from everything it can do (build or skillwise) the most
There are plenty of cases where a spellcaster was capable with a martial weapon, especially in D&D where low level spellcasters very easily run out of spells.
Even Gandalf, one of the quintessential wizards, wields a sword and actually uses it in combat(and he is definitely a wizard, not a battle mage).
Spellcasting archetype doesn’t have to automatically mean they are as helpless as a toddler if for some reason they can’t throw fireballs everywhere.
and as pointed out, Singer Barbs are actually a thing in Diablo which is a Barbarian spellcaster.
I dont particularly care about lore in Diablo.
But as far as memes go, Diablos barbarians (including them having actual mages) sure seems much better than Conan memes. Lets hope Blizzard do not regress to that kind of archetype.
No need to do that. Just give the classes a wide variety of unique abilities to choose from and let the players themselves choose how they want to make their build. If I want to make a sorceress who specializes in Lightning and Ice, while a friend wants to make a sorceress using a fire and wielding a sword; those possibilities should exist.
Honestly I think part of the issue is that some folks think that a melee sorcerer would play the same as a Barbarian or that a caster Barbarian would play the same as a sorcerer; when that wouldn’t need to be the case.
