Blizzard Admits Diablo III Endgame isn't Sustainable

Blizzard has agreed with claims that the Diablo III item hunt isn't enough for a sustainable endgame.

Speaking on the game's forums, community manager Bashiok stated, "There needs to be something else that keeps people engaged, and we know it's not there right now".

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We recognize that the item hunt is just not enough for a long-term sustainable end-game.

"We recognize that the item hunt is just not enough for a long-term sustainable end-game," he said.

"There are still tons of people playing every day and week, and playing a lot, but eventually they're going to run out of stuff to do (if they haven't already). Killing enemies and finding items is a lot of fun, and we think we have a lot of the systems surrounding that right, or at least on the right path with a few corrections and tweaks.  But honestly Diablo III is not World of Warcraft. We aren't going to be able to pump out tons of new systems and content every couple months."

Given the fact that Diablo was recently beaten on the game's hardest setting, some players have been suggesting Blizzard didn't provide enough content at launch.  But Bashiok is quick to assert that this doesn't mean the company is content to sit idle while players are bored.  He cites the upcoming PvP arenas along with a progression system as potential solutions, though neither will arrive soon.

He explained, "We're working toward 1.0.4, which we're really trying to pack with as many fixes and changes we can to help you guys out (and we'll have a bunch of articles posted with all the details as we get closer), and we're of course working on 1.1 with PvP arenas.

“

Hindsight is 20/20, but we believed pre-release that the item hunt would be far more sustainable, and would work to be a proper end-game for quite a while. That didn't turn out to be true.

"I think both those patches will do a lot to give people things to do, and get them excited about playing, but they're not going to be a real end-game solution, at least not what we would expect out of a proper end-game. We have some ideas for progression systems, but honestly it's a huge feature if we want to try to do it right, and not something we could envision being possible until well after 1.1 which it itself still a ways out."

Several players were quick to suggest that this proves Blizzard released Diablo III before the title was ready, but Bashiok refutes this.  He did admit however that, "Hindsight is 20/20 I suppose, but we believed pre-release that the item hunt would be far more sustainable, and would work to be a proper end-game for quite a while. That didn't turn out to be true, and we recognize that."

Despite this, the game doesn't appear to be in the dire straights that some are extrapolating from his admission.  Comparing the title's retention with Blizzard's other juggernaut, World of Warcraft, he revealed that Diablo III was still performing well and that the game is yet to be released in several key territories.

"We have hundreds upon hundreds of thousands playing every night. Comparing to just normal drop-off post release of a WoW expansion, Diablo III has been very solid, and it's not even out in China yet," he said.

Diablo III became the fastest selling PC game of all time when it released in May, shifting 3.5 million copies within 24 hours.  Our original review found the game to be amazing, though a bunch of our editors recently sat down to discuss how their experiences have progressed since then.

Luke Karmali is IGN's UK Editorial Assistant.  You too can revel in mediocrity by following him on IGN and on Twitter.

Source : ign[dot]com

Blizzard Explains Diablo III's Restricted Access

Update: Blizzard has issued a statement explaining why players who purchase Diablo III digitally from this point forward will need to wait up to 72 hours for full game access.

"For security reasons and to help ensure the integrity of the game and auction house service, players who purchase the digital version of Diablo III may have to wait until payment verification is complete before they can access certain game features."

"Similar to World of Warcraft, these restrictions were put in place to deter credit card fraud, which in turn helps reduce gold spam and other harmful activities that can have a negative impact on the game experience for everyone."

The level 13 cap and progress limit at the Skeleton King boss fight in Act I, as reported below, were not actually intentionally implemented, according to Blizzard. "An unintended consequence of these security measures, players who purchase the game digitally after patch 1.0.3 are temporarily being capped at level 13 and not able to proceed beyond Act I. We are working to correct this as soon as possible and will provide another update when we have more details to share."

Here's the full list of restrictions, aside from the mistake with the level and progress cap.

• No public game access for unverified digital purchasers


• No auction house access (real-money or gold) for unverified digital purchasers


• Unverified digital purchasers cannot trade items or drop items for other players to receive


• Unverified digital purchasers are not able to chat in any public or game channels


• Unverified digital purchasers cannot attach a custom message to friend requests, but they can send/accept friend requests, and play with their friends

• Global Play is not available for unverified digital purchasers

Blizzard claims that in most cases restrictions are lifted within 24 hours. Have you purchased Diablo III digitally within the last few days? What has your experience been like?

Original Story: Most of the staff at IGN has been enjoying Diablo III. In fact, many of us talk about it so much that we've convinced friends and other co-workers to buy it. While plenty of people are willing to go out to a store or purchase a boxed copy online, many more turn to Battle.net and quickly pick up a digital copy. As of the new 1.0.3, though, new customers can apparently only unlock the full game three days after purchase.

In a post on Blizzard's support forums, the details are made clear (though not explained at all):

As of patch 1.0.3, when purchasing a digital version of Diablo III through the online store or your Battle.net Account, players are restricted to the Starter Edition for the first 72 hours (sometimes less). Players on Starter Editions have the following restrictions:

• Act I up to the Skeleton King is available


• Level 13 cap


• Matchmaking available only with other Starter Edition players


• No Auction House access (Real Money or Gold)


• Global Play is not available. Players attempting to connect to Diablo III Starter Edition in a region other than their Battle.net Account's home region will receive Error 12. See the Global Play support article for more information.

Basically, people who go out and purchase the game in-full are restricted to the content from the Beta. We've reached out to Blizzard for clarification, since at the moment we're just left wondering why this step would be taken. Perhaps it has something to do with restricting access in order to help server loads? Or maybe keep would-be farmers from buying a bunch of copies to put a ton of auctions up and get around the 10-item per account limit? Let's all speculate together.

Source : ign[dot]com

Diablo III: Post-Launch Changes

In a post on the Diablo III site Blizzard described a number of changes coming to its popular action-RPG. It appears the “first real game balance changes” will arrive in patch 1.0.3, which will include adjustments to damage “spikiness” in the Inferno difficulty setting, and make the blacksmith artisan a little less expensive to upgrade.

In terms of what Blizzard considers to be important when adjusting balance and skills, “If any single skill or rune feels absolutely required to progress, it means that skill is working against our goal of encouraging build diversity -- and those “required” skills need to be corrected.” This is in reference to the recent hotfixes that lessened the effectiveness of the Monk and Wizard.

Blizzard also noted the 1.1 patch will be the PvP patch, which will add a combat arena into the game where players can beat each other up. In addition, the 1.1 PvP patch will include numerous non-PvP-related changes, such as increasing the statistics of legendary items.

“Legendary items are not designed to necessarily be the best items in the game,” said the post. “They’re just one additional type of item as you level up, and they are not meant to be the primary items you’re chasing at the end-game. They can -- and should -- be exciting to find, but they’re not supposed to serve as the single driving force of the item hunt. Rare items, for example, have the possibility to roll up “perfect” stats that can, if you’re lucky, outpace the predetermined stats of a Legendary. That’s by design.”

Blizzard also listed some interesting statistics for Diablo III, revealing that so far only 1.9 percent of those playing have unlocked the Inferno difficulty setting, and that 80 percent of Diablo III characters are between levels one and 30. So far, the most commonly used runes in the game include Best Served Cold (Barbarian), Lingering Fog (Demon Hunter), Mirror Skin (Wizard), Peaceful Repose (Monk) and Numbing Dart (Witch Doctor).

Source : http://www.ign.com/articles/2012/05/29/diablo-iii-post-launch-changes

Blizzard Responds to Myriad Reports of Hacked Diablo 3 Accounts

Blizzard has said it is taking reports about a wave of hacked Diablo 3 accounts "extremely seriously".

Since Sunday there have been a growing number of reports that many people are logging into the game to discover their gold, items and even characters missing.

Community Manager Lylirra said, "Historically, the release of a new game - such as a World of Warcraft Expansion - will result in an increase in reports of individual account compromises, and that's exactly what we're seeing now with Diablo III.  We know how frustrating it can be to become the victim of account theft, and as always, we're dedicated to doing everything we can to help our players keep their Battle.net accounts safe."

Whilst issues like this have been plaguing World of Warcraft and other MMOs for years, what's most troubling is that some people have said Blizzard's authenticators haven't protected them.  The authenticators, which are available in physical form or as iPhone and Android apps, work by randomly generating a unique code tied to your account that expires within two minutes each time you try to log in.  It means only people with your phone or authenticator can ever log into your account... in theory.

When Blizzard changed the rules for authenticators late last year, it caused quite a stir; while you used to have to input a code every time you logged in, you now only have to do it if you log in from an unfamiliar location for the first time.  Many people are speculating that the recent wave is down to hackers managing to mimic IP identifiers and slip past Blizzard's authentication servers.

But Blizzard is refuting these suggestions, with Community manager Bashiok stating, "We've been taking the situation extremely seriously from the start, and have done everything possible to verify how and in what circumstances these compromises are occurring.  Despite the claims and theories being made, we have yet to find any situations in which a person's account was not compromised through traditional means of someone else logging into their account through the use of their password.  While the authenticator isn't a 100% guarantee of account security, we have yet to investigate a compromise report in which an authenticator was attached beforehand."

The good news is that Blizzard has over eight years of experience dealing with hacked accounts, so most players who contact Blizzard are getting swift resolutions.  Often Blizzard can 'rollback' the character to before the hack took place, but this can sometimes mean that progress or items are lost.

Blizzard is offering a wealth of advice for protecting your account over on its forums, but if you're yet to invest in an authenticator or register for the SMS protect system, with these reports flying around, it's a good idea to do so now.

Have you been hacked, or known someone who has been?  Let us know in the comments below.

Source : http://www.ign.com

Diablo 3 Review

Diablo 3 Review:

It’s hard to believe that it’s been 12 years since Diablo 2 came out and continued the loot-frenzy, mouse-clicking adventure RPG Diablo series from Blizzard Entertainment. Since the game announcement in 2008, the title has had multiple revisions – no more Mystic artisan, delayed PvP, the addition of a controversial auction house that has the option to use real money – and plenty of criticism, including the much-maligned color palette that fans said didn’t truly represent the franchise.

But it’s now been a week since the game launched, which unfortunately meant a crippling period of time where Blizzard’s servers didn’t cooperate with the vast majority of players, keeping thousands of players from accessing the game. Because Diablo 3’s DRM requires an internet connection to be signed into Battle.net, this left the majority of players unable to play the game they had purchased. Complaints littered the internet, but quickly vanished once the servers were able to handle the load.

Are You Playing This For The Story?

Blizzard has a rich history of providing complex stories for their games: see StarCraft, WarCraft and of course the previous Diablo titles as examples of this. But it’s easy to lose to the entire scope behind all of those mouse clicks. Diablo 3 has a rich story with some of the most gorgeous cutscenes ever to grace a video game. (Seriously, if there was a feature-length Diablo movie told in this animation, it would sell tons of tickets). But much of the lore and history is told in dialogue with NPCs that you don’t’ have to access, and we wonder how many people will skip it altogether in the search for yellow epic items.

For those of you who might be curious, Diablo 3 is set 20 years after Diablo 2, with demon lords Belial and Azmodan trying to gain control of the Black Soulstone and destiny itself, either by freeing Diablo, or taking the power for themselves. The events are touched off by a meteor that opens an enormous hole in a Cathedral near New Tristram, swallowing wise man Deckard Cain along with it. As a Nephalem, the direct offspring of angels and demons, you have access to great powers, and must use them to try and stop hell from spilling into Sanctuary.

In order to do that, you’ll team up with Cain’s niece Leah and trace the path of the Dark Wanderer from Diablo 2. Along the way you’ll also meet several followers you can hire to join your party: the Templar, the Scoundrel, and the Enchantress.

Who Do You Want To Be?

Diablo 3 features five characters classes: four brand-new ones, and the returning Barbarian from Diablo 2. What is impressive here is that Blizzard has managed to pack different types of gameplay options into each class, meaning you can have a Witch Doctor who fights up close and personal, or one who hangs back and deals DPS and uses minions do deal damage. Plus, each class has it’s own “fuel” that powers the special abilities. Choose carefully your first time around, because you’ll be stuck with that character through your entire campaign unless you want to start over.

Wizard: If you liked the Sorcerer or Sorceress from past games, the Wizard fills that slot and offers a slew of different spells from slowing down time, to blasting out beams of ice and energy. This class is fueled by Arcane Power, which regenerates quickly.

Monk: A strange (but very fun) new addition to Diablo despite the Monk class in the Hellfire expansion to the original Diablo game, the monk uses extreme speed and powerful combination moves to vanquish enemies. Powered by Spirit, the monk isn’t one you’ll want to use for ranged combat, but they offer a unique melee combat option.

Demon Hunter: This class uses two types of resources – hate and discipline – to deploy traps and rain ranged fire from dual crossbows down on their enemies. With a powerful hatred of all things demonic, there are a lot of fun options like bombs and gadgets in their arsenal.

Barbarian: The powerhouse of the group is the Barbarian, who you will definitely want to have in your lineup if you form a party with friends. Powered by Fury, the Barb leaps, whirlwinds, and pounds into foes. If you’re into tanking, look no further. Barbarians also tower over the other classes, and as a result their gear stands out more as you outfit them.

Witch Doctor: Arguably the most visually impressive of the new classes, the Witch Doctor is powered by Mana and can raise zombie dogs, corpse spiders, acid clouds, gargantuan voodoo-fueled companions, and more. Favorites include the Enormous Toad option that swallows enemies whole, and the Fetish that turns enemies into chickens. This was the class that I took all the way to the end of the game the first time around, and I’m in love with them.

Click Click Click Click

Diablo 3 doesn’t vary from its mouse-clicking heritage, but it does offer up some tweaks. You’ll use your mouse and the left and right mouse buttons to move and trigger attacks, while the number keys 1 through 4 trigger additional abilities. Q will instantly quaff whatever potion you’ve slotted in there, and … that’s it. You can hit various other keys for menus – I for inventory, S for Skills, and so on, but as far as gameplay goes, you’re going to rely on the first three fingers of your left hand, and your index finger on your right hand to play through this game.

As with other Diablo titles, things can get frenzied and hard to follow when you’re swarmed with multiple enemies. Combine that with followers and abilities, and there are plenty of times where you’re going, “Well, I know I need to click a ton right in the middle of this mess, but I’m not entirely sure what’s going on.” In those situations, you’ll play the “Watch The Health Meter” game and pray for globe drops and fast potion recharge times.

To streamline the process, Blizzard has introduced Health Globes that occasionally drop from enemies, and you can augment that through abilities and gear as well. For instance, higher-end gear will give you more health from globes, if imbued with that ability. You can also pick up gold now just by walking over it, but you’ll quickly find that the name of the game is loot juggling. You’ll have to click on each piece that you want to pick up, and once you get to hire levels and start finding the really good stuff, it’s hard to let it go.

Thankfully, you have a Stash in town once again that you can store stuff in to be used by any of your characters, but it’s both a blessing and a curse. It’s a blessing to have, but a curse that it’s so small. Still, if you find a great piece of epic gear meant for another class, it’s nice to have the option to hand it off to that class or even sell it. Right now, the real money auction house hasn’t been activated in Diablo 3 yet, although we’re already seeing some exorbitant prices in the ten million gold range for high-end items. Like the futures market, this bears keeping an eye on. We’ll be interested to see who actually turns a decent profit from loot whore-iteering.

One Time, At Diablo Camp…

While Merchants are a long-standing staple in Diablo, allowing you to buy and sell new items, Diablo 3 introduces a very robust artisan system that has a blacksmith and a jeweler following you from town to town and setting up camp. You can use them to craft new gear and gems using supplies: elements from breaking down rare and epic items for the blacksmith, and lower-quality gems for the jeweler (who is hilariously voiced by James Hong).

You can also level these artisans up by training them (at a cost in gold), and when you’re ready to boost them into higher levels after completing the game and moving into Nightmare mode, you’ll find additional supplies that can improve them even more. The smith can create rare and epic items with random magical properties and break down the same into their base elements, eliminating the faithful Horadric Cube. The jeweler will create new gems from lesser gems at a ratio of 3 to 1, and he can also remove jewels from sockets, which means no more permanently fused sockets.

Blizzard had announced a Mystic as an artisan who would accompany you as well, creating magical items for your character, but they aren’t currently in the game. With the blacksmith able to create magic items, it isn’t missed that much, but it would be nice to tinker more with the magic properties that are bestowed on things. But there are enough merchants in town that have enough variety on display to tide you over for now. Hopefully the Mystic will appear in an update or an expansion.

Besides buying/selling and artisaning, you’ll also come back into town via Waypoints or the Town Portal spell (which is now automatic and unlocked early on and not reliant on finding Town Portal scrolls) to hire or swap out Followers. These range from the melee/tankish Templar, to the ranged Scoundrel, to the DPS/effect Enchantress. You can only have one in your party at a time, and if someone joins your game via co-op, your Follower will head back to town.

These Followers will level up alongside you, allowing you to choose abilities for them along the way in a “Choose A or B” option, and you can outfit them as well, but only with rings, an amulet, a weapon, a shield, and a focus. A focus grant additional stats to your Follower, and take the form of things like a pair of dice for the Scoundrel, spear shards for the Templar, and a mirror for the Enchantress. You’ll find these randomly, although not as often as you’d like.

Unfortunately, you can’t change your Followers armor, which would have been helpful because you find so. much. of. the. stuff. Besides selling it, saving it, or breaking it down, it would be nice if you could dress up your buddies and improve their stats as well.

It’s A Dead Man’s Party

With PvP nonexistent (for now), the best way to blast through the game and pick up the good stuff is to party up. Battle.net makes it very easy to jump in and out of games with people on your friends list. Need help passing a boss? Belial was kicking my ass repeatedly, so I asked a cohort to help me out. He popped over, joined, and we were able to power through after a couple of tries. Then he hopped back into his own game.

It’s very easy to see who is what and where, and the banner system lets you instantly teleport to a party member’s location simply by clicking on their banner in town. You’ll get zapped to their proximity, without any need for a Town Portal. You can also join public games, where your mileage may vary. Meaning, you might end up with a team of duds, or something rivaling the Avengers. You never can tell until you join. Without any sort of a real match ranking system, it’s the best way to meet new players, for now.

Hopefully the PvP will expand horizons and make it easier to meet fellow players of equal skill levels and party up. Thankfully, when joining a public game, you can narrow it down to the portion of the act and the difficulty that you want to jump into. So if you’ve beaten the game, set your phasers on Nightmare and join a public party for maximum lootation. Within five minutes of beating the game, I was picking up new gear with a party of people I didn’t know. This should become the gold standard for adventure game co-opping.

So What’s Wrong?

Besides the occasionally confusing combat, which is also a staple of this series, the only real problem with the game seems to be the abrupt ending. We won’t spoil what your final battle is (but it doesn’t take Rain Man to figure it out), and when you’re done with that, there’s a “Hey, congrats!” message, and you’re done. You can continue the game and start in Nightmare mode, or switch off and go outside and read a book.

With such a strong emphasis on story, it’s strange and almost upsetting that there isn’t some sort of endgame cutscene or event. It almost feels like they got to that point and just had no idea what to do, or despite their “We ship when it’s ready” tenet… it just wasn’t ready.

Besides that, it’s more what isn’t in the game that’s a problem. Where is the promised PvP that was so hyped? With so many players loving that from Diablo 2, it’s a glaring omission. What about the character-specific side quests? I found out a lot about the Barbarian though some of Deckard Cain’s journals that I found, but what about background on my creepy/cool Witch Doctor? Perhaps there is more to be revealed on additional playthroughs, but I would hope I would learn about my own class while playing.

And What’s Right?

What’s more impressive, however, is what Blizzard got right. The game is truly impressive on nearly every level. From the graphics, to the fantastic soundtrack, to the towering scads of loot and extremely varied gameplay, there’s a lot to like here. It was very disheartening to hear that Blizzard was jettisoning the Rune system where you would find and socket your own Runes, but the unlockable system they use now that improves skills is a terrific solution to rune-juggling.

Additionally, the Followers have so much recorded dialogue that you will hear as they tag along with you, and they’ll even chatter back and forth with each other when you’re in town. You’ll learn all about their lives, loves, fears, and more as they ask you questions or banter back and forth. They even manage to crack a joke or two here and there.

Then, there’s the crack factor. The game is as addictive as ever, and you’ll find yourself saying “Okay, just five more minutes” for hours on end, often just hoping for a decent loot drop before you can finally turn in. The game keeps track of your playtime and progress with each class, providing a visual record of your addiction, and additionally the visual banner system lets you know how awesome both you and your friends.

The End Is Not Nigh

The bottom line is that Diablo 3 is a triumph for Blizzard, despite the painful server problems that plagued the launch. It’s only because Blizzard themselves pull back the curtain so often to show us the development process that we are lamenting the absence of things like PvP and the Mystic. What you get in this package is an addictive, satisfying game that feels very polished, offers a wide range of gameplay options, introduces an insatiable lust for loot, and does co-op right. This is what PC (and Mac!) gaming is all about.

Source : http://www.g4tv.com

Diablo 3 Advanced Guide: Bring On The Demon Hunter Ads By Google » Blog Tags Today's Most Popular Videos »

We've put together this Diablo 3 Demon Hunter guide to get you up to speed on the most relentless class coming to Blizzard’s upcoming action role playing game. This handy guide gives you all the most important info on the Demon Hunter from Diablo 3 at a glance.

You Should Play A Demon Hunter If: If you love standing back and slaying enemies from afar, or finding the most strategic way to take down a monster, then the Demon Hunter could be for you. Specializing in ranged weaponry and traps, Demon Hunters, unlike some of the other Diablo 3 classes, need to take their environment into account when bringing down their enemies.

Background: Demon Hunters are a group of fanatical warriors who have but one purpose: to avenge their friends and families who were butchered by demons and hellspawn. Every arrow that a Demon Hunter launches is "dipped in spite" and "delivered with hatred." This fuels them to keep hunting, as every demon who falls to their deadly attacks makes the world that much safer.



The key features of the Demon Hunter include ranged weapons, shadow magic, traps, and battle tactics. A Demon Hunter has more precision with a ranged weapon than any other class in Diablo 3, and they use this extra skill to equip various artillery like longbows, grenades, hand-thrown weapons, and even dual-wielded crossbows. With shadow magic, the Demon Hunter can cloak themselves and slip between the shadows to sneak up on their enemies.

Demon Hunters are extremely agile but they can't withstand much damage. Therefore, they use traps to slow their enemies down so that they can kite, or run and fire at their enemies while they're slowed down. Using mines, grenades, caltrops, or steel-jawed traps are just a few of the ways that Demon Hunters soften up their prey. Finally, a Demon Hunter uses battle tactics like hamstring arrows or entangling bolas to debuff and slow enemies, making them more vulnerable to the Demon Hunter's attacks.

How You Play A Demon Hunter: Demon Hunters are the only class in the game with two different resources: Hatred and Discipline. Hatred is the resource which is available for a Demon Hunter's offensive skills and it regenerates quickly. Discipline on the other hand is the resource available for defensive maneuvers and traps and it regenerates very slowly.

Therefore, to successfully play a Demon Hunter you have to carefully balance how you generate and spend your Discipline in order to not only ensure survival, but also to kill demons as efficiently as possible.

Demon Hunter Equipment: Like all of the classes in Diablo 3, the Demon Hunter gets their own one-of-a-kind equipment including hand crossbows, quivers, and cloaks. Hand crossbows are "quick-reloading, fast-firing ranged weapons" that the Demon Hunter can actually dual wield. Double the hand crossbows, double the fun, as they say. The Demon Hunter's quiver contains not just arrows, but mystic properties that allows the DH to fire faster as well. Finally, as every class needs a stylish flair, Demon Hunters can equip cloaks which not only provide chest protection, but allow them to move acrobatically while defending themselves against their foes.

Demon Hunter Skills: Demon Hunters have 23 available skills in total in Diablo 3 which are divided in to three different types: Offense, Discipline, and Utility skills. Whereas other classes have skills that feel like they could be interchanged between any tree, the Demon Hunter's three types of skills are all very distinct. It will be up to your personal playstyle to choose which skills will be the best for you.

Skills which use Hatred will cause the most damage to enemies, as well as debilitating them, depending on the skill. Discipline skills are all of the Demon Hunter's defensive maneuvers. These skills will allow you to use traps and turrets, summon companions, or even vault out of harm's way. These are non-direct spells that generally help protect your Demon Hunter while dealing out some damage to foes in the process.

Like all of the other Diablo 3 classes, Demon Hunters can only have six skills active at a time. You start out with one active skill at level one and you unlock the ability to use a extra skills at levels 2, 6, 12, 18, and 24. Demon Hunters also unlock passive skill slots at levels 10, 20, and 30.

As you're making your way through Diablo 3 as a Demon Hunter, there are a few skills to keep in mind. These are skills that will prove to be the most useful, or are a bit more potent than others.

Hungering Arrow: Unlocked right off the bat at level 1, Hungering Arrow is a magically imbued arrow that seeks out targets and deals 115% weapon damage to them, with a 35% chance to pierce through targets. It also generates 3 Hatred. I liked this skill a lot because it was sort of a homing arrow, and no matter which direction I aimed, it would always find a target to kill.

Caltrops: Unlocked at level 4, Caltrops costs 6 Discipline and the skill allows you to lay a trap of caltrops on the ground that slows enemies within 12 yards by 60% once activated. This skill is a great way to slow enemies down so that you can get as far away as possible and deal damage to them while they can't catch up to you. With this kiting method, you can solo just about any standard enemy in Diablo 3.

Chakram: Unlocked at level 12, Chakram costs 10 Hatred to use. It sends a Chakram towards enemies, dealing 150% weapon damage to any enemies that it hits along its path. It's basically a huge swirling ninja star of death that deals tons of damage and looks very cool in the process. Getting a good angle to send out the Chakram is fun, and watching it impale multiple enemies at once is awesome.

What's great about the Demon Hunter is that because they're adept with both ranged weapons as well as traps and explosives, you can choose the way that best compliments your playstyle and set your Demon Hunter up in that way. Balancing your Hatred and Discipline might be somewhat difficult when you first start with the class, but eventually it makes sense and once it does using both types of skills pays off.

Passive Demon Hunter Skills: In Diablo 3 you can only equip one passive skill at level 10. Your choices at level 10 are Tactical Advantage and Thrill of the Hunt. At level 13 Vengeance unlocks, while at level 16 you get access to Steady Aim. When you unlock your next Passive Skill slot at level 20, you'll also unlock Cull the Weak and Night Stalker. Passive Skills are just that: abilities that you don't have to cast but grant passive advantages to your Demon Hunter.

Tactical Advantage gives the Demon Hunter a 60% boost to movement speed for 2 seconds every time you use Vault, Smoke Screen, or backflip with Evasive Fire. Thrill of the Hunt makes your attacks immobilize your target for three seconds once every ten seconds. Vengeance allows you to gain 20 Hatred, 2 Discipline, and increases your maximum Hatred by 25 for ten seconds whenever you consumer a health globe. Steady Aim increases your damage by 20% as long as there are no enemies within 10 yards of you.

Cull the Weak will have you utilizing traps to an extreme, as this Passive Skill increases damage to slowed enemies by 15%. Finally, Night Stalker is useful if you find yourself struggling to fight defensively, as it causes critical hits to have a chance to restore 1 Discipline.

I went for the Vengeance passive skill for my Demon Hunter. Increasing my Hatred by 25 every time I ate one allowed me to spam a lot of Hatred Spender skills and deal a ton of damage to my enemies. I also just love the Steady Aim passive skill in general. I think that it will make players play the Demon Hunter how Blizzard intends for the class to be played, and that's brilliant game design in my opinion.

For my Demon Hunter's Active skills I chose a mix between Hatred Generators, Spenders, and Discipline spells (what a surprise!). My staple Hatred Generators were Hungering Arrow and Evasive Fire, the latter of which shoots enemies for 125% weapon damage, and if an enemy is at close range you back flip away 15 yards. This mix of Hatred Generation was strong enough to take out enemies out quickly, and then I'd spend my Hatred on Chakram which could rip through packs of foes quickly. Finally, I used Vault as my Discipline skill to both get away from enemies quickly, as well as a way to stylishly get from one pack to the next. In sticky situations I'd throw down a caltrop trap, but in general I didn't need to do this too much.

Like the Monk, the Demon Hunter is one of the more skill-based classes in Diablo 3. You really have to focus on balancing your Hatred and Discipline in order to use your skills, and it will be interesting to see how different types of players utilize the Demon Hunter. Not only that, but a lot of the Demon Hunter's skills will be more beneficial for those people who strategize more with class, lay traps, etc., rather than those who just run into every situation with their crossbows out.

What do you think of the Demon Hunter in Diablo 3? Let me know in the comments below, and tell me how you set up your Demon Hunter's skills if they're different than the ones that I used. Also be sure to check out our Diablo 3 Witch Doctor Guide, Diablo 3 Wizard Guide, and our Diablo 3 Monk Guide for everything you want to know about the other Diablo 3 classes.



Source : http://www.g4tv.com

Diablo III game-breaking bug found

Gamers have found a game-breaking bug in Blizzard Entertainment's just-released Diablo III. The issue triggers Error 3006, which boots users from Diablo III servers and prohibits them from logging back in, according to reports on the Battle.net forums.

Evil has returned…in the form of a game-breaking bug.

As detailed on Blizzard's Diablo III known issue page, while playing a Demon Hunter, players who equip a shield to a Templar follower run the risk of being disconnected from the game's servers. Blizzard is currently investigating the issue, and according to the company's European customer service Twitter feed, a fix is on the way.

Diablo III launched today for the PC and Mac. It is the first title in the series since 2001's Diablo II: Lord of Destruction expansion and adds a variety of new features, character classes, and a new auction house system, which charge gamers a range of fees. It launched without player-vs.-player multiplayer, and set preorder records at Blizzard and Amazon. For more on Diablo III, check out GameSpot's latest preview.

Source : http://gamespot.com/news/diablo-iii-game-breaking-bug-found-6376781

Diablo 3 Error Message Blocks Out Game Access Ads By Google » Blog Tags Today's Most Popular Videos »

Diablo 3 is here at last, but the release hasn't gone as smoothly as Blizzard would like thanks to some launch day hiccups in the form of an "Error 37" message. Some players are reporting (via Shacknews) that they're greeted with a message upon launching the game that reads: "The servers are busy at this time. Please try again later. (Error 37)"

An update from the developer on Battle.net confirms that the issue is related to the servers being slammed hard with the influx of new users. "Due to high concurrency the login servers are currently at full capacity. This may cause delays in the login process, account pages and web services. We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause and thank you for your patience while this is being resolved." There are also apparently issues affecting character creation that Blizzard is looking into.

This is a huge launch and issues were to be expected. Kudos to Blizzard for getting out in front of it and commenting quickly. How has your first-time Diablo 3 experience been so far? Is the game working fine? Running into these issues or any others? Let us know!

Source : http://www.g4tv.com/thefeed/blog/post/723780/diablo-3-error-message-blocks-out-game-access/

Diablo III sets Blizzard preorder record

Diablo III can lay claim to the title of Blizzard's most anticipated game ever, as the PC action role-playing game was today confirmed as the developer's most preordered title of all-time. That news comes with a slight asterisk, as it includes copies of the game owed through the World of Warcraft Annual Pass promotion, which gives a free copy to anyone who signs up for a full year of the subscription-based massively multiplayer online role-playing game.

A decade between games can help build anticipation.

The Diablo III news was announced as part of Activision Blizzard's earnings report for the quarter ended March 31, which also included some noteworthy stats for the Activision half of the company. The publisher confirmed the Call of Duty Elite service has 10 million registered users now, with more than 2 million of them paying for the premium tier membership. The game-and-toy synergy of Skylanders: Spyro's Adventure also continued to sell for the company, with more than 30 million toys sold through March. It's been doing so well that Activision's internal estimates have Skylanders toys outselling even Star Wars for the first three months of the year.

As for the company's actual financial figures, revenues and net profit both surpassed projections set in February, but fell short of the company's performance for the same quarter last year. For the quarter, Activision posted sales of $1.17 billion, down year-over-year from $1.45 billion. It also chalked up $384 million in net income, down from $503 million for the same period last year.

The results beat expectations sufficiently for Activision Blizzard to up its full-year forecast. The company now expects the calendar year 2012 to see it ring up $4.2 billion in sales (up from $4.15 billion) and earnings per share of $0.65, up from $0.63.


Source : http://gamespot.com/news/diablo-iii-sets-blizzard-preorder-record-6375915

How to Prepare for Diablo 3

A new guide explaining how to prepare for Diablo 3's launch next Tuesday has gone live on the Blizzard Blog.

In it, Blizzard explains what players should expect, how they can prepare, and when they can install and play the long-awaited title. Those who have already bought the game will be able to access the installer from Monday in order to patch the game and troubleshoot any issues they may encounter before launch.

The game will launch at midnight on May 15th, though Blizzard is warning that there may be delays of up to 40 seconds when logging in due to the volume of players. As an added precaution, it advises creating a BattleTag now to avoid queues.

The Global Play service, allowing you to play with friends from other regions, won't launch until the game goes live in North America at around 8am BST. Blizzard is promising to work round the clock throughout the launch period to help players overcome any technical difficulties they may encounter.



Source : http://pc.ign.com/articles/122/1224506p1.html