D3 class preview guide for patch 1.0.4
As I mentioned in my article about the update about the update to the patch notes of patch 1.0.4, there would be a class preview for each individual class.
Over the week these have been released, and I have posted all week on the Diablo 3 farming facebook group about the class previews as they came out during the week, so a full recap is in order.
Diablo 3 barbarian class preview
The barbarian was the first class out of the box and what a preview that was!
Barbarian looks to be an even bigger powerhouse in patch 1.0.4
Damage will be increased across the board, and there is a lot of focus on fury spenders. As it is now, there might not be that much worth spending your fury on, but Blizzard want to change that. They are trying to make it more “fun” to spend your fury instead of just rotating battle rage. Hopefully they will succeed!
D3 Wizard preview changes
Wizard was the next one on the block and some of it was pretty great, while some of it was actually not that great. The bad news is that Energy Twister will get its proc coefficient halved from 0.25 to 0.125. This means that Wicked Wind / Critical Mass wizard builds will not be that hot anymore, since you can’t perma-stunlock mobs. While this might never have been fully intended, it is still sad to see it go.
The good news is that all the lesser used skills will get buffs. Hydra is pretty much mandatory in any Inferno wizard build, and venom hydra blew everything else out of the water. Not so in the next patch, but this is because the other hydras will get buffed and fill a more specific purpose:
Hydra will be buffed in patch 1.0.4, so people might start using something else than venom hydra!
So now it looks like lightning hydra will be a far more viable option. Other lesser used skills will also get damage buffs, but nothing as major as the hydra changes.
Monk class previews for 1.0.4
The monk class preview was one of the less impressive previews. The two major points here were seven sided strike and Wave of light getting major buffs, since they were originally meant to be key skills in the monk class.
Spirit spenders are also in the spotlight. Currently you only really use spirit to constantly refresh your mantras to get the buff effect from it, but Blizzard want to make playing a monk (or any other class) fun and interactive, so they will make spending spirit more attractive.
Demon Hunter preview
Again there are small buffs to damage across the board in the preview, but the biggest buff is going to be Rain of Vengeance:
10-fold increase to damage for a skill. Sure, I’ll take that!
Other than that, Blizzard want to bring all the hatred generators up to par. Currently Hungering Arrow is the best one by far, but that will change in the patch.
The dark horse – Witch Doctor previews
This one is the going to be the biggest class buff of them all. The other builds had buffs to their lesser used skills to encourage build diversity. The Witch Doctor preview will enable a whole new playstyle in Inferno: pet tanking.
There are two key areas Blizzard are working hard on the Witch Doctor; Pets and Vision Quest:
Would you like a WoW hunter for farming in Diablo 3? Yes, please!
This is in an effort to get people to play something else than Zombie Bears and again to encourage build diversity.
Now pets will scale 35% with your health and have more health, get more resistances, and have a passive life regen as well. All in an effort to have to survive better and longer allowing you to potentially run a full pet build. All you need is to go heavy life and heavy pet skills and you have a small army.
I have a feeling Blizzard might go a bit overboard with the Witch Doctor and make it slightly OP, but they sure as hell deserve it! So dust off your WDs and wake up your pets. This also means that Witch Doctors will become more popular, so start looking for bargains on Witch Doctor items on the AH. I have a feeling they will appreciate steeply in price soon!
Don’t forget to swing by the D3F facebook group and let us know how you feel about the changes. We are nearing 1000 members, so you don’t have much time to be amongst the elite first thousand 
first! and i hope not last
I believe the way the Rain of Vengeance Skill is described was misleading hence they changed it.
I believe it was/is 75%/sec for 5 sec=375% over 5 sec
It still got a major buff of around 90%.
I didn’t do any testing on it however the first rune changes it to “aimed” shots dealing “35% for 12 sec” which i’m refusing to believe is that low.
35/sec for 12 sec=420% over 12 sec sound more logically.
Did anyone perform any testing on it? If so please confirm either theorie.
DH: 75% weapon damage for 5 seconds is 5*75% = 375% weapon damage over 5 seconds.
The damage was is less than doubled.
…75% is what it is now. After the patch it will be 715%. Where are you getting “less than doubled”?
It is 75% per second. 75% per second is 375% over 5 seconds.
He’s right with “less than doubled”. If you read Blizzards remarks about the old tooltip being hard to understand you learn that they designed the new phrasing in order to clearly express that the total damage of the skills is XX% weapon damage whereas with the old phrasing it had to be calculated (XX% for Y sec = per sec, which was confusing).
So it’s in fact a little less than doubled, not 10x.
I do wonder how they messed up that phrasing in the first place anyway, since in WoW effects with similar Damage over time were described unambiguous.
715% / 375% = 1.906.
q.e.d.
Patch Notes http://us.battle.net/d3/en/forum/topic/6368188147#1