Two New Artisans

We all learned about the caravan concept back at the 2010 Gamescom last year. This caravan would be a group of NPC's that would follow your character around and offer you different services. DiabloWiki.com - Deckard Cain Deckard Cain and DiabloWiki.com - Leah Leah will be a part of this band as well as the three Artisans we have learned about. While these Artisans filled various roles, Blizzard apparently felt a few more were needed. The development team has announced two more Artisans to join the line-up that will each offer their own unique services.

The Cobbler
The DiabloWiki.com - Cobbler Cobbler, who is almost as old as Deckard Cain, will be following you around Sanctuary on your journey. Adding sole to your adventure, the Cobbler will focus primarily on all equipment related to your feet. From repairing your current boots to selling you new ones and crafting special boots this Artisan will focus solely on this one area of equipment more-so than the Blacksmith will. One example of this idea is through one of the many services the Cobbler offers: the Stamina and Run/Walk System, which will be returning to this latest game of the franchise. The Cobbler will be able to alter your shoes to increase both the stamina and run speed of your character, adding yet one more viable gold sink to the game. It is unknown just yet how much of an effect it will have but it will most likely be a required upgrade for PvP and the arena.


You will gain this Artisan through the quest DiabloWiki.com - Frail Pools Frail Pools. This quest will lead you through some poisonous pools where the feeble old man needs your help. Being partially senile, the Cobbler has mixed up his thoughts and has gotten lost; finding himself in a mess of trouble as demons encroach on his location. After saving the old man and bringing him back to town and safety, he will offer his services to you.

When asked why these features were not just added to the Blacksmith's services, Blizzard responded:

Official Blizzard Quote:



While it is possible that we could have added these services to the Blacksmith, we wanted to keep a clear focus of each artisan. The Blacksmith will be focusing on forging and socketing your armor. The cobbler will be focusing on just boots. The reason for this is that we have added another mechanic to Diablo 3. In order to enhance the environment even more, we have added a system where the environment will interact with your character. If you are on ice, your character will slip around, if you are in a swamp your movements will be sluggish. The cobbler will offer services to help counter these effects.
As mentioned in the quote, the environment of each Act will now affect how you move around in the world. We have been given a few examples of these Terrain effects:
  • Rainy Fields - Character will slip and have a higher chance to miss attacks.
  • Sinking Sands - Characters will be pulled in with the moving sands.
  • Ice - Characters may fall and be vulnerable to attack for a short period of time.
  • Swamps - Characters movement and attack speed are slowed.
  • Lava - Characters will take continuous damage while standing in the lava.



The Cobblers shop will reflect his foot fetish. We have been given a picture of a mid-grade Cobbler' shop, as seen above. It was said that he will start off with his shop looking more like a sandal and as he progresses, his shop will change to a a more durable and fitting type of shoe. They hinted that the last version would be a metallic boot with all sorts of sharp spikes and no laces to trip on.

The Bard

The DiabloWiki.com - Bard Bard will be the fifth Artisan joining you on your mission. Offering inspiration in the form of music, the Bard will not only play music for you but teach you how to play it yourself. You will learn to play new and more complicated songs through scrolls you will find while venturing into the various caves and dungeons your path will take you. After getting these drops, you can simply take them back to the Bard and he will teach you how to play the song. The effects of these songs vary and, as your skill with a given instrument increases, your songs will become stronger, but also longer and more complex. To play a song, players will press a key to ready their instrument while still battling the foes of Hell. Following a string of commands consisting of the up, down, left, and right arrows a pattern will be needed to execute the song.


You will meet this whimsical character through the quest called DiabloWiki.com - Aid Fops O'Rally Aid Fops O'Rally. In this quest, you find O'Rally trying his best to serenade a group of DiabloWiki.com - Goatman Goatman. Unfortunately he appears to be flopping and the monsters are quickly turning on him. After mowing through the dozens of beasts, the Bard will follow you back to town. After coming to terms with the fact that his music alone is not enough to stop these monstrosities, the Bard will offer to teach you how to play various songs to add to your physical and magical arsenal.


Official Blizzard Quote:



Originally we had wanted to add the Bard as a playable class, it was one of the many ideas that we had tossed around. We even got as far as getting him in-game and were working on his skills. However, once we matched him up with the other classes, we felt he just didn't fit in with the environment we wanted for D3. We tried axe guitars, dagger flutes, and mace-like drum sticks, but none of them felt right. Let's face it, slicing off a demons head is just cooler than playing them a song, no matter how hard you shred.

We still really liked the concept though so we decided to make him an artisan instead. Players will be able to seamlessly switch from fighting to playing a quick song without having to change any gear or skills. This way, players can still blow things up and can use this mechanic to help them in their fights instead of lead them.

The Bard will offer to teach you how to play songs on three different instruments; each instrument will have a different overall effect. With each type of instrument needing to be leveled separately, most players will be choosing the one that will fit their build the best, adding one more way to help customize their characters.
  • Drums: All drum songs will focus on fortifying your character and party. From raising your defense to increasing your HP, these songs will help you stay alive. A likely choice for those venturing into Hardcore.
  • Lutes: Lutes will improve your killing ability. Both physical and magical attacks will be bolstered by shredding out a tasty lick on your lute. Speed, damage, and accuracy can be improved.
  • Flutes: Songs played on your flute will focus more on passive bonuses to your skills and debuffing monsters. Despite being among the daintiest of instruments, these flutes can help turn the tide of battle by lulling your enemies to sleep or decreasing the cost of your skills.



Pictured above is a screen shot of the DiabloWiki.com - Witch Doctor Witch Doctor using a flute to play the lullaby song. The song has put the monsters ahead of him asleep, rendering them defenseless against the mongrels' attacks. You can see that the song that will pop-up on your screen after hitting the "M" key. Pressing the arrow keys in the correct order will execute the song. As mentioned, the greater the effect of the song, the more difficult the song will be to play. To make sure that it does not interrupt combat, no skill or instrument needs to be equipped. The player can quickly play the song and go right back to blasting their enemies.

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