Barbarian:
I chose the Barbarian first because I am a die hard melee class player and since this and the Paladin are what I usually played in Diablo 2. I found the class starts out a bit slow, with nothing to really set it apart or "wow" you or anything, just plain sword and board and tank and spank as far as combat is concerned. Its a sort of a slow, plodding character. Things change as you get higher level though and start to get your Shouts and Leap. The shouts keep you occupied because you generally keep pressing the button to activate it. The Leap is cool because it changes the battlefield. You can leap into mobs and leap out, or you can leap off ledges into lower areas or get ahead of your companions and such and it just feels exicting.
Equipment wise, he starts to look good around level 10 or so.
Power wise, I found the Barbarian to be very good DPS wise and very good defense wise. AOE isn't as good as other classes, but the simple fact you can have 20 mobs bashing on you makes you feel kick ass. The class feels "good" overall, but I think it takes a while before it starts to feel "powerful" or start becoming fun. Leap makes it feel fun, but there are no real "OMGAWESOME!" attacks early on IMO. Of course, the character is a melee class so what would you expect?
Demon Hunter:
The Demon Hunter was my second character to play. I found her to be a better mix of fun factor than the Barbarian. Attacks like Rapid Fire, movement skills like Vault and hatred building attacks like Grenade are quite fun for the class, and you are always doing something cool and memorable.
Power Wise, I found the Demon Hunter to be more squishy than the Barbarian obviously, and a bit more strategic as well due to that. It will be interesting to see this class in the higher Act's or Nightmare Mode though. Still, her power is good in both single and aoe capabilities.
The equipment look for the Demon Hunter is also cool as well. She doesn't have quite the cocky feel the Wizard has though, so the personality isn't there, but she was actually pretty fun to play though.
Monk:
I tried this third and I was excited to play the class due to watching the Blizzard video on it a year or two ago. Well, my impressions of the class at level 13 is that it is "solid", a bit weak and a bit boring to play. Probably equal to the Barbarian fun wise but it feels far less powerful than the Barbarian and the Demon Hunter.
What do I mean? I found I had no trouble getting through from 1 to 13 obviously (its easy) and I think she has enough different skills to be good higher on when true character skill will matter, but the character feels a bit boring. The best part of it is probably the RoundHous Kick knocking back enemies and kicking ass, but everything else is totally under whelming, even more so than the Barbarian. However, I can see the usefullness of the class higher up with the Heal Skill and such.
Equipment wise, the character looks ok. Personality wise, she is boring as well.
Witch Doctor:
I had no interest in this class at all, but it looked like a bit of a hybrid between magic and melee so I tried it before the class I was least interested in (the Wizard).
First of all, I just hated this class initially. Its just distasteful, the character lacks personality, the equipment choices are terrible look wise, the character is hunched over and it just does not speak to me. That being said, the Zombie Dog pets are sort of interesting and I found the Bat Fire to be pretty decent attack wise. The class has some interesting utility options that might be cool in the higher levels but I just found it sort of weak to level up. Not as bad as the Monk felt, but not great either. z
I will never play this class in Live so whatever. Moving on.
Wizard:
I rarely play "magic" classses, so this is the last class I tried, and I had zero excitement going into the Wizard but man, this is easily the funnest classest in the beta at the moment. Not only does it "feel" powerful, but the female version of the character is cocky, adding a lot of extra spice to the class, making it a really fun class both gameplay and personality wise. It actually feels more powerful than the Barbarian, but I checked that and I don't think it is.
What I liked about the class was mainly how the class feels. For example, the Arcane Orb spell "feels" powerful when it hits a group of mobs. Now, you can only shoot it 3 times or so before it runs out of mana, but those three times will usually kill most groups of enemies, giving you a strong feel. This spell is also balanced out by the fact it is slow and sucks up the Mana. The default Magic Missle is not bad as a default spell either and is what I kept equiped as my default spell all the way to 13. Then there is Frost Nova and a few other spells which should be excellent tactically as things get harder (things are easy in the demo). Spells like Energy Twister will blast a room down in a second as well.
The equipment options on the Wizard are also excellent, giving her a slightly cool but bad ass look.
Fun Factor:
Wizard
Demon Hunter
Barbarian/Monk (Tie)
Witch Doctor
Power Factor (How much of an "ass kicker" you feel like):
Barbarian/Wizard
Demon Hunter
Witch Doctor
Monk
So if the game was released tomorrow, which would I choose?
Barbarian obviously (I love melee, even though it is not the funnest class) but the Wizard would be a close second choice. Its that fun. After that, I would play the Demon Hunter which is also a blast.
I just didn't really connect with the Witch Doctor or Monk. They both left me a bit under whelmed. The Witch Doctor left me wanting to bath.
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I survived to the end and got nothing out of it, but hey.
