Possible rumblings in the Diablo universe (good rumblings!)

[BloodOmen]

David Brevik (Lead Programmer on Diablo I & Project & Design Lead on Diablo II) and Bill Roper (former Vice President of Blizzard North) have both recently visited the Blizzard headquarters according to their twitter accounts.

This visit comes shortly after the Game Director position for a Diablo game was taken off Blizzard's job board. Of course, this could well be pure coincidence, but who knows?

 

[BloodOmen]

There is hope I say!

 

[ECA]

There were rumblings of a new diablo game for a while now.

 

[BloodOmen]

There were rumblings of a new diablo game for a while now.

Aye, it wouldn't surprise me normally Blizzard wait a fair old while between releasing new games out of the same franchise but given the rocky launch Diablo 3 had (which it never really recovered from), I would imagine they just want to brush Diablo 3 under the carpet and start again.

Expecting an announcement at BlizzCon anyway, it's Diablo's Anniversary so it would be the perfect time for it.

 

[Ctuchik]

wait wasn't Roper the cause of D3's clusterfuck? Or did i mix names up again?

 

[Scouse]

A new game would be more interesting. D1 was great. D2 was great and a little different, but still a lot of D1. D3 was OK, not as good as the first two, and yet again pretty much the same game.

D4? We going to start off in the trees, go to the desert, right? Then go to hell, perchance heaven? Kill Diablo at the end? But not really. Again.

Yawwwwwwwn.

 

[Syri]

I'm going to predict a Diablo 1 & 2 remaster, with revamped graphics etc. Remasters are pretty popular at the moment, and getting some of the original developers in might suggest something more related to the first 2 games, rather than something entirely new in the series.

 

[Moriath]

Remastered d2 would be great.

 

[Shagrat]

Stay awhile, and listen.

 

[Scouse]

Remastered d2 would be great.

But it'd be Diablo 2, again...

Something new please Blizzard.

 

[BloodOmen]

I'm going to predict a Diablo 1 & 2 remaster, with revamped graphics etc. Remasters are pretty popular at the moment, and getting some of the original developers in might suggest something more related to the first 2 games, rather than something entirely new in the series.

what I think too, prob D1-2 remaster with D3 graphics? would be great.

 

[Ctuchik]

They would practically have to remake the game(s) from scratch, so i don't think that's an option.. :/

But yeah that would be great..

 

[BloodOmen]

So this image was uploaded on Blizzard's official merchandising store then removed very quickly afterwards, being so close to BlizzCon it makes you think

Male and Female Necromancer's from Diablo

 

[BloodOmen]

So for those that didn't watch BlizzCon

• The Necromancer will be a new playable hero, available as both, male and female characters.
• They will be available in the "Rise of the Necromancer Pack", which will also include a pet, two new character slots, and two new stash tabs. along with a portrait frame, pennant, banner shape, and sigil.
• The pack will release some time in the second half of 2017, it will not be free, though the price is unknown as of yet.
• Necromancers are masters of Blood and Bone magic, their arsenal includes spells such as Army of the Dead, Blood Golem, Corpse Explosion. Blood Rush, Blood Siphon, Bone Spear, and Decrepify.
• They will have access to new Sets and Legendaries, specifically tailored to them, giving them new powers.
• The Necromancer will have less than 4 Sets at release, to leave room for the community to come up with new playstyles and have those added onto new sets.
• Armor styles for Necromancers include the Classic look, Sacrifice, Aristocratic, and Reanimation, Blood, and Bone.
• One-handed Scythes will be the Necromancer's class weapon type.
• The Necromancer's resource is called Essence and caps out at 200. It seems to not regenerate automatically, but is only gained from skills.
• Ability details, keep in mind that they're in a very early version:
  • Command skeletons - 50 Essence. Active: Command your skeletal minions to attack the target and increase their damage by 100% for 5 seconds. Passive: Raise skeletons from the ground every second. Skeletal minions deal 50% weapon damage per attack.
  • Siphon Blood - Generate 15 Essence each time damage is dealt. Siphon the Blood from the targeted enemy dealing 300% weapon damage as physical. Siphon Blood heals you for 2% of your total health every second while channeled.
  • Blood Rush - 4 second cooldown. Shed your mortal flash and reappear up to 50 yards away, passing through most obstacles.
  • Bone Spear - 20 Essence. Summon a piercing Bone Projectile that causes 450% weapon damage as physical to all enemies it passes through.
  • Corpse Explosion. Target an area, exploding all corpses within 20 yards dealing 150% weapon damage as physical.
  • Decrepify - 10 Essence. A crippling curse that reduces the enemies' movement speed by 75% and reduces damage done by 20%.
  • Blood Golem - Will also be Active/Passive, allowing you to directly command it.
  • Army of the Dead - Summons over a hundred skeletons to instantly attack an area.
• You can view the Official Blog post showcasing the Necromancer here.
• The announcement trailer for the Necromancer is available

- - - - - - - - - - -

• The Anniversary Dungeon recreates the events, monsters, and levels of the original Diablo inside Diablo III.
• Returning Boss Fights are The Butcher, The Skeleton King, Lazarus and Diablo himself.
• The Dungeon will be 16 levels deep and accessible for all existing characters.
• It will feature special visual and audio filters to invoke all that sweet nostalgia. Here is a little sneak peek of what that will look like. It will, however only use D3 assets (exception: some bosses).
• Inside the dungeon, you'll only be able to move in 8 directions, everything will control and be animated a little more retro-y.
• The UI in the dungeon will also be changed to be more reminiscent of the earlier titles.
• You will be able to enter the Dungeon via a teleporter in The Old Ruins of Tristram.
• The Anniversary Dungeon will be included in "The Darkening of Tristram" patch for free. It will be on PTR next week, and live in January.
• It will be a limited time event, occurring for the month of January every year.
• Completing the Dungeon rewards a Legendary Gem that fits into the Helmet slot, reminiscent of Diablo's Soulstone into which it will transmog your helmet. Click here for its full stats and look.
• You will also be rewarded with two new portrait frames, a Banner and Sigil, a Butcher pet, as well as two weapon transmogs, the Butcher's Sickle and Wirt's Wooden Leg.

• There will be two new zones: The Shrouded Moors and the Temple of the Firstborn.
• Seasons will be coming to consoles, starting with Season 10, including Season Journey, Leaderboards and cosmetic rewards.
• Upon reaching 100%, Greater Rifts now open a portal to a smaller Boss room where you fight the Guardian. Entering it removes Pylon buffs. Possibly a demo-only feature.
• Challenge Rifts, a new feature, will be coming next year. They will be an even playing ground: Paragon levels, Augments, full Ancients - none of that will matter in there. More info on them tomorrow.
• We will be getting some great Quality of Life changes: An Equipment/Build Manager, and a Crafting Material interface.
  • The equipment manager will allow you to name and save 5 full loadouts per character, including skills, passives, items, cubed powers.
  • Paragon Points will NOT be saved, because having acquired new ones after saving a set would require you to re-allocate those.
  • The Armory will always use the highest level gems (normal and Legendary) of the corresponding type.
  • Removing Gems will no longer cost money, so you can swap back an forth more freely.

 

[Bigmac]

People still play Diablo 3?

 

[Ctuchik]

No mentioning of revive scares me.

/edit: Seriously though one handed scythes? Barbs already have those! Give the necros a 2 handed version...

 

[Hawkwind]

People still play Diablo 3?

Thought I'd give it a go whilst off over Christmas. I found it ridiculously easy tbh. From scratch I created a new Crusader and went through the main game starting in hard but by act 3 was in expert. Stacking Health regen, Blocking and Thorns I finished the run through on level 60 then started adventure mode (bounties). When I had enough resources I went to Rifts. Got a gem that rains gold on enemy kills and from then on was generating 2 mill per Neph Rift. The greater Nephs then provided me some nice armour 3 bits of Invoker Armour which along with a nice rift (Leg) gem pushed my thorns over 70K dmg.

The thing that makes it so easy and quick now is the blood shards and vendor. You can basically spam buy a certain object type until you get the Set piece or legendary you want. After only 8 days and around 25-30 hours I have 3 invoker parts (set I'm after), money is no issue and gems which drop like confetti in rifts and bounties are easy to max out.

Basically the game is far too easy now to get to end game. Which leaves only the Seasons as any sort of challenge. I did try out my Wizi and that was a similar experience - too easy, just melts mobs/bosses in a few seconds.

They need a new game and make it hard again. This last run through was way too easy and not what I remember.

 

[Ctuchik]

So just up the difficulty then. The game is only as easy as you want it to be..

 

[Hawkwind]

So just up the difficulty then. The game is only as easy as you want it to be..

Played my DH up to GR 40 using Marauders set (Sentry & cluster shot) a slight variation of this build. As long as you don't sit still with too many ranged around you don't ever die. Kill boss mobs in 2-10 secs. Hammerdin build on Crusader can easily face tank GR 30+ with non optimized gear.

I got bored and levelled a witch doc up last week 1-70 in about 4 hours. Played yesterday for a few hours and got five of the jade harvester set parts in T3-5 GR's. Finding the witch doc a lot of fun as he is still kinda squishy.

I can totally see your point but I still think they made the game way too easy easy now. Only activated up again to try the necro out. Still waiting for that