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Diablo III returns to the world of Sanctuary twenty years after the events of Diablo II with a new generation of heroes that must defeat the demonic threat from Hell.
Introduction
Twenty years have passed since Tyrael destroyed the Worldstone. Mount Arreat, home of the proud Barbarians, was obliterated when the Worldstone exploded. Now Arreat is nothing more than a giant crater. The Barbarians, with no home and no Worldstone to protect, have become nomadic. There are few still living who can bear to remember the horrors that the Prime Evils wrought upon the world. Most of those who fought the hordes of the burning hells have gone mad. Others who did not witness the terrible events firsthand often cannot bring themselves to believe that the battle with the Prime Evils is anything more than spook stories. Deckard Cain has spent twenty years trying to figure out what the destruction of the Worldstone will mean for Sanctuary. In this time Cain has adopted a young girl by the name of Leah, and has started to teach her the lore of the Horadrim. But evil stirs once again, and new heroes are needed to fight against the coming onslaught...
Features
- Explore a fully-realized Sanctuary--the living, breathing Gothic fantasy world of Diablo rendered in gorgeous 3D.
- Battle the unholy forces of the Burning Hells with all-new character classes like the otherworldly Witch Doctor, or with re-imagined warriors fromDiablo's past, such as the fierce Barbarian.
- Rain Hell on your enemies wielding the interactive environment as a weapon: lay cunning traps, turn destructible objects against your foes, and use environmental obstacles to your advantage--all powered by the Havoc physics system.
- Experience the intensity of multiplayer Diablo III over an all-new, wickedly-enhanced Battle.net platform with numerous enhancements to make connecting with your friends easier--and cooperative gameplay more fun.
- Unlike the previous potion-heavy health systems of past Diablo games, inDiablo lll, enemies drop Life Orbs when they are killed that, when picked up, restore a small amount of health.
- The rune system allows the player to modify skills and are randomly dropped by monsters. They can be attached to each skill like an item and have the ability to completely change the skill.
- A persistent group that follows the heroes across Sanctuary known as "The Caravan", giving players a main hub to access quest givers, crafters, and other important NPCs that will move around the world with the hero.
Characters
Diablo III will feature five different character classes, and unlike previous installments in the series, players can now select the gender of their character, rather than each class having only a single gender representation.
Barbarian
The Barbarian is a large, unstoppable brute that resides in Mount Arreat. At first glance the Barbarians may seem like mindless, blood-thirsty beasts that lack emotion and civility. However, Abd al Hazir, a renowned historian that travels the world of Sanctuary has come to know these people as noble men and women that have an unrelenting dedication to their warrior lifestyle. The Barbarians have a sworn duty to protect their mountainous homeland, as they believe it contains a sacred relic that is the key to their civilization.
As you might expect, the barbarian uses brute force and dual weapons to inflict maximum damage on his enemies. He also uses grunts and war cries to boost his fighting ability and defense. The barbarian prefers the use of melee weapons such as axes and swords to engage his enemies.
The Barbarian is the first character class in the series to appear in more than one game, also having been one of the five original classes available in Diablo II, though Blizzard promises that the new Barbarian will not just be a complete copy of the original.
| Barbarian, Male | Barbarian, Female |
|---|---|
 |  |
The Witch Doctor
The Witch Doctor belongs to the legendary umbaru race. The umbaru reside in the lower Teganze, a dense jungle area in the Diablo universe. The umbaru are seen as a more primitive race, their buildings and cities are usually under developed, and their knowledge of the world outside the Teganze borders is limited. They regularly engage in tribal warfare that is sparked by ritualistic differences amongst their different tribes.
That being said, the Umbaru and especially the Witch Doctor, are masters of the dark arts, having the ability to use dark magic and summon spirits to defeat their enemies. In the game, the Witch doctor is a more passive character that summons spirits and zombies and uses ranged magic to fight enemies.
It's believed that the Witch Doctor is a replacement of Diablo II's Necromancerclass, as the two classes appear to be very similar in play style.
| Witch Doctor, Male | Witch Doctor, Female |
|---|---|
 |  |
Wizard
Native of Xiansai, the Wizard is a powerful mage that utilizes elemental magic to do her bidding. The Wizard has the ability to manipulate fire, lightning as well as having the ability to alter the fabric space and time. Although the Wizard has weak defense, her ranged attacks keep her at a safe distance away from enemies.
The Wizard replaces Diablo II's Sorceress class, which was itself merely a female version of Diablo I's Sorcerer class with revamped abilities.
Jay Wilson, the lead designer, hinted that of the next characters to be announced one will be "hated by the fans", supposedly due to it resembling a former class. Instead, the next class revealed was the Monk (detailed below), which is completely unlike any class seen before. At Blizzcon 2010, a long-range class, the Demon Hunter, was announced which is a similar class toDiablo II's Amazon. However, it has been confirmed that the Barbarian will be the only class from a former game to be reused in the initial release ofDiablo III, though Blizzard has not commented on the possibility of other classes returning in expansion packs or downloadable content.
| Wizard, Male | Wizard, Female |
|---|---|
 |  |
Monk
The Monk is a melee class that is said to replace Diablo II's Assassin class. The Monk's play style is based around the use of combos similar to those of fighting games and the character is supposedly a lot faster than the other melee class, the Barbarian. Combos are skills that have 3 different stages, the first and second stage are the same but the last tends to end big. E.G. Exploding Palm ends by putting a debuff on the target if that target dies while the debuff is still active then they explode like an M80 in a watermelon. You can mix up the combo with any other combo skill you have, so you can start with Crippling Wave as the first, then use Way of the Hundred Fists second and then go for the big finish with Exploding Palm.
| Monk, Male | Monk, Female |
|---|---|
 |  |
Demon Hunter
The Demon Hunters are all inducted survivors with a thirst for vengeance on the demon who killed their loved ones. They make their home base in the northern lands of Dreadlands. The Demon Hunter is a physical ranged character, that uses gadgets like, Grenades, Traps, and Bolos as well as using shadow themed skills. They are the only class that can duel wield hand crossbows.
| Male Demon Hunter | Female Demon Hunter |
|---|---|
 |  |
April Fool's Fake Class
Every year on April 1st, Blizzard makes joke announcements about all their games, and in 2009 the April Fool's Day announcement for Diablo III revealed the supposed fourth class; the Archivist, essentially a combat librarian.
Archivists have powerful skills like "Lorenado", which unleashes a miniature vortex consisting of ancient tomes that batters the enemy into oblivion. "Quest Bolt" removes an enemy from a battle without actually killing them by transforming them from a hostile monster into a quest giver (parodying the exclamation points used in Diablo II to mark quest givers, but made more popular by the use of the same visual in World of Warcraft) Finally, Blizzard demonstrated the Archivist's ultimate weapon, the "Shush!" spell, which releases a demand for silence so powerful that all the noisy monsters in the area drop dead immediately. Apparently the main drawback to playing an Archivist would have been their frailty; at the end of the first two videos, a single enemy gets in a single hit on the Archivist, and that hit is enough to kill the unfortunate hero. At the end of the third video, despite Shush! having killed all the monsters, the Archivist inexplicably died as well, exploding into gibs as a tip of the hat to the non-serious nature of the class.
Notably, elements of previous April Fool's jokes have made it into the final versions of some of Blizzard's products; the Pandaren race, for example, announced for Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos, made an appearance in-game in the form of the neutral Pandaren Brewmaster hero. It has therefore been theorized that the Archivist or his abilities will make some sort of appearance in the final game, although it should be noted that adding a single unit to an RTS as a joke is a very different proposition than adding an entire character class to an RPG as a joke, making playable Archivists extremely unlikely.
Followers
Diablo 3 continues the tradition started in Diablo 2 with the addition of Followers (or Mercenaries in D2) Followers are an evolution of the Mercs from D2. In D3 they will have their own voice, dialog, and story, more a kin to companions in other RPGs (like Dragon Age) They will have their own unique animations and gear looks, as well as, skills. There will be three Followers to pick from, each can be haired out at your Caravan. They are found via quests like the artisans. At any point you can return to the Caravan and switch out one follower for another. Followers do not die when their health is reduced to zero, they go unconscious for a period of time (15-20sec) or if you are close you can revive them sooner. They are not Manually controlled, but have an AI that adapts to a role depending on what skills you give them. They each have 12 different skills. At key lvls (5,10,15,20) you will unlock a tier, of 3 skills, but you will only get to pick one of those skills for your Follower. In the end your follower will have 4 skills. Players can unlearn skill chooses for their follower at anytime as long as you have the gold to pay for it. Followers can equip left and right weapons, along with 2 rings and an amulet, in addition at 25th level they can equip a special character item that is special only to them. These Followers will only be available in Single Player (or by yourself multi player) and they do not scale past 25th lvl (normal difficulty mode is 1-30), thus making them purely optional part of the game.
Lyndon - the Scoundrel form Kingsport, kicked out of the thieves’ guild. He’s a real thief in both mind and heart. He attacks with bows and crossbows
Kormac - the Templar, he is on a mission to recover some holy scrolls that were stolen by Archbishop Lazarus. He attacks with melee weapons
Eirena - the Enchantress, she follows a figure called The Prophet. She attacks with magic.
Skill System & Descriptions
In Diablo III, Blizzard is taking a different approach to skills. Gone are the skill trees from D2, now at seven key levels (as it stands 2, 3, 6,10,14, 20, 26) you unlock access to a new skill tiers. In each of the seven tiers you will have a few skills to pick from. Chose wisely, because in D3 you are only going to have seven skills at max. Tiers only consists of Activated skills. No longer are there passive skills in the skill tiers, now passives are called Traits and they have their own system. More on traits later. As for now here is a list of Skills known to be in the game as of Blizzcon 2010.
Barbarian
- Bash: A powerful attack that does a bonus % of weapon damage
- Battle Cry: Shouts out a warning, increasing defense of all nearby party members
- Battle Rage: increases damage done and increases critical damage done.
- Cleave: The Barbarian swings his sword laterally, eviscerating multiple enemies in close range.
- Enrage: The Barbarian throws himself into a reckless rage, increasing Fury gained but also increasing the damage he receives.
- Frenzy: A stacking ability that increases weapon damage and attack speed of attacks
- Furious Charge: Charge directly at an enemy, smashing everything in the way
- Ground Stomp: The Barbarian pounds the ground causing shock-waves to travel along the ground, stunning nearby enemies.
- Hammer of the Ancients: A massive attack that has an increased chance to critically hit
- Ignore Pain: Reduce all damage taken for a short amount of time.
- Leap: A giant leap that enables the barbarian to avoid his enemies.
- Onslaught: While active Onslaught increases attack speed but drains Fury (the barbarian's mana)
- Revenge: A skill that is only usable after being hit. The Barbarian Slams the ground dealing damage to all around and regaining some health in the process.
- Seismic Slam: A shock-wave that travels linearly toward target enemies, dealing massive damage to them and anything in its path.
- Taunt: The Barbarian mocks his target into engaging him in melee combat.
- Terrifying Shout : An intense war cry that enhances damage done by all nearby party members.
- Whirlwind: Swirl in a cyclone, delivering attacks to everything in his path.
Witch Doctor
- Wall of Zombies: Erupting out of the ground zombies form a wall, attacking any enemies that get close. Likely to be about as useless as walls have always been in Diablo games.
- Fire bats: Bats fly down from just above the Witch Doctor's head and pass by his hands, at that point they are set ablaze only to smash into anything that gets in their way. This spell has a cone area effect and will continue until the player releases the casting button or until he runs out of mana.
- FireBomb: The Witch Doctor has the ability to hurl an explosive ball of fire at his enemies that deals massive damage to the target unit and nearby enemies.
- Horrify: The Witch Doctor conjures up a horrifying image that sends his enemies fleeing in panic, which gives the Witch Doctor enough time to attack his enemies as they flee.
- Locust Swarm: Summons a swarm of locust that deals damage on multiple targets; the swarm of locusts can jump from one enemy to another depending on the density of enemies in a given area.
- Mass Confusion: Causes enemies to attack each other.
- Plague of Toads: Toads are summoned forth and hop forwards slightly spreading out the farther they get away. If the toads make contact with a enemy the toads pop and splatter poison on them. If the toads do not hit anything they will pop on their own leaving a pool of poison on the ground that will damage any who tread over it.
- Sacrifice: With a snap of his fingers the Witch Doctor can force his pets to explode dealing massive damage to all around its former location.
- Soul Harvest: Allows the Witch Doctor to capture the souls of his enemies; presumably these souls can be conjured up to fight for the Witch Doctor using another skill.
- Spider Statue: A statue is summoned out of the ground in the shape of a spider. Any enemy that gets near the Spider Statue will find themselves covered in spiders. The spiders deal poison damage to enemies as long as they stay within close proximity of the Statue.
- Summon Mongrel: The Witch Doctor calls forth a zombie dog which he can imbue with another spell, like locust swarm or firebomb giving the mongrel extra damage to its attacks. The Witch Doctor can have up to 3 mongrels summoned at one time.
Wizard
- Acid Cloud: A cloud of acid drops on target area dealing acid damage to all. Targets suffer more damage the longer they stay in the cloud .
- Arcane Orb: An orb of pure energy on an area explodes on contact dealing arcane damage to all enemies in the blast area. Critical hits silence targets for 4 sec.
- Blizzard: The Wizard calls down shards of ice to pelt an area dealing damage per second. Critical hits freeze targets.
- Charged Bolt: Electricity randomly travels across the ground dealing damage to targets it hits and stunning ones that get critically hit.
- Disintegrate: Focuses a "beam" of pure energy on enemies that increases in power and lethality over the time that it's cast.
- Electrocute: Casts a lightning attack that deals a wide range of damage and can strike multiple enemies.
- Frost Nova: An explosion of ice shards emanating from the Wizard damaging nearby enemies. Projectiles have an additional chance of a critical hit. Critical hits freeze targets.
- Hydra: Summons a hydra out of the ground that shoot fire balls like an automated turret.
- Magic Missile: A basic attack. Fires a magic missile at enemies. Critical hits silence targets for 4 secs.
- Magic Weapon: Imbue a weapon with magic causing it to deal more damage.
- Meteor Storm: Meteorites slam the targeted region dealing damage to all in the area.
- Mirror Image: The Wizard creates multiple illusions of herself to distract attackers.
- Ray of Frost: A beam of cold energy slams the target. Critical hits freeze targets.
- Slow Time: Creates a dome like structure around the Wizard that slows everything in the vicinity of the character.
- Spectral Blades: Spectral blades slice each enemy that are a short distance in front of the Wizard.
- Stone Skin: The Wizard is covered in stone armor that absorbs damage.
- Storm Armor: Surround the Wizard in electrical energy that deals electrical damage automatically to an attacker.
- Temporal Armor: The wizard summons a fluctuating protective shell. Every six seconds it dissipates only to reappear six seconds later. The armor stops all damage from attacks, but is dispelled after absorbing X number of attacks.
- Teleport: The Wizard Teleports to the selected location up to 40 feet away.
- Tornado: Summon a tornado that damages everything in its path.
- Wave of Force: The Wizard projects a burst of generic energy outwards, repelling enemies and projectiles.
Monk
- Blinding Flash: A blinding flash that blinds all nearby enemies.
- Breath of Heaven: A spell that removes debuffs from the monk and his allies.
- Circle of Wrath: A blast of energy centered around the monk that hurts enemies and heals allies.
- Crippling Wave : A combo skill, First attack puts a debuff on the target that slows their movement speed, the other two refresh the timer on the debuff.
- Dashing Strike: A combo skill with quick charging attacks, useful for closing the distance or to create distance if used on a location rather then a enemy.
- Dominate Aura: A aura skill that boosts damage taken by enemies near the Monk.
- Exploding Palm: A combo skill, First two hits deal % of weapon damage, the Third puts a DOT (damage over time) on the target that if that target dies before the time on the DOT runs out the target explodes damaging targets close by.
- Hands of Lightning: A combo skill that unleashes a series of increasingly powerful lighting based attacks.
- Holy Aura: A aura that regenerates the Monk's and his friends health that are with in range.
- Lethal Decoy: The Monk creates an illusion of himself if hit the decoy explodes dealing holy damage to near by enemies.
- Inner Sanctuary: A protection circle that stops all enemies from getting into melee with the Monk.
- Lashing Tail Kick: A kick that knocks back enemies.
- Long Reach: A combo attack that can hit multiple enemies out of melee range of the Monk.
- Resist Aura: A Aura that boosts the Monk's and his allies resistance to magic damage.
- Retribution Aura: A Aura that reflects damage back to the Monk's enemies.
- Serenity: A shield that protects the Monk from ranged attacks.
- Seven Sided Strike: A skill in which the Monk uses blinding speed to attack 7 times. As he is using the skill he can not be damaged.
- Sweeping Wind: A sweeping attack that damaged all hit by it.
- Wave of light: The Monk summons a rolling wave of Holy fire that deals damage to all in its path.
- Way of the Hundred Fists: A combo skill, first the monk dashes to his target dealing a single punch, then he unloads with multitude of rapid punches, then finishes it off with a AOE attack.
Demon Hunter
- Bola Shot: A spinning projectile that wraps around a target and explodes a few seconds later
- Entangling Shot: A attack that slows the target's movement speed, the slow effect will spreed to other targets if they are close enough to each other.
- Fan of Knives: Knives spiral out around the Demon Hunter damaging any enemies with in range.
- Grenades: The Demon Hunter Trows out 3 grenades that bounce for a second or two then explode. damaging enemies in range.
- Molten Arrow: A arrow that passes through multiple enemies leaving a trail of lava behind to deal damage to any enemy that walks over it.
- Multishot: A Cone effect skill that fires a few dozen little arrows out damaging all in range.
- Spike Trap: A trap that is activated once a enemy gets close to it. the trap whirls and spins blades all around the trap damaging anything that walks over it.
- Vault: A defensive move where the Demon Hunter does a series of cartwheels to put distance between her and her enemies.
Runestones
Runestones are items that alter the skill they are attached to. There are five Runestone types: Alabaster, Crimson, Golden, Indigo, and Obsidian. There are also 7 quality levels to each Runestone. All runestones will change the visual effect of the skill, as well as, change some aspect of the skill. Some of the runestones will drastically alter the skill. In effect, this will make each skill with each runestone a different skill. Characters are planed to have around 25-28 skills, meaning with runestones there will be around 700 different variations, this will add an immense amount of choices.
Traits
Traits are passive abilities that offer customization options for your character. Each class will have around 25-30 traits, and you will unlock them much like skill tiers just more frequent. Blizzard has yet to settle on a finale number of trait points yet, but they have set a tentative one point every other level starting at 3rd as of now.
Resource System
Blizzard has opted to have a different resource for each of the 5 classes in D3
- Barbarian's Resource is Fury. Fury is generated by dealing and taking damage, and spent when skills are used.
- Demon Hunter's Resource is Unknown as of yet
- Monk's Resource is Spirit. Spirit builds as the Monk uses combo skills, and is spent when non combo skills are used.
- Witch Doctors Resource is Mana. Mana is gained by not using skills, and spent by using skills.
- Wizard's Resource is Arcane Power. As it stands right now Arcane Power works just like Mana but this will change.
Talisman (currently out of the game)
Update: On May 25th 2011, Blizzard made the decision to put the Talisman on the shelf, due to it not meeting their high standards, as well as, not having the time to make it work without delaying the games release. It may return to the game later in a update or in an expansion. The Talisman was not only set to be a dedicated inventory space for your charms, but it was going to be a major means of customizing your characters attributes. The Talisman was planned to start off with 5 slots for charms and grow to hold 13.
Charms (currently out of the game)
Charms are a item type that augment your characters attributes. Few details are known about their specific bonuses. As of May 25th 2011 they have been put on the shelf with the Talisman.
Attributes
In late 2009, Blizzard revealed that attribute points will be pre-assigned at every level up. The reasoning behind this decision was that unless a player follows a specific build known in advance, they will all but inevitably create a weaker character in the long run, which undermines a player's satisfaction with their character. So in substitution for requiring a player to do research outside of the game on optimal character builds or requiring a large amount of trial and error, the game will handle this facet of character building for the player.
Players can still further customize their attributes using Traits, Charms, and Gems. In December of 2010, the development team released some info on the changes to the Attribute system. The changes were made so that all Attrbutes will be relevant to every class.
Before (Diablo II) | Now |
|---|---|
Strength (Melee Damage, Equippable Gear) | Attack (Bonus Damage) |
Dexterity (Hit, Block, and Dodge Chance) | Precision (Bonus Crit Chance) |
Vitality (Life and Stamina) | Vitality (Bonus Health) |
Willpower (Mana) | Willpower (Bonus Resource) |
Defense (Bonus Damage Reduction) |
Artisans
Three Artisans join your cause (after completing a quest) through the course of the game, (most likely all in the first act due to their importance), each for their own reasons. They become part of your Caravan, along with some other NPCs you encounter like Deckard Cain, who will follow you throughout the world. They won't accompany you in combat, but they will set up camp sites nearby to offer you use of their talents and give you quests.
These NPCs were created to replace the merchants from Diablo 2. The developers even referred to them as being "vendors 2.0." All Artisans buy and sell items like the vendors of old, but they also provide the player with other invaluable services. Crafting, a service shared by all Artisans, is the main difference between them and the D2 merchants. Each Artisan crafts different items and can be leveled up through investments of Gold and Raw Materials (acquired from the use of the Salvage Cube), giving them access to more powerful Crafting patterns. Arms and Armor are crafted by the Blacksmith. Caster Weapons (like wands), Runestones, Charms, Potions, and Scrolls all come from the Mystic. The Jeweler crafts Amulets, Gems, and Rings. Crafted items will have a mixture of set stats and random properties, giving players motivation to craft the same item more then once.
In addition to Crafting, the Artisans offer other services. The Blacksmith repairs damaged gear and can add gem socket slots to your items. The Mystic can Enchant items, and the Jeweler can un-socket as well as upgrade Gems.
Salvaging and the Mysterious Cube
The development team behind Diablo III thought long and hard about ways to keep the player from having to go back to town/caravan to sell all the unwanted junk they been picking up. One solution is the Scrolls of Wealth: an item that lets the player sell unwanted loot from anywhere in the world ("magic makes the impossible, possible").
Blizzard didn't stop there, they also decided to add one more Mystical item, an artifact that can take unwanted gear and break it down to its base materials (mats), which can be stacked in high numbers while only using a single inventory slot, leaving more room in the players' inventories for additional yummy loot.
The name for this item is unknown, most call it the Salvage Cube, but in the game it will have another name as well as lore behind it. The player receives this item from the Blacksmith that joins his caravan in the early part of the first Act. All the mats the player salvages can be later used to level up the Artisans and/or craft new loot.
