I invite you to a bit of theorycrafting: which class is the least gear dependent? Is there even such a thing, are they all equal in this respect?
They made a pretty serious effort to make all classes very gear-dependent, with both damage and defenses having a multiplicative factor that comes from gear. They also said they made sure that ranged classes won't really be able to avoid damage and will still care a lot about defensive stats, so you can't go with the D2 way of thinking saying "ranged should be less gear dependent because they can avoid getting hit".
I suppose abilities that heal/block damage independent of your HP or damage make you slightly less gear-dependent, though, so barbarian has a small edge here with revenge, overpower (with heal rune) and furious charge (with heal rune). Then again, those heals seem completely overpowered, so no idea if they'll stay this way. I wouldn't be surprised if they change them to % of damage dealt healed or something.
I'd say monk, they have heals, and runes to heal on skill activation, as well as a healing and dodge aura.
WD, with all their utility and of course Soul Harvest, are probably marginally less gear dependent than the other classes. Though still not by much.
I'm inclined to agree that the differences are minimal. Though I don't see how the "ranged classes get hit less" factor can be completely removed. At the very least, they can use skilled play to avoid more damage. Melee classes don't really have that option - at least not to the same extent.
Let me try rephrasing the question:
Which class(es) do you think will have the easiest time in Inferno?
Well, Blizzard did give melee classes 30% damage reduction and specifically mentioned that you won't be able to avoid all damage, indicating that in inferno you'll probably be able to avoid only about 30% of the damage, at least not if you want to deal about as much damage as the melee class. Of course this is very rough, but gives you an idea of how things might work out just fine.
Or: which class can I load up with MF gear? Every class depends entirely on a good weapon for damage output, of course. But can you get away with less effective armor?Originally Posted by Sqeecoo
I think there's a strong case to be made for the Wizard. Diamond Skin is straight damage absorption. Wave of Force repels projectiles and enemies. Slow Time can be used to good effect. Mirror Image gives you decoys.
Diamond Skin may become obsolete in Inferno. But the Wizard has several gear-independent skills that, with some clever play, help you avoid damage entirely. That seems extremely important.
I'm willing to bet it doesn't. Blocks calculate after DR. It's a pretty good bet absorbs do too.
All classes have some very strong defensive abilities that will help carry them into inferno. Assuming Blizzard is right about ranged classes not being able to entirely avoid damage, I don't see that any one particular class has a significant edge.
Probably the monk, but only because he's capable of getting a large amount of dodge from a combination of different skills, runes, and passives. He also has a passive that pretty much allows him to easily pump up elemental resistances that are weak so as long as he can gear for at least one he'll be good. This build would probably allow a lot of survivability, even with relatively poor gear.
After that, probably the Demon Hunter since it seems as though he has enough skills at his disposal to kite forever, so even with low damage and otherwise poor survivability, he might be able to get by. Otherwise every class is pretty gear dependent. Almost every single ability scales based on gear and although almost every class has some survival skills, they're generally fairly limited. There are cases that could be made for just about all of them though.
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