Diablo III Launching May 15

http://us.battle.net/d3/en/blog/4612389/Test-3_16_2012

ZOMG!

It's a shame that this game will have a constant internet drm scheme.

Avoozl said:

It's a shame that this game will have a constant internet drm scheme.

Doesn't Starcraft 2 already have a log-in DRM? Not much better.

I will most likely not have a machine that will run it by May, so I'll be waiting for Torchlight 2 instead.

I'm going to get me a copy of Diablo V.

I'm interested if Diablo III will include a track that sounds even more beautiful than "Town" from the original game.

Look out Hell, we will defeat you some day!

I admit I haven't been following Diablo III even though I played the hell our of D2. However now that I checked out the D3 website and found the skill "calculator" I lost all interest. If that...thing is any indication of how you "build" your characters it looks like the game will be pretty boring and disappointing.

MRB_Doom said:

I'm interested if Diablo III will include a track that sounds even more beautiful than "Town" from the original game.

Look out Hell, we will defeat you some day!

The original composer Matt Uelmen left Blizzard in 2008. The music I've heard from the beta version of Diablo 3 is mostly dull, subdued ambient stuff that never goes anywhere.

Uelmen is now at Runic Games working on Torchlight 2, which is shaping up to be a lot more exciting than Diablo 3 overall.

GeckoYamori said:

The original composer Matt Uelmen left Blizzard in 2008. The music I've heard from the beta version of Diablo 3 is mostly dull, subdued ambient stuff that never goes anywhere.

Uelmen is now at Runic Games working on Torchlight 2, which is shaping up to be a lot more exciting than Diablo 3 overall.

Thanks for the info. Uelmen made me think about memories all the time whenever I listened to "Town".

Jodwin said:

However now that I checked out the D3 website and found the skill "calculator" I lost all interest.

What are calculators doing in that medieval setting? Don't they just use plain old magic?

I'm betting that Blizzard had already made a fortune on those pre-orders alone.

GeckoYamori said:

The original composer Matt Uelmen left Blizzard in 2008. The music I've heard from the beta version of Diablo 3 is mostly dull, subdued ambient stuff that never goes anywhere.

Uelmen is now at Runic Games working on Torchlight 2, which is shaping up to be a lot more exciting than Diablo 3 overall.

Matt Uelmen composed about 90 minutes of music for Diablo 3 http://forums.battle.net/thread.html?topicId=27835033240&sid=3000 .Also, I think I know which sountracks you think are boring, those are just ambient sounds, this is some of D3's real music http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dnMu1959Xvo

I was a big Diablo 1&2 junkie. I'd really like to play this, but my computer is definitely past her prime.

Would anyone be interested in an official Doomworld Diablo 1 play through?

DooM_RO said:

Matt Uelmen composed about 90 minutes of music for Diablo 3 http://forums.battle.net/thread.html?topicId=27835033240&sid=3000 .Also, I think I know which sountracks you think are boring, those are just ambient sounds, this is some of D3's real music http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dnMu1959Xvo

That sounds more like something Matt would make, but still too subdued and uninteresting. Lacks his signature drumwork, strumming guitars, solo intruments, etc. Overall it just feels like another case of trying to channel the classic music in a "modern" style, which only drowns it in the typical cinematic score dullness you hear in everything these days.

I'm not gonna buy D3 on launch. I want to make sure first that it doesn't suck. So far they have a lot to prove.

kristus said:

I'm not gonna buy D3 on launch. I want to make sure first that it doesn't suck. So far they have a lot to prove.

That's telling the folks who camp out in front of the stores before the launch at midnight...

I'm more than a little worried that they're going to mess this up, big time. This game seems scarcely similar to the fantastic games of D1 and D2. I spent countless hours in those isometric worlds but this looks like it won't be able to hold my interest for long.

I just watched the opening cinematic and I burst out laughing when it featured Deckard Cain looking up and saying with a quivering voice, "It has begun." Damn it, Blizzard. Just... damn it.

D3 has been prepurchaced and is almost done downloading here. I can't wait. I can't wait for torchlight 2 either, but the lack of ANY damn info on that game in recent months is pretty disheartening.

Jodwin said:

I checked out the D3 website and found the skill "calculator" I lost all interest. If that...thing is any indication of how you "build" your characters it looks like the game will be pretty boring and disappointing.

Every game that has some sort of talent tree system are going to have optimal character builds. In fact, diablo 2 was pretty fucking terrible about this in particular for many many years (largely because you couldn't respec or anything and were forced to play with broken characters or reroll). Other times certain types of builds required very particular items. Want to play a non-amazon bow user? Requires a kuko. Wanna play a poison necro? Requires a blackbogs. Because of that and diablo 2's shit talent system meant that only a handful of skills were useful beyond normal difficulty or useless regardless of how many points were placed into them, while others were near overpowered the moment you placed a single point into them.

Frankly, blizz has learned a lot from tweaking wows talent system over the years and I have pretty good reason to believe that it will be much better than diablo 2s.

GeckoYamori said:

That sounds more like something Matt would make, but still too subdued and uninteresting. Lacks his signature drumwork, strumming guitars, solo intruments, etc. Overall it just feels like another case of trying to channel the classic music in a "modern" style, which only drowns it in the typical cinematic score dullness you hear in everything these days.

Hands down diablo 2 has one of the greatest soundtracks of all time. Even if he was on board for the the entire soundtrack of D3, I doubt it would even come close to anything else he did and people would be disappointed. I often wondered if blizz even knew just how good the music in d2 was, because the music in the wrath and cata wow exps were pretty fucking bad save for 1 or 2 tracks.

Quast said:

Every game that has some sort of talent tree system are going to have optimal character builds. In fact, diablo 2 was pretty fucking terrible about this in particular for many many years (largely because you couldn't respec or anything and were forced to play with broken characters or reroll). Other times certain types of builds required very particular items. Want to play a non-amazon bow user? Requires a kuko. Wanna play a poison necro? Requires a blackbogs. Because of that and diablo 2's shit talent system meant that only a handful of skills were useful beyond normal difficulty or useless regardless of how many points were placed into them, while others were near overpowered the moment you placed a single point into them.

Frankly, blizz has learned a lot from tweaking wows talent system over the years and I have pretty good reason to believe that it will be much better than diablo 2s.

Frankly, I don't give a damn about that. For me one of the biggest draws into the genre is being able to come up with weird character builds that may or may not work, and then see them grow while trying to make things work. A game where you can't actually, well, build your character has none of that.

In Diablo 2 most of my characters retired around level 40-60. That was the mark where their builds matured enough that I felt I had seen them through and could start experimenting on a new one. Personally, I had no interest in playing through Hell, because that would require grinding through with one and the same build over and over again. But creating different kinds of elemental druids and seeing if they can make it through Nightmare, for example? Much more satisfying and interesting.

I read an interview about Diablo 3 where one guy at Blizzard said they dropped skill points because it had people putting points only on one skill. Well, that's just bullshit. In Diablo 2 you could get more than enough points to max five skills, if maxing was your game. And the later versions added more versatility with synergies. Then there's games like Titan Quest, where you get multiple points per level and skills have varying point caps. In Titan Quest's case, the skills cap at 4-16 points, depending on the skill. Plus that game has respeccing. So I don't what the guys at Blizzard have been smoking, but I do know that what they're doing is bullshit.

Heh, in light of all this Diablo III hype, I bought Diablo II because I haven't played it for some reason. Totally not stuck in the past at all. ;P

Jodwin said:

Frankly, I don't give a damn about that. For me one of the biggest draws into the genre is being able to come up with weird character builds that may or may not work, and then see them grow while trying to make things work. A game where you can't actually, well, build your character has none of that.

In Diablo 2 most of my characters retired around level 40-60. That was the mark where their builds matured enough that I felt I had seen them through and could start experimenting on a new one. Personally, I had no interest in playing through Hell, because that would require grinding through with one and the same build over and over again. But creating different kinds of elemental druids and seeing if they can make it through Nightmare, for example? Much more satisfying and interesting.

I read an interview about Diablo 3 where one guy at Blizzard said they dropped skill points because it had people putting points only on one skill. Well, that's just bullshit. In Diablo 2 you could get more than enough points to max five skills, if maxing was your game. And the later versions added more versatility with synergies. Then there's games like Titan Quest, where you get multiple points per level and skills have varying point caps. In Titan Quest's case, the skills cap at 4-16 points, depending on the skill. Plus that game has respeccing. So I don't what the guys at Blizzard have been smoking, but I do know that what they're doing is bullshit.

You CAN make weird builds in diablo 3, and yes, they are viable.Look at this melee wizard http://www.diablofans.com/topic/31148-legit-melee-wizard-build/ I can't find the related Blizzcon video, but I am SURE there is one.

Is the calculator optional? Anyway, I like that they finally got a class right: the Demon Hunter. From their description, the Demon Hunters fit perfectly with what Diablo really is about. The other classes look like foreign exchanges in comparison.

As for the bot, I probably wouldn't choose the Templar, simply because he seems holier than thou. The Scoundrel looks too realistic and I can't see him tagging along with my Demon Hunter. I'd probably choose the chick.

EDIT: looks like the Demon Hunter's skills are still too combat oriented. Well okay, nobody's perfect, but I'm still hoping to see a warrior-mage class in a game some day.

DooM_RO said:

You CAN make weird builds in diablo 3, and yes, they are viable.Look at this melee wizard http://www.diablofans.com/topic/31148-legit-melee-wizard-build/ I can't find the related Blizzcon video, but I am SURE there is one.

Exactly, I'm not sure what jodwin is really complaining about here because D3's skill setup almost guarantees that every ability is useful to some degree. Most abilities, even magical ones use base weapon damage to determine skill damage which is a much better way to go about it. Furthermore, base skills can be altered with runes to suit certain play styles/character builds.

Basically, oddball characters will be far more viable to play in D3 than in D2. And people that are inexperienced with the game won't waste hours and hours in accidentally building worthless characters which was really easy to do in D2. I mean people did dumb shit like putting 20 points into worthless starter skills like magic arrow or might or fireball or summon raven because the early game is so easy only to get frustrated beyond belief not much later and at that point not even uber gear would help.

printz said:

I'm still hoping to see a warrior-mage class in a game some day.

The monk pretty much fits this to a T.

I'll probably choose Monk+Templar after I'm fed up with the Demon Hunter+Enchantress. And later, Wizard (probably female)+Scoundrel.

The Monk reminds me of that non-Blizzard Diablo expansion Hellfire.

In a future expansion I'd like to see a black magic kind of hero that uses his own blood to power up his demonic spells...name him The Cabalist

There was one of those in D2, it's called the Necromancer.

kristus said:

There was one of those in D2, it's called the Necromancer.

It's been years since I've last played Diablo 2.Even so, I don't remember the necro using his own life as "mana" for spells.I could be wrong.

DooM_RO said:

You CAN make weird builds in diablo 3, and yes, they are viable.Look at this melee wizard http://www.diablofans.com/topic/31148-legit-melee-wizard-build/ I can't find the related Blizzcon video, but I am SURE there is one.

Picking a couple of skills that are set on a specific power level (whether they scale based on equipment is irrelevant) is not the same as building your character from nothing to something powerful. It's not about being viable, I could care less about that, it's about being able to build your character according to a specific plan that you made up when you were drunk or high or whatever and then see what happens.

Diablo 3 hands you out a bunch of skills and says "Here, use these, this is all you'll get and this what they'll always be like." That's not what I want, what I want is a game that says "Here, this is what you can use now. But after you invest your time and effort on these particular abilities, you could have all kinds of much more awesome stuff." I want to have both long term planning and progression that's based on my own choices. Diablo 3 doesn't seem to have either.

I really hope the Calculator will be optional. Note that I'll probably choose to play it alone, unless a buddy invites me to go battle.net.

printz said:

I really hope the Calculator will be optional. Note that I'll probably choose to play it alone, unless a buddy invites me to go battle.net.

Uhh... Skill calculators are simply tools, usually flash or javascript apps, that let you put points on skills and see what kind of stuff you'd get at a particular level with particular point investment. Of course this is pointless in Diablo 3 because there are no skill points. That's why I called Blizzard's D3 skill calculator a "calculator", because it really isn't one.