Patch 4.3 Interviews, Blue Posts, Diablo III Beta, Art Gallery Update

Update - Clarified a few misquotes apparently, thankfully everything can be blamed on chaud.

Interviews: Warcraft After Cataclysm
Tom Chilton and Greg Street have been making the rounds again with interviews on IGN and Gamasutra.

Patch 4.3
  • If you add up all of the Deathwing encounter stages, it will be the longest fight in the game.
  • Each stage of the fight will take place in a different location and offer some loot.
  • The encounter starts at Wyrmrest Temple, progressing toward the players being on Deathwing's back while he is flying toward The Maelstrom.
  • The new five man encounters will build up to the Deathwing fight, similar to how the Icecrown five man instances built up to the Lich King.
  • To combat the complaints of armor always looking the same, there is a sub-lead who is in charge of guiding the art team to produce new styles not found in the game yet.

After Cataclysm
  • More armor customization could be coming in the future; Transmogrification was a solution that could be finished in time for Patch 4.3.
  • After Patch 4.3, and the world event, the team is going to focus on keeping players entertained and enjoying the game as well as new and potentially returning players.
  • On Mists of Pandaria: "Most of the time when we do anything panda-related it's going to be a comic book or a figurine or something like that."
  • There are more people that played World of Warcraft but no longer play World of Warcraft than currently play World of Warcraft
  • They believe that each spec plays like a separate class, making the game feel as if there are 30 classes.
  • Player created content is still in the back of their minds because of how well it worked in Starcraft II. Developing tools for players would take a lot of work, but the reward would be great as well.


Blue Posts
Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment
Worgen Mounts
These mounts are mainly being added to even up the number of mounts Alliance players can get, compared to Horde players. Mount collectors and those of you interested in going for the mount achievement have been asking for this for a while, and the additional horses will address that issue.

The Worgen's unique racial mount equivalent is the Running Wild skill. That's not going anywhere. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

Transmogrification: Incomplete tier sets
This is going to be half the fun for a lot of people looking forward to Transmogrification; finding matching sets and combinations that look awesome together

While it's too early to say for sure, it's possible that after this feature launches, there will be a number of items that people request become available to Transmogrify. We're going to monitor this feedback and hopefully be able to build on the feature based on that, however, that's not to say every item people ask for will suddenly appear in the game. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

Three Talent Specs
Indeed, as Xarthat said, we're still really keen for players to put a lot of thought and decision into their character's chosen talent specs.

Sure, it would be handy to have more specs lined up to swap in or out when faced with a different situation, but right now we feel that your talent spec(s) should be something you choose, maybe refine over time, and hopefully pwn with. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

Diablo III Beta Opt In
It is almost time for Diablo III Beta, Blizzard posted another beta opt in reminder on the official blog and DiabloFans has some additional leaked gameplay to go with the screenshots below.
Originally Posted by Blizzard (Blue Tracker)
Interested in signing up for an advance look at Diablo’s coming invasion of Sanctuary? To be eligible to participate in the Diablo III beta test, you need an active Battle.net account with any Blizzard game title attached to it. If you don’t already have an account, it’s easy to create one. Once you’ve set up a Battle.net account, or if you’ve already got one, you can access it by visiting http://us.battle.net/en/ and clicking the Account button on the upper right. Then, to opt into the beta, just click the Games & Codes section of your Account Management page, and then select the Beta Profile Settings option from the drop-down menu. You’ll be prompted to download the System Check beta opt-in application; running it will opt you in to the Diablo III beta. If your system specifications change, you can run the System Check application again to update your information.

While running the System Check application doesn’t guarantee you a place in the Diablo III beta, we wish you luck and hope to see you in Sanctuary.

FAQ:
How are beta test participants selected from the opt-in pool?
Beta testers are chosen according to their system specifications and other factors, including an element of luck. Our goal is to have a good variety of system types to best test compatibility.

Will there be any other ways to get into the beta besides the opt-in?
We’ll very likely be providing beta entry giveaways through various promotions on our sites, as well as through our official fansites. We’ll have information available on these promotions as they approach.

How many players do you plan to invite to the beta test?
The number of players we invite will be based on our testing needs. If during the course of testing we determine we need more players to participate, we’ll invite more.

What game content will be available in the beta?
You’ll be able to try out all five character classes and experience the early stages of Diablo III from the start of the game through the Skeleton King encounter. You’ll be able to interact with new and returning characters in New Tristram and fight the reawakened evils emanating from the cursed Tristram Cathedral.

Will the PvP arenas be available in the beta?
We don’t plan to include the PvP arenas in the beta test.

How long will the beta test last?
We have not determined an exact date for the end of the beta test. We will notify participants when the beta test is nearing completion.

Will the Diablo III Auction House be available in the beta?
We currently plan to test the functionality of the Diablo III gold-based auction house sometime after the initial beta launch.

Will Mac users be able to participate in the beta?
Yes, Mac users will be able to participate in the beta at the same time as Windows users.




Burning Crusade Art Gallery Updated
The Burning Crusade game art gallery has been updated with four new pieces.

This article was originally published in forum thread: Patch 4.3 Interviews, Blue Posts, Diablo III Beta, Art Gallery Update started by chaud View original post
Published on 2011-09-03 04:16 AM
311 Comments
Comments 308 Comments
  1. Eixel's Avatar
    This is all very exciting! Can't wait to see what happens...maybe I'll even resub..
  1. Lazertrooper's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Dremorus View Post
    I thought it was Gameplay > Graphics??? Or am I wrong here?
    that's correct. gampleay is ALWAYS more important than graphics. as long as d3 gameplay is good, i can forgive them for crap graphics.

    besides, i think they made the graphics like that on purpose, the world is supposed to be in chaos afterall.
  1. Vegos's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Bound4Earth View Post
    Raid progression was earned and boy did it feel good to know that you accomplished something that only ~1% of the players have. Hell just getting a solid 40 man together and progressing was an accomplishment.
    The game was different then. And less people played it.
  1. Mukki's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Vegos View Post
    The game was different then. And less people played it.
    Daaamn, didn't expect someone to call it out so bluntly and brutally, but that's the complete truth!
  1. mmoc6e64c4a554's Avatar
    It is going to be fucking awesome flying deathwing!!!
  1. mmoc654319b271's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Bound4Earth View Post
    I don't want to put words in your mouth, but you're a newer player aren't you? Those percentages are insanely high compared to Vanilla/BC when about 1% of the Population raided. Those don't even include normal mode which are probably 3-4 times higher which is insane compared to Vanilla/BC. The content is still new and those numbers will only continue to climb. If you had been playing back before they opened raiding up to everyone, you would know exactly what he's talking about. Raid progression was earned and boy did it feel good to know that you accomplished something that only ~1% of the players have. Hell just getting a solid 40 man together and progressing was an accomplishment.


    Let me understand: a game in which 1% of playing people have completed raid content is good?

    So someone was playing only to be in that 1%...my god. That's ridicolous.
  1. mmoc6427d98424's Avatar
    Player created content?? What?? A MMO with player created content? Now that's something I would really be looking forward to.
  1. Soxoffender's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Bound4Earth View Post
    I don't want to put words in your mouth, but you're a newer player aren't you? Those percentages are insanely high compared to Vanilla/BC when about 1% of the Population raided. Those don't even include normal mode which are probably 3-4 times higher which is insane compared to Vanilla/BC. The content is still new and those numbers will only continue to climb. If you had been playing back before they opened raiding up to everyone, you would know exactly what he's talking about. Raid progression was earned and boy did it feel good to know that you accomplished something that only ~1% of the players have. Hell just getting a solid 40 man together and progressing was an accomplishment.
    That word doesn't mean what you think it means.

    Also from Wowprogress: H: Sinestra: 1263 (1.85%). More than 98% of ranked guilds still haven't killed the last boss of the previous raid tier.

    There are world first and region first races for the best pve guilds.
    There are realm firsts and meta-achievements to recognise slighter lower (but still impressive) achievement.
    There's a Heroic only boss that most raid guilds won't ever even go near.

    They make plenty of additional content for the top 1000 or so guilds with plenty of ways to show off raiding achievement it's just that they don't make everything for the top 1000 any more.
  1. Granyala's Avatar
    Let me understand: a game in which 1% of playing people have completed raid content is good? So someone was playing only to be in that 1%...my god. That's ridicolous.
    That's what Blizzard said and so they went forth and made raids more accessible. Imho (BC-Raider) that was a GOOD decision. You know: lots of peeps having fun = good for the game. I don't honestly understand the 180 they did with Cata.
  1. Osmeric's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by choww View Post
    And conveniently, the first statement disappears from the news post. Aww.

    That's not "clarifying a few misquotes apparently". That's completely removing something but not telling us that this was what you removed. Not cool. Feels like the statement was thrown in to stoke the elites, but when you realized that it had the contrary effect (newsflash! not everyone is elite hardcore omg only 0.001% must ever clear the boss or this game sucks), it ... disappears? Yuck.

    Clarifying a few misquotes apparently is telling us what you removed, and why you removed it, and putting the corrected version there.
    They removed it because neither Street nor Chilton said any such thing. The person saying that was a professor at USC complaining about how easy epics ruins his hardcore raiding fun.

    (I wonder if you can list raiding experience on a tenure application.)

    ---------- Post added 2011-09-04 at 02:56 PM ----------

    Quote Originally Posted by Granyala View Post
    That's what Blizzard said and so they went forth and made raids more accessible. Imho (BC-Raider) that was a GOOD decision. You know: lots of peeps having fun = good for the game. I don't honestly understand the 180 they did with Cata.
    I think it was a combination of a mindset that better players are more deserving of fun, and the idea that nerfing the previous tier would be enough for everyone else.

    At this point they realize how badly they screwed up. It will be interesting to see if they publicly change the philosophy, and if there are replacements on the dev team.
  1. Deventh's Avatar
    My di*k got 50% harded while reading this LOL. If there wasn't an expansion called "Mists Of Pandaria" FIRST they wouldn't trademark the name. SECOND they would have said that this is NOT the next expansion, so they are just avoiding the answer. Basically they pretty much confirmed that this is the next exp.
  1. mmoca47a18aeef's Avatar
    just cos they trademarked MOP doesnt mean its there "next" expansion but cud be one in the future but we will find out in about 7-8 weeks at blizzcon
  1. Kiro's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Dremorus View Post
    I thought it was Gameplay > Graphics??? Or am I wrong here?
    It is, and thus why they still sell copies and have subscribers. Other devs went pretty but poor gameplay and they failed. When one, like Rift, did both, that's when WoW started to bleed customers. I don't know about SWTOR because it is made by Bioware who sucks at gameplay (they'll still steal many people because it's SWs), but Guild Wars 2 will put the final nail in the coffin because it's extremely pretty, and looks to have great controls.

    But now other devs are catching on with the gameplay thing, and they're getting there. Blizzard on the other hand apparently lacks talented enough devs to push pretty graphics because they were sitting on a pile of money all this time and their games are still fugly to "meh" at best visually. D3 looks horrible for a game to launch this day and age. Blizzard is cheap and/or sucks with visuals.

    No reason you can't want great gameplay AND pretty graphics.
  1. Deventh's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Kiro View Post
    It is, and thus why they still sell copies and have subscribers. Other devs went pretty but poor gameplay and they failed. When one, like Rift, did both, that's when WoW started to bleed customers. I don't know about SWTOR because it is made by Bioware who sucks at gameplay (they'll still steal many people because it's SWs), but Guild Wars 2 will put the final nail in the coffin because it's extremely pretty, and looks to have great controls.

    But now other devs are catching on with the gameplay thing, and they're getting there. Blizzard on the other hand apparently lacks talented enough devs to push pretty graphics because they were sitting on a pile of money all this time and their games are still fugly to "meh" at best visually. D3 looks horrible for a game to launch this day and age. Blizzard is cheap and/or sucks with visuals.

    No reason you can't want great gameplay AND pretty graphics.
    Yes,Yes it does friend. GW2 will put WoW in the coffin.
  1. mmoca47a18aeef's Avatar
    i hope gw2 and swtor give wow a run for its money since it will make blizzard work harder to adding better stuff to make it the number 1 again, wow needs an mmo to compete with so wow players get better shit in the game. atm all wow is, is sit in org wait for raid,dungeon or bg everything u need is in org no reason to go out into the world which is why they need some level 85 rewards for world pvp or make contested territories actually contestable with level 85 rewards for catching them at gold prices for like 1200 -2000g
  1. pandaman's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by jax View Post
    I saw this statement and I went to check some data on it and this is what I found on wowprogress.com Heroic modes down: Shannox 26.66% of guilds Beth 4.86% Rhyo 14.03% Alys 6.94% Baleroc 4.79% Majordomo 7.14% Rag 0.16% Now I am not a math major but those percentages are pretty low IMO. lol Heroic Rag at 0.16% really? No longer elite huh? ROFL All but 2 fights have far less than 10% of the pop being able to down them and you call that "no longer felt elite" Drugs are bad for your brain and you should stop doing them sir!
    As an ex-raider and ex-Wow player who did all of original classic raids, TBC and WOTLK, nobody cares about "Heroics", you can't really tell a heroic raider from an easy mode raider, except maybe a slight colour change.

    Being elite was always about looks, having that unique armour, unique weapons... someone could look at you and see you have BWL on farm or whatever, when easy mode and "heroics" share skins, it killed that aspect of raiding

    Tbh it's a joke that you even have easy mode raids then optional "heroic" raids when the "heroic" raids are just how hard raids should really be, like back in classic/tbc... Maybe Blizzard should just bring back one raid difficulty
  1. Venteus's Avatar
    So.. I'm not going to get to race change to Panda ?
  1. mtawney1313's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Azuri View Post
    Acceptance is important. To the people say nothing is wrong with current wow, there's some proof.
    Or maybe the game just gets boring after a few years? People coming and going from a game is pretty typical.
  1. kittenboots's Avatar
    not gonna lie, those D3 graphics look pretty terrible. :/
  1. Soxoffender's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by pandaman View Post
    As an ex-raider and ex-Wow player who did all of original classic raids, TBC and WOTLK, nobody cares about "Heroics", you can't really tell a heroic raider from an easy mode raider, except maybe a slight colour change.

    Being elite was always about looks, having that unique armour, unique weapons... someone could look at you and see you have BWL on farm or whatever, when easy mode and "heroics" share skins, it killed that aspect of raiding

    Tbh it's a joke that you even have easy mode raids then optional "heroic" raids when the "heroic" raids are just how hard raids should really be, like back in classic/tbc... Maybe Blizzard should just bring back one raid difficulty
    This is what it often comes down to with the 'everything is easy' whiners "Wah! My gear doesn't look any different. My guild is ranked 349* in the world and everybody knows that this unique feat deserves its own set of models! Everyone in a less progressed guild is bad and nothing should ever be designed for them. All raids should be tailored so that they can downed by my guild in exactly the amount of time that I consider reasonable."

    I also did the vanilla raids and I can assure you that being elite was about killing boss X with my guildies and as a secondary consideration having everyone who mattered (other raiders on my server) knowing it. It never, ever, had anything to do with idling in IF and having someone who hadn't even entered MC be impressed that I was rocking a pair of weapons from an instance that they'd only experience as a lukewarm rehash a few years later.




    *with due respect to Esoteric of Frostmourne US, who I'm sure aren't like that at all.
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