Diablo III: The Demon Hunter revealed

Blizzcon 2010: The new demon hunter class in Diablo III is a master - mistress? - of crossbows and shadowplay.

Blizzard has announced the fifth and final playable class for Diablo III and it's the Demon Hunter.

She's dark, mysterious, driven and for her it's all about killing demons. According to Lead World Designer Leonard Boyarsky the Demon Hunter knows exactly what's at stake should the forces of evil get a foothold in Sanctuary and won't allow it to happen.

"The Demon Hunter is in it for one thing and one thing only and that is killing demons"

For lore fans Boyarsky explained that unlike other classes the Demon Hunter isn't born into the role - they are survivors of demonic attack and are recruited into the job by other Demon Hunters after just living through something which would leave lesser humans a red smear on the environment. Although they don't have a home area they do have a base of operations in the north where they train their latest conscripts. Boyarsky said "The Demon Hunter is our most diverse class, she could really come from any walk of life. They're not born into that class"

In the first Diablo III panel at this year's BlizzCon the devs showed some of the class' tactics and playstyle - they describe the Demon Hunter as gadget-oriented and tactically aware, using devices and a hint of shadow-magic to use the demons own power against them. Initial character designs included the possibility of a demon arm, but they ultimately went with glowing eyes to hint that the Demon Hunter might be delving a little too deeply into shadow magics in order to get the job done.

The Skillset
As a ranged class the Demon Hunter will rely on bows and crossbows and even dual-wield pistol-grip crossbows. Other skills include:

Bola Shot: which fires an explosive bola around the neck of a monster
Vault: the Demon Hunter's movement-based ability to get around obstacles
Spike Trap: using a hint of shadow magic and designed to give the Demon Hunter a tactical feel and bounty hunter mystique
Grenades: who doesn't love grenades? And now thanks to the 3D engine, you can bounce them off walls while on the go
Multi-shot: back with a vengeance and beefed up for Diablo III.

Diablo PvP
All of these abilities should make for interesting play with Diablo's new player vs player options when the game is released. Although the devs are still working out exactly what one-on-one and arena options will be available when the game ships the combinations should, at the least, offer three-by-three matches through the Battlenet. Information so far suggests that players will be able to simply use their Player vs Environment character in the PvP setting regardless of build, although they expect that some builds will be far more useful for PvE than PvP, but also that different team combinations could alleviate that problem.