Diablo III was and in some ways still is a mediocre game and the result of some bad decision making on the part of now ejected director Jay Wilson. The new guy on board seems to be making wiser decisions for the expansion, and that’s why I’m actually looking forward to it. Reaper of Souls could be to Diablo III what Lord of Destruction was to Diablo II.
Now that Blizzcon is over, and there likely won’t be another Blizzcon before the expansion releases, now’s a good time to count our little eggies of knowledge. What do we know about the upcoming expansion?
Big Features:
- Loot 2.0: The loot in Diablo III is the single most broken part of the game. The reliance on primary stats and only 1 or 2 truly meaningful affixes means most gear is useless. Loot 2.0 looks promising in that it will be adding many more affix types that have a wide range of desirable effects that could outweigh your decision to just go straight for “more damage more crit more attack speed all the tiiime!” More powerful thorns, affixes that grant or improve skills (like allowing you to have more Hydras out, for example), all this stuff spells a better future than the current state of loot and itemization.
- No More Auction House: The community is currently divided on this change, but it’s coming whether you like it or not; the Auction House will be shutting down next year. Those against it however have the false notion that this means they’ll never find good loot themselves, and thus will never find an upgrade ever again. This isn’t true though because the Auction House’s disintegration will coincide with Loot 2.0, and as such, I welcome its demise.
- The Crusader Class: Love it or hate it, the Crusader is in. Actually, scratch that; if you hate being a heavy plate-wearing flail-waving holy monstrosity, better just throw in the towel now. True, the Crusader is looking to be a near carbon copy of the Paladin class, but with so many people clamoring over the years for some returning Diablo II classes, is that such a bad thing? His skill set seems to include a great deal of shield charges and overhead holy spells. Personally I’m not much of a Barbarian guy, I’ve always preferred the sword and board, and Crusader fits that bill much better.
- Adventure Mode: The story in Diablo III is colossally bad. The dialogue sounds like it was written for a Saturday morning cartoon. Alas, you can’t skip it… until now. One source even confirms that, if you like, you can level your characters entirely in Adventure Mode and never set foot in the campaign, which is great news. You can be in Act 1 stomping through the cathedral while playing in the same game with your friend who is in, say, Act 3 fighting through the wintry hordes. All the barriers are broken down; you can waypoint between any region and even go across acts without starting a new game or losing your Nephalem Valor stacks. Random quests can be performed for what appears to be some really big experience and gold rewards as well.
Smaller Stuff:
- Paragon Levels: Paragon levels have a new level cap of 800. That’s a lot… and now for each level in Paragon you have, you get to choose a passive stat boost, be it to attack speed, critical damage, you name it. This brings back a lot more player choice that was stripped away when they no longer let players allocate their stat points.
- New Skills: Each class will be getting 1 new skill per skill category, each with their own set of runes. We know about a few of them already such as the Witch Doctor’s pool of piranhas and the return of Frozen Orb.
- The Mystic: It feels a bit unfair that we had to wait for the expansion to get the Mystic, something we were promised would be in the base game. Still, better late than never; the Mystic allows us to make some pricey alterations to the affixes on items, and even allow items to take on the appearance of other items.
- Difficulty Modes: The difficulty settings will be changing to the following: Easy, Normal, Hard, Torment, Demonic, and Apocalypse. It’s safe to assume that the additional number of difficulties will in practice make the game harder than it currently is on Inferno, but that remains to be seen. And did we mention that the difficulties can be chosen freely, without the need to beat them in order? One downside is that Monster Power will no longer be a thing, replaced by an automatic sliding scale of difficulty based on your Paragon level. We’ll see how that pans out, though.
- Death Animations: Hardly a big deal, but you know how disappointed you were when you fought the Siegebreaker and he didn’t bite your head off as shown in the early footage of Diablo III? Well it looks like certain monsters are now going to have unique ways of finishing you off if you should meet your demise at their hands. Considering how much death is a part of gameplay, this should at least result in a fantastic spectacle from time to time.
- Nephalem Rifts: Like being sucked into an alternate dimension, Nephalem Rifts are totally–and I mean totally–randomized multi-level dungeons. The tile set, encountered monsters, weather, and more will be totally unpredictable. In theory, you could end up fighting zombies in Whimsyshire who deal fire damage and come in giant dense mobs.
- Randomized Outdoors: Outdoor areas in Diablo III are totally static right now, which sucks out loud. It’s unconfirmed yet whether or not regular game zones will be randomly generated, but we do know that the outdoor areas in Nephalem Rifts will be. Fingers crossed?
- Monster Uniqueness: Blizzard has stated that right now, an encounter with a mob and how it’s dealt with is dictated far more by what affixes that monster possesses rather than what should matter, which is what the monster is and how it uniquely fights back. I’m not even sure I agree that this is a problem, but any polish done in this area is welcome.
- More Account Bound Items: Perhaps the only bit of negative information is that Blizzard won’t let the idea of account bound items die already. Nothing stifles trading like not allowing great items to be given to friends or trade partners. Nothing is confirmed yet, and Blizzard even said they may still be swayed about this issue. If we can dissuade them from this sick fascination with account binding, that will be one bullet dodged.
That’s about it for now. If I seem overwhelmingly positive, it’s because Blizzard does seem to legitimately be doing a good job and finally realizes what needs to happen to make Diablo III a great game. All they have to do is execute well and I think we’ll all be pretty pleased next year whenever Reaper of Souls releases; currently there is no established price or release date.
