Posts with tag Diablo-3

We were just talking about it on today's podcast (thrill to the sound of three people barely awake trying to coherently discuss World of Warcraft) and hey, look, Ghostcrawler reads my mind from across the interwebs. Well, okay, no, he responded to a forum thread, but it's still interesting. Yes, interesting enough that I'm going to replicate the post here before discussing it. I am out of control, a renegade, I should hand in my posting badge and keyboard.

Ghostcrawler - Re: What's wrong with an Active Mana Regen Model?

I'm not sure we'd ever do a "deal damage to heal" model. It might work for new classes, but feels like a big change to existing classes that players know and love.

Having choices to get mana back is good. Standing around to regen mana is bad.

However, we still ultimately need a way that healers who are playing badly, trying to keep alive an undergeared / underskilled tank, or just tackling content that they're not yet ready for, can run out of mana to the extent that the encounter is over.

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Personally, I hope that 'it might work for new classes' statement means we'll finally get something like a Warhammer Warrior Priest. I'm still jazzed from seeing Diablo III's version of the Monk and I'd be thrilled if they created a cloth wearing, staff wielding, spirit and intellect utilizing melee healer. I'm sad that they've ruled it out for any current classes (man, it would rock for paladins in my opinion and would single handedly make me like that class) but I'm very hopeful we'll be monking it up in an expansion or two.

World of WarCrafts spotlights art and creativity by WoW players, including fan art, cooking, comics, cosplay, music and fan fiction. Show us how you express yourself; contact our tips line (attention: World of WarCrafts) with your not-for-profit, WoW-inspired creations.

It's all about making time for what you love to do -- so says Jason Babler, a former WoW player who's nurturing a love for sculpting fantasy and gaming characters, with eye-popping results. It took four months of patient, part-time work to create this troll hunter, based on artwork from Upper Deck. Jason's managed to combine a passion for gaming with a lifelong interest in fantasy, carving out a hobby that he describes as his way to get away from the computer and develop the art skills he's always wanted.

Read more about Jason's sculpture, after the gallery and break.

It's a new year and that means another opportunity to play oracle and figure out what Blizzard's plans are for 2010. BlizzPlanet has gone ahead and tossed out some of their ideas on what will happen for BlizzCon this year, laying out their predictions and even speculating on the event date. As you might know, there was a bit of confusion stemming from supposed leaked information that pointed to BlizzCon 2010 happening in Las Vegas in July. That didn't go down so well with Blizzard, and the Las Vegas convention center later retracted its statements.

BlizzPlanet points out, quite logically, that Blizzard probably wasn't too thrilled with that. Even if they had planned to do it in Las Vegas, that kind of public relations misstep is a deal breaker. Besides, Eldorian from BlizzPlanet applies simple, sound logic to his sleuthing work and explains that examining the Anaheim Convention Center's Calendar of Events reveals an odd, blank date on the weekend of August 20-21, yet almost all the weekends of the venue are already booked. With Blizzard being the secretive bunch that they are, he figures those blank dates actually correspond with this year's BlizzCon event. It's a pretty cool theory. Read the rest of their predictions as well as a few of our own guesses after the jump.

Acknowledging the power of social media and networking, Blizzard has created fan pages for their three big franchises on Facebook. Following the trend of other products and companies who have created Facebook pages in order to deliver updates, promotions, and other fan extras, Blizzard has set up pages for Diablo, Starcraft, and Warcraft. Interested fans need to have a Facebook account in order to "become a fan" of the pages, which Blizzard says they have big plans for.

Through these fan pages, Blizzard will be able to give a constant feed of news updates and media such as video, galleries, or links. Fan pages are also a common conduit for promos and contests as frequently used by Blizzard partners such as Razer and Figureprints. There are also forums for discussion and a "wall" that allows fans to write on for questions, comments, or anything related to the franchises.

Interestingly, and perhaps owing to its massive player base, the Warcraft fan page has already gained three times as many followers as the other two properties in the short time it has been active. This reflects a similar trend on Twitter, another social networking tool that Blizzard has utilized lately, where @Warcraft has over twice the number of followers of either @Diablo or @Starcraft.

As noted in my previous article on the subject, the new and improved Battle.net won't affect only StarCraft II -- among other things, the Real ID feature will allow you to see what other Blizzard games your real-life friends or acquaintances are playing, should they desire it. But that's apparently not the only perk for WoW players. Blizzard recently announced that migration of WoW accounts to Battle.net accounts will soon be mandatory, and posted a FAQ about it on the official website; one detail immediately caught my eye...

What will change in World of Warcraft after the forced migration?

The core gameplay experience will remain unchanged as a result of the migration. However, you'll be able to take part in all of the new Battle.net features, such as cross-realm, cross-faction, and cross-game chat.

That's right. Got a friend that plays Horde and you play Alliance? You'll be able to talk to them from inside WoW, even if they're on a different server. Heck, even if they're playing StarCraft II or Diablo 3, you'll still be able to chat with them. How cool is that?

To quell some concerns that'll surely get posted in the comments, the extent that others can utilize your Real ID is completely up to you. You decide who gets to see what information and to what extent -- if you want your best friend to be able to see what game you're playing or what server you're on, you can do that, but you can also prevent your annoying cousin from pestering you to play StarCraft II while you're raiding. No, Jeff, I actually can wait for you to "pwn" me. Gots to get me some purps.

This just came from the Korean Diablo III site, which accidently set the new D3 site live before they were supposed to. The new class for Diablo III will by the Monk!

To see for yourself, go to the Diablo III page on Blizzard's site and select the Korean language. You'll see the screenshot above.

Update: Just officially announced: the Monk!

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BlizzCon 2009 is here! WoW.com has continuing coverage, bringing you the latest in Cataclysm news, live blogs, galleries, and reports right from the convention floor. Check out WoW.com's Guide to BlizzCon for the latest!

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BlizzCon is just a day away now! WoW.com staffers are gonna be haunting the grounds in full force and are likely to leave some ectoplasmic residue (read: drool) on a number of demo tables and panel floors, depending on what's announced and shown at the event. And the announcements are, at least for most everyone but Blizzard, still a mystery. Popular opinion (and the ability to put two and two together) seems to indicate the unveiling of a new WoW expansion, but why stop there? After all, there are three other games that Blizzard is working on -- or so they say -- so it's quite possible that we'll see some big ol' infodrops about those titles too.

Or maybe Blizzard will through us for a loop and treat us to two days of Premonition raids and panels about J. Allen Brack's ponytail. It is a mystery!

So what are you holding out for? StarCraft II release date? Diablo 3 bombshell? Next-gen MMO reveal? Glossy eight-by-tens of Zarhym in shades and a leather jacket (so dreamy)?

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BlizzCon 2009 is coming up on August 21st and 22nd! We've got all the latest news and information. At BlizzCon you can play the latest games, meet your guildmates, and ask the developers your questions. Plus, there's some great looking costumes.

This seems like a strange deal, but in fact it's business as usual -- Blizzard says they won't tell you what's in the BlizzCon bags this year until all of the tickets are sold out. Seems weird, right? Wouldn't knowing what you'll get with the bag encourage you to buy tickets? But apparently not -- they've always announced the goodies post ticket sales and pre-event, so we'll just have to wait and see what comes up this year.

That won't stop us from guessing what's in it it. Our guess: a lot of stuff. Last year's bag was huge, as you can see in the gallery below, and this year's will probably be even bigger. There will definitely be some silly items, like the QQ noob tissues and the Diablo III mints from last year. There'll be promotional stuff for sure, maybe a pack of TCG cards, a few licensing partner ads, and/or a sample mini (last year they gave out Voidwalkers). And of course there'll be an ingame item card, maybe a sweet mount or a vehicle. Personally, I'd love to see a special edition novel, either a reprint of something like War of the Ancients or even a special collection of short stories just for the event.

Whatever's in the bag, you can rest assured that we'll be one of the first few folks sifting through the goodies again. And it's not outside the realm of possibility that, yet again, you'll have a chance to win one. Stay tuned.

The 8th episode of BlizzCast, the Blizzard Podcast, rolled out just a short while ago. If the only Blizzard game you're interested in is WoW, you'll probably be disappointed this time around, there's not much World of Warcraft discussion. The information is very, very heavily slanted toward Starcraft II and Diablo III.

The podcast kicks off with their usual Q&A portion. The World of Warcraft questions, answered by Tom Chilton, were aimed at Wintergrasp and the vehicle system (specifically the lack of aerial combat). That's the full extent of the WoW content here. That's all, folks. If WoW is all you care about, that's the end. For those of you that are Blizzard fans in general? Jay Wilson (Diablo III Game Director) and Dustin Browser (Starcraft II Lead Designer) cover the Q&A for their respective games.

The remainder of the podcast is a Diablo III interview with a pair of the game's developers, Julian Love (Lead Technical Artist) and Mike Nicholson (Senior Artist). If you intend to play Diablo III, it's worth a listen. It gives some insight into the developmental process of the game, and that's probably the most interesting part of these podcasts.

We gave you a heads up a bit ago on the preparations for the new battle.net accounts, and now they're here, both for the EU and, apparently in the US only for now. We saw a "preview" of these accounts back during Wrath of the Lich King Beta, when we signed in using our email addresses and got a pet penguin in the mail "as a thank you for signing up for a Battle.net account," But now they're here and they're live.

Blizzard's various websites (official WoW site, the Armory, etc) have all been down for maintenance today, and we had no real idea why. Word is coming in from the EU that the switch to Battle.net accounts that we talked about previously is finally coming about. Portions of the official EU site are redirecting to this Battle.net login page.

We knew this would happen eventually, especially since the name of the Authenticator changed on the PTR from being World of Warcraft specific to a more broad Battle.net name, but the fact that it's coming without formal notice is a bit surprising! If you're unfamiliar with what a Battle.net account actually is, it's more or less the same as your WoW account but instead of an account name, it uses your e-mail address and it spans all Blizzard games. Considering the Starcraft II beta is rumored to be starting quite soon, this is probably good timing for the switch.

We have no idea if this switch is happening in the US yet, but it's probably a safe assumption that it will. Or if it hasn't, we'll be seeing it very soon. If we find out more, we'll be sure to let you know.

Update: It does look like this is coming to the US soon as well.

[Thanks to everyone for the tips, and Kumbol for the screenshot]

Another week, another weekend, another WRUP! You may presume that we, being writers for a site called WoW Insider, must spend all of our hours immersed in World of Warcraft, playing, reading, researching, and writing. And I must admit, most of the time, we do. But sometimes, we cheat. Maybe we need a break or a change of pace, but for whatever reason we run off from our beloved WoW to play something else. (Everyone is doing it! Even Ghostcrawler tells us that we should play other games.) This weekend, the cruel siren's song of Diablo II seems to have caught us in its thrall. (And, no, despite the lovely logo above, we don't have access to Diablo III any more than the rest of you poor souls.) After all, none who have heard it can resist.... and for those who can resist, well, that's what waffles are for. Or perhaps pancakes. We can't quite decide.

For more of what the WoW Insider team is up to this weekend -- or to tell us what you're up to this weekend -- read on!

There were two distinctive t-shirts I saw at BlizzCon this year. The first was worn by Greg Street, a.k.a. Ghostcrawler. It featured his pet crab that he refers to often enough. If I recall correctly, he lost it in the Sunken Temple.

The second was worn by Rob Pardo, the Executive VP of Game Design at Blizzard. It featured an image of a rainbow above the words "Diablo 3." It also had unicorns and flowers on it. Very Barbie like.

While both shirts have their place, I think it'd be fun to know – which one would you rather have? Personally, I want the D3 shirt Pardo had on. Hilarious stuff there. But Ghostcrawler has gained quite a following as well. Vote for your favorite gear and be heard!