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  • snowhammer's avatar

    1

    Aug 25, 2011
    snowhammer posted a message on The Demon Hunter
    Wow! I wish I had found this thread months ago! Would have helped past the time!

    Can't begin to describe how fun it was to go through this thread and watch it progress. I, along with every one else, can't wait to see the finished product!

    Seeing how long this has taken (of course you are doing it only in your spare time) kind of makes me appriciate/understand how long it takes to make the 3D cinematics that Blizzard does. I remreber hearing that the Cataclysm Movie took them over 2 years. I thought that seemed waaay to long, but now i fully understand it.

    Awesome stuff!
    Posted in: Fan Art
  • snowhammer's avatar

    1

    Aug 19, 2011
    snowhammer posted a message on Affixes Not Steamlined
    So I didn't see a post on this yet, so I figured I would start up some discussion on it.

    This is quite possibly my favorite blue post since, ever?

    Someone asled "Have affixes been streamlined?"


    Official Blizzard Quote:



    No, what you saw in the tooltips from gamescom is really just an example and not indicative of what we have planned. Affixes are one of those areas, like weapons and armor, that we're going to get in as much as we can before the game ships, and then we'll be adding more afterward. We have pretty much all the basics covered, adds to base stats, adds elemental damage, increases attack and cast speed, and then we have some of the crazier stuff like regenning arcane power on a critical hit, spending fury heals you, extra health from health globes, health globe pickup radius, gold pickup radius ... to name a few.

    The tooltips from gamescom are more or less indicative of what's actually implemented in the internal builds right now this second (quite a bit less really), but not of what will be available at release, and certainly not what we plan for down the road.

    Just so much awesome. Arcane Power on Crits and Healing when you spend Fury are especially awesome. These are exactly the kind of "fun / wierd" affixes and mods I was hoping to see.

    To hear the examples, and on top of that hear that they are going to be adding more after the release is really great news.

    I am going to build an entire +Health Globe Radius set!! :) Where ever they drop on the screen, I pick them up! ;)
    Posted in: Diablo III General Discussion
  • snowhammer's avatar

    3

    Aug 12, 2011
    snowhammer posted a message on So, this was kind of fun
    So while passing the time.. I tried somthing kind of fun while playing TorchLight. (Im sure its been done before)

    In TL, there are 3 skill trees for each class. There are 5 "active skills" in each tree for each class. That makes 15 active skills per class.

    What I just did was level up a Vanquisher to level 30.

    I Saved up points to put a new point into each skill when it became available. There are generaly 3 new skills ( 1 in each tree) to grab every 5 levels. In all, there are 15 active skills ( about 8 less than D3 will have per class )

    By level 30ish go for somthing like this:
    I put 5 points in each of the level one skills (15 total)
    4 in each of the level five skills (12 total)
    3 in each of the level 10 skills(9 points)
    2 in the level 15 and 20 skills (12 points)
    and 1 in each of the level 25 points (3 points) TOTAL (51 points)

    **Important: make sure you have enough points (at least 3) going into each 5th level. So at level 5, make sure to have 3 unspent points, at level 10 make sure to have 3 unspent points (so you can get all 3 of the new skills). In between, use your fame points to keep the lower level skills viable. Play the game on Hard (instead of very hard) so that the lower level skills stay viable.

    Basically I ignored the passives, and it kind of simulated the way the skills will unlock in Diablo 3.
    By the time I had all the skills unlocked I started expirimenting trying to find fun combinations and "limited" myself to 6 skills (left, right Mouse Buttons and 1-4).

    So really not a brilliant idea or anything, but it was alot of fun. I found quite a few fun combinations of skills that made the Vanq play totally differently.

    So doing this was a blast, even with just 15 skills to chose from, its alot of fun swaping them in and out. Now, when you think D3 has 23 active skills (instead of 15) and 5 rune changes for each skill.. the same thing that is really interesting / fun in TorchLight is going to be insane in D3. Can't wait.

    Doing this from last night till this morning some how (didn't think it was possible) hyped me up even more for D3.
    Posted in: Diablo III General Discussion
  • snowhammer's avatar

    1

    Aug 10, 2011
    snowhammer posted a message on Witch doctor
    http://www.diablofans.com/topic/26671-the-ultimate-list-of-active-and-passive-skills/

    For one
    Posted in: Diablo III General Discussion
  • snowhammer's avatar

    5

    Aug 8, 2011
    snowhammer posted a message on RUNES
    **DISCLAIMER** If reading a pretty longwinded explination of an idea is not somthing you enjoy, you better hit the back button. If you happen to have looked at any of my "For Fun" guides, you may know that I spend ALOT of time imagining Diablo 3 as though it were already out. Since the August 1st information, I have been "going back to the drawing board" as it were, and while doing imaginary play throughs of the game, one thing keeps getting me stuck; only needing to have 1 of each class.

    Making a new character is (in my opinion) a big part of Diablo. However, while "imagining" playing the game, I KNOW that being able to switch between skills with the amount of freedom we will have now is going to be a great expirience as well. So, as I tend to do, I started "assuming" that a system exisited in the game that would allow for both. I thought it was a good enough (interesting enough) idea to make a thread and see what you guys thought.

    RUNES - The Best of Both Worlds


    What the Problem was:
    When Diablo 3 entered Alpha, the Developers noticed that the players were not using the skill system the way they had hoped they would. Indeed, it felt just like Diablo 2: Max 1 or 2 skills and spamm them to victory. The system actually "encouraged" this behavior and caused the players to "mass dump" skill points into new skills when they became available. The Dev Team didn't like this, as the combat (Monster AI, dificulty, pacing) was designed around players using 4-6 skills efficiently.

    What they did:
    This lead to what in my opinion was a pretty drastic change (considering how late we are in development), they removed the skill point system entirely. Players would now unlock new skills and passive skills at each level and be able to freely switch between those skills to find a "build" that they liked.

    The (assumed) Effect:
    This should lead to players using thier selected 6 active skills through out the entire game and to great effect, as the developers can ballance them based on character level and will give players a never-before-seen (in an ARPG) amount of freedom when expirimenting with their skills.

    The Side Effect:
    In my opinion, more by cause and effect than by design, this change lead to players really only needing to create 1 of each class (10 if you count gender or hardcore). Some people love this idea, while others (of which I am one) feel that comitting to your build should be considered a "core Diablo" concept.

    Runes may help:
    There have been alot of ideas tossed about since Aug 1st regarding the Skill changes / Rune changes. The Man himself (Jay Wilson) said in the interview that Force posted that one of the reasons they liked the proposed Rune change was that it would add to the "investment" players would need to make to their chosen skill set. This is the main reason I am all for the Rune changes, however, this does not change the fact that to change your build (even at the latest point in the game) you would not need a new character, but instead only new runes (and Gear too).

    R*U*N*E*S Two birds with one Stone
    So, my idea. Runes will drop in two forms: Common and Magic. So each time a rune is Rolled up, it then performs a roll to determine weather it is Common or Magic.

    Common Runes:
    Common runes would act just like runes from the "old" system did. They would drop with the Type already defined. When a Common rune drops, it would look somthing like this:
    ____________________________________________________
    Crimson Rune: Level 1
    ____________________________________________________


    Common runes could only drop up to level 5. This way the most rare (Level 6-7) would always be rolled up as Magic. Common runes can be freely switched between any active, currently equipped, skill. The fact that Common runes drop with their "Type" already rolled up (Crimson, Indigo, Alabaster, Obsidian, Golden) would mean you could hold the rune over any of your skills and get a look at what the rune would do to that skill. The common runes would be the way to let players "freely" try out all of the Rune combinations, and they would be VERY "common" drops in Act 2. As the game progresses, Rune's become more rare (in general), but by the time you start hunting for Level 6 and 7 Runes, they will only drop as Magical.

    Magic Runes:
    When a Magic Rune is rolled up, it can be any level of rarity. This would make Rare or even Legendary Runes possible. An example of how a Magic Rune would look when the player sees it on the Ground:
    ____________________________________________________

    Magic Rune: Level 4
    ____________________________________________________

    Both the Type (Crimson, Indigo, Alabaster, Obsidian, Golden) and the Modifiers would NOT be rolled when the item dropped. When the rune drops, the Roll up would determine the Level (1-7) and wether it was Common or Magic. When you mouse over a Magic rune that you find, a tooltip would pop up reading:
    ____________________________________________________

    "Chose a Skill to Attune this Rune to. This will then Determine the Rune Type and Give an Extra Effect"
    ____________________________________________________

    After you select a skill to "attune" the rune to, several Rolls happen. It rolls a type (Crimson, Indigo, Albaster, Obsidian, Golden), it rolls the Rarity (rare, legendary, ect..), and the Modifiers. The fact that the Rune doesn't make these rolls untill AFTER you attune it would make selling un-attuned runes pretty interesting. Could be AMAZING, could be just ok. An example of what a Level 4 Attuned runed might look like:
    ____________________________________________________

    Sturdy Crimson Rune of Shadows: Ray of Frost - Level 4
    Can be Insterted into Ray of Frost
    "Beam increases in damage the longer it remains in use, to a cap"
    +25 Defense
    +11% to Dodge
    ____________________________________________________

    But how does this address the need to only make 1 of each class..?

    The Kicker:
    Make the player limited to only Socketing 6 Skills at one time. Because Common runes are able to be "Freely" switched between skills, changing them out would be as easy as "click and drag". This would allow the player to play with the rune effects, while being a built in way to keep people from switching skills out literaly "on the fly" (as in during fights) as they would have to re-socket their skills when they change them out.

    Magic Runes would not be free to change. Because of this, when players are about to socket a magic rune into a skill (remember, "attuning" a rune to a skill only Does the roll on the item, it doesn't lock it into "your" skill yet) you would see a warning screen reading:

    "Removing a Magic Rune from you Skill can only be done at the Mystic and Costs Gold. Removing this Rune from the Mystic will cost X amount of Gold (based on the Rune Level and Quality). Are you sure you wan't to socket this Rune?"

    In this fashion, switching out a High Level Magic Rune could cost ALOT of Gold. So much, that changing out ALL of your skills (if you already invested good quality runes in them) would cost enough that you would likely make a new character instead. You could, however, change out 1 or 2 Magic Runes, and just eat the gold cost. And this would make tweaking expensive, but possible.

    Conculsion:
    This sytem (and props to you if you read all this!) would allow players to have fun expirimenting with rune effect as they level (with Common runes), Give back that awesome point of comparison that mousing a "Crimson" rune over your skills brings (that people like Sixen in the Podcasts have been missing), allow players to "invest" in their skills with expensive, hard to find Magic Runes, and by limiting to player to 6 Runes at one time (meaning that you would have to remove a Rune to change out your skills) would result in builds being important in the late game in a "tangible" way again.


    This post is by no means meant to be a "if only Blizzard would do THIS" thread. It is simply what I thought was an interesting idea, and worth sharing with the forum.
    Posted in: Diablo III General Discussion
  • snowhammer's avatar

    1

    Aug 6, 2011
    snowhammer posted a message on Why should it be easy to get the lvl 7 rune you want?
    I kept wishing I could say somthing while listening to the latest podcast too!

    I love hearing Force, Sixen and Tempest's oppinions but I felt they missed somthing on the Rune Changes as well.

    Jay said "Level 1 Runes will drop like Candy, no need to Hoard them". Not to mention that they will be on the AH for super cheap I am sure.

    So you can expiriment, find what you want.

    Now, here is the part that I felt they missed: Trying to find that perfect "higher level version" of your Rune of choice is now the main (if not only way) to become attached or "committed" to your chosen skill.

    I am all for making them as rare as possible for that reason. Even if they drop totally un-attuned.

    They talked about how annoying it would be to find a level 7 rune, put it in your skill and get a crappy version.

    I see it the opposite way, think of how awesome it would feel to find a level 7 Rune, socket it, get your effect AND a great Bonus. I really like it and would argue that it is almost neccessary with the new skill system change (more invested in your skills)
    Posted in: Diablo III General Discussion
  • snowhammer's avatar

    8

    Aug 5, 2011
    snowhammer posted a message on The August 1st Reveal
    The August 1st Reveal

    Sixen's News Post - The Press Event

    Diablo Cast XX - Force, Sixen and Tempest Discuss all the August 1st Info


    The Auction House

    The Press Kit Screen Shots of the Auction House


    PhrozenDragon's News Post Explaining the Auction House

    Force's Auction House Announcemnet Video

    Diablo Cast Live 8/3 - Good Discusion About the Auction House

    Official Blizzard Overview of the Auction House
    Official Blizzard FAQ on the Auction House

    Notable Blizzard Quotes on the Auction House
    Q u o t e:
    but it also has the potential to damage the game economy and overall experience for the many thousands of others who play World of Warcraft for fun

    Official Blizzard Quote:



    We still think that's true for a MMO in which thousands of players co-mingle in a persistent world and vie for supremacy in eSport competitions or 'world first' boss kills in raids. Neither of these are true though for a co-op action RPG.

    The worst that could happen is you open your game up to the public, someone jumps in wearing some awesome gear, and you don't know if he found those items himself. But that'd be the case whether we offered an official way to buy items from other players or not.
    Q u o t e:
    we feel that players can find ample equipment and money for their characters within the game through their own adventuring and questing.

    Official Blizzard Quote:



    The same is not true for Diablo in which all items are randomized in both affixes and drop chances from all enemies. We know that trading is necessary in Diablo games to build a solid character as you could play forever and still never see a specific item you're after.
    Q u o t e:
    Yes - but why oh why the 180?
    I always thought that Blizzard games were the last bastion of 'no ingame advantage can be bought for real money'.
    Bashiok, I am a big fan of yours and generally agree with what you say. But I cannot express my dislike for this new development strongly enough.

    Official Blizzard Quote:



    Bottom line is people are going to buy those in-game advantages whether we want them to or not. We have a subscription-based game in World of Warcraft and try as we might we still struggle to keep pace with those looking to turn a profit. Why not bring that in-house, make it secure, make it guaranteed, and provide a safe way for players to sell to other players?

    This is specifically only a decent idea in our minds for Diablo III because an in-game advantage doesn't mean you steal a world first, or up your arena rating, or edge out in a competition. Diablo III is a co-op game. If you're buying power it's to jump into games and help your buddies kill demons faster, and guess what, they get more drops in less time. In our eyes that's not buying an advantage as a selfish measure, it's really just kicking more ass in co-op games with your friends. It's apples and oranges, if you will, to something like an in-game advantage in a game like World of Warcraft.
    Q u o t e:
    Okay...I see your point Bashy. But don't you see why so many people are worried?
    The introduction of real money into the system means people wanting top tier stuff will pay a fair chunk of RL money.
    When the first guy pays 500$ for an item, things start to inflate. Suddenly, casual players or those not willing to buy with their real money are locked out of it. And the inflation will continue.
    If there was some way to strictly limit how much an item can be sold for and curb this effect...then maybe. But I can predict that this is going to go all kinds of pear shaped.

    Official Blizzard Quote:



    We may have upper limits. We may have minimums. Listing fees are flat so it's not in our best interest to let it get away from us. That said, it's supply and demand, and we want this to be a market run by the players. Every rule we impose could upset that and suddenly it's not players setting market values, but Blizzard deciding how it goes. I still think some limits are likely, though.

    I have no doubt that the gold auction house will by-far outweigh the real money auction house in scope and amount of items available. The good thing here is that being able to sell gold for real money will naturally keep the gold auction house economy in-check a bit. Not a lot, but it should be helpful.

    Q u o t e:
    I love how Bashiok comes in here and cherrypicks some random post in which he'll have an answer to, but doesn't really address the RMAH uproar that has divided the community.

    Official Blizzard Quote:



    The only way to address it would be to say it won't be in the game, or will be sequestered off to separate servers. Neither of which are going to happen. I've given a lot of reasons why we think it's going to be a fun addition to the game, but I'm not going to be able to suddenly change peoples minds. The best I can do is try to correct misinformation, but the facts seems to be known by most, and there are some healthy discussions going on.

    And yes, I'm going to cherry pick posts which I have answers to. ;)

    It'd be kind of funny though to instead pick posts I don't have answers to.


    Skill System Changes / No More Skill Points

    Force and Sixen - First Reaction

    Force's Video - Jay Wilson explains the skill change

    Magistrate's News Post on the Removal of Skill Points

    Notable Blizzard Quotes on the Removal of Skill Points

    Q u o t e:
    After a lot of thought about all the new systems I'm pretty happy with them, but I have one issue....
    From what I've read it seems as though you unlock all of your skill / passive slots by level 30 so what do you gain leveling from there to 60 besides auto-stats and new loot?
    It seems likes there is a whole zone where nothing really happens to your character.
    Am I missing something here?

    Official Blizzard Quote:



    You'll have access to all the systems by the end of Normal, but that doesn't mean you're going to scratch the surface with them.

    You'll be leveling your artisans, teaching them to make new items, finding higher quality runes, finding higher quality gems, combining gems, finding loot in Nightmare that doesn't drop in Normal, finding loot in Hell that doesn't drop in Nightmare, etc. and really continuing to max out use of each of the available power adjustments.

    Plus the need to really tighten up builds, get a good mix of skills, pick the right passives to support them, and gear out in specific directions becomes more and more important as the game gets tougher.

    I don't think having to become a better player and invest more in all the game systems is a "deadzone", it's where the game gets challenging.
    Q u o t e:
    How dumb do you think the average Diablo 3 player will be? I'm posting here on the internet; my fingers are magically finding the keys and forming words which turn into coherent sentences. Did I just blow past the expectations you have set for me?

    Official Blizzard Quote:



    So you figured out it's better to pump all your points into one or two skills. What a smart gamer you are.

    How long do you think it would have taken even bad players to look up on a website that it's the best way to play a game where skills have to scale with more points?

    We've been playing the game, we know what skill points were causing, and it was not interesting and unique builds. It was not meaningful customization. It was maxing out a couple skills, and that's it. It was Diablo II. What we have now actually forces people to make interesting choices, to craft interesting builds based on very strict limitations.

    One common mistake people are making is thinking all the class skills are straight damaging attack skills, and they pick six of those, and they're on their way. There's no variety because you just pick the most powerful six, and you're done. You can do that, but you're either going to straight up die, run out of resources and waste time dying or running away, or you're going to have to figure out some godly resource regen stacking gear setup. One of those sounds fun, and challenging, which makes even crazy builds like using six straight damage skills potentially viable if you can game it right.
    Q u o t e:
    The current iteration of the skill system will work just fine. My only concern is the limiteless ability to change skills (either out in the field, or in town) with no cost. I know you said you are taking a "wait and see" approach.
    What I am wondering is if you, personally, can say how you feel while out in the world being able to change skills on the fly. Do you come upon a particularly nasty group that this other skill would just be perfect for, so you hang back, grab that skill, then destroy the group?
    Maybe my concern with this is unfounded, but I just like the idea of a character build having more permanence.. so a "Whirlwind/Ancient Spear Barbarian" actually means something, instead of what you feel like playing that day. I understand the need to experiment early.. but can't there be a comprimise in that late game build changing could be more restrictive?

    Official Blizzard Quote:



    I think that someone choosing to hang back and switch up their build for a specific pack is totally possible, but experience shows that it's not something most players want to spend the time to do. And that's more about build identity than min/maxing.

    It's far more lucrative and time effective to create a viable build that can deal with a variety of situations, and we also find that players want to create and stick with an identity even if there's the ability to freely swap. It's generally a matter of finding the way you want to play, and fine tuning. And really we're not talking about skills so specific in function that it's going to be that enticing. You're pretty much either killing enemies, or protecting yourself. There's a ton of variety within offense and defense, but I don't think it's so ideal as to make someone stop and switch out their entire build.

    Like I said players inherently want to stick with a specific character identity. You're far more likely to see a player sticking with a build and working to become better at it than constantly swapping around. That's not a rule, it's player psychology so there's going to be a wide range of variables, but it's what we have found to be true not only for Diablo III, but a lot of the games out there with similar free-swapping of builds.

    Official Blizzard Quote:



    I realize there’s a lot of information spread around, I’m hoping to bring some of it to a single post and hopefully get our point across and reassure you that the changes we’re making are for the betterment of character customization options, and ultimately your long-term enjoyment of the game.

    So, why did we get rid of skill points?
    (Note: this is a supplementary min/max explanation. There are lots of other reasons which have been touched on in the past such as how players approach our game, supporting the idea of builds, observing how players behaved in internal testing, etc. This is just further explanation that I think will resonate with some of you.)

    In Diablo III, we really want to improve the combat depth. Part of having combat depth involves having skills that are useful in different situations. In Diablo II players often used a single skill to deal with almost all situations: Blessed Hammer, Frozen Orb and Bone Spirit to name a few. Players invest 20 points into a single skill and use it as much as possible. The only reason a player would swap away from their primary spam skill is due to monster resistances/immunities. If a monster was immune to your primary spam skill, you’d either skip the encounter completely or fall back on a second skill. Neither of these answers provides the player with much combat depth.

    To support combat depth, skills need to have different roles. Here is a very simple example:

    •Magic Missile deals 15 damage to a single enemy

    •Arcane Orb deals area of effect damage for 10 damage each

    With these two skills we’re beginning to develop some combat depth for the player. Use Magic Missile when you’re facing one enemy, use Arcane Orb when you’re facing multiple enemies. But you may also want to use Magic Missile if one enemy is a “high priority target” in a group, and you want it to die quickly. In this simplified example players can still defeat a horde of enemies by casting Magic Missile multiple times, or they could defeat a single large enemy by casting Arcane Orb multiple times, but that wouldn’t be as efficient as a player who uses the right skill for the right situation.

    Ok so that basic layout of combat depth out of the way!

    With skill point spending your skills get better as you invest points into them. The problem is that this destroys combat depth. If after pumping a bunch of points into Magic Missile it now deals 70 damage to a single enemy, assuming my enemies have any reasonable health, then Magic Missile becomes a better choice than Arcane Orb even in group situations. If after pumping a bunch of points into Arcane Orb it now deals 45 damage, then it deals more damage than Magic Missile to single targets. Now rather than using the right skill for the right situation, I’m using the skill I’ve put all my points into. Skill point spending has eroded away combat depth.

    Why did we go from 7 skill choices to 6?
    (Note: again, this is a supplementary explanation. We’ve gone over some of the other reasons elsewhere, but this is specifically targeted at those of you here who feel strongly that 7 means there would be more build diversity than 6)

    Diablo III emphasizes build customization. We feel that 6 skill choices actually creates more build diversity than 7.

    Why? Well for any given set of options, the greatest number of combinations exists when the number of choices you can make is close to half the number of options you have. Some of you may remember a high school math problem like this: There are 12 differently colored marbles in a bag. How many different color combinations can you get by choosing X marbles? Well as it turns out the solution for various values of X are:


    •1 marble: 12 different color combinations

    •2 marbles: 66

    •3 marbles: 220

    •4 marbles: 495

    •5 marbles: 792

    •6 marbles: 924

    •7 marbles: 792

    •8 marbles: 495

    •9 marbles: 220

    •10 marbles: 66

    •11 marbles: 12

    •12 marbles: 1 (there’s only 1 way to choose 12 marbles from the 12 in the bag)

    The greatest number of possible combinations happens when you are choosing 6 from a possible 12.

    You may be asking what 12 has to do with anything as classes all have over 20 skills available to them...

    This is true in theory, but in practice players tend to (and really should) pick up skills to fill different roles so they can be effective. Categories such as single target, area of effect, auto-targeting, debuff, defensive, group buff, escape, crowd control, 2-minute ubers, pet skills, etc. etc. Players generally take at most two (and often one) skill to fill any particular role. For example, the Wizard has Ice Armor, Storm Armor and Energy Armor, but I don’t think anyone is going to take all three (though maybe somebody will take that as a challenge and prove me wrong), most players will choose one Wizard Armor spell (note that this can change dramatically with some rune effects). If we look at each class, depending on how you count, you get anywhere from 8-12 different types of skills. So we err on the high side in our category estimate (12) and that means 6 is a pretty good number to maximize build variety.

    It's important to note that we’re not just talking about you and your friend having Wizards with slightly different skills, we’re talking about you and your friend having 6 skills that are different in functionally significant ways.

    Closing remark! When we pull math out like this I’m sure somebody will point out that if our only objective was to maximize build combinations we’d have allowed people to also choose 6, 7 or 8 passives rather than just 3. So I’ll counter by saying maximizing build combinations is not our only objective. We also want our system to have aesthetic flavor, to be simple to understand, and to have the passives in particular feel impactful. We have many different goals that we take into account when making any design decision. In the case of active skills, we felt the increase in variety was one of many good reasons to go from 7 to 6.

    So how many skill combinations are there now?

    Well taking into account 6 active skills, all the rune combinations, and 3 passives we currently expect each class to have roughly 2,285,814,795,264 different build combinations. That’s not taking into account skill types for ‘ideal’ builds, but that’s always been a big part of the fun of experimenting (and longevity for Diablo II) - finding a build that shouldn’t work, and making it.

    Always Online???

    Gameplanet Interview - Jay Wilson Talks About Always Online


    Possible Rune System Changes

    Force's Video - Jay Wilson on Possible Rune Changes

    Kickin_It's News Post on the Possible Rune Changes

    Notable Blizzard Quotes on the Possilbe Rune Changes


    Official Blizzard Quote:



    Personally, I love it, and hope it finds a way in.

    I'm not so sure about rolling to see which rune effect you get (it could still work), but I *love* the idea of random affixes. That you could have a end-rank rune for the skill you want, with the effect you want, but you still don't have ideal stats on it. That just makes the min/max item hunt that much cooler, and makes runes more important than... "Oh, I found another Crimson rune. Great. /salvage"
    Q u o t e:
    Yeah, but it makes it harder for me to see everything that could potentially be on my rune. I won't know what "perfect" is without digging into the game and even then, what are the chances of me getting the rune I want.
    I don't like the random aspect of this part, I feel like randomizing my skills isn't a great way to go :(.

    Official Blizzard Quote:



    Pretty unlikely you won't know what's available with an auction house at your finger tips.

    And if we're just talking about affixes, we're talking about min/maxing. You're going to know what affixes you want because you're already pretty deep into your build.

    I don't expect a new character to pick up a rune, roll affixes, and then throw it away because "ew it has attack instead of defense". Probably not going to care much early on.
    Q u o t e:
    Ya, I suppose that's definitely true. But you also have to take into account that it'll be randomizing the type of rune as well, correct? So I only have a 20% chance of getting the rune I want, regardless of whatever affix is added.
    Maybe if each rune type dropped instead of "unattuned" runes, then I'd at least be able to get the rune I want and hope I get a good affix on it.

    Official Blizzard Quote:



    Well, like I said I don't know if that part of it will work out... I just want the randomized affixes. :) Makes runes so much more compelling as an item.
    Q u o t e:
    I'm confused as to why this was put into place... I have the idea, but it seemed like the 'faced' rune system was better, since we got to know what it was.

    The 'defaced' system feels kinda sketchy, and it would seem that some people might not understand that
    New player: "oh hey a rank 1 rune"
    *socket*
    New Player: "neat. does this now"
    *kills stuff, finds another rune*
    New Player: "oh rank 2? I'll upgrade it then"
    *sockets rank 2 rune into previously socketed skill*
    New Player: "Hey, how come it's not doing the same thing? now it's doing something totally different? Is it the rank? What is this "multi-shot" thing? It gave me bonuses? Now this rank 2 rune gives a different bonus, and does a different effect?"

    *goes into general global channel*
    New Player: "HOW DO RUNES WORK!?!?! Someone help! I've found all these runes but it keeps changing my skill around!"

    Official Blizzard Quote:



    That sounds about right. Well, like he said it's still just hallway discussions at this point.


    B.net Features / Banners / Class Crests / Interviews

    Force's Video - Battle.net Features Overview

    Gametrailers Rob Pardo Interview - Battle.net Features

    Doomscream's Post - Comprehenesive List of Blizzard Interviews / QAs

    CherubDown-DiabloDaily's Breakdown of the Press Kit Photos

    Press Kit Screen Shots - Banners, Battle.net Features



    Force's Video - Class Crests

    Press Kit Screen Shots - Class Crests




    Near Full List of All Skills and Passives

    Doomscream's Post - The Ultimate List of Passive and Active Skills - With Pictures


    PvP / Arena Changes

    Force's Video - Jay Wilson Explains Diablo 3's Direction for PvP

    Winged's News Post - PvP in Diablo 3 - Lots of Blue Quotes


    10 Character Limit?

    Notable Blizzard Quote on the 10 Character Limit
    Q u o t e:
    Basically you dont ever have to level a new character.

    Official Blizzard Quote:



    You knew that was the case with respecs. Funny enough, even with respecs, leveling characters is fun. There are plenty of games with respecs where people will level many, many characters of the same class, just for the fun of it. And without anything really 'tied' to a character, it's easy enough to dump all items to the shared stash, delete the character, and start a new one.

    I will say though it's one area where we're definitely open to expanding, it just seemed like a decent number to go with for now.


    Beta Info

    Magistrate's Beta News Post - The Purpose of the Beta

    ScyberDragon's News Post - UPDATE YOUR BETA PROFILE

    Force's Video - Beta Gameplay

    Force's Video - Beta Screenshots

    Blizzard's Official Overview of the Beta
    Blizzard's Official FAQ about the Beta


    Let me know if I have missed somthing or if you feel somthing should be added / taken away in the comments below. Thank you!

    -Added DiabloDaily's breakdown of the Battle.net screenshots
    -Added Doomscream's comprehensive list of interviews
    -Added Doomscream's Ultimate list of Skills and Passives / with pictures
    -Added Diablo Cast XX - Discussion of all the topics
    -Added Winged's news post on PvP in Diablo 3
    Posted in: Diablo III General Discussion
  • snowhammer's avatar

    1

    Aug 4, 2011
    snowhammer posted a message on New DH Skills
    So the DH Companion appears to be a Bird of some kind. Check out the link: http://bbs.game.163.com/thread-168224813-1-1.html

    Its a chinese site with Tool Tip Photos of all the skills. Nice. No discriptions though.
    Posted in: Demon Hunter: The Dreadlands
  • snowhammer's avatar

    4

    Aug 4, 2011
    snowhammer posted a message on Did anyone else see this Blue Tracker post?
    I just want to get back to reading / digesting "REAL" news.

    For example, the fact that we know the names of almost all, if not all, of the DH and Monk skills now should be a huge topic of discussion, but every one is too busy listening to themselves type about the RMAH to bother talking about that.

    I'd also like to know why no one at the press event bothered to write down all of the discriptions of the new skills (assuming you could mouse over them, which based off the discriptions of the traits from the german site, I assume you could).
    Posted in: Diablo III General Discussion
  • snowhammer's avatar

    1

    Jul 31, 2011
    snowhammer posted a message on Auction House Topic
    They could litteraly do almost ANYTHING to this game.. and by that I mean take out all the content and put a "Nyan Nyan Cat" mini game in its place.. as long as the box said Diablo 3.. I would still buy it. Just like the VAST majority of every one else who is following the game already. Its ok to react negitivly to this.. but truthfully (and you know it) you'll buy the game any way.
    Posted in: Old Trading
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