Quote:I usually don't look to put forums for a game up until near beta, mostly because until then it's all hype and speculation without any kind of hard information. That said, I fully expect we'll cover D3 here at the Lounge - after all, it looks like its gameplay will continue in the Diablo tradition and it's what the site was founded on. (Don't reply with the "but Diablo2 is nothing like Diablo1" comments, I know, I know.)

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Last week I had someone email me out of the blue thanking me for a great Warrior guide I wrote. For Diablo 1. Written like 10 years ago. Yes, people still come here for D1 and D2 strategy, and Jarulf's Guide is still regularly downloaded. What a legacy the Diablo games have. Let's continue it here, m'kay?

So let's open up talk about this.

-Bolty

Quote:Wish I had the time. Don't see it hapening in the next year. If it does, I'll let you know.

Occhi

Quote:I have some time, but other than linking to http://www.blizzard.com/diablo3/ there isn't a whole lot to talk about. Diablo 3 news is slow:(

Quote:I'm in the same boat with the time situation, however with the amount of news, I disagree. Just because we don't have alpha and beta testers giving us in depth feedback on the game does not mean there isn't a lot to speculate or talk about. For instance, I have several battle.net questions and ideas I'd be interested in mulling over here, as well as game play footage (such as the potions Ala gauntlet style), classes not included (I'm disappointed several won't be returning), and much more. I suppose I could do this on any forums, but why, when I can cut out all the pubbies on these forums?

Quote:How do you know what will or won't be returning?

Occhi

Quote:I suppose I could do this on any forums, but why, when I can cut out all the pubbies on these forums?

Quote:I'm more interested in when Bolty gets a bunch of sweet sweet beta test invites to hand out to loyal and prolific Lurker Lounge posters:shuriken:

Quote:I read somewhere [official] that the Summoner was "replacing" the Necromancer. I really liked the Necromancer. Also, the Wizard is suppose to replace the Sorceress. These aren't my assumptions, but I think it was in the D3 FAQ. If your really interested, I could do some digging for links.

Quote:That really just seems like a logical progression to me, not a replacement. Bringing back the same classes is boring. Look at D2 from D1 - the amazon is essentially the rogue, sorceress the sorcerer, and they decided to take two diverging takes on the warrior. They are just different takes on the same basic character type.

Quote:Ah, but the NEcro. That was new. BG IM cheese and all that, Necro was IMO the best balanced class in terms of play. So many options, so many choices.

D & D style Magic User glass cannon or melee mancer, or summoner, or poison assassin . . . the one class that went somewhere new.

PS: I dislike what we see so far regarding the dress up of this witch doctor thing. Just a little too Blizzard cartoonish. All I can think of is a troll shaman or warlock from wc III or WoW.

The new magician looks like a more traditional D & D style MU, we shall see. The barb is ... well, the barb. :) What's not to like?

Occhi

Quote:I'd disagree that the Necro was new. It's just that it took one speciality of the Sorcerer and expanded on it (remember the Sorcerer had the golem in D1).

Quote:Everyone could have golem in D1 (everyone could have anything...). And if you want to go that way, you can make links like that to every class in D2.

I'd argue though that your train of thought leads much more to the zon valk than what the necro had (even though the rogue was much closer to the zon) for example.

I suppose you could agrue they built the summoning tree off the golem since the necro does have golems, but the curses, the bone wall and cage the ability to build what at first blush looks like a caster as a melee character. It was a significant departure from the sorc.

The links to the other classes for the necro seem much weaker to me when looking at the original D2 classes. The paladin is closer to a warrior who got mana and used spells (I seem to recall D1 'paladin' guides that did just this or maybe I'm just remember the crazy things I did). The sorc to sorc is pretty clear as is rogue to zon (I played some melee rogues in D1 too). The barb to warrior is pretty clear. The necro is not nearly as clear of a link so I'm fine with saying it was new. I'm actually fine with saying all the classes were new because the game mechanics had such a large departure and there were significant differences even between the "obvious" links.

Quote:The point is, none of the characters in D2 were really *new*. They were all a rehash or refinement of the classes presented in D1, even the Necro.