Demon Hunter

The Demon Hunter is the fifth playable class in Diablo III and was announced at Blizzcon 2010 in October.

The class is Diablo III's ranged attacking class, and Demon Hunters specialize in bows and crossbows, which they supplement with numerous ranged attacks, traps of various types, and even a few melee range skills.

Background

Demon Hunter artwork.

The demon hunters are a group of fanatical warriors sworn to a single purpose: the destruction of the creatures of the Burning Hells.The demon hunters make their home in the Borderlands, away from the jurisdiction of any nation. At any time, over half of them are dispatched to various parts of the world to figth hellspawn. There is something in all demon hunters that gives them the strength to resist the demonic corruption that would drive lesser men to madness. They hone this power, for their resistance to this taint enables them to use the demons' power as a weapon. But their mission and their power are not all that bind them together.

The female Demon Hunter in Diablo III fled from her village as a child during a demonic invasion. She was the only survivor. After days, she was found by a Demon Hunter and was taken in as a member. Since every Demon Hunter has a story like this, it is possible that the background for the male character will be similar.

Class Design

Blizzcon 2010's Gameplay Panel called "A Hero Emerges" was dominated by the Demon Hunter's Class Design. The Demon Hunter fills out the rpg-archetype of a conventional ranged class, using ranged weaponry mostly and primarily. She is designed as a sort of "Bounty Hunter", preparing for battle and therefore using gadgets and traps as well.

Jay Wilson described the class genesis in an interview published in the Blizzcon 2010 show program:

^[1]

Where did the idea for the Demon Hunter come from?

Jay Wilson: It probably doesn’t come as a surprise that we chose a ranged-weapon class as the fifth class; however we didn’t want to do something completely predictable. We liked the idea of a bounty hunter or a monster-hunter—someone who was a little bit more sinister and an aggressor—and so we came up with a character whose sole focus was, “I hate demons.” She’s had horrible things happen to her. She’s lost family, lost loved ones, and has dedicated her live to eradicating as many demons as she can by any means possible. As a character, she’s walked a lot of dark roads to gain the knowledge she needs to overcome her enemy.

Demon Hunter dual wielding pistol xbows.

With the demon hunter we found inspiration in characters like Van Helsing, Boba Fett, and even MacGyver. The demon hunter is very focused on conventional, man-made weaponry and gadgets. She dual-wields crossbows, and where one class might shoot of a magical fireball, the demon hunter would buy a device in the lower markets of Caldeum that would allow her to trap the essence of a demon and then release that essence in an explosive blast, not unlike a hand grenade. She has no qualms about using her enemies against themselves, dabbling in dark magic, and generally doing whatever it takes to destroy demons wherever they live.

Ranger Design Evolution

The team has talked about the evolution of the character concept. They knew from the start that they wanted a ranged attacking class, but weren't at all sure what kind or what the lore would be. Christian Lichtner spoke on that from Blizzcon 2010:^[2]

Christian Lichtner: For the Demon Hunter, for example, we had a desert ranger at some point and it was awesome, it was really cool. It was an interesting take on the ranger, we didn't have that before. Like all our other classes, we tried to give it a little bit of a twist. One of the things with that was when we were doing the desert ranger, we found that stuff was getting a little bit clunky, we had a little too much cloth on him. And while it looks really cool, it also starts looking bulkier. And whenever we start seeing a class that looks really bulky, we start thinking short sword, or daggers, or fist weapons - stuff you can melee with. We wanted to strive to stay away from that. There have been other ideas that we had that were really, really cool that I think we're going to save.

Melee Combat?

There were no melee combat skills for the Demon Hunter at Blizzcon 2010, but during the panel discussion the team talked about earlier designs of the character where she had one demonic arm and huge strength, along with some melee combat skills. Those may or may not return in further design.

Jay Wilson spoke on this from Blizzcon 2010: ^[3]

Fan of Knives in action.

GP: Like the Amazon before it, will the Demon Hunter be able to spec for melee?

Jay Wilson: We haven’t really decided on that yet! We’ve focused initially away from melee oriented abilities because we’re trying to capture the essence of the class, and the essence isn’t melee.

That being said, on the Wizard, we certainly did a lot of things that were more melee oriented, recognising that there are some players that may want to create a “battle mage,” you know? So there is the capacity to do that for that character. If we find a compelling archetype in our heads then we’ll try to make skills that suit that.

The only skill for the Demon Hunter that we have right now that does kind of fit the bill is called Fan of Knives where she throws an array of knives a very short distance all around her. It’s not a melee skill but it is a very close range skill.

If we can come up with a great idea for a melee build then we’ll definitely do that as long as it doesn’t detract from the core of who she is as a character.

Attributes and Skills

Nine Demon Hunter skills were revealed at Blizzcon 2010. All her skills are described in detail on the Demon Hunter skills page, and in more detail, with screenshots, on their individual articles. See also the Demon Hunter traits for some insight into the passive skills that make her tick.

Scorched earth left behind a Molten Arrow.

Ranged Bow and Crossbow Attacks:

Bola Shot -- A ranged attack that wraps around the target and explodes.
Entangling Shot -- A ranged attack that slows the target, potentially chaining it to nearby enemies.
Molten Arrow -- A ranged attack imbued with fire, leaving a trail of fire behind.
Multishot -- A ranged attack firing a flurry of arrows at a time.

Traps and Tools:

Grenade -- Throws multiple grenades which detonate after a short count down.
Shock Spike -- A trap that cuts nearby enemies and shoots sawblades back and forth between other Shock Spikes, creating cutting zones.
Spike Trap -- A trap which opens into spike-filled vortex, grinding any demons stepping on it.

Movement and Melee Skills:

Vault -- The Demon Hunter's "move skill". Has a shadowy theme and some acrobatics to it.
Fan of Knives -- AKA "knife nova." Short range attack sprays a volley of knives in a circle around the Demon Hunter.

Resource System

The Demon Hunter used quickly-regenerating mana as her resource in the Blizzcon 2010 PvM demo. This was merely a temporary solution, since the team wants to give each class in the game a unique resource. Jay Wilson elaborated on this in an interview from Blizzcon, in October 2010.^[4]

GP: What’s the Demon Hunter’s resource system?

Jay: She doesn’t have one yet. Right now she’s just using mana and that’s temporary. It’s our goal that every class have a unique one – and really, I’m not even being coy here, we really don’t have one! We’ve got about five or six ideas on the table.

GP: Care to share a couple of them!?

'Jay: No! [laughs] Mainly because I’m not the primary designer of the Demon Hunter and I don’t want to give away anything that Wyatt might not actually want me to say!