The Amazon- Take your Rogue, pump some extra strength and dexterity and some more broad weapon proffienceies into her, and you have the Amazon. She is a woman of power hands down, with varied twists from character growth to inherent abilities like her uses of a bow and crossbow and a javelin.
Who is the Amazon? As we look at the Amazon many will say that in fact, she is nothing more than just a Rogue in less clothing (is that possible?). In fact though she is not. Granted there are various parallels but they play like differently, and require different reactions to many different situations. For example in Diablo, the Rogue's primary useful weapon was the bow, hands down. Her strength was often not strong enough to handle very powerful swords or shields for that matter, axes were out of the question as well, and the only select plate-mail armors were available for use due to the limit in how much strength she can have. The Amazon takes the theory behind the Rogue and bumps it up. Her strength is more considerable, her Dexterity in theory is also more. It's in theory taking the Rogue and creating an all around "better" individual. The skills of the Amazon assist in this very much as the only real skill the Rogue possessed in the original was the ability to disarm traps, other than that, what little magic she could use, she did. As could anyone else if their magic was built up enough. To be honest though, from first hand experience, the Amazon does play similar to the Rogue, and those who wish to come back to their roots of a bow and arrow from the original Diablo as they set out to adventure into the world of Diablo II will be truly enthralled and at ease here with this character... at least those who truly fear change.
So how does she handle in terms of playing? She handles like the Rogue, we've stated that. She's a combo of a mage and a Rogue to be completely honest from what play experience I've had with her personally. Her skills are her primary asset in combat rather than just firing off arrows at any target, course a higher-level Amazon compared to a smaller monster, this usually works for those wanting to save all the Mana they can. The goal as an Amazon much as any of the characters is to become familiar with how you intend to play. Anyone can just start in and go killing stuff, but you soon realize that you can save yourself a heck of a lot of pain and suffering by learning how to use her skill trees effectively.
Now with the new skill system, you'll have to make decisions, and in turn, SMART decisions that will effect you the rest of the game. Putting skill points into areas you think you know or you KNOW you need. Combat is intense and happens all in real time so it will take quick thinking of a touch of preparedness to fully achieve your goals with minimal damage. Long drawn out battles to small quick-kills alike, the Amazon, as with any of the characters are warriors, fighters.. and you are the strategist. Regardless to how powerful your character starts out, the smart player will know what THEY need... and what they will require in certain areas of combat and learn what is effective to their needs at the time or not. There is no useless skill, there is though skills that will change the course of your actions. Agressive fighters will want to maximize on powerful skills like Immolation Arrow and Freezing Arrow, while the more defensive/passive players will want to focus on ways to protect themselves in combat while fighting.
