Diablo 3
Posted: 10 Oct 2008 07:15 pm
No doubt you have seen that the third announced class for D3 is the wizard: evolution of the sorceress, focused on what they call 'high magic' rather than elemental magic. Currently key abilities they were showing include magic missile, a 'chain electricity' type spell with a name I forgot, disintegrate, and a time slow bubble. When I played one in the demo she also had a magic sword melee range attack. They said they wanted her to be an old school glass canon, and she really played that way. Gnooki quote: "the wizard is nice and killy".
Skill system is looking really nice: evolution of the WoW system much as the WoW system evolved the D2 system. Good passive abilities, so that even if you want to skip a particular offensive area you can find something useful to move up the tree. They are bringing back the dropped ability part of D1 in a new form: runes which can be used to customize skills drop. Examples: runes that add extra damage, runes that add or expand multi-target ability. Dammit, he showed a third type but I have forgotten.
There will definitely be a respec system but they haven't settled on one yet. They don't want to make it too too easy, still want some incentive to say level multiples of a class with different specs, but have the ability to correct mistakes without rerolling.
They want much richer story than even D2, but want it again to be optional: available if you want it but you are still able to just have a destruction-fest if you prefer.
Reducing potion focus somewhat, replacing the belt o potions with more abilities available on the finger tips, though still a smallish number, looked like no more than 9 in the current interface, and that includes potion slots. As part of this when mobs die they sometimes leave health boosters that top you off when you walk over them -- in multiplayer these affect the entire party, so timely use by you can save a party member.
Important to them to retain replayability, epically powerful characters, and mass of monsters on screen. Want it to play fast with little downtime, and be highly cooperative.
They are building a new battlenet to support D3 (and presumably SC 2), the feature set isn't settled yet but they want it to be easy to join games and be right where the action is: easy to make friends, easy to play with them is the mantra. Designer said in Q&A that he loves WoW but there is not much you can do in 15-30 minutes -- Diablo 3 they want to make rewarding to play in your lunch break.
Best spoken line: "It turns out not clicking isn't fun in Diablo."
Best line on slide: "Better controls: less carpal tunnel"
Ok, that's all I can remember atm: I am not up to the professional journalist standard.
Skill system is looking really nice: evolution of the WoW system much as the WoW system evolved the D2 system. Good passive abilities, so that even if you want to skip a particular offensive area you can find something useful to move up the tree. They are bringing back the dropped ability part of D1 in a new form: runes which can be used to customize skills drop. Examples: runes that add extra damage, runes that add or expand multi-target ability. Dammit, he showed a third type but I have forgotten.
There will definitely be a respec system but they haven't settled on one yet. They don't want to make it too too easy, still want some incentive to say level multiples of a class with different specs, but have the ability to correct mistakes without rerolling.
They want much richer story than even D2, but want it again to be optional: available if you want it but you are still able to just have a destruction-fest if you prefer.
Reducing potion focus somewhat, replacing the belt o potions with more abilities available on the finger tips, though still a smallish number, looked like no more than 9 in the current interface, and that includes potion slots. As part of this when mobs die they sometimes leave health boosters that top you off when you walk over them -- in multiplayer these affect the entire party, so timely use by you can save a party member.
Important to them to retain replayability, epically powerful characters, and mass of monsters on screen. Want it to play fast with little downtime, and be highly cooperative.
They are building a new battlenet to support D3 (and presumably SC 2), the feature set isn't settled yet but they want it to be easy to join games and be right where the action is: easy to make friends, easy to play with them is the mantra. Designer said in Q&A that he loves WoW but there is not much you can do in 15-30 minutes -- Diablo 3 they want to make rewarding to play in your lunch break.
Best spoken line: "It turns out not clicking isn't fun in Diablo."
Best line on slide: "Better controls: less carpal tunnel"
Ok, that's all I can remember atm: I am not up to the professional journalist standard.
