BlizzCon13' is Storming In!

BLIZZCON!!!!!! The seventh BlizzCon is coming to the Anaheim Convention Center Friday, November 8 and Saturday, November 9, 2013. Those who join us for this epic community gathering will experience two solid days of hands-on time with the latest Blizzard games, in-depth developer discussion panels, intense eSports action featuring some of the top players in the world, and a variety of other exciting activities and events. Further details on the show, including ticket pricing and availability, will be posted here on BlizzCon.com at a later date. In the meantime, check out the press release for more info and prepare to help us blow Anaheim's mind.

Scheduled Game Maintenance - 2/19/2013

We will be performing scheduled game maintenance for Diablo 3 on Tuesday, February 19th. Maintenance will begin at 1:00 AM PST and is expected to last for 12 hours. During this time Diablo 3 will not be available for play. In addition, many web services will be unavailable.

Thank you for your patience.

The Game guide has now been updated per patch 1.0.7!

Be My Nephalem? Show Off Your Diablo-Themed Art and Cards!

Health potions are red
Magic items are blue
I just killed a Treasure Goblin
And he dropped loot for you!

The battle between the forces of the Burning Hells and the heroes of Sanctuary rages on, but during this lovely season it's not unheard of for demons and Nephalem to exchange tokens of friendship.

This year, we wanted to get the community involved, so we're asking for you to put on your crafting hats and submit Diablo-themed Valentine's Day art and cards. We'll be collecting your submissions and showcasing some of your best work in a gallery that will be featured on the official Diablo Facebook page throughout the week!

To submit your diabolical Valentine's Day greetings, email us at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or send us a tweet to @Diablo using the hashtag#D3Valentine. The pieces of art you submit must be your own original work, and should be less than 2 megs in size.

We look forward to seeing the results of your creativity!

Game Guide Updated for Patch 1.0.7

Alongside the major updates to Diablo III that arrived in patch 1.0.7, we've made some significant additions to the site to help you use new (and classic) tools in your battle against the Burning Hells.
Head over to the game guide for new or updated information on:

• Brawling – new free-for-all combat located in the Scorched Chapel
• Items – Marquise Gems, new reagents, and new crafting recipes have been added to the item database
• Monsters - Monster Power is now available in public games (and the Reflects Damage affix has been modified)
• Procs (and Proc Coefficients)

We're continually working to improve our site, so let us know what you’d like to see in the future on the Website Features forum.

February Hotfixes

Below you'll find a list of hotfixes for the month of February which address various gameplay and service issues affecting Diablo III.
Hotfixes are updates we make on our end without requiring you to download a new patch. Some of the hotfixes below will go live the moment they are implemented, while others may require a restart to go into effect. As always, please keep in mind that some issues cannot be addressed without a client-side patch update.


FEBRUARY 13

• Bug Fixes
  
  • The Archon Spaulders of Strength recipe can now drop in the game
  • It is no longer possible for players to trade Demonic Essences and Marquise Gems
  • Fixed an issue where certain damage effects were not being removed from players when exiting the Scorched Chapel

Ask the Devs Update

Due to many of our developers becoming flu-ridden zombies and needing to be quarantined so they could recover, we've had to postpone publishing the answers to your questions for the first round of Ask the Devs.

Rather than posting the answers this week (as originally scheduled), we'll now be posting them on Monday, February 11, around 10:00 a.m. PST. We sincerely apologize for the delay, and hope you can forgive us for our recent zombie outbreak. :(

That's pure hilarity. 3 devs?
Based on the questions the community asked (and voted up in popularity), there were certain developers we needed to reach out to in order to get meaningful answers -- in this case, our system design group.

The Diablo III team is pretty big, but it's made up of multiple working parts, and most of the designers tend to specialize. Certainly, not everyone on the team has been sick, but a tech artist, for example, wouldn't be the correct person to ask about the crafting costs for new Rare recipes. Similarly, a UI engineer isn't going to be able to pontificate on the reasons why we buffed certain Monk skills in 1.0.7, but not others. Unfortunately, it was our system designers that bore the brunt of what we've dubbed the "zombie plague" (they share an office, so it's not a big surprise that they also shared the same nasty flu strain).

We know it sucks that we had to postpone posting the developer answers by a few days. We don't like it, either. But rather than rush the responses or get someone else who isn't responsible for that specific area of design to try to provide answers, we decided to wait until the right people were back in the office. We wanted to make sure that your questions were given that level of attention and respect.

Is the situation ideal? No. Is it the end of the world? Maybe (I've watched enough movies to know this is usually how zombie apocalypses start). But if it is, it's not because the first Ask the Devs round of answers has been delayed until Monday.

Also, I thought that the questions should have been answered days ago. The reason we were told it would take this long was the need to translate it all into different languages and coordinate a release of information. Unless you guys were blowing smoke up our rectums on reddit....
It took us longer to get the responses, but the amount of time we need to get everything localized remains unchanged. That means we had to shift everything down a couple of days to accommodate the developers not being available (we originally wanted to post on Thursday, for example, but now we're going to post on Monday (note: we do observe weekends)).

 Dueling Re-Named to Brawling

After reviewing feedback from the PTR, we've decided to rename dueling to brawling—a title we feel is much more fitting for the system. Rather than wait to announce this in the official patch notes, we wanted to let players know ahead of time, in part to reduce confusion and in part to explain the reasons behind the change.

While the system we designed for 1.0.7 was developed in order to give players a fun way to beat each other up in Diablo III, we've come to realize that "dueling" wasn’t the best name for it. Sure, it allows players to pummel, stomp, immolate, and hex fellow Nephalem (over and over again, if they so choose), but it's not a traditional one-on-one duel. It’s something much more wild and open-ended, where you can engage in 3-person and even 4-person free-for-all skirmishes with few restrictions. The system is all about letting players fight for the sake of fighting—you don’t need to worry about objectives, rewards, or scoring, and that’s exactly what we love about it. But again, that’s not really dueling; it’s brawling!

There's a lot of power in a name, and we think that the idea of a brawl more accurately describes the system we created. Heck, the NPC we added is even called Nek the Brawler, so we feel this re-branding must have been foretold in one of Deckard Cain’s prophecies. :)

This change will be reflected in the patch notes, as well as in all related game text fields once 1.0.7 ships. We’ve no further changes planned for brawling at this time, but we’re excited to see what kind of havoc players will wreak in the Scorched Chapel once the patch is released.

I'm gonna go ahead and call it dueling, if you corporate types don't mind. Stop trying so hard to not be Diablo 2, it's kinda pathetic.
Most of the feedback we've been seeing from players has been in the context of what dueling was in Diablo II and how it exists in other games. Generally speaking, dueling in other games has always been something that you can do in the normal world at a moment’s notice (or at least initiate at a moment’s notice through a challenge). It’s something that only involves two people, and carries with it the expectation of formality and structure, and to a degree…fairness. That’s not really what dueling (now brawling) is about in Diablo III, and we want to make sure that the scope of the system isn't being misrepresented by its name.

1.0.7 Is Very Close

Not much longer now

I would give you an ETA if I could, but I will not risk the wrath of the community and having my soul cursed into the afterlife if any ETA I provided turns out not to be accurate :-)

To be more serious though, I cannot give you an ETA yet because the release date we are aiming for is still set as tentative.

"Not much longer now" == "Soon" ? :D
Hmm... Soon doesn't quite cut it. I would rather say it's sooner than soon, but maybe not soon enough ;-)

Adding Sockets Not Likely To Come Soon

I know adding sockets to items is a game feature that a lot of players want, and I don’t want to sound dismissive to that feedback, but I was really was hoping that the reason you wanted to loot a drill was so you could theme your character after an angry dentist. Like a melee Wizard named DrNoNovacain. :P

In regards to adding sockets to items, I would like to say that it's still on the table for consideration and certainly something we'd like to add, but it would be a long term design goal if it were to be implemented at all.

Angels Will Never Be a Playable Class

Archangel and Deathangel classes wouldn't really fit with the lore, simply because they are not Nephalem. The Nephalem are the offspring of angels and demons, and within them is the combined essence(or spirit if you will) of both angels and demons, which is what is giving the Nephalem the potential to be even greater than both.

but what if an angel wants to become human like tyrael wanted and he still has some angelic powers
An angel may become human as was learned when Tyrael renounced his immortality and was cast from the high heavens, but even if angelic powers are retained after an angel become human, this will still not be enough as those powers are still "only" angelic.

Is It Too Soon For An Expansion?

Hmm... that really depends on who you ask ;-)

For me, it depends on what the expansion offers.
This is a very sensible stance to take I think, especially for those who are sceptical about the expansion and the future of Diablo III. Reading reviews and viewing gameplay footage and streams beforehand should be a good help for evaluating whether or not the expansion will be to your liking.

It is not a bad idea to wait and see before making your decision, especially since the contents of the expansions have yet to be revealed :-)

You advise to wait and see before making a decision... it's not going to be the same case scenario where we are shown trailers of lots of excellent things and exciting content, only to have lots of it removed on release?
I do not think that it will be the same case scenario at all if those people who are concerned or sceptical about the expansion wait until after it has been released before they make their decision.

In regards to your concern about removed content - I can agree that it is unfortunate when this happens; it is a sucky feeling indeed when content you were personally looking forward to doesn’t happen as originally announced. It is impossible for me to predict if the developers will feel it necessary to remove or postpone content for one reason or another after we have already shown it in previews or sneak-peaks, but I am confident that we will do our best to accurately show you guys what the expansion is about and how it plays before it is released.

In general though, the impressions and reviews of any game or expansion are typically most accurate after release, which is due to the fact that a greater number of people get their hands on them to do appraisals or gameplay videos and streams. So again, if you are concerned about the Diablo III expansion, if you are not sure that it will be to your liking, then the logical option would be to wait and see how it plays out before deciding if you will be getting it or not :-)