Demon Hunter Hands On

[Dacar92]

Report from Flux during his visit to Blizzcon and the Demon Hunter demo:

Blizzard has posted eight screenshots featuring the Demon Hunter (go to link below to see them). All of the shots are from the Act One dungeon shown in this year’s Blizzcon demo. This dungeon was called King Leoric’s Torture Chamber (or something like that) and it’s similar in layout to the dungeon we saw in the 2008 Blizzcon demo. It’s a bit higher level; characters start off down in the dungeon rather than on the surface,

I had a chance to play the character today, and along with the screens here are some first impressions. A much more detailed report will follow later this weekend, after I’ve had some more time with the character, and we get reports in from other fans at the show as well.

The demon hunter starts off at level 9 in the PvM demo. She’s fairly limited in skills, with her points spent in Bolo Arrow, Entangling Arrow, and Vault. When I reached level 10 I stuck a point into Grenades.

She’s obviously an archer, but with the three skills available she plays more like a mage than a D2 Bowazon. All of her skills fired arrows that were more spells than arrow attacks, she had no multi-target attacks, and no way to hit enemies in the back row. It felt like a very fast, (very fun) low level mage, who had only single-target spells.


Read more:
http://diablo.incgamers.com/blog/comments/demon-hunter-screenshots-and-hands-on-report/

[Thecla]

Ho hum...all in all I'm a bit underwhelemed by the demon hunter, ranged character though it may be. Just as a tiny point, I never found a crossbow on any ranged character in any game that I preferred to use over a bow.

Somehow the news from this Blizcon has just solidified my feeling that the D3 devs are taking the game in directions that I personally don't particularly care for.

[konfeta]

So use a bow? What's stopping you?

[Tyrone]

Ho hum...all in all I'm a bit underwhelemed by the demon hunter, ranged character though it may be. Just as a tiny point, I never found a crossbow on any ranged character in any game that I preferred to use over a bow.

Somehow the news from this Blizcon has just solidified my feeling that the D3 devs are taking the game in directions that I personally don't particularly care for.

Exactly which direction did you want them to take the game in?

[agentbilly]

I played and used multiarrow. so there was a aoe that did go through. It did seem like multiarrow went through enemies. So she "does" have multi shot and "can" hit the people in the back.

The one thing that I saw that I hope they changed is instead of having a small crossbow on left and right hand, both crossbows were considered 1 weapon(meaning they would drop as a pair not individual) which would be cool if they let you dual weild different crossbows. Lmk what you think about the double crossbow idea.

[Thecla]

So use a bow? What's stopping you?

I guess I will then. :) Actually, I didn't realize from the media that Demon Hunter's could use bows as well as cross-bows. If anyone gets a chance to try out a bow-using DH I'd be interested to know how they compares with an xbow using hunter e.g. I doubt you can dual wield bows, even if for some strange reason you ever wanted to...



Exactly which direction did you want them to take the game in?

That's a hard question to answer precisely since I'm just expressing a general feeling, but I'd like to have seen a D3 that felt more like an updated return to the original Diablo roots --- for example, a ranged character that was more like the D1 rogue than something that seems to be some sort of crossbowazon/assassin hybrid with a bit of fire-mage thrown in for good measure. I also preferred the more deliberate tactical combat in D1 to the massive mob combat in D2, and D3 combat looks to be like D2 combat on steroids.

Anyway, (as we already saw) thet D3 devs have they're own new take on Diablo and some people like it, some people don't. Call me a traditionalist, but Spock making out with Uhura just isn't my preference.

[konfeta]

Fair enough. Slow paced combat isn't popular these days at all, though.

[Thecla]

Fair enough. Slow paced combat isn't popular these days at all, though.

D1 combat actually wasn't "slow paced" at all in my opinion, but obviously it'd have to be ramped up for current tastes (and the D1 walk speed is unbearably slow for any game at this point). I don't think D2 did many favors for tactical combat by adding large fast mobs who were nevertheless much slower than the player and were usually easily destroyed by massive aoe attacks.

I'm glad they're trying to make combat in D3 more interesting than in D2 (e.g. by evening out player vs. monster movement speeds) but it remains to be seen how it'll work out. The DH (and other) videos sure don't remind me at all of the more tactical D1 combat that I really enjoyed with the rogue, for example, and look more like mass D2 carnage (maybe with more chance of getting yourself killed). Like you say, though, that's likely to be more popular.

[AtomicJ]

I just hope she can use melee weapons at some point.

[raveharu]

The DH is just like the Monk when it was released, which is only limited skills were shown.

I think the class will be something like a machine gun in the later stages (probably an improved D2 "Strafe" skill), only time will tell.

But what makes the class stand out is the use of dark magic.

I really like the skill "Entangle", when monsters get linked in dark chains, really cool effect there :p Multishot was also improved.

[Apocalypse]

I doubt you can dual wield bows, even if for some strange reason you ever wanted to...

flux says you cant dual weild xbows either. or should i say finding a xbow gives you the graphic of dual weilding. thats how i understood him anyway. he would need to clarify

[lone_wolf]

there are the small pistol crossbows that drop as a set aka two weapons that count as one. and then they seems to be larger 2 handed crossbows. We seen bows drop but as far as i know nobody has played a demon hunter using bows yet.

[AtomicJ]

The Hunter is really starting to grow on me the more I think about her, but I am worried about the spellcaster feel people are getting from her in the demo. I'm not exactly in love with the "Shadow Magic" idea, I'd prefer she simply do an acrobatic vault opposed to what is essentially a shadow teleport. We already have enough mages with the Witch Doc, Wiz and (to some extent) Monk. We've only seen a fraction of her skills, so I hope in the future she will rely more on cool gadgets like traps, grenades and crossbows.

[Crackseed]

Weapon options overall was dual pistol xbows [which drop as a set btw], the slow beefy xbow [it's slower then Buriza shot speed] and also the bow which was nearly as fast as the dual xbows but the bow damage seemed...a bit low.

I also saw javelins drop btw so...hrm >.>

[konfeta]

Were they throwing weapons or just melee?

[Crackseed]

Sadly I only saw it drop - my playtime had expired and I moused over it but did not get to pick it up to check. I just noticed the name so it did raise a question of "Is that a ranged option or just a melee weapon now?" - perhaps someone else found em and looked at them.

[Ammareddo_Fritter]

I wasn't at Blizzcon so I obviously haven't had a chance to play as the Demon Hunter yet. But watching the movies I noticed something that was different from the Monk, Barbarian, Witch Doctor, and even Wizard. The Demon Hunter spends half the time running away from enemies. I know it's supposed to be a ranged character, but it seems to contradict the D3 philosophy of non-stop action.

Even Wizards can handle enemies without running away when they have to: throw down a slow time bubble, put on magic armor, use spectral blades, etc. Maybe it seems like the DH is running more because she doesn't have a full range of spells yet, but I hope she doesn't have to fight, run, run, fight, run, etc.

[lone_wolf]

the player playing here in the video sure liked to vault into monster packs and ending up in strange places for a ranged character to be.

the player could have just thrown the spike traps ahead of her and then used the rest of the skills to keep the monsters at bay while killing them all.

More skills will only make this easier.

[konfeta]

That's good. I trust it means that both styled of ranged character can be supported - you can run and gun, or you can play more of a traditional stand back and pellet.

Blizzard is trying to allow a very wide variety of gameplay styles.

[Crackseed]

1/4 of my fighting when I was soloing was spent vaulting. I have no complaints about it because it was insanely fun to be able to reset your range to fire off skills. I mean let's think about the Zon/Rogue and how irritation it was to get distance when you got swarmed.

Combined with bosses having vortex [the pull property] it was a really fun and genuine hit and run style w/o having to RUN around and try to find a position. Combined with entangling arrow there was plenty of time to stay and fire on mobs as they advanced.

[Taliesin-DS]

I'm guessing this class will be a lot stronger if used in a party.

[Thecla]

it was a really fun and genuine hit and run style w/o having to RUN around and try to find a position. Combined with entangling arrow there was plenty of time to stay and fire on mobs as they advanced.

That sounds good (and I guess from the AI descriptions many monsters don't just close on you as quickly as possible). I'm glad to have a ranged class that depends on tactics and positioning rather than a meat shield, even if a demented acrobat wasn't quite what I was imagining. :)

[Crackseed]

It depended on the type of mobs for sure. Cultists were REALLY aggressive and probably the most dangerous mob I faced on my DH. There was the very slow Detombed Hulks and the only time those got me worrying was if I ran into a boss with vortex [which I did haha] - but the cultists are quick and they keep chasing so it becomes a very big kite game when there's a sizeable pack of them on you, even more so if it's champions with speed boosts [SO FAST]

Other mobs like the skeletons or zombies sort of fumbled about a bit and were easier to handle w/o having to kite alot.