Flux
28-08-2009, 22:56
Here's an excerpt from a sort of general audience D3 @ Blizzcon article I wrote for incgamers.com. (Not yet online.) I'll get into some more detailed gameplay reports this weekend, once the rush of getting the skills articles online is past. But here's something for now.
The Wizard, Witch Doctor, and Barbarian were all playable as well. (Cleverly, only those three characters were visible to select when the show first began at 10am, but around 12:30, when the opening ceremonies ended, the Monk was suddenly added to the character selection screen.) Each of the other three characters were improved and refined from last year's version, with huge changes to their skill trees and the order of their skills. This year's demo characters were higher level as well, allowing players to experiment with a wider variety of spells and techniques. "New" characters started out at level 6 last year. This year they started at level 12, and could be leveled up to 14 or 15, in the much larger "dungeon" area.
The Wizard was a great deal of fun, and is both the most familiar and most challenging of the characters to new players. The Male Wizard was a playable character this year, and picking the gender was the easiest of a player's decisions, since the Wizard had a dizzying array of offensive skills and spells. New characters began at level 12, with a variety of offensive, defensive, and passive skills already selected and hotkeyed. (This helped players get right to it, rather than wasting their limited play time setting up their character.) Wizards had half a dozen offensive spells to start, all with radically different ranges, mana costs, casting rates, and damage types. Many more were available once your new wizard started to level up, and by level 14, as I finished clearing out the beta area, I had already filled my hotkeys and wanted more, as I tried to experiment with options as diverse as Spectral Blade, Explosive Blast, Magic Missile, Wave of Force, Arcane Orb, Charged Bolt, Frost Nova, Electrocute, and Energy Twister.
Of course you don't know what all of those do, but neither did I! New players to the Wizard are going to have a wild time trying out different builds, loading up different skills to see how they improve at higher levels, and using the game's planned respecing feature to change their skills around. I felt like I got a good flavor for how the other three characters played at the mid-levels, during my demo time. I spent an hour with the Wizard and felt like I'd hardly scratched the surface.
The Wizard, Witch Doctor, and Barbarian were all playable as well. (Cleverly, only those three characters were visible to select when the show first began at 10am, but around 12:30, when the opening ceremonies ended, the Monk was suddenly added to the character selection screen.) Each of the other three characters were improved and refined from last year's version, with huge changes to their skill trees and the order of their skills. This year's demo characters were higher level as well, allowing players to experiment with a wider variety of spells and techniques. "New" characters started out at level 6 last year. This year they started at level 12, and could be leveled up to 14 or 15, in the much larger "dungeon" area.
The Wizard was a great deal of fun, and is both the most familiar and most challenging of the characters to new players. The Male Wizard was a playable character this year, and picking the gender was the easiest of a player's decisions, since the Wizard had a dizzying array of offensive skills and spells. New characters began at level 12, with a variety of offensive, defensive, and passive skills already selected and hotkeyed. (This helped players get right to it, rather than wasting their limited play time setting up their character.) Wizards had half a dozen offensive spells to start, all with radically different ranges, mana costs, casting rates, and damage types. Many more were available once your new wizard started to level up, and by level 14, as I finished clearing out the beta area, I had already filled my hotkeys and wanted more, as I tried to experiment with options as diverse as Spectral Blade, Explosive Blast, Magic Missile, Wave of Force, Arcane Orb, Charged Bolt, Frost Nova, Electrocute, and Energy Twister.
Of course you don't know what all of those do, but neither did I! New players to the Wizard are going to have a wild time trying out different builds, loading up different skills to see how they improve at higher levels, and using the game's planned respecing feature to change their skills around. I felt like I got a good flavor for how the other three characters played at the mid-levels, during my demo time. I spent an hour with the Wizard and felt like I'd hardly scratched the surface.