Diablo 3 Basics

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This is the Diablo 3 Basics page, which is the main Fact Sheet of known Diablo III information. This much anticipated sequel to Diablo and Diablo II was announced at Blizzard's WWI 2008 in Paris, during 27-28 June 2008. Regardless if you just heard that Diablo III is announced, or if you have been following some of the news, this page should be able to get you up to date!

If you are looking for the Basics Section of the wiki, you can find that in the Basics Category.

Diablo III Logo.jpg

The game will feature a similar isometric view as its predecessor, but will be created completely in a 3D-environment.

Introduction

Diablo III, while featured completely in 3D with a 3D environment, will follow closely in Diablo II's track by using the classic isometric view, fast gameplay and randomised content for high replayability. Some changes have been made in order to make the game faster and more flexible as well as making players choose and employ tactics rather than mindless mouseclicking. Besides taking well learned lessons from WoW, the developers have been inspired by games such as Zelda and God of War. Regardless, the game will be possible to play with a mouse alone, if a player so wishes (but you would be a lot less efficient).

Remember that you as a newbie to Diablo can find more related articles in the Basics Category

Character Classes

Barbarian hammering.
Witch Doctor firebombing.
Blizzard have confirmed that the game will ship with five character classes. Three classes have been revealed:

New with Diablo III is the choice of gender for each class. It's not as customizable as the characters in popular MMO World of WarCraft, but the developers have made it possible to choose a male or female character of the class they prefer. The next class announced will make fans love Blizzard [1], according to Jay Wilson, which is the complete opposite of what he said before the Wizard was announced; that we would hate them [2].


The new maximum character level will be 100 instead of 99.

Skills

You can look at the above known class skills for detailed information about what will be available, but one big general change for character abilities is that you now have a skill bar instead of a potion bar. It works similar to WoW, and more skills can now be accessed easily. Read more about the potion changes below.



Skill Tree Respecs/Resets

In Diablo II, a character always had all their skills and stats as they were allocated. If you made any mistake, the only solution was to start over. There has not been a definite word on talent/skill respecs, but Jay Wilson has said that he didn't like that you were limited in the old system, and that regardless of how the skill system will look, respecs are probably going to be available.

Stats/Attributes

It's no longer possible to choose where to enter your own stat points. They will be automatically assigned every time you level up. The customization that this brought in Diablo II is now going to be moved to itemization among other ways. Have a look what kind of secondary attributes are influenced by the initial stats/attributes Strength, Dexterity, Vitality and Willpower.



Skill Runes

Runes will work very different in Diablo III compared to Diablo II Runes, and is now part of the character customization. You will enter skill runes for your skills/spells, which will affect how the these work in the game. A multiplying rune might make your spell fire additional fireballs, another rune might make the blast radius bigger etc.

Monsters

Goatmen & Siegebreaker.
Diablo III will have a great array of monsters, and they will employ more intelligent behaviour, and effects as well. There will be more 'mini-boss' encounters that make for more epic gameplay, an example is the Thousand Pounder, who isn't really a boss, but a unit type. Other 'effects' include skeletons with large shields that can block and protects archers, ghouls that climb up from sheer walls to attack you, or Grotesques that explode into a hundred Lamprey monsters. We can expect many unique attack patterns and behaviours from the Diablo III monsters.



Items

Barbarian swinging two magical axes.
While the system won't be identical to the one of Diablo II, it will be very similar. Items will drop randomly and have random attributes. Some of the things that definitely changed:
  • Runes no longer attach to weapons, and 'rune words' are completely removed. They are instead used to enhance your skills/spells.
  • The inventory is now 'WoW-style' with one slot per item. No more 'inventory-tetris'.
  • The stash is in the game, bigger this time, and will be possible to expand further.
  • Items will now drop per character, and be invisible to other characters. They are still tradeable, but you will never go a run without loot again.
  • The Full List of Items contain all known items.
  • Potions are drastically changed, with some sort of limits. If it's less gained health/mana, or if it has a cooldown is unknown, but the old potion system is replaced by Health Orbs and the belt is replaced by a skill bar.



NPCs

Cain
There is a small number of NPCs that are confirmed for Diablo III:
  • Deckard Cain - Back to ask us to listen.
  • Leah - Girl from the cinematic. Apparently located close to Deckard Cain, likely in Tristram.
  • Pablo DeSoto - Father of Leah. Close to his daughter, likely in Tristram.
  • Speculated characters to appear in the game can be found on the NPC article.



Locations

Sanctuary world map, with locations noted.
The world map of Sanctuary was actually released with the second Diablo game's manual, but a new an improved map has been made by Blizzard, outlining the continents and the major settlements. Many of these locations will be re-visited in Diablo III including Tristram. Areas close by that were never visited in the previous games will also have a chance, like the Leoric Highlands and Westmarch.

We have been shown detailed pictures of Skovos (the land of the Amazons), as well as Caldeum and Tristram. Skovos is confirmed to be excluded from the game, but the level of detail they are putting in to the universe suggests either a big expansion pack, MMOs or a film.

Outdoor areas will be less randomised than dungeons, and the terrain will for the most part be static. Instead a lot of random scripted events will take place, some will even be really advanced. It can vary from an escort quest, to a mouldy tome, or a big bad boss monster. You will also find interactive environments with dangerous traps and obstacles, and destructible elements. There will be "numerous" outdoor locations.


Dungeons

The only known dungeon of the game so far is the Forgotten Tombs, which is seen on the gameplay video. It seems to be located adjacent to the Leoric Highlands, and probably close to Tristram as well. Dungeons will be almost completely randomized, increasing replayability in the game. As a dungeon is a lot easier to randomize, these will be made different each time, and outdoor locations slightly more static. You will also find interactive environments with dangerous traps and obstacles, and destructible elements. There will be "numerous" dungeouns.


Art Changes

Some fans were very upset that Diablo III is seemingly full of much more colour than the predecessor Diablo II. While the settings in general now includes a lot more colour, Blizzard argues that Diablo II was more colourful than people remember. Some fans have also expressed fears that Diablo III will become too much like World of WarCraft. You can read more about concerns and responses here:



Story Line

Mystical comet overlooking a settlement in the western part of Sanctuary.
The story line of the game takes place twenty years after a few powerful heroes saved Sanctuary from the demonic onslaught in Diablo II. This has gone by largely unnoticed by the general population as most of those warriors who directly faced Hell's armies (and were fortunate enough to survive) went mad from their experiences. Some people know that some sort of conflict took place, but for the most part the war against Diablo is a myth.

The Barbarians gained their identity and cultural pride from protecting the Worldstone within Mount Arreat. To see it defiled by Baal and his minions, and then destroyed, tore out the heart of these proud people. They abandoned their homeland and became nomadic, wandering the lands of Sanctuary and pitching themselves into battle after battle in an effort to forget the pain of their shattered homeland.

What happened to Tyrael after he destroyed the Worldstone is unknown to everyone. Scholars like Deckard Cain anticipated a huge invasion of demonic forces as the protection from the High Heavens and the Burning Hells, but no invasion have begun. Cain has spent the last years trying to figure out what happened, and trying to prepare us for the inevitable onslaught.

We know from the Diablo III cinematic that a great comet of some importance is falling down on to the Tristram Cathedral, and that some unlucky soul (if it's Leah or Cain isn't sure) is hit by it. Hell's armies are amassing, and it isn't safe any more.

Quests

Not that much information is yet available in regards to quests, but what is known is that the quest system will help players interact more with the lore of the game, but still be optional, and not something you need to experience unless you so choose. Blizzard claim the quest system itself will be new. There will be the standard story-line quests, as well as optional random quests related to the game you are currently in and class-quests. The random quests will vary from game to game. The same location in the game might spawn a caravan needing protection, or a mouldy tome which contains a quest, or perhaps just a big bad monster.

Single Player and Multiplayer

Battle.net 2.0.jpg
You will be able to play Diablo III both offline on your PC/Mac as well as online with friends. Jay Wilson have said on numerous occasions that the primary focus will be co-op multiplayer, but not excluding single player game. They want all the fans to meet up together as one community, and will make huge changes to the current setup. The preferred multiplayer system for Diablo III will be Battle.net 2.0 and there will be NO LAN.

Besides the co-op, it will also be possible to fight versus other players.

Battle.net 2.0

Blizzard have promised very big changes in Battle.net 2.0, and besides removing the LAN functionality, the idea is to encourage people to play online with Achievements, handy friends/foes lists and community support. You can read more about confirmed Battle.net features here:



Player Killing

PvP will be possible in Diablo III, but not as it works in Diablo II. Players will no longer be victim of "unwanted PvP action".

Other Changes

Among the things that are not listed under their own headline, there are a few other things to highlight about Diablo III:

  • The death penalty will be a lot more lenient. People will no longer loose experience when dying. Naturally, if the Hardcore mode makes a return, a death will be permanent, but potentially possible for friends to loot the corpse.
  • The old Diablo II Mercenaries are now called followers, and it's now possible to have more than one with you on your travels.
  • Blizzard have not given a final decision if there will be a Hardcore mode in Diablo III or not, but Jay Wilson have said that he likes the idea and can't see any reasons why it should not be included.
  • Corpses will no longer be left permanently. In the opening gameplay video, the corpses stayed for just a few seconds before fading away, but this has been increased to 20 seconds, and might be possible for players to set manually in the settings. The reason is that when the number of corpses amount, they will weigh down the PC running it significantly, since it retains physics from Havok while in the game.
  • Chests will no longer be locked.



Release Information

This is a collection of all information available pertaining to the release of Diablo. Including release date, system requirements, beta testing, price/payment methods and age rating.

Release Date

As usual, the release date for any Blizzard production is kept under wraps for as long as possible. What is known is that Diablo III is behind StarCraft II in the development cycle. A StarCraft release for 2009 and a Diablo III release in 2010/2011 seems probable, and the BlizzCon 2008 information also seem to indicate this.

Still, the level of polish makes it harder to estimate development time left. Any other dates or rumours are that -- rumours.

System Requirements

  • Windows XP compatible
  • Windows Vista compatible
  • Mac OSX compatible

Read more on the Diablo III System Requirements page. Diablo III is made completely in 3D, using Havok physics engine, with a custom game engine made by Blizzard. The game is currently native to DirectX 9, and will not require DirectX 10 to run. The game will probably use a slightly higher level of system requirements than StarCraft II, which also uses Havok & DirectX 9, and is the closest thing we can compare the game to. You can read more on StarCraft II's requirements and DirectX compatibilities as well as shader info here:

Here is a Blizzard quote on the system specs: [3]

Jay Wilson: Currently we have no plans for specific DirectX 10 support. Right now are running a DirectX 9, and we run on a pretty broad range of systems, really fast. Overall, across-the-board Blizzard's goal is that all of our games support a broad range of systems. We don't jump up the system specs in any grand way. We have no intentions of being a high-end game, and certainly no intentions of being an exclusive DirectX 10 game at this time...
We don't exactly know what the system specs are yet, but we'll try to keep them pretty low. We make a lot of decisions about what we do and do not put into our graphics, in order to keep the game running fast. One of the reasons why we talk a lot about art style, and how we focus a lot on art style, stylization of art over... when we do that it allows us to have a good looking game about falling back on technology, our technology does not have to carry us when we have such great art in the game.



Diablo Beta Testing

As with the release date, a time for beta is currently unknown. General information on Blizzard beta tests can be seen on the Beta Test page.

Retail Price

The retail price for Diablo III is unknown and will be stated closer to release. It's likely that the game will be "boxed" (no monthly fees, just a one-off price) and priced similar to other AAA titles.

Game Age Rating

The rating of Diablo III is estimated to be aimed for gamers above the age of 15, while still trying to avoid USK 18+ in Germany, or other similar ratings that would severely hamper the sales of the game in that country. Blizzard are more likely to censor the game in affected countries than to avoid releasing it if the censorship is too harsh.

  • America (ERSB) - "M" Mature Rating (player should be at least 17 years old). No law enforcement.
  • Europe (PEGI) - 16+ (player should be at least 16 years old). No law enforcement (for most countries).
  • Germany (USK) - USK 16+ (player should be at least 16 years old). Law enforcement of USK.
  • Read more in the ratings article.




Who's in Charge?

Naturally, Blizzard are the guys making Diablo III, but that isn't a surprise. The important people for this production is the relatively new Blizzard employee Diablo III Lead Designer Jay Wilson, besides the regular team. For fans, you might want to keep a look out for Bashiok, the new Diablo Community Manager and Leonard Boyarsky who is the Lead World Designer for Diablo III, and head of quests & lore as well as designing the world of Sanctuary.

Expansions, MMO or Diablo Movie

Whatever will come after Diablo III is unknown, but it seems apparent that Blizzard are confident [4] that there WILL be an expansion. They have mentioned that the story line will have a more "final" ending than in Diablo II, which possibly means to make it better for an expansion, or perhaps a future MMO or a Diablo movie. Regardless, Jay Wilson have said that there are lots of potential for expanding the universe. If this means exclusively from printed media or also includes games and movies is just something we'll have to wait and see.

Further Information

You can follow the links to each specific section for further details on Diablo III development and information. You can also use one of the following links for further information:

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