Classes

Assassinated

The Assassin is the class I chose to play with first, and to some extent I find myself regretting it. She is a hard character to play, make no bones about it. The Assassin doesn't have much in the way of defensive ability or hitpoints, and seems to be at a disadvantage against groups of hard-hitting creatures (like Fetish Shamans), especially groups of them. However, what she does have are some wicked attacks, especially combo attacks. Her abilities stack together. She can power up with an ability like Tiger Strike (for extra damage) or Cobra Strike (for mana and health stealing), by hitting a creature with it. The Assassin can hold three such charges at a time, and can unleash them by making a normal attack or a finishing move. The more power-ups that are combined, the more powerful the end result. Combine the power-ups with a finishing move, and you can really do some nasty damage.

This weapon owns in Hell levels

Charms are like stocking stuffers

With the Assassin, bosses and small groups of monsters fell rather easily. Her Cobra strike can keep her in a fight surprisingly long before she needs to retreat, despite her relative lack of defense. The Assassin isn't a target dummy, however. Even though she has a weak armor rating and uses two weapons at a time, she can block with the best of them if you invest in a certain skill. The blocking is remarkably fast and rarely interferes with combat, though it doesn't seem to work as often as it should - then again, it could be my imagination.

Oh the pain

Cool abilities huh?

The Assassin also boasts skills that let her create a "Shadow" of herself, essentially a duplicate fighter to take some of the heat off. She can also lay some pretty wicked traps down, but they don't look like a good solution for high-level characters.

If the Assassin has any weaknesses, it is most likely her reliance on melee combat. Nailing enemies from a distance is quite a pain until you can gain the Dragon Tail finishing move, which works somewhat like the Barbarian's Leap Attack, though you need a target to actually move your character, so you can't use the skill to get around the map.

These guys are tough, hard to hit, and Frenzy like Barbarians

Not quite a caduceus

From ye olde Celtic lore

The Druid feels like a mongrel class. In our low-level experiences, it plays like a Barbarian at certain times, a Necromancer at others and a Sorceress in yet others. The Druid's ability to shapechange into a werebear or werewolf gives it strong melee skills, which can be further enhanced by higher-level abilities. The Druid can also summon helpers, somewhat like the Necromancer. Finally, his Elemental skills like Tornado, Armageddon and Hurricane make him a neat alternative to the Sorceress for raw destructive power. We haven't played the Druid as extensively as the Assassin, so we'll reserve judgement until the full review of the expansion pack.