BlizzCon's Diablo III Gameplay Panel Transcript

BlizzCon 2010's revealing panel on Diablo III's gameplay just ended. Here's the transcript of our liveblog, covering all of today's new information.

2:05
Diablo III gameplay panel beginning.

2:07
Or beginning shortly, I should say. Regular liveblog should be up and running in a few.

2:09
"Chris Metzen talked too much, so it's just going to be a couple more minutes before we start."

2:12
Panel is titled 'A Hero Emerges'. Jay Wilson, game's director, is hosting. Also has art, character artist, world designer, content designer

2:13
Demon hunter fills out the conventional ranged role. They also wanted a darker hero. "Obsessed anti-hero"

2:13 [Comment From Eyeto3:]
so how many people from GI are there?

2:13
I'm here and Meagan's around somewhere too!

2:14
Demon hunter is "not adverse" to using dark magic or essentially whatever it takes to kill demons. Knows more about demons than anyone else in the Diablo universe.

2:14
Art guy is going through a visual history of how they came up with the demon hunter. Originally was just envisioned as a "ranger" class

2:16
Added some melee aspects. Wanted to give it a little bit of twist to change it up. Short daggers, short swords, fist weapons.

2:16
Showing an insane number of iterations of the demon hunter. Must be 30-some up there.

2:16
At one point in development, they moved too far away from ranged and had to step back again.

2:17
They wanted something darker than the monk class, something more mysterious and medieval/gothic.

2:18
They did a concept of a demonic demon hunter -- a demon hunting demons. But they decided the heroes all have to be human in the Diablo universe.

2:18
They did a part demon design -- most human, demonic arm. Concerned about how townspeople would react to that.

2:19
Showing off the sleeker design they moved toward. The character looks a lot like Kerrigan from StarCraft in this piece of art.

2:20
Cowls/hoods seem to be a big part of the demon hunters design -- to help make her seem more mysterious.

2:20
Now moving onto the modeling/texturing/animation on the demon hunter.

2:21
They wanted demon hunter to be a sexier character since the monk, barbarian, etc. aren't very attractive. Says they're working on the male demon hunter model right now and want him to be attractive also.

2:22
Three big visual elements that make demon hunter distinct: scarf, visible legs, and an arm guard.

2:22 [Comment From Badwolf86:]
So I'm picturing a Belf DK with a bow... am I close?

2:23
Actually, yeah, that's pretty close to how it looks.

2:24
After finishing the model, they went on to creating some of the bows/crossbows she uses. The only character who can dual-wield pistols and crossbows. That's...pretty bad ass.

2:25
Focused on action poses when shooting to help make a ranged class look more exciting/heroic.

2:25
Now we're going into the lore behind the demon hunter.

2:26
"Most diverse class." Not one type of person. Chosen rather than born into their class. They're recruited and looking for revenge.

2:27
There is a demon hunter base where new recruits are trained. "Ranger + bounty hunter + epic revenge quest"

2:27
Once again back to that concept of "obsessed hero" who is willing to do whatever it takes to eradicate demons. They "dabble in the dark side."

2:28
Glowing eyes show off that they've been messing with dark magic. Uses traps. "wants demons to feel what they usually cause in human beings -- the terror of getting stalked."

2:29
Other classes have their own reasons for fighting, but demon hunters realize "the true stakes of the eternal conflict" and are doing it just for the sake of killing demons.

2:29
Going into demon hunter skills now.

2:29
"Bola shot" - bola wraps around a target and explodes. Shows off the gadget-focused style of demon hunters.

2:30
"Vault" - a movement skill that sends demon hunter leaping forward with a shadow behind her suggesting it's semi-magical.

2:31
"Spike trap" - Like assassin gameplay from Diablo 2.

2:31
"Grenades" - they bounce off walls and floors to show off the 3D engine in the game. Can bounce around corners and such strategically.

2:32
"Multishot" - similar to multishot in Diablo II but "amped up."

2:32
Now onto general skill/class changes and announcements.

2:33
The skill UI from last year was too unwieldy. Looks a lot like WoW's talent tree. Three different class lines. Wanted to make it more accessible.

2:34
Went to a tabbed UI system, but people would skip over tabs. Then went to a "list" approach.

2:35
In current UI, you can see all the choices, which helps you plan out your character progress.

2:36
They're clearly making it very user-friendly. Giant blinking plus sign means you can still put more points into a skill.

2:36
Going to show off some new skills for the previous four classes.

2:36
Barbarian's "ancient spear" - a simple ranged attack for the barbarian without turning him into a ranged class.

2:37
Wizard gets "Meteor," a fan favorite from Diablo 2.

2:37
Witch Doctor gets "Spirit Walk", which is his movement skill. Turns into spirit, can walk through enemies, etc.

2:38
Monk's "Wave of Light" - summons a giant "mystical bell." Helps differentiate monk and barbarian.

2:38
New system added into Diablo III called "traits" - passive skills that allow you to customize your character builds. Gain them every other level.

2:39
Goal is to alter core attributes. "Focus on elemental skills with a Wizard," for example.

2:39
Every trait has flavor text that helps tell you more about the world, to help you build your character in a role-playing sense.

2:40
Traits are mostly unique to each class. some cross-over but not much. " Inner Rage" is a barbarian trait. "Prismatic Cloak" is a Wizard trait that increases armor spell effects.

2:41[Comment From Jonathan S Jonathan S:]
I was really hoping for a release date at the end of the Demon Hunter trailer... as like a chaser

2:41
I don't think Blizzard is likely to do release dates any more until a month or two before the game is out - like they've done with StarCraft II and Cataclysm.

2:43
Traits could let you make a "strength" focused barbarian or a berserker barbarian. Around 30 traits per class right now, up to 90 points to spend per character but can only gain 29 or 30 as you level up, so you need to make some choices.

2:43 [Comment From Fews Fews: ]
I think this is the first Blizzcon without a release date for a game, no?

2:43
I can't think of a Blizzcon where they *HAVE* announced a release date.

2:43 [Comment From acob acob:]
did I read "pistols" correctly?!?

2:44
You did!

2:44
Trying hard to make Diablo 3's customization straight-forward -- it's math, but they don't want it to feel like math.

2:45
Still lots to do on the trait system. The UI isn't great, not sure if they'll stick with gaining every other level, probably will cut down the number of traits.

2:45 [Comment From Meepy Meepy:]
Do the talent trees look more like the old WoW talent trees or the new smaller ones?

2:46
From what I caught, much more like the new smaller WoW trees. Same idea of trying to make them super user-friendly.

2:46
New feature called "Talisman" - it's a dedicated inventory for charms that gets bigger over time.

2:47
Charms in Diablo III will concentrate on core attributes instead of being all over the place like in Diablo 2

2:48
Skill runes are back in the build being shown this weekend.

2:48
These allow you to modify specific skills in certain ways.

2:49
They asked an Amazon cosplayer in the audience to stand up.

2:50
Skill runes will help provide a lot more builds for each class. "A $&#load of builds"

2:50
Apparently right now there are "roughly 97 billion builds per class" based off the number of skill combinations with runes. Not including traits, gear, charms. just active skills.

2:50
For those who are concerned, don't worry: forum people will figure out the one or two worthwhile builds within a week, I'm sure.

2:52
Five types of skill runes - crimson, indigo, obsidian, golden, and alabaster. No longer named for the concept attached to them.

2:53
types loosely themed - "golden = mana recovery" - "obsidian = slows monsters" - "indigo = rapid fire" -"alabaster = ...shoots a live snake that attaches to enemies face and stuns them"

2:55
At rank 7, a wizard's magic missile shootes a ton of missiles per cast.

2:55
That is, at rank 7 indigo rune.

2:56
Golden rune allows barbarian's weapon throw to turn into a corpse throw. Alright!

2:57
Wizard's hydra spell can be turned into lightning, arcane, acid hydra based on which skill rune you equip -- or it can be turned into a hydra that uses fire wall.

2:58
plague of toads on witch doctor -- with crimson, frogs are on fire - with golden, mana cost is reduced - with alabaster, monsters are blinded - with indigo it turns into a rain of frogs - with obsidian it's a giant toad THAT EATS MONSTERS. These skill rune changes are weird and pretty awesome.

2:58
Arenas quickly. No Q&A for this panel since it was running late.

2:59
Battle arenas are a dedicated place for PvP in Diablo III.

2:59
Like suggested in the opening ceremony trailer, Diablo battle arenas will focus on team play.

3:00
Some builds are supposed to be better than others. Impossible to balance all those builds they mentioned, so team play helps soften that balance a little .

3:01
Some class skills very specifically designed for PvP

3:02
Lots of crowd control in PvE, but they didn't want that in PvP. There will be lots of counters to break you out of crowd control.

3:02
Multiple rounds so you can learn the enemy team over time. Will be best 2 of 3 or best 3 of 5.

3:03
Skill-based match-making over Battle.net. They're also trying to figure out a way to do custom games outside of the ranking system. Game won't be balanced for 1 on 1 but Blizzard wants to find a way to allow players to do that.

3:04
There will be a progression-based ranking system of some sort. You get points for winning that progress your rank, get you titles and Achievements, etc. Won't actually make you more powerful but will show how dedicated you are. Will get smaller number of points for losing.

3:05
Looks like this panel is shutting down. I'll be back in 30 minutes for the World of Warcraft dungeons and raids panel.

That's all for this panel, but you know the drill: Check out what's happening in the next panel at our BlizzCon 2010 Liveblog page.