Posts with tag diablo-3

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If you're trying to pick up your own copy of Diablo 3's soon-to-be-released Reaper of Souls expansion from Blizzard, you may have run head-first into a "500: Internal Server Error" message. The big downside to this error -- beyond your inability to buy the expansion -- is that though you don't get anything, you may still see the charge pending on your credit card. According to Blizzard support, because the charge didn't successfully go through, it should vanish within a few days. However, it doesn't leave us inclined to, as the error suggests, try again later.

Fortunately, Blizzard is on the case:

We're experiencing difficulties with pre-orders for Reaper of Souls. These issues will be resolved ASAP. Thanks very much for your patience!

- BlizzardCS (@BlizzardCS) March 21, 2014

Hopefully we'll see a resolution sooner rather than later -- with Reaper of Souls due out on the 25th, there's not much time left to buy for release-day gameplay. In the meantime, we're holding off on clicking "buy" until @BlizzardCS gives us the all clear.

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Blizzard is holding two upcoming Q&As for Hearthstone and Diablo III: Reaper of Souls:

• Hearthstone Q&A on Google+ this Friday between 1:00 pm and 1:30 p.m. CDT
• Diablo III Q&A on Twitch.tv on Monday, March 24 starting at 11:00 p.m. CDT

To get your questioned answered for the Hearthstone Q&A tweet them using the hash tag #HearthstoneDay. For Diablo III, use #D3QA when tweeting to @Diablo. There isn't any information on who to tweet at about Hearthstone, but including @PlayHearthstone in your question couldn't hurt.

Hearthstone recently came out of beta and launched a mount practically everyone wants, and Diablo III's first expansion is about to release. Lots of exciting things for Blizzard games right now, and it's clear that they realize the community has lots of questions about the future of things.

There isn't any news on a WoW Q&A, however things are pretty quiet right now over all. Almost as if there is a calm before a storm...

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First off, let me say that I'm not agitating for WoW to copy all of Diablo III's improvements. A lot of the stuff D3 is doing now since the 2.0.1 patch are things WoW absolutely should never, ever do. But as valuable as it is to say that WoW should copy some of D3's better innovations, some times it's even more valuable to be absolutely clear on what would never, ever work if it were ported to the MMO space. (And vice-versa, as I think some of the problems that patch 2.0.1 solves are problems caused by trying to make D3 too much like an MMO). So, then, what can we learn from patch 2.0.1's successes?

Well, both WoW and D3 are loot based games -- at their hearts, you kill monsters for their loot in both. Diablo III's Loot 2.0 is an amazing system for itself -- it's fun and exciting when the loot you get from monsters ends up being awesome. But for WoW I think a system this personally rewarding would be insane. World of Warcraft is not set up for you to have some of the coolest, best items you'll ever see just drop from random trash, because WoW isn't a game designed around the idea of constantly going on reaping trash stomping dungeon crawls. The social aspect of WoW, with communal play of small 3, 5 and larger group content isn't the same as D3 and its multiplayer. If anything, Warlords' item squish is already a cautionary tale of the kind of excess that Diablo III not only rewards, but exults in. Nothing helps drive the lesson home that these are different games like their different approaches to loot.

That said, WoW can learn something from D3 in terms of the way loot works.

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Though there's still some waiting to do before Reaper of Souls arrives, if you've been twiddling your thumbs hoping for the latest patch to hit Diablo III, you're in luck -- Lead Producer Alex Mayberry has announced on Twitter that patch 2.0.1 will be live today. This patch brings some big changes for Diablo players, including social groups Clans and Communities, itemization updates, paragon updates, class updates, crafting updates, difficulty updates... and more. For all the details, check out the patch notes.

If you're one of the players who grew tired with Diablo III after launch, this laundry list of changes -- combined with a quiet, patch-free time in World of Warcraft right now -- may give you good reason to revisit the game in advance of Reaper's release. We know that's where we're headed!

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At BlizzCon 2013, I was lucky enough to sit down at one of Blizzard's demo machines and play through the first part of the new Diablo 3 Reaper of Souls expansion as the new class, the Crusader. This article will have some spoilers for the new content, so if you're trying to avoid that, beware.

Crusading

The demo character was a male Crusader, set at level 33. He came with a few powers preset, which I used for the demo. For the left mouse button, a single target Slash attack struck the enemy with holy power. For the right button, Fist of the Heavens sent a huge beam of Holy Energy from the heavens around the Crusader, followed up by electric bolts that split off and attacked any enemies still standing. This right click, of course, cost Wrath, which is the Crusader's resource and regenerates like a combination of a rogue's energy and a death knight's runic power from WoW.

On the second day of BlizzCon 2013, the Diablo 3 team hosted a gameplay systems panel in which they covered some of the new systems coming to the Reaper of Souls expansion, including not only the Crusader class, but information on changes for the existing classes and some of the new itemization tweaks we can expect to see in Loot 2.0.

Crusading for a new class

The first section of the panel introduced the new class, the Crusader. Designing a new class is one of the most complex tasks in an RPG, but it starts with a simple concept. In this case, the team wanted a righteous paladin type, which would work as a good answer to Malthael, the angel of death and main villain of Reaper of Souls. The idea came together of having a dark paladin, full of righteous wrath, a "knight in battle-scarred armor" to stand for humanity in its darkest hour. This lead to concept art. They knew they wanted the Crusader to be bulky and blocky, but it took many weeks of reiterations before they settled on the look of today, with the shield, the flail, and the tabard.

The universe of Diablo has a surprisingly rich backstory, and on the first day of BlizzCon, some of the writing team for the new Reaper of Souls expansion sat down on the panel stage to answer attendee questions. Many of the questions dealt with those little minutae and side characters of the world lore nerds (such as myself) love so much, but there were also fun and interesting insights into Reaper of Souls and future stories in the Diablo world.

Q: Could we have a failure cinematic if we die to Malthael?

It would be too expensive and time consuming, and would require dropping other features. That said, the team is considering special events if you die or fail, but can't promise or reveal anything on that front yet.

Q: While Bul'kathos appears to be the main Barbarian hero, the Immortal King set refers to someone called Worusk. Who is the true supreme Barbarian and who is Worusk?