DiabloFans.com has just confirmed the latest addition to the set of Diablo 3 playable classes: The Monk!

They're covering the event live at DiabloFans.com as the Diablo 3 panel continues!

Here's the original announcement:

I just heard word that a new character class for Diablo 3 has apparently been unveiled: The Monk! Supposedly, it's replacing the Paladin. Still waiting for confirmation from Blizzard on all of this of course. JUST CONFIRMED IT'S OFFICIAL!

I'm still getting set up in the press room here guys, but thought you'd want to know! You heard it here on Diablofans first!

Update: The Monk is playable at BlizzCon!!!! It wasn't at first, but after the announcement, they made the character playable on all the computers in the convention center.

The screenshot came from a Korean-language version of the Diablo 3 site.

More news to come soon!

We've totally re-vamped DiabloFans.com to coincide with the big news, and our excellent coverage, this week from BlizzCon 2009! The new Diablo Fans design it a testament to our dedication to Diablo players everywhere that Curse will be the #1 source for anything and everything relating to the Diablo universe! It's widely rumored we're going to see some Diablo 3 playtime this week, and rest assured our BlizzCon team will be all over it! That's right! DiabloFans.com is at ground-zero for BlizzCon 2009! They were at the fansite summit today and took time to write up all the important highlights of the event, and will be on hand during the event to constantly update the website with new Diablo information the second it's released!

Here's a look at a portion of the summary for the BlizzCon Fansite Summit:

I just arrived back at my hotel from Blizzard's 2009 Fansite Summit and thought I'd give you a recap of what went down today (well, what I'm allowed to divulge at least heheh). Hope you're comfortable, cuz this is gonna be a fairly lengthy post.

At 9:30am, myself and all of the other fan site representatives met up in the Anaheim Marriott lobby as we waited to hop on the bus which would take us to Blizzard's headquarters. Bashiok handed out our passes and we were soon on our way.

Once we arrived, we all stood outside for a bit to admire the amazing Warcraft statue created for Blizzard by the Weta Workshop. No matter how many times you see it, you just don't get tired of looking at that thing. (Don't worry, I took plenty of photos which I'll be sharing later on).

Next, we were brought inside for another look at Blizzard's many prestigious awards in their museum sections along with some concept art of their past games. Same stuff we saw last year basically, but still nice to see again. Then we headed into the small theater area for a brief orientation about what we'd be doing today. Also got to see the new Fan Site program logos which they worked up, so it's good to see Blizzard is bringing that whole thing back into focus. Looking forward to proudly displaying the Official Diablo Fan Site logo here on Diablofans in the near future!

Once that was done, Bashiok loaded up the latest Diablo 3 demo (apparently the same build from Gamescon that we've been discussing over the last few days) and we were treated to seeing the new desert areas on the large screen. It really does look fantastic and I absolutely love the particle effects going on as the window blows sand everywhere you travel. No new character classes were shown yet (doh!) so he loaded up the Wizard and started playing a quest where you had to follow the road to Alcarnus. Saw some Sand Wasps get decimated pretty quickly along with a big Lacuni Warrior with translucent blades. There were also some beast carcasses lying around on the ground which could be overturned to reveal some gold and/or potions.

It was nice seeing how effective the Wizard's mirror image spell really worked on distracting the enemies. They would all attack his mirror image, while the real wizard just stood back and picked them off with ease. There's no official answer about whether the mirror image itself could ever do damage to enemies, but it might be possible with certain augmentations. I guess time will tell on that one. He then went on a "Blood money" side quest and was given a wanted poster for somebody who needed to be captured, but he was really just trying to find the entrance to a dungeon, which apparently spawn in random places each time you play.

To read more visit the original BlizzCon Fansite Summary post, and checkout www.DiabloFans.com to see the new re-design for this Curse Network Fansite!

In a recent response recorded via the Developer Tracker on DiabloFans, Bashiok responded to questions about bag useage and findability in Diablo 3.

First off, he starts with rationalization of the importance of inventory in the game as a viable concern for gameplay and game depth:

Although many of us might not fully agree with everything he has said here, they are legitimate considerations, partly issues that we did not think about in Diablo II: LoD, where we were given a fixed inventory without any hope of upgrading it besides the Horadric Cube which was, in my opinion, somewhat inadequate for storage.

He followed up with something that might make more than a few Diablo fans happy about the prospect of increased inventory sizes for individual players:

To read more on this topic and some of the community replies visit DiabloFans.com!

Diablofans.com has used their Diablo 3 Dev Tracker to pickup some of the latest Bashiok banter on the Battle.net forums! Bashiok talks about players playing together, and what Blizzard is, or isn't, doing to keep that alive and not hinder it. He also talks about friends running other friends through the game (Waypoints anyone? Yes!) and why Blizzard won't be putting a stop to that anytime soon.

Here's the post from Bashiok about Blizzard Encouraging People to Play Together:

Bashiok recently posted quite a few responses to some questions that were raised by members on the Battle.net forums in regards to Blizzard encouraging people to play games together rather than going off on single-player missions.

Quote by Bashiok:

"The distance limitation you're speaking of in being considered an active participant already exists in the game.

The item benefit of playing together is due partly to the per-player item drops, but also increase in items-per-minute ratio due to groups killing faster than a single player. The amount of items dropping with each additional player is slightly higher than if those players were to just play in their own games. Now, that's slightly deceiving because we're talking about the entire pool of drops, but actually each player sees and receives an equal portion, so in this case we're looking at the drops as if they were shared completely freely within the group. This may not be the case for all items or groups.

Still, if you have three friends and you're all buddy-buddy with each other and sharing everything, the benefit of playing together for item drops is noticeable. If you're all being very stingy and not sharing anything, or just throwing out the crap, you'll still see a slight increase just from killing speed.

But anyway, with all that in mind, there is already of course a distance limit in which you'll be considered an active participant in a monster kill to be able to receive a drop from it. If you're out of range and someone in your party kills something, you don't get a drop from it. It's a very obvious solution to deal with a very obvious issue. The range is fairly forgiving.

So instead our focus turns to helping groups help themselves through various mechanics to keep everyone together. But those are specifics for another time though."

He then went on to respond to more user questions:

"By the sounds of it, being an "active participant" simply means you have to be within a close proximately of the monsters on death, but that does not mean that you will actually need to help in any way, shape, or form in killing it."

Quote by Bashiok:

"If you did need to damage every enemy in order to get a drop from it we would essentially be requiring all players who wanted to play in groups build their characters for AoE damage. It would then be enforcing the exact opposite of teamwork. Everyone would be going crazy trying to do as much damage to as much as possible so they could try to get a drop off of it.

We could then rename the game to Antithesis of Fun."

"Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't that the exact same thing that is happening in Diablo II baal runs, where there are 1 or 2 Hammerdins killing everything and the rest of the players is composed of leechers doing nothing more than picking up the drops?"

Quote by Bashiok:

"There's nothing wrong with the idea of friends running other friends through the game. Have a friend with a higher level character? Cool, have him help you through the game if you want. That doesn't mean we won't have some limitations or slight impedances, for instance we probably wouldn't want it to figure out to be the best way to level, but the general idea of friends helping friends is a positive aspect and something we want to retain as best as possible."

"The problem I personally have is just those that do nothing but leech, or the players that do absolutely nothing to contribute to the party but is shared equally in the rewards. Again, the example of baal runs in Diablo II comes to mind. In baal runs, we often see AFK naked characters wielding nothing but Ondal's Wisdom for the 5% to Experience Gained sitting in the corner or within that distance that you were talking about for Diablo III inorder to "earn" the rewards without actually doing anything. Sometimes they are not even AFK, so they run around and pick up the drops, and again, this sounds like it could be done in Diablo III, with or without bots. Maybe it's just me, but I have never thought that leeching or having leechers follow me around all day doing nothing but picking up the loot from my kills was a whole lot of fun."

Quote By Bashiok:

"Players joining your games that do something to annoy you will always be a problem as long as you allow them to. So really the simple solution here is to not play in publicly open games.

But, from a game feature side, it sounds like what you're actually asking for are game moderation options. Such as the ability for the game creator or game participants to kick, ban, squelch, etc. And maybe those are some possibilities, maybe, but they themselves could easily be turned around and used as griefing tools themselves.

There are solutions. I don't think it's a problem that warrants a lot of time at the moment though."

 

 

DiabloFans.com picked up more information today using their Diablo Dev Tracker! Bashiok gave some hints as to dungeons will vary aesthetically depending upon their level of importance to the storyline. Diablo 2 had an amazing combination of dungeons and themes based on where you were fighting or what quest you were working on completing, so if Diablo 3's going to expand on that we could be in for a real treat at Blizzcon 2009!

Here's a look at what Bashiok had to say about Diablo 3 Dungeons:

In what might be a hint of what we can expect to see at BlizzCon next month, Bashiok recently chimed in on the Battle.net forums to explain about how dungeons will vary aesthetically depending on how important they are:

Here's hoping we get to see that nice cross section of dungeon types at BlizzCon next month. Then again, all this really means is that the more epic a dungeon is, the more rainbows and unicorns we'll be seeing in them, right? ;)

DiabloFans.com picked up this information from their esteemed Diablo Dev Tracker! It looks like Bashiok was recently on the Battle.net forums talking about some of the paid-for options that might make it into Battle.net and the next release of Diablo.  One example offered up is that players could pay to have a fallen hardcore character resurrected. We'll keep you updated as soon as any decision is made either way!

Here's the original post from Diablofans.com:

A member on the Battle.net forums recently inquired about whether or not people would have to pay fees in order to play Diablo 3 online. Bashiok responded with the following information:

Bashiok then went on to discuss how some pay-for ideas could possibly work for the game.

Obviously, none of us would like to have to pay additional fees in order to use Battle.net. If nothing else, I believe anybody who buys the inevitably pricier "Collector's Edition" of Diablo 3 when it comes out should never have to pay Battle.net fees to play the game.

However, this does raise the question: What special features would you pay Battle.net fees for with Diablo 3 other than the chance to resurrect a fallen hardcore character? Is there anything that you feel would be worth spending a little extra cash on to make the online gameplay more interesting?

Diablofans.com has posted a recent update about a Diablo Diorama that was originally unveiled at Comic-Con in 2008 but is now available as a collectible item! The diorama is due for a Fall 2009 release and is currently available for pre-order on the Sideshow Collectibles web site for $299.

Here's a look at the Diablo Diorama and the original story from Diablofans.com:

Back in July of last year, we posted about Sideshow Collectibles' impressive "Overthrown" Diorama that was unveiled at San Diego Comic-Con 2008. All that was shown was a grey prototype at the time, but now they've unveiled the fully-painted version and it looks great!

(click the above images to enlarge)

The diorama is due for a Fall 2009 release and is currently available for pre-order on the Sideshow Collectibles web site for $299.

I should also mention that there's a nice new desktop wallpaper of the diorama on the Sideshow Collectibles web site, so be sure to check it out.

For more details on the Overthrown Diorama, visit:
http://www.sideshowtoy.com/?page_id=4489&;sku=8023

Diablofans.com picked up some recent information using their Diablo Development Tracker about lingering graphics in Diablo 3. It starts out with Bashiok answering a few of the questions, and as the conversation intensifies he brings in Lead Artist Julian Love to help answer the questions about blood and bodies and just how long they'll stick around!

Here's what the Diablo Dev Tracker picked up:

A user from Battle.net recently inquired about whether or not blood from battles could be kept on the ground indefinitely in Diablo 3. Bashiok was quick to respond with an initial explanation:

After some Battle.net users pushed for more details, Bashiok brought in Lead Tech Artist, Julian Love, to give a more detailed answer to their questions:

Hopefully that clears things up a bit in regards to the issue of having graphics lingering on the screen indefinitely.

DiabloFans, one of the websites in our network, has concluded their Blizzcon Ticket contest and announced the winners for the various contests they've been running! The community really came together, posting nearly 200 entries, and added some great artwork, lore entries, and class skill entries! Links and artwork for the winning entries are displayed below!

Here's the official Diablofans Blizzcon Winners Announcement:

WOW! That's pretty much the only word myself and the rest of the Diablofans staff can use to describe seeing all of your entries. If you're wondering why it took a few days after the contest ended before I made this post, it's because it really did take a long time for all of us to decide on the winning entries. There were just so many great entries in the Class Art, Class Lore, and Class Skills contests, and we really wanted to take this opportunity to thank you guys for putting so much effort into them. We expected some truly great entries here since three BlizzCon tickets were up for grabs, so it was really nice to see so many of you putting in some truly ticket-worthy efforts!

If I had my say, I'd make sure every last one of you received tickets to BlizzCon. Alas, Blizzard supplied us with 3 tickets to the big convention, so we had to narrow it down to the top entries in each contest category. It was very hard to narrow down the winners and all three of the contests were extremely close! That being said, we'll also be sending out Diablofans.com t-shirts to the runner-ups of each category so they won't be going home empty-handed!

Without further adieu, I now present you with our BlizzCon ticket contest winners!

CLASS LORE CONTEST RESULTS:

WINNER: Monks of Sanctuary by Shibblicious

RUNNER-UP: Falconer by KQKyle

HONORABLE MENTIONS: (all of these received several votes)
-Dreamslayer by Voider
-Revenant by Deadlyhazard
-Inquisitor by Luckmann
-Gypsy by Roskvape


CLASS SKILLS CONTEST RESULTS:

WINNER: Gypsy by Roskvape

RUNNER-UP: Star Shooter by Palisade

HONORABLE MENTIONS: (all of these received several votes)
-Falconer by Moxjet200
-Warlock by Guasti
-Revenant by Deadlyhazerd
-Dreamslayer by Voider


CLASS ART CONTEST RESULTS:

WINNER: Eidolon by Shiramune

Shiramune submitted two other excellent entries that also received several votes a piece, so be sure to check them out as well - Ranger and Dread Knight:

RUNNER-UP: The Summoner by Odonthe1st

HONORABLE MENTIONS: (all of these received several votes)
-Bloodleech by Jig
-Parapsychologist by Troive
-Gypsy by Roskvape

And that does it for all our contest winners! Again, many thanks to all of you who entered one (or all) of our contests! We really enjoyed reading and viewing your entries and hope everybody will check out the three contest threads to see all of the quality work that was submitted! Also, thanks again to Blizzard for supplying us with some extra tickets to give away to the fans!

To those of you who won, please check your PM inboxes here on Diablofans.com soon, because we'll be sending you instructions that you'll need to respond to quickly!

Diablofans.com has posted a large update regarding some recent posts by Diablo 3 community manager, Bashiok, on Barbarian Fury in Diablo 3. Be sure and discuss the below thread and all topics Diablo 3 on Diablofans.com!

Here's the official Barbarian Fury Update thread:

As seen in our blue tracker, Bashiok has responded to a variety of questions regarding Barbarian Fury in Diablo 3. Take a look:

Quote:

Okay. How much fury does each skill cost? As an example.

"They require fury in amounts of full fury globes. So the most one can cost is 3."

Quote:

Does each ability cost a full globe?

"Yes, currently abilities that do cost fury cost one or more full fury "globes". Don't get the term 'fury globe' too stuck in your brain though, there's going to be an official name for them and it may not be globe."

Quote:

Do abilities cost a portion of each globe?

"There aren't and probably won't be abilities that cost a portion of a fury ... ball. I'm going to call them fury balls. Wait ... no ... that's a terrible idea."

Quote:

Are the globes valued numerically, similar to rage, and the abilities cost a "number" of Fury?

"Right now they actually are, but that's because it's sort of mid-transition from an old fury system. They'll simply be shown and referred to in ability cost as full globes. At least that's the current thought.

As I said it's still a system and game in development, and any of this can change entirely. This is just a peek into the current workings."

Quote:

Does fury deteriorate over time?

"Yes."

Quote:

Is fury cost affected by skill growth (adding more points to a skill).

"I don't know of any abilities that do right now but it's always a possibility for balance later."

Quote:

When you use a fury skill, does the damage dealt serve to recharge your fury (meaning that you could theoretically have a net zero fury cost when attacking crowds)?

"It does, but of course it's subject to change."

Quote:

How many dots of fury (dots, yes) does the ground stomp cost? If three, I can see people holding it for when they need it, and not using any other skills to conserve fury.

"It doesn't cost any fury, but it does have a cooldown."

Quote:

On that note, is 3 the absolute maximum? Or can you go a little over 3, like 3.9 or something, so you'll get a full bubble soon after? If 3 is the hard max, then you'd have to use a 3 dot skill immediately before it decays to 2.999 or something.

"Fury decay doesn't happen that quickly. There's a grace period in there before it starts ticking down."

Quote:

Appreciate the info on the system as it stands bash, and if my deductive skills are working properly one could assume that there will be skills that dont use the fury system, such as ground stomp. Could you give us an idea of one that would use fury? how powerful will these skills be?

"Ground stomp is an exception mainly because of the nature of its use. A cooldown allows it to be used as an "oh crap I'm overwhelmed" ability without also requiring you to have fury built up. Most if not all straight attack abilities like cleave, leap attack, whirlwind, etc. have fury costs, in addition to most 'buff' abilities."

Quote:

So it looks like each fury ball has 5 ticks to charge up. So cleave, which seems to be the most basic attack will take 5 normal hits to charge up before it can be used assuming it takes one fury ball. And if Whirlwind required 3 fury balls, then there would potentially be 15 normal attacks in between each use? Ouch! Spamming normal attacks and using a special attack about 10% of the time doesn't seem very epic to me. It would also suck for PvP, because it will be hard enough to land a special attack in most situations let alone 15 normal attacks just to get to use a special attack.

"Fury is also built from incoming attacks. If you're in a moderate sized scuffle you can unleash abilities pretty regularly. The animation that was shown in BlizzCast was made in a test environment, using a single weapon and attacking stationary (and non-attacking) zombies. So it built up fairly slowly, but nice and consistent for the video, which was the point. In a normal game, and as the barbarian especially, you're quite often surrounded and the balance of normal attacks/fury gen/special ability use feels quite nice."

Bashiok also chimed in on somebody asking about the amount of gore that we can expect to see in Diablo 3. Here's what he had to say:

Quote:

"Heh, if people think there isn't enough gore... you ain't seen nothing yet. This is Sanctuary. Demons and evil cults still really like torture and putting bodies on pikes."

This doesn't really come as any surprise to those of us who've been paying attention to Blizzard's updates for a while now, but you'd be amazed at how many people think that what Blizzard has shown them so far is the extent of how far they'll be taking things in Diablo 3.

So what do you guys think about all this info on Barbarian Fury and the subject of gore in the game? Share your thoughts!

Diablofans.com has picked up a juicy tidbit from the community manager for Diablo 3, Bashiok, about Rune Swapping and how it will work in Diablo 3. We're expecting big news this year at Blizzcon 2009 about Diablo 3, possibly a release date, and lots of juicy new details about gameplay and lore, and be assured Diablofans.com is going to be covering it! They'll have representatives on the floor at Blizzcon and will be posting live updates as the event happens!

Here's the official post on Rune Swapping in Diablo 3:

In a recent post found in our blue tracker, Bashiok responded to a user's questions regarding the rune system. Here's what he had to say:

He also went on to say that it hasn't yet been decided on if the "some sort of cost to remove them" will be entirely currency based or something else. I definitely like that they have it set up so you'll be able to experiment with the runes without worrying about using them improperly. What do you guys think?

Join other users in discussing Rune Swapping!

Diablofans.com has posted some recent information about the Fallen Ones making their way back to Diablo III! the posted was picked up by Bashiok with the Diablo III Dev Tracker, and included a bestiary update and a confirmation that the Fallen Ones will be making an appearance in D3.

Here's the official Fallen Ones in Diablo 3 Post:

As first noted here on Diablofans by Pjanoo, the Fallen Ones of Diablo II (you can read more about them here in our Wiki) have returned for Diablo III! I'm sure many, if not all of you are familiar with the impish little devils - running away the instant one of their comrades have fallen. And I'm sure we can all recall fighting their leader in Act I, Rakanishu, whose name they chant incessantly, and probably having been slain, ourselves, at some point by his Lightning Enchantment.

Well, as per a post in our Dev Tracker, the creatures have made their official comeback:

There are now 5 different kinds of Fallen Ones:

Imps - These are the commonest of the fallen family of demons. They are the stereotypical fallen ones in look and behavior: small, red, swarming, bloodthirsty, and cowardly.

Shaman - Fallen shaman priests lead camps of fallen. I have also heard it rumored that they possess the ability to raise imps from the dead!

Lunatic - These enraged, oversized fallen creatures are bloated seemingly to the point of bursting, an impression buttressed by the fact that these insane demons rush their intended victims and then stab themselves until they explode. A more fitting name could not be found for these maniacal beings.

Overseer - The fallen overseer drives his smaller impish charges into a frenzy with his ape-like leaping and growling. An overseer among a group of fallen is a dangerous thing, as the cowardice that usually characterizes them is overwhelmed by fear of their much larger brethren.

Hounds - These slobbering abominations are commonly found among groups of the fallen and are utilized as guard animals, beasts of burden, or even food by their demonic masters. These beasts are loyal to a fault, regardless of the abuse heaped upon them.

You can see their glorious new page on the official Diablo III site here: http://www.blizzard.com/diablo3/worl.../thefallen.xml. There's tons of new artwork and lore crammed in there- I'd encourage everyone to check it out!

How does everyone feel about these things returning in the world of Diablo again? It does make sense since there were so many of them in Diablo II. I'd wager they'll probably multiply like bunnies. Thoughts? Comments?

(And I'd pass a rep point or two to Pjanoo for posting this first!)

To discuss this article with thousands of D3 Fans visit the Diablofans.com Forums!

Diablofans.com member Yngvar has an extensive collection of fan art up in the Diablo 3 Art section of the website. Users have enjoyed his art for some time now but only recently has he been getting some attention from the online deities at Blizzard! They've posted 4 new pieces of artwork recently and included some work from Yngvar in a recent Diablo Fan Art update!

Here's a look at the story and artwork from the Blizzard Diablo-Themed Fan Art post:

Blizzard has just uploaded four new pieces of Diablo fanart! The first artwork is by our very own member, Yngvar. Congratulations!

Check them out!




I think they are great! Who's up for submitting some more artwork to add to the collection? I know I am.

Thanks Dauroth for noticing the update first.

Diablofans.com has alerted us to some pretty fantastic costumes recently on display at the West China International Cartoon Festival where several of the costumes were inspired by Blizzard games! Being a super-good Diablo fansite Diablofans.com picked out the Witch Doctor to display, and what an amazing costume it is!

Here's a screenshot and the official word about the Cartoon Culture Festival Diablo Costumes:

Whether you're into cosplay or not, there's no denying how impressive some of the costumes can be - particularly how much work goes into 'em. Well, Bashiok recently posted about some great costumes from the recent West China International Cartoon Culture Festival that were inspired by Blizzard's games. Just take a look at this Witch Doctor from Diablo 3 for example:

[click to enlarge]
 

Almost looks like a sculpted action figure rather than a real person, eh? Seriously impressive stuff. Be sure to head on over to China's Duowan site to see all of the other costumes in the gallery. The site is in Chinese, but you shouldn't have a problem navigating through all three pages of images. The Starcraft Terran and Protoss costumes are pretty amazing.

Check it out!

So do we have anybody here who participates in the cosplay stuff that takes place at BlizzCon each year? If so, what are you planning on dressing up as?

Diablofans.com has posteed an exclusive interview with  Richard Knaak, the man behind much of the background for Diablo! His writings will even reach Diablo 3 as the game will have several references and plot lines directly related to lore he has written. In the interview he talks about his current projects and inspiration for much of the Diablo writing he's done.

Here's the Richard Knaak interview from Diablofans.com:

For those who don't know, Richard Knaak is the man who wrote a lot of the books and background story for Diablo. His Diablo books include The Sin War trilogy, Legacy of Blood, The Moon of the Spider, and The Kingdom of Shadow. A lot of what he has wrote has become canon to Diablo lore and some will even be featured in Diablo 3.

Red will be my color, Mr. Knaaks response will be in the plain text to it's easier to differentiate.

Quote:

On behalf of Diablofans, Hello Mr. Knaak.

Hello to everyone! Thank you for having me.

--- Q&A ---

Q: As a writer are there any other parts of the Diablo lore that interest you? Such as the Dark Exile or the Binding of the Three?

A: The Binding of the Three, naturally. More on the Rathmians, of course. And, to be honest, I'm very interested in what material we've already seen coming for Diablo 3. King Leoric is a character I'd like to delve into. I think that there's a lot to work with there.

Q: The Diablo universe has grown and evolved significantly since the first Diablo game has come out. What has it been like for you to be an integral part of that process?


A: Fantastic! To be able to flesh out events, to flesh out the world and add to the mythos --- all as Blizzard approves and directs, naturally --- had been great fun! It's especially great now that the first images of Diablo 3 include a certain lost city...

Q: What were your inspirations for writing the Diablo novels? For example, the character of Uldyssian seems to be inspired by Odysseus (also known as Ulysses), who similarly went on a long journey and is said to be full of wrath.

A: Blizzard laid out a very fascinating and complex struggle between darkness and light and introduced some classes that blended well with the setup of the world. I chose to build stories around particular elements, which Blizzard very much liked. For Legacy of Blood, I liked the idea of enchanted armor that wasn't beneficial to the wearer and had a history of terror attached to it. For Kingdom of Shadow, Ureh's mysterious past enabled me to create something of an 'anti-Brigadoon', which worked to good effect. Moon of the Spider was a terrific chance to bring back Zayl and delve into the necromancers more, something Blizzard was very much interested in.


As for the Sin War, Blizzard needed that history adjusted to fit their notions of what D3 would be and between the company and myself, we worked out this one man's odyssey from human to what humanity has the potential to be. Homer's The Odyssey definitely inspired us and we're happy with the results.

Q: Is the character Karybdus from The Moon of the Spider loosely based off of the necromancer in Diablo II or are they in fact the same character?

A: Loosely.

Q: In Birthright, Uldyssian has an encounter with a Thorned Hulk and it kneels before him. Is there any significance to this?

A: The thorned hulk sensed what was developing in Uldyssian. It was a sign of what was to come for someone who was once a simple farmer and was now on the path to something amazing.

Q: Are there any non-Diablo writing projects you are currently working on that we may look forward to?

A: Most immediate are the WarCraft Legends anthologies. Volume 4 is coming along in mid-June and will conclude my four-part saga concerning Trag, the tauren from the Sunwell saga. September not only sees Volume 5 --- with a special story I can't yet speak about --- but the release of Legends of the Dragonrealm, a trade omnibus that features the first three novels of my own Dragonrealm series! With a 2-page map --- the first for the world --- and the novels FIREDRAKE, ICE DRAGON, & WOLFHELM, it is an astounding 680 pages.

December sees BEASTMASTER: MYTH an epic that brings the iconic character from the movie back to his roots while expanding his world in an entirely new direction. This will be out in trade paperback. At the same time, the third volume of my Ogre Titans trilogy for Dragonlance --- THE GARGOYLE KING --- will be released in mass market.


I'm also at work on SHADOW WING, the first volume of the next WarCraft manga trilogy.


Q: Thank you for taking time to answer a few questions for us. Is there anything else you'd like to say to the Diablofans community?

A: I'd like to thank the community for their support and hope that they continue to enjoy not only my contributions, but the upcoming game!

So there you have it. My short interview with Richard Knaak, I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed conducting it.

 

To discuss this interview and other important D3 topics visit Diablofans.com!

It looks like synergies will not make it into Diablo 3. Bashiok revealed this week that synergies will not play a role in Diablo III due to different skill-tree options, passive skills, and re-spec options. Diablofans.com has had their finger on the pulse of everything related to the latest addition to the series and is a great place to get caught up before the game comes out. Visit Diablofans.com to talk more about synergies in Diablo 3.

Here's the original posted from Diablofans:

Bashiok has recently revealed via the Battle.net forums (viewable as per our Blue Tracker here http://www.diablofans.com/forums/showthread.php?t=18834) that synergies are most likely not going to happen:

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bashiok

Synergies aren't being planned for nor are they expected.

It's sort of a funny question, because broken down you're essentially asking "Are the skill trees in Diablo III going to be boring and require incentive to spend points in skills no one wants?"

Ideally the answer to that is no. Smiley
There are some other things going on too that make sure synergies even less of a necessity. Clear separation of active and passive skills, respecs, ... and MORE!

 

I personally felt that synergies fixed more than they broke but, as we all know, Diablo II has had a long history of bad balancing and cookie-cutter builds. Perhaps in light of how Diablo fans reacted to synergies in Diablo II, the Diablo III team is deciding against such an implementation.

This quote actually also led to some speculation by one of our own members here (http://www.diablofans.com/forums/showthread.php?t=18838), DarkMagicc, about the viability of respeccing, if anyone wants to go and check that out.

I'd say we're actually getting a decent flow of updates if you know what to look for. Comments? Ideas? Trolling that I can delete to raise my moderation score?

Diablofans.com has a Diablo Dev Tracker that recently picked up a post from Bashiok about how leveling requirements and how they will affect gameplay for Diablo 3. Diablo 2 has recently undergone several patches and updates, but we've been assured this won't delay the release date for Diablo 3 in any way.

Here's what Diablofans.com had to say about the Bashiok Post:

In a recent post found in our blue tracker, a Battle.net user pleaded with Blizzard to not require "forced leveling" in Diablo 3. Bashiok responded with the following clarifications:

Quote:
Forced leveling? I'll just have to go along with what other people think that means. If forced leveling means a requirement to move through the game, such as "level 10 is required to move to Act II" etc. then no, there are no current plans to put level requirements on progressing through the game.

As far as I'm aware it's hasn't been mentioned by a Blizzard employee as being potentially included in Diablo III, but I could very well be mistaken.

So this level requirement business is usually discussed as a solution to 'glitch rushing' or a way of quickly leveling a character through use of bugs and loopholes. The assumption that these bugs and loopholes will exist in Diablo III in the first place is somewhat of a stretch of logic (maybe not as much as I'd like ;). So, the most obvious and popular solution is a level requirement. And yeah, it could work, but unless you can normalize XP gains you're probably fairly often going to be simply holding people back for no good reason. They've completed the act legitimately, but they're a single level shy of the requirement. Now they have to go grind for no reason other than to level so they can continue playing the game. It's not a very graceful solution. No, but there are solutions... nay, improvements! in how progression through the game can be handled. Ones that offer not only regulations on progression, but enhance the game itself.

What are your thoughts on the idea of level requirements in Diablo 3? Talk about it at Diablofans.com!

ExtremeTech recently posted a list of games from yesteryear that "just won't die". Diablo II was mentioned right at the top o' the list and here's what they had to say about it:

So how many of you are still playing Diablo 2 on a regular basis? Do you think that'll all change once Diablo 3 comes out or will you still play the second installment here 'n there? Talk more about this and other Diablo2/Diablo3 topics at www.Diablofans.com!

The Diablofans.com Diablo Development Tracker has caught a whopper of a post this week where Bashiok answered SEVERAL questions regarding the upcoming title in the Diablo series; Diablo 3. A user posted several questions about some of the things he'd seen in gameplay footage of Diablo 3, and asked several other important questions about Diablo 3 and the franchise itself.

Here's the Plethora of Questions (And Answers) post from Diablofans.com:

A user, who mysteriously didn't go by the name "El Guapo", posted a plethora of Diablo 3 questions. Bashiok was nice enough to respond to many of 'em and here's what he had to say:

"I think the last thing I heard from Jay on it in public was something along the lines of "Ok fine we'll just commit to a hardcore mode here and now" outside of that no details have been released."

"No."

"Haha, you did my work for me. Yes, soon. :D"

"I'm not aware of any, though there are some things that will hold your character in place. They're usually resolved through dealing damage though, so it's not like you actually lose control of your character. It's up to you how fast you regain movement control. Quite a few trap and monster abilities have yet to be designed though, so I wouldn't count anything out. In general I'm not sure full loss of character control fits into this game."

"A serious answer would just depress everyone."

"I've called him Chef Boyarsky, but I don't think it caught on."

"You mean mongrels, or how many abilities does he have that summon creatures? Neither would be final so I guess it doesn't matter. :P"

"You only need walk over/near gold to pick it up."

"Not planned."

"People will want more of it."

"Yes."

"Could be."

"Hrm, interesting question. I'm not sure. Probably not."

"I hadn't noticed that. I'm not sure."

"I would guess that there will be so you can take a screenshot without UI elements."

"Probably a +arcane damage stat."

"Stats."

"Unless I'm mistaken, World Map."

Discuss the answers to these questions and more at Diablofans.com!

Diablofans.com has tracked down a unique game made by a fan. The game is a combination Warcraft 3 but with a Diablo 3 modded map that was put together using Diablo 3 Gameplay Footage. We've got the update and the video of the amazing Diablocraft map for your viewing pleasure!

Here's the Diablofans.com post about Diablocraft:

Here's an interesting new fan creation straight from the Battle.net forums. Somebody by the name of CloudWolf decided to help scratch their Diablo 3 playing itch by basing a modded Warcraft 3 map on the Diablo 3 gameplay footage video. And speaking of video, here's a video clip of it in action and I gotta say... it looks pretty impressive!

Really nice eh? Definitely something worth installing if you own a copy of Warcraft 3. Here's a closer look at the character classes themselves:

You can play as any of the three currently known classes in Diablo 3, and CloudWolf promises to add in the other classes once Blizzard announces them.

One of the users recommended playing as the Witch Doctor since you can heal yourself, which comes in handy in single player mode. You can download the mod here. So who here is gonna break out their old copy of Warcraft 3 and give it a shot?

The Diablofans.com Wiki has hit an exciting milestone, over 1000 articles live on the Diablo Wiki! The Wiki was started way back in Jan. of 2009 (Yea just a few months ago!) and has grown extremely quickly to include all kinds of important Diablo information for both the upcoming Diablo 3 title, and classics Diablo/Diablo II. Diablofans.com has the best information available for Diablo 3, which grows ever closer to coming out, so be sure and register there and be kept up-to-date on the latest and greatest from the Diablo series.

Here's the official Diablo Wiki Announcement:

As I hope you are all aware, in January this year we launched our very own Wiki here as Diablofans. Undaunted by the competition from Diablo Wikia, and determined to provide our users here at Diablofans the best info on Diablo found anywhere, we've since been working to populate our wiki with more and more articles. And a few days ago, we finally got 1,000 articles up and running.

Below you will find some samples of what we have in our wiki so far. Currently, there's is very little information available on Diablo 3, and as a result, most information added so far has been about Diablo 1 and 2.

• Diablo 1 Rogue
• Fire Bolt
• Megademon
• Deeha'Blothri - Our very own forum comic by Atrumentis
• Runes (Diablo II)

I'd also like to take this moment to thank a few of our regular users here at Diablofans for their help over at the wiki since launch. Not all who contribute there are staff or sysops which is important to remember.

• Dauroth
• dunhac82
• Yemen

Your help is really appreciated!

The wiki will continue to expand, and if you want to help out just get over to the Wiki, or go to our Wiki Forums if you have any questions.

Diablofans.com has posted some recent news regarding some things Bashiok had to say on the Diablo 3 Dev Tracker. It looks like there will soon be a Blizzcast dedicated mostly to Diablo, which is big news for fans who have been looking forward to some new game details!

Here's the Blizzcast Diablo 3 post from Diablofans.com:

Bashiok recently chimed in to respond to a fairly pushy fan's demands for more Diablo 3 information. The user by the name of Barnesy04 had 3 questions:

Looks like his pushy attitude managed to get some information out... check out what Bashiok had to say:

Quote:

"No more fooling around!? Damn. You're on to me.

1. Depends on what you consider REAL information. I'm probably not supposed to say that BlizzCast 8 is almost entirely Diablo III related and should be out before the end of the month. It's going to be a good one and... oh no!
Also I personally love the bestiary updates, and you BETTER like the next one we have planned. Or else...
2. When we're ready to show something off, we'll show it off. :)
3. You'll find out soon enough."

Finally, we get a BlizzCast pretty much dedicated to Diablo 3! And by the sound of things, the next Bestiary update is going to reveal something really interesting. The end o' the month can't come soon enough!

Thanks dunhac82 & Atrumentis

To discuss this article visit Diablofans.com!

Diablofans.com recently posted some of their users Diablo Fan Art! The art isn't specifically related to Diablo 3, but rather the series in general. There is some really good talent involved in making these as demonstrated by the graphics below.

Checkout the Latest Diablo Fan Art:

Hey all. Just thought I'd take a moment to give some recognition to a few of the hard working artists from our Fan Art forum here on Diablofans. I'm sure not all of you guys check out that area of the site on a regular basis, but you should because there are some talented people in there. Take a look at these two images for example (you can click on them to see the full-sized versions):

"Diablo Colored Final" -by Naj


"Sorceress vs. Greater Mummies" -by Yngvar

Pretty nice stuff eh? Well there's plenty more in the Fan Art forum and I'll be featuring them here on the homepage every now and then. That being said, if you have some artistic skills of your own, by all means, stop by the Fan Art forum and show off some of your talents so we can all see what you're capable of!

The Diablofans.com Diablo Dev Tracker has picked up a recent post from everyone's favorite Diablo Dev, Bashiok of course, about a new Diablo II content patch and Blizzard looking for YOUR input on what you'd like to see released! This is a great opportunity to have your voice heard and tell them what you'd like to see!

Here's the official post from Diablofans.com:

Bashiok has just made a post asking fans of Diablo II to chime in on what they would really like to see included in the upcoming 1.13 patch. This is a good chance for all of you to let Blizzard know exactly what you'd like to see, so be sure to head on over to the official Battle.net thread and share your ideas! Here's the official news post:

Quote from Bashiok:
"We're in the process of working on Diablo II content patch 1.13, and we want to try to include the Diablo community's most important changes in our production schedule. To achieve this we're asking for your input on what you'd like to see in this patch. However, we're making it a bit stricter than a full-blown wish list.

If you were to get an advance look at the patch notes for Diablo II 1.13, what is the one patch note you would want to see?

Our goal is to get an overall sense of the single most important request from every member of the community. We want as many posts as we can get for the largest cross section, so if you have friends who used to play Diablo II or just don't frequent the forums as much as you do, let them know this is here so we can get their '#1 patch note' too.

Please be mindful that we're not going to be able to make every change mentioned, but hopefully with your feedback we can prioritize and do our best to cover as much as possible.

This thread is locked on purpose. To participate in this feedback collection please visit the main thread here:
http://forums.battle.net/thread.html...88961"

 

 

So let's hear your thoughts! If you could have just one thing included in the patch, what would it be?

Diablofans.com has alerted us to a very large media and bestiary update today for Diablo 3. Checkout the entire post HERE to see all the new concept art and new screenshots for Diablo3:

Here's a sample of the original post at Diablofans.com:

All kinds of new Diablo 3 goodies for you today! First and foremost, Blizzard has updated the Bestiary with a new creature: The Unburied! This nasty behemoth is apparently compromised of rotting corpse parts, disfigured heads, horns, sugar and spice. Ok, well maybe not those last two. See for yourself...

Quote:
"Something is dreadfully wrong. Fear is in the air; I can feel it. I was but days out of Tristram when I saw a screaming ball of flame rip across the sky. Surely enough, soon after witnessing this harbinger of doom, I stumbled upon a badly mangled traveler. He was barely able to spit out the tale of the cursed monstrosity responsible for his broken body as his life drifted away. He called his killer "the unburied"." ... "Being born out of pits of human misery, these beings feed on human suffering. Wherever bodies are dumped together unceremoniously, the unburied may rise."

 

In other words, if you run into this big fella, don't expect him to hold your hand for a nice romantic walk in the park. Blizzard has also put up another nice media update with new concept art and screenshots, both of which feature the unburied among other things. Take a look and click on any of the images below to see the full high-res versions!