[nirvAnA]

Did a ton of research on D3 today and I thought it would be helpful to compile everything I learnt here. In summary this is the good old Diablo you are familiar with but with SC2 battle.net features, a shared stash for all your characters and a revamped character customization system having a heavy focus on runes now. There's also PvP and real money auction houses.

Quick Facts:

Diablo 3 Beta Release Date: Early September. Blizzard has officially confirmed the Beta will begin prior to September 30th
Diablo 3 Release Date: The same date as for all Blizzard-developed titles: "When it's ready."

Game Modes:

1. Public Game Find
2. PvP Matchmaking System
3. Quick join friends
4. Dynamic Co-op play

Battle.net Features:

• Chat Channels, Friends List, Cross-game chat.
• Similar to SC2, Constant Online Internet Connection necessary to play, no offline Single player. If you wish to play single player you must do it online.
• 10 Character Account limit.
• Server segmentation - Like SC2, SEA will have its own "minimum lag" server.

Gameplay Features:

• 4 levels of difficulty. Normal, Nightmare, hell and Inferno which is the hardest where the player cap is at level 60 and every single monster you fight will be at level 61.
• No gear binding. No binds on pick up, etc unlike WoW. Salvaging will be the primary method the D3 world gets rid of items.
• 5 Character Classes - The Barbarian, Witch Doctor, Demon Hunter, Monk, Wizard
• During questing map pings you next location. Thank god no more aimless wandering for 5 hours!
• No attributes/skill points/traits - As you level new skills will unlock and your basic attributes automatically increase. Discussion here
• Skills have two modes, active and passive.
• Rune stones - 5 types (Crimson, Indigo, Obisidian, Golden, Alabaster). Can be used with skills to change the property of skills, this is the "customization" part. This is incredibly detailed - check out the the video in the media part.
• Shared Stash - Super large and all your characters have access to a common shared stash on your account
• PvP mode in addition to regular campaign
• Followers like Warlock pets in WoW that help aid your character. The Templar, Enchantress and Scoundrel and their skills can be customised slightly and you can equip them with items as well. Like WoW they are on autopilot and you cant control them.
• Crafting is done by the three Artisans who travel with you. The Blacksmith (weapons/armor), Jeweler (Gems/Enchantments) and Mystic (Potions/Runes/Charms/Scrolls). This is especially interesting because you can train them by allocating gold and materials to their practise so they become better which ultimately affects your build.

Banner System:
Banner is displayed when someone clicks on your character. It is fully customizable (Similar to sc2 portraits i guess) and will display the following depending on what you want to show:

• Achievements
• Hardcore player status
• PvP Stats
• Complete Level difficulty

Banner also used as a teleport system. When you're out exploring the world it will be in the town center and players who join your game can click on your banner to teleport directly to where you are.

Auction House:

• Two forms of currency, Gold and "Real World Monies".
• Player driven, Blizzard will not sell anything.
• Flat fees for real world money trades - Listing fees and Sale Fees.
• Set amount of "Free Listing" every week.
• Hardcore characters cannot use it.

Known Items:

Stone of Recall - Basically a TP, no cooldown and 10 second channel time.
Cauldron of Jordon - Allows you to sell items anywhere, i.e no need to go back to town to clear your inventory. You can also buyback last items sold to merchant.

Latest Reviews & Links:

August 17th, 2011 - IGN's Diablo 3 Preview
Video Review.

August 2nd, 2011 - Gamespots Diablo 3 Preview
"..has finally shown concrete signs of fruition that its most anticipated action role-playing game, Diablo III, is close to being finished."

Official D3 Blizzard Site
Official D3 Community Site - Gone live August 24th, 2011

Video Media:

+ Show +

You Tube

You Tube

Gameplay of all the various classes

You Tube

You Tube

Auction House Preview

You Tube

You Tube

Difference between runes

What sc2sea members who have tried D3 had to say:

mOOnGLaDe: "i played it at gamescom 5 days ago! loved the SHIT out of it"
Maynarde: I love the shit out of YOU.

sc2sea's Involvement with Diablo 3:

This will mark our first expansion towards being a multi-game site. At this point of time, I do not wish for sc2sea to become a "multi-game" site, but rather a "Blizzard multi-game site" which I feel is only natural as Blizzard games share a common player database. Blizzard gamers tend to play and stick to mostly Blizzard games and with the D3 server being SEA as well, expanding to D3 is a good fit and makes perfect sense.

• D3 sub forum (implemented already), basic tutorials, strategy, meeting points etc
• D3 guild databases and a system to apply/join a guild easily
• If D3 has a guild / clan section there will be a sc2sea guild created
• Dedicated Battle.net Channel to find players "sc2sea"
• D3 Beta Streams (If its allowed by Blizzard)
• Item database System

And best of all - Limited D3 Beta keys give-aways during the 2nd wave of keys to sc2sea members ONLY!! This will be by random drawing on Stream and only members with X amount of posts and days as an sc2sea members will be eligible for the draw. The exact details and entry requirements will be out soon.

So if you have just been quiet at the back chilling and never posting, nows the time to get your post count up!

Quick Comments

	cRSenSei:	nice write-up of everything!
	ZergGirl:
	FaDeKerrigan:

[EveRorschach]

Great sum up.

[SkyBreaker]

Awesome write-up Nirv! Look forward to trying it out "soon" ^-^

[Dox]

Sexy thread / forum! I'll be spamming the shit out of this forum with beta coverage.

[TAavanar]

man i cant wait!!!

[divinesage]

Wait a minute, with that banner system, does that mean our favourite blue town portals will be gone?

[iM yang]

Can't wait for d3, shit just got real.

[TCPLemminks]

It's based on post count!?
But, but, but, but...Well fine then time to post spam ^^

Thanks for the summary Nirv

[nirvAnA]

Entry eligibility will be based on MINIMUM post count, because we don't want to give out the keys to people who register on the site just to win it, but rather to actual sc2sea members. Meaning you would need something like 30 posts and having joined for at least 2 weeks to qualify for the draw. No surprise that everyone who posted in this thread easily meets those requirements already!

[souljah]

Mmm D3 definitely interests me, got a new rig just for SC2 and D3, definitely glad that D3 is going to be released after a lONG while

[Roz]

more blizzard pvping.... lets hope there's less rng than wow ^_^

[Cyanide]

Nice write up nirv.

I want the beta key!!!!!
My gaming CV: Quite a hardcore WoW player until the end of WotLK. Server 3rd 10m heroic drake achievement, the group was a pick up group collab between members of 5 different guilds too =P. SO I AM PERFECT FOR TESTING THE SHIT OUT OF THE GAME!!! >.> okay, nobody cares about this.

In all seriousness though, I think D3 is one game that i'm really waiting for from blizz. Played D2 when it was out after a long long time, so it was kinda 'dead' when I played it, so never really experienced it properly, but did enjoy it. Looking forward to epic times with sc2sea in the D3 universe. ^_^

[Bendy]

Nice write-up, this is getting exciting.

[Halstrom]

OMG. Anyone else think this might trigger a spammfest?

[Halstrom]

Or is it just me?

Quick Comments

	Dox:	Tssk tssk! :P
	nirvAnA:	lmao i c what you did there

[Highlander]

Aha, this is fantastic!

TBH, and please don't bash me, D2 was always my favourite franchise.

Really look forward to contributing to this space.

[neon]

I really like the integrated stash system, mules are rather annoying without multiple accounts.

I just hope it really IS big enough, maybe mOOnGLaDe can shed some light on that?

The PVP looked 'interesting' to say the least from the alpha tests I saw earlier. Hopefully the game doesnt require epic wow amounts of playing to be competitive gear-wise, so we can still play SC2 enough !

[Strafe]

You guys reckon it will be out before 2012?

[Maynarde]

Originally Posted by Strafe

You guys reckon it will be out before 2012?

I don't think so. If it is it'll be REALLY late in the year like around Xmas or more likely early 2012.

Blizzard like to take their sweet time with games, and I'm cool with that.

[SkyBreaker]

Originally Posted by Maynarde

Blizzard like to take their sweet time with games, and I'm cool with that.

QFT. Blizzard are known for taking their time with their games and as a result; everything they produce is more-than-likely digital gold ^-^!

[Cyanide]

It will be out Soon™.

[Strafe]

Starcraft 2 came out about 5 months after the beta as far as I recall. If the beta is out before the end of September I guess we might see D3 for Christmas? It's a good time to release a game and my guess would be that a game like D3 needs less beta testing. No balance to test etc. Or am I completely wrong in this?

[Paroxysm]

Keen for a beta key

[Primex]

Very nice write up, I would be so happy to play the beta. ;P

[Maynarde]

Some leaked beta footage / screenshots!!

+ Show +

You Tube

You Tube

[DeNile]

Love the coverage, looking forward to the possibility of winning beta codes. That is if I spam some posts

[ZergGirl]

oh baby.. I want T_T

[Uglymutt]

Woah, nice work getting a set of beta keys.
Having only just played Diablo fro the first time a few weeks ago, I'm not super hyped; but if anyone can get me hyped it's Blizzard.

[Imperial]

As if you would base it on postcount noob

[Daboo]

o.0 how did you guys get keys? Anyway..If I miss out because of post count, I'm going kick myself for socializing on the chatbox instead of spamming on the forums

[divinesage]

I got a feeling they won't release the beta keys to SEA so soon..

[EXCL]

agreeed with thinking that sea keys wont be out anytime soon. Hopefully battle.net can handle it this time round!

[Dox]

Originally Posted by eXcLouD

agreeed with thinking that sea keys wont be out anytime soon. Hopefully battle.net can handle it this time round!

We're a part of the NA beta. I received my SC2 key on day 1.

[Bugalugs McScruffin]

Daboo, I've had the exact same problem. :/
Chat box is just sooo useful.

[cruxBsK]

saw a stream of this briefly yesterday on TL it had 13000 viewers! would be nice to check it out!

[Snx`Azz]

looking forward to this game.

[Azure]

great thread and it is good to see sea giving people the change to win a key

[CasualPlayer]

I don't have much idea about D1 and D2 so maybe its time now to check D3 out

[cRSenSei]

Originally Posted by FaNaTic

I don't have much idea about D1 and D2 so maybe its time now to check D3 out

you missed out on some epic games of their time, i spent the majority of highschool years playing d2

Quick Comments

Maynarde:

Me too man, I clocked so many childhood hours on D2. Good times.

[cRSenSei]

http://www.teamliquid.net/video/streams/Nadagast streaming live for the past 4 hours or so, playing round with all the characters giving a nice look into the early game of each of them. Currently playing barb lvl ~10 ish

[nirvAnA]

Announced on the Diablo III blog today by Mike Morhaime, the release has been pushed back to make sure it has all of the polish it needs:

While this news might not be a complete surprise, I know that many of you were hopeful that Diablo III would ship this year. We were too. However, this week we pulled together people from all of the teams involved with the game to decide whether we felt it would be ready before the end of December, and we grudgingly came to the conclusion that it would not. Ultimately, we feel that to deliver an awesome Diablo sequel that lives up to our expectations and yours as well, we should take a little more time and add further polish to a few different elements of the game.

[Maynarde]

Kind of assumed it would be delayed in true Blizzard fashion

I'm un-phased though, the game will be incredible and there's plenty of great games to play at the moment until Diablo 3 comes out anyway. Hopefully there's some time between the SC2 expansion and D3's release so that I'm not torn in half by a double release from my favourite games developer of all time T_T

[yongming]

region lock + auction house may be a problem.

[Dox]

For that reason I doubt anyone will seriously play on SEA. NA's where it's at.

[johnnyli]

I don't understand why they couldn't release it this year. I thought Beta was pretty much a finished product but they need to fix out the bugs...

[Amornthep]

That's pretty sad to hear but it's expected.

[neon]

I was just reading up on some Diablo 3 in light of blizzcon and came across this which was news to me;

Skill Cancelling -
http://d3cauldron.com/2011/10/diablo...ling-tutorial/

Seems similar to fighting games where you cancel out the recovery animation, as well as attacks in Starcraft and other such things.

Not sure if it will be patched out or removed. or if there are any combo's this would be particularly potent with, It seems like it works with any hot-keys no "Global Cooldown" it seems.

If someone has the beta and can mess around with it would be interested to hear if there are limitations and specifics other than what this little tutorial says. Such as really long animation moves still cancel-able (if there are any) or if you can cancel moves before they actually occur to 'fake out' an opponent kind of deal (not sure if this would have any real practical application but perhaps).

[Azure]

Originally Posted by neon

I was just reading up on some Diablo 3 in light of blizzcon and came across this which was news to me;

Skill Cancelling -
http://d3cauldron.com/2011/10/diablo...ling-tutorial/

Seems similar to fighting games where you cancel out the recovery animation, as well as attacks in Starcraft and other such things.

Not sure if it will be patched out or removed. or if there are any combo's this would be particularly potent with, It seems like it works with any hot-keys no "Global Cooldown" it seems.

If someone has the beta and can mess around with it would be interested to hear if there are limitations and specifics other than what this little tutorial says. Such as really long animation moves still cancel-able (if there are any) or if you can cancel moves before they actually occur to 'fake out' an opponent kind of deal (not sure if this would have any real practical application but perhaps).

sounds pretty cool maybe even OP

[yongming]

the collector's edition looks hella sexy.

[creamwolf1]

Great Thank you very mcuh

[stalking you]

Nice write up, intresting bout the auction house thing

[Delraich]

Diablo III interview—What diehard Diablo II fans can expect from D3

http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/12/05/di...xpect-from-d3/

[FaDeNotoriouS]

haha looking forward to this.. cool write-up, disappointing that it will probably be a while before we get to play the game though

[Asrathiel]

Shared stash across all your characters... I like that ^_^

[nirvAnA]

Not sure if this has been covered yet:

- Diablo 3 is free from the region lock, you have a default region based on your address when you activate the game which can be modified to play in another region, like Starcraft 1 / War3.
- You can use every gold action house.
- You are restricted to a specific Real Money AH based on your address when you activate your game

Blizzard post 1 hour ago in the new AU/NZ fourms they set up:

You guys have access to an Australian dollar auction house and a US dollar auction house. It will be up to you which you prefer to use. The advantages being that there are no currency conversation fees if you use the AUD auction house - on the other hand the USD auction house will have a larger player population.

Source: http://us.battle.net/d3/en/forum/topic/4362524099

Quick Comments

Akilos:

[Wuffle]

cant wait for D3! already pre-ordered mine ^^

[Azure]

wow thanks for that update nirvana

[FSGauL]

Main question now is, will I get the game?

[eniram]

Thanks for the info, can't wait.

[neKo]

sc2 will be dead D:

Quick Comments

TheGentleman:

SC will live on... it's lasted 14 years already :)