DiabloFans

I'm not really laughing, since I'm sure some people will buy this crap. I reported both videos as scams. I really hope that people with blatant lies in their advertisements at the very least will not profit this early. The game isn't even out yet.

Quote from Valkray

if a monster is 75% or more resistant to your attack you would of probably switched anyways so whats the difference? If your immune to an attack your going to do the same thing, what was the difference was in D2 you were punished be cause it healed the monster. Physical was eventually broken so that you could kill the monster but it took forever, where it got sloppy was every damn monster in hell had an immunity.

How can it be fix, the rune system ALREADY fixed this issue, the fact you can select an ability and change it to do some other fourm of damage means you can kill a monster with basicly anything. If a monster was phy immune and i was using Whirlwind from the barb, i would switch it to the fire whirlwind and be able to kill the monster. The point it blizzard put in all these abilities for us to use and what your saying is "immunities makes me switch" and the counter point is "so?" use something else.

The moment you present the factor of change people want to get all in a rage fest but its life. if a guy walking down the street robs you with a suit of armor on and he is completely cover so your guns bullets deflects off what then? you going to get mad your gun didnt work? Hell no you get your car keys and show him who is boss.

In other words, your counter point to the problem of having immunity in the game is to ignore the problem. I think that makes it obvious why you don't see what other people are saying about not including them.

Also, I don't recall Blizzard ever saying anything about monsters being 75% resistant either, so this example does not really have any meaning unless that is actually the monster resistance cap.

Finally, as stated, when you change your skills you lose the new buff (Nephalem Valor) that they are putting into the game which greatly increases your magic and gold find. In this game, just changing your skills because you got an unlucky mod on a monster is not an option.

I'm pretty certain that like all things, PvP was major and THE thing to do only to the people that enjoyed it. It's not about PvPers being the 'in' club and everyone that doesn't like PvP is just some casual player. PvP was a horrendously imbalanced and unsupported aspect of Diablo 1 and 2 other than that you COULD kill people. The continual pretense that it should be a major part of Diablo 3 will never cease to baffle me, and I'd be just as happy with Diablo 3, as I have been with Diablo 1 and 2 if it was never added at all.

Quote from Roger

I think that there may be some problems with the new desgin such as low-level games becoming incredibly scarce in comparison to high-level ones, people stop playing just after leveling each character once to max level and sudden change of all characters in one class to the most overpowered build in the current patch (and re-changing after new patch).

If any of the numbers that have been released are accurate, the vast majority of people that play Diablo 3 will never get even a single character to max level, or even play the game past normal difficulty. If this is the case, there is really no type of character development that will effect the average player in the way you're describing. Yes, maybe the small percent of people that buy the game and play it over and over at max level (I believe this was less than 10%?) may find that remaking characters is not as exciting, but their whole idea with this game is to make lots of things to do at max level other than just grind bosses.

It's entirely possible that after changing some of the things they said they wanted to try, such as rune systems as well as adding in updates, that they patched all these things into the internal test client rather than the PCB client. So now they would need to make a new client to use as the beta build. At least in my opinion, this would make more sense, since they have a working internal test of the full game. I don't think they would make a patch for the PCB to add the changes, as well as patching them separately into the full client. They also mentioned that the AH system had not been tested, so it's likely that at the time of the press event that it was not in the internal test client either.

Just speculation though.

They can call this mode Firmcore. Not as hard as hardcore, not as soft as softcore.

It's nice that they attempted to put people's fears to rest, but clearly a large number of people are completely willing to make up a bunch of "facts" and numbers to justify their own points of view. For the majority of people that are extremely upset about this, a logical argument won't satisfy them.

For anyone else who is worried about real money driving things in-game, speak with your dollars then by not purchasing the game. The only real way for customers to sway company's business practices is by purchasing things vs not purchasing things.

Quote from Bridge_Burner

I think the monk will be pretty sweet. I don't think it will be hte first character I make, but I'm still undecided. The combos will be interesting, but the mechanic I'm not crazy about is the auras.

To me an aura is permanent, not something that is a short burst. Maybe they wanted to stay away from that to avoid too much similarity to the Paladin, or maybe it would make them > then others in a party situation due to the constant buffs. Who knows but either way I'm sure it will work out, just release the damn beta already so we can see a light at the end of the tunnel haha

I think the entire purpose of making auras short activated skills is that they are moving away from having passive skills that you don't have to actually use, and towards having all skills being active. Their reasoning is that it makes the game more engaging if you're actually 'doing' things.

Quote from BabyPuncher55

I think they should make it so dark that you have to turn your monitor's brightness all the way to full and squint to be able to barely make out anything on the screen.

This is what it should look like:



That's how I remember Diablo 1 looking like!

Yeah, that's the reality of the situation. Any system where you got to "choose what you wanted to focus on" meant that you only intended to use that one skill. Once you reached a point where your six skills were all equal, well, then you had just basically accomplished the same thing Blizzard did in a greater number of steps.

However, in the system where you mentioned that there would have to be a cap on each tier (only 1 point at level 6 on level 6 skill; 2 points at level 7 on level 6 skill...) the real base problem is the idea that if all the skills are balanced enough that they can all be a viable part of a build, there will come a point where you have multiple powerful skills that you're trying to level. Well, once you have two or three of those going, you start to respec stuff out of the lower skills to beef up the higher ones, until all you have left is exactly two high-end skills that are powerful.

Let us assume, then, that you put a cap on the max level of each skill. Well, now we have a whole new problem. Because if you level up to 60 and get your 60 skill points to divide among 6 skills... let's consider the ramifications of a few different caps.

Any cap <10 = Wasted skill points.

Cap is 10 = Same as current no skill point system, just a roundabout way of getting there where one or more skills that aren't your favorite(s) will get shafted until it's their turn to get powered up between levels 40-60.

Cap is >10 = One or more skills gets shafted in some way, because there's not enough skill points to make them useful in your build.

Really, skill points have inherent built-in problems that would be, in my mind, impossible to circumvent.

And they chose 6 skills instead of 7 because mathematically it made for more interesting builds...Look at Bashiok's marble example in the blue posts to get a better understanding.

Since the first announcement of the PvP interview segment with Jay, and from Sixen's Press Event article. Unfortunately the Beta will be lacking the PvP portion of the game all together. Seeing as this information won't be materialized in game for us until release, following the PvP development is the closest we can get to playing it.

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Changes/Additions



In the PvP model at Blizzcon, when you died you were out until the round ended, only able to view the battle from a ghost form which is incapable of interacting with the battle. This caused some gameplay issues seeing as it would always end up being a "last man standing" situation, which Blizzard didn't feel suited their casual approach to PvP. As of now the PvP system supports a team death match style of spawning, where when you die you have X seconds until you respawn into battle. This system bases the winning team off total kills between all players on the team. As team death matches tend to go, the round ends when either team hits the kill cap, or the time limit runs out. Through internal testing they found that players generally enjoyed the PvP experience more seeing as they felt like death didn't remove them from the game. Blizzard also found that this gave players a chance to figure out counters to the opposing team's strategy, which often made for epic come backs.

With the announcement of the real currency auction house came some concerns about how this will effect the PvP system. The fear is as with Diablo 2's third party vendors, a player willing to spend the money can simply buy their way to victory. Although Blizzard won't be creating, or selling items themselves the ability to buy items, and thus power still remains via purchasing from other players through the AH. In Blizzard's eyes this is all the more reason to avoid a hyper competitive PvP environment.

This power purchasing situation is unavoidable, players will find a way to buy items no matter what. The concept of a separate Arena for non-currency traded items only has been brought up among PvP enthusiasts. Problem is this would segregate the PvP community, which is something Blizzard stands firmly against.

Due to the integrated match-making system even if someone spent the money on a leveled character, and all the greatest gear, they would be matched with players with similar character capability. So chances are buying all perfect end game gear for PvP will just pit you against very high caliber players, not some noobs you can smash.


Moving along to PvP player caps, the Blizzcon PvP model only supported 2v2, and 3v3; limiting the player cap to 6. The reasoning behind this low number is not due to technical limitations, but rather clean gameplay, and low visual pollution; same as the 4 player cap in PvE. Many players bring up how Diablo 2 had an 8 player cap. Diablo 3 isn't Diablo 2, both player and monster skills are more visually flashy in D3. Through internal testing they've found the sweet spot for PvP player caps sits between 6 and 8 (3v3 or 4v4). The current 3v3 PvP limitation isn't finalized, as Blizzard is currently testing 4v4 matches in the Arena.

The infamous Hardcore PvP mode has yet to be discussed thoroughly, likely because it seems to be constantly undergoing changes. On the topic of HC Arena deaths, it turns out Jay's ability to get a crowd cheering isn't enough to sell the rest of the development team his views on Hardcore mode. At Blizzcon while talking about the HC Arena, his response to death in the mode was as follows:

While the crowd seemed to be all for it at the time, since then a lot of controversy has been stirring in the community expressing how there is a good portion of HC players that don't like this concept. These HC players feel they should be able to participate in PvP with their HC character without risking so much. Blizzard has yet to finalize their plans for the PvP HC mode, but never the less Jay had something to say about it at the recent Beta meeting.


Non-competitive PvP Environment Blizzard has long made games based on close competition. Ranging from the calculated multitasking of StarCraft, to the skill casting hot key tracking ways of World of Warcraft. In both franchises the games have been balanced around PvP; Diablo 3 will be different. Blizzard has chosen to persistently steer clear of heated competition while developing Diablo 3. Determine to base the game around PvE, it seems PvP comes secondary when making development decisions.

Skills in PvP will not be reworked from the ground up, but will instead be tweaked via under-the-hood changes. Things such as stun, freeze, or snare effects will be tuned down for PvP separate from PvE. A main reason for Blizzard not completely overhauling each skill for PvP separately is that it would cause your character to play very differently in PvP than in PvE, thus causing a disconnection of the gametypes. Even further detailing this concept, Force asked Jay Wilson about this during their interview over at Blizzard headquarters.

During this interview Sixen asked Jay if the community were to try to turn PvP into an e-sport, would Blizzard stop them in any way? The simple answer is no, they would not. Jay goes on to explain how they wouldn't stop them, but they sure won't support them. Blizzard doesn't plan on extensively balancing PvP, if a player base wishes to form a e-sport like group it seems they'll have to deal with the imbalances that will come with the PvP game.

Many players who understand these concepts ask the question, why can't they just balance PvP completely separately from PvE? Or add features that a lot of the PvP player base wants. The way the development team is approaching this is black and white, either they market PvP as an e-sport and add all the e-sport features, or they don't add any of those features in at all. Seeing as they have limited time and money, choices have to be made on where they can put their effort into.

On the topic of PvP ranking, currently there is no true ranking system. Along with this, they do not plan to track stats for the purpose of displaying them, but instead to form a fair and accurate match-making system. The reasoning for not visually tracking stats is no one likes losses on their record, some players are so irked by them, they'll recycle accounts to improve their stats, sometimes spending large amounts of money in the process.

Instead of a stat based ranking system, players will have a PvP "level" that will be viewable right on your character banner. These levels are progressed through by simply playing the PvP game mode. Winning will progress you faster through the levels, but it is possible to reach the same levels no matter how much you lose. Jay touches on this during an interview with Force. There will also be no win/loss ratio stats being tracked. Your PvP level will represent how much time you've played in the Arena, not at all being based on any sort of ratios.

Rewards, and Wishlist Features.


While understanding Blizzard's firm stance on a casual PvP mode one might ask, what features will PvP be lacking?

One idea currently endangered is the spectator mode. In StarCraft2 this feature is necessary considering the e-sport aspect of the game. In Diablo 3 the feature still has a niche, and surely would be entertaining but due to the time constraints the development team is under, unnecessary features are put on the back burner.

Another common request regarding PvP is the addition of secondary game types such as CTF, VIP, or a type of "Horde Mode". While Jay didn't completely shoot down these ideas, he explained how at the moment their focus is to polish the current PvP model.

These features may not be lost forever though, as the development team sees the fun in them and hopes to add them in sometime after release. Secondary game types can flourish if done properly, SC2 being an excellent example of this with their very popular tower defense games just as one example. Diablo 3 certainly has the capability to support a massive array of secondary game types for when PvE and PvP just aren't enough, the question is if or when they will be implemented.

Another wishlist feature is a wagering system, where a player could bet gold, or possibly real currency on a PvP match. This feature would have to go hand and hand with the spectator feature. It was not denied to be possible, but since it does suit an e-sport like setup, there will surely be resistance to it's implementing.


As for rewards is seems there will be many achievements to complete in PvP, which could provide some type of reward. There are also titles, which will likely be similar to the Diablo 2 title system.

• PvP Crest (Top of the banner): Where your PvP, "Level" will be showcased on your banner.
• Achievement Tally Marker: Your completed achievements will be showcased on either side of your banner.
• Highest Completed Difficulty Status: Highest difficulty completion is shown.
• Hardcore Identifier: Do you not fear death?
• Party Member Listing: Each player in your party is represented by their unique banner flag.
• Quick Join Listing: Located under the banner, you'll be able to join other players also looking for matches.
• "Social" Button: Presumably all of your friends will be listed, even while playing other Blizzard games.
• Profile (Helm): Where you view your in-game possessions and character details.
• Achievements (Shield): View you achievement progress.
• Auction House (Gavel): Links directly to the AH.
• Drop Listing: (Bottom left) This drop listing hasn't been detailed, though from its location it could have something to do with the chat box.
• Chat Box : Can't have Diablo without one!
• General Menu Listing:

All in all Blizzard has taken a different approach to PvP in Diablo 3. Instead of being the end game jewel it was for Diablo 2, it is now simply another way to test your character with friends. Through extensive PvE development, we can only hope there is a lasting PvE endgame being stowed away beyond our knowledge, since PvP isn't looking to be developed to fill in endgame content. Although PvP is not the main focus of the development team, it is sure to acquire a fan base all its own.

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Be sure to check out Sixen's Give Me Options or Give Me DEATH! article where you can vote on your preferred type of auction house, and listen to DiabloCast Episode 20.

Get pumped for the Beta by reading Magistrate's More Beta Buildup article.

Don't forget to update your Beta profile! More details in ScyberDragon's Important Beta Profile Update article.

The maximum cooldown? No one here is a developer, no one here knows the millions of rune effects, and no one here is balancing the game. It makes sense for a powerful Call of the Ancients to have a 3-minute cooldown, and for a skill like Ignore pain to have a 1 minute cooldown. Or 45 seconds. Or 30 seconds. Literally, all answers are completely baseless.

I'm normally not one to criticize directly, but this poll defies what a poll should be; the data collected from the poll has no value.

Quote from Detter15

For me User-hosted Stores workz best because if someone puts effort in farming the gear than they desrve somekind a reward.
But still you cant be good at the game only if you buy ultra cool super-powerfull stuff , you need to play trough it to see and to experience stuff and you need to devote lot of time just to gain some essential and all that...

Is the reward of gold or trading for an item of equal or better value not reward enough,

If you find an item thats worth somthing to another player selling it for gold or trading it for an item worth somthing to you should be rewarding enough,If by User-hosted store you mean like a trading post system,then sure but for a player to find an item ans sell it for real money to the highest bidder seems unfair and unwise.

Yea the word still fits, even though its not necessarily how its used in most games. And for all we know each aura could possibly have a rune that turns it permanent.

They do sound different than the barbs shouts IMO. Shouts seem to be more of a straight buff (and he also has one that debuffs enemies,) while Auras are an instant effect followed by a buff. Seems like enough of a difference as far as buffs go.