Blizzard has just revealed the female equivalent of the witchdoctor class in Diablo III.

Nothing out of the ordinary I suppose. However, there is something that I noticed straight away that you might also spot. When you head over to the female witch doctor page, you’ll see the GIF of the in game model that’ll be used. I thought the proportions of the model were interesting to say the least.

The character is more or less “pear shaped”, the hips of the character being larger than the stereotyped female heroine compared to the upper body. This is important on a number of levels, most of which the average reader could surmise. Beyond that, though, is that even when looking at the concept art and the GIF of the in game model the realistic proportions of the character imply a heightened realism of the game world.

I’m really glad to see that there isn’t any kind of warped proportions coming through in this reimagining of sorts. The world of Diablo seems to be one of the most persistent game worlds I’ve seen, which is curious, since the game doesn’t have too much depth to speak of. Does this mean that every design choice, every visual aspect, even the body proportions of the characters, imply the themes and state of a world, even to a higher degree than the actual written content? I think very much so. I’m interested to watch the design of the game coalesce over the next couple of months… or years, as the case may be.

The new class is official, and a gameplay video has been released with not only a new class but a new setting as well. Check it out inside.

There are rumors (and I say this only because they are difficult to confirm) that the newest class to be revealed for Diablo III will be none other than the monk. Obviously, there was a monk in the wonky “Hellfire” expansion to Diablo I, but if this rumor proves true we’ll have a brand new experience on our hands, As of now, the class appears to use staves at the very least, but you can bet there will be some hand-to-hand combat. Let’s just hope it doesn’t replace assassin with their use of fist weapons (nahhhh).