"Kicking Ass in High Heels" is how the Diablo 3 team summarized the final playable character class, the Demon Hunter, in their presentation slide when it was announced this morning at Blizzcon. Other words tossed around to describe her were dark, mysterious and medieval, but what you really need to know is that this stiletto-wearing assassin dual wields crossbows and can headshot demons with a grenade bola from 20 yards away.
Designed to round out the archetypes already in the game (Barbarian, Monk, Witch Doctor, and Wizard), the Demon Hunter is the only character who is not born into their role--they come from varied backgrounds, united only by the fact that at some point, they were the sole survivor of demons slaying everyone in their family and neighborhood. More than any other character, Demon Hunters understand the threat that demons pose to their world and are hell-bent on destroying them at any cost--often relying on dark magic to gain the upperhand. They seek and prey upon demons in order to make the demons feel the same fear that they inspire in their victims.
And they do so with all manner of crazy attacks. Here are the ones we know so far:
Bola Shot
- Launches at target and explodes
- It's not instakill - but does area-of-effect damage
- The explosion is delayed slightly, so you can hit, run, and wait
Vault
- Movement skill that lets you quickly pass through or around hordes and hazards without getting hurt
- Instant action roll
- Shadow fog effect
Spike Trap
- It follows "ordinary trap mechanics". If a monster walks over it, it gets skewed.
- Shadow visuals
- Laying traps is part of the gadgeteer design of the Demon Hunter. It's the 'hunting' part of the hunter.
Grenades
- Bounce individually based on physics - so you can bounce them off walls and around corners
- Each bounced differently down a single staircase
- 3 at a time
Multishot
- 100+ bolts in a ¬90 degree arc. It's a spammable aoe attack
- Not insta-kill, in the demo the player fired a few times a crowd of zombies. Some died, but not all
