17,263
edits
Changes
no edit summary
A Battle Mage is a variant, a [[caster]]-type character who goes with heavy armor and a melee weapon and fights the enemies toe-to-toe. This sort of character build is created by players who want a challenge, or just some variety in their gaming. It generally takes a very specialized character design, with unusual skills and stats, along with special equipment selected for the purpose.
==Items Required==
These types of builds are highly item-dependent, and often benefit from or actually require some specific unique or set items to function. Such items in Diablo II often granted the skills of another class, such as adding an aura or a melee attack skill far more powerful than anything the Necromancer or Sorceress had in their own skill tree.
The Diablo III team has said that they will not be enabling cross-class skills from items, (at least not until they increase item variety in an expansion) so aspiring melee Wizards or Witch Doctors shouldn't count on finding a legendary axe that grants them [[Cleave]] or [[Whirlwind]] or [[Lashing Tail Kick]] or [[Seven Sided Strike]].
There are also going to be class requirements for many items in Diablo III, which will further limit the weapon options for casters trying to fight in melee mode.
That said, very little is yet known about item mods and weapon types, so this question can not be adequately addressed until after the game's release, when much more will be known about the item options.