A few weeks ago I wrote about my experience with Diablo III’s Demon Hunter Class – a character which relies on dishing out damage at range and evading foes. I had a lot of fun with the Demon Hunter, and was sad to get to the end of the beta.
So naturally, I started the beta all over again, this time opting to try my hand with the Barbarian – a brutish character that Diablo fans will be all too familiar with who can take large amounts of damage and dish it out just as well.
The Barbarian is a melee-orientated class that makes use of Fury instead of Mana as its primary resource pool. The class retains a number of classic abilities from Diablo II, such as Whirlwind and Leap attack, but obviously Blizzard has also introduced a number of new tricks to its repertoire.
One of the Barbarian’s unique design features is that it’s ability-casting resource, Fury, is accumulated by doing damage to enemies. With each blow the Barbarian inflicts on an enemy, he gains Fury, which is then used to unleash his special abilities.
Certain abilities such as Bash and Cleave generate Fury while enhancing damage output slightly or granting additional affects, while others such as Battle Rage consume Rage, but unleash devastating power, often to multiple foes.
This means that players naturally tend to accumulate rage using the former type of abilities until they gain a significant amount of Rage which they can use to unleash the real show-stoppers, such as Seismic Slam, which sends a rippling wave of force out in all directions, damaging enemies and knocking them backwards.
This ebb and flow is highly characteristic of the Barbarian’s typical play style, and makes for a rhythmic gameplay experience which requires a solid grasp of timing and tactical use of abilities.
There are also abilities which are designed to be used defensively, such as Ignore Pain which when triggered causes the Barbarian to take less damage for a short period of time. Then of course there are passive abilities which do not need to be triggered, but provide permanent buffs and effects to the Barbarian.
One thing which Blizzard nailed with the Barbarian is a sense of magnitude and power. Standing at over eight feet tall, the Barbarian looks and plays like I hoped it would.
Wading through enemies, slogging it out against what often seems like insurmountable odds; the basic Barbarian gameplay style consists of slowly acquiring Rage which he uses to every-so-often lash out with startlingly powerful abilities that really give him the sense of awe that the Barbarian should be all about.
The Barbarian is also a favourite among gamers who love acquiring new gear. There is just something especially exciting about a class which can use a wide variety of awesome melee weapons, or be outfitted with ridiculously heavy armour.
Sadly, we didn’t get to explore too much of this side of the Barbarian, as there is only so much epic loot you can expect to find in the first 3 hours of an RPG like Diablo III, but it also means that the Barbarian will most probably be the first character I role when the game is eventually released sometime next year.
Stay tuned for more hands-on features from our time with the Diablo III beta.
Barbarian Gameplay video
Diablo III beta – Barbarian preview << Comments and views
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