Blizzcon Begins, Diablo 3 Wizard Class Unveiled

Blizzcon is officially underway today, starting with a presentation showcasing the Worldwide Invitational tournament held earlier this year. A company spokesman went on to talk about the tournaments being held for World of Warcraft 3v3 Arena, Warcraft 3, and Starcraft 2, followed by word that Starcraft 2 was not yet ready for beta, but that Blizzcon attendees would be included in the first round of testers when the beta program starts. The big news of the presentation, though, was the unveiling of the Wizard class — the third such class to be announced, along with the previously mentioned Barbarian and Witch Doctor. Read on for some more details.

The trailer illustrating the new class showed actual gameplay demonstrating the Wizard's spells and abilities, some of which hearken back to the Sorceress in Diablo 2. Attacks such as Meteor and Chain Lightning seem to be returning, and several new spells were seen, including one invoking a spherical shield that seems to alter the flow of time within it, allowing the Wizard to dodge projectiles and approaching enemies with ease. Another spell sends tornadoes storming through the room. Here's Blizzard description of the class from their press release: "The wizard is a wielder of the elements and a master manipulator of time, who combats the hordes of the Burning Hells by launching environment-shattering lightning bolts, channeling explosive arcane energies, and creating pockets of space outside of the normal flow of time."

Re:Oh boy!

[rotide]

Agreed, and I used rough numbers all around. Fact of the matter is that WoW is a billion+ dollar making game which was put out by a company that puts out #1 ranked titles year after year.

http://seekingalpha.com/article/94051-ride-out-the-recession-with-activision-blizzard [seekingalpha.com]

"For the full year ended March 2008, Activision had revenue of $2.8 billion, operating margins of 16.55% and operating income of $479.61 million. For the calendar year 2007, Blizzard's revenue was $1.2 billion, up 58% year-over-year. Operating margins at Blizzard were estimated at 40% in the Vivendi press release announcing the spin-off. The combined company reported revenue of over $1 billion in the June quarter and according to this BusinessWeek article, Activision Blizzard is projected to have annual revenues of nearly $4.5 billion."

Check the link.

Re:I like the first word non-link.... thats classy

[Fozzyuw]

Speaking of which... it's all , including game trailors. [blizzard.com]

Re:Here you go:

[Nightspirit]

With the exception of homeopathy, your assertion is ridiculous. The NIH has concluded the pain benefits of chiropractic care (when applied to lower back pain), and licensed naturopaths (depending on the state) receive similar training to MD students, although unfortunately some fall under the homeopathic bandwagon.

If you really want to look at magic look at the research behind antidepressants, particularly effexor. Some studies not done by the manufacturer show a ~22% improvement compared to 20% placebo, and while statistically significant, isn't really applicable to the general population. To me, that isn't much better than homeopathy. /no I'm not looking up the studies, if you care enough search pubmed

Re:Totally new - the Wizard!

[Jabbrwokk]

I'll probably get flamed or modded down for this, but oh well.

I agree with you, I like playing hybrid classes. The Dungeon Siege series tried to make this viable, but it just didn't work. I hated how there was only a finite number of monsters to kill, so every single hit you made with your character to level up your skills was precious. I tried to play a combat magic-fighter hybrid but he was just a gimp compared to the "pure" classes in my party.

Titan Quest, on the other hand, is one of only two games on my computer at the moment because it's fun, caters to the Diablo loot lust factor and lets you play hybrid classes. Want to be a warrior-storm mage (a thane)? Sure. Want to be a hunter-nature mage (a ranger)? OK. Want to be a defensive-earth mage (a juggernaut)? You can do that too. In fact there are 36 different combinations [gamebanshee.com] to play.

There's quite a few combinations (more with the expansion pack) and the hybrid classes are powerful, not gimped. And if you put your points down the wrong tree there's a guy in almost every city who you can pay to reallocate your skill points.

I'm sure Diablo 3 will be great, but I've never actually played any of the Diablo games, just games labelled as "clones" (Just because a game is in the same genre does that make it a clone? Are all 3D WWII FPS games "Wolfenstein" clones?). I never liked the "oh so gothic and evil" atmosphere of Diablo.

However, Titan Quest was the perfect action RPG for me because I love the setting and it let me play hybrid classes however I wanted to.