Posted in Blizzard, Starcraft Pulse, tagged Activision, barbarian, battle.net, BattleNet, Beta, Blizzard Entertainment, Computer, Demon Hunter, Diablo III, Game, Gameplay, Lumin, Microsoft, MMORPG, Monk, multiplayer, News, PC, Pulse 60, PvE, PvP, Roleplaying, RPG, via, Video, Windows, Witch Doctor, Wizard on March 16, 2011| Leave a Comment »
In this episode we take a look at the some contest winners, more Facebook Like updates, some Treasure Seeker information, more art controversy, PvE & PvP Balance, Weapon Types & More!
Watch in HD! Remember to like it, favourite it, share it and subscribe!
‘Read More’ for links!
Posted in Blizzard, Diablo III, tagged 3, Art, Beta, Blizzard, D3, Diablo, Diablo III, DIII, Force, PvE, PvP, Strategy, Treasure Seeker, weapons on March 16, 2011| Leave a Comment »
Blizzard’s Diablo fanpage on Facebook rolled past the 650,000 ‘likes’ mark recently and, needless to say, we were rewarded with a new piece of artwork and a screenshot! The artwork given is a concept of the mischievous looking Treasure Seeker. This artwork wa done by Vic Lee and he’ll randomly and rarely appear in dungeons, but when he does you’ll want to beat the candy out of him as he’ll drop progressively better loot with each hit. Don’t let him escape! The image is really cool and, if you’re interested in reading more about this most cunning of creatures, you can do so below at the Diablo INC Gamers post!
The screenshot is of a male monk and a trio of fallen shaman and this screenshot seems to have been taken mere seconds after the previous monk shot we were rewarded, the one with the poisonous cloud of gas. A pretty cool shot and a lot of carnage, check it out in full size below!
The Diablo Facebook Ransom is Paid: Part V – Diablo INC Gamers
Diablo Facebook Fanpage – Facebook
As a little extra, it seems like the blue posters were more than ready to discuss the Treasure Seeker a little after these latest art updates. Bashiok let us know that the Treasure Seeker was inspired by the little bastards in Golden Axe you’d wake up to stealing your stuff and have to kick the crap out of them. Yeah, you remember those guys… He also just told us that the balance on that little menace was not tuned correctly back at BlizzCon 2010 and he was indeed dying too easily to ranged classes and casters. You can read those full interactions and everyone’s thoughts on them below!
Blue on the Treasure Seeker – Diablo INC Gamers
A keen fan, that apparently has way too much time to ponder on his hands, named Steyaertr has revived the good old Art Controversy relating to Diablo III’s new, more colorful style, by taking a bunch of clips from the old Wizard, Monk, and Demon Hunter gameplay videos and whipping them through some filters to give them a darker and in his opinion, more gothic, look. Diablo INC Gamers first reported this and said that the new look he gave the videos is in fact oversaturated and too dark to see anything at all. This is, as many of you know, not the first time that people do something like this. Over the years there have been many, many arguments and debates, many reworks of those static images and, well, just a lot of whining too. I personally I feel that most of the amazing art and texture work would be going to waste if Blizzard used a style such as the one in this video. What do you think? Do you like the visuals we’ve seen thus far or do you feel it needs that more hardcore look?
The Art Controvery Returns…? – Diablo INC Gamers
The Diablo III balance talk is back yet again and this time Bashiok had a few more words on the always present issue of PvE and PvP balancing. He said, on the note of balancing PvE and PvP separately, it’s something they want to largely avoid. We do have the ability to keep separate functionality, but we want to try to avoid big differences that make it feel like two different games when you play PvE and PvP.
One area where things work differently, and they think it’s ok, is in the case of Crowd control, like stuns, snares, slows, etc. The duration of these skills is fairly significantly reduced when used against players, however, that same reduction in effectiveness is also see in the PvE game when it comes to unique/champion/boss monsters. So, it’s not only a jarring difference, it’s also actually experienced in PvE. This is very similar to how World of Warcraft does it, and, I would not be surprised if we see something like diminishing returns come into play at some point…
Bashiok says that the bottom line is that they’ll have to wait and see but, balancing them separately is something Blizzard has the ability to do if needed but would prefer to largely avoid. It is, as usual, great to see so much thought going into all of this and, well, as with the whole art controversy thing, I think issues like this are safest in the hands of the guys at Blizzard. The only thing we will need to worry about is getting some sleep once the game hits. Read more about all of this balance talk below!
Blue on Balancing PvP and PvE Separately – Diablo INC Gamers
A fan recently started a post up on the official Battle.net forums saying that he, or she, heard that all characters, creeps and monsters have a 95% flat chance to hit, then asking whether there would at least be traits to influence these percentages because he could well see a Demon Hunter or Monk avoiding more hits… Lucky for us, Bashiok couldn’t let that question go without an answer, so here it goes.
He let the fan, and indirectly all of us know, that there is no stat to modify an enemies chance to hit you, but, there is a Dodge stat. It’s only given in small amounts through traits, and potentially some specific items. With Dodge, an enemy could still “hit” you, but you dodge the hit negating the damage entirely. He says that it is a stat that’s being controlled fairly strictly, and as the poster said is probably going to be more appropriate for some classes (ie monk), while others may instead have more in the way of damage mitigation. Blizzard don’t intend for Dodge to overcome the need for damage mitigation through Defense and related damage reduction stats, even for the classes that have more of it available to them. Well, while that definitely answered everything, the poster wanted more, as any good Diablo fan should.
Next up he asked a quick question about rune swapping that didn’t really yield any new information and lastly, a very good question that I am glad was asked! He asked whether all the weapon types would actually be useful in Diablo III, unlike in Diablo II where some were hands down better than others.
In response, he was told that Blizzard are spending plenty of ‘thought cycles’ to ensure weapon choices are indeed choices, and not determined by a clear cut strength to go for one over another. Traits and skills obviously play a part in weapon choice as there are traits that offer bonuses while using a specific weapon type, and some skills favor certain types of weapons. As far as the base benefit of simply carrying around these weapons, yeah the bonuses associated between two weapons over one weapon are being kept in mind. Staves and 2-handers can have bigger and more powerful affixes than are allowed to generate on 1-handed weapons, for example. Equal amounts of sockets. That kind of thing. What else can I say, I am glad they are catering for all the styles and preferences out there. I, personally, have not yet even made my mind up about which class I want to play, let alone the weapons they will use. I will need to think long and hard on all of this.
If you want to read more about all of the aforementioned news, check the links below for all of it!
Blue on Combat, Rune-Swapping, and Two-Handed Weapons – Diablo INC Gamers
Time for the next two Fan Art Watch posts! Oh my, is there a lot of good stuff to look at this week! First up, in Fan Art Watch #80, we have 5 new pieces from the Diablo 1 / 2 gallery over at Diablo INC Gamers. My favourite of the lot has got ot be the Hydralisk-like version of the demon in ‘Looking for Baal?’ by Choboroy. Quite a frightening looking baddie, to be sure. After that we have 4 different, and I really do mean quite different, realistic, funny, colorful, they’ve got it all covered and definitely deserve your views!
In Fan Art Watch #81, Flux gives us a couple of new Sorceress images while apparently warning of a lot more to come! I don’t think anyone would really complain about any Sorceress fan art at all as most of them really do look quite good. Check all of that out below and be sure to leave those comments of appreciation.
Diablo Fan Art Watch #81: Weekend Sorceresses – Diablo INC Gamers
Diablo Fan Art Watch #80: Duriel – Looking for Baal? – Diablo INC Gamers
After the apparent success of Force’s Purgatory episode recently posted on Diablofans.com, it seems like the two have teamed up yet again, this time bringing us the first episode in a new series titled DiabloCast. In this promised weekly podcast they plan to discuss all the happenings in the world of Diablo for each week. The first episode clocks in at around 25 minutes and I guess is worth the watch if you want a different perspective on everything that’s happening in the news. Check it out on YouTube or over at Diablofans.com!
DiabloCast: Epsiode I – Diablofans
Diablo 3 – DiabloCast: The Diablo 3 Podcast – Episode 1 – YouTube
Poll: Who is Your Favorite Character? – Diablofans
A DiabloFans Editorial: The Guiding Parchment – Diablofans
http://diablo.incgamers.com/blog/comments/no-d3-pax-east/ – Diablo INC Gamers
PAX East Panels on Being a CM, Facebook, and Working for Activision – Diablo INC Gamers
Q: What is the next big event you guys will be at to talk about Diablo 3? – Scyberdragon
A: We haven’t announced any events except BlizzCon. But if we do we’ll definitely be on the tweeterspace letting you know. – Diablo
Q: How’s the Gargantuan for the WD looking? – MultiKillGaming
A: Amazing. Almost too cool to be a class skill. – Diablo
Q: How are the bosses coming along? Are they all as awesome as the Siegebreaker, or *gasp* awesomer? – Vulcaino
A: Way awesomer. – Diablo
Q: Say I found an item in D3 that pwned, then it was nerfed in a patch. Would I still keep that pre-patch item? Or would it disappear? – AcidReign87
A: You’d keep the item of course. It would simply be changed to reflect the alteration made to it in the patch. – Diablo
Q: When you say 18 sets you mean 18 different boots, leggings,etc? And does that 18 include unique armor or are they totally different? – Theeliminator2k
A: They’re visual tiers of gear, not actual specific items by name and stat. It’s the same as Diablo II, but more and better. – Diablo
A: To clarify, there are 18 complete tier looks. Complete. 18 individual looks for each item slot. – Diablo
Posted in Other, tagged Activities, ArenaNet, Ben Miller, Fun, Guild Wars 2, Interview, Personality, PvE, PvP, Release, Rewards on July 2, 2010| Leave a Comment »
In a recent interview with IGN the Guild Wars 2 team spilled the beans on some of the new and exciting activities players can partake in once their game goes live. It really does seem like they want to cover all their bases with this game, and why not? If players get bored of the PvE or even PvP in Guild Wars 2 they can just hop on over to the closest ‘carnival’ and have some fun. Is that not a better option, for ArenaNet at least, than them going on over to a different game? I think so!
“The nice thing about working on activities is that, where we want to, we can take the core mechanics and just toss them out,”
Guild Wars 2 Game Designer – John Stumme.
It seems like they have all manner of things planned for us ranging from Bar Brawls (a mode which removes the player’s weapon and pits them in a battle royale where the environment is the only thing that can give them an edge) to Musical Games (Who knows how they will pull this off? Should be interesting to see!) and Shooting Ranges. (Will be interesting to see how they do this, as I can’t imagine that it would be much fun if it wasn’t first person) It all sounds really flashy and as I always say, most importantly, really fun!
I am also quite interested in seeing what kind of rewards these mini-games and activities will give the players. I very much doubt it will be anything that will improve the stats of your character. All that we got from the interview was that they will be “giving both tangible and intangible rewards from doing well in activities.” It’s more likely something more akin to the achievements, pets, tabars and titles of that other MMO. They did have a quick talk about the achievements, feats and the ‘personality’ system we will be seeing in Guild Wars 2. With the achievements and feats it doesn’t seem like much new will be happening there, not yet at least. It seems like pretty standard stuff that everyone expects from MMO’s nowadays. The Personality System seems like it could be pretty fun. It will take various things into account, from how your character looks to what uests you’ve done to how you handle or interact with NPC’s or charactesrs in the game world. (They do mention ‘if role-playing is your thing, then personality is going to help you define and maintain your role.’)
Lastly they spoke about the game world which, as far as I am concerned, is one of the most important parts of the game. Obviously, if it’s not made or presented well the first impression your game gives off will be that much worse, not to mention this is the part of the game you actually spend all your time looking at and interacting with. But hey, at least we can swim now!
“While it’s not groundbreaking it’s certainly a solid, core part of the overall game.”
Guild Wars 2 Game Designer – Ben Miller
If you are interested in reading the full interview you can find it right here. It’s a good read if you are even the slightest bit interested in what’s happening with Guild Wars 2.
News and art via IGN
Posted in Blizzard, Mitarn's Travels, Other, World Of Warcraft, tagged Azeroth, Blog, Cataclysm, Kalimdor, Mitarn, Mitarn's Travels, Northrend, Outland, Priest, PvE, PvP, World Of Warcraft, wow on June 26, 2010| Leave a Comment »
Yes, it’s true. I have been spending some time playing World of Warcraft recently. I have been leveling a priest that is set to be my main for now and ever more. (Let it be known that I am the first and only real Mitarn!) I am not quite sure why I was drawn back to priest, of all things. I had a priest a long time ago but since then I had never really considered trying again. Thus far I have been more than happy with my choice to choose this most holy of classes, but, you will have to wait to hear more about that. I will be starting Mitarn’s Travels here on the blog very soon. I will be blogging about my adventures in Azeroth, Kalimdor, Outland and as you can see in the picture above, Northrend! I will be blogging about my experiences with the people inhabiting those worlds. I will be blogging about my achievements, my PvP and my PvE and hopefully soon I will also be blogging about Cataclysm, should that fated beta invite arrive in my inbox. If you are in the least bit interested, check back here soon! I will try to keep you entertained.
mitarn 