DiabloFans

Here is the pumpkin I carved today for the competition. Probably won't win, but it sure was fun

Let me know what you all think, and feel free to post your own if you did one.

PUMPKIN

I have visited friends in the ICU and for someone to prevent you access is ridiculous. Separation of church and state needs to be way more prolific, especially in the case of hospitals. Also if you are going to be obtuse, you might as well not even argue. Saying Physicists are wrong simply because you think they did not believe in your god makes you look like an ignoramus.

Aww man, only 32 minutes? I was hoping for some MGS4 cutscenes.

Quote from TheLordOfTerror

Uhm, guys, I got somehow confused with the hours after a long night reading the forums (it's 6:40 in the morning in Poland)... How long do I have to stay away till the news bombs wake me up?

One more hour. Then wait more.

Don't make generalizations about the american public based on a stupid cali woman. She obviously doesn't know shit.

Quote from Odin

Quote from Zero(pS)

You know, I'd love to see the face of those guys that over the years claimed how "Diablo 3 is doomed to failure" (you still see some of them making threads in the official forums every now and then) - because of the graphics, because of online only, because Activision bought Blizzard, because Blizzard's employees changed, because there are autostats now, etc..

Ever heard of big publishers buying/preordering their own games in order to climb up the Amazon list? Its a well known fact and something these idiots are doing quiete often.

I can tell you how face is looking right now I'm laughting at all the brainless Blizzard fanboys thinking the company is still the same (Wilson has been a failure from the get go), who accept every requirement and punishment in order to play World of Diablocraft. The real test will be what happens when people are 60 or even 30 because there is nothing else to do despite playing through the game for the 4 time and then goiing up against mobpacks with more damage, hitpoints and champions there aren't any exclusive inferno bosses so.

why are you here?

Probably going to submit this in the next day or two for the contest. Wanted to see what you guys thought before I did!



Edit: Finished pic posted...again

I had the pleasure of meeting Bashiok (and his big bushy mustache) at PAX East earlier today and he was nice enough to answer some of my Inferno difficulty related questions. I didn't record our conversation and these are not absolute direct quotes so you'll have to trust me, haha.

-As of now the maximum monster level in Inferno is specifically 64, not just "somewhere around 65(?)" as mentioned in his Inferno post.
Not mindblowing but interesting

-I asked him about how in what I saw of a tiny bit of what looked like Hell or Inferno footage in the Blizzcon 2011 Gameplay & Auction House Panel the monsters moved REALLY fast and would not just attack the player from where they approached but actually run past him/her and sort of do a quick slingshot and attack from an unexpected direction (http://www.youtube.c...JfTfktc#t=3077s is the footage). It took a while for him to process what I was getting at but he did (re)confirm that monsters move faster in later difficulties and that they will have behaviors like 'stop for a bit, then come at you'.

-I mentioned the "internal bets" on how many "months" it would take to beat Inferno. He now believes that it's now a "few weeks"; not months. This was after I pressed him on the whole 'what if the person goes through the auction house and accelerates his gearing that way'.

-He's not aware of any real changes in health globe mechanics (drop rates, heal amounts) across the difficulties. He did mention the passive skills that help with globes- I imagine those will help quite a bit in endgame.

-He reiterated that you need to build up your defenses for Inferno via gear and skill choices. No surprise there.

-I asked him about the whole "bullet hell" mechanics (mentioned at Blizzcon 2010 panel I believe?) where you have to sort of dodge projectiles to avoid damage (I would imagine there would be a lot of them in Inferno). He said there are certainly such things but stressed that it's really more about getting the best gear and building up your defense than that.

-Right now in internal testing he said people are finding endgame solo play more preferable to party play. He attributes this to the scaling of monsters to the amount of players not making things any easier (implying that if one person messes up and dies, it just makes it harder on everyone else). I asked him if he thinks people will make 4 player parties and try to create "roles" with their builds and successfully tackle Inferno that way. He was agreeable to the concept.



I don't think he was totally prepared for the questions I suddenly threw at him but he was great (and patient with me despite all the stuff happening around with the D3 line and a couple other guys who were talking with him)

I also want to mention that the Runic guys (who were standing around on their side of the D3/T2 area)
are awesome and Torchlight II looks and plays great too! It's a great time to be an action RPG fan.

Quote from Alladaskill1726

Or play with friends...

You made me think of this. It's not meant to be mean I just thought it was funny.

(implies singing)

Bud Light Presents: Real Men of Genius
(real men of genius)
Today we salute you, Mr. Multiboxing Diablo III Beta Tester
(Mr. Multiboxing Diablo III Beta Tester)
Any Gamer can play as one character, but only you can play as a full party
(All the loot is mine)
Perfect for the gamer who has everything - everything except a friend to party up with
(The loot is my friend)
So crack open an ice-cold Bud Light, but remember drinking alone means your an alcoholic
(Mr. Multiboxing Diablo III Beta Tester)

Quote from Moxx

What a sausagefest.

Play the game or get the fuck out.

1/10

Do not expect any action here.
Here I'm taking my time to check for some (not all) details in the Beta patch 6 (Even More Details: patch 7).

1080p availible (if it doesnt start, please wait while it uploads on youtube!)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nS4ynKN0ANA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9pTRZT4D8-w

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xfr3nThUlKA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PTmQKZm5Q_E




Gear up! Witchdoctor & Barbarian
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KKE9rLFx6pI



Gear up! Monk & Wizard
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zrBkhIaMncc



Gear up! Demon Hunter
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hcl1jGg3BRk



Angels and Water: Defiled Crypt Saga
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UfuiImTAnXI

Epic pumpkin carving by habeasporpoise. Used with permission. Habeas also entered his carving into the Blizzard Pumpkin Carving Contest 2011

Happy Halloween everyone!

HK

Monk Builds

This is my compilation of monk builds. I tried to make a lot of builds because this is all speculation. For example, I probably won’t run with maximum damage build without utility but I included it anyway because there’s no telling how this will all pan out.

Pure Damage: http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/monk#eUYjdR!ZYg!abcZYZ

Maximum damage with almost no utility. This build could be useful if there are enough heals in your group already.
- 2H build with most of the + % damage modifiers:
- Increased Seven Sided Strike damage
- 55% Conviction Aura
- Crippling Wave with +80% damage rune
- Exploding Palm with 7 spirit generation per monster hit for more ability spam
- Dashing Strike with + movement speed for some mobility

Pure Healer / Support: http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/monk#eXfaSR!dZf!bYbbbb

Like the name says, this build is focused on buffing / healing the party and preventing damage. No idea if this will even be necessary. 2h for increased spirit generation
- 2H with passive for increased spirit generation. Also, Crippling Wave AoE with 7 additional spirit for every crit to make sure you have enough spirit.
- Stronger Breath of Heaven heal
- Inner Sanctuary with health regeneration rune
- Serenity with rune to extend the effect to all allies. Paladin bubble for the whole party
- Mantra of Conviction with 75% chance of health regeneration when hitting the enemy for the whole party
- Blinding Flash to buy time if necessary
- Passive to increase damage for you and party when healing, should be active almost all the time

Solo PvE: http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/monk#hUjYaV!Ydg!YbZcbY

I tried to make this build better for soloing. The idea is to keep yourself healed by generating massive spirit and dumping it as soon as possible to keep your health up with Transcendence passive (42.6 health for every point of spirit spent). For example, because I have Beacon of Ytar, Seven Sided Strike will cost 75 spirit. That is 3195 health every time I use it. Whether spamming that will be enough to keep yourself up is unknown. I’m thinking dual-wield with increased attack speed from Mantra of Retribution rune will generate more spirit for the purpose of the build. Exploding Palm with rune for increased spirit generation and Sweeping Wind to help take down larger groups. Blinding Flash to help with sticky situations.

Group PvE: http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/monk#hUjYXR!fZg!YbZcYb

Almost the same as the above build but I dropped Mantra of Retribution and Blinding Flash (less useful with larger groups) and grabbed Mantra of Conviction with healing rune and Breath of Heaven with improved heal rune. Mantra of Conviction heals may proc the Guiding Light passive (+16% damage for party) because the Mantra is under “active skills” but this isn’t for sure.

Evasion Tank AoE: http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/monk#hZjdkb!ZWY!YaZccZ

This is a neat build that has been brought up a lot. This is my take on dodge monk. I’ll probably use this to solo farm more difficult areas.

The abilities that increase dodge are:

- Fist of Thunder rune (2.5% chance to dodge per application, stacks 8 times for 20% dodge. I noted there was no duration on the dodge effect; it will probably be added later.)
- Dashing Strike rune: You can spam this endlessly to have the 30% dodge up at all times
- Mantra of Evasion: 30% dodge
- The Guardian’s Path (passive): 10% dodge when dual-wielding
- Sixth Sense (passive): Increases dodge by 50% of your critical strike chance
- While technically not a dodge ability, Seven Sided Strike is nice in that you are invulnerable while performing the attack, making it even better than dodge.

I didn’t include defense and resistance abilities because it’s hard to tell right now how these will affect the game. I’m hoping the constant dodging and healing from Transcendence will be enough to sustain the monk (more speculation).

With this build, I will be fighting large groups of enemies. The offense comes from Sweeping wind AoE, massive damage from Wave of Light with the pillar rune (900% total weapon damage; hopefully this is AoE as it isn’t stated directly in the description), and my favorite, the Mantra of Evasion rune which deals 120% weapon damage as fire damage to ALL nearby enemies on every dodge. That just seems amazing on paper. Hypothetical Situation: Fighting a group of 8 monsters with 69% chance to dodge. They all attack you, 5 of them miss, that is 600% instant weapon damage to all enemies by just standing there. Throw in your stacks of improved Vortex from Sweeping Wind doing an additional 108% weapon damage per second. Ok, enough speculation.

Debilitation: http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/monk#edaYXR!eYZ!cabaaa

This build would seem to work best in PvP situations. Its purpose is to be very annoying and either disable enemies by stunning, blinding, or fearing or make them do very little damage while slowing them down as well.

Abilities:
- Crippling Wave is great for this build. It slows down enemies by 45% and reduces their damage by 50%. For 9 seconds. It’s an AoE as well.
- Dashing Strike: Serves 2 purposes, it gives the monk much needed mobility to be in the right place, and has a 50% chance to stun for 3.5 seconds on hit so you can actually get some attacks in after dashing towards an enemy.
- Blinding Flash: obvious choice, mass crowd control to help control the fight. 30% chance to miss for enemies as icing on the cake.
- Lashing Tail Kick: Another AoE damage dealer with a more reliable 100% stun for 3 seconds.
- Breath of Heaven: another multi-purpose ability. When under heavy attack, you can dash into the fight, use the ability for the solid heal and it also fears all nearby enemies for 9 seconds buying more time to get back in the fight.
-Mantra of Conviction: Constant 20% increased damage for you and your allies and 45% less damage from all enemies with the rune. Good

Passives:
- Transcendence to help keep yourself alive while you are spamming all of these control abilities.
- Pacifism: You are useless if you are dead; this + runed Mantra of Conviction will probably go a long way for your survivability
- Guardian’s Path: Not sure about this one but I was kind of worried about the spirit generation.

I might have missed something here with the passives.


Balanced PvP: http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/monk#iedXjR!YeV!caYaZb

I tried to balance this build between damage, healing, and utility.
- Way of the Hundred Fists with movement and attack speed bonus rune
- Crippling Wave with +80% damage taken rune
- Dashing Strike with +55% movement speed rune for mobility
- Breath of Heaven for heals + rune for AoE fear
- Seven Sided Strike with Crimson Rune for more damage
- Mantra of Conviction with Golden Rune for party healing

Passives:
Transcendence, Pacifism, and Near Death Experience. All survivability passives for PvP.

Speed Demon: http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/monk#eiYjdV!Ydg!acaZYY

This is my personal favorite build. This build is high aggression, high crit, fast movement speed, and loads of increased attack speed. This build will probably generate the most spirit due to dual-wielding and faster attacks.

Bread and Butter:
- Way of the Hundred Fists: Very important to this build as every crit increases attack speed by 22% and movement speed by 11%, stacking 3 times for 66% increased attack speed and 33% increased movement speed.
- Crippling Wave: for movement speed debuff and additional 80% damage to enemy from all sources to line up big combos with some coordination

Other Skills:
- Lashing Tail Kick: With Beacon of Ytar, highly spammable and has a reliable 3 second stun with the rune to keep the enemy in place
- Seven Sided Strike: Main damage dealer. You can ideally spam this multiple times when going for the kill. With increased damage rune (234% weapon damage), and assuming this can hit the same target multiple times if there is only 1 target in the area, that is 1638% weapon damage to one target while being invulnerable.
- Dashing Strike: Cheap mobility with +55% movement speed rune to fit the theme.
- Mantra of Retribution: Allies reflect 40% of melee damage taken, but the main reason I took this ability is the constant +40% attack speed for the monk and allies. With Way of the Hundred Fists stacks, that gives the monk 106% increased attack speed.

Passives:
Transcendence: This build in theory has the most spam so Transcendence might be enough to sustain the monk
Beacon of Ytar: Allows for spam of abilities. With the higher spirit generation, this fits nicely in the build and even boosts healing from Transcendence
Exalted Soul: 100 extra spirit to work with


Speed Demon PvE: http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/monk#iUjYXV!Ygd!cbZccY

Essentially the same as the above build but changed the rune on Lashing Tail Kick to extra damage and replaced Dashing Strike with Breath of Heaven for group healing. I also changed Crippling Wave to Exploding Palm because enemies die a lot faster and more often in PvE than in PvP.

Theoretical Party: Monk, Barbarian, Wizard
The barbarian can use Frenzy to increase attack speed by 75% while also having the Retribution Mantra from the monk to increase it by another 40%. The wizard can use slow time with alabaster rune to increase attack speed by another 140%. Just an example of some possible synergy.

Those are all the builds I came up with so far. Please comment, change a build, or share your own builds.

With the Beta tantalizingly close, Blizzard continues adding to their new Diablo 3 Community Site. This afternoon we got a glimpse of each classes' Resource System, complete with animated globes! Though this information is generally already known, by Blizzard posting an official page on the topic it seems the function of each system is finalized. Each system specifically supports the classes' generic role in combat, though doesn't completely prevent the possibility of creative, wild builds.

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Barbarians use Fury, which is generated by both landing and taking hits. Some skills generate more fury than others, such as Leap Attack and Ground Stomp. While other skills are Fury heavy, such as Whirl Wind and Threatening Shout. The Barbarian will begin to lose Fury if he or she is out of combat for too long. The Fury System urges the Barbarian to be aggressive by generating Fury from both damage given, and received. Yet punishes the player for staying out of combat for too long.




The Demon Hunter has a split system, using both Hatred and Discipline. Hatred regenerates quickly, and is diminished by using offensive skills such as Bola Shot. On the other hand Discipline regenerates slowly, and is used for more defensive skills such as Smoke Screen, and traps. The Hatred/Discipline resources grant the Demon Hunter the ability to inflict damage from a far, or lure enemies into deadly traps.




A Monk relies on Spirit, which is gained from landing swift attacks such as Fists of Thunder, along with other special Spirit generating abilities. Other powerful attacks only deplete the resource, such as Seven Sided Strike. Spirit does not diminish when the Monk is out of battle, as the Barbarian's Fury does. Spirit guides the Monk to dish out as much damage as possible, while receiving as little as possible. Many of the Monk's skills aid in not getting surrounded.



Mana fuels the Witch Doctor, like in Diablo 2 Mana is gathered slowly, yet has a deep pool. The Witch Doctor may also take advantage of Mana generating skills such as Mana Steal, along with Passive Traits to help quicken the process. Most other attacks aside from Mana generating skills only diminish the resource. With the slow regeneration of Mana, the Witch Doctor is best off keeping an eye on his or her reserve. Fall too low and you may find yourself hopelessly thirsting for Mana in the heat of battle.




Wizards will use Arcane Power, a fast regenerating resource to fuel their vast array of magical spells and abilities. Using skills will only drain your Arcane Power, so pacing yourself in battle will be key to maintaining a constant bombardment of pain. The fast regenerating, yet shallow pool of Arcane Power supports all of the Wizard's skill disciplines, yet limits the amount of spamming which can be done at one time.




Though each resource system has its general function for its specified class, this in no way limits your personal play style.

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Special thanks to Verity for the lead, and Zhuge for helping extract those nice resource globes.

Oh yes, the Beta is coming.. Find out what to expect From the beta and DiabloFans!

Also be sure to vote in our latest poll, and listen to this week's DiabloCast here!