I find myself very much in the position I was toward the end of Wrath of the Lich King. A new expansion is on its way, and even though it's months off (we don't even have a release date for Mists, though I think we can expect it soon) we're very definitely in a "Cataclysm is pretty much over" phase. Even though my guild is only 1 boss down in Dragon Soul on Normal (a lot of our key raiders left after Cataclysm came out - for one, I know that one of our most dedicated healers refused to ever heal again after the changes that were made, which I think explains why we haven't made at least some decent progress.) Anyway, the point is that at this point, I'm not really feeling very motivated to gear up alts and all that with Pandaria around the corner.
However, there's a new game that's just downloaded on my computer (and I'd be playing it now if I could - gotta wait until midnight.) That is Diablo 3, the shining jewel of the cool stuff you get for the Annual Pass (guaranteed Mists Beta was the reason I signed up, but at this point I've mostly gotten a feel for the Brewmaster, and I don't want to overexpose myself to all the dungeons and all the cool stuff before I actually get to play the real thing.)
Anyway, I've never played any of the Diablo games before. WoW was my first Blizzard game, then I got StarCraft, Warcraft 3 and Starcraft 2, and as you can probably tell, I'm impressed with the company's work.
I realize that multiplayer is a legitimate way to play Diablo, but it's actually pretty exciting to have the prospect of a single-player RPG made by the people who make WoW. I came to WoW not as a fan of MMOs (it's the only one I've played) but of RPGs. I grew up on Secret of Mana and Mario RPG (oddly not Final Fantasy - the first of those I played was Ten, and that was a while after it came out when I was in college.) While it's cool to raid, and I love being a badass tank (we'll see if I can still be a badass tank when tanking itself is completely redesigned for most tank classes - at least I know I'll still be good on my DK,) it's always been a little frustrating, on the other hand, that I can't face down the big bads of Azeroth without either submitting myself to the crapshoot that is Raid Finder or scheduling it out a week in advance with my guild.
Don't get me wrong, I love the sense of team spirit that comes with beating a tough boss with my guild, but at the same time, sometimes I just want to be badass by myself, and WoW has always had very few outlets for that once you've cleared all the max-level quests.
True to my nature, I expect I'm going to play all five of Diablo 3's classes, but the conundrum I face now is which of those I'm going to start with.
My preference has always been classes and characters that mix magic and melee. The Battlemage - with specifically an Arcane/"Fantasy Equivalent of Science" style of magic (think lots of secret and mysterious tomes, with maybe a space and time flavor) combined with a gigantic, ornate warhammer and heavy armor - is the perfect class archetype for me. However, seeing as this is a new game, I sort of feel I should start with something very different. So far, the only class I've been able to eliminate is the Barbarian. Somehow, the "I don't need any kind of magic, I can just smash things" character has never really appealed to me. On one hand, the Wizard fits that "Arcane" feel that I enjoy, but that almost makes me think I should save it for a later alt. The Monk could be cool, but I think the finalists are the Demon Hunter and the Witch Doctor.
I should be noted that when I played a lot of Magic the Gathering as a kid, I liked to play Black for the most part. Surprising for someone whose main in WoW is a Paladin? It should be noted that I'm of the generation that saw Nightmare Before Christmas as a kid (also don't forget that beside that Paladin, I also play a Rogue, a Death Knight, and a Werewolf among my "top five" toons)
Anyway, the Witch Doctor has a cool feel, with all the zombies and dark magics, though I worry a bit about the play style. Pet classes sometimes have the unfortunate side effect of feeling too automated. Your pet is effective, sure, but it makes your own actions seem less important. Demon Hunters have "badass" written all over them, but part of me is a little worried about playing the "fragile speedster." This might just be rooted in the fact that I was always one of the big kids, and speed is frightening to me.
Then again, removing me from my comfort zone is kind of the goal here, so Demon Hunter seems to be winning out.
And it's not like I won't be making a character of each class.
Anyway, this should do a good job in carrying me through WoW's fallow period (much as, of all things, Plants Vs Zombies did before Cataclysm.)
Here's hoping my computer doesn't explode when I try to run it!
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