DiabloFans

I'm not much of a battle.net player but I thought the Paladin was a very overplayed character due to the hammerdin build and its numerous advantages, no?

Ah, so he has holy skills, I didn't realize that. Thanks, now I can follow this comparison properly.

Could someone please explain to me why they think the Monk contains elements of the Paladin? There doesn't seem to be any religious element to him so far outside of his name and his fighting style is very much like the assasin with its martial arts style, its fast moves and emphasis on using hands as weapons. I just don't see any Paladin in him.

I'm glad to hear that they're taking the concept of equipment affecting appearance that Blizzard North pioneered to such acclaim with Diablo (although it certainly isn't as impressive nowadays) and making it even more detailed. Really great.

I don't really have an opinion on the NPC and hero animations but I'm sure NPCs will have a lot to do to make them more distinctive. More than Diablo 2 I'm sure.

I can't really understand some of the Diablo community's pre-occupation with gore. It's like the slasher vs. psychological horror type of debate seen so often among film fans. Personally, lots of blood does nothing for me when it comes to inspiring fear unless it is placed in an approriately frightening context and used somewhat sparingly in the game (ex. the Burcher's room). If it's just strewn anywhere and everywhere then it simply becomes part of the scenery and not really anything to get excited about. I hope we won't be seeing horribly bloody corpses in more than half of the game. A lot of corpses are fine, but they don't always have to be covered in blood.

I hope that the heavy use of the physics engine and wild effects won't ruin the atmosphere of horror that I love to see in this series. Too much banging around and objects flying everywhere can make things seem considerably less sinister and mysterious than they would otherwise. Sometimes silence and darkness are all you need to scare someone.

Not that I want the Diablo series to be a full fledged horror game since of course it's much more than that but I'd like for some scary undercurrents to remain. They help to give the game some soul.

As I look at the Monk's page on the official website, I see that he's influenced a lot by the old Assassin with his charge-up type of martial arts skills.

I'm just wondering though, why are people saying that he also has some Paladin in him? I think someone said he has a Zeal attack but what other Paladin influences are present because I can barely see any.

Woo, that cinematic was crazily cliched and surprisingly poor quality for Blizzard. Well whatever, promo cinematics don't really matter in the long run.

The monk looks like a fun enough class to play with his fast attacks but I really was hoping Blizzard would turn more to Diablo's roots and introduce characters with a more Medieval Western European history about them. I'm kind of getting tired of all these exotic characters.

I'm not sure what my full opinion on this class is yet since it's too early really to tell. My initial impression was that I found it a bit of a tired character type and that it didn't really interest me. I was also hoping when I read the title Monk that Blizzard would make a twist on the character type and make a European inspired monk as opposed to the typical Asian one that's been propping up around games a lot. Would have been nice to see the typically placid monks of the West going all Knights Templar on those demons. One can dream I guess.

We'll see how this class turns out as time goes by. Maybe there's more to him than the cliched.

It sounds like Blizzard really took the time to make the Fansite Summit a memorable experience with the unique looking rooms. It must have been fun to be there, I wonder what the Starcraft room was like...

Great read on the preview, glad to see that the new inventory system seems to be really working well in game as some people (not myself) thought that the old tetris style might be a negative regression for Diablo 3.

That Corpse Spider spell seems kind of elaborately random, not really sure what that's all about but I haven't seen it in action so maybe it's less strange in context.

I hope your fingers aren't in too much pain! That must have been quite the post to write.

Woah, 3D glide mode? I've never heard of that! How do I activate it?

And I think I see now how the weapon highlighting system is going to work. Sounds good to me. I thought what he meant was that everytime your mouse would go over a weapon, a pop-up would come up. Glad it's not like that.

Yeah I think the red highlighting is Blizzard's shoutout to Diablo but it doesn't really seem to work in the context of Diablo 3. Diablo was a very darkly lit game where a red aura was almost a necessity for the player to properly target monsters but in brightly lit environments like a desert it just seems strange.

We'll see what happens to it by the final release.

Surprise surprise, early Diablo 3 update. From what I see the game is looking pretty awesome (still hoping for rougher textures though, things are still looking too smooth for my taste) and I'm loving the old Diablo 2 effect of having the area's name appear on the screen when you first enter it.

I wonder though if the pop-ups that appear when you highlight weapons won't become a bit of a nuisance though? I mean if you're constantly looking over your weapons won't the pop-up windows start crowding the screen? I have a feeling that this isn't anything to worry about though, Blizzard's probably got this one under control.

Excellent update.

P.S. The red aura is pretty weird, maybe it's something that will be removed later on in the game's development? I hope so.

Thanks scyberdragon. I thought some of the info might be already known since some people were taking the idea of two new character classes being released very seriously.

Could someone please explain what we know Blizzard is going to be releasing at Blizzcon (two new character classes)? I've never used Twitter before and I've got to admit, I'm having a difficult time navigating it and figuring out what's going on.

Yep, Diablo's finally getting the due recognition it deserves and that pin looks great. I'm so excited for this. Not that I'm going to Blizzcon or anything but we can be sure we'll have lots of much-needed Diablo 3 updates and that's always a cause for celebtation!

Blizzcon's starting Friday right?

I think I'm going to miss "anything goes" weapon customization on characters. I know that most people don't play these types because they aren't really competive character builds but I remember when I first got Diablo 2 and my brother decided to play too.

He made a Paladin and would alternate between using a sword and bow/crossbow. It actually worked quite well for the time he used it although he got bored of the game by Act 3 Normal and quit. Anyways, I always thought what he did was sort of nifty and I'll be sad to see it gone. It was a pretty impractical feature I guess but it was still pretty fun. And not to mention, it also helped make the game just a little more immersive.

The signs look good. A whole forum for one measly little patch? I think not. It's going to be a big one. I'm excited. This patch had better not disappoint!