Diablo 3 Story // Cain's Journal

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!

Outline For The Week // Paladin Wrath Updates

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!

Christmas Has Come Early In 2008

This morning, Blizzard announced that they are, in fact, in the process of creating DIABLO III!

As you can see, I've changed the layout of this blog to incorporate both Diablo and Warcraft. As of today, there is no word that there will be a Paladin class in Diablo 3. However, due to the popularity of the game (and my own personal liking of the game) this blog will now post any new information on Diablo 3.

This coming week, I'll be posting either daily or every other day, trying to inform everyone about the new game. The website is very difficult to get through due to the high traffic. I was stubborn enough to sit through and read every page - even though it took hours :-).

So, do you guys like the new layout?

Diablo 3 at the WWI?

Has the time come? I think so! This weekend, at Blizzard's World Wide Invitational, there is a high chance that we will be hearing about a Diablo 3 game!

"In a question and answer session that concluded this year's GDC Paris, Pardo was asked directly if he could talk more about "the new game" that rumours have strongly suggested will be Diablo 3. "So you want me to announce the game before our announcement?" he said. "No offense, but I think there's like 300 people here, and I'll be ripped apart by 8000 people there [at the Invitational] if I pre-announce it - but it's going to be really exciting. I think everybody here will be really excited about the announcement." -GamesIndustry.biz

So, there's an announcement coming. Question is: What game? Over the last 2 months, Blizzard has taken over Diablo3.com, released a picture of many runes from Wrath, Starcraft, and Diablo 2, and also a German PC magazine saying they won't release new of the game (they have a special magazine theme for the game as well), even if "hell froze over and cows gave beer." We've already heard of Starcraft II, and it will be a new game. You don't schedule a press conference to announce a game that has already been reviled.

I'll be on the net Saturday finding out what game they will announce. If it's Diablo 3, I think I may drop my laptop in the excitement.

PS: If you haven't already figured it out, I'm a huge Diablo freak :-D.

**UPDATE: Thursday morning**

The fourth ice image was released this morning. The first 3 had runes from Wrath's Frostmourn, Diablo's Hel Rune, and a symbol from Starcraft 2. This new image shows that the ice is starting to melt and a shadowy figure is now making an appearance.

There's a few guesses I can make from this. The first one being the obvious: something in Northrend is awakening. The second though is something I've speculated this whole time since the end of Lord Of Destruction. It is said that Tyrael destroyed the Worldstone. However, what if in the process, he didn't destroy it, but opened it so he could try to hold the power within himself to keep Heaven and Hell from entering the Earthen plain. However, like Tal Rasha, he probably was corrupted by the Worldstone. Being that the Worldstone is in the Arctic barbarian lands, the stone could have frozen over. The shards in the picture look a lot like the shards that flew past Tyrael in the end cinematic. Of course, this is all rambling guesses and just a few of the many possible speculations.

Personally, what I really want is to move backwards in time. Back to The Great Conflict! The 7 evils will be there, Diablo would still be alive (how can you have a Diablo game without Diablo?), and the story is already laid out. All they have to do is paste the pieces together. With the success of World Of Warcraft, Blizzard has proven that they can still make fantastic RPGs and thus proving this Diablo game could be an outstanding one.

I'll have to make a big post one of these days about the history of Diablo and conspiracy theories... There's just too many of them!

Vote for me!

Patch 2.4.3!

Patch day is soon arriving and faster than I anticipated. Usually I like reading the notes weeks before hand but I have not had the time. As I am writing this, I have only skimmed some parts of the patch notes. Over the next few days, check back for updates at the end of this post as I begin the epic journey through the patch notes of Patch 2.4.3.

First, I will go through the General changes:

General

• Dispel effects will no longer attempt to remove effects that have 100% dispel resistance.
• Parry Rating, Defense Rating, and Block Rating: Low-level players will now convert these ratings into their corresponding defensive stats at the same rate as level 34 players.
• Haris Pilton has launched a new line of bags and jewelry. Check her out in the World’s End Tavern!
• Mounts at 30?! Yes, it’s true: Apprentice Riding and mounts are now available at level 30. Training costs 35 gold.
• Blood Elf flightmasters outside of Silvermoon City and Tranquillien have traded in their bats for glorious fire-breathing dragonhawks.
• Alcohol cooldowns have been rolled into Drinks: All 10-second cooldowns have been removed and replaced with the 1-second Drink cooldown.
• Numerous flying non-combat pets have had their flight height modified to no longer skim along the ground: captured firefly, dragonhawk hatchlings, moths, owls, parrots, phoenix hatchling, spirit of summer, sprite darter, and tiny sporebat.
• Nether Ray Fry (a non-combat pet) is now available from the Skyguard Quartermaster. This requires an Exalted reputation with Sha’tari Skyguard.
• Equipping an item will now cancel any spell cast currently in progress.
• Placing an item in your bank will now cancel any spell cast currently in progress if the spell was cast by that item.
• You can no longer move backwards to stop racing rams.
• When a stun wears off, the creature that was stunned will prefer the last target with the highest threat, versus the current target.

I must say, I am most pleased with the changes made. One key bother for me was when I had my Crimson Whelpling out, he could never fly next to me. Now, he can! I'm very excited to have this. They didn't mention whelplings in the notes but maybe they're part of the hatchling family. Another bother of mine was when I was playing my Blood Elf on a buddy's server, I had to ride a bat. Here's a race, who seem to look bright, colorful and neat, who have to ride bats to get from here to there. I'm really happy to see they've finally sent those bats back to Lordaeron.

I was saving the best for last: Mounts at L30! Yes, your normal 60% speed mount will now be available to purchase at L30 at a cost of only 35 gold. At first, I thought it was all a joke. This is the first time I've heard of this. I can see some of their logic in this. This will now make the trek though the horrid 30s a bit faster. This is something they should have done in the Dustwallow Marsh patch. The only flaw I see in this is why epic mounts haven't gone down too. The Death Knight is starting at L55 with a 60% speed mount. Why can't they just make epic mounts L55? But, now is not the time to be greedy. We have our L30 mounts. Rejoice!

Again, check back soon for more updates and the rest of the patch notes.

*Update*

Paladin

• Greater Blessing of Light Rank 1: This spell will no longer overwrite Greater Blessing of Light Rank 2.
• Summon Warhorse is now available at level 30.

Not much there but at least they fixed it. Also, "Time Management features have been implemented! These features include an alarm clock, stopwatch, and viewing your computer’s local time." That sounds cool but I think a bit late.

You can read the rest here because the rest if bug fixes and other classes.

Meet The Jormungar // Solo Dungeons?

I hope this creature is scaled to size like the picture cause I would be in my glory. To stand toe to toe with this thing would be epic. This is called a Jormungar. It's a new creature we'll be facing in Northrend.

"The fiercely aggressive Jormungar are a marvel of evolution, possessing rows of chisel-like teeth capable of boring through solid rock, as well as muscular, flattened bodies well adapted to rapid underground navigation.

Legends tell of the nerubians' using the jormungar as creatures of labor, forcing them to carve massive tunnels through Northrend's subterranean ice and lay the groundwork for the nerubians' ancient civilization. With the fall of the nerubian empire, swarms of rogue jormungar ran amok, drilling through the region's permafrost, attacking surface dwellers, and devouring everything in their path."

Serves those Nerubians' right... Silly spiders, Jormungars are for Pallys :-D.

-----------------------------------

Another post which caught my eye on MMO-Champion is a thread on the WoW Forums asking for Solo Raid Content. The poster makes valid points:

"First I just want to say thank you Blizz for making such awesome games. I love to play WoW. However, I also love to solo. Unfortunately when it comes to endgame the two don’t mesh.

I understand that RAID = WORK and as such raiders should receive better rewards for working harder. I do not understand however why this reward should be seeing content. Isn’t better gear enough? How about titles? Shiny glowing auras to prove you’re better than everyone else?

I personally play for FUN not WORK. This along with the fact that I cannot schedule time to play a game (Well I could… but I would need to get a divorce first) is why I do not raid.

I think Blizzard is taking a step in the right direction with the upcoming xpac making all raids being able to be done with 10 or 25 person groups. I’d like to see this taken one step further. Make instances and raids have a solo setting and have the gear be one step lower. For example in WotLK if in 25 man mode the raid would drop Tier 9 gear then in 10 man it will drop Tier 8 gear and in Solo mode it should drop Tier 7 gear. This would serve two purposes.

1. It would give people that don’t like to group (like myself and many others) a chance to see all the content and enjoy this extremely well crafted story and game Blizzard has put together.

2. It would give new subscribers who do want to group a chance to catch up to their guilds and help raid without putting as much strain on guildmates to come back and help them with as much low content to get their new friend up to being raid capable. You do the raids on solo to get your T7 gear. You get 9 guildmates to give you a hand and do the raid again on 10 man and get your T8 gear. Then you are up to doing the 25 mans to start actually helping your guild progress.

I’m not asking to be handed anything easy. I would really like as much challenge as I can get. However I don’t want that challenge to come in the form of trying to get people together to do an instance/raid and dealing with all the crap that comes along with that (Idiots wiping the group, people having to leave in the middle of a session, loot ninjas, etc.)

I apologize for the wall of text, you may now proceed to flame."

Bornakk responded in a typical Blizzard. In short, 'Sorry we're not doing things that you like but, tough luck.'

"I understand your desire for this, but grouping up is an important part of the game, our goal with the 10 person raids is to making the raiding content feel a little less exclusive to players, but if you want to see everything then you would need to take on the challenges of every aspect of the game.

When the new expansions come out everybody has to level their characters up and at some point find new gear. This is a great opportunity for new players to get involved in their guilds if they are looking to take on a bigger roll in progression.

We do have a lot of solo-content available in the game as it is. You can level up to the max level, go through every zone, complete the vast majority of quests, enter battlegrounds and continually do a number of daily quests without ever grouping up with other players - but adding more variety to the game is important to a lot of people and that is where the 5 person and then 10/25 person raid dungeons come into play. These aspects are more challenging and so the story arcs they involve build up accordingly.

In short, we don't currently have any plans to add solo play to every aspect of World of Warcraft."

I feel Tremallyn's pain. I would love to go toe to toe with Illidan, but for someone who only gets to play 1-2 nights a week (for only an hour or two each time), it makes me miss out on the story. One way Blizzard can do this is to set up a Solo Instance for all dungeons. You will get to choose whether to solo it or raid it. If you choose solo, and beat the boss, you will never be able to go back in. The gates will be shut - the boss will be dead. Award honor instead of badges (because most solo players either do dailies or PVP at L70). Lets say, 25,000 honor for Grull, 50,000 honor for Illidan, etc etc. And maybe some dungeon marks which can be used as any of the battleground marks. Honor shouldn't be just for PVP. We're fighting in a war and you should get honor points for achieving a big goal in the storyline.

Vacation: All I Ever Wanted

I'll be on vacation for the next week. I haven't had a week off in 11 months. I'm not taking my laptop so I won't be blogging. I need to get away from my job and computers.

Here's a follow up interview with Republican Rep from CT about her WoW characters and her views on video game legislation.

I'm sure there will be much news to talk about when I get back. Cya in a week!

Finally, Something Juicy To Talk About!

Leave it to the media to blow a situation out of the water. There is an article today about a missed 14 year old girl was found in a campground with a 27 year old man. They both met over WoW, he drove to pick her up, and took her to the campground.

First and foremost, I think all child abductors are skum. With that said, I still do not believe it is right to charge this man with kidnapping when the article clearly says that, "Saddie "Elaine" Julian, 14, of Boise was believed to have run away with Morgan Douglas Jones, 27, a man she met over the Internet." The key note is "run away with", not abducted or kidnapped. Leave it to US law to try to protect everyone; no matter the circumstance.

Of course, WoW Insider was right on the case with none other than Adam Holisky (it seems like everytime I disagree with WoW Insider, it is when he posts...). Adam writes, "I am amazed at some of the creeps who play this game, and Morgon Jones definitely falls into that category. 27 years old and running off with a 14 year old girl he met through the game. It's time for him to get outside and enjoy life while he still can, since hopefully there'll be some good ol' prison time coming his way."

Innocent until proven guilty, in my opinion. Who are we to judge someone's character by a news report?

Badger, a WoW Insider reader, made a comment directed at Adam indicating the flaws in his article and the news report.

"Adam,

First off, I love how both of the other Blog posts to which you linked were your own, and the reference to "commenters" was a parenthetical side-note. If you're looking for validation, look to a third-party, not yourself.

Second: As you're not directly involved in the case, you can't tell from this article whether: (a) the girl went willingly rather than being kidnapped (despite the charges); (b) the parents gave enough of a shit to try and stop her or to try and monitor her activity in-game when she was already below the advised age for playing *and* using the Voice Chat system; or (c) the guy responsible is in need of serious psychiatric and psychological help, unable to draw the line between responsible and irresponsible behavior. Maybe *his* parents didn't give enough of a shit to raise him to see the distinction.

Personally, my gut tells me the same thing yours does - that the guy is a lecherous scumbag - but nobody outside of the affected family and the two parties involved in the "kidnapping" case knows that for sure, so please don't make snap judgments on cases like this (even if they're probably correct). Rise above the standard for typical media (like the TV station that posted this article) and wait for all the facts to come in."

This just supports my theory even more. A: It was never said she was forced to go with him and actually, the article said that she "ran away" with him. B: Some cases of runaways stem off of a fight with parents or disagreements. Maybe they should have spent more time monitoring her. And C: Yeah, the guy was an idiot to go along with it anyway. If he had half a brain, he'd known that the law indicates this a kidnapping (even though, ethically, it wasn't).

I don't believe he should get jail time. However, I do think he should be punished in some way. Maybe a hefty fine or some psychological revaluations if it comes down to that. Maybe he does have some problems up there. Then again, who am I to judge? For all I know, he's perfectly fine.

I guess the two morals are:
1) Don't go running off with underage people; no matter what.
And 2) Don't push an article that is flawed and doesn't have their facts straight.