DiabloFans

You're 100% correct. Anyone who is jumping to conclusions about the upcoming content is purely focusing on their gut reactions and not thinking about all the other information that we have yet to receive.

Don't say the patient is dead if you haven't checked for a pulse. (Regardless, the Necro would just rez them now, so....)

Look, I am sure we would all of loved more info/details, trailers, announcements, etc.

But, seriously until the show is officially over there's no need to be so upset!

We have a lot more info coming our way tomorrow..and hell how do we know they don't suddenly show the next xpac tomorrow?

Don't nerd rage and just instantly start making topics about how bad the game is and how your expectations have been destroyed.. (Not all of you have done this btw.)

Just...my opinion...calm down and wait!

-Cobearz

Quote from SwissyChief

Way to put a spoiler in your fucking threat title. I didn't want to know who the last boss was until I actually got there.

He never said that Diablo was the last boss. And if you don't want spoilers... a forum specifically focused on Diablo 3 on the day that Diablo 3 goes live... is a stupid place to be.

Hello, I am making this thread with the intention of discussing the current available information on how to unlock the Secret Cow Level. This post will be updated if any changes or new information pertaining to unlocking the Secret Cow Level becomes available. I hope to keep this post up to date as more information becomes available, even after the launch of Diablo 3 on May 15^th. This is all meant to bring the community together and help get the information out to people as fast as possible allowing the fastest possible access to the Secret Cow Level to those who are interested in pursuing it. Please bookmark this thread and post any new information, drop locations, and screenshots as you discover them.

The only information I have so far comes from DiabloNut’s database. In the database you can find an item called the Staff of Herding with the description, “Only one bovine in all of Sanctuary could possibly have a use for this.”

This item will be crafted using the Blacksmith, Haedrig, after finding the plan to create the staff. This plan only requires your Blacksmith to be level one, so you will not have to level him to create the staff. There are 4 versions of the staff, each one pertaining to a separate difficulty.

To obtain the first version of the Staff of Herding you must obtain several items. Each of these items has no value to vendors, and are account bound, and cannot be traded or sold on the AH.

The first item, which can already be obtained in the beta, is the Black Mushroom
Description: "The witch Adria seeks a black mushroom? I know as much about black mushrooms as I do about red herrings." —Deckard Cain
Location: This item can be found in Act 1. I have already heard of multiple locations in which this item has been found. My assumption is that it can be found in only one spot per game, if it happens to spawn at all. It can be found sprouting from the ground in several possible locations. I originally found this item sprouting out of the rock floor in the cathedral. Any information on additional spawn locations, along with accompanying screenshots is welcome.

The second item is Wirt’s Bell
Description: "When the demons come, close your eyes and ring this... it takes you far, far away..." —Unknown
Location: Unknown.

The third item is Liquid Rainbow
Description: The colors swirl and twist in hypnotic patterns.
Location: Unknown.

The fourth item is Gibbering Gemstone
Description: It seems to be active but it's difficult to tell.
Location: Unknown.

The fifth item is Leoric’s Shinbone
Description: This charred piece of Leoric was clearly once connected to his ankle and knee.
Location: Unknown.

Then you of course need the Plan: Staff of Herding
Location: Unknown. It is my assumption that the plan may only be found after completing the game in that difficulty, such as it was in Diablo II where you had to beat the difficulty before you could open the Secret Cow Level. Of course this could be different in Diablo 3, or they may allow you to create the staff, but not have access to opening the secret level until you beat the difficulty. It all remains to be seen.

Once you have all the materials and the plans you can have Haedrig create the staff at a 10,000 gold crafting cost. To open the cow levels in later difficulties all you need is to find the corresponding pattern, and use the previous level of the staff plus an additional crafting cost to create the upgraded versions. Here is a list of the materials for each staff.

Staff of Herding: Requires Black Mushroom, Wirt’s Bell, Liquid Rainbow, Gibbering Gemstone, Leoric’s Shinbone, and a 50,000 gold crafting cost
Nightmarish Staff of Herding: Requires the Staff of Herding and a 200,000 gold crafting cost
Hellish Staff of Herding: Requires the Nightmarish Staff of Herding and a 500,000 gold crafting cost
Infernal Staff of Herding: Requires the Hellish Staff of Herding and a 1,000,000 gold crafting cost
The total cost to craft the final version, the Infernal Staff of Herding, is 1,750,000 gold.

Also note that each of the staff plans beyond the first has a resale value. This means that these patterns will probably be able to be found more than once, allowing you to vendor, and/or possibly trade and sell them on the AH.

Plans: Staff of Herding has no gold value
Plans: Nightmarish Staff of Herding sells for 1000 gold
Plans: Hellish Staff of Herding sells for 2500 gold
Plans: Infernal Staff of Herding sells for 5000 gold

It is also unlikely that the staff will be sellable on the AH, or allowed to be traded to friends.

The first task I ask the community to do is to find and take screenshots of all the different locations for the Black Mushroom in Beta.

Update: Crafting costs have increased to 1.75 million total gold. I have confirmed that the Black Mushroom can be obtained by more than one person in a single game. This gives the ability to invite friends to your game to pick it up from the same location. Also found out that the Black Mushroom is account bound and cannot be traded and if dropped will not allow other players to pick it up.

I'd like it if the wings started out little and "meh" and as you increase in level the wings expand and become more vivid or customizable (color options, tendril count, etc.).

I think that'd be a good way to satisfy everyone...

I don't understand what the problem is - PvP will be added in a future patch, and there will be arenas, ladders, etc. It just won't be supported like an eSport, it'll be supported like it was in D2 - something fun to do to take a break from PvE

Except the game was about slaughtering monsters to collect loot, PvP was an afterthought. Your post makes you come off as a jerk. People just want the core game released, and for PvE not to be balanced around PvP changes (Skill X hits players too hard; nerf) etc. You are basically saying, "I want this and because you don't like it you're a jerk". You're whining.

Quote from Elementz

So I am not sure why PvE players care so much that PvP people want Blizzard to back one of the biggest, if not the biggest thing about Diablo 2's endgame. PvP.

Did read most of it, but there's a line in your first paragraph that sums up my argument nicely. Note, I'm not against PvP really, but I would want Blizzard to at least keep the two separated. I know the whole comparing to WoW is getting tiresome, but there's something to take note of in the constant struggle for rebalancing skills to match both PvE and PvP that marks its lengthy history of patch notes. Lately we've seen some improvement in this with skills being split into PvP and PvE components, and consequently with PvP being enclosed in instances separate from the PvE world, making this split technically possible. I reckon this won't be much different in D3, since PvP is in a closed off arena as well, but my biggest concern, and one I guess many share with me, is that PvE's skills and character balance will be (negatively) affected by Blizzard's attempt to balance them for PvP.

Fortunately for me, and probably less so for you, Blizzard disagrees with your perspective that PvP is the biggest thing in endgame Diablo. And with them, a lot of players do.

To me, PvP is something I just loathe to do. I don't mind the functionality, but it's just a terrible terrible experience for me. To copy your math: Trading items and killing PvE stuff would ammount to 2/2 for me. PvP may be an aspect of the game to play, but it's one I just plain don't like and never have. Again, this doesn't mean it shouldn't be in the game, but your claim that the game's experience is incomplete without it, and that it's the only logical endpoint of the game's progression, is entirely subjective.

I got into the beta back in patch 13, and the first thing I did was sit my girlfriend down to play while I quietly watched and took notes. As a bit of background, she has played a bit of D2 with me, but has never made it past act 3 on normal difficulty. She does play a few other games on her iPad, but mostly of the take-care-of-a-pretty-horse variety. Also, she is not a native English speaker.

She chose the female monk and went to it. The first thing she mentioned was how much easier it was to know where she was going, and what she was supposed to do. She liked having the map on the screen and having the quest prompts ticking off as she completed them.

As soon as she got a few skills going (especially Lashing Tail Kick) she started loving smashing monsters. I was interested to find her saying phrases that were exactly in line with Jay Wilson's statements early on in development. At one point she said, "Ooooh, I'm strong!" She also mentioned at one point that she would play the game even if I wasn't there. My favorite quote though was when she encountered the little demon imps and in her sweet little voice said, "Come here babies so I can kill you."

Afterwards, I talked to her about how it felt and especially how it compared to Diablo 2. One of the first things she said was that she felt "powerful" in game. She also expressed that in D2, she never really knew what was going on, why she was doing what she was doing, and where she was supposed to go, but that in D3, she always understood what she was doing. We also talked about stat and skill allocation differences, and that really helped me to understand many of the D3 development decisions. She was able to pick up the game and play it without spending a lot of time reading or feeling confused.
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Now a few notes from my perspective.

After I played the game for myself, I became considerably less concerned about some of the things that I found annoying while watching her play. As a spectator, I found the on-screen quest information to be a bit obtrusive, and I was very distracted by the pop-up "massive blow" kill counters. However, as a player, I found both of these to be far less problematic, though I would still very much like to be able to turn the latter off.

Due to a surprising (and somewhat disheartening) number of technical hurdles and bugs (who wrote that launcher, yikes!), and to my pretty busy schedule, I haven't played as much as I would like. I can say though that both melee characters a lot of fun to play. I expected the Barbarian to be fun to play, and he did not disappoint. I was hopeful about the Monk beforehand, and after having played him, I would say that he will definitely be one of my favorite characters to play. I found his pacing, style and skills to be very entertaining. I don't think that either my girlfriend or I will ever get tired of Lashing Tail Kicking our enemies faces off.
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tldr:
-the developers were spot on in achieving their goals for bringing in new players, even to the point of getting my girlfriend to use the same phrases to describe the game that the devs have previously used
-barbs and monks are sweet