Blizzard has updated their Diablo3.com website. Tyrael has moved closer to us and his wings have become more like silly string.
Looks more evil, don't he? The first think you see when you enter the website is Tyrael. It's not everyday your major logo changes. But maybe this tells us something is coming.
I know, it's been a month since the last update. But there is a reason. More like excuses but we'll go with that.
1. Holiday seasons are always busy. I think everyone can agree with that.
2. There has been no new. None, zip, nada. Unless you want Wrath news but I've given up on keeping up with that.
3. Any free time has been spent on the Diablo 2 realms.
So, if you wanna do some Hell Baal runs, hit me up! US-East, Non-Ladder. Whisper *neflight2 or my characters:
Aticus
Whoa_ASorceress
Whoa_ANecro
Whoa_APaladin
Whoa_AHammerdin
When more news come, I'll have it posted.
Here's a little tid-bit for those who want to leave WoW for other MMOs:
1. People who said that they were leaving WoW for another MMO and they left for Age Of Conan, 68% of the players re-subscribed to WoW.
2. People who said that they were leaving WoW for another MMO and they left for Warhammer, 48% of the players re-subscribed to WoW.
It just proves that WoW is like drugs: you can't stop... j/k. But it does ponder the question to those WoW leavers that if these people were tired of WoW and wanted something new or just... well, wanted something new. I knew I didn't want to play anymore but 68% of people returning to a game they left is astonishing.
But, this isn't your typical MMO. Leaving EverQuest was never really an option unless you wanted to stop playing MMOs all together. I mean, it really was the only one out there at the time. And usually, in EQ, you were replaced once you left (in the high end guilds). In WoW, there are so many players that if you were to leave, and lose your spot in a guild, you could find an equal guild doing the same raids.
All of this just proves that this isn't you grandfather's MMO... or for some of you, your older sibling and/or father's MMO.
Tomorrow is election day in the US. That means that it's now our time to use our right as US citizens to go out and vote for whomever you believe should be our leaders. No matter whether you are a Republican or Democrat, it's time to spend 5 minutes of your day to go and vote.
As much as I would love to spend more time playing Fable 2 for the 2nd time through, I know I'll be spending a few minutes of my day at the polls.
It only took a year (give or take a few months) but Namco Bandai has announced that as of January 31st, 2009, the game's online servers will be shut off.
It's not like we all saw this coming. The over-hype killed this game. People went into the game thinking it was going to be the best RPG since WoW, but they were only to be hit with bugs. The concept was there and the Diablo guys did a good job with the RPG elements of the game. The problem was technical.
For those who still want to play online, it's free of charge until N/B shuts off the servers. Two good things come out of this: 1.At least there's single player, and 2. You will be able to find it in the bargain bin for $10 pretty soon.
Been busy this past week so here's a little list that HellForge created. It's the top ten dumbest features of Diablo 2. I don't believe the Great Marsh should be on the list because of the experience we get from single player games. In any case, it's a pretty accurate list.
I'd also like to add the Assassin character class to this list. It should be #3.
10. Attack and Stamina Potions
Honestly, did anyone ever use these? For anything? Ever? They had barely enough power to clear out the Stony Field, why did they even bother to include them? The most ridiculous and useless items in the entire game, without a doubt.
9. The “Thief” Monster Ability
An interesting, if disastrous feature, that lasted all of one patch. I wonder who thought that ripping items off a player’s character and dropping them onto the ground for all to see was an awesome idea? Still, it was worth it just to hear the screams of panic.
8. Nihlathak’s “Corpse Explosion”
Hmmm… oh, I know! Let’s give him the ability to cast a spell that does massive damage from two screens away! And make it kill you in one shot! Yeah, that’s a great feature! Hardcore players will LOVE the “challenge”.
7. + Light Radius
Useless little modifier that would appear on every freakin’ thing you didn’t want it to. What’s it going to do? Blind the monsters with its luminous shine? More like attract them from half a thousand miles away to figure out what this giant glowing bug catcher is.
6. Isenhart’s Set
Isenhart, I think I speak for every player when I say “F*** off, you useless w****y piece of c**k cheese”. We’re sick of your set turning up twelve times in each game; it’s as effective as a semi-defrosted mackerel. And smells about as good too.
5. The Great Marsh
Probably the least visited area in Diablo 2, most of the time we don’t need to go near the Great Marsh at all. Whether it’s a bug, or just made that way, it rarely generates as a part of the main Kurast path, instead appearing as a sort of dead end detour. Why would we want to spend twenty minutes exploring a pointless midget filled area that goes nowhere? Meh.
4. Loot Drop Glitches
This can occur at any time, but most notably in the Level 3 Durance of Hate’s Council Members. How many times have you killed those guys on the way to Mephisto and had them drop nothing? Also known to happen with Duriel, who may drop no more then a town portal. I’ve even personally solo-slain Hell Baal… only to have him drop a few yellow items. Curse you Blizzard for your buggy drops!!!
3. Druid’s “Spirit of Barbs”
A level 30 ability for the Druid, the Spirit of Barbs with 20 points in it does close to 100% damage return to attackers. Meanwhile, the Paladin’s “Thorns” aura - a level 6 ability – does 100% damage return… with one skill point in it. The Druid’s suckage doth make us ROFL.
2. Making Hell ‘Durance of Hate’ 10x Bigger
A classic example of trying to force gamers to “play the game the way it’s meant to be played”. The idea was to make running Hell Mephisto a tad harder, or perhaps abolish running him altogether. Instead, 75% of Diablo 2’s playerbase suddenly became acquainted with the time saving “map hack”. Longevity lies in being able to speed through the monotonous nowadays; remember that, developers. We’re happy to take things slow for the first few play throughs, but it very quickly becomes “been there, done that”. Trying to draw out the pain (coughcoughHellgate1.3dcoughcough) will not be appreciated.
1. Nerfing “Whirlwind”
Whirlwind was the ability of Diablo 2. It was the skill that almost single handedly marketed the game to all fans of the warrior class. And for a few patches, it was good! Then BAM! Nerfed harder then the American economy. At -50% damage right off the bat, Whirlwind needed a massive amount of points just to reach “useful” let alone “devastating”. Take a mental note people, if some skill seems insanely powerful to you: shut up about it!
I know that there's a lot of Blizzcon 08 news and stuff to critic but I have to rant on this guy.
One World of Warcraft player has a complete set up for his Warcraft needs. And those need are 36 accounts and 11 computers. And I thought cosplayers were the ultimate geek.
I used to multibox Diablo 1 and 2 because rushing and trading were easier that way. But 36!? Come on. Oh, and here's his defence:
"It costs me exactly $5711 in subscription costs per year with 36 accounts on the 6 month pay schedule. Not bad considering I’m looking at it like it’s a hobby and there are more expensive hobbies out there than World of Warcraft," claims Bradster.
Yeah, I can see some hobbies being more expensive; like buying old cars. But there are other cheaper hobbies which people can actually praise you for. Such hobbies include: Hiking, biking, reading books, model railroads [from experience, seriously. My grandfather still gets praises for his train layouts], woodworking, volunteering at you local community center, and yo-yoing. How many people do you meet swinging those yo-yos around? Next to none - we need more of them.
Look, having 1, 2, or even 3 Warcraft accounts is fine by me. Some people enjoy that. But this man needs a real hobby... one that isn't addicting but just fun to do. And one that gets you out of the house.
Stay tuned tomorrow for more Diablo 3 information right here!
I'll be posting frequently tomorrow evening on whatever we hear.
*Update - 11:00AM EST*
It is official: There will be a PLAYABLE DEMO OF DIABLO 3! Also, you will be able to play a new class! Damn you, you lucky SOBs. :-P
"Among these brave champions stands the enigmatic witch doctor, a spiritual warrior from deep within the Torajan jungles. At BlizzCon 2008, the witch doctor is yours to command for the first tim ever. Stop by the Diablo area on the show floor for your chance to lead this fierce new hero into the catacombs beneath the Tristram Cathedral.
While you're there, revisit the raw strength of the barbarian - a Diablo series classic - or try your hand at Sanctuary's newest champion, who will be revealed at the event."
*Update - 2:00PM EST*
Blizzard has release a new class! THE WIZARD! I'm pretty excited about this class - love the name too. I find it better than Sorceress but not as cool as if they were to bring back the Mage.
It is said that the Wizard will have Charged Bolt, Magic Missle, Blizzard, Tornado, and Frost Nova.
The description follows: Youthful and headstrong, the upstart Wizard manipulates the primal forces of the universe to vanquish foes.
There is also news that the playable demo's final boss is the Skeleton King! No, not Jack. He's the Pumpkin King. Is it Leoric? I mean, we killed him when he was already dead so I guess he could still be there in Tristram's Cathedral.
*Update - 5:00PM EST*
Blizzard has updated Diablo3.com with a full page on the Wizard including some new spell trailers as well as a cinematic trailer for the class! There are also numerous screenshots updated on the website. It's a great read.
I am also VERY convinced that the Skeleton King is King Leoric himself. It's just too weird to have a 'Skeleton King' in the Tristram Cathedral when in Diablo 1, the Skeleton King was Leoric. In any case, he looks badass!
I've been sick this past week with this fall cold that is going around all of Connecticut. With that said, I am getting better but I have much work to get caught up on. A good friend of mine is getting married this weekend so no more updates this week.
Here's a link to Diii.net's article about the Oct 2nd Diablo3.com update and a new monster too. Looks like a Leaper from Act2 but instead of jumping, it'll be burrowing.
There has been some crazy forum posts over the last few months about having Teleport in Diablo 3 or to not have it. There's very valid arguments on both sides.
Pros
- It makes the game faster.
- Gets you around monsters that are immune to your skills.
- The ability to rush lower players at a quicker pace than walking.
- Mana cost is cheap.
Cons
- It shortens the game.
- Boss runs become grinding.
- The ability to rush lower players at a quicker pace than walking.
- Sways PvP battles to one side (at times).
My stance: I hope they keep it out of the game. Give the Mage class (cause we all know there will be one) a skill like Levitation. An ability to fly over ground monsters; leaving casters and ranged monsters to hit you. You will also be able to go over broken bridges (see gameplay vid) but not through walls. Give it a 5-20 second duration and a decent mana cost.
The mistake they made was in 1.10 when they release Enigma. The ability to have every character in the game teleport was a cheap and, in my opinion, a half-ass way of balancing the game. In balancing though, they gave the game a quicker pace and ruined a lot of fun in exploring the levels. You can say all you want that 'we've been through it dozens of time. Why do we have to do it again?' Well, it is a RPG after all. It's supposed to be a long process to make your character the best he or she can be.
Jay Wilson has already said that they want to get away from the Boss grinds. This will be one way to help with that cause.
If they were to make it available in the game, I hope they would put a 5 second cooldown or a very high mana cost. Maybe a percentage of your total mana. Start out at 20% and move down to 10% by level whatever.
We've all thought about it: Why do we have to hold down the Alt key in Diablo 2? Well, Blizzard thought about this too. And Bashiok answers:
"The way it works now is that when an item drops the name shows for about 5 seconds and then they fade out and disappear. Pressing Alt shows all dropped item names for again about 5 seconds and then the names fade out and disappear. I actually didn't like it at first, I liked the on/off state of pressing or not pressing Alt, but with the names showing immediately after drop and having a sort of "grace period" after just tapping Alt, it's really grown on me and is a lot more intuitive. It's a lot easier to see what just dropped quickly and decide if you care, and it isn't necessary to constantly hold down Alt while scavenging after a large fight. I still want to see -nopickup return but I haven't really asked anyone what the possibility of that is. I don't think it would work well with the current system, so options may have to be a possibility."
This makes sense. There are plenty of occasions where if I see something drop, I stop everything I'm doing and pick it up. I don't however enjoy the idea of battling a group of monsters, checking the drops and then having 5 seconds of items being shown leading to accidentally clicking on Bolts, Arrows, Cracked Boots, etc etc, while you're trying to take down a cultist.
The pickup system should be 3 options.
1. Hold down Alt to see the items (as in Diablo 2)
2. Always show the items that drop.
3. No pickup option.
It cannot be that hard to let the user choose how he or she views the items on the ground. But, as I said above, I like the Alt key in Diablo 2. I would put Ring, Middle and Index finger on 123 keys and my thumb on alt. Very comfortable; very easy. I wonder if they'll add anything else to the pickup options.
Matt Graham beat me to it so I'll just post what I was going to post in the first place. (I've been kinda dead this week so there won't be anymore posts this week).
'Nuff said.
The Bad News:
Bashiok: "Well, health and mana leach may not come back. There's balance issues, and they may not make it into Diablo III"
The Good News:
I went into my D2 Account and when it said my characters have expired, I clicked on them and I was able to go into the game and they weren't expired anymore!
How that happens? I haven't a clue.
I wanted to bring your attention to something I remember reading and thinking about years ago back when this article was first written in 2003. Diii.net (formally Dii.net) posted this article in the aftermath of Lord Of Destruction and back when the Diablo 3 speculation first started to arise. This is exactly what I had envisioned with D3 as well as Tyrael's deception (more on that after the article).
"We are given a lot of information throughout the game on the power and plans of the Three Brothers, Diablo, Mephisto, and Baal. We are told that if they unite they will be invincible. We are told that no one is certain of their plans, but it probably involves something really bad for Sanctuary. We are told they must be stopped. And many more besides. Even though the archangel does not speak all these dire prophecies, he would have been the source for many through the knowledge of the Three he gave the Horadrim way back when the whole soul stone fiasco began. Tyreal was also the primary drive behind finding and catching the Three before they united. Also, his prot�g�, Deckard Cain, was the main instigator for the smashing of the soul stones. In other words, the actions our heroes took in Diablo 2 were largely along the lines of Tyreal�s own thought process. And, I suspect, also exactly what Diablo and company wanted us do to. Perhaps the archangel has been used like a sock puppet for a really long time. Or, perhaps, he helped Diablo write the script. His actions do have some interesting contradictions.
Look first at the claim that if the three unite, they would be invincible. They united, all right. They opened the gate, and sent Diablo through it. Then Mephisto died. We chased down Diablo. He died too. The only hope was Baal. Who eventually died. Some invincibility. On the other hand, perhaps they intended that we kill them.
There is precedent. Diablo (back in Diablo 1) lured a nice, strong, juicy hero down through the caves so he trade in the body of the boy for stronger one. That is, he planned his own �death.� Why would the three do the same? Mephisto himself answers. �You are the harbinger of our return� he tells Diablo. As Diablo heads for hell. Return... to hell? Yes. So, the three were not plotting massive mayhem across Sanctuary? Well, I would not go that far.
But Diablo needed to go to hell, and I think Mephisto did to. Mephisto, more than the others, needed to die. It seems that the soul stones bound the three to the mortal plane. They could not leave, but nor could they regain their full hellish powers while those stones were in existence (is my guess). They had to get rid of those stones, which they controlled anyway. At the same time, they had to rally the legions of hell for a nice little invasion of mortality. The losing the soul stone thing was most important for Mephisto, and least for Baal. Why? Mephisto�s stone was fragmented. Each council member had a piece, and the largest piece was in the palm of the guy that took the form of Mephisto. He could not reach anything close to his full power, because his soul stone was scattered about. That is why the oldest brother was such a weakling. His power was also divided among the six other unique council members.
So, the plan went like this. Diablo goes to hell to get armies ready for Baal. Baal goes to find his soul stone, after which he picks up the armies from Diablo and attacks the World Stone, and Mephisto stays behind to by the other two a bit of time. Which means he is the first to lose his soul stone and thus the first to return to hell in full power. Diablo is second. So by the time the World Stone falls, there are two prime evils at the height of their strength waiting to charge back into the mortal realm. There is no reason to think that breaking the soul stones killed the three. Instead, it may have only made them stronger. Let us assume Tyreal knew all this. Then, by breaking the World Stone, he may have opened up a hole for the massive invasion that Izual warned of."
So, Tyrael would be working with Izual and the 3 brothers to help destroy the Worldstone so Hell could invade. Think about it: In the end of Act 2, the cinematic shows Tyrael telling Marius to go to Zakarum Temple. However, we do not know what happened after that. For all we know, he was fighting with Diablo. However, because Diablo was in his weaker human form, how was he able to escape? Cain said it himself that Tyrael had defied the heavens to "help" the mortal men. Also, see how he is portrayed on Diablo3.com? He's in a black silhouette. Dun dun dunnnnn.
I wish I had my PDF file of all the character conversations of Diablo 1 and 2 but I seem to have misplaced it.
The image we see of Diablo in the D3 teaser trailer could be the true form of Diablo. We've noticed that in Diablo 1, he stood tall and skinny. In Diablo 2, he was more hunched over but more muscular. Now, in Diablo 3, he looks like he's gigantic and full of fire (the fires of hell?) with a big head and a look like he's full of power. Is this what Luke has foreseen?
Another thought just came to me: In recent years, we've been able to fight an "Uber" Diablo, Mephisto and Baal. Has the light bulb gone on yet? Maybe this is foreshadowing what Luke has suggested of the brothers being more powerful now that their stones were destroyed.
Of course, this is all speculation.
I've been waiting to see the island Skovos for a while now and I really wanted to be able to go play there in Diablo 3. However, that isn't going to happen. They release the image as a way to show how large the world of Sanctuary is and here is what Blizzard had to say:
It isn't a location that you'll visit in Diablo III, but the artwork is a good example of the work and thought going in to fleshing out the world of Sanctuary. It's already a very complex world with a lot of locations and events, but a lot of it still isn't visually or contextually realized. As we want to create the feeling of a world outside of your immediate view it's important to create or expand upon the locations and stories of that world.
As we're working to create Diablo III we're also working to create a more visually complete Sanctuary.
The second image: I can imagine is Kehijstan because we know we're heading to Caldeum. However, I've also heard that it could be the impact site of the Meteor or near the Dry Steps / Scosglen.
The other concept arts are of a sloth beast and a cultist.
And, if you want a nice wallpaper of Skovos, you can go to www.diii.net and download this wallpaper (which is now my wallpaper).
If you haven't already listened to Blizzcast Episode 5, you might want to read on. I've taken some of my favorite explanations and info leaks from this interview for your viewing.
First, Jay Wilson confirms that there will be an Act system just like in Diablo 2. To me, this is huge. Diablo 1 was a little blah in going from Dungeon Level to Dungeon Level. The Act system used in Diablo 2 was a great way to balance out monter levels and player levels.
Bashiok: We're talking a lot about acts right now could you give any insight into the act distribution as compared to like Diablo 2? How many acts there would be?
Jay Wilson: We were originally going to go away from an act structure but we found it fell so easily into that and so we're going to a similar structure as Diablo 2. It just seemed natural, it felt right. Right now we're focusing on about the same length, about the same number of acts. I don't want to solidify because of course; you never know what'll happen. But right now we're going for about the same.
Jay also explains to us that they want to get rid of the "mule" system when storing items. Warcraft did it the best with the mail system. And it looks like there will be that in Diablo 3 or a shared stash throughout your Blizzard account.
Jay Wilson: And then, the last one is we really want to make it easier for you to be able to share and trade items with other people and other characters on the same account. We've talked about ideas like a shared stash, or a mail system like World of Warcraft has, and we haven't nailed down exactly which one of those we want to do, but we're definitely going to do something like that, that's going to make it really easy for you if you've got, a witch doctor and a barbarian character, and you find that awesome witch doctor drop and you want to share it, it'll be super-easy to do that.
Bashiok: so in other words, I won't have to worry about my game closing after...
Jay Wilson: No, no more opening up a game, dropping items on the ground, and you know, hoping that the game stays open or getting a friend to help out, no more of that. You should be able to do it on your own.
He also explains in great detail on why they chose not to bring back the Necromancer and other characters from Diablo 2. He makes outstanding points! I never thought about it before but the Necromancer and other characters were perfectly well rounded and balanced.
Bashiok: So, from my viewpoint, probably from a lot of people's viewpoint, the announcement was extremely positive. But it seems like a lot of the Diablo II players, or at least the hardcore Diablo II players want to see the necromancer come back or perhaps other classes coming back. Obviously, the barbarian's one of the ones you're bringing from Diablo II. What are your generally feelings on bringing classes back the previous games?
Jay Wilson: Well, for the core game, you know, the kind of initial release of Diablo III, we really want to establish our own identity, like we don't want to just remake Diablo II or Diablo I, we want to provide a unique game experience for people. So, on that front we're really only going to consider bringing back classes that we feel we can improve-the necromancer is an awesome class, actually my favorite class, from Diablo 2, and the class I'm currently playing the most of- its not that we just dislike him, he love the necromancer, but part of his, you know, the issue we have is, he was so well-designed, I mean, you've got your corpse explosion, you've got your skeleton sum, pets and you know, hordes of those guys running around and killing things, you've got curses, like, it's across the board a very well-designed class and there's certainly some things we could do a little differently, but do we feel like we can make him so much better, and change his core gameplay experience. If anything, we'd say we really don't want to, like he plays too well. Whereas with the barbarian, we really looked at the class and he's cool but he could be a lot cooler and he could have a lot more that he does, over the previous game. So, you know, that's why the necromancer is not being seen. A lot of people have looked at the witch doctor and said “oh, the witch doctor is so similar to the necromancer, he's not going to be there, there's no chance for the necromancer ever.” I wouldn't go that far, we are trying to make sure that the witch doctor, while he has a lot of similarities is very different overall. One of the core differences is that the witch doctor is very attack oriented- people remember back to the gameplay video, almost all the monsters that got taken out were taken out by the witch doctor, not by his pets. So that's kind of a key difference between him and the necromancer, is that the necromancer was very often, his pets were critical to his damage output, whereas the witch doctor uses his pets as a distraction and a utility. So we try to keep them different that there's the possibility down the road, but that would maybe be an expansion or something like that after we felt like we've kind of established core Diablo III game. That being said, I wouldn't expect, I would tell people not to expect any other Diablo II or Diablo I classes appear you, know, in the exact same form that they did- if we did bring back another class it would be a radical change.
He also shuts down all the "poor art direction" protesters. Guess what guys? They tried to make it darker and it didn't work.
Jay Wilson: And what we found was, again, when we made the enemies that very realistic dark, gritty look, like the environment, they all just kind of blended together, and again, it made the game not very fun. So, at that point, after we had done this twice and gone, “wow, we really don't like the results here, we started going back to Diablo II in particular and looking at it, trying to figure out what Diablo II did, that worked so well. What we found was that a lot of the ideas that made Diablo II work well, just didn't translate well to 3D. We also found a very different game than a lot of us remember, even though a lot of us played the game still, like a lot of us are still big Diablo II players, we still have kind of this idealized vision of it where we really remember, like, Durance of Hate and act I dungeons and we kind of conveniently forget, you know, the act II desert and the really bright lava hell levels and the things like that that are filled with a lot of color. And we saw that and we were kind of surprised. We were like, “wow, look at how green the fields are in act I, look at how much color there is in this world.”
Some great stuff! I can't wait until Blizzcon because maybe, just maybe, they'll release another class! Come on Bard! :D
The following was posted by Blizzard this past week:
Achievements Titles
So, I was surfing YouTube this morning and discovered this:
(Watch and enjoy - Please finish chewing anything you may have and swallow the last gulp of drink)
Slow week in news so I figured I'd branch off of the news and opinions to talk about what's coming up in my life.
The big thing is that I'll be getting a new phone late this week / early next week. It's the Samsung i760 Smartphone/PDA. Not only is it a 3G (with a windows upgrade) but it'll hold up to 32gb of space. I'll only be getting a 4gb microSD card but it's nice to know I could upgrade. Also, I'll be getting internet on my phone! Now, if I get stuck in traffic or my internet craps out or I'm hanging out in jury duty, I'll be able to blog here. The picture above is the phone with it's keyboard out.
Now, I got this phone on eBay for 227.50. I can sell my u740 Alias phone on eBay for 150. If that happens, I would basically get this new Smartphone for only $70. Booyah!
My Goddaughter turned 2 last week. She's adorable. I got her into Winnie The Pooh and now she's bouncing her 3 1/2 foot Pooh like Tigger does.
School is starting up again next week. It's only 3 classes so I'm not too bothered by it. Part-time students for the win.
And lastly, I've decided to be The Wanderer from Diablo 2 for Halloween. I have a Kit-Rae sword which looks like the one from the Act 1 cinematic. I also have a 13th century replica monk's robe which looks like a normal cloak. Should be pretty epic. Halloween for me is when my summer community has it (Columbus Day weekend) so expect pictures or something before Halloween.
Blizzard has finally released the Wrath Of The Lich King Trailer! Click on that link to watch and also to download the video.
(Spoilers bellow!!!)
As always, it looks great. Blizzard really knows how to create a cinematic trailer. I'm kinda disappointed with it because I expected more of Arthas slaying Horde and Alliance characters and narrating himself; not his father (almost like the Zul' jin trailer). But, I really can't complain; it's awesome anyway. The Frost Wymn looked great and his army was exactly how I imagined it would be. Go check it out!
Adam Sessler is still my favorite gaming guru. In last week's Sessler's Soapbox, he flames the Diablo 3 art haters. I've been waiting for him to finally speak on the subject because I knew he would make good points. If you want to see more of Sessler's Soapbox, you can get it through iTunes video podcast, G4's website, and youtube.
PS: Madden 09, Fantasy Football, and NFL preseason games took up all of my free time last week. This week, I should have a post up ASAP.
Don't forget: Today is August 11th and Blizzcon08 tickets are going on sale!
However, the site is currently down lol.
Keep checking back to the Blizzard store and get your tickets before they all sell out.
*Update*
Tickets are sold out. Hope you got yours!
I was going to post yesterday but once I got home and turned on the NFL network for my daily Brett Favre update, I noticed one little small headline.... Brett Favre was traded to the J-E-T-S! JETS! JETS! JETS!! So, for the rest of the day, I was kinda glued to my TV :-D.
But onto news. Blizzard has been busy with Diablo 3 lately. MTV Multiplayer has Blizzard's take on why older classes (ie: Necromancer) are not in Diablo 3.
“Our approach for classes in ‘Diablo III’ is that we don’t have a strong desire to bring back classes from the previous game,” Wilson told me. “The goal is to try and give people new gameplay and not just re-hash old gameplay. We’re not just making a ‘Diablo II’ with updated 3D graphics.”
Well, that's dandy. If you wanted to stay away from older classes, then why do I see the Barbarian there? Not just the Barbarian but you're creating the same gameplay of the Necromancer in the Doctor with some added fireballs. Stop making excuses for something fans want. Diablo 2's characters are perfect (well, not the Assassin and Druid... they could have been improved a bit) so why change it? If nothing is wrong, don't fix it.
“There’s a lot of people on our team who aren’t happy with our class choices,” he admitted. “But after we’ve established ‘Diablo III’ as its own game with its own type of gameplay and experiences, I wouldn’t be opposed to looking at old classes. We are trying to design [the Witch Doctor] class so that if we did bring back the Necromancer, there’s room for him. We’re looking out ahead of time at what our expansions are going to be, so we’ve got to keep room open for some of those other classes down the road.” Wilson added, “It’s one of those things where, unless we put like 30 classes in the game, people are going to be unhappy. But if we put 30 classes in the game, we’d hurt the game. I think that of the classes that we’ve chosen, there will be something for everyone. I’m not worried that people won’t be able to find a class that they like to play.”
I can agree with the 30 classes argument but give us more than 5 classes. If you are going to release an expansion, and it's going to take as long as Wrath to make, make sure the characters are good and something that the fans want. It sounds like this new director is doing what HE wants to do and not what he people want in their classes. If HALF of your team wants some older classes back, I think that throws up some red flags. But if they make another assassin or rouge type class, I'm going to pull my hair out. I hate playing those classes and because it's Diablo, I'm going to have to play it.
Synovia at wowpaladin.org wrote an amazing article on how great Shockadins are going to be when we go north. I'm running out the door now for a looooong day at the office so I'll post the article here for you to read but I highly recommend wowpaladin.org for a lot of raid Paladin news.
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"With WotLK being tentatively slotted for a November release, it’s easy to get overly excited about the possibilities. However, something in particular caught my attention today as I was browsing through the Beta talent calculator over at www.wowhead.com: Are Holy Paladins to be limited to back of the raid healbotting? After some deliberation and placement of talent points, I’m inclined to state that it certainly seems as though this time around Blizzard has opened the proverbial doors for a large variety of Paladin playstyles: the Shockadin being one of them.
Now while I won’t at all claim a Shockadin now or even then to have any kind of raid viability, as of the present I am extremely confident as to their effectiveness in PvP. Let me share with you my thoughts on just why I believe what I do.
As of present, the Shockadin arsenal requires the expenditure of talent points to retrieve all of the following:
Now we can all agree the list above, although comprised of “essential” Shockadin talents, is lengthy. They are required as such due to the nature of the spec. It is unarguable that each of these talents directly affects the damage output of the build but what’s more is that although WotLK is removing the first altogether (Sanctity Aura), it is providing not just one replacement to increase DPS but several.
At this time, I would like to draw your attention to the following build:
http://wotlk.wowhead.com/?talent=sEA0xhzGVzMxkZZVbhxbczh
The list above now receives the following additions:
So we’ve lost the flat 10% damage increase to Holy spells granted by Sanctity Aura but in return we’ve gained the above four sources of extra damage on our Holy Shocks. Let’s see how this all breaks down in WotLK terms.
For this demonstration, I’m going to make a floored assumption that my statistics on my Holy Paladin, in her Holy gear, will remain unchanged at level 80. The only difference I”m assuming is the acquisition of 10 more talent points to spend within the WotLK talent trees. I makes these assumptions for simplicity in calculation and also so I can use real numbers taken directly from my Holy Paladin.
The coefficient used for instant cast damaging spells is 42.86%. Although Blizzard has noted that coefficients are being adjusted for healing spells given the removal of +healing gear and the introduction of spell power, the damage coefficients will remain in tact as no change is needed.
Holy Shock, at level 80, does a base range of damage beginning at 967 and ending at 1047. From here, we would first apply our +damage (or Spell Power) at rate consistent with the above coefficient of 42.86%. For my Holy Paladin, this is done as follows:
However, we know that Sheath of Light will yield an addition Spell Power value of 30% of my attack power. At first consideration this many seem negligible but even someone completely naked has an attack power granted by their level alone. For example, my Holy Paladin’s level 70 attack power, while garbed in full Holy PvP gear is actually 436. Taking this into account we have the following base damage instead:
With the base damage calculation completed, we now turn to talents for any further benefit to the spell. The order of application for these talents is irrelevant so we’ll begin arbitrarily with Healing Light which adds 12% effectiveness to Holy Shock:
Next, we account for Sanctified Retribution:
Lastly, we consider Crusade:
As we can see, our basetop-end damage on Holy Shock, in level 70 Holy (not even spell damage gear) PvP gear and without any additional stats (that will obviously be accumulated on our way to 80) is 1624. Now, let’s add the icing on our delicious cake by applying Avenging Wrath:
Now the fun begins. Spell critical strikes deal 150% damage after damage-increasing calculation has concluded. Given a top-end of 2008 damage as calculated above, let’s assume either a straight away critical strike or use of Divine Favor to yield one:
Please remind yourself that all these calculations were done off the statistics present for my level 70 Holy Paladin in healing(Ornamented) PvP gear. Most Shockadins presently in World of Warcraft float around 1200 spell damage and not my awe-devoid 740. Let’s make one last assumption, shall we? Let’s assume, on what I would consider to be the far low end of the potential spectrum, that a level 80 Shockadin has 500 attack power and 1600 spell damage. Using these new numbers, let’s run through the calculation one last time:
As you can see, even low-balling the potential spell damage of a level 80 Shockadin immensely still leads us to near 4000+ damage Holy Shocks. I would argue that it won’t be uncommon for Shockadins, with proper buffs to be capable of putting out 5000+ damage Holy Shocks in PvP.
So what are the possibilities? You tell me. Seemingly, they are endless as already at level 70 the Shockadin has proven his worth in 2v2 arena by bursting down topped-off Warriors with 13K HP in 3 seconds. Perhaps Blizzard saw this video as well and realized the potential for a very fun aspect to the Paladin game play. We can only wait and see.
This is Synovia, taking her leave."
For those who don't already know, Wrath is confirmed for October-December 2008. But onto other epic things. I came across this Joystiq post which showed a video of Soul Calibur 4 with 24 customizable characters from video games and movies. What really caught my eye though, was Paladin Arthas and Death Knight Arthas! I was freaking out from the awesomeness; seriously.
The Paladin Arthas was using Astaroth's hammer and Death Knight Arthas was using Soul Calibur. For those who have Soul Calibur 4 (AND YOU SHOULD!), you can create these guys by using the Paladin Armor (white and black), long blonde and white hair, Astaroth's fighting style and Siegfried's fighting style. I'm going to try and make my own Arthas too... in fact, right now.
Here's the link to the video! It's about 14-15 minutes until you see Arthas.
*UPDATE*
I was fooling around with the Soul Calibur editor this morning and was able to make an ok Joker and an amazing looking Harley Quinn! There's no suit for the Joker and the faces given are horrible. I had to give him normal pants (which look good) and a stupid looking jacket. Oh well.
Harley Quinn on the other hand is amazing! I unlocked the Jester Costume and changed the colors around as best as I could to fit her suit (ex: With her boots, I was not able to make one boot Red and the other Black. I had to choose one color). She came out great though. Here's some pics from my cell phone. Not the best quality but it's the best I got:
"Meeting and interacting with our players at BlizzCon is always a great experience for us," stated Mike Morhaime, CEO and cofounder of Blizzard Entertainment. "We're also pleased to be working with DIRECTV this year to bring the show, for the first time, to those players who are unable to attend." In addition to serving as a gathering place for the different Blizzard Entertainment gaming communities, BlizzCon will offer an array of activities, including discussion panels, hands-on playtime with upcoming games, tournaments, contests, and more. Tickets to the convention will be priced at $100 USD each, and will be available for purchase directly from the official BlizzCon website at www.blizzcon.com. The pay per view event will deliver a minimum of eight hours of live HD coverage from the show floor on each day of the convention, including exclusive interviews, demos, and more. Beginning in August, DIRECTV will run a promotion offering the BlizzCon pay per view event free to new DIRECTV subscribers. Pricing for existing DIRECTV customers and programming details will be available in the coming weeks from Blizzard Entertainment and DIRECTV. "BlizzCon is one of the most highly anticipated gaming conventions of the year, and we are excited to partner with Blizzard Entertainment to deliver coverage of the show to gamers nationwide," said Steven Roberts, senior vice president, new media and business development, DIRECTV. "With our BlizzCon pay per view package, members of Blizzard's gaming communities who are not attending the event can now experience it in crystal-clear HD."
This morning, Blizzard announced that they will start selling tickets to Blizzcon 08 on August 11th. The tickets will go for $100 (do not forget to include airfare, hotels, rental car, etc). Also, if you cannot make the event and you have DirectTV, you will be able to purchase a pay-per-view event that has 8 hours of Blizzcon 08 footage. I might just get that if the price is right. At the moment, there is no price set on the pay-per-view event. Here's the press release:
IRVINE, Calif. – July 29, 2008 – Blizzard Entertainment, Inc. today announced that tickets for its third BlizzCon™ gaming convention will go on sale August 11 and that live coverage of the event will be available as an exclusive DIRECTV pay per view event. BlizzCon is a celebration of the global player communities surrounding Blizzard Entertainment®'s Warcraft®, Diablo®, and StarCraft® game universes. The event will take place at the Anaheim Convention Center in Anaheim, California on October 10 and 11.
You can blame the lack of updates on me. I've been busy and when I'm not busy, I'm lazy and tired. Here's some more Paladin changes on the way:
Paladin
Holy
The Wrath Betal is here! And boy, Blizzard wasn't kidding when they said they were taking a second look at how the Paladin works. Our talents were finally put in the right places. The Holy Tree looks amazing! This will most likely be my talent build for L80. This would be my normal Spellwarrior / Healing build. Might not be for everybody but I like the solo healing stuff. You can also reset the build and make your own build too.
Due to the LARGE changes and that I really do not have time to devour it all, I'll let my favorite WoW Insider writer, Zach Yonzon, explain it all to you.
Paladin patch notes from the Wrath Beta:
I have the internet back! I finally got some time yesterday to dig another trench through my yard and running a telephone wire to my place. Besides the new patch, I really haven't read anything that has happened in the last 2 weeks.
This popped up this morning on WoW Insider which made me chuckle and feel sorry that one poor guy at Blizzard that would be getting a rip from his boss and made the butt of all jokes by his staff-mates. I think this was one of those days where he probably thinks that he shouldn't have gotten out of bed today. A Death Knight page popped up this morning in the Classes page. Someone pushed a button they shouldn't have. It shows the Warrior character (and the Warrior title) but the description is of the Death Knight. (Click the image for a bigger version that you can read).
I'm blogging from a phone! It's pretty neat. My friend has the whole iPhone online thing. As said the other day, my internet and phone line is down. Something happened here at my summer home so that the phone line connecting the two family campers died. AT&T came down and said it was the wire we put in between the campers. Because we did it, he couldn't fix it. Sometime, we will need to run another wire between the two campers to get internet back. Hopefully in the next few days.
Zach Yonzon of WoWInsider is reporting that, 'Yes. Paladin changes are coming.'
I don't need to repeat the article here so I'll be brief. We do not know much about what exactly is going to happen but we do know that change in coming. As we all know, the Paladin isn't the easiest class to balance. As with all hybrid classes, there are a lot of aspects to mold. From what the article is saying, it seems like Blizzard is looking at the Paladin class with the Death Knight mindset. What I mean is: the DK can tank and DPS with one spec. Almost like the Paladin's Spellwarrior build of 40/11/10. Hopefully, they'll give us the gear now to build on more of a DPS and a touch of healing or even DPS via tanking.
They also confirmed they wanted to make the Paladin tank for viable in 5 mans and even full raids. The reason we don't have much info yet about spells and talents is because they're still looking at how they want the future Paladins to work. We'll see what happens but expect major changes in the coming months.
I have no internet at my house. AT&T said it could take until Friday to fix it. I'm typing this up quickly at work. I'll have a post ready when the net comes back.
Ihmhi on the Diabloiii.net (new name) forums posted an amazing analysis on the first 9 minutes of the gameplay video. He compares the game to WoW a lot which I think is unfair. Every game copies another. There wasn't a need to mention WoW 7 times...
*talking about D3's buffing system* "I can see they are making the game VERY different from WoW by having it completely on the opposite side of the screen. d:"
"WoW-style cooldown"
"the inventory seems to be more like WoW now"
"the player swap out his axes for some fancier ones. Again, some ideas taken from WoW and similar MMOs."
"Apparantly they've taken some tips from WoW's AuctioneerAdvanced addon (and similar addons)."
What really made me cross was when he was talking about the Elixers. "Will we have stat-boosting potions (like WoW's alchemy) in Diablo III?" Maybe he never played the original Diablo but they had Elixers which boosted up stats.
"Small Bag. So it looks like bags (like WoW) will serve some sort of function in Diablo III."
I'm not trying to beat on the guy. He made great points. I just do not see the need to compare it to just WoW.
http://forums.diii.net/showthread.php?p=6581118
Another controversy surrounded Diablo 3 is that the environments look too bright. Diablo is supposed to be a dark world and yet they're making it look more colorful.
First and foremost, my opinion on the matter? IT'S A LOAD OF BOLLOCKS! After all these years, you would think that the Blizzard Devs know what their doing. 10 Million Subscribers to World Of Warcraft and TWO video games (10 and 7/8 years old) being played by thousands of people daily (Diablo II and Starcraft). Video games that are being played DAILY after almost a decade. Not to mention that Diablo II is now selling at the Top of the Amazon.com carts and when Starcraft II was announced, it too jumped to the top. Now, after all these months since the Starcraft II announcement, it's at #18. Come on. Give it up already.
There's a petition going around which is against Blizzard's art direction. (I will not post a link to the petition). They are saying that it look too "cartoon'ish" (mind you, they repeated that it looked too much like WoW's cartoony style way too many times). They also want the light radius back.
Pesonally, it looks fine. If I want to walk around in a dark dungeon, I'll go lock myself in a closet or walk around my house with the blinds shut at 3AM in the morning. A game should be pleasing. It doesn't mean it has too be "cartoon'ish"; it just doesn't have to be black, dark red and grey. It's an art style and by the look of all Blizzards games (including Starcraft), they all have the "cartoon'ish" look. It's Blizzard's art style. Don't like it? Get out.
/end rant
Gameplay Part 1
Gameplay Part 2
Today, I want to talk about the TWENTY MINUTE gameplay video for Diablo 3. Yes, 2 0 minutes! I thought we'd only get to see a cinematic but this just added frosting, sprinkles, roses, balloons, gummy bears, nerds, strawberries, and that cookie stuff in the middle to the ice cream cake. Yes, it's that good.
It starts off by showing a Barbarian class, wearing hardly any armor, fighting some zombies. The zombies enter the area by climbing up the walls! There were a lot of them too. Picture Dynasty Warriors meets Diablo. Not saying it's a bad thing but it sure is different.
They show off some crazy skills including a new version of Leap Attack. Finally, they implemented some good uses to that fun skill. They've added a dashing attack, a sonic wave attack, a Hammer of the Gods spell, and everyone's favorite: Whirlwind! Whirlwind looks wicked.
They rigged the game to show off some weapons and armor. The weapons are nice and detailed and now instead of turning blue for cold, yellow for lightning, they actually have the "WoW Enchantment effect" to them. Instead of slowing enemies, cold attacks freeze and a stun effect was added to lightning. The armor set on the barbarian looked demonic.
We were then met by none other than Deckard Cain. A mini dialog conversation began where the Barbarian was also talking with Cain. That would make a fun aspect to story mode.
On our way out of the dungeon, we were introduced to one of Diablo 3's new character classes: The Witch-Doctor (okay, you all can take 5 seconds to start singing that stupid witch-doctor song. Don't lie. I know you all started thinking about that song when you heard about the class :D). He showed off some summons like the mongrel who seem to work like the Skeletons and Wolves of Diablo 2. He could also make their bodies explode and do damage to nearby enemies (like a Necromancer's corpse explosion only limited to destroying your own pets). There was also a locus swarm attack which ate away at nearby enemies. If the zombie was close to another zombie, the swarm moved to that one; eating both zombies. There was also a Wall Of Zombies spell which worked like a Bone Wall only with attacking zombies.
Some may like this new class and the hate may flow my way by saying this but, I don't like the Witch-Doctor. He's too much like the Necromancer. I don't see why they couldn't have just stuck with the Necromancer and give him a boost of powers. They gave the barbarian a dash attack - why not give the Necromancer Disease instead of Bone? People cried for a Necromancer class in WoW. People loved the new Necromancer class (after patch 1.10). Why not give the people the old man we all know and love?
Any way, we are then met by 2 other characters. FEMALE VERSIONS OF THE CLASSES! I don't know why they couldn't have done this in Diablo 2. We can finally choose to make a Male Barbarian or a Female Barbarian (and with all the other classes).
The final boss fills up half the screen. Literally. It looked tough but the four fighters defeated him. The female Witch-Doctor died and the Barbarian was decapitated. Yes. Decapitated. The monster picked him up and bit his head off. And by bit, I mean tear it off. Well, both really. He bit down and then pulled it off... The Barbarian screaming makes the whole scene a bit disturbing >_>... This is never getting a Teen Rating lol.
The graphics are outstanding and the colors fit. The lighting is good and the physics are great.
Till tomorrow... ting tang walla walla bing bang.
PS: Happy Canadian Day!
The Diablo 3 story takes place about 20 years after the Worldstone had been destroyed by the arch-angel Tyrael. In these years, the people of Sanctuary slowly start to forget the three Prime Evils and all that had happened during their reign. To most, the story is just a myth.
However, to Deckard Cain, the legendary story of the one hero still lives in his mind. Cain travels back to New Tristram to study the remains of the old Cathedral. Tristram grew to a popular town after the Worldstone was struck down. People wanted to view the Cathedral of wence Diablo first appeared. However, as the years drained on, people stopped coming, and New Tristram became a depressing place.
As Cain was researching, he noticed a comet, hitting the exact same spot where Diablo first arrived many years ago. With this, Cain called upon new heroes to protect the world against "the rising powers of the Burning Hells – and even the failing luminaries of the High Heavens itself."
-Cinematic Video-
There is a woman in the video (the narrator as well) who would seem to be Cain's assistant. In the gameplay video (which I will post during the Gameplay post), the Barbarian clearly says that Lyra (or some other name... I can't remember) is worried about him. Also, we see a mountain that is now destroyed and two people in armor looking over it. I can guess that this is Mount Arreat - after the Worldstone was destroyed and the two characters are the Barbarians of the North. Also, to further back this theory, we also see Tyrael throwing his sword into the Worldstone. I can imagine they could be showing this to lead into the explosion of Mount Arreat.
Another awesome surprise is that we see Diablo without his soulstone! There is just a firey "t" scar.
On the Diablo 3 website, there is a section dedicated to Cain's Journal. This is a flash journal, written by Deckard Cain, which shows passages from King Leoric to the destruction of the Worldstone. Deckard Cain will also narrate the journal for you! It's really cool and even though some of you may already know the story, it's still fun to listen to Cain.
I've started playing Diablo 2 again. If you have the expansion and want to play, whisper Aticus (Paladin 30 40) or Starburn (Amazon, lower level 17) or the account *Neflight2 on the USEAST server - LADDER. I might be making a Sorceress soon too.
PS: The background image is set to a 17 inch widescreen monitor (my laptop). The image doesn't stretch out or shrink. If anyone can get me a HTML code which will automaticly fix the background image to make it stretch out to fit the screen, can you leave a comment with the code? Thanks!
What I'll do in the next week is take pieces of the Diablo 3 Website and explain what's there and (as always) add my opinions - be it good, bad, or in the middle. I'll try to get to all of these in this week (one per day).
1. Story / Deckard Cain's Journal
2. Gameplay / 20 Minute Gameplay Video
3. New Character Classes
4. Screenshots & Artwork.
5. Tyrael
The Tyrael topic should be a fun one. Best for last, you know? :-). Hopefully I'll get all that in by Thursday.
Onto other topics from today's WWI, there is very little Paladin news on the Wrath front. For you Retadins: You are going to be getting Warrior/DK gear. I could only imagine that's all +Str, +Stam, and +Attack Power. You will also be able to become more viable in groups. Yeah... they said that last time they tried to boost up Ret. Don't get your hopes up, in my opinion.
Holy Paladins will be getting a new healing spell called "Hand of Purity". This spell is supposed to work like a big Holy Crap button. I would imagine (and this is speculation now) that it'll give a player a big heal; just enough so you could get a Flash or Holy Light off. Definitely an improvement.
There was also some talk about changing Blessing of Protection and Blessing of Freedom so that they will NOT override your other Blessing (ie: Kings, Might etc).
So, stay tuned Sunday night or Monday for the next Diablo 3 update!
