Reddit can often be a hub of misinformation and speculation, and sometimes people tell outright fibs. Occasionally, however, you get Blizzard’s Russian tech support guy confirming the release date for Diablo III: Reaper of Souls.
I’m assuming who ever dropped that bombshell is probably on the receiving end of a lengthy disciplinary by now.
Reddit user skyline385 posted a picture in a thread detailing his conversation with Russian tech support, and how the person in question accidentally confirmed the release date for Diablo’s latest expansion. Whoops.
This isn’t concrete information for sure, but it should be noted that the date matches that which Gamespot has for the release of the official strategy guide, and more often than not these coincidences don’t turn out to be coincidences at all.
Speculation aside, a writer over at PCGamesN by the name of Nick Wilson has had access to the Diablo III: Reaper of Souls beta, and has also been kind enough to document some of what he’s seen.
Primarily, the loot system is a lot different to the way it was – arguably for the better. Much like in Blizzard’s World of Warcraft, items which drop are now only tradeable to others who were present at the kill, and even then, there’s only a two hour window to make the trade. Don’t forget – the Auction House is gone in this forthcoming expansion.
Items which do drop are now also more tailored to your class which you are playing at the time. You will see items for other classes, but not quite as often.
Legendary items have been improved too. Much in the way Blizzard have been experimenting with unique trinket procs in the Siege of Orgrimmar patch for WoW, interesting affixes have been added to diversify items. Nick described one item on his Demon Hunter which, on dealing damage to an enemy, would mark them for death – that means they take 20% increased damage. Ouch.
The new Nephalim Rifts and Bounties system has been trialed too, and so far so good. Completing a bounty grants you Blood Shards, while completing all of them in an act will grant you Blood Shards and a Horadric Cache. These Blood Shards can be used to gamble for specific items but with a random rarity, or to buy more Horadric Caches, which spill forth wonderful loot when opened.
Nephalim Rifts are opened by finding Nephalim keystones on your travels, which upon use will teleport you to a randomised dungeon. You have a progress bar which fills up as you kill things and, well, progress. Upon hitting 100%, a random boss spawns for you to kill.
Pylons replace shrines in these rift dungeons, granting buffs wildly better than their standard counterpart. Think maximum running speed, or 400% increased damage.
Like treasure goblins? How about multiple packs of them? If you find a way to slow/root them and kill them all quickly, you will quite literally be swimming in loot.
The Mystic is a new NPC added which functions similarly to the Reforger/Transmutation vendor in World of Warcraft. If you give her a piece of gear, she will convert a random stat which you wish to reforge and three possible stats to replace it with will appear. If you don’t like any of them you can re-roll, but at a price. Misfortune could cost you dearly.
This new NPC will also change the appearance of your gear to that of another item, for a price. The more expensive the gear, the more it will cost, so choose wisely.
Interestingly, Blizzard also tried re-introducing the crushing blow effect – an effect from Diablo II which meant that attacks had a chance to deal 25% of an enemies health as damage. Increasingly quick attacks could mean that enemies are being annihilated with far too much ease and, after negative feedback from beta testers, Blizzard have decided to remove it.
The original article by Nick can be found over at PCGamesN, and an article detailing what we found out about Diablo III: Reaper of Souls can be found here. I also made a pretty-looking bestiary, which can also be found here.
Is there anything you’d like to see in the new expansion?
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