Who got a quick peek at the pics of the male Wiz? - Page 2

Yeah, plus his clothing looks very different from hers. She always seems to show a little more skin, usually you can see a lot of her leg. His clothes are distinctively male, with full pants and a more masculine shirt. In the third pic you can really tell.|||There was no male wiz to see at blizzcon. He was semi-visible on the character selection screen, but the image was transparent and colorless so you couldn't see much from it. Look at the male wiz concept art and that's a much better view of the character.

Who got a quick peek at the pics of the male Wiz?

I hope this topic is okay to post and talk about. If it isn't, I apologize. I figured it was okay, though, as I'm not actually posting any pics.

I know some of you got a quick (kind of) sneak peek at the male Wiz from the briefly posted Blizzcon screens. Bashiok asked all the websites to kindly take them down, which most of them have done. Anyway, what'd you think? It wasn't too clear, as he was kind of transparent on the class select screen, but I think you could get the general idea. He looked a lot like the concept art posted in the official site. Are you guys pleased with his design? From what I could tell, I think he looked pretty cool. Asian features, long hair pulled back, and baggy clothes. If anything negative, I would just say that he looked a little short (about the same height as the female Wiz), but I can live with that.

I'm looking forward to Blizz posting some clear pics of him in action!|||I think that the male Wzd looking the same height as the female could just be from him being closer to the front. The top of their heads line up, but the male is further down than the female, so he's probably a few inches taller than her.

But anyway, I think he looks good so far, even transparent. Very sexy and lithe.|||Yeah, it looks like he's a step in front of her, so he's slightly in the foreground.

I wonder how different his clothing will be from the female Wiz. So far we've seen her red robes (I'm guessing that's her default clothing, with no armor equipped), blue robes (which look like they may be a light, low-level armor), and her purple and white robes (possibly a more advanced, high-level armor) from the Wiz trailer. Maybe he'll have a completely different color scheme, as the male and female Barbs don't look very similar IMO. I'm hoping both the male and female Wiz get some full cloaks and cool helms for advanced armor. When I think powerful, established magic user, I think big cloaks with high collars.|||I'm not really sure about the big cloak thing, since I figure the Wizard to be more of a quick and agile character. A big cloak seems like it would get in the way. Maybe a shorter one (mid-back), but with a high collar (Dr. Strange style!) would work? I like the combination of armor and cloth that female Wizard is showing in her design so far. It works.

As far as helms go, I'm thinking circlets or tiaras that get crazy elaborate with higher tiers, or maybe even "halos" of magical energy?

And I know some people will think "Keep WoW out of D3!!!" but I really like the idea of the orbiting crystals that are some of the WoW caster helms.|||Actually i remember seeing an in-game vid with the male wizard blasting things using magic missiles .. aside from the selection screen pic.

I wonder why would they want to remove that selection screen pic if the official D3 site already has a vid with the male wizard in-game !!!?

http://www.blizzard.com/diablo3/characters/wizard.xml

Check the magic missile and slowtime vids to see the male wizard in action. (i'm sure he is the male wiz not the female cause his animation is different and i saved the vids on my comp and zoomed in for a closer look)|||Wow! I totally didn't notice that in those videos the first time I saw them! I definitely see what you mean. The change in stance might be from the change in weaponry, but the way the character seems to run is slighty different as well in the last two videos.

Oh, and the hair is definitely different. Muahahaha! I bet a lot of people haven't realized that we've already had a first look at the male Wzd. Great find!|||Quote:








Actually i remember seeing an in-game vid with the male wizard blasting things using magic missiles .. aside from the selection screen pic.

I wonder why would they want to remove that selection screen pic if the official D3 site already has a vid with the male wizard in-game !!!?

http://www.blizzard.com/diablo3/characters/wizard.xml

Check the magic missile and slowtime vids to see the male wizard in action. (i'm sure he is the male wiz not the female cause his animation is different and i saved the vids on my comp and zoomed in for a closer look)




Which videos are you talking about? I've only seen the Wiz trailer and 2 gameplay vids from Gametrailers.com. Where can I find the magic missile and slowtime vids?|||You can check them out at the link he provided. The last two out of the 5 mini videos.|||Quote:








You can check them out at the link he provided. The last two out of the 5 mini videos.




Ah, now I understand. I can't watch those because I can't get them to load for some reason. The screen is all black and the sidebars are blank. I didn't even realize there was supposed to be something there, thought Blizz was going to add something later. Maybe they're on YouTube?

edit: I saw the Wiz skills vid on YouTube, and I think you're right! That clearly looks like the male Wiz!|||Here are some screenshots I just took. They're really small since the videos are pretty tiny. The first one on the left is the female wizard. And the other two are what I guess is the male. You can see his hair is shorter and styled different.

More realistic Damage formula

Lets take an unknown spell like the spell of apocalypse:

apocalypse, 40% magic dam 40% fire 20% physical

Radius: 2 yards per lvl

Take the formula: Damage = [(char lvl) x (1/10 x mana points)] + ( spell damage, function of spell level)

Say the char is lvl 45, with a lvl 15 spell doing 450-550dam, the char strength component is added which is 45x say 800 mana points = 3600+450-550= 4050-4150 damage

If the char is level 99 with 2000 mana points we get for the same lvl 15 spell with 450-550dam:

99 x 200 = 19 800 + 450-550 = 20250-20350 ya thats more like it, gives people a reason to actually go 99 :P|||Wow. Math. I don't really get your point. We have no idea what the damage formula was or will be. You'll want to check your syntax, by the way. It looks like you're saying 3600 plus 450 minus 550.|||You dont want too much of a jump between levels as it can ruin the interactivity ,in PvE it'll force an even tighter leeching level and in PvP there'll be a smaller level ranges you can duel.|||I wouldn't mind level having a little level influence on damage, just to reward the devote perfectionists. They could simply do this the way the did with windforce. Just have more weapons with the mod that increase damage per level (or all of them).

For the ultimate lev 100 (btw, max level will likely be 100), I was hoping this would grant access to a special crafting recipe that lev 1-99 chrs don't have. But that's for a different thread.|||Quote:








You dont want too much of a jump between levels as it can ruin the interactivity ,in PvE it'll force an even tighter leeching level and in PvP there'll be a smaller level ranges you can duel.




I agree, items are what made Diablo II so enjoyable and made one uber strong or just average. Allowing rich level 30s to be able to compete with average level 60s.|||They should bring the numbers down.. why 20000 damage why not just 2000.. same thing just scale HP to make it work.|||I have this in Median. It really helps, but for an entirely different reason: It allows low level skills to be useful later on.

If you max Firestorm at level 21, either you're super overpowered or you are balanced now and will suck later because you can't do anything to increase your damage anymore. You can't have the former, so you end up with the latter.

Scaling skill damage fixes this issue.|||I agree that scaling damage is good. However, there should still be some Decay. For instance, if 1 point Magic Missle takes away 50% of a monster's health at level 5, then the same should take away 20% of the monster's health at level 20.

Disintegrate mechanics - Page 2

But it does less damage, costs more mana, and hits less people. But since I don't want to hijack the thread anymore, I'll leave it at that. Will be balanced more in beta anyway.|||The most effective way to use Disintegrate is to keep it in a straight line of monsters. Waving it around had little effect at Blizzcon, like moving a burning match below your fingers fast. The damage stacks but it's minimal if the monsters are hit for less than a 1 second.

At any rate it wasn't as powerful as seen in the official gameplay movie, the characters in the demo were buffed for the level of the dungeon but not so much. That's why I can't answer your 2nd question, I don't believe anyone got to use Disintegrate with Mana Brust because it was hard to get enough levels for them both to be useable (impossible probably).|||Quote:








But it does less damage, costs more mana, and hits less people. But since I don't want to hijack the thread anymore, I'll leave it at that. Will be balanced more in beta anyway.




Guys, remember the Wizard got a passive skill which adds damage to frozen enemies. Like a sinergy in Diablo2.

And I think to freeze enemies is better than to silence them.

We need to see the final damage of both spells when the skills and the passives are maxed.|||Shattering Ice

Passive Skill

Description: Enemies take 2 extra points of damage while frozen.

Max Rank: 15

With it all the way down at the bottom of the page I'd forgotten it was there. Doesn't look like much damage in that build. Wonder if it'll be viable to base a build around freezing as much as possible with crits and letting this do its work.

Disintegrate mechanics

First of all, please keep any issues you have with this skill being out of place in Diablo out of this forum. The topic of this thread is to answer some questions and wonderings I had about this skill. If anyone has factual knowledge on the subject or just opinions/ideas, please share. However, please say if it such a fact (as of when you demo'd the game) or just your own two cents.

1. I believe I heard/read that disintegrates damage increases on the target the longer it is held, as the target "heats up." Does this mean I have to only aim at that one target, or would a target "heat up" if I am sweeping across multiple enemies?

2. How will disintegrate work in conjunction with the skill Mana Burst (Increases the damage of any spell cast from full mana by 25%, according to diablowiki). Would only the first "tick" of damage be boosted by 25% or all damage while the spell is channeled from full mana? Could be very devastating if it is the latter, hmm?

Thanks everyone! I'm sure I had more thoughts about it but they are eluding me as of this moment. Feel free to post your own wonderings as well. I'm sure someone else as some thoughts as they think of D3 as they attempt to drift to sleep after reading the forums or watching the gameplay video for umpteenth time. |||1. We only have reports of blizzcon gameplay, but monsters died too quickly to check if realy heats up anything

2. In my opinion it would just increase, first tick, but right now only Blizz knows.

But it would be nice if it increase whole atack, since you propably don't spent all time standing, but dodging from time to time too.|||1. Good question, guess it would depend if they mean the spell heat itself or the heat in the mob. Though I believe those at Blizzcon couldn't even tell wether it increased over time or not.

2. Wondered about this one myself. I would think the first tick. Which would mean its best for spells that only have one shot. But there isn't any official answers to either of these.

Edit: Took too long and someone beat me lol.|||Maybe we could grab a fallen, tie him to a log and proceed to slow cook him with Disintegrate .. and periodically stick a fork in him to see what the progress is. That would be a good indicator of "heat over time' .. LOL

Sorry, I couldn't help myself. You ask good questions, but the Blizzard information vacuum has us all shrugging... but i call shotgunn on a thigh |||Blizzard said "heats up the enemy". So you'd have to focus fire on one enemy. I'd think the damage bonus would decay, but not disappear, if the beam went off the target.

No way. First tick, definitely.|||Now regarding the whole first tick thing, how often does disintegrate tick? I can't recall off hand and I don't have the means to check any videos right now, but it seems to me the disintegrate damage is dealt pretty smoothly. As in the life is almost constantly going down. So maybe the increased damage from Mana Burst would last for a certain amount of time for disintegrate.|||Is it possible it would last until the attack had been uninterrupted? Like it counts as one attack and the mana was full when you started, until the attack is broken off. That seems like it would be too overpowered, however standing in one place for a long enough time would also be a fairly dangerous trade off, me thinks. Once you move u break off the attack and it doesn't count for the 25% increase anymore. The dev teams have said they wanted you to play with strategy, I could see "well if I stay here I get increased attack, but am obviously more vulnerable when stationary" as a strategic decision. Just thinking out loud lol.|||We have two beam spells so far:

Ray of Frost

Description: Project a beam of cold energy. Critical hits from cold damage freeze targets.

Max Rank: 1

Rank 1: Deals 6 cold damage/second.

Mana cost: 16 mana per sec.

Disintegrate

Description: Emanate a beam of pure energy dealing 10 arcane damage per second. Damage is modified to 80% each time the beam passes through the target. Critical hits from Arcane damage silence targets for 4 secs.

Rank: 1

Mana cost: 12 per sec.

You hold them down as long as you want and the mana cost/damage is per second. So the increased damage may just be for the first second. Now why does Disintegrate cost less mana and do more damage than Ray of Frost? It even does damage to those behind, which Ray of Frost doesn't seem to do.|||Perhaps in the current build balance wise it makes sense for Ray of Frost to do less damage per cost of mana, since it is also has the chance to freeze targets via critical hits? I'm not as familiar with the way cold damage in general works in D3, does it only provide a slow when a critical hit is reached then, unlike nearly all cold damage providing a slow effect in D2?|||Whenever you get a critical hit, it affects the target depending on the damage type. Cold Freezes enemies.

Yeah, ray of frost does less damage because of the chance to freeze.

Short name for wizard - Page 6

Mike, have you really never heard of "The Wiz", the all black Wizard of Oz with Michael Jackson and Diana Ross?|||I can't believe you didn't include the most sensible and easiest short name.

Wiz.|||well im not a native english speaker

that might be the reason.|||wiz-wiz obviously |||Willard...|||Wiza.

10 chars|||I'm gunna call wizards.......Ruffuses|||lol zard is awesome rofl.... you're such a zard lol

Short name for wizard - Page 4

I don't see anything other than Wiz being used. WZD? Has the sorceress ever been referred to as an SCS? The Paladin a PDN? Unless a class's name is a compound of multiple words (Death Knight being DK, for instances), or is monosyllabic (Rogue), its forum shorthand is practically always a single syllable of its name. Sometimes a consonant or vowel from an adjacent syllable is added (Barb or Ama, though I've always preferred Zon).

Diablo III will have the Wiz, the Barb, and the WD. That wiz informally means urinate doesn't really make any difference. It can also mean someone very skilled at something (wiz kid). The homophone whiz is a verb meaning to speed by or twirl around.

I anticipate skill tree names being used as much as class names. Stormer, conjurer, arcanist, juggernaut, berserker, battlemaster. The Witch Doctor's trees don't really make for easy conjugation, but he may may be referred to as the Plague Doctor (PD), Vodoo Doctor (VD), or Spirit Doctor (SD). That's a wild guess, though.|||I say wiz. When I think of wzd I think of the whole word wizard - and I'm too lazy for that.|||Wiz sounds silly though. Also, the word wizard itself is not overly hard to think of in your head (seriously?) so I would go with something that sounds cool but is easy to type: Wzd.

@ Doctrinaire - I don't understand the reasoning you used for shortening syllables when you keep massive words like Witch Doctor and Death Knight.|||Quote:








@ Doctrinaire - I don't understand the reasoning you used for shortening syllables when you keep massive words like Witch Doctor and Death Knight.




Compound names aren't kept, they're initialized. That's how it has worked in the past, in any case. In Everquest, the Beastmaster was always called the BM. In WoW, the Death Knight is the DK. It's a pretty consistent trend.

There are four main kinds of abbreviations that we use in written and spoken English. They are initialisms (BBC), acronyms (NATO), contractions (Dr.), and shortenings (Doc). I can't think of a single instance of a contraction being used as forum jargon for anything, let alone a short class name like Wizard. Contractions just kind of suck as informal abbreviations - they really have to be titles or units of measurement to be functionally practical (ft., Mrs., Mr.). You can try to champion using 'Wzd' if you want, but if the past is any indication, the Wizard will be the Wiz.

Edit: Dimmu's post below reminded me that the Assassin was sometimes abbreviated 'Asn'. It seems a contraction has been used before.|||What I meant was that WD isn't shortened at all (to speak) yet everything else has to be shortened to one syllable, as a rule.

Most people probably will use Wiz, but I'm sure Wzd will be used as well.|||Doctrinaire is right.

Barbarian~Barb

Amazon~Zon (Ama is just too much to think about, most people see the Z and recognize amazon right away, whereas the A can make you possibly think of assassin)

Sorceress~Sorc

Necromancer~Necro, and eventually I just started saying Nec.

Paladin~Din/Pala/Pal, since the different paladin builds were so varied and consistantly mentioned, you ended up needing to adress each as such anyway. (Hdin, Smiter, Foher, Zealer, Mage, v/t, and that Hammer/smite build that starts with a D, I can't think of it right now).

Druid~Uhhh Druid.

Assassin~ Most People said Sin, but it felt corny and I said Asn. But just like the Paladin, you usually adressed them by build anyway i.e. Trapper, wwsin, Hybrid, and I guess m/a asns, although they were terrible and rarely seen.

Anyway, the point is that the Wizard will undoubtibly be called "wiz", it's got 2 awkward letters (W and Z) making it instantly recognizable and it fits the normal shortening rules that we use in games. I'm going to assume the Wizard Spike will make a return since it was very popular in both D1 and D2, so things may get confusing, but I always called it wizspike anyway.

Barbarian~barb

Witch Doctor~wd

Wizard~wiz|||With a bunch of people calling chars names like baba, soso, and dudu, I wouldn't be surprised if someday someone starts calling the wizard "wiwi" or "zaza" or something like that. lol. I think wiz is good. |||Quote:








With a bunch of people calling chars names like baba, soso, and dudu, I wouldn't be surprised if someday someone starts calling the wizard "wiwi" or "zaza" or something like that. lol. I think wiz is good.




Yep, it's going to be Zizi for me.|||I was thinking more about:

Taaa-daaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhh!!!

or

Zap

or maybe just Jack(y).|||Quote:








"Wiz" seems like the logical abbreviation.




yeah and wizzy is EQ1 wizard little nickname

Short name for wizard - Page 3

Quote:








Wiz, although Wee sounds funny.




ill have to with Wiz to and yes wee sounds funny ( i loled )|||Wizard. Really guys its not that long, and both Wiz and Wizzy sound dumb to me.|||Wizard is twice as long to type as Wiz.|||As I said before, Wzd is a good short name. It's only 3 letters and it's instantly recognizable. Witch Doctor would be shortened to WD, and Barbarian to Barb.|||Zard is the only logical explanation.

My first wizard shall be named "TheZard" and he shall wreak great vengeance upon those who made fun of him and called him "Wiz" and "Wizzy".

Not to be confused with "Charizard".|||Quote:








As I said before, Wzd is a good short name. It's only 3 letters and it's instantly recognizable. Witch Doctor would be shortened to WD, and Barbarian to Barb.




I was thinking wiz, until I read this post. I completely agree with you.Wzd is the way to go, although WD may need to be changed a bit. Maybe WD could be changed to Doc?|||Wizzy don't make sense.. its only 1 letter shorter than Wizard :P I'll prolly use wiz. Or maybe Tar.. Zard.|||Obviously wiz. wizzy sound too silly, and it fits the usual pattern for making up shorthened names (assassin = assa(or 'sin), sorceress=sorc, paladin=pala, not assy, sorcy or paly)|||Quote:








"Wiz" seems like the logical abbreviation.




Wiz -- http://www.thefreedictionary.com/wiz |||Quote:








I was thinking wiz, until I read this post. I completely agree with you.Wzd is the way to go, although WD may need to be changed a bit. Maybe WD could be changed to Doc?




Doc does sound cool, and WD is still a mouthful no matter how fast it is to type.

@ Zarfen - Actually I used pally all the time, but maybe I was an exception.

Short name for wizard - Page 2

Wiz is clearly the best choice, but Zard is undeniably awesome.|||Wizzy for me.

I can't use "wiz" because that's slang for wee wee - "going for a wiz". Well, it could work depending on how the Wizard turns outs. Never know.|||Quote:








Wizzy for me.

I can't use "wiz" because that's slang for wee wee - "going for a wiz". Well, it could work depending on how the Wizard turns outs. Never know.




"Don't wiz on the electric fence." <3 Ren & Stimpy XD



I like Wizzy. It's worked for WizardSpike, so I'm sure it'd be fine. Catchy too.|||Quote:








Wizzy for me.

I can't use "wiz" because that's slang for wee wee - "going for a wiz". Well, it could work depending on how the Wizard turns outs. Never know.




I believe that's "Whiz".|||Yes... where is the "Wiz" option. "Wiz" is the first and only abbrev. that came to mind.|||Quote:




I can't use "wiz" because that's slang for wee wee - "going for a wiz". Well, it could work depending on how the Wizard turns outs. Never know.




You just gave Disintegrate a terrifying new potential meaning. Let us hope Diablo 3 is not mod friendly.|||Perhaps I am being overly cynical, but I have a strange feeling that unimaginative people who think they are amusing will start to use "Wiztard".

What Wizzes will call themselves is a different matter! |||I'm gonna have to say sorc, just outta habit.|||what about ansatsuken?|||wiz seems like the obviuos

Short name for wizard

As you all know long or awkward names always get simplified or changed in the ever changing, living entitiy of the language.

This is why we are speaking of barbs, palas, ama, sorcs and so on.

The name wizard may fit very well into the lore but i feel its just not casual enogh to establish itself.

Which of the following do you feel will become common?|||"Wiz" seems like the logical abbreviation.|||I'll go with wiz.|||Wiz.

Maybe Wizzy.|||Wiz and Wizzy.|||I'd like to change my vote to "W".

Of course, the witchdoctor is WD, so no problems there.

People are lazy man.|||I think Wzd is simple and to the point. |||Wiz, although Wee sounds funny.|||I'm amazed that Wiz isn't an option on the poll... I'd have to say Wiz, with Zard being the second most likely, for some weird reason.|||Wiz for male and Wizzy for female characters. And plenty of dumb variations courtesy of people playing D3 translated into their native languages

Wizard Summoning - Page 4

hireling are still in....soooo yeah and "pure caster" type have always been higher dmg and lower defence then every other class....i doubt that will change if they want to have diversity in their class...the really only thing that bothers me with the wiz is that ALOTS of spell are taken from DnD....wish they would have made new one that arent exact copy of DnD...il still play my "MALE WOOHOO!!!" wizard non-stop

the wiz have alots of good diverse defensive skill now,unlike that damn frozen,chilling and shiver armor...so i wouldnt worry about surviving....

we really need the necro comeback though...i love caster...every one of them but summoner necro was seriously awesome to play and alots different then everything weve seen in Diablo like....people saying its just summon and then watch dont know anything about necro in hell....going in hell as a summoner necro as your first new ladder char is just awesome and soooooo much tactic is involved|||Quote:








we really need the necro comeback though...i love caster...every one of them but summoner necro was seriously awesome to play and alots different then everything weve seen in Diablo like....people saying its just summon and then watch dont know anything about necro in hell....going in hell as a summoner necro as your first new ladder char is just awesome and soooooo much tactic is involved




No. NO. NO. NO.

Let me introduce you to the WITCH DOCTOR. He has SUMMONS too!

So seriously, everyone shut up, and let the Necro die like he wants to.|||Quote:








No. NO. NO. NO.

Let me introduce you to the WITCH DOCTOR. He has SUMMONS too!

So seriously, everyone shut up, and let the Necro die like he wants to.




Good point.

Bravo.

LET SOSO BE WIZZ AND KILL EVERYTHING IN HIS/HER OWN WITHOUT STUPID SHIELDS.



btw, if you play without frozen armour, games starts to be so much more interesting, tele / cast, or do: cast / cast /die is much better then get hit 13 billion times and then say, ouch, i need to repare: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qVNPj...c-HM-fresh+div|||find familiar!

edit: Also about slowtime... is it just me or is this just "slow missles" and nothing like the awesomness of bg timestop.|||Quote:








Also about slowtime... is it just me or is this just "slow missles" and nothing like the awesomness of bg timestop.




D2 sorceress had it. It's called "spamMeteorcrushgame".|||Just so we get back on topic, and so its perfectly clear, the Diablo 3 Wizard DOES have limited summoning ability through the Mirror Image and Hydra skills of its aptly named Conjuring skill tree. There are other possibilities for pseudo-summoning as well, such as Teleport inserted with a Multistrike (now Hydra) rune creating duplicates.

Wizard Summoning - Page 3

OK, God created the world with machines of progress, topic closed.|||There is a magic summoner class already, the Witch Doctor.|||Quote:








There is a magic summoner class already, the Witch Doctor.




really need to see the rest of his tree before i label him a summoner. i suspect he will get more/different summons but until we see more who knows how he will play|||Nothing dumbs down gameplay on a fragile offensive caster like a summonable tank, probably the most boring form of crowd control ever conceived of. I'm hoping D3 keeps the uninteresting fire-and-forget skills to a minimum.|||Quote:








Nothing dumbs down gameplay on a fragile offensive caster like a summonable tank, probably the most boring form of crowd control ever conceived of. I'm hoping D3 keeps the uninteresting fire-and-forget skills to a minimum.




Your opinion. I like summons as meatshields. Played a duo summoner in Titan Quest. :P|||Quote:




Nothing dumbs down gameplay on a fragile offensive caster like a summonable tank, probably the most boring form of crowd control ever conceived of. I'm hoping D3 keeps the uninteresting fire-and-forget skills to a minimum.




Who says tanks have to be boring drones? Something as simple a primitive RTS structure of commanding the tank could greatly spice up summoner gameplay. Not that I want Wizards to have any summons, but I could see a secondary interface for a summoning class to increase the complexity of summon use (for people who don't want to bother, there could always be the "mindless drone doing your generic bidding" setting)|||Quote:








Who says tanks have to be boring drones? Something as simple a primitive RTS structure of commanding the tank could greatly spice up summoner gameplay. Not that I want Wizards to have any summons, but I could see a secondary interface for a summoning class to increase the complexity of summon use (for people who don't want to bother, there could always be the "mindless drone doing your generic bidding" setting)






As long as it isn't similar to Ragnarok's 'Program your own AI' thing, that was so wide open to abuse.|||Something easy like, mark minions with mouse, point at which monster to attack, finished. Nothing fancy needed and would improve gameplay in areas where you want to focus on bosses and forget about the minions.|||I personally think the Mirror Images rock for summoning, and plan to build my eventual character around this (Granted they deal damage, of course)

In Diablo 1, you had the Golemn Spell, which was VERY Potent, even at Lvl 1

In Diablo 2, you had Act 2 Defense Hirelings, which made enemies stand still

In Diablo 3, you have...

|||In diablo 3, you have mirror image and slow time. Though not a "complete" replacement, those spells can give you the time to cast enough spells to get rid of your enemies.

Wizard Summoning - Page 2

Quote:








Seeing DIII wizards makes me hope that I'll be able to play a magic user that CAN say "If you say ONE MORE WORD, I'LL TEAR YOU TO SHREDS" -- and actually mean by his own magic -- and not by the swords in the hands of the 5 swordmen hiding behind the door.




Just from the gameplay experience we have been watching this sounds quite reasonable. All we have seen now are lower level skills, not supported by hig ranking passive skills. Once the wizard is in the level 90s everything will explode left and right |||Quote:








Which leads back on topic:

Seeing DIII wizards makes me hope that I'll be able to play a magic user that CAN say "If you say ONE MORE WORD, I'LL TEAR YOU TO SHREDS" -- and actually mean by his own magic -- and not by the swords in the hands of the 5 swordmen hiding behind the door.




Well, you can't really do that. Because all classes should be equal in the grand scheme. Having a class who does one action and the whole screen get atomized and a class who can kill one monster in a minute is unbalanced and not fun. |||Pffft. Stupid pointy stick using types, always hoping to compete with those who alter laws of the universe and shatter reality at whim.|||Yep.

Show me ONE religion with more than 100 worshippers where their god created the world with..:

a) A sword and shield

b) A huge axe

c) A pointy stick and four fish and a cow *

Show me ONE legend where a city was flying; or a world got crushed by the help of:

a) A shortsword and buckler

b) A throwing axe *

c) A shiny piece of armor

Show me ONE adventurer in "serious" fantasy who killed an unwilling god, in all its glory at full strength without magic beeing used against him to aid the adventurer, using:

a) A non-magical dagger and a tower shield

b) A non-magical bow and a quivver of non-magical iron arrows

c) A non-magical fist *

Show me ONE:

a) Non-magical sword which can create a secret pocket in reality where up to fifty people are served for four hours in a feast with magical servants and food and are subject to the effect of a full week's rest and get a morale bonus for the next 24 hours, while only fifteen minutes pass in the real world.

b) One non-magical dagger that can slaughter a city in 0.001 seconds

c) One talking mace where the talking guy's soul got trapped in the mace because he was hit so freaking hard in melee. *

Right.

Magic wins.

Again.



* I added these options to give you a chance.|||Wizards have the teleport skill. Shouldnt be too hard to stay away from melee'ers

Also, I havent read the skill trees but the d2 sorc had energy shield which made it a lot harder to kill. So maybe blizzard will add something like that to maker her tank more.|||Quote:








Yep.



Show me ONE adventurer in "serious" fantasy who killed an unwilling god, in all its glory at full strength without magic beeing used against him to aid the adventurer, using:

a) A non-magical dagger and a tower shield

b) A non-magical bow and a quivver of non-magical iron arrows

c) A non-magical fist *

Show me ONE:

a) Non-magical sword which can create a secret pocket in reality where up to fifty people are served for four hours in a feast with magical servants and food and are subject to the effect of a full week's rest and get a morale bonus for the next 24 hours, while only fifteen minutes pass in the real world.

b) One non-magical dagger that can slaughter a city in 0.001 seconds

c) One talking mace where the talking guy's soul got trapped in the mace because he was hit so freaking hard in melee. *

Right.

Magic wins.

Again.



* I added these options to give you a chance.




D2 Assassin, D&D Psionics. Techincally psionics and assassin mind skills aren't magic, and psionics rivals magic in power. Besides with the Spellplague, wizards are like half-dead.

Oh and Baldurs gate OT: Time stop>Energy Blades>Spell trigger with 2x greater curse and horrid wilting>Wish Rest>Rinse and repeat

Walking engine of destruction right there.

Oh and we had Ironguard in Baldurs gate?|||Quote:




In playing Titan Quest, for instance, summoning an elemental was very important... What I mean by this is that it was necessary to distract enemies - and provide the wizard character the space and time to launch magical attacks...




This isn't Titan Quest. This is Diablo. Diablo's always been a great, unique game, and I don't suggest giving the developers ideas of making it a standard fantasy game. We're having enough problems driving them away from the horrid WoW graphics (which are shared by just about every MMORPG or RPG, except some of them are more lego-like).|||Hah, with summoning the wizard would be the mix of all classes, she would only need leap and shape-shifting xD.

As it seems now, the wizard is supposed to be a lonely mage, that's one of the personality aspects which can be seen on the lore, she or he is supposed to be a master of magic by himself or herself, and does not need help. With summons the whole character personality would be broken.|||Quote:








Hah, with summoning the wizard would be the mix of all classes, she would only need leap and shape-shifting xD.

As it seems now, the wizard is supposed to be a lonely mage, that's one of the personality aspects which can be seen on the lore, she or he is supposed to be a master of magic by himself or herself, and does not need help. With summons the whole character personality would be broken.




*cheer*clap* !|||Quote:








Right.

Magic wins.

Again.




I would like to know what source you have that states God used Magic to create the world. I couldn't find anything in Genesis.

Wizard Summoning

Just a quick point about Wizard abilities...

First: have I missed something here? In the trailer I've seen nothing about Wizard summoning...

In most games, the 'wizard' or 'magic user' character is weaker in health and melee...

In playing Titan Quest, for instance, summoning an elemental was very important... What I mean by this is that it was necessary to distract enemies - and provide the wizard character the space and time to launch magical attacks...

For the same reason I think Blizzard should provide for the Wizard character a summoning capacity...

This is especially important in solo games - where more melee-focused characters could shield the Wizard...

Do other readers here have an opinion? Hope Blizzard is watching...|||They have... Hydra-- which MAY be something else than three heads popping out of the ground, and mirror images, which MAY be more than 4 when maxed.

Basicly: Wizards have the Amazon skill Decoy.|||So sorry you can't just summon an invulkyrie and hide behind it and do nothing...|||I think wizards summoning minions is pretty redundant. You don't NEED a minion to protect you...

Nox wizard can't summon. And he's not someone you'd call weak. His weakness is compensated by empowering spells such as Force Field or Invisibility or what not... besides, why does he need protection when he can kill you with 1-2 spells?

And a DnD Wizard/Sorcerer has a wide range of stuff like mage armor and stoneskin that make DnD wizard EXTREMELY annoying to kill. I spent ages killing a wizard in NWN with my fighter with halberd because he had stoneskin and partial invisibility and I wasn't able to kill him until he ran out of all those spells he memorized. In addition to that, he kept blinding me and casting all sorts of other stuff that I nearly died while standing right in front of his face.

Personally, any casting class would overpower any non-magic class automatically in a real-world situation...|||Doctor is your summoning.

Wizard is walking destruction incarnate, we don't need no stinkin' meatshields.|||Quote:








Doctor is your summoning.

Wizard is walking destruction incarnate, we don't need no stinkin' meatshields.




+1

and I think you cant generalize about this version of a Wizard....with the right gear and skill choices she may actually turn out to be quite a tank.|||The Sorceress in Diablo 2 did not need a shield to hide behind. Yes, most sorceress builds do use a mercenary as a kind of shield or place to direct monsters to cast her spells, but she can be just as capable on her own.

When not using a mercernary in D2, the sorceress relied on her skill to teleport keep monster groups in check by placing herself appropiately which made gameplay fastpaced and active.

Apart from Hydra, both in D2 and D3, i do not think that a mage caster class is in need of a summoning spell.

Even through the wizard backdoor, the Necromancer will not return as a playing class. |||Quote:








And a DnD Wizard/Sorcerer has a wide range of stuff like mage armor and stoneskin that make DnD wizard EXTREMELY annoying to kill. I spent ages killing a wizard in NWN with my fighter with halberd because he had stoneskin and partial invisibility and I wasn't able to kill him until he ran out of all those spells he memorized. In addition to that, he kept blinding me and casting all sorts of other stuff that I nearly died while standing right in front of his face.

Personally, any casting class would overpower any non-magic class automatically in a real-world situation...




The second paragraph made me lol. Really... too funny.

For the first, in NWN they are tame. Try a wizard/sorc in BG2. They are even more annoying. I still remember the 4 ADHW I get thrown in the face, simultanious from 2 Liches with their Chain Contingency.

In D3, it will be more balanced. And it seems that all classes are balanced around the fact you don't have a meatshield like a merc? So it evens out.|||It has been mentioned that there will be mercenaries available in Diablo III. How those will interact with your character or complete it is not known.|||Quote:








The second paragraph made me lol. Really... too funny.

For the first, in NWN they are tame. Try a wizard/sorc in BG2. They are even more annoying. I still remember the 4 ADHW I get thrown in the face, simultanious from 2 Liches with their Chain Contingency.

In D3, it will be more balanced. And it seems that all classes are balanced around the fact you don't have a meatshield like a merc? So it evens out.




Heading wildly off topic now... but...

I really loved AD&D wizards' ability to completely wreck an entire party -- over a long period of time.

In NWN -- they were completely and utterly vulnerable to direct attacks.

If you dare mention stoneskin to defend NWN -- I will mention Force Cage; The wizard creates a cage 20 foot long and wide and high, either trapping the enemy with no save, or protecting those inside the cage, either way protecting the caster from those on the other side.

It was unbreakable and lasted for more minutes than any sane balance monkey would allow.

If you mention confusion, I'll mention time stop: The wizard freaking stops the time and does whatever he wants for 6 to 15 seconds!

If you mention premonition, I'll mention Ironguard: No metal can harm the wizard.

NWN raped the mages twice over and left them cold out in the rain tied to the railway tracks hoping to get rescued by their longsword-wielding cleric friends -- compared to real D&D mages -- who'd eat two black dragons for breakfast before going to slay Demogorgon (again) with the cleric in his party to cast cure minor wounds (and because the cleric-player is a good friend) in case all hell should break loose (literally AND figuratively, and with pun intended) and the wizard get a scratch from the encounter.

Which leads back on topic:

Seeing DIII wizards makes me hope that I'll be able to play a magic user that CAN say "If you say ONE MORE WORD, I'LL TEAR YOU TO SHREDS" -- and actually mean by his own magic -- and not by the swords in the hands of the 5 swordmen hiding behind the door.

Melee Wizard - Page 7

i was thinking about wizard weapons

i think that blades will be suitable for this character, you could wear 2 and improve your spectral blade with the blade weapon mods, like posion, cb, critical strikes, life llech or mana leech...

Melee Wizard - Page 5

Quote:








Not true, people must stop overreacting on everything, seriously.

Most of the viable, useful and playable builds in D2 were built around either specialization in certain skills or a skill tree ( i.e Zealadin ) or certain items ( i.e Bowazon ), and both are still present in D3.

If you people lack the imagination to make a melee wizard in D3 that's your problem not Blizz, stats playing a large, effective role in character customization is a just myth ( calls Myth Busters for help )

As for making a good Melee Wizard, it is possible.

Melee Wizard:

-Melee Skills (Focus on the Wizard skills that work good with close combat)

Stone skin

Damage resistance

Weapon mastery

Mirror image

Armor piercing

Magic weapon

Slowing strikes

Conjured armor

Arcane Armor

Storm Armor

Power Armor

Temporal Armor

Lethal Energy

Slow Time

Teleport

-Melee gear (all with modifiers that improve melee combat)

Powerful Sword

Heavy Plate-mail

Heavy Boots, Gloves, Headgear, Pants

Rings and Amulets



So it appears that lack of customization is pure nonsense cause there are enough skills in the Wizard tree ( which i'm sure many didn't even bother to look at ) that scream for people to make a melee wizard, i'm tired of all the whining about "stats" and "no customization" in D3, at least when you say something try to back it up with facts FOR A CHANGE.




Good post.|||Quote:








Most of the viable, useful and playable builds in D2 were built around either specialization in certain skills or a skill tree ( i.e Zealadin ) or certain items ( i.e Bowazon ), and both are still present in D3.




A bowazon is build around stats specialization just as much as items specialization - no dex = bad damage. And eventually, zealadins are good because they don't need that much dex/str to get good defence/block/damage. Force them to take high str/dex - as in, auto placed stats to get max block with bad block shields/low holysheild and to wear heavy armours - and zealadins seem atleast to me much more fragile as it would damage their life greatly.|||Quote:








A bowazon is build around stats specialization just as much as items specialization - no dex = bad damage. And eventually, zealadins are good because they don't need that much dex/str to get good defence/block/damage. Force them to take high str/dex - as in, auto placed stats to get max block with bad block shields/low holysheild and to wear heavy armours - and zealadins seem atleast to me much more fragile as it would damage their life greatly.






Not bad points, but you have to remember that what makes a Bowazon play different from any other amazon build with the same stats is the skills and items used.

Besides, stats works quite differently than in D2, in D3 each one has several effects ( increasing max life, Block, critical chance ... etc etc ), so if items are made in two categories, one that moderately increases a certain stat as a whole ( STR, WILL POWER, .... etc etc ), and one that significantly increases a certain one of those stat effects directly ( life, critical hit chance, block, .. etc etc ) this will ensure that any build can be complemented by the right items and skills.

Examples would be:

-Heavy Chainmail of STR: one of its modifiers would be ( +10 to STR ) which is a stat

-Breastplate of Life: one of its modifiers would be ( +40 to life ) which is a stat effected value

-Claymore of Might: one of its modifiers would be ( +20 to STR ) which is a stat

-Violent Double Axe of Massacre: one of its modifiers would be ( +35% chance to do critical damage ) which is a stat effected value

And so on, now imagine that a crafting system in D3 that allows to modify items and increase their efficiency by a certain percentage ( including increasing their modifiers value ) for a huge cost of gold, now no more tedious stat allocation will be needed if the items had good stat increasing modifiers variety + a crafting system that allows for increasing item quality and its modifiers effects .. specially the stat increasing ones ... volia |||Actually... interesting point you got there, maybe the new crafting system will be the new attribute customizers?

A little like enchanting from WoW?|||Quote:








Not bad points, but you have to remember that what makes a Bowazon play different from any other amazon build with the same stats is the skills and items used.




I know, though with the same stats, bowazon aren't that good. That's one of the reason why there aren't that many hardcore bowazon.

However, I'm not saying that diablo III will not pull it off. They actually may make it work very well. I'm just saying that diablo II does work on stats quite a bit and that I will feel it as a lost when I can't do anything about stats.

On thing that might work is to get different pre-set lines; One forinstance would focus on heavily on mana or vitality - or what ever will be the equivalence - making in interesting for a pure caster. While an other path might go for an more or less even distribution between the different stats making it better for a mele build. the same can then be done for a barbarian. One that focusses heavily on health and str with a minor focus on the other stats. And one that solely focusses on str - damage - fury and a tiny bit of life.

If you change the stats system to an item-bases system, this will mean that certain items will be much less interesting, simply because they don't offer the needed stats. You are going to use a Claymore of Might meaning that you can't use a Claymore of speed because it doesn't offer the stats you need.

they are different thing thus are best kept as apart as possible.



@ konfeta: why does everyone want things from WOW. Really, if wow were that a good game, I wouldn't be playing diablo, now would I.|||Quote:








However, I'm not saying that diablo III will not pull it off. They actually may make it work very well. I'm just saying that diablo II does work on stats quite a bit and that I will feel it as a lost when I can't do anything about stats.




If you examine Stats carefully you will realize that they are just indirect representations of other important factors ( besides previously working as item caps in D2 which is no more the case in D3) important factors like ( life, block, critical, .. etc etc ) which are what really matters.

So if you have in D3 a passive skill that makes each point in a stat pool more effective ( like the Barb skill the makes each point in STR stat equal more damage ) thus increasing those resultant factors effects, then it is no different than manually increasing the stat itself.

And if the crafting system can modify items then the game becomes really what it should be, focusing on customizing characters using a large selection of items and skills.




Quote:








If you change the stats system to an item-bases system, this will mean that certain items will be much less interesting, simply because they don't offer the needed stats. You are going to use a Claymore of Might meaning that you can't use a Claymore of speed because it doesn't offer the stats you need.




If you are going for a fast attacking build take the Claymore of Speed, if going for the brute builds then use the Claymore of Might, and if you want a bit of both there could be a unique Claymore that offers a small bonus to both stats, or just find another item than the claymore to increase the wanted stat, so now getting the right items will be critical and different from player to player depending on their selected skills ( clearly made in D3 with specializations chances in mind )




Quote:




why everyone doesn't want anything from WOW. Really, if wow wasn't a good game there wouldn't be millions of Blizzard fans playing it, now would they.




/Fixed

Ahm, actually the WoW hate is getting kinda ridiculous, just because you don't like WoW as a whole ( and it surely has its problems ) doesn't mean it doesn't have good ideas, and those good ideas will benefit Diablo 3 and make it a better game which ALL that matters regardless of the origin of the idea .. it just has be viewed separate from it source and have its benefits logically examined, mindlessly refusing ideas just cause they are related to WoW is illogical.|||Quote:








If you examine Stats carefully you will realise that they are just indirect representations of other important factors ( besides working as item caps ) important factors like ( life, block, critical, .. etc etc ) which are what really matters.

So if you have in D3 a passive skill that makes each point in a stat pool more effective ( like the Barb skill the makes each point in STR stat equal more damage ) thus increasing those resultant factors effects, then it is no different than manually increasing the stat itself.




You are going from a 3 layer system to a 2 layer system where the 3th layer is simulated in the 2 remaining Layer. That ain't the same. Now stats like system will be in competition with direct skills and with items.

It's kind of like a hardware. Each hardware component has different layers, going from a physical layer over some sort of interface to software and all those complicated things. Why do they do this, because combining layers just can't offer the same functionally/safety as different layers.



In short, cutting down a layer is only acceptable when it give huge improvements towards balancing - atleast for me. Strangely, you find lots of reasons , though balancing isn't one of them. And that surprises me.



@Knight_Wolf: the problem isn't that enchanting is part of wow. The problem is that it appears to me that konfeta likes the idea simply because it's part of wow and simply because it works there. Diablo ain't wow so simply taking over idea doesn't work.|||Quote:








@Knight_Wolf: the problem isn't that enchanting is part of wow. The problem is that it appears to me that konfeta likes the idea simply because it's part of wow and simply because it works there. Diablo ain't wow so simply taking over idea doesn't work.




The real problem is that you assumed two things without much evidence.

1-You assumed Konfeta likes the idea JUST because it is in WoW, actually i never played WoW nor did i know that enchanting in WoW is any similar to what i wish the Crafting system in D3 to be, i think he merely used the WoW example as reference, which doesn't mean in any way that the crafting system in D3 must be exactly identical to the WoW enchanting ( whatever it is )

2-You also assumed that JUST because it is a mechanic from WoW that it simply won't work in D3 ( which is what the majority of WoW haters do ), that's very biased thinking and things in game development don't work purely on personal preference, if it was tested and proven that the crafting system that allows to modify/enhance items will make D3 a better game then it must be included in the game regardless of anyone's preferences.





Personally i think a system like that will make the game impressive, the limitless possibilities to modify items will result in almost endless variations of items ( modifications with some limits for balance ), for example every item can only be modified one time and the player can only modify one of the item aspects ... plus .. the more important/effective that aspect is the more gold the player will pay to get that modification which will make a good gold sink.

With this no longer will we have 100 players with identical copies of the same gear, instead each player will modify his gear respectively to fit his skills and play style.|||Quote:








2-You also assumed that JUST because it is a mechanic from WoW that it simply won't work in D3 ( which is what the majority of WoW haters do )




There is just as little reason to assume the opposite.



anyway, lets give this thread back the melee wizard shall we?|||Quote:








There is just as little reason to assume the opposite






Actually there is no reason to assume it won't work before testing it out, so Blizz is the only one who has an actual say in this matter ( not the angry WoW haters ), let's leave it at that ( or maybe until they actually reveal what kind of crafting system they have on mind for D3 to replace the Cube )




Quote:








anyway, lets give this thread back the melee wizard shall we?




Ok, so what kind of Melee Wizard variations do you have in mind.



I think it is possible to make a speed based melee Wizard be investing a lot in these skills:



Slowing strikes

Slow Time

Teleport

Mirror image

All of them allow the wizard some space to move and slow his/her enemies to a crawl, combined with gear that increases Hit%, Dodge%, Block% and Running speed this wizard will move very quickly, distract the enemies, stop their projectiles and be able to inflict damage on them before they can even react.

Another option would be making a brute melee wizard by investing heavily in those skills for example:



Stone skin

Damage resistance

Weapon mastery

Armor piercing

Magic weapon

Slowing strikes

Power Armor

Lethal Energy

With this many physical enhancements abilities this wizard can really deal lots of physical damage ( given a good weapon ) and stand a lot of punishment ( and could even tank if the gear provides a life/vitality bonus )



Mix some medium range magic skills with any of the above builds and you will get a very versatile and effective warlock at your command.



So what are your dream builds for a melee wizard ?

Melee Wizard - Page 4

as far as hybrids go, if they're trying to make mana harder, you just wont be able to mass spam the same spell over and over like you could in d2, you also gotta take in the duration of each spell to the ability to regain mana, should be interesting|||What about casting 'Delayed Spells' or force one of your spells to be delayed ( you casted this spell a few seconds ago so you can release it at some point unexpectedly on some person, kinda like hiding it until the last moment )|||1.25x more powerful spell effects if casted at pointblank range? like freezing/slowing for 5seconds instead of 4 normally? and slowing at 25% instead of 20%?|||I think people try too hard to not fit a archetype...sure in D2 there where paladins with bows, amazons w/ 2h swords, barbs with bows. etc etc etc. they may "work" but ultimately suck because the class is a wizard. your SUPPOSE to cast magic. the asian girl is not big and swole like the barbarian chick and in cloth a wizard looks 1 shotable by a whirlwind. (and they should be if a wizard is stupid enough to get into melee range)

even if it would work im sure blizzard would fix skills. so there would not be wizards meleeing barbarians to death. no barbarians shooting rangers to death.|||do wizards shout their spells when they cast?|||lol! popalot! you are cracking me up with your random suggestions

what if the wizard had a little golem up her sleeve that she could release to absorb the energy of the earth and then unleash all that energy as a spectacular golem nova that is fire based since she has no fire and then creates golem saprophytes that grow out of the monster killed by the spell and then the golem saprophytes merge together and go back into the wizard's sleeve unless the golem is too big in which case it adds +3 to all skills for about 5 minutes and if the wizard somehow manages to stack the +3 skills 3 times she goes crazy and unleashes an armageddon upon the land where meteors that turn into cows crash into the ground and join your force as angelic bovines that also have little golems in their utters that repeat the cycle forever and for all eternity?!? |||just wanted to take a minute to say something intelligent since my last post was... not.

I was reading through the wizard skills and I was extremely impressed with the skill Temporal armor. A skill like that could become extremely overpowered if it was at a very high level and it was reducing all damage every second. What do you guys think?

oops, almost forgot the jig! blasphemy! |||While D2 was great in creating non-stereotypical classes thanks to its manual attribute distribution etc, D3 I am afraid will fall back to holy trinity exists in other games. D3 is very influenced by WoW and I fear and think that it will end up working like WoW at mechanical level too So, no viable melee Wizards unfortunately I guess.|||Raven, you do know that the Wizard has multiple skills that are melee ranged, plus armors, plus no stat reqs on weapons or armor. That sounds like a melee wizard to me.|||Quote:








While D2 was great in creating non-stereotypical classes thanks to its manual attribute distribution etc, D3 I am afraid will fall back to holy trinity exists in other games. D3 is very influenced by WoW and I fear and think that it will end up working like WoW at mechanical level too So, no viable melee Wizards unfortunately I guess.






Not true, people must stop overreacting on everything, seriously.

Most of the viable, useful and playable builds in D2 were built around either specialization in certain skills or a skill tree ( i.e Zealadin ) or certain items ( i.e Bowazon ), and both are still present in D3.

If you people lack the imagination to make a melee wizard in D3 that's your problem not Blizz, stats playing a large, effective role in character customization is a just myth ( calls Myth Busters for help )

As for making a good Melee Wizard, it is possible.

Melee Wizard:

-Melee Skills (Focus on the Wizard skills that work good with close combat)

Stone skin

Damage resistance

Weapon mastery

Mirror image

Armor piercing

Magic weapon

Slowing strikes

Conjured armor

Arcane Armor

Storm Armor

Power Armor

Temporal Armor

Lethal Energy

Slow Time

Teleport

-Melee gear (all with modifiers that improve melee combat)

Powerful Sword

Heavy Plate-mail

Heavy Boots, Gloves, Headgear, Pants

Rings and Amulets



So it appears that lack of customization is pure nonsense cause there are enough skills in the Wizard tree ( which i'm sure many didn't even bother to look at ) that scream for people to make a melee wizard, i'm tired of all the whining about "stats" and "no customization" in D3, at least when you say something try to back it up with facts FOR A CHANGE.

Melee Wizard - Page 3

It made me wonder about blocking and if the wizard will carry your typical orb/shield combination... especially since the shield seems to block damage a percentage of the time now. Or does a staff have a block ability? I know you got your Conjured Armor but... hmmm I swore I read something that touched on that somewhere... anyone remember anything like that? Would be sweeet.

And I wonder if they will have some nice robes as class-specific instead of just wearing a full plate.|||Looking at the wizard skills it definately looks like they wanted to make a melee wizard not only a viable build but one of the main build archetypes for the wizard. I plan on making a pvp melee wizard at some point (may even try to make it my first character). I enjoy the unusual builds the most in Diablo 2 just like many other people. My favorite thing in Diablo 2 was trying to come up with unusual builds that nobody used for pvp, not to make them "godly pvpers" but solid pvpers. They were more fun than making the standard cookie-cutter pvp builds. I think the Wizard shows a lot of promise for versatility especially with runes making a potential for many variations of the same build. I think slowing time though not a skill that directly supports melee would be a great way of making your character a tanker, especially in conjuction with the other melee skills and defensive skills.|||Quote:




Stats will need to be aquired through items. Since there are NO stat requirements for items, wearing heavy plate won't be a problem, unless this is restricted by class, which might pose a problem then.




Unless the Auto stats change depending on what trees you allocate skill points in : )|||But that still wouldn't pose a problem for equipping, though I doubt that is the way they are going to go. And you would still need to get most of your "custom" stats from equip.|||Quote:








Unless the Auto stats change depending on what trees you allocate skill points in : )




That suggestion reminds me of the way skills could be accessed in Titan Quest. You would pump up the skill tree with points, those points gave you health/mana/damage or whatever as you devoted points into it, and then you could access more advanced skills after so many points were spent... But I don't think this is the case with Diablo III, it looks like all you need to do is devote points into the tree from any skill from an earlier tier in order to access the next tier. I don't think that the fact you are devoting points into the Conjuring Tree will give you extra strength or dexterity. However it does appear that if you devote points into a skill like Damage Resistance, Conjured Health, Weapon Mastery, Conjured Armor and Armor Piercing, they seem to boost not so much attributes or other skills but your items and stats your attributes would have enhanced.

On a side note, I wonder if Weapon Mastery and Magic Weapon and skills like that effect projectile weapons like bows and throwing weapons...|||Melee wizards will definitely be viable, the only questions are (a) how viable are hybrids and (b) will there be any significent variation between serious melee wizard builds?|||Quote:








Melee wizards will definitely be viable, the only questions are (a) how viable are hybrids and (b) will there be any significent variation between serious melee wizard builds?






2 great questions. the first question i am seriously curious about, not just for wiz either but all classes|||B) Yes. Easily.

Take a close look at the Conjuration tree's skills:

http://www.diablowiki.net/Conjuratio...Weapon_Mastery

Then consider Armors, AoE attacks, Frost Attacks, Time Spells, variability in terms of how much you invest in survival skills vs. damage skills, etc.

I can already see like 4-5 different melee Wizard builds and there are probably tens, if not more, of subtypes and hybridizations between them.|||assuming all the skills are actually effective and we are not forced into the same cookie cutter characters because only 1 way is worth a damn. lets hope they got it right this time|||Will she be able to magically enhance her punch multiple times with magic?

Mass of mini teleports( it'd look kinda like a charge and without the strike at the end ) that move only 1 yard in a certain direction? The wizard could cancel it at any time during the teleport line and into some attack perhaps? This type of teleport could also allow the wizard to channel a shockwave and get up close to release it. Maybe the normal teleport could have a delay to attacking others but this one won't. Maybe the wizard could have a grab skill where the target's screen goes white due to the blinding light, and the target is hit a couple of times during that time and this teleport could allow her to do it instantly. The wizard could fire a few spells during that time at point blank range for increased damage.

What about a skill where the wizard puts all her magical energy into her legs and her striking fist, and jumps up and taking the target upwards with her? Once in mid air, she could cast some aerial ice blasts.

Melee Wizard - Page 2

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if (attribute auto) then (not melee wizard)




I don't think that is correct. The skills for a melee type wizard are there and since there are NO attribute requirements on items you could get items that boost the needed attributes.|||Also the Wizard has a skill that increases her health by a %, so she could potentially be a tank (especially against slowed enemies).|||A "Tank" Wizard could be feasable. Especially if they specialize in the Conjuring Tree and with the aid of the Arcane Armor skill from the Arcane Tree...


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Arcane Armor

While your Storm Armor, Stone Armor, Stone Skin or Temporal Armor spells are active, your armor is increased by 20%.

* Rank: 0/15

Another interesting mastery; this one boosts the armor, but only while one (or more) of the other protective spells are active.




I wonder if one could use multiple + armor spells... IIRC Frozen Armor and Chilling Armor and Shiver Armor canceled each other out if used together... I wonder though if a spell like Stone Skin, and Storm Armor stack. Since they don't actually do the same thing; Stone Skin repels damage up to a point while Storm Armor damages the enemy slightly. Arcane Armor does increase the armor bonus if you have Stone Skin up, like it does Storm armor and Temporal armor however. So this leads me to believe that they probably don't stack. Unless the armor bonus from Arcane armor is separate from the armor bonus from Storm armor - meaning that it only triggers while the armor spell is active and it doesn't add to the armor bonus on the spell, rather multiplies the base armor then adds the multiplier from a spell like storm armor.

Armor Spells may stack and remain balanced if the equation is...

Base armor * Storm Armor = X

Base Armor * Arcane Armor bonus = Y (while armor spell is active)

Base Armor * Stone Skin = A

Base Armor * Temporal Armor = B

Base armor +X +Y +A +B = Total Armor

Arcane Armor may stack but would probably be imbalanced if the equation is...

(Armor Spell > 0 = Base armor + Arcane Armor Bonus = B

(Base armor * Storm Armor) = X *B

(Base armor * Stone Skin) = Y *B

(Base armor * Temporal Armor) = A *B

Base armor +X*B+Y*B+A*B = (Total Armor)B�

Meaning that you'd get the armor bonus from Storm armor and the benefits of Stone Skin and Temporal armor plus the armor bonus from Arcane Armor three times resulting in an exponential increase in your bonus armor rating if you have only two armor spells active...

The Arcane Armor bonus should only apply once, but It would be interesting if the Armor spells could stack. Though from what I'm foreseeing that probably won't be the case, since the armor spells could render the Wizard virtually invulnerable to harm. Since the stacking of armor bonuses from Arcane Armor along with the Base Damage reduction from Stone Skin and Temporal Armor would result in a steady stream of 0 damage to the Wizard and the Combination with Storm Armor would deal a steady amount of Damage to the Wizards assailant, if the base armor is high enough. It basically means that Arcane Armor would be abused as a skill and may give the Wizard Greater armor class than the Actual "Tanks" built into the game. It would definetly be a Broken PVP skill so Arcane Armor should only Trigger Once only if at least one Armor Spell is active and not give bonus armor for each armor spell active.

At least my hopes are that Blizzard will be Balancing game play not only for PVE but for PVP also.|||Just thought I would add that the interview with JW on the front page confirms beyond a shadow of a doubt that melee wizard will not only be feasible, but is actually a build that Blizzard specifically designed the Wizard to utilize. I think we probably all knew that by looking at the skill tree, but with Jay Wilson flat out saying it, it really gives me confidence that not only will the build be available, but it will actually be good, even untwinked.

For me, that is exciting news. This will be the first build I play, unless something amazing presents itself via the two unannounced classes or release of skills for Doc and Barb.|||I agree with NKlint here. Stacking armors would possibly overpower the wizard gameplay or some kind of drawbacks would have to be added when multiple armors are active, which then kind of defeats the purpose and only adds more things that need to be considered about the balance of skills and balance of the different character classes.

And thankyou Sylvanite for sharing this very good piece of information out of the videos Good to hear, that once again the caster class will be able to go melee as well!|||will be cool if they put on d3

i actually built sword sorc (which nobody did) on d2, maxed lvl enchant, and maxed lvl on shileld defence so that sorc won die easily. it was however useless cuz it couldnt kill single monster in hell level lol.

so what i did was increasing her strenght an gave her better sword. I think I gave her grandfathersword, which she finally started killing hell monsters, yet slowly |||and the life??? with auto stat i think that life is poor|||No auto-stat means that you will be required to obtain life in some part from your equipment. Hopefully there's a lot of equipment that satisfies this, or we'll quickly see cookie-cutter builds.|||Quote:








and the life??? with auto stat i think that life is poor




wiz has a skill that boosts total hp, i see no problems with a melee wiz now, infact like i said before i think they will be even better in d3 as the devs have given alot of skills to support a battlemage build|||Look into the First build ideas for some ideas for a melee wizard and see for yourself, that this will be quite possible. even just look at the skills in the conjuring tree. Most of those skills are laid out for melee wizard builds.

Stats will need to be aquired through items. Since there are NO stat requirements for items, wearing heavy plate won't be a problem, unless this is restricted by class, which might pose a problem then.

Melee Wizard

Will this be a viable build? Between the time distortion skills, teleport, the close range "magic blade" attack she keeps using in the demo and the as yet unseen "enchant weapon" skill, it seems like it could be a really cool light melee character. I do wonder whether it will fit in the design philosophy they are going for. It might be the case that characters are designed to be generalists and not focus on certain skill trees. Also issues with stat distribution could come up, since we dont get to decide any more and the Wizard could be extremely fragile in later areas of the game.

Maybe it would be a good PvP build. Anyway, thoughts?|||I really hope so. I've always liked builds that are the antithesis of the typical archetypes. A melee wizard. The Singer in D2, or the Ranger.

My hope is that Blizzard is doing everything they can to allow people to have true freedom with making their character truly unique. I think going with a lot of passives and masteries is a good way towards encouraging this. I think it will not only allow fringe builds but also allow some interested hybrid classes.|||http://www.shacknews.com/featuredart...id=1020&page=3

This forum needs a sticky already? My CTRL-V key is tiring itself out.

Short version: yes, if the Conjuration tree is anything to go by, a melee Wizard will be viable.|||We also have a complete list of the Wizard skill trees, much the same as with Shacknews in the Diablo3 Wiki I will assemble a thread with viable information and make it worthwhile for a sticky.

• Wizard basic information


• Wizard Skills

I will dig for more information that relates to the Wizard and can either be found in the Wiki or elsewhere.


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This forum needs a sticky already?




There ya go -> The Wizard Knowledge & Guide Library [1st Edition]|||i gotta say at first i thought they were killing the melee wizards but after seeing the wizard tree i think they will be better than ever. i myself will make one but probably will not be my first char(though right now a casting wizard will be)|||I think that Blizzard is purposefully making a melee wizard viable. The lack of attribute requirements on all items will be awesome too.....Sword and shield wizard? Wizard with a giant hammer? Should be doable.

On another note, I see melee wizards playing out the best by having longer term buffs up, but then debuffing groups of enemies before going into melee range.

A string of magic missiles that slow, creatures, reduce their armor, and increase their damage taken? As well as adding a percent of weapon damage to your Magic Missile? Then teleport in, drop a slow time, and start mowing things down.....

Who knows what will be possible or not based on mana and game play, but I could see it playing out like that and being totally awesomesauce.|||I like the way these ideas are going. Combined with Magic Weapon, Lethal Energy, Stone Skin, Slowing Strikes and Mirror Image and there are even more options open.

There are many ways to build a Melee wizard from the skills we see available at the moment. I think it even more simple to come up with an idea for a melee wizard, than other builds. Would that imply that its an intention to not only use spells, but melee attacks too, possibly to bridge mana recovery?|||if (attribute auto) then (not melee wizard)|||Can we get over this already?

Items + Skills = Melee Casters, auto-attributes or not.|||Quote:








Will this be a viable build? Between the time distortion skills, teleport, the close range "magic blade" attack she keeps using in the demo and the as yet unseen "enchant weapon" skill, it seems like it could be a really cool light melee character. I do wonder whether it will fit in the design philosophy they are going for. It might be the case that characters are designed to be generalists and not focus on certain skill trees. Also issues with stat distribution could come up, since we dont get to decide any more and the Wizard could be extremely fragile in later areas of the game.

Maybe it would be a good PvP build. Anyway, thoughts?




Looking at the current skill trees it seems like making hybrids is still going to be pretty tough, as each skill has like 4 - 6 "synergies" that you'd like to use within the same tree. A pure melee wizard looks like a viable build by just looking at the skill trees. I wonder if you'll be able to enchant other players with magic weapon skill.

As for PvP I'm afraid that with auto-stats system a melee wizard may be at a disadvantage against other melee chars in terms of life/chance to block/chance to dodge/chance to hit, but it's kind of hard to tell yet.

I was thinking about making melee/electrocute hybrid build and calling him with some cool sith name

Mirror image awesome? - Page 4

Maybe everyone already figured this out and I'm just slow, but this demo review says that the MIs do damage.

http://www.gamespot.com/pc/rpg/diabl...&mode=previews|||Yes I do believe that the mirror images will be dishing out damage/spells unlike the variation in Baldur's Gate.

Apparently the game will be tough, very tough. Slow Time is one other evidence that the game will not be easy.|||I think, though, that if you're careful/slow enough, Wizards can pretty much solo any area with Slow Time/Mirror Image and whatever else utility spells they show.|||wizards, mages, sorcerors, you name em have always been too easy to play. They can stand at a distance and dish out overpower spells and take no damage at all|||Quote:








wizards, mages, sorcerors, you name em have always been too easy to play. They can stand at a distance and dish out overpower spells and take no damage at all




Imo pre-LOD sorc took some skills to use her efficiently.

Mirror image awesome? - Page 3

Runes people. Runes!

Why does everyone forget the new rune/skill system?

Mirror Image may not do any damage by itself, but hey, insert a Striking Rune and suddenly they do damage, just like that video where putting a Striking Rune in Teleport causes it to do damage.

MI + Striking Rune = Damaging images

MI + Multistrike = More copies

MI + Power = More HP per copy

etc.

RUNE SKILLS FTW!|||I've watched the Wizard trailer and Blizzcon B-Roll a dozen times each, and here's what I've concluded:

1. Mirror Images do no damage.

2. Whenever you cast a spell, your mirror images will cast the same spell at the same target. If you are not casting a spell, they will still run about casting the last spell you did. Whether all spells work like this or just some remains to be seen.

3. When you teleport, your images are left behind. However, Teleport with Multistrike creates one or more copies. I believe that whnever you produce an effect that creates a mirror image, all previous images dis-appear.

4. Images have hit-points and can be killed. They also fade away after a certain period of time.|||Well if mirror images themselves deal damage, then the damage done should be less than the damage dealt by the real wizard. Example, if the real wizard deals 100 damage, then the images may only deal 20 each. Also the images should take more damage than the real one. That way during pvp, players will still be able to work out which ones are images and who is the real deal.|||It would have to be far less than 20% to be fair.|||its just to act as a distraction...and doubt it would pose any problem in pvp with all the AoE everyone as now...you would need tons of hp so that your image dont die to fast....which im suspecting take alots more dmg....

and being a dota player make it really easy to see who isnt the image...image left uncontrolled and just thrown in there with the basic AI are just easy to spot compared to a player that move,act and overall play differently

also knight_wolf....potion arent in D3 like in D2 you have to kill stuff to make potion pop up and they can't be saved in your inventory they are used on the spot....THIS ISNT D2!! :P(he keep saying this all the time lol i had to do it)|||Quote:








ly

also knight_wolf....potion arent in D3 like in D2 you have to kill stuff to make potion pop up and they can't be saved in your inventory they are used on the spot....THIS ISNT D2!! :P(he keep saying this all the time lol i had to do it)




Those aren't potions you are talking about, those are health and mana globes which are dropped by enemies and used on the spot, potions, while supposedly rare and with cooldown effects, are still in D3.|||Yeah, Psycho. Potions are still in, just with a cooldown.|||oh really?...well didint know that thx...i though it was just basicly the dropped ground one and the old one totally removed O_o sorry bout that....DAMN IT|||it will probably act the same exact way it does for mages in WoW, they move around a little and copy the spell that the actual player is casting. The WoW one can actually do things to other players though which i think should not happen.|||Quote:








I did just have a look at the wizard trailer. She does use mirror image there. In the current implementation though you can clearly see, which are the mirror images and which is the real wizard. The mirror images are slightly transparent.




Have you never played Warcraft 3? The mirror image was blue for you and looked regular for your opponent, that way you could tell easily who was in danger, thy couldn't, same with halucinations in Starcraft, I have a feeling the system will be rather similar, do damge done from the images, but they still attack, and of course we all have runes, add som striking damage, or poison damage. I agree though, they do certainly have some pottential.

Mirror image awesome? - Page 2

The high level part of D3 must be insanely hard, looking at all the defense skills they prepared for the wizard.|||I really don't like this skill... because it's a defensive one :P

Anyway, for PvP, Warcraft III showed that miror image can be countered with micro and experience. For exemple, miror images might not take same damage and might be recongnizable this way, and if only the player and not the images do damage, then you can target the one you see doing damage, or even easier, the only one casting a spell! So wiz with this spell will kinda need to be kept from using spells while dueling. I'm sure this won't be a thread in PvP.

As for me, I'll be going strictly PvE without many defensive spells... So miror image = bleh.|||Well I can see how greatly effective this will be in PvM. Imagine what those 3 mirrors, if that's the stock level, would by in amount of time. In d2, being a completely different game almost, 4-7 seconds is enough to clear a screen espicially those meanies like the minions of destruction or a boss. In d3, I see it being a great help in the boss fights. For example, king Leroic fight where you start off surrounded. This would buy you enough time to get out of danger, and depending on the mirror images life span/stats, it may give you enough time to wipe out those minions.

I have a feeling that d3 is going to be less of high damage as fast as possible and more of startegy given by the class. Barb, tanker with damage. Wizard, offensive from a distance with some effect spells (slow time, mirror). Witch doctor, all round damge (fire), defensive (zombie wall and summons).

EDIT: of course we won't know any permanent stats or balances until later, much much later.|||Why is it that you assume Mirror Images won't do any damage?

Sure, Mirror Images in WC3 didn't do any, but there are several custom maps (including DotA, which Blizzard employees have recognized) in which they do a percentage of your character's damage.

It should make for a lot of interesting builds, as you can choose to buff your image damage in different ways.|||I pray to every god that there will be a skill rune to have your mirror images to cast the same spell as you simultaneously even at a tiny fraction of the damage.

I mean, damn, Imagine 10 Distingerate Beams flying all over the place! Even better, imagine a PvP battle between 3 such Wizards?|||Mirror Image doesn't seem to have any offensive synergies, of course we don't know what the synergy system will be but looking at the other skills, they seem to be increasing numbers and defensive capabilities of the images.

However, if they did have some offensive power, I think it'd be a particularly useful PVM skill as well as PVP. We can't assume much yet but, imagine if they could cast the basic spells too Mirror Image + Magic Missle? Cha Ching!

KT|||I like the fact that the wizard has more defensive options than in DII. And let's face it, the way the diablo series is, the wizard will need it, because high level game play is always insanely hard in the diablo series. And I sure hope it will be no different in DIII. And hopefully there will be hardcore mode (haven't heard much about this myself).

Mirror image seems like a very good confusion/escape/defense tactic. As was said before, if there's a way to become invisible, the combo of invisibility and mirror image would be an excellent escape tactic.

I don't think the images deal any damage though, I believe they are there purely for defensive purposes, or escape, distraction etc. Even if they don't deal any damage at all or don't cast spells, there are still many uses for the images, too many even.

Distraction, confusion, escape, defense, even scouting (let the image peek around that corner).|||Quote:








I pray to every god that there will be a skill rune to have your mirror images to cast the same spell as you simultaneously even at a tiny fraction of the damage.

I mean, damn, Imagine 10 Distingerate Beams flying all over the place! Even better, imagine a PvP battle between 3 such Wizards?




That would be crazzyyy awesome. Perhaps they'd have to limit the skills your MI's could duplicate, like...not Disintegrate |||I have been looking at the wizard video and i think i know how the mirror will work: it will copy the spells you have currently selected. In the video we see the images that are close to the monsters use the melee magic attack while the real wizard is seen using some kind of cold magic, HOWEVER another mirror image is seen at the left side using cold magic too! So the wizard must have as melee option ability the melee magic attack and on the other click the cold magic.|||i want my "mirror image" warrior to do damage, and be based youre atleast half youre skill levels like the assasins shadow does now somewhat.

id also like her to do the damage and spawn with whatever weapon you are holding and use it also.

Mirror image awesome?

Looking at the video it seems the images attack, most people speculated about wether they did damage, which in my opinion isnt whats important. Whats important is that in pvp the enemy wont know whos the real one and it doesnt stop you from attacking him while he wastes his time with the copies; unlike the amazon skill which forced you to stay put or he would know who was real instantly. Thus if the images all copy the current attack that your char uses they will be awesome, if each attacks in a different way it would make it easier to decide which was the real one ( one using arcane, one using frost nova and one using electrocute...not so difficult to guess no?). Doesnt someone see their potential in pvp if they copy your attack at the same time?|||AoE attacks.|||Hopefully, the images can will replicate the real image's spells and attacks ( but does 0 damage ) It'll confuse other people so much. Would be nice if you can give them commands too|||I did just have a look at the wizard trailer. She does use mirror image there. In the current implementation though you can clearly see, which are the mirror images and which is the real wizard. The mirror images are slightly transparent. Unless this changes, there might still be a slight advantage in PvP, but its possibly negelectable, unless the opponent loses his target focus when the wizard casts "Mirror image".

The mirror images actually replicate both the casting animation of the wizard body as a whole, as well as the spell animation. Whether those spells cast from the mirror images do damage or not, is not something i could decern through watching the wizard gameplay video.

Between, the video i watched is the Wizard trailer on the official Diablo III site.|||Maybe for AoE, the images will spread out a lot, so the PvPer would have to pick one if casting a spell like meteor. Or, maybe they will all be animated to look chilled, hurt, stunned, etc.|||Quote:








I did just have a look at the wizard trailer. She does use mirror image there. In the current implementation though you can clearly see, which are the mirror images and which is the real wizard. The mirror images are slightly transparent.




That might just be for the player, though. So you don't get confused as to which avatar is the real wizard. When you cast Hallucinations in SC, the units were all blue and obviously not real units, but they looked like normal units to your opponent.

I wonder if, when MI is cast, your position in relation to mirror images is fixed. From the image in the wiki, it looks like they form a ring, with your character as a part of the ring. It would make sense if it was randomized so sometimes your character was at 4 o'clock (if you think of the ring as a clock) or at 9 o'clock. If you were always at the 12 o'clock that would hurt the deception factor in PvP.

For that matter, I wonder what happens when you teleport with mirror images. Do they poof, do they follow you? Hmm I just had a thought, it would be cool if teleporting caused your mirror images to teleport off screen in random directions before poofing. Major misdirection.|||Quote:








That might just be for the player, though. So you don't get confused as to which avatar is the real wizard. When you cast Hallucinations in SC, the units were all blue and obviously not real units, but they looked like normal units to your opponent.




Good point.|||Unless they intend to use MI as a defense mechanism like Baldur's Gate, the skill must not be overpowered and have to be balanced.

As seen in the video, the images actually cast spells and attack.

I believed the skill is still under progress?|||I usually play Undead or Night Elf in War3 TFT, and those pisky Blade Masters always bother me with the Mirror Image trick. However, they can't use other abilities so they can only attack. Yeah it sucks to fight, and sometimes it'll screw you up, however the majority of the time You can single the real one out in a matter of seconds and then focus fire on him. You can single them out by; seeing the damage each one is dealing, which ones are playing like a human and aren't instantly running straight towards your characters, and which ones are using some strategy to get the most damage to you until times up. Pretty much, yeah it's a nifity little trick, but it's not impossible to counter. It's an escape plan or a 3 second delay of damage.

PS- all IMO, granted this is Diablo and not an RTS, the same strategy is involved with single units.|||Quote:








I usually play Undead or Night Elf in War3 TFT, and those pisky Blade Masters always bother me with the Mirror Image trick. However, they can't use other abilities so they can only attack. Yeah it sucks to fight, and sometimes it'll screw you up, however the majority of the time You can single the real one out in a matter of seconds and then focus fire on him. You can single them out by; seeing the damage each one is dealing, which ones are playing like a human and aren't instantly running straight towards your characters, and which ones are using some strategy to get the most damage to you until times up. Pretty much, yeah it's a nifity little trick, but it's not impossible to counter. It's an escape plan or a 3 second delay of damage.

PS- all IMO, granted this is Diablo and not an RTS, the same strategy is involved with single units.






Hahaha ... i understand how you felt, those mirror images always frustrated me, but the fact they don't do damage and that you could find out which one is real ( by seeing which one is doing actual damage if each one is attacking a diff target or by tracking the critical attack red text ) kinda made it balanced.

A very good escape and distraction would be casting your images then instantly casting invisibility, let the enemy try hard to find out which one is real while you stand still laughing until your mana recharges or you escape far away.

As for how this could be used in D3, if there is some way to go invisible it would make a very nice escape method that saves your neck from tight spots ( since if you try to escape while visible you will be spotted instantly ), only if you can go invisible for few seconds, bring up a potion or two to refill you HP and MP, while the other player wastes his energy attacking fake images then you lunch a surprise attack against him before your invisibility wears off ( of course once you attack the invisibility is canceled )