BlizzCon 2010 Diablo panel: "97 billion builds per class," more about Demon Hunter

We're live at Tenacious-D-and-Chris-Metzen-Con 2010, and hey, they have videogames here too.

This is one of them.

During its Diablo III gameplay panel, Blizzard took the stage to give us more info on Blizzard's latest hellbourne hack 'n' slash, but with fewer pictures of Thundercats and Transformers. It was refreshing, to say the least. Key points are as follows:

• The Demon Hunter will come in both male and female flavors, but for now, the male version's staying under wraps. Isn't that just like a man - always taking forever to get ready?
• Demon Hunter makes frequent use of traps and grenades. She can even bounce grenades off walls and other surfaces, proving that even when your entire life has been consumed by murder and revenge-lust, you can still have a child-like sense of whimsy. We bet she also enjoys prank calls.
• Thanks to the Diablo III's rune system, there are roughly 97 billion potential builds per class. And that's not even factoring in traits, charms, and armor. So eat it, Borderlands!
• As a result, however, it's basically impossible for every character class to be perfectly balanced against one another. That's why PVP arenas are team-based. If you've met your kryptonite, the hope is that another of your teammates can pick up the slack.
• PVP Arenas will allow you to make use of all your traits, abilities, runes, armor, weapons, etc.
• Blizzard's focusing on counters for PVP design - as opposed to annoying, downtime-inducing crowd-control techniques. We'll hold you to that, Blizzard. If someone "fears" us - ala WoW - we'll "fear" your offices right into a fire.
• PVP will allow you to unlock titles, achievements, and things of the like. Not so much new weapons and abilities.

That's all for now. We'll keep bringing you news from the frontlines as it comes.