With BlizzCon ‘09 coming next month, you don’t have to be a genius to tell that Blizzard will have to make some kind of Diablo 3 announcement.
My count of the rumors regarding the fourth character can be boiled down to two:
Ranged character – the parallel is to the rogue in the Diablo I and the Amazon in Diablo 2
Knight – similar to the Warrior in Diablo and the Paladin in Diablo 2
Believe it or not, there’s speculation that the Knight is out of the question for Diablo 3 and that Blizzard would like to introduce a truly unique character, like … a Vampire!
I’m betting my money on the ranged character, could be called Ranger or Hunter. A pet is NOT out of the question, though that could be my WoW Hunter talking!
According to BlizzPlanet, Blizzard has not stated officially that Battle.net 2.0 is going to be free.
However, Blizzard is known for its vague comments when it comes to monetization:
Are there any plans to monetize Battle.net 2.0 service? Mike Morhaime limited to answer: “I’m not ready to talk about that today”. Mike Morhaime confirmed that Battle.net 2.0 will be free to those who buy StarCraft 2 retail.
Of course, you need to remember that Starcraft 2 is coming out not in one but in THREE retails boxes (for a total of around $100). So even one measly box gets you into Battle.net 2.0 for life? I’ll take it.
You need Warcraft III in order to play it and the map is still in beta. However, I’m really amazed at the graphics – the world editor is indeed powerful enough to change the game completely. It does look like Diablo III.
Information about Diablo 3 is a dime a dozen but GOOD information is often difficult to come by. Most guys simply recycle the same stories over and over. Check out this Diablo 3 site for detailed information on Diablo 3 Skill Trees. Hope more guys like this scour the internet for good Diablo 3 information.
Remember past Blizzcons when we wondered if that horn is Diablo’s? Or anything else that looked like a clue that Diablo 3 will be announced?
Well, Diablo 3 takes center stage at this Blizzcon!The Barbarian is displayed prominently on the homepage (next to something green looking like a Starcraft II ghost).
Tickets will go on sale worldwide on Saturday, May 16 for $125 each
Blizzcon 2009 will be held on August 21 and 22 in Anaheim, California
You get a unique WoW (non-combat) pet – Grunty the murloc marine
Global finals for the 2009 Warcraft III and WoW Arena will be held – finalists get top prize of $25,000 per player
If you’re not able to attend, there’s the poor man’s Blizzcon – live Directv coverage for just $39.95. You do the murloc marine pet, so if you need a green/blue blob around you at all times, make sure you give your hard-earned cash to Blizzard.
The runes (thought not runewords) make a return to Diablo 3. They’ll still drop from monsters, however, they will be used in a way that’s VERY different from Diablo 2.
OK, let’s go over how runes worked in Diablo 2. There are 33 runes that drop from monsters. Note that some runes drop often while others drop extremely (e.g. Zod rune). Also, there are items with sockets that are able to take runes (or jewels). Some rune combinations (called runewords) create Runic Items, which are among the most powerful items in the game.
For example, socketing the runes Hel + Ohm + Um + Lo + Cham gives your axe or hammer a whole bunch of additional stats and it also adds the label “Doom”.
OK, so what are the changes to the runes in Diablo 3? Runes will still be used to CUSTOMIZE your character, however, runes no longer modify ITEMS. Instead they’ll be added to skills (each skill has a single rune slot).
Also, to make runes easier to use, rune names will be changed to reflect their effect, e.g. Rune of Multistriking. How does this affect gameplay?
For example, a Minor Multistrike Rune attached to the Skull of Flame will make projectile skip along the ground once , but higher quality Runes like the Major Multistrike Rune may raise the amount of bounces and the distance traveled by the projectile.
Jay Wilson, Diablo 3 Lead designer, expressed his strong desire to make each skill customizable while at the same time retaining the uniqueness of each character. In other words, he doesn’t want the Barbarian to be able to mimic the Wizard by adding certain runes to skills.
A recent article at Gameriot has made a top 10 list of Diablo 3 environments.
The environments that they like are: deserts and wastelands, forests, ancient ruins, and corrupted regions. They didn’t like Hell (Act IV) and think it was done in a hurry with only two waypoints.
I tend to agree - Act IV seems a bit dull compared to the others. However, my list of worst environments is easily topped by the jungles of Kurast! The pygmies were a NIGHTMARE for my Ice Sorceress!
You’d think that the combination of BILLIONS from WoW and the recently announced $100 for Starcraft 2 will make Blizzard sit comfortably on its huge pile of cash.
Initially, I thought “oh, we had banner ads in battle.net before, no problem”. Here’s from the horse’s mouth (Rob Pardo interview):
So Julian Wilson told us that you guys are looking monetize Battle.Net in some way. Is that right?
Wow, that’s an evil way of putting it. Julian’s turning into a business guy on me. Here’s the way I would put it. We’re definitely not looking at turning Diablo into a subscription based game…
With Battle.Net we’re definitely looking at possible different features that we might be able to do for additional money… I think World of Warcraft is a great example to look at. We charge people if they want to switch servers or if they want name changes, things that aren’t core to the game experience, they’re really just optional things that some people want.
OK, that’s a relief: Diablo 3 isn’t a subscription game; changing your name to GobbleCoque is going to cost $29.
However, I still get a bit suspicious of Blizzard’s “innovation” when it comes to pricing. After Starcraft 2 is split into three separate games we need to purchase separately, I wonder if Diablo 3 is going to be the same way.
Purchase Acts I and II for $49 and then shell more money for Acts III, IV and V which are entirely optional. Optional in the sense you option OUT of all the end-game bosses, equipment, etc.
According to 
You’d think that the combination of BILLIONS from WoW and the recently announced 