Blizzcon

That is going be laggy as fuck. There is a huge delay in SC2. You're better off playing HoN since it is better.

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ByD29uiJYjc]YouTube - StarCraft 2 Unit Response Delay[/ame]

 

Diablo III PvP - Battle Arenas

It is time to get in the pit! Blizzard has finally given us a glimpse of how PvP will work in Diablo III. With this PvP system the development team bring something new to the Diablo series - Battle Arenas.

Arenas are small areas separated from the rest of the world. There will be various arenas spread out in Sanctuary. Each of them will have a unique design with different scenery, features and terrain. You dive into the arena with your multiplayer character and battle out using all of the skills and gear you have accumulated.

Matchmaking and ranks
Ranked arena matches will feature team-based combat where several players in each team fight in 'best-of' matches. Jay Wilson said the development team is still looking for the "magic number" of matches. They know they want more than 1 match so players will be able to react to the other team after encountering it once, but they do not want to draw out the matches with too many games. It appears that teams will be limited to four players in each, making the biggest match-up 4v4, but no official word on that has yet been made.

To participate in a ranked arena match you will use the Battle.net matchmaking system so that you get faced against opponents with similar rank. When you complete a match in the arena you will be awarded points based on your performance in regards to kills, accomplished objectives, wins, and other factors yet to be revealed. Those points will be used to advance within the ranking system and also brings us to the next subject: rewards.

PvP rewards
The battle arena will not be a place to collect armor and weapons. The PvP reward system will be focused on achievements, ranks and titles for your character. Blizzard also hinted that ears will be returning in some sort as a proof of your victories. As of today those are the only rewards (along with the bragging rights of beating down other people online) we know of, but more are to be revealed.

Balance in the arena
Balance in the arena will be focused around the 3v3 bracket, but ultimately the Battle Arenas are not made to fill a super competitive niche in Diablo, but rather a place where you have fun fighting other players. Blizzard has stated that the matches won't focus so much on individual builds, but your teams build as a whole. They have also stated that there are certain skills being added that will be much more useful in PvP than PvE. This will let more dedicated PvP players build their characters to focus solely on PvP.

Official Blizzard Quote:
[Blizzard Source]
With almost 97 billion potential skill and rune builds, and then factoring in items, the talisman system, and traits, character balance isn't likely to lend itself to an eSport, and in fact the PvP for Diablo III has always been designed a side game intended purely for fun. We know you like killing each other, so that's what it's there to provide.


PvP in Diablo III is a lot about controlling your opponent. Stuns and slows are obviously very strong since they prevent or reduce the enemy's ability to do damage. In a quick-paced game like Diablo III this can become a problem. You don't want to sit around and wait for your character to be able to move while the enemy pounds on you, so to prevent PvP being all about crowd control Blizzard came up with the concept of 'counters'. Counters are abilities designed to break crowd control and they will play a big part in speeding up the PvP action.

In addition to the ranking system with team-based combat there will also be other type of PvP in the arena, such as 1-on-1 duels and unranked team battles where you can choose to fight your friends to determine who really is the best demon killing machine. More information on these game types will be available in the future.

With this system Diablo III PvP is taking a step in a new direction from the previous games. Jay Wilson also said that the battle arenas are just the first approach to PvP in Diablo III, and hopefully not their last, so we should be expecting more info on PvP in the future. Maybe they are thinking of some kind of world PvP, or maybe arenas similar to the WoW battlegrounds where killing the other player is not the only objective. Hopefully the Q&A panel will shed more light on it and answer all our questions regarding PvP.

Make sure to check out Blizzard's official page for PvP.

I myself can't wait to get my hands dirty in the arena!

 

There was a whole lot of info given out about just how we will get to make our characters unique. Although there will still be auto-stat distribution, they are adding in a lot of new mechanics to help us build our characters just they way we want. From the skills they use to fine tuning the play-style, no onw character is going to be alike.

- Skills -

Development
Skills are at the core of the Diablo franchise and a major part of what makes your character unique. We have all known that they got rid of the original tree-like mechanic but we were left in the dark to what new system they are using now. First off, it should be re-iterated that each player can now only have a seven skills are their disposal. While there will be a lot more skills to choose from than seven, you will only get seven skill slots to use and put your selected skills into. Since leaving the tree system, the development team went to a tab system, like in Diablo II, to help break up the clutter. Unfortunately, this made it too hard to see all of your choices. Next, they went to a simple list system that worked really well but it looked unappealing. The combined this list idea with a better looking UI and came up with the current version,

Current System
The new UI reflects this change to seven skills. On the left will be your seven skill slots which will unlock as you level. To the right is a window with all the skill choices possible, broken up by when you can access them. This will help you to see directly what you have as well as what you can get and plan for future levels. All skills start off with a possible increase of five ranks but there will be a chance to increase this amount through other means. Leveling up a skill will be as simple as clicking o the skill in the UI.

New Skills

* Demon Hunter - You can read about the newly announced Demon Hunter skills here.
* Barbarian - A new skill added to the Barbarian is Ancient Spear. Keeping in touch with his melee roots, Ancient Spear is a ranged attack that will actually pull the monster within melee range of the Barbarian.
* Wizard- For the Wizard, they are bringing back the ever popular Meteor skill with a revamped graphic and feel. They have promised that runes will have a wide array of effects for this skill.
* Witch Doctor- The movement skill for the Witch Doctor, Spirit Walk, has finally been shown. Going into the spirit world, the Witch Doctor becomes corporal and can move through enemies.
* Monk - In-tune with the Monk's melee and Holy attributes, Wave of Light drops down a symbolic holy bell that the Monk hits and sends flying towards monsters.


- Traits-

How it Works
Traits is a new system that will be replacing passive skills. This mechanic was added to allow players to customize their character without having to waste skill points to do so. As you level, you currently gain one trait point every other level. Traits will vary and help distinguish your particular play style. Each Trait will have ranks that will range from one to five that you can upgrade. Helping define you character as a tank, berserker, or battle master for the Barbarian, each trait also includes some flavor text to help explain and immerse your character into the world. There will be about ninety possible choices, including upgrading, but your character will only get about thirty points to distribute. Jay mentioned that right now there are actually too many possibilities and that some will probably be cut out. This will still leave plenty of room for variety and personal choice. Because passives can also become simple mathematical stat boosters, they are making sure that the stat increases are enough to wow you. Some where like a 50% increase as oppose to using +.1 damage.

Examples

* Inner Rage - increases strength and attack damage to your Barbarian
* Prismatic Cloak - adds more damage to defense skills and attacks enemies that attacks you.
* Legendary Might - increases attack speed
* Iron Skin - improves defense


-Talisman-

Mechanics
The Talisman feature has finally been revealed. It will be a system that will work in conjunction with charms to help customize your character. A UI included in the character screen, the Talisman will house the charms you use so you no longer have to waste inventory store holding them. Starting off with just one charm, the Talisman will increase in size as you level finishing with thirteen available slots.

Charms
Charms will act very similar to the charms in Diablo II. They will be random drops that you can collect to enhance and customize your character. However, in Diablo II, charms would have almost any random stat possible in the game. In Diablo III, charms will focus more on key attributes like increasing strength or health points. This will help alleviate the monotony of the auto-stat distribution.

-Skill Runes-

Mechanics
Skill Runes have finally made their way back into Diablo III. They have been reworked and are fully implemented into the game. There have been some changes to the skill runes since we last heard. Still random drops, the skill runes are added to your skills to augment their effects. There are officially five runes; Crimson, Indigo, Obsidian, Golden, and Alabaster. The original names of multi-strike and power were changed to allow a wide range of effects the runes can have on skills. With the amount of skills, skill runes, and choices, each class will now have 96,886,969,344 combinations of active skills. That is over 484 Billion builds including each class; obviously lending itself to character customization. Most of these skill changes will not only have a gameplay change but a visual change as well so you feel like you have actually changed your skill. Each rune will also have seven different grades ranging from stone which will cover levels one through and be found in Normal, silver which will be levels four and five and will be in Nightmare, and finishing with gold which will be levels seven and eight and found in Hell setting. The rank will increase the effect the rune has on the skill. The example given was the Wizard's Magic Missile with the Indigo rune. It normally shoots one missile but increases to two with a level one rune. With the level seven rune, it jumps up to eight missiles.

Examples

Which Doctor's Blow Dart skill:

* Regular - Blows out a dart
* Crimson - Adds fire damage
* Golden - Steals mana
* Obsidian - Slows target
* Indigo - Adds multiple darts
* Alabaster- Blows out a snake that stuns the target

Barbarian's Throw Weapon skill:

* Regular - throws a weapon for basic damage\
* Crimson - Adds damage
* Obsidian - Turns into a stunning hammer
* Indigo - Adds ricochet
* Alabaster - Confuses target
* Golden - Throw a corpse instead of a weapon


Wizard's Hydra skill:

* Regular - Summons a fire spitting hydra
* Crimson - Changes to short range frost
* Indigo - Creates a never missing lightning hydra
* Alabaster - Changes to a AoE arcane type
* Obsidian - Adds acid element
* Golden - Giant hydra that creates fire walls

Witch Doctor's Plague of Toads skill:

* Regular - Summons out poison toads
* Crimson - Changes them to fire damage
* Golden - Reduces mana
* Alabaster - Blinds target
* Indigo - Causes the toads to rain down
* Obsidian - Giant toad that eats monsters

 

I haven't played wow in a couple months, was there a new patch for the new expansion?


I hit 80 on my warlock and got him semi-geared and now I'm broke.

 

they just announced that for PVP they're gonna have an Arena like in WoW. which i'm excited about, bc the Arena was the only thing that kept me going in WoW.

 

Diablo 3 News Guides Tips Forums - DiabloFans.com

it used to be Diablo III before Blizzard contacted them to buy the domain from them.

 

not true




Starting back in 2008, Diablo III was first announced at the World Wide Invitational in Paris. Soon following this announcement, Rob Pardo shared why they decided to announce the new game.
\tOfficial Blizzard Quote:

\t \t \t\t...it's probably been about 3 years I think since then and as far as why we're announcing now well it was just kind of the right time for the game. The game's really far along and it's really fun to play already even though we're not having a playable build here at the show it's pretty far along and it's already a fun game to play so we just felt like it was the right time to announce the game, and a great place too. [ENDQUOTE]





Starting off this announcement with such positive views of the game development helps signify how far along the game is now. Even back in June of 2008, a lot of work had been done. The Barbarian and Witch Doctor were shown and Rob Pardo even mentioned other classes being playable at that time. We even later found out that the Wizard had been developed long before the Witch Doctor and was even more complete. We also later found out that the fifth unveiled class was the first class they worked on. This left the Monk, which has since been revealed, to actually be the class with the least development made. With the Monk's development now, we can assume that the most of the work on the Heroes is near completion.

In this first interview regarding Diablo III, Rob Pardo also shared that Act I was playable. Now, we know that the Diablo Development team does not work linearly. So, if Act I was playable, then we at least know that back in 2008, the rest of the Acts were at least being worked on. Since then, we have learned that Act II at least has playable areas. However, Rob Pardo mentioned that there was still a lot of work to be completed on the Acts. He mentioned that specific areas were polished but not the whole Act. With two years of time to develop these Acts even more and knowing that the team polishes one area to get a reference for the rest of the areas, it is quite possible that all four Acts are closer to completion, at least environment wise.






In one last interview at the 2008 WWI, Rob Pardo was once again asked why they decided to announce Diablo III now, with two other major titles ahead. Again, Rob Pardo answered with an idealistic time line that they have for Diablo III.
\tOfficial Blizzard Quote:

\t \t \t\tThe announcement of our projects is usually when it's time for that game to be announcedThis project has been going for a while and it finally got to the point where it felt like it's time to announce the game. We kind of have this rule of, ideally, we announce a game a year to a year and a half before the game comes out. That's our theory, and then three years later [trails off].[ENDQUOTE]


There is good and bad news from this statement. First the bad. He mentions that they idealistically announce games hoping to get them out in about a year and half. That would place Diablo III to be released late last year. We all know this is not true and that it will not even be coming out this year. However, the good news is that he jokingly makes a comment about three years later. While being sarcastic, we can imply that three years out is the furthest they have released a game after its announcement. With Diablo III being announced in June of 2008, three years later would be about summer of 2011.

 

Wow, I bet those guys made bank off of that domain name.

 

i don't see it coming out June of 2011, but I don't see it coming out 2 years from now either.

I'd say around the date of a WoW expansion (generally November of each year), so around this time of next year.

 

to be completely honest i think that they donated it to Blizzard for incentives (tickets to Blizzcon, first to know information, ability to have interviews with Blizzard, etc. etc.)

 

Bah! They could have got thousands of dollars for that shit.

I'm gonna go make Diablo IV right now