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Quote from Bouzouki

Glad I could help add to the cryptic speculation. lol

Oh, you have no idea. Your thoughts have been earth-shattering in the cryptic puzzleology academic community.

Today's been a pretty exciting day for Diablo fans, with 200 fresh beta access codes to Blizzard's sweepstakes winners (congratulations!), the third quarterly conference call, and many just beginning to sink their teeth into beta patch five.

While Bashiok told fans not to get too excited about the conference call, some interesting tidbits did come up; primarily, that the beta period is nearing the testing implementation of the Real Money Auction House, and that the Collector's Edition of Diablo III will come with a toggleable pair of wings and some snazzy dyes.

Note: The wings and dyes notes have actually been viewable since BlizzCon on the Collector's Edition webpage. The fallout of the quarterly conference did bring some clarification to light:



While all of these great responses did clear up quite a few things, there is still some confusion about the way the wings will work if in the inventory of a Hardcore character. Obviously, under normal circumstances, the wings would be lost on character death.

And while we're on the topic of clearing up confusion: last Friday, we posted the supposedly complete patch notes, coinciding with the reset of the testing server. But the official site has since been updated with most of the recent changes. Here, we have the passive skills that were not included in the patch notes, as well as the skill updates that didn't make the official list.

Skills that were modified to work with weapon damage have not been included in this list because this change was previously announced in the official patch notes. If you would like to see the updated percentages based on weapon damage, please see here.


The Barbarian

Unmentioned Modified Skills
Inspiring Presence has been modified:

• Now allows Barbarians to regenerate 2% of their maximum Life per second instead of 60% of total Life per minute.
• Old: The duration of your shouts is doubled. While benefiting from War Cry or Battle Rage you regenerate 60% of your total Life per minute.

Earthquake has been modified:

• Now deals its damage as Fire-elemental damage.
• Old: Shake the ground violently dealing 240% weapon damage followed by an additional 150% weapon damage per second for 8 seconds to all enemies within 15 yards.

Overpower has been modified:

• Now has a 15-second cooldown that is reset whenever Overpower gets a critical hit instead of becoming available on critically damaging an enemy.
• Old: Press the advantage of a powerful attack to overwhelm the enemy for 150% weapon damage to all targets within 9 yards. Overpower becomes available whenever you make a critical hit against an enemy.

The Demon Hunter

Unmentioned New Passives
Night Stalker has been added:

• Unlocked at level 16.
• Every time you critical hit, gain 1 discipline.
• Discipline is used to fuel many of your tactical and defensive skills.

Numbing Traps has been added:

• Unlocked at level 21.
• Enemies hit by Fan of Knives, Spike Trap and Caltrops have their damage reduced by 30% for 3 seconds.

The Monk

Unmentioned New Passives
Combination Strike has been added:

• Unlocked at level 21.
• Each different Spirit Generator ability you use increases your damage by 10% for 3 seconds.

The Witch Doctor

Unmentioned Modified Skills
Gruesome Feast has been modified:

• Now: Whenever you are healed by a health globe gain 10% of your maximum Mana and 10% Attack for 10 seconds. The Attack bonus can stack up to 5 times.
• Old: Gain 10% Attack for 10 seconds whenever you are healed by a health globe. This effect can stack up to 5 times.

Vermin has been modified:

• Now includes Locust Swarm.
• Old: Your Plague of Toads, Corpse Spiders and Firebats abilities do 20% more damage.

Fierce Loyalty has been modified:

• Now Witch Doctor pets also gain 100% of the player's Health regeneration items.
• Old: All your pets gain 100% of the benefit of your thorns items.

Unmentioned New Passives
Bad Medicine has been added:

• Unlocked at level 18.
• Whenever you deal Poison damage to an enemy, their damage is reduced by 40% for 3 seconds.

Spirit Vessel has been added:

• Unlocked at level 20.
• Reduces the cooldown of your Horrify, Spirit Walk and Soul Harvest spells by 2 seconds. In addition, the next time you receive fatal damage you automatically enter the Spirit Realm for 3 seconds and heal to 10% of your maximum Life. This effect cannot occur more than once every 90 seconds.

Fetish Sycophants has been added:

• Unlocked at level 21.
• Whenever you cast a Physical Realm spell you have a 3% chance to summon a dagger-wielding Fetish to fight by your side for 60 seconds.

The Wizard

Unmentioned Modified Skills
Arcane Dynamo has been modified:

• The Flash of Insight time restriction has been reduced from 1.5 seconds to 0.9 seconds.
• Old: When you deal damage with a Signature spell you gain a Flash of Insight. After 8 Flashes of Insight your next non-Signature spell deals 50% additional damage. You cannot gain a Flash of Insight more than once every 1.5 seconds.

Unmentioned New Passives
Conflagration has been added:

• Unlocked at level 21.
• Dealing fire damage to enemies applies a burning effect, increasing all damage done to them by 15% for 3 seconds.

Lastly, it's been some years since most gave up on speculating about certain cryptic elements of Diablo, but discovery of an invisible input element on the Battle.net website has curiosity rearing like a bucking bronco. Perhaps now more interesting than even the seemingly useless Flash Chat_Gem on the official Diablo III website, the invisible box in the web Battle.net interface has finally drawn some interesting official responses:


Is the answer to this latest mystery to be found by following @Diablo on Twitter? Is the invisible box another enigma in a decade of Diablo silliness, or is there reason to wonder?

New Fan Art

If anyone can be considered a fan of the Diablo franchise, perhaps we should look to the talented individuals bringing their own flair of creativity and ingenuity to a series loved by many since childhood. The first in a series of low-profile interviews, Interview with a (Fan) Artist will expose the creative minds of dedicated Diablo artists.

This week, we had a short interview with Calavera666 (Ismael Bergara) on his series of super-stylized comic entries, as well as his projected plans for his work. For even more of Ismael's work, check out his profile on DeviantArt.com.

Also, Ismael has recently uploaded his newest comic strip, a parody on the beta patch five updates. Stay tuned to through the interview for this latest piece of his unique comical style!

DF: Last weekend, you posted that you're working on an exciting new project: a comic strip series including some cynical takes on three Diablo III characters. Will your work be more comical shorts, or can we expect some kind of cohesive story for some, if not all, of these entries?

Ismael: I've been considering this project for a while now. I'm very passionate about web comics, and I spend most of my free time diving through them. There's something special, unique if you will, that I've always loved about free web comics, and it's the fact that artists work on them purely based on the desire to craft it, and to deliver it to the community. There's no money behind it, so there's no restrictions. You make comics because you want to, and you make it grow with your most pure and basic humor. In the end, you become your own boss. That means you can completely ruin a storyline, and don't give a f*ck about it!

But yeah, there will be some kind continuity in the strips. Some will be made in two, three, or four parts.

DF: The Diabolesques, as you've labeled them, are plays on controversial topics (such as player-named "moon physics.") Was it difficult coming up with these witticisms?

Ismael: Oh yeah, it's really hard to come up with a monk named "Pillar." I've gathered a council of experts on gaming culture and controversial silliness, just to craft the artful names you see on the characters.

I have to be honest, my one secret is to lurk through the Diablo III forums. The material writes itself!

DF: One of your comics, which plays on the handful of Azmodan's generals mentioned at this year's BlizzCon, plays on Monsters, Inc. to convey its silliness. Do you think that cultural references like this alienates potential reading audiences?

Ismael: There's always the possibility that some readers don't get the meaning of the strips. If you haven't seen Monsters, Inc., you probably wont get the Azmodan's strip. If you haven't been around for the last week, you wont get the "Pillar" strip, either.

I'll do my best to give some hints on the obscure references, yes, but I don't want to explain the jokes. That would kill the whole spirit of the thing.

Tip: If people don't get the reference, they'll ask around about it. Free advertising.

DF: It looks like basically everything you've posted on DiabloFans is comic work. Have you ever worked with other mediums?

Ismael: In fact, comics are the only thing I've never done before! I do illustrations, I do wall paintings, I make sculptures, I forge armor--I ruin lots of materials while forging armor because I suck at it--I do animation, I make 3D modeling, I cook, I write scripts for low budget movies, I do acting.

I do lots and lots of stuff, but comics are not on the list. Well, at least not on the everyday list.

DF: What drew you to comics in the first place? Do you happen to have any inspiration for your humor, or does it all just come naturally?

Ismael: As I've mentioned before, I'm fond of web comics. I've never hopped on the comic bandwagon before, because my work is oriented to illustration.

Making illustrations, like a book cover for example, takes a lot of time and effort, but you work on a very specific picture. You have take care of the lights, the design, the shapes of the figures. To make an illustration is to make a sculpture out of a painting.

Comics, in the other hand, are a completely different matter. Comics need humor, they need constant movement, and they need scripts and fresh ideas.

The process of making comic strips is very exciting to an artist. It forces you to break down your own traditional barriers in order to come up with a funny but graceful result. It's pretty much like dancing with a pencil.

But, just like dancing, comic making is a tricky art. Very difficult to master. That's why I've always wanted to give it a try. And you need humor. Humor has to come out of you like water. If you have to force it, then it's not gonna work. You'll end up working out of commitment and obligation, and not from the heart.

DF: The Lord of Terror tries to pass through airport security. What are your thoughts?

Ismael: Nothing happens. His family owns the company.

DF: Aside from some great entertainment, do you think there's something to be said for the messages of some of your comics? Do you hold strong opinions on some of the content of your work, such as a female Diablo (Diablette) or the Monk summoning pillars ex nihilo (Monk's Problematic Pillars)?

Ismael: I may have some opinions about this and that, but that will never show in the comics. If you look closely, I've never taken a stand to attack or defend any of the subjects. I try to make fun of things from a neutral point of view.

But in the end of the day, I must say that I love every single thing about Diablo III.

Yes, even the ferrets.

DF: Do you have anything you'd like to share with the Diablo community at large, besides more great humor and iconic artwork?

Ismael: Feel free to comment, rate, send suggestions, ask questions--all of those things that would make me feel like I'm important. Look, Ma! I'm on Diablofans!

And last, but certainly not least, Ismael has finished his latest piece in the Diablo world. This strip takes a light-hearted look at one of the notes included in beta patch five. See if you can figure it out (click for full strip):


That's all for this time. Once again, we highly encourage you to check out his profile on DeviantArt.com for even more of his unique work. Tune in some indefinite point in the future to see our interview with Richwood666, famous on the board for his continuing work on the female Demon Hunter!

Quote from DragonJunkie

Magistrate thank you for the impale video but you didnt put your curser over the skill so we could see how much damage it does now.
Could you please tell us.

Quote from stampy

I still haven't been able to find footage of the new arcane-enchanted mob effect... would be a good video if the opportunity presents itself

Done!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rJMmvFiTRAM

Quote from Enkeria

Video Request: Character selection screen, I wanna see the animations!

Done!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YAIDreH16nA

Quote from Concepticon

I know ur email now magistrate. expect spam...

gg update btw good shit

:3 It would be nice to get some spam from Diablo fans and not penis enlargement pills for once.

Diablo III's fifth beta patch brought some big changes to the testing period. To highlight just one of them, here's a short clip showing the graphical changes made for the Demon Hunter's Impale skill:


But Impale wasn't the only element to get a graphical update. Much of the Battle.net interface--including the login screen, the character selection screen, and more--saw some changes as well:


At the launch of the beta patch, though, there were some things missing. The Cauldron of Jordan--use to cash in on loot like you would with an in-town NPC while on the battlefield--was moved out of the beta content and into its more permanent position in the overall Diablo III gameplay period. Vasadan responded:


The note has since been added to the list of official patch notes. Bashiok later added that:


The Templar, the only hireable hireling (el oh el) in the beta, also saw a tweak that was not mentioned in the official patch notes. The Templar can now wield any one-handed weapon, as opposed to only being able to carry spears as he had in the past. But the change left something to be desired in the follower's voice-overs:


Finally, Blizzard posted a timeline of Diablo III UI artist Mike Nocholson's daily grind to celebrate their twentieth anniversary. Highlights include the most lucky kids on planet Earth, interaction with Technical Artist Chris Haga, an all-too-humble observation of his work life, and an idea of what it's like to work for one of the greatest game developers in history.

The long wait for the fifth beta patch has finally ended. Here's the complete official patch notes for the latest iteration:

UPDATE (04/11/2011): The official patch notes have been updated; see below. Thanks to PaNtsONhEaD from our IRC (#diablofans on freenode) for the update!

Spike recently posted their contest to determine which game of 2012 will be at the top of gamers' wishlists. The Lord of Terror is pitted against giants Bioshock: Infinite, Halo 4, and Mass Effect 3, so Diablo III has some healthy competition.

User votes determine the winner of the contest, and while we know what we've been waiting for for over a decade, it's time to show the world that Diablo III will take the cake in 2012. So click, vote, and stay tuned for the winner!

And stick around for tonight's possible launch of Diablo III Beta's latest patch!

Quote from Hiselius

I'm very tempted to beat the countess in D2 with a tweaked level 1 character just to prove how silly this "OMG the game is easy in the first 10 minutes" - debate is..

I don't think that's quite a fair comparison. The Countess has less health, weaker attacks, and no real strategic skills. She also isn't really a major part of the lore. She's a side quest with little back story, and the story of the game doesn't really flow through her plot point.

With Leoric, we have an entire game's worth of lore to back him up, he has a variety of interesting skills and mechanics, much more health, and he is absolutely a plot point, not a side quest.

I think there's something to be said for all that. Someone of Leoric's importance simply should not be able to be beaten so quickly--if at all--by level one characters.

And this isn't the first ten minutes of the game. Leoric is placed a couple hours into the game, if you're playing it at the rate it was designed to be played.

(Source) The Diablo III Open Q&A panel at this year's BlizzCon was a steady flow of Diablo feedback and query, but not everyone walked away completely satisfied with team responses. A fan recently brought up a clearer and more in-depth version of his Wizard petition hastily sputtered at the panel stage just last weekend, but with better results:

We encourage you to read the full post here. For simplicity and brevity, much of the technical post was stripped from the following quotation.

Regarding the Wizard and certain gameplay mechanics that interact with weapon speed, self-proclaimed BlizzCon Question Asker Guy asked, "Given the math and change to weapon speeds affecting cast speed, is there anything you were doing to make faster weapons have more incentive to using them [...] [b]is this an intentional design, and slower weapons of equal DPS are just always better[/b] [...], or is this still something that you're looking into and need to work on?"

Bashiok's response on Technical Designer Wyatt Cheng's behalf is a book in itself, but here's the highlights. I tried to bold the parts that are particularly important and remove the somewhat less helpful (though no less interesting) bits:


If you procured a case of TLDR Syndrome while reading over that abbreviated version of a very elaborate response, Wyatt's argument basically came down to this:


Additionally, to balance the exceptions to the rule that Wyatt so thoroughly attempted to explain, there is also incentive to adjust Disintegrate and Arcane Torrent AP consumption rates in ratio with the other Wizard skills, although Wyatt confessed that this inconsistency may not be "cool" when considering uniformity across the Wizard spells. This may translate into "breaking the rules" with other current iterations of skills in regards to AP-burning, since we were reminded at the beginning of Wyatt's response that nothing is set in stone.

Do you think that more tweaking is needed to reward players that choose fast weapons, or is Wyatt's response reasonable and accurate with your knowledge of current gameplay mechanics? Will augmentative gear like jewelry, as well as logical considerations like movement limitations, offset the choice between weapon types faced by said players?

*Note: Posted this from my phone. Forgive any glaring mistakes

D2R Opt-in Green Display Message Updated to Beta finally. They had "Technical Alpha" as the display message for the past couple weeks even after changing the button to Beta Opt-in. Making sure everything is updated before Beta launch!?

Quote from Magistrate»

The way the light works with the ground textures is just so good x.x I can't wait to see A5 stuff with how detailed the art was for that entire xpac. Or like Travincal and the temples in A3.

I love the light reflections of fire spells on the ground like when you cast fire traps. i get mesmerized by them and will most likely die over and over as i take in the scenery like a tourist on vacay. xD

Quote from Magistrate»

The way the light works with the ground textures is just so good x.x I can't wait to see A5 stuff with how detailed the art was for that entire xpac. Or like Travincal and the temples in A3.

arreat summit, nithilak temple and the worldstone chamber are going to be tiiiiits

So the internet did it again. Someone discovered how to render the newer graphics from A1-2 to A3-4 for the D2R alpha cracked version. People really are impatient aren’t they? I bet were like 2-3 weeks away from open beta too lol.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Diablo/comments/mykjnv/d2r_makeshift_act4_hd/

Version 0.1.1 was released!

https://twitter.com/SunbeamX11/status/1383417309201453058?s=20

It's just a small fix for a problem that occurred when extracting files with some Diablo 2 installations.

Yeah, the main reason was to introduce a mechanic that would make sense in this world and would increase the feeling of realism, even if we are playing a game where we fight demons and angels.

Maybe they could make somekind of invasions (like in wow) if a certain number of players lets say (50 for example) doesnt show up, the invasion (from hell or heaven) will destroy the encampment (loosing the townportal, vendors and crafters..) but if 50 or plus apear you can defeat the event and get a few rewars in the process, like the caches from dailys D3 events.

The capacity of loosing something would add more replayability to the game since it could always change from the last time you logged. Again as you said, in the D3 you just had to lvl up your crafters once and that was it, and a point here, defending the encampments should be hard, encouraging people to go there and now just thinkign, nah, a few guys can handle it.

Unfortunately i havent seen anything yet in this direction of degreadable encamptments, just making them similiar to crafters in D3 witch i think is a major waste of oportunity. The courrier sistem would help lvl this encampments more faster and rebuild to after an invasion, well it could even influence the itens in vendors tabs.

About the courrier mechanic, like you said many people would find somekind of meta for this, but as always this would be a very small number compared to the whole comunity. This mechanic would be just another way to encourage people to explore more the maps of sanctuary, valuing even more the work they are imputing in this game,and avoiding the current system in D3, just using TPs from one point to another.

At least the part from mounts items looks they are going for it, hope they do something close to the witcher 3 as i discriberd before, but i agreed with you about the rewards from this kind of quests, not becoming something indispensable but not to simple too.

Regarding the Ancestral (demonic and angelic powers too) they are really giving almost no info in the lasts development, at leat i hope they make something like i said in pvp (a pandamonium map) where you could choose a side (heaven or hell) and farm this powers to unlock the bonuses from itens or/and upgrade skills to higher lvls (giving new skins and effects to them would we awsome, but o'm dreaming here lol).

Agreed. And while on the subject, I also deter outlining with a colored line, like say there's a thin red line around the silouette of the mob you are mousing over. They are great QoL features for many games I'm sure, but they are also totally immersion breaking. Generally, I would love for Blizzard to just take a chance on it and just not have any such features at all, or to let the user disable them in an "Accessability" menu or something. Let me be confused about what exact mob I am attacking. Let me have monotone please. Not everything needs to sparkle.

Furthermore, stop the homogenization. Stop implementing every market trend into the product. Dare to be one of a kind and not apply the "formula" each time. It's like with movies that now just swap out directors/producers/writers from one project to the next, even within the same franchise. Nothing hardly ever feels like its own, anymore. Nothing feels like LotR, or the original Star Wars movies. Cause those were created in large part by one person with one vision, not just the sum of the overlap of 50 people's visions.

'Wilderness' from Diablo II is a Masterpiece

The Diablo II Soundtrack has no equal. When I decided to do this I wanted to do it right and not just copy/paste a cover image with some music. I wanted it to look and feel right. I wanted to make it something that I could enjoy again and again. The tracks are all absolutely fantastic. I went out of my way to find the highest quality sound files that I could find, I used lossless FLAC whenever possible. I scoured through many websites, digging in deep to find good concept art. I ended up spending a lot of time piecing this thing together, I had to start all over many times with some segments but I think that in the end it was well worth the effort.

Credit to Matt Uelmen for this unprecedented muscial legacy. This is real art. There's nothing like it. This will never happen again. I sometimes play D2 or D3 muting the in-game music and I keep this one playing on my second screen. Call me a narcissist. And now we have Diablo II Resurrected incoming .. what can I say .. good things come to those that wait. † † †

I'm adding a link to my channel on youtube ... I have 12 videos there so far, but I'll add at least one a day.
Thank you very much for visiting and I hope you will be interested in some of it. If you have any comments I will be happy if you add a comment and like.

Best regards, Niven

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCvx4-AjV8-4EW7HA6dqsyDg?view_as=subscriber