Diablo fans got a nasty surprise on March 9 when lead game designer Jay Wilson announced that Diablo III’s PvP content will not be available until after the game is released.

“After a lot of consideration and discussion, we ultimately felt that delaying the whole game purely for PvP would just be punishing to everyone who’s waiting to enjoy the campaign and core solo/co-op content, all of which is just about complete,” Wilson said in an official statement on the official Diablo 3 website.

Although the Diablo series focuses on Player vs. Monster combat, there have always been fans who would rather slaughter each other instead of the minions of hell. Diablo II featured a ‘go hostile’ button that allowed a player to attack other players.

In many cases, this was used for consensual dueling, but there were also people who would unilaterally declare hostility (a practice known as Player Killing or PKing). Players who suddenly found themselves on the receiving end of a declaration of hostility often died because their characters were not properly configured for PvP play.

Diablo III was supposed to offer a more advanced PvP experience. Instead of fighting each other within the main game, PvP fans would be able to duel in special Arenas. Non-consensual PvP would also be a thing of the past. Players would only be able to fight each other within the confines of the Arena.

But instead of shipping with the game, PvP content will be patched in at some point after the game is released. Wilson attempted to placate disappointed fans by touting the awesomeness that is to come.

“When the PvP patch is ultimately ready, it will add multiple Arena maps with themed locations and layouts, PvP-centric achievements, and a matchmaking system that will help you and your team get into fairly matched games quickly and easily. We’ll also be adding a personal progression system that will reward you for successfully bashing in the other team’s skulls.”

Sadly, this is just the latest feature that has had to be jettisoned because of time constraints. Special fatality animations, the Mystic artisan, and now PvP have all been sacrificed or postponed in order to get the game out. But considering the game has been in development for over a decade, fans could be forgiven for raising an eyebrow at Blizzard’s sudden need for speed.

Ironically, back in May 2010, a fan suggested that PvP content be delayed until after launch in order to speed things up. At the time, a Blizzard community manager rubbished the notion, assuring fans that implementing the PvP content would not delay the game’s release (!). But with any luck, this is one of the last hurdles, and we will soon be counting down the days until the Lord of Terror is released on the world once more.

Image Courtesy of   http://eu.battle.net/d3/en/

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Welcome back to our coverage of Patch 13! In the last installment, I talked a bit about the new rune system that Blizzard unveiled. That was by far the biggest single change, but Patch 13 made a host of smaller changes to the game as well.

Every character has had the order of their skills adjusted. Few of the changes were terribly dramatic. In most cases, it is just a matter of getting a skill a little bit sooner or a little bit later than you did before. But a few skills (such as the Wizard’s Disintegrate) have been taken out of the beta entirely since they are now beyond the level 13 cap. Similarly, a few skills that used to be above that cap have now been moved down into beta territory.

The Wizard continues to be my favorite character. This time around, instead of relying on my tried-and-true combo of Spectral Blade and Arcane Orb, I experimented with using Shock Pulse as my main attack. Shock Pulse is a lot like Charged Bolt from Diablo II, in that it sends out bolts of energy that move randomly. It can be difficult to hit specific targets, even if you are standing right in front of them. But it does have two redeeming features.

First, because it is a Signature Spell, you do not have to use Arcane Power to cast it; this is even more important now that the Wizard’s Arcane Power regeneration has been reduced. Second, when you use the Explosive Bolts rune, enemies killed with Shock Pulse will explode, doing lightning damage to nearby monsters.

But the stars of the show were undoubtedly Electrocute and Arcane Torrent. Electrocute is not new, but it now unlocks at level 11 instead of level 13, which makes it much easier to reach without a bunch of grinding. It is sort of like a combination of Lightning and Chain Lightning from Diablo II.

You cast it by holding down the mouse button, and it will leap from monster to monster. It will even leap to destructible pieces of the environment, such as urns and tree stumps. In its un-runed state, it only does 70% of  weapon damage as lightning damage, but since it is a Signature Spell, you can spam it all you want. When you add Arcane Orb and Wave of Force, you can handle almost anything in the beta.

Arcane Torrent is a newcomer to the beta, however, and it allows you to bombard a location with a bunch of purple arcane projectiles. Its base damage is lower than Arcane Orb, but in some respects it is easier to use because it casts faster and, unlike Arcane Orb, you do not have to worry about it detonating prematurely, in case a monster comes between you and your target.

The biggest surprise was probably the Witch Doctor. I had played her a little bit in previous versions, but she just did not ‘click’ with me the way the Wizard or the Monk did. But I like her a lot more in Patch 13. As I mentioned in Part 1, her Poison Dart skill benefits greatly from the addition of runes.

Grasp of the Dead also seems improved, though the Patch Notes only mention an increase in the amount it reduces enemies’ movement speed. Of course it could be that Grasp of the Dead is just more noticeable now, because the new guided mode automatically binds it to your left mouse button when you unlock it at level 2. Before, I had to make a conscious effort to choose it.

Sadly, the Demon Hunter remains the runt of the litter. Not only do his initial skills lack the flashy pyrotechnics of the Monk or the Wizard, but he also has the hardest time killing monsters. Part of the problem is that he does not really have a good area of effect skill at first. Hungering Arrow can hit multiple enemies, but it is still too linear.

Bola Shot can damage nearby enemies when it explodes, but I have not found it to be terribly effective in dealing with groups. The closest thing he gets to a proper AOE skill is something called Caltrops, but all it does is slow enemies who walk over it. You would think that something named after sharp metal spikes would do some sort of physical damage to enemies! As much as I would like to see D3 released ASAP, I hope they will take some extra time and polish the Demon Hunter a bit more.

I had hoped that Patch 13 would do something to make crafting seem less overpowered, but in that respect I was sorely disappointed. The stuff the blacksmith makes for you is still much better than most of the magical loot you find. There is no real downside to crafting either. The average crafted item at this level costs around 150 gold pieces and requires three Subtle Essences, yet my five characters have around 15,000 gold pieces and 50 Subtle Essences between them.

Once my characters have leveled-up enough to wear crafted items, loot becomes little more than a source of raw materials. Crafting just feels cheap, both literally and figuratively. I hope that things balance out later on in the game, so that the blacksmith’s items end up being either more expensive or less powerful.

Patch 13 has been a lot of fun, and the game continues to shape up nicely. Even though I have run through the same areas dozens of times now, the gameplay still manages to be addicting, which definitely bodes well for game’s long-term prospects. Blizzard has said it is shooting for a second quarter release, so with any luck we are already in the home stretch!

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Last weekend, Blizzard released Patch 13 for the Diablo III beta. At long last, fans have a chance to try the new skill and rune system the developers have been working on over the past few months.

The introduction of runes is probably the biggest change in Patch 13. Like almost every aspect of the game, runes have had a rather convoluted history. Originally introduced as ‘runestones’, they were supposed to be loot items that could be socketed into skills in order to modify that skill in some way.

They came in five colors, and their effects ranged from the mundane (putting an Alabaster runestone into the Wizard’s Magic Missile increased its damage) to the bizarre (putting a Crimson runestone into the Witch Doctor’s Zombie Charger turned it into a zombie bear). Each stone had seven ranks, with the higher-level ones becoming progressively rarer. This system was never incorporated into the beta, and few people outside of Blizzard had the chance to experiment with it.

But Patch 13 unveiled a dramatically-revamped system. Runestones have become ‘skill runes,’ and they are no longer droppable items. Now, they are part of the redesigned skill interface and they automatically unlock based on your character level. The color-coding is gone too, as are the different ranks. Each skill still has five possible runes that can be applied to it, but you will not be able to level them up. But their base effects remain more or less unchanged.

Given the limited scope of the beta, players only get to experience a fraction of the total number of runes. Even though the sample is limited, I was impressed with how they radically altered the gameplay. Take the Witch Doctor’s Poison Dart skill, for example. It is the first skill a Witch Doctor receives, but there is nothing particularly special about it to begin with.

Before Patch 13, I usually switched to something else as soon as possible. But when you equip the Splinters rune, you shoot several darts in quick succession, sort of like a machine gun. It is a dramatic improvement, and I kept Poison Dart as my main attack throughout the beta.

Runes can also alter a skill’s basic properties. Adding the Bounding Light rune to the Monk’s Fists of Thunder skill removes the knockback and adds a chain of lightning that strikes nearby foes, so players have to decide if they would rather have added damage or knockback. In theory, runes will help keep skills viable throughout the entire game, unlike in Diablo II where most skills became obsolete at some point. They also add a welcome element of customization.

Because runes offer so many potential changes, you can eventually adjust every skill to fit your play style. Of course not everybody is happy with the new rune system. Some fans are up in arms, claiming that there is now less customization since everybody automatically gets the same runes instead of having to find them as loot. I disagree. Chances are, lower-level runes would have dropped quite frequently, so it would have been easy for players to get all five colors.

Higher level runes of each color would have been rarer, but they would only increase the skill’s power. The rune’s underlying mechanic would stay the same. So the difference between individual rune levels would probably not have been terribly dramatic, and I am not sure they constituted meaningful customization (“Your Wizard’s Magic Missile can do 126% weapon damage? Ha! Mine can do 128%!”). The rune system does allow players to adjust a skill to fit their preferred play style, and I think that is much more important than fussing over numbers.

The only real complaint I have about the system is the new skill interface. It is horrible. Horrible, horrible, horrible. Part of the problem is that Blizzard has decided to implement a new ‘guided mode’ where certain skills are automatically mapped to certain buttons. Now, skills are divided into categories. There are three general categories that all characters share (primary, secondary, and defensive), plus three class-specific categories (in the Wizard’s case, they are arcane, conjuration, and mastery).

When you are in guided mode, primary skills are bound to your left mouse button, secondary skills to your right mouse button, defensive skills are bound to the ‘1’ key, and so on and so forth. But if you want to bind primary skills to both mouse buttons, or put a defensive spell on the mouse instead of the keyboard, you are out of luck unless you go into the game options and check the box for ‘Elective Mode.’ Even then, the process of switching skills from one button/key to another is terribly awkward.

I am not one to QQ about things, but this new skill interface needs to go. While they are at it, I think they could safely do away with guided mode too. I realize they are just doing it to make life easier for casual gamers and people who are brand new to action RPGs, but I think they are offering help where it is not really needed.

The game already assigns skills to certain keys by default. If you do not want to mess around with your keybindings, you do not have to. But forcing people to use the defaults unless they enable a different game mode is just stupid. Check back soon for the second part of our coverage of Patch 13, including a look at how each character’s skills have changed.

Image Courtesy of   http://eu.battle.net

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Jay Wilson, the Game Director of Diablo III, has taken to the game’s official blog to explain some of the changes that have delayed the game’s release.

Blizzard is notorious for their iterative approach to game design, and Diablo fans have had to endure a development cycle that has tried the patience of even the most patient gamers. The game was originally slated to be released at the end of last year, but in September, Blizzard CEO Mike Morhaime announced that the release window had been pushed back to early 2012.

It turns out that the delay was caused in part by the decision to introduce major changes to some of the game’s core elements. The Nephalem Cube and the Cauldron of Jordan have been removed entirely. The former allowed players to break down items to obtain raw materials for use in crafting, while the latter let them sell goods without visiting a merchant in town.

They were originally introduced because the designers wanted to limit the amount of time players spent in town, but now that players can return to town whenever they want, these items were no longer deemed necessary. “It’s a good idea to break up combat so that players have a moment to evaluate their gear and crafting options before venturing back out,” Wilson said.

Another big change is the removal of the Mystic artisan. Artisans were touted as NPCs who would follow the player from town to town performing various services. Unlike regular NPC merchants, artisans would be able to level up, which in turn would improve the services they could provide. Like everything else in Diablo III, the Mystic changed over the course of development, but she ended up having the power to ‘enhance’ items by a random magical effect.

Ultimately, the designers came to realize that the enhancement system essentially duplicated the effect of the socket/gem system. “It would prolong the release of the game even further to go back to the drawing board and differentiate it, so we’ll revisit the Mystic and enhancements at a later time,” Wilson said. Like the other artisans, the Mystic played a role in the game’s story, which complicated her removal.

Character attributes have also undergone major revision. Attack, Precision, and Defense have been removed, replaced by Strength, Dexterity, and Intellect. Vitality remains untouched. As Wilson explained, “Armor is taking over for what Defense used to provide, Physical Resist will take over for Armor, and Chance to Crit will fill in for Precision.”

Furthermore, certain attributes will provide class-specific bonuses to bonuses. Strength will help the Barbarian, Dexterity will help the Demon Hunter and Monk, and Intellect will help the Wizard and Witch Doctor.

Wilson also announced a host of minor changes:

• Scrolls of Identify, long a feature of the Diablo series, are now gone. Instead of using a scroll, players will simply click on an unidentified item, and it will be identified after a brief time delay.
• Common items will no longer be salvageable. Originally, the designers believed that every item in the game should be useful. Common items (which are often referred to as “white” items because their names are shown in white) are not usually worth equipping, but at least players could salvage them for their raw materials. Those materials could then be used to craft powerful items. On reflection, the designers decided that having useless items was not necessarily a bad thing. “Diablo II captured the loot-piñata feel by dropping a lot of crap, mostly arrows and bolts, and we of course still very much want that feeling of item explosions. To do that we need to be able to balance the value of items to how many we’re throwing at you,” Wilson said.
• The Stone of Recall is now called the Town Portal. This is basically a case of the designers deciding to call a spade a spade.
• Character statistics will now be displayed alongside the Inventory screen. This will hopefully make it easier to figure out how items will affect you.
• The fifth quick slot button is now a dedicated potion button. Unlike the earlier games, health potions will play a relatively minor role in Diablo III. Instead, players will replenish their health through health globes that are dropped by enemies, but cannot be picked up for later use. Although health potions now have a somewhat lengthy cool-down time, they can still save a life, so it was decided to make them easier to access.

Fan reaction to Wilson’s announcement has been mixed. The changes themselves are not necessarily controversial, but their timing is. The fact that the designers are still tinkering with core game mechanics has led some fans to accuse them of lacking focus. It certainly did not help that Wilson also indicated that skills and runestones are undergoing revision as well.

Naturally, many fans are wondering what effect these changes will have on Blizzard’s stated goal of releasing Diablo III in “early 2012.” However, it has been confirmed that they have already been implemented in the game, and the vast majority of them will be rolled out to beta testers in a patch expected within the next few days. However, given Blizzard’s track record, this may not be the last word on the subject.

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Blizzard Entertainment has announced that Diablo III, the latest installment in their hugely-popular action RPG franchise, won’t hit shelves until 2012. “With every game we make, the temptation is always very strong to launch as soon as possible. However, we didn’t put so many years of work into Diablo III to release a game that was almost ready,” said Blizzard CEO and co-founder Mike Morhaime.

“The beta test is going very well, and we look forward to making the most of the extra time we’re taking to deliver an experience that lives up to our vision for the game and the expectations of our players. Next year is going to be an incredibly busy one for Blizzard, and we hope an incredibly fun one for Blizzard gamers,” he continued.

The announcement was not entirely unexpected, as Blizzard is notorious for the slow pace of their development process. Although Diablo III was announced in June 2008, its designers have adamantly refused to tie themselves to a release date, telling impatient gamers that the game will be released “when it’s done.”

Previously, Blizzard had hinted that they were hoping to release the game by the end of 2011. However, many fans began to question whether they would meet that target when the closed beta test didn’t begin until September 20.

Furthermore, feedback received during the initial stages of the beta test have convinced Blizzard to make some significant changes to the game, including a major overhaul for the Demon Hunter, one of the game’s five playable character classes. During the course of its extended development cycle, Diablo III has weathered a number of controversies.

Shortly after its initial unveiling, a vocal group of fans protested against the new art direction. They claimed that it was too colorful and too reminiscent of Blizzard’s other hit franchise, World of Warcraft. Despite howls of outrage on fansite forums, Blizzard refused to change direction.

More recently, Blizzard has caught flak for requiring players to be connected to the internet at all times while playing Diablo III, even when playing the game’s single-player mode. Additionally, they announced that players will now be able to purchase (and sell) in-game items for cash via an auction house, giving rise to claims that players who are willing to spend top dollar for items will end up having an unfair advantage.

In spite of the controversy, Diablo III remains one of today’s most-anticipated games, and the response to the beta has been overwhelmingly positive.

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