eCorhythms Computer Game Design

Look at all that great Diablo 3 gear! It could be yours by entering this competition!

http://www.diablo3builds.com/diablo-3-mega-prize-give-away/

I don’t know about you but I’d love to hang a Diablo 3 poster signed by Jay Wilson in my living room!

Some exciting news has just been announced shortly before the release of Diablo 3 that is sure to have many fans excited – Diablo 3 is going to get an armory of sorts but it won’t be available until shortly after launch.

Source – http://www.diablo3builds.com/diablo-3-character-profiles-coming-soon/

As we draw closer and closer to the release date of Diablo 3, a lot more information is being released regarding the end game aka Inferno mode.

We’re all familiar with enrage timers from WoW and Diablo 3 will use a modified version of them. Read below to read the quotes from the interview with Bashiok about them.

I know what some boss enrage timers are, but to save spoilers I’ll transpose it onto the Skeleton King. So, as an imaginary example, in Inferno if you don’t kill the Skeleton King within four minutes he starts spawning three times the amount of skeletons. That creates a much tougher situation, but it’s one you could very well handle if played right.

People kiting the Skeleton King around for an hour with their level 3 characters is fun to see. It’s not fun when it’s level 60′s at end game and item drops matter. To make these kills and thus a character’s progression matter we need to try to fight cheesy tactics that allow people to just flop through the game.

Don’t force people to be efficient if they don’t want to be.

The point of the game is efficiency… Killing monsters as quickly as possible to maximize your time to find the drops you want. That is the game. I think you should do whatever you think is fun, absolutely, but if you want to go at a slower pace, not really worry much about maximizing efficiency, and just kind of take it at your own speed you’re going to have a pretty rough time in Nightmare let alone Inferno. Hopefully as the game progresses and difficulty ramps up you’re naturally being encouraged to tighten up your build and scrutinize your gear more and more.

In any case though, as I detailed the enrage timers aren’t “I Win” buttons for the bosses, so a more defensive build should still be able to progress if they’re geared and being played well.

With the Nephalem Valor buff the best loot is off champions, rares, and (assuming the buff is up) bosses. As I said the point is ensuring “legitimate” progression. But if someone wants to farm rares and champions in the beginning of Act I because they can’t beat the Skeleton King, they should absolutely do that. And actually, everyone should be expecting to do exactly that when they reach Inferno.

You can very often achieve the same goal without the metagamey “I Win” button.
They aren’t “I Win” buttons.

what exactly does the enrage timer hope to accomplish other than becoming an artificial barrier of progress?
Nope! You nailed it, that’s the intent of an enrage timer.

I like how you throw in “artificial” as a negative. It’s a video game. It’s all designed and artificial. If there’s a “natural” or “organic” way to stymie someone’s attempt to cheese their way through a boss kill I’d be happy to hear it.

Gotta farm up that tier gear before you progress! Hello boring MMO structure.
Not a big Diablo fan, huh?

There’s also some interesting informationg regarding item tiers. Most of this was unknown that each act of Inferno will drop a different tier of items.

There’s a confusion of terms making this an issue, but it’s really not one.

We separate out ‘item tiers’ for their visual appearance first and foremost. We have a number of “armor sets” (18?) in the game that match visually, and so we call them ‘tiers’ because there’s no real better way to say it. When all of your items are from that ‘tier’, you’ll match. That doesn’t directly determine their stats, though.

They’re spread out in a logical progression, and items get more awesome looking as you go further in the game. Ipso facto the higher the visual tier the better chance it’s a more powerful item, but it doesn’t preclude the possibility of it being worse. You can absolutely find an item from a visual tier back in Hell difficulty that’s better than an item using a later visual tier in Inferno.

It’s best to just expunge the term ‘tier’ from your minds, because it really has nothing to do with any kind of stair step or item upgrade approach. It’s just models and textures.

Each Inferno act has its own item tiers?
Wasn’t he referring to monster level? I’m pretty sure he was. Link?

“And there are items that ONLY drop at level 61, at level 62 and so on; and they’re not small number!”
Thanks, I was skipping around trying to find it.

So yeah, I guess the visual looks are separated out by Act in Inferno. As I said though it doesn’t guarantee or preclude an item of a specific ‘tier’ to be better of worse than another of near proximity.

As I said it’s really a non-issue. We need to come up with a better name than ‘tier’ for the matching art sets, it just makes people think the power is tiered too. Matching art sets!? How about that? Art set? nah….

So, in order to progress to later acts in inferno, you need to find all your gear in inferno because of their looks?
I’m gonna go curl up in a ball.

In news that is going to excite every gamer who has been waiting to access the beta for a very long time, Blizzard has announced that they will be starting the Diablo 3 open beta this weekend.

Looks like another update is incoming this evening for D3. There are a lot of changes which are covered in the Diablo 3 patch 16 patch notes

Did your favorite class get a buff or a nerf? With the launch of the game in less than a month, this is probably the last update to come pre-release.

Looking for the Diablo 3 patch 15 notes? Here they are! A lot of interesting changes to be had, check them out at the link above.

Are you asking yourself if the Diablo 3 17 April release date rumor is true? Not even Jay or Bashiok will deny or confirm this one. Click the above link to read more about this rumored release date for Diablo 3.

No-one can dispute the fact that Diablo 3 is going to be hugely popular for many years to come. Just like any other game, you’re probably going to be seeking more info on how to build and theorycraft your main to get the most out of it. That’s where the Diablo 3 forum comes in handy – it covers everything.

So what does this forum cover? Let’s take a look

Class Builds

This is probably going to be the most important gaming aspect when it comes to D3. Perhaps your favorite is the Wizard – so you’re going to need wizard builds. If your favorite is the Barbarian – you will need barbarian builds. Even more important than this is understand which builds apply to which scenario and why; it’d be pointless to use a pvp build in a pvm context and vica versa.

General Discussion

This is where all the chat about D3 happens. Whether it’s the latest patch or simply rambling, if you want to discuss Diablo topics with like minded individuals, this is the place to do it.

Find Other Players

Let’s face it – the appeal of online games is to play with other gamers. Diablo 3 won’t be any different and will lend itself to groups of 2, 3 and 4 players. Arena will bring up to 4v4 so getting on a popular diablo 3 forum is the first step to putting together a solid arena group.

Lastly, it’s been known for years that the best discussion happens away from the bnet forums as the official ones are flooded with noobs who don’t know an axe from a sword. Do you really want to spend your time skimming over threads asking questions which have basic answers? I don’t think you do. That’s why the forums provided by http://www.diablo3builds.com/ is where you should get started today!

Have your heart set on participating in the Diablo 3 beta ? Our friends at http://www.diablo3builds.com and @blizzard_anz have teamed up to give 100 lucky people to chance to win!

The Diablo 3 beta key competition is really simple to enter; simply follow that link and get involved for your chance to start playing now. There are going to be 5 keys given away every day for 20 days, so you’ll have plenty of opportunity to get involved!

Here’s some diablo 3 news for you! The relaunch of http://www.diablo3builds.com/ has gone ahead and brought with it a few tools to help gamers decide which builds are best for their favorite class in Diablo 3.

There are now 5 character build pages which allow gamers to vote for their favorite builds as well as submit their own for other gamers to review. If you’ve been looking for a Diablo 3 build resource, this is the best one online at the current time and with the game getting closer, now is the time to get your theorycraft in order.

In other news, the Diablo 3 beta is going well and many keys have been given away across the web. There is also a rumor going around that the launch date of Diablo 3 is going to be announced at CeBit on the 5th of March and that the launch date will be in April of 2012. Will this happen? Only time will tell!

Remember, if you get a Diablo 3 beta key, sharing keys can result in your account being banned so be wary of doing so. It’s understandable that people want to get into the beta but there remains the possiblity of an open beta very soon.