Filed under: Diablo 3

Diablo 3 fans may not have as much excitement from BlizzCon this year as Hearthstone fans or StarCraft 2 fans, but there are a few changes coming as Blizzard continues to refine the Diablo experience to maximize fun and minimize the frustrating grind that characterized the game at launch. Though this year's panels spent the majority of their time talking about the development process that brought Diablo 3 to the place it is now, there were some hints at the future, new monsters, new items, and an early demo of a new area, the Ruins of Sescheron (which you may remember from its brief appearance in Diablo 2: Lord of Destruction).

As to a new Diablo expansion, the devs refused to give a yes or no answer, but we live can live in hope, right? In the meanwhile, check out our galleries for a look at what's coming, or keep reading for a rundown of upcoming changes.

This is a problem I hear about, but don't actually have, because I'm not a terribly friendly person. Try not to be shocked. But I do have some friends, and a lot of those friends are very friendly people (they'd kind of have to be to be my friends, I suppose) and they often complain that they're full up on friends. I'm not sure how one can possibly manage that many friends, but nevertheless there are folks who have completely used up all one hundred potential friends and want/need more. However, it seems they may have to wait a while. Bashiok had this to say on twitter:

@BulletCatcher02 It's something I hear tale of our http://t.co/OzS6N5CG1E team actively working toward, but it's actually a complex issue.

- Bashiok (@Bashiok) October 8, 2014

This is one of those issues that makes me wonder. For one thing, the battle.net friends list actually extends past World of Warcraft - it has to be coded to work with Diablo III, Starcraft II, Hearthstone and soon Heroes of the Storm. That's a lot of different games with different code, and WoW is certainly the oldest of them. I can imagine the limits of the oldest game holding back the development. Still, for the friendly souls among us, I hope it gets solved soon.

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If you find there's a lack of demon-smashing in your life, never fear: Diablo III and its expansion Reaper of Souls are on sale for 50% off on the Blizzard store. Note: This sale only applies to the PC and Mac versions. Sorry, console players!

Considering jumping on this deal? Jump quickly. The sale ends Monday, October 6 at 11:59 p.m. PDT.

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The first Diablo III Season is scheduled to launch this coming Friday, August 29. If you're not familiar with the concept of Diablo III Seasons, it's a system designed to encourage rolling new characters and tackling specific types of challenges in the game. Season challenges include Conquests, accomplishments similar to Achievements but often more difficult in nature and only able to be completed by a Seasonal hero. There are also a new set of leaderboards documenting Seasonal heroes' accomplishments throughout the Season, as well as special gear and transmog rewards for participants. You can learn more about the first Diablo III Season in Blizzard's Patch 2.1.0 previews. Good luck to all the participating players!

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Well, gamescom is tomorrow, and we're already seeing news from it (like for instance this gigantic and frankly somewhat terrifying statue of Grommash Hellscream) but one piece of news that might have gone out a little early is this trailer. It reveals three new heroes for Heroes of the Storm -- the cunning Anub'arak, the loathsome Azmodan, and the inebriate Chen Stormstout.

Blizzard's MOBA entry is as dependent as any game on the quality of its roster of heroes, so it's not surprising that they'd beef it up, but I'll admit to being surprised on who they've chosen here. With Diablo in the game already, does Azmodan bring anything? We'll find out soon. Still, count me in among players who might have appreciated a Jaina or a Sylvanas.

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Last year, Blizzard announced their intention to close the Diablo III real-money auction house. On March 18th of this year, Blizzard mostly completed that task and removed players' ability to bid, buyout, and list items on that auction house. However, since then, players have still been able to claim gold and receive items from the "Completed" auction house tab. They will remain able to do so until next week, in order to allow adequate time for players to retrieve anything they may have won or sold.

On June 24th, the shutdown of the Diablo III real-money auction house will be complete, and the real-money auction house will be gone in its entirety. Any items or gold that may be yours will be lost forever, so if you have any of these things lingering in what remains of the Diablo III auction house, now is the time to claim them.

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Diablo 3 is celebrating its second anniversary this week with plenty of buffs for players, which makes it a great time to game. Anyone playing between now and May 22nd will receive double rift fragments and double legendary drops as they smash their way through Sanctuary.

For gamers who are still trying to catch up on this Diablo thing, there's also a new entry in the game guide telling the story of Diablo. For anyone who hasn't played Diablo or Diablo 2 -- or hasn't played recently -- this will bring you up to date on the story up to the Reaper of Souls expansion. Of course, there's some retconning that has to happen to make the original Diablo fit in with the rest of the series, but it's still a good summary of events to date.

But if you don't want to be burdened by story, never fear -- Diablo 3 is still good fun without knowing any of the history. And for this week, it's double the fun with double the legendaries.

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The Diablo III: Reaper of Souls expansion changed the game from top to bottom. With the extra 10 levels came an almost complete reimagining of how Diablo 3 would play: from the relentlessly on-rails story mode to the free-form adventure mode, from wheeling and dealing on the auction house for the items you wanted to hoping for those items to pop out of a freshly slain enemy.

In the wake of the game's sweeping changes, the new Crusader class has been something of an afterthought for many. However, Blizzard hasn't been shy to make adjustments to the newest member of their demon-slaying team. A patch just two weeks after the expansion's launch brought major buffs to the Crusader. This week, another patch featured a long list of changes that revamped the class from top to bottom.

If you're wondering whether you should invest the time to level a Crusader, join me past the break for my impressions. The class has come a long way in just seven weeks, and this latest patch has been a gamechanger.

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Diablo 3's Reaper of Souls launch has been going much more smoothly than the first couple months of the original game. That said, there are still some annoying lag issues which persist. Personally speaking, I've seen both these happen, although they seem to happen intermittently for me at worst. There have been times where I've played and not seen them at all -- but nonetheless my ears perked up when I heard Blizzard has a fix incoming for them.

As Omrakos explains, the two lag issues being fixed in particular are...

Omrakos

"Any time a Battle.net friend signs on or when I open my inventory the game halts for a second or two completely. In multiplayer games it's even worse. Other events cause this too. Sometimes it's several seconds before it's back."

"Also, loot drops and it's not displayed for several seconds"

source

There isn't a timeframe for the patch, so I wouldn't hold your breath. But one has to imagine it's soon.

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Theorycraft Thursdays is a new feature over on the Diablo 3 official website that highlights interesting player-submitted builds in the game. Today's inaugural post features an "Unholy" monk build from Diablo player ZiPS#1834, a fun attempt to turn the monk class on its head. ZiPS explains that the inspiration for the build came from "the idea to stack many 'Chance on Hit' effects with Life on Hit and a fair bit of Attack Speed," as well as a way to make the most of the Legendary effect from Andariel's Visage.

The article details the list of active and passive abilities, plus items required to fit the build, and explains which abilities synergize well with each other and with different armor pieces. There are also a list of build variations, which offer suggestions on how to focus on different aspects of the build such as crowd control, high damage, or greed.

If you're a Diablo 3 player who's interested in some outside-the-box builds for your monk, this would be a great place to start. I think it's fascinating that Theorycraft Thursdays has opened with such a unique idea, and I'm looking forward to seeing what its next installment brings.

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I've been playing a lot of Diablo 3 lately, which means that when I hop back into World of Warcraft I really miss how awesome my D3 character always looks. The art style of the two games is very different, and some players will like one more than the other -- but mostly I miss the ability to customize my look to be exactly what I want it to be. D3 has dyes -- including a vanishing dye that makes armor pieces invisible -- that lets you control the color of every piece of armor you wear. And as if that isn't enough, you can also transmogrify the look of armor or weapon into any other armor or weapon that you have ever had. I weep just thinking of the bag space that would be saved if I didn't have to hold on to every piece of armor with an interesting look or color.

But for those who care less about transmog that's probably not a compelling feature set -- so tell us, readers, what features from other games (Blizzard or otherwise) do you wish World of Warcraft would adopt?

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If you're a fan of Blizzard's music, you can now acquire the Reaper of Souls soundtrack through iTunes. You can purchase the album for $9.99 or individual tracks for $1.29 each. The Reaper of Souls music page on Blizzard's website includes 30 second samples of each track as well as composers' notes.

If you find yourself interested in multiple tracks, we suggest just going in for the album -- there are 22 total tracks, adding up to a significant cost difference. $9.99 or $28.38? The choice is yours!

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This isn't me being all hyperbolic.

This is actually what will happen to you if you use the combination Blessed Shield and Shattering Throw. Your character will die, and for hardcore players, that means your character will be dead forever.

Grimiku - PSA: Avoid Blessed Shield - Shattering Throw

Hello, Crusaders

I wanted to help spread the word that there is currently a very ugly bug with Blessed Shield - Shattering Throw that will result in your Crusader instantly dying if you use this skill.

Hardcore players should avoid using this skill for now!

We're working on a hotfix for this issue and we'll update the Patch 2.0.4 Hotfix thread once that happens. Thank you all for your patience and understanding while we work on fixing this as soon as possible!

source

As my Crusader has both of these and likely would have blown himself up (a mere annoyance for me, but the end of that character if you play on Hardcore) I thought you all should know.

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