Diablo – Who are the voice actors for the player characters and followers

Unlike in Diablo II, on-hit elemental damage is simply that - bonus damage, with the sole exception of cold damage (which has a small snare). Frost damage does a little less damage comparatively because of this.

While there was originally a more complex critical hit system (as documented below), that functionality did not make it to the final game.

Critical hits just add damage.

Historical Answer:

More interestingly, in the Diablo III Beta, each type of damage has a different effect on a critical.

• Physical: Double Damage

• Arcane: Silences targets for 4 seconds (prevents abilities)

• Cold: Freezes targets for 2 seconds (Duration can be affected by talents, etc.)

• Fire: Sets them on fire, fire DoT (tick rate scales off weapon speed)

• Lightning: Stuns targets for 2 seconds (Duration can be affected by talents, etc.)

Poison and Holy presumably have effects on a critical hit also, but I haven't been able to find info on them.

The only difference between the gendered classes are aesthetics, both in visual appearence, and in audio voiceovers / text. (Mostly pronouns)

The individual stories for the classes (the parchment-style cutscenes that play on the completion of most major quests) also vary between the genders.

Perhaps the biggest differences are in the dialog between the player character and their follower when playing solo. When interviewed about it, one of the Blizzard devs said that he particularly enjoyed the dynamic between the Scoundrel and the female Wizard.