DiabloFans

Happy Zergday, Stormy!

Quote from Nektu

Quote from FingolfinGR

i hope it wont be hostility based, like in the previous games, though.

Why not? I think that the hostility based PvP was fine.

for PvE hardcore players like myself it's amazingly awful to lose a character because someone thought it would be fun to attack me while i'm killing monsters. an option to make hostilities availiable on game creation could work.

i think what Daan means is that there's got to be a level of quality coming from the posts of Staff members, or it will make us not look good. Not everyone knows how Meph is joking, and while i didn't do anything about him in the post Daan mentioned i agree that it's not the way to go. Umpa, since he's your friend, couldn't you convince him to be more polite since he's a representative of the Staff?

but the female Wizard is far hotter than the sorceress (and the male one's style reminds me too much of blood elves from WoW) so i'll definitely be going for the female. when i roleplay, i'll have boobs

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u43-bh9jrxc

that's it. the best! from their movie "The Pick of Destiny". especially the Devil's jam is AWESOME! wouldnt be surprised if they play this at Blizzcon and have the Devil be dressed as Diablo

it's all a conspiracy so the females will have hard nips. :unsure:

Artisans

A real hero doesn’t craft items! He fights! Even though you can create items in Diablo III, it’s not exactly “you” that makes them. It’s them! You meet those merchants through the game and gain their trust after a series of quests. They don’t follow you to battle, but they do follow to the nearest city or village. There are three types of artisans:

-The Blacksmith creates weapons and armor. In addition he can add sockets to items. In those you use gems, just like in Diablo II.
-The Jeweler creates… well jewelry (Rings and Amulets) and can transmute multiple lower level gems to one higher level variant. This way you can get gems of quality levels 6 to 14 that can’t be found on monsters. He can also remove used gems from sockets.
-The Mystic is responsible for enchants. Enchants add special bonuses to items. She also creates and sells staves and other magical supplies. The Mystic also identifies items for the player - Deckard Cain has retired the identifying business.

To create an item, you need to have the recipes and the crafting materials needed for them (some gold too). Crafting materials you get from equipment you salvage (there’s a special box in your inventory after you acquire it). Certain special crafting materials are drops from monsters. This can save time from going back to town to sell useless items. Every Artisan can be upgraded (there’s 5 total levels). To upgrade them you use gold and materials (the higher their level, the more the materials required). Higher level Artisans offer better items for sale and crafting. Some of which are the best in the game.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jIob8wXaQkU

Character Classes

There will be 5 character classes for the game.
The Barbarian
The Witch Doctor
The Wizard
The Monk
Demon Hunter

Skills

The new UI reflects this change to seven skills. On the left will be your seven skill slots which will unlock as you level. To the right is a window with all the skill choices possible, broken up by when you can access them. This will help you to see directly what you have as well as what you can get and plan for future levels. All skills start off with a possible increase of five ranks but there will be a chance to increase this amount through other means. Leveling up a skill will be as simple as clicking o the skill in the UI.
For more information about the skills you can check the wiki page

Traits

Traits is a new system that will be replacing passive skills. This mechanic was added to allow players to customize their character without having to waste skill points to do so. As you level, you currently gain one trait point every other level. Traits will vary and help distinguish your particular play style. Each Trait will have ranks that will range from one to five that you can upgrade. Helping define you character as a tank, berserker, or battle master for the Barbarian, each trait also includes some flavor text to help explain and immerse your character into the world. There will be about ninety possible choices, including upgrading, but your character will only get about thirty points to distribute. Jay mentioned that right now there are actually too many possibilities and that some will probably be cut out.

* Skills and Traits quoted by Scyberdragon's post here.*


Runestones

Every active skill, no matter if it’s magic or melee attack, can have a rune attached. The rune will change the way the spell/attack works. It has been confirmed that the rune/skill combination will be about 700, all with their own effects. More info on the runes can be found here . *Update* The Diablo Wiki on Runestones has been updated with some more info and images from Blizzcon.

Character Stats *New*

Attack: Increases damage
- This stat will be a universal damage increasing stat for all classes to prevent confusion about what you should increase to do more damage.
- We realize that ‘Attack’ is less flavorful than ‘Strength’ and ‘Willpower’, but we feel the pros of understanding clearly how to build your character outweigh that con.
- This stat has no secondary effects.

Precision: Increases crit chance
- This will be tuned to be comparable in power to Attack increases for the most part.
- So why have Precision? Mainly so we can play into it with affixes, runes, and traits. Linking effects to crits gives us another hook for designing skills and gives the player options to create ‘crit builds’ that play different than normal attack builds. Examples of the kind of crit effects we 'could' do (not saying we are, these are examples):
- - Cleave crits cause monsters to explode and do damage to those around them.
- - Lifesteal could be an ‘on crit only’ affix.
- This is a more finesse stat, and we’re fine with that. Most people will want Attack by default, but they won’t mind getting precision.
- This stat has no secondary effect.

Vitality: Increases health
- And it's staying that way!
- This stat has no secondary effect (seeing the pattern here?).

Defense: Decreases all damage taken
- This stat is separate from armor and resistances, each of which effects different damage types. This stat effects ‘all’ damage.
- This stat will allow players to control incoming damage rather than increasing health capacity, which is useful to reduce the need for health globes and pots, and allows players to double down on defense for survival focused builds.
- This stat is also useful for PVP, and likely will be valued in the arenas, but isn't tuned to be a 'PVP' only stat.
- This stat has no secondary effects.

Willpower: Affects resource in class-specific ways
- The effects of this stat will change from class to class. It will be our goal to make it roughly equivalently valuable across classes and versus other attributes.
- Basically this stat will give you more access to whatever restricts your resource by default: capacity, regen rate, degeneration rate, generation rate, etc.

Full article on it in the Core Attribute Changes to D3 thread.

*update*

Hit Rating: Bashiok strikes back! According to his latest posts on battle.net every melee hit has a flat 5% miss chance, meaning that hit rating is more or less out of the game. Ranged and Area of Effect attacks still have to be aimed to hit.

There's a topic about it from Jackzor in the news section here.

Followers
There has been very little information about Hirelings in Diablo III. Unfortunately, there has not been much change on this front. From what we know, in the first gameplay video, there were some archers you ran into while on a quest to rescue Deckard Cain. These archers would follow you for a short while fighting monsters until they would meet their own demise. These mercenaries were never meant to follow you for a long time and would only help you through a quest. We saw this again in the Demon Hunter gameplay video when a weapon maker needs your help. These NPC's are just to help you through a quest temporarily.

In addition to these characters, many have wondered how the hirelings, as know of them from Diablo II, will work in Diablo III. There was actually an interview with Leonard Boyarsky back in 2009 where he touched upon the subject. In the interview, he is asked about mercenaries returning in Diablo III. He first talks about the temporary mercenaries from the gameplay trailer as a smaller version of the followers. He then expands upon the newer version of the "Followers" as they are now known as.

The Mercenaries/Hirelings/Followers article was created by ScyberDragon and can be found here.

*update*

As you can find in the Follower System Unveiled article, the "Followers" system has been unveiled.

There are three follower classes in Diablo III:
The Enchantress
The Scoundrel
The Templar

Each has it's own unique abilities split in 4 tiers of 3 skills each.


Quests

Staying true to the action-rpg tradition, the quests won’t be too complicated. In the playable versions the quests were simple like “go in the desert city” and “slay the skeleton king”. In addition to the story quests, there will still be side quests that can be found while exploring.
These optional quests appear to be like quest chains. For example, you save a girl from desert cultists. She still dies, but before she does she asks you to visit the village. The mayor there informs you that some women have been taken – find and rescue them!

Enemies

There will be 4 different types of enemies in Diablo III (the Act bosses don’t fall into any of the categories).
-Normal enemies
-Champions
-Rare enemies
-Unique enemies

Loot

The usual item gathering will be reduced in Diablo III. Blizzard announced that the item drops will be reduced in comparison with Diablo II. There will be more useful items to be found, though, magical or better. There are also more item slots in the inventory too. In addition to the slots we had in Diablo II we get to (finally) wear pants, shoulder pads and bracers. The inventory changed again to a more tetris like one. Weapons and armor take 2 slots. Potions, crafting materials and scrolls require only one and are also stackable. We’ll also be able to change the colors of the armor through dyes.
Latest news mention 18 different armor tiers (so far), which is subject to change till the game is released. Source.

*update**update 2* - The Talisman was cut from the game
Charms are after all in the game. They don't go to the inventory, however, they get their own little place called Talisman. We start the game without it and we upgrade it until the end of the game so it can have more charms placed in it.

*update*
In our very own interview, we got information about Quivers making their way back into the game. It's most likely going to be exclusive to the Demon Hunter. So far they only mentioned it being used with pistol crossbow - the ranged weapon exclusive to the Demon Hunter.

Full interview here.

*update*
There's been several updates on items "binding" on the character after being used or earned through quests. Latest Blizzard comments, however say that the whole "binding" of items is out of the game. All items will be able to be used and transfered after they're no longer useful to any character, or even traded.

News article about it here.

Looting

Everyone will get his/her own share of the loot. Meaning that whatever you see drop, it's individually for you and nobody else can take it unless you pick up and drop again. So there's no need to rush to the loots and die trying to pick it up anymore.

Town Portals

They’re gone! Instead you get to go back to town through waypoints that will be placed better than in Diablo II. There won’t be a really big need to go back to town as often anyway because of the new “Salvage” feature that’s been explained in the Artisan section. There’s also supposed to be a “scroll of wealth” that will change items in gold directly without the need to find a merchant to sell it.

Health System

The potions are rare to find and also have a cooldown. Instead there will be health globes dropping from enemies during the fight to replenish lost hit points. There’s different kinds of health globes too that replenish different amount of health. Bosses are supposed to drop some health globes at certain percentages of their total hit points. In most cases there will be minions of them aswell to make sure we’ll have a decent amount of health globes when needed.

Death

Inevitably we’ll all die sometime (hopefully the hardcore people won’t do it often). In death you don’t appear in town but in the nearest checkpoint. You also have all of your gear so there won’t be any more corpse runs. -As of 10/7/2010 we got some news about the death mechanic. Bashiok mentioned the death penalties aren't final yet. In his latest battle.net post he talked a bit about the developer's team thoughts on death. In multiplayer there's an other option to avoid running back (even from the checkpoint nearby). Other players will be able to carry "Scrolls of Resurrection". Those scrolls existed back in Diablo 1 and made it possible for friends in coop to revive the dead players of the group. They will have the same function in Diablo III aswell.

*update*
On the death penalties, in the current build, all the character gets after death is durability loss on his items. As mentioned before, it's not final so we can't possibly tell just yet how this will end up.

Horadric Cube

As expected it’s out of the game. Most of its uses have been replaced by the artisans.

Private Stash

It’s still here. Whenever there’s items not really needed right now but still useful they can be placed in there and remain in your possession. Jay Wilson stated that from the start it will offer more room than the stash of Diablo II. It will also be possible to upgrade it so it can store more items and gold. *Update* This years Blizzcon we heared that the storage space offered with the Stash is one of the ways Blizzard plans to eliminate muling.

A shared stash has been confirmed by Jay Wilson in this years Blizzcon. The Shared Stash, will allow characters of the same account to safely and easily transfer items from one character to another.

*update*
It is confirmed that we'll get 2 stashes. One for the current character and the second for the whole account (shared stash).
Interesting article about it here.

Acts

It’s been confirmed that Diablo III will be about as big as Diablo II without its expansion, so it’s going to be 4 Acts. The adventure will begin near New Tristram, so the first act will remind a bit of the first game. Same for the second act that (at least mostly) will be in the desert near Caldeum. As for the third and fourth act, there hasn’t been official word yet. But if we take a look at the art section of the official site we can see an image of a harbor in Skovos Isles (the isles of the Amazons) and a monster called “Crater Assault Troops” (concept goes back to 2004 but it was in the teaser trailer with the announcement) that could make us assume that the third Act might play in the amazon jungles and the fourth in the Dreadlands, where Mount Arreat used to be (hopefully we’ll get to see footage of act 3 in the next Blizzcon).
Latest posts from Bashiok mention that the game will be longer than Diablo II, even though they'll immitate the Act length to make it more dramatic and not to delay the end-fight too much.

*update*
@Diablo recently mentioned that we have seen bits and pieces of Act 3. Only new thing (as in environments) that we've seen so far was Bastion's Keep. It should be relatively safe to assume it's act 3.

Player versus Player (PvP)

Everyone's waited for info on it and this year's Blizzcon was quite generous. Duels and Hostilities as we knew them in Diablo II are off the game. The new Battle Arenas are implemented to make sure that those who want to kill people get to kill them, while those that want to kill monsters don't have to worry about being killed by anything else but monsters! PvP balance won't be an issue, though, according to the developers since PvE is the primary focus and "nerfing PvE abilities because they're too strong on PvP" won't happen.
As a hardcore player... if you step into the Arena there's no going back. Either you die, or your opponent.

The Diablo III PvP - Battle Arenas thread offers more information on the PvP feature of Diablo III.

Achievements

Just like Starcraft 2, Diablo III will also have achievements to unlock. They won’t be pure “grinding” achievements, though (killing things is still encouraged). Instead the achievements will be rewarded for killing unique monsters, crafting and/or fully exploring the regions.

Expansions

Lead Designer Jay Wilson talked about it in an interview. Blizzard is already thinking about expansions for Diablo III. This should mean that Diablo III will be pretty open ended. Also in Gamescom he answered a question about DLCs (downloadable content as paid mini “expansions”): “I love DLCs”. We can expect some DLCs for Diablo III it seems.

Online Activation

After the launch of Starcraft II we know how it's going to be. The game will have to be attached to a battle.net account and be activated this way. Achievements will only be awarded if you play through battle.net (even for single-player, very much like the campaign achievements for Starcraft II). There will be an offline/guest play option that will require to log to a battle.net account once too.

ESRB Rating

According to a recent Bashiok post Blizzard aims for a rating of M (for mature). So we're guaranteed to see alot blood spraying during the fights.

The Story

Diablo III begins 20 years after the previous game. 20 years after the Prime Evils were defeated and the Worldstone was destroyed by the Archangel Tyrael. After a long time of peace a meteor hit the cathedral of Tristram and Evil stirs again. Heroes rise to fight against the Evil that's taking the world of Sanctuary once again... we still got nothing more...

*Update* While it's not much, what they told us was that this time, it's not just the presence of certain demons that will corrupt Sanctuary, but a full scale invasion from the Burning Hells. According to Jay Wilson, the Burning Hells decided to destroy Sanctuary since the humans are becoming a great threat should they take Heaven's side on the Great Conflict. They were strong enough to destroy the Three after all.

Beta Test

The Blizzcon closing ceremony had a surprise for all of us. 1000 attendees will be randomly selected to be given beta keys for the upcoming Diablo III beta test. What's missing is word on "when" the beta will start. At least now it's confirmed that there's going to be one.
*Update*
While Blizzard hasn't said anything about the timing of the beta start, they did talk about how much of the game it will contain. More or less they don't want many spoilers and we're going to see a full PvP mode and probably a couple Acts at maximum.

There's more about it in the article: Where's Beta?

*Update*
In the recent May 9th Conference Call there's been some info about the Beta. It's supposed to start sometime in Q3 2011. Meaning from July 1st to September 31st.

Release Date

So far there's no official word about it, other than Blizzard's usual "When it's Done™". - Wilson said that the game would be released approximately 6 months after the beta starts.
*Update*
After the last financial conference in February, Mike Morhaime said that the team aims for a 2011 release, but it's not set in stone just yet and it may have to be pushed to 2012. So it's probably going to be Q4 2011-Q1 2012.


*Post updated with news as of 5/26/2011*

Quote from Shelledfade_4967505

I'm just basically saying that when you put every piece of negative information together into one big melting pot it's something to take a good look at. Not even negative stuff, just unoriginal designs and things that I never expected to see in D3.

from all the things i've read about Diablo III so far, the only truly original thing in the game is ironically enough, the Health Globe mechanic.
everything else existed elsewhere too (from the previous games to other games from any company).
The thing is that (as Jay Wilson said very well) you dont have to reinvent the wheel every time you need to do something. someone did it well and it fits? it goes in. its quite simple and it works.

*edit*

and for those saying Diablo III is going "childish"...

Quote from Karjalan

and that's just act 2 for all we know. yes, it does go darker (and bloodier) as we progress.

Quote from PhrozenDragon

Quote from Magistrate

Leoric had necromatic powers? I always thought he was just Undead and therefore powerful and hard to kill. Learn something new every day, don't I?

An extrapolation from the fact that he is a huge skeleton in a chamber full of undead.

Though I wouldn't say it's a long leap. Most people who enter the service of the Three (or any demon for that matter) gain various powers as a benefit. Leoric probably would have gotten the same.

after he became undead he did raise skeletal minions, i havent read it anywhere but i remember him doing so in the game. meaning he did get necromantic powers.

lore wise he was just insane because of the loss of Albrecht and the effort Diablo made to posess him.

pay2play is another thing. thinking of WoW, LotRO and Warhammer Online that were released in good shape (excluding Age of Conan that was too buggy to begin with) they had loads of content and they took months to finish. by that time there was more content released (for all games - as in patches, not expansions), good support, very well maintained servers and the will to help the customers.
all that was there because we paid for them. its not like we get a patch every couple years (zing) and be grateful for it.

bug fixing is a must (all games have bugs, no matter how well tested they've been) but if you pay monthly for it, you can demand faster solutions.

its quite simple really.

Quote from Hpnot1Q

Quote from Periculum

Don't listen to Hpnot1Q tbh, he claims to have the best Gaming Machine of us all. Actually he might even be right about it, but he's showing off all the time and i looked at his Machine ands then i got jealous, so just don't listen to him
Topicrelated: I agree with using any keyboard, but it needs to be illuminated for me, cuz i use to play in the dark and i just like it. About the mouse.. imo it's difficult to find the right one without actually trying it. People will suggest a lot of different mice and YOU will have to decide, which is the best for YOU. And that really depends on several things, i for myself find the mousewheel very important, i don't want it to be too soft, which many are imo. Also it needs to fit your handsize properly. So i suggest you ask your friends what they use and actually try them yourself or if you can't, go to a big market with lots of mice, that you can actually grab and try, because they are unpacked for you. If you really want to order one though, i recommend to read this:
http://www.razerzone.com/mouseguide/

Good luck with picking the right mouse!

First of al, i have al the good reasons to show of, even tho im NOT.

Second, Mionix 5000 is MY fav mouse this far, and it just so happend to be that i own it, issent that weerd ?

Third: You wure in your dipers when i was working on sick machines that you can only dream of, and that make my current pc look like a joke.

So he most deffenetly SHOULD listen to me if he wants some good advise on hard/software.

Just close this thread and pm me al your questions.

Too much work on sick machines. Not enough work on spelling.

EDIT: Hmm, this ended up being pretty long, sorry. TL;DR = New player's input is just as valuable as dedicated fan input.

Claiming that anyone who only casually plays Blizzard games are random idiots is ignorant. Claiming that only 'hardcore dedicated' fans deserve Beta invites is also ignorant. The original Diablo games are pretty much a generation old now, and you can surely bet on the fact that they are aiming for Diablo III to draw in many players that are new to the franchise. This new generation of gamers are the ones that are going to be buying games from Blizzard as future years and future games are released. Blizzard is going to value their input on the game just as much as they'd value a long standing fan.

Now I'm not suggesting that they will value a dedicated gamer's input any less, they are a valuable resource when it comes to designing the game. That being said Blizzard also needs to listen to this new demographic so that they can ensure they have a future generation of gamers who enjoy their games as much as the longtime fans, like myself and many of the other members of these forums including yourself Hpnot1Q. You need to take a step back and look at it from the point of view of a design team who wants to create a healthy balance of the old and the new. I live with several people who's first Blizzard game was WoW and I've gotten them sufficiently excited about Diablo III that they are all going to be purchasing it on release night to enjoy the Diablo universe with me. They've all given Diablo II a shot in the past few months and I've found some of their insight into the game surprising due to the simple fact that they aren't wearing rose-coloured glasses and blinded by nostalgia, able to bring a refreshing point of view on the mechanics and gameplay and whatnot. Blizzard would do well to listen to these player's thoughts and ideas.

I of course would love to receive a Beta invite, though I've had terrible Blizzard Beta luck like many people. Yes I started playing Blizzard games fifteen years ago starting with Warcraft II when I was nine years old, and have purchased and enjoyed every Blizzard game since, including six years of WoW. I however don't believe Blizzard owes me a thing because the enjoyment I've gotten out of their exceptional games more than makes up for the money I've paid and the (sigh) lack of Betas I've been invited to.

People really need to lose that false sense of entitlement they have. I understand that many people may want a game designed by a minority population like the dedicated fan base of a game that's over a decade old at this point. A population that can only go down as time goes on. The franchise needs fresh blood if we want to continue enjoying it and receiving regular updates and whatnot. New ideas that are kept in perspective (ie. no zombie terminator machine gun Nazis) will only make the game better.

Quote from zerg4hire

I also expect a sticky thread with a list of Dfans' email sent to Blizzard to have games added, so that 80% of them are not DiabloFans Moderator.

Yes, because it's really nice to have your ACCOUNT INFORMATION displayed for the whole internet to see.
Think before you post, please.

It's quite essential for staff to have beta access on a fansite, though, otherwise they're out of the loop and when your forum members have keys and you don't that's pretty stupid if you ask me.

The staff here is not that large so it's not that big of a deal, there should be plenty of leftover keys.

Or, not keys. If they don't use keys they'll probably use something else that will be distributed similarly.

@snared
Can you point me to a link where it says that the entire beta includes no SP in any way, shape or form, and is 100% on battle.net?

One of the biggest mysteries that surrounds Diablo III is the story line that we will play out throughout the course of the game. Although next to no information has been given about the story, there have been many hints and clues about different areas of the game and brief explanations of instances. By compiling all of these random tidbits together, we can being to paint the picture of what will happen during Diablo III.

First, we will begin with the overall story line. Starting with the broadest of plots we look towards the official Diablo III site. On the main page it states:

Official Blizzard Quote:

When Deckard Cain returns to the ruins of Tristram Cathedral seeking clues to defeat new stirrings of evil, a fiery harbinger of doom falls from the heavens, striking the very ground where Diablo once entered the world. This fire from the sky reawakens ancient evils and calls the heroes of Sanctuary to defend the mortal world against the rising powers of the Burning Hells once again.

This sets up the basis to the story that we will be going through in Diablo III. Perhaps the most important part of this quote is the fact that it states this "harbinger of doom falls from the heavens". What exactly is this fiery harbinger of doom is still unknown, however. Is it Tyrael kicked out of the Heavens, coming to warn of us of the ultimate results of his actions at the end of Diablo II: Lord of Destruction? Perhaps it is the actions of the lesser Sanctuary loving angels, aimed to destroy all of Sanctuary itself by reawakening the Evil that still lay beneath Tristram Cathedral? It could really be anything that just happens to be falling from the sky and not the High Heavens themselvs. Regardless, this beginning of the game is seen in the first cinematic that was shown announcing the game and will begin the story.

Beyond this mysterious omen, we also know that we will begin the story with Deckard Cain where we find him in New Tristram. He has called upon our aid to help fight against this new resurgence of Evil. Being one of the citizens of Sanctuary and Tristram through all three Diablo games now, Deckard Cain is the last of the Horadric Mages. We know, thanks to our interview with Michael Gough (the voice actor for Deckard Cain), that "there is just more on his emotional plate in this one, than there has been before. He now has different things to be concerned about, at different points in the story, and his life, and all that". They have added an additional character, Leah, who seems to be an important character to not only Deckard Cain this time around but the story of Diablo III as well.

With Deckard Cain being the last of the Horadric Mages, this brings us to an interesting side note for the story that may contribute to the overall plot of the game. In Diablo II, we obtained an item known as the Horadric Cube. In Diablo III, a similar item with the exact same graphic will be used to deconstruct items as oppose to creating them in the previous game. While simply a change in mechanic, it is the name change of this item that is intriguing. Renamed the Nephalem Cube, this item now reflects the origins of Sanctuary itself. For those who do not know, the Nephalem was the name given to the offspring of of Inarius and Lilith, the Angel and Demon who gave birth to man and Sanctuary itself. You can learn more about this story in the video recap created byforce and written by phrozendragon. Long story short, they created the Worldstone to hide these people from Heaven and Hell. Another side effect of the stone was that it slowly drained the Nephalem's power turning them into regular humans that we know them as now. However, with the Worldstone destroyed by Tyrael, we can assume that man will soon be regaining these powers that their ancestors once had, making them more powerful than Angels or Demons. Bashiok commented on just how pivotal this change will be to the story of Diablo III.

Official Blizzard Quote:

It has a name. It is not Salvage Cube. The name does include Cube, though. The name is sort of a spoiler, which is why we haven't revealed it yet.

Now that we know how the game will begin, we need to know where the plot will go. The biggest clue we have of the overall storyline is a quote from Jay Wilson in an interview with IGN during the 2009 Blizzcon.

Official Blizzard Quote:

Well, our story tends to focus a lot more on the two major demons and the impending invasion of Sanctuary.

Supposed images of Belial and Azmodan

While he never directly states who these two major demons are, there is some educated thought that can help us figure out who he is talking about. For those who do not know much about the lore of Sanctuary, there are seven greater evils. These evils are made up of three prime evils: Diablo, Baal, and Mephisto and there are also four lesser evils; Andariel, Duriel, Belial, and Azmodan. Now, before the events of Diablo, the three prime evils are exiled from Hell with Andariel and Duriel going with them to Sanctuary. Of course, throughout Diablo II, we ended up destroying all five of these demons. This, however, leaves both Belial and Azmodan who are waring against each other for complete control over Hell. We can assume that these last two Evils are the ones that are now invading Sanctuary. The question is why have they moved their feud from Hell onto this mortal plane? Without going into details, Jay Wilson did say:

Official Blizzard Quote:

We have this conundrum early on of should you have a game called Diablo without Diablo in it. We can debate that, whether we should or shouldn't, but what it comes done to is we've had a storyline in mind that's been going back quite a ways. So, without revealing too much I can say that there's been a plan. If the player thinks they've outsmarted forces of Hell and evil and they basically won, well, they are in for a big shock. Because really what they are going to discover in Diablo III is things pretty much went exactly the way Hell wanted to all along.

It is possible that Azmodan and Belial's plan to kick out the prime evils may have had more to it then it first appears. Perhaps they were testing to see how strong the humans were or knew that they would be the only ones strong enough to actually destroy the prime evils for them. While we do not know what their plan was or still is, we do know that these two are now after Sanctuary and it will be up to us stop them from doing so.

Moving on to the climax of the story, how it all ends is what is the most important part of the story. However, because of this, we know the least amount of information concerning this topic. As cliché as it may be, the game may very well conclude, once again, with us defeating Diablo. Perhaps his exile from Hell was part of his master plan to be reincarnated into the form we see him in now. Many wondered if Diablo would even be returning in this third sequel. However, it has been officially confirmed that the demon seen at the end of the cinematic is Diablo and that he will be returning in Diablo III. Many people will still argue that he will not actual be a demon you fight or that you will not even face him in the original Diablo III but he will not show up until one of the multiple expansions they have planned for the game. Regardless of when and how he appears, it only seems right that the Lord of Terror is, at some point, the climax to the game. After all, we know that Diablo III and its expansions will conclude this story that started fifteen years ago with Diablo I.

Official Blizzard Quote:

We're not saying this is the end of the Diablo universe, but we are trying to bring this storyline to a close. It's not just Diablo III -- we've got plans beyond

Now with the all of the story we know so far explained, we need to know how we will actually play out this epic journey. Blizzard is attempting to expand the universe in Sanctuary and there are 1,000 places we could end up at along this path. While each act will span a larger area than before, there will still be distinct areas in which each take place. We also know we have seen the first three acts that will be in Diablo III.

Official Blizzard Quote:

You've actually seen some of the first three Acts already, and we probably won't be revealing too much more than what we've already shown. We really want to try to keep as much a surprise for you when you play through the game the first time as possible. We will be announcing all of the game systems though before beta, so there are a few things left as far as reveals go. While beta will obviously be a lot of fun, should you get the chance to get in and help test, it'll only be a small part of the whole game. Some people want to know everything, but we're really trying to preserve the surprise and wonderment (that we hope will come with exploring Diablo III) as much as possible.

Act 1:

We have seen quite a bit of act 1. This act will begin in New Tristram with the fiery crash into Tristram Cathedral. Our heroes of Diablo III will be starting off their journey investigating this phenomenon. We will go back into the Cathedral that the brave heroes of Diablo I ventured into. We also know that King Leoric will be playing an important part in this act despite not being the actual act boss. In fact, we don't know who will be the boss of any act for certainty. King Leoric plays a big role in the overall story of Diablo as his son was the first sacrifice to bring Diablo into this realm physically. We have seen plenty of screenshots of Leoric's Torture Chamber as well as a couple pieces of concept art of this demon. We do not know exactly how this act will conclude but however it does, it will bring us to our next destination, act 2.

Act 2:

Act 2 will take our characters to the East venturing in the deserts of Kehjistan. We were first shown this desolate area when the Monk was announced at the 2009 Blizzcon. Within this desert, we will also be going to the city of Caldeum. An important piece of information to note right now is that Jay Wilson mentioned that we would be visiting the homeland of the Wizard. While she actually originates from Xiansai, her story also takes her to Caldeum where she learned a lot of her skills. While it is possible we will be venturing to this island, it is also possible that Caldeum is the city of origin that we will be visiting. Moving the story from the meteor to the invasion of Belial and Azmodan, we know that act 2 is where will be encountering Belial. How this plays out in the game is still unknown but he definitely is the driving force through this act.

Official Blizzard Quote:

Act two's a little bit more of an intrigue and deception-focused story, because Belial is in there.

Act 3:

This next act has us going back to the West to Bastion's Keep. Bastion's Keep was seen in the 2010 Blizzcon panel "Crafting Sanctuary". This Keep happens to be placed right on the edge of Arreat Crater where the Worldstone once stood until Tyrael destroyed it. All we know about the area is that is the last line of defense against a horde of demons and monsters. We saw a glimpse of this assault in the cinematic as a demonic army marched. It is possible that Azmodan is commanding this army in attempt to take over Sanctuary.

Act 4:

Practically nothing is known about the last act of the game. All we do know is that it will be the shortest of all of the acts leading up to the climax of the game. There is a chance that we will, once again, be venturing to Hell to defeat Diablo much like we have in the previous games. We could be doing this by venturing into Arreat crater.



There are a few missing holes in this act progression compared to the story. There has been a lot of concept art of Jungle-type areas that do not seem to fit into any of these acts as far as we know. This could be explained by the unknown transition of all of the acts and just how we will be going from one area to the next. Even in between acts 2 and 3, we seem to be going from one side of Sanctuary to the other. There has to be some story explanation that has us traversing such a large area of Sanctuary.

Now, with the story spelled out and how it translates to the gameplay, we are left with a few questions about Diablo III. The first is what is the harbinger of doom from Heaven? Why are Belial and Azmodan trying to take Sanctuary now that they have control over Hell? Do the angels care about what is going on in Sanctuary between the humans and demons. Most importantly, how will it all end?


Disclaimer: DiabloFans' Rumors are not the officially recognized positions of the staff, management, and/or administration of DiabloFans.

Enjoy!






Oh, and a bonus piece for you peeps! I never posted this one finished.


Marius and the Wanderer:

Quote from Astion

And that is exactly the killing part. An AH would totally destroy the unique trading system Diablo used to have. No more discussing prices and all that.

Totally destroy?

Point 1: I believe I speak for a majority of Diablo players in saying that trading in D2 was broken, tedious, and overly complicated for most users. Hardcore players with tons of friends persistently online (an overall minority) found trading easy and fun. Most people did not.

Point 2: I find it extremely hard to believe that sellers posting gear in an Auction House would be unable to appropriately adjust the price of an item based on the quality of the stats. Obviously if you get a random unique item with cherry stats you're gonna mark it up, after comparing it to similar items at market value. How is that negative? People aren't so stupid that this concept is beyond them, especially people who enjoy the economy sub-game.

Point 3: This "unique trading system" is just a market. So instead of rooting through mostly empty trading games and haggling over prices, we can instead use a streamlined GUI. But we don't know what the GUI will be. Here's an extremely possible scenario:

Hit the "Trade" button. The GUI pops up, and you can select gear in your INV you want to sell. That gear is then advertised over bnet via some browse/search mechanism so buyers using the same GUI can easily locate gear of that type. If they click on your piece, a chat window will open up, or you can get some kind of PM (so as not to interrupt gameplay or force you to have downtime waiting for buyers). You can either chat right there, or set up a game to meet and trade, or just send the gear COD, whatever.

I'm not saying your arguments above are wrong. But I think it's worth being very open. Often people prefer a devil they know (D2 economy) to a devil they don't (D3 economy). Sometimes change is good, and in this case, I would argue it is.

the economy of d2 was the biggest issue for me, because you'd play through the game at what really mattered at the end was your gear and the chances of find all the gear you needed was astronomically low. So to get the stuff you needed you'd have to trade, but d2 was was basically a bartering system. Which was extremely difficult as SOJs and runes make a bad currency, for me it bad for bad game play as the alternative was to spam trading chatrooms of stuff you were interested in.

I completely disagree with that being a vital socially aspect of Diablo and that being "fun", as i wanting to be actually playing Diablo with my friends and killing stuff in dungeons and treasure hunting; not spending time in chat rooms trying to find someone to haggle.

More importantly a barter system focuses on expensive items like an IK armor or something, so when you really needed something small like a chipped ruby it would feel awful as you would have to wait until you found it randomly as trading for it was impractical. Which gave me a sense of being isolated because there were hundred of thousands of other players, but there wasn't some kind of universal currency/trading system so I couldn't engage with them. Also it encouraged hoarding and muling of trivial items as maybe you'd need it later in the game or maybe i could be useful in a future trade.

So i believe an AH would allow for trading of the smaller items and would divert the players time more towards playing the game and having fun. Furthermore, having some type of AH does not eliminate the possibility of haggling with people if you want to, if you want to do that it would still be very possible; however, not having it does make trading for smaller/lesser items extremely difficult. So i believe an AH like sytem woudl not only make life easier of being able to get the smaller stuff you need, but just don't happen to have, it will no doubt make trading easier, less inclined to hoard/mule junk, and above all you'll be spending more time playing the game

Some quick formatting issues first.
1. PLEASE NO CAPS LOCK
2. You do not need to bold entire sentences.
3. Please refrain from using colored text
4. Don't forget to add the rumors image and disclaimer. Disclaimer: DiabloFans' Rumors are not the officially recognized positions of the staff, management, and/or administration of DiabloFans. (Only place colored text is allowed).


content:

1. Instead of just saying "Some quotes directly from The Sin War, show just how much he despises humanity." Try putting it in more of a literary way. As in, Imperius is said to despise the very existence of mankind. And possible elaborate this idea more as it is the basis of this whole article.

2. For the part of the sword discussion, is there a quote you can give about this being a part of his look, meaning that imperius has a sword emblem on his chest. Without knowing this, the picture does not reflect anything special. And yes, I would use your top picture here.

3.I would put the info from the Diablo site in quotes (either regular or blue quotes).

4. I feel the ending needs more. What is is that you are trying to say about these events. Your article flows like this: Imperius hates humans, there is a comet that hits sanctuary, imperius and tyrael do not get along, and then nothing. There needs to be a conclusion of all of these ideas presented.

DiabloCast: Episode XII - Spoiler Alert
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ronu6I4PHLQ

No no. I don't get anything but BP's. What happens is that people don't do their research on the snake and just buy it because it looks "cool". Then when the thing gets to 10 feet in length they realize the enclosure they have is to small and release them into the wild. Morons.

Edit: This is my 8 year old BP and my 6 year old daughter.


He is 4 feet in length, but pure muscle and could do some damage. The kids don't handle them unless I am around.