FREE: Diablo 3

Finally! After waiting for several years, the ARPG Diablo 3 is finally coming out!  For those new to the game, Diablo 3 is an upcoming action role-playing game (ARPG) developed by Blizzard.  It is the third installment in the Diablo franchise and sets the storyline 20 years after the second installment.  The world is called Sanctuary, although the name is completely opposite of what you're going to encounter in this game.  You can choose to play one of the five available classes: the Barbarian, Demon Hunter, Monk, Witch Doctor, and Wizard.  The game includes the option to play with 4 friends, making it an extremely fun and social game to play.  The general objective of this game is to progress through the storyline and collect the best "loot", or items that are picked up by the character.  In the sections below, I will briefly describe the available classes in the game.

The Barbarian:

 The Barbarian is a melee-based character.  He excels in hacking and slashing enemies with his weapons.  He also has a high constitution and defense.  He can wear heavier armor than the other classes, and has more strength.  His powers, or skills, use the resource called "Fury".  Fury is gained when you attack enemies, and in turn you use the fury to kill even more enemies.  The barbarian's Fury, however, decreases while out of combat.  These attributes are perfect for the people that want non-stop slicing and dicing.


The Demon Hunter:

The Demon Hunter is a ranged character, wielding crossbows.  She relies on assassination and quick executions.  She has various traps and tools to aid her in the purge of demons.  She is known to be excellent at elimination large clusters of enemies and snipe down far-away targets.  However, the use of a ranged weapon has a disadvantage, getting cornered and surrounded renders the weapon useless.  To make up for that, she has a wide range of escape abilities.  There are two resources for the Demon Hunter, "Hatred" and "Discipline".  Hatred regenerates quickly, an is used for offensive abilities.  Discipline, on the other hand, regenerates slowly and is used for defensive maneuvers.  Those who enjoy precision and strategy, will enjoy play as a Demon Hunter.

The Monk:

 The Monk is a character with versatile roles.  You could choose to be the healer, support, or damage-dealer.  He is also a melee-based character, and has high maneuverability.  The monk uses a resource called "Spirit".  Spirit can be obtained by executing specific abilities.  It can be regenerated, but it does so very slowly.  The upside of being a monk, is that there are few to none cooldowns.  Cooldown refers to the time that it takes for a skill to be available again.  Having few cooldowns allow the monk to chain a combo of ferocious and deadly attacks.  This is currently the character I want to try out first.

The Witch Doctor:

Witch Doctors are more of the summoning type and his attacks primarily deals poison damage.  He also has a variety of "debuffs", which are skills that inhibit the enemy in some way, and ranged attacks.  Although he relies on summons and debuffs, he can also be a deadly melee character.  His resource is "Mana".  Mana is a vast, but slowly regenerating resource.  Players have to manage their mana efficiently, or suffer the lack of use of abilities.  Summons can help reduce mana problems, as once they are summoned, no additional mana is needed, and can last for many battles.  This class is obviously for the more "safe" players out there, since summons can do the work for you, while you can stay out of the range of an enemy.

 The Wizard:

The last class is the Wizard.  Wizards are spellcasters who use their bodies as a vessel for arcane energy.  They have a wide selection of elemental attacks, and can be quite deadly.  Wizards rely on long-ranged destructive power, which are conducted at a safe range from enemies.  Their resource is "Arcane".  Arcane is regenerated quickly, but the maximum Arcane a Wizard can have is limited.  Also, the spells casted by the Wizards have a cooldown period, so the player must be careful of how many spells to unleashed.  The Wizard is suited for players that want tremendous damage, at a safe range.

I guess this wraps up all of the classes.  I hope this introduction to Diablo 3 is sufficient for all the newcomers out there.  Hope to see you in-game!