Diablo III classes explained

By Mike Dunn August 10, 2011

For most video game enthusiasts, the release of Diablo III can’t come quick enough. Most recently, Blizzard said that it hoped to get the game out in 2011, but did not rule out 2012 being a possibility. IGN was able to interview Blizzard’s Jay Wilson to talk about the five playable classes in the game. The classes are Wizard, Demon Hunter, Barbarian, Monk, and Witch Doctor.

There are five separate videos, one for each class, so you can pick and choose which class you want to learn the most about. As usual, we took the liberty to watch all the videos for you in a hope to save you ten minutes. The videos go more in depth than just introducing the general play style of each class, and actually talks about a couple of marque abilities you can expect to use when playing each class.

The Wizard looks to be the typical caster class; The player uses powerful magic to attack enemies, but can’t take much damage. The Demon Hunter is the ranged non-caster class, using ranged weapons to attack enemies. Barbarians are the brute melee class, who can take a licking and keep on ticking. The Monk is a slightly more graceful melee class, powerful in close range but not as sturdy as a Barbarian. Last but not least is the Witch Doctor, which is the pet class; they are able to create pets to help do the fighting for the player. Of all the classes and abilities outlined in the five videos, the craziest belongs to the Witch Doctor. He can harness an ability called “fire bats” which is described as, “a flame thrower, but with bats.”

Hopefully these videos will help you decide which class you play while finally being able to make some money playing a video game. We are still deciding which classes we want to play, but it might be hard to turn down the chance to use a bat flamethrower. Let’s hope that we are able to play this game by the end of the year.

Editors' Recommendations

Topics

PC Gaming

Former Digital Trends Contributor

Mike graduated from University of Arizona with a degree in poetry, and made his big break by writing love sonnets to the…

Gaming

Best Diablo 4 Barbarian build: recommended skills, passives, and gear

A Barbarian in Diablo 4.

The Barbarian class is a fan-favorite in Diablo 4, and has been used to climb through the ranks of the game's Hardcore mode. While there are plenty of effective Barbarian classes in the game, one specific class stands tall above the rest. This is the best Barbarian class in Diablo 4.
Recommended build

The key to this class is to utilize Whirlwind to decimate every enemy you come into contact with. The skills for this build are all geared toward increasing your maximum damage output, defense, and resources -- allowing you to spend more time dishing out attacks and less time during cooldowns.
Must-have skills
Basic

Gaming

Best Diablo 4 Druid build: recommended skills, passives, and gear

best diablo 4 druid build skills passives gear

Diablo 4's Druid class is effective, allowing players to shapeshift and use magic to damage opponents from afar. It's an intimidating class to use, especially compared to some of the classics, but once you have the right build, the Druid can be devastating. It takes a little while to get it going, but once you master the art of this class, it's highly effective.

In this guide, we'll cover the very best Druid build in Diablo 4.
Recommended build

Gaming

Best Diablo 4 Rogue builds: recommended skills, passives, and gear

A rogue looking determined.

Rogues are always an enticing class to play as in RPGs like Diablo 4. These characters have plenty of different tricks and options open to them, making them versatile, but always deadly, no matter what World Tier you're on. With so many options to pick from, such as melee or ranged, trap types, and different status effects, it can feel overwhelming when trying to figure out what is worth investing in to make a powerful Rogue. Rather than tinker endlessly with all the possible combinations of this class, we'll give you two powerful Rogue builds to make you more formidable in Diablo 4.
Rogue overview
Rogues are meant to be fast and deadly. They have very high damage-per-second (DPS) potential to make up for lower defense and HP, as well as numerous tricks like bombs and traps to keep themselves safe. This is one of the more active classes in Diablo 4, requiring you to manage your cooldowns and be more active during fights compared to more tanky classes. You'll need to be more precise playing a Rogue because many of their skills need to be targeted. However, thanks to some powerful synergies, mastering this class could make you one of the most powerful members of your team.
Ranged build

Unless you're absolutely certain you can take out an enemy before they can land any significant blows on you, a ranged Rogue build is the safest bet. Don't let that get you down, though, because Rogues are arguably even more deadly at a distance than up-close. Here's a strong range build to mop up enemies before they even have a chance to touch you. Feel free to use either a bow or crossbow depending on your preference.
Must-have skills
Penetrating Shot: This is going to be your basic attack in many ways. As the name suggests, this skill shoots an arrow that penetrates all enemies to hit as many as you can get lined up, though at slightly reduced damage than a normal shot. It also has a chance for a Lucky hit, but make sure you get the Enhanced Penetrating Shot as well to increase the damage the shot does by a percentage for each enemy it hits.