Advance video to 10:18
Afterwards, Blizzard responded via their Twitter, clarifying how each item slot has 18 unique tiers.
Official Blizzard Quote:
Theeliminator2k - @diablo when you say 18 sets you mean 18 different boots, leggings,etc? And does that 18 include unique armor or are they totally different?
Diablo - @Theeliminator2k To clarify, there are 18 complete tier looks. Complete. 18 individual looks for each item slot.
Official Blizzard Quote:
in diablo 2 sure they repeated the graphics but we did have 15 tiers of armor that were repeated.
i hope in the case of chest piece armor they have more armor since it is not repeating something in the area of 30 or so would seem good.
with only 18 tiers and 3 difficulties if they only have 4 acts ( just a total guess ) we are looking at only 1-2 new armor looks in a new act
Diablo 2 did not have 15. It had 5. And those were mostly recolored versions of each other with extra pieces stuck on to make them look different.
Not to knock Diablo 2. The number of looks it had are amazing considering what it took to render them out.
Official Blizzard Quote:
He means, when you equip them, 3 look very much alike with minor changes. Not that, in your inventory, they're unique looking.
Oh, yeah, icons don't count. Those will be unique per item though, too, FYI.
Speaking of the icons, yes each tier looks different. When looking at the characters though, most look almost indistinguishable. Bashiok follows this with examples of unique armor tiers on the Witch Doctor.
Official Blizzard Quote:
Hopefully this will help. These aren't new, they're from the BlizzCon 2010 panel. There are most certainly already pictures out there of these slides (if not video). These are 4 of the set appearances for the witch doctor. They're unique from each other in every way, including unique geometry, textures, and in some cases animations, and that is true of the other 14 'tiers'.
http://i616.photobuc...ok/Picture2.png
http://i616.photobuc...ok/Picture4.png
http://i616.photobuc...ok/Picture3.png
http://i616.photobuc...ok/Picture1.png
These visual looks do not determine anything about the item stats, name, quality, etc.
Next a member states how 18 tiers may not be enough to share through each act, in each difficulty. Bashiok responds explaining how there are 720 unique armor pieces in the game, not including weapons, or other item slots. Also in the mix are the dozen or so Armor Dyes which can be placed in each item slot to change its color. Bashiok also makes it clear that he is strictly speaking visually, and not about item stat variations.
Official Blizzard Quote:
it will not be cool to play a whole act and only have 1 ( 2 sometimes ) new type of armor available to find
Hrm. Not cool compared to what? I don't think this is being compared accurately to what Diablo II or even other games offer as far as visual upgrades to a character. 18 tiers, times 5 classes, times 8 armor slots is 720 unique pieces of armor in Diablo III. That's not counting weapons, or alterations to make each armor piece fit both genders. Oh, and right, the dozen or so different colors you can dye each of those pieces.
I also hope this isn't being confused with actual diversity in item drops. You're still going to be finding tons of items with varying quality levels and stats, but the best are going to always be pushing your character's aesthetic 'impressiveness' forward.
Official Blizzard Quote:
as compared to d2 you joined a new act and had access to 3-4 or so new armor types
Aside from those 3-4 being minimal changes from one another, they repeated per difficulty. We don't think that's nearly as cool.
Numbers-wise, yes, absolutely Diablo II had more "unique looks" per act. From a viewpoint of actually considering what's available in Diablo III, we've got a ton more items for you to find, and they're all unique, and amazing looking.
This is a good discussion on it and maybe will put it into perspective.
I just wanted to know what peeps think of it but to be honest I want it to be simple and just look the way it is right now. Some of the artwork are just so badass but when translated to the game will look silly. Thanks though good to know some liked it =D
Anyway, I hope blizzard doesn't reveal anymore artwork of the gears or weapon because one of the thing I like in diablo or any action rpg loot fest kind of game is not knowing what you'll get and what you'll look like. I have a choice not to look at it but temptation always prevails.
We don't know very much about how many weapons will be in the game. What we do know if they do seem to look very nice ;). The 3D modles hold true to the concept art very well.
Here are the images from Bashiok's post.
That's a good question. It's possible that legendary items past Normal difficulty will be enhanced enough so that they will be viable end-game. That way there will actually be roughly 12 sets of legendary gear that's usable end-game. This is speculation, of course.
The other (and more reasonable) possibility is that, unlike in Diablo 2, a base item will have more than one Legendary item associated with it. For example, the tier 18 mace could have 3 or 4 legendary versions that have completely different stats and bonuses. In fact, I know Blue mentioned at one point they intend on patching in new items after launch. The only way that's possible is if this is the case.
This is exactly what boggles my mind. I enjoyed D2 immensely, but in reality, there was very little difference in how your character looked as you moved through a difficulty, and then it started over again after you moved on. I don't know who these people are that think that there were so many different types of armors and so many different looks to characters in D2. All I remember was everyone almost always looking identical.
Based on how confident they seem with having things planned for the end game, I would imagine that there are probably many different types of legendary items per tier, at least for the last few tiers of item types. It would be hard to justify having a lot of different content to the end game, if there was only a tiny pool of potential items to get there.
I could mention something about realism but that's going to get shut down. I get it if the player gets the items crafted but to find a unique helmet that was once worn by trang oul, it should look the part. Not like a voodoo mask on one character and a crown on another.
On a seperate note, I wonder how set items are going to look.
Will they keep the same apperance as other items in that specific teir and maybe an added glow like in diablo 2? Or will they be very different visually from other items for an added satisfaction for collecting all the pieces.
I really like the amount of customization and difference in spells which absolutley dwarfs the armor customization (not talking about the added dyes which Imo is cool but a cheap way to make your rare items look / feel more powerful) I hope they really add more armor content, Atleast for set items or uniques for that matter.
For more information on all of this listen to this weeks DiabloCast!
Official Blizzard Quote:
Set items are now legendaries defined by a set bonus. They're crafted items while leveling (recipes can be found that grant the ability to craft all the items in a set), which allows someone to really invest in filling out a set before they out-level it. Then at max level we'll drop set pieces normally.
Also, the fact that Blizzard has given attention to 18 tiers and not just 2-4 end game ones would obviously be the fact that not everyone plays Nightmare/Hell. Most of us here will, I know I'll go through all difficulties but keeping the lower difficulties interesting would be a massive part of new players becoming immersed in the game world of Diablo.
By the way Winged, that picture of the 3D model Axes you have there, could you or someone else explain those? Are they 6 of the 18 different tiers?
EDIT: On the wiki it says QUEST items are green.... I must have been imagining things.. <_<
As for the axes, that is a picture taken from the 2010 blizzcon "crafting sanctuary panel" which you can find on our YouTube channel.