Blizzcon 2014 Round Up

Posted by DHAdmin on November 10th, 2014 at 3:41 pm
Blizzard Quote [source]

BlizzCon 2014 has come and gone, leaving behind a flurry of news and excitement! Whether you've followed along from home with the Virtual Ticket or sprinted between panels and game demos, it's possible you may have missed a detail or two from show. Not to worry, we're here to keep you informed with recaps, interviews, and news features.

In addition to our own panel recaps, we'll be compiling media and fan site coverage from BlizzCon 2014 right here for your convenience! Check back regularly throughout the week for updates as they become available. Find something we missed? Then let us know in the comments and we'll add it to the list!

Table of Contents:

Day 1: Diablo III — What's Next

The Reaper of Souls development team took the stage to share some insight on upcoming content, balance changes, and of course new loot headed your way in the near future!

Mischief Managed: New Treasure Goblins!

After expressing our utmost gratitude for your continued support throughout the launch of Reaper of Souls and the Ultimate Evil Edition, game director Josh Mosqueira introduced the newest members of the Treasure Goblin family.

The Blood Thief, the Odious Collector, and the Gem Hoarder are all variations of your typical Treasure Goblin. Each drops a different type of loot: Blood Shards, Crafting materials and recipes, and Gems respectively! These little guys will be arriving in Patch 2.1.2, and who knows? They might not be alone…

More to Explore: Nephalem Rifts Revisited

Next, senior game designer Jonny Ebbert touched on our design intent behind Nephalem Rifts, using randomization as a tool to create an experience that's infinitely replayable. We're revisiting several existing zones from Acts I and II and adding new map tiles to accomplish this goal.

FieldsNew_Bright_thumb.png

These changes will apply to the Oasis, Spider Caves, and Leoric's Jail maps and will be implemented for both Nephalem and Greater Rifts in Patch 2.1.2. We’ll be doing the same for Stinging Winds, the Tristram Fields, and the Festering Woods in a future patch too!

Diamonds in the Rough: New Legendary Gems!

Legendary Gems are a big game changer. We really love how they allow you shift stat priorities and add build variation, but recognize that there are still some holes missing in the utility they can provide. We're developing two new Legendary gems for Patch 2.1.2 that are oriented around Defense and Healing to help fill those gaps.

Greater Rift Improvements

Greater Rifts are a recent addition, and we've learned a lot since adding them. There are a ton of changes coming in the next patch to address some of our (and your) biggest concerns. Expect balance changes to Pylons, monster distribution levels, Rift Guardian randomness, and the addition of a Resurrection at Corpse option for non-Hardcore players, complete with incrementing death timer.

All of these changes will be coming soon to the PTR!

New Item Tier: Ancient Items

Lead designer Kevin Martens introduced a brand new feature: Ancient Items. Ancient Items are an entirely new tier of Legendary item, juiced up and able to roll up to 30% higher stats. Every Legendary in the game has a chance to roll as an Ancient Legendary, and they can only be acquired in Torment I and above. The higher your Torment level, the greater your chance of finding an Ancient item!

BC14LiveTweet-AncientLegendary_D3_Social_JP_960x480.png

Twisted Nature: Explore the Ruins of Sescheron

In addition to previewing Patch 2.1.2, we shared some concepts for content coming in a later patch. The Ruins of Sescheron will be a new Adventure Mode-only zone with new enemies, traps, and bounties for players to explore.Â

This former Barbarian city is inspired by the opening cinematic of Diablo II: Lord of Destruction and you'll be able to roam these ruins in new bounties, Nephalem Rifts, and Greater Rifts.Â

The enemies your heroes will find in the harsh lands of Sescheron embody the theme of "twisted nature." They tend to hunt in swarms and can pose quite a threat if not managed quickly. Check out the Naja Beetle, Glowing Death, and Frost Maggot below!

Not to be outdone, the Ruins of Sescheron will also feature the Rat King...a truly hideous creature accompanied by an equally hideous contingent of (you guessed it) rats. Glorious!

Season 2 Coming Soon:

In addition to these content reveals, senior technical game designer Wyatt Cheng also explained that Season 1 was a big learning experience, and we’ve got a lot of plans to improve on Season 2 as a result. From Conquests to new Legendaries and rewards, there was plenty to cover on Season 2 alone, so we’ve gone into greater detail over in our preview blog here.

SSN2Preview_LiveTweet_JP_960x480.png

Day 2: Evolving Reaper of Souls

For our second panel, game director Josh Mosquiera got us pumped to talk about items, introducing the philosophies we'd be covering in both the past and future of design for Diablo III. Before getting into the finer details, lead technical artist Julian Love introduced the crowd to our Legendary Workshop.

If you haven't heard about our latest community project and want to hear about the final power we decided on, head over to our Legendary Workshop announcement blog for more information!

Current Philosophy: Epic Heroes, Epic Loot

While our workshop continued on the side, Josh talked about how our current core designs behind items in Diablo III are epic heroes and the promise of epic loot. We accomplish this today through many smaller philosophy points:

  • Less is more.
    • Limit the amount of stuff found but make sure you care about the items acquired.
  • Legendary items should define builds.
    • Encourage build diversity.
    • Create interesting gearing choices.Â
  • Rarity equals power.
    • The rarest items in the game should feel the most powerful.
    • Avoid muddling gear choices with an overlap in power range.

These values have gotten us a long way, and Josh, along with lead system designer Kevin Martens and game designer Travis Day, covered different parts of the journey of Diablo III.

We had a lot of good intentions with features like the original Inferno difficulty, the Elite "Out of Time" debuff, highly rewarding destructables, and the Auction House. Of course, as none of these things have remained in game, we know that they didn’t work out in the end.

So where did we go wrong?

Looking Back on Item Design

The original philosophies we had are quite different from the current iteration:

  • Long item reward tail.
    • We originally wanted the pursuit of end game loot to take a very long time.
  • The Quality Tier Overlap Fallacy.
    • The idea that a well-rolled Magic item could be better than a low-end Rare was intriguing, but caused too much confusion for gearing.
  • Randomness is king.
    • The concept was that an item with a less than perfect roll gave you something else to work toward.
    • In practice, it’s just frustrating.

After Diablo III launched, we patched in a lot of fixes to remove or improve features that weren't working. The Monster Power system preserved high difficulty levels while not making them impossible to achieve. Paragon levels were introduced to give players a consistent way to make progress regardless of the random number generator’s whims. Ubers and the Hellfire Machine event gave dedicated players long-term farming goals.

Timeline_Final_thumb.png

Challenging Assumptions: Console and the Auction House

While our PC team was hard at work, our console team was discovering this new platform was a great place to challenge assumptions. We found we could break the mold by introducing features that were otherwise seen as “not very Diablo,” such as tooltip comparisons. Through experimentation, we discovered our item philosophy is what needed work.

unleash_thumb.jpg

Console's experiments became what we called Loot 1.5. It laid the foundation for Loot 2.0, the complete revamp of itemization that came with the Reaper of Souls expansion. Less, better, and more epic were all key goals. Yet there remained one piece of the puzzle: the Auction House.

It didn't take long to realize that the Auction House discouraged players from acquiring their gear through simply playing the game. Acquiring your gear through menus wasn’t what Diablo was all about, but it was how it was being played. This was the driving force behind removing it, and we haven’t looked back.

Where We Go From Here

Where do we go from here? We've made some great sweeping changes, but there's always more room to learn and grow. We plan on continuing to create gameplay variety and to focus on the fantasy. This means making sure your Demon Hunter feels like vengeance incarnate and your Crusader is that war machine made human. From there, we can "balance to awesome" and make sure that the numbers behind those characters speak to those ideals.

Evo_DHFantasy_thumb.png

Sneak Peek: New Items and Sets!

So let's get to what you're really here for...previews of the upcoming Legendary items and Sets we've been hard at work on!

Raiment of a Thousand Storms had some significant updates. These were made to not only maintain the fantasy of the Monk's fast and slippery nature, but to make sure the gameplay feels fun and engaging rather than a game of pinball.

We're revising a few existing Legendaries to fill in gaps and improve skills that may have fallen to the wayside due to more powerful gearing options. We’re also introducing entirely new pieces that fulfill a similar cause. Of course, we have plenty of new class sets coming up too!

While we’ve got several sets in the works, only a few are ready to share right now. We want to return to some of the long-requested gameplay styles that the community has been asking for and that we’ve been dying to revisit.

Â

It’s been a great experience to reflect on not only what we’ve learned, but what we’ve accomplished. We’re eager to continue developing Diablo III and to keep bringing you an amazing game that you’ll love to return to throughout the years.Â

Fansite & Media Coverage

Can't get enough news? Here's more we've collected from around the web!

Other Blogs & Panel Recaps

Interviews & Hands-On Reviews

Videos

Photos & Screenshots

Blizzcon Diablo 3 News Summary

Posted by DHAdmin on November 7th, 2014 at 10:32 am

I will be updating this post as details are revealed. First Diablo 3 panel starts at 2:15 PM PST.

New Game Mechanics/Modes/Areas:

  • New snowy ruins zone called The Ruins of Sesheron, old Barbarian capital. Based on the area in the Diablo 2 cinematic where baal goes to the gate of Sesheron.
  • Will have new bounties and monsters in Adventure mode.

New Monsters:

New Boss:

  • Rat King
  • Everytime you hit him rats come out of his back.
  • Summons Rat Tornados.
  • Eats your corpse when you die.

General Changes:

  • Three new Goblins:
    • (1) The Blood Thief: Drops Blood Shards
    • (2) Odious Collector: Drops Crafting Materials and Plans
    • (3) Gem Hoarder: Drops Gems
    • Goblins now seek out enemies and have unique minimap icons.

Adventure Mode:

  • New Act Layouts in towns. To make all the artisans closer to each other.

Rifts:

  • New Boss: Rat King
  • Improved random map layout in Rift maps for Oasis, Spider Caves, Leoric's Jail.
  • No more long straight ways and loops, they want rifts to feel more fresh every time.
  • Experimenting with a new mechanic. Death timer when you die that increases every time you die, instead of just spawning at the last Greater Rift checkpoint.
  • Changes to Nephalem Trials coming to be more consistent.

Pylons:

  • Pylon Changes
  • Shield Pylon: Now reflects damage taken and explodes dealing damage when it ends.
  • Speed Pylon: Lasts 1 minute and ignores collisions even allowing you to walk through waller.

Seasons:

  • Season 2 on PTR soon.
  • They will bring back old conquests and add new ones.
  • They don't want a Paragon leader board, as it promotes repetitive gameplay.
  • They really liked speed racer conquest. (Complete story mode in an hour)
  • Three new conquests:
    • Get 50m gold outside of the vault
    • Kill certain bosses within 20 minutes of starting the game
    • Complete lore books

    Legendary Gems

    • Will not be redesigning current legendary gems, instead they will be adding new gems.
    • Hoping new legendary items will make the under used legendary gems perform better.
    • Two new Legendary gems.

    New (and updated old) Legendary Items:

    • More legendary items will be shown tomorrow
    • New item type: Ancient Legendary items.
      • Ancient items have higher stat ranges. About a 30% increase.
      • Higher chance on higher Torment and Greater Rifts for Ancient legendary items. 5-10% of legendary item to be Ancient quality.
      • For example: 500-650 Strength on a Chest Piece instead of 416-500.
    • Crown of the Primus: Slow Time gains the effects of all runes
    • Wormwood: Locust Swarm deals continous damage. Also rolls 21-25% Poison Damage.
    • Gungdo Gear:Exploding Palm's on-death explosion applies Exploding Palm.
    • Ranslor's Folly: Energy Twister periodically pulls in an enemy withing 30 yards. An enemy can only be pulled in this way once every 5 seconds.

    New Sets:

    • Barbarian: Set based on Whirlwind and Rend.
      • 2 Piece:Rend Deals 300% more damage.
      • 4 Piece: Rend lasts 300% longer.
      • 6 Piece: Targets affected by rend take +30)% Whirlwind damage.
    • Demon Hunter: Multishot and Discipline
      • 2 Piece: Gain 2 Discipline every time you use a Hatred Generator.
      • 4 Piece: Take 20% less damage if there are enemies within 40 yards.
      • 6 Piece: Every point of Discipline you currently have increases the damage of your Hatred Generators and Multishot by 10%
    • Wizard: Slow Time
      • 2 Piece: Casting Arcane Orb, Energy Twister, Magic Missile and Shock Pulse reduce the cooldown of Slow Time by 1 second.
      • 4 Piece: Enemies affected by your Slow Time take 1250% weapon damage every second.
      • 6 Piece: Enemies affected by your Slow Time take 500% more damage from your Arcane Orb, Energy Twister, Magic Missile and Shock Pulse.
    • Monk: Sunwuko Set Changes
      • 2 Piece: Casting Cyclone Strike, Exploding Palm, Lashing Tail Kick, Tempest Rush or Wave of Light causes a decoy to spawn that taunts nearby enemies and then explodes for 100% weapon damage.
      • 4 Piece: Enemies hit by the decoy explosion take 500% from your Cyclone Strike, Exploding Palm, Lashing Tail Kick, Tempest Rush or Wave of Light abilities for 3 seconds.

    Seasons:

    • New Boss: Rat King

    Class Changes will be discussed at tomorrows Diablo panel.

What to Expect From Blizzcon!

Posted by DHAdmin on November 5th, 2014 at 12:49 pm
Blizzard Quote [source]

Just as the Angel of Death descends upon Westmarch, the time has come once more for the Blizzard community to take the Anaheim Convention Center by storm! If you're planning on joining us live at the event or simply tuning in to celebrate in spirit, here's what you can expect when it comes to all things Diablo for BlizzCon 2014.

Taking the Stage—BlizzCon Panels

Chomping at the bit to know what we're working on? We've got two panels this weekend that offer an inside look at our design process and will give you a taste of what’s to come!

general0066-full_thumb.jpg

Diablo III - What's Next?:

From 2:15 p.m. - 3:15 p.m. PST on Friday, November 7, join us at the Panel Stage in Hall A for Diablo III - What's Next. In this you'll get a first look at some of the features and concepts we're working on for future Diablo III patches, including a taste of new loot, upcoming balance changes, and a few . . . mischievous surprises.

Led by game director Josh Mosqueira, lead designer Kevin Martens, senior technical designer Wyatt Cheng, and senior game designer Jonny Ebbert, this is a panel Diablo III fans won't want to miss it!

Evolving Reaper of Souls: 

Our second panel runs on Saturday, November 8 from 12:45 p.m. - 1:45 p.m. PST, and if items are your passion, this will definitely pique your interest! In Evolving Reaper of Souls, we're taking a retrospective look at the past and how it has impacted the future of item design in Diablo III.

Kevin Martens and Josh Mosqueira will be joined by game designer Travis Day to discuss how our philosophies have changed and all the lessons we've learned throughout the development and launch of both Diablo III and Reaper of Souls. Not to mention, we'll also be revealing some upcoming Legendary and Set items!

Check out the full panel schedule here for more information.

Don't Forget the Legendary Workshop!

But that's not all! As an added bonus for our Evolving Reaper of Souls panel, we're bringing a few lucky attendees on stage during the panel on Saturday to jam on item design live from BlizzCon, developing our second-ever community Legendary.

LegendaryWS_D3_Social_JP-BirD_960x480_thumb.png

Whether you're attending or not, be sure to check out our Legendary Workshop blog for more information if you'd like to submit an idea. 

Catch Us in the Community Corner

Got some burning questions for our developers or community mangers? Stop by the Community Corner anytime during the weekend to visit with influential members of our community, chat with our developers and "blues," or just hang out!

blizzcon_floormap2014@2x - Thumb.png

Wyatt Cheng and Travis Day will be swinging by for an open discussion right after our first panel on Friday, from 3:30 p.m. - 4:45 p.m. PST, so don't be shy. Join us and say hello!

Experience BlizzCon—Wherever You Are!

Whether you're on your way to Anaheim or tuning in from the comfort of your personal Sanctuary, there are plenty of ways to keep tabs on the news and excitement from BlizzCon! We’ll be covering the event on our social channels, so if you want to follow along with updates straight from the show floor, be sure to Like and Follow us on Facebook and Twitter. 

Of course, if you want the news straight from the Goatman's mouth (sorry, Grimiku), then you should definitely snag a Virtual Ticket. Not only will you be able to watch the events as they happen, but you’ll have on-demand access to our full suite of panel stages as well as the best seats in the house for our contests—and the closing concert featuring Metallica!

BC14_VT_Carousel_640x300_EJ02.jpg

This direct coverage comes with a digital goodie bag that’s simply to die for, so head over to our BlizzCon site for all the details.

See You Soon, Nephalem!

We are beyond stoked for this year's BlizzCon, and we hope you are too! What are you looking forward to most this year? Will you be meeting us on the show floor? Let us know in the comments section, and get ready. . . .

See you there!

+100% Bonus Gold Find and EXP – Happy Halloween!

Posted by DHAdmin on October 30th, 2014 at 3:47 pm
Blizzard Quote [source]

Somewhere between the High Heavens and the Pandemonium Fortress linger spirits who hunger for the company of wandering nephalem. . . .

This weekend, we invite you to take part in a celebration honoring these ancient ghosts of the fallen. All mortals who log in to Diablo III this weekend on any platform will receive a +100% bonus to Gold Find and EXP! As with previous buffs, the bonuses provided will stack multiplicatively with existing in-game bonuses, including those provided by items, shrines, Pools of Reflection, and Paragon points.

This bonus Gold Find and Experience period begins in the Americas region on Friday, October 31 at 12:00 a.m. PDT and ends on Monday, November 3 at 11:59 p.m. PST.

Have a ghoulishly good time, heroes. If perchance you fall victim to the things that go bump in the night, be not afraid . . . you'll have plenty of company on the other side.

*For PC, the buff will start and end at the noted times in each gameplay region according to its local time zone (PDT/PST for the Americas, CET for Europe, and KST for Asia). For console, the buff will start and end in all regions at the same time, listed above. For time zone assistance, click here.

The Waypoint - Week of October 20

Posted by DHAdmin on October 25th, 2014 at 3:16 pm
Blizzard Quote [source]

This edition of the Waypoint focuses on death, destruction, and how to optimize some of your favorite builds! If you enjoy sharing builds, there’s a useful tool for that, too!

How To Use Roland's Legacy In Higher Greater Rifts

We’ve featured Deadset before in our Play Your Way column. In his recent video guide on Roland’s Legacy for the Crusader, he shows us a build that handles Greater Rift - Difficulty 37. If you’ve ever wondered how to use the set in your build, but weren’t sure how to maximize its power, now you know!

A Cool Tool for Builds Gets An Update

If you’ve been following Diablo Fans lately, you’ll notice their “Diablo Builds” tool was recently updated. When you create builds to share with others using the tool, you can now suggest stat priorities for gear, the three Legendary Gems that are best to use, and how to prioritize Paragon points. If you love theorycrafting or finding and sharing new builds, it’s a tremendously useful resource to keep in mind!

Capture2.PNG

Turning Your Primary Skills Into AoE Attacks

/u/Meatheadgaming of Reddit Diablo (also known as Meathead Mikhail) found an interesting way to turn your primary skills into broad-area attacks using a certain set of Legendary Gems. He even shows off his clever combination in this useful video, where he goes in-depth to describe how it works!

Seeking The Thrill of Near-Death Experiences

On Diablo IncGamers, Hardcore columnist Xanth writes about how changes to the game over time have diminished the specter of death by making it more avoidable. While some players push their limits in Greater Rifts, others are content to build up a cushion of comfort in lower Torment and play it safe.

For those playing Hardcore, do you find yourself hot on the trail of death, or is it the other way around?

Hardcore Near Death - Thumbnail.jpg

Learn How To Play Builds With Armchair Rifting

Shrankar of Gaming Uploads noticed his Youtube followers were struggling to understand how to use the builds he shares. To help out, he started creating videos for those who enjoy “armchair rifting” (like being an armchair quarterback). He gives you a build to try and tells you how to handle elites, when to use skills, and how to handle different enemies and environments while he's actually doing it in the game.

We think it leads to a more immersive, "show, don't tell" style of build guide, but what do you think?

What Do You Want To See In The Waypoint?

The Waypoint is designed to share the videos, discussions and guides that are most helpful and interesting to others. We’ve had several people send ideas for what to include, and we’d like to know what contributions your fellow community members made that you think are worth sharing!

If you see a cool thread, tweet, article or video that’s worth sharing, send it over to tyvalir@blizzard.com (along with a brief explanation of why it’s worth sharing)!

© 2026 DiabloHub | Privacy Policy | Terms of Use | Contact