Diablo 3 Gameplay Video / The Classes

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!

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.