DiabloFans

I actually like it. Oculus+Triune power ring make all monsters explode, it's essentially a Power Pylon. I've also seen a lot of complaints about melee classes not being able to benefit from it, but I disagree: since the circles always appear next to the monster you hit, it's often too close to danger for my UE DH, but on Shadow I can use it quite often. It changes the game's pace a bit here and there and keeps it interesting.

Maybe some of you fellow HC players have noticed that the servers have been acting up lately, as also reported by others. Combined with the mixed reception of the seasonal theme (some people saying they don't like it; some clearly enjoying it), I was wondering how popular this season is. Of course we don't know any player numbers, as Blizzard isn't sharing them. So I thought: why not use the stats from a D3-related website that has been up and running for several seasons with no major changes nor announcements to compare the different seasons? I went ahead and did some very basic plotting of D3Resource.com. Here's what it looks like, annotated (click here or on the pic for higher resolution):

I thought it provided some interesting insights (obviously this is just me guessing based on crude, superficial data analysis):

• The Triune season is indeed a bit less popular than LoN. Which is surprising to me, as I felt 2.6.6 has more in store than 2.6.5 (some set revamps, new legendary powers, an actually newly implemented mechanic as season theme). My guess is that the summer release timing and the upcoming WoW Classic release had some people skip this season.
• I was very surprised that 2.6.1 saw more traffic than 2.6.0. I believe this is, again, due to the Necro DLC hitting in summer; also, the release of 2.6.1 fell together with Blizzcon, which has always brought people back (I always see a few spikes in traffic around Blizzcon).
• Looking at the graph, it looks as if balance changes are almost as successful in bringing people back to D3 as large content patches (compare S10 and S16 to S11) - especially after a long drought.
• A similarly interesting insight is that the introduction of season themes alone was not interesting enough to bring people back (S14) - but a set revamp was (S16). This sort of makes me question Blizzard's statement about the introduction of seasonal themes being highly successful. By what measure? Are my numbers so off here?
• The last, really interesting insight I want to make is that of player retention. It seems as if two seasons in particular were able to keep players engaged for a bit longer than the rest - S11 (Necro DLC) and S17 (LoN theme). Which brings me to a point I made countless times: Diablo is a loot-based game. A new class gives you more new loot to hunt. A push for LoN builds prolongs the loot hunt, because it takes longer to get a full ancient set. Want players to play more than just the weekend? Give us something exciting to loot on day 2.

Ending on the obvious caveat - this graph represents visitors on my personal website. It's from the entire domain of D3Resource, but the bulk by far (>80%) comes from the Season Journey Tracker, and the graph looks the same if I sample only for that. Also, I did not account for anomalies (e.g., a sudden increase from some random website that shared any of my links prominently).

TL;DR: I looked at some graphs and determined that if Blizzard gives us a reason for a prolonged/new loot hunt, or shakes up some set damage numbers, more people play Diablo 3. #shocking!

Quote from petegmi»

You're right. I was mistaken. The new Sage's set is what I was recalling. I just checked my own character's blacksmith, and I have the pattern for Captain Crimson's. I have done exactly ONE set of bounties so far this season, too. You may need to put in a ticket to have Blizzard investigate why it hasn't dropped for you yet.

Please don't put in a ticket for not getting loot, unless you didn't mean it to be taken seriously

Sometimes some recipes/plans drop a bit later, it has always been that way. Many people do not experience this, or it is a recipe/plan that is rather useless so they don't care (like all the craftable legendaries from Haedrig). But I've had seasons where the Sage's set wouldn't drop for multiple bounties, so I'm happy that one is now automatically learned by Haedrig at level 12. I've also had seasons where I was waiting longer than necessary for one of the jewelcrafter recipes. The Captain Crimson set is the same - some people get it as their first drop from a bounty/goblin; some people do multiple bounties. Leviathan farmed it for hours on non-season on stream before it finally dropped.

May the RNG be in your favor!

Thanks for the report! I've been told this was probably a cache issue and should be fixed now. Works for me at least - let us know if the problem still persists!

During the update of the build tool, some items disappeared from the selection. We've gone through the list (and everyone's reports - thank you!) and added them in, but due to technical complications it might happen that we overlooked something that is still missing.

If you find an item that is missing in the build tool, or can't be selected, reply here, and the devs will take care of it as soon as possible!

Thank you very much for your cooperation, and we're looking forward to seeing all your cool new builds for this season! Good luck!

Quote from Altreg01»

Dont think a clan membership is required.

Correct, sorry if I didn't make that clear - I've added a note to my post to indicate that it's purely optional. It's just for those who want to join the clan to promote what they're doing and chat with fellow SSFers.

Edit - we've merged the two EU clans, the EU clan is now: SSFEU (SSFFTW was disbanded)!

Quote from Mob Dylan»

I'm NA but I joined SSF FTW because the others I searched only had 2 people in them. FTW has at 47. Am I missing something?

The clan leaders just reported back in yesterday, I didn't know it was still alive. I've added it! Also, it's purely optional and more for your information - there's a bigger clan in EU as well but it seems to be inactive, so we made a new one. And since it's SSF, the clan is purely optional, people may also stay in their own clan or stay clanless if they prefer

Awesome, nice to have you on board Mob Dylan!

In case anyone wants to join our clans, these are the active clans right now (note that joining a clan is purely optional!):

NA - | Solo Self Found | and Solo Self Found FTW

EU - SSFEU

Request invite at any time!

Enjoy playing solo? Looking for a challenge? Bored of meta and rat runs? Or just looking for something "a bit different" this season?

Join the Season 18 Solo Self-Found League!

The SSF League is a community-organized effort to shake things up a bit and give those who prefer playing solo new goals to strive for. Participating is very simple, as there is no sign-up or registration. All you have to do is submit your highest GR clears - and of course to play solo. The SSF League ends after 30 days, so once the "meta is settled" and the S18 alternative to rat runs has been found, you can join groups for the last two months of the season and push for that GR150 clear!

For more details, main organizer Garfm has put together a comprehensive Google Doc with rules and frequently asked questions. He also said up SSF channels on his Discord!

This season we are lucky to have some well-known community members joining us in the SSF (in addition to aforementioned organizer and accomplished speed runner Garfm who will be streaming as well):

• Lord Fluffy
• Bluddshed
• sVr

More to come! Planning to join as well? While there is no registration requirement, it is fun to know who you'll be racing against - so post a reply if you're up for it and want to join the fray! You can also join our clans (purely optional, not at all required) - | Solo Self Found | and SSFTW on NA, and SSFEU on EU!

Survivability after some tiers just becomes an issue - you can improve it by equipping some more defensive choices in cube or in open slots, like Aquila Cuirass or Ancient Parthan Defenders and so on - but later on in the game you will eventually be squishy, on any class, especially once you go above GR 100+.

I haven't played barb myself in a while, but if you play on PC you can link your profile by going to diablo3.com and logging in. I don't think such an option exists on console.

Thanks! I'll prep the site in the background so it's ready when S18 hits live.

Oh, sorry for missing context. We're talking about accounts that have been basically deleted due to the Fandom purchase in December/January or so. Every DFans user received an email with a link they had to click to consent to Fandom taking over the data - if you didn't click that link, apparently your account got deleted. I'm not sure if accounts were ever restored after this (if so that was probably Curse account service, I know nothing about this), but the posts are gone.

Quote from FEIF»

nope i hade like 500-600 post.

i asked bagstone(a moderator) and he said all postcount is gone.

Can confirm, that was the response I received before the closure, when the Curse developers were in charge. Of course now there's new people in town, and maybe some new hope (i.e., maybe it was just too difficult but not impossible - I don't have insight into that kind of backend programming of DiabloFans). And I wouldn't get my hopes up.

Nice! I love Watchman

Hm... I sort of wanted to have only post-Blizzcon messages. But I guess I'll add pre-Blizzcon stuff, maybe in a spoiler. Thanks!

As the silence seems to make way to occasional news about Diablo 4, I thought it would be good to have a thread that offers everything in one place. I'll add stuff to it in reverse chronological order, so the most recent info is always to be found at the top. If there's anything I'm missing, just reply to this thread and I'll add it.

June 20, 2019: Diablo 4 allegedly shown to Blizzard France employees

Source: LeMonde (french). Article talks more about the internal struggle after the massive layoffs, no new gameplay insight.

June 6, 2019: StarCraft FPS cancelled, focus on developing Diablo 4

Source: Kotaku. A first person shooter in the StarCraft universe was cancelled to shift more development onto Diablo 4 and a Left 4 Dead-style Overwatch 2. Blizzard took the time for an official response, semi-confirming it.

November 21, 2018: Diablo 4 internally first codenamed "Hades", then "Fenris"

Source: Kotaku. For a nice summary of a few bullet points, I'll just cite this thread by KainneAbsolute on MMO:

Project Hades: Diablo IV

• Team 3 (Diablo team) was going to start the development of the second expansion of Diablo 3 after the release of Reaper of Souls, but they
received the order to stop. It really surprised them because RoS recovered some of the lost faith of the players in the franchise and they have a few things planned.

• Seems weird because after all, D3 and ROS are successful games.
• Team 3 was scattered. Some people went ot other franchises.
• Project Hades: They were asked to start Diablo IV development immediately. They didnt understood the reasons: they didnt wait to look the
performance of RoS in the following months. Maybe they considered that Diablo III was already a failure and RoS was a good moment to leave
everything in a well manner.

• Diablo 4 has some development. The idea was a third person Dark Souls Style game.
• The change in style was so big, they started to think if it was ok to call it Diablo 4.
• However it was cancelled and rebooted in 2016. They dont know if it was because Mosqueira left the company in the same year. Mosqueira denied to declare for this article.
• The Rise of the Necromancer was a way to appease the fans.
• ‘Man, if we had just done that second expansion instead of losing half the team as a result of the cancellation, and then all of the
personnel changes, management changes, then this walk down the road of Hades… If we hadn’t done any of that and had just focused on doing a solid third act for Diablo, it’d be out by now.’”

Project Fenris: Diablo IV reboot

• Really early in development.
• "They want to make this gross, make it dark, [get rid of] anything that was considered cartoony in Diablo III… Make what people were afraid of in Diablo II, but modern."
• Principles: embrace the Darkness and More social.
• More social? Hub cities and instanced dungeons.
• Team feels enthusiastic and optimistic for the new concept, however it wont see some light until 2020. They want to announce it with a playable demo.
• Isometric camera angle game...for now. They are not sure.
• The team expected and announcement and teaser this year or during Blizzcon. Blizzard heads changed their minds. Blizzards other department
and Blizzcon planner said there wasnt going to be a Diablo 4 announcement. Lack of communication.

• They didnt talk about how to monetize it. Blizzard looks to the example of HS and OW.

(Below: posts before or just shortly after Blizzcon that do not directly hint at "news".)

November 7, 2018: A Quick Word from Blizzard

Source: Official forums

Nevalistis: "Since the moment we stepped into the office on Monday, we have been discussing everything Diablo non-stop. We’re fully committed to listening and engaging—so please keep the constructive feedback coming. Our primary focus right now is poring over that feedback to inform internal discussions, and we’ll follow up with further thoughts as soon as we can."

"We continue to read feedback and our internal discussions are ongoing. We have many plans for Diablo across multiple projects which we’ll be revealing over the course of the coming year. We are eager to share more about all of our projects, but some will have to wait as we prefer to show you, rather than tell you, about them. It's going to take some time as we strive to meet your expectations, but now, more than ever, we are committed to delivering Diablo experiences the community can be proud of.

- The Diablo Teams -"

August 8, 2018: Multiple Diablo projects in the works

Source: Youtube

Nevalistis: [...] We’d also like to let you know that the forges here at Blizzard are burning hot. And we have multiple Diablo projects in the works. Some of them are going to take longer than others. But we may have some things to show you later this year. We hope you stay tuned, while we work to bring these Diablo experiences to life. None of this would be possible without the support that you have shown us for over 20 years.

So whether you first joined us in Diablo 3 or you are a seasoned veteran, thank you. Diablo is, and always will be, part of Blizzard’s identity, and we can’t wait for the future.