Diablo III

In Retrospect

We're proud of the original Diablo's dark, moody atmosphere and engaging item-grabbing gameplay. Diablo II added more environmental and monster variety, more diverse classes, and a number of unique elements that have since become synonymous with the franchise (like gems, runes, set items, etc.).

Both games established the series' hallmarks: randomized levels, the relentless onslaught of monsters and events in a perpetually fresh world, unique quests, tons of items, and an epic story about the High Heavens, the Burning Hells, and the hapless and heroic human beings caught between them.

Diablo III is the inheritor of this legacy, and we've added even more elements to the game to keep building on our vision for the world of Sanctuary.

Runestones

In Diablo III, you can socket runestones into any skill you've chosen. Runestones give you unprecedented control over your skills and powers, changing elemental damage types, accuracy, and area of effect; adding new debilitating effects like slows and stuns; and even altering the nature and appearance of your abilities.

Browse runestones by class:

Followers

Sometimes a hero needs a helping hand. Followers, champions brave enough to join you in battle against the Burning Hells, are similar to Henchmen from Diablo II in that they can be outfitted with relevant arms and armor, but they're upgradable with their own skills, allowing you to customize how they fight and what passive benefits they convey. They're also fleshed-out personalities in their own right.

Learn more about each follower:

Crafting & Artisans

As you meet and assist people during your journey through Sanctuary, some of the world's most talented craftsmen will sign on to travel with you. These artisans are capable of putting the materials you'll find in the wilderness or salvage from unneeded items to good use, hammering out customized suits of armor or combining gems to unlock their powers.

Invest time and money into an artisan's training, fill their shop with worthy materials, and they'll keep improving the quality of items they can produce, augment or combine for you.

Learn more about each artisan:

Seamless Interaction

To push Diablo's blistering fast pace even harder, we've made some changes to Diablo III's character and inventory 'management' systems, so you'll spend more time using new powers to slay your enemies and get loot. Rather than hoarding skill points and holding off on improving your abilities while you wait levels for an ideal build, Diablo III lets you "respec" your skills readily to experiment with interesting choices. You can share items between all of your characters just by placing them in your stash. We're also introducing a few other ways to limit your inventory wrangling:

Combat: Faster, Smarter, Deeper

Combat in Diablo III follows the established model of clicking on your squealing, snarling enemies and watching the carnage – but it's deeper and richer. Scads of defensive abilities for each class mean more tactical possibilities; cooldowns on potions guarantee that choosing your targets carefully and controlling the battlefield is as important as what you bring with you to a fight, and the presence of health globes ensures that mobility can mean the difference between life and death.



Improved Controls

Diablo III adds new control options to the classic Diablo II hotbar, including full customization of all shortcut and mouse buttons, to make using your skills during combat quicker than it's ever been.

Auction House

Items are just as important to Diablo III as they've been throughout the series, so we've added an auction house for faster, easier trading without the potential for scamming and abuse that's existed in the past. Items can now be bought and sold without needing to count on the trustworthiness of strangers to make sure your exchange goes through smoothly.

Classes and Skills

There are five classes in Diablo III; four (the wizard, witch doctor, demon hunter and monk) are brand-new, and the returning barbarian has many, many new destructive tricks for tearing through foes. Each class has a unique resource system and appropriately different playstyle – no longer do all heroes share the single resource of mana.

Learn more about each class:


Monsters and Items

Diablo III has more different, distinct monsters than Diablo I and II, and these monsters all bring their own special destructive abilities, some new and some familiar. The variety of Diablo III's random items is similar to that of the other Diablo games (though we've included Legendary items), but we've added thousands of new combinations, many with unique abilities and previously unseen properties.

New weapon and equipment types, like the demon hunter's one-handed crossbows and witch doctors' mojos, also provide a great deal of class-specific flavor.

PvP Arenas

In past Diablo games, fighting with other players acquired something of a storied history. In Diablo III, we wanted to create a more formalized play-space for heroes to test their mettle. Diablo III's arenas are designed exclusively for PvP combat, and so they have different level layouts and rates of health spawning, along with matchmaking to ensure more evenly balanced battles.

Expanded Difficulty

The advanced Nightmare and Hell difficulty modes in Diablo III add new progression options to the game not found on the Normal setting – increasingly powerful and intimidating armor sets, potent unique items, high-level runes and exclusive recipes and upgrades for artisans. Monsters grow increasingly more dangerous in subsequent difficulty levels.

In the brutal new Inferno mode, available only once the game's been beaten on Hell difficulty, monsters outstrip players in level range. Inferno difficulty is an epic challenge intended for players who have reached the game's level cap, and it offers epic rewards as well.



Achievements

You'll be able to show off your achievements with a battle standard, a banner visible to all players on Battle.net that will be a visual representation of your accomplishments in Diablo III. And you should expect even more ‘endgame' additions to come - ones that'll let you pursue unique goals and achieve more glory in the world of Sanctuary than ever before.

New Epic Storyline

Diablo has always been a macabre take on a classic theme – the battle between good and evil – set in a world of fragile people who have somehow persevered through chaos and tragedy. In Diablo III, we're taking this story to new heights (and depths), and exploring parts of Sanctuary we've only hinted at in the past.

Welcome, and welcome back.

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Comments (389)

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According to komplett.no (norwegian webshop), relase is:

7th of May!

http://www.komplett.no/k/ki.aspx?sku=604489

They have always been correct in the past. I hope they are this time too.
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24/5-2012
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MaStarBait #169
MaStarBait
1 day, 14 hours ago
My apologies... It turned out to be a false statement of an useless gamestore..... Let's just hope they won't make us wait to long.........
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MaStarBait #169
MaStarBait
1 day, 14 hours ago
We have a release date in NL.. 19 april 2012!!
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i think level cap is to low, in beta you can level you wizard 3 hour and it is 13level. sorry my poor english
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60 is the level cap
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RedSoxFan#1143
D3BETA
RedSoxFan
4 days, 6 hours ago
Going to be a little while before release. Beta patch 13 is being put up now.
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Malgaroth
Magtheridon
Malgaroth
5 days, 7 hours ago
What is the highest level u can get to?
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Hitnsplit
Dragonmaw
Hitnsplit
15/02/2012
bin waiting 4 years now :/
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remsy #981
remsy
14/02/2012
No one gurantee that i'm gonna be alive tomorrow and i don't wanna die before i play this s.....t lol seems great ! it's been a long time already bring it out .............
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Raknarr
Emeriss
Raknarr
14/02/2012
Anyone knows any release date..?
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DarkGurka #473
DarkGurka
13/02/2012
come on cant it come out now:!
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DarkGurka #473
DarkGurka
13/02/2012
i love it
:))))))))))))))))))))))
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Discipline
Kazzak
Discipline
13/02/2012
nice game :P love it!!!
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PrestolMAD #542
PrestolMAD
12/02/2012
Due to some problems in the game design the game will be released in the start of 2013. We all wish you a happy dooms' day and will be glad that you'll never see the game in it's full scales. We wish you best: Blizzard
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Holyism
Chamber of Aspects
Holyism
06/02/2012
when is this game coming put
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Holyism
Chamber of Aspects
Holyism
06/02/2012
@Holyism: when is this game coming out
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Simon #625
Simon
11/02/2012
@Holyism: One month from when the beta is closed
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Metala #184
Metala
05/02/2012
Lets use the "law of attraction" to get the game released. Otherwise they'll "iterate" with the core game mechanics for the next 3-4 years.
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Henrikjensen
Turalyon
Henrikjensen
05/02/2012
All your games are belong to us
Show me the game

Maybe this works!!
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Jeremias
Stormrage
Jeremias
01/02/2012
Quit complaining about the time it takes, i think the longer they work on it, the better for the players, so i say BLIZZARD TAKE YOUR SWEET TIME, AND KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK!! :D
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Boode #579
Boode
05/02/2012
@Jeremias: That's why they patch games, to make it better. They should just release it now and make it better later.
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Syrivia
Frostmane
Syrivia
07/02/2012
@Boode: you are so right! :D
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Niradi
Burning Steppes
Niradi
15/02/2012
@Boode: u dont really get it, look to stronghold 3, way too much errors cause they released too soon, its a sucky game with still too many errors. ill rather prefer to wait some extra months then to have a half finished game.
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MeTaLIC #979
MeTaLIC
31/01/2012
will there be sets this time around??
I hope so
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Rindus
Turalyon
Rindus
02/02/2012
@MeTaLIC: Yep, there will be. Some returning sets as well, such as IK and Bul'Kathos.
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Hyrdopump
Mazrigos
Hyrdopump
29/01/2012
pffff...... it takes to long when it comes guys
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RGNsupreme #418
RGNsupreme
29/01/2012
I can't wait!
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HodgePodge #548
HodgePodge
19/01/2012
I like the addition of the "Inferno" difficulty setting :D I wonder how Hardcore characters are going to fare in that setting :P Just gonna have to find out :D! Hardcore: the only way to play D3 ^^
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Trìsha
Ravencrest
Trìsha
16/01/2012
Beta test 20.01.12 thats what their saying atleast.
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Elliot #286
Elliot
15/01/2012
cant !@#$ing wait when this game comes out thousands and thousands of deamons will be slaughtered by me muahahahahahahaha just kidding i think im gonna be a noob
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Logan #673
Logan
15/01/2012
Release = Summer 2012...
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Vexx #155
Vexx
07/02/2012
@Logan: how can you be sure
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DonCarnage #369
DonCarnage
14/01/2012
I don't expect D3 out sooner than Xmas 2012...we all know Blizzard and their lies about "soon"...there is not even a hint of release date or beta coming to an end so...do your math
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Peludo
Boulderfist
Peludo
14/01/2012
i cant wait to play BAG TETRIS again !
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Niradi
Burning Steppes
Niradi
15/02/2012
@Peludo: lol idd, seems much fun again.
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ConstantinMe #302
ConstantinMe
13/01/2012
Can't w8 for Diablo 3 to come out!!!
And I think GW2 will be great game too, Lupata; but is this the appropriate place?!?!?
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Lupata
Lightning's Blade
Lupata
11/01/2012
Guild Wars 2 2012 WIN! Winning! ;)
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VALFAR #327
VALFAR
11/01/2012
I can't wait for this game.. I love all blizzard games!!
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Dállas
Al'Akir
Dállas
11/01/2012
Its not real oc