Death Knight, as I said many times before, will be my to go combo for a pet build where my character itself can also dish out some good damage. Field Command + Squad Tactics has potential for a build like this, but I fell that it will work better with bigger numbers, and the skeletons seem to have a good number combined with the pets that I will get from other sources. I will get Eldritch Hound to not waste the acid/poison bonus from Master of Death, and in another stream (at 1:17:30) we see a Relic called Dirge of Arkovia that gives one of those big skeletal pile of bones that we already face in the game as a pet, I plan to get that too.
But I do also have some interest on Inquisitor now. Because I want to try to build a elemental mage, and I think (ironically enough considering the name) that Mage Hunter (Arcanist + Inquisitor) will have the tools I want.
They may have polar opposite damage types, but demo buffs/debuffs are great and can work with any class. You could do a pet build with maxed flame touched/temper skellies, maxed flashbang for nice crit, and some RR thrown in the mix from BWC/thermite mines.
Or, you could perhaps do some sort of lightning/aether melee build using maxed static strike, Reaping Strike as a WPS attack, and transmuted Siphon Souls for Aether damage over time and healing. It wouldn’t be the best lighting/aether build around, but it would be doable.
Even a caster build using Flashbang for debuffs and Vindictive Flame for total speed would be a possibility, but arcanist or occultist seem superior for a caster Necro.
There will probably be some niche new items with skill modifiers or damage conversion (vitality to fire or vice versa) which would allow for some cool Defiler builds, but it’s all a mystery for now.
There is the temptation to take an existing character and see the new story content immediately, but I think I will enjoy it more by leveling up one of the new classes immediately.
The Word of Pain tree looks like it would be insane with Blood orb of C’thon and Eldritch Fire, especially if those early values are still on the skill, but still need to actually get in there and try it out. Probably with Occultist.
I quite like the visuals and mechanics of Storm Box of Elgoloth with Lightning Tether, I want to try that out although not sure with what, so many different combinations especially with option of the transmuter. I will probably start with Inquisitor and just see where it takes me.
As for Necromancer, looks really good. I want to try a hybrid Pet/Damage build as I never really took one much past veteran. I’ll start with Necro/Occultist with Doombolt (with Time dilation), Reap Spirit, Skeletons, bone harvest, call of grave, bonds of bysmiel, maybe Hellhound for buff but that’s getting into a lot of points. Maybe with chaos converted to aether item to get the damage lined up but still don’t know whether to go with pet exclusive skill.
Also want to try and make foul eruption work but that probably won’t be so good on certain bosses.
Also with the new constellations, items, components etc there will be a lot of other things to try. Huge amount of content for an expansion.