Reaper of Souls BlizzCon Preview

Reminder: Check out the huge amount of information coming out during BlizzCon!
Reaper of Souls First Look: Adventure Mode
BlizzCon Lore and Story Q&A
Prepare for Ultimate Evil on PlayStation 4
Diablo III: Reaper of Souls - Official FAQ; RoS PlayStation 4 Information and Screenshots

Reaper of Souls BlizzCon Preview
The Reaper of Souls Preview panel is live at BlizzCon! Refresh for constant updates! Picture will be uploaded shortly!

Update: The panel has ended. Await screenshots!

Originally Posted by Blizzard (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)


Adventure Mode
  • Adventure mode will unlock the entire game and player will have access to everything at any time
  • All the waypoints for all Acts are unlocked
  • The sub-features are Bounties and Nephalem Rifts
  • Bounties make you hunt monsters all over Sanctuary
  • Nephalem Rifts is all about randomization. Example Act III and Act IV creatures are fighting you in Whimsyshire
  • Nephalem Rifts have random weather. For example you can see Caldeum at night.
Bounties
  • Bounties will take you through all bosses, events, side-dungeons. You need to hunt monsters anywhere in
  • 25 Random bounties at the start of the game. You can still do everything else, but the Bounties are a nice bonus.
  • Bounty types:
    • Kill a boss
    • Complete an event
    • Kill a Unique monster
    • Clear a dungeon
  • All Unique monsters for Bounties will be found around the world, instead of their usual places in the game
  • Bounties reward gold and experience and a Rift Keystone
Nephalem Rifts
  • Loot Runs are now Nephalem Rifts
  • Everything is random and from all Acts - terrain, monsters, bosses
  • Monster density is very random
  • 1-10 level dungeons
  • You can start in the Cathedral, to a Zoltun Kulle dungeon, to an exterior area
  • There will be random buffs in Nephalem Rifts
  • Bosses are random and their powers and abilities will be randomized
New Monsters and Behaviors
  • Summoner - defiles the ground under it and raises ghosts
  • Death Maiden - cutting heads off Westmarsh defenders
  • Punisher - heavy shock trooper, smashing enemies with his massive fists
  • Boggit - the Fallen equivalent in Bloodmarsh
  • Bogan Trapper - bigger cousin of Boggit
  • Brute - biggest of the Bogg family
  • Scarab Swarm - crawls out of everywhere and overwhelms the player. The player can also through them, instead of get stuck
  • Monsters live very short lives, so it's important that it's clear what they do when you see them
  • Skeleton Archers need to turn around and run in order to avoid dying. Instead they now backup without turning their back
  • Brutes throw Boggits on the field and then charge the player
  • Terrorbat picks up Boggits, bites them and they turn to Brutes. In turn, Brutes spawn Boggits and bats can pick the new Boggits
  • Realm Walkers spawn monsters from other realms. When it dies it overloads and explodes. He looses control of the portal, which the player can then enter and see the realm the monsters were spawning from
  • Trapper Tower - monsters are up on a tower and they shoot at the player and throw traps. When the tower dies the monsters die in their own traps
  • Exorcist -- he charges himself with electricity and shoots the player with lightning
  • Westmarch Hound - treats the player with a chew toy. Grabs him in its mouth and chews him up
  • If the hound kills the player it "marks" him as its territory
Pandemonium
  • Pandemonium is the Eternal Battlefield where Angels and Demons fight their conflicts. It constantly changes inhabitants
  • Pandemonium is the end zone and end of humanity - if Maltael succeeds
  • There were a lot of different early concepts of the zone (which you'll be able to see once we upload pictures!)
  • It's very dark and otherwordly
  • Features ancient angel architecture
  • Malthael's domain is in Pandemonium
Level Design
  • Fully randomized exteriors for Pandemonium
  • Direction and flow are completely random in both Campaign and Adventure mode
  • Battles Frozen in Time are places where the player can see old battles... Frozen in Time
  • There are traps all over the place left from Demons and Angels




Reaper of Souls Preview Panel Q&A

Originally Posted by Blizzard (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

What's going on with the Ladder system?
Stay tuned.

What are you going to do to affect the flood of gold with the removal of the AH?
We have new gold sinks coming. Enchaing is a big one. New and better Blacksmith recipes are also coming. Those are just a couple of the gold sinks.

Are all the previous areas getting to be in Adventure mode?
All Acts will be playable in Adventure mode. Nephalem Rifts will bring a lot of life to the assets of the previous Acts.

Offline Mode?
Since its inception Diablo has been designed to be played Online. It's important to have the social connection with friends. Clans and groups are also a major part of the gameplay.

The dog is going to be horrid for Hardcore players. Thank you!
*laughs*

With the removal of the Auction House what, if any, sort of trading model will you put in place?
We're still in the process of figuring out what Trading means in Diablo. Finding items should be the best and most satisfying way to find items.

Bosses are always typically static. Have you thought about moving them around, like in hallways?
In Nephalem Rifts that's exactly what happens. The boss is in the level with the monsters. If you're fighting an Elite pack and a boss comes you have to deal with all of that.

What are you plans for PvP?
A week doesn't go by without Steven asking what are we doing about PvP. For Reaper of Souls the focus has been on the core gameplay. The promise of epic loot. When we sort out the core we'll figure out PvP.

At the beginning of the first Act there are so many side-dungeons that add variety to the game, but gradually they become less and less. Will there be more?
We feel that players tend to want the game to end faster the more they progress, so the Acts become shorter. Bounties will also increase the variety quite a lot in Adventure mode.

I've lost a few characters to lag spikes. Is there any architectural improvement to prevent DC deaths?
We look at each and every report we get. Australia has quite a lot of such issues and we're trying everything to solve these issues.




Pictures From the Preview Panel





















Comments

Posts Quoted:
Reply
Clear All Quotes