DiabloFans

Ah you are right for all intensive purposes really

"The Magic Find attribute can be found on any weapon or armor"

This is incorrect as not a single weapon in the beta had magic find or gold find on it.

Most of your questions do not have answers at this point other than speculation. I would like to point out that although Sanctuary, heaven, and hell are in the same universe it is said that Sanctuary was created with the Worldstone in an alternate diminsion to keep it hiden from heaven and hell. Hell discovered its existance dring the mage clan wars and heaven discovered it during the Sin War. So heaven and hell are physical locations but mortals can not simply travel to them unless by some unique means such as summoned by the Angiris Council or the portal open by the prime evils. In Diablo I you go deeper and deeper underground and fight in an area that resembles hell but according to the book of cain (i believe) that area just resembles hell because Diablo had been summoning his demons from deep within the catacombs for so long. I'm sure it will be made clear as you play through Diablo III how your hero is able to travel to these places (that is if we do visit both of these sites).

1) The seven great evils came from each of the heads of the 7-headed dragon Tathamet. In the beginning only a single pearl existed (named Anu). Inside the pearl was everything and every emotion. The forces within the pearl polarized into good/evil and the pearl split apart. The evil was cast out and formed into Tathamet while the good formed into a diamond warrior (also named Anu). These two primordial beings of good and evil warred forever until one day the destroyed each other in a catastrophic explosion. This is how the universe that sancuary exists in was created. The seven heads of Tathamet became the seven great evils with the three primary heads becoming the three prime evils. So to answer your question, no, the great evils did not start out as regular demons and worked their way to the top, they have always existed in thier current roles.

2) I do not believe there is a way for a non-great evil demon to ascend to the seat of a great evil. But I would like to point out that you have a misconception about the role of heaven in the diablo universe. Heaven rules with strict and severe justice emotion as we know it is not a virtue respected by militarist angels (other than hope i guess). You envision heaven as being a place of everything good but in this universe heaven believes that their is no room for compasion and love and that these are viewed as weaknesses and a human would not enjoy such an environment let alone be allowed to exist there. Also humans are abominations in the eyes of the angles because we are the spawn of angles and demons, something that never should have existed.

I could have gone further into detail but if you are looking for more I HIGHLY encourage you to read "the book of cain" It will fill you in on just about all the key pieces of lore that is applicable at the time of Diablo III. If you want even more lore I would recommend reading the lore pieces from Diablo I instruction manuel http://www.diablowik...drim_-_Book_One as well as the Sin War series as those books are considered to be applicable pieces of lore whereas the other Diablo books are more like side stories (so I hear, as I have not read the other books). Additionally there are several youtube compilation videos of all the important events that happened in diablo I and II those are good for a few more lore pieces http://www.youtube.c...er/zealousdemon. Other than that the next book "the order" will be available on may 15th. Oh yeah, and you should also watch the Blizzcon '11 Diablo III lore panel videos on youtube, I think it is an hour long and has some good info as well .Well, hope this has provided some useful information. <7 days =)

anyone else stare at the upgraded blacksmith every time he ran past him?

When my follower had 24% gold find worth of items equipped the detailed stats sheet said that he contributed 5% gold find. 20% of 24% is 4.8% which is approximately 5%. So I would say that at this stage of the game the followers do contribute 20% of their adventure stats to your hero.

Can I play Diablo III offline?

Azmodan is a lesser evil...

The only ones that suffer are people in Alaska/Hawaii time zones because by the time midnight rolls around in say Hawaii the game will have been live on the servers for 3 hours (no daylight savings time in Hawaii)

the books are a good read to anyone that hasn't yet decided to read them.

http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/barbarian#WcXSRP!cdh!aZZbaZ

This is my Blood Barbarian build. He is based around several forms of health recovery as well as having a balanced build. If the build has too much healing and not enough damage for the higher difficulties I will easily be able to alter some rune skils around as needed.

http://www.youtube.com/user/talesoflumin

Diablo 3 along with several other games. I watch for the commentary mostly as I find it most entertaining.

Activision Blizzard Fourth Quarter Calendar 2010 Conference Call happened on Feb. 9th so that is a good guestimate of when the 2011 Conference Call will happen.

It is forum threads like this that keep me happy from day to day with Blizzard lacking on the official site news articles, blue posts, and beta patches.

Here is a list I put together from the official beta patch page. http://us.battle.net...opic/3123246179
(yes I realize that the starting date is after the first few patches, I'm just posting information obtained from Blizzard)

Beta test begins: 9/20 (this comes from the 15th anniversary page)
Patch 1: no info
Patch 2: 9/7
Patch 3: 9/14 - 7 days
Patch 4: 9/26 - 12 days
Patch 5: 11/3 - 38 days
Patch 6: 11/17 - 14 days
Patch 7: 12/1 - 14 days
Patch 8: 12/15 - 14 days
Patch 9: 12/20 - 5 days
Currently - 19 days

What about when they moved it from its northern position to the slightly less northern position?

I think this site just does /roll 31 for the date articles are posted.