Archive for the 'Diablo 3 rumors' Category

Diablo 3 skill caps

Diablo 3 skills are capped at 5, so no more Blizzards at skill level 25. Or is it?

In Diablo 2, you could have skills as high as 20
and additionally augment them with items that boost skill levels. In Diablo 3, all screenshots and videos show a cap of 5. Which raises the question is this cap permanent?

Official Blizzard Quote:

Did we not already talk about that? Think we did. Like the cap raises another five every difficulty level? So when you reach hell difficulty the caps would be at 15? No? Did we not say that at the last BlizzCon? Think we did.

So the skill cap will be 15 at Hell difficulty. I think that makes perfect sense, you need more damage per skill depending on the difficulty level. Unless there’s a fourth difficulty introduced. Then it will be EXACTLY like Diablo 2 with skills capped at 20!

I hope there’s a bit more Diablo 3 info and gameplay videos at Blizzcon come October.

Starcraft 2 release – 27.07.10

Blizzard has just announced that Starcraft 2 will be released on July 27, 2010. All I can say is THANK GOD!

First, I’m really looking forward to playing it. More importantly, however, I’d like to see Blizzard’s marketing machine be done with Starcraft 2 and the upcoming WoW expansion (Dec release?).

Are we going to see a July 2011 release for Diablo 3? I’m keeping my fingers crossed it’s even sooner than that!

Diablo 3 merchandise

diablo 3 pillowIn the long-standing tradition of April Fool’s jokes, Blizzard introduced Diablo 3 merchandise: a blanket and pillows.

In addition to the Diablo 3 jokes, Blizzard also introduced a matchmaking service for Battle.net.

The default search on the site is for a Psionic alien, looking for a hot date, between levels of 30 and 60!

The final news item in the April’s jokes series concerns Blizzard’s foray into mobile gaming. They have introduced two games for iPhone/iPad:

Blackthorne 2: Thorne Harder – Guide Kyle Blackthorne on an epic quest to save Earth from almost certain destruction in this long-awaited sequel.
Queen’s Quest – Using a revolutionary new “natural language interface,” Queen’s Quest will challenge you like no game has ever before.

Diablo 3 at Blizzcon 2010

Blizzcon 2010 has been announced by Blizzard! The dates are October 22-23, the place is the Anaheim Convention Center in Anaheim, California.

There is no promise
as to what will be announced at this year’s Blizzcon, but I have a very strong suspicion that a Diablo 3 character will be revealed. Maybe it’s a vampire!

Also, I think it’s about time Blizzard
is more specific about Diablo 3’s release date.

Diablo 3 items

Our friends at Diablofans has asked Jay Wilson a question about items, that we all care about:

Will there be items as rare in Diablo III that are as powerful from the start, or will players have to slowly improve the quality of their items, through crafting/runes/other systems?

Jay Wilson: Throughout the history of patches on Diablo II, there were a lot of updates to runewords and they really powerful from when they were introduced. At one time or another though all of the different item types were the most powerful, like unique items were the best, or rare items at some point.

Our general approach for Diablo III is to make sure that every type of item has a place to be useful. For example, maybe we’ll have a legendary item, which is the new name for our unique items, be the best helm, whereas rares will have the most powerful chest armor, and so on. Having a spread like that will allow for a more varied itemization system we hope.

I think we’ll still be stuck collecting exotic components but time will tell if Diablo 3 will be like Diablo 2 item-wise.

diablo 3 item

Diablo 3 delayed why?

Now, ever since Activision and Blizzard merged, I had a feeling that moneytalk will take over. Sure enough, listen to Activion’s boss, Bobby Kotick: “Next Blizzard MMO will have a “more broad appeal”…

I can’t believe 10+ million subscribers is now considered marginal for a MMO! For some perspective, LOTRO has about 250,000 and Warhammer online is seeing a decreasing 300,000 or so.

The other point is … how is WoW not appealing enough for everybody? It has purple (gay?) elves, orcs on motorcycles… it’s as cartoony as a Disney picture.

It looks like Activision-Blizzard is definitely pursuing a strategy of attracting the lowest common denominator and putting “niche” products like Diablo 3 on the backburner. Just 40 people are working on Diablo when the support team for WoW alone is something like 3000?

orc-choppa

Diablo 3 release – 2011?

My worst fears are being confirmedDiablo 3 is again on the backburner when it comes to its release.

Blizzard have stated that TWO titles will be released in 2010. One of course, is Starcraft 2. Fair enough, it was announced a long time ago.

The other title due in 2010 is WoW Cataclysm. Blizzard needs to keep the money machine printing. I did freeze my account months ago and I suspect I’m not the only one.

Here’s the confirmation from Shacknews: “Blizzard CEO Mike Morhaime has confirmed that just-revealed World of Warcraft expansion Cataclysm and StarCraft II are the two titles the company expects to hit in 2010″.

Diablo 3 runes

diablo 3 runesThe runes (thought not runewords) make a return to Diablo 3. They’ll still drop from monsters, however, they will be used in a way that is VERY different from Diablo 2.

OK, let’s go over how runes worked in Diablo 2. There are 33 runes that drop from monsters. Note that some runes drop often while others drop extremely (e.g. Zod rune). Also, there are items with sockets that are able to take runes (or jewels). Some rune combinations (called runewords) create Runic Items, which are among the most powerful items in the game.

For example, socketing the runes Hel + Ohm + Um + Lo + Cham gives your axe or hammer a whole bunch of additional stats and it also adds the label “Doom”.

OK, so what are the changes to the runes in Diablo 3? Runes will still be used to CUSTOMIZE your character, however, runes no longer modify ITEMS. Instead they’ll be added to skills (each skill has a single rune slot).

Also, to make runes easier to use
, rune names will be changed to reflect their effect, e.g. Rune of Multistriking. How does this affect gameplay?

For example, a Minor Multistrike Rune attached to the Skull of Flame will make projectile skip along the ground once , but higher quality Runes like the Major Multistrike Rune may raise the amount of bounces and the distance traveled by the projectile.

Jay Wilson, Diablo 3 Lead designer, expressed his strong desire to make each skill customizable while at the same time retaining the uniqueness of each class. In other words, he doesn’t want the Barbarian to be able to mimic the Wizard by adding certain runes to skills.




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