Diablo III: Reaper of Souls Revealed

Makenshi

Makenshi

Ahoy, ye salty dogs!
raAf2v2.jpg

"Death, at last, shall spread its wings over all…"


A presence more sinister than any demon hangs over Sanctuary….

It watched from the shadows as a hero of nephalem lineage struck down Diablo, the Prime Evil, and trapped the demon lord within the Black Soulstone.

It waited in silence as the mortal armies of Sanctuary crushed the leaderless remnants of the Burning Hells and scattered them into the stinging winds of Kehjistan.

Now, as hope springs anew, its long vigil has ended.

Shrouded in mystery and imbued with a power as ancient as the universe itself, it comes to the war-torn world of Sanctuary. It cannot be stopped. There is no escape.

In its wake, only death will remain.


[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cb7QJwQ58T0[/youtube]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zGp5dkJdi0w[/youtube]


The next chapter in Sanctuary&'s epic saga has been unveiled. Prepare to take on Death itself in Diablo III's upcoming expansion set: Reaper of Souls.

In Reaper of Souls, players will explore haunting new environments and face down fearsome new enemies within and beyond the world of Sanctuary as they seek to unlock the mysteries of Malthael, the Angel of Death.

Stalwart adventurers can choose to continue their journey as one of five existing heroes—the Barbarian, Demon Hunter, Monk, Witch Doctor, or Wizard—or adopt the mantle of a new class: the Crusader, a fierce melee warrior whose command of the battlefield is matched only by his unwavering conviction.


RYoTFnm.jpg



Advance through additional levels of supremacy, mastering bold new powers of raw, demon-slaying potential along the way. Customize your strengths with an improved Paragon system. Battle your way through newly randomized 3D maps and epic new quests in Act V. And test your mettle in all-new game modes—including Loot Runs and Nephalem Trials—designed to provide players with a highly replayable (and highly rewarding) end-game experience.


HXmsVYY.jpg



For more information, check out the official press release and be sure to visit the new Diablo III: Reaper of Souls web page for feature details, screenshots, concept art, gameplay teaser trailer, and more.


Sources:

http://us.battle.net/d3/en/blog/10648023/diablo®-iii-reaper-of-souls™-revealed-8-21-2013#best

http://www.diablofans.com/news/1978-diablo-iii-reaper-of-souls-revealed/


======================

When I saw the news that a shield specialist in the vein of the warrior (D1) and paladin (D2) was announced, this was my reaction (forgive me if gifs are not allowed, it's been years since I read the rules and I don't remember this specifically; just tell me and I'll remove it):

82894085.gif



Anyway, in the Diablo Fans link there is a recap explaining all the new stuff (features etc etc etc), here is a snip (is this the right word? snip?):

New Class - The Crusader

Inspired by the Paladin.
Focuses on Shields. Uses Flails as weapons.
Mid-range melee character.
Uses the resource "Wrath"


New Feature - Loot Runs

15-20 minute completely random dungeons!
Random weather!
Random enemies!
Random boss!
Multitiered (severa levels deep)!


The Mystic

Can Transmogrify items, so you don't have to sacrifice looks for power.
Item Enchanting - allows to reroll one of the affixes on a rare/legendary item.


New Level Cap - 70

Every class gets new Skills and Runes
Which means a fresh economy and new power-cap as well


New Act

Featuring what looks like Westmarch, with lots of graveyards and other fun places! (I read somewhere in there and in the official site that the Pandemonium Fortress is also in the expansion)


Major Paragon Changes

Is now Account wide.
No longer has a cap
Seems to have Stat Allocation tied to it


“Changes to the game systems will come in a patch preceeding the release of the expansion – they will be available to all players, including the ones that don’t have the expansion (of course for free).”[/img]
 
Pretty sweet. I like shield-classes a lot. I'm curious about the skills and the resource. I hope it won't be something like Spirit because that was by far the worst resource...

The Loot Runs sound like the good old days of grinding Mephisto all over again. Maybe it's a win and maybe it's not... Hard to say.
 
i want to know if they are going to un-nerf the melee demon hunter.

i loved getting into melee with my demon hunter throwing around tons and tons of gas grenades.

then the nerf happened and it was just stupid.
 
I might've given it a chance if they released this expansion as a free upgrade, as a means of apology to those who wasted $60 on the original game.

Of course, this won't make it properly randomize levels, fix glaring design problems, or reintroduce missing features, because it's too much work and it requires restructuring of graphics assets and rewriting major parts of the code.

I'm sure you still can't turn the bloom filter off and have to use Dark3D instead.

Mediocre game still mediocre. Blizzard is but a pale shadow of its glorious past.
 
It's good that Blizzard has been going on with this for so long, I'm finally able to just brush it off and laugh at it.

Look at the villain.
Look at what he's wearing.
Look at his head.
 
Not meant as commentary on the expansion itself, but it is interesting how often in fantasy one evil is replaced with an even bigger evil.

So nice that they wait turns for each other.
 
Some of the changes (Paragon/Loot 2.0) are coming to the D3C in the form of free patch anyway. One more reason to not waste time on the game at its current state.
 
Maybe Maltael is not bigger, but faster and smarter. Wait for the big fight to end (divide & conquer), face everyone tired (prey on the weak), use fancy stuff to look like a badass invincible (shock & awe), steal super fuckstatic artifact of doom to become overpower.

I mean, Tyrael face him alone, but never actually faced Diablo that way. He had the guts to go against the dark wanderer (Aidan possessed by Diablo), but that's nothing compared to Diablo in his true form - and still he was beaten, although not killed.

Also,it seems Maltael couldn't kill Tyrael with his voodoo, like he did on that horadrim; he tried didn't have the expected result. To me, another evidence that he is not as powerful on his own as Imperius and Diablo are.
 
The Dutch Ghost said:
Not meant as commentary on the expansion itself, but it is interesting how often in fantasy one evil is replaced with an even bigger evil.

So nice that they wait turns for each other.
Click to expand...

Well this time it's kinda justified because that Reaper fellow waited for Diablo to be reduced to a rock before stealing him from humans that aren't the player character (and, as such, are completely worthless). Tyrael himself has never shown to be anything but a Mr. exposition over the course of the game anyway, so beating him is not a guarantee of power.
 
knowing Diablo 3s problems, so far its all just hype and looks boring as fuck.

I have to see more to decide if I will be either "impressed" or "disappointed".

don't fool your self, Diablo 3 had or well "has" awesome cinematics, but the game is boring as fuck after some time, particularly as the only cool content you can reach happens trough paying money in their "real money auction house" or by playing the stock market that is the Gold auction house.

Now there has been a lot of talk about future patches, content and changes to the loot system to get away from what many of us see as "pay 2 win" model, and sadly, yes Diablo 3 is currently pay 2 win. You can play for 3000 hours, be the most efficient farmer, and someone with 5 min. and lots of money can achieve much more. If you really want the same kind of power for your character then you might spend 10 years playing the game ... without any success.

I am really interested to hear more about the expansion, but I am disappointed that there are no informations about changes to Diablo 3 so far. The game is right now ... stale and not in a good shape as a lot of people stoped playing all together. And it doesn't seem like there will be any news before Blizzcon in November and it seems the expansion is not here before 2014 and maybe even any patches and thus changes to D3. So it feels like playing before the expansion is out will be useless as it will also make most of the items you have NOW worthless.

Ilosar said:
The Dutch Ghost said:
Not meant as commentary on the expansion itself, but it is interesting how often in fantasy one evil is replaced with an even bigger evil.

So nice that they wait turns for each other.
Click to expand...

Well this time it's kinda justified because that Reaper fellow waited for Diablo to be reduced to a rock before stealing him from humans that aren't the player character (and, as such, are completely worthless). Tyrael himself has never shown to be anything but a Mr. exposition over the course of the game anyway, so beating him is not a guarantee of power.
Click to expand...

its just a Rumor from the D3 forums, but it seems that Mathael actually wants to put an end to the war between Heaven/Demons by yeah, destroying all Demons. What that means for Humanity? We have to wait and see. But I guess Blizzard will just make the Former Angel of Wisdom and now Angel of Death ... yeah, just the main baddy. I mean Diablo as game is heaven vs demons, light vs dark. There is not much room for "neutrality" really. Not as far as the story goes. Diablo lore is a different matter.

TheWesDude said:
i want to know if they are going to un-nerf the melee demon hunter.

i loved getting into melee with my demon hunter throwing around tons and tons of gas grenades.

then the nerf happened and it was just stupid.
Click to expand...

I doubt it, as far as Blizzard employes and their comments goes the "DH is where it should be", if you want to believe them. The Barbarian and Wizard will see a few changes to their stats though. As they believe that Perma Wrath for the Barb and Perma Archon for the Wizard is "abused" in their eyes ... I guess thats why they made a whole skill and item system around it for those classes ...
 
Tyrael is human now, no wonder he gets owned by a fallen angel...

I played D3 for a while, but dropped it when they started with the extra level shite. I'll play this again because I have good friends that will play it, but that's about it.
 
Pretty much everyting they have shown so far about the expansion

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qrOZStcQ23E[/youtube]

From what they say here (D3s lead writer talks about it), Mathael is simply the bad guy you have to crush.
 
I simply do not have enough interest to discuss this at length. But I must say one thing. Compared to D2, the D3 cinematics are so bad you might as well throw em into the shitter.
 
Akratus said:
I simply do not have enough interest to discuss this at length. But I must say one thing. Compared to D2, the D3 cinematics are so bad you might as well throw em into the shitter.
Click to expand...

Indeed. The cinematics were what surprised me. I knew since 2008 that Jay Wilson was going to ruin the game, but I didn't expect them to ruin the cinematics.

Even the intro sequence, there are so much better ways to script what happens there, you could quickly establish a relationship between Cain and his niece through a couple of jokes they exchange, you could do a little more foreboding, a little cinematic work (like they are both running and then she hears the clacking of a falling cane and looks around to see him being whisked away at a distance).

You could give the niece some character by showing her also being whisked into the "hell hole" while trying to save Cain, and she would use his staff to get out... you could have Cain summon a portal for her to escape into, while he's being dragged away...

At the end of the intro it could fadeout/in to her face as she lights a torch in a cave and you would see she's wearing ragged clothes and living in the wild, hiding from the great evil rampaging the lands once again...

You know... some texture. Some color. Something.

Instead, we got a big fat NOTHING. It's just generic crap about a prophecy, then a meteorite falls (just like in Warcraft 3) and there's a big hole in the ground. "UNCLE!!!"

Could as well have been designed by Todd Howard. (facepalm)
 
At this point i don't see how this is terribly different from all the other world of warcraft expansions, at least the promotion seems very similar. So in short, blizzard games are now much like smoking.
 
Back in the Diablo 2 days, this would've been exciting news.

Diablo 3... not so much. I got to Act 2 before realizing how damn boring the game was and wishing I could get my money back. Goddamn Jay Wilson. Damn him to hell.
 
As far as the informations goes, the new act will be probably comparable to act 2 in size, thats what they said at least. Which is very sad in my opinion. The acts in D3 are not very long to begin with. And while that was maybe "enough" 10 years ago its not today. Not in my opinion. I mean they probably will charge like 40$ from you ... as this is what they quite often demand for such games, but I dont have the feeling like its 40 worth. 1 New act, 1 new character and a lot of "changes" like Loot 2.0 and a few skill changes that will be also released as free patch for Diablo 3 ... so what is the expansion really going to give us? 1/4 of the game? Probably even less when you consider that the original game has 5 classes
 
Loot Runs are sadly the most exciting part of this expansion (something myself and others have been requesting since the beta) and I agree, 1 Act (25% increase), 1 new character, loot runs, and new loot is not enough for a $30 expansion. LoD got away with it because it was a 33% increase and, more importantly, added 2 new classes, Runes, and a lot of tweaks which greatly improved the game.
 
Synergies were a God send feature in D2:LoD's patch 1.10, it was more important to me than the expansion itself. Also, since I never felt comfy with the Druid (the Assassin was badass, tho, I played it more than once), it was like LoD brought me only 1 class.

TL;DR is that for me:

Loot 2.0 patch = Synergies patch
LoD assassin and act V = RoS crusader and act V

Meaning I'll get this expansion.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top