Diablo 3 Web

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.

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!

In 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.

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.

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.

We have a long time to wait for Diablo 3’s release so a ton of rumors have gone by. This last one has to do with the possibility of a console version for Diablo 3.

Here’s what J. Allen Brack has to say:

We just want to make the right game for the right platform.

Think about StarCraft II. Some real-time strategy games have tried to happen on the console. Some of those have been successful, but overall, our experience is that it’s going to be a better game on the PC, ergo it’s developed on the PC.

But we’re a company of gamers. I have two consoles at home. Sam has consoles. We’re a culture of gamers. We will definitely work on a console game at some point. I have no doubt about that. It’s just [a matter of] what game. What makes the most sense?

Does that mean that Diablo 3 will grace Playstation 3 or maybe Xbox? I don’t know. But the LAN party days are kinda over, so it makes sense for Blizzard to go for mass appeal.

The 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.

Now, prepare to be surprised by some of the reasoning behind this “news”. Diablo 3 release date has been a hot topic and we’ve all heard the usual Blizzard rhetoric that Diablo 3 will come out WHEN the game is ready.

First, some background: a guy who played Diablo 2 for years got a DOL rune and experimented with it until it crushed the game. He’s got an error message … a series of meaningless numbers. Or are they?

64 69 61 62 6c 6f 20 33 20 20 30 39 2f 30 39 2f 30 39.

So why is this significant in ANY way? OK, this is the geek part: 64 69 61 62 6c 6f 20 33 20 20 30 39 2f 30 39 2f 30 39 is hex for : Diablo 3 09/09/09. That means that if you translate the hexadecimal code, it gives you Diablo 3’s release date.

Now, the critical part. How likely is that Diablo 2 developers knew in advance when Diablo 3 will be released? NOT LIKELY. At the same time, if I were head of development at Blizzard and I was a bit of a numerology freak… I’d pick EXACTLY this date. Why?

Well, it’s pretty obvious. 09-09-09 represents 666 if you turn it upside down. The number of the beast! (cue the Iron Maiden song here)

A Diablo 3 Community Manager has requested community feedback on Diablo 3 items and their names.

Remember those useless properties on some Diablo 2 items? Well, no more of that. You can go to battle.net and help brainstorm some of the affixes and modifiers for items. Go to forum.

Here’s an item to get your creative juices flowing!

Blizzard announced in their last newsletter that DC Comics are starting a comic book set in the WoW universe.

Frankly, I’m not sure I’d buy a book where the superhero is a female Tauren (a.k.a COW). What’s her special power? MOO power?

Anyway, I think a Diablo comic book will have longer legs. A Frank-Milleresque type of dark and contrasty comic book might work great.

The superhero ends up getting a new super skill (Death Ray) at the end of each book. Also, he loots rare swords or armor from the boss… Is that cool or what?