Blizzcon 2011 Coverage

We’ll be posting on-time updates as Blizzard reveals more news from Blizzcon!

Blizzcon is LIVE

Blizzard shows off the Diablo III box and the collectors edition, both look super sick! Diablo III Collectors edition includes: Soulstone usb drive, diablo skull as a holder, artbook soundtrack, behind the scenes video as well as wow pet and sc2 portraits.   WoW Annual Pass, Diablo III will be free to WoW subscribers if they commit to pay for WoW for 12 months. (not trial or limited edition, full version!) The Annual Pass also gives guaranteed access to the next WoW Expansion as well as a WoW in-game mount. The annual pass is avaible to buy as of NOW.

Diablo 3 timeline displayed through video, quite epic I must say and tells a great tale. Diablo 3 Announced to be in the home stretch. Diablo 3 Cinematic: The Black Soulstone shown … epic does not begin to describe it

Blizzard DOTA preview video, all heroes of all games brought together in one, pretty cool

Starcraft 2: Heart of the Swarm Cinematic, absolutely sick, really cool new units that surely will change the game hugely, more info to come. Hyping up the video for the new WoW Expansion… it’ll be about WAR…

WORLD OF WARCRAFT: Mists of Pandaria New race: Pandaren, New class: Monk, New Continent: Pandaria, Level Cap increased to 90. Pet Battle system, new talent system. The Starcraft 2 Tournament is live with Naniwa vs Major (terran), 20 minutes til’ WoW Preview.

WORLD OF WARCRAFT

WoW Preview LIVE, Talking about adding more world bosses to bring the players out in the world. Want to make the player able to choose which way to progress in the game. New talent system, making your characters even more unique then before. No more cookie-cutter builds, all builds will be a lot more viable. The continent of Pandaria: 5 new level-up zones (Towlong Steppes, Vale of Eternal, Valley of the Four Winds, The Jade Forest, Kun-Lai Summit) to explore. Single, unified continent. The enviroments etc have been highly inspired by chinese landscapes. AH, Bank and Central Questing Hub. Also, NO FLYING TIL’ MAX LEVEL.

Lore of Pandaria: A long, storied history. Magically hidden since The Sundering. A new land to explore… a big emphasis on Alliance vs. Horde. New start zone: The Wandering Isle … a .. turtle.. as a zone. Cross Faction, choose horde / alliance at level 10. Creatures of Pandaria: Jinyu (fishpeople), Hozu (monkey), Verming (a remake of the kobolt, a rat like creature), Mantid raids and dungeons based around these (insect creatures) unlike the silithid these are intelligent creatures, Mogu also part of dungeons and raids (humanoid like creatures), Sha (a spirit like creature). Zones of Pandaria: The Jade Forest. A unified startzone for the new expansion, a lot like in Outlands. Lush rainforests and stone spires, meet the Hozu (A)& Jinyu (H), The Sha.  You release Sha by creating bad stuff in Pandaria. The Temple of the Jade Serpent (first dungeon 85-86). Valley of the Four Winds ( second zone, huge, devided into 2 parts), you can choose to go the south or north path but you can always go back and do the other one. Pandaren farmlands, Coastal Jungle. Stormstout Brewery (second Dungeon Instance). First interaction with the Mantid.

New Features: Pandaren, Horde OR Alliance. Pandaren Classes: Hunter, Mage , Monk, Priest, Rogue, Shaman, Warrior. Pandaren Racials: Epicurean – Increase the stat benefits from food by 100%, Gourmand  - cooking +15, Inner Peace – Your rested exp bonus lasts twice as long, Bouncy – You take 50% less falling damage.  Quaking Palm – you touch a secret pressure point to incapacitate the target. – Basically Blizzard are totally trolling us.

New class: MONK

Talent Trees:  Brewmaster – Tank, Mistweaver – Healer,Windwalker – Melee DPS. NOT A hero class – Starts at first level. Very martial arts based. Lots of monk-only animations. MONK Races: Alliance: all but Worgen, Horde – all but Goblin. Monk Equipment: They hit alot with hands and feet, but need weapons for some finishers: Staves, Fist Weapons, One-Handed axes, maces and swords. off-hands for healers. Leather Armor (Agi or Int). Monk resources: Chi (energy) used for Jab and Roll, Jab generates Light and Dark Force which are used for everything else, Monk also has no Auto Attack. Lots of new fighting animations that look very cartoony.

Talent system – Greatly Changed. You’ve got: Class Abilities, Spec Abilities and Talents. You choose spec at 10, you get a spec ability at level 10 and get additional spec abilities later. No more talent points or ranks, one talent TREE PER CLASS. Earn talents every 15 levels, Every talent: choose 1 of 3. No Mandatory talents. Change talents as easily as glyphs. PVE Scenarios: Short instances for a few players, not tank,healer dps based. A staged experience, PVE Battlegrounds, no player collision, could replace group quests. you queue for scenarios just like the dungeon finder. No role requirements = short queues.

Challenge Mode Dungeons: Complete the dungeon in a specified amount of time, to earn Bronze Silver or Gold medals. Gear levels are normalized (your gear doesnt matter in these). Rewards sweet looking gear with no stats, plus valor points. Compare your dungeon times with other people in the realm and in your guild.

Pet Battle System: Collect, level and battle with companion pets! Accessible to all players, works with ALMOSt every pet. customize your pets. Collect: works with most existing pets, wild pets pokémon style. fight these wild pets with your current pets. Pet Journal, most pets will become tradable. Account wide pets. Level your pets by winning battles, then you learn new abilities. Create builds using abilities 3 out of 6. Increase stats each level. Level multiple pets to build your team (once again.. hello pokémon.) Pve & pvp battles, turn based combat, simple combat system. You fight with a team of 3 pet, queueing system to get fair fights. Name your pets, you can also equip items. Builds & Teams, Go around the world to defeat bosses to unlock master abilities.. ok seriously… you guys sure this isn’t pokémon?

Ok..back to the real game.. 9 new dungeons, 6 dungeons across pandaria. Heroic updates of classic dungeons: Scholomance, Scarlet Monastery Wing 1 & 2. Raids: 3 new EPIC raids. Feature two new enemy races: Mogu and Mantid. Levels of difficulty: Raid Finder, Normal & Heroic. World Bosses Return!! Questing: Increased focus on max level content. Multiple Hubs, Incentives for dungeon / raiders. Daileys could give buffs that unlock extra loot. More quest choices, less linear. Once again, no flying until max level. Faction improvements (more ways to earn the gear you want). PVP: New Battlegrounds (Ideas): Stranglethorn Diamond Mines (STV) – Payload (Escort mine cars to depot, miltiple tracks, first to x resources win), Valley of Power – Murderball (Holding the object earns points, multiple point zones i.e closer to the middle = more points etc, object does damage to holder, damage increases over time), Azshara Crater – DOTA. New Arena: Tol’vir Proving Grounds (Simple layout based on Nagrand arena, sense of place in the world (uldum).

Achievements: Allow achievements to be account bound, also some added that require multiple characters to complete.

Major Class Changes: Resilience as a base stat, want to make pve gear viable.

Ranged Weapons: Hunter minimum range – Gone! Hunter Melee weapon – Gone! Ranged slot for all others – Gone! Relics – Gone! Rogue and Warrior can throw their weapon. Wands become main hand weapons.

Warlocks: Unique resource for each spec: Affliction – Soul Shards, Demonology – Demonic Fury, Destruction – Infernal Embers (builds up damage over time, release and build up again).

Shaman: Buff totems – Gone! All totems are utility. New totem examples: Earthgrab tot – roots, repulsion t,- repels, bulward tot – absorbs. ¨

Druids: Always felt like they had 4 specs, now they do! Feral – cat (melee dps). Guardian – bear (tanking), some overlap between the two. All druids can still go cat or bear form.

All Classes: Spell books cleaned up, Rotations improved, Automatically learn spells, several new spells, specs more developed, Talent trees should be FUN. Challenge Modes: For players looking for greater challenges, timed dungeon runs to earn medals, depending on how quick you finish it. Making skill matter more than gear, all gear will be normalized so gear wont matter. Gear rewards for transmogrification (show off, bragging rights, aesthetics). Leaderboards, you will be able to compete with guildies and other players on your realm.

Starcraft II Heart of the Swarm Campaign Story: Kerrigan lost quite a big bit of her memory as the queen of blades but she does remember some of it, horrible things. Zeratul has kind of gone rogue in the last years. Izsha, was created by the queen of blades, infested a terran and used her to store ideas and plans etc, Izsha helps kerrigan by warning her as well as managing some easieer tasks. Abathur served queen of blades, now serves kerrigan, focuses on upgrading new units by eating parts of them and then manipulates them. Za’Gara is a brood mother, zerg leader on Char. Fights against Kerrigan. Brood Mother is a new creature, created by the queen of blades, sentient independent being capable of controlling a whole brood. Sarah Kerrigan’s story. very conflicted, angry anti-hero. ultimately will have to make peace with her relationship with the swarm. Also a story of great war. Every race takes part but it’s main focus is of course, the Zerg. It’s about Kerrigan and the Zerg. You will be the destructor of planets, killers of escapees. Kerrigan tries to regain lost broods to grow her army and control over the zerg. it’ll focus a lot on the zergs ability to evolve. Genetic splits, you can change your unit into an entirely new unit, or rather the same unit but with more unique abilities, such as the raptor from zergling that can jump up cliffs like reapers and also charge the enemies like zealots. Destruction of Worlds: A way to evolve the swarm is to destroy worlds, one might increases mining rate, health regeneration or unit upgrades such as higher health etc. The expansion focus very heavily on evolving the swarm.

Starcraft II Balance: Master’s-Grand Master’s: T v Z = Even, P v Z = Zerg (Europe) P behind 10% on any given day, T v P = Terran (Korea) P Behind 10% on any given day. P v T Before 1.4.  Adjusted ratings, community feedback, pro feedback they’ve come to the conclusion that 1/1/1 is too strong and EMP might be too strong. This lead to the immortal buff. They are however still unsure if this was enough. Currently: Now look at other factors: EMP Radius? Upgrade changes to protoss, such as making level 2 and 3 upgrades cheaper. Heart of the Swarm goals: Fix the weaknesses, Fix the match ups (stale matchups such as PvP and ZvZ). Terran problems in WoL: Thor, Late game Chargelots, Lots of options.

New Units: Hellion: New Transform (a lot tougher, can withstand a lot more damage), Late Game Zealot, End Game Fighter. Warhound unit, anti-muta. Fast moving, smaller, faster unit of thor (goliath?) also has anti-mech properties which are very powerful. Moves thor up in the tech tree allowing it to be more of a über unit. The Warhound is still under construction and anything can be changed. Shredder: Radiation robot, cheap board control, does not add to the deathball as it does not work when you have army close to it, does absolutely sick aoe damage. Zerg weakness in WoL: Siege challenges, has a very difficult time breaking siege positions, missed opportunities (the Z abilities are not used enough). Ultralisk: Size problem, just as the thor they get easily stuck. End of game splash, they want to buff it in HotS. New ability: Burrow Charge (burrows down and charges up to the enemy). New Z caster unit: Viper: Overseer is cut, it’s a choke breaker, can cast a spell that reduces the range of the units effected to 1. Has a pull ability. Swarm Host: Zerg Artillery, burrows and casts out locusts (like infested marines but melee units). used to gain map control. no more overseer Protoss: lack of aoe anti air, no good harass units early-mid game. New unit: Tempest = New capital ship – Carrier is out. aoe anti air and air assault-to-ground. Replicant (robo) Technology master, copies a unit (non-massive) and you get all abilities even if the other player doesnt have that spell upgraded. Oracle: Raiding caster, worker friendly, can’t be used in the ball of death. Mother is cut to make room for the oracle. can disable buildings and lock mineral fields fro being mined. Overall changes: Ghost Cloak Cost, Reaper Regenerates their health out of combat, Battlecruiser speed boost ability on cooldown, Baneling burrow move upgrade, Hydra speed upgrade, curroptor siphon ability (allows you to attach to building and siphon minerals) Nexus defensive ability, Nexus recall ability. Just saw the voice recording of some Deckard Cane lines… I am a happy little kid at christmas.

DIABLO III There will be achievements, so how do you earn them? Play-through progression, Extreme behaviour, absurd shenanigans (something like beating every boss by punching it without a weapon) Achievements unlock components for your banner. Banner allows you in coop to teleport to your friends by clicking on their banner. New gameplay elements: Stone of recall – endless use item with a cast time (TP but only usable by you). Cauldron of Jordan Allows you to sell stuff right from your inventory wihtout the need to go to a vendor. Cube of the nephalem allows you to convert items into components.

Crafting:  The Mystic, enhances items for a cost, these are random. Aberrant builds (fun to play around with) Levels up like other crafters (10 levels max). The Jeweler, Combines gems, adds sockets to items,  also removes gems from items (i.e if you have a +xp gem he can remove that gem and you can replace it with another gem) (there are a total of 14 ranks of gems). Uses pages of training like all crafters. The Blacksmith, Can create Legendary and unique set items if you have the recipe.

PvP: Team Deathmatch: if you die, you respawn in three seconds. 10 minute games. Team with most kills wins. No skill swapping or item swapping during games. Format is 4v4, you can use your PVE character without a problem.

Auction House: As a big part of the Diablo world the auction house was a natural transition. It’s a very convenient, secure and easy way to trade. Items, gold and components can be sold, you can participate for free in the real money auction house. Every week you get a small number of free listings. You can either withdraw the money or put it on your ebalance for future use on the real money auction house. New features with the auction house: smart search and advanced search, lets you easily find the items that You want. Stackable items (gold gems crafting & dyes, tomes & pages) will be able to put up for auction in the release version (not currently availible in beta).

Barbarian tuning focus: * Overall in a good place, fury regeneration, survivability. Wizard tuning focus: *Overall in a good place, Lots of tuning adjustments, weapon-based skill damage (% weapon damage) and cast speed is based on attack speed  because casters weren’t valuing their weapons enough. Witch Doctor Tuning focus: Mana – Passives, – Runes, – Gear (goal is that players will choose their path to manage regeneration). This mana gameplay kicks in later (1-10 mana is pretty much unlimited because players don’t have the tools to overcome mana deficiency). Passives: circle of life Monk tuning focus: Improved survivability levels 1-15. Mantras, Combo attacks. Demon hunter tuning focus: Hatred/Discipline, hatred generators, hatred spenders. Snares. Crank up the awesome (on all classes, better visuals and effects).

4 Difficulty levels: In later acts more responsive and higher difficulty (duh) Normal: Act 1 is the tutorial – Monsters have low awareness, low attack rates, limited abilities. Each act adds more challenges. “but normal is too easy!” – so was diablo 2 normal. If you are hardcore, yes, it’s too easy. But hardcore won’t be in normal for long. The fine balance – Approachable for casuals, interesting for serious gamers. Game testers promise hell and onwards will be a really big challenge and not for the faint of heart.

Higher difficulties: Game Depth such as new item affixes, new attributes and new rares and champ powers. Like introducing new attributes on the higher difficulty levels that don’t exist on normal because it’s not needed. 70% of the items in the game are post-normal. Inferno difficulty: will be solo-able, have multiple tiers of items. rares and champs = best loot (try to avoid boss farming). Excess loot & gold = crafting. Crazy builds. (Wow focuses on optimal builds. But diablo has no guilds to answer to, raids to optimize for or roles to perfect.) In diablo co-op is optional, for fun. Diablo focuses on viable builds over optimal builds because customization = self-expression. Our job = lots of viable builds and there will probably be “best builds” best builds are fine as long as they dont shut down the viability of other builds.

Followers: Followers are like the mercenaries in Diablo 2 pretty much, companions that follow you around and fight for you. You can give them item to improve their stats etc, at first these were planned to only be viable on normal difficulty but thanks to feedback these will be viable throughout all the content of Diablo 3.