10. Amazon
As Featured in: Diablo II
For Diablo and Diablo II, there wasn’t a ton of character customization, and so the classes were gender-specific, with the Amazon being the most gender-specific of all and serving as the “female character replacement” to the first Diablo’s Rogue. She even had the “I am the one who uses the bow” skills that the Rogue featured in the first game. I almost merged this into a subset of the Rogue, but the Rogue class is already complicated enough and I suppose the Amazon had a unique-enough backstory and her use of spears/javelins was different. Not a terrible class, but the fact that we haven’t followed up with much more about this class since the year 2000 means that a little more development will be needed to make this class shine more.
9. Blood Knight
As Featured in: Diablo Immortal
This one is a bit unfair because I’ve never played Diablo Immortal, so I’m ranking based on a wild-ass guess of gameplay here (hey, I rank things I know nothing about all the time). Similar to the Amazon I pondered if this class should be merged into the existing “Warrior” class, but the supernatural / vampirey characteristics of it make it different and unique. There are some predictions and guesses that the Blood Knight might get featured in some sort of Diablo IV expansion in the future, so I have some hopes for further character development with this one.
8. Bard (Unfinished Class)
As Featured in: Diablo: Hellfire (unfinished class, only playable after editing a Command.txt file)
Should this one even make the rankings? Yes, based on the potential promise of the class… and the fact that you could play as it if you did some file manipulation. While the basic story of the Bard is that she is a dual-wielding Rogue (and thus I considered leaving her off completely and making her a subset to the Rogue), she also had some magic-abilities second only to the Sorcerer. This ranking of a quasi-canon class above two classes that actually really appeared in games might be a bit of a stretch… but I see the promise in the development or use of this class in the future if they can figure out how to make it unique. I mean the Diablo franchise is one of many video games that is spawned from D&D (so I understand, I basically know nothing about D&D)… and the Bard is a beloved D&D class. Surely in Diablo IV, which attempts to force people to play a lot of multiplayer, there has to be some unique way to develop this Bard character as one who buffs other players in multiplayer, can use some unique types of spellcasting that the Sorcerer and Necromancer classes don't have, its. This class has potential!
7. Monk
As Featured in: Diablo: Hellfire, Diablo III, Diablo Immortal
Instead of officially getting the Bard in Diablo: Hellfire (or the Barbarian, see below) – we got the Monk. I mean it’s an interesting idea. A holy warrior. But in the end, the holy warrior shtick isn’t too different from the… well… Warrior warrior from Diablo I, or from new takes on the warrior that would appear in Diablo II and III with even more specific holy names (Paladin, Crusader). There is some cool “martial arts”-inspired aspects that make the Monk different and interestingly playable (especially in Diablo III), but in the end the Monk does feel like a bit of a slightly different riff on an existing class. I think I played with two Monks in D3 and while I had fun with them, after I was done with their campaigns and Seasons, I moved on without really itching to go back.
6. Warrior/Paladin/Crusader
As Featured in: Diablo (as Warrior), Diablo II (as Paladin), Diablo III: Reaper of Souls (as Crusader), Diablo Immortal (as Crusader)
This is your “standard” or default class. I mean I almost want to name the whole class “Knight” and be over with it. The sword and shield, melee-fighting warrior hero adventurer. Although you can play the first Diablo game as any of three classes, when Diablo II comes out and resolves the cliffhanger from the first game – it retroactively assumes that the class you played and thus the main character of the first game was the Warrior (retroactively named “The Wanderer” in Diablo II, and then again retro-retroactively re-renamed “Aidan” in Diablo III and given the WTF rewrite that he was King Leoric’s son... which makes zero sense in actual Diablo I gameplay). Basically the same staple melee fighting class was used again over the next several games – but renamed Paladin and Crusader, with slightly different backstories about what exact religion or faith they are holy warriors for. I mean a decent and classic class (one that is surprisingly not in Diablo IV at all… yet), but also ranked here in the middle because it’s kind of vanilla.
5. Druid
As Featured in: Diablo II: Lord of Destruction, Diablo IV
A lot of people hate on the Druid, and apparently it’s the least popular class in Diablo IV. But I think it’s an interesting concept with pretty unique and different gameplay. Nomadic warriors with animal summoning / transformation and wind / earth powers sort of makes them the Earth Benders of the Diablo universe. The Diablo IV Scosglen chapter and sidequests do a lot to build up some of the story behind this class, which initially only featured in the Diablo II expansion pack. They are also kin to and descended from Barbarians, an aspect of their story that is interesting. Far more interesting than “I am a warrior who fights.”
4. Rogue/Assassin/Demon Hunter
As Featured in: Diablo (as Rogue), Diablo II: Lord of Destruction (as Assassin), Diablo III (as Demon Hunter), Diablo Immortal (as Demon Hunter), Diablo IV (as Rogue)
This is likely the first of the controversial mergers of three separate classes. In many ways, the Assassin introduced in the Diablo II: Lord of Destruction expansion was not much of a successor to the first game’s bow-and-arrow, ranged fighting Rogue (the Amazon took on the primary role as the Rogue successor). However, by the time Diablo III rolled around, the new “Demon Hunter” class appeared to take the Rogue and Assassin classes and merge them into a new single class. And by the time Diablo IV rolled around, the Rogue class now essentially had two builds – either as that classic bow and arrow type, or an expert at traps and cutthroat activities like the Assassin/Demon Hunter had. So, the build of the Rogue class in Diablo IV, while returning to the OG game’s “Rogue” name but keeping some of the aspects of the D2 and D3 classes, made me decide that the other classes should simply be seen as subsets. And it’s a fun class to play. I love the ranged fighter and I had a Demon Hunter in Diablo 3 that was an absolute murder machine. I had to keep jacking up his Nightmare level again and again because he could take a few shots and murder everything on the screen. Fun class. But there are better!
3. Sorcerer/Sorceress/Wizard
As Featured in: Diablo (as Sorcerer), Diablo II (as Sorceress), Diablo III and Diablo Immortal (as Wizard), Diablo IV (as Sorcerer)
As noted when discussing the Amazon, the first two games used a single avatar for the classes without the ability to customize sex. So the male Sorcerer was flipped into a female Sorceress in the second game – but still the same essential class. For Diablo III this class was renamed “Wizard” in what I assumed was an attempt to be gender neutral because you could customize sex – but again basically the same thing. Finally the character returned to the original name for Diablo IV. Great character and I always love to play as a Chain Lightning Sorcerer. I have so many great memories from the first Diablo playing as fire wall sorcerer too… although Lightning is where my heart remains. I can’t get the build to work quite right in Diablo IV though. I played Season 1 with a Sorceress but she was super slow at leveling and died all the time, even after some game updates buffed her up and made her less of a glass jaw. If you can create the right build that is powerful and wipes out masses of demons in one stroke while not immediately dying from a single finger poke… then you can have a real fun time with this class.
2. Necromancer (and yes, the Witch Doctor)
As Featured in: Diablo II, Diablo III (as the Witch Doctor), Diablo III: Reaper of Souls, Diablo Immortal, Diablo IV
Yep, this is my hottest of hot takes. The Witch Doctor is just a subset of the Necromancer and not its own class. While Diablo III’s character customization went beyond Diablo and Diablo II by finally allowing you too choose either sex for every class, there was still only one base female and one base male for each class – so you couldn’t customize things like skin tone. In order for the game to have more diverse looks rather than just having a bunch of white folk, the “Witch Doctor” class was essentially a new take on the Necromancers, but with some new Haitian voodoo and African witch doctor spice added to what had been a pale goth boi. But let’s be honest here… NOT a new class. Witch Doctors summoned and controlled minions (which Necromancers did), they did “hexes” (renamed Necromancer curses), they had poison-based skills (which Necromancers had), and they very core of both characters is that whole “animate the dead” shtick. Diablo III thought it could create a new and different take on Necromancers and people would be happy (Necromancers were VERY popular in Diablo II). Yet opeople still demanded that Necromancers. And so eventually, Necromancers were brought back in Diablo III’s Reaper of Souls expansion, even though Witch Doctors were still in the game. Yep, I’m arguing that if you had the Reaper of Souls expansion with the Necromancer add-on purchased, then you were playing a game that had the same class in it… TWICE. Anyway, Necromancers in general are just fun. I loved them in D2 and D3, and now that I’m playing Diablo IV I’m currently running a blood-themed Necromancer who is an ABSOLUTE TANK that can just obliterate everything around it in short fashion and levels super fast. I’m clearing dungeons and levelling like a million times faster with this Necro than I did with my Sorceress last season and I LOVE IT. My Tank Necro is great because Tanks are great. Which also explains why the #1 greatest class is…
1. Barbarian
As Featured in: Diablo: Hellfire (unfinished class, only playable after editing a Command.txt file), Diablo II, Diablo III, Diablo Immortal, Diablo IV
After Barbarians were finally officially introduced in Diablo II following the soft and non-canon start in the Hellfire expansion, there was no going back. Barbarians going bezerk and just DESTROYING EVERYTHING AROUND THEM is incredible. Ever since Diablo II debuted, the first character I create in every new Diablo game is a whirlwind-focused Barbarian named “Mittens” (I’m a fan of the brutal, hulking nature of murderous blood-thirsty barbarians juxtaposed with the name that you would give to an adorable kitten with white paws). Look, there is something to be said for long-ranged fighters like bow-and-arrow based Rogues and Sorcerers who cast smells far from their enemies… but in the end all I really want to do is run right into the middle of a huge pile of enemies and just GO TO TOWN ON THEM WITH INSANE VIOLENCE AND WEAPONS IN BOTH HANDS. There are some amazing Barbarian builds out there which can be shored up to have both incredible defense so they don’t die while getting bukkake’d by a screen full of enemies around them, while simultaneously tossing out incredible damage. For some reason my Necro in Diablo IV is actually more of a tank than my Barbarian… but I’m going to go back to the drawing board with my Barbarian and probably adjust a few things to get him where he belongs as a mega tank. Barbarians are, far and away, the best both in terms of fun playability and with a dynamic, interesting backstory. Some people are miffed by D4 lacking the Warrior/Paladin/Crusader class as the “default” melee character… but those people are wrong because the Barbarian is clearly now THE melee character of the Diablo series, so much so that we don’t need to pretend that people want to be a stuffy-ass noble knight in armor.
No comments:
Post a Comment