DiabloFans

The thought that this is only 5 out of 18 (eighteen!) is actually mind-blowing. If they actually came up with 18 different, recognizable looks (that is, without uniques etc), it's no wonder we also get something like this.

Shouldn't we like.. have had an armor update by now? Or did I miss it?

I guess those claws will be purely defensive though.. to parry blows to the hand. It would be too weird if the armor acts like a weapon.

At first I was a bit disappointed, but actually it's quite awesome, if this is just regular leather armor!

Female barb is up!

http://twitter.com/diablo

I've gobbled down my dinner and it's not there yet

Ah well, I'll just check it again tomorrow. It will be on Wednesdays and Fridays for me.

At first I didn't like it, but after reading the explanation, it perfectly makes sense. I'm especially looking forward to having each levelup mean something. Because, let's be real, in D2 there were only a few occasions where gaining a level meant a notable difference for your character (gaining level 30 for example).

The only thing I'm worried about is this: in D2, it was almost impossible to reach the max level without spending a lot of time doing specific runs. That also meant that in theory, your characters never felt "finished". So everything you did still kinda made sense, because you could still use the xp.

But in D3, when we reach level 60 at the end of the game, won't that mean we're less motiviated to keep playing with that character? It's like.. it's finished, it's done. Even the search for better items won't matter too much, because your character already reached max level.

One way around this would be some end game content only available to lvl 60 characters. That would make reaching lvl 60 feel like a pass to some other special activities.

Yeah, exactly. For balance testing, all they have to do is alter some values. If they put a couple of experienced guys on that, it can be done in a matter of days. And there's nothing a patch won't fix...

Quote from ScyberDragon

I don't think that they would delay the game to hit a specific date but I think that as time has rolled around, they have always tried to shoot for June 28th, regardless of what year it came out. This date is just too important to the Diablo franchise. This year it happens to land on a Tuesday which is when videogames are released as well.

But would that date really be important enough to determine their schedule? What would be the point of that? And would the current team actually care that much about that date?

Can someone confirm there will be no rune quality levels? Somehow I thought that would be the case...

My money's always been on an early 2011 release, and I think that's what we're gonna get. There's no way they can pull off a 2010 date anymore, but early 2011 would give them just those extra months needed. Having to wait another full year now would just seem extremely long, too long given the stage they're at now.

Quote from AcidReign

Sooooo.... It sounds like there are 5 different runestones and that's it. No tiers of runes? No more minor or major runes?

Oh well. I guess 700 is enough

I guess better types of the same rune will just enhance the effect.
E.g. Minor rune of multiplication in lightning skill --> chain lightning hits one extra target.
Greater rune of multiplication in lightning skill --> chain lightning hits five targets.

I don't know whether a better rune would also increase the damage though, maybe you need to increase the skill level for that. Or maybe it's the other way around, that skill level enhances the effects and better runes grant more damage. Or a mixture of both. :mellow:

Good article, I like how you use the bits and pieces we have to form something solid.

I'm still hoping for a release before june though, can't wait another year :/
And I guess in theory it's possible, an early 2011 date... By then I'm already well into my second semester at university, it's a huge amount of time!