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BlizzCon 2013 begins tomorrow, and you’ll be able to watch the opening ceremony and eSports action—including the StarCraft II WCS Global Finals, World of Warcraft Arena Global Invitational, and Hearthstone Innkeeper’s Invitational—streaming for free at www.blizzcon.com/live-stream/. The opening ceremony is scheduled to begin on Friday at 11 a.m. Pacific, and tournaments run throughout both days of the show—check out the BlizzCon schedule for details.

If you’re interested in even more BlizzCon coverage, including developer panels, the costume and talent contests, the closing concert with Blink-182, and more, you can still purchase a BlizzCon Virtual Ticket, which also includes this year's in-game goodies for World of Warcraft, StarCraft II, Diablo III, and Hearthstone. The Virtual Ticket also lets you watch on-demand replays of any coverage you might have missed.

Now that we've decided what kind of Legendary weapon we're creating (a one-handed sword), it's time to move onto the next stage of design: visual theming.

What do we mean by visual theming? In Diablo III, we love to give hero armor and weapons a specific signature, or theme. This theme is the aesthetic thread that connects and ties all the different parts (color, texture, shape, etc) of the items together. In a way, it gives the item its identity and helps inform not only its art, but its name, associated lore, and in many situations (in the case of Legendary items, at least) its stats and unique power as well.

For this particular stage of the Design a Legendary project, I sat down with art producer Nathan Lutsock and 3D character artist Aaron Gaines to discuss possible themes for our fledgling Legendary sword. Excited and intrigued by the idea, they quickly selected seven different options they felt would be fun to explore alongside the community, all of which I've detailed below (epic theme descriptions courtesy of Nathan):


Caldeum
"This blade would be styled to connect thematically to the desert city of Caldeum. An item with this theme could draw from the desert locale, a distinct architectural kit, the opulence of the Emperor’s palace, or even the Lord of Lies. Caldeum provides ample recognizable features for creative inspiration."

Westmarch
"This blade would be styled to connect thematically to the city of Westmarch. The capital of King Rakkis's empire demonstrates dark medieval visual cues that are very much in line with the motifs of the first Diablo game. A weapon in this theme will be benefit from the months of development that the Diablo art team invested when creating the characters and environs Westmarch. "

Serpent
"This blade would have a visual connection to snakes and reptiles. Some of our most successful Legendary items sprang out of such humble beginnings. We start with a simple motif and asked ourselves, ‘What would I want out of a weapon in this style? What is the game fantasy of the player who wants this kind of item?' A classic fantasy theme like 'Serpent’ provides our artists with many avenues of interpretation."

Ancient Culture
"This blade would be styled to represent an ancient culture no longer found on Sanctuary, or one that we've yet to fully flesh out in a game (Skovos, for example). Ancient culture motifs are exciting springboards for our artists, giving them the opportunity to expand the visual definition of the Diablo universe while keying off of visual hooks that they haven't yet dug into. Some of our most interesting item designs come out of explorations into the technology and designs of Sanctuary's lost peoples."

Mephisto
"This blade would be styled to connect thematically to the wispy, skeletal Lord of Hatred. In addition to being a favorite character of the art team, Mephisto has a unique appearance among the Great Evils, and a blade associated with him would need to find a way to echo his character."

Duriel
"This blade would be styled to connect thematically to the massive Lord of Pain. Bulky, brutal, and grotesque, interpreting this theme as a sword may prove something of a challenge. However, sometimes the most inventive legendary item designs come out of an unexpected pairing."

Diablo
"This blade would be styled to connect thematically to the Lord of Terror himself. Capturing a design familiar to the character (a character that changes his appearance in every game, no less!) that still adds something fresh and makes a compelling player reward- this design might be the most challenging of the bunch."


Pretty cool, huh? But which theme should we use? That's up to you! Pick your favorite by using the voting options below, and be sure to spread the word. As with our previous vote, whichever theme gets the most votes globally wins!

After the poll has closed, we'll tabulate player votes from all our different Diablo III communities around the world to determine the winner and share the results next week. Don't delay, though—this poll will close Wednesday, November 13.

The AH isn't a goldsink indeed, as the gold is merely removed from the player but not the game.

The mystic and crafting should serve as fairly efficient and solid gold sinks in Reaper of Souls, and with the AH gone, a lot of gold will go into crafting, enchanting, and transmogrification. Also, since BoA will serve as a kind of item sink, the item game should feel much more meaningful and interesting in general than it does today.

When Reaper of Souls is out. you will actually need to evaluate your loot more carefully than you do today, because not only will you have more options on what you can do with your loot, but your decisions on what to do with said loot will be much harder to undo. For an example; a decent item today that has one or two main stats wrong for you might be an obvious trade or salvage, but come Reaper of Souls that same item might actually be an item that you could instead enchant into an upgrade or sidegrade for one of your characters. But should you chose to enchant it, then that item will become BoA and will no longer be tradable.

You must choose, but choose wisely!

Ehr. What about that 15% cut you take from me every time? =)
True, the 15% cut does serve as a goldsink, but I would still not call the AH as a whole a gold sink since most of the gold being traded merely changes hands and thus actually stay in the game. I will not protest if people insist on calling the AH a gold sink though, but in that case I will agree to call it an ineffective gold sink instead ;-)

Does this mean you can still re-enchant your 'selected' property?
Yes. before you enchant an item, you will be able to see a list of properties the different stats can reroll into. Once you have selected a stat to reroll, you will not be able to reroll any other stat, however the stat you have selected can be rerolled as many times you want and can afford.

And as the image of the Mystic shows where you have to choose between the option of 2 random properties, when you decide to reroll that property will you get 2 new random properties out of the 'possible properties' list?
Yup, pretty much. Every time you choose to reroll a stat, you will be given a couple of random choices from the list of properties associated with the original stat, and you must select one of those choices. The random choices can be the same stat that you already have, though, although the number might be higher or lower.

So in short: can you keep enchanting your weapon untill you reach a desired property?
Yes, but only for one stat. Once you have chosen which stat to enchant, you will only be able to re-enchant that same stat afterwards, however you can do it as many times as you wish until you are happy with what you've got :-)