Diablo III comes out tomorrow. Which really means it comes out tonight at midnight. I'm excited to play it—more excited than I would have thought I'd be, to be honest. There's only one problem. At the beginning of my adventure, I'm going to have to make a choice—I'm going to have to pick a character class.
This game is doubtless many, many hours long. Will I spend those hours as a magic-slinging Wizard? A dead-raising Witch Doctor? A raging, smashing Barbarian, a whirling-dervish Monk, a crossbow-wielding Demon Hunter?
Man. I don't even know.
I've always been at something of a loss when choosing classes in Diablo-like games, from Torchlight to Demon's Souls to Dungeon Siege III. In most Bethesda- or BioWare-like games, games with nuance and conversation, I prefer to play as a sneaky character, but even then I get paranoid that I'm doing it "wrong."
With a slasher loot-fest like Diablo III, the action is the whole point, and the classes are much more varied. I'm guessing that, knowing Blizzard, all of the classes are probably pretty well balanced, and that there's a huge amount of customization that can be done with them. But all the same, doubts linger.
What if I play the game as a Wizard, and in a couple months it turns out that Wizards totally suck? What if I put a ton of time into being a Barbarian and when Fahey runs his review, he says that's the worst class? What if… what… what... if...
[Explodes]
I really am at a loss here. I'll probably start 2-3 characters and see what I think before really committing… even though that sounds like a lot of time to devote and I don't have that much.
I like the idea of playing as a Barbarian, since that seems simple and satisfying. I played as a Demon Hunter and as a Wizard in the beta, and found that I vastly preferred magic to crossbows and traps. But then again, while ranged combat is fun, it feels a touch unsatisfying at times.
I polled our fellow editors and didn't get many clear responses. I'm becoming convinced that even they don't know which classes they'll play.
Maybe I should just ask Kotaku. I put it to you, readers: Which class will you play first in Diablo III?
Update: It's close, but it seems like Monk is getting the Kotaku edge at the moment. Huh, who knew? I just may have to give the old shavepate a go...