While Bashiok told fans not to get too excited about the conference call, some interesting tidbits did come up; primarily, that the beta period is nearing the testing implementation of the Real Money Auction House, and that the Collector's Edition of Diablo III will come with a toggleable pair of wings and some snazzy dyes.
Note: The wings and dyes notes have actually been viewable since BlizzCon on the Collector's Edition webpage. The fallout of the quarterly conference did bring some clarification to light:
Official Blizzard Quote:
The [Collector's Edition] dyes are infinite in their use. Keep them forever, dye as much stuff as you want "Cloud" or "Smoke" colored. The colors are unique to the CE.
The wings are an item you hold in your inventory (don't take up an equipment slot on your character), and it's a toggle. Use to turn on, use again to turn off. They're awesome looking, and stack with other class effects like Shadow Power and Archon. (Blue Tracker | Official Forums)
Official Blizzard Quote:
It's 1 [set of wings] per account. If you want to trade to another character you'd just want to put it in your shared stash before logging out. Same with the dyes. (Blue Tracker | Official Forums)
While all of these great responses did clear up quite a few things, there is still some confusion about the way the wings will work if in the inventory of a Hardcore character. Obviously, under normal circumstances, the wings would be lost on character death.
And while we're on the topic of clearing up confusion: last Friday, we posted the supposedly complete patch notes, coinciding with the reset of the testing server. But the official site has since been updated with most of the recent changes. Here, we have the passive skills that were not included in the patch notes, as well as the skill updates that didn't make the official list.
Skills that were modified to work with weapon damage have not been included in this list because this change was previously announced in the official patch notes. If you would like to see the updated percentages based on weapon damage, please see here.
The Barbarian
Unmentioned Modified Skills
Inspiring Presence has been modified:
Earthquake has been modified:
- Now allows Barbarians to regenerate 2% of their maximum Life per second instead of 60% of total Life per minute.
- Old: The duration of your shouts is doubled. While benefiting from War Cry or Battle Rage you regenerate 60% of your total Life per minute.
Overpower has been modified:
- Now deals its damage as Fire-elemental damage.
- Old: Shake the ground violently dealing 240% weapon damage followed by an additional 150% weapon damage per second for 8 seconds to all enemies within 15 yards.
- Now has a 15-second cooldown that is reset whenever Overpower gets a critical hit instead of becoming available on critically damaging an enemy.
- Old: Press the advantage of a powerful attack to overwhelm the enemy for 150% weapon damage to all targets within 9 yards. Overpower becomes available whenever you make a critical hit against an enemy.
The Demon Hunter
Unmentioned New Passives
Night Stalker has been added:
Numbing Traps has been added:
- Unlocked at level 16.
- Every time you critical hit, gain 1 discipline.
- Discipline is used to fuel many of your tactical and defensive skills.
- Unlocked at level 21.
- Enemies hit by Fan of Knives, Spike Trap and Caltrops have their damage reduced by 30% for 3 seconds.
The Monk
Unmentioned New Passives
Combination Strike has been added:
- Unlocked at level 21.
- Each different Spirit Generator ability you use increases your damage by 10% for 3 seconds.
The Witch Doctor
Unmentioned Modified Skills
Gruesome Feast has been modified:
Vermin has been modified:
- Now: Whenever you are healed by a health globe gain 10% of your maximum Mana and 10% Attack for 10 seconds. The Attack bonus can stack up to 5 times.
- Old: Gain 10% Attack for 10 seconds whenever you are healed by a health globe. This effect can stack up to 5 times.
Fierce Loyalty has been modified:
- Now includes Locust Swarm.
- Old: Your Plague of Toads, Corpse Spiders and Firebats abilities do 20% more damage.
- Now Witch Doctor pets also gain 100% of the player's Health regeneration items.
- Old: All your pets gain 100% of the benefit of your thorns items.
Unmentioned New Passives
Bad Medicine has been added:
Spirit Vessel has been added:
- Unlocked at level 18.
- Whenever you deal Poison damage to an enemy, their damage is reduced by 40% for 3 seconds.
Fetish Sycophants has been added:
- Unlocked at level 20.
- Reduces the cooldown of your Horrify, Spirit Walk and Soul Harvest spells by 2 seconds. In addition, the next time you receive fatal damage you automatically enter the Spirit Realm for 3 seconds and heal to 10% of your maximum Life. This effect cannot occur more than once every 90 seconds.
- Unlocked at level 21.
- Whenever you cast a Physical Realm spell you have a 3% chance to summon a dagger-wielding Fetish to fight by your side for 60 seconds.
The Wizard
Unmentioned Modified Skills
Arcane Dynamo has been modified:
- The Flash of Insight time restriction has been reduced from 1.5 seconds to 0.9 seconds.
- Old: When you deal damage with a Signature spell you gain a Flash of Insight. After 8 Flashes of Insight your next non-Signature spell deals 50% additional damage. You cannot gain a Flash of Insight more than once every 1.5 seconds.
Unmentioned New Passives
Conflagration has been added:
- Unlocked at level 21.
- Dealing fire damage to enemies applies a burning effect, increasing all damage done to them by 15% for 3 seconds.
Lastly, it's been some years since most gave up on speculating about certain cryptic elements of Diablo, but discovery of an invisible input element on the Battle.net website has curiosity rearing like a bucking bronco. Perhaps now more interesting than even the seemingly useless Flash Chat_Gem on the official Diablo III website, the invisible box in the web Battle.net interface has finally drawn some interesting official responses:
Is the answer to this latest mystery to be found by following @Diablo on Twitter? Is the invisible box another enigma in a decade of Diablo silliness, or is there reason to wonder?
New Fan Art
Left: Demon Hunter painting by Wargasmic, Right: Diablo "Heablo" Lord of Terror by MuppZA
Oh, you have no idea. Your thoughts have been earth-shattering in the cryptic puzzleology academic community.
Not only did I receive Beta Key, the Collector edition's toggleable pair of wings is also a great surprise to me >W<!!! (Pre-ordered it ever since Collector's edition was announced.)
No big news but some nice detail.
Birds talk to me everyday, but they keep chirping "Soontm "
Not really, they could simply go into production shortly after and be ready for when the testing concludes.
I like everything I'm hearing, but I'm a bit worried about these new passives that encourage you to use different skills. Normally you should want to use different skills because you want to, or because you need them in different situations. It's a bit cheap that they try to encourage you just by giving a damage bonus for it. Or am I getting this wrong?
Why does everyone ask and no one look...
You just need to believe.