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The stations were setup for PvE single, PvE multi (up to 4 players) and PvP (up to 6 players; 3v3). In the PvE, they started your character out at level 9 with all slots filled and some random gems, id scrolls, and two skill runes. Within the time limit going solo, it was easy to level once, and in multiplayer with aggressive play (or full clear), we managed to ding twice.

Overall gameplay
Very satisfying experience (obviously). The statement that they want your character to feel powerful was reiterated through out the entire gameplay, in your abilities, attacks, pets, even down to the level of destroying barrels and breakable objects. We ran into monsters that had light blue titles, which I think implied they had a buff (eg: life link or inherited from their unique) and uniques. I did not see anything with the explicit label "champion" but maybe that's what those blue titled mobs were. Some crafting components dropped but were not usable. The health orbs concept was nice, but didn't drop enough that it annoyed me when they got consumed even at full health.

I'll give a description of each mode/class I played, along with the 3 skills they start you with in the demo (already on action bar), and impressions below it.

Witch Doctor solo PvE
Overall this was a very easy and comfortable class to play with. The combination of ranged skills and minion tanking made it play just like a Summoner Druid.

- Poison Dart
When the demo started, this skill was on the mouse-button slots, so implying that it was to be used as a replacement to the default melee attack. Basically just fired darts from a blowgun and an Indigo rune upgraded it to do burst shots (3 darts in rapid succession). Poisoned target; found myself using it mostly against single targets.

- Summon Zombie Dogs
Summoned one Zombie Dog, up to three max (couldn't tell if that cap goes up at higher levels) at the cost of 10% hp per. Minion AI was good, minions leashed back easily on retreat. Dealt decent damage for the level but didn't feel overpowered.

- Zombie Charger
This skill seemed to summon a Zombie at your feet and it immediately lurches forward slowly dissolving into goo until it hits a target. If no impact, it just liquefies into the ground; short range. On impact I think it placed an armor debuff on the target. Couldn't tell if there was splash dmg. Seemed to have a large collision box, so it was hard to aim through doorways and at uniques surrounded by minions. Didn't find myself using this much after learning Locust Swarm.

- learned: Locust Swarm
Picked this up at first ding. Felt like it had a short range. Unlike dropping an AoE with a reticule, it jumps from the first target up to three if I remember correctly. Spammable made it feel a little overpowered.

Monk multi PvE
Maybe output numbers are not quite tweaked yet, but overall the damage felt underwhelming playing next to a Demon Hunter and Wizard as they blew up stuff. The combat flow was fluid - the Monk would enter and follow through several combo moves and a finisher all rolled up into one button depress. Satisfying to see words "dodge" pop up a lot.

- Circle of Wrath
Group heal that also dealt weak AoE dmg to nearby monsters. Felt useless at this level of difficulty.

- Hands of Lightning
Added lightning elemental dmg to attacks. Animation was complex. There was a short delay as the Monk charged up the attack before shocking the target with claws.

- Radiant Visage
The blind ability was very nice crowd control.

- learned: Way of the Hundred Fists
Felt weak, but was nice to finally get some AoE. Said it hits targets in front of the Monk, but was hard to gauge if it made contact with adjacent targets because of the short range and animation.

Barbarian multi PvE
Was a little confused because they started me out with a 1H sword + shield, but rest of the setup was all offense. No tanking skills were provided.

- Cleave
Hits adjacent targets; small number it felt. Often had to switch to normal attack to regain rage.

- Ground Stomp
AoE stun, which I modified with a rune that made the monsters move slower for 2sec after coming out of the stun.

- Revenge
Had some % chance to enable after being hit, but it must activated - it's not a passive retaliation. On use it caused the Barb to whirlwind once hitting all monsters near and returning some hp. Basically found myself diving into packs and spamming this. Runes would modify to grant more hp leech.

- learned: Frenzy
Each successful attack gave me a short attack speed buff. Stacked up to 2 at level 1. Gave me a little buff icon on the lower center-left of my screen, but was hard to notice amidst the action. Other visual cue is the swirls (just like in D2) around the character, but also hard to notice. The buff time felt very short as it kept falling off all the time, and I also wanted to use Cleave more. Later got a rune that allowed my other Barbarian skills to refresh the Revenge buff

Some extra UI stuff that I noticed: Control-click made items drop from inventory. Gem bonuses were summarized in the tooltip as, "Helm: +xyz" / "Weapon: +xyz" / "Other: +xyz". Seemed to have been reduced to only show for slots that you actually have empty sockets in.

PvP
Found PvP the most enjoyable to be honest. The rounds were intense, quick, and victory was very satisfying, especially coming back from a 1v2 which surprisingly happened more often than I thought possible. I ended up playing mostly as the Barbarian in 2v2. They provided full set of armor and a 2H axe, along with 7 skills:

- Ancient Spear
- Ground Stomp (rune modded to leave a slow on target when it comes out of stun)
- Leap Attack (rune modded to add %stun on hit)
- Sprint (rune modded to leave trailing whirlwinds that dealt 30% of wpn dmg)
- Ignore Pain (rune modded to give group dmg reduction)
- Rampage (rune modded for life leech)
- Whirlwind

I noticed when I moused over my rage orb, it said "adds knockback to attacks when at full rage". Not sure, maybe a trait was providing this.

Since the barbarian's attacks are rage based, starting the match with zero rage felt like a huge handicap. The only skill that I could open with was the basic melee attack and Ground Stomp. Combos were obvious after a few rounds, ie: leap -> stomp -> WW. The addition of "counters" in PvP made the matches play out very well. For example: the Witch Doctor had a Desecrate-like skill that would apply a huge snare, but popping Sprint would break me out of it; using Ignore Pain before Meteor landed; using Ancient Spear after Wizard burns teleport. Initially the Barbarian felt very vulnerable and especially frustrating against Wizards that just kited me around. But with a little caution and well timed gap-closers like Leap Attack, Ancient Spear, and Sprint it was surprising how quickly you could go in a finish someone off. I definitely think with the right set of skills, PvP will bring a totally different level of fun to the D3 player, and hopefully achieve that without leaving a gimped leveling experience.

Should we be designing the mine branches to eventually support inner-rail travel? Not necessarily for transporting goods, but it would cut down on travel time between the work front and access elevators.

Edit: and if so, we should go with a 3-block height on the mine branches for clearance.

Quote from PhrozenDragon

Ok everyone, I threw up a mine design based on what Apoc had already done. It's right next to the huge water tower (the one with the sign outside that says it was a volcano or something). I made a stone arrow in the air as well so you'd see it once you're close.

It's basically a Low Density Branch Mine, but with slightly tighter branches. Branches will go off in western and eastern directions, with a main path that stretches from north to south from which all other braches start. The brilliant thing is that we can easily append new mine shafts to the existing branches when we want to. When we restart we'll probably want a waterlift instead of a huge staircase.

The mine is very safe, as the floor of the lower branches will be on lvl 11, and lava starts to spawn at lvl 10. So whenever HP comes into MP, we won't have to fear dying from sudden lava valves opening. This also means that we basically cover the entire safe spectrum where diamond can appear.

Toches in the branches have all been placed on the northern walls, so you always know which way you're heading.

Water lift good.

I wanted to suggest that we actually go a level deeper even if there is lava, because it's something we're going to want to gather as a resource as well. It makes mining more exciting too and increases our access by diamonds by almost 50%. Lava can be managed - just bring a lot buckets or pour water on it and mine out the Obsidian. If people are worried about getting burned, they can stay on the kiddie levels

You can ease the lag when you're mining a little by performing a new click each time you move to another block instead of holding the button down continuously from block-to-block. This seems to help the server realize you've completed mining a block and it behaves better.

Heh welcome Phrozen... If you want you can use my mine across the lake form the /home spawn or emulate it somewhere else.

And speaking of which, I wanted to share some info regarding mining efficiency: Bedrock & Branching vs Spelunking. From what I've read and seen on youtube vids, Spelunking (scouting natural caves for exposed ore) is a good way to get started. Later on however when you're looking for gold, diamond, and other valuable stuff you will need to work in the lowest layers because that's only where it spawns. Natural caves don't always give you access to those layers so it makes sense to just bore until you hit bedrock then carve out a horizontal grid between layers 6 and 16.

http://www.minecraftforum.net/viewtopic.php?f=35&t=28299

Quote from SFJake

Sadly, obsidian forge and infinite lava spring are not possible anymore.

Noticed that but in a way I'm happy with it too since it makes finding natural lava sources more valuable also with the need for miners to create obsidian onsite.

Quote from PhrozenDragon

Which will give us time to add D1 stuff. Now unlike Diablo II we can't go diggin in the files for all kinds of exact data on monsters, items and levels. But then again, D1 isn't nearly as complex.

I'm not familiar with DI in this regard - is this because of the way the game was compiled or is it just because there's no literature out there on how to hack the files?

Keep in mind there are also several ranks for each rune if I'm not mistaken, thereby giving you additional avenues to "upgrade" your skills.

Quote from LinkX

Now that I like. I do have to ask though, exactly what is the Commerical/Industrial area for? Just Forges and Chests? o.O

And any structures that function as an infinite source of material: water springs, lava spring (if still possible), cobblestone forge, obsidian forge... etc.

Staked out a spot across the lake from the home spawn point. Add me to the list

Quote from xXSoulXx

Quote from Proposition

Has the + skills mod on items been confirmed to be in Diablo 3? This was one of, if not the most sought after mod in Diablo 2 and had a dramatic effect on the character's power.

Very true, it was indeed the +skill that separated the guys from the gods..
However, I dont believe any information has been given pertaining to this matter.
Some one please correct me if I am wrong.

I would also like to know...

As we know from D2, this was not an affix that we saw until later in the game. Even if they intended to add it to D3, the scope of the demo at Blizzcon did not permit us to reach a high enough level to witness +skill items. I'm going out on a limb here, but my feeling is that they will not have +skill items in D3 simply because it's low impacting compared to what rune modifications can do to your skills. It's likely that instead they will translate to being able to craft better runes so your skills can do more dmg or have better effects, either by having better crafting skills or by procuring better crafting materials.

Quote from Donsro

Will there be mercenaries? If so will be able to see their gear?

This was a topic that I wish got more attention at the Q&A session at Blizzcon, unfortunately there were so many other more important questions that we didn't get to hear about it...(/SARCASM) I hate to say but my feeling at this point is that there will not be mercenaries, but I am secretly wishing they will release it at the end and surprise us all...

Quote from xXSoulXx

At 5:17 I noticed a Mob with a much larger member...most likely the mob leader.
Although he was the same color as all the others, he was significantly stronger than the others in his group.

He could also teleport very quickly!

Very cool...

Yea he's a Molten Teleporter unique monster - a nasty combination for melee.

Quote from flobernoggin

i hope they have a preview before you decide to dye

Exactly what I was thinking - I would hate for a nice "crimson red" dye to go to waste

Quote from Jackzor

Well it looks like the DH flashes when the lightning comes near her, which I'm assuming means she's being damaged. And the swirling part happens right when the big cultist dies, so it looks like that's a Lightning mob. Plus it looks pretty similar to the Lightning Enchanted mobs of D2, so it would make sense.

I think you're right - also noticing a lightning orb right on the mob, which looks like a Monk finisher for Hands of Lightning (probably rune modded).