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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.
* [[Demon Hunter skills]].
* [[Demon Hunter traits]].
==Background==
[[File:Demon-hunter-art1.jpg|thumb|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.
==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. Having Jay Wilson described the class genesis in an interview published in the Blizzcon 2010 show program: <ref>[http://diablo.incgamers.com/blog/comments/jay-wilson-interview-blizzcon-program/ Jay Wilson Interview: BlizzCon 2010 Show Program] - IncGamers October 25, 2010</ref> ::''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 almost everything 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. [[File:Dh-cinematic1.jpg|thumb|Demon Hunter cinematic.]]::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 child device in the lower markets of Caldeum that would allow her to trap the essence of a demonic invasiondemon and then release that essence in an explosive blast, not unlike a hand grenade. She has no qualms about using her enemies against themselves, she became obsessive dabbling in hunting down dark magic, and killing everything 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 leaves from Blizzcon 2010:<ref>[http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/editorials/interviews/8291-BlizzCon-2010-The-Art-and-Design-of-Diablo-III.2 Christian Lichtner @ Blizzcon 2010] - The Escapist November 7, 2010</ref> ::'''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 Burning Hells ranger, we didn't have that before. Like all our other classes, we tried to walk 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 Sanctuaryhim. 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, permanently subject or fist weapons - stuff you can melee with. We wanted to an unending thirst 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 revengethe 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: <ref>[http://www.gameplanet.co.nz/pc/games/156898.Diablo-III/features/135958.20101024.Diablo-III-Interview-with-Jay-Wilson/ Jay Wilson Interview @ GamePlanet NZ] - GamePlanet New Zealand. October 24, 2010</ref> [[File:FoK2. This makes her ruthless also jpg|thumb|300px|[[Fan of Knives]] in action.]]::'''''GP: '''Like the use 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 Shadow Magic (thus the glowing eyes)class, and the essence isn’t melee. She ::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 willing the capacity to do practically anything that makes 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 an even more deadly slayer . 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. ==Background Lore== [[File:Demon-hunter-ingame1.jpg|frame|In-game view.]]The official bio of the Demon Hunter is of a survivor of demonic attack. The class is made, not born; existing Demon Hunters find survivors in their travels, and those with spirit and skill are inducted into the order and taken to their training grounds in [[The Borderlands]] where they are trained in the combat skills they'll need to take vengeance on the monsters that destroyed their families and village. Demon Hunters use every tool at their disposal to fight monsters, including traps, gadgets, and bits of abovementioned targetsdark magic. Her obsession The glowing eyes of the Demon Hunter in the cinematic introduction is meant as a hint of this willingness to kill makes experiment and dabble in the dark arts. Many of the class skills reflect this fastdesign, swift with their combination of an archer several of her core elements including, "tactical," "traps and gadgets," "swift and assassin a bit acrobatic,"anti-hero-ish"ranged, mysterious " "shadowy and dark."
==Attributes and Skills==
'''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:'''* [[Bola ShotVault]]-- The Demon Hunter's "move skill". Has a shadowy theme and some acrobatics to it.A ranged * [[Fan of Knives]] -- AKA "knife nova." Short range attack that wraps sprays a volley of knives in a circle around the target and explodesDemon Hunter.
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.<ref>[[http://www.gameplanet.co.nz/pc/games/156898.Diablo-III/features/135958.20101024.Diablo-III-Interview-with-Jay-Wilson/ Jay Wilson Interview @ Blizzcon 2010] - GamePlanetNZ. October 25, 2010</ref>
Character art images. * [http://diablo.incgamers.com/gallery/search.php?keywords=demon+hunter&cat=560&x=0&y=0 Demon Hunter Act One screenshots].* [Multishothttp://diablo.incgamers.com/gallery/search.php?keywords=demon+hunter&cat=509&x=0&y=0 Demon Hunter character artwork].* [http://diablo.incgamers.com/gallery/showgallery.php?cat=589 Demon Hunter introductory cinematic stills]A ranged attack firing multiple arrows at a time.
<gallery>File:Demon-hunter-art1.jpg|Demon Hunter light armor/weapon concept art.File:Demon-hunter-art2.jpg|Demon Hunter medium armor/weapon concept art.File:Demon-hunter-art3.jpg|Demon Hunter heavy armor/weapon concept art.File:Demon-hunter-art4.jpg|Demon Hunter very heavy armor/weapon concept art.File:Demon-hunter-ingame1.jpg|Seen in-game.File:Dh-cinematic1.jpg|Demon Hunter from her cinematic.</gallery>
[[File:Demon-hunter-art1--4.jpg|center|thumb|800px|The Demon Hunter artwork showing her armor/weapon progression from light to heavy.]]
[[Category:Classes]]
[[category:Demon Hunter]]