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After a long drought, we've finally got some news for you. Bashiok chimed in on a few discussions today, one of which was about rushing characters through content and levels in Diablo III.

Although most of us probably agree that ideally, you'd repeatedly go through all the content and enjoy it every time. However, from our repeated experiences in Diablo II and other games, the reality is that after the first few times you'll probably wish there was a faster way to do things. As such, having higher level characters run new characters through content, which was extremely common in Diablo II, will still be an option in Diablo III. Considering how many characters I plan on making, I, for one, am thankful for this realistic approach to rushing.

Do you wish rushing was eliminated in Diablo III or are you glad to hear it will be part of the game? Talk about it in the topic below.

Bashiok posted on the Battle.net forums for the first time this week to tell us a few things we know and a few things we didn't on Blizzard's reasoning behind Diablo III's level cap.
Clearly Blizzard has many longterm achievements lined up for us in Diablo III, and we can surely look forward to many status symbols to work towards. The post is pretty self explanatory, so there really isn't much else to say other than feel free to revive (or rather semi-revive) the discussion about Diablo III's level cap.

Crafting in Diablo III will be considerably different than in Diablo II. Instead of relying on the transmutation ability of the Horadric Cube, Blizzard has introduced a caravan of Artisans that will do the crafting for you at the cost of gold and salvaged materials, which can be gained by dropping unwanted items into the salvage cube located in your inventory. Below is a summary of the Artisans and their respective purposes. For additional information, including plenty of screenshots and videos, you should check out the Artisan wiki link above along with the crafting page on the official site. If you still aren't satisfied with your knowledge of this new system, be sure to check out the Crafting Sanctuary panel on the DiabloFans YouTube page.

After you complete a quest line for each Artisan, they will follow you from town to town as you battle demons. Each Artisan will have its own unique wagon that will visually level up with the Artisan at the cost of gold. After an Artisan has reached its maximum level, you can continue to hone its abilities by choosing a specialization for the Artisan. In other words, an Artisan will not be 'maxed' until you have chosen and leveled up a specialization as well. However, even if you chose to specialize an Artisan they will not lose their ability to craft items outside of that specialization.

A very nice feature of the Artisans is that it makes it so that your character doesn't have to do any of the work. You simply walk up to an Artisan, queue up a few commands, and then you can pick up the crafted items at your convenience, which means you can go kill more monsters instead of watching a bar fill up as you hit an anvil. It should also be noted that the more powerful items available through crafting will drop off of monsters in the form of recipes, and the Artisan will have to meet a level requirement in order to learn the recipe. Most crafted items will have random properties, just like most drops in Diablo, but Enchantments and Gems will have set attributes.

The first artisan introduced was the Blacksmith. This Artisan takes on the duties of repairing and crafting weapons and armor for your character, but it should be noted that his specialty is non-magical items, so he won't be able to create magical staves or a Wizard's Orb. Probably the most interesting feature about the Blacksmith is his ability to socket items. He is able to add one socket to any item which can then contain a gem. As some of you may remember, sockets will play an important role in Diablo III as they can be found on any item. The only specializations mentioned for the Blacksmith were Axesmithing and Swordsmithing, although it can be inferred that he will be able to specialize in other weapons, such as Maces and Mauls, along with crafting Armor.

The Mystic was revealed at Blizzcon 2010 and has the ability to craft caster items such as magical staves and wands. It is unknown at this time if she will be able to create magical armors, but it would fit her archetype. Along with these more visual items, the Mystic will also be able to create charms and rune stones, and can also Enchant your weapons. We do not know if Enchantments will also apply to armors, but it is at least a strong possibility. No specializations have been mentioned for the Mystic, but it can be assumed that there will be some separation between her previously mentioned abilities.

The Jeweler is the Artisan for all things, well, jewelry related. He is able to craft rings, amulets and gems for the player. The Jeweler also plays an important role in the lengthy gem leveling process, as the player can only combine gems through the Jeweler. Gems in Diablo III have fourteen separate levels, but only the first five ever drop off of monsters, leading to a ridiculous amount of level five gems required in order to gain the maximum level. As such, leveling the Jeweler is the only way to gain a level fourteen gem. As with the Mystic, we do not know what the Jeweler's specializations will be, but there will most likely be differences between his crafting abilities.

Another very interesting part of the crafting system is the wagon of each Artisan. Judging by the leveling footage from the announcement video, which can be found on the official site link above, these wagons will be among the most interesting buildings in town. Although we only have seen glimpses of the early levels of the Mystic and Jeweler wagons, the maximum level Blacksmith wagon looks amazing, with a metallic theme and many impressive looking weapons and pieces of armor on display throughout the area. For a tantalizing look at the Artisan leveling process, you have to check out the announcement video, which you can find on our wiki or the official site.

In the end, Blizzard has made it clear that although the Artisan quests are part of the main storyline, leveling, and even paying attention to, the Artisans is completely optional. So now that you know all there is to know about this new crafting system, will you engage in crafting in Diablo III?

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Last week's poll about set items led to a lot of great discussion about how the community thinks sets will, or should, work in Diablo III. The leading option was that sets should be left to the end-game, but craftable sets, along with sets that scale with your character, followed closely behind. Most people agreed that something has to be changed from the system in Diablo II. If you didn't get to vote in last weeks poll, or if you would like to engage in the ongoing discussion in that thread, feel free to click the link above and share your opinion.

As you may know, http://diablowiki.com/Runes" class="wiki-link">http://media-diablofans.cursecdn.com/attachments/16/736/wiki2.gif" alt="DiabloWiki.com - Runes"/> Runes in Diablo III will function completely differently than in Diablo II. They will be socketed into skills to change their functionality in a variety of ways, and as such there will have to be some way to switch what rune you have socketed in a skill. Despite the importance of this aspect, we know very little information as to how rune swapping will work. Fortunately, a few weeks ago, @Diablo gave us a small hint as to how this aspect of gameplay will work, which made it clear that there will be some form of restriction on when and where you can change runes. Do you agree with this restriction? And if you do, what kind of restriction do you think the Diablo III team should put in place? Feel free to discuss your opinions in the topic below. If you are unclear on the specifics about runes there is a short summary below, and additional information, including videos of rune effects, can be found in the wiki link above.

Runes are divided into five types, Crimson, Indigo, Obsidian, Golden, and Alabaster. Each rune type will consist of seven different ranks, the first three of which, stone runes, can be found in Normal difficulty, the next two, silver, can be found in Nightmare, and the final two, golden, can be found in Hell. Runes are found through drops and can also be provided and upgraded by the Mystic Artisan.

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Last week's poll resulted in a resounding victory for the male Barbarian, followed by the male Monk. The only female character to beat out her male counterpart was the female Wizard, although the female Demon Hunter is currently tied with her male version. It should be noted that the female Barbarian received almost no votes, and if the male's votes were divided by two, the results would have been much closer, although the Barbarian did still receive the most overall votes. It appears people here on DiabloFans enjoy a classic.

As part of their 20th Anniversary celebration, Blizzard announced a fan contest today.
So get crackin! I'm sure a bunch of you have plenty of fond memories of Blizzard's products, whether it be Diablo, StarCraft, or Warcraft. I can't wait to see the entries. You can find the official rules page here. Unfortunately, only residents of the USA and Canada are eligible, unless you live in North Dakota, Vermont, Connecticut, Maryland or the province of Quebec.

If you've missed out on the past events of Blizzard's 20th Anniversary, be sure to check out the video describing the history of Blizzard, along with the relevant mini-site.

With the revelation of the male Demon Hunter, we finally know the look of every character option. Now that we have this information, who do you like the most? Choose your favorite character and feel free to discuss your choice in the topic below. It should be noted that there are no gameplay differences between the male and female versions of each class.

For ease of comparison, there are pictures of each character below, along with a short description of each character. More in depth information on the skills and traits of each class can be found in the wiki links before each description.

Barbarian: A melee battler who relies on heavy armor and brute force to avenge the destruction of the Worldstone and sacred Mount Arreat. Even though the Barbarian is returning from Diablo II, many skills have been added for Diablo III, such as Ground Stomp and Hammer of the Ancients, which are mixed in with more familiar skills including Whirlwind and Leap Attack. Despite many changes, the overall playstyle of the Barbarian in Diablo III should be similar to the previous incarnation. Barbarians utilize Fury, which builds up when dealing and recieving damage, as their resource. Some of the Barbarian's skills cost no Fury, and others, such as War Cry, build up Fury for early on in combat.




Demon Hunter: Quick ranged attackers who thirst for vengeance against the monsters who destroyed their towns and families. A Demon Hunter relies on quick movement through Vault to create distance between themselves and advancing demons, while also utilizing traps to create chokepoints and ranged attacks to slow and damage enemies. The Demon Hunter features returning Amazon skills, currently limited to Multishot, although more Amazon skills could be introduced in some form. The Demon Hunter's resource system is currently under development, but it appears as though they may use two different pools. Hatred is a quickly regenerating resource used for low cost and burst damage skills, while Discipline is a slowly regenerating resource used for more strategic skills and gadgets.




Monk: Fast, combo-based melee fighters who spend much of his life honing their bodies to be an instrument of their one thousand and one gods. The Monk features a combination of holy and martial arts skills, along the lines of Seven Sided Strike, while also adopting the Paladin's auras. Not much is known about these auras other than the fact that they are part of the Monk's skillset, and short descriptions can be found in the wiki link above. The Monk also features some hybrid healing and attacking skills, which could prove invaluable if there is a lack of Health Globes in a tough situation. Monks use Spirit as their resource, which builds up when the Monk uses any of their three step combo skills and is consumed when using signature moves similar to Breath of Heaven or Wave of Light.




Witch Doctor: A voodoo spellcaster who hails from the Tribe of the Five Hills of the Torajan jungles in southern Sanctuary. Witch Doctors can use a variety of mid ranged spells such as Firebomb or Locust Swarm along with their pet Zombie Dogs or Gargantuans. The Witch Doctor also has a wide range of summon-based attack spells along the lines of Plague of Toads and Wall of Zombies, which summon minions for a short period of time to deal damage. Witch Doctors use Mana as their resource, which functions the same as in Diablo II.




Wizard: Supremely confident masters of the magical arts working towards personal gain and reputation. The Wizard is a long ranged attacker that has a wide range of skills based around Arcane, Lightning, Cold and Fire damage. The Wizard features versions of many different Sorceress skills, such as Meteor, Hydra and Teleport. The Wizard also has control over a few ray based skills, namely Ray of Frost and Disintegrate which can be used to devestating effect. Wizards also seem to have a few melee based and armor skills; Diamond Skin and Spectral Blades among others, which opens up the possibility of Battle Mages who get up close and personal with the minions of the Burning Hells. Wizards use Arcane Power as their resource, which is fast regenerating and capped at 100 but is otherwise similar to Mana.

Liberation.fr recently had an interview with Mike Morhaime (President) and Frank Pearce (Senior VP) of Blizzard which you can find here (the interview is in French, so you may have to use a translator). During the interview, we recieved some extremely interesting and very good news about Diablo III's release date.

Although the response is somewhat ambiguous, it can be determined that Diablo III is very far in development, and appears to be in alpha testing. It should be noted that the translation is somewhat hard to interpret, and it could be either "development is technically finished" or "technical development is finished," but either one is very good news. This response isn't too much different than the news recieved during the recent conference call Activision Blizzard conducted, or the subsequent interview with Kotaku, but the language does seem to be even more promising.

As is standard with anything Blizzard says, there are no guarentees, but the fact that they are comfortable saying there is a good chance of release in Diablo III is good news by itself. Surely there is plenty of work left to get the game ready for release, but this quote implies that much of the game is completed and needs to be balanced and polished to Blizzard's high standards. Again, this is not a guarentee that we'll all be playing Diablo III this year, but its the best news we've gotten about it so far. Hopefully we can get our hands on a beta soon, a scenario which is seeming more and more likely.

In case you didn't know, during the financial conference call last month, Mike Morhaime told us that we would hear more about the beta during the Q1 2011 Conference Call in May. That statement, along with this interview, makes it seem like we may finally be approaching the light at the end of the tunnel.

@Diablo gave us a few nice bits of information today about http://diablowiki.com/Runes" class="wiki-link">http://media-diablofans.cursecdn.com/attachments/16/736/wiki2.gif" alt="DiabloWiki.com - Runes"/> Runes, Gems and Enchantments in Diablo III.

The first interesting piece of info is about a pretty substantial change in the effect of Gems in the upcoming game.
It seems as though gems will function quite differently than in Diablo II. While in the past they provided elemental damage when put in a weapon, enchantments now provide this effect. Whether or not gems will even contribute to the damage done by a weapon is unknown, but in order to make your axe hit with Cold or Fire damage you will now have to turn to enchantments instead of gems. It will be very interesting to see what kind of combinations will arise when enchanting a socketed weapon or piece of gear, and the degree of customization should be impressive.

In the same vein as the previous tweet, it appears as though at least two of the six gems will be viable for caster weapons. This opens up the possibility of Attack and Cast speed increases through gems, as either of those would obviously help a caster. The second gem could be for builds that focus on skills that involve weapon damage, if they exist at all, or more derivative builds such as a Battle Mage of sorts. Whatever the end result, it is nice to know that gems will be important for all classes.

Relating to a recent discussion on our forums, we are given a small hint as to how rune swapping will work. While many users expressed concern that ease of swapping could translate into abusing the rune system to constantly optimize your character depending on who you were fighting, this tweet makes it somewhat clear that there will be restrictions on rune swapping. These restrictions could come in the form of having to return to town every time, or even something along the lines of a time limit on how often you can swap runes. In the end, as with so many things, we will have to wait for more information to know exactly how it will work.

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On a bit of an unrelated note, we also got some good news today when we found out that there is now a new Community Manager alongside Bashiok on the Diablo III forums.
Edit: Apparently he's not a Diablo III CM, so we won't see him around that much. Pretty misleading first line though.

The Blizzard art page was also updated with some new Diablo fan art featuring three Barbarian pieces and a blood curdling drawing of the infamous http://diablowiki.com/Butcher." class="wiki-link">http://media-diablofans.cursecdn.com/attachments/16/736/wiki2.gif" alt="DiabloWiki.com - Butcher."/> Butcher.

Recently, we've received some more information about a few different systems in Diablo III during some discussion on the Battle.net forums, along with a few informative tweets.

To start off, we recieved some much needed, if miniscule, information about NPC followers in Diablo III.
At first look this simply confirms the obvious: NPCs that follow you around will die. However, Bashiok's reply seems to imply that you'll fight at the side of NPCs that won't be able to die, such as Deckard Cain following the Barbarian in the Gameplay Video. Fighting along with Tyreal as you make your way into Diablo's lair? It could happen. Who knows what NPCs, new or old, will ask for your assistance and then come along with you for the quest or two they send you on? Though if you're interested, our very own Don_Guillotine took a stab at what NPC's we may be encountering.


Bashiok then gave us a very good description of the hit chance in the upcoming game in the start of a lengthy thread on the Battle.net forums.
As Bashiok points out, this system is based on a combination of aim and percentages, depening on the attack. Area of effect attacks hit as long as the the player or monster is in, well, the area. Ranged attacks, in most cases, travel in straight lines and whether or not the attack hits the monster depends on where the player aimed. Obviously this will vary with the skill, as some ranged attacks may follow their target. The melee hit chance is simply a percentage, and if you are within melee range you will hit the player or monster 95% of the time in order to simulate the potential misses with a ranged attack. This also means that Attack Rating won't be returning in Diablo III, and it appears as though the miss rate will be constant for melee characters and will not be able to be improved by stats.

The conversation in the Battle.net forum thread then turned to talk of player skill, and Bashiok chimed in on this topic as well.
Obviously, Diablo is going for a balance of allowing casual players to play and enjoy the game, while still implementing mechanics and challenges that allow people to show off their prowess. As Bashiok describes, the separation between hardcore and casual players will be less based on a knowledge of the math behind the game's mechanics, and more on knowing what skills, runes and gear to get and whether or not you know how to play your character's build.

This topic continued in a somewhat heated discussion, where Bashiok explained how min/maxing works in Diablo III.
It appears as though there are plenty of complex systems with a lot of depth. Bashiok seems to be going out of his way to assure us that min/maxing will be very important to get the most out of your character. However, that does not translate into complex interfaces. As seen during the Blizzcon 2010 Crafting Sanctuary panel, Diablo III's interface has gone through many iterations to become as easy to use as possible.

Bashiok brings up a very interesting point here when it comes to the damage system in Diablo III. As we all know, Diablo III uses Health Globes as the main way to gain health instead of the Potions we all know from the first two games, and this makes it so that the entire damage system is different in Diablo III when compared to Diablo II.

And yea, where is that beta?

Bashiok recently revealed some very interesting information about Skill Runes in Diablo III which should put to rest some questions raised in a recent topic in these forums.

The first question he responded to was in regards to how we will acquire runes in the game:
It seems that, unlike Gems in Diablo III, gaining the maximum rank of a rune will be a much faster process. Where gems only drop the first five out of fourteen levels, as of right now all skill runes will drop in game, and will not have to be crafted. We should keep in mind, however, that this does not mean that lower rank runes will not be able to be combined to make higher rank runes. If the drop rates for skill runes in Diablo III are anywhere close to as low as the rates for runes in Diablo II, combining skill runes could prove to be one of the only ways to gain large amounts of high level skill runes.

As Bashiok points out, this type of system could easily lead to there being too many skill runes in the economy. We can only speculate how they will be taken out of the economy, but one possibility could be some sort of downgrade whenever you respec or change the rune in a skill. This type of system would increase the cost of experimentation however, which is something Blizzard has said they want to avoid. Once again, it appears as though we must wait for more information.
Ideally, every rune will end up being useful for some equally useful build. However, the ideal situation is often not the outcome. Having said that, Blizzard has a very good track record of keeping things balanced in their games, and given the amount of possible combinations of skills and runes, each rune will probably end up having its place. The real question becomes which rune will be useful for the most builds? If, for example, the Indigo rune is only viable in two legitimate and widely used builds, and the Crimson rune ends up being viable for five widely used builds, the Crimson rune will obviously be more valuable in trading, even though the Indigo rune has its place. Unfortunately, translating these discrepancies to drop rates is an entirely different story. As Bashiok points out, constantly micromanaging rune drop rates would probably become too much of a burden as the value of a given rune would end up changing far too often as new builds are discovered.
In a pretty self explanatory answer, Bashiok makes it clear that each rank of each rune will continue to do the same thing. However, he does point out that additional effects will be added whenever it is necessary to allow the rune to remain viable. Whether or not this applies to more interesting effects than adding damage is still up in the air however, so keep your fingers crossed. Who knows? Maybe you'll be able to shoot two snakes at once after rank four of the Alabaster rune.
In what is our first information about how skill rune progression will work, Bashiok reveals that the level skill rune available to be used in a skill will be determined by the level of the skill, not the character. This means that if you only got one point in, say, Leap Attack so you had a mobility skill, you won't be able to boost its power to that much of a higher level, as you will only be able to place a low level rune in the skill. This will most likely lead to some very interesting decisions when designing a build, as adding one skill point to boost a skill from level 5 to 6 could end up being much more important than the increase from level 4 to 5, as having a skill at level 6 will not only increase the skill's power, but also allow for a new rank of rune. However, your build could end up with two level 5 skills when you only have one point left to spare, and which skill you put that point in could very well end up defining your build. These kinds of options are what will really end up making each character unique in Diablo III.


Bashiok had an equally interesting tidbit at the end of that answer:
Although previously we were informed that skill caps would increase with the difficulty level, with 5 being the limit in Normal, 10 in Nighmare, and 15 in Hell, it appears that the system has changed. The most likely system would probably have something to do with the character's level, but skill levels could also be increased by quests, progression through the Acts, or maybe by having to spend a skill point in order to unlock the next "tier" of skill levels.

Even though each level of rune currently drops in game, Bashiok has made it clear that gaining max level runes will still be a process, and a goal similar to gaining level 14 gems. However, this massive time investment is implied to be more for making your character the best it can possibly be, but is not completely necessary to remain at a competitive level. These two statements seem to contradict themselves, as if gaining a max level rune requires such a large time investment, or at least requires something valuable to trade, then why wouldn't they also be proportionally more powerful? If people are going to be spending hours on end looking for a rune, I for one believe they should be rewarded. Fortunately, Bashiok seems to imply that this system is still a work in progress, and every aspect of it is subject to change.

Don't forget to give our very own Scyberdragon some rep for asking some great questions, and getting some great answers as a result!