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Official Blizzard Quote:

The currency-based auction house is back up! As noted in the patch notes, all beta participants have had their Battle.net Balance reset to 50 Beta Bucks.

Barbarian

• Nerves Of Steel: Your DefenseArmor is increased by 25% of your Vitality.
• Tough as Nails: Increases armorArmor by 100%. / Thorns damage dealt increased by 100%.
• War Cry: Generate: 30 Fury / Cooldown: 30 seconds / Unleash a rallying cry to increase the armor ofArmor for you and all allies within 30 yards by 100% for 60 seconds.
• Alabaster: Increases maximum Life by 16% and regenerates 122890 Life per second while affected by War Cry.
• Ground Stomp: Shake the ground to inflict 70110% weapon damage to all enemies within 12 yards and stun them for 3 seconds.
• Crimson: Increase damage to 136214% weapon damage.
• Ignore Pain: Cooldown: 6030 seconds / Reduces all damage taken by 65% for 53 seconds.
• Indigo: Increases duration to 108 seconds.
• Golden: When activated, knock back all enemies within 8 yards and deal 50% weapon damage to them. Also reduces cooldown time to 4010 seconds.
• Ancient Spear: Throw a spear with a maximum range of 45 yards, pulling an enemy back to the barbarian, slowing movement speed and dealing 100145% weapon damage.
• Alabaster: Enemies hit with Ancient Spear will be tossed in the opposite direction and damage is increased to 130188% weapon damage.
• Furious Charge: Rush forward to inflict 100190% weapon damage to enemies at the destination and 60190% damage to enemies along the path of the charge.
• Crimson: Increase damage at the destination to 234445% weapon damage.
• Wrath of the Berserker: Cost: 50 Fury / Cooldown: 120 seconds / Enter a berserker rage which raises several attributes for 15 seconds. / Critical Hit: 10% / Attack Speed: 45% / Dodge Chance: 20% / Movement Speed: 20%
• Earthquake: Shake the ground violently dealing 2400% weapon damage followed by an additional 150250% weapon damage over 8 seconds to all enemies within 18 yards.
• Leap Attack: You leap into the air to inflict 70100% weapon damage to all enemies within 8 yards of the destination.
• Obsidian: Jump into the air with such great force that enemies within 7.5 yards of the origin of the jump take 182260% weapon damage.
• Revenge: Inflict 150220% weapon damage to all enemies within 11 yards and gain 5% of your maximum Life for each enemy hit.
• Crimson: Increase damage to 234343% weapon damage.
• Overpower: Cooldown: 15 seconds / Deal 150260% weapon damage to all targets within 9 yards. If Overpower critical hits, the cooldown on it is automatically reset. / Cooldown: 15 seconds

Demon Hunter

• Sentry: Drop a turret on the ground. The turret begins firing at nearby enemies for 40%% weapon damage. Lasts 3620 seconds
• Rain of Vengeance: Fire a massive volley of arrows around you. Fires 1 waves of arrows that strike for 190385% weapon damage.
• Crimson: Summon 20 Shadow Beasts to drop bombs on nearby enemies, dealing 247500% weapon damage each.
• Indigo: Launch a massive volley of guided arrows that rain down on enemies for the next 12 seconds for 148300% weapon damage.
• Obsidian: Summon a Shadow Beast that drops grenades from the sky for 14 seconds dealing 142289% weapon damage.
• Golden: A group of 9 Shadow Beasts plummet from the sky at a targeted location dealing 296601% weapon damage and stunning enemies for 2 seconds.
• Alabaster: Summon a wave of 11 Shadow Beasts to tear across the ground, knocking back enemies and dealing 247500% weapon damage.
• Rapid Fire: Cost: 20 Hatred initially, and an additional 10 Hatred while channeling / Rapidly fire at 6 times your normal attack speed dealing 38for 228%% weapon damage as Physical with every shot.
• Impale:
• Golden: Every use releases a burst of knives centered on you, dealing 104% weapon damage to all enemies within 10 yards.
• Strafe: Cost: 1819 Hatred while channeling / Shoot at 4 times your normal attack speed at random nearby enemies for 140% weapon damage while moving at 65% of normal movement speed. Every shot deals 35% weapon damage.

Monk

• Transcendence: Every point of Spirit spent heals you for 16.2118.6 Life.
• Seize the Initiative: Your DefenseArmor is increased by 25% of your AttackDexterity.
• Fists of Thunder: Generate: 6 Spirit per attack / Unleash a series of extremely fast punches that deal 100% weapon damage as Lightning. Every third hit deals damage to all enemies in front of you and knocks them back a short distance. Generates Spirit faster than other Spirit Generators due to the high attack speed.
• Breath of Heaven: Heal increases to 12999490 - 194914235 Life, and damage increased to 0 - 1 Holy damage.
• Indigo: Increases the healing to 168912337 - 253418505 Life.
• Cyclone Strike:
• Obsidian: The initial cast will also heal you and all allies within 24 yards for 292421352 Life.
• Serenity: Cost: 10 Spirit / Cooldown: 6045 seconds / You are enveloped in a protective shield that intercepts all incoming damage for 3 seconds and grants immunity to all control impairing effects.
• Crimson: Heal yourself for 479134994 - 584742705 Life when Serenity is activated.
• Mantra of Healing: Recite a Mantra that causes you and all allies within 40 yards to gain increased Life regeneration by 81.2593.1 Life per second. Lasts 3 minutes. / For 3 seconds after activation the effect is increased to 406.12965.6 Life per second. / This is a Mantra. You can only have one Mantra active at a time.
• Crimson: Increases the Life regeneration granted by Mantra of Healing to 162.41186.2 Life per second.
• Mantra of Conviction:
• Golden: You and your allies have up to a 30% chance to be healed for 2441779 - 3252372 Life when using melee attacks on an enemy under the effects of Mantra of Conviction.
• Inner Sanctuary:
• Golden: You and all allies regenerate 105.6771.1 Life per second while inside the circle.
• Seven-Sided Strike: Dash rapidly between many nearby enemies 7 times striking for 115160% weapon damage with every hit.
• Crimson: Teleport to the target location for the strike, and damage increases to 149208% weapon damage per hit.
• Blinding Flash: Blind duration increased to 97 seconds.
• Crimson: For 53 seconds after using Blinding Flash, all of your attacks are infused to deal 35% additional weapon damage as Holy
• Golden: Increases the duration enemies are blinded to 97 seconds.

Witch Doctor

• Gruesome Feast: Whenever you are healed by a health globe gain 10% of your maximum Mana and 10% AttackIntelligence for 10 seconds. The AttackIntelligence bonus can stack up to 5 times
• Blood Spatter: (old: Grave Injustice): Whenever an enemy dies within 8 yards, regain 1% of your maximum Life and Mana and the cooldown on all of your abilities is reduced by 1 second. This range is extended by items that increase your gold and pickup radius.
• Hex:
• Golden: The Fetish Shaman will periodically heal friendly targets for 11378304 Life.
• Soul Harvest: Feed on the life force of up to 5 nearby enemies within 15 yards. Gain 126 AttackIntelligence for each affected enemy. This effect lasts 30 seconds.
• Crimson: Gain 3652669 Life for every affected enemy.
• Sacrifice:
• Indigo: Gain 7715635 Life for each sacrificed dog.
• Locust Swarm: Summon a plague of locusts to assault enemies, dealing 60180% weapon damage per second as Poison forover 3 seconds. The locusts will jump to additional nearby targets.
• Gargantuan:Summon a large zombie follower to fight for you. The Gargantuan attacks for 3025% of your weapon damage as Physical damage with every swing.
• Indigo: Gargantuan gains a Cleave ability allowing its attacks to hit multiple targets for 5344% of your weapon damage as Physical.
• Golden: The Gargantuan only lasts 15 seconds but is also more powerful. The Gargantuan's fists burn with fire, dealing an additional 11385% of your weapon damage as Fire and knocking enemies back with every hit.
• Fetish Army: Summon an army of Fetish creatures to fight by your side for 20 seconds. Dagger-wielding fetishes attack for 280% of your weapon damage as Physical.
• Indigo: Adds 2 dagger-wielders to the army and increases their damage to 340% of your weapon damage as Physical.
• Obsidian: Adds 2 Fetish casters to the army. The casters breathe fire that deals 320% of your weapon damage as Fire in a cone in front of them.
• Alabaster: Adds 2 Hunter Fetishes to the army. Hunter Fetishes shoot blowdarts at enemies dealing 380% of your weapon damage as Poison.
• Firebats:
• Obsidian: Enemies in the area are plagued. Damage is slow at first, but can increase over time to a maximum of 162% weapon damage per second as Poison.
• Wall of Zombies: A line of zombies emerges from the ground attacking anybody standing nearby for 0 - 02 physical damage per second for 5 seconds.

Wizard

• Temporal Flux: Whenever you deal Arcane damage, enemies are slowed by 2430% for 2 seconds.
• Illusionist: Whenever you suffer more than 15% of your Life in a single hit, the cooldowncooldowns on your Mirror Image and Teleport abilities isare automatically reset.
• Galvanizing Ward: Increases the duration of your Armor spells by 120 seconds. As long as an Armor spell is active, you gain 122890 Life per second. / The following skills are improved: / *Energy Armor / *Ice Armor / *Storm Armor
• Ice Armor: Surround yourself in a barrier of ice that increases armor by 500%, causing 0 - 0 Cold damage to attackers, chilling them for 2 second(s). / Duration: 120 seconds
• Golden: Whenever you are struck by a melee attack the bonus armor granted by Iceyour Armor is increased by 5525% for 10 seconds. This effect can stack up to 3 times.
• Wave of Force: Explode a wave of pure energy that repels projectiles and knocks back nearby enemies. This also slows the movement of enemies by 50% and deals 205350% weapon damage as Physical.
• Crimson: Increases damage to 266455% weapon damage as Physical, but reduces knockback.
• Indigo: Enemies hit have a 70% chance to cause a smaller Wave of Force that deals 102175% weapon damage as Physical and knocks back enemies caught in its wake.
• Alabaster: Increases the distance enemies are knocked back, and stuns all affected enemies for 3.5 seconds.
• Frost Nova: An explosion of ice freezes nearby enemies for 3 seconds and deals 6550% weapon damage as Cold.
• Indigo: A frozen enemy that is killed has a 17% chance of exploding another Frost Nova dealing 3325% weapon damage as Cold.
• Alabaster: If Frost Nova hits at least 5 targets, you gain 30% chance to critically hit for 12 seconds.
• Arcane Orb:
• Alabaster: The orb will pierce through targets, damaging any enemy it passes through, dealing 146% weapon damage as Arcane.
• Diamond Skin: Increase damage absorbed to 203014828 damage. / Cooldown: 15 seconds
• Obsidian: Increase the maximum absorption amount to 406129656 damage.
• Hydra: Summon a multi-headed Hydra for 15 seconds that attacks enemies with bolts of fire dealing 31.3% weapon damage as Fire per attack. You may only have one Hydra active at a time.
• All runes re-worded to display that only one hydra may be active:
• Blizzard: Call down shards of ice to pelt an area dealing 6550% weapon damage per second as Cold for 3 seconds.
• Indigo: Increase the size of the Blizzard to cover 22 yards, and deal 5945% weapon damage per second as Cold.
• Magic Missile:
• Indigo Rune is now named Split (use to be Fork):
• Magic Weapon:
• Crimson: Melee attacks poison enemies, dealing 30% of weapon damage as Poison forover 3 seconds.
• Ray of Frost: Project a beam of frozen ice that blasts 270155% weapon damage as Cold to the first enemy it hits, slowing the target's movement by 40% and attack speed by 30% for 5 seconds.
• Crimson: Damage increases slowly over 1.5 seconds to inflict a maximum of 369212% weapon damage as Cold.
• Obsidian: Increase enemy slow amount to 46% for 7 seconds, but damage is reduced to 216124% weapon damage as Cold.
• Alabaster: Enemies who die leave a patch of ice on the ground that causes 10560% weapon damage as Cold to enemies moving through it over 3 seconds.
• Energy Armor: Focus your energies, increasing your DefenseArmor by 20% but lowers your maximum Arcane Power by 20. Lasts 120 seconds. / This is an Armor spell. Only one Armor spell can be active at a time.
• Alabaster: Also increases your Precisionchance to critical hit by 256% while Energy Armor is active.
• NEW PASSIVES
• Black Ice: Cold damage dealt to chilled and frozen targets is increased by 20%.
• Paralysis: Lightning damage dealt to enemies has up to a 5% chance to stun the target for 2 seconds.

Barbarian

• Skill_Barbarian_Bash: of Bruising
• Skill_Barbarian_Cleave: of Sundering
• Skill_Barbarian_Frenzy: of the Maniac
• Skill_Barbarian_HotA: of Demolition
• Skill_Barbarian_Overpower: of Conquest
• Skill_Barbarian_Rend: of Evisceration
• Skill_Barbarian_Revenge: of Vengeance
• Skill_Barbarian_SeismicSlam: of Shattering
• Skill_Barbarian_WeaponThrow: of Hurling & of Barrage
• Skill_Barbarian_Whirlwind: of Vertigo

Demon Hunter

• Skill_DemonHunter_Impale: of Razor
• Skill_DemonHunter_BolaShot: of the Bounty Hunter
• Skill_DemonHunter_HungeringArrow: of the Predator
• Skill_DemonHunter_Chakram: of the Boomerang
• Skill_DemonHunter_ClusterArrow: of Splinters
• Skill_DemonHunter_ElementalArrow: of Blasting
• Skill_DemonHunter_EntanglingShot: of Binding
• Skill_DemonHunter_Grenades: of the Grenadier
• Skill_DemonHunter_Multishot: of Volleys
• Skill_DemonHunter_RapidFire: of Salvos
• Skill_DemonHunter_EvasiveFire: of Suppression
• Skill_DemonHunter_SpikeTrap: of Spines
• Skill_DemonHunter_Strafe: of Prowess

Monk

• Skill_Monk_CripplingWave: of Breaking
• Skill_Monk_TempestRush: of Reflex
• Skill_Monk_DeadlyReach: of Lunging
• Skill_Monk_ExplodingPalm: of Bursting
• Skill_Monk_FistsofThunder: of the Monsoon
• Skill_Monk_LashingTailKick: of the Scorpion
• Skill_Monk_SweepingWind : of the Wind
• Skill_Monk_WaveofLight: of Radiance
• Skill_Monk_Wayof100Fists: of Pummeling

WitchDoctor

• Skill_WitchDoctor_AcidCloud: of Corrosion
• Skill_WitchDoctor_CorpseSpiders: of the Black Widow
• Skill_WitchDoctor_Firebats: of the Deep
• Skill_WitchDoctor_FireBomb: of Blazing
• Skill_WitchDoctor_Haunt: of the Wraith
• Skill_WitchDoctor_LocustSwarm: of Pestilence
• Skill_WitchDoctor_PlagueofToads: of the Jungle
• Skill_WitchDoctor_PoisonDart: of Stinging
• Skill_WitchDoctor_SpiritBarrage: of Phantoms
• Skill_WitchDoctor_ZombieDogs: of Domination
• Skill_WitchDoctor_WallofZombies: of the Lost
• Skill_WitchDoctor_ZombieCharger: of Blind Rage

Wizard

• Skill_Wizard_ArcaneOrb: of Spheres
• Skill_Wizard_ArcaneTorrent: of Shooting Stars
• Skill_Wizard_Blizzard: of Hail
• Skill_Wizard_ShockPulse: of Ruin
• Skill_Wizard_Disintegrate: of Entropy
• Skill_Wizard_Electrocute: of Striking
• Skill_Wizard_EnergyTwister: of Wild Magic
• Skill_Wizard_ExplosiveBlast: of Detonation
• Skill_Wizard_Hydra: of the Myriad
• Skill_Wizard_MagicMissile: of Evocation
• Skill_Wizard_Meteor: of Comets
• Skill_Wizard_RayofFrost: of Chill
• Skill_Wizard_SpectralBlade: of Slashing

Official Blizzard Quote:

General

A number of significant changes have been made to key aspects of Diablo III in this patch. To learn more about these changes and why they were made, please be sure to read the "System Changes" blog, written by Jay Wilson.

• All characters have been wiped. Please note that this wipe will also affect gold, achievements, items, followers, and artisans.
• The Battle.net Balance for all beta participants has been reset to 50 Beta Bucks
• Core character attributes have been reworked significantly
• Attack, Defense, and Precision have been removed
• Dexterity, Intellect, Strength, and Vitality have been added:
• Dexterity
• +Demon Hunter damage
• +Monk damage
• +Dodge (for all classes)
• Intellect
• +Witch Doctor damage
• +Wizard damage
• +Health from globes (for all classes)
• Strength
• +Barbarian damage
• +Armor (for all classes)
• Vitality
• +Health (for all classes)
• Armor will now supplement Defense, as well as provide +Physical resist
• +Chance to Crit has been added as an item affix
• Player Life per Vitality has been changed:
• Players will now start out with 10 Life per Vitality at level 1
• Nephalem Altars have been removed and players can now swap unlocked skills at any point during gameplay via the Skills list. This will impose a 30-second cooldown on the newly-activated skill, during which time the skill cannot be exchanged for another.
• Please note that the skills system is still considered a work-in-progress and will be undergoing additional changes in future patches. This iteration of the system is not final.
• Scrolls of Identification have been removed and players can now identify an item by right-clicking on the item's icon
• The Nephalem Cube has been removed and the salvage ability has been added to the Blacksmith artisan
• The Cauldron of Jordan has been removed
• Stone of Recall has been renamed to "Town Portal" and can now be accessed directly via the Skill bar UI
• The fifth quick slot button has been moved next to the Town Portal ability in the Skill bar. This slot will eventually be to dedicated to potions, but can currently be used as a normal slot.
• Skills will now display simplified tooltips by default
• To view Advanced tooltips, press and hold the CTRL key when hovering over skill icons
• The duration of the global chill effect granted by cold damage has be increased from 0.4 seconds to 0.6 seconds
• Achievements have been re-enabled

Classes

• Barbarian
• Active Skills
• Ground Stomp
• Damage increased from 70% to 110%
• Ignore Pain
• Cooldown reduced from 60 seconds to 30 seconds
• Duration reduced from 5 seconds to 3 seconds
• Leap Attack
• Damage increased from 70% to 100%
• Revenge
• Damage increased from 150% to 220%
• Passive Skills
• Nerves of Steel
• Now increases Armor by 25% of your Vitality
• Monk
• Active Skills
• Blinding Flash
• No longer breaks on damage
• Duration reduced from 5 seconds to 3 seconds
• Wizard
• Active Skills
• Frost Nova
• Damage reduced from 65% to 50%
• Ice Armor
• No longer increases your Armor
• Wave of Force
• Damage increased from 205% to 350%
• Passive Skills
• Temporal Flux
• Slow amount increased from 24% to 30%

Crafting

• General
• Leveling artisans in Normal difficulty now only requires gold
• Salvaging
• Common (white) items can no longer be salvaged and common crafting materials have been removed in all difficulty levels
• Salvaging a Magic (blue) item will always give you a Magic material, as well as a chance to receive a Rare (yellow) or Legendary (orange) material
• Salvaging a Rare item will always give you a Rare material and a Magic material, as well as a change to receive a Legendary material
• Salvaging a Legendary item will always give you a Legendary material, Rare material, and Magic material

Items

• General
• Attack, Defense, and Precision random affixes have been replaced with Dexterity, Strength, and Intellect
• The base damage on slower weapons has been increased. This is because we’re also increasing the potency of elemental damage properties, and elemental damage benefits faster weapons more than slower weapons.
• The drop rate of Magic items between level 1 and level 20 has been lowered. Single affix-Magic items are now introduced more slowly, and double affix-Magic items won’t appear until later in the game.
• Vendors
• Wandering Merchants now have a 50% change to sell a limited stock Rare item of any type
• Amulets have been moved from the Collector to the Fence

Monsters

• Electrified monsters no longer spew lightning on death
• Arcane Enchanted monsters no longer cast an extra arcane beam on death

Bug Fixes

• Players should no longer be disconnected from Battle.net when moving a stack of 0 items to the their Skill action bar
• Rapidly moving around items in a character’s inventory should no longer cause those items to become unresponsive
• Items that display full durability, but are still considered slightly damaged should now be able to be posted on the Auction House
• Monsters that are killed should now always properly play their death animation rather than remain standing

Official Blizzard Quote:

is tomorrow still looking good for #Diablo3 Patch 10?
Depends on how testing goes today.

Official Blizzard Quote:

Core attributes are important. They're your core attributes! But they have never been and continue not to be the primary driving force behind your itemization choices. At all times you're going to need to keep doing and avoiding more damage. Enemies get tougher, they hit harder, and take more hits. No matter who you are you have to counter those inevitable truths. No character would ever say "I can ignore defensive stats because I am a glass cannon!" no, you get to Inferno and you'll die. You can be a glass cannon, but it's going to be a balance between offense and defense, not an all-in decision. There is an inevitable requirement to have a variety of the core stats, offensive and defensive. It's the balance that's important.

Ok, so, core stats are super great, but they're still just four of all the bonuses that items can roll and provide your character. Four. And for most builds they're never going to be where you're focusing your attention. The other things that can roll up (which still include +armor, +dodge, +health globe, +crit chance, +crit damage, by the way) have always been the more important decision. It's your choice between doing more damage or being more defensive, but that's a forgone conclusion. That's not where true build diversity ever comes from, it's too broad a plateau.

Are you taking Attack (before) or your classes' core damage stat (now)? Are you taking Armor (now) or Defense (before)? Are you taking Precision (before) or +crit (now)? These are the same things.

For example, a Barbarian gets both "resist-all" armor and Attack-like damage from "Strength", so why would he ever choose Dexterity's dodge over that?

Barbarian's will always want Strength now just like they always wanted Attack before. Armor is a damage reduction. Dodge completely negates damage. They're extremely different in practice and your survivability, and at high difficulty play barbarians will absolutely want +dodge. And they don't have to take Dexterity to get it. Ideally a barbarian would find an item with +Stength and +Dodge on it. It would be devalued for the barb if it had +Dexterity on it. (tah dah itemization diversity)

Also, would he truly ever choose to go after a stat that increases health globe benefits, over strength?

Up to that player and their build. Would he ever want crit over flat damage increases? Would he take an increase to the damage of cleave over a crit damage increase? These are the choices you'll have to make and what makes building characters fun.

Now, obviously the class stats are the top priority, but each stat has equal value, simply because it can be used by somebody.

What this guy said.

It's also about item comparison, and that's simply not an issue in the beta. You're not getting enough drops or enough tough decisions to make item comparisons a problem for you.

What was happening for us at high levels is that the stats we had required you to think about the item for at least a couple seconds just to realize it's not a good item for your character. By having a single damage stat now you're focusing on, it reduces the number of failed comparisons that quickly add up at later levels. The tough decisions are still really tough and you'll be comparing items for a long time to try to figure out which one is better, but all of the less meaningful drops take less time to realize that the item is not for you and quickly move on. Again that's something that you just can't get a good sense of in the beta, but Diablo II players should sympathize with what this change does to resolve item comparison headaches.

Now we are going back to the mathematically correct ways of going after core attributes.

I think there may be a confusion that +dodge is tied to Dexterity now. Or +health globe is tied to Intellect. That's not the way it works, those stats are and still roll as their own affixes on items.

Also I sort of misspoke in that this change doesn't really affect build diversity, of course, all the same stats exist for people to stack or do whatever they want with. But it greatly increases item diversity.

You have your reasons for removing stat distribution, but to argue it was to prevent players for sucking in inferno is something I'll never comprehend.

I never said and it's absolutely not to help people "not suck". The same "I don't have enough defense to survive" exists now as it did before. If you're saying that a player would be playing and not realize the numbers on his items going higher was to give him more damage and/or defense then that's just not a valid assessment of what makes a player skilled.

Is there still a +attack affix or is that one actually gone?

Your damage is increased by your core class stat, but there are many other affixes that can improve your damage in various ways. It's the same. When you wanted Attack before you just want your class stat now instead. (Tracker/Official Forums)

Official Blizzard Quote:

Legendary items in the beta in patch 10
I don't think so. And less magical items actually. We're rebalancing some item distribution rates. (source)

white items(being useless) does that mean there will be a better drop rate for magic items?
I don't think so. And less magical items actually. We're rebalancing some item distribution rates. (source)

With removing the ability to salvage white items what will u do with common scrap.
Common salvaging materials are being removed and crafting recipes are being balanced. (source)

Why Include White Items?
Diablo is about loot explosions. We can't realistically have loot explosions without a bunch of confetti and glitter that makes it all look exciting, but has no value except to make the explosions more satisfying. Gold still did this to a degree, but we were missing the "arrows and bolts" of yesteryear. White items were worth something and we really didn't have any junk we could just throw out with no limit. Now we do. (Blizz Tracker/Official Forums)

IGN Comics: What led you to take on this assignment? Are you a big fan of the games?

Aaron Williams: I have to thank former DC/WildStorm editor Scott Peterson for giving me the opportunity to try my hand at it. We'd worked together before on another comic called North 40, and he'd read some of my indie work on a comic called Nodwick, which is a fantasy spoof. And I'm definitely a fan of the Diablo franchise. Had I known how much my index finger was going to be needed for mousing around in the game, I would have stuck with piano lessons for a few more years.


IGN: How much freedom did you have as far as developing the story? Was it an intentional decision to distance the book from the characters and locales of the games?

Williams: I had quite a lot of freedom, so long as I didn't contradict or run into game content that Diablo III was going to establish. That is, I had to make sure my wizard character, Shanar, used the spells at her disposal in the game, especially in combat. I also had a scene that was going to take place at the Forgotten Tower, but that area is, shall we say, "spoken for" and we didn't want to either spoil it or have the player think, "but this comic says two people came here and trashed the place already. How come it's not a smoking crater?" This wasn't as restrictive as it sounds, really, as most of the story takes place in an unexplored area of the Dreadlands. (Full Interview)

Official Blizzard Quote:

Quick update for everyone! We've discovered a few issues with Beta Patch 10 which could affect player login. Instead of releasing the patch as-is and addressing those issues later, we felt it necessary to take some time to resolve them now. As a result, the soonest we'll be able to release Beta Patch 10 is next Monday, January 23.

Diablo III Senior Game Producer Steve Parker announced via Twitter he is no longer working at Blizzard Entertainment. He didn’t specify the reason.

"Hey Twitter, I’m no longer working at Blizzard or on D3. I’ve had a great 5 years there and those guys are going to do an amazing job with Diablo.”

It’s unknown if his departure has a connection with the recent announcement of System Changes, or if the game is pretty much ready (except for the cleaning up process), and thus his work is finished and he’s moving on to other projects.

In a later tweet, Steve Parker commented “Thanks! Looking forward to bigger and better things.” Follow up comments via Twitter don’t show any hard feelings with the studios prompting to think he departed for personal reasons, and to explore other career opportunities. (source)

Official Blizzard Quote:

Blizz Tracker/Official Forums)

Inventory and Waiting For Players
Diablo III has a larger inventory. An enormous shared stash. Items take up less space. We don't encourage carrying tons of potions. No identify scrolls/tomes. No TP scrolls/tomes. We don't have charms. And we're still evaluating some of the other inventory items, which could free up even more space.

Yes, you will need to go back to town every once in a while but I don't think it's quite as severe as some are imagining it to be.

what happened to your philosophy of,fast paced action and,Do no harm to co-op
After a lot of playing at high levels we realized returning to town and breaking up the action is actually good. There are some more designery reasons that reinforce all of this, but the bottom line is that the action is very important, and being actively engaged in the action. Being able to be out and killing for hours and hours straight was negating the fun elements. Just like a story arc has highs and lows, a game needs to promote those ups and downs through its mechanics.

As far as harming co-op, there's really no difference now. Before you'd say "WAIT UP" and everyone would have to stop while you examined each item and decided to sell, salvage, or keep it. In the best case scenario everyone would agree to stop and do this at the same time. It's no different than everyone agreeing to head back to town, and in fact it provides a more prominent, not to mention safe, pause point where everyone can take care of a few quick tasks, and then head back out.

Say your friend's inventory is full, but yours isn't, well you both decide to TP and while he's going through his bag you have time to craft a few things, or alt+tab free of fear to read reddit or something. Whatever. It's not different to the co-op game because you had to stop before, and the benefits to being in town now are actually pretty substantial.

I am not going to "wait up" for someone
Then you will die. You're going to have to stick together to survive, and that's going to force groups to stop together. It's a lot better for everyone if that stopping point is in-town, for the aforementioned reason that not everyone takes the same amount of time to complete the same tasks, and there's more things that can be accomplished in town. Not to mention it's safer if you need to grab some more Cactus Cooler or take a bio break.

Every 15 seconds or so there's a side room and you have to decide to pursue that interest in the name of picking up an item or to stay with the group.
That is absolutely the case, but you're not thinking about how that dynamic changes when the game is actually difficult. Beyond Normal if you take off to go clear that side room on your own and either you will die, the rest of your group will, or both.

So now Blizzard is intentionally interrupting my experience?
Managing your inventory is and has absolutely always been an integral part of the Diablo experience. Picking up items and deciding which ones to keep, equip, or otherwise is the game. When it comes down to it that is the entire point of the entire game. Killing demons to get item drops, and those item drops being 'dealt with' in some way.

You had to stop and manage your inventory before. You have to do the same thing now. The difference is a 2 second cast timer to head back to town and a right click on the Blacksmith. You're going to be just fine.

Will the Town Portal timer be cancelled if you're hit in combat?
Yes, even if you dodge the attack.(Blizz tracker/Official Forums)

Communication
It's weird because this is exactly how we develop every single game. You have to go all in with a system. You have to believe in it and sell it and make it absolutely certain it's the best it can be... until you figure out it's not and throw it away and go with the new better solution you just realized was better. You don't half !@# something or noodle around testing possible theories, you find the best solution you can and you go after it full force, because that's really the only way you can successfully test it and see if the electric fence has any weaknesses.

That's the iterative game design we embrace. It's what we do. I think the issue is that Diablo III is really the first game, in my opinion, where the window into the design process has been open all the way from the beginning* (and boy oh boy has it been open for a long time). We didn't have BlizzCon during the development of Diablo II, Warcraft III, or even World of Warcraft. We didn't have websites that supported big in depth articles, we didn't have billions of people on the internet, we didn't have twitter and Facebook and live Q&A chats and all this stuff we have now that offers unparalleled access into the play by play development of a game. For us we enjoy being able to share that stuff. You all get to follow along in the process of us creating our games! We think that's awesome. But it has some pretty big cons in that sometimes it's hard to understand why we work the way we do. I'm not going to ask you to "Trust in Blizzard" or some other far fetched motto, but I do want to impress that this isn't different than the development of any of our other games.

*Sure there was StarCraft II but the design changes aren't quite as HUGE because they tend to be more about individual units and their balance, although there were some very substantial changes to StarCraft II systems very late in the development process.

I think the biggest issue with this process is that the fans who are truly super devoted become so involved in the process that they get obsessed with the game and want to play it so badly.
Personally, that's what I do. When I'm super excited about a game I completely avoid all news and information on it. I can usually tell when a game is announced if I'm going to like it or not, I'm pretty accurate with my initial assessments. After that I'll just completely avoid any and all information about it, that way when it's released it's a totally fresh experience. I sit in a dark room, quiet, and enjoy the experience. Each thing unfolds as the developer intended, good or bad.

I don't intend to tell anyone here to do the same, I'd be lonely (and potentially out of a job) if you weren't here, but I think that approach, at least for me, definitely has had a big benefit to the way I play and appreciate games.

There was a time when I was obsessed with Unreal. I followed that game day and night for... however long it took, four or five years. I sat in an IRC channel every single day waiting for news, discussing the game, raging when I found out they were scrapping it and starting over, and that was a lot of my time closely following that game. I can definitely identify with that and appreciate the ups and downs, but yeah, I totally support and now personally embrace that attitude of finding out about the game when you play it the first time.

You announced a release window, missing it, then announcing another release window, then missing it again, then you make it sound like this game still needs a ton of work? you do this for every game?
We never said we're missing our new target. But no, we generally don't tell people anything about release targets because they tend to be reduced to screaming obscenities at us when we inevitably miss them, reminding us why we used to not tell anyone anything.

Again, right now, people are begging to know a release window. And we should update them so... they can be nasty and angry when we miss it again? I don't understand who benefits from that.

tatements like this are rather alienating because even those who aren't ranting, being obscene or whatever will read into this as what the company perceives of it's fanbase as a whole.
When you're right you're right. It's late. I apologize.

I look forward to continuing the conversations with you all tomorrow and next week.(Blizz Tracker/Official Forums)

Skill Slot Reduction
1, 2, 3, 4, LMB, RMB, alt-RMB.

7 slots.

(Pro tip: press the X key to swap to your alt-RMB. The X key can be rebound to something else too.)

So no TAB swap?
No, it used to work that the alt-RMB ability would swap in when you hit TAB. Which can still be the case, you'd just rebind the X key to TAB.

You guys are basically arguing against a system that was never a problem to begin with that they have now forced and locked you into a certain system.
In play testing higher levels we just haven't found any use for normal attacks for any of the builds we've been using. There's always a skill that's zero cost and usually builds resource or is just out and out better than a normal attack. Which doesn't mean a build doesn't exist, but since you still have 7 available slots if you want to keep normal attack on your LMB, you can still do that.


Other problems that occur is that Witch Doctor are also basically forced to have 6 skills all of which drain mana as they have no regenerators. If they choose to make one of them an auto attack they miss out on having 6 skills and are stuck at 5.
Wuh? The witch doctor has a ton of mana regenerators. That's like his whole thing.

I just checked, and this option is not available. Do you promise it will be on release?
Eek, right, it's still on the to-do list. I refuse to make any promises.
(Blizz Tracker/Official Forums)

Twitter
as dev. progresses closer and closer to release, will there be more frequent "systems" updates posted by Jay? (as they're decided)?
Potentially. Depends on how much more we think we're going to change. (source)

Teleport question. If I put Alabaster on it does that 1.2 sec delay mean I can keep casting over and over before 1.2 sec?
Correct! (source)
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White Items
White items will not be worth the inventory space. No one will pick them up. If people start picking them up we'll reduce the meaningless amounts of gold they already sell for even further. We can address these things if they happen.

Being perfectly honest about the cauldron and cube, they were removed for very 'designery' reasons which makes it difficult to explain to people playing the game. Players want more freedom, more choice, almost limitlessly, but a game is defined by its limitations. It's our job to define those limitations, and enforce them to create the type and feel of the game we're attempting to produce. There are a lot of good reasons, such as breaking up combat, giving very solid and safe stopping points for groups (especially strangers), as well as ensuring players are staying acquainted with the town, its inhabitants, features, and what it offers. A player may say, well that should be my choice, I should just be able to kill demons without a break for as long as I want. It's our job to make those limitations for the betterment of the enjoyment of the game, even if it's an intangible and almost psychological improvement that on the surface appears to be a nonsensical remove of freedom. I expect this response to further confuse and enrage, unfortunately.
(Blizz Tracker/Official Forums)

Inventory and Waiting For Players
Diablo III has a larger inventory. An enormous shared stash. Items take up less space. We don't encourage carrying tons of potions. No identify scrolls/tomes. No TP scrolls/tomes. We don't have charms. And we're still evaluating some of the other inventory items, which could free up even more space.

Yes, you will need to go back to town every once in a while but I don't think it's quite as severe as some are imagining it to be.

what happened to your philosophy of,fast paced action and,Do no harm to co-op
After a lot of playing at high levels we realized returning to town and breaking up the action is actually good. There are some more designery reasons that reinforce all of this, but the bottom line is that the action is very important, and being actively engaged in the action. Being able to be out and killing for hours and hours straight was negating the fun elements. Just like a story arc has highs and lows, a game needs to promote those ups and downs through its mechanics.

As far as harming co-op, there's really no difference now. Before you'd say "WAIT UP" and everyone would have to stop while you examined each item and decided to sell, salvage, or keep it. In the best case scenario everyone would agree to stop and do this at the same time. It's no different than everyone agreeing to head back to town, and in fact it provides a more prominent, not to mention safe, pause point where everyone can take care of a few quick tasks, and then head back out.

Say your friend's inventory is full, but yours isn't, well you both decide to TP and while he's going through his bag you have time to craft a few things, or alt+tab free of fear to read reddit or something. Whatever. It's not different to the co-op game because you had to stop before, and the benefits to being in town now are actually pretty substantial.

I am not going to "wait up" for someone
Then you will die. You're going to have to stick together to survive, and that's going to force groups to stop together. It's a lot better for everyone if that stopping point is in-town, for the aforementioned reason that not everyone takes the same amount of time to complete the same tasks, and there's more things that can be accomplished in town. Not to mention it's safer if you need to grab some more Cactus Cooler or take a bio break.

Every 15 seconds or so there's a side room and you have to decide to pursue that interest in the name of picking up an item or to stay with the group.
That is absolutely the case, but you're not thinking about how that dynamic changes when the game is actually difficult. Beyond Normal if you take off to go clear that side room on your own and either you will die, the rest of your group will, or both.

So now Blizzard is intentionally interrupting my experience?
Managing your inventory is and has absolutely always been an integral part of the Diablo experience. Picking up items and deciding which ones to keep, equip, or otherwise is the game. When it comes down to it that is the entire point of the entire game. Killing demons to get item drops, and those item drops being 'dealt with' in some way.

You had to stop and manage your inventory before. You have to do the same thing now. The difference is a 2 second cast timer to head back to town and a right click on the Blacksmith. You're going to be just fine.

Will the Town Portal timer be cancelled if you're hit in combat?
Yes, even if you dodge the attack.(Blizz tracker/Official Forums)

Communication
It's weird because this is exactly how we develop every single game. You have to go all in with a system. You have to believe in it and sell it and make it absolutely certain it's the best it can be... until you figure out it's not and throw it away and go with the new better solution you just realized was better. You don't half !@# something or noodle around testing possible theories, you find the best solution you can and you go after it full force, because that's really the only way you can successfully test it and see if the electric fence has any weaknesses.

That's the iterative game design we embrace. It's what we do. I think the issue is that Diablo III is really the first game, in my opinion, where the window into the design process has been open all the way from the beginning* (and boy oh boy has it been open for a long time). We didn't have BlizzCon during the development of Diablo II, Warcraft III, or even World of Warcraft. We didn't have websites that supported big in depth articles, we didn't have billions of people on the internet, we didn't have twitter and Facebook and live Q&A chats and all this stuff we have now that offers unparalleled access into the play by play development of a game. For us we enjoy being able to share that stuff. You all get to follow along in the process of us creating our games! We think that's awesome. But it has some pretty big cons in that sometimes it's hard to understand why we work the way we do. I'm not going to ask you to "Trust in Blizzard" or some other far fetched motto, but I do want to impress that this isn't different than the development of any of our other games.

*Sure there was StarCraft II but the design changes aren't quite as HUGE because they tend to be more about individual units and their balance, although there were some very substantial changes to StarCraft II systems very late in the development process.

I think the biggest issue with this process is that the fans who are truly super devoted become so involved in the process that they get obsessed with the game and want to play it so badly.
Personally, that's what I do. When I'm super excited about a game I completely avoid all news and information on it. I can usually tell when a game is announced if I'm going to like it or not, I'm pretty accurate with my initial assessments. After that I'll just completely avoid any and all information about it, that way when it's released it's a totally fresh experience. I sit in a dark room, quiet, and enjoy the experience. Each thing unfolds as the developer intended, good or bad.

I don't intend to tell anyone here to do the same, I'd be lonely (and potentially out of a job) if you weren't here, but I think that approach, at least for me, definitely has had a big benefit to the way I play and appreciate games.

There was a time when I was obsessed with Unreal. I followed that game day and night for... however long it took, four or five years. I sat in an IRC channel every single day waiting for news, discussing the game, raging when I found out they were scrapping it and starting over, and that was a lot of my time closely following that game. I can definitely identify with that and appreciate the ups and downs, but yeah, I totally support and now personally embrace that attitude of finding out about the game when you play it the first time.

You announced a release window, missing it, then announcing another release window, then missing it again, then you make it sound like this game still needs a ton of work? you do this for every game?
We never said we're missing our new target. But no, we generally don't tell people anything about release targets because they tend to be reduced to screaming obscenities at us when we inevitably miss them, reminding us why we used to not tell anyone anything.

Again, right now, people are begging to know a release window. And we should update them so... they can be nasty and angry when we miss it again? I don't understand who benefits from that.

tatements like this are rather alienating because even those who aren't ranting, being obscene or whatever will read into this as what the company perceives of it's fanbase as a whole.
When you're right you're right. It's late. I apologize.

I look forward to continuing the conversations with you all tomorrow and next week.(Blizz Tracker/Official Forums)

Skill Slot Reduction
1, 2, 3, 4, LMB, RMB, alt-RMB.

7 slots.

(Pro tip: press the X key to swap to your alt-RMB. The X key can be rebound to something else too.)

So no TAB swap?
No, it used to work that the alt-RMB ability would swap in when you hit TAB. Which can still be the case, you'd just rebind the X key to TAB.

You guys are basically arguing against a system that was never a problem to begin with that they have now forced and locked you into a certain system.
In play testing higher levels we just haven't found any use for normal attacks for any of the builds we've been using. There's always a skill that's zero cost and usually builds resource or is just out and out better than a normal attack. Which doesn't mean a build doesn't exist, but since you still have 7 available slots if you want to keep normal attack on your LMB, you can still do that.


Other problems that occur is that Witch Doctor are also basically forced to have 6 skills all of which drain mana as they have no regenerators. If they choose to make one of them an auto attack they miss out on having 6 skills and are stuck at 5.
Wuh? The witch doctor has a ton of mana regenerators. That's like his whole thing.

I just checked, and this option is not available. Do you promise it will be on release?
Eek, right, it's still on the to-do list. I refuse to make any promises.
(Blizz Tracker/Official Forums)

Twitter
as dev. progresses closer and closer to release, will there be more frequent "systems" updates posted by Jay? (as they're decided)?
Potentially. Depends on how much more we think we're going to change. (source)

Teleport question. If I put Alabaster on it does that 1.2 sec delay mean I can keep casting over and over before 1.2 sec?
Correct! (source)

• Scrolls of Identification are gone - players can now identify rares/legendary items without them.
• Button '5' is now dedicated to potions.
• The Mystic artisan has now been removed from the game.
• The Cauldron of Jordan and Nephalem Cube have been removed.
• The Stone of Recall is now a button at the bottom and has been renamed "Town Portal".
• The Blacksmith is now responsible for salvaging players' items.
• Common (white colored) items are no longer salvageable.
• Character Attributes have been changed. See below for details.
• Character stats are now placed in the same place as the inventory panel and the old dedicated stats panel has been removed.

Official Blizzard Quote:

While working on Diablo III we've been called out for messing around with systems too much, that the game is good as-is and we should just release it. I think that's a fair argument to make, but I also think it's incorrect. Our job isn't just to put out a game, it's to release the next Diablo game. No one will remember if the game is late, only if it's great. We trust in our ability to put out a great game, but we're not quite there yet. In addition to finishing and polishing the content of the game we're continuing to iterate on some of the core game systems. So all that said, I'd like to provide everyone an update on some of the systems we're currently working on.

We’re changing some of the systems we’ve gotten the most feedback on both internally and from the beta test, including crafting, items, core attributes, and inventory. We’ll go over those changes and the reasons for them. In addition we’re working on major changes to the skill and rune systems that we’re not ready to talk about, but I promise you we can’t possibly ship without a finished skill and rune system.

Let’s start off small: Scrolls of Identification are no longer in the game. Unidentified items and the act of identifying them is still very much part of the game, but now when obtaining an unidentified item you'll simply right click it, a short cast timer will occur as your character examines the item, and it will become identified. We love the double-discovery of finding a present and then unwrapping it, but we don't think it requires a physical item you have to find and keep in your bags to get the same effect. From now on you'll just be able to inherently identify all your items, no need to carry scrolls. Your character in Diablo III is just that badass now.

We’re also moving the fifth quick slot button, which is becoming a dedicated potion button. A dedicated potion button is something we went back and forth on throughout development. Recently it became apparent that players need to be aware of their potions for emergency situations. Our combat model doesn’t promote or even allow chugging potions in rapid succession, but they’re certainly useful when you run into a string of bad luck with health globes, or if you just get in over your head. This is one of our newest changes, so the button and mechanics don’t actually function in beta Patch 10, but that’s our intent and you’ll be seeing it supported in future beta updates.

The design team is currently looking at systems and cleaning them up, removing any superfluous system objectives and those that are beyond fixing. Thus, we're removing the Mystic artisan. As we look at the big picture, the Mystic simply wasn’t adding anything to our customization system. Enhancement was really just the socket and gem system with a different name, and it would prolong the release of the game even further to go back to the drawing board and differentiate it, so we’ll revisit the Mystic and enhancements at a later time. Removing her from the game took some time, but it’s nowhere near the efforts that would be required to flesh out a better customization system. We hope she’ll be able to join your caravan in the future, but for now we’re going to focus on the extensive customization options the game already offers.

We're also looking at systems we’ve created and making sure that the rationale that brought us to these designs still makes sense. The Stone of Recall, for instance, has a short cast time and allows you to return to town. Early on we said we wouldn't have town portals, as they introduced too many combat exploits, but we were able to resolve them. Because we have the Stone of Recall, though, we began to evaluate systems that were originally implemented to deal with the exclusion of town portals.

So we've decided to remove the Cauldron of Jordan and Nephalem Cube. They were implemented to allow for salvaging and selling items when there was no quick and easy way to return to town. Now that the Stone of Recall exists, we found that keeping the Cauldron and Cube in the game detracted from the benefits of returning to town to sell items, salvage, craft, and interact with the townsfolk. It’s a good idea to break up combat so that players have a moment to evaluate their gear and crafting options before venturing back out. In addition, we've decided to just call it what it is and the Stone of Recall is now Town Portal, and is integrated directly onto the skill bar UI.

The Blacksmith artisan will now salvage items. With removal of the Cube we needed some mechanic in town that allowed you to salvage your items, and it just makes sense for the Blacksmith to offer it.

One other important change is that common (white) items will no longer be salvageable. We found that it caused a few itemization issues, but mostly this is due to a general philosophy shift on the importance of items. Previously, our thinking was that when an item dropped it should always be useful to you in some way, either the stats could be an improvement for you, or in the case of white items you could break it down and craft something better. Through a lot of play testing we have come full circle to the Diablo II methodology -- a lot of stuff that drops just isn’t worth picking up. Diablo II captured the loot piñata feel by dropping a lot of crap, mostly arrows and bolts, and we of course still very much want that feeling of item-explosions. To do that we need to be able to balance the value of items to how many we’re throwing at you.

This leads us to the last change I'll be detailing today:

We're changing core character attributes to Strength, Dexterity, Intellect, and Vitality, and the benefits each stat provides is being broken down as:

• Strength
• Increases Barbarian damage
• Increases Armor
• Dexterity
• Increases Demon Hunter damage
• Increases Monk damage
• Increases Dodge
• Intellect
• Increases Wizard and Witch Doctor damage
• Increases Health gained from Health Globes
• Vitality
• Increases Max Health

We're dropping Defense, Attack, and Precision as attributes, Armor is taking over for what Defense used to provide, +Physical Resist will take over for Armor, and +Chance to Crit will fill in for Precision. Obviously these stat changes are one of the bigger systems changes we're currently working on as they have far reaching requirements to re-itemize and balance the game.

This change makes the stats more intuitive and fixes some of the itemization issues we were running into. We want to make it clear that junk items aren’t worth picking up, and make it easy to identify other items as not for your character. We want to drop a ton of items, but to really pull off a sense of excitement when finding a great item, there needs to be non-optimal items, both for your class, and in general. By specifically targeting stats at classes, we can reduce the amount of item overlap, diversify our item pool, and create a cleaner, more exciting itemization system.

By and large these changes have little impact on which items you’re going to want. The item hunt has always been based on secondary stats and affixes, and we’re working hard to ensure build diversity is as large as possible by getting as many affixes into the game as possible (adding more item affixes is also something we’ve been working on). Simply including affixes that augment specific skills greatly expands the itemization pool and build possibilities.

Moving on, with the removal of the Cauldron of Jordan, Nephalem Cube, and by moving Town Portal to the skill panel, we're now displaying character stats directly on the inventory UI. Now you can see your stats go up and down as you try on different items. All the same info is available; we’re just streamlining the UI, making it more useful. It might seem insignificant but we're pleased with the results.

All of these are changes that will in one way or another be seen in the latest beta patch, and so we hope that those of you with access please try them out and let us know what you think in the Beta Feedback forum.

There’s a lot of work left to be done, though. We’re constantly tuning and making balance changes; it’s a massive task. Some of these changes can be seen in the beta, like changes to item rarity, the levels at which we introduce affixes, and how many affixes enemies can roll up. Some you can’t see in the beta, like balancing the difficulty of the entire game for four different difficulty levels, adding tons of new affixes, creating legendary items, filling out crafting recipes and itemization, working on achievements, and implementing Battle.net features. We’re also working on a number of other large systems changes -- specifically with the skill and rune systems. We're not quite ready to share what those are just yet, but we look forward to being able to do so in the near future.

We want Diablo III to be the best game it can be when it launches. To get there, we're going to be iterating on designs we've had in place for a long time, making changes to systems you've spent a lot of time theorycrafting, and removing features you may have come to associate with the core of the experience. Our hope is that by embracing our iterative design process in which we question ourselves and our decisions, Diablo III won't just live up to our expectations, but will continue to do so a decade after it's released.

Jay Wilson is game director for Diablo III and the Inventor of Meat. He believes that Kate Beckinsale is the greatest actress that’s ever lived.

Official Blizzard Quote:

Keep in mind everything detailed in the article today is already in the game, and most of it is complete. Once you get Patch 10 and see that, I think it may sink in that these aren't theoretical changes we're still working on, they're changes we've completed. Obviously the potion button still needs a little work to hook it up correctly, and the character attribute changes need to be balanced and tested for itemization throughout the game, but overall these are changes we've already made.

I do not intend to impress that we're close to release, or infer any such "we're <-- this --> done" kind of statement, but most of these are fairly straightforward changes that are already complete and implemented. We do have more changes, skills and runes, affixes to add, more items, Battle.net features, testing, testing, and more testing etc. to do so we're obviously still not there yet, but none of the changes detailed today are theoretical or yet to be implemented. (Tracker / Forums)

It looks like these changes have been in the works for awhile now. Will the upcoming patch reflect these changes?
Yes, all of these changes are complete and will be present in beta Patch 10.

But white items still cost gold? Wont that make them worth something, making me to fill my inventory and later sell them in town
They'll sell for very little. It will quickly become apparent they're not worth the inventory space.

Why have items that are useless?
To make seeing a good item drop that much rarer/exciting.

Will the new Salvage method be included in the new patch?
Yup!

What about "upgrading" gems? since u removed the mystic, its not implemented anymore?
That's the Jeweler.

Jay's article says strength affects barbarian damage and dexterity, DH's etc... That's just core, rite? Weapons still add most?
Well there's the basic weapon damage, then if it has +Strength on it you *probably* wouldn't want that item as a wizard.

What if per chance the weapon damage is vastly superior? wouldn't that make sense to take it for secondary attribute?
Very possible! It won't always be an absolute "It has X I don't want it." You'll still need to evaluate.

Town Portal: Instant or cast?
It's the same as the Stone of Recall, just in a different spot with a new (old?) name. It's a 2 second cast I believe.

what? was just getting excited about stone of recall! U guys had me convinced that scrolls suck, and stones rock (no pun intended)
It's the same thing, we just moved it and renamed it.

Official Blizzard Quote:

We're currently in the process of preparing the next beta patch for release and wanted to provide all beta testers with a heads-up that a character wipe will be included. Please note that, as with previous character wipes, this wipe will also affect gold, items, followers, and artisans.

We're hoping to release beta patch 10 before the weekend (potentially as soon as tomorrow evening), but we don't yet have a precise ETA. We'll provide more information as it becomes available, and patch notes will be posted once the patch is live.

Thanks for your continued feedback and testing!

Official Blizzard Quote:

Zarhym said last week that in a next couple of weeks that a writeup of what is being worked on would be posted.This week? Comment?

I don't know what he was talking about. He drinks a lot of cough syrup. (jk it'll be going up tomorrow)

Official Blizzard Quote:

Round 4 winners have been selected and emails have been sent. Be sure to check your junk mail and spam folders. Grats everyone!

Official Blizzard Quote:

Gold and other stackable items can be searched for and purchased from multiple people in a single transaction. You can get a better explanation here: http://us.battle.net...opic/3595343777

In short, no, we don't generate any items or gold on the auction house. It's a player driven feature and the items you're buying are from what other players have found and placed on the AH for sale. There can certainly be a situation where you may want to buy 1 million gold and only 850,000 is available in total from all current auctions. You'd be informed of this when presented with a final purchase price.

Any word on whether we will have better search features in final release?
We do want to have a full search, and not just drop down selectors, but it's a feature that may or may not make it in for the initial release. We think the drop downs do work pretty well right now, especially considering the randomness of the vast majority of items. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

The Dreadlands are being corrupted by madness, causing its victims to open their flesh and lash out at friend and foe alike. Jacob, a young fugitive from the city of Staalbreak, may be Sanctuary's only hope to stop this plague before it consumes or destroys mankind. His destiny is bound to a mysterious sword and the woman who watches over it, but his own troubled soul may keep him from embracing its true power in time.

Poison Dart

Official Blizzard Quote:

So, I was right, they have an auction house that uses Battle.net balance, which is separate from the gold auction house. There are some details I'm still fuzzy on because the Korea Battle.net balance works a bit differently from ours.

In any case, it won't be the currency-free option you're looking for.

Quote from »

ㅇ geimmul Rating Board (abbreviated 'geimwi', Chairman yisugeun) 13 days of the 2012 classification of the hearing in 4th Blizzard's Diablo 3 ', the' Rated M 'classification as decided.

ㅇ ratings board with respect to this classification, cash transactions between users feature is not implemented because of the fact it was not subject to review, he said.

ㅇ In addition, the interpretation of the Law Review and refer to relevant organizations, in the process for future service modifications (updates) in cash transactions between users through the implementation of functions to modify the content if the reclassification of non-reportable (classification reapply) Obviously the target is said.