Would you buy an expansion at this point?

[Sealbinder]

I will definitely buy it. Blizzard take my money now please! I need more classes to level up.

[von Richthofen]

Well according to a source allegedly based off insider info: in early 2011, they already were cutting skills, art, and zones to be saved for expansions.

As possible evidence his info was legit, prior to that post was this one. My 'Google Fu' is perhaps not as strong as it could be but, either the guy paid(?) to make that website just to troll, or it was a legit thing that possibly had some leaked info, since coincidentally not soon after the Summit was said to have taken place, he started posting leaked financial data, subscriber counts, Blizzard franchise info, and it was almost all pulled and the site went dark... Archive.org doesn't bring up anything on it, and as far as I can tell, most info on it has been removed from the web. There's also this which might mean the info was from slightly less honorable methods, or his older posts where he mentions knowing people at Blizzard.


If that Product Slate is legit, and still represents their plans if so, at least we know to expect over a year between expansions. (There was also something in the beta files showing Act V and VI, giving a bit of credence to the 'two planned years back' theory)

Content wise, you can sort of guess what will be in there. Probably (per expansion) 1-2 new artisans, 1-3 new classes, 1-6 new skills and/or passives for existing classes, 1-4 new tiers of armor, level cap raised by x, new PvP arenas.

For classes, I would guess a 'knight' archetype, 'sword 'n' shield' focused, STR class, possibly based on the Templar order which would let it be the Paladin people want (from a certain point of view), use angelic runeblades/spears/etc. ("These are plans for angelic weapons that will fit human hands. Where did you find this?" "This is a page torn from the sacred tomes of my blessed order. The Light only knows what the others contain.") , while also bringing back some 'javazon' stuff ("The men back at the order practicing throwing their spears").

A 'Dark Wanderer' based class that summons demons, uses unholy/demonic magic, possibly transforms into a demon, might be possible. ("That is why you have both good and evil within you... and the power of both realms as your birthright.")

The Druid will probably return, as their lore was based upon them being the 'last line of defense' when the final fight goes down. The Necro might as well, since Jay Wilson claimed they made the WD different enough to allow the Necro to come back, and he has said it was his 'main' in D2.

The real question would be what neat features they will add to further enhance the replayability of the game, like the things LoD added to D2, or the new features of Mists of Pandaria.

Story-wise, it's sort of obvious where it should be going.

X1 should feature Westmarch, where you will deal with Kormac's/Lyndon's story and most likely find there's demonic doings there ("the king of Westmarch will send no reinforcements to face imaginary foes"). Something eventually leads to rescuing Leah/her soul from the Abyss or 'Unformed Land.' (Lazarus will probably be a boss if it's the latter) All of this, like the original game, ultimately is just build up for X2 and the big event we have been waiting for since D2. Likely ends with a battle against Adria. The Black Soulstone will be used to contain the soul of Tyrael, the [B]mortal[/B] Aspect of Wisdom that shall die to kick off the End of Days prophecy, and probably willingly stabbed into Kormac or Eireena.

X2 the 'ultimate invasion' or 'final fight' that has been talked about in D3 and D2 finally takes place. All Hell breaks loose, Imperius and the angels probably invade as well, as mentioned in the Wrath animation and the 'sinister' Templar order backstory (It implies that my brethren seek to destroy this world and that your order was created to stop them.), probably some others.

The big goal of all this will be for the 7 Evils to find a way to become the Tathamet dragon again, and of course we put the kibosh on that and run them out of the universe on a rail, bringing an end to the storyline like they said. Depending on what they do with bringing Leah back, if it's not just saving her soul and sending it on it's way, and actually resurrect her, it will probably be revealed that her/her family had some ancient destiny of stopping Tathamet/bringing back Anu, and that is why Diablo and the Evils had been trying to corrupt and destroy the Leoric bloodline.

There's other story bits that will probably take place too, like Lilith/Inarius and Covetous Shen and his gem, but the main story seems like it should play out as above.

I can't believe they'd add charms as items, at least not without adding charm slots. That whole idea in D2 was - in my personal opinion anyway - completely asinine; buff yourself by sacrificing inventory space. They didn't add skill runes as items because they didn't like the clutter, and they've been reducing clutter anyway.

Then again, adding charm slots would be pointless as well, since the whole point of charms was that you could have an "unlimited" amount of them, or rather limited by inventory space, not item slots. Although I think charm stacking eventually got nerfed anyway. Not sure though.

But yeah, charms as they were in D2... I for one vote no.

When Charms were in the game, there was a Talisman that you stored them in. Don't feel like digging for the screenshot, but I think it was located up on the character's equipment area. Presumably additional charms you find would still end up in the inventory, but at least the ones you want to use won't take up all your precious inventory space like in D2.

[tuesday the paladin]

Got about 80 hours on my main and then other classes have 5-15 hours each. A $60 game is definitely worth about 100 hours of entertainment.

[MixelPlx]

I'd say yes.
Anything to keep me away from doing more Dragon Soul 8)

[Lyriok]

Noooope, unless i hear incredible news about it.

[Leonard McCoy]

It really depends what they do in between now and then. Look if they make the game as interesting as d2 was and fix most of the issues I have then maybe. Like if they made item design as interesting as it was in d2 WITHOUT purchasing an expansion then yea depending on what was in the expansion I would take a look at it. However if the d3 expansion is basically just another LoD then most definitely not. I will not reward the producers for changes that were made in the predecessor game already that they somehow failed to make in D3 launch. It has to be SOMETHING NEW AND FRESH. Not a rehash of the same fixes they already did in LoD and then mysteriously forgot about in D3.

---------- Post added 2012-06-21 at 02:19 AM ----------

Totally agreed. D2 became what it was with the Lord of Destruction expansion. I will buy a D3 expansion for sure.

D3 should have been what D2 was with LoD. I will not reward the developers for something they already improved in the previous game and then just happen to forget when launching Diablo 3.

---------- Post added 2012-06-21 at 02:20 AM ----------

I can see it now. In the expack they'll add... D2 features that should've been in the game at launch, but which they intentionally left out as an excuse to add them back in later for money. If that is not what happens then I will be genuinely surprised.

I expect they'll make many of the same changes they did in LoD. All over again. It's an easy way to sell an expansion, rehashing Ideas they once had already. It's the CoD model of development.

[nightshark]

Would there be an erotic scene with the enchantress?

I'm undecided. It depends when and whether I'm playing anything else at the time.

[Oerba Yun Fang]

I'm at "probably not" bordering on "no way in Hell" right now. I got bored of the game inside of a week. I don't see how an expansion will fix that. :/

[StationaryHawk]

I'll most likely buy an expansion. I buy all of Blizzard's products because I generally enjoy them.

[Gnosk]

I'll buy it, would pay double if it meant all the quitting sooks actually quit and stopped sooking about the game.

[Agoonga]

That would be nice, but I mostly want to kill the crap out of Adria

I would like that too, lol