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ScyberDragon
Registered User
Member for 15 years, 2 months, and 28 days
Last active Tue, Apr, 1 2014 12:13:11

119 Followers
8,816 Total Posts
478 Thanks

Apr 18, 2012
ScyberDragon published the article No More Starter Access, Release Schedule Coming, Inferno Farming, Blue Posts, and Curse Roundup

Beta is Live and Starter Edition Has Been Fixed
In case you missed it, early today people were able to login to the beta without a beta key. However, after a long maintenance today, this issue has been fixed and you once again need a beta key to play the Diablo III Beta.

Interesting Update It looks like the Diablo III Beta is now running on 'Live' Servers/Battle.net. If you have Real-ID friends on LIVE WoW, you will now be able to see and talk to them while in the beta (and they can talk and add you). However people on the PTR realms can no longer chat with people in the Diablo III Beta. This is very interesting news, and may be one of the reasons for the rather long maintenance and the odd Starter Edition issue. As well as why all information (including friends list) was removed on patch 17

Release Schedule
With the release date known, the biggest question has been when are the servers going online. Bashiok has tweeted a few times telling us they were not sure yet. However it looks like we will finally be getting some information very soon

Originally Posted by Blizzard (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
Also news regarding local timings on release day should be up by the end of the week.

Inferno Farming
Bashiok commented on possible loop holes existing that will help players beat Inferno quickly; at least at first.

Originally Posted by Blizzard (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
Can I totally go back on what I said before?

Ok, not totally, but I think there's some distinction to be made for 'legitimate' ability to beat Inferno, in that, we expect there could be ways, potentially exploits, potentially clever but cheesy mechanics, that could maybe allow a player to complete Inferno fairly quickly. The bet stands as-is, but I think if it could be revised it would be "X time before it becomes farmable", meaning someone can legitimately kill the end boss over and over and over without needing to take advantage of an exploit, or loophole, or some other thing we don't intend to be possible.

Of course we'll try to address any such issue as quickly as possible, but it's feasible that the first Inferno clear will be through use of unintended means. Technically still valid per the wording of the bet, but I think most can agree would go against the spirit of it.

Diablo II Ladder Reset – May 2

Originally Posted by Blizzard (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
As we all anxiously await the release of Diablo III on May 15, we invite you to come enjoy one last hurrah in Diablo II as we reset the ladder the morning of May 2. We anticipate the realms could be down for up to six hours during the reset, and during that time all existing ladder characters will be converted to non-ladder. All characters and items being converted to non-ladder will remain intact, but once converted these characters will no longer have access to ladder content such as creating ladder-only rune words.

This ladder reset, like all those before it, creates a clean slate where all ladder characters begin at level 1 with no previous items to help them. To participate, simply wait until the Diablo II realms return to service on May 2, log in to Battle.net, and tick the “Ladder Character” checkbox when creating a new character. You can track ladder character leveling progress by clicking on the Ladder button from the main Diablo II in-game Battle.net interface.

Of course if you haven’t yet tried Diablo II you can find the Battle Chest at any fine PC game retail store, as well as our onlineBlizzard Store. You can alternatively purchase digital copies of Diablo II and the Lord of Destruction expansion, which you can begin downloading and playing immediately.

For more information on ladder characters please visit the Arreat Summit.

Blue Posts

Originally Posted by (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
Still Supporting Diablo II
We don't have any plans to stop supporting Diablo II, including ladder resets. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

D3 on a SSD
IMO an SSD is one of the best upgrades (bang for the buck) you can make for your system as a whole. In most cases though your HDD is not a bottleneck for games outside of the initial loading screen/s. If you want a machine that runs faster, an SSD can be a huge improvement. If you don't care about anything but game performance, there may be other components to focus on first. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

Real ID
Your D3 Beta friends list will not generate until you friends come online on other games. When the retail version of the game is live, it will automatically pull this data from your friends list, but since this is still a Beta, there are a few issues. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

Twitter
Can you explain the "Unattuned Runes" mixed with the "new" UI in the Monk's inventory during his trailer?
It's old footage. (Source)

Hero of the Day
With each class reveal comes a chance to create a class sigil. Not only do you get an exclusive in-game sigil for participating, you also have the chance to be the Hero of the Day, winning a SteelSeries gaming mouse pad signed by the Blizzard team.

Originally Posted by Blizzard (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
The latest Hero of the Day contest winners are in! Each day, based on your votes, we select a new Mark of Valor submission to become the Hero of the Day, and we're ready to reveal the champions for the demon hunter and barbarian.

Head on over to the Hero of the Day gallery to see them all for yourself.

This week's hero is the monk. To unlock your exclusive in-game class sigil and earn the chance to win a SteelSeries gaming mouse pad signed by the Diablo III development team (shown below), travel to the Darkness Falls, Heroes Rise promotional site and create your customized banner today!

Week Two: Barbarian

Week One: Demon Hunter

Curse Weekly Roundup
This week, we have a bunch of Curse exclusive coverage of PAX-East. Check it out.

Posted in: No More Starter Access, Release Schedule Coming, Inferno Farming, Blue Posts, and Curse Roundup
Apr 15, 2012
ScyberDragon published the article Waller Affix, Framerate, Rare Drops, Treasure Goblin, and G4 Game Contest

Patch 16 - Rare Waller Affix
The Waller affix that was first found "Beyond the Gate" seems to have a different effect based on if the mobs is part of a champion pack or is a rare. Found on the Plague Carrier in the Den of the Fallen, they place three walls surrounding your character in a much tighter area. This is definitely a different behavior than we saw before on the champion pack.

FPS Smoother at Release
The Diablo III beta is still just that, a beta. The shipped version of the game will run even smoother than the beta when it comes to frames per second.

Originally Posted by Blizzard (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
It let's me in the game all right, but it's in slow motion and not at all fun to have such low frame rates even with all of the settings turned down.
Bear in mind that the beta has its own FPS issues simply because it's a beta; Diablo III won't be optimized until release. My custom-built gaming system can't play the beta smoothly either, but it will be fine on release. Blizzard betas are genuine betas, unlike the glorified demos that some companies refer to as a "beta".

Still, it is no consolation for those with newer laptops with the intel 4 series chipset, which isn't supported. Why?
Speaking honestly, the Intel 4 series is equivalent in power to the Geforce 5200FX which came out in 2003. My sympathies for having one. It's performance was so poor that the backlash from it spurred Intel to finally get serious about designing a somewhat decent onboard video option, and that led us to the Intel HD series. The HD series still isn't as good as a real video card, but at least you can usually count on most games to be playable.

More on Rare Drops
There was more information given on just how frequent rares would drop from both bosses and barrels.

Originally Posted by Blizzard (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
The SK only drops yellow on your first kill of him per character.
That is incorrect.The possibility of a boss (or anything, really) dropping magic gear or rare gear when you kill him remains intact on kills subsequent to your first. The probability may change, but it does not change to a probability of zero.

To be clear: On your first kill of a boss in normal difficulty, you are guaranteed a random rare and a class rare, as well as some blues and other stuff. All other kills on all difficulties result in standard drop probabilities. You have a decent chance of getting a rare or two every time you kill a boss.

If they do drop 1/100 later that is probably fine, or better than fine, but why not just make that the "rate" earlier?
I don't know what the drop rates of magic and rare gear from barrels are, but I hope they're way less likely than 1/100.
... because you only need to see that yellow helm flying out of a broken barrel once to change how you see the game forever.

Beta Bestiary
With Patch 16, the Treasure Goblin had some changes to its vulnerability to movement impairing effects. The Treasure Goblin is an elusive demon. Serving the demon of Greed, the Treasure Goblin looks to steal treasures from others and escape with them. Treasure Goblins will constantly run from your attacks with no offensive abilities. However, if you do not kill them fast enough, they will open a portal and disappear. If you manage to kill the demon, a bounty of treasure awaits you.

G4 Game Contest
G4 is holding a contest for best video game story. Right now, Diablo II is up against Knights of the Old Republic after beating out Resident Evil 4 in the first round. It's a close match right now so make sure to let them know how great the story of Diablo truly is.

Posted in: Waller Affix, Framerate, Rare Drops, Treasure Goblin, and G4 Game Contest
Apr 8, 2012
ScyberDragon published the article Easter Eggs

Easter Eggs
Blizzard is known for including tons of Easter Eggs in all of their games. From the obvious to the obscure, they take every chance to poke a little fun into their games. Diablo is no exception. Diablo II had dozens of them with the most famous being the secret cow level. A poke at the idea that many players claimed clicking on the cow enough times in Diablo I would open a secret cow level.

Diablo III is just one more game for Blizzard to hide these little nuggets of joy. From the limited beta and information we have so far, there are already plenty for us to find. Both in-game and in the community site, there have been Easter Eggs discovered all over.

NPC's
Most in-game Easter Eggs found so far have been little pockets of nostalgia to the Diablo II players. The first is a cave that will randomly appear in the Weeping Hollow. The Den of the Fallen is a throw back to the first quest from Diablo II where you had to cleanse the Den of Evil. Another Easter Egg within the Easter Egg is the corpse of Bishibosh, although there has been the outcry that Bishibosh was actually in the Cold Plains and not in the Den of Evil but its nice to see the work of our previous heroes none-the-less. You may also notice a familiar rare zombie that meets you at the end of the tunnel.

Second, you can find a dead corpse to click on with the name of Warriv. You might remember him as the NPC who helps you travel from the Rogue Encampment to Lut Gholein. Clicking on him will drop a journal that you can listen to for some more in-depth lore.

Items
The next two are a couple of drops that elude back to the previous two games. The first was found when clicking on an anvil in the burnt remains of Old Tristram. Clicking on the anvil would sometimes randomly drop a legendary sword; Griswold's Edge to be exact. The sword was an item found in both earlier games with Griswold being the Blacksmith from Diablo I. The second Easter Egg drop was a Black Mushroom. The Black Mushroom was also found as part of a quest given in Diablo I from Adria the Witch, who also happens to be playing a bigger role in the newest game.

Some more hidden treasures can be found in the game. These are more of a little extra due credit to those who helped make Diablo III. In some areas, you can find some burial tombs with the World Artists' names displayed. Also, within the game files, each developers' names are used for monsters.

Visual
There is also a mysterious glow coming from the ground on the Road to Old Tristram. While not confirmed, the location would put it in a very similar location as the crack in Diablo I that lead to Hell and Diablo.

Non-Game
Not all Easter eggs are found in the game though. There have been a few found in the community forums. The first was a fun little surprise presented to the community as a riddle. Eventually the riddle was figured out and Nyan Cow was discovered. A joke that pokes fun of the popular Youtube video "Nyan Cat" as well as a throw back to the ever popular Secret Cow Level.

Another hidden gem is the mysterious Chat Gem. While it has always been poked fun of at the expense of those who clicked it a million times in Battle.net, an actual purpose was given to it on the Official Diablo III forums. When clicking on the gem in the skill calculator, it will auto-generate a random build for you.

One final Easter egg was found within the game files that were dug through when the beta came out. With both a throw back to the cow level as well as a joke about the "colorful" look of Diablo III, the development team chose some choice words to help disguise some events that will unfold. It should be noted that the words used in the game files do not literally represent what they mean and represent something entirely different in the game. Game files have been found with the following:

DiabloFans Quote:

A4_1000MonsterFight_Encounter_Name Boss: Battle For Ponies
A4_1000MonsterFight_Taunt_Text The battle for ponies is about to begin.
BridlePurpose_Encounter_Name The Pinnacle of Ponies Event
CowBell: When the demons come, close your eyes and ring this... it takes you far, far away...;

While there may be more to find in the beta, there will certainly be more to find when Diablo III is finally released on May 15. So, keep your eyes peeled and feel free to share with the community any and all that you find.

Posted in: Easter Eggs
Mar 31, 2012
ScyberDragon published the article Diablo III is Coming to the Wii
Diablo III on Wii (April Fools)
Hack N' Slash just became literal. Blizzard just announced that Diablo III will be available for the Nintendo Wii. While it was announced awhile ago that Blizzard was planning on a console release, it was not until recent that it found its way to a specific console system. Blizzard gave a list of reasons why this decision was made and what we can expect.

Originally Posted by (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
I am proud to announce that we will be bringing Diablo III to the Nintendo Wii system. We have partnered with Satoru Iwata and Nintendo to bring you a fun and innovative way to play our newest game. We hope to bring the genre to a new peak unlike anyone has seen before. Being at the forefront of a gameplay experience that is sure to bring you endless amounts of fun.

The main reason we decided to go with Nintendo was their devotion and enthusiasm to always put gameplay first. Being the top of our core company values, we wanted to make sure this would carry over to the console community. While some of the hardware is not as strong as other consoles, we were willing to overlook that fact in order to create a game that was more fun to play.

We also found the controls and mechanics of the game was quite easy to transfer over from the PC version to the Wii. Creating a fun and exciting experience as you hack n' slash your way through the hordes of monsters you are sure to fight. With a wide range of motion control that will allow the player to become their character through their actions.

Finally, we have always aimed to bring you a great on-line experience with no additional cost to the player. We were able to bring our Battle.net 2.0 to Nintendo's on-line community. Allowing our players to have the same great on-line experience as all of our PC players.

With many more exciting ventures we have planned for the future, we hope you find this news just as exciting as we do.

Wii Info
Beyond Blizzard's announcement, more news has been shared about the details of how the port will work. First, it was mentioned that one of reasons to cut the skill number from seven to six was to help create a more fluid feel to the controls for the Wii. With a more limited controller, seven skills just made it too confusing.

It was also shared that players on the PC version will be able to join up with players on the Wii. Thanks to the ability to integrate Battle.net with Wii's on-line service, there will be no distinguishable difference as far as that part goes. Playing co-op and battling in the arena, both sets of payers will be fully integrated.

Another special addition just to Wii players will be a few extra achievements. As a part of the deal, Nintendo has always tried to maintain an image that playing games can still be healthy for you. Wii players will be able to unlock special achievements based on the amount of movement and calories burned which will be tracked on the character's information page.

Finally, Nintendo will also be releasing a limited edition Wii inspired by Diablo III. On sale for pre-sale next month, the limited edition console will come with a sleek black appearance with a few Diablo touches. The console will also come with the Diablo III game as well as the perks that have been mentioned with the PC collector's edition.

Player Experience
Along with this announcement, Blizzard invited a few members of the press to try our, first-hand, just how the Wii version works. DiabloFans was lucky enough to try out the new Hack N' Slash game.
DiabloFans Quote:
I will admit I had my reservations about my favorite franchise being ported to the console known for having games that babies and grandparents can play. There was no way my thirst for carnage and demon slaying could be met on this kiddie console. However, I will also be the first to admit that it did.

I walked into a small room with two couches and five big screen t.v.'s with Wii consoles connected to all of them. Myself and a few other people from other various gaming sites waited until Jay Wilson and other people on the development team joined us. The started up the game and handed us our wii-motes. With our hands gripping our controllers, they started the first quest. (The build was identical to the beta not allowing us to try out any new gameplay). The game starts out with a tutorial on the controls. A mixture of button pressing and controller motion, the controls were quick and easy to pick up. A few minutes into playing and I was swinging my way through the hordes of Hell.

We had plenty of time to try out each class which each had their own unique controls. (It is possible to turn of the Wii motion controls and just button click for those so inclined).

Barbarian
- Whirlwind - Spin in a circle with your controllers held out
- Threatening Shout - Pull down with both arms ending out on your side
- Frenzy - Continuously swing both controllers up and down
Demon Hunter
- Hungering Arrow - Pull back nunchuck as if drawing a bow
- Grenades - Move nunchuck as if tossing the grenades
- Traps - Move the controllers down to the ground
Monk
- Fists of Thunder - Use Wii-mote for first attack, nunchuck for second and thrust both to finish the combo
- Way of the Hundred Fists - Repeatedly punch with both hands
- Inner Sanctuary - Rotate at the waist with both hands held out to your side
Witch Doctor
- Summon Zombie Dog - Pull both controllers upwards from the ground up to above your head
- Sacrifice - Bring both hands together in front of you
- Soul Harvest - Twist with both controllers
Wizard
- Disintegrate - Hold both controllers out in front of you
- Frost Armor - Pull from head to your waist with controllers on your side
- Electrocute - Make 'Z' shapes with the Wii-mote
Every time a new skill is earned, players are given a quick demonstration of the controls. There is also an added tool tip just in case you forget.

I will admit after working up a good sweat from playing, I was quite impressed with the game. The continuous killing of demons was only made more fun as I literally was hacking my way through them. Personally, I loved the melee classes the best with these controls, slamming the controllers around me. Be careful, however, I may have accidentally given a member of the Blizzard team a black eye while performing a Cleave (sorry Bash). Say what you will about this port but until you get your hands on it, you won't understand the fun the Wii brings to the game.
Posted in: Diablo III is Coming to the Wii
Feb 20, 2012
ScyberDragon published the article Beta Key Contests, Updated Calculator, Where's Release?, Blue Posts

Beta Key Contests Still Going
Our beta keys contests are still going strong and we've already given away 150 Beta Keys to forum users and people answering questions on Facebook and Twitter! The character build contest hasn't started yet and is likely to happen at the end of this week or at the beginning of the next one. Good luck to everyone!

For more details on each contest, check out Diablofans Diablo 3 Beta Key Contests! 450 Keys to win!

Updated Calculator and Game Guide
With all of the changes that have come with the recent patches, the information on the Diablo III website has become outdated. Blizzard is working on getting it updated, however, a new calculator should be up for our Character Build beta contest.

Official Blizzard Quote:

I'm wondering how soon we can expect the new skill calculator update so we can play around with the new rune system.
The web guys have been working hard on it and hope to have all the patch 13 changes reflected, including an updated calc, on the site next week.

Is there an ETA on when to expect them updated with the new stats?
No ETA, just "closer to launch".

What's Going On With Release?
Nethaera came on the forums Saturday to reinforce the fact that yes, they are still working hard on D3, and yes, they are just as eager to get the game out as we are.

Official Blizzard Quote:

Whats going on with the release?
We're working on it. No specific date to state as of yet. We're just as eager to get Diablo III into everyone's hands despite what some may say, think, or believe of us.
We appreciate everyone that's been hanging on and hanging out with us through the development of the game.

They decided to scrap the whole thing because the community got on their last nerve
That would be a terrible reason to scrap the game. Plus, we understand the frustration. Perhaps we should just hug it out? (Ignore the daggers I hold.)

Blue Posts

Originally Posted by Blizzard (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
Thoughts on hardcore
I've played hundreds of hours of Hardcore Diablo II, and hundreds of hours of normal Diablo II.

Over the last couple of years, I've gotten to know several other hardcore Hardcore players, if you know what I mean. Every single one of them plays a ton of normal in support of their Hardcore characters. So do I.

I'm sure that it's not a requirement, but I find it very important to spend 50% or more of my time learning all the tricks of the game in normal mode as a preparation for preserving my Hardcore character(s). Just learning about and knowing what near-death is like, and being very familiar with the bottom of the health globe is something that a serious Hardcore player will only do with normal characters. ( Blue Tracker / Official Forums )

Expectations
There's only like 40 minutes of content in the beta, so that's pretty amazing you played for 7 hours. I hereby crown this game ... SUCCESSFUL!

On a more serious note, I too worry that we won't be able to meet the expectations people have built up for themselves. Part of my job is managing people's expectations, so... eh... stop it. Stop thinking about how awesome this game could be. Just imagine it's a new M. Night Shyamalan movie. Sure Sixth Sense was amazing and Unbreakable had it's moments, but this right here is the sequel to The Village ... or The Happening ... or Signs ... or any of the movies besides the two I first mentioned. So just like, lower those expectations, but still definitely buy the game please, and everything will be just fine. K?

Unbreakable sucked though.
I actually really liked it. I know most people didn't. I've come to accept this. ( Blue Tracker / Official Forums )

Diabolesques
calavera666 has presented us with another great comic highlighting Blizzard's iteration process that we have seen so much with the recent patches.

Guild Wars 2 - Curse Exclusive Look
The guys over at Guildwars2guru got a closed beta video from the press event. Check it out.

Posted in: Beta Key Contests, Updated Calculator, Where's Release?, Blue Posts
Feb 15, 2012
ScyberDragon published the article Rune System and Patch Info Soon, Skill Trees, Poll Recap, and Beta Screenshots

Rune System Info and Patch Coming Soon
We should be getting both information on the finalized rune system in an article from Jay Wilson soon™. On top of that, we will also be getting a patch soon™ as well.

Originally Posted by Blizzard (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
You said its working in game final form bla bla. WHERES THE SITE WRITE UP EXPLAINING IT?!? It's only, you know, probably the most central pilar of D3 gameplay. Stop slacking and let us know so we can argue endlessly over how amazing/horrible the system is.
We'll be posting information on the next patch pretty much as close to the patch release as we can manage. Soon.

Do you think they were almost done, but decided to all go get sno-cones and play a few rounds of backgammon first? But now, called out for their slackerly ways, will finish it post-haste?
It doesn't matter, man. It's not worth spending time trying to justify our processes, just stuff happens when it happens, we can maybe drop some hints, sometimes, other times we may not, but ultimately it's done when it's done and that drives some people INSANE. Can't be helped.Somehow saying "soon" makes people less insane, or even giggle. It's like magic.

Thoughts on Skill Trees
Bashiok responded to a thread on the Battle.net forums in regards to adding skill trees back to Diablo III. Primarily, it was brought up that letting players choose whatever skills whenever they want will reduce re-playability.

Originally Posted by Blizzard (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
Wow, people really don't like the OPs post. Well, if we're killing replay value by not making people have to level completely new characters just to try out a new build, we are ok with that.

Leveling characters is cool, and some people legitimately enjoy that process (me!), and we agree it can be fun and would still like to find ways to reward people who enjoy leveling additional characters, but being required to do it just to try out some different skills is no longer acceptable to us. That's a level of masochism we just don't care to revisit. We thank the 90's for their contributions to game design, and the 'crush the player's soul' dungeon master mentality, but we're moving on. We have this crazy notion that games shouldn't punish you for trying to enjoy them.

Fact of the matter is though that the longevity in Diablo II was not made by leveling characters. You can get a character to 80 in a matter of hours. The longevity was from experimentation, customization, and the randomized item drops needed to perfect them. And that's amazingly even considering that a huge portion of the item hunt was completely ruined due to the mass proliferation of what should be insanely rare items. Longevity in Diablo is from exploration, character customization, and more specifically, killing monsters to see what they drop - not leveling.

You can also add to this that in Diablo III killing monsters to see what they drop will not be made lucrative by explicitly predictable means, such as boss runs. Exploring entire areas, even playing from start to finish of each act, uncovering all the nooks and crannies is intended to be the way you'll be playing Inferno. You can pretend you're leveling a new character each time, if you'd like.

Poll Recap - Monster Drop Rates
Our community is full of opinions and people definitely like to share them. This poll asks whether or not you like the idea of rare monsters having better drop rates than bosses. Primarily, for the use to help curb boss runs since random loot can be better. Most of the community is happy with this decision to help increase the use of the entire game instead of just bosses when it comes down to grinding for loot. In second place, some users just do not care one way or the other. If you would like to share your opinion on the matter, feel free to stop by and cast your vote.

Beta Screenshots
In the first screenshot, we see a Monk attacking Captain Daltyn with a Lashing Tail Kick. In the next screenshot, a chandler is released onto a horde of zombies earning our Monk the "Bringing Down the House" achievement. In the last screenshot, the Monk has used Blinding Flash on a Wretched Mother to stop her from spewing forth another zombie.

Posted in: Rune System and Patch Info Soon, Skill Trees, Poll Recap, and Beta Screenshots
Feb 14, 2012
ScyberDragon published the article AH Testing, Valentine's Day Wishes, Diablo Wallpaper, Diaboleques, and Curse Word Monthly

Auction House Testing
Blizzard is working hard on getting their Auction House working. Starting now, they will be stress testing their AH's every day this week to test them for peak performance.

Originally Posted by Blizzard (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
We'll be performing maintenance on the auction house on February 14, from 10:00 a.m. PT until approximately 11:00 a.m. PT. During this time the auction house is intended to remain available, but some interruption may occur.

We’ll be placing extra strain on the beta auction house every day this week from 10:00 a.m. PST until approximately 12:00 p.m. PST, to put the system through its paces. During this time there may be interruptions or loss in an ability to use the auction house. We’ll provide updates if there’s any extended downtime experienced or expected.

Happy Valentine's Day from Blizzard
Even the demons of Hell can warm up on this day of love.

Originally Posted by Blizzard (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
On behalf of the Diablo III development team, we wish you a very happy Valentine's Day
What an auspicious occasion for Gluttony Incarnate.
Be Mine... For All Eternity. http://t.co/TgZMhwRx

Diablo Wallpaper
Blizzard releases a new wallpaper every Tuesday and Valentine's day is no different. In case the first images were a little too cutesy for you, try this one.

Happy Valentine's Day from Diaboleques
calavera666 has delighted us with a bosomy Barbarian and her troubles in life beyond killing every demon in Sanctuary.

Curse Word Monthly
Want to know what's going on with Curse every month in one quick news letter? Well, sign up now for the Curse Word Monthly and you can have just that. Sign up now, and Curse will even give you a one-month free Curse Premium account which removes ads from their sites as well as access to special betas and contests.

Each month, the Curse Word newsletter delivers the latest news from our fansites, information on current Curse giveaways, and often exclusive discounts and specials!

Never miss any of our awesome Curse giveaways and contests again when you subscribe to the Curse Word!

Posted in: AH Testing, Valentine's Day Wishes, Diablo Wallpaper, Diaboleques, and Curse Word Monthly
Feb 10, 2012
ScyberDragon published the article Hall of Fallen Heroes, Annual Pass, Frustration with Release, Cinematic Awards, and Diabloesques

The Hall of Fallen Heroes
With the Twitter Q&A earlier this week, we found that the Hall of the Dead might not make it in by release. However today the same user tried to get some clarification on what happens to your hardcore characters when they die now.
It seems that the feature may be in, in some form or another as Bashiok posted saying they would be transferred to the " Hall of Fallen Heroes".

Official Blizzard Quote:

so what happens to a hc char when they die? Take up a slot still?
Why, they're transferred to The Hall of Fallen Heroes, of course.

Annual Pass
With the news of a Q2 target release, some people commented about the one million people who have purchased their annual subscription to WoW and have not received their free copy of Diablo III yet.

Originally Posted by Blizzard (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
I've seen these threads before, and it’s concerning to me. I'm confused as to what people believed the Annual Pass provided when they signed up.

It's a year-long World of Warcraft contract for people who would be playing World of Warcraft for the next year, but who also want to play Diablo III. In those cases we say Ok, agree to pay through for that year, and you don't have to make the choice, we'll give you Diablo III for free, plus a bunch of other goodies just in case you're not totally sold.

I'm not sure how a Diablo III release date impacts your intent to continue playing and paying for World of Warcraft for a year. Or maybe a better question is, how does a free copy of Diablo III being released at any different point in time affect your intent to pay for World of Warcraft for a year?

Even if Diablo III was to release after your 1 year contract was up and paid off, you're saving the cost of a copy of Diablo III, and keeping all the extras. I don't see how that's a trick, or a scam, or otherwise a bad deal. Unless you were buying it, not intending to play WoW, believing it would get you Diablo III sooner than other people?

I sympathize with people excited about the game, and disappointed it’s not out, I want it to be finished as much as anyone, but I just have trouble understanding this point as I see it consistently made.

I know there was some wording on a website page somewhere saying 'early next year', but I'm not aware of the actual Annual Pass agreement having any release date schedule ever mentioned for Diablo III or the Mists beta.

In any case, assumptions that a contract was in any way changed aside, it doesn't change the value of the Annual Pass and the fact that you're getting Diablo III for free.

Frustration with Release
Since the conference call and the news that Diablo III is being targeted for release in Q2, many users on the forums are venting their frustration of the game's development time line.

Originally Posted by (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
"The company's first quarter 2012 outlook does not incorporate a new release from Blizzard Entertainment." - D3 delayed to Q2. Nice to know that "Early 2012" actually means Mid 2012.
A lot of strong emotion has turned this thread into a flamefest as well, so I will lock this one too.
Please guys, try an remain calm... patience is a virtue, remember?!? We are perfectly aware that many of you really, really want to play the game, preferably sooner rather than later, but that is not an excuse to let your frustrations run amok. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

Blizz is just one big let down. they dont care at all about their customers. I getting so tired of blizz...
We are trying to make the game as good as it can possibly be, how is that not caring? (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

Dear blizzard if u delayed no problem . Send us (fast) as many beta keys u can you will calm the players down trust me .
I'm afraid it is not possible to give keys to everyone, so please remember: Serenity Now!
That being said, more keys are coming:
https://eu.battle.ne...775?page=14#280 (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

But when they throw a video that dated back at Blizzcon 2011 instead of getting more crew members to finally develop the game, that what disturbs me.
Am I the only one who can see the logical fallacy with this argument?

Anyways, this is why that video was posted btw. (Just FYI: It took absolutely 0(zero) development resources away from the development of Diablo III to post that video):
http://eu.battle.net...=2#c-3313056127

Serenity now! ;-) (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

Bashiok
Quite a few people are angry that the game isn't out yet. We don't want people to be angry, but it's not an inherently bad situation to be in.
A bad situation would be if no one really cared that it's not out yet.

with the delays and lack of information, that is exactly where people are headed.
If they need to stop visiting the forums every day, and absorbing every little scrap of info, and getting their hopes up just to be let down, I heartily encourage them to do so. There's no reason to get so close to the details if it's just going to cause you aggravation. Life is too short, and this is a game, for Belial out loud. Take a step back if that's what'll help. Come play the game when it's out.

Community manager's solution to a community in turmoil? Go outside lol.
Context of the turmoil is important!
It is a beautiful day today, though. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

Blizzard Cinematics Wins Award for “Black Soulstone”
Blizzard has won an award for 'Outstanding Visual Effects in an Animated Commercial or Video Game Trailer’ for their "Black Soulstone" video.

Originally Posted by Blizzard (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
The Visual Effects Society has announced the winners of its 10th Annual VES Awards, which recognizes outstanding visual effects artistry in 23 categories of film, animation, television, commercials, special venues, and video games.

The Blizzard Cinematics team won the ‘Outstanding Visual Effects in an Animated Commercial or Video Game Trailer’ award for theDiablo III: Black Soulstone video, which was presented to Nick Carpenter, VP of art & cinematic development; Jon Lanz, VFX supervisor; Chris Thunig, 2D art director; and Taka Yasuda, producer.

If you’ve yet to see the video, or want another look, here it is:

Diabloesques: Soon™
calavera666 jumped on the news and has put a nice comedic spin on the frustration many of us are feeling.

Posted in: Hall of Fallen Heroes, Annual Pass, Frustration with Release, Cinematic Awards, and Diabloesques
Jan 27, 2012
ScyberDragon published the article Tooltip Options, Updated Login Screen, Blue Posts, and 15 Anniversary Party
Tooltip Toggle Option
Lylirra commented further that they are dicucssing the option of including a toggleable advance tooltip option as well as trying to clarify the possibility of the advanced tooltips to users.
Official Blizzard Quote:
To follow up on a couple of things that I said I would in this thread:
- We're looking into adding a toggle option for Advanced/Simplified tooltips. We don't know when or if this feature will make into the beta, but it is an option we want to include.
- We like Simplified tooltips being enabled by default, but agree that finding out how to view Advanced tooltips currently isn't very clear. We don't think it's a bad idea to provide instructions through some sort of hint or loading screen tip and are considering adding something to that effect in the future.
- Simplified tooltips have been adopted in the Game Guide. For each class, Simplified tooltips will display on in the Active Skills page. Individual skill pages, though (ex: Bash), will display the Advanced tooltip.
When It's Ready
Bashiok replied to some concerns about some issues with patch 10 and the overall quality of the game.

Official Blizzard Quote:

Contrary to popular belief we absolutely want to release games. When we say "we won't release a game until we think it's ready" that means we're going to make sure the systems are solid, and it's as bug free and stable as we can realistically expect of ourselves.
Ideas about design, our experience, player tastes and technology never stop moving forward, so when we refer to our game development process it doesn't mean we'll actually keep developing a game forever to have anything and everything we can ever imagine in it. We're going to at some point have to say "this is it" and get it into your hands.

The beta is privy to many in-process changes. If we made every beta patch perfect before releasing we'd be here for years. Part of the beta process is pushing out a build because you need X feature tested, and we don't care if Y and Z aren't done yet.

Diablo 3 Updated Login Screen
The Diablo 3 Login screen got an update with patch 10. It's also worth noting that with patch 10, your account name will once again be saved!

Blue Posts
Clarification on some affix and stat properties were answered today including a few question by Doomscream, as well as a couple questions of nastalgia.

Official Blizzard Quote:

I can say with unequivocal certainty that nobody and I mean nobody picked up every gold drop in diablo 2 multiplayer. NO ONE did it. I myself left at least 98% of the gold I saw on the ground and just ran past it.
You did, everyone did, until they realized it wasn't worth anything. You left it on the ground for that reason, not because it required a click to pick it up. If it was worth something or even helpful you'd absolutely have picked it up.

You'll want to pick it up in Diablo III, and you don't even have to click on it. You just have to run sort of near it.

Sorry, but we just don't agree that this is an issue. Picking items up off the ground (especially something that's done automatically for you like gold...) is the point of the game.

Lets be honest here, that gold affix radius is a waste of space and it's only impacting other items in a negative way.
It's definitely something different, but we thought we'd at least try it out. It may not stick. (Tracker/Forums)

There should be a WIzard passive which converts a percentage amount of str to intel for the melee wizard builds. Yes/No?
Melee weapons can roll Int on them. Not sure that's necessary?

So...uhm... I was more eager to know if there are any changes to the gems coming after the stats revision?
We're still working on adding affixes, cutting ones that don't work, and testing. No major changes for gems, though.

Most people think that after the Mystic is gone, some enchants might transform into gem effects.
Oh right, uh, as far as I know the mystic enchants are just being put into the item affix pool, not gems. Might change. (Source)

Can we have the original TP sound effect ?
This is actually something we're looking into.

Bring back Exocet font for Diablo 3!
This font, while awesome, can be pretty difficult to read, especially against certain textures and colors. We've preserved its legacy in key places throughout the game, but ultimately we prefer a cleaner-looking font face for item names. (Tracker/Forums)

Blizzard's Diablo Anniversary Party
Today was Blizzard's party to celebrate the 15th anniversary of the Diablo franchise.

Official Blizzard Quote:

Diablo was released December 31, 1996. 2011 - 1996 = 15. Our company party is only a month late.
Diablo 15 anniversary celebration today at Blizzard. BBQ, beer, bears, beets... Battlestar Galactica.
Posted in: Tooltip Options, Updated Login Screen, Blue Posts, and 15 Anniversary Party
Jan 23, 2012
ScyberDragon published the article Patch 10

Beta Servers Down - Patch 10 Incoming.
Blizzard has begun implementing patch 10. The beta servers will be down until approximately 8 PST. Stay tuned for more updates, patch notes, and more.

Official Blizzard Quote:

We're in the process of bringing down the Diablo III test server to deploy Beta Patch 10. Maintenance should begin at approximately 11:00 a.m. PST, and we anticipate that downtime will last approximately 9 hours, until 8:00 p.m. PST

Posted in: Patch 10
Jan 17, 2012
ScyberDragon published the article Wizard Wave of Force Runed, Poll Recap, and Curse Weekly Update

Wizard - Wave of Force
Today, we would like to showcase the first looks at the Wizard's Wave of Force ability with all five runes. Disclaimer: Please keep in mind some effects or graphics may be missing or not be working correctly!

Poll Recap - What class will be on top for PvP?
Continuing with out recap of the polls we highlighted, we would like to show the results of the "What class will be on top for PvP" poll. Blizzard has already said that 'perfect' balance will not be a goal of theirs. However, this does not mean PvP will be completely broken and one class will be able to kill the other four classes. But which one will stay on top? The majority of the voters tend to think the massive AoE destruction of the Wizard will best the rest. However, the melee abilities of both the Monk and the Barbarian will also be able to hold their own. It is really the Demon Hunter and the Witch Doctor that most users think will just not be able to defeat the other classes.

Beta Screenshots
The ground lights up in our first screenshot of a Wizard surrounded by a hored of Ravenous Dead. Next, we have some Wizard and Wizard action fighting against the unique Lloigor the Crazed after refusing his one gold bribe. Concluding, lightning surrounds the Wizard in an after mass of destruction of electrified champions.

Curse Weekly Roundup
We all know Diablo is not the only game everyone out there is playing, especially considering the limited beta invites. So, we have this week's Curse Weekly Roundup to inform you guys on the happenings of some other games.

Posted in: Wizard Wave of Force Runed, Poll Recap, and Curse Weekly Update
Jan 15, 2012
ScyberDragon published the article Beta Contest, Acid Cloud Runed, Blue Posts, Lore, and Screenshots

Beta Contest - Round 4
BlizzardCS beta contest continues on to round 4. If you would still like a chance to win a beta key, make sure to get your submissions in soon.

Official Blizzard Quote:

Round 4 of the #DiabloBeta sweepstakes ends Monday 1/16/12 @ 11:59pm PST. Get your entry in today! Details here:

Witch Doctor - Acid Cloud Runed
While some of you may have seen these already, we wanted to share with you the Witch Doctor's Acid Cloud runed. The Obsidian rune is not featured. Disclaimer: Please keep in mind some effects or graphics may be missing or not be working correctly!

Blue Posts
Bashiok replied to a couple of questions asked on Twitter.

Official Blizzard Quote:

Are there anymore updates to the battletag system?

They'll be coming soon. The current restrictions are most definitely unintended. (Source)

Will Gheed or gambling be making a return in Diablo 3?

Neither. Although crafting has enough randomization that it's pretty close to D2 gambling. (Source)

In regards to Inferno, will we have to go through the whole game another time, or can we start farming anywhere, such as Act IV?

You will. Current design is that it will not all be available at the start, it will function like previous difficulties. (Source)

What happened to the BlizzCasts, it's been quite some time since the last one? Can we expect new episodes?

Hrm that's true. We were planning to have one for the #D3 release. We all now where that is... (Source)

Diablo Lore - Part 3
Force has just posted his final episode of his Diablo lore series. In this final video, Force recaps the events that unfold during Diablo II. If you are new to the series and would like to know the story leading up to Diablo III or need a refresher from the 12 year old game, watch this amazing summary. With some fan art and great narration, watch as Diablo II's story is reshared. You can also check outs parts one & two in case you have missed them.

Beta Screenshots
In the first screenshot we have a Wizard about to save the Templar from a group of Cultists. In the second screenshot, a Monk is in the midst of a battle against a rare monster with a Molten afffix, causing the pools of fire on the floor that the Monk must avoid. Finally, we have a Wizard fighting Chancellor Eamon, the spirit protecting King Leoric's Crown.

Posted in: Beta Contest, Acid Cloud Runed, Blue Posts, Lore, and Screenshots
Jan 5, 2012
ScyberDragon published the article Firebats Skill Runed, Beta Key Contests, Leveling Curve, Interview with Leonard, and Book of Cain Drawings

Diablo 3 Manual Leak
NOTE: This is not confirmed nor does it have a valid source, PLEASE keep this in mind.
User grimgrave gave us a heads up on a leak of the Diablo 3 Manual being printed. Please keep in mind this is NOT CONFIRMED, nor does it have a confirmed source. Please keep this in mind while looking.

UPDATE - Bashiok On Release and System Updates.
Bashiok has just posted on the forums about when we might learn about some new system updates, along with the release goal still being Q1.

Official Blizzard Quote:

What does Polish mean?
It's making sure everything is perfect. We're not really in a strictly polishing phase yet though, although certainly that's true for some areas of the game. Still, we're in the process of working on some rather large game system changes, some of which we'll be sharing shortly before or with the next beta patch.

So this means that once those large game system changes are set, that will be the time when the D3 team goes in the "strictly polishing" phase?
I wouldn't get hung up on thinking about it that way. It's a big game and each individual piece may be at some different level of development.

So is the rune system set and is currently being implemented entirely?
Not yet. Once we have an implementation and we're at least moderately sure it's going to work out we'll share all the details.

re far are you guys (generally) from being able to ship a game that is polished? In other words is it still an early 2012 planned release?
We don't know. We were shooting for the end of 2011, and now we're shooting for first quarter 2012. As soon as we're sure of something (release date or otherwise) we'll be sure to let you know.

Witch Doctor's Firebats Skill Runed
We have the next video in our series showcasing the various rune effects of different skills. This time, we have the http://diablowiki.com/Witch Doctor's" class="wiki-link">http://media-diablofans.cursecdn.com/attachments/16/736/wiki2.gif" alt="DiabloWiki.com - Witch Doctor's"/> Witch Doctor's Firebats skill with all five rune variations.

Beta Keys Contests, Round 2
Round 2 is here and many more are now enjoying the sweet click click action that is Diablo III beta. If you would like a chance to get into the beta, it's not too late. All you have to do is head over to Twitter, follow BlizzardCS, send a tweet with the #DiabloBeta hashtag and send an e-mail of the tweet to cstwitterfeedback@blizzard.com

Official Blizzard Quote:

All messaging for #DiabloBeta's 2nd round winners has been sent out at this time. Congratulations to the winners! (Source)

All #D3 beta keys for our #Blizzard_ANZ contest have now been sent. Congrats to the lucky entries! (Source)

Leveling Curve
Bashiok was further asked about the difficulty of Diablo III, particularly the leveling curve. It has been stated that the plan is to have character close to, if not, level 60 by the time Hell difficulty is completed. However, Bashiok further explained the reasoning and difficulties with this.

Official Blizzard Quote:

It's the ideal situation. Random dungeons, random monsters, random item drops, all of these things throw huge wrenches into any ability to really finely tune a level progression. You may very well have to stay in Hell for a while longer to hit 60, or you may want to go back through certain areas of Normal to gear up better before moving to Nightmare. We're simply not going to be able to get it right for everyone with all of these random elements, but we're trying.
It's also going to just make good sense to stick around and play a bit more Hell and gear up before attempting Inferno even if you are 60.

Diablo III interview with Leonard Boyarsky
Gamespot has posted an interview with Leonard Boyarsky, lead world designer for Diablo III. In the interview, he explains how they had created the story for the game at the very beginning and have stayed true to this plan. Plus much more about the story behind the game.

Official Blizzard Quote:

GameSpot: With people dissecting the lore, and you as a team cautious of making it too predictable, have you found yourself in the position where you've changed content because players have already guessed how it will play out?

Leonard Boyarsky: No, not really. We figured out what we wanted our story to be, and pretty much stuck to it. If some people guess what we're doing, that just means they'll be pleasantly surprised. Sadly, it's a minority of people who really care deeply about the lore. There are a lot of people out there who do care deeply about the lore, but, in terms of our overall fan base, it's not the top thing on people's list. I think that the kind of people who really care about the lore and delve into that will feel proud if they feel like they figured it out. We haven't seen a lot of people make correct guesses, by the way! [Laughs] (Source)

Diablo III: Book of Cain – the drawings by Petar Meseldzija
One of the artists involved with the Book of Cain published his original concept sketches commissioned for the book. Also we got to see how one of the concepts looks in the book along with an extra readable page.

A few months ago I wrote about my participation within the book project named Diablo III: Book of Cain. Because the book was not released at that moment, I was not allowed to show the three drawings I was commissioned to do. I promised to post the drawings as soon as the book is released. (Source)

Posted in: Firebats Skill Runed, Beta Key Contests, Leveling Curve, Interview with Leonard, and Book of Cain Drawings
Dec 22, 2011
ScyberDragon published the article Web Content Manager, RMAH and Regions, and Peripherals

A Day in the Life of a Web Content Manager

Official Blizzard Quote:

His bicycle tires don't run flat; they explode. When news breaks, he fixes it. His collection of vintage Blizzard memorabilia could fill a garage... and it does. They made a Diablo creature in his honor, but it was deemed too frightening to include in the game. The people of Orgrimmar love him, even though he plays Alliance. He is the most interesting web content manager in the world. He doesn't always like to be in the spotlight, but when he does, Geoff prefers to be featured in a Day in the Life article.

Read the article about a day in the life of Web Content Manager Geoff Fraizer now!

RMAH and Region Availability

Official Blizzard Quote:

I'm assuming you're not purposefully misquoting him to try to make your post factual. Let me go ahead and transcribe what he actually says in the video you linked:

"You're just buying Diablo III. You can play it anywhere in the world. So you guys get to choose. Now what we will do is we will lock you down to a specific auction house. So for instance if you're a European national you'll have access to the European auction house, but you'll still be able to play in North America. You can participate in the gold auction house anywhere in the world, right, but you can only participate in the real money auction house in your native country."

Which sort of makes the rest of your post baseless in its conclusions. But that's ok! I appreciate everyone trying to unravel the secrets, and it's fun for me to read, so keep at it.

Linking multiple region's economies?
Characters are still region based. Just like Diablo II. You could log in to USWest, or USEast, or Europe, or Asia, but you had different characters on each. There's no possibility of trading between regions.

I'm sort of taken aback now... How are so many people directly misquoting or misinterpreting things while simultaneously linking to the exact source that proves what they're saying is inaccurate?

What I said was:

We've spent a very long time working with our legal departments around the globe researching regional laws and regulations, if not obtaining government approvals. We announced the feature because we know it to be sound from a legal perspective. If any local or country-specific laws do become an issue we'll of course be sure to let people in those regions know.

All of that is true, and continues to be true to this day.

Can we play with friends on different regions?
You can, but you'd need to log in to the EU region and create a character to begin playing with him, or he'd need to make one in your region. If you're on your character in SEA and he's on his in EU you'd be able to talk to each other using your BattleTag or Real ID, but that's it. You have to be on the same region to play together.

Is the GAH global?
The gold auction house is not global. You can use each region's gold auction house, but they're all separate, as the characters in each region are separate.

You can only use the currency-based auction house of your home region.

Would we be able to switch to a Euro AH when we provide proof that we "moved" to Europe.
That all sounds right to me. I'm not sure of a process to actually flag your account for another region though, even with proof. It's possible that could happen but I'm not aware of any intent to support that.

Switching of regions?
No plans at this time. I would count it among 'pretty unlikely' due to the real currency ramifications.

Charging a percentage or a flat fee for currency transactions?
You're only charged a percentage if you cash out through PayPal.

Making a character in any regional server you choose?
We haven't announced anything along those lines because as far as I know it's not nailed down. We do pursue different business models and prices in different regions, and so we'd want to ensure that those offerings are for who they're intended. I just don't have specifics for you, but it's something we'll need to announce before ship.

How does one get assigned a home region?
That's not something we're ready to discuss, and obviously we'll need to choose the information we do give carefully. Circumventing this wouldn't just be a 'fun trick on Blizzard' it would very possibly be a violation of serious trade laws, so we have to take it seriously.

Access to other region's RMAH
Each region is compartmentalized. Character's on one region cannot play with characters on another region. Similarly, each region has its own gold and currency-based auction houses. Only characters on a region can use that region's auction houses (and of course a restriction from the currency-based if it's not your home region). (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

Diablo Gaming Peripherals Now Available

Official Blizzard Quote:

Arm yourself against the forces of the Burning Hells (and look bad ass while doing it) with the new line of Diablo III gaming gear by SteelSeries.

The Diablo III Mouse

Designed to withstand the relentless pace of in game combat, the Diablo III Mouse is an ideal weapon for mowing down hordes of hapless demons. Featuring an ambidextrous grip, programmable buttons, and a molten “demon red” glow, this peripheral puts the power and versatility of the Nephalem right into the palm of your hand. And with a guaranteed lifespan of 10 million clicks, it’ll be sure to keep you hacking and slashing long into the night

The Diablo III Headset

Hear the meaty thunk of your axe as it sinks into demon flesh, the sizzle of your spells as they reduce all nearby foes to ash, and the enraged howls of beasts that lurk beyond New Tristram’s gates like never before. With leather-padded cushions to reduce external noise, an optimized soundscape, and a retractable mic to help you coordinate attacks with your allies, the Diablo III headset delivers an audio experience that will put you right into the thick of battle.

Level up your peripherals today at Amazon and SteelSeries.com. For more information, please visit www.steelseries.com/diablo3 (Source)

Posted in: Web Content Manager, RMAH and Regions, and Peripherals
Dec 18, 2011
ScyberDragon published the article More Beta Changes, Bashiok on Release, and Blue Posts
More Changes
There seems to have been many changes in Patch 8 that did not make it into the notes.
General

Gold for quest rewards changed. (total from main quests now 503g, up from 285g; hidden event quests now give a total of 205g, up from 0g)
New type of chest called "Bloody Chest" (found in Den of Fallen - seems to drop same stuff as regular chest. [Picture])
Grotesques no longer contribute to XP bonuses such as Mighty Blow and Massacre
Reduced the number of items that pop out of Haedrigs' apprentice's body
Ghastly Gravediggers apply a Chilled debuff in addition to knockback on their attacks
Cast time on Stone of Recall shortened to 5 seconds down from 10.
The gold collection speed of companions is noticeably faster
Jar of Souls quest wording changed to "Survive the skeletons raised by the Jar of Souls"
Nephalem Altar moved again, to the SE of the Waypoint in New Tristram
New "Recommended Items" tab in the AH [Picture]
Stone of Recall and Nephalem Cube now rewarded at the end of 3rd quest (was end of 2nd and mid 3rd respectively)
UI

Different font is now used for various UI parts: floating combat text, quest tracker text, tooltips.
Floating combat text used to truncate decimals. Life regen ticked as +0 if below 1.0. Now only skips ticks, and displays +1 when it hits that
Nephalem Cube slot and Cauldron of Jordan slot in inventory UI switched places
Sounds

New sound for Checkpoint (changed from same sound that was used for completing a quest objective)
New sound for yes/no dialog prompts (like when canceling cinematics or using the Portal Stones)
Art

New "Epic Banner" [Picture]
New art for Plagued [Before | Now]
New art for Molten explosion [Before | Now]
New art for Frozen: [before | Now-Impact | Now-Crater]
Blue Posts

Official Blizzard Quote:

Real Money Auction House
The reason for the RMAH being implemented is not because we want to force you all to use it, this is because we want to give you a safe, secure and Blizzard supported way of selling and buying Diablo items using real currency. If you choose not to use it because you feel it would have an ill-effect on your gameplay or for any other reason, then you do not need to. I do not feel that there is a requirement to segregate players who choose to and do not choose to use this service as it might diminish player experience or cause other problems. For example, if your friend wants to use the RMAH and you don’t, then you cannot play with them

It is our goal with all of our games to ensure that players have a highly enjoyable experience when playing. Due to this, we will not remove the gold Auction House, so that people can play the way they want to. One of the most important parts of the Diablo series is to obtain the best possible gear. In the past, some players would use external and potentially dangerous methods to perform real-money transactions for gear and gold in Diablo such as third-party real-money-trading organizations.

The transactions between these third-party organisations and players generally went awry, and led to a poor player experience as well as a large number of customer-service issues such as scams and item or account theft. Because we feel that it would be best to offer players an in-game and Blizzard certified way to perform these transactions in a safe and secure manner, we decided to implement the RMAH.

So just to re-iterate, even in Diablo 1 and 2, players were buying gear and gold with real-world currency, it's just more visible and safe now. It will be no different than in the past, in that you do not have to use real money at all to improve your character, however if you do decide to, it will now be much more safe and secure.

I hope this explains why we don’t want to remove one Auction house or the other, nor segregate the player bases.

Whats to stop spam bots shouting "X item in RMAH £14 now"

It's not really possible for people to spam players easily, to do so they will need to either have your Battle.Net as a friend or BattleTag ID and personally contact you. They can also go into your game if its public and talk there, or in a public channel you are in. If they do any of those though, you can simply ignore them and they will miss out in becoming friends or communicating with fine people such as yourselves.

The question I was trying to ask was how are you going to keep the two in balance?

Well, glad you asked
Inflation in a particular currency is fine, and for things to increase on price depending on demand is good, however as you are asking about; we do not want worthless currency.

Take for example (excuse the comparison) WoW, gold is heavily inflated but people still use it for everything, just more of it. We have many tools to ensure gold remains a worthy currency in comparison to the RMAH and vice versa. Do not worry, we will be very carefully keeping an eye out for problems with inflation and one AH becoming less valuable ^^ We have many knobs and controls at our disposal to ensure that everything works out fine! (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

Bashiok on Release

Official Blizzard Quote:

Thank you for voicing your concerns, Starbird. I realize you and many other people are excited to play the game, and are probably feeling a bit let down that we haven’t yet announced a release date. While you bring up a number of points of speculation, I just want to cut right to it and state that the reason we don’t have a release date yet is because the game isn’t yet where we want it to be in terms of our quality standards. We aren’t holding it back on account of any one piece of the game, or for any other outside factors. While it is indeed playable from beginning to end, we’re still actively working on many individual game elements and the ways that they interact with one another, with a great deal of iterative tweaking, balancing, polishing, adjusting, redesigning, and retesting going on. We’re going to continue beta testing, and before too long that’s going to include a large influx of new invites.

Much of this iteration obviously takes place behind closed doors, so I can sympathize with the concerns about the lack of visible progress, and the sentiment that we should just go ahead and ship the game. Until we’re able to reveal more of the results, I can only assure you that we are indeed working on critical game systems that directly impact the core of the experience.

I also realize a lot of people were hoping for a release date announcement at the VGAs. We’re simply not going to be able to dispel or comment on release date rumors and speculation every time someone expects an announcement. We’ll be announcing a release date when we determine the game is ready, and not holding it back just to line it up with any particular game-industry event.

The bottom line is that development of our games and preparations for release are long and complicated. We’re just as excited to get the final version into your hands as you are to play it, but making sure it lives up to our quality standards will always be the most important factor in that process.

Why not make the beta open now. Mayby all the hard fans can have a chance to ploay before release.?

The service currently available is a single test site, it just couldn't hold that many people. While we'd certainly like to make people happy, it wouldn't be a good experience, and frankly letting people try the game is not the purpose of the beta test.

Also why not tell us what your working on fixing and let the people in the beta help?

Well most everyone already knows we're working on runestones still, and we have some other changes that are going to shake up characters a little bit. We'll be letting you know as soon as we're sure they'll work out at all, and then we're going to be asking everyone for feedback.

We'll be continuing to add players to beta as we need. We recognize that there are many people that want to be a part of helping out and we appreciate that. We just aren't able to provide any particular schedule for additions.

The ongoing, concerns on timing of the release are understandable, but in some cases are a bit overblown or overly pessimistic. We recognize that it's mostly due to anxiousness and the desire to get in and stomp demons, but as Bashiok said in his post, we'll release it when we're ready. We believe it will be worth it.

We appreciate all of the constant support and enthusiasm for Diablo III and it is something that continues to inspire us to make sure we release a game we can all be happy with and have many great adventures in.
(Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

Cyclone Strike

New monk ability Cyclone Strike
Posted in: More Beta Changes, Bashiok on Release, and Blue Posts